Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Diversity in Arts...

As a professional in any artistic industry, one of the most common concerns is finding a way to keep things fresh. Fresh for you, and fresh for your clientel.

If you're working at the same thing day in and day out, how do you prevent burnout?

The gurus will say "simplify", but as one of those busybusybusy types, I find that I can't relax each and every night. I have to be doing something, even if its as 'simple' as knitting or cleaning or whatever.

I propose a different tactic:

Break it up... Instead of working five days a week doing the same thing every day, work two days on project A, two days on project B, and one day on project C (or project A again).

This not only keeps things fresh, it allows for things to inspire you in other ways. For example: if project A is a venue such as hairdressing, make sure that project B is in a different arena. If you're a Cosmetologist, perhaps project B would be skin or nail services and project C would be a day of only waxing services.

If you're an illustrative artist who also does music; project A could be the paying job, project B could be music only, and project C could be exploring a new medium (like sculpture or photography and not meant to directly benefit either project A or B, it would have to be unrelated).

The tricky part in this is that the artists brain can become overloaded in any of these arenas. If that becomes the case, a break from one of the three projects could fix that problem. Take that time for relaxing activities like leisurly bike riding or shopping for a new book.

The same tactic could also work for job burn-out. (I do this myself, actually.):
Job A Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Fri; School Wednesday and Saturday(morning to early afternoon); then, when they need me, I work at Job B on Saturday night.

This helps keep things fresh for me, and helps me to keep inspiration flowing for the times when I need a little more help.

Hope this helps!