Those Moments Add Up!

(Acrylic study of an elk)

"There's just not enough time!"  Is that a statement that you may have uttered regarding some project you have desired to accomplish?  We all have ideas on our bucket lists that we'd like to achieve at some point in our lives, but so much of daily life and the tyranny of the urgent seems to keep kicking those ideas down the road into the future.  

May I share with you a powerful little quote by Erwin McManus that acts as a regular encouragement in the creative fight for me?  Here it is:

"Life is the total sum of what you do with the moments given you."

Time and again those words have acted as a goad to my decision making when it comes to getting art work created.  For some number of years I was working full-time in schools in Colorado, so time for art creation was minimal.  But I took as a goal to get in 20 hours a week in my studio working and studying on art.  I drew up little circles and divided them into 4 segments.  Each segment was 15 minutes of work, making a circle equal one hour.  Here's a sample:

These acted as time sheets for me.  By them I could assess my use of time and be encouraged by seeing how much could be accomplished by redeeming 15 minutes here and there in my week.  I saw how that adds up!  Now I use a notebook to record the amount of time spent in different aspects of my art endeavors.  Here's a sample of that:  

Art is a solitary endeavor normally.  Whatever is going to be created is up to me.  I must put in the time and engage in the creative fight if anything worthwhile is going to result.  So I have found that keeping a record of my creative time use keeps me accountable.  The artist Chuck Close made a statement about artists and their work habits that really resonates with me:

"True inspiration is for amateurs.  The rest of us just show up and get to work."

I also find a grip on creative time from what Annie Dillard has written in The Writing Life:

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.  What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing.  A schedule defends from chaos and whim.  It is a net for catching days."

So here's one of the current creative endeavors I've been doing in the time I can carve out of my work week:  

This is a 24" x 36" woodburning I'm doing of a moose.  It all happens incrementally, like that saying:  "The wheels of progress grind slowly, but they grind!"

Also, the wisest man ever, King Solomon wrote this about time usage in Proverbs 10:4:  

"Little by little the diligent make it happen."

So be encouraged and take action on that creative desire, even if it is a moment here and there at a time!

Live bravely and beautifully!