Learning to be an Artist
As we all know, it’s been Christmas this past week which has meant a bit of a break for me in terms of creating… So This week it’s time to talk about everything that this project has taught me, not just talking about learning a new art skill but everything else…
Being creative is a whole process, whether you’re making something huge like an entire project, or just a one of piece. It takes planning to get those ideas from your head and turn it into something physical. Most of the time it’s also not as easy as getting something right first time. It’s planning it out, trying it, not liking it, trying again… sometimes over and over and you may still not be happy with the end result (this happens more times than I’d like to admit in my case).
This project has been my first real hands on project involving my art specialist area since I graduated, which was both exciting and scary at first. I learned a lot at University but for the first time it’s real, with real people I have to talk to and a real deadline that can’t be extended.
I started by setting a timeline of things I wanted to achieve every month. I didn’t want to overwhelm myself with endless tasks so this list only had maybe 3 things on that I wanted to achieve, like ‘do this many hours on this area this month’ or ‘estimate my budget plans’. This has kept me focus and on task, but made it so my head didn’t explode with 1001 things to do all at once. The way my brain works, I need to be able to hyperfocus on one thing at a time to be able to be actually productive, and seeing things gradually get checked off the list throughout the month really motivates me to carry on, and it’s really been working!
Yes I’ve learned more skills and my art practice has developed so much in the last few months while I’ve been working on this project, but my communication and planning skills have improved incredibly too. Being an artist in the modern world is much more complicated than you might expect, and being neurodivergent as well brings on another load of challenges. For me, good time management is the main way I can get everything done, but it’s also the thing I struggle with the most. Remembering to answer emails and post on social media so people can actually see what I’m doing, and actually creating things and writing all my expenses down…the list goes on and on.
This commission has been such a great opportunity for me as a freshly graduated, autistic artist. The team at Artworks have been so helpful and understanding, letting me have the freedom and space to get everything done and together, whilst being there supporting me and helping my make decisions. Not everyone works the same and understands things the same way, and there’s nothing wrong with that. If everyone’s minds worked the same as each other’s, we wouldn’t have art at all. Now you may take away different things from the piece that I create, it may make you feel a certain way or make you thing of different things than me, and that is what it is supposed to do!
Thank you for all your support, writing this blog has been so helpful for me to understand my own decisions and the way I work, and I can’t wait for you see to see the final piece next month! Over the next few weeks I’m in the final stages of getting the work completed and making sure everything is in motion and finalised for the launch event, which I will be giving full details of in next week’s blog post (But save the date for Friday 16th January!)
I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Years and I’ll see you next week!
-Jodie