How am I all wrong? Part 2

I’ve been playing around with the idea of being wrong. Turning things upside down.

So.

What if there were no pressure to work?

Aaaggghh! Right?

I’m struggling against saying something like, ‘Wait, I don’t mean not working. After all, I’ll always work. Work is a fact of life! It’s what responsible adults do! How could I not work?!’

But this is a mental exercise about how I spend my time. I don’t need to apologize. We’re pretending here.

What if there were no pressure to work?

What if I spent my time on things that were personally rewarding for me? Doing things that were interesting and absorbing, even when they included seemingly tedious tasks.

I’m thinking of what Kiki Smith says in an Art:21 episode –- something about how she likes that art isn’t solely about big, creative gestures –- for her there are all the little things she needs to do, like filing down a cast metal piece – how she always knows what to do.

What if the time were about doing absorbing things and connecting to super cool people?

Excitement! Ringing in the ears!

I asked myself, what describes this state?

• lightness

• play

• connection

• playing off of other’s ideas

• absorption

• openness

• airiness

• excitement

• curiosity

• investigation

• summer (Huh? Normally I hate the summer.)

• smoothness

• ease

• steadiness

• sovereignty

• spaciousness

It popped into my head: an artist’s residency.

What if I thought of myself as artist in residence at smArts & Culture?

How would that change the way I spent my time, talked and worked with people, planned my days and my weeks?

If it were true …

• I’d still write and post here – maybe even more often.

• I’d still journal. But I’d let the journal seep out into the blog from time to time, as I’m doing today.

• I’d play around with some low-tech camera ideas, as I’ve been so much wanting to do.

• I’d work with private clients because that has been amazing.

• I’d teach, but the courses or classes would emerge more organically, out of conversations with clients and other artists, and out of wherever my curiosity takes me.

So that’s what I’m thinking about: what does it mean to be an artist in residence?