This One Is For The Makers

I want to talk a little bit about possibly the best artistic advice I have ever gotten.  Adam Savage, in a YouTube video posted by Tested.com*, talked about balancing work, his family, and his projects.  The solution for finding more time for projects, it turned out, was more about frequency than duration.  He advocates spending an hour a day in your studio/workspace, even if all you are doing is eating lunch and existing in the same space as your work.

Obviously, committing an hour a day would be difficult for many people.  The house needs to be cleaned; you brought work home with you; you can't leave the kids alone.  But what about a commitment to spending ten minutes a day in the area you have cordoned off for making whatever it is you make? I believe it really is frequency that matters.

I like this approach for several reasons. Instead of committing to finishing projects or spending lots of time in your studio, you commit to thinking about your art, looking at it, and giving yourself the opportunity to do some work if you feel up to it. Giving yourself permission to be in your space without forcing yourself to produce removes the guilt artists feel that they should always be making more.

In this way, you can structure your creative time like a workout regimen. Ten minutes a day comes easy, so you gradually up the time, until you are exceeding Adam Savage's hour goal.

Space is as important as time. Experts say bedrooms should be devoid of things that rob our sleep, like televisions and computers.  Your workspace should be a dedicated space, ideally with walls between it and dirty dishes, laundry, and other major distractions of adult life. There is a time to be responsible; take ten minutes to be creative.

If I told myself I should just organize my art room and get it over with, I would never do it. Cleaning for cleaning's sake as never come easy to me. But organization to solve problems, like "I can't find my sewing kit," seems to just happen naturally as I use a space.

Spending time in my downstairs room/art studio has allowed me to organize it for better productivity. As a result, I have created twice as much in the past few weeks as I have in the previous six months. And I feel good about continuing to use the space, because there is no pressure to create. I go there to be. I create because the tools are at hand, the space is inviting, and because I am, to some extent, an artist.

Now if only I could find a method that increased my writing output…

*I'd link to the video, but I'd never be able to find the right one. Check out Tested on Youtube and you'll see what I mean. 

Love Languages, Singlehood, and John Green

Words, time, gifts, service, touch.  Anybody who has been exposed to any pop-psy-self-help knows that those are the five love languages. Obviously, you figure which way you show love and how your spouse shows love, and voila! you get a better marriage. You don't even need to read the book.

Here's where I get in trouble, because I haven't read the book. However, I looked at the table of contents on Amazon, which like any self-help book is a straight forward outline of the material, so I will presume to comment on that material.

Whenever I see a love language quiz online, or hear people talk about the book, it is always in the context of how that person expresses love.  Simply, I give you gifts; you do the dishes. Now I know that you doing the dishes means you love me, or now you know that since gifts is my love language, you mix up dishes routine with some flowers and candy occasionally.  And like all self-help*, I find these conclusions pat and simplistic.

Complaint the first: My church is doing a love languages series for married couples and parents (those are the 2 versions of the book out there). I am single and childless, and yet I love and could learn to love better.  Aren't Christians commanded to love one another? I am not against classes for parents or couples, but it would be so very, very easy to make a class on love all inclusive. Shouldn't love be inclusive? Apparently, the class is also for people about to be married or planning to get married one day. I planned to have my first kiss before age 25, but life didn't work out that way. I refuse to plan to be married before I am engaged. This is not meant as an indictment against my church, but an illustration of common attitudes about love and singleness.

Complaint the second: Author John Green exhorts his YouTube followers to "imagine others complexly."  Love languages, as best I can guess, are meant to be a tool to help better understand the person you are trying to love.  They are not something taught in Psych 101 textbooks.  I would be interested to see studies of the dispersion of love languages on an introversion/extroversion spectrum or masculine/feminine values or stereotypes. Because our non-verbal communication is as every bit as complex as our psychological selves.

Take me for example.  I gift. Bringing joy to others through a well-thought gift is better than getting gifts.  So much so, that gifts I receive have to have a certain element of aptness and demonstrate the giver's knowledge of myself before I feel much in response. Does that make gifts my love language?

Recently, I realized that by showing love through gifts, carefully selected and wrapped, that I am holding others at arms length and passing my love over through objects. Those gifts may be appreciated, but I am holding back. One of the first things friends learn about me is that I don't touch new people. It takes an average of three months of contact with a new person before they can receive a hug. Allowing hugs is a rite of initiation into a closer circle of friendship. Does that mean touch is not my love language?

I would say that everyone has the capacity to understand how each of the love languages is an expression of love. I also believe that everyone shows love differently to different people.  My problem is expressing and receiving love in such a way that the other person can feel the exchange.

Because I'm not good at emotional shorthand. I make very bad first impressions. Ask people who have interviewed me for jobs. I get total strangers telling me to smile more.  I may have been completely content or having a horrible day, they can't tell the difference and want me to greet society in a more acceptable way no matter how I feel.  Friends still getting to know me have a hard time knowing whether I am enjoying myself at an event.

So, in the interest of imaging other more complexly, allow me to imagine myself more complexly for you.

I withdrew into myself a lot after splitting 7 weeks between ICU and a burn ward at the age of five. And I was predisposed by nature and nurture to be an introvert before that event. With whatever accompanying psychological issues from my injury, I didn't manage any kind of social competency until college.  Navigating my teen years with a sense of isolation (albeit largely of my own making) resulted in the arms-length love expressions and circles of trust that require years to enter.  This isolation  also developed a self-reliance I might not otherwise have.

My lack of trust ranks how I express love; the more I trust you the closer I allow you to come.  Gifts are farthest out,  then time and service.  Words are second only to touch because verbal expression of intimacy is only less difficult than a physical expression.

My sense of self-worth, however, ranks how much I value expressions of love that I receive.  Gifts are last again, because it is easier to give money than time.  Touch from others is valuable, but I recognize that if it is not as difficult for you as it is for me then touch becomes less precious. Words I value but have a hard time trusting from the experience of person after person telling me want to build a relationship (usually a friendship) then utterly disappearing almost immediately.  Time ranks highly because inclusion is so important to me. The idea of someone doing something to help me out is so rare that it remains an ever elusive prize.  But in any case, just being thought of is immensely gratifying.

All of which makes me sound incredibly high maintenance, but I would argue most people could create similar hierarchies. Doing so allows me to realize and accept how I relate to people and to challenge myself to find more effective modes of expression.

So, you tell me. What's my love language?

*He's Just Not That Into You is the sole exception and the best relationship book in existence.

The Slow Art Movement

There's a trend I've been noticing in the past few years, but only recently linked the isolated incidents together in my mind.  I've named it the Slow Art Movement.  It starts with Alton Brown.

I love Alton Brown. I love that he is an educated southerner; that he got a culinary degree in order to make a better cooking show; that he writes, directs, and acts in the shows he creates; that after 14 seasons of Good Eats, he decided to stop in order to have time for other projects; that his first degree was in theatre.  I really love that his first degree was in theatre.

As I've written before about Steve Franks, I admire the independent spirit that allows a single person to take on multiple roles in a successful cable TV show.  And I also admire the actors, directors, and crew people who produce short series for the internet. A lot of these people participate in the Slow Art Movement. Alton Brown falls into both categories.

The Slow Art Movement is one end of the spectrum that has CGI at the other end.  It's the Rube Goldberg machine of entertainment. And while you can extend the Movement to include a lot of makers and even Makers, the most obvious influence in entertainment is theatre.

For decades, theatre has been co-opting film techniques, to varying success. However, recently I've been noticing entertainers outside of theatre have been adapting theatrical techniques.  Actors have always "gone back" to theatre in order to develop their skill (or prove it), so it is very gratifying to see technicians doing the same.

On Good Eats, all effects were practical (baring limited use of green screen) and very low budget. The conceit of the show was to have everything (puppets and props, etc) look homemade, which worked because they were. Rapid set changes (like in the Old Spice commercials) were shot in real time, with set pieces tracking in and out of camera shots. Sounds like summerstock.

Alton Brown and Mythbusters' Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman have developed themed variety shows that they tour around the country.  Other shows, like w00tstock, combine musicians, comedians, storytellers, and other entertainers for more generalized variety shows.  Storytelling has replaced poetry slams as avant grade entertainment.

This is a entertainment specific detailing of a return to old practices that can be found almost everywhere you look.  The same college students up all night playing MMOs can be found knitting in dorm lobbies during the day.  I have long said that Americans need to be intentional about the culture, traditions, and heritage we choose to cultivate as a society.  I think that Slow Art is the perfect place to start.