Productivity and The Arts

Productivity and The Arts

September 8, 2023, 6:02 pm
Filed under: art, Creative Process, Imagination, Visual Art, writing | Tags: contemplation, Crete, hard work, labor, productivity, residency, staring out of windows, work

While I am a big fan of having an artistic practice, (the kind where you just do your art, whether you’re in the mood or not), I’m also a big believer in the power of staring out a window. I think a full artist’s life is a combination of the two – periods of dedicated work or practice and periods of staring out the window. I fear, in our (metaphorically speaking) productivity obsessed world, that the staring out the window piece will be (or has been) lost.

One of the reasons to go to an artist’s residency in a beautiful place is that it gives you new windows and new stuff to stare at through them. New ideas may come with new perspectives like that. I imagined, when I went to Crete, that if I did nothing else, staring at previously unseen landscapes would be of great benefit to my work.

I noticed, though, that the organizers did not share my interest in quiet reflection.  At one point one said to the group of artists, “You’re here to work.” Which struck me as a bit more Factory Owner than Artist Supporter. And many of my fellow resident artists took this work mandate seriously. They stayed late in the studio or went in early. They labored long and with fervor. They were determined to be productive. They came there to make art after all. In many cases, the fervor was their own – because they were released from the constraints of their regular lives and felt free to work all they wanted. But in some instances, some artists went to work out of guilt, out of a sense of “I should be making something right now.”

Many times I found myself saying to another artist, “Maybe staring at the sea is as much a part of your process as painting.” (or playing music or dancing or whatever.) We’ve taken on this sense that productivity is the end all be all for everything and I think it is a terrible trend for everyone – but an even worse trend for artists. Should our work be measured by the same metric as a factory? I would prefer not, thank you very much.

This over-emphasis on productivity, (that is, how much we produce), goes hand in hand with the lionization of hard work. I think, as a culture, we’ve always praised those who work hard. We like “the hardest working man in show business” for example or praise people with the phrase “no one works harder.” We want our heroes worn to the bone, working harder than anyone else, not sleeping and single-mindedly laboring for their art.

But I have become suspicious of these kinds of values. With everyone working so hard all the time, where does that leave the window staring? Art does take labor. It is work, no doubt. But does it need a taskmaster leaning over it, making sure it gets done? I don’t think so. And in my case, I know my work begins to suffer as soon as someone starts to lean over it, even if that person is my own internal taskmaster.

Art is made by artists who are human beings and one of the beautiful things about human beings is our ability to reflect on our existence. I like art that has some space in it, that has some sense of the person making it having had some time to stare out the window.

Frantic art makes me feel frantic. Art that is concerned with productivity doesn’t interest me too much. This is not about the speed of making. Artists who work fast can be just as capable of staring out the window as artists who work slow, so to speak. And some artists have no interest in staring out the window and that’s okay, too. I just feel like every artist should be able to stare out the window when they want to stare out the window and not be made to feel guilty for it. Some folks may turn up to work around the clock and some may need some time in front of the scenery. We should be careful not to overemphasize the work and productivity at the risk of losing the space and contemplation of some necessary idleness. That’s where the ideas sneak in.  

I literally took this picture from a window. You can see the frame up above there. Does this make you want to get back to work? Or maybe think about things for a sec? Some contemplation perhaps?

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