Practice Process

Okay, so I have one major project to tackle -- how to I construct an environment (virtual, physical, both?) that helps keep me on track doing my work for my Art610 Special Projects class. It's an important question beyond the immediate term because I think that this same effort can be applied to my art practice at large.

I've floundered in the 18 months since I've been in an art class. Work, math classes, personal priorities, etc. always have a way of asserting themselves when the imperative of creating some deliverable for a class assignment is gone. My electronics box sits full (of toys and promise) and gathers dust in my garage. I know where it is at all times. I know the lovely gadgets it contains. And it sits, waiting. My art practice is a larger priority for me but one, I tell myself, that has to wait until the more practical business of my life is addressed.

At that rate it will always slip down the list of priorities.

So this is what I've decided to do this term with an expectation that I will continue to apply these principles beyond the semester to my larger art practice at least until that creates a momentum that carries itself along.

I've set an alarm on my phone. Every Tuesday and Thursday at 5:45, 15 minutes before our scheduled class section is to start, an alarm will sound. For those days where we don't meet, that's when I set aside time to work on research or my projects.

My programming class deliverables are usually Tuesday or Thursday meaning that Monday and Wednesday are the crunch days on those so I think this will work well.

Tuesday is research day. Thursday is project day. That's the day when I plan project stuff, create infrastructure, organize, document, etc. Weekends I execute project work on whichever day we don't have a lacrosse game to go to. The rest of the time I commit as I can.

It's mundane, making decisions like that. But between my ADHD and my busy life, I really believe that if I don't, it won't happen.