I love talking about art.  I forget about it sometimes in the day to day of shuffling children and family, but to sit and discuss the art world, media, practice, etc. is so enjoyable.  I had the pleasure of having dinner with two artists/art professionals last night, Jill Thayer and Ted Kerzie, and the discussion was truly lovely, encompassing everything from art education to material to the importance and inevitable encumbrance of market issues.  In addition, I had a two hour drive each way between Los Angeles and Bakersfield in which to simmer in these thoughts.

It all brings up something pretty important to me – the need for artists to have space and time to think.  Today’s world is overwhelmed with technology, irritants and interruptions.  We become so accustomed to having our minds in twelve different places at once, it really becomes difficult to sit and think about one particular thing, just to mull something over without wandering to another topic or another task.  Truly, when was the last time you were bored… BORED, as in bored to pieces, and didn’t allow yourself to stray?  Next time, just let yourself simmer – we really need those moments!

In our quest to complete our tasks and goals, to get where we are going, we forget the journey.  The journey may truly be the art.  What is a finished piece but a record of an artist’s journey.  Too many of us are thinking about how our work will sell, how to present it, how to display it, how to wrap it up with a bow for a teacher/colleague/curator/gallery owner/historian, that we don’t allow ourselves the time to just ponder and see where the impulse and the art takes us.  What does this do to the work being produced?

I know it can be difficult, but breath, meditate, think, talk about art and see where it takes you – the work will be the better for it.

Jill Thayer and Ted Kerzie in front of his sculpture, "Eclipse" in Bakersfield, CA