The Idle Challenge: Discovery, Rediscovery, and Recovery

"Real dreams are about seeing what others miss. If you have your head in the clouds, you can see the world more clearly." - Tom Hodgkinson, How to Be Idle

Reflections On The 30 Day Ramble 

What a month of painting and reading and writing and daydreaming this has been. Thanks to Leslie Saeta and her 30 Day Challenge over 1000 artists participated in a challenge to paint and write and post for 30 days. The collage image above was created on PicMonkey and was much easier than I ever expected.  The paintings are on my website now and I would be delighted if you were to take a swing by there to look at the gallery, and just click on an image to see the full painting.  

The 30 day challenge was very much a 30 day ramble, a reflective walk through the landscape of my own creative process. 

Discovery

A good reflective ramble will open one's eyes, and I discovered a number of things this time around. First of all my trusted guidebook, "How to Be Idle" was a great eye-opener. I actually didn't know what a ramble was until I read this book. And I never really thought about how weavers were in charge of their own day until manufacturers came along and became their bosses. I have a couple of people to thank for this - my friend, artist Aryana B. Landir introduced me to creativity coach Mark McGuinness who recommended I read Tom Hodgkinson's "How to Be Idle." I loved finding a quote from the book to accompany each painting and to inspire the spin of my reflection on the painting experience. Blogging, like painting, is an opportunity to reflect.

Rediscovery

It may be hard to imagine losing sight of the joy of painting, and before the challenge I was burying the joy under a whole lot of unnecessary stress. It was time for me to step back and rediscover the joy of painting for the sake of painting. What other reason could I possibly have to paint but that I enjoy it? Why not paint figures? Why not paint flowers or landscapes? Why not take a crack at non-objective abstracts? Why not collage? Why paper? Why not Yupo and Crescent Board? How about mixed media?  

Recovery? I Don't Think So.

I have enjoyed this challenge because I allowed myself not to be covered - buried - under the stress of doing. I don't want to be re-covered in the kind of stress I felt before I started the challenge - I want to continue to be the loafer, the daydreamer, the rambler, who paints because it's fun. I've uncovered the joy. No need to "re-cover!"  

Thanks for following along. I hope it was as much fun for you as it was for me.  I'll continue blogging along - not every day - but I plan on writing once a week.  

Being Idle in Paradise

"Landscape" by Jim Carpenter, Mixed Acrylic Media on Crescent Board, 6 " x 11" 

"I count it as a certainly that in paradise, everyone naps." - Tom Hodgkinson

Day 20: Day 19 Cut Out

Ok, so today is day 20 of the 30 day challenge and day 19 came and went without my posting a panting or a bit of prose.  I didn't paint yesterday. But I did get into the studio. And I made this painting by cutting away about 200 sq inches.  

They say "Sleep on it" when you need to get some distance on a decision, and I slept on this for about 2 years. Even Hodgkinson would agree that is a pretty long nap. But yesterday, I knew I had one painting with a lot of excess baggage attached to it, and so I took mat corners and looked for the best crop. Today I took the painting to the framer.  

Speaking of napping, I decided at about 7 pm, after teaching my Friday night Chi Kung class, that I was going to be idle for the rest of the evening and head to the snoozer early. It meant that I would not blog and I would not paint. I think that to do so, last night, would have felt like work and that would really defeat the purpose and intent of my 30 straight days of painting and blogging.  I am doing this to reclaim the joy of painting and writing - and as I wrote earlier - I'm the boss of my idleness. I make up my own rules. And yes, I am having a good time at this.  

I think this little landscape is very much a cousin of my usual process of "finding the painting" - in this instance instead of rubbing out another painting I cropped this one out of a larger one.  Cutting out the excess to find the painting inside.  So I'm including it in the challenge. After all, it really didn't exist until yesterday when I cut away the excess.  

But Wait! Two Days In One!

Have you seen those commercials for back scratchers? Just as you think they are over they shout "But Wait" and announce that if you buy one for $19.95 they will send you a second back scratcher for free.  Well, here's my "But Wait!"  The excess of the painting is Landscape Part II. This one I did have to tweak with some painting. I'm not complaining because I loved doing it.  So, here is the painting for Day 20.  

Landscape II by Jim Carpenter, Mixed Media on Crescent Board, 12 3/4" x 13 1/4"

Taking It Apart & Putting It Together

"Water Lily" by Jim Carpenter, Watermedia Collage, 9.5" x 9.5" 

"Skiving is a direct act of revolt against the arid philosophies of living that we're indoctrinated with at school and at work, the notion of suffering now, pleasure later. Well, that way of thinking is anathema to your idler. He can't wait until tomorrow." - Tom Hodgkinson

I Was Skiving Today!

Today was my day to sit the gallery, a "job" that I commit to in order to be a member of the gallery. However, I also have this 30 day challenge to deal with and I was trying to figure out how I could meet the challenge while sitting the gallery.  Painting would be out of the question. Too wet and messy. For the last few months I've been toying with doing some collage while at the gallery, but with limited success. So today, as I headed out to Melrose, I packed a carryall with tons of torn up watercolor papers and acrylic starts, and adhesive. 

I spent the good part of 3 hours of my 4 hour shift making 3 or 4 pieces.  For me, the worst part of collage is that there are a bazillion possibilities for combining papers, while the best part of collage is that I get to make something totally out of some of my favorite original pieces of paint on paper. And let's not forget to mention the fun part of tearing up paper!  Talk about revolt and rebellion!  I decided that I would just go for it and stick these pieces down when I liked what I saw. Otherwise, I'd be dillydallying. 

I'm showing 3 of the collages to you today - I think this will catch me up so that I now am up to date with the challenge and have one to spare. I can't help but think that in a way I am cheating. While the rest of my colleagues are painting away, I'm tearing up paper and gluing it down. And though it is not cheating for those who do collage all the time, for they are experts and collage is their art form, for me, a painter, it seems like... oh well, skiving is what Tom Hodgkinson calls it. In that sense, I guess one man's work can be another man's skiving! 

"Lily Pod" by Jim Carpenter, Watercolor Collage, 4.5" x 6.25"

"The Prairie" by Jim Carpenter, Watermedia Collage, 6.5" x 4.5"

You know, if it weren't for the challenge, I'd probably still be looking at these pieces of paper - all totally unglued. I'm increasingly grateful for the challenge! How about you?

Underpinning: What Lies Beneath

"Underpinnings II" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic Mixed Media on Crescent Board, 18" x 20"

"The undermind is what we're looking for when meditating, that part of our self which is beyond the intellectual, emotional, and physical." - Tom Hodgkinson

Support: The Creative Spirit

"Underpinnings II" takes me to a place I've wanted to go to for a number of years - the abstract landscape. Again this is a painting that I had worked on and shelved over a year ago. I forgot I even had it in my files. But I pulled it out today, not knowing where I would take it, or rather where it would take me. But painting it today was that kind of connected experience that we aim for when engaged in any process. It felt good to paint it today. From that perspective alone, I achieved - at least for today - my objective of enjoying the experience of painting. If you are an artist you know exactly what I mean. The paint goes down in a way that just feels good, every stroke feels good. 

Finding the quote from Hodgkinson's book was a serendipitous gift. I titled the painting before I found the sentence referring to "undermind" a word I had never seen before. Nevertheless, the word "undermind" supports the theme of the painting, and of my work in general. I practice Chi Kung, an ancient Chinese art form of standing meditation, and I believe that practice frees the creative spirit, strengthens one's courage, and clears the mind so that the imagination - and the creative spirit - can take over.

I struggle to explain my paintings - where they come from, what they might mean, how they affect me, how they came into being. I write about them and talk about them, always with the note that what they are, and how they are, is always little bit mysterious to me. I believe that they may come from accessing "that part of our self which is behind the intellectual, emotional, physical."

"Underpinnings II" may represent that ancient abstract ancestral landscape that we tap into when we create.   

I remain grateful for the 30 Day Challenge, which has prompted me to get in the studio, take risks, and enjoy the creative process of both painting and writing.

Don't Dillydally, Dauntless: Just Be Idle

"Scene Unseen XX" by Jim Carpenter, Mixed Media on Board, 16 x 20

"I am struck by how the phrase 'Study to be Quiet' expresses the paradox of idling, which is that you have to work at being idle." - Tom Hodgkinson

I'm Not Dillydallying. I'm Getting It Done Without Working.

This is day 10 of the 30 day challenge and I'm on painting #9.  Some of you may recognize the reference in the title of my blogpost. The line "Don't dillydally Dauntless" is a favorite alliteration of mine uttered by the stern but "sensitive" mother-Queen in the musical comedy Once Upon A Mattress. It's also appropriate here because the painting above is one I've been dillydallying over for a while - just as I have over several other paintings I've put forward in the challenge. In fact, I am using this challenge to stop dillydallying and finish - or transform - or dismiss entirely - all of the paintings I have lying around in my painting-Limbo. Oddly enough, it is the call to be idle that is allowing me to finish up what I could not do otherwise.

This gentle shift in point of view - of seeing the painting as something I love to do rather that seeing it as a job - something it is not now and never really has been, except when I thought it might be - is what is allowing me to be free to paint as I wish. It is my idle time - my time to relax and enjoy and be inspired. 

Between the book, "How to Be Idle" by Tom Hodgkinson, and the Challenge from Leslie Saeta, and the 700 other artists painting along in the challenge - it is easy to be inspired and encouraged and idle even when being challenged.