The problem is time - or lack of it. I find myself struggling to find time to do all the things I would like to be doing. There just aren't enough hours in the day!
I'm not a full time artist (starving or otherwise). I have a full time job. One which involves a 90 minute commute to work in the morning, and another 90 minute commute in the evening.
In addition, I have a part time job on an equestrian website, which I thoroughly enjoy. I can do it at home, in my pajamas if I so wish.
But because of my two jobs, other activities such as chores, gardening, housework and seeing my two retired horses (at least I board them, so I don't have to muck stalls each day) all gets crammed in on the weekend.
And I'm married and certainly don't want to neglect my wonderful husband, so making sure we have some "us" time scheduled is very important to us both.
This doesn't really leave a lot of time for my artistic endeavors such as working on new artwork, or creating greeting cards and other products for my online stores, as well as any marketing efforts I might pursue.
So what I try and do is juggle.
I try and blog regularly, on one of my three blogs -- 3D Designs by Jayne, Jayne's Country Garden and this one, Art by Jayne Wilson.
If I blog on a week night, (like tonight) I don't usually have time to work from scratch in DAZ or Vue, but I might have time to take an artwork that is already finished and create some products with it for my Zazzle store.
On another evening, if I'm feeling artistically inclined, I'll work on a new piece in DAZ, Vue or a combination of the two. Or I might work on expanding my skills by following a tutorial and try out a new technique.
I try and post to my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/3dDesignsByJayne at least once a day (preferably more often, which I can do from my iPad at lunch time or on the bus going to work in the morning).
The thing I struggle most with is keeping up with the volume of posts in the online art community Fine Art America. I belong to some very busy groups on there and while I love it when people vote and comment on my artwork, I feel that if I tried to keep up with commenting and voting on every new posting, I would be at it 24/7.
I try and set aside some time when I post a new piece myself, to at least vote and comment on recent additions. But I admit to feeling guilty that I don't have time to do more.
I'd love to know how other artists manage to find time for family, day jobs, art and everything else.
Hi Jayne - appropriate that you've written about not finding enough time. I've been trying to find time to read your post ever since I noticed it in the sidebar of my blog!!!!
ReplyDeleteAlthough my 9-5 job is working on various online stores, working 56 hours a week, I only find about 3 hours if I'm lucky to actually paint! And less than that now that I'm doing the surface pattern course as well and trying to cope with Photoshop (grrrrr....).
I entirely agree about online communities! We now have a facebook group for the surface pattern course and if I keep facebook open while I'm working, it's much like working in an open plan office; lovely to have the company, but a very time-consuming distraction!
Sorry, I don't know the answer but I do know how you feel as last week I thought I was about to go into meltdown, trying to keep too many balls in the air at once :D
(Actually, the answer is to find a 'creative assistant' aka a minion to do all the boring stuff!)