Art Work Life Balance

To gain a better art work life balance it might be worth considering Scrooge, the past, present and future.

With the snow this week I began thinking about Scrooge, and the visitations of the three ghosts and how they helped to improve Scrooge and his life, and perhaps by imagining you were Scrooge, or by being visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future you might consider what you could do to address any art work life imbalance.

I know you’re not like Scrooge, or at least I hope not, but imagine you are visited by three ghosts. When the clock strikes one, look back at who you were, your ideals, hopes for the future, key points that led to where you are today.

Next the ghost of Christmas present to reflect on what you are up to now and what others are doing too, and put things into perspective, there are others out there working towards a healthy art work life balance, maybe we can make connections with like-minded souls and reconnect with the people from our past.

And finally the ghost of Christmas yet to come and what your art work life balance might be like if you don’t make some sort of change, but don’t worry you are not Scrooge, and if you have read this far you are probably already on the way to a healthy art work life balance.

3, 2, 1, and you’re back in the room… now in your slippers and dressing gown go out, remember your past, live in the present, and look to the future as you meet like-minded souls looking to find a healthy art work life balance.

(A possible flash mob performance on christmas eve anyone?)

I’ve written a few Art Work Life Balance exercises now and this weekend I have been putting together a few proposals to different places for residencies or to perform or exhibit them.

Initially I started with 7, I haven’t performed all of these but I would like to try them out as a week long retreat with a group of people not necessarily from Art backgrounds, but maybe you could try these in the comfort of your own home and let me know how you get on.

Day One – The Art Work Life Balance, a meditative exercise to help decide how best to balance your art, work and life by standing on one leg.

Day Two – The Love Art Work Life see-saw, a chance to contemplate your relationships with others and how they are affected by your art work life balance whilst on a see-saw.

Day Three – The Art Work Life Book Balance, select three books one for art, one for work and one for life, and balance them on your head, think about what links these books together.

Day Four – Do something new, perhaps go to a karaoke bar, and lose yourself in a song.

Day Five – Make Something, armed with Cardboard and empty washing up bottles imagine you’re a Blue Peter Presenter

Day Six – This is your Life Art Work Balance, to consider and remember your past, the people you’ve met along the way stick it all down in a big red book

Day Seven – The Art Work Life Balance walk and rest, on the seventh day it seems logical for any creative person to rest but only after a walk where you are free from the materials of home or work and can contemplate how you are going to make your art work life balance.

This is my first post so I might as well start with the first exercise for Art Work Life Balance, to give an idea of the project I have been working on. I aim to show it across different platforms both as a live act, lecture or a retreat for other artist to join and a web based document as a journal for these Art Work Life Balance exercises.

First stand on one leg and imagine you have three bags; one for art, one for life, one for work, hanging from both your arms and one leg. Sort through these bags, which one is the most important to you? Is there one that is too heavy and causing an imbalance? Which are you prepared to make the most effort to carry?

Think about which one you don’t mind being heavier and adjust the contents of your bags if you can, remove any unnecessary items that might prevent you from getting the right balance. To bear the weight of one you might need to make the other two lighter.

This can be performed for any length of time and repeated until you feel you have a healthy art life balance.