Creation of art is not meant to be the worst thing in the day. Frequently it it the best thing. But getting started is SO often the worst thing.
Talking with my mentor Rosalind Davis – I realised how much I had been thinking but not DOING. One of my targets before we meet again is to make one film. Any film (on my theme). Good or bad. Just make something and it will lead me down a path and (hopefully) tell me what to do next.
So, I have returned to the ideas in a book I was given by a friend: ‘Eat that Frog’ by Brian Tracy.
Mark Twain famously said that if the first thing you do is eat a live frog, you can go through the rest of the day knowing the worst is behind you. Tracy says that your frog is your worst task, and you should do it first thing in the morning. My worst task should not be my art practice – but it is the difficult, gritty, confusing … AAAGHHHH-feeling task. Without anyone to be accountable to (a client, or a tutor) I have allowed myself to forget how much my art practice is my frog.
I have many ideas but which do I focus on? I have binned a few. I have many ideas but which would be the most productive? Many ideas but which will have the best outcome? Many ideas but which will be the most helpful to push myself forward? None of those questions can be answered until I have done something. Either the idea will be a good one or a bad one. But thinking about them after a certain point, without making something, becomes a waste of time.
So today – I tackled the frog. Whatever was at the top of my to do list is my frog. Today I drafted the outline of a film, using text I had written a few weeks ago at a writing workshop, and photographs I took while on the workshop.
