Day 3: I Created Nothing, Then I Went and Ruined My Streak with this Blog Post.

This is Day 3 of my 75/25 Create/Consume project*, and up until now I haven't made any art today.** I woke up late after a rough night's sleep plagued by nightmares which I hope are not related to this project. After eating breakfast I decided I wanted to meditate. Then after meditating I decided I wanted to meditate some more, and then once again. The feeling of the world being noisy had persisted from yesterday, so I guess I was craving some deep quiet.

The only other thing I did before work was to use a new recipe for vegan sloppy joes. They were awesome, for the record, and unlike usual I did not make them while "The Office" or "The Great British Baking Show" droned on in the background. Instead I listened to a Prince album and almost cut myself when I felt compelled to clap along to "Raspberry Beret" while cutting onions. I put the knife down though and no animals (including me) were harmed in the making of lunch.

After lunch we drove to work. No art was made this morning, not even any dubious collages or ornaments like yesterday. Nothing major seems to have changed in me today either, but I did feel peaceful and content to go to work.

As I mentioned in my first post, I'm considering work a "free space" for this project. My job is such that there are unpredictable lulls in which I have time when I can read or theoretically write and make art, but when the lulls are over I have to be ready to drop everything and work again without delay. I've tried writing at work and it is very frustrating. When I read and I have to stop reading suddenly, I know the words will be there waiting for me to pick them up. When I write I know that I might be losing a good idea midstream. So I decided that for the purpose of this project it's just assumed that the books I consume at work are just a helpful aid to make the day go by.

Today I did get some reading done at work, but there weren't as many long lulls as usual, so I came home eager to continue re-reading the prologue to "A Feast for Crows" and I started using some of my earned "consumption time." I could have just kept reading and gone to sleep, but I felt compelled to update this first. I guess I wanted to create something today, though I'm noticing that I'm afraid, very afraid, to create in general. I guess that fear is something I will be confronting and exploring in the coming days and weeks.

Anyway, I will consider Day 3 a success, because I kept to the program, I created this entry, and I used the time I wasn't consuming to cultivate peace through meditation and make a delicious lunch. Until tomorrow!***

*The 75/25 Create/Consume project's goal is to establish a new ratio in my life of creating art, information and entertainment 75% of the time and only consuming art, information and entertainment 25% of the time.

** Not that this will necessarily be anything resembling art. It's just a recounting of my day vis-a-vis this project.

*** I really like footnotes. They're one of my favorite things about reading David Foster Wallace. I don't care if they're pretentious. Sorry for making you read this. Or not.

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