| Hi John! I experienced a beautifully serendipitous moment this morning. In addition to starting my day with art, I also aim to add in time for a little reading. Not always possible, but it did happen today. When I was in my studio last week, a copy of sculptor Anne Truitt's Daybook: The Journal of an Artist seemed to leap off the shelf, begging to be read. I've enjoyed poet May Sarton's Journal of a Solitude, and thought this would nicely complement that work. I've been toting it around and finally got to it this morning. Truitt explores her life as an artist, from her experiences in artist residencies to reflections on how childhood frames her current mindset. I'm only about 70 pages in, and so far it's inspiring to step inside her mind to witness her challenges, perceptions, and insights. Here's the uncanny and fortuitous part: Truitt's journal begins on June 6, 1974, exactly 50 years ago to this day... Um, what? The serendipity of the moment pulled me in, and got me searching for a takeaway idea to share with you. Many of the entries are personal accounts and reflections, but I found a more universal passage that may be relevant to many of my readers, who, like me, are parents or educators who hold two identities that are sometimes in a conflict of time: that of parent or teacher and that of artists and maker. Truitt explores how she honors her responsibilities as a parent while carving out space for her art: her answer is to create efficiencies that provide her with the freedom of time. See what you think... 10 September The familiar strain of sustaining the various demands of daily life is once again a whine in the back of my mind. As I move from cleaning the house to washing and ironing to cooking to work in the studio to helping the children with their homework, even in the atmosphere of satisfaction these activities evoke, their inexorable sequence jerks my body into a faster pattern of response than is natural to it. I could lower my standards but in so doing would sink with them, taking my children with me. It is not necessary for us to have candlelit dinners every night. But the ceremony of meals has always been important to regard. Where can children learn so easily and pleasantly, and at such range when guests are included, what it is to be grown-up?... Doing my duty as well as I can is essentially self serving. It is only by attending to tasks and responsibilities as they arise that I can prevent myself from feeling angry that I cannot work in the studio as much as I want to. Anger at once excites and deadens my mind. The only answer to it I have found is efficiency. So I have tried to train myself always to keep abreast of the household routine in order to set myself free for clear concentration in the studio. This really hits home as I've been actively engaged in creating more efficiencies in my life to create extra space for my art. I find that staying on top of the routines of dishes, laundry, family meals, kids activities, etc. really ha enabled more creative time to enter my days. But it's not perfect. My time still feels stretched thin with extra dorm and community volunteering responsibilities, and so I'll keep tinkering with processes to get closer to the right balance. I'm curious to hear how this passage lands for you. Quick chores, more art, Rachelle
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