musings from the studio and beyond ~
dawn chandler’s reflections on art and life. . . .
4.22.14 ~ i’ve got rhythm!
The funny thing is I’ve been a more or less full-time professional artist for years, yet it’s only now that I really feel like I’ve found a steady rhythm with my work.
What do I mean by rhythm? I mean a consistent groove. Flow. Long periods of flowing energy and focus. Deep intention manifested in a regular daily practice.
There’s three factors coming into play in my newly found creative rhythm.
1) The brilliant book Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus & Sharpen Your Creative Mind, edited by Jocelyn K. Glei. It’s a tiny book packed with big ideas. “Prepare for a highly concentrated does of insights
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| Josephine Baker doing the Charleston, c. 1926. |
Broken into five chapters, each chapter has five essays or Q&A from twenty “leading creative minds” and concludes with a sharp list of “Key Takeaways.”
—Great Work Before Everything Else
Do your most meaningful creative work at the beginning of your day, and leave “reactive work” — like responding to email or other messages — for later.
—Jump-start your creativity
Establish “associative triggers” — such as listening to the same music or arranging your desk in a certain way — that tell your mind it’s time to get down to work.
—Feel the Frequency
Commit to working on your project at consistent intervals— ideally every day—to build creative muscle and momentum over time.
—Pulse And Pause
Move rhythmically between spending and renewing your energy by working in ninety-minute bursts and then taking a break.
—Get Lonely
Make a point of spending some time alone each day. It’s a way to observe unproductive habits and thought processes, and to calm your mind.
—Don’t Wait For Moods
Show up, whether you feel inspired or not.
Buy the book and read it now.
2) Lessons learned during my experience at Playa — the residency program in eastern Oregon I attended for five weeks last November. I went there soon after reading Manage Your Day-to-Day and decided to put into action all that I read in that book. That meant unplugging and using creative triggers; having hard edges to my day; creating a routine that includes renewal; knowing my complex goals, and more.
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| My studio in Diablo cabin, at Playa Creative Residency in Oregon. |
3) This lovely new space.
And so.
My focus begins the night before at bedtime, when I unplug my modem — a tiny but mighty symbolic gesture to my brain and spirit that says “when you wake in the morning,
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| Early morning in my new studio. |
To sleep, ideally, between 9:00 – 10:00.
Awake at 4:45. Fresh pot of tea. In the studio by 5:15.
Work solid for an hour or two.
Break for fitness with The Pup.
Back in the studio for the rest of the morning.
Midday or so, SIESTA: Break for a few hours for errands and computer work and engaging with the world and….a nap.
Back in the studio later in the day, and sometimes — if I’m lucky — in the evening, too.
It works.
I work.
Very well.
4.5.14 ~ whoop yeah! first outside painting excursion of the year!
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| first plein air painting of the year with my totally cool new guerrilla pocket box paint kit. |
A day of firsts!
My first plein air painting of the year AND my first oil painting of the year AND my first use of my sweet, sweet little Geurrilla Painter “Pocket Box” paint kit.
So jazzed!
So happy!
And so freakin’ C O L D from sitting out there in the blustery wind of in Ashbaugh Park!
This little painting — which measuring a wee 5″ x 7″ — took all of about mmmm…. minutes? (Plus maybe a minute or two of touch up once home, back in the studio).
Note the very limited palette: Cadmium Yellow Medium, Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue and Titanium White (which is, incidentally, the palette recommended by Kevin McPherson in his excellent book, Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light & Color.).
Feeling satisfied!
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| blustery april afternoon, ashbaugh park, santa fe ~ oil on panel (en plein air) ~ 5″ x 7″ ~ by dawn chandler |
4.3.14 ~ at long last: my new studio! (and no — it’s not the back of my car….)
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| First load to my new place: The Essentials. |
Glory be! Today is the HAPPIEST day I’ve had this year!
After three months of no painting and two months of living in a warren of boxes and chaos, I returned — FINALLY!! — to making Art. And in my NEW STUDIO!
WHOOP-YEAH!!
Two months ago I saw the listing on Craig’s List — just two hours after the owner posted it:
1,200 sq feet, loft-townhouse with attached art studio; cathedral ceilings, skylights, lots of windows; washer/drier hook-up; enclosed yard; pets okay.
Could it possibly be?
I made an appointment to see it the next day.
Tucked away in the center of old Santa Fe — hidden down narrow lanes and smack in the middle of the loop of bike paths, a tiny group of townhouses with a large tiled sign out front: ART STUDIOS. I gasped.
Stepping past the delicate trees and into the soaring-ceilinged living-room, my pulse quickened.
One look in the ample studio with a sink — a real sink! — I fell into a swoon.
…Then quickly became sick to my stomach when three other people showed up to look at it. Walking through the space with the landlord and these…these….these low-lifes…these enemies….these competitors! … I nearly choked with my heart pounding in my throat.
I had to have this space.
THESE people did NOT have to have this space!
I HAD TO HAVE THIS SPACE!
Minutes.
ticking.
no
one
doing
any
thing.
Then
my voice
:
I’ll take it.
And here I am. After 40+ trips from the old house to the new place to the storage unit to the dump and back and ’round and ’round again and again, I’m finally here, finally settled. The old place AND my storage unit are vacated. Lots and lots of stuff has been gifted, donated, recycled, tossed or stashed in a friend’s garage awaiting a May garage sale. The rest is cleaned and put away.
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| Studio move-in day…..Morning. |
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| Studio move-in day….Afternoon… |
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| I think I’ve earned a massage. Or at least a beer. Or both. |
After days of considering space, work-flow and light, my beautiful new studio — as of late last night — is organized, ready for my Muse & Me.
The alarm went off this morning at 4:55; within minutes I was sighing blissfully — mug of tea in one hand, paint brush in the other, surrounded by blank white walls.
It’s about time.
3.2.14 ~ my father’s hand
Cleaning out my studio, I’m taking my time, going through accumulated supplies, stacks of past creations, boxes of old photos and letters and scribbles of poetry and journals and sketchbooks, in an effort to weed out the things that no longer serve me. It’s epic — I have a LOT of this stuff. But it’s kind of fun (I get off on cleaning and organizing) and is oft times amusing and sometimes heart-wrenching as I sift through the layers of my life.
This morning I came across this sketch I did in 1987 or so of my father’s hand. Timely, as he would have been 83 yesterday. (I opened a bottle of his wine in his honor.)
My father had beautiful hands, with long elegant fingers. I think he may have been a pianist in a previous life. That would help explain his passion for classical music, at least. Perhaps I was a pianist too — for the same reason. My mother always said that I have my father’s hands, for my hands, too, are long and slender. A carpenter, handyman, woodsman, baker, gardener, jotter-downer-of-things, and of course a pathologist earning his paycheck with the deft manuevering of a scalpel and microscope, my father — like me — was happiest when his mind engaged with his hands.
I’m touched by this sketch, and how accurately I captured this hand. Even before reading the caption — “Dad’s hand….waiting for bill after soup and salad bar at Main Street w/Hitzels,” I recognized it instantly as the hand of my father.
My father wasn’t an emotionally demonstrative man; he didn’t hug or really touch people. But when he lay on his hospital bed dying of cancer three years ago, I held this hand between my own, and stroked and massaged the perrenial ache in his wrist.
“That feels nice” were among the last words he said.
2.27.14 ~ living off the grid….or not.
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| Along the RIo Grande, somewhere between Taos and Espanola. |
I did something I knew I shouldn’t. But my curiosity got the better of me. I clicked on the Craig’s List housing listing describing an “off-the-grid” house with “spectacular views” about an hour north of Santa Fe.
And for several days my imagination got the better of me, dreaming of living in a solar house with a large fenced in, irrigated garden on 11 acres surrounded by BLM land, there in the Rio Grande canyon, with the river just a 10 minute walk away.
Look at those views! Look at those gables and dormers!
The romantic light coming into that bedroom…. That beautiful kitchen! How I’d love to cook in that beautiful kitchen…and what a cool bathroom — with a bathtub! God, how I’ve missed taking baths….
No studio…Hmmmm…..but glorious high ceilings upstairs — couldn’t I paint up there if I’m very careful with the walls and that wood floor?
And that porch! Ohhhhhhh how I’d love to sit on that porch and watch thunderstorms roll through the canyon….
And family and friends? They would LOVE this place! And my dog? She would be in doggie heaven with all the acreage! Just imagine the RABBITS!
My Man’s eyes lit up when I showed him the photos. “My God, that’s the kind of place I dream of retiring to!”
For four days I was lost in it.
I even scoped out the place from afar with a friend who lives in the area.
‘Talked it over with girl friends over wine and chocolate during our vision board gathering.
I contacted the owner.
And then I couldn’t sleep.
My heart was pounding — RACING! — like I was sprinting with everything I’ve got.
For 10 or 15 minutes my heart felt like it was in my throat. I couldn’t believe it: I was having an anxiety attack.
deep breath….
DEEP BREATH!
…..Deep Breath…..
…………..d e e e e p b r e e e a t h………….
I focused on my breathing and repeated to myself:
All is well…..All is calm……I am at peace in this moment.
over again and again…..
until…..
finally…..my heart……slowed…….
my breathing……slowed….and
I was asleep.
Maybe it was the Spirit that hurled the brick at my head last summer when I was coming up with stupid excuses for not doing an art residency in Oregon. But the next day a Banshee voice busted through all the romantic daydreaming and asked,
What the hell are you doing?!
This IS NOT your game plan!
This is NOT what you’ve been wanting!
This is ISOLATION! Do you really want to be an hour from town? Four hours round trip from Your Man?!
Do you really want to deal with a frickin water tank, filters, solar electric system and all the maintenance of living off the grid?! Do you really want to live 15 minutes down a dirt road that’s dicey at best, harrowing at worst, and a likely worry all times in between?!
You have an ART BUSINESS that relies on a solid internet connection! Do you really think you’ll have consistent internet and cell coverage up there, if at all?! and say good by to studio visits from all but the most adventuresome patrons!
And — HELLO!! — remember the conversation with yourself at Playa, when you came to
the realization that, despite living in one of the art meccas of the WORLD, you hardly know any artists, are hardly involved in the art community, and you decided you want to 
CHANGE that? Do you really think you can achieve that all the way out there?!
And what about YOUR FRIENDS?! WHAT ABOUT YOUR MAN? You will rarely see them, no matter how much they love the place!
IT DOESN’T EVEN HAVE A STUDIO!!
“Sounds like a whole lot of work for a nice view,” said one wise friend.
I cancelled my appointment with the owner.
And slept deeply that night.
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| “Sleeping Dog” by Waugsberg |