TIME COMPRESSION and COLOR

I sit down...dig through my collection of oil paints, choose the tubes of color I will be using for the session and proceed to put some paint on my palette. Grabbing the palette knife, maybe some linseed oil, I prepare the paint for placement on the canvas. Digging through my brush collection, I see that perfect brush.....I grab it and look at my canvas that is perfectly arranged on my easel. I know what I want to create!! (TOTAL TIME = 3-5 minutes)

I paint....place some more color on the palette...I paint...step back, check the piece....I paint...repeat!! (PERCEIVED TIME = 1-2 hours.....**ACTUAL TIME = 4-6 hours)

It is always a shock to me when this actually happens. I do not have a clock where I paint. I usually don't even listen to music. (I was a pro musician most of my life and sometimes music captures my attention to much and distracts me from the creation in front of me.) I even ignore the phone or turn it on silent.  My art studio is located in the basement of my home so I do not even see the changing of outside light as a guide. In essence, I have no time keeping devices within my world when I paint. All part of the plan to create a feeling of Time Compression of sorts.

It happens to us humans in many things we do, the loss of time because our brains are to engaged with the task at hand. I actually seek this out. I know when this happens that my focus is directed at that work of art. It is the great escape! The perception of time is relative to your mind energy and your attention. Ever notice that when you are looking forward to something, anything, that time seems to creep?  That great concert you are going to see at 8:00 tonight and it is 2:00 pm and that 6 hours seems like a full day! ...Yeah that's what I am talking about. It seem we talk about it without even noticing it.

What happens when I paint is that the color and form take over. A pirate of my time. I can see why a lot of artist are kinda crazy. Time is different to them, they are not a slave to it! The hustle and bustle of the normal world means nothing to them while they create. Time is actually an enemy of sorts. Time makes things dry too fast or slow, ideas to be forgotten and the bills to be due! Thus we seek to loose time.

Besides the rotation of the earth, Day to night, Time is a man made thing. We clever humans have invented clocks, calendars, hour glasses and the like, to feel that we have control over what time is. I hope to shed this thought process and in large part have. Sure I have to know these things because of real life and that everyone else in the world abides by it. So in many ways I am still a slave to it and have to be! I accept that. Loosing time when I am doing my art is my big "middle finger up" to the clock of humanity and all her rules! You cant have me all the time!!

So in my little speak for the night that I am sharing with you I just wanted to tell you....Do something creative to loose that concept of time even for a few "actual" hours each week. Find something that is revenge for all the other time you spend keeping track of it! Be beautiful for yourself....Create....Try a new hobby....Go down to Hobby Lobby and buy yourself some cheap paints\brushes\cardstock(heavy paper)....Find out how easy it is to do something creative...you do not need to share it with anyone...keep it to yourself if you wish.....art can be creating with anything your mind wants to...it only needs to be art to you!!!!

Thanks for listening....I wish you a wonderful day....now go create something!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Peace and Love to you all

One more thought: We where all born with the ability to be artists...it is just some of us who are not afraid to do so!