A few weeks back I looked at the calendar and realized I had only 7 weeks to prepare for a solo exhibit. I came up with a schedule that is aggressive, yet doable to create all new work for the show over those 7 weeks.

It’s doable in the sense that if I quit doing most everything else in my life, like paying bills, marketing my artwork, cooking dinner, writing long blog posts, hanging out with friends all weekend, etc… I can get all of the artwork completed by the delivery date.

I’ve had a vision for this show for a long time and I decided to go for it even it it generates some imbalance in my immediate future.

What is Balance?

Which brings up the question – exactly what is balance?

Looking in the dictionary for balance these defintions jump out at me:

5 a : stability produced by even distribution of weight on each side of the vertical axis b : equipoise between contrasting, opposing, or interacting elements
6 a : an aesthetically pleasing integration of elements
9 : mental and emotional steadiness

That sounds about right. Stability, integration, steadiness. Bring it all together and making it all work, magically.

Embracing the Imbalance

There are few days, or even weeks, in my life where I feel I’ve balanced all of my desires, intentions and responsibilities. Something always seems to have to give.

My life is chronically out of balance on a day to day basis, yet if I step back and look at the big picture (such as my list of 100 accomplishments for 2009) everything seems to work out.

I need to just relax and accept that on the micro-level things feel imbalanced.

When I was a stay at home mom, we called this sequencing and much as been written on the topic.

The idea is we can have it all, just not all at once. Keeping this in mind is supremely helpful in remaining relaxed as paperwork, laundry, email and blog comments pile up while I’m creating in my studio.

Wrap Up

If you are feeling unbalanced, take a look back over the long term, are things really unbalanced or are you sequencing?

 
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—lisa

Thinking Big about Art