Studio Life: the current state of my collage table!

I’m halfway through my first semester of grad school and I’d like to talk about the fact that time is speeding up. This is the only way that I can explain the last 8 weeks of my life. I distinctly remember when I was growing up that the weeks between the start of school and Halloween were an infinity where I could linger and even waffle on important decisions like what color M&M I’d be. This year I feel like the realization that the sidewalks are lined with leaves and the appearance of miniature candy bars at the grocery store happened overnight. Times like these are a bit magical to me, they occur when so much is going on that you have to be so present in the moment and you simply can’t dwell on the past or freak out (too much) about the future. The unimportant things seems to fade away as each new day unfolds. That’s not to say that I’m not meticulously planning out deadlines, projects, and papers – it’s just to say that there’s a flow that comes with it all. The alarm goes off each morning and then, just like that, it’s all happening.

A few new collages I’ve made over the past week

Before I started this semester I wondered what my daily life in grad school would look like and how it would affect my studio practice. That might seem like a strange thing to think about as I entered a program centered around making art, but in uncertain times there’s always been a fear that my process might get lost in the mix of so much change. I’d say that’s been a pretty consistent irrational thought I’ve struggled with in the studio for years. It’s not that I was afraid my practice wouldn’t survive whatever life threw at it, it’s just that the unknown always has a way of questioning everything.

My practice is a huge part of my daily life. I’ve been making a new piece and sharing it on social media every day for the past 4 years. In my experience the pressure of a daily practice is more daunting from the outside, even if the “outside” is just one step out my studio door. Each day as I sit down and start the collaging process, the work helps center me. I make sense of the world through my hands. It’s not always easy but it’s an incredibly freeing and fulfilling practice. Beyond that it’s also a commitment that I make to the audience, a consistent act that helps me connect with people in a way I never imagined.

At this point in grad school I’m starting see my practice as a stable place that I can use to explore whatever is happening in my life. I’ve shifted my thinking and started to open up the ways I view the relationship between my work and life. My life is my work and my practice is not limited to something I make and share everyday, it’s everything that contributes to the balance and act of being present and open in each moment. As my practice grows my work is transforming with the ever expanding knowledge, inspiration, and possibility that uncertainty offers.