GOTTA MAKE TIME
This year I set myself some goals. Not resolutions, mind you
– they are made to be broken because they are usually too overwhelming and
general. We all know the usual ones anyway…lose weight…stop a bad habit….stay
in better touch with friends and family…etc. Resolutions rarely have deadlines
or a beginning and an end.
So I just set out some goals, particularly to accomplish
some things that I have put off, sometimes for years, because of other duties
and responsibilities. Care for the ill and elderly. Make money to pay the
bills. Always something with more importance than the things I want to do.
My father was a bus driver when my parents were married, and
from that experience he carried the mantra: Gotta make time. Gotta make time.
He loved driving but my mom put her foot down finally on the time spent away
from home, so he gave up bus driving and became a taxi driver. Gotta make time
didn’t always make sense when driving a taxi, but he learned the city so well
that he could find the shortest driving distance anywhere (which wasn’t exactly
what cabbies normally do. I remember taking a taxi in New York City and
watching the street numbers go up - then down, up – then down until I mentioned
the fact that we seemed to be going back and forth instead of taking a straight
route and he quit doing it.)
Take a family trip to any place though, and the mantra took
over: Gotta make time. Gotta make time. He would rarely stop for a meal, and
even getting him to stop for a potty break took some serious threats.
So I was talking with Gary the other day about how I had let
a similar sense of urgency take over my thinking, to the point that I put aside
my pleasures for the sake of keeping my nose to the grindstone of my business
and other concerns. Which, to be honest, is no longer necessary. It’s just a
mental state I developed (like the cat insisting I get up at 6 am instead of 7
since Daylight Savings time set in. I reset the clocks, but can’t find the
reset button on the cat.) Then I realized: the mantra actually works in my
favor. GOTTA MAKE TIME…to do MY things.
One of the goals, then was to make more time for art work.
Fine, but this was predicated on some more short-term goals. First, to clean up
the studio and organize it. It had become a catch-all for miscellaneous
furniture moved in from other rooms while we revamped them, stuff from my
ephemera business that had overflowed, materials saved for art projects piled
up hither and yon, cartons of stuff that were my mom’s that went in there for
quick storage after she died. I also wanted to finish a small bedroom redo and
use part of it for a sewing room.
I gave the studio a week which of course turned into a
month, but in the process we cleaned out a large wall closet by the stairs and
put the cartons of family stuff in it…removed stuff from the little bedroom, from
which we had already removed carpet and replaced with tiles, and painted the
walls. Stuff crammed in that closet was sorted and much of it disposed of or
stored the hall closet, and fabric and sewing materials from the studio and
hall closet were installed in the small bedroom, along with a sewing table and
machine and with a lot of notions going into the now-emptied dresser. The other
side of the room was rearranged with a small guest bed, side table, reading
lamp, etc. Tight, but cosy. We finally got pictures on the walls, curtains
hung, and called it finished. Once the junk was cleared out of the studio I
purchased a carpenter’s tool chest (on sale, and this floor model was scratched
so I got it for a further discount. Gary is always embarrassed when I start
dickering, but approves when the price becomes so reasonable.) Everything got
sorted (except for a few files left to finish) into a permanent place and my
work table was finally cleared! (I did get stalled on labeling drawers, which I
must finish because I can’t remember where I finally put things.)
Then – predicated on setting up the studio, I had another goal.
For years I have wanted to participate in an International Collage Exchange. It’s
pretty simple. You make 13 collages of about 8x10 and send them off to New
Zealand. One can be earmarked for sale. One is donated to a public art
collection. The others are exchanged with other participants and you receive
back 11 or 12 (depending on if one sold) collages by other artists. It’s all
for fun – the works are put on the website, the donated item joins a “live”
exhibit, and you receive a dozen pieces of art from all over the world. 
I made the deadline the end of February, since the work was
due in New Zealand by mid-March. Danged if I didn’t make it on the evening of
Feb. 28. I sent them off, and then danged if I didn’t find one of them in the
scanner a few days later. Determined to “complete” this project I mailed that
one off, too.
Three goals accomplished in three months. Not too bad. There
is more, but I must remember: Gotta make time. Gotta make time for ME.
Some of the collages submitted decorate today’s blog. I
enjoyed making them so much that I will probably start working on some for next
year.
