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« 20 Hour Work Week Challenge | Main | Carry The Torch »
Show And Tell Fridays
by Lori Woodward Simons on 5/27/2009 11:44:34 AM



Painting in Progress... watercolor.

Wow, a lot of artists are excited about counting themselves in for a 20 hour work week challenge.

 While some artists are already putting in 40 or more hours per week, many are not able to because of other commitments.

My main purpose for taking on this challenge for myself is to get  myself away from doing needless online checking of email, Twitter and Facebook.  While I use all three of these venues for business purposes, my use of these sometimes gets out of hand because I'm a hugely social person at heart.  However, if I continue to let social media digest my best working hours, I'll eventually find myself feeling like a hypocrite and worse, out of a career.

Here's the latest idea: We can post accomplishments with show and tell Fridays - with our fellow artists in order to brag about how much real work we got done. While many of you paint or make artquilts or other types of creative work, I also write for art publications. I consider that kind of writing part of my work - so I may have to Talk or Tell you about my accomplishments - the writing ones, and then show you paintings.

I've also put this challenge out to folks on the American Artist Magazine's forum.  If you'd like to join them as a member, it's the perfect place to upload your images.  They even have a members' gallery. I'm an active member there and docent.

I'm not planning on carrying the banner alone for this project - just am going to live up to  my own challenge, so if this is going to work, you who are interested will have to go out and share this experience with other artists. This challenge is purely optional, no one has to participate unless they want to. You can quit any time or rejoin the battle. No rules here, just encouragement, progress, and celebration of a job well done.

If you've got a Facebook account, you might want to show and tell on Friday there, or on the American Artist Forum or else on Twitter if you have an account there. I'm www.twitter.com/Loriwords

Let's encourage each other to greater work!





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Post Details:

Permalink | 6 Comments
Topics: Time Management | 20 Hour Challenge 
Technorati Tags: Time Management | 20 Hour Challenge 



K. Henderson
via web
Hi Lori,

While reading your challenge I couldn't help but think of one of my favorite Stephen King books (besides his book Insomnia). I listen to audio books while I paint and a few years back I listened to 'On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft'. King writes about his writing craft and tells how others can become writers. One of the things he writes about is committing yourself to writing a certain amount of time each day, whether it be 15 minutes or 10 hours. But at least do it every day and attempt to meet your goal.
It's a great book and everything he write about can apply to painting.
I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone has accomplished this week
Candy Barr
via web

Lovely watercolor going on. I'm liking your challenge going public. Sorting out how and where to paint everyday/week is a challenge likened to spinning plates. I think watercolor can lend itself to stop and go, as the necessity for parts to dry first before continuing. And nice to have established image to return to no?
I find working alla prima can be a challenge faced with blank canvas every time. That's why I particularly need models to keep the landscapes lucid. Let's paint!
Joanne Giesbrecht
via web
I found that once I had committed to this challenge, interruptions and "really good things" came my way in droves! BUT, because of the accountability factor, I stuck to it and painted around, in between, and in spite of all the interruptions. It was much more difficult to paint for 20 hours than I had anticipated, but really satisfying to accomplish it in a very busy week!
Lori Woodward Simons
via web
Let's celebrate! I'm hearing from at least a dozen artists about how good their feeling about this week's accomplishments. See, we can do it.

Maybe knowing that we'll share on Friday means we don't need to check twitter and email a hundred times daily on Monday through Thursday, eh? If everybody's in their studio all week, and we know we'll hook up in the late afternoons and on Fridays, we're all set.

Hmmm... maybe I'll try that. Would you be OK with me just spending mostly Fridays and early evenings responding? It would give me a real break.
Joanne Giesbrecht
via web
I am more than fine with checking with one another on Fridays... you need to be in the studio too. After all, it was YOUR idea because YOU wanted to get 20 hours done for sure. :-) We should be considerate of your time as well!









 
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