Lisa Congdon is on the panel for the session, Freelancing Success along with Meg Mateo Ilasco and Erin Loechner, and she is heading the session, The Work of Art.
How do you stay motivated to keep creating new and interesting works of art everyday?
I think the most important driver for daily motivation is doing what you love for a living. And I spent 15 years earlier in my life doing things I didn’t love so much, so I am speaking from experience. But, of course, even then motivation can be illusive! Everyone gets stuck or has days when they don’t feel like creating. It’s normal. Getting away from my artwork for a bit of time every day gives me perspective and time to just be without the pressure of creating. I go for a long swim or bike ride almost every morning and this is my time to check out from art-making. It’s also (quite ironically) the time in which the best ideas pop into my head. I like to see if I can push myself through periods when I feel less motivated. This is especially important when I am working on deadlines. Usually I am able to push through by just putting the brush to the canvas and cranking up my favorite music.
Do you use any techniques, apps or tricks to stay organized and manage multiple projects?
I am a big list maker. If I am going through a particularly busy time, I do some major planning for my week on Sunday nights. I take a sheet of paper and write out what I’d like to accomplish on each of the five days that follows. I like being able to see visually what my week looks like and how what I need to finish fits into the five day week. Sometimes this actually helps me to feel less overwhelmed since I can see that I really do have time to get everything done over the course of the week if I spread things out. Then, as the week progresses, if I don’t get to everything on a particular day, I move things around on the weekly plan to accommodate. Likewise, sometimes I get ahead of schedule, and I also use that as an opportunity to make some adjustments as I go. I have tried computer and iPhone apps for managing multiple projects, but I nothing works for me as well as pencil and paper. I find that writing things down in a way that makes sense to me visually helps to keep me most on track. The important thing is having a system (whether it’s written or technology-based) that works for you (i.e. that you will actually use).
Do you ever feel overwhelmed or not know where to start? What do you do to overcome that?
Totally! This happens at least once a week. Sometimes when this happens I just get sucked into chatting with friends on Facebook or Twitter as a way to “escape”. So like I mentioned, some days I really have to force myself to push through that space. I force myself to turn off my phone or computer and make a list of everything that I could work on that day (if I don’t have one already). Then I weigh what I should be working on first versus what sounds the most fun and/or easiest to work on. Depending on the circumstances, I’ll choose one or the other. And then I turn a good podcast or some beautiful or energizing music in my headphones and get in the zone. I’m not saying it’s easy. But I refuse to go to the place where get nothing done in a day. I think it’s part of how I’m wired. I love the satisfaction that comes with making stuff. I like being able to come home and say to my partner, “Look at what I made today!” It’s one of the best parts of being an artist. There is a real satisfaction in it for me.
