First day of classes

Today was the first day of classes at Temple and therefore the first day I really felt like I was away in any serious way. I've been busy rearranging the studio at home for the last few days and it's shaping up nicely, but it has kept me out of the sabbatical studio. I brought home the collage notebooks so I could be a little productive and, though I completed a dozen or so new collages, I am beginning to feel the anxiety of having finished a pile of work without exactly having the next thing ready to go.

I read Zahra Ebrahim's post about sabbaticals at Huffington post (which referenced the famous Stefan Sagmeisterand Power of Time-Off TED talk...below) and was taken by Ebrahim's emphasis on the sabbatical's ability to "recharge" artists and designers...I am hopeful that this is the case.


Most of my adult life, I have practiced a policy of keep-working-on-what-you-have-until-the-next-job-rolls-in. I've never really asked myself the question, "what would you do if you didn't have to do anything?" because the concept of not having something to do - even if it's my own assignment - is horrifying to me.

This may grow out of a childhood in which we were strictly prohibited from expressing any boredom. Not from feeling boredom (who could stop a shy, nerdy suburban kid in the 1970s from feeling bored in the endless stretch of summer time?); we were merely unable to talk about it. My mother held to the creed that "only boring people are bored" and it took a lot of torturous semantics for me to realize the value of letting your mind wander (pivotal readings included Barthes and a great interview with Chuck Close on the importance of being bored).

But I doubt, gentle reader, that you find my childhood recollections interesting. I want to return to the main problem - that of making the best use of what's been given to you. I am compelled by the opportunity to work on a scale I have not worked on for a long time. I can produce small things of some modest complexity, but I haven't had the time to focus on anything in years. This is not the model for a sabbatical Ebrahim and Sagmesiter espouse - the model of doing something 'for the love of it', or doign something (like taking an acting class) that has no apparent connection to one's creative work. Maybe it's because there really is no public for my work in the way there is for a designer, but I feel like I am doing that all the time and during this time I am compelled to go much farther (or, dare I say deeper?) than I can under normal circumstances.

The problem lies in getting ahead of one's self. Between the fabrication of panels, the translation of passages of text, the preparation of gridded papers to draw on, the creation and editing of texts for new sign pieces, and what seems like a never-ending list of other little projects I've invented to stave off boredom or the terror of having nothing no iron in the fire, I am confronting the edges of my project management skills. In makign that short list, three more responsibilities I've taken on reappeared at the edge of my mind. Geez.

So watch this speace to see how it all gets sorted out. I am curious what readers would do with a chunk of time off - would you use it to go someplace or do something you've never done? Or as a chance to focus?