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Can we talk about “doing what you love” and what that means in 2020? This concept has dramatically changed this year, and I want to reassure you that it’s okay not to find solace in your work right now, no matter how much you typically love it.
First of all, it’s much harder to enjoy anything with the whip of economical recession at your back. So much of art is play, but this season is putting pressure on experimentation. And with squeezed resources and energy, every move counts.
We’ve collectively agreed to include performance in the creative process. Time lapses, tips and tricks, biz advice is all performative, the art and the artist seen side by side. This is fine until you simply can’st be seen because you are sad or overwhelmed by *gestures wildly.*
Art may have been your therapy before 2020. Now it is your therapy/hobby/job/clock in a way it wasn’t before. It is very okay to step away for a little bit or find an adjacent outlet to lessen the load.
Finally, there’s a lot of pressure to display your values through your work. If you’re new to this, it will feel jarring, like you’re limiting your audience and inviting heavy criticism or isolation during this time. It’s okay to wrestle with these implications.
Still working on a solution, but a few things seems to help. Dive deeply into yourself. Take sustained social media breaks. Teach yourself some new hobbies, give yourself more rest, make when it feels exciting. Get help when you need it.
Your art and the joy it brings you isn’t gone, just buried in 2020’s muck. It will be there when this is all over, you may have to dig a little.
