Friday 6 June 2014

The great distractions



Gallery hopping
In Paris I didn’t have any external structure to my days. I was okay for the first few weeks as I typed away to update my blog, but then I began to flounder. If I could spend my time doing what I wanted, then what did I want to do - a very good question? Looking for inspiration I spent many hours reading, wandering around galleries, walking the streets looking for interesting photos and cooking up a storm in the kitchen. Slowly I began to relax into a rhythm of filling my well of creativity.


The gas bottle series
After visiting the tourist spots of Morocco I arrived in Essaouira, a small fishing village with a bustling port. Suddenly I stopped, I had more time and felt less pressure to rush around and see everything, maybe because there wasn’t so much to see – just lots of sea! I walked for hours on the sand and the ideas started to flow. I began taking more series photos – donkeys, shuttered shops and gas bottles. Each morning I would sit at a cafĂ© and note down ideas, developing them a bit more each day until I had a rough sketch of a couple of characters and a bit of a story trajectory.

Port safari
Back in Melbourne it is quite a different challenge altogether, there are a lot more distractions. On my pilgramage I had worked out that the things which stifled my creative efforts before were too much work, television and wine. These were often causally linked – too much work led to too much TV or too much debriefing with friends over a glass or two of wine. I rarely found the time and energy to be creative after work or after a working week. In reality I didn’t prioritise my creativity and I didn’t guard my time and energy well enough.

The real world
And on my return I once again found myself falling back into the same traps. My most pressing need is to find a regular job, because well… let’s be honest I need the money. I had nodded sagely and said nothing when friends had said “…looking for a job is a full-time job…” Now I understand the truth of this. Looking for a job doesn’t just soak up hours; it also takes emotional energy – to convince yourself that this next job looks really interesting and that you stand a good chance and then to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep going when it doesn’t work out quite as you hoped.

Local markets
Then I had a breakthrough, a brain wave of inspiration - hereafter known as the quadrant solution. I discovered that my job search efforts were swamping all my other intentions. I had all this time but I still couldn’t get around to finishing my blog or sorting my photos. So I decided to divide my to do list up into four sections – all on the same page so I could keep track of it – under the headings of work, flat, creative and social. My idea was to make sure that each week I got to tick off at least one thing in each box. So far it’s working very well - I got the last blog finished, my writing course application submitted and this blog started all under the new regime, so I think I’m going to keep going as it certainly feels like it’s working!

After the pop up bar
The television is no longer a great distraction either, it is gone. I am now living ‘tv free’. So what does it feel like? I have done it before, a long time ago. Then, I cracked after nine months because I wanted to watch the tennis. And I guess most of last year qualifies too as I rarely saw a tv and if I did it was usually in French – which of course turns it into language practice rather than just hanging out being brain dead. Now, my quiet evenings at home are spent curled on the couch with a book. I have been back and forth to the library many times, returning my books before they are due back because I’ve actually finished them. And as for the wine, well you can't drink in Melbourne's bars if you don't have a decent income. So whilst I'm not on the wagon, it's a pretty close call.

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