Running an Arts Business and Making Time for Science
There are three aspects of my life that receive most of my attention and time:
Running a small arts business
Researching sciencey stuff
Making original art
(also scifi, my husband and my cats)…
There’s only so much time in a week, so when you’re suddenly spending more time on one aspect, it’s not a surprise that the other two aspects would suffer.
2012 has been a good year for Numberism. I’ve been very busy and have been doing better than anticipated. This is something I’m very grateful for. The particular brand of busy we’ve been experiencing is all very exciting! We moved into a live-work gallery space in a building full of artist-run galleries! I’ve been interviewed on science focused publications, have been on the local news and even on the Art/Science page of NPRs’ Science Friday! In the spring, I got to experience bringing my art to my very first Con, and I’m scheduled for next years ECC! I’ve been collaborating with real world scientists on my Numberism Coffee Table Book, and I meet more and more people every week who support me either through bringing my art into their homes or offering me more inspiration through their personal experiences or careers in science, math, art and education.
Due to the upswing in business, however, I have spent very little time actually studying. When you’re self taught, you are the only person that cares about your education, and if you’re not on top of it, then you’re not learning. So, I’ve been sacrificing the very point and goal of the art itself for the success of the art… weird problem.
As a side note, running an arts business is pretty much the same as running any kind of business, so time management becomes a real problem.
However, this isn’t something I can’t work around. In the end, how you spend your time is simply a matter of priorities. I got so swept up in the increased busy busy arty arty of 2012, that I hadn’t noticed that my study was suffering. Now that I have, it’s time to make a change.
I’m telling you this (a possibly imagined “you” whom may or may not be reading this) to make this a public fact to help keep me on track.
My plan is as such:
For the next 12 months, every other day for at least 2 hours, I will study the human brain for one week, and then the next week, I will do the same for space. (I couldn’t choose between the two. I tried, but they’re both equally awesome and equally impossible to say no to).
These fields are dense with data and I have a lot to learn, so I wouldn’t expect to see a drawing based on this research for some time, but I need to make my education a priority, so they’ll have to wait just a little while until I really start to understand the subjects.
I’m also hoping to branch out from my books this year and get some hands on learning experience. This means convincing someone somewhere to let me use or audit the use of their scientific tools used in understanding the healthy and sick human brain, space, space travel etc.
What better way to improve my understanding of the brain than to understand the workings of my own brain? My dream situation with this particular field is to convince an education institution or medical facility to run a series a tests on my own brain to be used for reference for the numberism brain series. (fMRIs, MRIs, CT, PET, etc) If this isn’t possible, I’ll settle for being able to audit these sorts of tests being run on other patients so I can at least see it at work outside of the text.
I will post updates on my new study regiment as I move along. (another fail safe to make sure I don’t slack off). Feedback is welcome, and references to literature, documentaries or facilities I should visit are always welcome!
I’m still taking commissions and am happy to juggle a little more research into my work week, but don’t be surprised if you don’t see new art from these two fields for quite some time. I need a certain amount of art in my life, so I’ll probably still come out with some lighter math and science pieces every so often to keep the artist in me sane (likely on the geek side, such as my promised Doctor Who piece…)
Running a small arts business
Researching sciencey stuff
Making original art
(also scifi, my husband and my cats)…
There’s only so much time in a week, so when you’re suddenly spending more time on one aspect, it’s not a surprise that the other two aspects would suffer.
2012 has been a good year for Numberism. I’ve been very busy and have been doing better than anticipated. This is something I’m very grateful for. The particular brand of busy we’ve been experiencing is all very exciting! We moved into a live-work gallery space in a building full of artist-run galleries! I’ve been interviewed on science focused publications, have been on the local news and even on the Art/Science page of NPRs’ Science Friday! In the spring, I got to experience bringing my art to my very first Con, and I’m scheduled for next years ECC! I’ve been collaborating with real world scientists on my Numberism Coffee Table Book, and I meet more and more people every week who support me either through bringing my art into their homes or offering me more inspiration through their personal experiences or careers in science, math, art and education.
Due to the upswing in business, however, I have spent very little time actually studying. When you’re self taught, you are the only person that cares about your education, and if you’re not on top of it, then you’re not learning. So, I’ve been sacrificing the very point and goal of the art itself for the success of the art… weird problem.
As a side note, running an arts business is pretty much the same as running any kind of business, so time management becomes a real problem.
However, this isn’t something I can’t work around. In the end, how you spend your time is simply a matter of priorities. I got so swept up in the increased busy busy arty arty of 2012, that I hadn’t noticed that my study was suffering. Now that I have, it’s time to make a change.
I’m telling you this (a possibly imagined “you” whom may or may not be reading this) to make this a public fact to help keep me on track.
My plan is as such:
For the next 12 months, every other day for at least 2 hours, I will study the human brain for one week, and then the next week, I will do the same for space. (I couldn’t choose between the two. I tried, but they’re both equally awesome and equally impossible to say no to).
These fields are dense with data and I have a lot to learn, so I wouldn’t expect to see a drawing based on this research for some time, but I need to make my education a priority, so they’ll have to wait just a little while until I really start to understand the subjects.
I’m also hoping to branch out from my books this year and get some hands on learning experience. This means convincing someone somewhere to let me use or audit the use of their scientific tools used in understanding the healthy and sick human brain, space, space travel etc.
What better way to improve my understanding of the brain than to understand the workings of my own brain? My dream situation with this particular field is to convince an education institution or medical facility to run a series a tests on my own brain to be used for reference for the numberism brain series. (fMRIs, MRIs, CT, PET, etc) If this isn’t possible, I’ll settle for being able to audit these sorts of tests being run on other patients so I can at least see it at work outside of the text.
I will post updates on my new study regiment as I move along. (another fail safe to make sure I don’t slack off). Feedback is welcome, and references to literature, documentaries or facilities I should visit are always welcome!
I’m still taking commissions and am happy to juggle a little more research into my work week, but don’t be surprised if you don’t see new art from these two fields for quite some time. I need a certain amount of art in my life, so I’ll probably still come out with some lighter math and science pieces every so often to keep the artist in me sane (likely on the geek side, such as my promised Doctor Who piece…)
