I often watch people stitch and listen to their record of how many hours were expended setting those perfect stitches.
Why?
Monitoring time is simply a measurement. Where’s the value?
Working to a speed that’s comfortable, and producing the results I know I can count on is of far more importance.
As for time – it takes as long as it takes. And that’s it.
There’s no way working like the clappers is going to ensure you sell work, or that it will be juried into an exhibition.
Similarly, if selling’s your thing, there’s no way measuring the hours expended in creation can, or will be reflected in that sales price – simply no way.
Surely, a little more discernment is required to move us forward – and those sorts of measurements just won’t do it. Quite the reverse, I think they’re set to trip us up.
Fast or slow, sixteen hours or sixteen minutes – isn’t it really a bit deeper than that?
Where’s the value?
Well, value can be found in the things that are difficult, if not impossible to measure – things like pleasure, passion, progress, habits, commitment, determination, problem-solving, self-reliance, response to failure – you get the idea.
They’re certainly of far more value to me – and yet these things people rarely question.
So it makes much more sense to invest time in developing and measuring those skills.
The value of our work and the values we invest in our work are far more reflective of the artist than the amount of time the work took to create.
It’s that simple for me.
