Creative Time and Space Making Room for Making Art

184 Pages·2010·14.897 MB·English

by  Rice Freeman-Zachery, Tonia Davenport

Creative
Time AND
Space
Making Room
for Making Art
Ricë Freeman-Zachery
Creative Time and Space Copyright © 2010 by Ricë Freeman-Zachery. Manufactured in
China. All rights reserved. The patterns and drawings in the book are for personal use of
reader. By permission of the author and publisher, they may be either hand-traced or
photocopied to make single copies, but under no circumstances may they be resold or
republished. It is permissible for the purchaser to make the projects contained herein and sell
them at fairs, bazaars and craft shows. No other part of this book may be reproduced in any
form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval
systems without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may
quote a brief passage in review. Published by North Light Books, an imprint of F+W Media,
Inc., 4700 East Galbraith Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45236. [phone]. First edition.
14 13 12 11 10 5 4 3 2 1
Distributed in Canada by Fraser Direct
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Freeman-Zachery, Ricë.
Creative time and space/Rice Freeman-Zachery. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60061-322-7 (pbk.: alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-60061-322-5 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Art — Psychology. 2. Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.) I. Title.
N71.F656 2009
701'.15 — dc22
2009011303
Editor
Tonia Davenport
Designer
Geoff Raker
Production
Coordinator
Greg Nock
Photographer
Adam Hand
www.fwmedia.com
Dedication
To Earl; without whom, nothing
In Memorium
Betty Burks Freeman: June 9, 1926-August 11, 2006
Rice Calvin Freeman: July 28, 1926-July 27, 2008
Acknowledgements
Where to start when you have so many people to thank? First, of course, I heartily thank the
artists who contributed not only their art but their ideas, tips, and encouragement. They
answered dozens of my nosy questions and met difficult deadlines, all in the spirit of sharing
what they've discovered so the rest of us can make the most of our own creativity.
Thank you to my two terrific editors, Tonia Davenport and Jessica Strawser, whose vision
and hard work made this book concrete. They and the team at North Light Books are simply
the best.
Thanks to all the wonderful, fabulously talented, and hilariously funny people who take
time out of their days to stop by my blog. They have created the artistic community I've
always wanted. When I started my blog, I had no idea what wonderful people would show up
to entertain me, cheer me on, offer ideas and information, and encourage me to laugh every
day. Y'all are fabulous!
Thank you to Karen, Paula, Roz, and Wendy: the members of WWSF (loosely translated —
Women Who Say a Very Bad Word That Would Make Your Mother Cringe). These are the
smartest, funniest, most opinionated women on the planet, and I'm lucky to know them. For
any question I could possibly have, one of them is sure to know the answer, whether I'm
asking about gouache or Goya, math or menopause, or the name of that animal that isn't a
raccoon.
And, as always, I owe everything to my husband, Earl. To say he's supportive sounds as if
he merely puts up with me. The truth is that he thinks everything I do is marvelous (well, most
everything) and thinks I'm funny (most of the time) and suggests ideas and approaches that I
hadn't even thought of. He retired at 55 and took over all of the cooking and house-work (not
that I ever did a whole lot of either of those) to give me more time to create. Any wonder why
my books are dedicated to him? I think not.

Contents
Introduction
Meet the Artists
Creative Time
Chapter 1 Exploring Time
What Exactly Does “Time” Mean to You?
Chapter 2 Making Time
Let's Face It: You Can't Do Everything
Chapter 3 Corralling Time
Sometimes You Need a Whip and Spurs
Chapter 4 Stuck in Time
When You Need a Tow Truck to Get Out of a Rut
Chapter 5 Jumpstarting Time
A Nudge to Get Going When You're Spinning Your Wheels
Creative Space
Chapter 6 Mental Space
What Goes on Up There in Your Head?
Chapter 7 Soul Space
Where You Receive Permission to Play
Chapter 8 Real Space
Where Art Happens
Chapter 9 Creative Habits
Music, Candles and Companionable Cats
Chapter 10 Taking It on the Road
Sometimes You Really Can Take It With You
About Ricë
Introduction
Perhaps creating keeps you young. There is no time when you are in the creating space. The
more of this world's time that you spend there, the less you age.
— David Mack, Kabuki: The Alchemy
rom the time I was a little kid until well into adulthood, I kept my Important Stuff in a green
F
Army portable field desk. It held pens and paper and notebooks and, later on, art supplies.
Wherever I moved, the desk moved with me; and everything I needed was neatly stored in its
drawers.
Today I work at one of three long tables in my office (one of three rooms in our house
devoted to writing and making art). I look at my old field desk (tucked away in storage) and
marvel that, for so many years, everything I needed fit into a space smaller than a suitcase.
What happened to make me need so much more space? And what happened to make me feel
so pressed for time? I can remember being a kid — back in the days when that Army desk
held a pink flowered notebook and a box of crayons — and feeling summer afternoons
stretching out into infinity. Not anymore. Time, just like space, has become a mystery to me. Is
it a mystery for you, too?
You know the feeling: You're working on something that's finally coming together for you.
Or maybe it's not, not quite yet, but you can sense that it's getting there. You're in the zone,
deep in concentration, making the connections. Finally you come up for air, take a little break.
You glance up at the clock and do a double take. Hours have passed without your being aware
of it. The afternoon has slipped into evening. Isn't that a marvelous feeling? And don't you
wish you could get there more often — to that timeless space where you can immerse
yourself in your work without having to watch the clock? It's just like it was when you were a
kid and had those long, long afternoons in July stretching out before you, timeless and
endless and full of possibility.
We all battle time. We think we need more, we wish it would pass more quickly, we
postpone doing things in the hope that time will slow down enough that we never actually
have to tackle them. Artists, especially, have a complicated relationship with time. And when
we think about time, we automatically think about space. At least I do. Time and space are two
things I'm always coveting. Do you ever think about how much more creative you would be if
you had just a couple more hours in every day? Or how much more you could get done if you
had your very own studio where you could leave everything just as it was at the end of the day
and walk out and close the door?
You are, of course, far from being alone. In fact, you're in very, very good company,
indeed. There may be a few artists somewhere who have all the time and all the space they
could possibly need, but I sure haven't talked to them. The artists I talk to — even the ones