An Artist Should Work

Sundog Rising!

Reflections on living the life literary by the Urban Sundog

It’s An Arty Job, But Somebody’s Got To Do It

I’m pretty certain somewhere else Andy Warhol stated that the job of an artist is art. If not, he should have said it. Or maybe that’s only a figment ...?

Artists should work! Andy Warhol was a great example of that ethic, and Woody Allen is another. Get the stuff out there, then start on the next project. Don’t rely on the critics to tell you what you’re doing. For one thing, they’ll nominate your worst movies for Oscars and ignore your best work. Maybe it’s not all wonderful, but it’ll never have the chance to try if you don’t do it.

I got into a similar discussion some years ago with a visual artist I knew. We were both at our day job. Which, as any artist will tell you, is necessary to put food on the table and heat the house, but also eats up an enormous amount of art producing hours and creative energy. She told me she felt guilty when she took time out of her day to do art. I told her I felt guilty when I didn’t.

There were other things I was good at that actually earned money over the years, but on the whole, the only thing I’m happy at is writing. If I can write, I can do without a lot of other things. Now that I’m in a position in life where I can devote more time to writing than at any other point in my existence, I am running with it. We’re almost at the end of 2013. Let’s tally up what I wrote this year ...

Spent most of January checking out the publishing industry in Canada. What a waste of time. Send your manuscript to us and no one else at the same time, and someone might get back to you in six months to tell you we can’t afford to publish you. But in February, I really started moving the pen over the scribbler. The results?

First, I handwrote the manuscript for Reality Fiction Too! The Oddball Edition. 900 plus pages. It will be over a thousand by the time its entirely typed into the computer. The largest project I’ve ever written. Followed that up by handwriting the manuscript for Thirty-One Across, about 135 pages, the novel/novella featuring the winner of RealFic Too. Followed that up by finally completing The Veridical Corridor (about 275 handwritten and rewritten pages), which required reworking of old material and a lot of new composition. Took a break from writing new material at the end of October.

In the spring, I also crammed in editing Reality Fiction Too! and beginning to enter it into the computer. A job I may just finish this week. In November, I began the final edit on The Twitchy Gal, a 350 page novel I wrote in 2012. Still a few chapters left to go in that.

Wrote the entire My Favorite Authors Tournament blog, and every entry to appear so far in this, the Sundog Rising blog.

Started writing a new poetry collection (see last week), and I’ve done substantial research and note taking on the next new novel, Sticks, Stones and Broken Bones, which I expect to start drafting probably the end of January 2014 or the beginning of February. And I’ve made substantial development notes for (dare I say it) Reality Fiction Three: The Guest Star Edition ... Plus I’ve still got the manuscript for the Jason Midnight novel The Big Mosquito sitting on my desk waiting to process.

Too much? Never enough, I say.

I admire artists who produce. Who know that their job is just that, to produce art. People who get the job done. I watched the series Naked Vegas on the Space channel over the last few months, about a company of body painters working out of Las Vegas. Besides the obvious appeal, what I found myself coming back to the show for was the fact that this was a group of people who got the job done. Imaginatively, creatively, often on the fly, intelligently and beautifully. I’m delighted and inspired by their work ethic. Just so their models can wash the art off at the end of the day after making their big pop.

Literally all the painters have to show for themselves the next day is another blank canvas. And they’re happy with that!

So no matter how many books, poems, blogs, whatever I turn out in a year, the fact is, when I take Andy’s advice, all I’ve really got to look forward to tomorrow is another blank page.

And I couldn’t be more thrilled or eager to fill it!

*******

REALITY FICTION UPDATE!

And what is Reality Fiction, you may well ask?

Simple. The concept of the Reality Television Series translated to the printed page. 40 characters from my backlog of generally unpublished material are gathered together to compete in a different theme each Episode, with one or two characters being eliminated each sequence until there are only two left to fight it out in the final. The winner gets a short novel of their own as the grand prize.

But somehow, things always seem to go horribly wrong ...

What’s happening now? 

Benny Dredful’s trying to raise the sensibilities a little by choosing Poetry as the theme for the next Episode. Unfortunately, he’s met with a fairly unanimous chorus from the other Contestants of “But I don’t get Poetry!” Everyone’s attention is substantially diverted however, when certain individuals interrupt the proceedings for a thrilling raid on the Intruders’ citadel.

Continuing Friday at:  realficone.blogspot.ca

REALITY FICTION TOO! EPISODES TO DATE

EPISODE SIXTEEN:     SILLY EUROPEAN SPY SPOOF (DUBBED)

“Diet Ray of the Stars!”

EPISODE FIFTEEN:     EROTIC SUPERNATURAL ROMANCE     

“The Shadow of Her Passion”

EPISODE FOURTEEN:     FLYING:

“Sky Calling”

EPISODE THIRTEEN:     SLAPSTICK:

“The Phantom of the Werewolf”

EPISODE TWELVE:     DAIRY FARMING:

“Early One Morning”

EPISODE ELEVEN:     BURROUGHS:

“Chapter Nine”

EPISODE TEN:     WEREWOLVES:

“The Silver Solution”

EPISODE NINE:     WRESTLING:

“Suckerslam XIV”

EPISODE EIGHT:     JANE AUSTEN ROMANCE:

“The Proud and the Senseless”

EPISODE SEVEN:     THE JAZZ AGE:

“The Bucky-Dusky-Ruby Red Hop!”

EPISODE SIX:     SUBMISSION:

“Re-Org”

EPISODE FIVE:     MASQUERADE:

“The Eyes Behind the Mask”

EPISODE FOUR:     SELF HELP:

“Sausage Stew for the Slightly Overweight Presents:

Some Several Suggestions Guaranteeing Success for the Mildly Neurotic”

EPISODE THREE:     NUDIST:

“If You Have To Ask ...”

EPISODE TWO:     FRENCH BEDROOM FARCE:

“Un Nuit a Fifi’s!”

EPISODE ONE:     STEAMPUNK:

“The Chase of the Purple Squid!”

A J.H.B. Original!