balancing act

Once again the urge to write ends up with me on the internet, scrolling through Google Reader, checking the sales on F21 and Free People, and checking in on my old stomping ground, College Fashion. A wasted opportunity.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the internet. Without it, how would I be so inspired? Between Pinterest and the many love ladies whose blogs I read on a regular basis, I never run out of ideas. But here’s where the problem comes in—so often my inspiration never makes it to the doing phase because I’m wasting time on the internet collecting even more “inspiration.” I pin outfit after outfit but don’t take the time with my own clothes to thoughtfully combine them. I decorate my house on Pinterest but the poster I’ve been meaning to hang since the honeymoon is still propped against the wall.

Perhaps this is strictly a problem with me, as I do suffer from a lack of discipline to stop looking at pretty things and go make and do pretty things. Either way, I believe that an artistic life needs to intersect with the internet only briefly, glancingly even, because life, especially an artistic one, cannot be lived digitally. The internet is a fabulous tool, but I must use it consciously, rather than letting it use me. There must be balance, as in all things.

Maybe everyone else has gotten the balancing act down, but I’m still working on it. I find it a lot easier to mindlessly absorb than to purposefully create, and that’s one thing I am working daily to change. It’s time to start using the inspiration I find and then passing it on to others.

Art is gift giving to your audience, and it’s time I start focusing on the gift.

peace&love,

Jill