Time and Value

Rogier de la Pasture van der Weyden, 1435

I spent two full days working on pictures.  Saturday, I printed fifteen large images (32"x26.5").  They look magnificent.  At approximately thirty minutes per print, it took all day.  Sunday I worked on transfers using my new laser printer.  I had little success at first and more as the day wore on.  Art is much about patience.  If you hurry, you make mistakes.  If you are in a hurry, you will want to quit.  You would think that would make artists zen-like, but that has not been my experience.  In my experience, they are willful and difficult to get along with.  Perhaps it is just that you must have many demons to begin with.

I was going through my digital files in the course of things and found that I have barely touched them.  There are thousands and thousands of raw images.  It is as difficult to work with them as it is with the Polaroid if I want them to look any good at all.  Everything is a process.  Everything is time.

But the factory wants my time, too.  Factories function by using people's time.  Everything does, I guess.  Time and Value.  I was happy using my time this weekend.  This week will be miserable.  Yet. . . the money.  I get it at the factory.  I spend it on the art.  I must alter the second part of the equation.