A couple of years ago, a good friend of mine leant me a book he thought I would enjoy. The book was In Praise of Slow by Carl Honoré. It made a lot of sense...Are you always in a hurry?
Does life feel like a never-ending race against the clock?
These days, many of us live in fast forward and pay a heavy price for it. Our work, health and relationships suffer. Over-stimulated, over-scheduled and overwrought, we struggle to relax, to enjoy things properly, to spend time with family and friends. The Slow movement offers a lifeline. It is not a Luddite plot to abolish all things modern. You don't have to shun technology, live in the wilderness or do everything at a snails pace. Being Slow means living better in the hectic modern world by striking a balance between fast and slow. In Praise of Slow is the first handbook for the emerging Slow movement. Through a blend of anecdote, reportage, first-hand experience, history and intellectual inquiry, it explains how the world got so fast and why slowing down can pay dividends in every walk of life. To illustrate the benefits of deceleration, the book travels from a Tantric sex workshop in London to a meditation room for executives in Tokyo, from a Chi Kung squash class in Edinburgh to a SuperSlow exercise studio in New York City, from a TV-free household in Toronto to Italy, the home of Slow Food, Slow Cities and Slow Sex movements. Wherever you go, whatever you do, the message is the same: slower is often better. - Carl Honoré.
I am currently trying to apply the art of Slow to my work - my art, but am filled with such an abundance of inspiration right now that I just want to finish everything in a hurry. I'm jumping from one painting to the next, each one giving birth to new ideas that I don't want to wait to explore.
Perhaps I need to read the book again.
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1 comment:
Simone! I adore that book. The thing about it is doing things slowly you are passionate about and that is good for you to do, so you can do the things you do not want to be doing quickly.
As far as your art, you might be in a hurry to get out your ideas, but you can work slowly on the parts you want to spend lots of time on. The wonderful thing about the book is it was encouraging in what is right for you. Maybe now is the time to move forward fast, so you can do other things slowly.
Lovely Painting, by the way.
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