The key to making time for art is the ability to say "NO".

If you say "yes" to everything that is asked of you, you will nothave time to be creative. And it is so easy to say "yes" to allkinds of things and so hard to say "no". It is hard to say "no"to immediate family, extended family, demands of friends,organizations, messy houses, cluttered basements--the listis endless.

Making art takes lots of time. It not only takes a great deal oftime to do whatever it is you are creating, but it also takes agreat deal time for what most people would consider "downtime". Artistic down time is a foreign concept to people whoare not artists. Our society values busyness over artisticincubation, but you cannot create art without it.

You will feel immensely guilty saying to yourself that your artis more important than time spent with a certain friend,organization or clearing out that large dust bunny that isappearing under your bed! But ask yourself, if there wassomething really crucial, wouldn't you slash everything thatwas unessential in your life to take care of it. The answer isyes. Do the same thing with your art.

Learning how to say "no" takes practice. You may want tocommunicate to your nearest and dearest your new priority,so they won't feel emotionally abandoned. From time totime you will get sucked into situations and events; and ittakes a great deal of effort to find a balance betweencreating art and also having a meaningful life outside of thatendeavor.

But remember, "no" is a complete sentence. It will takeeveryone some time to adjust to your new way of living. There may be a lot of grumbling from a lot of people, but ifcreating art is really important to you, let them grumbleaway. You'll find out who your friends really are. The onesthat really care about you will want what's important foryou--to create art!

© Mary Baker 2005

Mary Baker is a contemporary realist painter, whose studiois in Newburyport, Massachusetts. This New England city,north of Boston, has been the inspiration for the artist'srealistic oil paintings. Mary Baker is a professional artist andhas shown in New York art galleries.

You can visit Mary at her website, Mary Baker Art, http://www.marybakera rt.com , see her beautiful paintings and read hercommentary on a variety of subjects concerning art,including Why Buy Original Art and Art, Artists and theWeb--Why Every Artist Should Have Their Own Website.