Slow Living
In the bustle of modern city living, I find that the meaning of the word "pastime", as in something leisurely done to pass away time, without any direct goal of production, is fading away. That a craft set might be designed to be done in multiple sittings (or for multiple people to do together) instead of one-sitting quick wins is becoming a strange concept to people growing up believing that everything must be measurable in terms of output.
A scarf might await in the end, a painting might hang on the wall eventually, but the items themselves are not the point. For many people, this is mind-boggling. They may even take it the wrong way, thinking that a particular craft set is too difficult or they are not talented because they spend hours on it. Is this normal? Am I too slow?
You like to make cards? How many cards do you finish in a session? You draw? How many sketchbooks do you fill this month?
Tell them you can let a book sit, add embellishments as the year grows, and declare you're done when you feel like it. Or not. Revisit it somewhere in the future and make tweaks if you want. They'll be surprised. It's as if an act of creativity is a linear process1.
I don't want to blame people here, especially the younger ones. Many of them simply never know a better world. They see people harried, stressed, bolting from one thing to another, never quite breathing. It's the same society that ascribes the value of time in the monetary figures it converts to.
We can't change the world, but we can show that a different framework is possible. Create white space in your days if you can. Partake in (financially) meaningless, worthless activities. Talk. Do a jigsaw puzzle. Make process art. Get a friend or two to join. If you have children, show them that you are allowed to spend time that don't make you any money or yield anything productive.
...Or that's what I want to say, but I also acknowledge the difficulty to do so if days stretch on as the cost of living rises, making ends meet require multiple jobs and that white space is as elusive as Ahab's whale.
I wish us all room to breathe.
As always, disclaimer here. My statement applies on personal, casual acts of creation. If you're working on a deadline, going towards a submission process, or building a portfolio, of course there must be a finish line somewhere. That being said, many artists do make later alterations to their published works.↩