Resistance

This drawing had been “in progress” for months. It had been sitting on top of the table, with pencils and markers all ready to go. It was a textbook case of resistance, as it is described in “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield. I always managed to find an excuse not to come back to the drawing. Clearly, it was easier to continue doing whatever I had been doing at the moment. This was despite our moving the art studio from the ground floor of the house closer to the space where we spend most of our time.

It turned out that it didn’t take much time to finish the drawing – only a couple of hours during the Thanksgiving long weekend. One curious thing that I noticed, though, is that sustained focus on drawing requires endurance of sorts, and that my capacity for it diminishes if it is not exercised regularly. Having a long, uninterrupted chunk of time for drawing is a luxury in my case. Yet, I could draw with full focus and “flow” only for about 30 minutes at a time, before beginning to wish for a break.