What is the soundtrack to your life? I don't mean your favourite song, or the tune that you hum to yourself in the shower, but the actual noise that forms the backdrop to your everyday activity. For me it is often the low hum of the computer and the muffled sounds of passing cars. But also the sound of the blackird. We are lucky enough to have a few mature trees round about, and at the moment the blackbirds are very dominant - their strident, enquiring voices mediated by the sound-box of the tree canopy from which they mostly call. I mention this because it is so easy to ignore this everyday soundtrack and be completely absorbed in the goals and activities of the day. But I have recently been reflecting on the artist and goal-keeping (not the football kind). I was trained from an early age to work to goals, and that is most often how I organise my time now. In order to be successful, I identify my goals and work towards them. But it seems to me that the task of being an artist is more often about paying attention to the mistakes, side-tracks and soundtracks that happen on the way. To miss this is to miss the point of creativity. I'm not really sure that I can avoid goals altogether, but I am making an attempt to at least stop and notice some of the things that I might normally push out of the way in my attempt to get things done, and hopefully to nurture my creative spirit in the process.
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