Continuous Project Altered Quarterly | September 2023

Polishing Forks

I’ve been struggling in recent weeks against a pervasive sense of what I can best describe as drift… My motivation stalls; my interest abandons me; my curiosity wanders off; my attention drifts. I have plenty of things to do but this drift gives rise to the existential (and somewhat terrifying) question: why bother? I fear that I’ve become disconnected from my purpose and that this alienation is what has set me adrift. And this fear gives rise to perhaps a better, surely a more generative question: what do I value?

I’m promising myself to use this week’s equinox and the new season ahead to confront my drift by reflecting on and re-evaluating my values in life and work. This is the surest way I know to reconnect—and maybe recalibrate—my purpose. There is more and more work being done on life satisfaction and longevity. Everything I read on these topics links them to each other and also to (among other things) having a sense of purpose. But how to find it, and then, how to enact it? I keep thinking about Richie’s awakening to purpose in the “Forks” episode of season 2 of The Bear. Maybe it’s time to spend a week of long days polishing forks. For me, that probably looks like re-engaging with and re-committing to practice. At home, it’s zazen, yoga, caring for the garden, tending to piles of things and lists of tasks, connecting with the ones I love, maybe even re-connecting with my too-long-dormant art practice. At work, it’s growth planning.

I always tell folks in my workshops and in private consulting that growth planning isn’t something you do just once; it’s a practice. It’s not an every-single-day kind of practice but a cyclical one. We return to growth planning when we’re called to; it could be a moment of crisis, a time of transition, a drift… We engage the growth planning practice when we need it.

Practices are containers for working out ideas; engaging with the world; learning about and challenging ourselves; experiencing and processing emotions; connecting with something larger than ourselves. Showing up for a practice (polishing forks, or otherwise) can help us identify and enact our purpose. Artists are acquainted with the notion of practice more intimately than most. It’s easy for many artists to show up for our artmaking practices; what can be more challenging is to show up for the parallel practice: everything else it takes to be an artist in public. Growth planning offers a container for the parallel practice, giving it shape through a grounding in purpose.

When I scheduled the next offering of my growth planning workshop for this fall, I couldn’t have predicted that I’d feel called to be a workshop participant, as well as its instructor. Now, I’m looking forward to working side by side with the cohort. On 8 Thursday mornings, September 28-November 16, we’ll learn and experiment with the 8 parts of growth planning: visioning, assessment, money, development, planning, values & culture, outreach, and operations. Would you like to join us? Details about Parallel Practice: Growth Planning for Art Workers are here, and you’re welcome to email me with questions and to register.

P.S. In addition to the loves of my life, one thing that’s been grounding me while I’m adrift is my work with private consulting clients. Our meetings have been my purpose lately, which has been even more meaningful to me than usual. Thank you. 

Ideas & Resources
for Art Workers

I usually use this space to highlight entries in my ongoing Ideas & Resources for Art Workers Doc, but today I want to share something different. My Parallel Practice: Growth Planning for Art Workers workshop starts its next cohort on September 28. The first of the 8 parts of growth planning is VISIONING. Visioning is foundational to growth planning, and it’s also foundational to most of my private consulting work; it’s the first part of growth planning, and it’s one of the first things I usually suggest to new private consulting clients. With the fall equinox this week, we’re entering a season of new beginnings, so it seems like a good time to share this exercise out to you —here you go! I hope you experiment with visioning and benefit from it as much as I do. And if you want to do visioning in an affirmative group workshop setting, followed up by the other 7 parts of growth planning, join us!

Contemporary Art League

Regular readers of this quarterly know that I co-founded Contemporary Art League (CAL) with Debra Scacco in 2020. CAL is a trade cooperative building unity, solidarity, and equity among art workers in Los Angeles County. As we grow, there is more and more to tell you about, so I’m going to add a recurring section to the Continuous Project Altered Quarterly with updates about CAL.

First I want to let you know that our partnership with ICA LA has been extended for another six months! CAL IRL @ ICA LA is a monthly gathering for art workers to hang out and talk openly about the opportunities and challenges we face in our life’s work and to dream CAL’s long term goal of offering professional support, community services, and advocacy opportunities in a cooperatively owned community center into reality. We have a new time: monthly on Thursdays from 5-7pm. The next gathering is October 26.

In this next chapter of CAL IRL @ ICA LA, we’re also trying something new: We’re bringing the teach-ins we do at our monthly working group meetings to the gathering setting. 10-20-minute teach-ins will start at 5:15 and be followed by open discussion for half an hour or so. We’ll close out our gatherings promptly at 7pm. To learn about teach-in presenters and topics in advance and stay up to date on everything we’re up to, sign up for The Art Worker.

Also coming up this fall: A new partnership with The Artist’s Contract, and open enrollment for health insurance via Covered California using our Help with Health Insurance tool via the Entertainment Community Fund.