The Artist’s Calendar
Digital, submission to the Graphika Manila Art Book, 2024
Every year, the biggest creativity conference in the Philippines, Graphika Manila, calls for submissions for their Art Book! I took my chances and submitted two illustrations, and this was the one that got selected!
When you’re creating, there will be days when you’re in the zone; sometimes, there will be days when you need to lie down on the grass and just be! And of course, there are days when you need to rest. I made a calendar the canvas to illustrate this message.
Art—the personal art we make for ourselves, not client projects since these have due dates and timeframes—takes time.
The process is what makes it fun: all the play, trials, experimentation, and questions! As if we’re solving riddles and puzzles.
And it is what AI art takes away (not mentioning the other things it takes away and muddles like ethics and intellectual properties).
One can generate an output by just typing keywords and hitting enter. It speeds up the creative process. Where is the fun and learning in that?
Art is enjoyable for the joy it gives to us when we’re creating, art is more meaningful for the amount of time we spent on it, and art is ours entirely for the imagination, heart, soul, and personal experiences we’ve put into it.
I made this as a reminder for others and myself. Your life takes time, and so does your art. I’ve always told myself that I can only write as much as I have lived, and I don’t want to rush my life. Why should we rush our works and our growth?
On the bottom, I wrote, “The process is both the journey and the destination." The rough sketches, the studies, 'failed' attempts, the swatches—every part from beginning to end. And when you flip the drawing, you’ll read a short message which explains more about this.
Everything good takes time, like clay pots to be put into the kiln, paintings that need to dry, music to be recorded and put together, and books that need to be written—and rewritten.
