Frank O’Hara wrote many of the works in Lunch Poems whilst literally taking a lunch break during his day job at the MoMA in New York. These collected works are wonderful. They’re joyful. Relatable.
It’s so easy to convince ourselves that we’d make all of those things that we want to make if only we found the perfect time. If only we could take a sabbatical, or quit our day job. Even just a solid week.
Instead of scrolling my phone (or similar) during a recent lunch break, I pulled out some art supplies and sketched a tiny piece of art. Nothing special, or unique—but it existed. I made it.
It took less than 10 minutes to make that sketch. What could I have done with another 10, or 30? What could I make every day if I only ever had 10 minutes? A whole, small thing? A piece of a bigger thing?
There are no perfect times. There are no perfect conditions, or environments, or states of mind. There’s the time we have, the place we are, and the mood we’re in. We can still make things.