All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy, but the reality is, I do work a lot. It can also leave us blocked creatively. Please don’t get me wrong, I love what I do, and even that can be a little problematic. The truth is I love what I do so much, I could probably do it 24/7 if I could stay awake that long. The artwork is a blast, and the ministry is the most fulfilling thing I have ever done for a living in my life. The truth is, though, sometimes I need to get away from it for a little while and redirect my focus, otherwise I feel like my work gets stale and I worry that it will not be the very best I can deliver. Every once in a while I need a diversion. That is something I enjoy doing that is outside the realm of creative ministry. For me it’s plastic mode building. Here’s why:
Model building is something I have done since childhood and I have always enjoyed it. It is creative, but it employs different “creative muscles.” There are instructions to be followed which means some of the decisions have been made for me. I don’t have to think through every step, unless I want to. I can just create for personal satisfaction. How it looks for me is pretty simple. When I am blocked creatively, I can sit at my table, paint a few parts and redirect my thoughts. It can almost always break a block. Then sometimes later in the evening, my creativity feels spent for the night, I will often sit down and paint or glue a few pieces in place to wind down before I go to bed. I have a unique situation in which I spend two nights a week alone in a place with no TV or internet and my diversion is just the right wind down before a good night’s sleep. At the end of the process, I have something to put on my shelf that I enjoyed. I harbor no illusions that I am particularly good at it, it just relaxes me (at least most of the time). I usually build models that I had when I was a kid or replicas of cars I had in real life, and so there is a sense of nostalgia as well.
I am convinced that my diversion makes me better at the things I do for a living. What is your diversion?
Here are two models I have recently finished. I had both of these as a child, and they are creations of one of the best artists of the genre, Mr Tom Daniel.
AMOKArts 