i think drawing would be a really good pre-studio warm up exercise though. it sounds like for what you are seeking it could be beneficial on many levels.

knitting is fun and can be either cheap or expensive.
it doesn't really help me (personally) get my mind off of things, because when i am knitting i think about stuff, other than the piece i am working on.

not to discourage it at all though.
i <3 knitting.

the clay throwing wouldn't have to get too expensive or time consuming, if you were truly doing it for the relaxation and method, not to produce work. Clay is recyclable- put it in a bucket, maybe with a little water if it's gotten dry, and seal the bucket with a lid or saran wrap, and it's totally reusable. Of course, you can only do this so many times before it's downgraded to 'slip', but you could probably reduce your clay buying by about 80% if you weren't ever intent on keeping a piece, or only did so rarely.

I like to start out my day reading, but then it's easy to get carried away with that!

Tai Chi, Yoga, Pilates... whatever floats your boat. It'll teach you to focus in-the-moment on whatever you're doing (thus avoiding distractions). Reduces panic/anxiety attacks when deadlines approach. Plus, you get the physical exercise that's much needed before sitting at a drafting table for 8 hours straight.

i think that drawing would be the most beneficial, allowing you to write ideas down (should the mood strike), and practice "intuitive mark-making". it really does have a meditative quality after you've found a so-called rhythm. i draw everyday, and now i cannot find a piece of paper in my apartment free from some sort of rendering.

look what art school does to a person.
hooey, conceptual stuff, no?

I could use a red scarf.

You could just meditate "OHM" - a hard habit to get into, but cheap. Walking comes to mind too.

On another note of grad school time management wacky ideas: There is this thing called the polyphasic sleep cycle that you can try. you sleep for 1/2 an hour every five hours or so. Takes some difficulties to get going, but once you do it, I've heard its great.

thanks steph. i do want to keep my mind from focusing on the task and for it to be a meditative/reflective time.. the ritual becomes second to thoughts.

thanks rationalist. that is a great point. i might even have access to an extruder to recycle my clay as needed. might you suggest that i cannot keep any pieces so that it solely becomes about the action and not the product? these are the kinds of questions i want to ask before i commit myself.

thanks!

great stuff guys.

colm, if i chose one of those i would have to learn the techniques before starting school in order to do it on my own.. i want to hit the first day running.. any suggestions on how i might be able to pull this off?

somer, interesting that you would throw intuitive mark making in there. if i chose drawing, the question then becomes - well what do i draw. an obvious answer could be this intuitive mark making.. which i have done tons of in the past for my undergrad thesis - 10,000 line drawings and continuous line drawings at length!

strawberry. well if it ends up being knitting, you are first in line for a red scarf. and meditating could be an interesting thing to learn how to do.. i haven't even thought of just meditating but i like it. and the sleep thing sounds nuts!

Take up running. Run 3 mornings a week, cross-train the other two.

me do bagua drawing

snjr, i don't know if my knees could take it.. i've thought swimming would be a good alternative.. this might be a different set of commitments.. to my body..

cf, how did you teach your self/learn to do bagua drawings?

I second swimming. I actually took a swimming elective one semester that met at 8am three times a week. Swimming laps is good for clearing the head.

bagua- circle play all diractions: this/that and elements 5. draw bagua- none less/more no- play mind moving 1.)elements 5> 2.)this/that> 3.)one.

I'll let you swim instead :)

I'm with Colm and snjr on this one.

There are few things as hard and destructive on the body as studio.

I've been trying to get into it myself, and I've read that the key to completely maximizing the benefits of a workout (of any kind) and the theraputic benefits of the routine, is to have fun doing it.

I think that if you really want to do clay, you can definitely make it work by either (as you suggested) eliminated the possibility of keeping the work, or just limiting how much you can keep to something tiny like, one piece a month. Just so that if something truly beatiful came up, you didn't have to destroy it. = )

But there's definitely something to be gained by dedicating this time to a physical pursuit. Swimming's great, and yoga could be really effective too, as it's very portable. I would just suggest that if you do yoga, you take some sort of an introductory class first, so that you can see how to do it properly, and won't hurt yourself. Many yoga studios offer a weekend beginner's seminar or similar, and taking one of those could help jumpstart your practice.

better yoga- yi jin jing. work big, big chi organ each. follow sinew change. change to spirit. school studio problem much, much mind work, unbalance chi. swim, run, walk good, no balance chi. send off on new arrow point- still no balance. bring in, in, still, to nothing.
yoga good, take many, many year do right. must chakra work same- dangerous, dangerous know not you right working.

i definately agree that doing something physical would be beneficial to my body and mind for that matter. i've actually thought of setting up two of these "rituals".. one for physical activities and one that has a creative element to it.

i'll look into yoga, tai chi and pool hours in the area.

any other thoughts on the knitting, drawing, etc?

i've thought of welding as another option too but eliminated it for economical reasons..

The problem w/knitting (I crochet, not knit, but same principle) is that I find it is very hard to put down once I start. I do the routine of "oh, just one more row" all the time. I end up w/aching hands and shoulders. I'm the same way w/drawing (or painting). It ends up being less of something to get me started on the day then a way to take up my entire day. I think that's why I recommended running (swimming). I can only run so far for so long--I have to stop eventually. It's easy to plan and schedule, it takes a finite amount of time, and it gets the oxygen pumping through my brain.

I have teammates who swear by yoga, I can't make myself do it. The one time I tried to take a class, I ended up tense and angry by the end of every session. Still, flexibility and stamina will be helpful in doing studio work.

When I needed to decompress in the studio and get my mind blank...
I used to borrow some trance / techno cd's and just drift with it for a while.
It's not nearly as useful as running or swimming, but I found that I could lose myself in work for a few hours without my brain recognizing it as work.

For physical activity first thing in the morning, take the doggies for a walk. They will love it and you will too.

Knowing that you are going somewhere that offers a physical studio space ripe for contemplation, I offer up a repetitive task my husband did at Cranbrook. He "learned" his studio space by taking rubbings off the floor. Rules: 1 sheet of newsprint (cheap by the pad), 1 piece of vine charcoal, rub in one location until the charcaol stick wears away. Then transpose the floor rubbing to the wall. Or do the wall and put the drawing on the floor or ceiling or mirror it adjacent to the spot where the rubbing was taken, etc.

This is not "drawing" as in representation, it is using drawing tools for meditative effect. The studio space offers an alterable physical landscape for exploration. But also don't limit yourself to this one task for a whole semester - do it for a couple weeks and contemplate the product and see where it takes you.

thanks liberty, that's an ineresting suggestion. i'd be curious to see how hubby's rubbings turned out. i also think that once i chose a specific "ritual" the next question will be the specifics. ie for brian it was one piece of charcoal, news print, one location until the charcoal is used up (did he always use the stick up? - and how many did he eventually do?). that is going to be the fun part because i'm assuming that after a while i'll want to change a few perimeters and see what happens.. it will be the sublties that will be interesting to see..

you bring up one of the issues i'm trying to figure out and that is the product or the lack thereof.. as in my comment to rationalist. should this ritual have a product so that after a period of time a physical representation exists - for contemplation or reflection.. or am i more interested in just the task itself.. i'm not real sure at this point.. i think for now i might just be interested in the action and then eventually move towards a physical thing that begins to tell the story.

Hmm. What might be fun is to do one spot on the floor every day for the whole semester - and as you make a mess in studio you'll capture the changes that section of floor goes through (paint drips? clay spatters? concrete anchors? a chair leg bolted in place that you have to work around?).

Of course my suggestions are all of the "Krauss indexical sign" ilk and as I've said I have no idea what the studio focus might be about these days.

But I think if you approach the work as a process a product will evolve out of it. If you decide halfway into the semester that you are more interested in the task for contemplaion then just crumpleup and throw away the "product".

But photograph it first...record, record, record.....

during undergrad, one of the best "escape" times for me was driving home from band practice late at night. fast, solitary, highway driving with no music for about thirty minutes a couple of times a week.

ether, what I did/do is that I bought myself [or make if you're that way inclined] a large canvas. Spend some time in the morning or in the evening drawing on the canvas. You may only need a good pencil, but the act of starting work on a blank canvas includes the intellectual, rational, abstract and meditative faculties. The other benefit is that you produce something, and can end up producing series and investigating a whole range of ideas and aesthetics. I find it to be a great experiment. For added enjoyment, add music and red wine.

actually, yoga can be surprisingly strenuous, depending on which form you choose. I was doing a tuesday/thursday class for a while, and the only days I didn't hurt were sunday and monday!

i've always wanted to have a drawing that i work on consistantly for a lenght of time. i've always loved to work BIG too.. gets the whole body into it. it becomes a series of layers..

would you literally use painting canvas? i've never made a canvas but it might be an fun drawing surface.. how do you deal with drawing in the middle of the field where the canvas is least supported? or can you get the stuff taut enough that it's not an issue? (assuming pencil which i like)

also i'm curious about the starting on a blank surface comment. can you ellaborate a little more please.. thanks diabase!

Well, I have a studio in which I do my painting [well, I dont often use paint...]but I consider it painting]. So I dont work outside. What I meant about the blank canvas is that there is a number of ways, and a number of apprehensions and anxieties related to start a drawing, particularly when confronted with a large drawing surface. The act of beginning becomes both an intellectual and an artistic decision, and you can learn alot about how you start to deal with all of that white space.

Generally, I have an idea or a picture about how I am going to deal with the canvas beore I start, but the physical act of drawing and being in front of the canvas may change what you do. The aim is to create a piece that I find aesthetically pleasing, but also expresses ideas. I have a leaning towards the abstract, but I'm not that keen on the actual technique of drawing. I am more focused on production I guess - the actual producing of a body of work. Even though I am an architect, I dont draw buildings, I draw lines, dots, series, scratches, daubs, blotches in order to form a composition.

I work with a traditional white canvas, and a heavy pencil. Limiting your pallete forces you to be creative and to deal with what you have. With limited inputs, you can also gauge how your environment, or changes in your environment affect the work, hence the music and red wine. During school, I always thought my work had a soundtrack - noticeable effects of music on the end product.

I forgot to mention that my next endeavour will be starting to develop 3 dimensional surfaces on the canvas by including paint, and cardboard - almost like a painted model or a modelled painting. I want to then capture this surface by using charcoal rubbings and then explore and manipulate thes into further drawings.

i agree with limiting the pallete - a set of limitations to work within can force ingenuity. look at allan wexler's work - his stuff is fantastic in this way.

i'm starting to lean towards drawing now. i still think it might be fun to learn to knit and get better at throwing clay.. especially in a daily repetitve act.. but drawing is so communal for me. for me to ignore this might be a mistake..

but to continue to think this through... i'm still open to suggestions and comments!

thank you all for your imput.

if you can take a figure/life drawing class as an elective, that's the best sort of meditation i can think of. it really gets the mind free and going.

or ride a bike to school; i'm all for exercise that doubles as actual transportation.

or you could just veg out on archinect for an hour everyday..

I used to run religously at 5:30 everyafternoon, always stopped what I was working on and left for my run. Less about fitness but more time just spent working things out in my head. Had dinner and came back to studio ready for a long evening.

It was a bit boring of a routine but it really helped me relax and de-stress, stay sharp not get too, doughy. Eating well, helps a ton, doesn't take a lot of effort to just eat better than survive on sugar, nicotine,alcohol and caffeine.

anyone read twyla tharp's "creative habit" ?

walk

ether-

1. on canvas - you stretch the canvas on a the frame (stretcher) and
staple it in place...wet the canvas beforehand and work around the
frame stapling opposite sides as you go...pulling it taut. when the
canvas dries it becomes even more taut. then when you gesso it
it shrinks again becoming like a drum which makes it possible to paint
in the middle...personally i paint on primed mdf...nothing smoother

2. i'm wonder why this ritual needs to be one thing and one thing
only...could it be that the ritual is the time at which you do it..
or one thing for each day of the week? ie. monday - knit, tuesday-
throw etc...? personally i don't know that i would draw...for me,
when i was in studio, drawing was never far removed from my
projects...even drawing a face i'd be thinking of how to rearrange
walls and the like. in school i would play basketball for about two
to three hours a day...i found that i rarely thought about architecture
and by the end felt less apprehensive and stressed out.

left with the options you give though i'd definitely do a number
of things and have the time be the ritual not the act...but that's
just me...i'm scattered like that.

i haven't thought of just letting the time be the ritual. thanks for the suggestion.

i think setting aside the time was definately the driving factor: to establish a structure for my day. once i committed myself to the time, i wanted to figure out how then to utilize it. the obvious answer for me is do something that doesn't take a lot of prep time or thought. there is to be no stress or anxiety. i've even thought this time could be cleaning my studio space. but the answer for me to create a task seemed like a good way to kill two birds with one stone.

i think the desire for it to be only one task is 1. get better at whatever it is i chose and 2. eventually tweak the subleties of the task in ways that might only be realized through extreme repetition and rigor. in the same way morandi painted the same still life over and over again.. i think to understand those subleties is a way we can fine tune and challenge own processes or ways of doing things.

thanks for the info on the canvas stretching too. i didn't realize you needed to get the stuff wet before you finish stretching it.. i've done a lot of water coloring in the past so i can relate the technique. also what do you prime the mdf with? gesso? thanks!

try masterbating........

ether, the walking suggestion is also good - Cranbrook's campus is so amazing, not just the buildings but the gardens and woods too. Changes dramatically season to season. I spent a lot of time wandering the campus, feeling both inspired and humiliated by its beauty.

But, you know, you'll want to do that anyway...the ritual being time spent IN the studio is actually a very valuable idea, to me. The physical space of the studio becomes so important - and it's a luxury I have never been able to replicate post-school.

ether-
i personally prime my mdf with kilz...water based.
it doesn't allow for stains to come through into the
painted surface and seems to be almost like a 1/16"
layer that makes everything even smoother...especially
when sanded. i don't know if there will be any problems
over time, but thus far the paintings i made in 97 still
look ok...as far as color fading and the like..the work? eh.

i understand the need for ritual...i just get bored of doing
the same thing time after time...and like variety...but then
again i used to paint three to four hours a day after work..
so i may be a bit hypocritical...seeing things improve is a
good reason though..i've seen my work dramatically improve
from when i started and most of that is due to hours upon
hours of work and repetition.

get a dog. take it for a walk every moring + the dog allways likes your designs

about 15-20 of us either kicked a footy or played soccer every day at 5.30, good break, sharpens you up for the long evening ahead.

we have 2 dogs.

i'm going to advocate for doing something that is very different from any kind of architecture. i went to a liberal arts school for undergrad so i had a big dichotomy between studios and say, my sociology class. it was actually wonderful to do something completely different and change up gears.

sports are wonderful. wherever you're going, there has to be something that suits the locale perfectly. it's also good to have exposure to other people doing different things. my school was minutes from a mt. so i went snowboarding all the time. since moving to LA i've tried to surf a few times a week and that's been wonderful. (sports help you stay sane too. and you get the benefits of feeling healthier than the pasty students that are scared of being outside or being out of breath)

cheers!

Aaah, two huskies - they will love the Michigan winter.

welding, welding, and more welding. you can make it affordable, just use scrap that you find around the metal shop to practice your technique on. it becomes a zen exercise. an absolutely beautiful experience.

another thing I did was recite buddhist mantras while walking around Boston. I have a mala (kinda like a buddhist rosary) that I would keep handy and just go where ever I ended up - another type of zen activity. I primarily did the mantra "ohm-mani-padme-hun" and a couple Green Tara mantras that I can't remember at the moment.

True on the welding, especially any kind that involves a stick - Pixelwhore, would that be argon welding vs. MIG or TIG? I can't remember - anyway, the kind with a stick in one hand and flame in the other involves a combination pushing-pulling motion that can be very meditative.

Stick in one hand, flame in the other = TIG or ARC. TIG is much more refined in regards to the end prodcut. MIG is fun to just get in there and do something, and is by far the easiest to learn.

wait, flame in one hand is probably using an oxy-acetylene torch with a welding tip on it.

sorry about that...

yes, twyla loves the snow and shalek we just adopted a couple months ago.. i'm teaching them sledding commands!

nina hofer once told me in a crit she had a student? who everyday would come into the metal shop and cut circles out of plate steel. she said that after a year? of doing this he could cut perfect circles out of 2" steel with a cut torch. a little different than say welding but i've always kept that story in the back of my mind.

so far the greatest difficult i see in all of the suggestions thus far is choosing between something that is honing a skill i already have (drawing or painting) versus trying to pick up something that i don't know much about (knitting, throwing, etc).

i'm bad about bringing up something and creating more questions than i can come up with answers.. sigh..

I used to go through the drive through and pick up pastries, then go to the studio to make coffee. I still do this now (less the pastries). In grad school I would CAD everything in the morning of the things i drew the day before by hand - its amazing helps to clarify ideas

But others i know would a. roll a joint - practice doing it with one hand
b. swim 1000m
c. stretch for an hour (not as easy as it sounds)

I take it this is not "shit -shower - and shave?"