5 Lessons from sharing my desk with an artist

Like many other people around the world, due to the COVID 19 Pandemic , I have been working from home on a full time basis for most of this year. I have a love / hate relationship with WFH (I even wrote a blog about it) but, I can’t deny that it has given me a fresh perspective on many things.

My wife has also been working from home. She is an artist. I am definitely NOT an artist - I do not have a creative bone in my body (ask anyone who has had the misfortune being on my team in a game of Pictionary). One of her current projects is creating bespoke jewellery and cufflinks which are upcycled from old watches and old mobile phone parts. These pieces of functional art take shape everyday and I can’t help watching what she is creating out of the corner of my eye with fascination.

Throughout my career I have always made a point of being aware of my surroundings, watching others and learning from their success and failures. But, because I’ve always worked in the corporate world, I have always shared my workspace with other ‘corporate’ people and I guess I have always been paying attention to what I thought was important to advance myself and my career, things like communication style, presentation, leadership etc.

I have never worked in such close proximity to someone creating art for an extended period of time and below are 5 lessons that I will be applying to my work and personal life (hopefully these will be useful to any other non- artists out there):

1.Never write anything off

When I saw her carrying a handful of broken watches, I immediately thought that she was hoarding junk again. This is the kind of thing that I am quick to discard and write off as useless and I am just not programmed to think that there may be another use for something old or broken. Imagine my surprise when she showed me a beautiful set of cufflinks a day later, or when she told me that she had her first order from a shop in regional NSW!

The Lesson: We are often so focused on moving forward and always starting form scratch, when often all we need to do, is find a way to re-purpose, re-use or re-imagine something already exists.

2. Have a Plan

I’m embarrassed to admit this ….. but my wife - the scatter brain artist is better at planning her work than I am. I’m supposed to be the serious, corporate one in this relationship and yet watching how much time my wife puts into planning out each piece has made me realize that I ‘wing it’ waaay too often.

The Lesson: If you want to be successful in life, or business (or as it turns out, in creating art) you need to have a plan, no matter the size or complexity of the project.

3. Keep going until it’s perfect

There is no ‘near enough is good enough’ when it comes to art . Trust me, I have witnessed the rage and the tantrums when the end result is not up to standard and there are some smashed up artworks lying around our home that will agree with me on this. When I ask my wife why she is so upset with a piece that looks pretty good to me, she always replies ‘if it’s not good enough for me, I can’t expect it to be meaningful to someone else”. Finally… a common trait that we share! I am obsessive about doing things over and over until I am happy with the result but, I have witnessed some co workers and customers in my time, who don’t seem too bothered about producing work that is not of the highest quality.

The Lesson: Set high standards for yourself and do not compromise on the quality of the work you produce – It is an extension of who you are!

 4. Focus on Continuous Improvement

My wife has no idea what Six Sigma is or Kaizan or Agile are, yet she follows these processes to the tee. After each artwork is completed, there is a little "Agile style" retrospective before moving on to the next piece. With each iteration, she makes adjustments and improvements to the process, finding ways to be better, faster and more efficient.    

The Lesson: Stop and take stock every time you produce a piece of work, regardless of what it is. Plan, Do, Check, Adjust every time. There are always improvements that can be made to the process and they have a direct influence on the final product. Another Lesson: These processes really work! Sounds like I'm stating the obvious but observing this on a small scale, close to a tangible end product, has really highlighted to me the effectiveness of working to Agile and/or LEAN principles.

5. Love the process not just the end product

For me, this has been the biggest eye opener of all. My wife never set out with the goal of making money, or sell she merely wanted to create beautiful, functional art. Sure, she is not complaining about the fact that this week she has shipped her first order to a retail shop and sold several custom pieces and as a result, made some money but she gets her satisfaction from the process, from creating something out of nothing and from how all the elements come together. Working in recruitment, I have always been a fan of "the process" but I am often guilty of focusing too much on the end result.

The Lesson: If you love the process, the end result will take care of itself. Focus on the journey, not the destination, stop and smell the roses.

I’m still no more of an artist than I was before and I doubt I ever will be, but sharing my space with an artist has given me a fresh perspective which will make me more effective going forward. What has 2020 taught you? Let me know in the comments

Oh, and if you are interested in seeing some of the upcycled jewellery, check out Hand made by BRM on Instagram