Jason Bayani

“I’ve come to some kind of understanding about what it means for me to be in the act of making. Obviously people struggle with the negotiation of time when it comes to the needs of our professional selves, our personal selves, our creative selves. And because so much of our lens views a finished product as the metric by which we determine that work has been done, if I don’t actually have words on the paper or a finished poem then I’m supposed to believe I was ‘stuck.’ If I’m reading a book, I’m not stuck. If I go to an exhibition, a show, have a drink with friends—if I’m out and I’m engaged with the world, I’m not stuck. If I’m staring at a blank page, frustrated that I can’t get a word out, I am still in the act of making—and to be honest those moments where I can’t produce a thing have been valuable to me, because in some ways it gets me to where I need to be. Some days I want to write, other days I just want to get behind my DJ controller. Sometimes I want to do nothing but get back and grounded within myself. If I understand what this time for making means, the work comes, because I’m always in the process. And if there comes a deadline or project I need to work towards, there’s no need to rev up or start from zero. We’re already in the act. We’re already making.”
—Jason Bayani, author of Locus (Omnidawn, 2019)

Writer Photo: 
Writer Photo Credit: 
Jess X Snow
  • If you’re an artist, up to a creative challenge, and love this story, enter your email here. Click here for more info.

Date:
  • April 18, 2019
Share: