The Accidental Masterpiece: The Routine

The eighth chapter of Michael Kimmelman's The Accidental Masterpiece, which focuses on the comfort people derive from their routine, is entitled The Art of Staring Productively at Naked Bodies. Don't get too excited - the chapter's primary subject is artist Philip Pearlstein, who painted nude portraits in a time when abstract art became the norm. Pearlstein received some flak from the art world for his realistic paintings, but pursued his passion nonetheless. Kimmelman describes many aspects of Pearlstein's process and routine, which he experienced firsthand every Tuesday for several months as part of his research for the book. I won't re-word Kimmelman's work and explain Pearlstein's process here. Rather, I'll discuss the concepts of process and routine. We're all creatures of habit, after all, and we all have some sort of a routine. Mine involves waking up at around 6:30 (because my alarm never goes off), showering and brushing my teeth, surviving the school day, enduring rehearsal, eating some dinner, getting work done, listening to some classical music to wind down, and going to bed. It may not be the best system, but it works for me. And try as I may, it's very difficult to alter my routine. For instance, my alarm actually went off at six morning, but rather than get up with it, I stayed in bed for another half an hour. Our routine gives us something we know well to work with, and we try and stick with it. As Kimmelman mentions early in the chapter, we try to get something constructive out of our schedules, and sometimes we succeed. Oftentimes, we don't. We are creatures of habit, as Kimmelman puts it, and our habits aren't necessarily the most productive things.

Side note: I'm experiencing major technical difficulties. My laptop won't publish the blog post, and my desktop's mouse is basically broken. It's telling me it's low on battery (I put new batteries in yesterday). And it takes an average of thirty seconds of clicking to get five seconds of mouse-use. There's no exaggeration there at all. This sort of thing is the reason why my blog has its particular title.