Bonjour bébé - how are ya on this fine sunny (ish) evening?

The other day, whilst scrolling through my saves on instagram to find a certain meme (which I didn’t even end up posting, because instagram has felt so suffocating atm, anyone else feel the same?!) I came across this post by Mitch Goldstein, a Professor at Rochester Institute of Technology’s College of Art and Design.

In it, he suggests we all set aside a small monthly or annual budget that is strictly for buying stuff directly from - and therefore supporting - artists that we love. What I think struck me about this post in particular was the sharp focus on artists, more specifically than the pledges we see to support small businesses more generally (which I also 100% subscribe to!). 

This year, more than ever, I’ve realised how much richer my life is thanks to beautiful art. Sure, I haven’t stepped inside a gallery in 2 years (thanks panny d), but I have devoured beautiful works on instagram, and on my walls in my home too. For so long, I resisted putting any art up in the flats I've lived in because they've all been rentals, and I didn't think it was worth it - but once I bit the bullet, they impacted my life so very much. They’ve made me beam, guffaw, cry, and contemplate. Rinse and repeat.

(Of course, it’s worth saying that I don’t think Mitch is focusing on artists in the purely ‘traditional’ way - I believe he means what we might also call “creators”, and, further, anyone who practices or performs a creative art, for example musicians, too. If this is what he means, I definitely agree.)

It got me thinking about what else we could apportion some of our budget to on the reg to improve our lives, and a huge one that jumped out at me was this: we should prioritise our hobbies too. (Here’s a leap and a caveat, a double-pronged move they never taught you in ballet school: obviously art is not a hobby for artists, it’s their livelihood, and I don’t want anyone to think I’m suggesting otherwise!)

And this might not be a monetary budget, necessarily - because I’m the last person anyone should have lecturing them on how to spend their finances. It could be an emotional budget or a time budget too.

Emma Gannon did a brilliant newsletter a couple of months ago now on currency being more than money. In it, she said “Your time is a currency. Your energy is a currency. Your mental wellbeing is a currency. So is your happiness, concentration, generosity, boredom, influence, enthusiasm, skills and so on.” (Let me know if you want it forwarding, because I can't seem to permalink it here - I'd highly recommend subscribing to the Hyphen anyway, tbh!) And in this way, I think we could all do with ensuring that we budget some of our time currency for the hobbies that light us up.

Book in some time to get lost in a novel. Clear an evening to bake. Schedule in a Saturday swim in the outdoor pond - and when I say these things, I mean literally write it in your diary or on your calendar to remind yourself it’s immoveable. Treat it like a date that you have booked in, because it is a date, tbh, with yourself.

Honour your hobbies, and your hobbies will honour you too.

Here's a little window into what I'm enthusiastic about at the moment…