Diaries
Annotations on the Boredom
Gala Garrido

Murmurs around the pleasure in the creative process

[ruminate-collect]

Ruminating is a fundamental part of my creative process, this is where the pleasure lies: sitting at my kitchen table looking at a strip of sky, lying on the sofa reading a book until it gets dark, taking care of my plants, baking bread, reading poems to Federica while I feel her fur vibrating between my fingers, writing in my diary like weaving a tapestry, feeling the sun warming my feet at five in the afternoon, listening carefully to the birds that return to call them by their names.

In parallel to ruminating I dedicate myself to collecting, this is also where the pleasure is fully unfolded: researching, filling my notebooks with annotations, marking books with fluorescent colored stickers, classifying quotations with my bi-color pencil, drawing concentric maps, leaving clues to myself in the trunks of trees.

[avoidance-discomfort]

There comes a time when projects need to be bodied, right there the pleasure ends and the discomfort begins. My first reaction is to avoid: deep clean the storeroom, sort the medicines by symptoms, organize the condiments by aromas, reclassify the library by authors, hang my dresses by color palette, shake the carpets, polish the silver goblets, move all the furniture in my house, do feng shui. 

When I finally sit down to work, all my energy is focused on holding the discomfort. I stand still looking at the images, start sorting them and slowly threading them together. The process of writing images and the process of photographing images is exactly the same: it is making a body.

Gala Garrido
Caracas, Venezuela, august 2021.

This text is part of Annotations on pleasure in work processes (II).
Artists and researchers share reflections on their creative and intellectual processes.

Published by Mollusca: Art, pleasure and thought.

This blog is one of the tentacles of Annotations on the Boredom: a project where I immerse myself in poetic language as a path to mystery. It is an exploration of my intimate transit in search of the beauty, the sublime and the infinite.

If in recent years my Annotations on the Boredom have been with you and contributed to make your life more livable, please consider the possibility of contributing with a donation. Your support allows me to continue advancing with my research.

Another way to support me is by subscribing to my YouTube channel and following my social media pages in the links below.

This blog is one of the tentacles of Annotations on the Boredom: a project where I immerse myself in poetic language as a path to mystery. It is an exploration of my intimate transit in search of the beauty, the sublime and the infinite.

If in recent years my Annotations on the Boredom have been with you and contributed to make your life more livable, please consider the possibility of contributing with a donation. Your support allows me to continue advancing with my research.

Another way to support me is by subscribing to my YouTube channel and following my social media pages in the links below.

This blog is one of the tentacles of Annotations on the Boredom: a project where I immerse myself in poetic language as a path to mystery. It is an exploration of my intimate transit in search of the beauty, the sublime and the infinite.

If in recent years my Annotations on the Boredom have been with you and contributed to make your life more livable, please consider the possibility of contributing with a donation. Your support allows me to continue advancing with my research.

Another way to support me is by subscribing to my YouTube channel and following my social media pages in the links below.