{"id":15915,"date":"2023-08-24T09:56:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-24T08:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/?p=15915"},"modified":"2023-08-24T09:58:06","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T08:58:06","slug":"on-summer-escapes-and-slowing-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/on-summer-escapes-and-slowing-down\/","title":{"rendered":"On Summer Escapes and Slowing Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

As most travellers will testify, places can take on a postcard reality, in which it\u2019s hard to picture real life happening outside of the idyll. Experiences in a travel context can feel especially formative, imbued with poignancy and weighted towards memory in the way that a photograph is. A similar dreamlike haze permeates the summer months, as pacing slows under the season\u2019s lulling heat and heavy humidity. And, arriving as it does in the Northern hemisphere at a point more than halfway through the year, summer is also a welcome time to reflect on the months gone by: to switch gears and escape from the chaos of the everyday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Summer will look different for many, given that holidays are inextricably linked to work, from people in \u20189 to 5\u2019 jobs to those working in shifts or employed on a freelance basis. For some, the ideal holiday will be spent unwinding in a sleepy seaside town, others, however, may prefer staying put, and using the time to develop a passion project.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Courtesy of Aley Wild<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s also the fact that, for many, work can still follow you wherever you go (as long as there\u2019s decent wifi). As lines continue to blur between the personal and professional, with the ubiquity of concepts like \u2018mobile office\u2019 and \u2018workation\u2019, what does a holiday truly mean today? And how essential is it to separate our working lives from leisure time? We spoke to photographer, writer and teacher <\/span>Chanel Irvine<\/span><\/a>; freelance designer, art director and musician <\/span>Camilo Medina<\/span><\/a>; and illustrator and graphic designer <\/span>Aley Wild<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Work can still follow you wherever you go<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sometimes, especially with creative work, it\u2019s important to \u2018look up\u2019, and to remind yourself that work is only one part of life. The temporal shift that can come with travelling can be a valuable route to reorientating your relationship to work. Chicago-based artist Camilo Medina describes the heightened pressure and sense of narrowed focus that comes with working for too long. \u201cI unconsciously start to \u2018grip\u2019 tighter,” he says. \u201cBut when I’m travelling, I tend to be more flexible about allowing the unexpected.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Courtesy of Camilo Medina<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This renewed perception of time can prompt an entirely new outlook on one\u2019s creative practice, and though travel is a goal in and of itself, as an experience it can help prompt progression in work too. \u201cI can\u2019t recommend new experiences in new places enough,\u201d says Sydney-based illustrator Aley Wild, who took four years off working as a full-time designer to travel the world, volunteering on farms and at festivals. \u201cThe confidence I built and connections I made while travelling propelled me into freelancing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When it comes to freelancing, many will know the feeling of trying to maintain an influx of commissions while pursuing personal creative projects \u2013 especially when making time for the latter is difficult. In perhaps every industry, the thing uniting most freelancers is just how difficult it can be to manage time, and take time off, especially when it can be difficult to anticipate how much work one will have month-to-month. But redirecting focus towards personal endeavours can prove beneficial in the long run, spurring a new set of ideas and inspirations.<\/span><\/p>\n

A break can mean trying a new medium<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Courtesy of Chanel Irvine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI did back-to-back commissions for over eight years and got a little burned out,\u201d says Medina. \u201cI find that I\u2019m prioritising personal projects more nowadays. Giving myself the time to experiment and reconnect with what I love about art has been important for my mental health. It also brings a fresh breeze to commissions.\u201d A holiday, therefore, doesn\u2019t have to signify a sudden halt to the creative process. It can simply spark a change in rhythm.<\/span><\/p>\n

A break, creatively speaking, can also mean trying a new medium, rather than getting hemmed in to just one way of working. As someone who works primarily with digital media, Medina carved out time at the beginning of the year to experiment with more \u2018traditional\u2019 materials, such as acrylics, airbrushes and pastels, in an effort to refresh his overall creative approach. \u201cEventually, I’d love to create a situation where my personal art becomes a bigger aspect of my commissions,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Courtesy of Aley Wild<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wild aspires to forge a similar sense of harmony between the personal and professional in a community-focused context. \u201cI dream of an artist residency where I can connect to other people, practices and cultures, to grow deeper in my own process.\u201d In some ways an artist residency can strike the perfect balance between escapism and immersion, offering a break from daily distractions and the grind of everyday life, while fostering new opportunities for creative exchange or simply the space to think. Any creative process needs time, air and the freedom to produce nothing, and it\u2019s true that, as life in many capital creative cities becomes increasingly squeezed, sometimes it\u2019s necessary to step out of it in order to not become disillusioned.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A combined approach to working yielded Chanel Irvine\u2019s debut <\/span>An English Summer<\/span><\/i>, a book of photography published in 2022. A London-based primary school teacher by day, Irvine devotes \u2018time off\u2019 to life as a documentary photographer and writer, capturing the world around her in its most candid form. \u201cI\u2019m lucky to be able to \u2018work\u2019 on my travels,\u201d she says. \u201cI continue to study how summer is being celebrated around the world, showcasing how similar pastimes are shared across borders, albeit with different scenery and shades of sand.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Slowing down might mean switching off<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Inevitably, this has influenced Irvine\u2019s view of how holidays should be spent. \u201cAs my life has become increasingly busy, my ideal holiday now involves laying waterside somewhere, with a book in hand,\u201d she says. \u201cI remain drawn to people and the way they interact with their natural surroundings, but I do see a holiday as a way to relax, slow down and reset.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Courtesy of Chanel Irvine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Beyond travel, Irvine has an intriguing idea for how the holiday mindset might be applied to an everyday context: \u201cThe dream would be to view our daily lives with the same degree of curiosity and gratitude as we do when we travel.\u201d\u00a0 The act of whisking ourselves away somewhere, near or far, can offer an immediate sense of gratification, but perhaps instead of the binary of holiday\/home, there is a way to be present and stimulated in our day-to-day contexts; a holiday of the mind.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In an age of \u2018always-on\u2019 work culture and technology, slowing down might mean switching off, no matter where you are in the world, and taking a break from digitally-focused modes of work. It\u2019s worth remembering that, as much as remote jobs or flexible freelance hours have given us the feeling of autonomy, they can also mean that work never truly stops.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read More: What Does Pride Mean Today?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an era of digital creative working, Morna Fraser reflects on summer, escaping and the work\/holiday binary.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":15965,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[139,138],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15915"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15915"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15990,"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15915\/revisions\/15990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}