Doing your best work

In 1945 the artist Jackson Pollock was in a bad way. He lived in an apartment in the city and was troubled with drinking and depression. In the summer he went to stay with friends in Long Island, a then quiet spot. He found the nature, light and ocean breezes rejuvenating.

After the trip he spent 3 days on a couch in his downtown apartment.

Thinking.

He then decided to move to Long Island and replaced the hard angles of the city with the open spaces and green of nature. 

The result? 

It profoundly changed his art.

In New York Pollock had worked in a studio at an easel producing detailed work.

In Long Island he worked in a converted barn, flooded with light and looking onto expansive views of nature. 

He picked up canvases from his easel and put them on the floor and poured or flung paint at them. 

Art critics consider his time on Long Island to be a high point in his career. It’s when, in 1946,  he produced the painting you can see above, called Shimmering Substance.

Pollock himself said that he would always be homeless when he was inside. When he was in nature, he found home.

Now, we're not all artists. We’re more likely to be devouring boxsets on the couch than contemplating life. And most of us don’t have to live up to what the critics in the media say about the quality of our work (wouldn’t that be a hoot? The New York Times finds that “Jo’s retrospective on the 3rd product design sprint was lacking and missing the focus and discipline of her previous work”).

But we all produce work and we all do that from a place.

And where we work matters.

What difference would it make to you to think about where you work from and how that effects your focus, your commitment and your output?

What changes can you make to shift things and create the change you’re after?