Dooney - 2001

Hazel Dooney is one of the "Asia-Pacific region's most controversial female artists".  I discovered her through Hugh MacLeod's site, gapingvoid.  Dooney broke ground several years ago by circumventing the traditional gallery system for distribution of her paintings, opting instead to use the internet (see article here).

Her web site, Self Vs. Self offers a refreshingly candid look at Dooney's life and the process of artistic creation. 

The other night I shot her an email to see if she would be willing to provide CO with a glimpse at her daily routine.  She graciously agreed:

"As you already realise, I take my lead from Gustave Flaubert, who wrote, "Be regular and orderly in your life, like a bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in your work."

I work seven days a week, between 16 and 18 hours a day. I find sanity in predictability and routine, rest in the creative process – and occasionally, grinding tedium in the technical demands.

My day begins at 8am, when I get up up, make a coffee (one is never enough) and go back to bed with my laptop to chat online with my boyfriend, with whom I discuss my schedule and any pressing business matters for which I need advice. It accelerates the waking process as he is almost nerdishly clever and has already been up for hours, obsessing over the most intriguing ideas – I have to keep up!

During this chat, I work on an exhaustive list of calls and things to do. On any given day, this list numbers 50 to 60 items, some mundane, some urgent, and in between painting or whatever other creative activity absorbs me, I work throught them with almost pig-headed persistence. By the time I get to the end, another 50 or 60 have materialised so it's really a never-ending list.

I update my social media, write my blog and add to my web site.



I am always at my desk drawing or in the studio painting by 10am. Sometimes I might be shooting a model for reference material. Whatever I am doing, my days dissolves into timelessness. If I get hungry, I might drive to a local deli for a sandwich or salad. If I get a rush of horniness (I'm young enough that it lurks within me like a constant hunger), I might find my way to my boyfriend to f*!k hard for an hour or so. Then I return to work until the light dies or if painting with enamel, the fumes dessicate my eyes and skin so badly I can't continue.

My early evenings are again spent on computer, usually as I watch a DVD or catch up with phone calls to collectors in Asia and Europe. I eat a light meal at my desk.  I write my blog, do up invoices, edit images, update my social media and read the news. I am often alone – I am intensely solitary and people-averse – and I don't go out much. My career is busy enough – and so endlessly absorbing that it gives me more pleasure than I might derive from a hectic social life. I go to bed most nights at 1am. If my boyfriend isn't with me, I'll ring him so I can come to the sound of his voice and slip into a dream-laden sleep.

My days are pretty much like this without change. I travel regularly and use the time away to live completely without routine – to live for a short while to excess. I never stay with friends, only in good hotels. My boyfriend is unconventional in the extreme and as I am usually with him when I travel, the life we live together is also unconventional and unpredictable. There are glimpses of it in the photographs on my Tumblr but I won't tell you which ones. It is all the outlet I need from the rigours of my work."

More routines here.