Sometimes, I catch myself thinking, “How can I promote what I’m doing, so that I can share my work with more people?” And when I catch myself thinking this, it’s important that I be reminded: I’m not yet doing my best work. Great work, in my case this means stories and this means songs, demands attention, either bombastically and spectacularly, or quietly and with determination. If it does not demand attention, it is not yet my best.
Do not assume that you have to have some prescribed conditions to do your best work. Do not wait. Do not wait for enough time or money to accomplish what you think you have in mind. Work with what you have RIGHT NOW. Work with the people around you RIGHT NOW. Work with the architecture you see around you RIGHT NOW. Do not wait for what you assume is the appropriate, stress-free environment in which to generate expression. Do not wait for maturity or insight or wisdom. Do not wait until you are sure that you know what you are doing. Do not wait until you have enough technique. What you do NOW, what you make of your present circumstances, will determine the quality and scope of your future endeavors.
And at the same time, be patient.
—Anne Bogart, A Director Prepares (via aaronjshayblog)
hello clayton
yet again, i see something in you that inspires. as a kid, i wanted to go to art school, i wanted to create. i had a good eye for color, and i enjoyed putting visual elements together. it calmed me. my mother did not nourish this creativity, and absolutely shunned the idea of me ever going to art school with the intention of making things. to my mother, and to many people in general, art was a hobby. art was not something people did to make a living, and she was poor enough as it was. she worked hard, lived with a man who i did see make much effort to help, and seemed unhappy. i thought about escaping a lot. but the belief was ingrained in my head, that i would never be able to make art, go to art school, etc.
the fact that you went so far as to have the motivation, the encouragement, to enter an art competition [and win!] as a kid is really cool. and having the determination to still create beautiful things, despite not having money to go to art school, is inspiring. i wish i’d had the strength and foresight to do likewise.
i’m making small steps. thank you for inspiring.This is for the poor kids. The misfits. The neglected dreamers.
You sit in the back of the class because you’re ashamed of your hand-me-downs. You can’t afford glasses so you can’t see the board. You don’t have enough money for your own art supplies, and your school doesn’t supply them because all that money goes to the jocks, so you guiltily shoplift them. The entire machine you’re being pushed through is engineered to ignore you in favor of the elites. The athletes. The rich kids.
Like many artists, I’ve got a day-job. Where I work, it is a shipping office, cafe and gift shop. One day, a woman came in, interested in shipping wine as a gift to a friend very far away. We gave her an estimate, and she decided against it. “I don’t want to pay more for shipping than for the actual gift.” That’s what she said.
And it got me to thinking.
Awesome art. Love Cid and Sarah.
Postscript: The Boss got zapped with lasers and now doesn’t need glasses. But they still make him look jaunty.
Rian Johnson is AWESOME!
New Beverly Cinemaへ行きたい
I just kind of want the portrait of Rian to have him wearing sunglasses and saying “DEAL WITH IT”
(via loopermovie)
Sometimes, I think to myself, “It would be so great to have a cool house or apartment with wild art and nicknacks covering the walls and hidden rooms and books on every shelf and a proper recording studio and art parties that last into the night.”
And then I realize that would require me anchoring myself to one location for a long period of time and I’m like “NOPE”
“in the house of the undying”
for HBO & Mondo Gallery’s Game of Thrones art show
24x36” 7 color screenprint on black paperhhhhhh
This is largely how I imagined Kadath from Lovecraftian lore.
I’ve had a lot of free time this year, which has led to me to watch lots of online videos. This one recently caught my fancy: Amanda F. Palmer’s TED talk, “The Art of Asking.” I highly recommend watching this if you are in any way interested in the idea of being an online independent…
Sent this out to my mailing list last night, and I decided to share it here.
Basically, touring is magical but challenging, especially as an independent artist without an office full of promoters and label reps behind you. Here’s why:
I had a blast on the tour back in November. Figuring out a way to do it again? Difficult! Why? Day-jobs. Day-jobs keep a roof over my head and let me do things like go to shows and support my friends’ Kickstarter campaigns (and sometimes drink beer with friends). But then day-jobs get all upset when I say, “Hey, can I leave for two to three weeks and be a rock star somewhere else?” What’s the deal with that?
More knowledge bloggin’. Did you know? Numbers are important!
How many times have you heard someone equate Natural Selection with the philosophy of “might makes right?” Too many times. And when someone makes that logical fallacy, friends, you know that they are in need of proper learning. Such people will often also infer that Evolution is an immoral process, when, in essence, it is amoral.
Folks who believe that “survival of the fittest” implies the iron fist of tyranny are those who only know the word “fit” to mean “muscular.” However, in terms of evolution and natural selection, “fit” means “appropriate.” Strength is not the only thing that makes us fit, otherwise the Dinosaurs would still rule the earth.
And that’s why I wrote this song.
Also, because of feelings.
