Most of the creative people I know and with whom I like to spend my time pursue their work without assignments. They create because they don’t have a choice. Nobody’s forcing them. They have no choice, because to ignore the impetus pushing them to create is to leave a relentless bathroom faucet dripping in the nighttime of their mind. Musicians know there’s always another another guitar lick to get into their fingers, another set of harmonies to explore. Photographers want to see what happens when they frame their world in a particular way. Poets pursue the right words in the right order to present something that evokes an image as much as it engenders a feeling.
Read MoreTHE INFLUENCING MACHINE
Most of the time we don’t seek out fresh voices because fresh voices take work to take in. Even old fresh voices: most people these days aren’t going to stream an great chestnut from the French New Wave. More to the point, we are all inundated by information and increasingly complicated lives. Be honest: ordinary things are endlessly complex and often exhausting in the modern world.The inertia to shed previous skins and try something new holds the vast majority of us locked in habituated place. There’s a reason so much of the country eats at McDonalds as frequently as they do.
Read MorePAINTING THE WALLS
In a time when we’re all overwhelmed by media from carefully managed corporate committees, or ceaseless chatter from social media, a small painting on a piece of a former teenager’s bedroom wall is enough to make us stop and smile and notice how it, too, has influence—perhaps even more lasting influence than any disposable electronic signal that may tempt us for ten irrelevant seconds.
Read MoreUNKNOWN SPACES
The thing about creative excellence is that it’s always an undiscovered country. You know it’s out there, you know it’s real, you’ve seen plenty of evidence. Maps to reach it, however, often stop at the edge of the world.
Read MoreCONVERGENCE
Convergence suggests that many seemingly novel ideas are probably similar to solutions developed for entirely difference circumstances. What works here….will probably work there, too. That’s a profound insight if you spend your life doing creative work. Rather than re-invent the wheel, consider how that well proven device might enable you to discover someplace entirely uncharted.
Read MoreTHE SHAKY RETURN OF ART
Arts require stability as much as they require energy, and for new voices to speak, the people who propel those voices must be able to stand, to eat, to think, to dream.
Read MoreI've Often Toyed with Sigmund Freud
Ideas crash and careen like seedlings caught in unpredictable zephyrs, often slapping uselessly into unexpected obstructions. Most seeds die, but the few that thrive are the ones that have a chance of catching our attention.
CREATIVE WORK MEETS PANDEMIC REALITIES
Creative work is not something artists choose to do. The work itself chooses artists bring it to life (And if you’re not an artists yourself and think that statement is nuts, just ask a creative person in your life if he or she understands. I guarantee they do.)
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Special Announcement: NAVIGATING THE CURVE -- Now Showing!
A new documentary about life under the corona virus captures voices from around the country with stories of resilience, creativity, and resolve. Called “Navigating the Curve”, the film showcases fresh perspectives on the emerging crisis with intimate first-person accounts of life suddenly and unexpectedly transformed. The 44-minute production appears online. (URL HERE)
Read MoreYOUR OWN PRIVATE HEISENBERG
Figuring out where you’re going matters profoundly if you’re serious about reaching somewhere interesting. The more interesting your intended destination, the less precisely you can account for how you’re going to get there, and the less likely it is that the arrival will reveal something extraordinarily special and sublime.
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