Ordinary things are everywhere. The benches, the goofy elephant picture, the water fountain, even the tropical leaves in all directions were not in themselves the source of inspiration. Inspiration comes from following through with goals. It comes from doing the work. It comes from noticing events of the day, the chaos of monkeys howling in the trees, the acrid tang of a poorly maintained pick-up truck’s exhaust, the sweet burst of a freshly picked orange.
Read MoreINFLUENCERS
A culture capable of even casually reading anything — car magazines, gossip magazines, music magazines, newspapers— meant its citizens were capable of simply focusing on something—anything—for more than a fleeting moment, by which I mean minutes not seconds.
Read MoreOPENING CEREMONIES, DECONSTRUCTED
Yes, there were missteps. Yes, there were some ill considered choices, aesthetically, technically, and narratively. I rolled my eyes at a few of them with amusement and let most of them roll off my back at the same time. But ultimately I must applaud vigorously. With the risks of spicy big art being reduced by commercial tendencies into a tasteless pablum, this particular show asked a global audience to stretch in so many exciting and invigorating ways.
Read MoreA DOCUMENT TRAVELS THROUGH TIME
This scrap of paper and ink captures my imagination. Here’s an encapsulation of an ordinary moment, apparently compiled in haste or in an incremental process of additive notation. Its relative vacuity describes the majority of our lives, the big masses of interstitial goo that hold our more substantial bones together.
Read MoreWHAT, ME WORRY?
Talent alone is like simply having access to cool tools: access without practice does not independently confer greatness. Discipline and repeated effort are much more vital, and those are traits that most people are unwilling to invest in adequate measure to rise above the masses.
Read MoreMECHANISMS
Endless pursuit of the perfect tool with a perfected set of skills can get in the way of actually doing good work. Make something, and your skills will automatically improve simply by using them. Constant evaluation of artistic processes other people may have employed can similarly impede our ability to actually see what those artists are trying to do creatively.
Read MoreTHE CURATED LIBRARY PROBLEM
Even as I try to selectively calibrate my attention and interests to suit time and energy, the compelling pull of interesting materials tempts me like a rodent that stumbles upon a bag of shelled walnuts. Unable to resist, the hapless creature cannot help but gobble up one more, often resulting in a bellyache.
Read MoreWhat Happens When I Hear The English Beat
Sensations of all sorts are new in everyone’s adolescence, no matter where or with whom you lived at the time, and the geologic pressure of successive years piling up fossilizes memory. Intense moments of sensual, visceral pleasure become reinforced with subsequent mental recollection, which is why we can conjure our teenage years in sparkling detail and cannot recall what we made for breakfast this morning.
Read MoreWHAT I TRY TO REMEMBER
Art is the reason to preserve life in the first place, to fortify our shelters and our camp, to share sustenance with others around the fire. Art is the reason we exist. We exist to create; creation becomes the over arching beauty worth pursuing in a finite life; beauty is the reason to endure.
Read MoreOne Day in Santa Fe
In the era before smart phones or even PDAs, data either resided in your brain or as marks on paper. I obviously hadn’t memorized a stack of numbers, and my notes weren’t with me. Things will happen that even the best plans will not be able to forestall. It’s not that a person can’t allow themselves to feel frustrated or even angry about circumstance. It’s that an experienced person can learn how not to let those feelings completely overshadow everything else.
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