art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have […]
Art is the win
Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.~ Oprah Winfrey Before he was a big time comedian, Hasan Minhaj was asked if he thought he was going to make it big. “I don’t like that question,” he said. […]
Art for the Fun of It
Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it. ~ Salvador Dali A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the oil paper testing process. It was a lot of fun to have a low-pressure chance to just play around with some art materials. It’s easy for me to get caught up in the idea […]
On Sauntering
I don’t like either the word [hike] or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains-not ‘hike!’ Do you know the origin of that word saunter? It’s a beautiful word. Away back in the middle ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which […]
Out of context
Art should be like a holiday: something to give a man the opportunity to see things differently and to change his point of view.~ Paul Klee This past weekend was the 28th annual Autumn Arts Festival. We get to see a lot of creators at the store. Some of them occasionally share pictures of their […]
A bit about balance
Why art-work? Let’s art-play! It can be easy to let our creative pursuits become serious. Striving for a realistic rendering of our subject matter, or making sure we use the materials in exactly the “proper” way. It is invaluable to master our craft, fully explore and understand the materials and how different variables affect the […]
Creativity vs Efficiency
A way to think about it is, innovation requires variation. And in manufacturing—six sigma, all that stuff—you’re trying to reduce variation.The fundamental manufacturing paradigm is to reduce variation, and the fundamental creative, innovation paradigm is to increase it.~ Reed Hastings It seems like there are always dichotomies with tension between them (whether false or true). […]
Constraints foster creativity
Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist. ~ Pablo Picasso I stumbled across the artist below through an interview. Two things that he said really jumped out at me. One is “I learned early that the structure of scientific principles liberates creative thinking. Once they’re learned and become […]
As much as you want
There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.~ Jiddu Krishnamurti Sometimes I get frustrated when working on learning something new. My fumbling […]
Your tools are just that, yours
It is not necessary to change a person in order to change their behavior.Just change their environment.~ James Clear I like tools of many kinds. Whether it’s a bit of hardware like hammers and wrenches, software like programs and bits of code, or (of course) art supplies of many kinds. Different projects require different tools. […]