Sunday, April 24, 2011

Thursday, April 21, 2011

on the road

"What is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? --it's the too-huge world vaulting us, and it's good-by. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies."

Saturday, April 16, 2011

great advice, perfect timing

HOW TO STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST (AND 9 OTHER THINGS NOBODY TOLD ME)

Don’t wait until you know who you are to start making things


Make things: know thyself

You’re ready. Start making stuff.

You might be scared. That’s natural.

There’s this very real thing that runs rampant in educated people. It’s calledimposter syndrome. The clinical definition is a “psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments.” It means that you feel like a phony, like you’re just winging it, that you really don’t have any idea what you’re doing.

Guess what?

None of us do. I had no idea what I was doing when I started blacking out newspaper columns. All I knew was that it felt good. It didn’t feel like work. It felt like play.

Ask any real artist, and they’ll tell you the truth: they don’t know where the good stuff comes from. They just show up to do their thing. Every day.

Have you ever heard of dramaturgy? It’s a fancy sociological term for something this guy in England said about 400 years ago:

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts…


Excerpt: Austin Kleon, author of "Newspaper Blackout"

Thursday, April 14, 2011

bits of me

glass. stripes. burlap. on the road. radical. dear john.

Monday, April 11, 2011

wake up call

I'm in need of a little perspective, something to get my head straight and back into focus. Focus on what? I can't just bury myself into a book and find that satisfying. There are so many things to think about, so many different avenues to take. Everyone says start stuff while you're young, but what if you're young and you don't know exactly what to start? You have the career thing down, but what happens next? What are you supposed to do, once you're doing what you want to do?