Austin Kleon on how one creative effort leads to the next: “That’s the beauty of collage and working with real materials: when you don’t have a plan, when you don’t know where you’re going, you end up somewhere you didn’t anticipate. It’s real discovery.” As my dad is so fond of saying, “a plan isContinue reading “Kleon on collage and discovery”
Category Archives: art
notes taken during a creative failure in progress
You get to the best parts of yourself on accident. Your job as an artist is to orchestrate those accidents. After all, it’s always better when your unconscious does the work.
an unstoppable force and an immovable object
Debbie Millman knows how to conduct an interview. Ai Weiwei knows how to navigate interrogation. Their pairing on a recent episode of Design Matters made for a few golden moments: Millman: I was wondering if you have memories of the first time that you remember being creative. WeiWei: I never think I have been creative.Continue reading “an unstoppable force and an immovable object”
the doodle game
I had a blast listening to Wendy MacNaughton’s Draw Together podcast this week. The second episode introduces “The Doodle Game,” an easy way to tap into creative flow. You begin by scribbling on a piece of paper, then adding features and details to what you see in the mess you’ve created. After all, drawing isContinue reading “the doodle game”
a poem or a prayer
I’ve always loved how poetry comes from somewhere deep, almost as though it’s the language of the soul. Austin Kleon, in addition to being famous as the Steal Like an Artist guy, is known for his blackout poems. He takes newspaper clips and blacks out most of the words to create a poem. After all,Continue reading “a poem or a prayer”
let it be awful
I’ve been playing around with paint recently. I’m not good at painting, but that’s the whole point. Allowing the work to be terrible to a joyful kind of letting go. Without the pressure of trying to meet anyone expectations (including my own), there’s a freedom to play, to wonder, to explore. And isn’t this whyContinue reading “let it be awful”
let your unconscious do the work
I’ve been trying to take a page from Jennifer Egan’s book lately and allow my unconscious do the work. This means writing by hand, following characters where they want to go. I wrote a scene this morning I thought was going to end with a character forcing their way onstage to perform at a bar.Continue reading “let your unconscious do the work”
somewhere to be terrible
I’ve been dabbling with collages for a few years now. It helps me clear my head and express what I can’t with words. But somewhere down the line, I got stuck. The process of cutting and pasting became too important. I’d wind up crushing a finished collage under the weight of what I expected itContinue reading “somewhere to be terrible”
gorging on forbidden fruit
In this age of colossal cinematic crossovers (thing such as The Avengers or Godzilla vs. Kong), perhaps the one that beats all the others is Austin Kleon’s appearance on Andy J. Pizza’s Creative Pep Talk. In a conversation that ranges from setting creative rules for yourself to following your disgust, my favorite bit came asContinue reading “gorging on forbidden fruit”
the art of inversion
I had a conversation with some friends last night about inversion–the idea of taking something and flipping it on its head. Example: one of my college professors once gave a lecture on divorcing the signifier from the signified. He said the the class, “Green means…” and everyone replied “Go.” “Red means…” the professor said. “Stop,”Continue reading “the art of inversion”
joshua chamberlain 