joshua chamberlain

Category: art

  • where we come from

    In her episode of Abstract: The Art of Design, Es Devlin makes the claim that, “the systems and influences of one’s childhood are inescapable.” While peering down on a model of her hometown, she says, “My work is as much a reaction against this as it is continuing to perpetuate…

  • nothing personal

    I’ve been writing a lot recently. It’s going better than usual and here’s why: I’m not being precious. I don’t throw a parade when I’m happy with the work and I don’t fall on my sword when I’m not. I show up each morning and tell a story–sometimes it’s good…

  • the shape of things

    I spent a while at the art museum the other day, studying Saul Steinberg’s Mural of Cincinnati. While trying to recreate select bits and pieces in my notebook, I remembered a drawing teacher I met once who was fond of saying “Everything is made of simple shapes.” It’s easy to…

  • drawing as seeing

    I went to the museum yesterday. Instead of using my phone to photograph the things that struck me, I took out my notebook and tried to draw them. It allowed me to really focus on what I was seeing, to absorb every detail. Have an afternoon to kill? Go to…

  • swimming upstream

    I’m currently reading Alan Jacobs’ Breaking Bread with the Dead. It’s a tough read, but absolutely worthwhile. In one passage, he advocates for “reading upstream,” which is to say looking to those who influenced your influences: I took a couple of classes in medieval literature but I came to adore…

  • writing and living

    While plowing back through some of the old voice memos, I found a quote from a dear friend of mine, writer and musician Michael Winn. We were talking about writing and developing characters and he explained why he’d had such trouble capturing human life on the page: “Living your life…

  • art school

    Another gem from Ilse Crawford’s episode of Abstract: The Art of Design. When I moved to Michigan to apprentice at a theater company, a friend of mine expressed his jealousy: “Man, I wish I could just move away to the great white north for a year and do nothing but…

  • the importance of contrast

    I’ve been watching Abstract: The Art of Design on Netflix recently and I can’t get enough. In an episode on interior design, Ilse Crawford talks about the importance of contrast in material texture to evoke sensory experience: We actually understand materials best by contrast. Our senses are actually wired in…

  • choosing ideas

    Just as not all opportunities are opportunities, not every idea is worth saving. The first job of an artist is to sort through their ideas, selecting what’s worth pursing and what’s worth letting go. The act of choosing one idea over another showcases your taste, instincts, and credibility as an…

  • putting yourself on the hook

    The night before I moved out of my college apartment, my roommate and I decided to write a song. The moment we agreed to this, my roommate stood up, walked out of the apartment, and went to visit our next-door-neighbors. “Hey, Josh and I are going to spend all night…