Category: life
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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…
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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…
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“shoulding” all over yourself
I used to know a woman who hated the word “should.” Anytime someone would use the phrase, “I should,” she’d got berserk. She called this practice “shoulding all over yourself.” We all do it: “I should be more productive. I should be making more money. I should have it all…
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dizzy to the point of paralysis
When we can do whatever we want, we over often find ourselves overwhelmed. We turn to other people to tell us what to do, what to say, and how to act. In the end, we all want someone to tell us what to do. We come together as a society…
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new notebooks
Buying a new notebook is always exciting. Not because of the empty pages, but the promise of what we’ll fill these empty pages with. Blank canvases, vacant walls in a new apartment, and the white boxes of a new calendar at the start of the year all function the same…
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ten things I learned in 2020
“All shall be well, all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well…” There’s nothing wrong with me. I’m at my best when I’m calm, centered, and standing still. “Comparison is the thief of joy.” There are people more qualified, more capable, more powerful, and more influential…
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what’s worth chasing
Ideas are wholly subjective. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, as they say. Because of this, an artist must develop their own sense of what is wroth pursuing. However, that which touches truth is always with chasing.
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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…
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routine vs. ritual
A routine is the process of doing the same thing over and over again. Mindlessly. Carelessly. Habitually. A ritual implies presence and honoring the practice, all with the benefit of intention.
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thin spaces
When I was in college, I had a mentor who was an Episcopal priest. She often talked about thin spaces, physical locations where the threshold between tangible reality and divinity is thinner than everywhere else. We’ve all encountered places like these, whether we realized it or not: old churches, the…
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