the meaning of creating art
If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches; for to the creator there is no poverty and no poor indifferent place.
Rainer Maria Rilke • Letters to a Young Poet
Even if you know what it feels like to be completely open to where your curiosity wants you to go, like Grothendieck, it is a fragile state. It often takes considerable work to keep the creative state from collapsing, especially as your work becomes successful and the social expectations mount. When I listen to interviews with creative people or
... See moreHenrik Karlsson • Cultivating a state of mind where new ideas are born Cultivating a state of mind where new ideas are born
Difficult times like war, famine, political protests have historically shaped our cultures, as a shared experience, and a shared suffering; one that ignites change. As art feeds and grows on culture, artists have always been at the forefront of the change it brings. Because it is through art that ideas—revolutionary, groundbreaking, and... See more
art in the face of adversity
Being a creative means embracing the urge to put more of yourself—your identity, personality, and unique way of seeing—into the world, whether it be the way you make your breakfast in the morning or your trick for getting through your morning commute, or the themes that keep coming up among the thousands of photos in your camera roll. When we... See more
Spencer Chang • field notes on being a creative [pt. 1]
Dictators and tyrants routinely begin their reigns and sustain their power with the deliberate and calculated destruction of art: the censorship and book-burning of unpoliced prose, the harassment and detention of painters, journalists, poets, playwrights, novelists, essayists. This is the first step of a despot whose instinctive acts of... See more
No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear
To love the amateur is also to go beyond comparison with the professional and instead to better grasp what it means to function on limited means, little power and often alack of external appreciation. It is to see what emerges to sustain love: gritty determination, dedicated hours of work, banter,playful experimentation, attention to detail,clever
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