Craft / Creative Process
on juggling multiple projects:
it was actually the first time in my life where I’d really consciously been working on two projects. There’s sort of a nice procrastination effect; one of them is always easier than the other, so there’s always something to do.
—A Kendra Greene
Living a multi-pursuit life has kinda been my thing for a while. But I’m alwa
... See moreWriter and illustrator A. Kendra Greene on becoming an artist by listening – The Creative Independent
A. Kendra Greenethecreativeindependent.com
A poet asked me to illustrate a book, and I realized I don’t think I’m an illustrator—I think I’m a bookmaker.
I can relate. Since illustrating my own book, I’ve spent a lot more time drawing, and this has brought up opportunities to illustrate other peoples’ books. But it just didn’t feel right. I want to tell stories, and often they come to me in words as well as drawings, and I like to show both. I think that makes me more of a multimedia storyteller, than what we might think of as an illustrator.
The only way I knew how to process being sick was to think about it in terms of a finished art project.
Drawing on that experience, Kent would later formulate the closest thing to a personal credo:
Often I think that however much I draw or paint, or however well, I am not an artist as art is generally understood. The abstract is meaningless to me save as a fragment of the whole, which is life itself… It is the ultimate which concerns me, and all physi... See more
Often I think that however much I draw or paint, or however well, I am not an artist as art is generally understood. The abstract is meaningless to me save as a fragment of the whole, which is life itself… It is the ultimate which concerns me, and all physi... See more
I have felt this compulsion, that my creativity of late has not channeled my true pain and truth. It has made me look at my own work with some disdain, because I am not being honest enough, or something. But I don’t want to share everything and every part of me. Alas, it’s a battle.
On being dedicated to art as a daily practice
thecreativeindependent.comI relate to this energy of audience, I used to get it from teaching, and now in a remote world I feel the deep lack of such energy infusion in my life. The days feel more empty and dull, more of a drag.
The reward of that one hour on stage is the highest potency nutrients that you could possibly imagine when it’s good, so you keep going back out because you want to get that. It’s not about adulation. It’s really not. It’s the exchange between yourself and the audience. So, I don’t know how to manage those things, those needs with the practicalities, the desire not to take more than I give. It’s tricky.
I love the thoughtfulness and transparency here with iA’s icon design. You learn as much from their process as their product.
But busyness has a way of stealing creativity from you. Generative work, like art and writing, requires long periods of nothingness: it’s only in that wide empty space that ideas emerge. Long runs, hot showers, commutes that don’t involve harried Slack messages and listening to podcasts at 2x speed. Sitting at the edge of a dock, listening to the o... See more