Friday, February 7, 2014

Day four: Follow the path as far as it goes.

















Say you're sitting at your dining room table, and you get an idea. You start sketching it out and start and finish the piece pretty quickly. But what if it doesn't end there?

I've had too much caffeine and my brain is full of my to-do list and I'm having a hard time thinking like an artist. What does that even mean, thinking like an artist? Do our brains look different? Do we really use our brains differently than other people? Are we really more creative?

Probably not. And even if our brains are different, it doesn't really matter. It's what we do with our brain that matters. I could have 500 great ideas, but if I don't make anything and show it to people, it's just another thought. Also, being able to sculpt, or able to draw a single drawing, it's not everything. It's a beginning. So, as Bruce Mau says, begin anywhere.

And once you do that, keep going. Do what improv comedians do. Follow your crazy ideas as far and wide as they go. Say yes. Let it get freaky. I think this is what people mean when they say to actively fail. They don't mean fail. They mean take it as far as it goes, even though that can get uncomfortable and exhausting and wrong. You can edit later. Push.

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