It was my pleasure to give the inaugural talk at the first Creative Mornings here in Austin last month. The monthly theme was “The Future,” so I tried to make the talk a sort of rallying cry to encourage future presenters and attendees to open up and share the process of their creative work, not just the products of that process. (That happens to also be the subject of my next book.)

If you don’t want to watch the video, I’ve pasted my notes and a few slides from the talk below. Enjoy.

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It’s weird to try to give a talk about the future, because most of the time, talks like this are actually about THE PAST. A speaker is asked to get up on stage and talk because they’re someone who’s accomplished something, so they must have something to say, some sort of wisdom or experience or advice to impart to the audience.

But I happen to think that most advice is autobiographical — a lot of the time when people give you advice, they’re really just talking to themselves in the past.

Now, we usually think that the past is behind us, and the future is in front of us. This seems totally natural, right? But years ago I read about this tribe of indigenous people in South America called the Aymara, and they have this very different way of talking about the past and the future.

When they talk about the past, they point to the space in front of them. When they talk about the future, they point behind them. Strange, right?

Well, the reason they point ahead of them when talking about the past is because the past is known to them — the past has happened, therefore it’s in front of them, where they can see it.

The future, on the other hand, is unknown, it hasn’t happened yet, so it’s behind them, where they can’t see it.

This kind of blew my mind when I read about it. The past is right in front of us, but the future is behind us.

The future is hard to talk about because it hasn’t happened yet — it’s behind us, where we can’t see it.

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Last week I hung my very first solo gallery show up at UNT on the Square in Denton, Texas.

All the pieces for the show were done in the five months after my son Owen was born—I made probably 60 or 70 poems, threw out at least half, and kept 30.

Most of the time I post poems to the blog or Instagram right after I make them. This is how I’ve always worked, and the whole reason the project exists—if it weren’t for online feedback and response, I would’ve stopped making these things a long time ago.

But for this show, I thought I’d experiment and work the way I imagine most artists working, toiling in the solitude and secrecy of my office, keeping the work to myself, editing at the very end, and doing the “big reveal” of the work at the show. (My wife, who reads all my stuff before anybody else, didn’t see most of the poems until a week or two before the show.) I was hoping maybe this way of working would teach me something.

What it taught me is that I hate working this way! I completely take for granted what working in the open online does for me — the feedback, the sense of connection, the sense that I’m moving towards something, etc.

Since NewspaperBlackout.com has been such a big part of the project, it was important to me that in addition to my own work this show have a section where people can make their own poems. The gallery has these cool moveable walls that we could play with, so we made the middle and focus point of the show this space with tables piled with newspaper, Sharpies, and binder clips that visitors can use to hang their own poems. Much to my delight, visitors who attended the opening were already taking advantage—it’ll be great to see how those walls fill up over the next couple of weeks.

I also wanted the space to feel really inviting, so we made a sign encouraging people to take photos of their favorite pieces and post them online with the #NewspaperBlackout hashtag:

The third and final section section of the show was a sort of last-minute idea we had — originally, I was going to project a slideshow of images from NewspaperBlackout.com, but I decided instead to project timelapse videos of me working on the show. (Again, the idea was to be inviting, to let visitors in on the process—I wanted the show to make you want to try out the method on your own.)

Here’s a timelapse video of us hanging the show:

Here’s a short video walkthrough of the opening:

And some more photos (see more on Flickr):

This was way, way more fun than I even though it would be, and I’m already thinking about what I’d do if I get the chance to do another show. Thanks so very much to everyone who came to the opening, and many, many thanks to Nicole Newland, Herbert Holl, and Meredith Buie for making it all happen. The show runs until May 6th if you’re up that way.

After 23 hours of labor, my wife gave birth to our first son, Owen Wells Kleon, on October 25th at 4:32 a.m. He came in at 6 lbs., 11 oz., 20 3/4″ long.

His birth was the most amazing feat of human strength and endurance I’ve ever witnessed. (Granted I’ve now attended exactly *one* natural childbirth.) If you know my wife Meghan, you know her brains, her class, and her charm, but in that room you would’ve seen a force of nature, something primal and powerful. I’m so unbelievably proud of her.

The day after we got back from the hospital, I gave a talk at the Texas Book Festival, and luckily John Anderson from the Austin Chronicle was there snapping a few pictures:

Austin Kleon (Steal Like an Artist) began his presentation on the creative process by showing off pictures of his newborn son. “I’m sure you can all tell I’m super sleep-deprived.” He inhaled his sleeve deeply. “But I am a little high on new baby smell.”

Owen’s now a week and two days old, feeding well, sleeping a little more, getting bigger and even more alert. He’s pretty much the coolest project I’ve ever worked on, the ultimate creative collaboration, and anyone who says publishing books is like birthing babies, they’re nuts — birthing babies is way, way harder, and way cooler.

If you’d like to see more pictures of him, follow me on Instagram: @austinkleon

When I was 13, I wrote to the artist Winston Smith, and he wrote me back a 14-page handwritten letter that changed my life:

15 years later, I got to meet him.

I told the whole story two days after it happened when I spoke at Pixar, and then I retold it a few months ago at UX Week and they got it on video. It’s probably my favorite talk I’ve ever given. Enjoy:

Can’t see it on mobile? Watch it here→

Here’s video of “Steal Like A Writer,” a talk I gave back in June at Cleveland’s Weapons of Mass Creation festival. It’s sort of a remix of the ideas in Steal Like An Artist geared towards designers, musicians, and anybody who wants to get better at writing. Here’s the original description:

No matter what your discipline, it’s hard to get any good work done without clear, straightforward communication. Simply put, being a good writer makes you better at your job. Using a few school supplies, a little visual thinking, and a whole lot of creative theft, this talk will help get you started on the way towards becoming a wordsmith.

Here’s the remixed list of ten:

And here are the slides:

And here are the links to the recommended reading:

• Anne Lamott, BIRD BY BIRD
• Lynda Barry, WHAT IT IS
• Scott McCloud, UNDERSTANDING COMICS
• Unsuck-it.com
• @shamblanderson’s sentence of the day

It was a fun talk to give and a really nice audience — thanks to Joseph Hughes and the folks at WMCFest for having me.

See more of my talks→

UPDATE: Wanted to share these cool sketchnotes of the talk by Carolyn Sewell:

I just finished up my book tour promoting Steal Like An Artist. This is the last entry in the tour diary…

Started out with a kind of homecoming talk at Bookpeople in Austin, Texas, with a packed house. It was crazy thinking about how much has changed since the last time I talked at Bookpeople…

Hopped a plane to Denver, spent a lot of time at the Denver Art Museum and the Clyfford Still Museum, then I drove over to Boulder to talk at the Boulder Book Store. Didn’t get to spend much time in Boulder, but the few hours I did spend there were really nice.

Stayed a night in Columbus so I could get to see Corey Gillen, my best friend of 15 or so years, drum with Josh Krajcik at a sold-out show at the Newport. Awesome night.

Next morning my Mom drove me to Cleveland to give a talk at the Weapons of Mass Creation Festival in Cleveland, Ohio. Unfortunately, I had to hop on a plane to Chicago, but I got to see my good buddies John and Chris.

In Chicago, I drank beer on my friend James’ stoop, then the next morning I went to the Art Institute and then participated in a panel at the Printer’s Row festival.

And then it was home to Texas. It’s been a wild couple of months and I’m still processing it all. Glad to not be in motion for a bit. Thanks to everybody who made this tour so great!

See the previous entries from my tour diary?

I’m on book tour promoting Steal Like An Artist. See all upcoming dates or follow me on Twitter?

Had a nutty week in Manhattan at the end of May: we celebrated my wife’s 30th birthday, walked the wonderful High Line, had a lovely, bourbon-soaked dinner at my friend Lauren’s place, gave a talk at the Foursquare and 20×200 offices, ate at Szechuan Gourmet (some of my favorite Chinese food, ever), led an awesome panel with my friends Maud, Maria, and Maris at McNally Jackson, celebrated Steal‘s success and Boom’s impending arrival with my friends at Workman, and gave a talk at the agency 360i. Crazy couple of days…too much, really. Also: it was HOT.

Can’t see the video? Watch it here→

I was so thrilled that my friends and favorite bloggers Maria Popova, Maris Kreizman, and Maud Newton agreed to be part of this panel last week in NYC. It was really really fun, McNally Jackson was packed, and best of all, someone was there filming and has posted a video of the conversation online for your viewing pleasure.

Also, dig these hand-drawn notes by @mosteverybody:

Creativity and Curation: A Conversation About Finding and Sharing Inspiration Online

New York City! Come see me and my friends at McNally Jackson on Wednesday, May 30th at 7PM:

Join Austin Kleon (author of Steal Like an Artist) as he interviews three of his favorite NYC ladies around the topic of collecting and sharing inspiration online. The panel will feature Maud Newton, legendary litblogger; Maria Popova, creator of the stupendously popular blog Brain Pickings; and Maris Kreizman, creator of the hilarious Tumblr blog Slaughterhouse 90210.

I will, of course, be signing copies of Steal Like An Artist. Tell yer friends! Printable poster (PDF) here.

Follow me on Twitter for more #StealAcrossAmerica updates?

I’m on book tour promoting Steal Like An Artist. See all upcoming dates or follow me on Twitter?

Had a short, fun time in Minneapolis. Heard a bunch of great speakers, sold a bunch of books, and gave the closing talk at the See Change conference, ate some great grub, including an insane pulled pork sandwich at Cap’s Grille on the way to the airport, got to see my friends in town for Confab, drank a few too many whiskeys at Nye’s and sang at the piano bar, and saw some great art at the Walker Art Center out with my friend Chad Hagen.