Notes on writing and drawing

SIDE PROJECTS

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

i need to take a stab at what i do not know

“We are here on Earth to fart around. Don’t let anybody tell you any different.”—Kurt Vonnegut

One thing I’ve learned in my brief tenure as an artist: it’s the side projects that blow up.

By side projects I mean the stuff that you thought was just farting around. That’s actually the good stuff. That’s when the magic happens.

Four years ago I had no idea what I was doing. I thought I was a short story writer. I was trying to write stories. Then one day I took a Sharpie to a stack of newspapers. All the sudden I was a poet. Pretty soon a diversion—a side project—turned into my main thing (whether I wanted it to or not).

Had I been focused only on my goal of writing fiction, had I not allowed myself the room to experiment and take on a side project, I’d never be where I am now.

So the lesson is: take time for side projects. Take time to fart around.

I COMPOSED THE HOLES

Thursday, August 13, 2009

It’s learning what to leave out. Like with good guitar players – it ain’t the licks they play, it’s the holes they leave.

The above snippet came from a Texas Monthly article on Texas songwriters I read on the plane this morning.

It reminded me of Ronald Johnson, in his introduction to radi os, a long poem made by erasing words from Milton’s Paradise Lost: “I composed the holes.” (Johnson was quoting a composer whose name I forget at the moment.)

Composing the holes. That’s what we do when we craft a piece of art, whether it’s drawing or making a blackout poem.

It’s often the holes in pieces of art that make them interesting. What isn’t shown vs. what is.

The same could be said of people. What makes them interesting isn’t just what they’ve experienced, but what they haven’t experienced.

Devoting yourself to something means shutting out other things.

When it comes to education, it’s not just the holes, but the order you fill them in. For instance, if you read the canon straight through, from Homer to McCarthy (or whoever), how original would the connections in your mind be? Better to start with one author you love, who speaks to you, and move in every direction, backwards, forwards, sideways…the juxtapositions you see and the connections you make in your brain will be more unique.

The same is true when you make art: you must embrace your limitations and keep moving.

Compose your holes.

(Written on my iPhone in the Houston airport.)

HOW TO DRAW FACES

Monday, July 27, 2009

Shot this little video at lunch on my Iphone and posted it to Twitter. I came up with the little exercise for my Vizthink Viznotes webinar. Folks seemed to dig it, so I’m posting it here.

The Iphone continues to inspire me with possibilities. Ideas spread to a thousand people…instantly.

Instant publication.

The best part of all? It can be quick and dirty. People forgive quality. Heck, they’re probably watching the thing on their phone…so why not shoot it on your phone?

BLOGGER’S QUEST(IONNAIRE)

Monday, July 20, 2009

The content of this interview I did with Nate Burgos over at Design Feaster might be familiar to anyone who’s read my posts about blogging before, but you might want to take a look anyways.

On why I started a blog:

When you’re a writer in college, you have the ultimate luxury: a captive audience. Your teachers get paid to read your writing and your classmates pay to read your writing. And then, suddenly, you get out of college, and nobody gives a crap anymore. So you start a blog!

On my hatred of computers:

This might be blasphemous for a blogger to say, but I don’t like spending more time in front of a computer screen than I have to. The good stuff comes from your hands and your head. (The cartoonist Lynda Barry says, “In the digital age, don’t forget to use your digits!” A blog is just a delivery system—a way to get eyeballs looking at your stuff (and minds thinking about it).

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS MARTHA STEWART

Saturday, July 11, 2009

the chef's business model

In my life, the two women I’ve spent the most time around are my mom and my wife.

They both love to cook. They both own sewing machines.

They both love Martha Stewart.

They love Martha Stewart because they’ve learned from her. They trust her. They buy her books and her products because they feel loyal to her.

They love Martha Stewart kind of like I love Lynda Barry.

* * *

d.i.y. lynda

A year ago I was sitting in a craft store here in Austin. I sat and doodled and ate cupcakes and watched my wife and all these women crafting, teaching each other, helping each other. There was such a sense of inclusiveness. It was as if everyone was saying to each other, “Yes! You can do this! We can do this! Join the club!”

Not long after that, I was watching a profile of Rachel Ray on TV. The folks who knew Rachel seemed to suggest that her success was not necessarily attributed to her abilities as a cook, but rather to her attitude and energy she projected to her viewers. The number one thing she was giving them was encouragement. She wasn’t just teaching them, she was saying, “You can do this!”

I started surfing some of the craft blogs my wife loves to read. It was a total revelation: by sharing and teaching, these women gained readers and loyal fans, and then sold their wares on Etsy and in books to those loyal fans.

And I realized: if artists want to learn a good business model, they should look to the craft community.

Turns out I wasn’t the only one thinking this way. Jason Fried, the founder of the software company 37 Signals (they have a terrific blog), when he gives a talk, he often claims that chefs are the best business entrepreneurs, because they know that sharing leads to more sales. He suggests that businesses emulate famous chefs. My friend Tim Walker summarized this bit in his notes on Fried’s 2008 SXSW session:

Fried notes that the famous big-name chefs (Emeril Lagasse, Mario Batali, et al.) SHARE a lot. Here are these big experts who are authorities in their field, and yet they’re sharing everything they know. Along the way they collect money from willing customers/users who buy their cookbooks, eat at their restaurants, buy their sauces at the grocery store, etc. Fried says you should figure out what it is YOU do that you can share with everybody else.

(I saw the same idea pop up in my friend Mike Rohde‘s sketchnotes of a Fried talk.)

What Fried said in a recent talk was: Figure out your what’s cooking show. Figure out what’s your cookbook.

Figure out how to be your own Martha Stewart!