jules kleon – Page 4

This is fine.

Thursday, March 5, 2020

Once again, Jules Kleon captures the “Big Mood,” as they say.

Nothing matters and nothing works

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

A still life left behind by one of my children

In Paul Ford’s funny and informative guide for people who have been asked to be in the media, he lays out “the most important rule of media”:

Nothing matters, and nothing works. If you’re selling a book, everyone will want you to go on TV to promote the book. That will sell negative ten books. Some stupid tweet will sell 1,600 copies of the book. I mean obviously if Oprah wants to feature you and tells people to get your book, the math changes. Sometimes things do work! But in general nothing matters, and nothing works. You won’t cost yourself your career if you say no.

In my experience, this is (sometimes painfully) very true.

For more of Paul’s wisdom, see: “Why wasn’t I consulted?” and “What to say when you don’t know what to say”

This morning a spotlight appeared in the ivy on our back fence. It looked like the rising sun was burning through, opening up some kind of portal. (It was really just a reflection off the window of the house across the street.) I walked out and stuck my hand into the beam to make a shadow puppet.

I wished I could stick my head in and see what was on the other side. Then, just a few minutes later, the sun rose high enough that the portal disappeared.

Here is a book Jules (4) was working on a few days ago:

I think all the time about how much your relationship with your children can be a two-way street — intellectually, emotionally, artistically.

The images you show them in the world enter their minds and come out through their fingers, but, like all artists, the images they make with their fingers also enter your mind and open your eyes to new images out in the world.

Update: I showed the photo at the top of this post to Jules and he dismissed it completely. “That doesn’t look like a portal, that looks like a fence.” HA.

The porridge eaters

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

I asked Jules (age 4) what we were doing in this drawing, and he said, “Eating porridge.” (Like The Three Bears, duh.) It was later pointed out to me that the drawing bore some resemblance to Vincent Van Gogh’s The Potato Eaters.