Woodchips
Hello and welcome.
You're getting this because I think you're the kind of person that will put up with a rogue email or two from me. Think of it as an update on what's been happening during studio time. The woodchips on the woodshop floor.
One newsletter every two (or three) weeks sounds about right to me. It's more realistic considering I'm only doing studio work two days a week.
Shout out to Keith for pushing me to try this experiment. Let me know if you have ideas, feedback, or suggestions.
What's been happening
- I've been thinking a bit (belatedly) about design's role in the pandemic. Particularly for signage in public spaces and transport. Here are some thoughts and photos.
- I'm putting in about 20 minutes each day to draw as part of my mission to get back into illustration. See the scans below. It's painful. The drawings are contrived, average, or both. That habit and hunger is coming back, though. Contour and some reference drawing are helping; constraints that slow or hinder the self-destructive criticism.
- I moved back to Sydney. Currently figuring out how to maintain creative energy on Thursdays and Fridays; when my studio workspace is already where I've already spent the bulk of my week's waking and sleeping hours.
What I've been reading
I finished The Overstory. ★★★★. The best arguments in the world won't change a person's mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story.
Stumbled across MoMA's Thinking like an Artist: Translating Ideas into Form. Some nice, practical, ideas on getting an honest creative practice going. Also stumbled across Works That Work, seven years too late.
What I've been listening to
Making Sense with Sam Harris: #196 — The Science of Happiness. Andrew Bird's new album. Spanish Harlem by Aretha Franklin.
What's next
I think I'll pick Ephemera back up; perhaps begin using the location data to create a 'naked' map. Here are my rough plans for that.
What's been drawn
What to ponder
The difficulty of retaining an open and alert outlook toward the world into adulthood makes the role of the artist a uniquely important one. Creators are society’s bastions of empathy and instigators of new perspectives.