How to make real things
This week’s question also comes to us from Sean Tubridy:
You're prolific and make real things. How do you put your phone down? What's your secret?
My secret is a combination of compartmentalization and never walking into a room without know why I’m there.
Sadly, the compartmentalization is the result of a childhood survival mechanism. I got real good at ignoring all the stuff “out there” and focusing on all the stuff within a small little area (read, hiding space) that I could control. I’m sure there are better ways to learn how to focus, but lucky me (ha! ha!) I got this one for free so… hurray?
Let’s talk about the second one. And I’ll start with an immediate example: I sat down at my desk with every intention of writing this newsletter about 30 minutes ago. After about 15 minutes of staring at my screen, and making a few false starts, I realized I wasn’t ready to be sitting in front of my laptop yet. So I went to the kitchen, washed the dishes, and cleaned the sink. Now my sink is clean. But even better, while I was doing that I realized, hey, this is the story that answers the newsletter question. So then I came back to my laptop and started typing.
Never walk into a room without knowing why you are there. “I need to write a newsletter” isn’t knowing why you are there, “I know exactly what to write” is. Problems are rarely solved and executed in the same room.
It’s the same when I paint, or “make real things” as you put it. I try not to go into my studio without a plan. Sometimes that plan is set days in advance, sometimes it happens on the bike ride over. For example, take that generic non-trademarked rabbit painting you see above. For reasons, I painted five (four are part of a larger painting) and I gave myself a week to do it. That meant that on Tuesday I had to prep the panels, on Wednesday I had to finish the underpainting, on Thursday I had to do the clear layer on top of it, and on Friday I had to carve the outlines. Five times. And yes, I take breaks to check my phone, see what’s happening in the world, etc. But I can’t spend too much time doing that cause I have a deadline.
For this to work, you have to honor the deadlines you give yourself. But even more so, you have to honor time. Capitalism is (sadly) real and there will always be a certain amount of time that you will have to sell to meet your basic needs. (Sadly capitalism is SO real, that you can sell ALL of your time and STILL not meet your basic needs.) But if you are lucky enough that you have squirreled away some time for yourself, you need to honor it. Spend it doing what you love. Whether that be painting, or writing, or gardening (although, personally I thing gardening is just digging a grave in really slow motion, some people seem to enjoy it), or making music, or making zines, or sometimes, yes, just fucking around on your phone for a while because that’s just where your head is at the moment.
The terrible things on your phone will still be there after you’ve spent an hour or two doing your thing. And if they’re not? Well, that’s fine too.
🔮 Got a question? Ask it!
💵 Has your college-aged child just decided they want to go to design school? Don’t freak out. Buy them a zine. It'll help pay off those student loans.
👕 My friend Jason Cosper, who started Tim Walz Fixed Your Bicycle, is now selling shirts and caps, for those with torsos and/or heads.
🍉 Last week I mentioned IF NOT NOW, a Jewish Advocacy group fighting to end U.S. support for Israel's apartheid system, and stupidly forgot to add a link. Correcting that this week. My apologies.
Be kind to each other.