Create Therapy

There's a lot that's happened lately in my home country - it's been distracting to say the least.

It's times like these where having an outlet is helpful. Here's what happened when I turned to the studio on Wednesday after the election. 

The Art of Death.

Here's this piece of art we got from Hyland Mather(x-o) - I think it's one of his very early works. It was a present from him for my birthday. It hangs above our front door. When I see this it makes me remember that Death is not an option. 

Full disclosure, there have been a few times in my life when I thought, maybe. Maybe death was an option - but I firmly believe that when you take yourself OUT of the game, you are just forced to start ALL over again from the beginning - which means rolling the dice to who's kid you get to be the next time around. No thanks, I'd rather stick with what I know and just figure this shit out. 

Since Death is the ONLY thing we have to fear in life, I have finally gotten to the place in my life where I actually DO fear death. I got shit to do and I really want to do it. In that way, the years I have left feel like too little and I want to make the MOST of them. 

I want you to get the most of your years left - let's face it, you have no idea how many of years that really is.... so are you missing something? LIke maybe your Creativity? Your connection to your own inner self is full of creativity.... it's like a child that's waiting to go out and play - here's how to kick start your Creative juices:

1) Go to a store and check out materials, then go home, 2) When you wake up the next morning, see what material you saw that you're still thinking about - go back and buy it, 3) Schedule three hours of uninterrupted time, if you can't do that, learn time management and try again OR get a buddy to help you commit, 4) Put your phone away and don't touch it for those three hours, if you touch it, you owe me €20, 5) Play with your materials - which means NO goals, NO end product, NO analysis, NO tweeting, 6) Make a mess, 7) Share your experience - do it at work, 8) repeat.

You can read all about the power of play here and the power of playing in mud here.

ENJOY.

Don't start where you are, start with play.

As I am prepping for my talk at Creative Mornings next week, I am reconnecting with the concept of Magic and it's pre-requisite: Play. What I am thinking a lot about these days is how seldom we're asked to get outside of our comfort zone. As adults I think we create these sanctioned avenues for safe exploration - like our hobbies or social engagements, but even those are within an easily identifiable safe zone. There's nothing wrong with this, it's just where we are.... but life wasn't made to be so predictable,  so even when these safe structures exist, inevitably life is gonna screw them up. What helps in these moments is knowing how to be flexible. When we do all our regular adult stuff in our safe zones, we sometimes lose flexibility - and that's why we need to create time to play.

In my current projects I emphasize participation and mostly I do this because I want people to play with. Play is great and most of us have forgotten how to do it - I'll give you a practical guide to it if you want it, just send me an email.

Creativity is your Art.

It's really easy to say that you're not an artist. An artist is someone we think of as this special breed of creative - they make things based on their inspiration that serves to communicate on it's own. That form of communication stands alone and has it's own aesthetic that "experts" have been trying to categorize and quantify for years - but really, in the end, an artist is a creative that just got lucky. Someone somewhere saw what the creative was doing, heard what they were communicating and decided to promote it.... or even, sometimes, the creative found ways to just promote their work themselves until they found their audience.

Check out Thierry Guetta (aka Mr. Brainwash) - he's a guy that met a bunch of street artists and then decided to be one, sunk a shit ton of money into it, hired a bunch of kids to help him do it and made his fame (check out Exit Through the Gift Shop). It was an unconventional approach but It worked.

As far as I can tell, the thing that really makes an artist is a sincere and lasting choice to do it. It's the same as a commitment to a relationship - you have to do it every day and sometimes that takes a LOT of help, but always that choice has to come from the heart.