daily drawing

What was the last piece of any kind of art (song, play, book, poem, painting, photo, film - whatever) that made you cry. Or if you aren’t a cryer like I am, gave you a profound emotional reaction.

And I’m not talking about a sad scene in a movie - not something necessarily designed to make you cry. I’m talking the full-on connection moment of something being like…so beyond good, so true for you.

Just something I’m thinking about tonight cause I’m a little emo (not in a bad way).

If you answer, please be specific.

I have a new little shop on etsy called Anchor Tag.  It’s not open yet, but will be very soon!

So here’s a little preview of an item I’m putting up.  Completely random and somewhat frivolous.

It’s called a Pretendo Cartridge.  These would make great drink coasters!  Just sayin’.

More of this silliness and also some useful items to come!  Stay tuned.

Can’t I skip the rest of the day?  I just want to go home, get out my big bag of magazine clippings and pretty paper and glue shit.

I want to make a mess.  I want to make some pretty crafts.  I want to glue shit.  Now.

Linocut in progress.

Finished! Proofs tomorrow and then I need to decide what I will be printing exactly.

anchortag:

A greeting card just uploaded to the shop.  Hand-drawn + inked.  I’m doing a bunch of these.  The point is to just sit down and finish a card I’m happy with in one sitting, like a little drawing exercise.  I love the way this one came out!

I have a crush on John T. Unger’s firebowls.  Both the ability to create something like this and the unbelievable objects themselves.  Made from recycled steel.  

((swoon)) 

There will be one of these out in my yard, behind my dreamhouse.  (The one by the ocean). 

anchortag:

Hogwarts Trio by Nan Larson

!!!

How excellent are these?  I so want them for my office/studio!

austinkleon:

There’s a video of Rainn Wilson (the actor who plays Dwight on the office) going around of him talking about “creative block” and how to get over it. His advice:

If you don’t know who you are or what you’re about or what you believe in it’s really pretty impossible to be creative.

If I waited to know “who I was” or “what I was about” before I started “being creative”, well, I’d still be sitting around trying to figure myself out instead of making things…

word, Austin K.   (Go read his whole post, it’s excellent.)

And I would like to add this: Not only would I still be sitting around trying to figure myself out, I would never have figured out that making things *is* who I am.   The act of writing, painting, knitting, making crafts, playing with stuff and making big messes…. is the best part of me.  Not just the results.  Not what I can sell or what people like, but the actual process of being an artist is really alchemy.  I feel like an alchemist when I’m able to make things out of nothing.  I get transformed.  I become capable of more, more inspired, more creative.

I often hear people say the best ideas come to us in the car, or the shower or right before sleep and you can’t write them down.  And 99% of people have great ideas, don’t consider themselves artists or people who can make shit, and so they do nothing.   Start doing… the ideas will start coming ALL the time.  You will have notebooks filled with them once you start writing them down and taking the actual steps.  I promise.  Don’t wait.  Don’t wait.  Don’t wait.

And maybe, like, me… you’ll find out that you are your best self taking action, regardless of what is being created.