What is an artist? What is art? How is an artist defined and who exactly gets to set the definition? Is everyone an artist like Picasso said or is it that creative genius is reserved for those fortunate enough to be blessed with talent at birth as the ancient Greeks and Romans believed?
How To Create Order From Chaos
How To Create Order From Chaos In today’s Sunday Letters, I’m taking a look at how we can create order from chaos. I’m staying with The Artist’s Manifesto until publication on October 15th, and This article is part two of chapter eight, titled; The Creative Self. Many of us in western industrialised society do not […]
The Creative Self: Who Is Doing The Making?
Do know who you are? Are you consistent and steady in your daily creative endeavours, confident in the face of the sometimes harsh responses to your work? Or maybe there is silence, nobody pays attention. How does that affect you? Your driver’s licence has a name and a photograph. Your online social profiles, your employee records, your tax accounts, birth certificate and other records all represent a fixed and unchanging you. But are you fixed and unchanging?
The Paradox of Work: Introduction To The Artist’s Manifesto
In today’s Sunday Letters article, I’m taking a look at the paradox of work. We need it but we resent it. Given the choice, if the need for money was not the prime mover, we might not even do what we do. We can’t wait to get away from it. We look forward to Fridays and dread Monday mornings. There is the belief in us that somewhere in the future it will get better, we’ll have more money, life will be easier.
The Artist’s Manifesto Book Launch Date
After a considerable amount of time chin scratching, I have finally set a date for The Artist’s Manifesto Launch. My previous date for publication came and went due to other commitments. The completion of the new studio/office took precedence, and oh I must not forget that little detail of needing to fund that project. Other commitments came into play there too.
Time To Quit
Giving up, quitting on something is kind of frowned upon, isn’t it? I mean, there seems to be this popular notion in western industrialised society that to kill something that’s not working is a terrible thing. It seems there’s virtue in keeping something alive that’s dying. It might bring you to your knees but by Jasus, you’d better keep trying to make it work as long as there’s a breath in your body or else
Saying Sorry: When Nothing Is Gained From Apologies
In today’s Sunday Letters I am taking a look at “saying sorry”, and what I see as a retrogression, a perpetuation of victim mentality in so many of us. Some of you will steadfastly disagree with the thrust of my argument, highlighting the moral necessity of recognising when we inflict hurt. Others of you I hope will see the validity of it.
Artistic Temperament And The Challenge Working With Others
I’m gonna let you in on something… sometimes I don’t work well with other people. Maybe it’s my artistic temperament or maybe I’m just an asshole.
Does It Make You Happy?
Does it make you happy? Work I mean. Are you content with your lot? Our western industrialised culture says that you shouldn’t be. To be content, to be happy where you are equals lack of ambition and stagnation. “Become a better version of you!” The 30-something internet self-development man says. To be ambitious in the modern sense is to believe in a future where life is better somewhere other than here and now Therefore life is not good where we are.
Eddie Doherty, Handweaver
Last Tuesday I paid a visit to Eddie Doherty, Handweaver in a small town called Adara, Co. Donegal on the northwest coast of Ireland. I had been in his shop a few days before, just browsing, not looking for anything in particular. When I saw the set-up, I immediately thought that a conversation between us would make a good episode for the Podcast.