Holly Denoncourt

If you're looking for a really good, really quick read consider Steal like an Artist: 10 things nobody told you about being creative by Austin Kleon. A great friend and artist of mine gave me this to read and I think I read it in less than an hour. This past semester I've been in a creative slump and this book as opened my mind and ideas revolving around said slumps.

"Don't throw any of yourself away. Don't worry about a grand scheme or unified vision for your work. Don't worry about the unity-- what unifies your work is the fact that you made it. One day, you'll look back and it will all make sense." As my time is academia is quickly coming to an end, I find myself holding closer to anything and everything I love to do. I love baking in the weekends, and I love watching crappy television. And while these things may seem stupid and a waste of time, they help break up my creative process. Everyone needs some down time so that we have to energy to put into the stuff we really care about, like making art.

"Our failures to copy our heros is where we discover where our own thing lives, that is how we evolve."He talks a lot about how we need to emulate and evolve from our heros. When I did the Julia Margaret Cameron emulation, the pictures that came from that I think I loved the most out of the work I did that semester. I think I should start emulating more. More research.

"Draw the art you want to see, start the business you want to run, play the music you want to hear, write the book you want to read, build the products you want to use-- do the work you want to see." It's hard to know what you want to see. But I think if you just create and do and make and be secure in your thoughts, you can make what you want to see. Do you like it. Then make it.

"Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again." I know this is about emulating work and copying your heros work again, but I kinda take it more as, I should be listening more. I should be a sponge and take in all I can. Be observant. Be watchful. Be attentive and vigilant. Be awake.

"You don't have to live anywhere other than the place you are to start connecting with the world you want to be in. If you feel stuck somewhere, if you're too young or too old or too broke, or if you're somehow tied down to a place, take heart. There's a community of people out there you can connect with." Yay internet! Connecting is now easy. And all artist should be connecting. Why make art if it's not to be shown? He said in the book that academic critiques are one of the only times in life people are going to be interested in your work. Make full use of that. Connect with the community around you, even if you think your town sucks. There are other people that think it sucks too.

"Enjoy Captivity." Follow a pattern and routine. I read an article awhile back about what makes people happy and how to get that happiness, and one of the things they talk about is having a routine. And while it may seem tedious at the time, our brain responds to the break in routine. If you go to work everyday and have rice for dinner and you do that everyday for two weeks and one night you decide you're going to have ice cream for dinner. You're going to have such a good night that night. It will be fun and it will work your brain. It's simple. But it makes you happy. And I don't know about you, but I want to be as happy as I can be.

"You have to find a place that feeds you-- creatively, socially, spiritually, and literally." Does my current place feed those for me? Creatively, yes... Newmarket is beautiful and small and forces me to look closer at the fixed things around me. On a bigger scale, New Hampshire is my home, my blood and my heart. I've been having the travel bug recently and I think it's because I've explored my heart and I'm sure of my heart and blood and I'm ready to explore someone else's heart. Socially, yes... I couldn't ask for better people to surround myself with. My friends are my family and constant rock. I have trust and compassion and fun right next door. They are my equals. Literally, yes... come on. I love food and Jade Garden is across the street. Spiritually, maybe... I think more recently I've been trying to figure this side of me out. It's something to work towards as I move forward. I would like to be more spiritually connected to whatever it is that's guiding my inner self.

"Not everyone will get it. People will misinterpret you and what you do. They might even call you names. So get comfortable with being misunderstood, disparaged, or ignored-- the trick is to be too busy doing your work to care." Get over it. Fuck off if you dont like my work. I'm okay with it. I'm not making work for you, I'm making it for me. I wanna look back on my work and say I stood behind what I liked and made things for me, not for a teacher or audience. Fuck off. What have you done lately?

"The truth is that even if you're lucky enough to make a living off doing what you truly love, it will probably take you a while to get to that point." Graduation is coming quick, and this is getting more and more real. But for the first time I feel like I'm ready to put in the work and time. I've always been someone who commits deeply, whether that's in relationships or projects or work, and I'm ready to fall hard again.

"Nothing is more paralyzing than the idea of limitless possibilities. The idea that you can do anything is absolutely terrifying." Bring. It. On. I've been waiting for this. How am I going to act when I can act however I want? I'll probably build a fort. And then once I fall, I will rise again. Society won't control me, but it can help guide me and thats frightening. Whats more frightening to me is committing and it not being enough. I don't want to get to the end of my life and look back and feel like I was too afraid to follow my dreams and thoughts and plans. I can do anything. Anything.

Great book. Read it.

"I think the truly natural things are dreams, which nature can't touch with decay." -Bob Dylan