Three Superimposed Things

Three Superimposed Things

I overlaid these studio-tidbits for this post, and now I'm wondering if something like this might be good for Alicia Hansen's new album cover. (She's asked me to do the art). Her next album is coming out in Spring 2018 and it's so vulnerable, heartfelt and raw that I can't stop crying when I listen to it.

She gave me permission to post the lyrics to one of her new songs, which fits the theme of the blog:

I Don't Believe It

Maybe I suffer from grand delusions

Maybe you should sell your soul down the river

Maybe we have made nothing but poor choices

Maybe they were right about that after all

But I don’t believe it, I don’t believe it

I don’t believe it, and nor do you

Maybe I lack essential drive

Maybe you really are too sensitive

Maybe we are naïve and foolish

Maybe they were right about that after all

But I don’t believe it, I don’t believe it

I don’t believe it, I don’t believe it

(addendum: She thinks it might be too "bodily fluid" coloured. Point taken.)

 

 

Fantasy Land

Sunday Snapshot

I struggle to describe myself as an artist, because I straddle so many mediums and genres. Because of that, I sometimes feel like there is no focus.

I need to continually remind myself that my focus is the process.

By process, I mean that it's not about the outcome - it's about showing up to the studio and listening to what wants to come out of me that day. It's not about forcing a project to completion - it's about trusting that some projects will come to completion in a joyful way if I just show up and keep making. Perhaps my description as an artist will be the aggregate of all my work when I die. It's not my job to determine what that is.

I have a quote from Will Smith that I think about a lot: (From subreddit /r/inspirationalquotes ):

"You don't try to build a wall, you don't set out to build a wall. You don't say 'I'm going to build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that's ever been built.' You don't start there....You say 'I'm going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid'. And you do that every single day and soon you have a wall."

For me to perfectly lay a brick, I need the studio to be a safe place. This is where I come to evade the chaos of the internet, the expectations of others, and the responsibilities of the rest of my life.

It needs to be a safe place because this is where I need to be able to continually say, "This is not possible," and do it anyways.

I need to be working on the impossible, because if I thought I was making something that was already predetermined and easy and known, it would be a waste of time, and uninteresting to me. There is no point to making art if you already know what it's going to be.

My studio is a Fantasy Land, where I build impossible, joyful little bricks. One by one, it happens - every morning.

 http://draworbedrawn.com/