Consistently Uncertain + I Released Music
Read for some good quotes from good books.
Keep Going - Austin Kleon
I recently finished reading Austin Kleon's book and enjoyed it. Here are some of my favorite parts:
Uncertainty
Here’s what he says about art and uncertainty:
Uncertainty is the very thing that art thrives on. The writer Donald Barthelme said that the artist’s natural state is one of not-knowing. John Cage said that when he was not working he thought he knew something, but when he was working, it was clear that he didn’t know anything. “This has been my job in a way,” says screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. “I sit at my desk, and I don’t know what to do.”
Surprising, isn’t it, the emphasis on not knowing? Kleon referenced Donald Barthelme. Here’s Barthelme’s words:
Writing is a process of dealing with not-knowing, a forcing of what and how. We have all heard novelists testify to the fact that, beginning a new book, they are utterly baffled as to how to proceed, what should be written and how it might be written, even though they’ve done a dozen. At best there’s a slender intuition, not much greater than an itch.
Art as a means of knowing
Here’s a quote from Kleon’s book (one of the things I admire about Austin Kleon is that he gathers good quotes):
“Drawing is the discipline by which I constantly rediscover the world. I have learned that what I have not drawn, I have never really seen, and that when I start drawing an ordinary thing, I realize how extraordinary it is, sheer miracle.”
- Frederick Franck
I interviewed an author who said something similar:
I think if you know exactly where a poem is going to go before you start it, it tends to be kind of boring, and not very fresh, not very interesting, and it might be better as a sermon or an essay than a poem, right? So I’m going to pay really close attention, and I’m going to look at those details, to try and be surprised, to see something I haven’t seen before, and in the process of that, I come to love that thing more, because I’ve been attentive to it.
Keep at it
I talked to my creative writing students last week that what matters as an artist is less about having produced something great but being in the process of creation and reflection.
Here’s more from Kleon:
No matter how successful you get, no matter what level of achievement you reach, you will never really arrive. Other than death, there is no finish line or retirement for the creative person. “Even after you have achieved greatness,” writes musician Ian Svenonius, “the infinitesimal cadre who even noticed will ask, ‘What next?’”
The truly prolific artists I know always have that question answered, because they have figured out a daily practice—a repeatable way of working that insulates them from success, failure, and the chaos of the outside world. They have all identified what they want to spend their time on, and they work at it every day, no matter what. Whether their latest thing is universally rejected, ignored, or acclaimed, they know they’ll still get up tomorrow and do their work.
This last chunk is one of my favorites:
We have so little control over our lives. The only thing we can really control is what we spend our days on. What we work on and how hard we work on it. It might seem like a stretch, but I really think the best thing you can do if you want to make art is to pretend you’re starring in your own remake of Groundhog Day: Yesterday’s over, tomorrow may never come, there’s just today and what you can do with it.
New Music Release!
I’ve released my first single of 2024. You can listen to it and support it on Bandcamp. It’s almost on major streaming platforms.
A Little Book
I watched a little video where Austin Kleon made a book out of a single piece of paper. So I made my own little book without storyboarding—just went with the flow, page to page.
My feelings about teaching are multidimensional. This little book conveys one tiny slice of the pie. Part of being human is that I was in this feeling, but, at the same time, I was outside of it and analyzing myself as a person feeling it. (Like an out-of-body experience but out-of-feeling-analysis of the feeling?) I felt it, I stand by it, and I critique it. While it sometimes lowers my moral to have students not value what I try hard to make valuable, I also understand that I teach English at a public high school. I mean c’mon, of course some students won’t be thrilled to be in class.
From School
My students seem to have taken an interest in my dating life recently (more than usual)...
Student: “Mr. Merrill, how was your break? Did you get a new girlfriend??”
Me: “Any questions?”
Student 1: “Do you have a girlfriend?”
Me: “I do not.”
Student 2: “Have you ever had a girlfriend??”
Student: “What if Mr. Merrill is actually secretly married?”
Student: “You’ve become a mean elf. Before the break, you were like Santa Claus.” (This was said in response to me being stricter on some classroom policies with the start of the new semester.)
Student: “Do you have friends or are you depressed and lonely?”
Student: “Not even 8 in the morning and that bathroom already smells like weed.”
Me: “How’s your week been?”
Student: “Pretty crazy.”
Me: “Yeah?”
Student: “When I was welding, I closed my eyes and almost burned myself.”
...
Same Student: “Also, I figured it out! You can use a welder to cook stuff.”
Student: “That last passage from The Great Gatsby was soooo beautiful. Just so good!”
Goodies
Rick Rubin ☞ He says that greatness in art comes as it is devotional (a gift to God/the universe). I aspire to create with pure intentions.
Niche - Ali Gallop ☞ Both the rapid style and sound design are fun. The intro segment alone!
Start - UTAH ☞ Fun song.
The Dipper - Kathleen Jamie ☞ Short little poem.
Cheers!
P.S. I have some websites that I’m proud of and might show you all.
Love the little booklet of thought.