Create & Release 12: Half the Battle
I saw Nine Inch Nails for the first time in 1989 at a little club in Atlanta, Georgia. They were the opener for Peter Murphy and while I had never heard the name Trent Reznor before, by the end of…
motivation
Deep Natter 13: If You Can Predict It, It Doesn’t Work
In this episode of Deep Natter, Sean and I are continuing a previous discussion about finding our why around the things we make. Sometimes, it’s easy to lose our way and we end up needing to make a few tweaks or…
Create & Release 11: A Subtle Shift in Perspective
When I was in college, I had a professor who used to say, “Being an artist requires one thing: the ability to see.” For decades, I’ve been interpreting that to mean the ability to see what it is that I…
Deep Natter 10: Moving Towards Something Meaningful
This is actually episode 10.5 or “10 Take Two” of Deep Natter, since we had a little bit of a power outage situation and had to record this week’s show a second time. It actually worked out for the best…
Create & Release 09: Special Thanks to David Letterman
It feels like over the past several weeks — maybe even months, since time sort of blurs together as of late — I’ve been finding a bunch of things, both online and off, to be inspired by. Since this is…
Deep Natter 05: Getting Beyond the Skills We Know
In this episode, Sean talks about a recent trip to London where he may have had his most productive day of photography ever, which is a pretty bold statement. We also talk about the importance of inspirational friends as well…
Deep Natter 04: What Does Looking Back Get You?
In this episode, Sean and I are talking about the idea of revisiting older work. Some people find value in looking back over what they’ve done, while others never do and instead are always looking to what comes next. While…
Deep Natter 03: Perfection and Other Fairy Tales
In this episode of Deep Natter, Sean Tucker and I are talking about perfection. They say that practice makes perfect, but I think as makers, deep down most of us know that perfect really doesn’t exist. Good? Sure. Great? Maybe,…
Create & Release 06: The Thing About Inspiration
In this installment, I want to tackle a question that I get asked all the time that really doesn’t have a simple answer: “how do you stay inspired?” The short answer is that I don’t, and frankly I would be…
Deep Natter 02: Chasing Idea Fuel
In this episode of Deep Natter, Sean Tucker and I are talking about effort, specifically whether and how and to what degree effort is connected to the value of the things we make. To help illustrate how effort can affect…
Deep Natter 01: You Can’t Control the Response
In this debut episode of Deep Natter, Sean Tucker and I are talking about long-term projects and curating our own work. Each of us have been circling a personal project for years and as luck would have it, coming…
Create & Release 05: Hard Reset
“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.” — Gustave Flaubert On December 6, 2014, one of my favorite photographers, Richard Koci Hernandez, deleted all of his images from his…
Create & Release 04: My Platform, My Choice
I had every intention of sending out this issue yesterday, but my conversation with Sean Tucker on Clubhouse (we’re doing them weekly on Tuesdays, if you’re interested) actually inspired me to bump what I had started and write something new.…
My Shows, Your Way
As many of you know, I currently produce three different podcasts, each with a different format and purpose. Process Driven is a deep-dive conversation with a single artist to talk about what they do and why they do it. In…
The Value of Value
One of the hardest things about being an artist — beyond the actual making of the art — is deciding how to value the work we make. For many of us — and I’m putting myself squarely in the middle…
Iteration 63: You Have to Plant a Foot
If you’ve listened to any of my shows before, you know that I spend a fair bit of time talking about creativity, both in the literal and in the abstract. I’m fascinated by how and why we create. Why for…
In Between 21: The Things We Hold Dear
When I was a kid, my mom used to say that if the house ever caught fire, the one thing she would grab before anything else was the box of family photos that she kept in her closet, which…
Iteration 62: What’s Next?
What happens next? That’s the question isn’t it? It’s something I get asked a lot, especially lately, both from friends and from strangers. I wish I had an answer but honestly I’m still spending a fair bit of time…
In Between 18: Balance and the Dark Side
Back in January, I came across a terrific piece of writing by author Paul Jarvis. One part of it in particular really spoke to some of the things I’ve wrestled with over the years — loving what you do, following…
In Between 15: Input, Inspiration, and Possibility
The recent death of Rush drummer Neil Peart hit me like a ton of bricks. While I consider myself a visual artist, I can’t think of a single painter, or sculptor, or photographer whose death has or even would affect…
Iteration 59: Big Projects, Little Victories
We’re getting close to the end of the year and if you’re like me, you’re already looking ahead to 2020 – maybe you have been for a while – trying to come up with some great new project or maybe…
A Day’s Work: Trailer
In 2021, I’m launching a brand new show that will be my most ambitious project to date. A Day’s Work is a podcast about how we spend our time when we’re not with family and friends. Inspired by the landmark work…
In Between 12: A Continual Refinement
The tormented artist. You’ve heard the term — hell you may even be one yourself. I know I was. For years, I was absolutely convinced that if my art wasn’t the albatross around my neck, that I was somehow unworthy…
What’s a Mentor Got To Do With It?
I got an email a couple weeks ago from a listener asking if I had any advice for finding a mentor. Now, while I have been incredibly fortunate to have had – and frankly still have – some amazing people…
Iteration 57: Asking a Deeper Why
Earlier this week, Adrianne and I watched the first episode of the new season of Abstract on the Netflix . For those of you who haven’t seen it, Abstract is a fantastic show about art and design. It follows roughly…
Iteration 56: Go Off on a Tangent
Adrianne and I were in the car the other day — I don’t remember where we were going but I do remember that we were listening to Classic Vinyl on XM because we both really dig Meg Griffin. The Low…
In Between 11: What Counts as Art?
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about art – specifically, what really counts as art? Is the art the thing that we make? Or, is in the doing? The making itself. Or is art in the reaction to work —…
Iteration 55: Sometimes It’s Better Not To
A couple weeks ago, I had a terrific conversation with an artist whose work I’ve admired for years. And while it was a treat to get to talk to someone who has inspired me for decades, the work was only…
In Between 10: Selfish in a Good Way
A week or so ago, I was talking to my friend Gareth about how frustrated I was in not feeling like I had a clear and consistent creative voice. It’s not uncommon for me to feel overwhelmed and frankly paralyzed…
In Between 09: Who Owns Your Happiness?
Are you happy? If not, why do you think that is? For a lot of people who make things and share what they make online — myself included — we have a tendency to abdicate our happiness to the fickle…