What are you waiting for?

Dispatch #43: A whole new way of being

Dear friend,

No matter who you are, there’s an artist inside of you.

sketch from my notebook, 2024

Maybe you’ve already met them, maybe not. Maybe you think being artist is an occupation and you’re “just” a teacher, an engineer, an organizer, etc. But the artist inside you knows better. They have been waiting to spend time with you for your whole life. If you’ve left them dusty on an inner-shelf for a while, they’re still there for you. Somehow, they’re not bored or judgmental. They’re excited. Because the artist within is always full of good will & joyous patience. Still, something keeps you from dusting them off & looking through their eyes. Perhaps it’s how much time has passed, or the lack of it – your busyness, or your fear.

Today I want to give you some tools to counter whatever holds you back: procrastination, preciousness, self-doubt, fear. The writer Julia Cameron has the wonderful recommendation of going on an “artist date” for an hour or two weekly. But I want to invite you into something else altogether. It’s not a regimented & scheduled “artist date” but a whole new way of being, “artist mode.”

What is “artist mode”?

When we invite ourselves into artist mode we stop secluding art-making to a particular time or place. We change our lens, our whole paradigm. Life itself becomes art & we start walking through it with more sensitivity, curiosity & non-attachment to any final product. Artist mode is a way of being. It is a way of waking up. It is egalitarian: a restaurant paper napkin is just as viable as a canvas in a studio. Whether you have a camera or not, it’s your inner artist lens that matters. Around every corner is possibility: a new texture, color, or shape. With every turn we ask: What makes something beautiful? What sings to my blood? Artist mode is wholly concerned with discovery, possibility, & joy.

What are some principles of “artist mode”?

• Spend it all: Annie Dillard teaches us to not hoard. Anti-hoarding thus becomes a gateway to generosity, naturalness, & abundance. What’s better for creativity than that?

  

• Be cosmic: In third grade I had an epiphany. During a science lesson my teacher showed this video. As I watched the perspective shift from micro to macro to micro, my mind was blown. Life as I knew it changed! The alchemist Hermes Trismegistus may have never seen this video, but he still had an inkling to its lessons. The name of the game is magnitude which invites empathy.

  

• Let mortality be your compass: The brilliant Ana Božičević urges us to keep loss at the forefront. Nothing is final! We’re all going to die! That includes everyone that might judge you! So why not have a little fun & make something!

  

• Be afraid: You can be afraid & do it anyway. So says Melissa Febos, exploding the myth of writer’s block (image via J. Wortham).

  

• Be an apprentice…forever: Carl Phillips warns us that what we hope to master “can never be mastered” (excerpt via Lisa Olivera). But this is not to crush us; rather, to invigorate us always toward the unknown. Pair Phillips’ wisdom with Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind & you’ve got a potent brew.

  

• Practice mosaicism: Anais Nin invites us into mosaicism (yup, I made up a term, why not) & so into process-oriented thinking! Be like a beaver: assemble as you go. Dive underwater, build, dive underwater, build. It could take months or years. Who cares? Mosaicism delights in collaging. That’s the fun of it. Amy Lin echoes this anti-assembly line, anti-linearity thinking, inviting us out of trying to control & into stunning, messy life.

  

  

• Don’t be a genius, be a scenius: (via Jocelyn K. Glei & kk.org) Brian Eno, who coined the term, says “Scenius stands for the intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene. It is the communal form of the concept of the genius.” Create in a group. Rely on the collective. Don’t fall for the myth of having to be a a lone creative savant from birth; plug into a wild network of creativity, say, like this July’s session of In Surreal Life!

  

  sketch from my notebook, 2023

• Care. Elie Wiesel reminds us that caring is vulnerable & the opposite of everything deadening. When we numb out we lose out on life in all its vividness & possibility.

  

• Contradict yourself: I love this quote from Elena Ferrante. What would it be like to risk ugliness? To allow oneself to get knocked off balance, to even invite it? To abandon resolution for more true-to-life mixed-up feelings? Her language transports me to a place of contradiction & so, to a place of tension & power.

  

• Last but not least: OWN IT!

Artist mode is how I grew up. In high school, I was surrounded by friends who kept this lens on, no matter where we were. This scenius I was so lucky to be a part of always kept art-making at the forefront. What we made could be disposable, transient, something we left behind for the next person to find. It could be silly, it could be deep – the point was it could be anything. I created In Surreal Life (whose July session is now open for applications btw!) to keep the spirit of scenius alive, to invite souls from all over the globe to join in on a new paradigm, a new way of living & relating. My hope is that you got a taste of that today.

When we welcome artist mode what we’re doing is, essentially, not waiting for external circumstances to open up before us as these intoxicatingly inspiring skies filled with lightning bolts.

No, no, friends. We are already, quite literally, that sky filled with lightning bolts. Neurons, bones, blood, eyes, feet, fingers, breath, oh my! We are literal webs of electricity. Even by standing still, we are already dancing.

So, what are you waiting for?

Angel points, I heel-click, Ireland, 2024

With ample maple syrup,