Make More Art

I have been watching a lot of videos lately.

It was just before Christmas (after one too many disagreements with the boys before school) and with the agreement of bigger boy, that I dumped the TV and put his steel pan in its place, to encourage music-making instead of screen watching before school. The exercise was not entirely successful as the battles that used to reign over TV time have just been transferred to computer time, but hey, we muddle on… and the music does get played, almost daily.

Anyway, I digress. I have found myself watching more and more videos (as there are so many inspiring ones out there) online related to creativity and entrepreneurship and the like. The choice, for those of us who are slowly finding our way forward, doing work that we love, is vast indeed, but two of them really struck me recently. The first was filled with words of wisdom from Ira Glass. If you are stuck right now, struggling with the gap between what you create in your mind and what you create on paper, you could not find a better way to spend the next 2 minutes than this. Watch it now and let me know how it makes you feel… for me, it was incredibly liberating.

So, with all of what Ira shared in mind, here I am, putting myself on a deadline, trying to create a volume of work, fighting my way through it.

The second video I want to share with you today is a shortened version of Neil Gaiman’s commencement speech to the University of the Arts class of 2012 in which he stresses that, when times get tough, we must make good art. Now, it might seem a little strange to you that I am sharing these videos together, but I think by the time you have watched this second one, you will understand.

I don’t feel that I am yet at a place of making consistently good art, but for now, I am ready and willing to make more art until I get there.

Are you ready to take action… to make art, make good art or make more art?
Please do let me know what these videos have inspired you to do today.

With my love,
Julia x