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Paris and the Superficial Memes of Selfieness Tragedy

Any tragic world event is an opportunity to convey meaning for profit — personally, politically, fiscally or morally — and the instant rise of the “Peace for Paris” logo designed by Jean Jullien “one minute” after the tragedy, and then immediately posting the image to Facebook and Twitter, begs a larger human question of “selfieness” and cynicism: Is an Artist trying to give hope against trafficking in evil, or is it all a rather cunning ploy to “make the meme” for a tragedy by propagating self-interest-as-a-logo over the perils of human interest?

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Letter to a Young Artist: Popularity and Commerce Must Not Matter

I’m always disappointed when I talk to Artists and the first thing they start telling me is their resume, how many blog hits they have, how many tickets they’ve sold and how many social media followers they have.  I’m dismayed not by their success, but by the business metrics they’re using to calculate what will always be only a fleeting, and diminishing, rate of return.  Art must not be commerce. Creation must not be commercial.  The Arts must never belong to the business school. The only thing of value you have as an Artist — and can control forever — is your belief in what you know is true and how that knowledge affects the quality of the work you produce falling into the long game beyond the grave.

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Writing a Million Words a Year

I usually write 3,500 words a day for publication, six days a week.  That daily effort averages out to a million words a year.  Those writing numbers are numbing and they don’t include the daily grind of writing emails or crafting shopping lists or the rare, luxuriant, instance of love letter making. 

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Every Day Proves Itself

Every Day Proves Itself.  That is my mantra.  Yesterday doesn’t matter.  Tomorrow never arrives.  Today, this moment, that instant — the notion of the immediate now — is the prime drive of the day.

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Knowing Your Work Wins Your Wants

Too often we are forced to do work that only sustains us and does not win out wants.  How we combine the work into winning is the complex conundrum that fascinates few and frustrates many.

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