OPOE helps creative people get their message out.
article by Gregory Ciotti
When it comes to doing creative work, it’s important to not only look for ways to let our creativity thrive, but to also be mindful of insidious “creativity killers” that can sneak up and strangle our ability to come up with our best ideas. According to research from Harvard University, there are five main culprits that are responsible for killing our creativity.
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John Cleese gives a talk on creativity. It’s a bit long, so if you don’t have a good 30 minutes now, bookmark it for later. Very worth it!
It’s easy to think that your artist statement or your portfolio or your brand is all about you. After all, you put in the long hours and drank too much coffee while you hustled from project to project. This is your baby and you know best, right?
The truth is that you know your work from the inside out, but sharing your talent with others requires you to frame your work in a way that other people will get excited about. The more you allow other people’s opinions coexist within the context of your work, the easier it will be for them to participate and share your project with a larger audience.
Start by testing the waters with a small group of people whose feedback is valuable to you. Don’t just look for cheerleaders; criticism is an important tool that can help you refine your narrative. A thumbs-up may stroke your ego, but talking it out with naysayers gives you the opportunity to refine your ideas.
Once you’ve seen your work from the perspective of your audience, you’ll see greater returns when promoting your portfolio. One person can make amazing work, but making champions of your audience is the key to a really successful creative business.
February Inspiration File: Michael Mapes.
Thanks to a tip from the local Boston artist group Rifratkt, I checked out the quirky website of photo-based artist Michael Mapes. His recomposed portraits as collections of specimens is pretty awesome, and might make him a part of my collection of favorite artists who collect biographical things (see Candy Jernigan or Joseph Cornell) Actual biographic details including DNA in the form of fingernails, tears, etc are included in each piece as well. This Slate article shows a couple of angled detail shots of what the pinned pieces look like.
(via rifrakt)
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It’s 2013. Go do something!
A charming video from Vaudeville Pictures showing off a little bit of Beantown during the holidays…
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December Inspiration File: Android Jones
Andrew Jones has worked with George Lucas at Industrial Light and Magic, made album covers for musicians, and was the only North American concept artist for Nintendo. The detail in his elaborate illustrations could even freak out Philip Dick.
Answer from Diane Meriwether on Quora:
There’s a story out there…
Nikola Tesla visited Henry Ford at his factory, which was having some kind of difficulty. Ford asked Tesla if he could help identify the problem area. Tesla walked up to a wall of boilerplate and made a small X in chalk on one of the plates. Ford was thrilled, and told him to send an invoice.
The bill arrived, for $10,000. Ford asked for a breakdown. Tesla sent another invoice, indicating a $1 charge for marking the wall with an X, and $9,999 for knowing where to put it.
No doubt apocrypha, but the point is clear — professional artists charge because what they do and see is hard earned and valuable.
To pay for art is to celebrate your own capacity to be surprised and moved. It lets you participate and share in what you cannot create. It stands as visible proof that you have faith in your own abundance. It’s a way of voting for more of what you love in the world.
Believing that creativity should not be supported is a poverty that wealth cannot cure.
Making connections between ideas is the hallmark of the creative mind. However, it is much easier to associate similar ideas, such as maple with oak, than it is to find the connection between less similar ideas, like oak and wine.
The further off the path you ask your audience to go when pitching a project, the more resistance you may encounter. Have confidence in your vision, and persist. The unlikely is not impossible.
This article about Lynn Zwerling’s Knitting Behind Bars program in GOOD Magazine is an excellent example.
“Have no fear of perfection. You’ll never reach it.”
