Art Happens... Here
I stumbled upon this really inspirational show called "Art Happens Here with John Lithgow" (Check out the trailer here).
Picture this: John Lithgow (yeah, the dude from 3rd Rock From the Sun and a gazillion other things) willingly subjects himself to the horrors and joys of going back to school.
And what's the catch? He's there to prove a point about the magic of arts education. From dance to ceramics, silk-screen printing to vocal jazz ensemble, Lithgow dives headfirst into it all, showcasing how creativity can be the ultimate life hack
In his own words, Lithgow states:
"The arts give young people all sorts of tools to move on in life, even in the other areas of academia...They teach them discipline and hard work and patience and collaboration and cooperation and civility. They give young people an early sense of empathy....Hi everybody I'm John Lithgow. Come along and watch me go back to school. Printmaking, ceramics, vocal jazz ensemble, and dance. And celebrate arts in education with a bunch of incredible kids. It's called Art Happens Here."
Now, let's talk about you…
You are never too old to learn or grow. (and I'm not just saying that because I keep getting older...)
It's easy to get stagnant. Complacent. Comfortable.
When was the last time you tried something new? Perhaps something you really suck at? (we don't like that part. We want to be immediately great out of the gate!)
But hey, that's where the magic happens. It's about breaking through those self-imposed ceilings and embracing the chaos of learning something new. (yes, messy)
So, here's the challenge: sign up for a class in a completely alien (yes, a nice call back to 3rd Rock show.. wink, wink) creative discipline. Watch how it shakes up your world, how it breathes new life into your tired routine. And if you're feeling a bit lonely on this journey, fear not! Join us at the Daily Creative Habit Membership for some much-needed company.
In the end, just remember: age is just a number, and learning is a lifelong adventure.
Whatever you do, just be sure to never stop learning and growing. Your creativity depends on it!
Lost your creative Mojo and feeling burned out?
Talent isn’t enough.
The first time I heard that statement, I don’t think I really agreed, until I took a closer look.
I had seen plenty of talented people have lots of opportunities that seemed to elude me. But I also have witnessed fellow art school students who were the top of the class talent-wise, crash and burn, leaving their art and creativity behind completely.
And all these years later, I have seen the same for many successful professional creative people.
It’s entirely possible to seem to have it all from an outward appearance, but to feel creatively bankrupt inside.
You can have an impressive client list.
You can have tons of awards and accolades.
You can be postured publicly for success.
And be utterly frustrated and dissatisfied.
I worked with fellow creatives in large advertising agencies with huge global corporate clients you would know. So much creative energy was leveraged for the clients that nothing was left for their personal expression. The clients were king, leaving them feeling like there was no room for self-expression or creative freedom in their life. Creating significant work seemed elusive.
It’s easy to build an empire that you can’t escape from. The never-ending cycle of creative pitches, client kiboshes, followed by frustration and discouragement. Rinse and repeat.
And it’s even more devastating when that empire is yanked away from you, because the powers that be decide on “creatively flushing the system” or the economy turns upside-down. I witnessed this up close in my first full-time creative position. Wide sweeping firing at all levels of the corporation in order to get "new blood." Talent couldn’t save anyone.
While not everything you create is meant for public consumption or has a place within client-driven projects, what I am saying is that we need our own creative space. No clients. No agendas. No financial pressures. A place where we are free to play, experiment and make mistakes without occupational repercussions.
While everyone is clamoring for the latest and greatest creative ideas, it’s easy to copy the culture around us while never diving deep enough to find something connected to what we uniquely have to offer. But here’s the honest truth: if you don’t take the time to cultivate your own voice, no one is going to do it for you.
This has all been part of my own creative journey. And as I talk with fellow creative people, I know I’m not alone. Does this resonate?
That’s a part of why I launched the Daily Creative Habit Membership. It's a place to invest in YOU and your creativity. To hone your voice, style, see results and creative transformation through consistent work. All in the context of a supportive creative community, and a live monthly call.
If you're ready to reignite your passion, discover your unique voice, and build a wellspring of creative inspiration, head over to the Daily Creative Habit Membership to learn more about or join today:
How Can Visual Artists and Creatives Leverage Clubhouse App?
Follow me - @mikebrennan on Clubhouse
A quick disclaimer: I’m super new to this beta platform. Things are changing rapidly, but here’s my initial thoughts.
So what is Clubhouse?
There’s a new social media app called Clubhouse. Now, if you're not familiar with Clubhouse, you're not alone. It's very new, and still in beta mode, but essentially, Clubhouse is an audio only, invitation only (at the moment), social media app that's currently available for the iPhone only. So they've really narrowed things down to start with. I'm sure there'll be opening things up more as they roll things out. It took me a little while to get on. I kept seeing people posting about this app clubhouse and I started having, you know, serious case of FOMO, fear of missing out and was thinking to myself, I need to get on this thing. I want to find out what it is!
I tend to be a little bit more on the early adopter side. So for me, I really wanted to explore and be a part of some of the conversations that were happening there.
In Clubhouse there are “rooms” and people that you can follow like on all of the social media platforms. But unlike other social media platforms, there are no visuals other than your avatar profile icon . And there's no way of actually leaving or likes or comments. It's purely audio.
Upon entering the app, you see the “hallway”, which shows all the rooms with various themes that are happening. You might have themes that are around podcasting, making money, building your business, pop culture, art, faith, and just hang out rooms. Some of what you see depends on the people that you follow and their interests. You have to be a little more strategic as far as who you follow based on interest.
So in the hallway, you pick a room that you want to join. When you join in that room, there is someone who has created the room up, who is the main “speaker”, and typically the moderator as well. And then there's usually other people, who are “speakers” up on “stage.” You or other room members can be invited to come up on stage to share or ask a question. And the “listeners” (other people in the room) are hanging at the bottom of the room visually. They cannot speak unless they are invited to come on stage.
Anyone has the ability to enter any room, and either listen or participate. If someone wants to participate and they “raise their hand” (there's a little hand icon that you hit) to let the people in charge, know that you have a question or that you want to participate in some way. Then you wait to be invited up on “stage”, You unmute your mic on your phone and you ask your question and then mute it again. And everyone takes turns talking about whatever the various topics are.
That's kind of the general idea of Clubhouse. A lot of people think it's going to be a real game changer, as far as social media.
But I started wondering if there was any benefit to being on Clubhouse as a visual artist…
As I started to poke around, I searched to see if there were other visual artists and creative people. What I found was a variety of creative people on there (photographers, filmmakers, graphic designers, musicians, fine artists). So I ducked into some of their rooms. And I what I found was pretty fascinating.
It's a little bit like the Wild West right now in Clubhouse, because everyone is trying to figure out how to use it and what proper etiquette is. Everyone's a newbie.
No one needs something that's going to be another complete time-suck and waste of time. We have enough of those. So people are looking for what's the benefit, what's the value here? How can they show up and bring value? How can they create some things that are missing?
I ducked into a room that was for visual artists specifically, because this to me was the real test. If you can't see the art, what would this room look like? Was it going to be people just talking about their art? Or just a bunch of people sharing some art tips?
They opened the floor up for some questions. Some people asked questions about technique or about supplies, methods, things of that nature. Or they talked about what their subject matter was, or maybe process, or important themes within their artwork. Others talked about trying to market and sell their artwork, inquiring about connecting with clients and buyers.
At one point the room moderator said, “okay, we're going to reset the room a little bit here and just tell anybody new who's coming in, here's the expectation and purpose of the room” And then they announced taking a 10 minute break in the conversation for anyone who wanted to create something live while hanging out in the room. They played some music created by one of the people in the room, or a playlist from the person in charge.
I hung around to see what would happened, asking myself “how are people going to share what they're working on?” You can't share photos because it's not part of the platform, but you can temporarily change your avatar icon photo. People changed it from the photo of themselves to their work in progress. This allowed people right within the app to click on that little avatar and to see a larger photo of what the person was working on. They also shared some of the things that they were struggling with, ask for feedback in real time.
I wouldn’t have thought there would have been value in having a group of visual artists together on an audio only platform, but seeing people come together for community and connection in real time was pretty great.
Another room I entered had creatives sharing about what their biggest struggling in 2020 has been. Person after person shared stories of income loss, battling with anxiety and depression, as well as important business lessons they learned. When creative people are brave enough to share their stories and experiences, we start to see we’re not alone.
I had the opportunity to cohost a room about the Pixar movie Soul and the lessons about creativity is presented, alongside my friend Terry Weaver. We had a lively chat about what moved us in the film, and how the creative issues it brought to light effected us.
Terry Weaver and I co-hosted a room on Clubhouse talking about the Pixar movie Soul and the powerful themes presented for creatives.
I was pretty convinced that there's something special happening here on Clubhouse. And I think this is only getting continued to grow. Those who are on the platform early will have the opportunity to be a part of setting the tone and the pace and filling in some of those gaps that I mentioned before.
I also joined in a room that was talking about cryptocurrency and crypto art.
Now, if you have no idea what I'm talking about right now, don't worry because honestly, I really didn't know what this conversation was about other than the fact that it had “art” in the title. What I found out was there's a whole other world out there - a digital one (No, not The Matrix). Some people call it like “the metaverse” (Kind of like a Virtual Reality Minecraft word). I'm not going to get too deep into that. (And if you're somebody who's reading and you knew more about that kind of stuff I'd love to hear more about it from your side of things.)
Within this world, there are people who are creating art galleries, wanting to set up experiences. The end user would put on virtual reality glasses (Oculus or whatever technology) to enter and view this virtual reality world where they would be able to actually step into these visual paintings and experience things on a whole new level.
That's where this whole thing of crypto art and cryptocurrency comes in. There are artists who are creating digital artwork, digital art shows and galleries. There's exclusivity in some of the digital art where they authenticate pieces. That's how they know that that's the “original”, otherwise with digital work, you could be reproducing and I'm sharing it in multiple places. If somebody is paying for a piece of fine art at a high price, they want to know that this is the real deal, and that it’s authentic (and rare). All this that is happening I became aware of simply because I entered into this room.
Some people were talking about having all sorts of different resources available for digital galleries and virtual events around the arts. Other people were sharing resources (someone else in the room asked for pitch deck templates). Another person had one and was willing to send to them.
People are having these quick conversations where they have a need, and having it filled by someone else showing up in that room can help. Everyone was being free with resources and with insights and knowledge, and just generally being helpful to one another. Being a community, people who didn’t know each other moments ago, and from all over the globe.
Being on Clubhouse has me asking what’s possible in this space? What could be created or curated here? And I've, I've only been on this platform for maybe less than a week right at the time of writing this.
Some people may say it could be a flash in the pan, like several other social media platforms that have tried and disappeared. Other high level people think that this one is going to be a little more of a game changer because of the nature of the interactivity, that you have to show up as yourself. (You can't have some kind of alias.) You have to show up as you, with your voice.
“Being on Clubhouse has me asking what’s possible in this space? What could be created or curated here? ”
At this point, some other people were talking about using these rooms for mastermind groups and training or coaching, which is really interesting to think about. Still others are on there simply trying to just build their platform and grow their audience, which is easily done with the ability to connect your Instagram and your Twitter account to your profile as well. They're making changes to Clubhouse constantly, so some of these features may upgrade, like being able to connect more platforms.
When you're in a room you can go and click on anyone’s profiles and check out their bio for more about them. But the cool thing is that even if you're not in the clubhouse app, audio continues to play while you're in other apps. So you can still be a part of the room, and be listening to what's happening, but also checking out other social media platforms at the same time.
Maybe you're reading this and you're not a visual artist, but a musician. What would it look like for you to show up on this app (where it's an audio only), and you have the ability to share your music or clips of your music, or maybe have like a real time writing session with somebody or a group of people? That could be incredible. It's a means to connect with fellow creative people and also connect with people who might be your audience, collectors or clients.
Again, I don't know where it's going to go necessarily, but I just know every time that I'm on there and I jump into a room, I'm learning some new things. I'm getting access to some resources (people mentioned websites for further information). It's really incredible the speed at which you can have these conversations and the amount of people that can be in the room (and who you're in the room with.) You could be in a room with some people who are really well-established in their industry, having conversations and access to them.
You wouldn't have access to them or on other social media platforms if they have a million plus followers. They would never see you because of all the noise. With Clubhouse, you can be in a room alongside of them asking them questions or having them interact with you.
So it's pretty exciting. I can't wait to see what else comes of this platform. And if you are on Clubhouse, feel free to follow me - I'm @MikeBrennan. I’d love to connect with you there, and who knows, maybe there's even some things that we can create together!
For a more detailed breakdown check out this post from Social Media Examiner.
So what are your thoughts or questions about Clubhouse?
Stand on a Ledge
Previously, I posted about my first two of "3 rules of creating" - #1 Show Up and Work, #2 Dare to be Stupid, And now for my 3rd and final rule...
#3 Stand on a Ledge
Last year, while on a missions trip to Nicaragua, I faced a fear of mine. Everyone wanted to go zip-lining. I'm really afraid of heights. But instead of letting my fear dictate what set of memories this trip would hold, I decided to push past and literally stand on the ledge. The experience was terrifying (height + speed + uncertain safety regulations in a foreign country = gulp). I don't remember the last time my body was that physically wracked with terror. But on this side of it, I can say I did it. And I have a few photos even. I will NEVER forget the experience. And it's highly unlikely that I will repeat this. But I faced my fear.
As artists, we all have those looming fears too. The ones that stop us, divert us, cause us to choose another route, or just plain procrastinate or give up. That's why I've listed standing on a ledge as my number three rule. It's only on the edge looking over to what may seem like certain death do we gain a new perspective, even if it's an uncomfortable one. And some of our most interesting art can come from uncomfortable places. Because it's real. And relatable. Or it's in pushing into those places where we cross a barrier that's been holding us back. We take new ground. And in the process prove to ourselves we can actually do it.
"Each of us must confront our own fears, must come face to face with them. How we handle our fears will determine where we go with the rest of our lives. To experience adventure or to be limited by the fear of it." ~ Judy Blume
I've got a few things even right now that I need to crawl out on the ledge with. I feel the paralyzing presence of fear. Want to know one of them? I am doing a 4 foot by 4 foot live painting during my church's worship service. It was one of those things that when i was asked I immediately had several excuses: My comfort zone in painting is 11 x 14 inches usually. I've never painted like that in public. What if it looks crappy when I'm done and I have 200 plus people stating at me & my art scratching their heads. But that's why I knew this was a "ledge" moment. So I said yes. And then I'd just figure it out as I go. (I'll let you know how it goes..)
What's that thing you need to bring out on the ledge? If you keep it in it's safe confines, the only certainty is more of the same of what you've already experienced. Go on. Crawl out there. And watch that first step. It may be a doozy, but it's also the first step into something larger.
At the Creative Crossroad
It's a crazy day/week/month/year. Work is super busy. My calendar is exploding. My weekends and evening are booked solid. Everyone wants a piece of me and there's not enough to go around. I just don't have time. Or energy. Maybe once this season, project, or event passes I can do it...
Stop saying you'll create your art once "such and such" passes. It's an excuse. No judgement. We've all been there. But, we need to learn how to create in the middle of life. How do most people meet this challenge? They don't. So they don't create.
You must be able to create in the middle of things, or else you will not create. You must learn to take whatever practical and psychological actions are necessary to combat the anti-creating forces that surround you and live within you. ... There is always profound turbulence within or without — that is life — and it is in the middle of that turbulence that you must create.
What if we could create not in spite of the turbulence but even harnessing it somehow? Now, that might be the kind of authentic art we've been looking for!
Get moving! Get creating. Today.
Maisel Ph.D., Eric (2005-01-18). Coaching the Artist Within.