Hello there - I hope you are doing well. Here are a few things I thought were cool this week.
1. January rolls on…
I recently heard that the name January comes from the Greek god “Janus” who had a distinct feature of having two faces. One face allowed him to look behind and the other to look ahead. Makes pretty good sense as January is a great month to reflect and look back over the previous year while also looking ahead and setting the sights on the new year. I’ve spent time looking over my 2021 and trying to learn from it what I can as well as look forward to growing in new directions for 2022. How about you?
2. Synchronicity strikes again…
I mentioned a few weeks ago my interest in what Carl Jung called “synchronicity:”
“Synchronicity is the coming together of inner and outer events in a way that cannot be explained by cause and effect and that is meaningful to the observer.”
― Carl Jung
Do events of meaningful coincidence ever happen to you and make you stop and wonder what’s going on?
For example, just last week, it was early in the morning and I was driving to my favorite donut shop to get a cup of coffee and a little “introvert time”. Oddly the FM radio was on (which is rare) and tuned into the “oldies” station on the radio. A Dire Straits song was just finishing up when on came German pop musician from the 80’s - Nena’s “99 Red Balloons” song which I hadn’t heard in years (I enjoyed the song back in high school in which it was music for a skateboarding video part) but any who… didn’t think much of it, right?
Until… it came on a few days later in Despicable Me 3 as the villain Bratt (who by the way, was hilarious) was awaken by his alarm with “99 Red Balloons.” Interesting, eh? But just an hour or so later as my wife and I watched Adam Sandler’s The Wedding Singer and amidst all the great music in that movie was… you guessed it - Nena’s “99 Red Balloons.”
So, maybe not a big deal… right? But just to add one more layer of weirdness to this synchronicity story. That very same day of watching Despicable Me 3 and The Wedding Singer and noticing the song “99 Red Balloons,” a student was added to one of my art classes. She is an exchange student from Germany and her name? The same as the the original artist for “99 Red Balloons” … Nena.
Not sure if there’s any significance here but I do find it fascinating. Last year I started a “note” on my phone solely for the purpose of writing down these happenings of synchronicity. It’s fascinating to occasionally look over them and be reminded of these odd occurrences.
3. Post-it note planning…
I like “post-it” notes - I use them constantly. Jotting down lists, quotes I find and even sketches for drawings and paintings that need to be pursued like the image above. There’s nothing quite like a fresh stack of Post-it notes that help encourage thinking, creativity and fun.
4. The new shop…
Over the years my wife and I have tried several different platforms to share and sell my work online. After leaving some previous platforms, we have just recently shifted all online sales to my new shop located at John Storm Art.
I am excited to have this shop set up and be able to share my most recent and past work as well as make it available to those interested. Big thanks to the folks who have already stopped by and strolled (or scrolled) through.
It is interesting see images of a large portion of my work (there is a lot more we did not put up just yet) all in one place. To see all these little monuments of my creative journey and my ideas crystallized into an actual form. Like Han Solo frozen in carbonite, these works are my creativity frozen and embedded in something people can experience.
A guiding principle for my creative approach is summed up pretty well by this Andy Warhol quote:
“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”
5. Being bored with Kyle Steed
I really enjoyed listening to designer Lisa Congdon interview Dallas based artist Kyle Steed on the importance of boredom. Kyle recently wrote a children’s book about being bored called A Kids Book About Boredom.
Kyle’s work is stellar as well as his perspectives on the importance of boredom:
“Boredom makes me a better artist”
Looking back on my childhood, it was those moments of boredom that encouraged me to find something fun and creative to do. Boredom is a doorway that can lead to discovering something new. I think it’s important that we cultivate and protect times of boredom and not let busyness or our devices steal it.
*The interview can be found here:
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