Hello, Dandelions!
The weather feels like summer here, and I’m not sure who is more excited for school to be done, me or my kids.
inert wishes wait
for the right wisher to blow
seeds of hope outward
Following the Process
They say there are two kinds of writers, those that love to write and those that love to have written. This dichotomy is strange to me.
Writing is a process. I love some parts of the process more than others—and I love when something is completed.
I approach my visual artwork the same way I approach my writing. I’m always thinking about the narrative. Whether I’m writing a haiku, composing an essay, drawing a comic, or making a stop-motion video, I work hard to tell a cohesive story.
It’s always a process. The first draft is fun and exciting. I’m anxious to see what comes out of my brain. But, most of the time, that first draft is a mess. The first drafts of my comics rarely have a cohesive color palette, and often the composition of the shot (I think of each panel of a comic as if it was a photograph or a frame of a movie) is awkward.
It’s the subsequent drafts where the magic happens for me. It feels like what I imagine sculpting to be like. The first draft is a block of marble. Each revision is me chipping away at the block to reveal the story hidden inside.
My process is constantly evolving. Yesterday, I shared a haiku comic stop-motion video from last year. Your positive feedback made me want to make another one. I thought that today’s comic would be a good candidate for a video project. However, I knew it would take me a long time to make a full video. (Another reason I’m anxious for summer break!) I also wondered how I would manage the effect of the dandelion seeds being scattered. So, in preparation for a future stop-motion video, I made this little GIF of the dandelion seeds:
Experimenting with GIFs was not previously part of my video-making process. In the future, it will be. I got the idea from a tidbit I heard about director Wes Aderson. In every movie since Fantastic Mr. Fox, he starts out with an animatic. He builds the shots and the rest of the production from these rough animatics.
Here’s the animatic for The Grand Budapest Hotel:
I’m in my third career. As a lawyer and a copywriter, there were lots of tedious things I hated. I would do anything to avoid them. In my work, as a whatever-it-is that I am now, (Poet? Illustrator? Essayist? Newsletterer? 🤷), I also have lots of tedious things to complete. But for the first time in my adult life, I don’t mind the boring bits.
Perhaps, I’m growing more mature—but all other available evidence seems to contradict this. (On the rare occasions I beat my almost 14-year-old at a video game, I rip off my shirt, swing it above my head, and run around the house yelling, “The moose is loose!” while the dog barks and everyone begs me to put my shirt back on.)
There are many writers and artists who are much more talented than me who hate the process of creating the brilliant stuff they make. That’s not a life for me. I want to enjoy the day-to-day of my work, and not just the finished piece.
In a recent episode of the Creative Pep Talk podcast, poet
talked about how she does her work. She said the only way she knows how to do what she does is to make a living from her way of living. Her art grows out of the daily business of being a human.The real reason I no longer mind the boring bits of my work is that my creative process starts with me living my life—being with my children, going on aimless walks, doing dishes, working in my yard—these are the places where ideas find me.
Life is a creative process! If you’re alive, you’re an artist. I want my work to be as alive as the apple blossoms in my backyard, and that’s only possible if I commit to living a life where I notice the art.
Be the poetry you want to see in the world!
Cheers,
Jason
“I want to enjoy the day-to-day of my work, and not just the finished piece.” I’m with you on this one, Jason! The everyday is what matters. And the gif is so cool. I’ve been animating a few of my collages in the past and didn’t even think to make it a gif. I think I’ll give it a try. Thanks for the inspiration!
I love making gifs!