May Reading; “It’s a Living”

Another month, another flexible interpretation of my deadlines for posting. May brings another exciting excuse, which is that I’ve been selected to join the incredible cohort at the 2024 FORGE Fellowship. I’m pretty vocal about how much I believe in “getting reps—” which is to say, a style and approach to creating that emphasizes maximizing making hours, and discovering, creating, and growing through performance. That said, a big limitation of that system is that the same string of performance dates and obligations that propels you to generate also tends to prohibit stepping back and thinking critically about your approach. This 6 month Fellowship is a big opportunity for me to try to improve my process, even as I blaze ahead with producing. Speaking of: UNDERSIGNED is currently gearing up for a Summer tour, with dates in negotiation for NYC, Boston, Philly, and even Los Angeles —that’s right, my gradual invasion of the West Coast is nigh.

For now, thinking about habits, routines, and striving for a creative practice has brought me back to an author I owe some gratitude to. I’ve recommended “Steal Like An Artist" in the past, which does an admirable job delivering well-trod truisms in a format that gives one a chance to actually hear them. In the years since discovering that book, Kleon and I have both logged a lot of hours, 

“Keep Going”

Austin Kleon

To sustain any creative practice is an endurance sport - it helps to get little cups of something along the race track, and Kleon has a knack for that. That said, I also appreciate watching his thoughts deepen and expand over the years, and there are some particular points on skepticism about productivity and stark pragmatism about the benefits and costs of turning passion into hustle that I’m glad to see reflected in his writing and speaking. I’m also a fan of how he separates Creativity from Art Making - given how FORGE is already pushing me to think about how I can design my time as my own arts administration to be more pleasurable as well as productive, I’m finding myself increasingly interested in discussions of creative experience separate from creative expression.

Related Readings

“Austin Kleon; Injecting Creativity and Art into everything you do”

What You Will Learn

One of the interesting habits I’ve developed for research is listening back-to-back to multiple interviews and podcast appearances from writers I’m exploring; I enjoy getting an emergent picture of someone over time and multiple settings, and seeing which ideas stay consistent and front of mind. In this case, Kleon has a remarkably consistent media presence - or said another way, the man has stayed on message for years, with pretty consistent advice, and anecdotes. As such, when recommending an interview, I find my main consideration is mostly “which podcast host is the least obnoxious as his interviewer.” The realm of Selling Creativity is perilous waters - Adam and Adam from What You Will Learn seemed the smoothest path.

That said, if you want one interview where Austin doesn’t say all the same things, I recommend his “Cool Tools” appearance. I adore minutia, and anyone talking about their favorite tools is addictive to me.

“Show Your Work"

Austin Kleon

Completing the “Steal Like an Artist” trilogy, this second book in the series challenges artists to invite others into their process in order to promote their own work and assert their own value. Thanks, I hate it, and I likely need the shove.