Right Reason, The Artist’s Touch, & Continuous Exploration
Wednesday Wisdoms for August 28, 2024
Welcome to Wednesday Wisdom, our 3x3 Newsletter where I distill worldly advice for better living with 3 quotes, 3 observations, and 3 questions.
This email forwarded to you? Are you reading the free version? Click below to adjust your subscription.
Right Reason
🤨 Quote
“This is the real fly in the ointment if you are crazy enough to want to be an artist -- you have to give up your dreams of swimming pools and fish forks, and take any old job.”
Anne Lamott
Source: UC Berkeley Commencement Speech
Observation 🧐
There is something very cool about being a creative or an artist. We worship those who have been able to turn their passions into a livelihood, something that for the majority of us is so hard, if not impossible.
But there’s a difference between doing the art for fame and monetary value rather than for the love of the art itself.
If your heart is not in it, if you are performing to get famous, rich, or notable, you will not succeed. There are too many dark night of the soul moments that are there to tell you to quit.
But if you are in pursuit of the art for the art’s sake, if your goal is about perfecting the craft, tinkering with it, improving it, and languishing over the puzzle pieces of what works and what doesn’t, then maybe, just maybe, you’ll have a chance at achieving what you desire.
At the end of the day, it is the love that sustains the slog, not the aspirations of fortune and fame.
🤔 Question
Imagine you have found the success you’ve always dreamed of. What does that look like? Is it the accomplishment of the work or the physical and monetary elements that first come to mind when imagining success?
The Artist’s Touch
🤨 Quote
“Although we read with our minds, the seat of artistic delight is between the shoulder blades. That little shiver behind is quite certainly the highest form of emotion that humanity has attained when evolving pure art and pure science. Let us worship the spine and its tingle.”
Vladimir Nabokov
Source: Awe
Observation 🧐
What separates a good artist from a great one?
It’s not how many books they’ve sold or how much money they’ve made.
It’s not how many galleries their work has appeared in or how many shows they’ve put on.
It’s how they made their audience feel.
When an artist finds a way to connect, they do it on an emotional level, speaking to the audience in a way that connects the two through the work. The artist says I see you, let me show you, and in return, the viewer looks back and says the same thing.
Are true artist transcends the art and connects directly with their audience.
🤔 Question
What was the last thing you really connected with? What was it about the thing that spoke to you?
Beneath the paywall this week we explore the wisdom of Jim Collins. Click below to support and get access.