Sustaining, Part II

In Creativity and Inspiration, Vision Is Better by David26 Comments

Self portrait, Jan 03, 2010 Last week I started a discussion about sustaining the practice of art, based on the Kurt Vonnegut quote about the purpose of art being the growth of the soul.  Y’all chimed in with what you do to sustain your creativity, and if you haven’t read through the comments in that post, you’ll want to. This …

Sustaining The Practice of Art

In Freelance and Business, Pep Talks, Rants and Sermons, Vision Is Better, VisionMongers by David50 Comments

“The practice of art isn’t to make a living. It’s to make your soul grow.” ~Kurt Vonnegut Chase Jarvis recently posted about his Create-Share-Sustain paradigm. I’ve referenced it, linked to it, quoted it several times this past year. In that paradigm, the notion of sustaining the create-share cycle is generally seen as a financial one. It’s the grease on the …

Gifts

In Books, Just For Fun, News & Stuff by David34 Comments

Hi all. Hope you had a lovely holiday, filled with family, friends, and love. Ours was subdued, a close friend was diagnosed to have a brain tumour and that brought the tone of things down. But it re-calibrates you in a hurry, this kind of event; reminds you quickly of the things you truly want for Christmas – health, family, …

Christmas 2009

In News & Stuff, Rants and Sermons by David69 Comments

I had a simple “Merry Christmas” post planned for today. I scrapped it. I’m wavering between my desire to let this holiday pass with a simple Christmas greeting and something more personal. I had the same struggle last year and in the end I said everything then that I wanted to this year too. It’s an unusually low-key year for …

Learning

In Marketing, Self-Promotion, News & Stuff, Pep Talks, VisionMongers by David18 Comments

A short post this morning as I’m swimming (drowning?) in the business and task-management end of things. Consider the brevity a chance to catch up on other reading 🙂 My learning curve feels endless and steep these days. New software, new business models, new cameras, shooting film and remembering what it’s like to get a bunch of crap back from …

A Somewhat Foggy Ethiopian Meditation

In Just For Fun, Pep Talks, Rants and Sermons, Thoughts & Theory, Travel, Uncategorized, Without The Frame by David20 Comments

I wrote this earlier this year to stave off the insanity of jet-lag one night while on a particularly challenging assignment in Ethiopia. It’s a little stream-of-consciousness and I offer it for what it is. In my defence, my mind was a little foggy from the jet-lag. If you’re looking for wisdom, move along – nothing to see here. The …

VisionMonger Questions

In VisionMongers by David9 Comments

This one might win for lamest illustration I’ve ever posted. Remember the buttons I (over)did for a while? Any more of these and you’ll be begging to go back to them. The other day Peachpit hosted a webcast chat with me and about 70 other folks. It was a fun conversation, though these things always feel a little one-sided to …

Vision & Voice

In Books, Lightroom & Workflow, News & Stuff by David44 Comments

At the risk of more jokes about how y’all can’t read as fast as I write, ahem, Amazon.com now has my third book for pre-sale. It has for about a week, but I was holding out on telling you. So, for the uber-impatient among you, here are the links to the book on Amazon, and on Barnes and Noble. I …

Process versus Product

In Vision Is Better by David47 Comments

Chris Orwig making a portrait of me making a portrait of him. For a moment there we nearly got stuck in some crazy space/time-continuum mobius. (While we’re speaking of shooting film, and of Chris Orwig, check this out on his blog – love it in so many ways.) I have been resisting my return to film for a while. Trying …

Join Me This Evening

In Books, News & Stuff, Resources, VisionMongers by David8 Comments

This evening my publishers – Peachpit – are hosting a video conversation with me at 5pm PST. The disussion begins with me addressing some issues related to VisionMongers, then the bulk of the conversation becomes just that – a conversation. You can ask questions which will be moderated and fed to me, and we’ll have an hour to hash out …