We’re not talking nail-biting, hair-twisting, or bonbon-wolfing. We’re talking creative habits that make your life a better place to be.
In fact, we’re literally talking — me and my pal Ronnie Lawlor chewing over the subject, part of a series we recorded to get you (and me ) on track for 2017 and the launch of her new kourse, A Drawing A Day (click here to sign up).
What habit would you like to acquire in 2017?
I do my fair share of traveling (12 trips so far this year — and today I’m 3,000 miles from home again*) but I love to hear the tales of people who are truly committed peregrinators and who document and share their journeys.
I recently met one such soul, Genevieve, a nomadic artist and environmentalist who is creating a lovely document of the world on her site, regenevieve.com. In a new blog post, she share recommendations of other traveling bloggers (including me). I hope you find some inspiration here.
*I’m in Los Angeles for a couple of days to film a new teacher for Sketchbook Skool.
This week’s homework in Storytelling at Sketchbook Skool came from Koosje who asked us to make annual explaining a simple process. Inspired by Ikea, I had loads of fun doing this:
Ji Lee’s Facebook post says it all.
I’ve collected a lot of inspiring bits and bobs recently so I’m gonna share them all with you in one fell swoop.
I had a great time in Berlin, hanging out with Koosje, with Felix, and making new pals at the Beyond Tellerrand conference. One of my favorite things about the conference was the onstage DJ who sampled my words and then spun them into a new dance track. Crazy!
I got new wallpaper behind my desk. It is macabre and I love it. Even if you don’t.
We went to Phoenix to celebrate the first wedding of the new generation.
I found this in a used bookstore.
And this is a Berlin bookstore:
I love Javier’s journals. Check ’em out.
Listening to Badly Drawn Boy after a long hiatus. He’s always been one of my favorites but he made me too sad after Patti left. (That was the case with a lot of my other favorites too. Time to reclaim them as well.) Three years ago, he played a block form my house so I had to go. He got drunk, belligerent and stormed off stage. I thought it was the end. But it turns out he was in the middle of a divorce and felt a million mile from home. Now it seems he’s coming back. I’m ready.
Found a new band to listen to: .
I just want to write this down before the spell breaks.
For years, I loved Woody Allen. But the romance died over the past couple of decades, beginning with Manhattan Murder Mystery, then waning as his films felt increasingly trivial, one-note, slapdash, irrelevant, and crammed with marquee names, ending in a moratorium where even the sight of an ad for his newest movie makes my gorge rise.
But Annie Hall, Broadway Danny Rose, and Manhattan are some of my favorite movies ever.
Manhattan used to seem to me to be the most romantic movie ever. In retrospect, I’m not sure it’s the story itself — a sordid tale full of Seinfeldianly selfish and immature pseudo-intellectuals. It was probably 30% Mariel Hemingway, 30% Gordon Willis’ cinematography, and 30% New York City at its most iconic and 10% some of Woody’s most hilarious lines (Wally Shawn the homunculus; I can’t keep my eyes on the meter; very few people survive one mother; I can beat up her father, I grow a tumor instead, etc).
Yale: You are so self-righteous, you know. I mean we’re just people. We’re just human beings, you know? You think you’re God.
Isaac Davis: I… I gotta model myself after someone.
Last night, Jenny took me to Lincoln Center to see the New York Philharmonic play the Gershwin score of Woody Allen’s Manhattan, while the movie played on a screen above.
That sounds like a simple thing and it took a while for the extraordinariness of the experience to sink in to me, so let me spell that out: The New York Philharmonic playing live. In Lincoln Center. On a September evening. Gershwin. My favorite Woody Allen movie. Introduced by Alec Baldwin and Tony Roberts. In a sold-out hall filled with old school New York celebs and characters right out of, well, a Woody Allen film. We sat a row ahead of Michael Moore and, at intermission, hung out with Mort Zuckerman who owns the Daily News.
Too much.
At the time the movie was made, the room we sat in to watch it was called the Avery Fisher Hall, a soaring maple-paneled auditorium with a history of acoustic challenges. A hundred million dollar donation later, it’s been renamed after David Geffen. The orchestra, under the baton of Alan Gilbert, sat watching the movie with the rest of us mere mortals, until a musical cue was needed. Then they burst forth with another tablespoonful of Gershwin, glorious but always leaving us wanting more.
And all those gorgeous black and white images of NYC in the ’70s! The 59th Street Bridge at sunrise. Fireworks over Central Park. The fountains at Lincoln Center. The Russian Tea Room. Elaine’s. On and on. It made me miss New York while sitting in the middle of it.
I don’t think my writing is doing this experience justice. Not only did you have to be there, you had to be a child of the ’70s, a New Yorker, a movie lover, a writer, a nostalgist, a romantic, a man in love with his wife. In short, me.
This San Francisco jewel just reopened and it’s one of the best museum experiences I’ve ever had. 460,000 square feet that’s chock-a-block.
I am madly inspired to paint but, alas, my studio is 3,000 miles away.
In the final lap of our chat inspired by Lisa’s new book, The Joy of Swimming, Lisa and I discuss why men and women are different when it comes to learning, how to be creative without making a living at it, and the challenges of being an authority.
More of my chat with illustrator and author, Lisa Congdon and Lisa’s new book, The Joy of Swimming. In this installment, we talk about swimming, art, and what it means to begin art-making as an adult.
I have long been a fan of Lisa Congdon. She’s an illustrator, hand-letterer, designer, author, and guru on all creative matters. She has a wonderful new book out, so we sat down to chat about it.
Our conversation was so far-reaching that I am dividing it up into three installments which I will dole out over the next few days. Here’s the first:
Danny Gregory 