Hello again –
I want to start by saying that I really appreciate those of you that have reached out in response to the last installment of The Newsletter, ‘Non Work Related.’ I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the many people that provided a glimpse into their world for the sake of The Newsletter. It felt like the right thing to share, and I’m glad you felt the same. I decided after it was built out that it was strong enough to stand on it’s own 2 legs and exist as a digital piece of art within The Newsletter which I really love. The Newsletter is a home for many ideas but that one felt like a solid piece of work for several reasons.
Perspective holds an immense amount of beauty – I don’t take creative process lightly and it’s a privilege to be able to get a glimpse of the inner workings of so many peoples creative endeavors all at once.
I felt very strongly that I was being led to listen more to others ideas. I also felt that I was supposed to talk less about my own ideas and even think about my own work much less for an entire month. This proved to be very helpful and eye opening for a number of reasons that might make it into a Newsletter in the future.
I want The Newsletter to be much more than just thoughts for your inbox to hold. I want it to house concepts, projects, ideas, and art. Not just in the form of conversation topics but actually have those things exist WITHIN it – ‘Non Work Related’ was a good start.
Now that I’ve gushed a little bit about the last installment. Let’s get into this weeks thoughts…
I promised all subscribers of this ongoing project tentatively and consistently called ‘The Newsletter’ that a new installment would be delivered “weekly and biweekly depending on when my schedule like.” This has proven to be even more difficult than I thought it would be even with the extra cushion I gave myself. I know I’ve mentioned missing this self prescribed deadline before in other conversations but truthfully the deadline is less for you and more for myself and the future plans that I hold for The Newsletter. So here’s my new promise to all of you along with some thoughts.
I’m going to attempt to keep this weekly or bi-weekly schedule in place for myself no matter how good or bad I feel my own thoughts are. At first I was hesitant to promise such a thing, I’m a quality driven person who feels fulfilled when I know I’ve delivered work to the best of my ability – so naturally this felt out of character to promise potentially bad work. But then I had a revelation – there is no bad work when effort is put first. There is only fear. For me personally, fear of simplicity being interpreted as low effort. I’m a massive “simplicity is key” person when it comes to almost everything that is important to me. I like my mornings simple, I like my quiet time simple, and I love my art simple. Perhaps my loud thoughts and personality portray simple when filtered through artwork, maybe not… we’ll never know. What I do know is that simplicity is key with The Newsletter. Simplicity is difficult because most of us are overcompensating for uncertainty – so we dodge simple ideas at the thought of missing the mark. But why? What’s wrong with simple?
Nothing.
It takes a deep understanding of beauty and emotional awareness to look at something, long before most people would say it’s complete, and say “this is enough.” So in light of this – comes my promise to try. From now on no more missed deadlines. But don’t be confused if and when you open The Newsletter only to be met with jumbled thoughts and emotions from my last few days, this is a project about consistency and effort, not perfection. I do want to note that this is not a disclaimer that I can point to anytime an installment of The Newsletter is lacking in quality and say “I said consistent not good.” I do not produce bad work – but I’m learning that I do produce work that shows an attempt, and that is great work.
– C