Rick Rubin

There is no more valid metric to predict what someone else might enjoy than us liking it ourselves.

Analysis is a secondary function. The awareness happens first as a pure connection with the object of your attention. If something strikes me as interesting or beautiful, first I live that experience. Only afterward might I attempt to understand it.

The artist actively works to experience life slowly, and then to re-experience the same thing anew. To read slowly, and to read and read again.

For those called to art who do struggle with an overwhelming sensitivity, the creative process can have a therapeutic power. It offers a sense of deep connection.

When sharing observations, specificity creates space.

When it comes to the creative process, patience is accepting that the majority of the work we do is out of our control. We can’t force greatness to happen. All we can do is invite it in and await it actively. Not anxiously, as this might scare it off. Simply in a state of continual welcoming.

The things we believe carry a charge regardless of whether they can be proven or not.

Faith allows you to trust the direction without needing to understand it.

Taking a wrong turn allows you to see landscapes you wouldn’t otherwise have seen.

First, do no harm.

The inspired-artist aspect of your self may be in conflict with the craftsperson aspect, disappointed that the craftsperson is unable to create the physical embodiment of the inspired artist’s vision. This is a common conflict for creators, since there is no direct conversion from abstract thought to the material world. The work is always an interpretation.

lose. If we can tune in to the idea of making things and sharing them without being attached to the outcome, the work is more likely to arrive in its truest form.

To keep the artistic output evolving, continually replenish the vessel from which it comes. And actively stretch your point of view. Invite beliefs that are different from the ones you hold and try to see beyond your own filter. Purposely experiment past the boundaries of your taste. Examine approaches you may dismiss as too highbrow or lowbrow. What can we learn from these extremes? What are the unexpected surprises? What closed door might open in your work?

It’s nourishing to be in a community of people who are enthusiastic about art, who you can have long discussions with, and with whom you can trade feedback on the work.

With unshakable faith, we work under the assumption that the problem is already solved. The answer is out there, perhaps it’s obvious. We just haven’t come across it yet.