The Summer I Turned… Off My Laptop
My July sabbatical is officially over next week, but I got a little too itchy and was desperate to dislodge myself from the couch cushions. What did I work on while I was gone? Not much, but you can see some of it over on SaatchiArt (where I’ve decided to host my art going forward).
So how’s your summer going?
Triggered, Wrecked, but Alive
A few years ago, I posted a YouTube video at 1:30 in the morning. It was a motivational piece about chasing inspiration when it strikes—regardless of the time. I was in my studio, burned through all my midnight oil and left with noxious fumes, but the muse to speak out hit me like a motivational sledge hammer lined with memory foam.
Sometimes you just can’t wait for morning, hoping that the same electricity hits you again.
I posted the video and later that day, and someone I used to know called me a creeper for making late-night videos. He was a blackbelt at the judo dojo my son and I attended, and as much as I admired his expertise on the tatami, his personality left a lot to distance myself from.
This guy thought it was weird for me to be up late making videos and would tease me about it, but is same guy who used to flirt with married moms from his kids' judo class and carried a gun to practice because he thought a jealous husbands might show up (not even joking).
But This Ain’t About That
This is about honoring those rare moments when something lights up inside you. If you’ve ever felt that sudden urge to make, then you know it doesn’t follow a clock or a calendar. You either answer the call, or you watch it fade.
This month was supposed to be a creative vacation. I’d take a break from my daily rituals, shuttle my son around, rest a little, maybe make something small. Instead, I made close to nothing.
Didn’t write, didn’t draw, didn’t build, didn’t ship. The creative part of me flatlined.
Until this week.
I was just another night of me melting into the couch, half-dead, scrolling Instagram, when I stumbled into a rabbit hole of unfamiliar music. Not the algorithm-fed playlist garbage that Spotify keeps handing me, but real new music; sounds that made my synapses pop and lungs tighten as I held my breath in anticipation of the drop.
In that moment, I realized: music is my conduit to creativity.
Music unlocks the part of me that wants to make.
It sparks the nerve endings, lights the fuse, makes me want to run to the studio and get to work.
I didn’t run though: I’m tired, lethargic, but I wanted to jump up and throw paint. In the past few weeks of being inert, the impulse to move matters. I’m writing this now to hold onto that spark, so tomorrow I can act on it.
Truthfully, I already have, here’s a new work-in-progress to prove it.
A Wallet Full of Lint and Possibilities
Things are tight right now. I won’t go into why, but money's a problem, and not making anything isn’t helping. While art doesn’t pay my bills on its own, it does keep me sane long enough to figure out the next move.
So tomorrow, I work. Maybe it won’t be much, but it’ll be something.
Expect more drops on Saatchi soon.
Cheers,
Dave
PS - There’s a whole other conversation about the intrusive thoughts regarding everything I’ve been doing and what’s next, but I’ll leave that for a time when I am emotionally equipped to handle it without crashing out.
PPS - If you’d like to know what music has inspired me this year so far, I make a Spotify playlist every year of songs, new or old, that hit me in the right place at the right time.
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External Signals
Clement Hudry is my new favorite sports photographer.
The Great Indoorsman is a woodworking philosopher on the level of Van Neistat, except not insufferable. His third video, Sex & Glue had me deeply relating to his journey even though I’ve never touched a machine planer in my life.
I won’t claim to be the biggest Royksopp fan (or the biggest EDM fan), but this YouTube set featuring the Norwegian duo is on my infinite repeat list.
Something else I did while on sabbatical: Gardening, which is so weirdly satisfying—who knew?
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