It’s Not Your Art

Garth Beyer

So what that you put hundreds of hours into creating what you did? Just because you went through all the pain of developing what you did, doesn’t make it yours. Even if you searched for every single piece of your creation and sold your sentimental belongings to afford what you made – it still doesn’t make it yours and it definitely doesn’t make it art.

Art is only art when it’s shared.

It’s the same with genius. Einstein wouldn’t have been a genius if he never shared everything he studied, ruminated, and experimented with. Or, a person can write a novel a year, but they will never be a writer unless they share it.

People might shout,

“This is not the time for metaphor! This is not the time for art! And this is certainly not the time for art about you!” But once you’ve shared your art and it’s resonated with a single person, it’s no longer about you — once you share it, it’s about everybody. And if your art is found by a single soul, shared with a friend who links it to a friend, and the response is whatever it is, you start to see how art becomes about everybody — just through the act of being shared.” – Amanda Palmer

I am stating that art becomes about everybody the same as it becomes everyones.

When I buy your art, I don’t see it the way you do. I don’t know how much money, time, sweat, blood, relationships, tears, mental exhaustion, late nights, and broken prototypes went into it.

When your art is in my hands – no, even when I see your art – it becomes mine too. It’s part of me. I put my emotions, my thoughts, my personality in and around it.

And let me tell you something. Art becomes so much more beautiful when it has amassed a variety of emotions, thoughts, and personalities.

 

Stay Positive & Sharing Always Makes It More Valuable

Garth E. Beyer

Keep Your Client (Squaders)

Garth Beyer

Back in the day, if you were sitting in a room with friends and you had to go to the bathroom, you would hold it. After all, if you got up, someone would take your spot!

Then an act of seat reservation was adopted. It was called “squaders.” Before getting up from your spot, whether it’s a log around the campfire or the one of few fancy chairs around the dinner table, you call “squaders!” and no one can take your spot while you are away.

Sitting with friends the other night, I got up and before walking forward, asked, “do we call squaders anymore?”

Of course we don’t. More people, specifically clients, are naturally mobile and resourceful. (If they are not, then maybe you don’t want them as a client.) We have to understand that the client can shop around, that they are okay not staying in their chair, that, sometimes, they go off and build their own chair.

Squaders is about attachment – and attachment is about vulnerability – and vulnerability is what the chair maker should feel, not the one sitting in it.

 

Stay Positive & Since We’re Talking About Chairs And Success

Garth E. Beyer

Are You Cereal?

Garth Beyer

Why have they not made cereal bags that you can open without ripping the bag in half?

Or why have they not made spoons that prevent milk from trickling down your chin?

Because of some very important factors.

  • 99% of the time, seeing someone trip is funny. So is watching someone try to open a bag of cereal or when milk trickles down their chin.
  • Broken things are remarkable, as in, worth talking about whether it’s bragging or complaining.
  • They let people connect with each other. Nothing says we’re perfect for marriage than knowing you both can’t open a bag of cereal without tearing the side of it.

It’s not just cereal. As long as the real thing – whether it’s cereal or your own invention – is great, the trouble getting there is worth it. Think about your art as a toy at the bottom of a cereal box. It sort-of sucks to get it. It’s not convenient, but it’s an accomplishable and sometimes entertaining challenge.

It gets people talking about the toy without actually talking about the toy. By having them share their stories about how they got the toy (and almost vomiting while finishing an entire box of cereal in one sitting), your “toy” becomes part of a real, emotional, personal memory.

This is why perfect art is worthless. You can’t have remarkable cereal without the bag.

 

Stay Positive & Your Art Is Never Just Art To Someone

Garth E. Beyer

A Dangerous Reminder

Garth Beyer

We’re all crazy.

I can say that because we love destroying things – rather, when we do destroy things, we have fun with it – a lot of fun.

Finally getting rid of your old desktop computer? Smashing it in the driveway sounds like a great idea. Stereo-system broke? Time to tear it to pieces and see how it works. Need room to build something? I’ll get the sledgehammer.

A few months ago my dad and I had to get rid of some wasp nests. Naturally we tried wasp spray, but it was ineffective. Then we bleached the nests. Still alive. So we poured gasoline and set it on fire.

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A couple of months ago my dad and I took apart my original droid. (After five years, it finally broke.) This is the outcome.

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It’s easy to break something, to dissect it, to experiment with what has already been created. It’s much more dangerous to build something from scratch, to experiment with your own creativity.

What puzzles me is how we can have so much fun destroying things, yet not be as insanely excited to create something.

There’s a few different ways to overcome this. All dangerous.

1. Build to destroy it.

2. Build to let someone else have fun destroying it.

3. Build knowing that you will already be building something new, thus, not caring whether it gets destroyed or not.

Bonus: If you want a real challenge. Build something new from the remnants of what you destroy.

 

Stay Positive & Whatever You Do, Just Have Fun With It

Garth E. Beyer

You Can Land, But Never Settle

Garth Beyer

If the chair is uncomfortable, find a new one.

If the book is uninteresting, quit reading it and toss it away.

If you don’t like what you ordered, get something else.

Settling is a habit that we get ourselves into. Settling does not occur sparingly – it’s not just about relationships, or classes, or traveling, or other worthwhile situations. We only find ourselves settling in the high risk situations because we settle for all the little things each day instead of changing them, redirecting, restarting, giving something new a try, or simply walking away.

When we land somewhere new, it’s sometimes a combination of anxiousness and excitement. When we settle somewhere, well, being drastic, we’re giving up.

 

Stay Positive & Never Give Up, Never, Never Give Up (HT to Chuck for teaching me this)

Garth E. Beyer

It’s Not For Everyone

Garth Beyer

My writing doesn’t resonate perfectly with everyone who views it. I have dozens of very close friends that never read what I post. I have family that – and I can say this because they won’t read it – doesn’t care that I write or what I write.

I’ve overcome this, but I do know how it can sometimes hurt. A lot. When those you think care so much about you, don’t get involved with your passion.

One of the myriad admonitions I’ve learned about writing is that there are people you wish would read it that don’t and there are people you wish wouldn’t read it and do.

Remind yourself of the long tail. It helps.

 

Stay Positive & HT To Those Who Don’t Force Themselves To Read It

Garth E. Beyer

References

Garth Beyer

Sometimes I don’t put contacts that I know practically have a script prepared on a reference list. I’ve come to find that it’s really easy to find a few people who will talk you up. All you have to think is who cares most about you and has a different last name.

Sometimes I put contacts that don’t know me too well because they are forced to share what little they know. After that, they assume, they predict, they judge honestly.

It’s often more remarkable to hear where other people think you are going in life than it is to hear people say where you told them that you think you are going in life.

It’s a risk, definitely. Hasn’t failed me yet.

 

Stay Positive & Truth Will Out

Garth E. Beyer