Art

Writing On The Wall

Garth Beyer

My friend Michelle inspired me to write this post.

When I was growing up, my first AIM (AOL instant messenger) username was Writing0nTh3WaLL. My favorite song was “The Writing On The Wall.” And oddly enough, I liked to write on walls. – Still do –

Today, I read a post of Michelle’s which said, “You may never see the writing on the wall.”

In NYC, there’s a thing called the Underbelly Project. It’s where you can find all the writing on the wall. But it’s a different kind of writing, the most passionate kind; the kind that those writing it knew it may not work.

When you wait and look for the writing on the wall you aren’t only playing it safe, you’re regressing.

With your art, nothing is certain even in your most certain moments. When you are waiting for the guarantee of success or failure, when you rehearse through every failure or success, when you try to  steady your hand before you take a whack at the nail, you’ll never follow through. Doing is about risking.

When you use the writing on the wall idiom, you’re also insinuating that there are people who don’t see it. (If everyone could see it, there would be no need for the idiom.)

Leave it to other people to see the writing on the wall.

 

Stay Positive & More People Are Wrong About The Writing On The Wall Than They Are Right

Garth E. Beyer

Reminders

Garth Beyer

We all need them and while some parents and maybe a friend or two will always be there to remind you, it’s not only that we need to be reminded more, it’s that we need to be reminded in different ways, by different people, who have different insights, and experiences.

Being reminded to turn the lights off, to keep your head up, that it get’s more difficult before it gets easier, all gets very old and less helpful when it’s monotonously and verbally repeated.

Reminding those you care about that you care about them loses its meaning when it’s the same ol’ same ol’.

Knowing this now gives you the ability to connect on a completely different level with family, friends, and strangers. Being creative isn’t only to be done with your art, it’s also meant to be incorporated in your interactions, your connections, and most importantly, you’re reminders.

 

Stay Positive & Remember, There’s A Lot We Forget

Garth E. Beyer

“Keep Calm & Carry On?” So Passe

Garth Beyer

Keep calm?

Screw that. Calm is for the banal, for the overrated, for those who unfortunately associate calm with being safe and comfortable.

When I hear “Keep Calm,” I want to say, “Go try surfing. Go to a concert. Go rock climbing. Go ship your art. Go talk to that girl. Go try something for the first time. Go get criticized.” The list goes on. And this list is a remarkable one; it can’t be completed if you wish to keep calm.

(Nor is it any fun whatsoever if the water is calm, if the crowd is calm, if the audience thinks you don’t care, if the girl doesn’t sense your nervousness and think it’s cute, if you don’t take a risk, and if you don’t care. To get anywhere (and to have fun doing so), the further away from calm, the better.)

“Keep Calm & Carry On” The motto is a bit… bucolic on the first part.

Better yet, instead of “Keep Calm,” here are some alternatives,

  • Get weird
  • Be uncomfortable
  • Be impeccable
  • Stay positive

On the latter end, to “Carry on,” I couldn’t agree with more. In fact, I’ve given my own spin to elaborate on it.

Find the strength to carry on. Once completed, find the strength to carry more. Repeat.

 

Stay Positive & As You Are, Not As People Urge You To Be

Garth E. Beyer

Self-Destruction And The Need For It

Garth Beyer

Unlike most reality shows, Destroy Build Destroy actually sets an extremely positive theme and lesson for those with an open enough mind to see it: monumental creations can be constructed out of the destruction of almost any object.

Take a look at another example: tattooing.

Tattooing, which is a marvelous form of art – yet at the same time, mutilation – is also creation through destruction. The act of being tattooed is destroying your body, your skin. It involves pain, changing an original form, and there is blood (plenty of it) as proof. Yet, after being tattooed, something artistically intrinsic has been printed on your body. Creation through destruction.

We must pay a price for something to be created through destruction. At times it is money, other times it is emotions, personal attachments, relationships, or claimed sentimental objects.

The concept of creation through destruction is clear. If your mind is still open to this theme, can you imagine a way that the destruction of your self could lead to a creation of something greater?

If this concept can be applied to absolutely any object in the world, why wouldn’t it also apply to us, as humans, as people, as moving, being, emotionally thinking living beings.

Can we be destroyed? Yes. But, can we self-destruct? We’re actually pretty good at it.

The real trouble is making it so our self-destruction leads to creation. Most of the time our self-destruction is just that. We will beat ourselves down, criticize our own work, tell ourselves we are not good enough. We will easily toss out our own work, quickly choose someone else before we choose ourselves, we will consciously toss our time away to unproductive matters.

The destroy part, we have that down pat. The creation part though, can use some work. As humans, metaphorically speaking, when our heads get chopped off – or when we chop them off ourselves – we have the ability to grow two back. That involves creation. That involves different perspectives, an open mind, and an incessant need to learn from our mistakes and everything around us.

Contrary to belief, the world is pretty easy on us, especially if we comply, follow orders, and never make a rumpus. In fact, it’s a smooth operation as long as we don’t try to change anything. It’s for this reason that self-destruction is a necessary process for creation, for art, for growth, and most importantly, for experience.

We can let the destruction of our selves ruin us, or we can create something remarkable from it.

 

Stay Positive & Become Part Of The Tribe Of Fireweeds

Garth E. Beyer

For those who don’t know, fireweeds mainly grow only after a forest fire.

Top Blogs And Blog Posts (2012)

Garth Beyer

These are the top 5 blog posts in the sense of the number of views.

These are the top 5 blog posts of my choice and popularity.

These are the top 5 blogs I kept up with throughout the year. Admittingly, Seth Godin’s is the only one that I read nearly every single blog post from. The other blogs I stop by every week or two.

Doing Selflessly Selfish Work

Garth Beyer

Isn’t it funny how the most selfless articles you read are actually selfish (not in the bad sense of course!)?

We write what we want to write, and that which benefits us most – at the same time, it benefits everyone else even more. The articles that really hit home are the ones where you know hit home for the author.

Let’s not feel guilty about following our passion, taking actions for ourselves, and doing what we really want to do. So long as it get’s shared with others.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like shrunken heads. However, if I met someone who was extremely, completely, passionate about making them, I’m much more inclined to change my view of them.

 

Stay Positive & “Why the long faces”

Garth E. Beyer

What Improvisation Is And What It Can Do For You

What Improvisation Is And What It Can Do For You

Garth Beyer

“Improvisation is motion.” – Bobby McFerrin

Improvisation precedes the understanding of something. It’s connecting who you are with who you want to be. It’s the bridge that you get to dance across. Improvisation is calling fear to you and making it your friend. It’s how you surface courage.

I have to take after Bobby McFerrin’s example to show how powerful improvisation is. He tells his students to sing nonstop for ten minutes. They can sing whatever tune they want or make up their own, it doesn’t matter, but they must keep singing. All of his students want to stop within two minutes. They think of different reasons why they should: they start to think how dumb it is,  they think how stupid they must look and sound, they start to think they are singing terribly, they start to think that everyone around them thinks they are unworthy and making a fool of themselves.

Within just two minutes it feels the world is screaming at them to stop, but they don’t. They continue singing for ten minutes everyday for three weeks and by the end, the best way I can describe it, is that they find their voice.

This exercise can be done within any realm of passion: singing, writing, dancing, climbing, drawing, or even milking cows (purple cows).

For many, success is a huge sought after factor, day in and day out.

For a select few, harmony is more important.

Improvisation leads to harmony.

 

Stay Positive & It Just So Happens That Harmony Leads To Success

Garth E. Beyer