EXPRESSION: Are You Using the Right Delivery System?
What if You've Gotten it ALL WRONG?
I've been thinking about this a lot lately and it's caused me to reflect a lot on my life.
But what if I've gotten it right and it was ineffective. I gave it my best shot and still fall short of my goals. Is it really too late to try something new?
If I had stuck with my initial plans as a child. I would have been an actor. Or actor/director. But from a child's perspective that looks like Mt. Everest. Where, as an adult, that seems a lot more viable. The truth of it is, I chose a path that felt more within my wheelhouse at the time. I didn't need anyone but myself, a piece of paper and some pencils. My imagination and work ethic did the rest.
But I still loved film.
I didn't know it at the but time every film from every era from black and white silent movies all the way up to the latest blockbusters were shaping my view of storytelling. Novels and comics came later which added to that dynamism, and the means to express it was through drawing.
Granted, I wrote stories, too. Mostly short stories for creative writing class but it sparked in me a way to tell stories and to keep telling them.
I did dip my toe into making short films, and skits with friends back in junior high and high school. We'd improv a lot of material, edit much of the footage in camera and then watch a days’ worth of shooting and eat pizza. Even though the camaraderie felt great, I realized a reliance on others was going to be a long-term problem I wasn't excited about dealing with.
In art school, while my focus was comics, I was exposed to other things. Illustration for one, was something I'd always loved. Back in the day, editorial illustration was still a respectable and well-paid job. I was introduced to animation when a teacher referred me to an animation house doing a Tom Petty music video. I had no idea exactly how that work went but I did a test cell and was hired at $3.15 an hour or some horrible price like that.
But heck, it looked great on my resume.
As I've outlined much of my career over the past couple of years, it's safe to say that I've done a lot of different things and much of it has led me to where I am. I could have stopped and focused more on any one of those things along the way and that's where life would have been much different for me. Would it have been right? Did it feel right?
The problem with trying new things all the time is you never quite settle into commitment to them. You never really get close to any semblance of mastery. The flip side is, it keeps you evolving, keeps you agile and never bored.
I've been somewhere on the edge of both areas. And yet, I still can't help but think that maybe I didn't try everything I could.
Imagine if for instance you learned how to play a brass instrument. Your skill at reading music was good but maybe your finger work or your embouchure was terrible. Perhaps you could feel the music, see the notes, and all you had to do was pluck them out of the air and put them in order. So, then you try stringed instruments, even though the violin and cello work was good and more fun than brass, you end up on the guitar because it seems easier and has more appeal to people around you.
But maybe, just maybe, your real gift is piano. Because they're so hard to come by, getting time on one is virtually impossible. You'd never know. What impetus would there be to seek one out? You could be perfectly happy being a competent guitarist. Maybe you'd be able to jam with friends a little bit and bring it out around campfires--they are extremely portable.
Then one day you find yourself in a hotel lobby around Christmas and nobody is sitting at the piano. You're waiting on your partner who's going to meet you with the grandkids after they're done swimming at the pool. You sit down and pluck out a few notes and then a few more. And then like a cascading waterfall it hits you, that renewed spark of music, the keys like puzzle pieces you have to pound out in the right order, but it's more intuitive than you'd realized.
Sure, this all sounds fantastical. Still, the basis of music theory transcends all instruments, it's the handedness and coordination that has to be figured out. Art theory is the same way. It can transcend the tools and the mediums you choose. They are the guiding principles of expression.
I'd say this. Make a list of every creative endeavor you've ever thought about doing and have yet to do. Even if it seems silly (hand-puppets anyone?) write it down. Write as many as you can think of that makes sense. Put the list away and look at it a week later. Can you add more?
Now prioritize that list. Do yourself a favor and try the first five things in the next five months. Carve out time, schedule it if you have to.
RESEARCH- Check out books/YouTube/mentors/etc.
GATHER MATERIALS- Find everything you think you need based on research
IDEATE- It's good to Bluesky here but at the end make sure it's achievable in scope (nothing that'll run over into next month and nothing so complex that it stops being fun)
EXECUTE- Do the best you can with the largest amount of time in the month. Start over if you have to. Sometimes it works out better a second time. Do your best to see it through to completion.
ASSESS- Write down what worked and what you might have needed in order to make it more fun. What did you learn? And score it as to whether or not you'd like to revisit this again.
Remember, your first time doing anything new is generally going to suck. Embrace THE SUCK but pay more attention to what it is you're doing and what's difficult. Holding a sculpting tool is nothing like a brush or a pencil. It's a subtractive art when you're working with marble, but it can be an additive and a subtractive art when working in clay. Keep those kinds of things in mind.
Trying something new, staying fresh and revisiting these things can have a long-lasting effect. They can go hand-in-hand with other areas of discipline, but you wouldn't know it until you challenged yourself to think and move differently.
I'm still not sure that comics are the best delivery system for what I do. They were convenient but I can't say they're my calling. I still have some time to try other avenues, and maybe if I understand what the goal for myself would be by pursuing those, perhaps I'll allow myself to embrace them more readily.
We'll see.
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