art

Live Music Business and Corona III – prepare for after-lock-down

This trilogy is about the live music business and corona. In part I you can read about 6 reasons why people in the live music business have been hit extra hard by all corona measurements. Part II was about how to get through the crisis. Part III will be about how to prepare for after-lock-down. Here again I make a difference between business in general, your own finances, and your mental condition. Business will be different than we are used […]

10 keys to success

When it comes to the connection between art and cash, there are two very different opinions. On one hand there is the believe that as an artist, you just have to get to the top and then you will become rich, filthy rich, just like all the famous musicians and athletes. On the other hand though, when it comes to career planning, most people will tell you to get a ‘decent’ job, because with art you can’t make a living, […]

Art is trial-and-error

Last week I got a bit philosophical, with the flu clouding my head. Somehow I could accept from myself to be less than 100% perfect. And while looking around me, I noticed that everyone is actually messing around a bit, trying to adjust to expectations, trying to find a bit of happiness, trying to make ends meet. Even if someone has a great plan, in the end it’s about trial and error. I see the trial-and-error approach with our IT […]

Wake up, rise and shine!

Yesterday I was getting tired on Trump getting the headlines again with one of his discriminating laws. Tired also of all the posts on my FB timeline from people sharing their outrage. You only reach like-minded people with it, so what’s the use of it? Actually, that’s exactly what all these laws are about. They want us to get tired of being outraged, they want us to get used to it! It’s time to wake up. Since January 20, Trump […]

Why “good” can be better than “better”

I have to admit, I’m a bit of a perfectionist. After finishing a task, I always see something that could have bee done better. Do you recognize it? A big advantage is, that you keep improving yourself. Once you manage a certain task, you put the bar higher and higher. Next time you will do it better. You challenge yourself with everything you do. With this attitude, I found it difficult to relax during holiday. I not only wanted to […]

Floating and at drift when starting something new

When starting something new, I often feel floating and at drift. It’s like sitting in a boat in the middle of the ocean. When looking around me, the waves don’t tell me where I am, where I come from or where I’m heading. It all looks the same. I don’t see any progress and I’m tempted to resign. Don’t panic! Thinking about it, I realized that it’s totally natural to feel like this. When you start something new, you walk […]

Why solitude is important to artists

How do you feel when you are alone? I  mean really alone, without friends around you, without a computer or smartphone? FOMO, Fear-Of-Missing-Out is one of the main reasons why we are afraid of being alone. Others might have fun without us. We might miss an important event or some breaking news. That’s scary. Important events on FB are often not more than a photo of the dinner a friend is eating. Breaking news is about the holiday plans of […]

Music – of beauty and solace, or a hammer?

What’s the function of music and art? “Of beauty and solace” was the title of a Dutch TV series some years ago. At that time I thought that there would be no better definition of the function of art. In every episode the presenter had a musicians, writers, scientists, philosophers or similar as guest and asked questions like what makes life worthwhile. “Art is not a mirror to reflect the world, but a hammer with which to shape it” is […]

Free as an artist

Art is always something new, something that hasn’t been there before, at least not in that form. It requires a certain amount of freedom, freedom of fear, to create something new. And new is unpredictable, therefore scary for many people. Today is a national mourning day in the Netherlands, for the victims of the plane crash in eastern Ukraine. Another conflict area that is dominating the news is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I see many one-sided and aggressive reactions on social […]

Timeless

Time is a funny thing. The old Greek already made the difference between clock-time (chronos) and experienced time (kairos). Those two don’t always fit together. We all know the clock time. Often our life is ruled by it. Last weekend the daylight-saving-time (summertime) ended, we put the clock one hour back. It’s a simple action, but the effect on the experienced time takes a bit longer. It’s a bit like a jet-lag. For a jet-lag they say, that you need […]

Getting personal

Since my surgery end of July I still have problems with my concentration, and somehow this affects my blog posts too. I’m writing more theoretical, on a distance. As if I don’t dare yet to get personal. This is probably because I still feeling insecure, not my ‘normal’ self yet. Shortly after the surgery my creativity was totally lost. I couldn’t make up what to cook with the veggies in the fridge, everything that asked for a bit more than […]

Art and craft 1

On Wikipedia I found the most simple definition of an artist: a person who creates art. And when art originally just meant ‘skill’ or ‘craft’, it’s now used as an abbreviation for creative art or fine arts. ‘Creating’ is the key here. And a more contemporary definition adds the concept of ‘imagination’: art is “the use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others.” This also marks the difference […]