It’s a crazy thought, but it works. As adolescent, cleaning my room and having a clear mind always happened simultaneously. Most of the time my room was a mess. And when it was very chaotic in my mind too, it was time to clean up my room. My mind got cleared too. “If you want to improve your life immediately, clean out a closet. Often it’s what we hold onto that is holding us back.” (Cheryl Richardson) I still wonder […]
Local initiative Last Friday I was at the opening of COEN, a local initiative with workshops for artists to become more commercial. At the reception a theater maker told me how difficult it is for her to combine commercial thinking with creative action. We had an interesting conversation. Problems as artist ‘They want us artists to become commercial entrepreneurs. But as artist, I want to create without having to think about the commercial value. ‘ ‘I agree, it’s your creativity […]
Many artists still believe that they can only be creative when suffering. Many years ago I saw a film that explored this very topic. The manager was doing his upper best to let the artist suffer. It started with getting him away from his parents at a very early age. The manager also made sure that the first girlfriend disappeared shortly after. The challenge was, that the artists wasn’t allowed to see that it’s the manager that made him suffer. […]
Part of your new identity as artist is integrity. It starts with being honest to yourself. And yes, sometimes that can be scary. When being honest to yourself, you have to admit that you are joining your friends into town for shopping, even if you actually would like to look for a quiet place to sit in the sun. Usually I’d try to hide the urge for a quiet place, hide it even for myself, and go with my friends, […]