Last month I did a ‘Career Clinic’ about passion and burnout for students of the pop department of Conservatory of Amsterdam, earlier this month I did a masterclass about this subject for students at the Herman Brood Academy in Utrecht. Passion gives you a positive vibe that can protect you against burnout. And the same passion can make you go too far, so you are more likely to burn out. In Amsterdam I talked to a small group of students. […]
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, […]
This is a new word I’ve learned, abundance. It’s for plenty, opulence, exuberance. Julia Cameron writes a whole chapter about it in her book “The Artist’s Way”. And in the last week I stumbled over the word and the theme various times, so I guess it’s time to write about it. Let’s start with a common belief upon artists that represents the opposite of abundance. Many (wanna-be) artists think that they have to be careful with their art and creativity […]
“When you get a good review, you feel good! When you don’t, you just have to realize that you can’t please everybody. We make music for the people who like it, not for the ones that don’t.” (Sass Jordan) Sass Jordan twittered this some weeks ago. It’s so to the point! This quote made me realize, that everything is about making choices. Here it’s the choice of who you make your music for. And there are always people who don’t […]
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 […]