Unlearning Adulthood
I just finished reading Don't Call It Art by Austin Kleon, and I loved every part of it.
It talks about learning from kids. If you're an artist, don't say you're making art. Just make stuff. Do things.
It felt like a continuation of something I wrote last year, your experience is making you dumber. How the walls go up as you get good at something.
I still see the walls in me. A lot of times it happens when someone talks to me about the space I've been in for years. They tell me how they're building something, and I already have opinions on why it's too hard, or too saturated, or too easy. Why it will work, why it will not work. So now I try to tell them, whatever I'm saying has a lot of bias, so you should really talk to someone else too. I also try to talk myself out of thinking only one way. It's a hard thing to do, but I'm trying my best. What I know is not the only reality of how things work.
There's one part of the book where I felt he was talking about me. He says creative people have this little bit of odd, messy magic, and that's exactly why we notice them. Then they decide "Okay, people are watching me, it's time, now, to be serious," and they lose it. I don't want that to happen to me. So I'm trying to make some room for play again, starting small.
A small window to my thoughts
In the book, Kleon's kids have their own little studio, with their own rules. I don't have a home lab yet. I have a small space right now, and my desk was very limited to just laptop work.
So I added a small bulletin board. It has some pieces of craft I made, some quotes, some dry flowers from a friend's craft night and sticky notes with my goals for the next few months. Things I want to build, things I want to make, things I want to learn.
I wanted to add a small window to my thoughts. I feel there is a lot more to my personality beyond what's already there. Whatever is going on in my head, the things I like, the things I'm thinking about, the things I'm pondering on, the board kind of shows that. It's a reflection.
Eventually I want a small home lab. I have a fairly clear picture of it: a separate space with lots of nature outside, two desks, a little library. One desk for my laptop, another for crafts and small experiments, maybe some hardware projects. A straight-backed chair for working and a recliner where I can read and write.
The book gave that picture a little more direction. I want somewhere I can follow an interest while I’m still figuring out what it is. Have the materials around, pick something up, leave it unfinished, come back.
Just making stuff
Last night, i was at a craft night with some of my friends. We do this once every few months. I decorated a pumpkin, fall edition. We were laughing, giggling, eating, making crafts, yapping. It was just so good. I also made some charms and while making them, I decided I wanted to make a lot more of them. Whenever I meet someone, I could give them a little something I handmade. I didn’t go into the evening with that plan. I just enjoyed making them and wanted to keep going.
Same with the rabbit holes I keep going down, around learning, running my own experiments, tinkering, building stuff with AI. Stuff where it's all in my control how I build it. I just do it.
That’s the feeling I want more of. Enough room to do something and discover what I like about it along the way.
And funnily, the next book I picked up (The Artist's Way) and the next random thought I had (Parallel Play) both pointed the same way. Kleon says to treat everything as a clue the universe left for you. So I'm taking this one as a clue, and I'm going to follow it and see where it goes.
No end goal. Just making stuff.