Creative Concepts (Audio)
By John Lacey
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Podcast Description
John Lacey describes concepts that relate to creativity (with particular focus on the arts).
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1 |
Permission To Want - Spoil Your Inner-Artist This Christmas! | Sometimes it can be hard giving yourself permission to want things, giving yourself permission to pursue those things for no better reason than you 'want' to. YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duHe-fIB88c) | iTunes (Video) (http://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/creative-concepts-video/id366968558) | iTunes (Audio) (http://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/creative-concepts-audio/id369803881) [I am starting to realise I have a terrible perfectionistic streak. If I can't make something perfectly (an activity that seems by its definition impossible) then I feel a great sense of anxiety. I'm trying to be less obsessive. I'm trying to convince myself that a quick sketch is better than no sketch - that an imperfect podcast is better no podcast at all, that an awkward tentative step is better than never learning to walk.] Do you struggle with this too? (I know I do.) Let me know in the comments. Also Christmas is coming up... this is the perfect opportunity to spoil your inner artist and inner child. I know I will be! | 19 11 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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2 |
Just Get Started (Reprise) | [Note: I'm working hard to produce both audio and video versions of the Creative Concepts podcast. Usually this means I'll record a video at one time and then do an audio version at another time. This particular installment was an experiment to see how I might combine the two. Clearly the video quality isn't that great, but I hope you'll find the subject matter compelling...] Subscribe to Podcast via iTunes: Video Version (http://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/creative-concepts-video/id366968558) | Audio Version (http://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/creative-concepts-audio/id369803881) I have had such an epiphany of late. A lot of little things came together to change so many things. One of those was watching a documentary about photography. And the thing that really impressed me was the variety of approaches to photography within this particular documentary. There were photographers with these elaborate large format cameras and another with a studio lighting setup... but there also photographers with these little dingy little digital cameras. And one woman was talking about how she thought every good photograph had ghosts in it. This totally blew my mind because in my world, in my head, there's a whole list of criteria that have to be met before I can take photographs. You know, the lighting has to be good, and the weather has to be good and I have to make sure the memory card has plenty of room on it and the camera battery is charged... and, perhaps most problematic of the lot, I have to be IN THE MOOD (whatever that means!). And there is also this fear I have about not being taken seriously... You know to be a 'real photographer' in my own mind – and I imagine in the minds of others – I have to meet those criteria. I have to use the really expensive camera and I have to guard my photographs closely and not let anyone see anything I haven't decided is 'perfect.' Because, truthfully, there's a still a part of me that is so eager to please people and wants to be celebrated. And I think to myself sometimes “If only I make the most clever, most profound, most serious, most whatever thing...” it will all come together for me. And frankly I'm not sure I yield that kind of power over anyone, whether the work is good or bad. And wouldn't it be better if I liked the work, if I liked the process of creating the work? Then I had to realise that there had been times when I actually had liked the work. Infact I wrote this song “Born To Lose You” (http://www.johnlacey.com/original-music/born-to-lose-you/) that I was so incredibly proud of. I liked it in it's musical form and the lyrics really articulated something I needed to articulate. But then I shared it with some people and they didn't understand it and I decided sort of after the fact that it must really be quite awful... and that is just a horrible place to be as an artist, to be sitting in the back rows looking at how people react to you and second guessing every creative decision you've made. So you know when people say – hell, when I say – just get started it means JUST GET STARTED. And I know you're all sitting there yelling and throwing things at the screen because I'm like that clueless person in the slasher film who is standing right in front of the killer because like DUH! Who knew this was one of those pieces of instruction you could take literally?! And in my defense all I can really say is that you don't know what baggage you take with you until you've had a chance to unpack it. And you never know when the penny is going to drop, when you're going to see something that completely changes the way you think, the way you relate to things. And that is another function if you like of Julia Cameron's 'filling the well' activity. Because you're not just creating work, you're creating yourself – as an artist and as a human being. You are a work in progress and your life is a work in progress... and hopefully your artistic endeavours reflect that too. | 6 6 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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3 |
Sometimes I Take Inspiration From Nature | Sometimes I take inspiration from nature. I wonder what nature takes inspiration from...? Watch this on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHojNRgYG3k) | Subscribe to JohnLaceyTV on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/johnlaceytv) I was having one of those days when everything that could go wrong did. Even attempting to write about my woes in blogform didn't seem to help. Eventually I decided I was going crazy and needed to get out of the house. So I did. There's an area of bushland near my house and I like to walk around there sometimes. There are steps heading down the cliff fashioned out of sandstone. I made my way down one of these sets of stairs. I suddenly realised I wasn't alone, I could hear something - but what? There in front of me were not one but two Lyrebirds. Majestic brownly coloured birds renowned for their ability to mimick sounds. Clearly these birds took inspiration from everything - from machinery, from other birds, whatever they could hear was fair game! We all seek originality, we all want a voice and an expression that is somehow uniquely ours. But we have to appreciate that we are in some ways small continuances in much larger artistic traditions and within humanity itself. And it's not like fellow travelers were staring and pointing and shouting, "What derivative nonsense!" The performance was astounding, the tribute compelling, the technique hard to imagine... and what other animal would've had the creativity to showcase and juxtapose such a collection of sounds?! What do you take inspiration from? | 17 3 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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4 |
Just Get Started! | "Just get started!" It's an instruction often heard during Tim Pychyl's iProcrastinate podcast (http://iprocrastinate.libsyn.com/). And frankly it is good advice... When I admitted to wanting to paint some years ago I went as far as buying art supplies but no further. I couldn't bring myself to start - and, perhaps most annoyingly, I didn't understand why. claim-my-podcast-in-podbean{scid-am9obmxhY2V5-ecid} (http://www.podbean.com/claim-my-podcast-in-podbean/am9obmxhY2V5) So, yes, there is power in starting... The one thought I'd leave you with is that every day, every page, every paragraph, every sentence, every word, every line, every brushstroke, every (whatever) is a kind of new beginning. Just get started, and then do it again. | 14 1 10 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 4 Episodes |
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