Austin KleonHey y’all,
Earlier this month I had the pleasure of getting to chat about Don’t Call It Art with art coach Beth Pickens as part of her Homework Club. It was a fun conversation that I wanted to be sure to share with y’all — I started off describing the dream I had after seeing Bob Dylan live:
And then Beth beautifully summarized what she’s discovered from working with artists (that might also explain why Dylan still gets up onstage at age 85):
Artists are people who are profoundly, deeply compelled to make their creative work. And when an artist doesn’t make their work, they become unwell. So everybody benefits from creative expression, but artists are people who actually need it in order to have a fully realized life. And so, no matter what, you have to be making your work, always. You have to have your creative practice.
She then outlined the 3 basic needs she thinks every artist has:
You have to make your work.
You have to have artist friends who want good things for themselves and each other.
You have to take in lots of stuff.
In regards to the last item, she read an excerpt from the “Problems of output are problems of input” section of Don’t Call It Art:
When I have problems with my output, it’s often time to work on my input. When I stall out, it’s time to start taking things in: reading books, watching movies, listening to music, going to art museums, traveling, taking people to lunch, and generally soaking up what the world has to offer. I try to be open and alert and on thelookout for that thing that will get me going again.
We also talked about the trick to getting bored and why boredom is so important:
Beth and I last spoke almost three years ago (!!!) in a chat about death, deadlines, and doing your art no matter what:
Here are my notes from that talk:
If you like these conversations and you’d like to join Beth’s Homework Club, the code MAGIC will get you a free month!
xoxo,
Austin
P.S. Here are some notes from Beth’s books, Make Your Art No Matter What and Your Art Will Save Your Life: