Ambitious or absurd? You decide.
Hey look, this was supposed to be an introduction, but I forgot to write and now it magically appeared after the fact. The internet is magic.
The Finds
There’s an unfortunate trend on TikTok that’s drifted over to Instagram where some young women cleverly use reflections and depth-of-field blur to share their exposed body parts. Meanwhile, legitimate artists get banned for not covering a nipple in their nude portraits, but now they have an advocate.
Does anyone have an invite to Bluesky they can share with me?
I’ve been reading a lot about some of the biggest brands in streetwear and their founders because of the obvious crossover of creative aspirations. And like the art world, in streetwear, every King eventually dies…sometimes slowly by a thousand cuts.
Double Resource Update: Between TinyWow and Toools.design, there isn’t much you cannot do graphically
I’m a bit of a Substack fanboy. Maybe you’ve been reading my posts and thinking about taking the plunge into Substack as well, but you’re not sure yet. I promise you won’t regret it, but if you don’t take my word for it, then listen to Dan.
Filmmaker Casey Neistat is probably my all-time favorite YouTuber and I have listened to or watched just about every interview featuring him, but I sometimes get this sense that he holds back just a little on the nitty gritty…except when he talks with Andrew Schultz (Note: adult language).
When it comes to creating content, I’ve tripled my workload. Perhaps I need a cloning machine, or maybe I just need to work faster.
I’d never heard of the Gorilla Girls before this week, and now I’ve seen not one, but two articles about them. #girlstothefront
Vandals deface Degas while a Florida teacher is fired for talking about David. What the actual F*CK is going on in the art world?
Using upcycled materials in art is my jam, but I often think I could do better. Thankfully there are plenty of artists with really big ideas. Now if only I could work faster because the plastic bits and paper scraps are piling up faster than I can use them.
Hands down, my favorite up-cycler is Nicole McLaughlin.
Read Recs
In the near future, I’m going to be writing some simple recommendations/reviews on books that I’m reading. Until then, here’s a list of books currently on my coffee table.
The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
Relentless by Tim Grover
Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman
Authentic: A Memoir by the Founder of VANS by Paul Van Doren
Jeff Staple: Not Just Sneakers by Jeff Staple
Look at THIS: PosterLad
Vratislav Pecka (aka Posterlad) is probably my favorite contemporary poster designer. Nobody embraces and exemplifies mod design quite like him.
Ambition has always been my strength… and my weakness
In every YouTube video I publish I say, “I’m Dave and I make things.” It’s not only on brand for the channel, but it perfectly sums up what I do; the perfect cocktail party introduction because it encourages people to ask what it is that I actually make.
The answer at any given moment could be entirely different depending on when it gets asked. Sometimes it’s painting, sometimes I’m building, and sometimes I’m designing.
When the RedBubble debacle hit a couple of weeks ago, I closed my ghost town of a shop in protest of the company taking more money out of the pockets of artists and designers. Then I shared a video talking about what I would do next if I were any of those artists.
That’s when a creative bug crawled right up my backside and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. (Read like a voice in my head) Instead of me just talking about what I would do, why don’t I actually do it and film the whole process for people to follow along?
"I want to do things so wild with you that I don't know how to say them." - Anais Nin
The TL;DR is that I’m going to design a niche brand from the ground up using print-on-demand and an e-commerce website, but one that is completely independent of me and my art.
To read the more in-depth explanation where I give the full details of my approach, click below (I got slapped on the hand by Substack because this post was long and I had to trim it up).
That’ll do it for this one. If you enjoy it and think others will appreciate the update, feel free to share and invite them to subscribe.
Extra(s)
Fancy a game of hillside footie? (parlez-vous francais?)
Just curious what you have gleaned/liked from “Traction” so far.