Is This a New Renaissance?
By the time you read this, I will have finished 50+ pages of my first Mag Bash art journal. The image above is the last full spread, which feels so satisfying to look at (if I may say so). Now the next part of the journey…photograph every page and turn it into a zine for the rest of the world to enjoy. Let’s Go!
The Finds
Hands down, the single nuttiest thing I listened to all week was today’s episode of The Daily, where the reporter finds himself in an uninvited romantic relationship with ChatGPT.
This is an iconic share—SVPRepo has a collection of over 500,000 free and open-license vector/SVG files for anyone to enjoy (source credit to SwissMiss)
As far as graphic design resources go, The Brand Identity might be one of the greatest.
As part of my studio clean-up, I’m finally doing something about all my art that’s exposed to the elements, but those stupid cardboard corners are so damn expensive. So I’m making my own.
Also today, I spent the day with my wife for a belated Valentine’s date visit to the Orange County Museum of Art where we saw the inspiring collection by Daniel Arsham.
New in the Shop
Rad Scrap, my answer to all the boring and cliché collage and scrapbooking collections, is now available in the shop. It’s 50 high-quality, full-color pages of gritty, dirty textures to use in your own creative work however you see fit. And Rad Scrap 2 is coming soon.
I’m Not Davinci…Yet
In the past six months, I’ve had three moments of validation for the direction I’m heading with my art and other creative work.
The first was when I participated in the Long Beach Open Studio tour, showcasing my work to visitors from all over the city. I sold a lot of work over the weekend and got lots of positive remarks from friends and fellow artists alike.
The second was a conversation I had with my buddy Adam Luedicke of ThePosterList.com when I shared the draft copies of Rad Scrap 1 (pictured above) and Rad Scrap 2. He was surprised to find out that I’d made them as I hadn’t shared much about them on social media, and he told me that these books, and some of the other projects I’m working on, were exactly what he would expect of me and that I should push them harder.
The third was our visit to the OCMA for that Daniel Arsham exhibit (noted in The Finds).
It may be a Snake River Canyon-sized leap to make the connection between Arsham’s work and my own, but it’s less about our individual achievements and more about the compulsion to make work in various forms that push back against the status quo.
Get a 3 months access to Shopify for $1 and start selling your work on your terms.
I’m at this point in my creative career where I give less attention to what the world expects me to make and lean into whatever projects get me excited and inspired.
I want to make paintings. I want to make sculptures and assemblages. I want to make videos that test my creative limits. I want to make my own music because why the hell not? I want to turn the seemingly random approach I have to my art and push my energy toward something bigger than my own impulses.
I’m not there yet, not even close, but the more validations I get, the more permission I give myself to chase the big ideas. I’m starting a new art project this week and it’s going to be the most ambitious work I’ve done, taking me into new territory that I know will soon transcend into all sorts of projects in the future.
Someone get me a motorcycle and a leather jumpsuit.
I’ll see you soon.
Cheers,
Dave
Extra
I bet you didn’t know that making space babies is impossible, but the Asgardia group is trying to fix that problem.