Substrate

#austin-kleon
Stepping into the portal
Stepping into the portal
I stepped into the portal a few hours ago and I discovered some things and made some connections that I hadn’t before. Now I’m going to hit “publish” and step out.
·austinkleon.com·
Stepping into the portal
Guardian spirits
Guardian spirits
Back in January, I decided that my new notebook needed a guardian spirit to watch over things. Emily Dickinson seemed right. I felt like Emily D kept a good watch, so when I finished that notebook, I decided to continue the practice. I burned through 8 notebooks this year, so I had to pick 8 spirits...
·austinkleon.com·
Guardian spirits
An enemy of envy
An enemy of envy
I agree with him: [envy] will eat you alive if you keep it inside. I think one thing you can do is spit it out, cut it out, or get it out by whatever means available — write it down or draw it out on paper — and take a hard look at it so it might actually teach you something.
·austinkleon.com·
An enemy of envy
15 years of blogging
15 years of blogging
That last line is worth repeating: “Blogging is an essential tool toward meditating over an extended period of time on a subject you consider to be important.”
·austinkleon.com·
15 years of blogging
Doing the work that’s in front of you
Doing the work that’s in front of you
It is my 37th birthday today, and what I really crave, more than anything, is a continuity to my days. Not an accumulation, the sense that they’re adding up to anything, not necessarily, just a continuity. The sense that one day leads into another leads into another leads into another on and on and on.
·austinkleon.com·
Doing the work that’s in front of you
Circling the airport
Circling the airport
Anne Truitt’s advice against immediately judging artists: Don’t have to bring them in for a landing or send them away, just let them circle.
·austinkleon.com·
Circling the airport
No time for despair
No time for despair
So, please: Keep making your art. Keep speaking the truth. We need your efforts, no matter how small and how trivial they may seem to you.
·austinkleon.com·
No time for despair
Playing hide and seek
Playing hide and seek
Creativity is about connection—you must be connected to others in order to be inspired and share your own work—but it is also about disconnection. You must retreat from the world long enough to think, practice your art, and bring forth something worth sharing with others. You must play a little hide-and-seek in order to produce something worth being found.
·austinkleon.com·
Playing hide and seek
Education is an amble
Education is an amble
“Race to the Top; what a horrid metaphor for education. A race? Everyone is on the same track, seeing how fast they can go? Racing toward what? The top? The top of what? Education is not a race, it’s an amble. Real education only occurs when everyone is ambling along their own path.” —Peter Gray ​ 2. Always work (note, write) from your own interest, never from what you think you should be noting or writing. Trust your own interest.
·austinkleon.com·
Education is an amble
What do you want to learn?
What do you want to learn?
When you feel like you’ve learned whatever there is to learn from what you’re doing, it’s time to change course and find something new to learn so that you can move forward. You can’t be content with mastery; you have to push yourself to become a student again. So, perhaps, instead of asking that dreaded question, “What next?” turn it into this question: “What do you want to learn?”
·austinkleon.com·
What do you want to learn?
A good editor is hard to find
A good editor is hard to find
(He’s off to chill in the woods and freelance.) ​ What you really want in an editor is someone who’s still on the dock, who can say, Hi, I’m looking at your ship, and it’s missing a bow, the front mast is crooked, and it looks to me as if your propellers are going to have to be fixed.
·austinkleon.com·
A good editor is hard to find
The digestive system
The digestive system
the more I try to focus on what I genuinely love. The stuff that really nourishes and feeds me.
·austinkleon.com·
The digestive system
Morning moon
Morning moon
1) the full moon can be glorious, but it's really the moon phasing in and out that is the most interesting to me 2) morning moons sometimes beat evening moons, especially when they hang big and low by the horizon and startle you when you turn a corner or come out from under the shade
·austinkleon.com·
Morning moon