Here's a Box, Let's Put Our Children In It

Being a kid makes you either great or terrible at drawing.



It seems like you definitely start out great.


York Blog

This striped potato wearing an eyeball hat says, "You're creative!"


Dave Gray's Flickr

And for a while, it just gets better as you learn how to express on paper the most important features of people and objects around you, according to your perception.


Source unknown, because the original site died

Until, at some point in your life, you get stressed about "doing it right", because a house is a triangle on top of a square, the ground is a green stripe at the bottom of the page, and flying birds are shaped like McDonald's arches.


A Mother World

Which is perfectly cute and delightful to your mom, but not creative the way it used to be, and leads to this stock image of an adult attempting to draw "like a child":


Shutterstock

which makes the earth do this:


DivorceandKids.com

because it's sad for the injury to your creativity.



Now you're an adult who is most likely crippled by your need to impress teachers and peers by "doing it right". I know I am.

How do we bust out da box?

Manly Maturity

I discovered a fantastic article about consuming/creating on The Art of Manliness blog. Feel free to make this about yourself whether or not you're a man!

Favorite quotes:

• Consumerism offers so many choices that we fail to see that they all reside within a predetermined box.


• When you create instead of consume, your capacity for pleasure increases, as opposed to your need for it. Being a creator gives you a far more lasting and deeply satisfying happiness than consuming ever will.


• The problem with consumerism is that it heavily emphasizes choice, to the complete exclusion of the idea of living with that choice.


• [Another] problem with consumerism is that it satiates our discomfort with passing and superficial pleasures, distracting us from what that hunger is really calling out for.


• The act of creation shapes you as a man, refines your sensibilities, improves your strengths, hones your concentration, and builds your character. Passive consumption leaves you untouched and unchanged.

I'm so inspired right now!

Read the whole article here: Modern Maturity: Create More, Consume Less

If these bookends are wrong, I don't want to be right

I did a little collaborative bookend creating with my father-in-law this week.



We're opening a shop together.



I already ask him to make me the kind of wood stuff I'd want to buy, so our target demographic would probably be people whose style makes the Pottery Barn crowd shake their heads in pity.



Are you in that demographic, too?

Street Art

The Geffen Street Art installment has lit me up!




Os Gemeos


Banksy


André

My phone camera skills are less than wonderful, but this was another of my favorite views:


Margaret Kilgallen

If you live in the area and are looking for an inspiration/motivation hit, I recommend checking this out!

Creative Kitchen

To begin overhauling my shopping and cooking consumerism, I commit to:

think about which organic battles are worth my fight;

make more meals from scratch;

try new recipes;

and give my support to local food producers.


(Reporting on my progress periodically, of course.)