John Lacey » Encouragement

Congratulations; You’re Doing It! - Being an artist is all about making art

John Lacey — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:51:54 +0000

It’s 10:44pm Monday night as I type. I’ve been in a weird mood all night. I watched a documentary on sensory deprivation which both fascinated and horrified me. I listened to a podcast (a sermon really) titled “Contemplation and Action.” I sat here playing refrains from songs I had written.

The documentary sort of took Julia Cameron’s idea of the empty well and took it to it’s most disturbing extreme. The podcast made me realise the folly of seeking perfection – spiritual, artistic, personal, otherwise. And the music made me realise I was still sad, still nursing old wounds. And then it all starts feeding back into each of these things. I realise I was reluctant to be sad because I didn’t want to be affected, I wanted to be perfect, I wanted to be untouchable. I wanted to be completely impervious to the criticism and rejection of others. But I’m not. Infact I suspect I might be more sensitive to its effects than most. I feel bad about this and beat myself up even more.

Then I check my email. There’s a message via YouTube. Someone has commented on a video I made some time ago in which I combined chocolate, biscuit and mini marshmallows. I’ve done all kinds of weird and wonderful things on YouTube but I’ll level with you – I had no concept of how deeply controversial my combining of chocolate, biscuit and mini marshmallows was. In my defense I am very open and matter-of-fact about the whole thing. I explain that I just woke up and that I had never combined those ingredients before. But at any rate this video irritates people. They call me names, they tell me an idiot (or worse). Mostly they just tell me that I’m (shudder!) doing it wrong.

This amuses me because, honestly, at the time I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t really care to be honest. I wanted to combine chocolate, biscuit and mini marshmallows and make a video while doing that. So I did. To the extent that I achieved everything I wanted to achieve makes me think this was a raging success. But no apparently I did it wrong! So these complete strangers who happened across my video for no better reason than it is monetized and appears higher in search results for s’mores or chocolate (or something) want to retroactively shame me for doing something I wanted to do… Never mind the fact that I’m being criticised for something as trivial as preparing a snack that was to be consumed by no one but myself.

The good news is that if someone tells you you’re doing it ‘wrong’ it means simply this: you’re doing it. You’re doing that thing you want to do, you’re creating that thing that you want to see exist in this world. That it even exists is a testament to your effort and your vision, to your constant battle to tell an inner critic (and a few outer ones too) to shut the hell up. Because at the end of the day you can look yourself in the eye (with the help of a mirror) and say, “I wrote this song and you know what – no one can take that away from me.”

A former lover made me doubt my self-worth. A sibling informed me that the only way to ‘make it’ in art was to die. I parted ways with an online community I was really hoping to become a valued member of. Random people have left less-than-inspirational feedback on my work. I’ve been depressed. I’ve been unnecessarily self-critical. But somehow I came through all this and I never gave up, I kept on creating, I kept on writing and drawing and composing. Through creating I was able to make sense of the highs and lows of my existence and realign with my own values and aspirations. Through creating I am delivered back to my own hand and not influenced by malevolent bystanders. The danger isn’t ‘doing it wrong’, so much as yielding to criticism and giving up and not doing it at all. So if you’re doing it, congratulations. I hope you keep doing it. I hope you can continue to create and share and that through doing so you become a more fully realised version of yourself.

John Cogan: Ideas Are Everywhere!

John Lacey — Wed, 12 May 2010 12:54:27 +0000

It seems funny that I have an ‘inspiration’ category on this blog because actually most of the time the stuff I publish within it isn’t really inspiration so much as encouragement. And not because I’m a naturally optimistic Ned Flanders type character, but exactly because the opposite is true. I get discouraged a lot. I post the stuff I post there mostly for my own benefit, to sort of egg myself on even on those days when I feel like giving up…

I make this distinction between ideas and encouragement to preface this video from John Cogan. [I really enjoy watching his One Minute Art Class videos on YouTube.] John makes the observation that ideas are in fact everywhere! The challenge isn’t so much finding an idea, so much as committing to just one and developing it. The important skill in many respects is respecting your current idea enough to devote all your time, energy and attention to it in the present moment.

You can learn more about John Cogan at his website.

Sometimes I Take Inspiration From Nature

John Lacey — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:00:07 +0000

Sometimes I take inspiration from nature.
I wonder what nature takes inspiration from…?

Watch this on YouTube | Subscribe to JohnLaceyTV on YouTube

I was having one of those days when everything that could go wrong did. Even attempting to write about my woes in blogform didn’t seem to help. Eventually I decided I was going crazy and needed to get out of the house. So I did. There’s an area of bushland near my house and I like to walk around there sometimes. There are steps heading down the cliff fashioned out of sandstone. I made my way down one of these sets of stairs. I suddenly realised I wasn’t alone, I could hear something – but what?

There in front of me were not one but two Lyrebirds. Majestic brownly coloured birds renowned for their ability to mimick sounds. Clearly these birds took inspiration from everything – from machinery, from other birds, whatever they could hear was fair game!

We all seek originality, we all want a voice and an expression that is somehow uniquely ours. But we have to appreciate that we are in some ways small continuances in much larger artistic traditions and within humanity itself. And it’s not like fellow travelers were staring and pointing and shouting, “What derivative nonsense!” The performance was astounding, the tribute compelling, the technique hard to imagine… and what other animal would’ve had the creativity to showcase and juxtapose such a collection of sounds?!

What do you take inspiration from?

Go Big or GTFO – But Just Keep Going!

John Lacey — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:16:52 +0000

I wrote about finding your power when no one cares. And that’s great, it is. But then there’s also the feeling that accompanies the realisation that – yes, really – NO ONE CARES. It is not much fun. Especially when you feel like you’re really doing great interesting stuff, really cultivating a talent, really developing a voice. At times you have to wonder if it is worth having a voice that nobody is prepared to listen to.

What if there was a territory that represented this struggle? Well, Ford Fiesta Movement team members Sam Proof and Jen Friel think there is. It’s the internet… or, erm, Los Angeles. Either way:

Go Big or GTFO, This … is the internet. LA is a city like no other, and a city that itself is most like the internet. It’s full to the brim with creative people wanting for a modicum of recognition. Opportunity is a bullet train speeding by at a thousand miles an hour. You can sit there and watch the blur, or you can take a leap, stick out a hand and grab on for the ride. – We’re going to give the LA community, (creative & viewer) the ride of it’s life.

I should probably tell you that I’ve known Sam Proof for several years now. We met in a Stickam chat room, he was a friend-of-a-friend… and at the time I remember him creating funny videos – often as Zeus or Jesus (it’s amazing what you can do with a beard and a toga). I’ve interviewed him on my podcast about online video creators (twice). I love catching his weekly web show Failpire whenever I can. And, yes, I even contribute periodically to another of his ventures – Podpocalypse.

What might be less apparent, even to those who know both of us, are the early morning (for him; late night with the time difference for me) peptalks and commiseration sessions.

At the beginning of the year an important part of my YouTube channel branding was drawn into question. The powers that be weren’t convinced that I had the right to use something in my videos that had been created specifically for use in those videos. It was annoying, but I wasn’t just annoyed – I was furious. It was the final straw in a growing sense of dissatisfaction about creating content online. My subscribers – my theoretical audience – was growing and yet the number of views a given video would receive was actually going down. Talk about diminishing returns…

As it happens, there’s a “90-9-1″ Rule For Participation Inequality online but even knowing this was cold comfort.

So when I recorded the first JOJCAST for the year, it was a miserable resentful lament. I told the world I was going to continue but on my own terms. Out of the ashes came some sorely needed encouragement:

I think we all struggle with this, and for those of us that are not in the 100,000 club I think we struggle with it nearly daily.

[...]

Good luck john, I’ll always be around to cheer you on

Stay Strong
-SamProof

And in that moment I think I finally understood the message of his catchcry ‘Stay Strong.’ To me that means keep going. It’s okay – indeed normal – to have doubts, to experience frustrations, but don’t give up! We all get by with a little help from our friends…

If you’re in that ‘other Internet’ Los Angeles, you can join Sam and Jen for the draw-a-thon on Thursday 4th March. And if you’re not, you can still follow their progress online.

Mary Richert on Struggle, Inputs and Inspiration

John Lacey — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 01:45:28 +0000

Mary Richert – in her first Internet video ever – talks about some of her favourite books. In these pages she finds a lot of encouragement and inspiration. I really want to emphasise three points Mary makes in this video.

Everybody struggles. This was a fact that I needed to be reminded of today. [I saw a "Quitting smoking is hard" ad earlier and a part of me scoffed and said, "Really? You should try writing a novel some time, buddy!"] It can really help your perspective to realise that even the people you admire have struggled. It really helps me to come back to John A. Keel talking about the Blank Page and to realise even Annie Lennox has moments of great doubt.

If you want to be creative you have to have input. Quite removed from the romantic notion of the artist as an aloof loner, the truth is creativity is enriched by collecting experiences and ideas. Julia Cameron talks in terms of filling the artist’s well. Australia playwright Michael Gow suggested that when you use your imagination you literally empty your mind. This is a resource that can be depleted. As an artist you need to acknowledge that and work to rectify it.

Sometimes it’s hard to see the big picture. Mary’s work is predominantly in the field of creative non-fiction. Sometimes it is hard to make sense of history while it is happening, especially if it is happening to you. This was something I found working on a memoir project. I was always secretly waiting for a point in my personal life that would lend itself to a satisfactory conclusion for the work. What I concluded was that it was difficult to understand the moment you’re having while you’re having it.

I want to take this opportunity to really applaud Mary on her first video. I’ve been making online videos for several years now and I think a lot of people sit back and think that it is such an easy thing to do. I have very distinct memories early on of being completely unnerved by the prospect and just staring into the lens of the camera, hoping desperately for something intelligent to come from my mouth. I hope she makes more! It is a wonderful extension to the great work she does on her blog.

JVC Picsio: A Christmas Miracle!

John Lacey — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:31:21 +0000

You may remember that I recently wrote about the things I wanted for Christmas. One of those was the JVC Picsio video camera. Well I have a wonderful story to share with you about that…

I was looking at the camera in a local electronics store. It was beautiful. I knew I wanted it. I also knew that I couldn’t justify the expense. (For the last two years I’ve voluntarily taken leave from the work force to devote time to creative endeavours. This has enriched me spiritually, but left my bank balance in a terrible way.) I took a brochure about the camera away with me. Eventually I went online to find out more about the camera.

I discovered much to my delight that JVC Australia were running the Share A Moment competition. They were giving away one of the cameras every day until Christmas. I went through the archives looking for something worthy of the competition and I discovered some old footage of Koalas at a local animal park…

I had intended to ask everybody I knew to vote for my video. However I misunderstood so much about the contest. I asked a bunch of YouTube friends to vote for the video and they did. I had intended to launch a full blown campaign but before I could do that I discovered quite by sheer dumb luck that I had won their daily prize for the day I uploaded the video. I was completely blown away!

Today the camera arrived in my mailbox.

Winning the camera was truly wonderful and I look forward to using it. But what really touched me was how responsive and supportive people I knew via the Internet – often people I had not met ‘face to face’ – were towards me and my efforts. And I think that is probably what I am most grateful for, to be surrounded by people who are creative and supportive of other people’s creativity. I am grateful that I have access to a technology like the Internet where I can publish my work and share my thoughts and have access to libraries of great materials.

I’ve read many “gift ideas for artists” type articles in the past week and it only really reaffirmed for me the importance of the less tangible gifts. Things like support and encouragement. They don’t cost anything, particularly, not in monetary terms, and yet they are invaluable. Just a line or two can make all the difference. “I believe in you” or “You should keep going” or “I think you have talent.”

But tools like the JVC Piscsio are, of course, quite helpful too…

Dream By Example

John Lacey — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:48:46 +0000

I was having something of an anxiety attack about my lofty aspirations and future. I decided rather than fret all day, I’d share some sage advice with you. This comes from Mur Lafferty, author and podcast producer of many books (including Playing For Keeps), columnist, and host of the writing podcast I Should Be Writing. There are several really good writing podcasts available (and I will endeavour to feature some of them on this blog in the future), but none of them embody the sheer single minded focus of I Should Be Writing.

The truth is it is perfectly wonderful to hear about what authors are doing. It can be interesting to hear about other people’s creative processes and pitfalls. It can even be useful to listen to specific writing instruction. The power of I Should Be Writing is that ‘wannabe’ writers are consistently delivered back to their own hands.

Mur Lafferty (they call her “Mighty” Mur for a reason):

But something else has been occuring to me. When you’re a parent you look at this little bundle of potential and you think, I want everything for you. I want you to have the chance to do anything you want. I want you to be the first woman on the moon, I want you to be the first person on Mars. I want you to be an inventor or president or a star basketball player or a football player or whatever you want for your kid. You look at them and think, you tell them, you can do it. And if they say, “No, I’m a girl, girls don’t do that” or “I’m too short to play basketball,” you know, you can pull up. Here’s Amelia Earhart. Here’s Muggsy Bogues – he was 5’3 and he played in the NBA. You want to tell your kid that they can do anything.

But if your kid knows that your dream is to be a writer and you’re not following that, then why the hell should they believe you when you say you can do anything you want to do? Because this is me guys, this is me telling you. I don’t care if you’re 15, if you’re 40, if you’re 80 – you can be anything you want to be. And if you want to be a writer, then be a writer. And remember that your kids are watching you and they learn from you. And if you have a dream, and you tell your kid that you have a dream, then follow it and that will give them the courage. They’ll understand.

I should be dreaming, and you should too. Fuck the nahsayers.

Madeleine Blais: Young People Need Pipe Dreams

John Lacey — Wed, 27 May 2009 03:03:29 +0000

As someone who has spent his time playing too much Super Mario Brothers, even the expression ‘pipe dream’ conjurs a very funny image in my head. But my attention was directed to an article in the Boston Globe from Madeleine Blais in which she muses over the advice she was to give to her graduating class of journalism students.

Madeleine Blais:

This spring, I was tempted to give an un-graduation speech and to suggest that the newly minted grads lower their expectations, that they rein in their rambunctious natures, and recognize a painful truth:

Even in the best of times, your 20s can be rough.

You’re going to run up against bosses who have it in for you. The fault lines in your family will become clear in a way they may not have been earlier in your life. Friendships you thought would last forever get redefined and sometimes erode altogether. Your very youthfulness will inspire as much envy as it does admiration.

And these are not the best of times.

And then I thought twice. Young people setting forth in the tradition of James Joyce to forge in the smithy of their souls the uncreated consciousness of their race need pipe dreams, not lectures, now as much as ever.

I find Madeleine’s words comforting on two fronts.

Firstly, it’s not just me. The twenties are bloody hard. Apparently. I always had this sense that everybody was having much better luck making sense of life than I am. Hopefully I am wrong.

But more than that I am encouraged by her acknowledgement that young people have inspirational needs as much as economic ones. I never intended ‘inspirational’ content to form such an integral part of this blog. It is just that I find I need inspiration twenty four hours a day. Apathy is a considerable foe to my creativity and I am saddened to admit that encouragement does not come freely from the corners of my life I expected and hoped it would.

So let’s all drink to pipe dreams… and inspiration and encouragement, wherever we should find it.

John Lacey » Encouragement

Congratulations; You’re Doing It! - Being an artist is all about making art

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John Cogan: Ideas Are Everywhere!

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Sometimes I Take Inspiration From Nature

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Go Big or GTFO – But Just Keep Going!

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Mary Richert on Struggle, Inputs and Inspiration

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JVC Picsio: A Christmas Miracle!

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Dream By Example

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Madeleine Blais: Young People Need Pipe Dreams

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