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Creative Inputs: Artists, Ideas, and One Song on Repeat

Hello from Malta!

Things here aren’t going so well—housing issues, but I promise I’ll fill you in another time. I’m feeling pretty miserable and searching for anything to lift my spirits.

For me, that usually means discovering things that fire up my neurons.

Friends, on that front, I’ve succeeded. Today, I’m sharing the best things I’ve stumbled upon, introducing you to someone who always gets me through.

Stumbled upons

A book was on the counter at my friend Jen's and Adam’s house. The cover appealed to me, but it was padded, which I took to mean it was for kids, so I left it closed.

The next time I was over, the book was still on the counter, and Jen mentioned it—she’d discovered the artist at PS 1, where his work was being exhibited. 

It wasn’t a book for kids. (Assumptions, always steering me away from what I need.)

I opened it and wandered slowly across the pages. I found it sad, poignant, and funny—my three favorite things.

The book is called Things Felt But Not Quite Expressed, and it’s by artist Sohrab Hura.

You can buy the book here, from the publisher.

Offset Bookshop

The Offset Bookshop is a curated collection of independent publishing projects focusing on South Asian artists. I find their books so special.

Figures

Peter Schmidt

Jen and Adam’s friend Dawn was also over, and she mentioned Oblique Strategy Cards. I’d never heard of these, and when I got home, I dove down into every possible rabbit hole and discovered not only the cards, but who and what led to their existence.

Enter Peter Schmidt, a Berlin-born British artist, painter, theoretician of color and composition, pioneering multimedia exhibitor, and an influential teacher at Watford College of Art,* and his “Thoughts behind the Thoughts.”

(* Taken directly from Wikipedia)

When stuck, or struck with an incapacitating stress, Peter Schmidt was bumped out of the flow of his work, and found it hard to return. This is a familiar conundrum to most artists, and we all have workarounds.

This is why I don’t take lunches with anyone during the week; it’s too disruptive to my work.

Peter Schmidt began writing down sentences that helped him return to the state of flow. He called his cards “Thoughts Behind the Thoughts” and printed 55 sentences on letterpress to create a box of cards.

When he met the musician and visual artist Brian Eno, both discovered they had this in common, but Eno called his handwritten axioms “Oblique Strategies.”

Here’s a peek at Schmidt and Eno’s early Oblique Strategies…

Upgrade to view the Oblique Strategies, discover the creative insights of Schmidt and Eno, and meet a musician you’ve likely never heard of, but who I’ve been devoted to since the early 1990s.

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