So my month of living and breathing Rick Rubin's remarkable book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being has come to an end- and what a journey it has been.
It's a tough one, despite the very manageable "bite-sized" chapters, because it's really one of those carefully crafted works where almost every sentence is a profound treasure. I mean to say, if you are the meditating kind, you could crack this 400+ page tome open at any page and find content to muse over for days!
So, how do you summarize such a work?
Ultimately, I felt I just couldn't do it justice, unless I had an entire wall of space to work with.
So I followed some of the wisdom I learned from the author himself, opened up my heart and mind to other possible ways to express my reaction creatively, and let my childlike excitement take the reigns.
The result was more energetic, more colorful than anything I have ever attempted before!
One recurring image in Rubin's teachings is the idea as the creative as a kind of VESSEL. This was my starting point- a very simple water carafe. Then I wanted to represent the many discussions of FLOW he evokes- from outside being received, and emanating from the creative back out into the world.
(I believe the fact that I had just recently finished watching nearly eight hours of Peter Jacksons Beatles: Get Back documentaries may also have influenced the style that emerged *nods to Peter Max*.)
I eventually changed the purpose of my sketch, wanting to keep some of the most powerful ideas as reminders for my future creative endeavors, as well as ensuring a visual punch that says FREEDOM, PLAYFULNESS and GROOVY GURU GOODNESS. I also decided to create a small poster of the finished sketch and send it with thanks to the delightful bookshop keeper who sold me the book in Hailey, Idaho last summer.
I'm not a hundred percent sold on the bubbles' colors. I keep trying different options. Below are 3 iterations- my aim is to keep the crazy energy of the content, whilst avoiding total visual overwhelm and inviting the viewer to lean in and look a little more carefully in order to find all the "nuggets" of wisdom. (You are cordially invited to a little game of spot the differences below😍).
I love that generally, in sketchnoting, less is much more.
But just this once, it was a blast to let go and let enthusiastic gushing rule the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment