Recently, I've been feeling like I need to make more lists (like most recently :reasons to have your own website). This is a personal thing, I loooove lists and referencing stuff for later. It's often a clear-heading move, regulatory. And it usually ends up being a big stepping stone for my creative projects.
This instinct of mine is getting encouraged, or even justified, by my use of AI. Having a buttload of references to analyse and use in project is proving very very useful.
In other words, I'm now making MORE lists.
One flavor of list that's proving extremely useful both creatively and personally is the 'reasons I'm obsessed with...' list. They are both an exercice in loving the world a little better, getting to know myself more, and they are great ways to find avenue I would LOVE to explore creatively.
Ideally, I'd like to have a list of reasons I'm obsessed with... for each author I keep coming back to, each tv show I binge, each movie I adore, each book I keep quoting. Maybe even each color I prefer using over all else.
But to get this habit back on track, I'd like to start with people's work.
I'll have to come clean, this post was actually motivated directly by Visakan Veerasamy, whom I keep mentioning on this blog. He asked :
my wife just hit me with “I think you don’t really know what people like about your writing”. I’m like ok, what is it? “I don’t know either.” Lol ok. I’ll ask the audience then. Do yall know? 🤨
That prompted my answer in the form of a list (which I also published in his comment).
Why do I come back to visa’s writing all the time’ :
- it feels like I’m in the head of someone with the best intentions - I aspire to this level of kindness and generosity in sharing
- actually bloody good insights - i especially remember your comment on how humans are so very much more diverse than our imagination (more people in the world than seconds in your life), it’s been incredibly helpful for someone like me, who has moments of despair for the world and find it hard to find a place and to relate to people
- i’m impressed by your sheer volume of production
- your writing feels like the right spot of ‘edited’, which is not a lot (although, as they say, making look simple is not easy) - it’s a breath of fresh air in the current landscape of overedited and overthought
- because of this, you surprise me often - I think something is going one way but it’s going another than makes me reflect back and look at things from a different angle
- the sentences and concepts stick in my mind : ‘are you serious’ especially is something I reference often in my journals
- it doesn’t feel like I need to be a certain way or know certain things in order to benefit from your insights - it’s all very human, down to earth, aware of how people actually are
- the references that are not over litterate - the zelda ‘take this with you’ is another one that stays with me
- I get a sense of what it feels like to work on ideas from your drafts and word vomits - it’s a genuine pleasure to dig through it all (I discovered your ongoing google docs the other day, love them)
- oh and it’s never ever negative or blaming someone or something - I guess I went full circle here and I’m back at ‘your kindness just comes through’
This might read a little 'fan-girl'. But I'm trying to get really honest with myself on the reasons. And I DO come back to Visa's writing all the time.
Another person I really love the work of is Sandi Hester. She's a painter, and she does those wonderful vlogs where she just talks about anything related to her practice.
Why I keep coming back to Sandi's work :
- I feel like her paintings are interesting, in the sense that I can look at them for a long time and still finding stuff I find delightful
- colors
- her sharing process is generous, she talks about her supplies, what she really uses, she paints on camera and talk also about the 'little things' of the process that also matter (like how she carries her paints when she paints outside) - it's all-compassing, not just performative
- she does it, it seems to me, as a way to share but also as a way to encourage other people to do art too - not as a performative thing, nor a ideology, just... let's do this thing that I really love doing together, I like that
- this seeps through her work as well, it's not pretending to be whatever, it's just FUN, pure FUN
- I like how she talks about mistakes, and reworking, she is the one person that made me understand the purpose of a notebook for a painter - the concept of 'taking visual notes', it's incredibly freeing, because you don't have to make it perfect EVER, it's just note
- which transformed the way I look at the world - I collect the little bits I like and you'll surely find little bits you like even in places you don't like as a whole
- her freedom of line and color and composition - I want to achieve some of that
- her youtube process reminds me that it doesn't need to be complicated or very edited (even if I still have a hard time putting that intro practice) - her thumbnails change constantly, she is ever editing with fancy titles and such, it's just... sharing, pure sharing, we go back this
That list tells me a lot about my own aspirations, what I should focus on to feel better in my own creative practice. Even outside of painting.
Let's go for a third person : Antoine BM. I have a much more complicated relation to this creator, because I'm a little jealous of him tbh. But I've been following him for a LONG time, and I agree with him on a lot of things. I'm just jealous of how his practice has translated into a thriving business, and mine has not.
So why I keep coming back to AntoineBM's work :
- simplicity - it's a hard thing to actually do, but he goes right to the point of things, it's very first principle, and he does APPLY, not just talk about it all
- I think he has a very special view of things that aligns with my own - things should be simple, do the stuff that makes you happy, find a way to make it work
- his approach to systems again with such simplicity, removing the fluff to get to the right parts of the equation is excellent - it's always logical and excellent, even though it's simple
- I admire (and that's the part I'm most jealous of) his ability to connect, and to make a point that's both simple yet resonant. people agree with his view because also of the way he presents them, he's super convincing (which makes him very good at sales)
- he talked recently about his inability to be constant, I disagree, I think he's one of the most constant people in the french solopreneur space. he kept doing his thing, always on first principles as mentioned earlier, always in the same spirit, always with the same desire to present something simple yet powerful, and he never followed the trends in a way that made them feel like the best thing in the world (and if he did, it was his way). and yes, that meant launching a lot of 'small products', but really, it was and still is FANTASTICALLY CONSTANT.
- I feel like he had found a way to make his business and life work around his personality - it felt natural, and not staged natural, there's a big difference. I'm not saying he's always super aligned, because of the business model, but the SYSTEM was aligned with him. And that's something I aspire to very much.
Wow. Ok. I feel better about being jealous now. These are good things to be jealous about.
See, just writing this three lists I feel a lot more in sync with myself, a lot more aware of what I want to pursue and do with my life. It's all clues.
Lists are clues. Good title that.