Sunday, October 31, 2010

Jack White Drawing - Creativity Constraints

380 Jack White 4

Jack White drawing - Purple Prismacolor® pencil on paper.

I've always strongly believed that limitations bring out the best in creativity. Thinking inside "the box" forces one to come up with clever and unique solutions to problems. To my surprise, Jack White shares the same views on creativity. Jack White is a guitarist and producer for the rock bands The White Stripes, The Raconteurs and drummer for the rock band The Dead Weather. Here's the link to his interview about the self-imposed creative constraints he uses in his live shows (very fascinating):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDl-if5Du70&feature=player_em...


When artists talk about the creative process and how important that feeling of "inspiration" is I tend to mentally roll my eyes. I know plenty artists who wait for that "special feeling" of inspiration before they begin a project. Consequently those artists tend to have very little to show. They're also the individuals who freeze when staring down a blank piece of paper of canvas. I've always believed discipline creates its own inspiration. So, again, I was surprised that Jack White shares very similar views on the creative process.

Here's Jack White's quote from the aforementioned video:
"I mean, not every day you’re going to wake up and the clouds are going to part and the rays from heaven are going to come down and you’re going to write a song from it. I mean, sometimes you just get in there and force yourself to work and maybe something good will come out of it. But that was one of the things, it was like whether we like it not, we’re going to write some songs and record. You know, force yourself into it. Book only four or five days in the studio and force yourself to record an album in that time. Deadlines and things make you creative. Opportunity and telling yourself “Oh, you have all the time in the world, you have all the money in the world, you have all the colors in the palette you want, anything you want,” I mean, that just kills creativity."

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Sturgis Dam - Casio EX-FH100 Camera Test


I've been messing around with the HD and high speed video settings on my new Casio camera. The Casio EX-FH100 is capable of shooting up to 1000 frames per second (super duper slow-mo). 1000fps for a consumer camera is very rare and that's what convinced me to get one. I haven't tried the 1000fps setting yet. Instead I chose to mess around with the 240fps setting at the Sturgis Dam (in Michigan).

I have to admit to being really impressed with the image quality. Unfortunately with the video compressions from iMovie and flickr some of the image quality has been lost.

Sunday, October 03, 2010

Free Art - Tehran, Iran

Iran Guerrilla Art Vert

My buddy A1one in Iran hosted an "It's Yours, Take It" Free art event this weekend in Tehran. These are the recipients of a couple of my art pieces.

Photo Credit: A1one
Studio: http://www.kolahstudio.com
Blog: http://tehranwalls.blogspot.com