Happy Friday!
This newsletter is all about making art as resistance, providing inspiration, ideas, and more.
In this issue: Creativity while working ⚡️
Keeping creativity alive while working
Creativity (mostly) doesn't pay. So the reality is, we must work elsewhere. Full time, part time, fractional; all of it to pay the bills. And, theoretically, support us while we create.
But the constant challenge is to keep our creativity alive in the midst of work deadlines and demands.
From Popular, here's 17 ways to keep creativity alive while your job tries to kill it. “Instead of the banal “drink more water” and “log off your phone,” these are repeatable tactics stolen directly from the icons…”
Rethinking the goals
“Whose version of success am I actually chasing?”
The idea of success is often given to us. Success = money, or titles, or fame. It means growing, and building, and never stopping.
But at some point, we question all this. And that's where we can create the real definition of success.
Creative Boom talks to creatives in design agencies about this phenomenon.
Time Capsule: Selling Out
Take a trip back to an early pick from this newsletter 💕
This year I've been thinking a lot about “selling out.” It was a Gen X mandate: don't sell out. Don't sully your art with the big endorsements and massive record deals and huge followings. It's all so quaint in the modern world, where selling out is just…reality.
And there's something really disturbing about that. Especially when we don't own the means of production, distribution, or presentation.
This excellent piece by disability justice advocate and author Leah Piepzna-Samarasinha is well worth the read, especially if you've been thinking about if and how to share your work.
“You can just not focus on coverage, at all. You can focus on doing your work…As we divest from corporate surveillance state social media, we may need to relearn and practice older methods of information distribution. I hope we will also create new ones that don’t exist yet.”
Linkapalooza
I'm reading: The Country Under My Skin, by Gioconda Belli. A wild and beautiful memoir of a poet who worked in the revolutionary Sandinista movement in Nicaragua. Recommended by Thomas Plaatsman at Cultural Reads!
I'm watching: Somebody Somewhere. It's a rewatch, because this show is so truthful, funny, gay, and beautiful. And Bridget fucking Everett.
I'm listening to: The Girlfriends. A podcast about women banding together to hold their con artists and abusers to account.
I'm sharing:
- Tiny Beijing library is a clamshell
- Pen Pal programs are back
- Pop-up museum has the Trump and Epstein art
- Join “Release Day” and get your work out
MoreMoreMore
🎙️LISTEN TO THE PODCAST: Get empowered with the Art of Resistance Podcast
🦄 EXPLORE THE RESISTANCE LIBRARY: Guides, resources, and recommended reading
📚 GET ART FROM AMY: Books and music for your lists
📋 READ THE GUIDE: 40 Ways to Make Art as Resistance
🤖 SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT YOUR CREATIVE PROJECTS! Email me
See you next week!
P.S. Flight of the Conchords have an emergency band meeting, and a VIP winner. Murray and Mel: Present. ❤️
