3 Things I Pondered Today
- Where will you be in 10 years?
- What are you grateful for?
- How can you see the positive side of things?
One of the things I often think about is plans and more often than not the plans always get switched or changed. The only real plan is to plan to expect changes. If I look back to 10 years ago so much has changed. 10 years ago I was a college student who glued Legos to my car and making films.
In that 10 year span so much has changed. I am a lot further along now than I was back then. I think I am closer to happiness and have an awesome support team with my family. The amount of stuff I have done creativity in the past year has been in my opinion more than I did in Film School. I was creative then however it was people telling me what and when to do things. Now I have such an open home that I am able to create whenever I want to.
I remember I was in a painting class and I brought a ton of mini canvas with me because I hated throwing out the paint at the end of the class. I spent a lot of money on the paint so when I was done with a brush I’d randomly paint a mini canvas instead of cleaning it right away. My professor at the time was mad at me saying it was taking away from my painting of her project she assigned me. I mean I totally get that she would think that but for me I was able to do her painting and this other thing I wanted to do I didn’t see an issue in it. Needless to say I dropped the class.
This was a good example of how creativity is limited in the college setting. At home my husband is laid back enough that he doesn’t mind me getting into whatever I feel like being creative with. There are a ton of times where I am mixing a tape and painting or drawing or cutting up magazines. It’s my own life and creative cycle I can do whatever I want. The most interesting thing about how I feel my creativity is more wild now is that the spontaneous ideas I get are the most successful one.
Who decided what is or isn’t creativity? Ironically I was watching a video of Seth Godin explaining how there is a part of the world where people make replicas of famous paintings. They can perfectly paint recreations of works of arts already made. This is in a way not creative. It’s more of the similar concept of a machine. When I was in that painting class reflecting on this I felt like I was a machine trying to paint exactly what they wanted me to paint and how they wanted me to paint it. In fact at one point the professor took my brush and repainted some of my strokes. If you look at the painting she contributed on compared to the ones I did on my own there is a significant noticeable difference. Of course her’s looked what she considered better but I liked my painting the way it was. I was okay with it being what is considered amateur.
I think about how I was painting in that class to similar to how I approach music. My first mixtape was taking NASA sounds and mixing them into music. The second mixtape I made took water sounds and mixed them into music. For some reason I find it super interesting to take some type of audio element and morph it into something new. When I did Space Cadette I thought how cool the sounds of space were and was like I could mix them into a song.
Whenever I make stuff it’s because I like it for myself. Of all the work I have created for myself the work in this past year has been my favorite. I have been so into it. I play it and I’m like this is great. I enjoy listening to it and when I play back the tapes for the limited releases I also enjoy it.
Today was fairly long I worked from 8:30 AM to 8:30 PM and I had to drive for 4 hours which I was slightly exhausted from. My huge gratitude is to myself for writing this blog post at 10:30 PM. I told myself I would blog every day and I am here keeping up my own promise to myself. I am super grateful that I am able to write easily. I didn’t write anything out today so it was all spur of the moment.
Today one of the great members of the vinyl record community on YouTube and social media did a shout out on their page. Frank of Channel 33 RPM showed me Space Cadette on his channel. That is the mixtape made of NASA sounds. Within a couple hours of it being put on his YouTube somebody bought the tape. I thought that was awesome. I wasn’t expecting anybody to buy the tape and I appreciate so much that he did the shout out and contributed so much to the Secret Vinyl Club Kickstarter.
Another thing I am super grateful for is how awesome the online community for musicians and music lovers is. Everybody is so motivational and helpful. It’s funny to think that a while ago I didn’t even know about releasing my own mixtape until the online community. I certainly wouldn’t have thought to have put it online if it were for them as well. The funny thing about this is that people from around the world are starting to learn about my work.
It’s not just in my hometown or even my current city. It’s world wide. People out there are so awesome in their support. I appreciate everything that has been done for me in the community from listening to others or even supporting with the purchase of mixtapes or contribution to the record.
Lately I have thought that seeing the positive side of things starts with gratitude. It’s so much easier to get into a good mode when you start thinking about all the great things you have going for you. Even on the toughest of days sitting back and thinking of the good makes life so much better.