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When my brothers and I were old enough to be at home all summer without a babysitter while my parents were working, my dad would come home every day at 4:50 and ask us what we did all day. https://twitter.com/CAwkward/status/1290427215704993793
And for a little while there I'd answer him true. I'd tell him about stories I wrote, calligraphy I made, paintings I did, walks I went on, songs I learned on the piano, costumes or dollhouse props I made, books I read.
And he'd always say, "Ah. So you did nothing."
And he'd always say, "Ah. So you did nothing."
And for a little while there I'd resist. I'd show him the things I made, tell him about the walk or bike ride I went on, report what the neighbor's horses and goats were up to today, or play him the new song I'd learned. "I didn't do nothing, I did everything!"
And he'd say, "Like I said, nothing."
Looking back I think he thought it was an ironic inside joke we had, about how lucky I was to be a kid when he had to work all day.
But my 12-year-old little artist self learned to call the things I made and read "nothing."
Looking back I think he thought it was an ironic inside joke we had, about how lucky I was to be a kid when he had to work all day.
But my 12-year-old little artist self learned to call the things I made and read "nothing."
"What did you do all day?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing."
When I was a brand new film teacher, @MrChuckD came to speak at my institution and I took my class to see him. (Nothing we had planned to do in Production II that day was going to be more interesting, trust). The 2007-8 "Great Recession" was underway--
--and the talk happened right before the students were heading home for a family holiday where there would definitely be a lot of "Art school? What the hell are you going to do with THAT?" interrogation. @MrChuckD told the students how to answer that question.
He said something like "Tell everyone who asks you that question that you are learning how to make new things out of nothing. When times are hard - especially when times are hard - that's the most useful skill anybody could have."
A lot of art-making looks like and feels like doing sweet fuck-all at the beginning. Even Flashdance (!!!!)(Weirdly, a movie that I watched many times with my dad)(!!!!) knows:
"First, when there's nothing..."
"Nothing" is the space where *anything* can happen.
"First, when there's nothing..."
"Nothing" is the space where *anything* can happen.
