IMAGINATIVE ARTS MARCH 2020 MAKE GOOD ART

-APRENTICE-
STUDY AND LEARN

• Read How to Seduce a Sasquatch pg. 60-90 (Sections 41- 70)
• Read Calvin and Hobbes : Bill Watterson (Any of it you may have or can find)
• Read Steven Pressfield The War of Art pp.125-126 LARGO (included in the blog)
• Watch Make Good Art Neil Gaiman
• Watch Everything's A Remix (Just watch the first 3 episodes (its all in one video and should be about 22 minutes). You can watch part 4 if you like but it just deals with defining copyright laws.)
•Watch How to Make a Flipbook and  Flipbooks I Made as a Kid By ANDYMATION


KNOW AND UNDERSTAND

• While reading How to Seduce a Sasquatch write some thoughts in your common place book.  Which advice do you agree with? What don't you like? How can applying these things help you?

• Reading Calvin and Hobbes-  Pay attention to the way Mr. Watterson tells the story with the pictures. How is Calvin and Hobbes similar to an animated movie? How is Hobbes drawn when Calvin is alone with him vs. when other people are around? What does that communicate? Read as much as you like. Enjoy it. Calvin and Hobbes is the best!

• Read Largo  from The War of Art (attached at the end of the blog) and watch Make Good Art and Everything's A Remix. Record your thoughts in your commonplace book. How do these three different concepts approach the problem of creativity? Which do you most agree with? Why or why not? What insights did you learn while reading/watching? 

• Watch ANDYMATION Flipbook videos. How cool is that? Do you want to make a flipbook? Have you noticed the flipbook in your sasquatch book? What is a simple story you could tell with a flipbook? 

• Create something. What? Anything. Given what you've studied- take some time to make something. Use your voice. Copy some great art. Make something new. Remix something into your own story. Make a comic strip. Make a flipbook. Have fun. What the heck are you gonna do?

BECOME AND SERVE

• Write in your journal about your creativity. What gets your imagination going? How can you use creativity to help others? What is the most creative thing you've ever done? How did it feel?

-JOURNEYMAN-

STUDY AND LEARN

• Watch a movie. 

KNOW AND UNDERSTAND

• Watch a favorite movie. Any movie. Watch it and enjoy it. Think about all the research that went into making that movie. Did they remix someone else's work? Did they figure out how the story would work visually before filming it like a comic strip( in movies this is called the Storyboard)? Is it fantastically original? Is it similar to other movies? That's it. Just watch a movie and enjoy it.

BECOME AND SERVE

• Spend a day observing art. Paintings, Sculpture, Books, Music, Movies, etc.  Soak it in. How does good art make you feel? How can art improve your day? Why is art important?


Steven Pressfield The War of Art pp.125-126 LARGO

In my twenties I drove tractor-trailers for a company called Burton Lines in Durham, North Carolina. I wasn’t very good at it; my self-destruction demons had me. Only blind luck kept me from killing myself and any other poor suckers who happened to be on the highway at the same time. It was a tough period. I was broke, estranged from my wife and my family.

One night I had this dream:

I was part of the crew of an aircraft carrier. Only the ship was stuck on dry land. It was still launching its jets and doing its thing, but it was marooned half a mile from the ocean. The sailors all knew how screwed up the situation was; they felt it as a keen and constant distress. The only bright spot was there was a Marine gunnery sergeant on board nicknamed “Largo.” In the dream it seemed like the coolest name anyone could possibly have. Largo. I loved it. Largo was one of those hard-core senior noncoms like the Burt Lancaster character, Warden, in From Here to Eternity. The one guy on the ship who knows exactly what’s going on, the tough old sarge who makes all the decisions and actually runs the show. 

But where was Largo? I was standing miserably by the rail when the captain came over and started talking to me. Even he was lost. It was his ship, but he didn’t know how to get it off dry land. I was nervous, finding myself in conversation with the brass, and couldn’t think of a thing to say. The skipper didn’t seem to notice; he just turned to me casually and said, “What the [heck] are we gonna do, Largo?” 

I woke up electrified. I was Largo! I was the salty old Gunny. The power to take charge was in my hands; all I had to do was believe it.