THIS IS KIERA

austinkleon:

I got really, really lucky. My friend Hugh MacLeod says, “The best way to get approval is to not need it.” I stopped even trying to get published and just posted everything on my blog. (Technically, that is publishing—it’s self-publishing.) That was in 2005 — seven years ago. I just kept making my stupid stuff and putting it out there and slowly people took notice, and eventually, those people I originally wanted to see it, the editors or agents or whoever, saw it, and asked me if I wanted to do things like make books or prints, and I was ready to say yes. But truly, being published is just having your work public so people can find it. (And you won’t even know what your best work is! I thought the poems were so stupid when I first started making them…) It takes a really long time. Like I say in STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST: “Do good work and share it with people.”

I got really, really lucky. My friend Hugh MacLeod says, “The best way to get approval is to not need it.” I stopped even trying to get published and just posted everything on my blog. (Technically, that is publishing—it’s self-publishing.) That was in 2005 — seven years ago. I just kept making my stupid stuff and putting it out there and slowly people took notice, and eventually, those people I originally wanted to see it, the editors or agents or whoever, saw it, and asked me if I wanted to do things like make books or prints, and I was ready to say yes. But truly, being published is just having your work public so people can find it. (And you won’t even know what your best work is! I thought the poems were so stupid when I first started making them…) It takes a really long time. Like I say in STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST: “Do good work and share it with people.”

Source ・ 4 months ago ・ 42 notes

austinkleon:

Kenneth Koch reading “You Want A Social Life With Friends” (2000)

This was recorded by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, author of Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life. Here’s what she has to say about it:

One of my favorite poems appears in the book on page 144. It is called So You Want A Social Life With Friends, and it is by Kenneth Koch. In the fall of 2000, I had the privilege of recording Mr. Koch reading this poem in his Upper East Side apartment for an audio magazine project I was working on. I used a tiny Radio Shack tape recorder, and take full responsibility for the lack of high sound quality. (But I do admit I like the crackling and soundproof-lessness.) He was an impeccable, flawless reader—we were finished in two or three takes. Though he had been reluctant to agree to our session, once underway, he was a gracious, charismatic host. He had set up a nice tray with glasses of grapefruit juice. Fitting, because the whole thing was bittersweet. Mr. Koch died a year later. I believe this is one of his last recordings.

Amazing! One of my favorite poems, too.

Source ・ 1 year ago ・ 83 notes

This hails from the series “Made by Hand.” Joel Bukiewicz, a writer who turned to knife making, speaks honestly about the creative process and his passion to make. He has a ton of great quotes in here… which will be posted directly under this in the italicized way.

“Mastering the basics takes, they say, 10,000 hours, that’s like 5 years at 40 hour weeks, I’d say it’s probably more like 15,000 hours. So it takes a lot of work to get there and when you get there that’s day one. Then you can start and you can make something you can maybe call art.”

“This is how I learned, so those things are the same with writing and knife making. It just takes buckets of blood and sweat and fucking work to get there. That’s it. To get good — to get competent and then once you become competent maybe you have it in you to become an artist. Maybe you don’t.”

Really worth the watch.

Project: Made by Hand

Episode: No. 2 - The Knife Maker

Source: The Fox Is Black

1 year ago ・ 78 notes

Let us fight to free the world

doyoulike:

Inspirational A Message To Humanity One Of The Greatest Speeches Ever Made

Source ・ 1 year ago ・ 6 notes

Source ・ 1 year ago ・ 0 notes

sssnark:

comix-till-you-bleed:

truth

Kiera!

Ahahahaha! :)

Source ・ 2 years ago ・ 76 notes

Source ・ 2 years ago ・ 22 notes

I want to make title designs for the rest of my life.

curiositycounts:

A Brief History of Title Design – wonderful presentation from SXSW’s “Excellence in Title Design” competition screening. For more on the subject, you won’t go wrong with Uncredited: Graphic Design & Opening Titles in Movies.

Source ・ 2 years ago ・ 17 notes