Ben C. Davis

“Curate the quality of what we allow in” … “to better calibrate the thousands of choices that could lead to our own great work.”

“An appreciation of nature can serve our spirit, and in doing so, serve our work”

“It is said that gazing at the ocean offers a truer reflection of who we are than a mirror”

Our inner world is every bit as interesting, beautiful and surprising as nature itself.

Oscar Wilde said “some things are too important to take seriously”

To listen Impatiently is to hear nothing at all. Listening opens possibilities. To see a bigger world. Listen without bias. It’s not just awareness, but freedom from accepted limitations.

The artist actively works to experience life slowly then experience the same anew. a

Impatience is an argument with reality.

Time is something we have no control over. So patient starts with acceptance of natures natural rhythms.

Beginners mind. Not being aware of a challenge might be just what we need to beat it. Innovation through ignorance.

Artists find the extraordinary in the mundane, then share it with the world. Offering others a glimpse of this remarkable beauty.

Talent is the ability to let ideas manifest themselves through you.

Inspiration is like breathing (it’s derived from that in Latin), requires first creating the space to let energy flow in.

Ancient wisdom tells us inspiration means the immediate influence of the divine.

Take advantage when inspiration strikes. When flowing keep going.

John Lennon said allows finish a rough draft in one sitting. Let the initial inspiration carry you through. It has a vitality.

The artist has an obligation to take advantage of inspiration when it comes. Inspiration is not immune to the forces of entropy.

Good habits creates good art. The way we do anything is the way we do everything. The more set you are in your personal regimen, the more freedom you have in that structure to express yourself. Discipline and freedom seem like opposite. They’re actually partners. Discipline is not a lack of freedom- it’s a harmonious relationship with time. It’s necessary to free up space to create art. It allows the artistic windows in your life to take on a child like freedom. The habits are different for everyone.

It’s in the interest of your art to create an easy to stick to schedule to start with. The goal is to create a structure that can take on a life of its own. To start the day without the question of when and where to work. Reduce life admin. Limit your practical choices to free your creative imagination.

Remove automatic unhelpful habits. Let them depart if not helpful.

TODO: list the unhelpful thoughts he gives at time code 2:02:00

Create an environment where you’re free to express what you’re afraid to express.

Ideas start as seeds before they germinate and sprout into their potential form. Not all seeds do this. The hey all need nurturing. They’re fragile. Some seeds never grow, and that’s okay. Give each seed attention in the beginning regardless of what we think of its potential. Some great ideas lay buried in a seemingly boring seed.

If you start off knowing exactly what you want to produce, that’s the work of a craftsman. If you start or with a question, and allow yourself freedom along a journey of discovery, that’s the work of an artist.

Excitement, and other emotions vs intellectual thoughts, tend to be the indicator of a seeds potential. It’s a matter of the heart at this point, not of the mind.

Failure is the information we need to get where we’re going.

To dismiss an idea because it doesn’t work in your mind is a disservice to the art. There’s a gap between imagination and reality.

The only way to know if an idea truly works is to test it. If you want the best idea, test everything. Ask as many what if questions you can. Descriptions do not do ideas justice.

Grow ideas within environments without persuasions. They need to be heard, read, tasted or seen.

The crafting phase follows the idea phase. It’s brick laying vs imagination. It’s good to be work on multiple crafting projects - it creates a health sense of detachment. Even in a single work session it can be good to switch projects.

In the experimentation phase, it’s all about seeing. What are he seed has to offer. In this phase it’s about filtering it down using all of our experiences. Making connections that make sense to us. Applying our own stamp.

Sometimes the labour required during the craft phase can be outsourced.

As this phase is less open ended, it’s worth adding deadlines to this phase. E.g from storyboard to finished film. The creative task now has more narrow parameters. Extending the time can create a bigger disconnection from the work and therefore less able to capture a specific state of being.

Don’t repetitively consume unfinished work. Step away when not actively working to drive it forward. Don’t fall in love with a draft.

Work around blockages. If you’re stuck, work on other parts. Being sequential isn’t necessary. The more of the final piece you can see, the easier it is to find where the individual pieces belong.

The goal of art isn’t to attain perfection. it’s to share who we are and how we see the world.

In art, our filter (how we see the world), is the defining characteristic of the work.

We want to express our point of view unaltered, so that art can be a mirror, in which someone may see their own hidden reflection.

A point of view is not a point. A point is explicit and considered. The POV is more abstract, in the background, it’s your natural expression of your inner world.

We don’t need to make a point of making a point of view. It just happens. You may not even know what it is at the time.

Expressing yourself in the world is the same as creativity. It may not be possible to know without creating.

Great work is not loved by everyone. If it is, maybe you didn’t go far enough.

The excitement of sharing a finished work is a great time to plant seeds for new ie as.

Have an abundance mindset. There is no shortage of ideas. Scarcity equals stagnation. Whatever we focus on we get. If we focus on one idea, the river of ideas slows.

Don’t believe you had a “golden era”. It’d not true. There’s just different works. Make things and let them go.

We can create new rules for each new project. Rules define and constrain and inspire innovation. Rules are especially great for established artists who are used to existing patterns. A rule is a way to structure awareness.

Great art comes from people who make it for themselves. If you don’t like it, but you think others might, you may be making commerce, not art.

Success isn’t popularity, money , or critical esteem. Success hiccups in the privacy of the soul. It comes in the moment you decide to realise the work, before any external impression. It has nothing to do with variables outside yourself.

Market conditions are beyond our control, so therefore so is our he popular success of our work.

The only variables we can control are doing our best work, sharing it, starting the new work, and not looking back.

Success does not heal pain. Insecurities and vulnerabilities are only amplified by it. They have to be handled elsewhere.

The more able we are to share work without thinking of the outcome, the more likely the work will arrive in its truest form.

The practice of never assuming an experience you have in life is the whole story, will support you in a life of open possibilities and equanimity. Obsession on an event could lead to us think it’s catastrophic. The hard times are the opening stages of better things to come.

Try to experience life with a compassionate detachment, as if it’s being watched in a movie. A curiosity takes over where we become curious as to the next thing that will happen; instead of obsessing over what has.

The making of art requires getting out of our heads. Deeper emotions guide us. Potentially a public confession of an inner world. Follow instinct. Touch the ecstatic and allow it to guide our hand.

Competition in art is absurd. Art relates to the artist making it, so cannot be compared.

As Roosevelt said, comparison is the thief of joy.

Every work has an essence. An “is-ness”. Try to remove parts of the work while keeping its essence in tact. Remove decoration. Get to the point to where there nothing to take away, as opposed to nothing to add.

We are the unreliable narrators of our experiences. Artist do this when talking snot their creations. Bear that in mind.

A well tuned ability to expand and refine our self awareness is the key to making great works. Our inner experience. The more we view ourselves through the eyes of others, the more disconnected we become, and the less energy we have to draw from. Self awareness is a transcendence. We get closer to the universe by getting closer to ourselves.

We hear the whispers of the universe, the energy a seed might need, by relaxing our minds. Keeping them open to hearing what’s out there. A question may sit softly in our minds as we go for a walk.

Living through discovery is at all times preferable to living through assumption.

There’s a sense of security that comes from shrinking our world to make it more manageable. The artist does not value safety and smallness. Shrinking our palette to fit the perimeter of limited beliefs suppresses the work.

Try to think: I’m just here to create. It helps with questions of purpose.

There’s no prescribed way to great work. The only practice that matters is the one you consistently do. There’s no wrong way to make art.

If your energy for a project decreases, and it feels like you’re working on something from the past, perhaps the idea didn’t have the strength you thought and you should move on.

Follow the excitement, that’s where the energy is. Excitement creates the best work.

A piece of art is not a destination, but a station along the way. A chapter in our lives.

We participate in the cosmic cycle of creation. Well art is also pure play - a child playing with crayons. Seriousness imprisons us. Don’t put stakes on the outcome. Embrace randomness. Play. Then allow the adult to come in and see if it’s any good. Let the child out first, then the adult. Children move from play to play without thinking about what came before. Follow a clue, remain unattached. Remember the joys of the first step towards. The passion of learning. The excitement of the new.

If you’re looking for the work to support us, we might be disappointed. If the choice is between making great art or making a living, the art should come first. It’s hard to come by success when your life depends on it. Doing an additional, unrelated job, is a good way to retain the purity of the work. Art could be a hobby, and still be the most important thing in your life.

Have a like minded set of travellers - other likeminded creatives. People who can share in a passion for creation. A creative community can be one of the greatest joys in life.

Embrace the prism of self. We are comprised of many selves: the dreamer, the spiritual, the pragmatist, etc. Allow life to shine through the prism, and allow it to bend into different directions depending on our current state of mind and place in our lives. It’s a variable that creates diversity in the work.

Competition serves the ego; corporation serves the highest quality of work.

Great decisions aren’t made in the spirit of sacrifice, they’re made in mutual recognition of the best choice available.

In collaborators, we neither want someone we always disagree with or someone we always agree with. Thing of color filters. Two filters of equal color renders one of them pointless. Healthy tension is good, along as we aren’t attached to having it our way.

When giving feedback always give it on the work, as specific and clinical as possible, rather than on the personal.

Our ego can misinterpret assistance as interference. Useful tactic: repeat the feedback heard. Sometimes what was heard was not what was said. Ask questions, you may find that actually there’s no disagreements.

Sincerity is a byproduct, not the aim of the work. Real sincerity might look nothing like we expect.

No matter how we create a piece of work.Cnut passes through the editor. The gatekeeper of our selves. The job is amplify what’s vital and cut the excess. Sometimes they find holes and have us gather the work required to fill them. Our taste is often in this stage of curation.

An editor must set ego aside. Be unattached. Find unity and balance. Artists without editors in them might not be able to express their greatness. The editor is the professional in the poet.

It’s the subtractive part of the work. The work before was additive.

The job is to find what’s exactly necessary. To find a balance. A sense of elegance. Without an emotional attachment to what we’ve made. To not make the simple complex, but the complex simple.

Paradoxically, the act of self expression isn’t really about the self. It’s an answer to a fundamental call. An imperative must of existence. Like a turtle being pulled towards the ocean.

Art is reverberation of an impermanent life.

All art is saying “I was here”.

Nature renews itself, art evolves. An endless cycle of cosmic creation. The great remembering of what we came into this life knowing.

The reason we’re alive is to express ourselves in the world. Art is the most beautiful way to do that. An expression through time.

Our point of reference of beauty is nature. Often we he beauty comes from he mathematics weaved within it. The ratios that give a natural elegance. Great art relies on the same ratios. It’s a part of the harmony of art and nature. A calm satisfaction that comes from symmetry. A sense of peace. A harmonic resonance. You are a participant in this intricate mechanism.

We should feel this harmony, not intellectualising them. An intuitive recognition of these divine proportions. It can be learned if not naturally intuitive.

There’s a coherence that results from this harmony.

Sometimes we deliberately create dissonance. Perhaps for another moment if harmony. A tension and release. It might help us recognise the harmony.

However you frame yourself as an artist, the frame is too small.

The stories we tell about ourselves and the work doesn’t matter. It can’t be reduced to a simplification. Each story we tell ourselves negates possibility. Reality is diminished. As artists were called to let go of these stories and have faith in what’s drawing us down a path, even if those paths seem unknowable or contradictory. They may still be harmonious. Even in chaos, there’s order and pattern. A cosmic undercurrent running though all things, which no story is immense enough to contain.

The universe never explains why.