Done is the engine of more!

I read a very interesting book recently, Linchpin by Seth Godin. It’s presented as a book for businessmen (who would have thought I’d read such a thing?!), but the ideas can often be transposed to art and illustration (and teaching). This tends to work because his thesis, as I understand it, is that we are entering a new world of communication, interaction and production where a person who makes an art of their work is much more likely to succeed that a compliant cog who simply completes his/her assigned task. One section of the book which particularly caught my eye, hindered by perfectionism and self-doubt as I am, was taken from Bre Pettis’ blog and is called The Cult of Done Manifesto. It’s presented below along with a lovely poster of the manifesto by James Provost.

“Dear Members of the Cult of Done,

I present to you a manifesto of done. This was written in collaboration with Kio Stark in 20 minutes because we only had 20 minutes to get it done.

The Cult of Done Manifesto

1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you’re doing even if you don’t and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you’re done you can throw it away.
8. Laugh at perfection. It’s boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
13. Done is the engine of more.”

An unexpected visitor

Northern Flickers have been visiting our feeder on an almost daily basis! They are a type of woodpecker and normally bash away at logs on the ground to get insects (especially ants). Over the winter, the ants are scarce so they will resort to eating seeds. It takes a bit of maneuvering for them to get their long beaks into the tiny openings of the feeder. They are quite beautiful birds up close. Ambrose is convinced he could take ‘em. He chatters like mad through the window. Best not to tell him I’d bet on the bird.

I MADE A WEARABLE SWEATER!

I can hardly believe it… I made a sweater I have already worn in public! It’s a new year’s miracle!

It’s from a pattern called Francis Revisited that I found on Ravelry. I can hardly believe it actually worked. Sometimes it’s awfully nice to be able to follow instructions and end up with something you like.

Sketchbook Project complete!

I’ve been on a little iMovie streak, I’m realizing.

Anywho, here’s a little movie slideshow of my completed sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project 2011. It’s mostly acrylic ink (leftover from what the cat knocked over, as you may recall) but I had some fun at the end using pencil crayons. I mentioned artist Lilly Piri a little while ago and really wanted to try her laborious pencil crayon style, but on a less daunting scale.

The music is Max Richter‘s “Arboretum”.