The following quote was taken from an exhibit featuring painter Richard Estes at the Portland Museum of Art in Maine. I like it because it shows another side being of an artist, a side that I think is less flamboyant to the public and that is less talked about. Hardwork, good old hardwork.

Richard Estes’ Realism is a special joint exhibition between the Portland Museum of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum—the artist’s first American retrospective in more than 20 years.

When we try to learn something new by ourselves, we want to get good at it really quickly.

When I was learning to play the guitar, I’d rather play an entire song badly and strum one chord perfectly, or even worse, learn how the chords were constructed. Later, when I started messing around with design projects, I was more interested in editing an existing picture than to build a new one, pixel by pixel.

Same goes for all kind of manual work, writing, programming, making coffee. We want to know how to do it and not necessarily the why of every step.

Building on fundamentals

In this video, Bill Evans (famous American jazz pianist and composer) Bill shares on learning step by step, building on fundamentals instead of vaguely imitating wholes. He talks about breaking things into pieces and working to understand in-depth each part.

It’s better to do something simple that is real...

When I visit Starbucks, it is never for their bold pick of the day. It’s usually to enjoy their services. I find Starbucks to be a good place to meet someone new, wait between two meetings, draw something, start an article, ect. When I do that, I usually get an Americano, decaf, that costs two dollars. It’s a living room, we know that. They know that.

It got me thinking that bars and fast-foods serve the same purpose. You need to meet with your friends so you go to a bar and end up buying overpriced, poorly made drinks. But you get the space. After spending a night at the bar, you want a casual place to have a laugh so you hit the nearest fast food and grab a slice of pizza. And you get the table to comes with it.

But sometimes, you need calm, on demand.

That brings me to Breather, a Montreal based startup founded by Julien Smith. Breather is a new kind of calm-on-demand service...

I had the chance of attending Planning-ness 2013, an un-conference for creative thinkers who want to get their hands dirty. I attended eight sessions in total but one really stood out for me: “HOW TO DESIGN FOR CHILDREN” by Ben Durrell and Megan Dickerson.

Why play ?

Play is the capacity to experiment with one’s surroundings as a form of problem solving (Henry Jenkins, New Media Literacies).

As children we spent most of our time playing, it’s like a daily job. We lose that growing up. Playing makes people happy. Happy people develop stronger communities. Adults deserve creative time and places to play. We do not get enough. Creating “playgrounds” enable connections between people and lead to playtime.

Where can we play ?

Historic sites, housing projects, museums, public parks, universities, coffee shops… at work!

Who can design playgrounds ?

Artists, graphic and video games...

Technology makes it really easy to start projects. We’re often tempted to jump into projects that seem like good ventures. In reality, it’s pretty hard to work everyday on stuff you do not like. I’m not talking about a regular job where you get paid well, learn a lot and have a good team. These things can compensate for working in industries you like a bit less. I’m talking about projects you’ll end up spending your Saturday nights on.

I think a good exercise to test your idea first:

1. Write one short article (250 words) a day about that topic, during 2 weeks.

2. Then go talk to 5-10 persons that are really into that stuff. See if you get along with them.

3. And if you have some pocket change, buy 5-10 products related to that venture.

Have fun!