As an artist, the most difficult obstacle to generating work is the Block. That is to say, figuring out what to do next. It's a challenge that really separates art from design, and one that defines art as a self-motivated endeavor.

When I was younger—say pre-college—the Block wasn't such a big deal from me. I would draw a  lot in my sketchbook, and would usually come up with something during that process that would warrant further exploration. This also wasn't exactly a problem during college either, since there was a constant string of assignments. If the assignments ever ebbed, or I just got bored, then I found something else to do that I had wanted to create for myself.

After college, several big shifts happened for me, both creatively and professionally. Creatively, I began to work almost completely non-representationally. Having just spent four years in college to study illustration, one could imagine how that might be a problem. As my personally work was moving away from a heavily representational approach, my professional direction shifted from trying to make a go of Illustration, to becoming a designer. Both of these changes are certainly connected, and though I wouldn't say that either shift was a result of the other. They simply happened rather naturally. The end result of these major shifts left me with a new means of personal creative expression, while at the same time grappling with learning new professional skills.

It's now almost nine years since I graduated from college. What it means to be an artist has changed dramatically since then, and now I'm struggling to figure out what the next thing is. I feel that I'm starting to create a body of work that is relevant to my life and my experience—something that I'm proud of—but I still search for what's next.

Somewhat at fault is the fact that I've been creating art that is, essentially, not about things. It's more about the process, the experimentation, the lasting impression that I get from the piece when I feel that it's ultimately complete. Those are important aspects of art, but I'm finding that it's just not enough for me. What I'm really searching for is inspiration from something around me. Some thing that grabs my attention and won't let go. I'm not looking for a perfect still life, or a picturesque landscape.

Ultimately, what I'm searching for is a concept.

I can't imagine a more difficult problem for an artist. It is truly the most basic, existential question an artist can grapple with and it's becoming a real struggle. I'm not sure what my next steps will be, but all I can really do right now is soldier on while trying to be receptive to the ideas floating the ether.

I know the blogfolio has a pretty limited reach, but what do you guys do? With nobody telling you what to do, how do you find the next big idea, the next thing?

Some Thoughts on 21st Century Communication

As social networks proliferate, there are more and more outlets for people to express themselves. Between Facebook and Twitter, as well as the second and third tier players, we constantly update our statuses to anybody who will listen. Blogs have matured, and become less of a publicly aired journal. Then there are the sites which are merely related to your life, such as LinkedIn or Flickr, that showcase one aspect of your life.

Taken all together, all of these sites can provide a thorough portrait of somebody's life. They can give an represent your activities, likes and dislikes, interests, how you make a living or how your express yourself. As a whole, this is a vastly different way of relating to people. In the not-too-distant past, this intimate insight into people's lives often took years or decades to fully investigate. Now we can learn almost everything about somebody in fifteen minutes.

Still there persists a certain disconnect. While some people project out through many social channels, the people who receive the message so often see such a narrow view. We may follow a friend on Twitter, but not on Facebook and Flickr. Or possibly we subscribe to a certain blog's RSS feed, but we ignore what the author posts on MySpace. The frequently conflicting nature of so many of these sites, combined with their proprietary networks, creates a sort of walled ecosystem around each site. Though people project a certain image of themselves, not everybody receives it.

This is not to say that it is any worse than communication in the past, just different. Communication is easier and cheaper today than it's ever been. And it will only get easier and cheaper from here on. Global competition has lowered the price of everything, and only for the better. We can see what our friends are doing in another city, another country or across the world. We can meet and interact with people who we never would have encountered just ten years ago.

In my personal life, the biggest disconnect is between the people "who get it" and those don't. Essentially, the people who are active with social networks communicate with each other, while those who choose not to have a more limited sphere. I feel more connected to friends who are participate in social networks than those who don't. I wouldn't argue that it's not a sort of one-directional connection a lot of the time, but it does let me know what a lot of my friends are up to without having to initiate a conversation myself.

All of this is not to single out a problem, or to suggest a solution. It's merely to try to identify some trends. Being alive at this moment is exciting, since everything around us is changing. It's good to step back and take a look at the bigger picture sometimes.

UPDATE: I've closed the comments since I've been getting a world of spam on this post. Feel free to drop me a line with your thoughts, if you feel so inclined.

I attended the inaugural WordCamp Boston this weekend. I wasn't completely sure what to expect with the event, but it ended up being very worth-while.

As you may or may not know, this site runs on WordPress. It's the second site that I built around the platform, and it's generally my testing ground for ideas that I have. Before this iteration of the site, I had been hard-coding HTML pages. They were a drag to update, and—due to my extremely limited ability to write code—their functionality was quite limited. They we very basic, and not really a lot of fun to update.

When I discovered WordPress, it took me a while to wrap my head around the concept of how the software functioned, and even longer to figure out how I could bend it to my will. I have found that despite its roots as a blogging platform, it is an excellent content management system. It is used for an extremely diverse variety of sites that have little or no relationship to a blog. What I really love about it—above of its other attributes—is that it democratizes the web.

On wordpress.com (a hosted service, not to be confused with the .org domain) anybody can create a site. The platform there is much more blogger-centric, but the fact remains that anybody and everybody can have a voice there. In this environment, anybody can put their voice out there. Sure, it's not easy to find an audience, but nobody could say that they weren't allowed to speak. That's really why I got into learning how to create web pages, and it's amazing to me now how easy it is.

With all that said, I'd like to highlight a few of the stand-outs from the weekend.

The Loop

After Mitcho's talk about the Loop, I was left feeling that manipulating the Loop was both easier and far more complex than I had imagined. I got some good ideas and tips from the talk, but he really operates on a level that I'll never able to attain.

jQuery

jQuery is one of the things that I want to learn more about. Jim broke down the basics, and answered some of the burning questions that I had. His talk really inspired, and made you want to write (less) code. His site: jimdoran.net

After the Deadline

Raphael's demo of After the Deadline was the only "wow" moment that I had during the conference. I hadn't really thought about spell checking and proofreading in the past, yet installing the After the Deadline plug-in was the first thing I did after logging in today. It's an amazing piece of software that helps you write better via contextual clues.

Parent/Child themes

Parent/child themes have seemed like an interesting concept to me, but it's like learning a new piece of software. Especially since most of the theme frameworks out there aren't that well documented. Daisy from wpmama.com really helped to break it down. It makes a lot of sense, and I'm strongly considering using a parent theme on my next site.

WP Security

Site security is something that I know that I should spend more time on, but it's just difficult to focus on. Brad laid it out in a very clear way, with some concrete advise and things to get me started.

In addition to the technical info, I met some interesting people and generally had a good time. It's something that I'm looking forward to next year, and I suggest that anybody interested should attend.