*Typing*

Andy Warhol approached art less like art and more like manufacturing. His studio was literally called "The Factory". He was an anomaly for his time.

While Warhol's contemporaries were warring against the commercialization of art in the 1960s, he embraced the constant change. Because of his adoption of innovations like mass printing, Warhol had just as many enemies as he did raving fans.

He avoided his enemies by taking a hard-hat approach to the creation of art...

“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”

I've found this is to be the only effective formula for battling self-doubt:

1. Make a lot of art
2. Ship a lot of art
3. Don't read the reviews

Don't think about making art, just get it done.

Two days ago, I lost my shit playing Pickleball. For whatever reason, the ball wasn't going where I wanted it to. I'd swing and the ball would end up in the net or six feet behind the line. With each shank, I could feel the rage well up in my chest like heartburn. Finally, I lost my cool and hurled my paddle fifty feet into the air like a Boomerang––except it didn't return. I calmly walked over to my paddle, collected it from the ground and continued the game I was badly losing. Two, three swings in, my paddle went limp in my hands. My tantrum had caused a fracture to form in the paddle that compounded into a full blown break. $100––gone. While I was no longer angry, I was left to clean up the mess my anger had caused. I liked the lesson and the metaphor. When you're angry, it's worth remembering there will be a moment in the future when you will no longer be angry. And, when you are no longer angry, life is a lot more pleasant when you aren't busy patching up holes.

Don’t get your hopes up. Because the world doesn’t want the dreamer to romanticize what could be. Don’t get your hopes up. Because God-forbid you have your heart set on something and then experience the heartbreak of that something not working out. Don’t get your hopes up. Because somehow being anxious about not jinxing the outcome is better than hoping the outcome will work out in your favor. Do get your hopes up. Because half the fun in dreaming is calling it in the air. 

Playing out all the potential outcomes in your head until you’re so crippled with anxiety you can’t take another step, doesn’t protect you from (nor prepare you for) the problem to come.

Instead, all this worrying fictionalizes the problem into something far worse than it really is. What we think is behind the door is usually scarier than what is actually behind the door. 

And so we’re better off opening the door before we’ve had the chance to make monsters out of the dark inside—and trust that we have the self-resilience to face whatever is on the other side.

What a wonderful existence. To take in as much art as humanly possible. To rise in the morning and collect art the way bees collect pollen. To enjoy Bach while making breakfast. To read Austen while drinking your morning coffee. To listen to Billie Holiday while driving into work. To gaze upon one of Van Gogh’s 900 paintings during lunch. To fall asleep to Casablanca after trying your hand at a recipe thought up by some culinary genius in a tall white hat. What a wonderful existence. To take in as much art as humanly possible.