|
Hey everyone, Summer’s here and I hope you’re breathing it in deep. I aim to do a good amount of here-and-there this summer, a couple of weeks here in Phoenix, a couple of weeks elsewhere. I’m fresh off two weeks in green, green Denver. As pictured above, I holed up at my business partner Cole’s place and cruised around in his batmobile covering the Denver side of our photo business while he and his fiancée explored coastal Italy. I want to write tonight about making art. Not with paint, pen, or musical instrument, but with the raw material of life itself. It was years ago that I was first rung like a bell by the line, “to make living itself an art, that is the goal.” It was a few weeks ago, on page 400 of Henry Miller’s Big Sir and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch (fantastic book), that I had the sweet surprise of finding that line in its original context, which I included atop this letter. To also pull from this January 1st LNL (penned on my birthday after riding a motorcycle to a Nicaraguan volcano island!), two sentences on “life art” that I feel strike at the heart of it: I like the idea of “life art." Where the grandest canvas isn’t canvas, but the universe in which you reside, and making art is not a solo act, but a collaborative effort, an interplay, a kind of dance with with movement of all things.
“Life art” has been percolating in my noggin for some time now. Tonight, I’d like to dive deeper into the idea, tie together some loose thoughts on it, and using my time in Denver as reference material, share in my process if you’re up for it? When I think in terms of “life art,” I look at the contents of my life like colors on a painter’s palette — like, “here’s what we’ve got to work with.” In Denver, it was: two weeks in an empty house, June is exquisitely green and beautiful, five to ten photoshoots, I get to drive this Tesla and it’s faster than a Lamborghini, and my two current priorities (literally written on an index card taped to my wall at home) are (1) to finish building our automated commercial real estate photography booking system (so I can start experimenting with a four-day workweek) and (2) finish writing 17 Ideas That Changed My Life (the “idea catalog” I’ve been on-and-off working on for over three years). Looking at the raw ingredients, how to play the two weeks in Denver was quickly clear. I was to hole up like Batman in his Batcave and work. I’d be able to focus super well in an empty house and had great weather and a green neighborhood to walk and run to break up the days and would get enough human interaction at the photoshoots to stay sane. So I just decided to throw haymakers at our commercial booking system by day and 17 Ideas by night. And when I got home two weeks later, maybe I’d have these two projects I’d been working on for seven months and over three years, finished. Denver was to be solitary and productive because it offered that, and that’s what I needed at this time. Presence is also a requirement of artful living. First, to appreciate the moment before you. And second, to notice what’s best or the best aspects of something, and bring those aspects out. For example, the sound system in the Tesla had bass. So I listened to a lot of house music and the band Stick Figure while driving. Cole’s house has this big, raised, west-facing front porch perfect for taking in the two or three hours of golden hour through twilight each night, so that’s where and when I did most of my writing. There was also an espresso machine. So I doubled my limits around caffeine for two weeks. “Life art” notices how things relate and pairs them well. Priming writing a piece on wonder with a run at sunset. Walking to the farthest away coffee shop on the day with no photoshoots. Getting stoned the Sunday halfway through and pedaling a bike over to Sweet Cow for a triple scoop of Denver’s best ice cream to reward some straight-dedicated hard work. In the end, I had about as grand a time as I could working 10-14 hours a day for two weeks, and managed to finish the impossible to finish! We launched our new commercial booking system last Thursday. And wonderwanderer and wordsmith Brian Cornell is helping me edit 17 Ideas That Changed My Life this week. What arises from a music festival and backpacking the Canadian Rockies with the Yesman in July will likely paint another two-week canvas quite different. So seems to this dude, the art of living life. With love & stoke, Ethan P.S. There are only 12 days left to apply for WONDER WANDER 2025! While applications typically roll in at the end, we have an unusual amount of openings at this point. This is a rabbit hole I highly recommend. If you can’t make it, tell a friend! I could use a little help ensuring the crew coalesces this year 🙏
|
