artistic process
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Chasing Serendipity
What have I missed all those times I chose not to venture out and take photographs? What once in a lifetime scene did I fail to document and freeze in time? The same goes for writing – every day I don’t write, what have I forgone? It’s obvious but easy to forget that so much…
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Aphorism 24
Complexity can save us from getting bored, but the basics can save us from getting nowhere. The Thoughts of Others “Art is in what you leave out.” – Kevin Kelly
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Aphorism 23
The problem is rarely too little information. Rather, it’s having too much information and no idea what to do with it. The Thoughts of Others “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” – Mark Twain
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Whose Standards?
It’s easy to forget how arbitrary many of the standards and expectations we measure ourselves against actually are. So many of them were put in place for other people’s reasons, in different contexts to our own, and for purposes that are no longer relevant or sufficient. But path dependency takes over, and before we know…
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Aphorism 22 & ‘Delay the New Day’
I come to you this Thursday with my first aphorism of 2025, and news that the second Red Telephone album, ‘Delay the New Day’, hits digital shelves from midnight. To violently wean you onto it, here’s a surrealist music video that we filmed for the song ‘Faithful’. Fighting, masks, religiosity, dancing. The human experience in…
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Disagreeing With Mike Tyson
No, I haven’t had an in-person altercation with the great boxer Mike Tyson. But I did see a video of him telling a young interviewer that he doesn’t care about legacy, because, in his view, legacy is all about ego. I don’t know why I carried this with me for any longer than the 20…
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Embracing Discomfort
More often than we care to acknowledge we might not be facing a tangible barrier, but an unwillingness to engage with an uncomfortable situation. And while it’s almost automatic to think of discomfort in the negative, it’s also often a natural companion of progress and growth. The Thoughts of Others Today’s ‘thoughts of others’ are…
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Genius Death
Stop trying to be a genius and start being a writer. A writer writes, just as a runner runs. Just as a child builds sandcastles and Lego structures in ignorance of Gaudí. Create without pretence. Without expectation. Without lofty desires. With an indifference to results. And if you’re lucky, some genius may emerge. The Thoughts…
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Compasses for 2025
As it’s the first non-fiction post of 2025, I thought I’d begin the year with a collection of quotes and aphorisms I picked up over the course of 2024; things I intend to keep top of mind when venturing through the year ahead. As I see it, a good quote is something like a compass.…
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The Role of the Artist
The very best artists don’t just entertain and bring pleasure with their work, they also embolden people. They fire up a creative spirit in others. They inspire people to speak in a less homogenised voice. They lead people by showing it’s possible to step outside their cautious selves and reach into the ether. A great…