Author Archives: thevsstudioblog

Picasso was at a Paris market when an admirer approached and asked if he could do a quick sketch on a paper napkin for her. Picasso politely agreed, promptly created a drawing, and handed back the napkin — but not before asking for a million Francs. The lady was shocked: “How can you ask forContinue reading “Forty Years?”

“Joy is the happiness that does not depend on what happens.” -Brother David Steindl-rast “Joy for humans lies in human actions. Human actions: Kindness to others, contempt for the senses, the interrogation of appearances, observations of nature and events in nature.” -Marcus Aurelius, Meditations In the film Tender Mercies (one of my all-time favorites), RobertContinue reading “Don’t Trust Happiness”

“As Martin Landau described it, Strasberg’s approach to emotion was to ‘find it, express it, then suppress it…find the emotion, and then find a way to allow it out, and then hold it back the way the character would, and if stuff leaks out that’s what’s supposed to happen.” -book, “The Method: How The TwentiethContinue reading “Feel. Then Conceal.”

“You’ll never have that kind of relationship in a world where you’re afraid to take the first step because all you see is every negative thing 10 miles down the road.” -Sean Maguire’s (played by Robin Williams) advice to Will Hunting (played by Matt Damon) in the film Good Will Hunting Yes, our definition ofContinue reading “What If It Does Work?”

“Suffering is whenever we realize we’re not in control.” -Richard Rohr, The Naked Now: Learning To see As The Mystics See “Compassion is our capacity to relate in a tender and sympathetic way to what we perceive. Instead of resisting our feelings of fear or grief, we embrace our pain with the kindness of aContinue reading “Suffering And Compassion”

“Time is not the sun going up and down. It is not a clock. It is not a calendar. Time is an eroding, infinite mystery. Time is, in fact, a son of a bitch.” -Preston Jones, playwright (Hat tip to my friend Summer for inspiring this post during during last night’s discussion of the playContinue reading “Moments And Meanings”

“If you’re just letting the time pass at your job, it’s just dead time and you’ll never get it back. If at that job you’re learning and you’re observing and you’re seeing about people and connections, it’s suddenly alive time.” -Robert Greene Vvivre Sans Temps Mort (Live Without Wasted Time) -1960’s French political protest sloganContinue reading “Alive Time Vs. Dead Time”

“To put it another way: having gone about as high up Hemingway Mountain as I could go, having realized that even at my best I could only ever hope to be an acolyte up there, resolving never again to commit the sin of being imitative, I stumbled back down into the valley and came uponContinue reading “Compression”

Do you want your art to be picked? Or produced? I know, I know, you’d like both. Who doesn’t? Institutional validation is a powerful thing. And let’s face it, it’s far easier (and cheaper) if someone else does the heavy lifting of producing. The first question to ask…How important to you is this particular pieceContinue reading “Picked Or Produced?”

“The greatest gift one can give is thanksgiving. In giving gifts, we give what we can spare, but in giving thanks we give ourselves.” -Brother David Steindl-Rast, Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer “Pass then through this little space of time conformably to nature, and end thy journey in content, just as an olive falls off whenContinue reading “Take Notice”