Get me on the court and I’m trouble Last week, messed around and got a triple-double Freakin’ brothers every way like MJ I can’t believe today was a good day -song “It Was A Good Day” by Ice Cube
Good day sunshine Good day sunshine Good day sunshine I need to laugh, and when the sun is out I’ve got something I can laugh about I feel good, in a special way I’m in love and it’s a sunny day -song “Good Day Sunshine” by The Beatles
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” -Viktor Frankl
Can you have a good day today without things going your way?
Michael Roderick, in his excellent daily newsletter, has some great advice on how to do it well. He lists four learnings from all his years of following up:
Everyone has a different response time – If I were standing in front of you and said hello, you would likely say hello back. You’d feel it was rude to ignore me. You also would say hello back very quickly to eliminate the awkward silence. Some people are like that with email or other communication. They respond right away, while others may read something and take time to respond. So if someone doesn’t instantly respond to your message, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are ignoring you. They just may have a different response time.
Everyone has a preferred channel – We all have a way that we like to communicate. Some people prefer in-person interaction and will not correspond in any other format. Some people live on the Book of Faces and treat their messenger like email. Some focus only on inbox correspondence. The list goes on and on. If you’re not hearing back from someone, it may be that the channel of communication you decided to use is either not in use or simply too backed up.
Everyone gets busy – Even the person with the most mundane life in the world will have some period where things are a little more hectic than usual, and the first thing to go in those instances is responding to other people’s requests. Sometimes we reach out at a time when people are swamped, and it takes a number of nudges before they are even able to realize that we’re reaching out to them.
Everyone deserves an “out” – We all have had moments in our lives when we agreed to something in the moment and later on realized we made a mistake. In these instances, it’s pretty common to ignore any follow-up from the person we made the agreement with because of the guilt we feel from changing our mind, even though we have every right to change our minds. Sometimes, if someone isn’t responding to follow-ups, it’s worth it to offer them an out. Let them know that if they don’t want us to contact them anymore, they can say so.
And for the few who get annoyed by your follow up?…Well, you just got a sneak peak as to what it’s like to work with them. You can cut ties now and save everyone a whole lot of aggravation down the road.
“It took me twenty years to become an overnight success.” -Eddie Cantor
“I did stand-up comedy for eighteen years. Ten of those years were spent learning, four years were spent refining, and four were spent in wild success.” -Steve Martin
“I start early and I stay late, day after day, year after year, it took me 17 years and 114 days to become an overnight success.” -Lionel Messi (after his debut match with FC Barcelona’s 1st team on October 16, 2004)
Andrew Bothamley in his wonderful “Art Every Day” Substack, tells the below story about the English painter, John Constable…
John Constable’s name will forever be tied to the English countryside.
With a career almost entirely devoted to depicting the landscape in sunshine, storm, winter, spring, summer and fall (or, indeed, in England’s unique habit for having a mix of all these things in a single day!) . . . the quality that really elevated Constable to being one of England’s greatest ever artist was his ability to paint with such an earthy authenticity.
A strong proponent of “braving the elements”, and painting outdoors – he set a precedent which would later have a massive influence on the ideals of French Impressionism.
And while his most widely famous work is the Iconic “Hay Wain”, which he painted on the banks of the River Stour in 1821 – today, I wanted us to feature one of his earlier Stour Paintings from 1819; because without this work, Constable may well have had a very different fate as an artist.
At the time of painting this work, John Constable was in his early forties and had been a professional artist for just under 20 years. But in all honesty, things were not going all that well.
Financially, he was just about scraping by as a painter of landscapes. Yet, with with every passing year, things were getting more difficult. And increasingly, he was starting to regret a certain decision he had made back in 1802 – when, as a young man, he had turned down quite a lucrative opportunity to become the art teacher at the renowned military college of Sandhurst (then known as Great Marlow College).
At the time, he was convinced that “compromising” with this more secure career path would lead him astray from his single minded “pursuit of truth” as a painter.
But to most people who knew him, this decision was entirely foolhardy. And in fact, a number of his artist peers predicted that “this will be the end of the man”.
Words which, frankly, were starting to seem worryingly prophetic.
Yet still, Constable pushed on with his work. And while knowing that his career as an artist really was becoming a matter of “now or never” – he started making plans for the upcoming Royal Exhibition in 1819.
This was going to be one of his largest works to date -measuring almost six feet in width.
And, frankly, the artist painted with all the intensity of a man who he was determined to go out with a bang if this really was to be his final painting.
But, fortunately, his hard work was about to be rewarded by a change in fortunes.
When the work was finally exhibited publicly. it received high praise; earning Constable a much longed for nomination for associate membership to the Royal Academy.
It was also purchased for a decent sum of 100 Guineas by none other than John Fisher, the Bishop of Salisbury at the time. And soon after this, Bishop Fisher also commissioned the artist to create a second painting too – which led to Constable’s magnificent View of Salisbury Cathedral. (A work we covered here previously)
Thus, after all those decades of hard work, Constable finally became “an overnight success”.
And from the brink of giving up on his career as a painter – he was now about to embark on a series of works which would result in many of his most famous masterpieces.
Although it’s worth mentioning that, for the rest of his life, Constable always remained particularly attached to his White Horse. Hence, in a letter to Bishop Fisher in 1826, the painter said:
“In the life of an artist, there are generally perhaps one, two or three pictures, on which hang more than usual interest.
This is mine”
You never know what will be your “White Horse.” Or if you will ever even have one.
But the only way to find out is to keep going, keep trying, keep making your art.
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” -President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1932 Inaugural Address
The scariest stories aren’t found in movies and books. They are found in our minds.
They are the stories we tell ourselves about why we can’t do something.
“You ruined my life! I haven’t lived! I never lived! Thank to you I destroyed the best years of my life!…My life is over. I’m talented, I’m smart…If I’d had a normal adulthood I could’ve been a Schopenhauer or a Dostoyevsky.” -Vanya speaking to Serebryakov in Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov (Annie Baker translation)
“If I only knew then what I know now I woulda…”
Okay fine. Maybe you blew it. Maybe you should have worked harder or made a different decision or chose a different path or whatever.
Or maybe you just got a bad break.
But either way, that was about one particular thing. One moment in time.
Don’t let that define the rest of your life.
Instead, use what you know now to go kick ass at the next thing.
“People need trouble—a little frustration to sharpen the spirit on, toughen it” -William Faulkner
“What are you fighting for, and how are you working to get what you want?…An actor is looking for conflict…Conflict is what creates drama. [In life] we are taught to avoid trouble [so] actors don’t realize they must go looking for it. Plays are written about the extraordinary, the unusual, the climaxes. The more conflict actors find, the more interesting the performance.” -Michael Shurtleff, Audition
The frustration you’re feeling right now is a gift. Both in your acting and in life.
Don’t waste it.
Do something with it.
Channel that frustration and conflict and energy into action.
“Burn your bridges, start again. You should burn them every now and then. Or you’ll never grow!” -from the musical Merrily We Roll Along by Stephen Sondheim
For the actor…
Age, type, experience, marketability, look, etc…They all pale in comparison to “spirit.”
If you capture the spirit of the character, then you will capture us. And after about 5 minutes, we’ll roll with anything.
Our Vs. reading this past week and the fantastic high school production I saw tonight both reminded of the fact. Ages were wrong. But the spirits were oh so right.
P.S. – This is why you must produce your own work. Don’t rely on people to see you the way you see you.
Start close in, don’t take the second step or the third, start with the first thing close in, the step you don’t want to take. -from the poem “Start Close In” by David Whyte
Dear Reader,
I just wrote my 1,500th post. When I started this blog about 5 years ago (January 1, 2020), I could not imagine writing 1500 posts.
Wow.
It’s been a helluva ride.
But more meaningful to me is the fact that YOU have been here for 1,500 posts.
Thank you from the bottom of heart for reading, for sharing, for commenting and for encouraging.
I don’t take your time or attention for granted. It means the world to me. I vow to keep showing up every weekday and share something that is personal, actionable and hopefully inspiring to you on your artistic journey.
The Vs. Studio Blog 