Julia Cameron- author of The Artist's Way- Speaking on Creativity and Spirituality

More than 25 years ago, working artist, writer, and playwright, Julia Cameron, put what she knew about sparking your creative process into a workshop, and then a book, called The Artist's Way.  I am one of the multitude who has made tremendous progress in my own creative work with the help of that book.  No one I've come across has the in depth understanding of the creative process, how it works, how to spark and jump start it, and how to live in this world as a functional, working, artist, like Julia Cameron.  I cannot recommend The Artist's Way enough.  But for now, watch or listen to this speech, if it sounds even remotely interesting to you.  You can pick up The Artist's Way, and check out Julia's other books, here. (not a paid link)

Amanda Palmer- "The Art of Asking TED Talk"

I "discovered" Amanda Palmer back in late 2012, I think, when I saw her in CSPAN and she was asked to play her song "Ukulele Anthem."  I loved that weird song at that point, a dark time in my own life, and while I never became a huge fan of her music, I found her way or working in the world as a creative person fascinating.  At some point, I ran across this TED Talk, and it's become one of my favorites.  She later wrote a book called The Art of Asking, and she had a great "Authors at Google" talk about the book, which is a much longer and more in depth dive into these same ideas.  Great stuff. 

Moby interviews Shepard Fairey (the Obey Giant guy for those who don't know)

As I've been doing my Dave Voelker drawing, selling a few, and shipping them out this week, I've been on a Shepard Fairey interview kick.  I've watched 4 or 5 interviews, and found this one that I'd never seen before. 

I saw my first "Andre' the Giant has a posse" sticker in about 1994 (95?) in Huntington Beach, I remember the exact spot.  When I first saw the "Obey Giant" stickers, it really fucked with my head, which was his whole point.  It made me wonder if he had sold out, if the CIA had kidnapped him or something to force him to work for them, or what the hell was going on.  I became a fan of his work.  I became a huge fan of street art while homeless in 2007-2008, though I'd been slapping stickers on my own as a BMX/skate company guy, since 1986 or so.  I also developed a wide range of "non-destructive" street art applications of my own during that year.

Anyhow, I was never a Moby fan, I've never seen him actually speak before this, and the music just wasn't my thing.  But this interview is great.  I dig Moby now.  They talk about Shephard's first punk song he remembers, which was in the skate video Skatevisions, which my one time boss, Don Hoffman produced.  Hearing that really stoked me out.  Agent Orange is the whole soundtrack, and I used to play that video when I worked at Unreel (Vision Skateboards' video company) just to listen to the band.  They talk about Shepard's ideas about art itself, art in public places, street art going mainstream, street artists in galleries, and Moby tells his story of how the Republicans stopped the Pope from appearing at a climate change rally in D.C., and a bunch more.

This is a great look into the minds of two really prolific and talented creative guys, and there's a lot of talk about punk rock, as well.  If any of that piques your interest, check this interview out.