Open and closed modes + an exciting newsletter update!

Four weeks into the new year, the shiny luster of newfound resolve has worn off. The dopamine reward of making progress hit its emotional highs in the first week or two. What remains now is the tedious work ahead of me to rinse and repeat.

One of this year’s intentions that I shared in the last newsletter is to focus more on projects, less on one-offs. I’ve been struggling to come to terms with what is an appropriate balance. Is it better to make new standalone work to renew my creative energy as long as I continue to work consistently on the longer project? Or do I need to dive deeply and say no to other ideas in order to make my best work?

WIP 1 and WIP 2 slipping away due to a flood of new ideas

Do I delight in variety or stay the course and go deep? Many signs point to the latter. “What we lose in breadth we gain in depth,” says Matt Haig (h/t Meera Lee Patel’s poignant newsletter). “The more information you pump in, the less time people can focus on any individual piece of it,” writes Johann Hari in his book Stolen Focus.

And yet—some of my favorite creators understand that creative intuition runs amok. Austin Kleon reads several books at a time to generate new work, “letting books talk to each other.” Jocelyn K. Glei works organically as the mood strikes her and without a schedule, which she discusses in her latest podcast.

In my mind I often separate my behavior into two modes—one rigid and linearly focused with the utmost self-control, the other scattered and curious with lots of energy but no resolve. Both are necessary for creative work, otherwise known as closed and open mode in actor John Cleese’s famous talk (highly recommend ⭐️).

Knowing that both of these modes should be nourished, I want to be better at recognizing which mode I’m in. When I find myself flitting away from closed mode, feeling guilty for chasing novelty but not exactly sure why, I want to pause and see how doing so is impacting my ability to focus in closed mode. When I wonder if I should really be working on a new drawing while in open mode, I want to remember all the benefits there are to play and that I don’t always have to be rigid.

The best part is that both of these modes are always available to us. We don’t have to choose! We just have to know where we are.

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As always, thank you for reading! Since 2019 this newsletter has been a really valuable playground for me to share my thoughts and process around creating art. This year I’d like to invite others to come “play” and share through a new segment, Meet My Art Friend! Every month or so I’ll share a new interview with an artist where we chat about their beginnings, current process, inspiration, and more.

The next newsletter (out in two weeks) will be the first installment of Meet My Art Friend with artist and illustrator Melissa Lakey 🎉 I really love interviewing people and synthesizing conversations into something shareable and insightful, so I hope that comes through. Please subscribe if you haven’t already so you can be the first to know when that’s released!

And if you’re interested in being interviewed for a future installment of Meet My Art Friend, do let me know in the comments or via email reply! We all have such different ways of entering and navigating our art journey, and I’m thrilled for this to be a place where we can all exchange our learnings and insights.