2024 has arrived!!!

I hope you've had a wonderful holiday season.

photo credits: Johanna Ortiz, Gucci, Golden Goose, Zimmermann, Fazeek, La Prairie, Balmain, Self-Portrait, Dean Norton, Gauchere, Bottega Veneta

I was fortunate to discover music producer Rick Rubin’s book ‘The Creative Act’ under the tree over the holidays. Which no doubt is because I was so taken with Rick Rubin while listening to my new favorite podcast ‘Founders’ (episode #245), as well as reading a recent interview with him by Rachel Martin. Rick Rubin’s thoughts around not setting goals particularly resonated with me, and they may with you as well. As many of you know, I thrive on juggling multiple projects at once. Whether it be completing both a Bachelors of Architecture and a Bachelors in Fashion Design in tandem during my college years, or juggling multiple clients and creative projects simultaneously while consulting, or even taking on a copious amount of design categories concurrently while working within corporate design teams. I truly enjoy the creative juggle, and gain both energy and inspiration throughout the process. Working with fellow creatives and amazing clients is the icing on the cake!

With this continuous motion came a need to set goals whether it be minutes, days, overall project scale, and of course the end result (hopefully positive). Deadlines are often a necessity, however those goals that at times I had drilled down to 5 minute increments (or less) may not have been so necessary. Below is the excerpt from Rick Rubin’s interview where he and Rachel Martin were discussing mastering a new piece of music, and setting creative goals, or lack thereof:

'Rubin: Absolutely, and I don't know that setting a goal is the way to do it.

Martin: Hmm, yeah, a lot of our culture is structured around that, huh?

Rubin: Yeah, I tend not to set goals. I feel like a goal could be a limitation. Like, I can remember a big successful artist, a singer in a band saying to me, "I'm excited about our next album. We haven't started writing any songs yet, but we want it to be this kind of sci-fi punk rock thing." And I was like, OK, I'm listening. And then I said, "What happens if the best songs you write turn out to be more like Neil Young's Harvest?" And he's like, "Oh, that'd be great."

So then it's like, having the goal — that's not going to help you get there. It's more like, start finger painting and see what happens.'

This initiated a bit of self-reflection over the holidays. Though I’m fortunate to create visuals on a daily basis, I sometimes miss those creative days spent in college with their loose parameters. While studying fine arts during a semester in Paris, I could be spending time working on a clay visage with an elderly sculptor on the outskirts of the city on one day, energetically creating 30 second sketches of a male gymnast doing seemingly impossible contortions (tout nu) in a tiny studio by Pere Lechaise cemetery the next, or find myself having an amazing conversation with a person I’d just met while sketching quietly at Luxembourg Gardens. Never mind the incredible weekend train adventures throughout Europe seeing the amazing architecture and taking in the culture (along with the pastries) with a few fellow students and travel friends. One has since become a best-selling author, and I feel so fortunate to have had a front row seat to her free-flowing spooky bedtime stories while we bunked together at various hostels. While spending time at my mother’s house on Christmas Eve, I came across some old photos of clothing I had created during my 20’s. I had forgotten most of the ensembles, but do remember how much I enjoyed hand beading those gowns all night into the wee hours of the morning. It was both rewarding, and a way to lose myself completely in the creative process.

With that thought in mind, I’m not going to set any grand goals for 2024, but I will begin finger painting again - and hope you do too!