Viral Hope

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Viral Hope


How digital painter Nikkolas Smith turns grief into art and activism.

I’ll never forget driving by the teddy bear.

It was two miles from where I lived. Where Trayvon Martin was last alive, walking with Skittles from the Sanford, FL 7-11 I got that bottle of water from that one time.

There were piles of flowers and cards, near the grass his shoes last touched, still growing.

There were piles of stuffed animals too. Reminders that this was just a kid.

A kid.

He should have been in school today. He should have been unfurling a day-old Skittles bag to finish whatever colors were left.

I kept driving, but I did not know where to go from here.

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Hiding in Your Room

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Hiding in Your Room


Singer-songwriter Molly Jenson on showing up as your real self, especially after heartbreak.

So much about being a professional artist is showing up.

Again and again and again and again. Even when it hurts.

It also requires a transmutation of rejection, seeing it in a new skin.

What a professional artist knows is that rejection is part of the job – not a sign you’re wrong for the job.

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When it's Time to Walk Away

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When it's Time to Walk Away


Broadway performer Morgan Marcell (Matayoshi) on walking away from something good to pursue what lights you up.

Morgan Marcell is a force.

You might know that from hearing her on the Hamilton cast album, seeing her on Broadway, or maybe you saw her on TV that time she performed at The Grammys.

(If you’re a super Hamilton fan you definitely saw her perform “My Shot” as Alexander Hamilton for a few minutes outside The Richard Rogers theater, or caught a glimpse of her at The White House performance.)

I know it because I met her backstage at Hamilton once where her smile literally changed the electricity in a room already lit up with stars (and cake).

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Making a Living as an Artist

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Making a Living as an Artist


Disney artist Antonio Pelayo on the importance of practice and how to make a living as an artist.

It was one of those Instagram posts that make you scroll back up and stare.

It was more real than real.

And it wasn't done with a camera.

But with a pencil.

A pencil?!

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Feeling Terrified

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Feeling Terrified


Original Hamilton cast member Seth Stewart on taking risks even when you’re terrified, and the surprising ways those risks can pay off.

In my favorite episode of the TV show How I Met Your Mother - "Lucky Penny" - protagonist Ted tells his kids how finding a penny on the ground created a seemingly random series of events that caused him to lose out on his dream job.

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why your stories keep others going

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why your stories keep others going

Aka why I’m obsessed with Angie Thomas

I was walking in an airport feeling like giving up.

It was about a year ago. I was in year three of a book project I thought would take one year. The research was intense, and everything else in life kept getting in the way of me having the long stretches of uninterrupted time I needed to wrap my head around the million words of research I’d created.

I started to feel like it just wasn’t going to happen.

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7 lessons from the artist who gave me permission to dream

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7 lessons from the artist who gave me permission to dream

What did you like to do when you were a kid?

I've been thinking about that question a lot lately.

I put snails in a jar.

I wrote plays.

I acted in my own plays and one-woman shows. (Thank goodness YouTube did not exist then).

I memorized and performed scenes from The Little Mermaid.

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Surviving the Editing Process

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Surviving the Editing Process


Journalist Jada Yuan on why needing 17 rounds of edits doesn’t mean you’re bad at your craft.

You’ve probably never heard of “Jada Yuan,” but you’ve heard of the people she’s interviewed: Steven Spielberg, Taylor Swift, Mindy Kaling, Stevie Nicks, to name a few. But who she knows is not what makes Jada interesting – it’s how she writes; she is one of my favorite writers.

Jada is a storyteller – and I want to find out how she got so good at her craft.

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When No One Will Hire You

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When No One Will Hire You


Oscar-winning makeup artist Dave Elsey on what to do when no one will hire you for your dream job.

I wish you could hear Dave Elsey’s voice. It’s all kindness and wonder, wrapped up in an accent that makes me long for the two weeks I spent across England in my third year of college, climbing up moors with sheep everywhere, eating jacket potatoes in places called the “Red Lion,” and trying chana masala for the first time in London.

Also there was the Monet room, which I stumbled upon while lost, roaming the giant halls of the National Gallery in London, the art museum guarded by giant bronze Lions in Trafalgar Square. I stood in the exact center of the Monet room, equidistant from each painting, and slowly walked closer until my breath touched the paint.

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dandelions

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dandelions

I have loved Beauty and the Beast for what feels like my entire life, but there is one scene that has always stood out among the rest (and that is saying a lot because it had to compete with the library reveal and that time when she's trying to pick out a book on the step ladder and that first "There goes the baker..."). 

But the scene that has stayed with me long into adulthood is the one where she runs into a field of dandelions and sings, as the music crescendos,: "I want adventure in the great wide somewhere, I want it more than I can tell..."

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maybe being embarrassed by your creative work isn't always a bad thing

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maybe being embarrassed by your creative work isn't always a bad thing

Doing creative work can be embarrassing: putting yourself out there for all to see, waiting to see if anyone responds, all the while unsure which scenario you fear more - someone actually seeing it and responding or no one seeing it. Both sound terrible in the beginning. 

I'm sure there are things I probably never published because I felt embarrassed, or maybe things I never said. I'm sure there are projects and ideas I've never shared because I was embarrassed. Somehow I came to think that embarrassment about something before sharing it was a sure sign that the thing would indeed be embarrassing (i.e. a total failure). 

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a cuppa

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a cuppa

I am not British but I went to England for two weeks in college and I fell in love with everything about it. We did London for only a few days at the end - which was great of course - but what really captured my heart was the English countryside.

The gardens. The architecture. The very friendly people and scrumptious food that belied much of what people told me to expect about the place.

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Following Your Obsessions

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Following Your Obsessions


Musician Will Wells on following your obsessions and investing in your craft (Part 2 of 2)

We meet outside the Richard Rogers Theater, where Hamilton: An American Musical, a project Will worked on not too long ago, is currently playing to sold out crowds (and a few months later wins 11 Tony's). Will just finished saying hello to his old friends backstage; he is based in LA. We were originally supposed to do this interview on the phone, but somehow, we both ended up in New York City in the same week.

After a whirlwind backstage at the Richard Rogers we set off to the recording studio.

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when your creative project isn't fun anymore

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when your creative project isn't fun anymore

I've thought about the First Post for this blog for a few months now. I've been thinking how I could introduce this new blog, what I could say, how I could put into words the swelling of emotions and failures that have led me here.

The sentences and ideas have been rumbling around in my head since July. I wanted to get it right.

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