Identifying Our Thoughts + Feelings While Making Art — Note: This is an ongoing series exploring my working-theory of Artistic Intelligence. You can read the first essays in this series here and here. My current definition of Artistic Intelligence (AQ) is the ability to guide our thinking to change our behavior, so we can make our own art. Last…

This week I’m continuing to explore my new idea of Artistic Intelligence, based on the existing theory of Emotional Intelligence (EQ). I’m currently defining Artistic Intelligence (AQ) as the ability to guide our thinking to change our behavior so we can make art. It’s about recognizing and removing the mental…

Over years of making art, essays, and classes, I’ve learned that our mindset is the most powerful and influential tool we have as artists. It’s not talent, or expensive pens, or a fancy art school education that makes or breaks our art. It’s our mindset. But that doesn’t mean that…

One of the biggest things holding artists back from creating their best work is the things they believe. There are so many commonly held beliefs in art, and almost all of them exist in a binary world. They lead us to believe there’s a right way and a wrong way…

Processing Your Life or Searching for Answers? — The other day I read an interview where a musician was asked the question “do you make music to process or to search?” The musician, Sasu Ripatti — also known as Vladislav Delay — answered the question by saying he uses his music more to process: “…as a way for…

And What Motivates Me to Not Give Up — In a previous essay, The Pressure of Greatness, I wrote about an interview with the photographer, Keith Yamashita. He believes he’s spent his time well as long as he pursued a “beautiful question”. And ever sense reading that phrase, it’s really stuck with me. Basically everything I do at Might…

And Discovering What We’re Actually Reaching For — Learning to make our art is a process of learning many different things. As growing artists, we have to strengthen our technique, grasp the artistic fundamentals, develop an artistic mindset, harness our natural tendencies, create an environment for growth, and cultivate the motivation to keep going. I believe this last…

What Happens When Our Art Doesn’t Meet Our Expectations — My general process with these essays is that I write the essay on Monday morning, then edit, format and send it out Tuesday morning. Recently, that schedule has been a bit difficult to stick with for two reasons. One: I now have a 4-month baby in the house. …

How I Facilitate Artists Finding Their Own Art — When people ask what I do, I usually say ‘I’m an illustrator and I teach online art classes’. I’m hesitant to claim the title teacher, because the typical art teacher treats teaching as a one-way street of preaching the only way to make art (i.e. their way). What I really…