Favorite Finds — April 2021
Machines that paint, a one-person magic show about identity, and traditional glaze colors revived by a Chinese artist
Welcome to Morning Pages, a newsletter sharing inspirations to help you cultivate creativity and fulfillment.
Hey friends,
May is almost here. Earlier this week, we had a couple of hours of snow in Maine! :O Thankfully, it didn’t last long.
For every last issue of the month, I’ll share my favorite finds of the month and personal updates. Here are my April favorites.
Painting Machines
If machines have consciousness, how would they express themselves?
Painting Machines is an ongoing project by artists Lolo & Sosaku (@loloysosaku). In a vast studio, no humans but only machines are hard at work. The mechanical arms are tirelessly brushing the canvas and making their marks. The sounds of these machines slow-moving are mesmerizing and terrifying at the same time. Lolo & Sosaku described this project with the following words:
We persist in the search for the hidden object inside the machine, there is an intention in its random behavior, a new consciousness that is evident when the machines paint.
In & Of Itself
If you could pick one label to describe yourself, what would you choose?
In & Of Itself by illusionist Derek DelGaudio is a mesmerizing one-man stage performance that reveals the illusion of one’s identity. The movie version of this show was released a few months ago. Without giving too much away, I have to say that this show left me captivated and inspired on many levels. I do recommend that you skip the trailer and go straight into it. It’s available on Hulu.
Li Yanxun, Ceramic Artist
Jingdezhen(景德镇) was the center of the imperial kiln factory in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Unfortunately, the formulas for creating the signature glaze colors on Ming and Qing porcelains have long been lost.
Since the age of nineteen, Li Yanxun(李颜珣) has studied and made ceramics in Jingdezhen for nearly two decades. He isolated himself from the rest of the world for six years and finally recovered more than sixty types of beautiful colors.
In this video interview, Li Yanxun talked a lot about his isolated creative experiment and the recovered color glazing archive: Yan Cai (颜彩). English subtitle is available.
Studio Update
With immense gratitude, I wrapped up the spring cohort of my 8-week group program: Design Career Jumpstart this Friday.
I’ve learned a lot from each fellow designer who trusted me through this process. I am proud of myself for honoring the principle that I’ve learned from designing at Airbnb.
To scale, you have to do things that don’t scale at all first.
I’m already making some plans to improve it for the next cohort in the fall. I’ve learned many things about designing and operating an online program through this experience. I may write about them in a dedicated post in the future.
From May to August, I’m going to dedicate lots of time to making earth pigments and painting. I look forward to sharing some experiments with you in the next few months. This newsletter will be updated biweekly in the future.
See you in two weeks!
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