What is an Original Idea™️ anyway?
the book is out + why even write books + pls buy the book
Dear reader,
If you pre-ordered Make (Sneaky) Art, the book is now on its way to you. Some of you have received it already. Yay!
On the eve of the launch of my first book with a publisher, gearing up for my first book tour, anticipating all the firsts to come, I thought about the practice of having ideas and working with them. The seeds of today’s post have rummaged through my mind for the past couple of months, but the decision to write this out was catalyzed by a thoughtful comment on last week’s post:
Reader, the best questions are not those that have clear answers, but the ones that we ask ourselves again and again, always coming up with new perspectives. Today’s post is that.
The SneakyArt Post is a newsletter of secretly drawn art of the world. Make (Sneaky) Art is now out in the world. Buy it at a local store, or find links below!
I just got done recording some videos for my second course to release later this autumn. Those who have taken my workshop know its ideas & techniques, but recording it as a course is very different - product and packaging wise - than a live workshop.
Still, it brings to mind a question I asked fellow instructors at Sketcher Fest, and raised with Samantha Dion Baker in the latest Podcast episode.
What can I say that hasn’t already been felt, shared, and said?
The best ideas are timeless, the best advice too. So anything really useful that we say has already been true and truly out there for years, decades, centuries. (Literally, millenia, if you look at how many people still read Marcus Aurelius, Socrates, or the teachings of the Buddha.)
So, what is an original idea?
With Sam, I offered the opinion that what people want/need is not originality, but an idea spoken a certain way. In effect, a package of ideas that resonates with them in the present.
In a WORKSHOP, ideas are packaged into a live performance. Incidentally, mine are never rehearsed or scripted. Every session is a product of the moment, vibing off the crowd, responding to all that I see and feel. A COURSE repackages the same ideas with specific tools - overhead cam, audio recorded, online streaming tech, edu platforms. There are rules and freedoms with each medium. With a BOOK, everything changes again.
What is the best package for these ideas if I am no longer visible to the audience? If there is no audience, because reading is a solitary exercise. For example, I do not read such books page-by-page or cover-to-cover.
I am answering two questions simultaneously now
First, what my Imposter Syndrome posed to me, surrounded by amazing artists and instructors at Sketcher Fest. Second, a question by a thoughtful reader last week (above).
Maybe I have nothing original to say? But this package that I have made of my best ideas, techniques, drawings, and personal stories, is an authentic representation of who I am.
Reader, if you are still here, I can safely assume you like to read.
Reading is a journey through another person’s mind, but at your own pace. You follow the writer’s thoughts but they also mingle with yours. When I read, I sometimes (often) drift away in my mind. Afterward, detour completed, I return to the page and resume the journey laid out for me.
With Make (Sneaky) Art, it is my great delight to offer this kind of journey - with room for lots of detours - to you. I hope you will not walk the straight path from cover-to-cover. I hope this book will live in your world.
I hope you will pick it out of your bookshelf, some day some time, open to a random page, find something useful, and then put it back on the shelf. Then, another day another time, maybe you will open it again, to do the same.
I hope that this book will have something for you every time you open it, for years to come.
As the pages curl, let them. As the marks of time appear, watch for them. As your world grows, until you forget about it.
And then you remember it again. And you pick it out, open to a random page, and find another detour.
And then you forget about it.
And then you remember it again…
That would be a good way to use this book.
🎤 The Book Tour begins…
🗓️ This Friday, in my favourite Vancouver bookstore, Nooroongji Books on Granville Island.
🗓️ This Sunday, at Book Passage in San Francisco.
🗓️ More dates and links
Will I see you there?
💌 I am reading Bento’s Sketchbook by John Berger
to learn, from the master, how words and art can sit together:
We who draw do so not only to make something observed visible to others, but also to accompany something invisible to its incalculable destination. ~ John Berger.
If you have the book already, share the joy in the comments or reply to this mail. Also, leave me a review on Amazon? Or anywhere, really. Scribble it on the back of a pizza coupon. Whisper it into the wind at night. Tell your cat. Everything helps, I am told.
Congratulations on your book. I am loving 2025 so far with inspiring authors like you. In January I started my weekly substacks. I also have kept a nature journal with a daily practice. I found wild wonder foundation, which led me to your substacks. And, have wanted to write a book forever. Bouncing back and forth last year I decided I wanted it to be a graphic inspiring gift book. Looking forward to getting your book!!!
It arrived!!! I’m so excited I placed my phone out side my office and put your book and my tiny sketchbook in its place on my desk. I’m up for less doom scrolling! Thank you for your beautiful book and this awesome Substack newsletter!