The Labyrinth is not a Labyrinth
this month's sneakyart plus one.
Dear reader,
This is your monthly Plus One from the SneakyArt Post. As of this year, I have switched from a weekly to a twice-monthly cadence. (For good reasons, I promise.)
The SneakyArt Post is a newsletter of secretly drawn art of the world. If you like having it in your inbox, share it with someone else who might enjoy it too.
🎙️ Straight Lines are Overrated
I had the absolute pleasure of speaking with Andy J. Pizza on the Creative Pep Talk podcast, one of my favourite shows about art and creativity. We spoke about the importance of embracing imperfection in your lines, your practice, and how a creative practice, done right, can bleed right into your life and make you a better human. I offered reasons why this is the best time in human history to be an artist.
Or, listen on your choice of podcast platform.
🇪🇸 Come to Spain with me?
I am leading a sketchbook-ing retreat in the south of Spain this September. It will include bookmaking, journaling, urban sketching, and expansive in-studio painting. This is your invitation to gift yourself a week full of art and creative expression among like-minded peers. Watch the video or tap the button below to learn more and grab your seat.
💻 Insider Hangout
Tomorrow (Friday, Jan 30) is the first Insider Hangout of this year. This is the exclusive Zoom meeting with paying subscribers of this newsletter. I will flip through my latest vacation sketchbooks, talk about the fun I had binding them myself, and discuss my next Special Project (learning linocut block printing).
To be part of Special Projects, and join tomorrow’s Hangout, become a SneakyArt Insider. Insiders, scroll to the bottom of this email for your link!
According to the proudly Cretan tour guide at the Palace of Knossos, the ruins of the palace (which dates from ~1700BC) came to be seen as a labyrinth by the Greeks more than 1000 years later. The myth of the Minotaur was always just a myth, as ruins tend to have. And there was no King Minos, because the Cretans did not have kings. Minos was, in fact, not even a name, just an honorary title. Even the palace may have actually been a temple, or town-hall, or something like a mall - with different rooms for different communal, civic purposes.
History becomes legend. And legends are embedded into storytelling by successive generations for their own purposes. To create their own myths that endure far beyond the reality of what was. So, what is truth? And does it matter? The only truth she insisted upon was that the Cretans had been making big buildings and big art and big culture for longer than those mainland Greeks. But an island can only go so far by itself…
Thank you for reading. How amazing is it to have a space in your inbox, and share my creative journey with you.
(Full sketchbook video coming soon…)