Good In, Good Out

What media are you reading, listening to and watching to help you grow?

My very first life commitment was to Football. I started playing when I was 8 years old. Now, let me be upfront with you. I wasn’t one of those kids who started to play football because I was inspired by players I had seen on TV or the feeling of playing the game itself. I was FORCED to play. When I was a kid I was extremely aggressive, anxious and I had a short fuse. I would get into fights in the blink of an eye. I would start fights; with kids who wanted to fight me and with kids who didn’t want to fight me. Kids at school, summer camp and even kids around the neighborhood. Anyone and everyone was going to have to fight at some point. I can’t explain exactly why I was this way. I have some theories. One of them being that I’m the youngest of 3 and I feel since birth I had to fight my way through the family ranks to gain respect. I really don’t know, but I do know that I was forced to play football because of this. 

Football was the first experience I had with commitment. I didn’t necessarily want to play football but after a few years I grew to really love it because I was good at it. I saw that I was good and I wanted to see how good I could actually get. I was committed to this goal. I remember my freshman year of High School. I was captain of the team and my coach wanted me to set an example for all of the guys. It was during two a days and we were conditioning. We had to run nearly 60 yards to the end of our practice field and back. It was a timed run and I had to lead the pack. We did this run at least 5 times and I led the group each time. I remember we all completed the conditioning and I rallied everyone and broke the final huddle. Immediately after, I ran to the sideline and threw up! My position coach walked over to me and said “You’re throwing up after a run like that because you’re eating too much crap. Clean up your diet. Good In, Good Out”. After that day I never forgot what he said. From then on I was committed to eating clean so that I could perform at the top of my game. I was focusing on putting good, clean, nutritious foods in my body. 

I continued to play Football until I was 22 and throughout the years I carried that saying with me. Good in, Good out. I applied it to sports, training, studying and my lifestyle. When I made the decision to pursue art as a career I immediately thought “what are the best resources for learning how to navigate the art world?” and “How do I consume information from these resources?”. I was looking for the best things to put in so I could get the best possible output. Over the years I’ve found many resources that have helped me grow as an artist, entrepreneur and influencer. I was hungry to understand the art, the art world and how it worked. I knew that there would be a lot of weeding through information to hone in on what I needed to satisfy my creative appetite. Here are a few resources I used to gather new information and push my art practice forward.

Podcasts

I started to listen to podcasts immediately. First off, listening to a podcast is way easier than trying to read through an art book that analyzes and explains artwork that I barely understand. As a beginner or someone learning about a topic for the first time, reading this kind of information is not effective for me. I am obviously a man of many words and I always have an opinion. For me the interesting thing about podcasts is that they develop a “ground floor” for how to think about topics. Not that I need to be told how to think, but when I listen to a podcast I get a feel for how much I agree or disagree with the information. This prompts me to dig deeper into the topic by surfing the web to find more information, reading books on the topic or diving deeper into the references mentioned on the particular podcast. 

Most times I visit podcasts first because they are a well of information usually delivered from reliable and trusted sources. They can give me an initial opinion that I can then validate or invalidate or information that drives my ideas based on new findings from the conversation. 

Some of my favorite go to podcasts that I use to jolt my creativity and biz smarts are:

1. The Savvy Painter Podcast with Antrese Wood
2. 99% Invisible with Roman Mars
3. The Tim Ferris Show
4. The Lisa Congdon Sessions
5. Think Differently and Deeply
6. The GaryVee Audio Experience

I would explain all of them but I think it’s best that you jump in the way that I did. They are all really great. Not all of them are art or business podcasts but they all have at least 3 episodes that talk about art and can be applied to the experience of a growing artist.

Art Books

I love art books for both their superficial and qualities. They look so good. You can literally buy an art book and never open it. They’re the best decorations for your home or office. They work really well for that but if you do actually open the book you will learn about so many artists, what they were a part of and how & where their artwork lives in the art world. I have tons of art books. Some art picture books; Art books with hundreds of pages of masterpieces one after another. It’s actually a little overwhelming. There are so many masterpieces back I lose track of what makes each one so special. I have biographical art books which are my favorite and how to art books. These all play a huge role in my personal art education and how my work is influenced. As I learn more about different art periods and styles, I naturally absorb them and they come out in my work. That’s the goal. Take in as much good stuff from the greats and in turn I will be great. Simple right? Maybe arguable but that’s my trick and so far it has worked. 

Here is a list of some of my favorite art books and audio books:

1. Art Money Success: …. By Maria Brophy
2. Aesthetic Intelligence by Pauline Brown
3. Finding Your Artistic Voice by Lisa Congdon
4. Atomic Habits by James Clear
5. One Thing Leads To Another by Dan Stiles
6. Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon

Museums

Nothing charges me up more than going to a good contemporary art museum. I can do modern art museums as well but at this point that’s as far as I’ll go. Anything older is a snooze fest. I love museums so much. If I get lucky, it gives me a chance to see specific masterworks that I’ve seen in the art books up close. It’s like growing up watching your favorite artist on TV and finally seeing them in concert. It just hits differently and I experience a moment of “I get it now”. When I get to see masterpieces up close and personal I get a clear understanding of why it’s considered a masterpiece. There are many reasons but for me it’s the feeling. I look at some works and I might not have an understanding of what the work means or even what it is but the feeling is what I take back to the studio as inspiration. 

Art Shows & Gallery Openings

I love going to art shows. This is the big stage for most artists. It’s where we get to show our work publicly and watch the reactions of those seeing it for the first time. We get to see how the work interacts with the space and viewers and how the viewers interact with it. Going to other artists' shows is some of the best practice you can get as an artist. You get to let another artist run a test for you. No matter what their style is you get a chance to take in how others react to the work, the artist and the environment. The interesting part is that there are infinite combinations in this scenario, but you get the opportunity to see what other artists are doing. If your practice or work is similar you can play it back, borrow from them, or enhance what you’ve seen them do in an effort to communicate your art and message more clearly.   

My approach to creating and refining my work is much like an athletes. I am always training and looking for ways to get better. I want to surround myself with other artists that push me and challenge me to become a better artist. I am always actively looking for new things that will help shape my perspective and clean up my vision for current and upcoming projects. 

-Von