End of the Year Reflection

Hi Friends!

This will be our last post for 2012. Hope everyone has had a wonderful year, and we'll see you with new adventures in 2013!

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As with every end of the year, we'd like to take stock of everything that's happened within the last year and reflect/ appreciate/ and celebrate the challenges and growth it took for us to be here today.  We also want to share with you our dreams and goals/themes for the next year.

Seal's accomplishments:

• Worked on 3 films: a feature film, a cg animated short, and a live action short that involved giant green screens and riding a fast moving contraption down Embarcadero.
• Skyace Wasteland (personal graphic novel/ animation) 1st chapter written
• The Daughter and the Ogre (graphic novel) full story written & storyboarded
• Learned incorporating Gouache & Watercolor in concept art
• Painted 3 colorscripts
• Gallery Show in March: Rusted Souls at 1AM
• New painting techniques experimented with since July, finally came to fruition in December.

Monkey's accomplishments:

• Dark Wizard's One-Stop Shop new concept/ story
• Big Umbrella Studios reaches its 2 years with current owners
• Design and printed for Facebook.
• Invited to speak at Alumni Artist/Freelancer Panel
• Story Collection: White Mask, (list, etc).
• Learned how to paint on windows
• Invited to live-paint at RAW SF. twice!
• Revamped website and integrated blog

Monkey + Seal's accomplishments

• Our very first out of state show among out heroes and legends at Spectrum Live! in Kansas City, Missouri
• Our very first out of city show in Sacramento
• J-Pop Show (July at Big Umbrella Studios)
• New Tshirt Design "Not Bad, Just Different"
• Taught drawing class to artists/ designers from Apple, Inc.
• Both of us were invited to live paint for Hyphen magazine's 10 year anniversary
• upgraded display with new IKEA tie racks
• Broke our personal records at every show this year: Zinefest, A.P.E., and BazBiz Holiday Show
• Started showcasing originals at live craft shows
• Protested city college's closing of Fort Mason campus

While we've had a lot of great accomplishments, we've also had our share of trials and tribulations as well.  Over 2012 we've dealt with fights with colleagues, deaths in the family, financial strain, and countless bouts of self-doubt, fear, procrastination, and other self-destructive behavior.  Regardless, we count ourselves extremely lucky that we're able to continue to do what we love to do, and that we can continue to support and inspire other artists to do the same.

We've recently realized that instead of focusing on single goals (single markers of accomplishment that will always be surpassed), we should instead be focusing on themes (ongoing processes that are enjoyable and that bring you happiness).


Our Themes for 2013:
Monkey: "I will create more personal work and put more of my artwork and vision into the world. I want to find and cultivate a larger audience for my dark/horror inspired art and to somehow give back to my community of artists."

Seal: "I will continue story development for films and concept art with my awesome team. I'll develop more personal work/ direction (ie. graphic novel/ story writing/ painting series) and will cultivate the art community. I also will find more inspiring people and projects to work on."

Instead of making New Year's Resolutions, we'd like to encourage you to choose a theme that you'd like to pursue.  Instead of "draw everyday" (which, if you miss a single day, you feel guilty about breaking your commitment and you give up), think about "be sustainably more creative."  Instead of "I want a million dollars," think "I will create a source or sources of income that will allow me to sustainably grow my standard of living."  Goals are finite, and if you reach them, you have to make new goals.  Themes, on the other hand, are larger pursuits which will find you achieving your goals along the way.


So if you have any suggestions or ideas that could help us along with our themes, we'd love to hear from you.  And we'd love to hear some themes that you're thinking of taking up in 2013.  By taking the leap and putting it down in the comments, you're much more likely to follow through.  Let's make 2013 our year to shine!

Selling Out is Hard To Do

As an artist, it might seem frustrating at times to keep going.  If you are not getting the accolades or sales you want of your work, it can be discouraging to continue to do what you like.  Often you might question whether or not you should change your subject matter/style to "fit in."

Monkey was privileged to be able to sit on an Academy of Art Alumni panel on the topic of Getting into Galleries.  One question that really struck a chord with him was "Should I paint what sells, or what I want to paint?"

We think that there is a perception (true or not), that either abstract art, highly conceptual art (think soup cans or diamond-encrusted skulls), or classical landscapes and portraits is what's in demand.  Regardless of the truth of the matter, especially if you go through classical training, these types of paintings are what you think sell.

If you try and paint these things, when you really would rather be painting silly monsters or unicorns or whatever, you will not do well.  Trying to sell out is actually really hard to do.  Sure, you might start selling paintings, or you might start getting lots of praise for your new work, but if you don't like it, you won't be happy.

Making art is such a personal thing that you can't force it.  Well, you can force it, but it'll lead to you disliking or even hating your own art, and it'll become another ball and chain job that you have to do even though it kills you.

Monkey used to think that no matter what it was, he'd be happy to be paid to make art.  Then, as he actually started getting paid to make stuff, he realized that he only really likes making stuff that he wants to make.  The thought of being told to make piece of art that he was totally uninterested in was even more difficult that dealing with the daily hurdles of working retail.

Really, selling out is easy to do, but hard to keep up.

Now, we want to stress that we totally understand.  People have bills to pay, food to buy, etc. etc.  If you have to take those dog portrait gigs or doing background paintings for porno or working crazy hours at a game company or whatever, we're not judging.  But for all of you out there who ever feel discouraged, or that your art doesn't have a place in the world, please know that it does.

There is an audience for you out there.  It might not be the largest audience, but it's out there, you just have to look.  The internet is amazing at helping people find micro-subcultures, and if you feel like your work isn't attractive to the mainstream, then experiment showing your work elsewhere. It might take time.  It'll probably take a lot of work.  But know that the long hours and hard work and all the experiments that don't work will all be worth it in the end when you find your niche and can truly be yourself.

So keep in mind that you need to keep on doing what you love.  Have fun.  That's what art is supposed to be about.  If you're happy and having a great time, that feeling comes through the work and it shows.  People can tell when you're enjoying yourself, and it will naturally bring more happiness and joy.  Create what you want and seek out your audience, and trust us, you'll do just fine.

Working + Resting

There is a myth among artists, that you are either “lazy” – “not creating as much as you should be” or you are a “hustler” – “always working without rest.” They are both false and dangerous myths. There doesn’t seem to be room in the equation for a moderate, sustainable and successful artist. It’s rare to meet such a person: who can be both creative, hardworking, yet also has a healthy social life and rest periods. We don’t seem to have much role models in the “balanced artist” department.

Seal grew up watching her immigrant parents worked hard to the bone. They ran themselves ragged trying to meet the family’s basic needs. Sometimes they work two jobs, both the day and night shift. But when her family acquired enough to live by, and sometimes more than enough, her parents who had been working all their lives also did not know how to take a break. When they came home from work, they would hurry unto the next cleaning or cooking project. When Sunday came around, Dad would start vacuuming the house at 8am. He would burst into the bedroom with the vacuum roaring and made sure to hit every corner before he walked out again and slammed the door. I got the message that I was lazy for sleeping past 8am. When my sister and I tried to watch Batman weekdays at 5pm after completing our homework, they would glare at us funny. As if, “resting and fun time is only for the lazy” and “if you want to be successful in life, you better spend your waking moments working.”

So growing up, Seal thought “breaks were bad” and even if she wanted to, she did not know “how to take a break.” I bet most of us, don’t know how to rest either.

Oftentimes, Monkey + Seal run rampart into the night making art, emailing clients, turning in projects. We often run on very little sleep or break. Most of the time, it is because we are trying to make ends meet or deliver work that cannot wait. But other times, we choose to stay late and push through our own self-imposed deadlines (although we are trying to change that). The result is, we sure get a lot done, but we’re also cranky, exhausted, and deprived of rest and life outside of work or art. We often forget that “how you spend your day is how you spend your life . . . “ And if your life is all about work and art with very little room for friends, self care, or rest, then you’re really running yourself into the ground without enjoying the journey of being an artist. One day you will wake up and realize that life had passed you by.

Though Seal would like to blame her parents for passing on their workaholism, as an adult now, she realizes that it is up to Seal to allow herself a break and if she doesn’t know how to break, she needs to learn. Only she can break the spell now and wake up. To know that it’s ok to take breaks. It’s normal to take breaks. We all need it, as we need air to breathe and food to sustain us. Our bodies need to regenerate. Our minds need to refill the creative well. And counter to beliefs, breaks allow a person to actually be more productive and resilient through the next strenuous work challenges.

So as Seal is learning on how to take a break, she would like to share some guidelines that she found to be helpful:

1. When you’re tired, take a break. Think as if you are a baby. When a baby is tired, it gets cranky. So we put the baby to sleep. When Seal is tired, her eyes get heavy, she will start munching on something even though she’s not hungry, and she’ll get really annoyed at every little thing. That’s when the red lights go off. Oh oh! Body is deprived. Need a bath, tea time,10minute shut eye, or a full nap. You’ll figure out your own personal cues to tell you that you are tired.

1. Figure out what constitutes as a “break” or “rest” for you. No emails after 6pm. Tea time at 4pm. Sleep 8 hours regardless (if you have flexible schedule). A movie night. Music for 15minutes with eyes closed. Everyone has different ways of feeling “rested.”

1. Resting while in Motion or in order words Resting while Working Sometimes it feels like there is no choice to but to work a lot. Especially when rent is due, bills are piled up, or client project is on the line. In cases like those, we still need to be proactive and “choose” to work. Focus on the brush contacting the canvas. Focus on the words being t-y-p-e-d into the email. Focus on the present moment of breathing in and out, hearing the hum of the computer. Focus on the voice of your client. See if you can find the breath of all things even within the “mundane.” That way, when you are super focused, work won’t feel like work. And you’ll get it done twice as fast.

1. Know when “it is enough” You are enough. Stop. A big part of the reason that it’s hard to rest and be successful is that we don’t know when it is enough. When it’s time to rest or when it’s time to push against the mountain. We often confuse satisfaction/happiness with “career success.” Many are too often fixated on being bigger and better that we don’t enjoy the process. We are so focused on learning new skills as an artist, absorbed in our chosen field (because we love it so much) that we’ve buried our heads in the sand like ostriches, and are blind to the beauty of a simple walk through the neighborhood, a cup of coffee with a friend, or the passing of clouds after a rainy day. At some point you’ve got to realize, that although life for an artist is about the art, at the same time, it is also not about the art. When you are six feet underground, you still can’t take your “art,” you skills, or your accomplishments with you to the other side. You’ve got to be fulfilled in the present.

The best part of being an artist is living in the now. Being present at the moment. And whether you are working or resting, being aware of your breath and that you are alive, is the start to being a balanced artist: one that can see work and rest and two sides of the same coin à both starts and ends with fulfillment.

Take a Small, Creative Action Today

So while we could talk about how our newest Mr. Owl silkscreen print is up in our shop, but today we wanted to focus on taking action.

While we talked a lot about creating a concrete business plan in terms of if you're looking to make a career out of art, sometimes once you create that plan things get a bit..overwhelming.  Maybe you've realized that you're selling yourself short by pricing too low, or that maybe you've been marketing to the wrong demographic all along, or maybe your head is spinning and you just want life to be simple again.

Whatever it is, take a deep breath, and take a step back.  Sure, having a plan is great, and is the easiest blueprint to achieving a goal. However, part of creating is letting that rigidity go and just doing whatever you need to do.

Yes, this sounds contradictory - how are you supposed to have a plan, but not pay attention to it?  Well, we're not saying that you should abandon said plan, but if it's impeding in your creating, then you might need to push that plan to the backburner.

Monkey, being the business-focused one of us, tends to sometimes get too caught up in the business side of art.  He starts making crazy budget spreadsheets and starts going blind looking at google analytics and just get a bit nutso trying to figure out how to hustle some art.  Seal then sees that Monkey is working himself into a frenzy of madness and stress and she reminds him to just calm down and to create.

Really, while you need a plan to act as your framework, if you spend all your time fretting over how many paintings you need to sell, you're losing sight of what you probably really want - to be able to making a living doing what you love.  Monkey tends to think TOO much about the "how" when he really should be painting, or working on a comic, or doing what he really wants to be doing.

So make sure that you start up a habit of doing some small, creative action today.  Even if you're in the midsts of writing your marketing plan, or doing your finances, or tackling some bureaucracy, make sure that you get a thumbnail sketch down, or a doodle, or just work on that masterpiece for 15 minutes.  Strum something out on your guitar, or rehearse that choreography.  Whatever it is, make sure that you don't lose sight of what should be the real important thing - creation.

Nourishing Your Creative Soul, Or How to Avoid Becoming a Crack Fiend

Often times we can get caught up in doing what we have to do, whether that's pay the bills, or cook dinner, or go to work.  We have outside obligations, rent to pay, etc. etc.  However, as artists, sometimes you get a sudden wave of inspiration, or maybe you've just been putting off creating for too long, and every fiber of your being screams "Create!"

In these cases, unless it's not totally dire (and really, how bad will it be to take an hour off before doing the laundry?) you need to take care of your inner artist and make something.  If you don't nourish your artistic soul, you may find that you'll end up like a crack junkie.  How?  Let us explain.

Scientific studies have shown that if people have a finite amount of mental capacity (we'll call it 'brain juice.')  When you're working on memorizing the alphabet backwards, you're using up brain juice.  When you're doing a calculus problem, or trying to draw a 2-foot straight line freehand, or are trying to juggle ten different client accounts and write five urgent emails, you're using up brain juice.  You only really have so much, so when you're super mentally exhausted (ie, running low on brain juice), you don't have any brain juice to make good decisions.

Still with us? Heavy mental strain = bad decisions.  Cool.  We'll get to the crack addiction in a minute.

So when you feel that urge to create, and you don't listen to it, you're really spending brain juice to fight that primal instinct you have to do what you love to do.  Of course you'd rather be creating that making spreadsheets.  Of course you'd rather paint than write all those emails, or practice your trumpet rather than file all those receipts.  So when you fight down the urge to do something creative in deference for some other task, you're using up twice the brain juice.  Not only are you using the brain juice to do the task, but you're also fighting down your inner spirit that's trying to make something awesome.

If you're out of brain juice because you're trying not to create, then you could very well make some terrible decisions.  What if you're finalizing that cost-benefit analysis when you really wanted to work on that novel and then a co-worker asks you to a bar after work, and then you go and get drunk, then someone offers you crack and you try it, and then you get addicted and end up losing everything and living on the street addicted to crack?  What would you do then?  Well, you'd be doing crack, but besides that?  Nothing, that's what, so if you want to avoid becoming a crack fiend, then nourish that creative soul!

"But Monkey + Seal, what do I do?" you might ask, "I really have to file my taxes, I can't just stop and write my novel, the IRS will take away my house and I'll still end up addicted to crack!"  Well friends, we're not advocating you to drop everything forever.

We all understand that you have obligations.  Everyone does.  We do, so do you.  However, when your inner artist is screaming to create and you won't let it, you're doing yourself a serious disservice.  You see, when you desperately want to paint, or sing, or write, or dance, you don't have to do it full force.  If you're looking to write a novel, maybe take a 10-minute coffee break at your desk, writing out some dialogue. Or if you're looking to produce a mammoth of a graphic novel, start slow and maybe sketch out the layout for a page while you're at lunch.

The trick here is to give yourself little bits of the good stuff.  Ideally, you could just stop and sit down and make your magic happen (because remember, what you do IS magic), but the reality of it is that most of us can't do that.  So feed your inner artist little art snacks here and there, and you'll find that you'll feel much more rested, happy, and you'll feel less guilt about not creating as well.

Ideally you can even schedule times to create so that your inner artist will never feel so totally deprived that your brain shuts down and you start doing illicit narcotics.  By taking a few hours out of the week in order to make sure that you're still creating, you can plant the seeds that will grow into a more productive, creative, crack-free life.

Keeping It Fresh - Fighting Apathy

Over the course of an artist's career, you may find yourself getting apathetic about art.  WHAT?  How can that be?  Art is my lifeblood!!  We can hear the collective gasps.

But seriously, when you're doing art for a living, you can start feeling almost hostile to it.  But it's not like you're putting it off because you're procrastinating:

"Hey you painting, shut up!  Just sit over there in that corner, unfinished, and don't bother me until I'm done with this super-important game of Settlers online!"

It's more like you know the painting is unfinished, but you've stopped caring.

"Huh?  Oh yeah, hey painting.  Not done?  Wait, what's for lunch again?"

Obviously, this is not a good thing.  No one wants to find that you have stopped caring about what is supposed to be your passion in life - then it wasn't your passion in the first place, right?

Wrong.  If you're finding that the single thing that you've loved to do isn't getting you excited, it's probably because you 1) have not been rewarded properly, 2) are overworked, or 3) a combination of the two.

How do you shake this funk off and get on with it?  First, we should identify why you're feeling apathetic, and then we can talk about how to freshen up your mood.

If you're doing art (especially art you actually care about), but it's not gaining any traction, it's easy to get discouraged.  Maybe you're doing stuff you love but for a boss who doesn't care.  Or perhaps you've just designed the coolest building ever, but the client wants something boring.  Or maybe you've busted your ass to come up with a whole new body of work but people keep telling you that they like your older work better.  Whatever it is, if you've been working hard and were really excited about whatever you were doing, the biggest buzzkill is for other to not share your excitement.

You see, apathy usually is created as a form of self-defense.  Because you've been disappointed in the past, your brain tells you that you shouldn't try as hard, or that maybe you shouldn't try at all, because it doesn't want to get disappointed again.  Just like with most things, you are your own worst enemy.  The more you care about something and the more that care doesn't get translated into rewards (whether that's winning a prize or getting lots of compliments or selling a piece), in the case of apathy you start to get discouraged, and think "Well, it wasn't what I really wanted anyway."

A slightly different instance that might create apathy is known in some circles as "just plain exhaustion."  If you're being overworked, chances are that you're just literally too tired to create.  Whether you're being overworked in your art or a volunteer position or in a job, your body is trying to save itself from exploding in a huge ball of fatigue, stress, lack of sleep, and what is probably a bunch of caffeine, sugars, and other things that you stuff yourself full of to keep going without having to pause to eat a healthy meal.  Once again, your body is kicking into self-defense mode to preserve you: "Eh, it's not really that important to me.  Well, that frees up some time to maybe nap or actually eat something."

In either/both cases, the feelings of apathy are created as a means of self-preservation.  It's either fear or lack of energy that's causing your body and mind to literally avoid your art.  To be honest, getting excited about your work and doing it takes up a lot of emotional and physical energy, and your body is lacking either or both.

So how do you keep it fresh and re-energize yourself so that you can find your passion?  Well, we hope it's obvious  how to fix the second scenario - the one where you're running on fumes (if it's not - remember sustainability and take care of yourself!  Get some sleep!  Rest!  Meditate and destress!) However, for the emotional side of things, it really helps to take a step back and remember why you're an artist in the first place.

You're an artist because you love to create.  Sure, we'd all love to make a million dollars off of every creation we make, but really, you still go out there and create because you love to do it.  Deep down, we just want to create, but because we live in a world of media hounds and capitalism, these outside indicators of success (praise, money, etc) have grown to replace that inner joy you get from making something that you love.

External success are usually a good thing, but when the business end of art becomes more important than making art, we're losing a crucial part of ourselves, and we start to rely on that outside affirmation for the buzz that we used to get just from creating.  This is usually okay if you're getting all those outside indicators, but we feel like you shouldn't rely on it.  What happens if you stop getting praised, or sales of your work has slowed?  

So in the end, you have to treat creation like you'd treat a relationship.  After years, you may think you know most everything about your partner, you might fall into a comfortable routine, you might sort let yourself go.  Long-term relationships, like the one you have with your art, are all about communication and keeping it interesting.  The best thing is that you're not committed to your art like you probably should be with your partner - your oils aren't going to get jealous if you go dabble in some collage or printmaking.  Maybe you should try painting in a new style, or maybe you just need to take a small break.

The key to fighting apathy is really to rekindle that love you have for creation.  As your career progresses, there's a lot of pressure to "make something good" or "create something that sells," but you need to keep in mind that art should be fun.  Let yourself make something without judgment of whether it's good or not - just make sure it's fun.  Draw a stick-figure comic if you're a photorealist painter, or go take some photos if you're a writer, or write a short story if you're a woodcarver.  Just remember to have fun and to savor that feeling of creating just for creation's sake.  You'll remember why you picked up art in the first place.

Staying Up Late is Not A Competition

Take care of yourself and watch out for blade injuries!!!

Monkey here (yes, again):

So yesterday I was sent an article by a friend that talked about how people who work more than 40-hour work weeks lose productivity.  This makes sense, as between plain fatigue, burn-out, and boredom, when you're working crazy hours, your brain doesn't work right.

People say that driving while tired is nearly as dangerous as driving while drunk (I totally believe this after some totally tired driving stints where I suddenly was five blocks away from where I thought I was), and I can totally tell that my motor skills don't work quite as well while I'm tired.  It's also been shown that fatigued workers will usually screw up, so that although more work  gets done, it's more bad work that's being done that will eventually have to be re-done.

Yes, Monkey is the king of irony, as he sits here typing this at 3am after printing for five hours, but once again, it's a matter of listen to what I say, not what I always do.

Why? Because I acknowledge that I'm not the ideal role model that I strive to be.  I know I should learn how to say no to things, or how to tell people "Sorry, I'm busy," but that's still hard for me.  It's something I'm working on, but yes, I take on too many projects and by my choosing to do freelance screenprinting/art/gallery ownership/event planning rather than do some job that pays me consistently every two weeks, I admit I have put myself in this situation.  The point of all this is that it is a choice, and I'm learning how to choose to not make myself so crazy sleep-deprived.  Regardless, I know what I'm talking about, even though I might be half-cracked out on lack of sleep.

Moving on, I realize how much of a culture of over-working we live in, especially as someone that has gone to art school.  In art school (for those of you who haven't gone), especially as an illustrator, you learn that you need to work hard, and work often.  Teachers tell stories of former students or their peers who drew nearly every waking hour.  When they would hang out at bars, they'd be drawing.  The star students are always working in their sketchbook.  Instructors will tell you that deadlines are everything - to miss one is to jeopardize your entire career (although this point is true).  Students will complain to each other about how little they've slept, and it almost becomes a sort of competition:

"Damn, I only slept two hours last night trying to finish this last painting."

"Really?  You're lucky, I didn't sleep at all.  I maybe could have slept for 15 minutes, but I figured I might as well power through it."

"I totally know how that is, I did that the night before last.  I think I've only gotten five hours of sleep over the past three days."

"I know, right?  I think I might be at like 8 hours this week, but I know how you feel, I think I only got five hours of sleep over the weekend working on that portfolio piece."

And on and on it goes.  Many people are trained to think that by staying up late, we're going to win some sort of magical award or something just for staying up late and being "productive."  Honestly, if I'm complaining on Facebook about how tired I am, most likely my brain is so shot that although I'm getting some work done at the computer, I'm probably also playing Solitaire Blitz or reading articles that friends had posted earlier in the day.  Seriously, if you're posting on Facebook, chances are that you're probably not just posting on Facebook then getting back to work.

Last week, there was one point that I was so tired that I stayed up from 3-5am doing work that, if I was sane and well-rested, probably would have taken me maybe 15 minutes to do.

Now, I'm not saying that all-nighters are not sometimes necessary, or that maybe your circumstances (working two jobs and raising kids, working and going to school at the same time, taking care of your elderly relatives, etc. etc.) are trivial and you should suddenly just quit things and get more sleep.  Believe me, I know what it's like to be tired all the time because of other obligations that pay the rent and allows you to eat meals on a daily basis.  We know that sometimes you just have to work and work until you're exhausted or the job is done.

However, what I am saying is that we need to fight against this competitive, crazy culture of overworking.  We need to start focusing on sustainability and making sure that we take care of ourselves.  Think of it like maintaining a car.  If you change your tires and oil on a regular basis, while expensive and annoying, it's much easier/less time consuming/cheaper than having your engine crack or your tires pop on the freeway.  Just as you have to schedule in vehicular maintenance, you need to schedule in maintenance for your mind and body.

Things to scare you into taking care of yourself: Carpel Tunnel and Repetitive stress injuries.  Loss of eyesight from staring at the computer too long without breaks.  Loss of cognitive function from sleep depravation.  Slicing your hand open with an xacto blade because you were too tired to focus properly. Chronic neck and back pain.  Ulcers and other gastrointestinal ailments from stress.  High blood pressure.  Type II Diabetes from not eating properly.  The list goes on and on.  And I personally know someone with all of that, and believe me, it's not fun.

So if you can, schedule in a breather.  Take a short break.  Get off the computer and take a nap.  Take care of your mind and body.  Whether or not you can do it right now is up to your own individual circumstances, but don't put it off until it's too late.  Stay healthy artists!

The Myth of Multitasking

First off, happy belated V-day everyone! Sorry we missed Monday's post. To be perfectly honest, we have no good excuse for missing the post besides the two of us decided to let ourselves recover a bit (we're both fighting off colds, or the flu, or something) and to rest and spend some quality time together. We have to practice what we preach (ie. sustainability) sometimes. Sorry again!

And now to your regularly scheduled blog post:

As much as our society might seem to value people who can multitask well, it actually turns out that multitasking isn't really all what it's cracked up to be. As told by Jon Hamilton on NPR, researchers from the University of Michigan have found that humans cannot truly multitask - that is, we cannot actually focus on more than one thing at a time.

What? But you listen to music and drive a car and drink your coffee all at the same time, right? Well, sort of. It turns out that we actually have to switch our attention at super-quick speeds back and forth and back and forth again. We're not actually listening to music and driving and talking all at the same time.

Would you like an experiment? Go put on a radio program like Radiolab, or Snap Judgment, and then try to read a book for 10 minutes or so.

How'd it go? Chances are you probably are either on the same sentence (or at least the same page) that you started on, and you remember all the awesomeness that are Radiolab and Snap Judgment, or you aren't sure what was said on the radio and you're a few pages in.

You've just shown yourself what these researchers have figured out - that we can't actually devote our attention to more than one thing. If we do, we are actually switching our attention back and forth and back and forth rapidly. That's why when we're painting and listening to music, sometimes the music will stop and we won't even notice it because we're so focused on painting and not the music.

So what does this have to do with making art? Well, it comes down to focus. If you've ever talked to Monkey, he seems about the most unfocused person in history. Besides juggling multiple projects (running a gallery, a screenprinting business, his own personal gallery art, school, a part-time job, etc.), he's constantly brainstorming new ideas to innovate current projects and coming up with new projects. And yes, Monkey admits that his biggest problem is his lack of focus on a single thing.

And here we come to the moral of the story - practice focusing. It's fine to be busy and to juggle multiple things, but as our little experiment (and the big one that the University of Michigan researchers did) shows, to really multitask we're constantly jumping back and forth from one thing to another. As good as we might be at this, we're actually being less effective than if we just sat down and tackled each task in turn.

So while learning painting, woodworking, opera singing, and dancing is great (and even encouraged!), we don't advocate trying to handle this all at once. You'll do both of them poorly, and you'll learn much slower than if you took a set amount of time and focused on one skill intensely for a small amount of time.

When we're trying to work, we're constantly jumping back and forth between blogs, and facebook, and emails, and news articles, etc. etc. You'll work much more efficiently and effectively if you just read all the news articles and get it out of your system. Then read your blogs, check FB, write your emails, and then get down to work. Really, if you have to get all that out of the way first, then do so, but handle one task at a time and you'll be better off for it.

Follow Your Instincts

In today's crazy over-exposed media-saturated world, we generally have so many competing voices in our head, it's a bit difficult to follow your own natural instincts. However, listening to your essential self and figuring out what you really want or need to do is key in developing your artistic voice.

While at times we might force ourselves to paint or draw because we think that we need to constantly paint or draw in order to advance our craft, or because you have an illustration due, or a gallery show coming up, but if at all possible, you should try to create when you want.

Monkey deals with this often, as he constantly waits until the last minute to suddenly have a burst of creative energy (usually out of desperation) that will burn him out. He will put the business aspect of making art first, and then two nights before he has to hang he'll be up both nights painting non-stop. Monkey definitely wants to get over this, so he can be more sustainable and not have these do-or-die situations (that generally aren't that fatal in the first place).

Sometimes it'll be late at night, and you'll really want to paint. Follow your instinct! Get up and paint even if it's late at night, or you're tired, or whatever whatever. Alternatively, if you think you really should be painting, but you don't really feel creative, or you just aren't in the mood, don't! Take a break! You don't want your art to be that dreaded, boring, painful thing that you HAVE to do. Ideally, if you set up a regular routine and create on a schedule, eventually you'll have enough time where you can take breaks even if you have deadlines.

All in all, make sure you do what you have to do to get your work done, but make sure that you're in touch with your inner self and follow your instincts!

Take a Break

Recently Monkey got sick. Not incredibly sick, but he had a pounding headache when he got home from his job selling paper and he was feeling a bit warm, and he ended up going to sleep by 7pm, which is a rarity for most people, but even rarer for someone who usually doesn't get to sleep until the 3-5am range.

Monkey was primarily dehydrated, and with a build-up of stress, lack of sleep, and just a case of working too hard for too long, eventually crashed. While he recovered fairly quickly (yay!) it was a harsh wake-up call. Monkey + Seal tend to overwork themselves, and sometimes they need reminders that breaks are a necessary part of life. As much as we might think we need to constantly work night after night, hour after hour (and admittedly, sometimes we do), we don't need to do it endlessly. Working like this is crazy and unsustainable.

If anyone can attest to this, it's Monkey. For many years, Monkey would be constantly almost-sick, where he might not feel good, but he would power through everything and anything. Then, every year, around November, he would get deathly ill. Like 110 degree fever, vomiting, aches, headaches, shakes, chills, congestion, trouble breathing, deathly ill. Then he would be forced to take a week or so on the easy side before he could get up and running again and then the cycle would continue.

These days, Monkey has wised up a bit. He tends to feel colds and such coming on sort of early, and if he take responsible actions he can usually fend it off. Responsible actions generally means laying off the beer, sleeping sort of early (1-2am), and taking some breaks from work.

Basically, Monkey + Seal have learned that breaks are necessary. Breaks help prevent carpel tunnel syndrome, it helps keep your artist muscles from decomposing, it helps you keep your health. While you shouldn't let huge periods of non-work go on in the name of breaks, you should also not let huge periods of work go on without some sort of interruption.

With proper time management, hopefully you won't have to work non-stop. Make sure that you budget in proper breaks and points to rest so you don't wear down your mind and body. Many times, we've also found that when it's 3am and you've been working on painting the same thing over and over again and it's just not coming out right, taking a short rest, or napping for 10 minutes can do a world of good and we've sat back down to paint that same piece nearly immediately. When we were in art school, there had also been many times of us staying up all night painting for an assignment, then when we walk into class we immediately notice all the things wrong with the painting. We would then proceed to whip out our paints and make a few adjustments here and there and suddenly would improve it quite a bit.

So, for the sake of you mind, your body, your health, and your work, take a break!

Make Art For You

Only show stuff like this to your clients if they happen to be some of your best friends.

Often time as we're first setting out to become professional artists, we fantasize over realizing that dream. We imagine how amazing it would be to just get paid to create. However, when the reality of paid illustration jobs or concept art positions sets in, you need to remember to keep making art for yourself.

Now don't get us wrong, it's a great privilege and amazing to be able to draw/illustrate/print for a living. However, when you spend 8-10 hours a day drawing stuff for other people, or printing t-shirts that you didn't design, you also have to remember to keep creating for yourself, lest the art you do for a living becomes "another job."

If you don't have time to create for yourself (although we guess you probably do, but that's another story), then you need to make the work you're doing for someone else for yourself as well. If you get hired to do an illustration, you need to make sure that there is something about that illustration that you're doing for yourself. Yes, you have a brief that tells you what needs to be in the illustration, but make sure that you're finding ways to enjoy the revisions and feedback. If anything, sometimes we will do a quick draft of the illustration in a completely experimental style (that you never have to show to your client) as a way to quickly inject the fun into the assignment, even if you might not be 100% enthusiastic about the illustration.

An example of this is the above Save the Date. Monkey was honored to be asked by his good friends from Berkeley to design their Save the Dates and the invitations for their wedding. While Monkey likes to do more non-traditional wedding invitations, they were looking for something more parent-friendly. Monkey was happy to oblige, but the patience and attention to detail with the typography and designing is not Monkey's strong point, and thus for the Save the Dates he created this crazy, over-the-top monster bunny-as-a-weapon design to keep things fun. After that, he was able to really focus and design something that his friends could love and he could be proud of. As a side note, to show how awesome Monkey's friends are, they actually sent this digital save the date to their close friends!

The lesson to learn here is that with art, just as with every job, assignment, or task, is to figure out a way to do it for yourself. Find something fun and exciting and new to learn or try, and keep it fresh. It makes for much happier creating.

Why Naps Could Save Your Life

This lady is actually 17, she just hasn't slept in a few days

You'll often hear students are art school talking (sometimes bragging) about how they had yet another all-nighters, or how they sleep at 3am on a regular basis, or how during finals week they only slept 5 hours all week! Wow, what an accomplishment!

So we (Monkey especially) has no right to criticize, as we often fall into the sleep-deprivation-contest just as often as anyone else. After all, Monkey + Seal totally understand the deadlines and having to push through to meet a deadline, going without sleep for sometimes crazy amounts of time. However, we also usually don't talk about the hard crashes we have afterward.

After our most recent gallery show, we slept at 4am, then woke up at 12:00pm the next day to go take down the show. That's 8 hours of sleep, plus the 4 hour nap that evening, plus another 9 hours of sleep that night = 21 hours of sleep in 2 days. We're still tired. Usually after events, it'll take a full week or so before we start really feeling like we're rested again, and that's assuming we're not already going life again a few days later.

Seal read this article (although it's on cracked.com, it seems grounded in actual studies, etc.), where an hour less of sleep is basically enough to increase your chances of dying in a car crash. Luckily, we usually don't do a whole lot of driving, but the point is clear enough. NAPS SAVE LIVES!

In all seriousness, we do advocate for artist sustainability, so we do advocate for naps. While Monkey prefers to sleep early rather than nap, the concept is still the same. While there are times that you have to push yourself and drink loads of coffee or tea or energy drinks or water or whatever you drink to stay awake, make sure that you don't let it become too much of a habit and get some rest.

Getting off the rump

To steal a worthy topic from the ever-awesome Chris Guillebeau, we gotta get ourselves in motion, people. Often, our sometimes crap-tastic situations are blamed on others, or other external forces. And sometimes, which I think a lot of forward thinkers fail to mention, it is these outside forces' faults. However, as Chris points out here, a lot of it is our own failings, our own fear, and our own inaction which really causes us to miss out.

Now, let me explain this from the Monkey + Seal point of view. In this crazy world we live in, there are most definitely circumstances that are out of our control. Things like the genocide, murder, rape - terrible stuff like that is not something that you bring onto yourself with the Law of Attraction. Monkey + Seal are very understanding of how traumatic events and our upbringings are extremely difficult to work past - socialization is a huge factor in our day-to-day lives (partially because we don't even realize it).

But (and this is the big But), we can take ownership of our agency and turn bad situations around by doing the most you can do every single day. What you can do is different from what Monkey can do, or from what Seal can do, or from what Barack Obama or Kobe Bryant can do. It's not about changing your entire situation in a day (although we'd all wish it was so easy). What brings about change is doing what you, not anyone else, can do in a day. If all you can do to work towards a clean house is just wash a single dish, then do it. If you're looking to start a business, and the only thing you can do today is to google unreserved domain names, then get on your computer. No matter how small or insignificant, if you start today and keep at it, eventually you'll be surprised at how much you've accomplished.

We are all about sustainability over here at Monkey + Seal. Even though sometimes it looks like we're totally overworking ourselves in an unsustainable manner, we don't push ourselves to the point of burning out, and if we do, we know to take some recovery time. Yes, sometimes you have to push yourself to meet a deadline, or to go above and beyond, but for the most part, we like to practice sustainability, as we are artists working with socialized norms that are detrimental to our dreams. If we push ourselves too hard and too fast, our pasts can catch up with us and paralyze us in emotional poop-storms. We've since learned to recognize when we're going outside of our means and to step back and take a night off (or at least to take a break).

So I just want to advise people to take action. It doesn't have to be earth-shattering at first, but as long as you are taking constant action, things will move into place for you.

Overworking

Hi all, sorry for the late post...Monkey has been fighting the flu, and Seal has been taking care of him, so the idea of sustainability has definitely come to mind.

Both being workaholics (Monkey by far being the worst), M+S need to constantly remind themselves that the world doesn't end if you have to call in sick to work, or if you only can finish 50% of a project. Yes, there are consequences (you miss a day of pay, you get a lowered grade, etc.) but if you constantly push yourself too hard, too fast, too long, you'll eventually burn out and then you'll be out of it for days.

Monkey has been unable to really do anything for the past three days now, which is not the best timing since he's trying to prepare some new prints for the Book Arts Jam (where he'll be exhibiting at the Academy of Art table) due to his illness. After trying to work his dayjob while sick, he ended up going home early one day, then he slept in the stockroom for an hour the next day, and finally he decided that he couldn't come in.

Life goes on, people may be inconvenienced, but the longer you are sick, the longer the minor inconvenience goes on. It's best just to take a full day off or two, rest (don't do other stuff!) and recover.

This is not to say that there aren't time when going all out 200% isn't necessary, but that shouldn't be the way of life. Monkey thinks you should definitely push your limits as necessary and as much as you can, but know your limits so you just don't push too far. Be sustainable!