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Boris

Boris

There was an intimidating figure in film school at NYU, when I was enrolled. He was our directing instructor. He hailed from Moscow, where he had taught at the film school there, the most revered school at the time in the world. He cut a domineering presence, with his...
Chats With Dead Artists

Chats With Dead Artists

Carl Jung was writing to his friend about “The Red Book,” a record of his mystical journeying. He mentioned that its contents would be viewed as pure madness if they were not contained within an appropriate worldview that could make sense of it. The book had to have a...
The Art of Hobby

The Art of Hobby

So things stall a bit, when we get all too serious. The expectation of producing something beautiful gets to be too much. There has to be a way to reorganize our energies somehow. I have come to really appreciate and value hobbies as an integral part of my creative...
The Architect’s Dilemma

The Architect’s Dilemma

Sometimes it is hard to work with the constraints of tradition. A creative project often comes up against the rules and patterns established by the past, such as within a particular genre of story. I have a Greek friend named Stavros. He grew up on the island of...
Mystery of a Story

Mystery of a Story

Trying to wrangle the subconscious is part of the excitement and part of the burden of the artist. By its very nature, it does not follow a rigid path forward. The shadowy subconscious meanders. And sometimes we lose sight of it along the way. Often, in the midst of a...
The Motorcycle and the Artist

The Motorcycle and the Artist

I have a friend, Charlie, who had been struggling to start work on a graphic novel he had rattling around in his head. He just couldn’t put pen to paper. In an effort to move forward, he decided to housesit over the winter in Homer, Alaska. Charlie figured that the...