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Podcast Review: The Accidental Creative

Creative types should check out the Accidental Creative podcast, especially #22, “who are you? really?!?,” which talks a lot about being authentic as an artist and silencing those pernicious Inner Critic voices we all hear, especially things we got from our parents about “being practical” vs. making art. It’s useful, real, and well-organized, without being stupidly cheerleadery or useless.

The ‘casts tend to average around ten minutes, and while there are occasional “advertisements” for the website’s e-coaching services, this does not distract from or reduce the usefulness and sincerity of the advice of the podcast. Other subjects include learing from rejections, time-management, and finding your own voice.

All artists and creative types, from the rare good managers in the business world to painters or writers, will find something to use in every single podcast, whether you usually like “self-help” sorts of things or not. The Accidental Creative is not your usual self-help resource for artists. It is very much, as Todd Henry himself calls it, “rubber meets the road” stuff–immediate advice you can use today, and thought-provoking input that will help you spend your creation time wisely and effectively. None of us have enough time to create; use this podcast to help you make the most of it.

I subscribe via iTunes, but his website is http://www.accidentalcreative.com, where you can also download transcripts.

Nice one.

5 comments

  • I tried this podcast for a little while, but honestly I didn’t find anything unique there. I mean, the ‘cast is free, so I won’t slag it off, but nearly all the advice they dispense could have come from any one of my friends over the years, or even from myself thinking through the creative block I was in. Also, the host sounds so totally like a professional confidence coach I wanted to punch him in the nose.

  • Yeah, he does have that confidence coach vibe, and I did have to get over that a bit myself. But I do think there’s something valuable in being reminded of things we already know, even while we hunger for newer, better answers. Creative blocks are such intensely personal and complex things that even within the same person, what works today may not tomorrow.

    Whatever works (or doesn’t work) for you, I’m good. At least you’ve found something. :)

  • Dealing with a creative block is actually quite simple. The best way of dealing with it is to face up to the fact that you will be dead someday and that day will be here sooner than you would like to believe. Not only will you be dead, but any ideas you don’t get down on paper will die with you. Once that sinks in, you’re left with one of two choices. Either you will get over your block and find a way to do the work, or your stuff wasn’t that important to begin with. That’s not to say that awareness of death will get you over giant gaping holes in your narrative that you haven’t figured out yet, but it does get the juices flowing. And you should have multiple projects going at all times so you can leap to another when one slows. Any attemps to shy away from this realization are, IMO, things we dress up to distract ourselves from the reality of our own (and our unborn ideas’) mortality.

  • I’m an art director for a large advertising agency in the Southeast, a fine-art photographer, performance artist and recently a new home owner. While this advice might be gleaned from friends/colleagues over the years, this just speeds up that process of dialogue into 10-minute segments. Then, take it from their and initiate your own conversations on developing your creative process with your friends.

    Yes, the guy sounds a bit like a TV sage the first minute or so of each cast, but he loosens up a bit in the end. However, the element I think the Widgemeister grossly neglected to mention in his “carpe diem” diatribe, was the caffine!

  • Mi amigo, “seize the day”? Fuck the day. Seize the keyboard or the pen and paper. :) And as for not mentioning the caffeine, I didn’t mention breathing in and out specifically either. Some things you just take as a given. ;)