📓 Faith in the process
Book of TREE 2.53
The ‘Invincible Summer’ print is available now. Scroll to the bottom of this post.
On a Wednesday a few years ago I received a voiceover script from a client. It was a for a two-minute film promoting a web platform we are building for them. My job was to imagine and create the visuals and make a storyboard for our animator.
I worked on it for an hour on Wednesday. First, I read the script.
Then I complained to myself that it was a rubbish script.
I said it had no story.
I said it was just a list of features.
Then I tried rearranging it.
Then it was 5:30.
I worked on it for half a day on Thursday.
By the time I was done, I had
created three characters,
imagined about 10 seconds of the film,
watched a bunch of other people’s films
and realised that my script rearranging was a bad idea.
I still had no sense of a story.
On Friday morning the logic of the script and 95% of the film came together in my mind within 15 minutes of starting. I spent the day happily making the storyboard.
Younger me would have been panicking on Thursday. I would have been convinced that creativity had abandoned me, that I had lost the spark. I may have worked through the evening desperate to get an idea. (It still wouldn’t have shown up until Friday.)
Old man me has learned to have faith the process.
Have a wide range of good inputs
Show up and work
Take breaks
Repeat
The ideas always come.
On Saturday I saw Heartworms with my daughter on a cargo ship converted to a club in Bristol. It was one of the best concerts I’ve been to. If you love post-punk and goth, go see her. Also go see her if you don’t because her voice and stage presence will 100% win you over.
This is one of my favourites on the album. It was so dramatic and big live. Headphones on.
The art
‘Invincible Summer’ is a digital + analogue impressionist view of Selsley Common photographed on Boxing Day 2024 and turned into vibrant summer scene.
It’s a beautiful reminder
that seasons always change,
that in the cold dark of winter summer is already preparing to emerge,
that the hubris of humanity is no match for the deeper flow of nature,
that you are part of the deep flow,
that there is always reason for hope.
The print
Size: A2 (420 × 592 mm, 16.5 × 23.4 in)
Paper: Chosen by you! Somerset Enhanced Velvet, 255 GSM, 100% cotton archival quality paper buffered with calcium carbonate to combat degradation from air pollution.
Giclée printed at 1200 dpi using a 12-colour system of archival pigment inks that are UV stable with a lifespan of 100+ years.
Availability: Prints 1–3 are for FFOREST’s founding members. Print 4 goes to Skyler. Print 5 is going on my wall. Prints 6–10 are available now.
Price
Prints 6–10: £95 (approximately $120 US), available now
Further prints up to a maximum of 20 will be made available if there is demand
Price includes worldwide shipping
Grow slowly
Jeff
…and so much gets rearranged, sometimes resolved, while we sleep.
Love that you and Madame go to shows together!!