samspratt:

I made no sacrifices as melodramatic or as biblical as say… slicing open a goat on an alter and rolling in its blood… but several common aspects of life were given up, occasionally in extremes when I graduated from college, and a few I still largely keep out. While if you’re one of the special lotus blossoms who attended my NHIA lecture, you already are on top of this, when I left school, I was essentially asked what I was willing to give up to succeed as an artist. 

Not what I would DO to succeed, but what I would GIVE UP.

I answered: everything. I would give up everything.

This vague “everything” ranged from sweeping changes to my social and personal life down to substances and content consumed to entire aspects of my personality. These things removed aren’t all HORRIBLE, EVIL, things, but especially for my first year trying to improve, they were some of the most distracting constants in my life that I knew I needed to ditch or change to try to make it.

ALCOHOL: I drank and partied a ton in college, less than some, but I was regularly pushed to the limits of my own stupidity. I removed that from my life entirely for about a year, and since then I keep such things very moderate — and only unleashing college-level stupidity on very special occasions.

LADY FRIENDS: My longest stretch without a girlfriend in college was about 4 weeks, I was in love with the idea of serial monogamy, I was a total sap. I still had and have relationships since I left, but they are either very distant and not something that eats into my time working, or very surface level and thus devoid of any of the emotional displacement of energy that makes most people go insane and want to velociraptor their faces off just thinking about their significant other. Easy, breezy, brief.

NON-LADY FRIENDS: In college, though they were ever-changing, I was constantly swept up in friend circles of 20-30-40 people who did EVERYTHING together. This is a fantastic, beautiful, crazy, dramatic, and worthwhile experience, but not one that a) allows you to get much done, or b) offers stability or independence. When I left, I cut it down to a core few, and since then, like most people do far younger than I did, It clicked that the quality few always trump quantity.

CASH MONEY: For much of my life, when I made money, I spent it. I never listened to my parents about saving it little by little, so when I left school, I decided they may be on to something, and spent my first year stingy as can be. Pinching the hell out of every penny. It sucked. It felt embarrassing, especially since when working at Gizmodo that first year, I was only making 20 bucks an illustration. But it paid off, I moved to New York with every cent I’d saved, I invested back into myself and my business, it’s gone quite well, and now I just don’t ever have to think about it. If I hadn’t been so extreme in my thriftiness initially, there are MANY opportunities, huge ones, that I would have missed later on that really built my career.

WASTING MY LIFE AWAY ON THE WEB: I was glued to the Internet long before tumblr existed, I wasted away my days on forums, blogs, writing fan fiction (seriously), and frequenting gaming websites, never getting anything done or learning anything new, just consuming content that never helped me at much of anything. So that first year out of school, I spent all of that time learning how social media worked and the pathways that information flowed through Internet instead of digesting cat picture after cat picture. I’ve eased up substantially since then, but I still keep things at a minimum, and the time spent is mostly to learn or share, not endlessly scroll through nothingness — I don’t do boredom.

DIAL DOWN THE DOUCHE JUST A NOTCH: I had always been told that I was very stubborn and set in my ways, thinking I have the answers and that the answers were set in stone. Stubborn makes it sound endearing so I long agreed with it. It’s a word many like to use, but if I’m being honest, being stubborn mostly just feels like being narrow-mindedness and egotistical. Though perhaps the least tangible, the biggest thing I’ve (attempted) to give up and continue to attempt to, is an ego. I was really riding high when I left college. Despite all of the distractions mentioned, compared to highschool me, I had turned my life around and thought I was on top of the world, ready to tackle its obstacles.

I think ego is very perceptual. Depending on who you ask, it varies in size, ex:  A super nice girl at my last lecture made it sound like it’s non-existent, but I’ve encountered many who view it as a giant triceratops of one, and I think either is valid, though that girl definitely gets my favoritism for obvious reasons. I wouldn’t post my artwork and my thoughts if I didn’t at least have some confidence in them, (the crippling fear and self-loathing is less seen by people), but what changed a couple years ago was simply checking myself (before the wrecking of said self). What I mean by that is, I believe in being true to who you are — if you’re confident, be confident — don’t fake your way through being humble just because you’ll get less shit for it. It’s easy to be something that’s never disagreeable. But at the same time, your confidence must always come with rules, fine print, and a very unflattering mirror. Know who you are, what you’re good at, and what you’ve done, but never make it more than it is. Never put yourself above anything or outside the crossfire of criticism. For me, I needed very badly to just let go and understand that my knowledge is rewritten and expanded on a daily basis, my work has a million miles to grow, my viewpoints on the world will only extend as far as I’ve dared to look, and that a balance does exist out there where I can care passionately about what I do, feel empowered by sharing it, and not do so while being a ginormous twat waffle in the process. It’s not the search for false humility, but rather just understanding my place, my REAL place, knowing that it’s not that high, and communicating at least a vague awareness of it while I try to grow. Even writing this out makes me feel like a breakfast food/insult combo — this is very much so a work in progress for me.

IN CONCLUSION:

Sacrificing/giving up the things in life that are often viewed as just common place things or everyday indulgences, can actually give you a little momentum — it can bring clarity to what you’re doing. You don’t need to become a saint, it’s not some religiously-induced choice, it’s a personal one solely made to eliminate distractions when you have a goal in mind that demands your full attention. Since I was asked this question by a professor when I graduated, it’s now the same question I throw back at everyone who ever asks me what they need to do to succeed as an artist. The things you need to do to succeed are obvious: time, effort, passion, practice, knowledge. End of list. 

But what are you willing to give up?

laughterkey:

yagazieemezi:

French artist Xoil has a characteristic tattooing style that looks like he has stamped, stenciled, or drawn directly with a felt-tip pen on his clients’ bodies.

These are gorgeous.

(via chemxkyle)

halfhardtorock:

bumblb:

will does art therapy

His little “yes.”

If you think I will see a “this is my design” joke and not reblog it then you are wrong.

halfhardtorock:

beneighdict:

mikkelsened:

beneighdict:

mikkelsened:

beneighdict:

beneighdict:

after reading this absolutely ridiculous story and subsequent to pissing myself i decided to follow through and see what the site was like

and i just

IS THAT HIS MOM

IS THAT HIS BROTHER IN LAW

the dancy/danes family is big into carpet photography apparently

Prize to whomever finds the most relatives.

how many people in his family are doing this oh my god

What?

The website’s music is unbelievable.

(via chemxkyle)

daysandhours:

Blood-thick bass notes swell into the resounding, barren forest voice of cello, before creaking into acoustic guitar and throaty vocals, and building back up into operatic tones and orchestral movements. The perfect set of songs to slice, braise, beat, mince, and sauté to, for that special soirée you’re planning. So pour yourself another glass of red, and smile because you feel absolutely nothing save for the small fire of pleasure that burns in your chest when you lick your lips. You’re a man of taste.

8tracks / spotify / download

the taste of men for a man of taste?

(via pellinore-rex)

exorin:

andimprouvaire:

manneon:

andimprouvaire:

somehow I don’t think my priorities with this show are the same as other people’s priorities

Wow they literally pulled this out of the depths of their ass

see u say that but never at any point did it actually come into contact with my sphincter, or any other section of my lower digestive tract

have you ever noticed how tumblr caps the shit out of dudes making eye contact, accessorized with comic sans, and fandom receives it like the fucking illuminated manuscript guide to shipping, replete with hosannahs of “canon!” and “GAYYYY!”,  instilled with the self-evident superiority of all m/m ships because male desire is threaded with such heavy visibility in the concomitant spheres of modern textual production and reception networks, because male agency is saturated with such cultural weight it bleeds into remix culture, into fucking fandom, which is a predominantly female and non-male space, because it’s not enough that we shift without protest into “queer” spaces—male and cis and always, always whiter than milk—in between dominant narratives that bolster the hero and use women for his betterment, for his growth, for his ultimate stepping stone to glory and redemption and we cheer, we don’t even notice we’re stepping on ourselves because STOP THE WORLD MEN ARE LOOKING AT EACH OTHER THIS IS IT THIS IS THE QUEER WE’VE BEEN WAITING FOR

and women shake hands, share a glance, an infinitesimal mark in the overarching narrative, subsumed beneath male agency and male drive and male desire and all that we invest therein, male sexuality—something fierce, something sharp and hard and forbidden and women, women are soft (I know, I’ve read femslash) and safe, supportive until they’re not, until they find the wanting in themselves,the desire, the agency,and then they’re usually dead and so

and so

a woman looks at another woman, I didn’t pick up on that, isn’t that funny, such a crack pairing

they literally pulled this out of the depths of their ass

this is just fucking beautiful. 

(via tigersinlondon)

fearlessjones:

Hannibal CRACK (by AmberSpirit11)

This will ALWAYS be funny. ALWAYS.

Gina Torres as Bella Crawford

(Source: ramrambolton, via xenomorphine)

(Source: nbchannibal)

gnossienne:

for we receive the due reward of our deeds: [a southern gothic compilation]

"Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted
worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to 
stand before the Son of man."
- Luke 21:36

01 nesey gallons / SWEET SWEET FRIEND | 02 holly golightly & the brokeoffs / DEVIL DO | 03 strawfoot / WAYFARIN’ STRANGER | 04 outlaw social / COUNTRY BLUES | 05 laura gibson / WHERE HAVE ALL YOUR GOOD WORDS GONE? | 06 mark lanegan & isobell campbell / BACK BURNER | 07 woven hand / CONSECREATION, 448T | 08 timber timbre / LIKE A MOUNTAIN | 09 frankenpine / EYE OF THE WHALE | 10 robert plant / SATAN YOUR KINGDOM MUST COME DOWN | 11 lonesome wyatt & rachel brook / NEVER FORGET (THESE NIGHTMARES ARE MINE) | 12 dionysus / DEATH SONG | 13 carter burwell / CHEWING ON IT (INSTRUMENTAL) | 14 tom waits / A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND

listen.
download.
download(2)

(The art is from the brilliant short film “Blood On My Name”)

(via pellinore-rex)

durch-artist-wannabe:

gunmettle:

hunted by a freak (but who’s the freak?) ref x

OH GOD THIS IS HAUNTINGLY BEAUTIFUL.

(via pellinore-rex)