Bill Small’s Blog

Elizabeth Gilbert says…..

“It’s not the world’s fault you want to be an artist, now shut up and get back to work.”

First of all, watch this……

Creativity. If you haven’t noticed, it’s a subject I’m very interested in. I love this video with Elizabeth Gilbert. I read her book, ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ several months agao and found it not only an enjoyable read, but it made a difference for me as well. Obviously I’m not alone in this as millions of people have read it. The book not only had me dreaming of world travel, but it did get me back doing some regular meditation for awhile and I found myself intrigued by the whole idea and writing style of the book.

So, it was extra cool to run across this video. I posted it on my Facebook page right after I watched it and some great responses. Beyond being a strong reminder for me to get on with it and do my work, I love the way Ms. Gilbert languages and thinks about creativity. In the first half of her talk, she talks about being afraid of the work and the mental health and well being of artists. The being afraid part really resonates with me. Who hasn’t been afraid that what they’re creating won’t be well received? I’ve had times where it was much easier to concentrate on getting more paying work or cleaning the house than to write a song or even a little old blog post.

And the whole suffering artist thing! I hate that. That kind of thinking has been screwing things up forever and gives a lot of artists a great cop out on success.  But I never really looked at what the source of it might be. I find Ms. Gilbert’s explanation as plausible as anything else and it feels good to think that you can change the way you look at your own creative power.

As a coach I do a lot of work with people around their creativity. One of the biggest points of Ms. Gilbert’s talk is the age old idea that our creativity is more of a conduit than some magical ability that come soley from the individual. That when you are in the creative “flow” you are receiving information from the universe, the divine, the source, God, or “Genius” as the Romans put it. Not only does that take the pressure off of the modern day tortured artist, but isn’t that state something that anyone would want to be in. To be in the creative flow of life?

To put it in energetic terms, when you are in the creative flow you are in the energy of abundance. You are connected to the source of abundance. So the more you are in that energy, the more you will attract things in your life that line up with it. So rather than spending time trying to figure out how to get wherever it is you want to go, create! Whether it’s a fine meal, a song, a picture, a job, a relationship, a clean house, you can create it. Creativity knows no limits. So create, create, create!

For more on Elizabeth Gilbert:

http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/

Elizabeth Gilbert on writing:

http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/writing.htm

For more on TED talks:

http://www.ted.com

For more on creativity, check out my new tele-seminar series The Artistry of Life:

http://www.creativeartistcoaching.com/coaching_offer.html

Recording Has Begun!

I’m very excited to announce that recording has begun on my new record. Yeah I know I still say record. I guess I show my age a bit. I spent 3 days starting on Labor Day at Moonhouse Studio in south Austin with Chris Gage (producer, engineer), Glen Fukunaga (bass), and fellow Mystiquero Ray Rodriguez on the drums.

Chris and I have been talking for years about making a record together. I learned the hard way that even though I have had some success producing records for other people, it doesn’t work for me to produce myself. I can’t get far enough away form the music to be properly objective. Chris is a great friend and I usually describe him as the best musician I know. His list of credits is almost as impressive as his playing. He’ll be lending his talents as a player and singer to the project as well, but most importantly he knows me very well. He knows better than I do what I can do and is making sure that I perform up to the level that I’m able.

I had never worked with Glen before but have seen him play numerous times with Joe Ely and Eliza Gilkyson among many others. Glen is pure magic. As some of you know I play bass quite a bit myself, but Glen’s ability to capture the right feel for a song in the studio is unparalleled. And he’s a great person to boot. Really fun to be around.

What can I say about Ray? I love this guy. He and I have been the rhythm section for Walt Wilkins and the Mystiqueros for over 2 years now. We’ve logged a lot of miles. Traveled the world. He’s like a brother to me and I never have to worry about what he’s going to play. He’s always right on.

We finished basic tracks, drums & bass, and I’ve begun recording some of my final acoustic guitar tracks for 11 songs. I’ll be recording one more song without the rhythm section. I’ll be back in the studio on Tuesday to record more guitars and Chris and I will be working whenever our schedules permit over the next several weeks to finish up the project.

I put together a short video below that shows some of the action from those first sessions to the tune of a great Sam Cooke song.

A big thank you to everyone who has supported me financially and helped me get this far with the project.

I’ll keep you posted on how things progress from here. Enjoy the video!

[display_podcast]