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Rabbits? Their letter this week reads:
06-22-20_1:38PM_CRTV-NDRGRND_PORTSMOUTH-DIV_ARCHIVE_047_TRICKS
Dear Mr. Nick.
TRICKS are for kids. Don’t you know that? The Creative Underground is writing you today to remind that there are no TRICKS you can use to achieve mastery. We find it ironic that the hardest things in your life create the most growth, and yet...you run from the hard things. Cue the motivational metaphors of growth!
Now, your creative process teacher, Lane Raiser, He knew that there were no TRICKS to achieving mastery. In class one day (you remember!) someone asked how to draw hair realistically. You remember what he said? “Draw every individual hair.” But of course!
But...surely not! Every hair? Couldn’t you just get the general shape? Or couldn’t you get some cool textured pencil thing? Sure. But those are TRICKS. Now we want to clarify...there is such thing as helpful efficiencies. But what we desire to pull out of you Nick (by generally forsaking TRICKS) is a certain attitude. We need you to suffer willingly. We need you to enjoy the painful process of growth. A mild form of masochism is perhaps...helpful. No TRICKS!
THE MAN, as you can imagine, loves TRICKS. He’s mastered them. He’ll naturally advocate for TRICKS. A new pencil. A piece of secret knowledge. Outsourcing. Automatized processes. Automized art? That’s the future right!? He’ll convince you that, "working smarter and not harder” should be the new motto of your life. Be warned. One day you’ll wake up 10 years down the road, with a retirement package and buttery smooth hands. Not a single callus.
Come on Nick! Wake up! You want to write books? Well at a certain point, you’ve got stumble through the first draft. And then the second. And then third, and so on. Then get feedback. That’s going to hurt. But you need something to push against. No TRICKS! No more books about books. No workshops. Live the thing that you are trying to be.
THE MAN will say it's too hard. The CRTVNDRGRND says, “Make it harder!” Then love it! Love every single diabolical second of it. No TRICKS.
With Love,
T.C.U.
P.S. TRICKS
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