A background resembling a craft cutting board: light blue lines in a grid, with a 30° angle and a 45° angle shown. There are two small black acute triangles along the 45° line that don't seem to be very accurately placed. At the top, in handwriting: "That can't be right."
"NARRATOR: But it was.
#Gestalt #Lichtenbergianism" #postcardquotes
A piece of art paper covered with typewriter keys. A red line connects some of the letters; others are scratched out with silver ink.
Have you tried using random letters? #AbortiveAttempts #Lichtenbergianism #postcardquotes
A piece of dark art paper covered with bicycles. One of the bicycles has been covered over with white ink.
"Look at all those other people going places!
Is there any reason you shouldn't hop on and go, too?
#MakeTheThingThatIsNot #AbortiveAttempts #Lichtenbergianism" #postcardquotes
In the lower left, an illustration of a cocci bacteria. In the upper right, the moon. Connecting them is a meandering, inked strand of circles.
If you keep following where the work leads, you will create a path to follow next time. #SuccessiveApproximation #Ritual #Lichtenbergianism #postcardquotes
An etching of Renaissance decorative carvings has been scribbled on with colored pens.
The thing about STEALING FROM THE PAST is that they can't tell you you're doing it wrong. #StealFromTheBest #postcardquotes
Art paper that looks like an old catalog listing with white lettering: “You have hundreds of excuses not to make that thing you want to make. Do not use them.”
You have hundreds of excuses not to make the that thing you want to make. Do not use them. #AbortiveAttempts #MakeTheThingThatIsNot #postcardquotes
A vintage drawing of an egg has vintage butterfly wings.
You may have a hard time deciding whether it is still unhatched or already has wings. #Abandonment #Lichtenbergianism #postcardquotes
A light blue grid with two diagonal lines across it; one of the angles is labeled 30°. Two tiny black triangles hug the 45° line. Above, hand lettering states “That can’t be right.”
"NARRATOR: But it was.
#Gestalt #Lichtenbergianism" #postcardquotes
A vintage drawing of an egg has vintage butterfly wings.
You may have a hard time deciding whether it is still unhatched or already has wings. #Abandonment #Lichtenbergianism #postcardquotes
An irregular pentagon has each side marked at a point two-thirds along the length. Those points are connected to form another pentagon. The process is repeated three more times.
"Make up a rule.
Follow it until it breaks."
#Ritual #Lichtenbergianism #postcardquotes
A red circle is superscribed on a vintage drawing of a pomegranate; the circle is “perfect” while the fruit is not. A message: “Where did you get the idea that your circle was supposed to be perfect?”
Plato was not always right. #AbortiveAttempts #Lichtenbergianism #postcardquotes
A piece of dark art paper covered with bicycles. One of the bicycles has been covered over with white ink.
"Look at all those other people going places!
Is there any reason you shouldn't hop on and go, too?
#MakeTheThingThatIsNot #AbortiveAttempts #Lichtenbergianism" #postcardquotes
A vintage illustration of diatoms is surrounded by waves of colored dots leading to a large golden circle surrounded by bold bands of color. Between the two is a large black rectangle blocking the way.
We often do not know—once we choose a beginning—what shape our project will take. Often it is beneficial to walk away from it or set it aside to that all its ideas have time to spread and grow, to take shape. #TaskAvoidance #Lichtenbergianism #postcardquotes
Vintage drawings of plant cells are accompanied by a quote from Georg Christoph Lichtenberg: “I have jotted down a host of little thoughts and sketches, but they are awaiting not so much a final revision as a few more glimpses of the sun that will make them blossom.”
If you make enough little things, at some point you will have big things to deal with. #WasteBooks #Lichtenbergianism #postcardquotes
A collage with an 18th-century man holding a carriage above his head. Johann Sebastian Bach is in the carriage, and a slogan says “Steal like a boss.”
The past is there for the taking — disassemble your idols and use the parts to #MakeTheThingThatIsNot. #StealFromTheBest. #Lichtenbergianism #postcardquotes
A piece of dark art paper covered with bicycles. One of the bicycles has been covered over with white ink.
"Look at all those other people going places!
Is there any reason you shouldn't hop on and go, too?
#MakeTheThingThatIsNot #AbortiveAttempts #Lichtenbergianism" #postcardquotes
A black background. Across the bottom, a white strip with extra-bold, all-caps ABANDONMENT printed on it. Across the top, in white ink, the last two measures of Johann Sebastian Bach’s unfinished “Art of the Fugue.”
Every #ABANDONMENT hurts. Would it be less painful to finish it? (p. 42) #postcardquotes
Vintage drawings of plant cells are accompanied by a quote from Georg Christoph Lichtenberg: “I have jotted down a host of little thoughts and sketches, but they are awaiting not so much a final revision as a few more glimpses of the sun that will make them blossom.”
If you make enough little things, at some point you will have big things to deal with. #WasteBooks #Lichtenbergianism #postcardquotes
On a white card, a heavy black painted circle with a black dot in the center.
If you could see it, would it be your target? #Gestalt #AbortiveAttempts #postcardquotes
An etching of Renaissance decorative carvings has been scribbled on with colored pens.
The thing about STEALING FROM THE PAST is that they can't tell you you're doing it wrong. #StealFromTheBest #postcardquotes
A painting of a red circle. Inside the circle is the dictum “Where we work.” Leading into the circle is a white arrow labeled “The way in.” Surrounding the circle and the arrow are all the tasks that keep us from making our art.
MAKING THE THING THAT IS NOT does not happen if you don't provide a time and place for it. Draw a circle around your time and space and make it safe for your art. #Ritual #Lichtenbergianism #postcardquotes
A piece of black art paper is glued onto a kraft paper background. It is rectangular, but a notch is cut out of the top. Asemic writing seems to indicate measurements and perhaps instructions about the situation.
"You see it as a flaw.
Step back.
Look again.
#Gestalt #Lichtenbergianism" #postcardquotes
Random geometric shapes cut from an old encyclopedia arranged in a pleasing pattern.
Learning to look at work to see where it might need adjusting also includes learning to see work that is presenting itself: the front of this card was random scraps until I saw them in place. #Gestalt #Lichtenbergianism #postcardquotes
A winged hourglass floats over a semicircle dived like a protractor. Above the hourglass is asemic writing in red ink. Below the semicircle is the message “Time flies” with an abstract sketch in red ink.
Do not concern yourself with time. Either it is time to work, or it isn't. Either you have time to make the thing that is not, or you don't. #TaskAvoidance #Lichtenbergianism #postcardquotes
A kraft paper background has a black rectangle glued on to it. The left side of the rectangle has been torn by hand.
Your void is incomplete. You should fix that. #AbortiveAttempts #MakeTheThingThatIsNot #postcardquotes
A piece of art paper with polka dots covering the field. Some of the dots have numbers written in them, and some of the numbered dots are connected with lines.
Making the Thing That Is Not is just connecting the dots — only you have to draw them. And also number them. #MakeTheThingThatIsNot #Lichtenbergianism #postcardquotes
A vintage drawing of a mushroom has threads of colored dots drawn under it; across the background is a sentence describing the actual organism, the underground mycelium.
Do not mistake your work — your products — with that part of you that makes it. #Ritual #Lichtenbergianism #postcardquotes
Collage: the background is a technical drawing of machinery. Foreground is an anatomical drawing of a male torso with the abdominal muscles cut out. Between the two is a large, colored flower, showing through the man’s abs.
No matter how well-engineered our lives may be, actual growth and blooming and change always happen within us. #MakeTheThingThatIsNot #postcardquotes
A winged hourglass floats over a semicircle divided like a protractor. Rainbow colors will the divisions of the circle. Below, a message: “Time flies.”
Do not concern yourself with time. Either it is time to work, or it isn't. Either you have time to make the thing that is not, or you don't. #TaskAvoidance #Lichtenbergianism #postcardquotes
A collage with an 18th-century man holding a carriage above his head. Johann Sebastian Bach is in the carriage, and a slogan says “Steal like a boss.”
The past is there for the taking — disassemble your idols and use the parts to #MakeTheThingThatIsNot. #StealFromTheBest. #Lichtenbergianism #postcardquotes
