Fast Company | Business + Innovation: For the past seven years, editor and designer Brian McMullen had a dream creative job as the senior art director and one of the senior editors at literary and humor publisher McSweeney's. He founded and ran the company's award-winning kids' book department, McSweeney's McMullens (where he published his own book Hang Glider and Mud Mask in 2012), helped to launch food magazine Lucky Peach, and oversaw much of the creative direction of a brand known for its unique and dynamic visuals. And in his spare time, he's a Lyft driver.
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This idea goes along the vein of thinking that in order to be a good artist, you need to expose yourself to as many different experiences as possible and spend time doing things other than making art. I wholeheartedly agree with that, and I guess that’s the reason that I wish our schedule here was less busy. Even though we know that it’s important, it’s hard to make going to the museum or exploring Pittsburgh a priority when you have 10 deadlines coming up, and lots of time to spend in class and on crew. In the past, I have chosen to stay in and get my work done rather than go explore and potentially jeopardize my work or sleep. I guess I wish that I had made time for other things too, because I do know how important it is to see new places and meet new people. I especially like what McCullen says about giving Lyft rides to people who later inspire characters, art pieces or stories. It’s a good way to make some money while exposing yourself to potentially strange and interesting people and situations.
This concept is actually very close to my heart, as there are few things that I believe in as passionately as I do this. I truly believe that the very foundation of all art forms comes from life. Thus I am so passionate about foreign experiences, exploring limitations, testing life's boundaries, and breaking through your comfort zone. Personally, people are my most powerful source of inspiration. I could sit on the bus for hours and just people watch; its fascinating to be allowed insight into the personal lives of strangers and study how connected that actually makes us, as humans, feel. It's so interesting to consider the perspective that we go through life pretty conscientious of what happens in solely our little bubble of reality, and spend over half of our time oblivious to the world that goes on around us. For this reason, I believe it is irrevocably important to maintain culture and intellectualism in your lifestyle. I try so hard to make time to see Art installations, exhibitions, gallery openings, film festivals, museums, poetry slams, and so on. Art is all around us, alive and thriving in the world, and people too often pass it by, missing the concept that started it all; life.
Yet another example about how activities outside of your main job, or in this case, our major, can keep you sane and even help you better the work that you do. I'm a firm believer that everyone in the School of Drama should have some kind of outlet. For instance, over the summer, I completely left the theatre behind and worked for an environmental-based overnight camp. After those months, I feel creatively refreshed and re-inspired. We hold our work in such a high capacity that sometimes it's hard to let it go. However, I can attest that taking a break and working on something completely unrelated is beneficial to yourself as an artist and theatre practitioner.
I started reading the article, and I was trying to figure out what the term ‘Lyft’ meant. I had to look it up, and after realizing what it was, and what defined it as the service, I was surprised by my findings. I had always thought that people with the pink carstache were just people being weird, I never knew it was the signature brand of a company. Of course, people do that who aren’t related to the company, and without a doubt, it adds some intriguing style to a vehicle. I can also see how doing something different than what you normally do, makes life a bit more interesting. That’s why people have hobbies, it’s pretty much the exact same thing, just not everyone goes out driving giving people a ride like he does. Of course in my time of being a designated driver, I have to admit, that something like that is enjoyable. There are so many interesting stories that people tell, and humanity never ceases to find something new to talk about.
Although it is beneficial to expose yourself to many different forms of art during your time as a designer, I do not think that is what the article is referring to. What the man in the article did was, instead of doing what some people referred to in their comments, such as going to a museums, gallery openings, and art installations, instead, he drove around picking people up and sitting in a car by himself. This specific job that he had wasn't necessarily an artistic one, but it inspired him the way a museum could as well. Overall, I think what this article is trying to establish is that there are other ways to improve yourself as an artist other than visiting places of art. As long as you do something different and unexpected, and maybe slightly out of your comfort zone, you can still achieve some inspiration.
I always thought Lyft would be a good way to meet new people so I totally understand what Brian is saying. I think meeting random people is great and one of the best ways to grow as a person and as a designer. I love meeting strangers (even though I am also very wary when it comes to meeting people I don't know but that's also because of where I grew up) and when sometimes they leave a lasting impression on your or they become your mentor or they just made you day a lot better than what it was! Either way, it's a great way to expose yourself to other people who aren't exactly like you. It can be a really draining to constantly be hanging out with the people you know and sometimes you need that outside source to power you through be it with life or with design.
The idea of having an outlet from theater is very interesting to me. I always thought of theater and art as an outlet from everything else but i suppose that once the theater becomes your everything, it its self is no longer the outlet. When i started to think about this idea more I realized that I have an outletsout side of theater. I do film photography and crew which are both things that i use to meet people and see the world through different eyes. The idea of being a lyft driver is extremely interesting to me because of the amount of people one will encounter. People watching is one of the most inspiring things for any artist. Meeting many different people have my artistic side constantly stimulated.
People are the real muse in an artist's life. It's amazing what one can create just through people-watching and other forms of observation. Exposing yourself to a variety of different situations does help you as an artist because art isn't pen and paper, a guitar, or a stage. Art is life. Art is the world around us. As creators we build our landscapes from those already existing. A side job can also help you deal with difficult people, preparing you for inevitable conflicts in the creative world. I fully agree with this article and, while I don't have a side job, I do make a point to observe people every day by taking the bus to and from school. It's a fascinating world out there, why not learn from it?
In Purnell I think it's easy to forget that we are creating art about the outside world. Without removing ourselves from the world we are in, our work will become in a way incestuous, feeding off itself. Although I don't have a car here, I could see myself driving people around for Lyft or Uber over breaks or in the future. It seems like most of the time you would probably just be listening to conversations but everyone in a while you might have a friendly group. It is interesting that McCullen's work (drawing or writing) was in small chunks, bookended each time by driving riders around. It would be interesting to see if the stop and start of the writing or drawing was present in the work. Working for a ride share service seems like a good way to have a balance between shorts spurts of social interaction mixed with alone time.
Like Brian McMullen, I think artists need to experience real life situations and immerse themselves in activities outside of their art. I also think it is good for artists to have a break from their work, because without some time to breathe and to take a step back, artists might get lost in the ideas they are trying to convey. Last summer, before I started at the Carnegie Mellon School of drama, I worked with high school students in Pittsburgh who needed tutoring. The experience was one of the most rewarding of my life. I met so many different types of people and felt like I was truly making a difference. It was also a good outlet that allowed me to step back and appreciated my art differently than I used to .
I think it is so important for all artist to have something completely outside of their art to do and it is even better when it puts you in to contact with a wide variety of people. It is especially essential to students like us, who spend most of our time exclusively on honing our craft. When I am not doing theater I tend to get jobs babysitting and teaching children. It is always such an eye opening and revitalizing experience and more than once an idea for a project or a change in my process has come directly from one of the children I work with.
This article definitely brings up some interesting points and has gotten people thinking, I'd say it all depends on how you interpret the article. For this writer, driving around occasionally helped him along with the people he met. Different people need different things to recharge their creative side, and it depends on what you are trying to do. One thing driving definitely does is open your eyes to whats are you, as well as, the people around you.
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