Art is optimistic

View this email in your browser

"Art is by nature optimistic. Art is optimistic because it is alive." - Patti Smith

A notebook about how we work, learn, love and live.

You've heard me refer to this letter as "my knitting". I find comfort in the act of tying disparate ideas together to sketch visions of the future that assume a willingness to listen and learn.

Unlike most knitting though, this letter doesn't have a pattern. I am as surprised as you by what emerges. This week I was struck by two themes that showed up: 1. humans are endlessly creative, and this ability is a superpower that is sometimes overlooked, and 2. life itself is a profoundly simple and elegant operating principle. As Paul Hawken says: "It means putting life at the center of every act and decision, every policy and process".

The good news is that we are learners. And while challenges and set-backs can suggest otherwise, we do get better at learning when we keep trying.

Happy Friday.

Creativity
When Aimee Mann thought a nervous system disorder might end her music career she coped by drawing comics.

By 2020 Aimee Mann had already made nine solo records. With titles like I'm with Stupid, @#%&*! Smilers, and Mental Illness, she was also recognized as an artist who knows how to talk about dark subjects, often in a humorous way.

Then that summer she fell ill. She experienced migraines, dizziness and light-sensitivity. Focusing on a digital screen made her nauseous. Most frighteningly, her hearing became so sensitive that she couldn't listen to music. She said: "Well, I guess my career is over."

She began cognitive behavioral therapy, therapy that included chronicling her feelings by hand. She drew autobiographical comics. Then she began sharing her comics on Instagram every few days. And she's still doing it.

Since then she has released a tenth album, hung a show of her portrait work in New York, conducted another world tour, and launched a podcast on Audible.

Article: Turns Out Aimee Mann is Really Good at Painting, Too

Instagram Page: @realaimeemann

Creativity, Learning
"Play is a different state of mind, and it can help us do so many things if we just allow ourselves to get back to it.”

In 2019 Lynda Barry was awarded a 2019 MacArthur Fellows Program “genius grant”. She said then that she wanted to "get on the floor with 4-year-olds and spend a year just figuring out: What happens before writing and drawing split, and why did we split those things — and what happens when we do split them?” (Image via John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation)

When New Yorker cartoonist Emily Flake learned that her friend Aimee Mann had picked up a paintbrush, she recommended that she read Lynda Barry's illustrated manual “Making Comics”. The book shares some of the exercises the cartoonist has developed for her myriad classes and workshops, which she teaches online, in schools, colleges and prisons.

She is convinced that we older folk have a lot to learn from kids. In one experiment she paired Ph.D. students with kindergartners so that the children could help the graduate students with problem-solving. She says that she started doing this "because I noticed that whenever I was in some big creative jam, it was an interaction with a kid that got me out of it. They can really help you when you get stuck."

Article: A Genius Cartoonist Believes Child’s Play Is Anything But Frivolous

Article: How MacArthur ‘Genius’ Lynda Barry is Exploring Brain Creativity with True Artists: Preschoolers

Nature
"The way you heal a system is to connect more of it to itself, whether it's an ecosystem, your immune system or social system.

Ever since I was an eager pup, I've looked to Paul Hawken as one of my guides. My first business endeavors were natural foods companies, an industry that he helped create in the U.S.. His books, The Next Economy, Growing a Business, The Ecology of Commerce, and Blessed Unrest were foundational in developing my own understanding of the positive roles that business can play in realizing the potential that humans share.

He's still guiding me. In this short TED Talk he reflects on how he has devoted his life to restoring and protecting the living world, and why the simple concept of regeneration—creating the conditions for more life—is the simplest and most elegant way to do that.

"Regeneration is not a panacea. It's not a certification, it's not a standard. It is a pathway. It is a purpose. It is a direction. It means putting life at the center of every act and decision, every policy and process.

"Regeneration restores forests, but also favelas, coral reefs and communities. Ponds— beaver ponds, hopefully—and the built environment.

"And it elicits and engenders localization, as contrasted to globalization. Tens of thousands of NGOs, of communities, of students, of activists, of foundations and companies are forging a regenerative future as we speak. And they are addressing everything that we use, eat, buy, make, wear and build."

Ted Talk: Paul Hawken: Regeneration Can Restore a Broken World

Organizational Health
Rules, regulations and standardization just might hinder an organization's ability to thrive.

I like the premise of this book. Successful organizations - and communities! - are not marked by any prescribed practices but by simple principles: kindness, openness, adaption and a recognition of interdependence.

"In Zen Buddhism, a koan is a riddle or a paradox that helps us remember that all stories and explanations are partial and incomplete. There isn’t a right answer to a koan, but if we sit with the questions long enough, our grip on what we believe to be true tends to loosen enough for new insights to emerge.

"Solving today’s biggest challenges requires this kind of openness to discovery as we work to build a flourishing future where more people can thrive more often. The how-to manual for this new way of mobilizing people to do great work together hasn’t been written yet, and that’s as it should be.

"Nevertheless, I hope that the principles outlined here will inspire leaders to move beyond individual or interpersonal changes and take a meaningful look, alongside their team members, at how they organize. I believe the principles of the KOAN method can help us navigate this paradox at work by building Kind, Open, Adaptive Networks of people working together to reach shared goals." - Jennifer Lyn Simpson

Book Excerpt: The KOAN Method in Action: Leading the Way with Kind, Open, Adaptive Networks

Multisolving
Bridge-building 101. Most borders are human constructs. And crossing borders can accelerate change.

Warm Up New Zealand upgraded the energy efficiency of residential buildings and provided jobs in the building sector after a financial downturn. The project resulted in better health for residents as well. That translated into health systems savings. Taken together, a 2011 study estimated that across all these benefits, the project saved $3.90 for every $1 invested.

"To achieve climate justice, biodiversity, and health equity goals, most societies need rapid change. From equitable policies and low-carbon infrastructure to values like collaboration and fairness, we need deep shifts, and we need them soon. ...Facilitating the flow of ideas back and forth across national borders is one way to accelerate change.

"Crossing other types of borders can accelerate change too.

"Borders between issue areas get in the way of solutions. Take the way that energy and health are often treated as separate issues. They are typically studied by different researchers, and policy choices on energy and health are usually made in isolation from each other. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the health systems’ savings from phasing out fossil fuels would more than offset the costs of the transition to clean energy. Yet, in a 2021 survey, WHO found that only 1 in 5 countries bring health considerations into climate and energy policy."

..."If departments, jurisdictions, and disciplines are just ideas, then there is nothing immovable about them. We can make these borders more permeable and conduct partnerships across them. We can even redraw them to include more of what matters in a single project or investment. That’s the premise of multisolving—using one investment of time or effort to steer toward several goals at once." - Elizabeth R. Sawin, Kelsi Eccles, Susanne Moser & Tina A. Smith

Article: Multisolving: Making Systems Whole, Healthy, and Sustainable

Commerce, Retail
A bookstore designed to mobilize the literary arts was inspired by the food trucks of LA.

photo by Alexandra DeFurio

The idea for Twenty Stories came a year after Alexa Trembly and Emory Harkins moved to Los Angeles. Inspired by the stripped down menus offered by good food trucks, they wanted to showcase literature in new spaces, and to declutter the book-buying experience with a curated, top-tier selection.

In 2017 they bought a renovated 1987 van, then stocked it monthly with just twenty-books, each hand-selected and personally recommended. Since then they've driven the van cross-country, putting down roots with a bricks-and-mortar store in Providence, RI.

The bookmobile continues to be the heart of Twenty Stories. During the warmer months, the teal bookmobile pops-up in a new location every weekend and can be located with their online schedule, updated weekly on their social media platforms. The store stocks the current month’s curation alongside previous months' book selections. The store hosts readings, workshops, and community events with writers and artists from across the country. Smart. Clever. Fresh.

Website: Twenty Stories Bookstore

Appropriate Technology
Long before powered mowers and artificial fertilizers, hoofed livestock created and maintained open pastures and lawns.

Many famous lawns have relied on grazing to keep up appearances. Starting in 1863, sheep were common in New York's Central Park, where the "Sheep Meadow" was not a metaphor. Flocks could be found in public parks in London, Boston and Chicago. These sheep were photographed munching on Whitehouse lawn, circa 1919. Image public domain, via Library of Congress

"Sheep are lawn experts. They are more gentle grazers than goats or horses, clipping grass tops and nibbling weeds homeowners would like removed. They leave about four inches of the blade: just the right height, says Michigan State University Extension, to maximize root growth and shade out weeds....No chemicals are needed. Carbon from the grass is returned to the soil as sheep pellets. One 2006 study found replacing sheep for lawn mowers cut net emissions by more than a third." - Michael J. Coren

Article: The Surprising Benefits of Switching to 'Lamb Mowers'

One-liners

Article: Design giant Ideo cuts a third of staff and closes offices as the era of design thinking ends. “The widespread adoption of design thinking . . . has reduced demand for our services.”

Article: Majorities of Americans across racial and ethnic groups support climate justice policies.

Academic Paper: A sustainable future is based on a learning society.

Buy Instead: Orbis Circular Collection. The first zero waste luggage and backpacks that can be recycled over and over again to make something new.

Article: The new phone call etiquette: Text first and never leave a voice mail

Playlist

Video: MC SOLAAR & RON CARTER - UN ANGE EN DANGER

The Guinness World Records calls Ron Carter the most recorded bassist in jazz history, having played on more than 2,250 albums. Today, at the age of 86, he is still teaching, performing and recording.

He gives all of his students three pieces of advice: "First, be on time. Time is money so don’t waste it. Second, check your ego. Pay attention and play well. Third, keep your ears open. If you’ve left your ego at home and got your ears open then you can hear what is happening with the music and make the best possible contribution.”

His Foursight Quartet will play Cadogan Hall in London next week, on the 16th and 17th. The Guardian's Garth Cartwright paid tribute to the master with an interview and brief overview of his life and career to date.

Article: Ron Carter, jazz’s most prolific bassist: ‘Our band was a laboratory – and Miles Davis was head chemist’

Weekly Mixtape
It might be easier to list the artists with whom Ron Carter has not played with than those he has.

Playlist: Ron Carter was here

Image of the Week

Evelyn “Jackie” Bross (left) and Catherine Barscz (right) at the Racine Avenue Police Station, Chicago, June 5, 1943. They had been arrested for violating the cross-dressing ordinance.

"In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a time often associated with repression, many gay and lesbian couples boldly celebrated their love through studio portraits.

"Despite the prevailing notion that same-sex relationships were shrouded in secrecy, as famously described by Oscar Wilde in his poem 'Two Loves' as 'the love that dare not speak its name,' gay and lesbian couples often chose to express their affection openly.

"In fact, numerous same-sex couples lived together openly throughout their lives. This was notably more feasible for women, as societal norms permitted women to live together if they were not married, often referred to euphemistically as 'female companions.'” - Rare Historical Photos

Article: In Love and Invisible: Vintage Portraits of Gay and Lesbian Couples from the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries

What's Love & Work?
Love & Work is the weekly newsletter by me, Mitch Anthony. I help people use their brand - their purpose, values, and stories - as a pedagogy and toolbox for transformation.
If you get value from Love & Work, please pass it on.

You can learn more about me and my work here: mitchanthony.net

Not a subscriber? Sign up here.

You can also read Love & Work on the web.