How to Make it Super Not Fun

Take something you love and put it in a cage. Tell it you will set it free when it solves Global Warming or reshoots the final season of GOT.

Wait six months. Wonder why it seems dead.

So I was doing Sidewalk Face for several years and getting pretty darn excited about the body of work I was creating. I was making multiple faces a day, I was posting to Instagram nearly every day and I was starting to have big hope and ideas about THE FUTURE. I was FANTASIZING about possible outcomes. That was actually super fun for a good bit of time. I was going like gang busters, making a website and listening to lots of marketing podcasts. Ask anyone who knows me, I wouldn’t shut up about marketing. Don’t you wish you had been there!

As sometimes happens, I walked right off a cliff. And no, I didn’t see the sign that said Grand Canyon National Park. I was too busy looking down.

It all just suddenly felt like a big hopeless chore. Marketing podcasts are great if you want to market stuff people actually buy like gizmos. But I am not making gizmos. I am making ephemeral faces out of crap because what else the hell are you supposed to do on your 7500th dog walk.

I got depressed. I posted less, I took less photos. I stopped seeing faces everywhere. I felt very concerned.

The one thing I know for sure is that art is my spiritual practice. Art is what gives me joy. I had to find my way back to a practice that was fun and not duty. It got me pondering what exactly fun is and why do I value it.

I am writing about that this week. Tune in tomorrow for my post called What is Fun?.