Ten Rules

Artist Talk + Publication

Location George Fox University

DateNovember 29, 2021

In 2021, I gave a talk to undergraduate students about my art practice and the deepest motivations why we make what we make. As I also taught a number of them, I knew that summative lists at the end of these talks made the most impact. I developed these ten rules in response to that.

A studio practice gives you permission
to ask the questions you ~~want~~ need to ask.

A studio practice enables you to
show up more whole and uniquely.

As this talk was directed towards students on their own journey towards a self-defined studio practice as well as others more interested in corporate or freelance contract work, I centered my talk on the argument that each of them should consider what their own practice is. That they should all set aside time to think about and then practice the kind of work that fulfills them regardless of what contract work they may be pursuing. That this would, in turn, make them more effective, passionate, and valuable creative professionals.

As I revisit these rules some years later, I have compiled them into a published object in the likeness of Corita Kent’s 10 Rules, John Cage’s 10 Rules, or Tom Sach’s 10 Bullets. I have chosen to arrange them into a prayer labyrinth as a way to systematically check in on yourself and your own creative practice. For these are not to-do items, as much as they are ways to be more present.

A garden is not an object,
but a process.
Look at what is there.

Ian Hamilton Finlay

1. Hold the tension

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2. Know your place

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3. Secede your turf

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4. There is only collaboration

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5. Make your own tools

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6. Find the unsettling

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7. Define your terms

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8. Write your rubric

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9. Intake over output

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10. Work (+ take notes)

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J. Seth STUDIO