Shows
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisThe Five-Pointed Star of WhyThe other day I was on the phone with my friend Neale James and we were talking about a recent episode of his podcast The Photowalk, on which he was talking to our mutual friend Sean Tucker about creativity. “I invite you,” Neale begins the episode, “to imagine a five-pointed star. Now on each point of the star, I’d like you to think of a word that’s important to you in terms of creativity or your creativity. Each is a kind of cornerstone of the why and even how you create as of today.” As an aside, if you’re no...
2024-05-1407 minAlmost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisConnection, Collaboration, and Creative MaturityIf you’ve been subscribed for a while, you probably know I’m a big Nine Inch Nails fan and have been since 1990 when I saw them open up for Peter Murphy. The other day, I was watching a terrific video with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross breaking down some of their most iconic tracks. One of the more fascinating aspects of the video was how much Trent talks about process and how important the “feel” of the music was and still is. “When we write music,” Trent says, “it’s coming from a place where its main intent is to have you f...
2024-05-0305 minAlmost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisCan a Podcast Change Your Life?Last week, we recorded the last episode of On Taking Pictures. If you’re a longtime listener, you may think you’ve heard this before, and you’re right, you have. But this time it’s different. I’ll get to why in a minute, but first I need to back up. In 2008, I was teaching Photoshop at Tri-Community Photo in Covina, California. One of the other instructors and I started doing photo walks with some of the students on the weekends. As they got more popular, we put up a simple web page called Faded & Blurred that had de...
2024-04-1509 minAlmost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisArt as a VerbThe artist Richard Serra died recently, and I know he’s considered a big deal in the art world, but honestly I’ve never really gotten what all the hype is about. I suppose I can appreciate the scale and the forms of some of the work in the same way that I can appreciate the architecture of Frank Gehry, but overall, it just never really grabbed me. Anyway, one of the posts that came up in my feed contained a quote by him that goes:“Art for the most part, is about concentration, solitude and determination. It's really...
2024-04-0806 minAlmost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisCan AI and Artists Coexist?After recording last week’s episode of On Taking Pictures, Bill sent me a link to a video that’s both fascinating and deeply disturbing, called “AI vs Artists: The Biggest Art Heist in History.” The video presents some of the grim facts around how images, including the 5.85 billion uncurated images in the LAION-5B dataset, are being illegally scraped and used to generate derivative work. The dataset was initially intended for research but has since been made available commercially and has been used to train AI models, including MidJourney and Stable Diffusion. While it does contain images from the publ...
2024-03-2706 minAlmost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisTool Up!About a week ago, I jumped back into using Photoshop for the first time since 2018 and I’ve got to tell you, it was kind of like putting on a favorite pair of jeans. Yes, the interface has changed a little and a bunch of terrific new tools have been added—especially Object Select, which I’ll come back to in a minute. But even after such a long hiatus, it was still so familiar that straight away it got me thinking about why I stopped using it, and in a broader sense, about some of the decisions we make a...
2024-03-1709 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisSwimming in MolassesI started this Iteration on February 29th—Leap Day—and for me it was a good day, which, frankly, I really needed. In the last Iteration, I talked about how difficult 2023 was for me and in the week or so since I shared it a lot has happened. Probably the biggest thing is that I’ve started going to therapy. I’ve danced around it for a long time and I think it just got to a point where I could no longer keep pretending that everything was okay—that I was okay— and that whatever was “wrong” with me, I could eithe...
2024-03-0505 minAlmost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisA Sabbatical in RetrospectI’m not going to bury the lede—2023 was not a great year for me, especially financially. In fact, I think it was one of the worst years I’ve had since I became a solo creative, and for the most part, it was nobody’s fault but mine. One of my favorite movies is High Fidelity (get the book here) and in it, there’s a scene where Rob (played by John Cusack) is going through a particularly frustrating time and says, “I’m sick of the sight of this place. Some days I'm afraid I'll go berserk, throw the "Cou...
2024-02-2007 minAlmost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisAnother February 5thToday is February 5th and it would have been my dad’s 83rd birthday. I normally mark the day by posting a simple message like “I miss you, Dad” on Instagram or Twitter, when Twitter was still a thing and I was still on it. Today, I want to do something a little different and tell you a story. My dad could be tough and for a big part of my adolescent life, we butted heads. A lot. At one point, it got pretty bad and we actually didn’t talk for a while. It seemed like we were often at...
2024-02-0606 minAlmost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisDetails, Obstacles, and OpportunitiesA couple weeks ago, I finally bought a set of wireless mics. I had been wanting and maybe even needing a set for a long time as a way to record the random conversations I seem to have with people out in the world on any given day. I’d been looking at them for a while, but I saw a review that Curtis Judd did—who was one of my favorite audio YouTubers—and I thought, “I'm just gonna get these. They'll be fine.” I had been going back-and-forth between the Røde Wireless Go IIs and the DJI Mics an...
2024-01-3008 minAlmost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisStarting Out HeavyIf you’ve spent any time around me at all, you know that I have opinions—lots of them—and I have since I was a kid. Sometimes when I would offer my unsolicited thoughts on various things, my mom would respond with “Oh, there he is…my little critic.” The thing is it’s not just criticism. Not always, anyway. More often than I generally care to admit, I find myself feeling personally offended, either by the design or functionality of a product or service or by someone—whether I know them or not—who simply doesn’t do something the way...
2024-01-1408 minAlmost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisHave Yourself a Holly Jolly…Well here we are again, nearing the end of one more trip around the sun and I for one cannot wait for it to be over. Christmas used to be my favorite time of year, but that was really because of my mom. She would start decorating the house around Thanksgiving, and when I say decorating, I don’t just mean putting up lights—our house looked and smelled like a Hallmark store. Yes, there were lights, but she also had all sorts of ornaments, figurines, and little holiday town squares and villages. She wrapped or swagged garland everywhere she...
2023-12-2103 minAlmost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIt’s Not Always an Obvious ConnectionBack in the late 70s, there was a terrific documentary on the BBC called Connections. It was hosted by historian and author James Burke and now that I think about it, I don’t remember whether I watched it on PBS or I borrowed VHS copies of it from my freshman English teacher, Mrs. Copeland who also loaned out copies of Cosmos. And to be clear, I’m talking about the Carl Sagan version, not the Neil Degrasse Tyson version. Regardless, the show was all about tracing the connections between things that on the surface share nothing in common. I fo...
2023-12-1106 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisRemapping the Road AheadAs we get into this Iteration, I’d like to take a minute to let you know about some changes that I’m working on that will be rolling out in the coming weeks and months. Iterations will still be weekly (mostly), but I’m going to mix up the types of posts I’ll be including and treat it more like an old-school blog. For example, you may have noticed that the Blips have been getting more substantial in terms of the research I do and the number of links I include. They started out as a just few link...
2023-11-2207 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisLearn to Love the ProcessOver the past few days, the photography world has been buzzing about the “global shutter” on Sony’s new flagship A9 III. I’ve listened to various YouTubers andinfluencers talk about it as if it’s the second coming. They’re saying “it’s the most remarkable camera I’ve ever used” and calling it a “a game changer,” insisting that “it will change photography forever.” But here’s the thing: for 99% of photographers, it won’t change anything. If this is all Greek to you, let me back up a minute and briefly explain what a global shutter is—and I promise that this Iterat...
2023-11-1206 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisLet It IncubateThey say that one of the best ways to solve a problem—at least a creative one—is actually not to think abut it. After all, how many times have you been doing something like taking a shower or going for a long walk and you find yourself having one of those eureka moments where suddenly the solution to a problem you’ve been wrestling with forever seems so clear? It happens to me a lot and it’s one of the reasons that taking walks in the forest behind our house has become a daily ritual. Trying to be prese...
2023-11-1007 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisRevisiting My InfrastructureAs I was working through the recent redesign of my website—which you can read about or listen to in the last Iteration—I started to look at some of the other software I was using to see whether what I was using still made sense for the projects I’ll be doing in the coming year. I think it’s sometimes easy to get into a routine of using tools that are “good enough” that we just don’t look for potentially better options. I know that’s been true for me. About eight years ago, I ditched Photosh...
2023-11-0606 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisGo Forward, Move AheadLast week I did a soft-launch of my newly redesigned website, which in an of itself isn’t all that unique since I’ve resigned my website dozens of times over the years. What is unique—or at least different—is the overall focus of the site and the process I went through putting it together this time around. I started by asking myself a relatively simple question: do I even need a website? The most common answer is “Yes, of course,” which is often followed by “especially because you’re an artist.” But I actually know quite a few “creatives” wh...
2023-10-2708 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisThe Time I Designed a Dog BackpackNext month is the tenth anniversary of my dad’s death, so naturally I’ve been thinking about him a lot. Last year, I completely forgot about it, which I tried to tell myself was actually healthy, but I just ended up feeling guilty about forgetting. If you’ve been following me for a while, or you’re an OTP listener, you know that my relationship with my dad was often difficult, to say the least. But as I’ve been thinking about him lately and how I’ve talked about our relationship in the past, I feel like maybe I’ve b...
2023-10-1608 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisObjects in MotionLately, I’ve been thinking a lot about inertia and motion and how it applies to my creative practice. We know that Newton’s First Law of Motion says that an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless some sort of external force acts against it. Conversely, an object at rest will tend to stay at rest. But I would argue that the Fist Law also applies to intangibles like thoughts and ideas. For example, this week has flown by. Actually, the past couple of weeks have and I think it’s because I’ve been working through...
2023-10-1606 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisA Bunch of Potential SomethingsAre you overwhelmed? Do you ever get overwhelmed? Man, I do. All the time. My brain is always on and processing—either trying to process existing ideas or trying to figure out where to put all of the new ones that I haven’t had time to really think about. And it doesn’t stop. It’s all day, every day. There’s always a bunch of potential somethings bouncing around my head. And let me be clear—I love it and I’m grateful for it, but it is overwhelming and exhausting trying to keep track of it all and figure...
2023-09-2707 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 116: Almost Back to NormalI’m still not quite 100% myself, but I wanted to share a quick update. Yesterday was day 12 since testing positive for COVID, and it was the first day that I finally tested negative. Both Adrianne and I had very mild cases, especially compared to some of our friends and family members who really had a it bad. I had a temperature of 100.8 for one day and, other than feeling fatigued and brain fogged for the past week or so, that was pretty much it. Adrianne had it a little worse than me, but not much. The most frustrating part wa...
2023-09-2502 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 115: Even Unicorns Can Get COVIDI know I’m a little late on this Iteration and I apologize for that. As you can hear, my voice doesn’t sound the way it normally does and maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe it sounds better.In the Iteration I was going to do, I was going to talk about finding that thing you live for, that thing that you love, that thing that lights you up. But I have to postpone it because I’m just having a hell of a time stringing two thoughts together. Even going through this right now, I’m live...
2023-09-1304 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 114: 40 Years in a Phone CallThis Iteration was going to be about some of my recent musical explorations into things like VCV Rack and the Arturia MiniFreak (which I may actually end up selling), but instead I’d like to share a recent story with you that sort of blew my mind.CONNECT WITH MEWebsite: https://jefferysaddoris.com Twitter: @jefferysaddoris Instagram: @jefferysaddorisSUBSCRIBESubscribe to Jeffery Saddoris: Almost Everything in your favorite podcast app to get more conversations like this. You can find the full written version of this Iteration on Subs...
2023-08-2805 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 113: Fried Dough and PhotographsWhen I was a kid, one of the things I would look forward to every year was going to the fair. The LA County Fair was massive and in elementary school we always got free tickets—I think they were stapled to our report cards, but I could be wrong. Although I moved around a lot as a kid, it seemed like we never lived very far from the fairgrounds, which are right next to the Pomona Raceway. My dad would take us there to watch the NHRA Winternationals every year and see people like “Big Daddy” Don Garlits and Do...
2023-08-2306 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 112: Art is EverywhereOver the weekend, Adrianne and I watched a fantastic new documentary by Anton Corbijn called Squaring the Circle. It’s about Hipgnosis, the legendary design agency in London formed in the late 1960s by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell, or “Po” to his friends. I knew I was going to love it before I even saw the trailer because so much of their work has been etched into my brain over the past four decades of my life. The work they did for Pink Floyd alone would have made them industry icons, but they also worked with Led Zeppelin, Paul M...
2023-08-2306 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 111: I Don't Care What You ThinkI’ve come to the conclusion that I can no longer care what you think about my work. And it’s not that I don’t care about you as an audience, but if I’m worried about you liking what I make while I’m still making it or even in deciding what to make, I’m not putting 100% of myself into it. By not caring what you think, I get to put 100% of my ideas, my skills, and my experience—not to mention effort—into what I’m doing, and ultimately that’s better for everyone.LINKS
2023-08-0807 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 110: To AI or Not to AI?I’ve hesitated to really talk much about AI, mostly because I’ve been on the fence about whether I think it’s got the potential to save us or destroy us, and depending on who and what you read, it seems like it’s 50/50 either way. It’s just too soon to tell and I think these technologies are being adopted so quickly that we haven’t given ourselves enough time to think about the ramifications or the potential. Instead, everyone is rushing to become an armchair expert so they can monetize it into oblivion before they even understand i...
2023-07-3107 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 109: Finding a New OpennessI know we’re only a little over the halfway mark, but if I could recommend one book as my “must read” of 2023, it would be Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act: A Way of Seeing, despite the fact that I haven’t actually read it from cover to cover. Let me explain. I started to read it from the beginning but within just a few sentences, I knew it was going to be more of a reference book than a “read it once and move on” kind of book. So I just leave it on my desk and whenever I nee...
2023-07-2405 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 108: Summertime StoriesThis is my eighth summer living on the East Coast and aside from the heat, I am still not used to the humidity. Actually, I don’t think I ever will be. I spent the first 48 years of my life living in Southern California and starting when I was about 4 until probably my freshman year in college, I spent most of my summers in Arizona, which was hot but not humid. The landscape and the people left an indelible impression on me and though I can’t see myself ever going back—at least to live—I’ll always be more drawn...
2023-07-1708 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 107: In The MakingI’m going to try something different, so I really don’t know exactly where this Iteration is going to go. I thought I’d just put on some music and write whatever came to mind. At the moment, Dark Star by Crosby, Stills, and Nashis playing in the background, which I love despite not really being a CSN fan. Adrianne found the album at this little record store in DC a few weeks ago that’s across the street from our favorite ice cream shop.LINKSMy Mixcast 4 long-term updateMy Mixcast 4 initial r...
2023-07-1005 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 106: Starting to Write the SequelThis has been sort of a weird week for me. Friday would have been my mom’s 79th birthday and for the past 14 years, not a day has gone by that I don’t think about her. Sometimes only a little, other times, I think about her a lot. I miss our Sunday brunches at Molly’s, though Molly sold the place years ago. I miss her smile, which I can no longer remember without looking at a photograph. Mostly, I miss her optimism and her goodness. I miss her advice and her belief in me and her unwavering faith...
2023-07-0307 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 105: Beyond Broad StrokesHow do you know when it’s time to rethink or refresh your personal brand? It’s something I’ve spent a fair bit of time thinking about lately. But before we dive into that, I think we first need to answer another question and that is what does “personal brand” even mean? According to Gary Vee, “Your personal brand is your reputation.” Another way he put it was, “Your brand is about how someone feels in the moment when they interact with you or your business.” On the other hand, Harvard Business Review says that your brand is not your reputation...
2023-06-2606 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 104: It’s Not About a WatchEarlier in the week, a post came up in my Twitter feed that stopped me in my tracks before sending me down a rabbit hole that I think I may be in for a while. It was a post about a watch—or at least the possibility of a watch—by a designer named Sebastian Stapelfeldt, who publishes under the name Carl Hauser. It’s a terrific 3D render that looks like something out of one of Syd Mead’s sketchbooks, which is one of the reasons it caught my eye. If that reference doesn't mean anything to you, Syd was...
2023-06-1909 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 103: Getting Out (Of My Head)As an independent creative, I spend the bulk of my time alone, which means I’m typically in one of my studios in the basement of our house. I have two spaces that have been purpose-built and tweaked over the past few years to fit the different aspects of my creative practice. The analog studio is where I do all of my painting and collage work and the digital studio is where I do everything else that doesn’t involve paint, which means research, writing, design, podcasting, and recently a bit of sound design and music. The studios share a co...
2023-06-1205 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 102: It’s Just Stuff, Right?In this Iteration, I want to talk about things, specifically the things in our lives that take on a particular significance because of what they have come to represent and how difficult it can be when we let them go, either by choice or by circumstance.A few days ago, Adrianne and I bought a new car and to say that it was a challenge would be a bit of an understatement. To be fair, the actual car selection process wasn’t too bad—especially compared to how long it’s taken me in the past (see Iterat...
2023-06-0505 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 101: A Momentary Lapse of PerspectiveI was sitting in my studio the other day, looking at some of the 100+ paintings I’ve done over the past few years and out of the blue I thought to myself, “I hate all of these.” Adrianne walked in a few minutes later and asked what was going on and I said, “I think I hate everything I’ve done.” Adrianne being Adrianne then asked, “Do you really hate it or is it something else?” I didn’t answer immediately, but of course it’s something else, right? It has to be. But that’s how it came out in the moment. To...
2023-05-2906 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 100: Consistency MattersThis is Iteration number 100 and before we dive in, I want to say that this one is a big deal for me, not because it’s number 100—although, yes, that—but more because it’s about what it’s taken for me to get here and what I’ve learned about consistency and my own creative process.If you’re an artist or maker of some kind and you’re on social media, regardless of the platform, you’ve undoubtedly heard about the importance of consistency. It’s one of the two main things that the algorithm rewards—the other on...
2023-05-2208 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 99: The Uncertainty of the PurchaseThis Iteration was originally going to be a story that bordered on a rant about trying to buy a new mouse from Amazon that went a little sideways. I’ll share some of the details in a bit, but the short version is that it took three attempts to get it right and I’m still not totally convinced that there isn’t some shady merchandise being sold as “real” by the world’s largest retailer. The best part of the thing was the title—I was going to call it “The Tale of the Mouse.” Clever, right? But as I’ve been think...
2023-05-1509 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisDeep Natter 77: Artificial IsolationIn this episode, without knowing it, Sean and I each posted something about AI this week and we thought it might be fun to sit down and compare notes. We also talk about the growing problem of loneliness that exists on both sides of the Atlantic and a few of the things we’ve each been thinking about to help deal with it.LINKSPhotography and the Rise of AIPrompt. View. Repeat.Mali Davies PhotographyLet’s Create - The Photography ShowBowling AloneSeattle Coffee Comp...
2023-05-1043 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 98: Prompt. View. Repeat.You don’t have to look far to know that AI is everywhere and it doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. It’s in the news and on social media. It’s what your colleagues are talking about when you’re at work and what your friends are talking about when you’re not. And no matter what you do for a living or for recreation, it seems like AI is going to either disrupt it completely or at least affect it somehow.I’ve been following the development of some of the more popular AI pla...
2023-05-0707 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 97: The Ideas Never StopIn 2018 I released a book called Photography by the Letter. It took three years of research, writing, re-writing, designing, and re-designing, and while it wasn’t as financially successful as I had hoped, it was one of the most satisfying projects I’ve ever done. After shopping it around to a number of publishers—all of whom passed on it—we self-published a limited print run and released it simultaneously as an eBook. Opening up the first box of books from the printer and seeing those three years represented as actual objects was a very emotional experience. I sent a copy t...
2023-04-3007 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 96: Rethinking My WebsiteA little over a year ago, after getting a very disturbing email from my then web host saying that they were closing shop—without including an end date, mind you—I decided to try an experiment with my website. Rather than simply move my existing Wordpress installation to another web host, I built a new site using a platform called Carrd (affiliate link) which, according to the website, is perfect for building “simple, free, fully responsive one-page sites for pretty much anything.” And while that’s mostly true, there are features that allow you to fake displaying multiple pages on a singl...
2023-04-2409 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisDeep Natter 76: A Copy of a CopyIn this episode, Maarten Rots joins me from the Netherlands for a terrific conversation talking about a recent salon group show he was in and the importance of saying yes to putting our work out into the world. Plus, I pitch him an idea for a potential new zine project and we even talk a little bit about AI…just a little.LINKSKristopher MathesonEverything’s a Remix on AIBrian Eno biography (via Amazon)John Cage biography (via Amazon)CONNECT WITH MAARTENWebsite: https://www...
2023-04-1959 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 95: Creaking Back to LifeFor years I’ve wanted to do some sort of legacy project that would allow me to explore and somehow acknowledge and maybe even come to terms with my family history. As many of you know, I come from a family of railroad workers. In fact, I’m the first and to my knowledge the only male in three generations of my family not to work for the railroad. At the beginning of 2019, I started laying the groundwork for a project that would not only allow me to lean into my family history but that I could also use as a...
2023-04-1705 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 94: Finding Dots to ConnectLast month, we lost Ryuichi Sakamoto, who was an absolute monster of an artist and since hearing the news I’ve been going back and listening to a bunch of his catalog, which is not only massive, but it’s also incredibly diverse.There are certain artists whose work allows you to see the world differently. If they’re really good, they might even allow you to feel it differently. Ryuichi Sakamoto was one of those artists. He worked across multiple musical genres and he was able to tap into and even affect different aspects of the human...
2023-04-1005 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 93: JoyspottingIf you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I’m a big fan of trains and have been since I was a kid. My dad was a railroad man for the Southern Pacific, as were his two brothers, my grandfather, and his father before him. So you might say that trains are in my blood. I remember my dad sometimes taking me to work with him and I would get to ride on the caboose while he did his shift. Of course this was back when trains still had cabooses, which they phased out in the...
2023-04-0305 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 92: I Just Didn’t See ItIn the last Iteration, I talked about how seeing the Philip Guston show at the National Gallery left me feeling a little envious of such a strong personal story, something that my own work just didn’t have. I talked to Sean about it over the weekend and shared some of what I had been feeling and he was quick to disagree saying that he thought my work was very personal. He said that in his opinion, my work is a reflection of how I see and experience the world. To him, all of my anxieties, my fears, even so...
2023-03-2805 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 91: A Story About StoryOn Friday I went down to the National Gallery of Art and man I came home in a funk. Usually, I come back super charged up and wildly inspired and just ready to get back into the studio, but Friday was not one of those days. I went down to have lunch with my friend Michelle and after lunch we walked through the Philip Guston show that just opened. I had never heard of Guston before and seeing his work was a very dramatic experience. So much so that after Michelle had leave to get back to work, I...
2023-03-1906 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 90: It’s a Numbers GameA few days ago, I read a quote by the great art critic and author Jerry Saltz that goes, “Do not ask what a work of art means. Ask what a work of art does to you. Art is not a thing, or a noun. Art is a verb. Art is something that does something to you.” I’ve been thinking about the quote ever since and how it really came to me at the perfect time. First of all, I’d already come around to thinking about art as a verb, which I mentioned in a previous Iteration. But the...
2023-03-1306 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 89: An Alternate YouFor the past several months, Adrianne and Sylvia and I have been watching Fringe, which is terrific show and was one of those shows that I never missed an episode of when it first aired. One of the cool things about rewatching it now is that it’s been long enough that I’ve forgotten a lot of the smaller plot points so that in many ways it feels like I’m seeing it for the first time. If you’re unfamiliar with Fringe, it’s a sci-fi show that originally came out in 2008 and was created by JJ Abrams, wh...
2023-03-0708 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisDeep Natter 75: A Healthy Self-CenterednessI want to let you know that this is the last regular episode with Sean and me for the foreseeable future. There will be more episodes of Deep Natter in the future with a variety of different co-hosts sitting in, like Jon Wilkening from the last episode, and I’m sure there will be more with Sean, I just can’t say when. We have been talking about this behind the scenes for a while now and both of us think that it makes sense to take a break while we each pursue other projects. I think when you list...
2023-03-0555 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 88: The Consequences of ProcessA couple days ago I finished the last—at least for now—of a series of paintings I’ve been calling Cell Damage. I’ve posted a few of them on Instagram and over the past several days I’ve been doing an informal post mortem and really looking at them as a body of work to try to determine what worked, what didn’t, and why in each piece. I tend to think of my work in series, rather than as individual paintings, so when I finish a series—or at least get to a point that I want to take a...
2023-02-2705 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 87: The Interestingness of Everyday Experiences“Sometimes disengaging is the best way to engage.” That’s a quote from Rick Rubin’s new book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being, which I can’t recommend highly enough. Before I actually sat down and started reading it as a book, I would flip to a random page and read just what was on that page—and I actually think that with this particular book, that’s a perfectly acceptable way to approach it. First of all, the chapters are short—some are only a page or two—and between them are little one or two line quotes like t...
2023-02-2709 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 86: The Best AntennaThis Iteration is a little different. Earlier in the week, I went into DC to visit a friend at the National Gallery and I took a few notes before and after—just a few thoughts that were in my head on the train ride in and out of the city. I love DC and whenever I go into town, regardless of why I’m there, I always come away recharged and inspired and just generally happier. Adrianne says that I should start doing it once a week. Maybe she’s right.CONNECT WITH MEWebsit...
2023-02-2106 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisDeep Natter 74: Letting the Field Go FallowIn this episode, I'm joined by Jon Wilkening who, after a disappointing trip out West, walked away from the creative side of his life to refocus on his family. Now, three years later, the itch to create has started to come back, though he’s not exactly sure what that might look like.CONNECT WITH JONTwitter: @jonwilkeningInstagram: @jonwilkening CONNECT WITH JEFFERYWebsite: https://jefferysaddoris.com Twitter: @jefferysaddoris Instagram: @jefferysaddorisSUBSCRIBESubscribe to Jeffery Saddoris: Almost Everything in your favorite podcas...
2023-02-1754 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 85: Vengeance, Vision, and Voice"Art used to be in charge of us. You used to buy a whole album not even knowing what songs would be on it. Now, we have everything on demand. At your fingertips. In pieces. You think half the people that are posting quotes from Oscar Wilde have ever read one of his plays? Or posting photos of Audrey Hepburn have actually seen the film that it’s from? Not a chance."That was an excerpt from a monologue—and it’s just one of several really terrific monologues—from a movie that Adrianne and I watched the other...
2023-02-1305 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 84: Finally Ready To Hear ItThis month has been incredibly productive for me, both in terms of the painting I’ve been doing in the studio and in the amount of writing I’ve been doing. I’ve got multiple paintings in the works and I’ve started sketching out the framework for an entirely new body of work, which, if I can pull it off, will be different than anything I’ve done before. I feel like I’m still riding the wave of momentum that started building over the last couple months of 2022, after coming to some pretty terrific—and in some cases pretty p...
2023-02-0607 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisDeep Natter 73: There’s Got To Be BalanceIn this episode, Sean and I are talking about balance—specifically the balance between work and happiness and doing the work you love versus doing the work that pays the bills. Plus, we talk about stepping outside of our respective comfort zones to produce work that’s just as challenging for us as it may be to an audience. LINKSParable (Print): Physical Magazine: PARABLE Window Light (vol.1) — Sean Tucker PhotographyParable (PDF + Audio): Digital Magazine: PARABLE Window Light (PDF + Audio) — Sean Tucker PhotographyCONNECT WITH SEANWebsite: http://se...
2023-02-0148 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 83: One Why Does Not Fit AllBefore we get started, I’d like to ask you a few questions. There are no wrong answers here, I’d just like to get you thinking about them because they’re part of what has inspired this particular Iteration. Do you believe that you should ever compromise when making your art?Are you the only audience that matters when it comes to your art?Is there a difference between art and product? If so, should the approach to making those two different things be different?While you’re thinking about the answers for yourself...
2023-01-2807 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisDeep Natter 72: They Painted the Whole Town BlueIn this episode, Maarten Rots joins me from a village in the south of Spain where he’s been working on photos for the next issue of his magazine March & Rock. He’s also been reflecting on a decade as a photographer and we talk about some of the changes in how he approaches his work and what he gets out of it. LINKShttps://www.andalucia.org/en/genalguacilhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puente_Nuevohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marbellahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Towns_of_An...
2023-01-2848 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 82: Getting Back to BooksOne of the first books I remember reading was The Outsiders by SE Hinton. Just to be clear — The Outsiders wasn’t the first book I ever read; not by a long shot. Even as a child, I had a pretty good sized library, which included classics from Dr. Seuss, Maurice Sendak, and Margaret and H.A. Rey. But The Outsiders was different. It was the first book I can remember that really resonated with me and made me think about language. In fact, it may be the book that began my love affair with the written word.
2023-01-2306 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 81: It’s All Kind of ConnectedI’ve been listening to a lot more music lately—and not just in the background while I’m doing something else, but in the foreground as its own activity. Growing up, my mom always had music playing in the house. She was a huge Motown fan, so I grew up listening to Diana Ross and the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5, and way too many others to mention. She and my dad were also big Elvis Presley fans. I think my dad sort of wanted to be Elvis, which probably wasn’t all that uncommon for men in t...
2023-01-1504 minAlmost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisBetween the AccoladesLast week, I sat down for a conversation with Bill Wadman that was released in this feed as well as the On Taking Pictures feed, which hadn’t been updated since 2018. The response to the episode was, well, unexpected to say the least. We’ve gotten a ton of feedback and I can’t tell you how much we appreciate it. We don’t really know how often these conversations will happen moving forward, but it’s always good to sit down will Bill and just hit the record button and see where we end up.What I do know...
2023-01-131h 22
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 80: Once More Around the SunAdrianne and I were out walking Cooper earlier and I asked her whether there was a single event that made her 2022 memorable. She thought about it for a moment as we walked and said, “Honestly, I can’t think of anything. Can you?” I tried to scrub through the previous twelve months in my mind and I drew a blank too. Nothing stood out. I mean, there are a ton of things that came to mind, like another year of Covid, another year of humans failing the environment, Congress, the Supreme Court, Brexit, China, Russia, Ukraine, Twitter. I could go on...
2023-01-0902 minAlmost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisGoing Back To Move ForwardIn 2012, Bill Wadman and I recorded the first episode of On Taking Pictures and for the next 324 weeks, we never missed an episode. Even though Bill and I don’t talk every week like we used to, whenever we do, it’s like picking up the conversation where we left off. If you’ve never listened to an episode of OTP, consider this a teaser for the 325 episodes you have ahead of you. OTP changed my life for the better and I always love getting to sit down with Bill, regardless of whether or not we hit the record button...
2023-01-041h 22
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 79: Relentless RepetitionThe other day, Paramount Pictures put up a ten-minute mini-documentary showing some of the preparation and training that Tom Cruise and the production crew went through to perform just one of the insane stunts from the next installment of Mission: Impossible. I say just one because I’m sure that the film is loaded with them. I mean, it’s a Tom Cruise movie, so there can’t be just one, right? There might be one that everyone talks about, like hanging off of the side of an Airbus as it takes off, or flying a helicopter through a 360-degre...
2023-01-0206 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisDeep Natter 71: Don’t Play It Too SafeBefore we get started, I want to let you know that we’re making some changes to the show. In addition to bringing back Process Driven, these conversations with Sean will go to monthly, rather than twice a month and my goal is to bring in a different co-host for at least one additional episode per month. All of the episodes will still be part of my main podcast feed, which is now called Jeffery Saddoris: Almost Everything since I’ve got some things in the works that will not be a part of the main feed. If you have...
2023-01-0145 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 78: The Tactile BuzzThis is the sound of me writing. Specifically, it’s the sound of me writing this Iteration. I’m using a Slate Gray Pilot Prera fountain pen with a medium nib, loaded with my favorite ink: Namiki IC-100 in blue/black. While I typically sketch and jot down ideas on paper, I do most of my actual writing in an app called Bear, which I’ve used for a number of years. But for the past several weeks, I’ve been going back and forth on getting a new iPad to replace my aging second-generation iPad Mini along with an Apple...
2022-12-2605 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 77: A Jump Jet and a Job Well DoneFor several years in a row starting when I was in junior high, my dad used to take me to the Point Mugu Naval Air Show. Military aviation was something we had in common and the Point Mugu show was always terrific. That was the show I first saw the F-14, the F-15 (which, at the time was the only jet that could actually accelerate on a vertical climb), the F-16, and even the SR-71, which is still my favorite aircraft of all time. Anyway, one particular year—and this might have been around 1979 or 1980, as we walked around th...
2022-12-1407 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisDeep Natter 70: A Purer Definition of ArtIn this episode, we’re picking up at the tail end of a conversation Sean and I were having about money and value and how that relates to art and it reminded Sean of an interview he was listening to with Steven Fry, which helps to set the tone for the rest of the show. Pay particular attention to the beautiful bit of wisdom Sean drops at about the 30-minute mark. LINKSDiary of a CEO: https://stevenbartlett.com/the-diary-of-a-ceo-podcast/The Judge: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1872194/CONNECT WITH SE...
2022-12-0941 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 76: Mind the GapThe other day, I was sitting in our sunroom watching a video interview with Simon Sinek, who I absolutely love. If you aren’t familiar with Simon’s work, there are a ton of terrific videos on his YouTube channel—I might start with Why is Your Origin Story or Be the Idiot—and I can’t recommend his book, Start With Why, highly enough. It’s a deceptively simple question that I think many of us have a hard time answering when it comes to talking about the things we make or want to make. Anyway, I was watching thi...
2022-12-0208 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 75: Lean In and Let GoOver the past month or so, I’ve been seeing a lot of Quentin Tarantino clips pop up in my YouTube feed because about a month ago, I clicked on a video of Quentin being interviewed by Charlie Rose. When it finished, the algorithm showed me another, which I also clicked on. Since the algorithm got what it wanted, it started showing me more clips and occasionally I would click, and here we are a month or so later with me having watched about a dozen clips and interviews with Quentin Tarantino. Full disclosure, I like some of Tarantino’s mo...
2022-11-2306 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisDeep Natter 69: What Would You Make For You?In this episode, we’re talking about making the work that means the most to us as the maker and how sometimes, we need to take a step back in order to see it. We also talk about a terrific new documentary about the visual effects wizards at Industrial Light & Magic.LINKSTom Jones Tiny Desk Concert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qfw6pon9tAJoshua Jackson Modern Paradox: https://www.joshkjack.com/modern-paradoxDavid Carson (TED Talk): https://www.ted.com/talks/david_carson_design_and_discoveryChris Ashworth: ht...
2022-11-1755 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 74: Making Space(s)When we moved into our house in 2016, I told Adrianne how much I couldn’t wait to convert two of the downstairs spaces into studios. “Day one,” I told her. As is often the case with home projects, things don’t always go to plan and day one is now year six and the spaces, while functional, still aren’t done. LINKShttps://blogstatic.io/https://transistor.fm/CONNECT WITH MEWebsite: https://jefferysaddoris.com Twitter: @jefferysaddoris Instagram: @jefferysaddorisSUBSCRIBESubscribe to Jeffery S...
2022-11-0106 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisDeep Natter 68: Resetting the AlgorithmIn this episode, we’re continuing to talk about living a creative life without allowing the algorithm dictate what you see and, more importantly, what you make. We also talk about the often repetitive nature of storytelling in cinema and cite a few exceptions.LINKSCasey NeistatAIAIAI HeadphonesAdam Savage - Golden Book of Amun-RaPropstore AuctionThe Mummy (Trailer)Amazon Rings of PowerNerd of the RingsIllustrated SilmarillionThe Peripheral (IMDb)Under the Banner of Heaven (IMDb)Marc Maron Andrew Garfield
2022-11-0152 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 73: Are You a Department Store or a Boutique?The other day, for the first five or so minutes of one of our daily live walk and talks though the forest, I spoke what may have been the most coherent and compelling rant-slash-sermon I’ve ever done but, for some reason, my mic wasn’t working on my phone and none of it went out to the listeners.LINKSMaking Waves The Sound of 007CONNECT WITH MEWebsite: https://jefferysaddoris.com Twitter: @jefferysaddoris Instagram: @jefferysaddorisSUBSCRIBESubscribe to Jeffery Saddoris: Everything in your f...
2022-10-1707 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisDeep Natter 67: What Do You Want to Say?In this episode, Sean and I are talking about the importance of finding your own creative voice and producing the work you want to see in the world, regardless of what you think an audience wants to see from you. LINKSRadiolabThis American LifeSerialAdnan Syed is FreeMy paintingsMarshall MathersCONNECT WITH SEANWebsite: http://seantucker.photography Twitter: @seantuck Instagram: @seantuck YouTube: Sean TuckerCONNECT WITH JEFFERYWebsite: https://jefferysaddoris.com Twitt...
2022-10-1447 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisDeep Natter 66: We Don't Know What We Don't KnowIn this episode, Sean and I are talking about what we can do when it’s time to take a step back to regroup and/or refocus, either on our own or with the help of a professional. Plus, this is the last weekly episode of Deep Natter for a while as each of us takes time to get other projects underway.LINKSIzotope RX10The OG App on the App StoreAd-free Instagram client ‘OG App’ taken down, and not by Meta10 Reasons Vero is Slapping Instagram (w/ Peter McKinnon)Ve...
2022-09-3045 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisDeep Natter 65: The World's Not Over YetFull disclosure, there are parts of this episode where Sean and I get a little heavy. There are simply so many things going on in the world that it can sometimes feel overwhelming, leaving us really struggling with what to do and wondering which way to turn. We also talk about the renewed interest in Vero as a potential alternative to Instagram for photographers, especially in light of some of the recent changes on Instagram that prioritize reels over images. I think it’s an interesting conversation all around and I hope you enjoy it.LINKS
2022-09-2355 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 72: What's Creativity Worth?Being creative is hard. Really hard. Actually, let me rephrase that. Being creative isn’t so bad. In fact, if I’m honest about it, the being comes pretty easily for me. As my wife and most of my friends will attest, I have ideas all the time, sometimes great ideas. The ideas themselves aren’t the problem. It’s what to do with them that’s the problem. The doing is where I get stuck, specifically on the business side of the doing. LINKSBen Proudfoot (Twitter)The Greatest Chef in the World
2022-09-1906 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisDeep Natter 64: A Sober Level of Self-ConfidenceFailure is something that virtually every creative has faced at some point. In this episode, Sean and I unpack some of the differences between real and perceived failure, and some ways we can respond to each of them without simply giving up. We also talk about the importance of trusting our skills and abilities, especially when we might feel like we’re in over our heads. LINKSDavid Bowie - China GirlSpielberg documentaryThe FablemansCONNECT WITH SEANWebsite: http://seantucker.photographyTwitter: @seantuck Inst...
2022-09-1548 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisDeep Natter 63: It's Not a Limitation of TalentIn this episode, Sean and I are talking about pivoting when a project just isn’t taking off or going in the direction we want it to. Sean also shares some thoughts on revisiting and possibly even updating a past project, inspired in part by conversations he’s had with people in his photographic community.CONNECT WITH SEANWebsite: http://seantucker.photography Twitter: @seantuck Instagram: @seantuck YouTube: Sean TuckerCONNECT WITH JEFFERYWebsite: https://jefferysaddoris.com Twitter: @jefferysaddoris Instagram: @jefferysaddorisSUBSCRIBE...
2022-09-0948 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisDeep Natter 62: Digging in as Deeply as PossibleIn this episode, Sean and I geek out a little over lighting and talk a bit about how shallow depth of field can often be the low hanging fruit in photography. We also talk about a few examples of our favorite film editing that refuses to simply hold the audience by the hand to explain everything that’s happening in the narrative.LINKS24mm: Focal Length Series35mm: Focal Length Series50mm: Focal Length Series85mm: Focal Length SeriesBaz Luhrmann’s ElvisEdge of TomorrowPharrell Williams - Fr...
2022-08-3150 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisDeep Natter 61: That’s the WorkIn this episode, on the back of Sean’s recent meetup in London, we’re talking about the social energy it often requires for introverts to engage with other people and the toll simply being out in the world can sometimes take. We also talk about the importance of producing work that allows an audience to meet and engage with both the maker and the work where they are.LINKSThe Warhol DiariesStuart WaplingtonDeep Natter w/Ben HorneSimon BaxterOfficial site of Stephen Fry
2022-08-2648 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisDeep Natter 60: The Thing About the WorkIn this episode, I’m joined by large format landscape photographer Ben Horne and we’re talking about some of the challenges and considerations around creating products for an audience and why print still and maybe always will be better than looking at work on a screen. LINKSDaniel Milnor: https://shifter.mediaTyndell: https://www.tyndellphotographic.comAndrew Baruffi: https://www.andrewbaruffiphoto.comMixam: https://mixam.co.ukDaido Tokyo: https://www.moriyamadaido.com/en/bibliography/CONNECT WITH BENWebsite: https://benhorne.com Twitte...
2022-08-1947 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 71: The In-Person ImpactLast week, I took the train into DC to visit the National Gallery of Art, which is by far one of my favorite places in the city. Regardless of the show or exhibition, I always come home energized and inspired. Sometimes, I’ll even go down just to sit in the “Rothko Room” for an hour — and I know the official name is Tower 1 of the East Building, but I think Rothko Room sounds much more poetic. On this particular trip, I was there to see The Double, a show that a friend who works at the gallery called “life chang...
2022-08-1506 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisDeep Natter 59: A Different Kind of CreativeIn this episode, Sean finds out he’s got scammers posing as him online and we have a fascinating conversation about a new AI called MidJourney that has artists and photographers scrambling to figure out how and why to use it. LINKSKitbogaJim BrowningScott DetwilerMidJourney AICrow imagesHateful Eight 70mmRoger Deakins Digital vs FilmCONNECT WITH SEANWebsite: http://seantucker.photography Twitter: @seantuck Instagram: @seantuck YouTube: Sean TuckerCONNECT WITH JEFFERYWebs...
2022-08-1148 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisDeep Natter 58: Discovering All the TimeIn this episode, Sean gives me some valuable advice for starting my own YouTube channel, which leads into a terrific discussion around the importance of identifying what motivates us to make. Plus, we gush a little about Justin Hawkins. LINKSShot DeckJoey LAnnie Leibovitz photographing Keith RichardsSimon BaxterJoe CornishMidJourneyJustin Hawkins Rides AgainCONNECT WITH SEANWebsite: http://seantucker.photography Twitter: @seantuck Instagram: @seantuck YouTube: Sean TuckerCONNECT WITH JEFFERYWebs...
2022-08-0552 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisDeep Natter 57: Sometimes You Just KnowIn this episode, Friend of the Show Maarten Rots joins me from his mobile studio in the Netherlands to talk about how a space can have an affect on what kind of work we produce in it. We also talk about the difficulty in breaking out of creative habits and the challenge of when to take our work in a different direction. CONNECT WITH MAARTENWebsite: https://www.maartenrots.nlMarch & Rock magazine: March & Rock magazineInstagram: @maartenrots CONNECT WITH JEFFERYWebsite: https://jefferysaddoris.com Twitter: @jef...
2022-07-2850 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 70: The Medium is IrrelevantThe other day, a friend of mine texted me a link to a podcast, along with a single sentence that read, “If I could be a small fraction of the photographer Sally Mann is, it would really be something.” Now, this friend is a terrific photographer but, like so many of us, he sometimes gets stuck in the rut of comparison. I get it. I really do. Sally Mann is an iconic photographer, but one of the most challenging—and I think harmful—things we can do to ourselves as artists is to unreasonably compare ourselves and our work to other...
2022-07-2605 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisDeep Natter 56: A Collaboration with TechnologyIn this episode, Sean and I are talking about how some of the evolutions in technology will impact the way we make art and, in some cases, blur the line of creativity between humans and machines. We also trade links to some of the things each of us has found interesting over the past week or so.LINKSDjo - Official WebsiteJustin Hawkins Rides AgainGuess the Lighting (via FStoppers)Yousuf Karsh portrait of HemingwayGeorge HurrellAudrey Hepburn by Jack CardiffPlaton portrait of President Clinton
2022-07-2145 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisDeep Natter 55: Go with the QuestionsIn this episode, Sean and I have an honest and, at times, revealing discussion around how comparing our work to others can often lead to creative paralysis. We also talk about the importance of finding an accountability buddy who can give us the support and feedback we need—whether it’s positive or negative—that can really help us move forward.LINKSDalton Campbell on Process DrivenAlex Webb: The Suffering of LightGregory Crewdson SubstackFan Ho - via Independent PhotographerAlec Soth Masterclass on MagnumPracticing the Presen...
2022-07-1447 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisDeep Natter 54: You Only Have the JourneyWe’re a little all over the place in this episode, from Kate Bush and Stranger Things to Top Gun: Maverick, to the importance of the creative journey and how sharing the what and the how often yields greater fruit than simply playing our processes close to the vest.LINKSHenry Thomas’ ET Audition - YouTubeAlexander ShaiaMaria LaxMaria Lax on Process DrivenCONNECT WITH SEANWebsite: http://seantucker.photography Twitter: @seantuck Instagram: @seantuck YouTube: Sean TuckerCONNECT WITH JE...
2022-07-0747 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 69: Productive DisruptionFor the past several months, I found myself feeling more and more overwhelmed by my own expectations around the work I was producing. I started feeling the weight of some of the narratives in the work—greed, power, corruption, the failure of capitalism—a realization prompted in part by a conversation with my stepmother who, when looking at a recent painting of mine simply responded, “Wow. That’s really dark, honey.” Being so close to the work hadn’t really allowed me to see it for what it was becoming, but taking a step back pulled it into very sharp focus...
2022-07-0204 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 68: Putting My Self FirstOne of the most difficult things about being a freelance creative is that you’re basically always on the clock. Sure, you can wait for inspiration to strike, but in my experience, you’ll end up waiting more than making. As Chuck Close famously said, “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.” While I understand what he’s saying, and may even agree with it to an extent, sometimes it’s not that easy. I think there’s a middle ground where instead of simply waiting for inspiration to strike, we can think abou...
2022-06-0905 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 67: Is Happiness a Choice?I was texting with one of my oldest friends recently after she got back from a trip to Italy and at one point in the conversation, she asked whether I was happy. “I’m grateful, but I don’t think I’m happy,” I responded. “And maybe that’s just the way I’m wired. I’m not generally unhappy either, although there are moments of each. It’s just not consistent.” There were a few moments of onscreen silence and she came back with, “Maybe don’t ask yourself if you’re happy (and neither will I—sorry!) and just be. Did you ever read...
2022-05-2507 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisIteration 66: SimplifyAfter receiving an email from my web host informing me that they would be closing down and I was to remove my files and secure hosting elsewhere “ASAP” (no closure date was given), I went into a bit of a panic.QUESTIONAre there recurring distractions—creative or otherwise—that you can easily resolve or take out of your path that might give you more time or better focus?A FEW EXAMPLES1. Remove distracting apps from your phone.2. Schedule time for ideation or creative thinking.3. Consider whether you can...
2022-05-1005 min
Almost Everything with Jeffery SaddorisSetting the Intention for 2021Like many of you, I could not be happier to finally be rid of the raging dumpster fire that was 2020. I know the next year will be anything but easy, but I am cautiously optimistic that 2021 will be filled with new possibilities and chances to do things a little differently than last year.I started doing yoga about a month ago and Adrianne reminded me that there’s a concept in yoga about setting an intention at the beginning of a practice and while I’m not a fan of resolutions per se, I wanted to share a fe...
2021-01-0206 min
Jeffery SaddorisI'm Leaving SoundcloudAs of the end of this week, I will no longer be publishing new episodes of Process Driven, In Between, or Iterations to Soundcloud. I’ll go into more detail in a future Iteration, but the short version is that if you’ve been enjoying the shows and want to continue listening, you can find them on my website at jefferysaddoris.com or — better idea — consider subscribing to "Jeffery Saddoris: Everything" on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or pretty much any other podcast app.
If you have questions or comments, you can connect with me on Instagram and Twitter @jefferysa...
2020-02-0401 min