This is part nine in a series on mindset hacks where I will discuss small changes you can make to the way you think that will help you develop as an artist and flourish into the magical creative you are so capable of becoming. In todays video I will talk a little about why it's important to have multiple interests and the magic of the 'beginners' mind. Expertise is great, but regularly exercising the beginners mind also will help us immensely by providing us with fresh perspectives on problem solving. Working in various media will also help us keep things fresh and open us up to inspiration from more avenues. The creative mind does not discriminate between camera and paintbrush so neither should we.

This is part eight in a series on mindset hacks where I will discuss small changes you can make to the way you think that will help you develop as an artist and flourish into the magical creative you are so capable of becoming. In todays video I will talk a little bit about how what we find to be interesting and therefore important shapes the way we work and dictates the types of processes we deem to be cheating. The point of todays video is pretty much, as an artist you are allowed to do "whatever the hell you want whenever you want" because we will always be judged by someone for something. Everything is acceptable in your art so long as YOU think it's acceptable. Be damned with anyone else's view of how you work if the way you work makes you happy. With this comes the understanding that we must let others work 'however the hell' they want also and to realise that what we think is important is rarely what others think is important.

This is part seven in a series on mindset hacks where I will discuss small changes you can make to the way you think that will help you develop as an artist and flourish into the magical creative you are so capable of becoming. In todays video I will talk a little about setting creative limits and how this can at times help us work quicker and with more focus on ideas that truly inspire us. By setting limits early on in a project, we can ensure that we don't lose our direction and objectivity on what it was we wished to create in the first place. Limitations help us become aware of personal habits and common pitfalls we may often prey to and allow us to work unlike how we would usually - a process that helps us grow, learn and try new things that can be incorporated into our art moving forward. If this video has been interesting to you, I urge you to do a little web digging on Brian Eno and his concepts of limitations. Eno has been a huge inspiration to me over the years and his approach to creativity has helped me in making some of my favourite works through creating a concept before I started the actual work.

This is part six in a series on mindset hacks where I will discuss small changes you can make to the way you think that will help you develop as an artist and flourish into the magical creative you are so capable of becoming. In todays video I will talk a little about organisation and how important it is to set goals for our work. By setting goals, we give meaning to the time we spend creating and add direction and intention to our actions. Getting organised is a form respect to both yourself and the beautiful art that you wish to create.

This is part five in a series on mindset hacks where I will discuss small changes you can make to the way you think that will help you develop as an artist and flourish into the magical creative you are so capable of becoming. In todays video I will talk a little about inspiration. It's very easy to use a lack of inspiration as an excuse for not working but when that happens all we need do is seek it out in the world around. When we begin to consciously examine what inspiration means to us, we develop a closer relationship with it and can put in place systems that allow us to add freshness to our lives when we feel stale. If we are to be prolific and happy artists, we must stop using inspiration as an excuse and instead treat it like a muscle we work out in the gym.

This is part four in a series on mindset hacks where I will discuss small changes you can make to the way you think that will help you develop as an artist and flourish into the magical creative you are so capable of becoming. In todays video I will talk a little about the elusive concept of perfection and why it so difficult to achieve. We must be very cautious of perfection and aware of how easy it is for the pursuit of it to halt our work and progress. Learning to live with our imperfections and the inherent imperfections of our art is one of the most valuable things we can do to live happier lives as artists. Once we embrace imperfections and let ourselves off the hook for not being perfect all time, or ever for that matter, we will not only increase our productivity and positivity but also, rather counterintuitively, become better artists. By allowing ourselves to finish more things and therefore learn from more mistakes, we will improve far quicker than if we remain nitpicky and obsessive over specifics in our work. So get to work making 100 imperfect pieces of art and see if a) anything bad actually happens and b) if the 101st piece is better than the 1st. P.s. I felt it was quite nice exercise for myself that with this video I use my first and only take - 'imperfections and all'. Live what you preach and all. P.p.s. The extract that I recited at the beginning was from the brilliant book 'Art & Fear' by David Bayles.

This is part three in a series on mindset hacks where I will discuss small changes you can make to the way you think that will help you develop as an artist and flourish into the magical creative you are so capable of becoming. In todays video I will talk a little about our 'intake' or simply what we choose to let INTO our lives and how it affects the quality of what we can then produce as artists. We must always remain careful of not letting our realities become clouded with 'low quality' as this will readily reflect in the work we produce. If we surround ourselves with and seek to find always the highest level beauty that we wish to represent in our art, the flow of 'idea to concept' becomes much easier. If we fall prey to 'low quality', not only will our ideas be less pure and less clear to us but we will live greyer and more easily rocked lives. Todays challenge is to write down 5 things that you feel that you would like to change about the way you live your life that you think will benefit you on your quest to being a happy and productive artist. Once you have decided upon those 5 things, put into practice changing them.

This is part two in a series on mindset hacks where I will discuss small changes you can make to the way you think that will help you develop as an artist and flourish into the magical creative you are so capable of becoming. In todays video I will talk a little about 'comparison' and why any form of it is useless and counterintuitive to our development as artists. When we stop comparing ourselves to others, we can begin to truly understand what it is that WE have to offer - not in relation to others but in relation to our rich and deeply personal individual histories. When we stop comparing ourselves to others, the noise dies down and we get really get to work on figuring out what it is that we want to say with our art. So I challenge you to make today the day that you own your own mountain. Become more you than you've ever been and cast aside all desires to compare yourself to the people around you.

This is part one in a series on mindset hacks where I will discuss small changes you can make to the way you think that will help you develop as an artist and flourish into the magical creative you are so capable of becoming.In todays video I talk a little bit about 'judgement' and why you should discard all forms of it in regards to your work. To be free of self judgement is to be truly free. I believe that it is our sole duty as artists to create and to create as much as humanly possible. Through repeatedly creating and creating and creating sans judgement, we learn far more about ourselves and what it is we wish to achieve in our chosen medium than by deliberating over whether something is 'good' or 'bad'. So go forth and create and do so with huge amounts of love for yourself and your art.