From my letter, “The Art of Messing Around”: Priya [Parker] asked me if my newsletter had a title (it doesn’t) but the more I think about it, it’s funny that her book is called The Art of Gathering, because a title for this newsletter could be, The Gathering of Art. (At least, th … | Continue reading
Here is the first question from my typewriter interview with Pam Grossman. | Continue reading
This blackout is featured at the top of today’s newsletter, “Designed to break your heart.” | Continue reading
I had a nice conversation with Sarah Fay about the art of writing a newsletter. You can watch the whole thing here. | Continue reading
In my letter, “On working bigger (or not),” I shared some notes on scale, reduction, and enlargement, including an old theory I have about the web: Online, big work gets smaller, while smaller work stays the same or gets bigger. You can use this to your advantage. For most of my … | Continue reading
A true story. Featured in my letter, “One thing after another.” | Continue reading
From my letter about what I do when I finish a notebook and start a new one: The next silly ritual is selecting a “guardian spirit” for the inside cover of the notebook — a picture of someone to sort of give the notebook their blessing, start a vibe. I’m a Gemini (remember, we’re … | Continue reading
Here’s another new monthly mixtape made from a sealed, pre-recorded cassette I got for 99 cents. I taped over the cassette’s protection tabs and then I taped over the music and then I taped over the artwork. (Faith Hill’s Breathe.) This one is kind of a sequel to “The October Cou … | Continue reading
Last Friday’s newsletter began: In Texas, it looks like fall before it feels like fall. To scramble a line from Sylvia Plath’s journal, the worst of the summer is gone, with “the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.” Virginia Woolf said it well in a letter: “I feel entirel … | Continue reading
To celebrate the coming of fall, I’m offering 20% off my paid newsletter. | Continue reading
Here are two pages from my delightful typewriter interview with Kate-Bingaman Burt. | Continue reading
I put this Joseph Campbell quote from Keep Going at the top of my newsletter, “The World Is Too Much With Us,” the title stolen from the Wordsworth poem: The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;— Little we see in Nature that is … | Continue reading
How I’m making art in times like these: At some point in the day, I go into the studio. I don’t touch my computer. I set a timer for one hour. I try to make some art. When the timer goes off, I either stop or keep going, depending on what’s on my calendar. Read […] | Continue reading
Last Friday I didn’t have a top image or a subject line for the newsletter, so I said, “You know what? I’ll give myself an hour to play and see what happens.” I pulled a half-finished blackout poem out of the drawer and came up with “New dumpsters, old fires.” | Continue reading
I love it when people visit me in the studio. For years, I’ve been dreaming of getting a “walk-ins welcome” sign like you see in barber shops to hang in my window. (See #44 on this list.) After watching Dean Peterson learn sign painting via his @deanpainterson Instagram account, … | Continue reading
I somehow got photographer Sally Mann to do a typewriter interview. It’s great. You can read it here. | Continue reading
Here’s another new monthly mixtape made from a sealed, pre-recorded cassette I got for 99 cents. I tape over the cassette’s protection tabs and then I tape over the music and then I tape over the artwork. This one gave me some technical difficulties. I actually destroyed two cass … | Continue reading
I have been drawing succulents. As I explain in my letter, “For no good reason”: I continue to wear down my new Caran d’Ache pastels. Right now I’m drawing succulents that I see on my morning walks onto old sheet music and pages from thrifted books. I’m not sure what I’m doing or … | Continue reading
In my letter “Just cut stuff” I wrote about working on the copyedits of the manuscript for Don’t Call It Art, and how you don’t have to rewrite what’s not there: Whenever I find myself snagged on a suggested edit, the first thing I ask myself is: Does this even need to be here? I … | Continue reading
I’ve often joked that if I were to write a parenting book I’d call it Parent Like A Librarian. At the library, there are strict rules for behavior that create an environment in which anyone can learn, but there is no agenda, no plan — only time, space, and resources. The libraria … | Continue reading
As a followup to my letter, “Your hobby looks exhausting!” I wrote another letter, “Your routine sounds exhausting!” about why we care what creative people do with their days: Maybe your own personal routine should look exhausting to someone else! What sets you free — the more it … | Continue reading
In the first episode of Civilisation (1969), “The Skin of our Teeth,” Kenneth Clark takes on why the Roman Empire fell: “However complex and solid it seems, civilisation is actually quite fragile. It can be destroyed. What are its enemies? Well, first of all fear — fear of war, f … | Continue reading
Here is a page from my pocket notebook of Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen discussing a new picture-book version of “Hansel and Gretel,” which was made by Stephen King adding words to Maurice Sendak’s designs for an opera. JON: I’d say the illustrator is in the business of reacting to … | Continue reading
I came across this photo of me from a Laity Lodge retreat back in February and it made me laugh. I look exactly how I feel when I’m trying to figure something out. These photos are from a block-printing workshop led by designer Dana Tanamachi. (I wrote a little bit more about it … | Continue reading
I’ve been experimenting with color drawings in the studio using fancy crayons on top of block printing ink. Here are items #1 and #2 from Friday’s letter, “Somebody needs to know the time”: 1. I did a lot of design work on the next book this week, a lot of it constrained by what … | Continue reading
Here’s another new monthly mixtape made from a sealed, pre-recorded cassette I got for 99 cents at End of an Ear. I tape over the cassette’s protection tabs and then I tape over the music and then I tape over the artwork. This one is a sequel to my Oahu mixtape from last summer. … | Continue reading
Upon returning from vacation, I solicited travel tips from my readers and shared a bunch of the stuff I saw/read/listened to on our trip to the Pacific. I’m still recovering from a family trip to Hawaii. I survived a surf lesson and a tsunami! Watched a dozen sunsets. Built sand … | Continue reading
Elmore Leonard said, “Writer’s block just means you got up from your desk.” | Continue reading
A few weeks ago I shared 10 things that’ve made my 2025 (so far): 8. How AI slop is making us think about what it means to be human and make art. The more I read about AI, the more it solidifies my feeling that image-making and writing are at their most meaningful — to […] | Continue reading
The latest participant in my series of typewriter interviews is writer Liana Finck. | Continue reading
Here’s another new monthly mixtape to play by the pool: I made the mixtape from a sealed, pre-recorded cassette I got for 99 cents at the record store. I taped over the cassette’s protection tabs and then I taped over the music and then I taped over the artwork. You can listen to … | Continue reading
Today’s newsletter was inspired by the response of Cressida Cowell, author of How To Train Your Dragon, to the NYTimes Book Review’s question, “You’re organizing a dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?” Shakespeare, George Eliot and Homer, if such a per … | Continue reading
The latest participant in my series of typewriter interviews is writer Laura Lippman. | Continue reading
Two recent blackout poems: “Come On, World” and “The World Between My Ears.” | Continue reading
I celebrated my 42nd trip around the sun by working on my book, but I took a tiny break to make a new monthly mixtape to play by the pool. (Similar vibes to last June’s mixtape.) I made it from a sealed, pre-recorded cassette I got for 99 cents at the record store. I taped […] | Continue reading
I spent the first half of the year writing and drawing the next book, so I guess it makes sense that I’ve written so many newsletters about deadlines. In March, I made a zine called Death & Deadlines: I can really relate to this excerpt from Terry Teachout’s Duke: A Life of Duke … | Continue reading
Last Friday’s newsletter begins: My favorite thing about reading “the classics” is that they’re almost always weirder than you think they are. For example: within 50 pages of War and Peace, a bunch of drunks tie a policeman to a bear and throw them in the river. (I try to read a … | Continue reading
I had two really nice conversations recently that I thought were worth sharing: 1. I talked to cartoonist Jason Chatfeld about attention, showing up, comedy, and how to keep going. What started as a conversation about creative routines turned into a masterclass on attention manag … | Continue reading
My pocket notebook is my least-formal of my 4 notebooks, so it usually turns out to be my favorite and most surprising notebook to flip through. Here’s a peek inside my latest. | Continue reading
After a brief hiatus, the typewriter interviews are back! The latest is a great one with writer Sarah Manguso. | Continue reading
Here’s a page from my diary that I put at the top of today’s newsletter: “Making it easier.” | Continue reading
It’s what folks in the book industry call “Dads & Grads” season. Here are two ideas: 1. Give them one of my books with a few crisp bills as a bookmark. (When in doubt about which book of mine to give, I suggest the deluxe hardcover anniversary edition of Steal Like an Artist.) 2. … | Continue reading
Here is a mopey, gloomy, gothy, synthy mixtape for a heating earth. A cousin to Dancing in the Ruins. I made it from a sealed, pre-recorded cassette I got for 99 cents at the record store. I taped over the cassette’s protection tabs and then I taped over the music and then I tape … | Continue reading
Today’s newsletter was an excuse to write about the weird experience of binge-watching Peep Show after watching and reading about 2001: A Space Odyssey: “Do you hear an internal monologue?” | Continue reading
After I started May’s mixtape, I remembered that I never posted April’s mix. I made it from a sealed, pre-recorded cassette I got for 99 cents at the record store. I taped over the cassette’s protection tabs and then I taped over the music and then I taped over the artwork. This … | Continue reading
From a Parents.com article titled “Maycember’ Madness Is Real and Leaving Parents Even More Burned Out”: Much like the month of December, my packed calendar at the end of the school year has left me feeling like there’s not so much joy, as obligation and overwhelm. Instead of cru … | Continue reading
In Tuesday’s letter, I tried to weave together some ideas about yard work, Larry McMurtry, and giving yourself time to feel things, and I managed to articulate something I hadn’t articulated before: The computer used to mean the world to me. The computer was a portal to the world … | Continue reading
Today’s letter is titled “We’ll see!” “We’ll see” is the refrain in the Charlie Wilson’s War version of the 2000-year-old Chinese parable about the old man who lost his horse. (Bluey used the same refrain, while Alan Watts used “Maybe.”) It’s a favorite parable of mine and one I … | Continue reading