Sparing Change

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Mar 032010
 

There often arises an unsettling, gnawing feeling in my gut.

It is the awareness of the toiling complexities of life belching out a hazy, familiar smoke that wraps around me like a comforting cushion. It is molded and shaped like a river rock worn smooth to fit my body and roll through the grooves of my life thus far. It rides perfectly along the track and has no need or ability to deviate. Every so often, this smoky cocoon will separate ever so briefly, and I can steal a look at everything else out there, things not on my own well traveled track.

And its exciting.

It reminds me that I need to be challenged. It reminds me that I need to be stimulated. When I become so familiar with everything in my lil’ sphere of influence that it moves into a firm classification of mediocrity, I understand that something must be done. When I know that I am no longer rewarding my spirit and creative cauldron through my thoughts and actions, then something must be done.

Its akin to seeing great unrest or injustice and doing nothing about it other than complaining. At least doing nothing smacks of a dedication to apathy, rather than being a useless complainer.

AND oh man and boy howdy, can I complain. Made it from the regionals to the nationals and stole 1st in Competitive Complaining I did.

Those complaints were the escaping results of me ignoring the building pressure in my gut. The ever increasing unsettling, gnawing feeling that I was avoiding something that I desperately needed for my survival. Change. I need change not just for its own sake, but because I have keenly settled in and accepted a fantastic wealth of mediocrity.

Grandiose and privileged? Maaaaaybe. But I believe that we all know what we are here to do. Its programmed into our cells at life’s boot up and through the course of the crappy 3rd party (possibly pirated) life software that we run. The trick is simply listening for the clues. Somewhere throughout our lives we are handed these clues, like a neat treasure hunt. If we are astute enough, if we look closely enough and if we listen hard enough we can get enough of the clues to assemble the map. Then we can use it as a guide to our “destiny”. Of course, destiny being the actions or events that our natural biological diagram plus our life’s experiences sum up as. Don’t forget to add a lil’ luck and season to taste. Or in the case of my current studio PC, that destiny would entail bad RAM, random inexplicable sluggishness and the good ol’ BSOD. I know, PC vs. Mac and all that jazz. That’s enough debate for another topic which we shan’t be digging into here.

So I’ve listened. I have looked. I have astute-itated. I have nearly assembled the entire map from the clues. I know that I need to spend my time in creative efforts, and need to build my own sustainability (in the case of the current culture that I live in, this includes fiscal sustainability) through creative efforts. I need to be challenged. I need different environments, different activities and tasks. I need to commit myself to things that really matter to ME and continue to grow and evolve through them. Through these things, I find happiness.

I have actually assembled my life thus far in a shrewd attempt to avoid a great many of these things. Out of fear, or the uncertainty of the path. The need (or is it want?) to feel safe and snug inside the hazy, smoke cocoon of mediocrity. It fits, but it isn’t really comfortable…because I need to grow.

So, again we get to the blah, blah, blah section of this post/rant.

Sean sums it up:
So, I have decided with the stunning efforts of my beautiful fiance-soon-to-be-indentured-wife, that we will be moving to the sweltering desert state of Arizona. There, I will be forced to confront a multitude of the things that I have avoided in this life, the least of which will be scorpions, spiders and rattlers. Through this process, I will evolve and grow as well learn about the miracle known as anti-venom.

I will dive in to my career as a voice talent full time and grab the reins of my creative and financial future rather than be a passive, complaint-filled observer.

And when it all comes crashing down, I’ll simply plead to the judge and jury that my cells told me to do it.

-Crisden

The Power of Meaning What We Say

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Jan 152010
 

The first few weeks of the new year have been quite the ride. I’m in the middle of recording what seems like an unending onslaught of audiobooks (I’m whiny but it is fun) as well as shambling through the war torn trenches of new marketing ideas for voice over. Lets not forget planning for the next episode of The Creative Well podcast and trying to start a completely separate comedic audio skit podcast. On top of that, I’m enrolling in improv classes with one of my fav teachers, waking up at 7am every day to work out and train (my kung fu must be strong although apparently it ‘aint in the morning). Additionally, I’m trying some new software solutions on my PC, fiddling with Skype, phone patches and new microphones and still trying to be in bed by 10pm. Did I mention that I also still work a full time day job as an administrator of a mental health residential program? Let me not even begin with the intricacies of what transpires there and how several times this week I found myself virtually yelling at staff and coworkers For those who don’t know me, I’m a generally even-keel, analytically objective sort of chap. To let emotion creep into the workplace is a rarity for sure. I know, wah wah wah, blah blah blah.

So, why did I just take the opportunity to rant here on the blog? Less to fish for misery points and more to solidify the title of this post. In the few short weeks of life into the year 2010, I managed to disassociate myself with what has essentially become my mantra:

“Celebrate your successes, plan for your obstacles and seek happiness.”

I was too mired in the process of feeling overwhelmed. Simply that process itself can become all consuming and make other, more sensible and grounding efforts seem obscure. This took its toll on me emotionally and my entire life was ever so slightly askew. I was focusing only on the negative or troublesome aspects of my current existence rather than bolstering the positive ones and reinforcing my resolve to conquer that which hinders me.

I say it all the time, but words are powerless without action. Especially if that action does not include the digestion and complete understanding of the core ideas of what the words represent. Right now I’m talking about the impact this has on you as one person. A whole other topic of debate is how our words and their meaning impact others.

Do you have a simple mantra or blueprint that you use to live your life? Care to share?

-Crisden

It’s the Holiday Season…

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Dec 292009
 

For most of us, that means the Triple F Threat. Family, Friends and Food.

Its easy to get wrapped up (pun intended) in the festivities of this time of year. It’s just as easy to lose a bit of steam in our creative processes as we juggle social obligations against our free time. If you’re a social hermit who shuns society and lives in a darkened, secluded cave somewhere this need not apply to you. Although if you’re reading this you have some shplainin’ to do for using a fancy computeratin’ machine and surfing the interwebz. Your other hermit associates that you never associate with will be disappointed in your betrayal of the code of The Brotherhood of Hermits. You will obviously be reprimanded at this year’s Hermit-fest meeting which no one will attend.

As I crawl from couch to couch fighting off a might’ powerful food coma, I felt obligated to stay productive so I still spent hours in the studio auditioning and doing work, even though my own body is beginning to somewhat ironically resemble an oven roasted turkey. I admit, I haven’t had a good workout in a few weeks and am itching to get back to it. For those who don’t know me, I am also a martial artist and work fairly diligently to stay in shape and competent in my arts.

This holiday barrage at the end of the year was indeed well planned, as our time for redemption is just around the corner. The new year is a time to bolster our spirits, redefine our resolve and make all sorts of claims for what we hope to achieve.

This is as good a time as any to make your plan for 2010 so that its your best, most productive year ever. New marketing tactics? A new, more dedicated schedule for your craft? Giving up your drug-fueled bar binges? Whatever it may be, now is the perfect time to set your sights on newer and bigger goals for next year. That way, once 1/1/10 creeps into your house you can hit the ground running. Especially if 1/1/10 has horrific fangs and a thirst for human flesh.

To get your juices flowing, here’s the overview of my 2010 Resolution List:

1. Redefine my marketing tactics and directly focus on niche marketing.
2. Increase my average monthly income by 50% as compared to 2009.
3. Wake up early to work out and train.
4. Get married (this one sort of happens by default, with little chance for failure…5/14/10).
5. Find time to appreciate the lil’ things.
6. Blog more regularly and continue with the Creative Well podcasts.

What are your resolutions?

Happy new year, cheer and merry merry.
-Crisden

The Creative Well Podcast “Episode 1 – Scott Radway”

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Dec 142009
 

Here it is, the first episode of The Creative Well Podcast.

THE CREATIVE WELL
My contribution to the creative community in an effort to describe, enrich and motivate the things that inspire our creative energies. I plan on discussing most of the creative arts from acting, visual art, dance, music, writing and a whole slew of other stuff. It is all in a movement to celebrate the common interests and devices that we all use to reach a creative end. These podcasts are an extension of The Creative Well blog and the two go hand in hand, although one has slightly less rambling. I’ll leave it to you to decide which.

So no matter your genre or discipline, I’m sure you can find something to take away from well.

SCOTT RADWAY
This episode starts things off right with a great interview with Scott Radway.
You can find out more about his shamelessly explicit exploits as a composer and musician at:

www.myspace.com/scottradway

http://www.myspace.com/nowsoonnowhere

http://www.myspace.com/tubring

I debated on including song snippets, but felt that they just didn’t do the compositions justice. So two of Scott’s full songs are included in the podcast. This makes the entire episode clock in at over 35 minutes, but its well worth it. Listen and enjoy.

FEEDBACK
I welcome any and all feedback positive or negative. Also, if you or someone you know would make a fine candidate for an interview and shenanigans on the podcast, don’t hesitate to contact me or leave comments below.

-Crisden
www.seancrisden.com

Bridging the Connection part 2

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Dec 142009
 

In my last post, I talked about the importance of staying connected to the various pockets of your life that fall outside of your creative efforts. These are the dry kindling that keep the fires of creativity burning. They help to open the door, gas up the car and send you on your way. Your vision and talent then take the wheel, hit the gas and steer.

So we remembered to pack a lunch, we brought a map, and we were sure to pee ahead time. Great. So now, what was the purpose of this trip again?

The pure creative talent often feels compelled to produce or perform independent of circumstance. That is, with little regard for why they have to act, paint, dance, shoot, perform, etc. They just know that it must be done as a requirement of living and more importantly feeling alive. Most likely, if you’re reading this blog you have some artistic passion that gnaws at you constantly and gets pretty ornery when left unfulfilled. Like the itchy crackhead sans crack or the Grim Reaper on a fine sunny day without soul stealing disaster, you probably know the feeling of crushing emptiness that can fill you when you don’t have sweet creative release.

I probably should have titled this blog “Land of Happy Endings”.

The obstacle is that life always manages to intervene, with all this “need to eat” and “workin’ fo’ da’ man” business. I often wish that I had no need to actually earn money and could simply create through my art for the sheer joy of it, not the massive pressure of needing to also establish and maintain a financially fruitful career. Alas, I have found that I like being warm, having a bed and food. So, I am a somewhat unwilling participant in the shackling machine of our society. My life is still subservient to a formidably less creative day job, in direct competition for the valuable time for my creative responsibilities. It is quite an act juggling auditions, performances, marketing and regular work while still checking into the office. While all of this is quickly moving to be a one job-horse town, it requires an enormous amount of work, energy and 38-hour days to do so. Believe me, my fiance has hardly seen me other than when my cold, weary body collapses into bed sometime in the wee hours.

With so much at stake, if you choose to utilize your talent and passion to fully sustain yourself, how do you do it?

All questions of “selling out” aside, the reality is that it is a wonderful thing when what you love to do provides fiscal viability for your life. A career. Creative or not. Not to mention the emotional and physical benefits of combining what you do to “make money” and what you do “for fulfillment”. That’s efficiency, baby. It just so happens that my passion is in creating characters, engaging people, creating music and giving life to blank pages and canvas.

Ah, I’m rambling again. Bringing it back home to bridging the connection, here’s the moral of the story: The purpose of the creative arts is to evoke emotion. In yourself. In someone else. In an entire audience. Be they negative (hated it a la the show In Living Color) or positive. One of the worst things I can imagine as an artist is to complete my work and have no reaction at all. Either from myself or from the audience. Tell me you loved it. Tell me you hated it. Just let me know that somehow, I reached you. That’s the connection. Art is another communicator of the human experience. Be it a commercial, a corporate narration, choreographed dance, a photo, a painting or sculpture.

Even if you write soul searching songs of helpless misery in your bedroom for only yourself, you’re doing it to communicate. A thought. An idea. A feeling. That is the beauty of art. Even as I read someone else’s copy to sell these newer, better, high performance clown noses, I have to communicate. I have to speak to the listener in a way that connects with on a human level them and convinces them that their old clown nose is poo doo and this one is the real honkin’ deal. Communication.

Does your art emotionally communicate? I’m curious to hear about it…and feel it.

-Crisden.
www.seancrisden.com

Bridging the Connection

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Dec 032009
 

How many times have you been in your studio, at your desk or simply in your zone when you suddenly realize that hours (maybe days) have passed? Yep, the sun was up when you started and now its been replaced by its sister moon.

I often find myself losing track of time as I work and create. I can’t tell you how many countless hours were whisked away at the end of a pencil, brush, guitar pick or microphone. Sometimes the page or screen (or apparently my brain) would still be blank, leaving me to wonder just exactly where all that time went and how I spent it. The process of productive creativity (or lack thereof) however, is a topic for another time. What I’m writing about now is the expense of time at the feet of creating your life’s work (or hobby as the case may be).

Most artistic disciplines take an extraordinary amount of time to become masterful or even facile at. This time requirement stretches over into other realms based on the manner in which we learn as I can attest to from my own martial arts training. One of my favorite authors, Malcolm Gladwell (check out his publications on his website www.gladwell.com, Amazon.com or your local bookstore) wrote in his book “Outliers” that it takes approximately ten thousand hours of practice to achieve (or in my opinion be eligible to achieve) mastery or success within any particular task or field. Certainly a broad statement that isn’t a concrete rule, but absolutely one that holds weight.

To gain aptitude in anything, we have to practice. There are very few of us, if any who can consistently do any relatively complex task or series of tasks nearing perfection without some type of study, practice and commitment. Even natural talents can benefit and grow from practice, study and coaching.

In the field of the creative arts, the playing field is somewhat tempered by the interplay of personal opinion and relative judgment when deciding who is truly a master versus those who merely dabble or get lucky. It takes us back to the popular “Musician X is awesome and Musician Y sucks!” or any similar argument that you can see mindlessly spat out on the internet en masse. It is a matter of opinion, isn’t it? Unless we can measure some definitive, tangible and perfectly objective element that yields quantitative data its as useful as comparing the volume of the voice in your head to the volume of someone else’s head voice.

In any event, before I get too far off from my initial brain drizzle let me get back to what I’m driving at. In some manner, you are going to spend a considerable amount of time on your craft. Be it in honing your skills or doing actual work, you will find yourself having the minutes melt away into a blurry smear. Just like when you drank too much last year at that party and whatshisname took that picture of you without your pants on while you were wearing a casserole on your head and riding that goat. What? Don’t remember that?

My point exactly.

So in this creative process we are spending many hours building artistic fortitude. In the dedication to our cause and fulfillment however, we have to remember that a balance is necessary. Often I know I toil away like a mad scientist in a bubbling, smoke filled underground volcano laboratory while upstairs, the rest of my life quietly goes on without me. Specifically, my lovely fiance and our petting zoo of cats, a dog, gecko and the errant fish. Every so often, I have to pull myself away from auditioning for more voice over work or finding the secret to reanimating corpses and head on up to see her.

And our lovably dumb dog Toby.

And our sadistic, skittish, lazy and fluffy cats Seyda, Mama, Sonny and Jasper (in that order).

And Rocky, the no-adjective-quite-applies leopard gecko.

And the afore mentioned fish.

Why do I say this? Well, for one it breaks up my day and for two, it ensures that I remain connected to the people and things that also grant me fulfillment and pleasure in my life. These are some of the very elements of inspiration and substance that inform my creative juices. It doesn’t matter if art imitates life or life imitates art, you need both to make the comparison.

So be sure to absorb all of the elements of your life. I can tend to be a work-a-holic, so I have to force myself sometimes to take a break to go for a quick walk, read a book, watch some brain numbing television, check in on a friend, look at the sky or watch cars zip by. Whatever it is, it can only expand and replenish the creative well. The well thrives on experience, and if your only experience is in trying to drain the well, its a bit redundant and will eventually burn you out and dry it up.

There is another part and monumental benefit to bridging the connection…but I’ll get to that in my next blog. I need to tear myself away and do something else that is important…

..eat dinner.

-Crisden
www.seancrisden.com

Thanks For the Memories

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Nov 252009
 

Well here we are entering the holiday season. It seems like it was just a few days ago that I was making a list of things to accomplish in the coming new year…this year.

We can rub elbows with the great conversations happening in every third grade class around the country about the Mayflower and this land’s native peoples. We can send positive energy to the gabillions (or should that be gobble-ions) of innocent turkeys that are being invited to dinner but may not like the menu offerings.  I like to look at this time to reflect on what has happened in the recent history of my life and give respectful thanks that I am still truckin’.

Lets face it, the world around us is filled with too many horrors to mention and too many joys to ever reasonably catalog.  I  imagine things, as the universe goes, as a perfectly objective observer. Balanced in the  paramount exercise of yin and yang. Good and bad. Vanilla and its antithesis, Double Chocolate with Chocolate Chunks.

So, walk with me a minute here. I had just responded to a forum post on VoiceoverUniverse, and it got me ‘a thinkin’. With that analogy, it bodes well for our insignificant lil’ human lives. We can comfortably assume that the forces of fate, karmic or divine intervention are not conspiring against us with a shrewd master plan of unfathomable consequence. Nope, you just happened to be in just the right spot at just the right time to enable that bird to just happen to poop on your head.  Poop happens, right?

It does…and sometimes it don’t.

So, if there is this relative balance of good and ill in our lives, we can in effect get the option to effectively choose which of the two we grant permission to occupy the most mental real estate.  If the idea of the universe being a casual, objective observer to the comedy of our lives has any merit, then we are given license to shape our own life. free from mystical mishmash or swami salami. Now, I believe in free spiritual thought and don’t want to step on anyone’s toes or beliefs so before you get your halo in a bunch just hear me out. We be hypothetical-izin’ here.

So, we can choose what we focus on in our lives and what we give credence to. This is a great time to reflect on this year’s journey so far and elevate our successes, no matter how small.

Perhaps you just had an audition  and you did your absolute best.  It doesn’t matter if you booked the job, you went out there and did your best. Elevate that aspect of the event. Maybe you performed at a gig and noticed that seomebody in the audience was mc’groovin’ to the music. Even if they were the only person there in the club, you touched them…and spoke to them. A victory.  Maybe you just heard a favorite tune on the radio. Or are reading a really great book. Or you son or daughter just laughed at a terrible joke you told.  Win.

Simple examples, I know. It doesn’t matter how large or small, but if we take the time to review and amplify our positivity and our successes we can only benefit. It is more time focusing on positive events, which breeds positive energy. By course of action it is less time focusing or dwelling on negative events, which is typically counterproductive. Celebrate successes wherever they hide. It is true that there are some who can find more to celebrate and certainly those who can find less.  There is no comparative competition with anyone but yourself.

So this week and as we move into the new year, take a moment every so often to reflect on what you have experienced that has brought you joy, accomplished a positive act (professional or personal) or simply made you or someone else smile and resonate emotionally.  We all benefit.

Now, maybe its just all that turkey talking. I know, its not Thanksgiving yet (or as I call it, “that-spot-on-the-couch-is-mine-after-dinner-day”), but today I had lunch at Boston Market for a test run and did pretty well for myself

[pats belly]

Remember, a warm up is always good before any strenuous activity…om nom nom.

-Crisden
www.seancrisden.com

A drink from the well…

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Nov 222009
 

Welcome to The Creative Well.

All of my creative energy flows from a common source: THE CREATIVE WELL.

As time permits I will be sharing my adventures, musings and quirky view on the world around me through a blog and  a podcast. Stay tuned! The first podcast will feature my long time friend and cohort Scott Radway, (take a sneak peek at his talents here ) a talented musician, composer and all around swell guy. Check back in December.

If you are nourishing your soul by being involved in any type of creative endeavor from voice acting to music to visual art to dance, I would like to talk with you and possibly feature you on an upcoming The Creative Well podcast. Contact me with your passion.

-Crisden
www.seancrisden.com