Believe

I am currently in the township of Buckingham, a picturesque Bucks County PA exurb of Philadelphia dotted with stone barns, McMansion farm homes, neo-colonials, and fast-driving cars that always appear just-detailed or right-off-the-dealers-lot clean.

I find this place fascinating for the number of thought-leaders it produces and attracts. If you grow up here and don't become a world renowned architect, environmentalist, tile manufacturer, guy who kills your friend while lost in the desert, self-selecting museum curator, or travel author you at least know how to: 1.) power into narrow sloping corners like a race car driver while expertly avoiding herds of deer or 2.)Sing the Philadelphia Eagles fight song from the bottom of your Yuengling beer. (For my artist friends, the Eagles are a football team.)

Today at three pm EST the Eagles play for a shot in the Super Bowl. Their song will ring through the fields and streams, "Fly Eagles Fly..."

I will watch the game paying particular attention to the commercials and fan experience. Especially intriguing is their collective enthusiasm for one thing - victory.

What would it be like if regions or cities picked their favorite artists and held an art-off? Too many flags and challenges would keep the game from ever being completed. And that's if anyone could ever agree on a set of criteria or ground rules. Process or product? Realistic or conceptual? Two things I know are for sure: 1.) the commercials would be outstanding. 2.) if the shock of it didn't kill them, artists would greatly benefit from the public support.

One of my favorite recent football commercials is a Payton Manning spot (for God knows what; Visa?) where he's cheering on average workers and their activities. In one frame he is in a museum chanting, "ART, ART, ART!"

This has become a defacto fight song for me and code among a few close friends for "just keep plugging away" or "I don't get what you're doing but I still support you anyway".

Many times during the creation of Somethings Gotta Stick I had to brush the dirt off my knees, give myself a pep talk and keep charging ahead...but on a different route.

Maybe the creative process and football aren't that different? You can't succeed if you don't play and you won't succeed if you don't believe.

Today I Believe in Green and always I'll believe in ART, ART, ART!

Author's not to CCD III and NEM III: "Originality is the art of concealing your sources." -Benjamin Franklin