“If there hadn't been women we'd still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girlfriends.” -- Orson Welles

Lately there has been a lot of talk about surrender being a way to get what you want.  And of course, that made me want to conduct some experiments of my own.  The video above is one such examination of the art of giving up (the ghost, the fight, whatever).  Basically, I just spent a long while lying on the ground, looking up into the never ending expanse of sky above me and imagining that the world is running me and that there is no need for me to run the world.  An interesting side effect  - although it was initially disconcerting to lay there and do nothing, when I stood up I felt both refreshed and relieved.  

Here is the result of a sweet and easy collaboration between yours truly and the fantastic Lost At E Minor - which is this sublime site highlighting the most magnificent creative people. It is awesome in every sense of the word. http://www.lostateminor.com (Scroll down to see my piece - it is on the right side under where it says 'We're Watching,' or search for me - 'Jess Snow'...)

Sometimes we can't resist just making something really simple and pretty.  So today we are offering you some spring-time eye candy.  Enjoy.

p.s.  Of course, this song is by Gwen Stefani - www.GwenStefani.com.

“The air was soft, the stars so fine, the promise of every cobbled alley so great that I thought I was in a dream.”  - Jack Kerouac

"The more we create, the more we love and lost those whom we love, the more we escape from death.  With every new work we round and finish, we escape into the work we have created, the soul we have loved, the soul that has left us.  When all is told, Rome is not in Rome; the best of a man lies outside himself."  - Romain Rolland

Lately I've just been making things without thinking too much about them.  Ideas just come to me and I act on them without considering anything but the process of just doing it.   I am allowing myself to enjoy the pure, unadulterated luxury of experimentation and it has been strange and surprising and, above all, liberating. 
Here is a perfect specimen born from this way of working.  I was moved to make it for you.  What is it?  I don't know.  A message?  A benediction?  In this instance, I'm beginning to believe that categorizing or defining it might be beside the point. 

FULL DISCLOSURE:  The text on this post is 'on loan' from my alter-ego's blog - http://citrine.vox.com.  But I think you'll agree it works really well to define this tiny, inconsequential video - that I just keep wanting to watch because  I find it so mysteriously affecting (I think due to its 'zoe-ness').

"Otherwise known as the creative push and pull of a zen approach vs. a narrative approach.  Here is an a pretty brilliant distillation of the forces at work by the legendary dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp:

'Zoe and bios both mean life in Greek, but they are not synonymous.  Zoe, wrote Kerenyi, refers to "life in general, without characterization."  Bios characterizes a specific life, the outlines that distinguish one living thing from another.  Bios is the Greek root for "biography," zoe for "zoology"

I cannot overstate what a profound distinction this was.  Suddenly, two states of experience were made plain to me.

Zoe is like seeing Earth from space.  You get the sense of life on the rotating globe, but without a sense of the individual lives being lived on the planet.  Bios involves swooping down from space from the perch of a high-powered spy satellite, closing in on the scene, and seeing the details.  Bios distinguishes between one life and another.  Zoe refers to the aggragate.

Bios accommodates the notion of death, that each life has a beginning, middle, and end, that each life contains a story.  Zoe, wrote Kerenyi, "does not admit of the experience of its own destruction: it is experienced without end, as infinite life."

The difference between zoe and bios is like the difference between sacred and profane.  Sacred art is zoe-driven; profane art stems from bios.'

 - p.42 of The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp"
p.s.  Music sample is from Gwen Stefani, 'Wonderful Life'  http://www.gwenstefani.com.

Sometimes I get to play around and sometimes that results in a piece that is more than the sum of its parts.  Here is a perfect example of that dynamic in action.  I love how this video 'moves' and I especially love how it sounds.

This clip has a little bit of everything.  It is from the end of my 2007 sample reel and includes quick shots from a wide variety of pieces I've created.  It is kind of a manic cornucopia, but there was just so much I wanted to fit in.

p.s.  The song snippet you hear is from Jique by the Brazilian Girls, who I love so much - http://www.braziliangirls.info.