The Creative Signature Daily

Tuesday, June 16 — Expression

Good morning Creative Signature community.

A tribute to David Hockney who passed away this month at age 88

David Hockney died on June 11th, at home in London, at the age of 88. He was one of the most influential figures in contemporary art for over half a century, and the thing that has stayed with me since I heard the news is not just the sun-drenched swimming pools or the iconic double portraits, but the sheer length of his reinvention. He moved from oil paint in his early career through Polaroid collages, fax machine drawings, and eventually iPad work in his final years, and at every single stage, no matter the medium, the work was unmistakably his. Tate Britain's director said he was completely and courageously himself, both in his work and in his life, and I think that is the highest compliment you can pay any creative person. Not that they were prolific, though he certainly was. That they never lost themselves chasing the next tool.

Chess is closing on Broadway on June 21st, and I have to be honest, I am genuinely upset about it. I caught Aaron Tveit singing One Night in Bangkok on television, I think it was the Today Show, and his interpretation completely stopped me. That song has been a favorite of mine for years, and hearing him take it on with that particular blend of swagger and weariness made me want to see it live more than almost anything else on a stage right now. He did not get a Tony nomination this year, even though three of his fellow cast members did, and I find that strange, because what he did with that song deserved to be seen and recognized in a room full of people who understand exactly what he pulled off.

Roman Baca and Exit 12 performed on Memorial Day, on the deck of the Intrepid, and I have to tell you properly what that means, because it is not a small thing. Roman is a Marine veteran who turned to choreography, and he founded Exit 12 specifically to help veterans process the experience of war through dance. I am no longer a trustee there, but I still care enormously about what they do, and I genuinely wish I could have been there on Memorial Day to celebrate everything they have built. Watching a company of dancers, many of them veterans themselves, transform the deck of a retired aircraft carrier into a space for memory and healing is one of the most powerful uses of art I know of. That is not inspiration as decoration. That is art doing actual work in the world.

And then there is my son. He was in a play last week, and he blew me away with his presence and his personality on that stage. I say this fully aware that he blows me away constantly, in nearly everything he does, because that is simply what being his parent has done to me. It is the best thing that has ever happened to me, and watching him find his own voice in front of an audience is a privilege I do not take for granted.

Today is debate day at his school, and I find myself thinking about all the different forms Expression takes. A teenager learning to argue a position out loud. A man finding a new way to paint into his eighties. A performer pouring everything into three minutes of a song the world already thinks it knows. A choreographer turning his own service into a tool for other veterans' healing. A boy on a stage, being entirely himself, and somehow still finding new ways to surprise the person who raised him.

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What's Trending

The wider creative world is grappling with loss and legacy this week, with tributes to Hockney pouring in from artists, royals, and institutions, all reaching for the same idea, that his influence came from total honesty about who he was, regardless of what tools were available to him.

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Today's Prompt

If you had 48 hours and a camera, what film would you make?

If you had 48 hours and a camera, what film would you actually make. Real 48-hour film competitions exist all over the world, with a real deadline and a real audience waiting at the end of it. Look one up this week and see what happens if you actually said yes.

You've got this.