First Friday: April 2024 - 1 Year Anniversary Weekend Edition
Inspiration & Updates from Brian Madden Studio
We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
— Aristotle
Friends, I’m excited to share that it’s been a full year of First Friday newsletters! A year documenting inspiration, creation, and community. It feels excellent to be practicing this habit with you.
I started writing the April edition from my parents’ new home near Charleston, South Carolina, and it’s only fitting that I was with my family, the folks who first inspired me to create. And the people who also know me as someone who will, more often than not, need to run back and take just one more photo, or stop to draw something, to capture the moment.
And to celebrate this moment, I’ll keep practicing good habits and share:
WHAT I’M SHOWING: NFLPA Players’ All-Pro Awards Process Film
WHAT I’M MAKING: Feeling Drawn to the Sea
WHAT I’M SEEING: Five Thoughts on Art Fairs, via Frieze LA
WHAT I’M READING: Cool Gray City of Love
WHAT I’M HEARING: Triple-washed Spring Mix
You’re receiving First Friday because you’ve supported my artwork, visited my studio, or otherwise signed up to stay in touch. Thanks for being a part of this community!
WHAT I’M SHOWING: NFLPA Players’ All-Pro Awards Process Film
This month I’m going behind the scenes to share a closer look at my process creating the first ever NFLPA Player’s All-Pro Awards. I teamed up with NFLPA’s social team this week to premier a short film, edited by Jezrael Gandara, that offers a peek into my process. I’m excited to share it with you here:
After the NFLPA approached me about creating a set of 31 awards for the second ever Players’ All-Pro, my creative process started in the shower, with a quick sketch in my trusty Write in the Rain notebook. While developing the award, I leaned into my love of drawing to develop a marble sculpture fit for the NFL’s best players, with a form inspired by a full scale commemorative white panel NFL football. I also felt inspired to take player personalization to a new level by illustrating unique playbook-inspired symbols for each of the recipients, nodding to the winner’s team and their role on the field.
Watching all the joy on the players’ faces during the award hand-off reaction videos from the 2024 NFL Pro Bowl Games in Orlando was deeply moving. I was especially honored to hear it also might have been Jason Kelce’s last award before his retirement. Reflecting on the project, it all boils down to one thing for me: trust the process.
WHAT I’M MAKING: Feeling Drawn to the Sea
Lately I’ve been feeling drawn to drawing. And when I’m in an inspiring place, I feel compelled to capture the moment on whatever material I’ve got on hand. If I respond to that call to create, I can find mental calm in the flow state created from drawing, often something visually complex. And it feels even better when it’s by the sea.
This past month, I spent my birthday with Jen a few hours north of SF at The Sea Ranch, a revolutionary coastal community concept that began in the 1960s. It was our first visit to Sea Ranch after having become fans years ago, with the help of an SFMOMA show. I was enthralled by the natural beauty and the myriad geometric wooden roof lines scattered across the 10-mile expanse of coastline. Sitting outside the Sea Ranch Lodge on the first afternoon of our visit, I was moved to create an M.C. Escher-like drawing to capture the moment, and let off some steam from a busy week year.
Back in San Francisco, I followed an instinct to create the textural Bed of Mussels. Wanting to create a large work right away, but not having a canvas, I found a large piece of corrugated cardboard and painted it with a white paint before going to work on a rhythmic drawing. My Mussels body of work is part of the ongoing series that has been quietly punctuating my artistic practice from the sidelines. Bed of Mussels was inspired by my time visiting my wife Jen’s hometown of Hingham, Massachusetts. Can’t wait to get back there for more nautical inspiration, and I’m hoping to incorporate more color in the meantime.
On that note, while out on the water this week in Charleston, South Carolina, I found strong inspiration in the towering canyons of shipping containers being loaded on and off container ships at the port. I watched the soaring cranes pluck colorful containers on and off with ease, mesmerized by the scale and orchestration, before reflexively drawing this image over affogatos and strawberries with my crewmates when we returned to dry land.
As I continue to draw inspiration from the sea and its periphery, I imagine that the drawings will start to create a clearer picture of just what it is about the sea that’s been so magnetic for me. But for now, sharing them with you is my commitment to navigating those waters.
WHAT I’M SEEING: Five Thoughts on visiting Art Fairs, via Frieze LA
This last month, I visited LA to experience Frieze LA and Felix Art Fair. Reflecting on this experience, I felt moved to write down some thoughts about how I can make the most of events like these:
Set an intention for your visit to the fair and then lean into it.
Are you seeking inspo? Looking to buy some Art? Hoping to meet other creatives? Want a start-‘em-young moment with the kiddos? A blend of all the above? Before arriving, it can be helpful to take a moment to set an intention for what you want to get out of your visit, to make the most of the short window you have. Our intentions direct our attention, so leaning in toward where you want to go can help manifest the experience you want.Like what you like, and stay open to surprises.
Art is deeply personal, subjective, even polarizing at times. When you’re seeking inspiration or shopping for art, it’s important to listen to your inner child and your creative intuition when exploring these events to help refine your taste. It’s natural to focus on the kind of work you usually gravitate toward, but it also helps to keep an eye out for inspiration from unexpected mediums, subjects, or sources. You never know what might spark something in you.Be curious and kind, and practice reading the room.
While the art world can be opaque and unwelcoming, I’ve found that if you are curious and kind, and proceed with the confidence of knowing you belong (period), then the folks working at these events, galleries, and shows are often happy to answer questions and explain the details behind work, and whether it’s still available. Sometimes confidence can also manifest as [self-deprecating] curiosity, and be received well, by exhibitors hoping to connect with and convert new clients.Take notes or take pics, but either way, get the info.
Art fairs are often labyrinthine and it can be hard to remember the who, what, where, and when, unless you take good notes or pics of the art you like. My friend Julia inspires me by the way she joyfully marks up her fair maps as she explores each exhibition, writing down artist/piece names, exhibitor booth numbers, and shorthand info about the artists and galleries to help remember her faves as she goes, without having to keep it all in her head as she goes. You can also snap pics or vids of the art and the didactic card beside it for future reference.Go beyond the fair. There are levels and flavors to the art scene.
I began my career as an industrial designer, and il Salone del Mobile aka the Milan furniture fair, ruled my world. When I finally made it to Milan Design Week, I found all the events happening as part of Fuori Salone (beyond the fair) provided an inspiring counterpoint to the sea of exhibitors at Fiera Salone. I found it to be the same in LA — the main event was inspiring, but the more attainable and experimental work being shown at Felix and countless shows around town piqued my appetite for inspiration on a deeper level.Bonus take, if you’re at LA Frieze and you think you see a celebrity, it’s probably a celebrity.
People like Jessica Alba, Chris Rock, or Stephen Baldwin are just as dazzled (or befuddled) by that art piece over there as you are, so if one of them (I’m not saying who) happens to comment on a piece you’re both looking at, feel free to share your take with your fellow art lover. Celebrities! They’re just like us.
I’ll wrap this segment with one of my favorite pieces from Frieze LA, which reminded me of my early career in retail design:
WHAT I’M READING: Cool Gray City of Love
I’m teaming up with the SF Chamber of Commerce to help plan a Dogpatch creative studio crawl and some other programming for SF Small Business week coming up in early May, so this beautiful place is on the brain. And I alluded to Cool Gray City of Love with the title of the March First Friday playlist. My friend Beth recommended it as a great way to get to know San Francisco on a deeper level (thanks Beth!).
Bay-native cab driver and author Gary Kamiya talks about ‘Doing the Knowledge,’ or learning to navigate San Francisco, not unlike a London cab driver would learn the ins and outs of London. Enjoying new-found mobility after knee replacement surgery, while also inspired by Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, a series of landscape prints by the 70-year old Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai (1760–1849), he walked a section of the city each day after dropping his kids off at school, observing SF from his feet, before writing 49 illuminating essays on unique aspects of this city.
It’s already been an eye-opening joy to explore the 7x7-miles of stories and I found it fascinating how far back in time Kamiya travels to illustrate the history of this place and its natural surroundings. Each chapter has its own surprises, but to kick things off, Kamiya talks about the Farallon Islands, a rugged island chain part of San Francisco that's 26 miles out to sea from the Golden Gate, was once the site of The Great Egg war, and long, long ago was even accessible by land!
WHAT I’M HEARING: Triple-washed Spring Mix
These songs kicked off spring 2024, overheard in Los Angeles, Portland OR, the Sea Ranch, the Cool Grey City of Love, and the Holy City, Charleston. It’s a salad bowl of energies and vibes that I couldn’t resist throwing together for you.
A reminder that the First Friday Playlist can only consist of songs I’ve heard, received, discovered, (or rediscovered) out in the world, songs overheard at (coffee) shops, restaurants, bars, galleries, or received from friends and family IRL & online.
By the way, one of this month’s more serious songs alludes to a new Sonic Monument that I’m working on. Bet you don’t know which song it is.... or maybe you dew ;)
Take care and talk soon,
Brian
brian@brianbmadden.com
Time has a way of making sure everything doesn’t happen all at once.
— Gail Barrie