First Friday January 2025: Open the Cage
Inspiration & Updates from Brian Madden Studio
“There's a wonderful quote attributed to George Lucas: "We're all living in cages with the door wide open." That was me until I realized I had the power - and the responsibility - to set myself free. To step out of the cage of whatever I'd experienced in the past, to think for myself, and to believe in my choices.”
― Ina Garten, Be Ready When the Luck Happens
Hi friends, happy new year.
‘24 is behind us, and ‘25 lies ahead. Last year was personally challenging in so many ways, but incredibly expansive, and ended up as the best year yet for the studio. New opportunities, connections, and collaborations expanded our capabilities and reignited my own appetite to push the boundaries of my creativity. As someone who often starts my days at ‘zero,’ so to speak, this year I practiced liberating myself to build upon past successes to create the next chapter of this story.
I’ve been taking quiet moments this holiday season to think back and remember what came before, to reflect on how far I’ve come. So much has happened since last New Years. From selling the Six Months in Dogpatch diptych in The de Young Open, to creating Sonic Monument to the Morning Dew and Bed of Mussels for the Noe Valley Garden Tour, to having our work featured on four different NFL broadcast games in the past two months, it’s been an expansive year.
These memories were running through my head as Jen and I started January 1 with a hike in the Marin Headlands and a cold plunge and sauna at the Dolphin Club here in San Francisco. We started the first half of the year compass, a 2-part reflection workbook that a couple dear friends recommended to help close out ‘24 and plan for ‘25. We’ll finish it this weekend and dream up how we keep building.
In this first First Friday, I’ll share:
WHAT I’M MAKING: EA Madden NFL Cast Player of The Game Award
WHAT I’M READING: Ina Garten Memoir & 10X is Easier than 2X
WHAT I’M SEEING: Yuletide in Mass & Maine
WHAT I’M HEARING: 24-25 / A Complete Unknown
You’re receiving First Friday because you’ve supported my creativity, visited the studio, or otherwise signed up to stay in touch.
Thanks again. Excited to be starting out the year with you.
WHAT I’M MAKING: Inaugural EA Madden NFL Cast Player of The Game Award
After I created the NFL Madden Thanksgiving MVP Awards in November, a special new opportunity came in from my long-time collaborators at EA Sports. They were preparing for the inaugural EA Madden NFL Cast on Peacock, a first-of-its-kind alternative telecast of a live NFL game between the Houston Texans and the Kansas City Chiefs. The immersive stream would be shown through the lens of Madden NFL graphic overlays and real-time stats, with celebrity on-air commentary.
EA Sports wanted to create a one-of-a-kind award for the Player of the Game that would reflect the style and details that have made the iconic Madden NFL franchise so important to NFL players and fans alike. They liked my previous work for the EA Madden NFL 99 Club, and wanted to continue the story around a new form-factor: a marble videogame case.
For collaborations like these, I try to bring an artful lens to the brand and a high degree of craftsmanship and quality to the work, using each project as an opportunity to push the boundaries of my creative abilities.
My team and I cut and sculpted a few pieces of nero marquina marble tile in a special way to reflect the closure mechanism of the case, and created the tiniest and most detailed laser engraving we’ve ever done on stone.
Thanks to everyone who tuned in to watch the EA Madden NFL Cast on Peacock, and congratulations to the EA Madden NFL Cast Player of the Game: Patrick Mahomes.
Keep an eye out for more artful awards later this season.
WHAT I’M READING: Ina Garten Memoir & 10X is Easier than 2X
This year ended up as the best one yet for the studio, so as the new year begins, I’m thinking about how to grow as a person and a creative leader. When there is a lot of work moving through the studio, I feel like a bottleneck, and I’d love to scale to start taking on bigger projects.
When I shared these thoughts with a friend, she recommended I listen to 10x is Easier than 2x by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy. She said it had changed her outlook on life, and helped her rethink her efforts and enjoy the messy process of growth. The key theme is that there is a profound, counterintuitive gap between doubling our efforts (growing 2x) and rethinking everything to grow 10x.
I’m midway through the book now, but it’s already becoming crystal clear that thinking bigger and increasing our efficiency can be easier than putting in double the work. For my studio, this will mean expanding to properly delegate and scale my efforts, work on the business (not just in the business), and remember to take time to reflect on how far I’ve come without comparing my journey to those of others. Always easier said than done, but I’m excited to go for it this year.
Funny enough, around the same time, Jen and I started listening to ‘Be Ready When the Luck Happens,’ Ina Garten’s new memoir. The barefoot contessa has this effortless elegance and approachable conversational style that I love, and hearing her describe her wild ride from youth to the peak of her success, and her relationship with her (also impressive) husband Jeffrey, was endearing, inspiring, and funny. It was amazing to see how she was able to work on her business, following her inspiration, trusting her inner voice, and building support structures and teams around her as she built up her career. Her story is so aligned with the message of 10x is easier than 2x and I’m so excited to keep listening. Highly, highly recommend.
The deeper I get into creative entrepreneurship, the more hungry I am to learn. I imagine not many artists primarily read business books, biographies, and memoirs (If that’s you too, please let me know). But it feels like I’m finding keys to locks that I might someday need to open, and I love learning from the people who paved the way.
WHAT I’M SEEING: Yuletide in Mass & Maine
Jen and I trade off holidays with our two families, and this year we celebrated Christmas and Hanukkah near Boston with Jen’s folks. And while I typically share what I’m seeing at art fairs and gallery exhibitions with the First Friday community, this time I wanted to bring you along with me as I collected inspiration from our journeys around Boston and a quick trip up to Portland, Maine.
Walking through Boston Common on a snowy morning, I was caught by the sun shining off The Embrace, by Hank Willis Thomas. Situated in America’s first public park, the 20-foot-high, 32-foot diameter bronze sculpture is a permanent memorial for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King for their time in Boston, when their relationship blossomed. The sculpture represents their collective approach to a just and equitable society.
Later that week, as the snow melted and the tides ebbed and flowed on the South Shore of Boston, the floating ice began to break apart and melt, taking on a pebbled look.
It reminded me of the tumbling that polishes river rocks into smooth pebbles, and Georgia O’Keefe’s monumental Sky Above Clouds IV, painted in 1965.
And there was no ice in sight as we walked up to the roaring Hull bonfire, an annual tradition that began in the 1960s as a way to build on the community spirit of Hull High’s football rivalry with the team down the road in Cohasset. Postponed from Thanksgiving due to unusually dry conditions, it had an even more festive tenor around Christmas and I was excited to catch the bonfire two years in a row.
A few of us joined a drum circle as a freestyler rhymed in a strong Boston accent. As the huge pile of pallets burned down toward embers, I caught this image of a flame that reminded me of a phoenix.
Before New Years, we traveled north of Portland to the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden to check out Gardens Aglow, the annual lightshow visited by over 780,000 people from New England and beyond. While I enjoyed strolling through the millions of LED lights, I was struck by how different it felt to walk by trees awash in light, versus wrapped in strands. It called to mind the work of Oakland-based artist Terri Loewenthal, whose exhibition I saw at Cult Aimee Friberg in 2023.
And as the trip came to a close, we passed by this iconic landmark next to I-93 in Boston, heading towards Boston Logan Airport to fly back to SF.
Designed in 1971 by artist and educator Sister Corita Kent to bring creative expression to the industrial landscape, the work was originally created on a 7” model and then transferred to 150-feet tall by professional sign painters.
The artist said “It’s a joyous expression, joining heaven and earth together.” And I felt that as we drove by her installation at sunrise on the last morning of our visit.
WHAT I’M HEARING: 24-25 / A Complete Unknown
This month’s playlist has grown to reflect the sentiment of the season, transitioning ‘24 to ‘25, with songs heard across the country, and a few classics from A Complete Unknown. Songs were overheard throughout San Francisco, Boston, and Portland, Maine. Sonic inspiration builds from calm to club. For the times, they are a-changin.’
A friendly 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.
Thanks for reading,
Brian
brian@brianbmadden.com
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Shortest Day
Susan Cooper
So the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow‐white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us ‐ listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!
I'd never seen "Sky Above Clouds" before - absolutely love it!