Studio Rules

a non-permanent, ever expanding list that's already likely out of date

When I was young and covered in dirt and new to town and often feeling down and out, I’d ride my bike to Ooga Booga (RIP) in Chinatown and browse all the books I couldn’t afford and look at all the clothes that weren’t covered in dirt and were also intimidatingly close to being art objects in a way I had never seen clothes be in person before. Ooga Booga was about the size of a rich person’s walk-in closet, but it was packed to the gills with the most inspirational things. I’d come in, covet, and leave resolved to make some money so someday I might be able to bring something home with me.

So, it became a tradition that on those beautiful and rare days I’d get paid, my first stop would be Oooga Booga. 

The most lastingly impactful purchase I made during that chapter was the book Come Alive! The Spirited Art of Sister Corita. Her bold, optimistic art spoke to me emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. I felt such a kinship with her. Her work made me fall in love more with Los Angeles. More in love with color, semiotics, and process. Most importantly, more in love with working. 

Tucked away in the book’s backwaters on page 46, the author included Sister Corita’s rules (she was head of Immaculate Heart College’s art department). I can’t stress how much I’ve tried to live by her rules since the moment I first read them. Top 5 most influential things I’ve ever read, easily.

Later in that decade, I became obsessed with the Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, and read his book Win Forever on an airplane. In it, he talked about the key to sustained success is having a deeply refined and understood personal philosophy and being able to easily articulate it, especially when in a position of leadership. I started filling my notebooks immediately with what I believe in (Beauty! Optimism!) But it stayed as that. Journal entries that I could look back on. 

Last winter, I read Frank Lloyd Wright’s Studio 10-Point Manifesto and loved his playful and abstract take on rules. Right then and there I made it my goal that I would have studio rules of my own by the end of the year. So, slowly throughout 2023 when I would make my monthly goals, I would also create a rule or intention for the month to focus on and be guided by. 

This list is not final and should be revised constantly, but, after a year of writing, thinking, and declaring, I finally have my own list to share: 

1a. Everything builds

1b. Everything is new

2. Find pleasure in the struggle and the discovery

3. Nurture the momentum 

4. This is only a moment: Success and failure are equally fleeting

5. Good Dedication is grace, purpose, and optimism 

6. “An honest ego in a healthy body.” - Frank Lloyd Wright

7. “The Only Rule is Work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all the work all the time who eventually catch on to things.” - Sister Corita Kent

8. No one gets rich quick

9. Clarity of goals and how they lead to the studio’s vision

10. Don’t move laterally and get upset if you aren’t moving up