I’m going to try something different, so I really don’t know exactly where this Iteration is going to go. I thought I’d just put on some music and write whatever came to mind. At the moment, Dark Star by Crosby, Stills, and Nashis playing in the background, which I love despite not really being a CSN fan. Adrianne found the album at this little record store in DC a few weeks ago that’s across the street from our favorite ice cream shop.

LINKS
My Mixcast 4 long-term update
My Mixcast 4 initial review
David Carson nucollage, vol. 1 review

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Website: https://jefferysaddoris.com 
Twitter: @jefferysaddoris 
Instagram: @jefferysaddoris

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Music For Workplaces by Jeffery Saddoris

This has been sort of a weird week for me. Friday would have been my mom’s 79th birthday and for the past 14 years, not a day has gone by that I don’t think about her. Sometimes only a little, other times, I think about her a lot. I miss our Sunday brunches at Molly’s, though Molly sold the place years ago. I miss her smile, which I can no longer remember without looking at a photograph. Mostly, I miss her optimism and her goodness. I miss her advice and her belief in me and her unwavering faith in something greater than all of us that allowed her to see that people were basically good if we could just get out of our own ways and accept one another for the brilliant beings that she believed us to be. I need that right now.

LINKS
Grand Theft Auto: https://www.rockstargames.com/gta-v
Skyrim: https://elderscrolls.bethesda.net/en/skyrim/
Zelda: https://www.zelda.com/
Red Dead Redemption 2: https://www.rockstargames.com/games/reddeadredemption2
On Taking Pictures: http://www.ontakingpictures.com/

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Twitter: @jefferysaddoris 
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Music For Workplaces by Jeffery Saddoris

How do you know when it’s time to rethink or refresh your personal brand? It’s something I’ve spent a fair bit of time thinking about lately. But before we dive into that, I think we first need to answer another question and that is what does “personal brand” even mean? According to Gary Vee, “Your personal brand is your reputation.”  Another way he put it was, “Your brand is about how someone feels in the moment when they interact with you or your business.” On the other hand, Harvard Business Review says that your brand is not your reputation, which is based how other people see you, but rather how you want people to see you. Reputation is certainly part of it, but it’s not the whole picture.

LINKS
Gary Vee article: https://garyvaynerchuk.com/5-strategies-for-personal-branding-online/
Harvard Business Review article: https://hbr.org/2022/02/whats-the-point-of-a-personal-brand
The Futur: https://thefutur.com/
Rethinking My Website: https://jefferysaddoris.substack.com/p/rethinking-my-website
It's Not About a Watch: https://jefferysaddoris.substack.com/p/its-not-about-a-watch

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Earlier in the week, a post came up in my Twitter feed that stopped me in my tracks before sending me down a rabbit hole that I think I may be in for a while. It was a post about a watch—or at least the possibility of a watch—by a designer named Sebastian Stapelfeldt, who publishes under the name Carl Hauser. It’s a terrific 3D render that looks like something out of one of Syd Mead’s sketchbooks, which is one of the reasons it caught my eye. If that reference doesn't mean anything to you, Syd was an industrial designer and illustrator who is probably best known for his work on Blade Runner and Tron. I think first discovered his work in the late 70s, about the same time that I first saw the work of Frank Frazetta. Both of these guys were huge inspirations, though Syd's influence didn't really show up in my work until the mid-90s.

LINKS
Carl Hauser: https://www.carlhauser.com/
Carl Hauser (Twitter): https://twitter.com/crlhsr
Syd Mead: https://sydmead.com/
Frank Frazetta: https://www.frazettamuseum.com/
Imagine 3D: https://archive.org/details/imagine-3D-for-DOS
MS-DOS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-DOS
Siggraph: https://www.siggraph.org/
3D Studio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autodesk_3ds_Max
Softimage XSI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XOxGqs0Ck8
Maya: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autodesk_Maya
Lightwave: https://www.lightwave3d.com/
Universal Studios: https://www.universalstudios.com/
Blender: https://www.blender.org/
Ton Roosendaal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ton_Roosendaal
Blender 1.0: https://www.blendernation.com/2020/08/21/blender-1-0-rises-again/
Blender stories: https://www.blender.org/get-involved/user-stories/
David duChemin: https://davidduchemin.com/
David's post: https://davidduchemin.com/2023/06/having-not-gone-farther-on-regret-creativity/

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As an independent creative, I spend the bulk of my time alone, which means I’m typically in one of my studios in the basement of our house. I have two spaces that have been purpose-built and tweaked over the past few years to fit the different aspects of my creative practice. The analog studio is where I do all of my painting and collage work and the digital studio is where I do everything else that doesn’t involve paint, which means research, writing, design, podcasting, and recently a bit of sound design and music. The studios share a common wall that has a double door so I can move quickly from one to the other depending on what I’m working on in the moment. While there are still a few more tweaks to make, I love these spaces, especially since my previous space (if you can even call it that) was a 4-foot section of counter in the laundry room. That said, it’s still a basement and all of the things that can work in its favor can also work against it, depending on the mental space I’m in. If I’m particularly inspired, being apart from the other goings on in the house is a welcome detachment that can really allow me to focus. But if I’m in the weeds, those feelings of detachment can easily translate into feelings of loneliness and isolation, both of which I tend to struggle with anyway.

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In this Iteration, I want to talk about things, specifically the things in our lives that take on a particular significance because of what they have come to represent and how difficult it can be when we let them go, either by choice or by circumstance.

A few days ago, Adrianne and I bought a new car and to say that it was a challenge would be a bit of an understatement. To be fair, the actual car selection process wasn’t too bad—especially compared to how long it’s taken me in the past (see Iteration 37). But trading in my 2010 Honda Fit proved to be extraordinarily painful—so much so that I had a bit of a meltdown at the dealership and wound up texting Adrianne from the parking lot telling her that I couldn’t go back in and that I just wanted to go home.

LINKS
Iteration 37: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jeffery-saddoris-everything/id1438550795?i=1000422376581
2010 Honda Fit: https://www.edmunds.com/honda/fit/2010/review/
Nikon F2: https://emulsive.org/reviews/camera-reviews/nikon-camera-reviews/the-nikon-f2-an-everyday-camera-for-the-21st-century
William Eggleston: http://egglestonartfoundation.org/
Angels Landing: https://www.nps.gov/zion/planyourvisit/angels-landing-hiking-permits.htm
YashicaMat 124G: https://www.lomography.com/magazine/91134-yashica-mat-124g-a-twin-lens-classic
My Substack: https://jefferysaddoris.substack.com/

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I was sitting in my studio the other day, looking at some of the 100+ paintings I’ve done over the past few years and out of the blue I thought to myself, “I hate all of these.” Adrianne walked in a few minutes later and asked what was going on and I said, “I think I hate everything I’ve done.” Adrianne being Adrianne then asked, “Do you really hate it or is it something else?” I didn’t answer immediately, but of course it’s something else, right? It has to be. But that’s how it came out in the moment. To be clear, I don’t love every piece I’ve ever done—I don’t think any artist really does—but I certainly don’t hate every piece either. So what is it that’s really going on?

LINKS
Picasso: https://www.pablopicasso.org/
The New Propaganda: https://projects.jefferysaddoris.com/
Grid Variations: https://projects.jefferysaddoris.com/
Sean Tucker: https://www.seantucker.photography/
Josef Müller-Brockmann: https://www.grapheine.com/en/graphic-design-en/graphic-designer-muller-brockmann-swiss-style
Reid Miles: https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/best-blue-note-album-covers/
Robert Rauschenberg: https://www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/
Robert Motherwell: https://www.wikiart.org/en/robert-motherwell
My Substack: https://jefferysaddoris.substack.com


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This is Iteration number 100 and before we dive in, I want to say that this one is a big deal for me, not because it’s number 100—although, yes, that—but more because it’s about what it’s taken for me to get here and what I’ve learned about consistency and my own creative process.

If you’re an artist or maker of some kind and you’re on social media, regardless of the platform, you’ve undoubtedly heard about the importance of consistency. It’s one of the two main things that the algorithm rewards—the other one being time on platform. The problem with platforms is that you either are consistent or you aren’t. There’s typically no space for flux because the algorithm doesn’t care about nuance—it cares about numbers.

LINKS
Iteration 25
On Taking Pictures
Deep Natter
Jerry Seinfeld on Howard Stern
Iteration 97
My Substack

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This Iteration was originally going to be a story that bordered on a rant about trying to buy a new mouse from Amazon that went a little sideways. I’ll share some of the details in a bit, but the short version is that it took three attempts to get it right and I’m still not totally convinced that there isn’t some shady merchandise being sold as “real” by the world’s largest retailer. The best part of the thing was the title—I was going to call it “The Tale of the Mouse.” Clever, right? But as I’ve been thinking about it for the past few days, I think it’s really about something bigger and I think it’s something that nearly all of us can relate to—and that is how and why we buy the things we do.

LINKS
Musgrave Pencils
Logitech MX Master
Logitech M720
Logitech M720 (Best Buy)
Keychron

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Music For Workplaces by Jeffery Saddoris