Issue #1: Carcinisation of tech, four lightly held philosophies for living a creative life, big posters and some workshops
Welcome to my new FREE Substack of words, workshops and wonderful things to buy.
”If we live out our life span on the earth without ever knowing a crab intimately we have missed a good friendship” Charles William Beebe
TL;DR
I’ve moved from Mailchimp to Substack and transferred your subscription - hope that’s OK. Same me - different newsletter platform.
The carcinisation of tech - are all apps evolving to become the same thing in the same way that all living beings are turning into crabs? Read some ramblings on this.
Four lightly held philosophies for living a creative life: Be fascinated, open windows into your world, live below your means, hang out with weirdos. Read on for an old article I re-wrote for this newsletter.
New big posters of “happy art” and “existential apple”
Markets: 12th July - Illustrator’s Fair Kings Cross N1C, 19th July - Surbiton Farmer’s market - Surbiton KT6
Preferred the old Mailchimp newsletter and would like to unsubscribe?
1.Hello
Hey, and welcome to my first Substack newsletter. I’ve been writing my newsletter since 2014 using Mail Chimp and decided it is time to switch. Back then Mail Chimp was a startup and a cool, interesting company with a simple platform to send out a newsletter from. They even sent me a knitted chimp hat for my daughter after they watched a talk of mine in which I mentioned her. But like most tech platforms (social media included) they all slowly add more features and eventually evolve to become the same generic thing. A bit like a tech version of carcinisarion, but instead of creatures all evolving into crabs its platforms evolving into meh.
I had a similar thing with Appear.in (which later became Whereby). It was a brilliantly simple video conferencing app and its wonkiness and stripped back functionality is what attracted me to it. I even created a weird virtual pub experience using a number of Appear.in rooms which people could wander between and experience the same social awkwardness a multi room pub affords. But then, presumably to compete with zoom, it changed and more and more features started being added. The basic wonkiness was polished and it lost its charm and I no longer use it.
All of which is a long way round of saying goodbye to Mail Chimp, whose original offer of a simple way to write an electronic letter to people who would like to receive it has evolved into a multifunctional and overly-complicated (and expensive) thing.
I’ve decided to use this switch to Substack to change the nature of my newsletter. Substack feels like it invites more writing and sharing so as well as letting you know about workshops and stuff, I’m intending to share more written stuff. Which is sort of what my original MailChimp one was like back in the day.
So, you are receiving this first substack because you subscribed to my old newsletter and said that you would like to be kept up to date with my work, my thoughts and to know about stuff I am running. But if you’d rather not get it (or preferred the old Mail chimp format) then please unsubscribe here.
I hope you find something of interest here and hope to see you at a “thing” sometime soon.
Steve
(Note: I came across the quote at the top of this issue from an amazing book about crabs that I recently purchased)
2. Four lightly held philosophies for living a creative life
I was recently at 3D Yellow in central Spain and found myself referring several times to an old piece I wrote entitled “Four lightly held philosophies for living a creative life.” I also referred to this piece very recently on the For Creative People podcast.
With most things I create (be that words, ideas, art) I tend to dislike it a couple of years later but this piece still resonates with me as a loosely held way I like to think about living my life. And a number of people at 3D Yellow asked if I could share the piece but I’ve no idea where the original article is. So given all of the ways that it has suddenly started to pop up recently I decided that maybe I should re-write it and share it.
The original article was written as a way of answering the question I am often asked of “What is your process?” My honest answer is that I really don’t know if I have one. I am also very allergic, often unhelpfully, to looking towards repeated formulae for anything creative. But there seemed to be a pattern to how I perceive the world and how I approach things. So instead of a guide to creativity I decided to entitle the piece “Four lightly held philosophies for living a creative life.” Some simple underlying ideas that help me find light in the dark but are as equally useless as they are useful.
So hold them lightly.
Philosophy one: Be Fascinated
An artists* job is to be fascinated. Utterly fascinated. This is different to being interested. I’m interested in sharks but don’t feel compelled to spend my life travelling around the world studying them or taking risks to get close to them. But with things I am fascinated by I cannot not pursue them. When I find a deep fascination with something then there is no need to motivate myself towards action or summon up courage, energy or carefully plan my intentions - the deep wonder and curiosity generated by the fascination generates enough momentum by itself. It is like the fascination takes over and leads the rest of me by the hand towards it. Is it simply my job to follow (and try to not get in the way.)
Being fascinated is to pursue questions and not answers. It is to discover the question behind the question. To regard answers as dead-ends or wrong turns. To regard an exclamation mark simply as a question mark with rigor-mortis. To be fascinated is to give yourself permission to be wholly consumed by the thing that fascinates you. To take risks. To explore. To experiment. To allow yourself to spend every waking moment being fascinated to such an extent that the discouraging, dissenting voices (internal and external) telling you that there is more important stuff deserving of your attention simply fade into the background.
In 2018 I became fascinated by a curious question - “I wonder what the opposite of a podcast would be?” This led me to creating the world’s first silent podcast featuring special guests and all sort of adventures, trials and tribulations in which I met some of my heroes, spent far too much money and time recording nothing and created a weirdly popular cult podcast.
To be fascinated is to tune into the underlying mystery , magic and wonder of the human experience. And we tune into this not through trying but through letting go and allowing ourselves to hear the quite but deeply alluring whispers that have always been there calling to us.
* If you don’t consider yourself an artist then replace the word “artist” with “human”.
Philosophy two: Create windows into your world
Fascinated people are fascinating. Somebody who is in the grips of being utterly fascinated by something is utterly compelling to others.
In 2012 I was in a workshop led by the legendary theatre director Keith Johnstone. Keith set up an exercise in which, one at a time, we were to walk on the stage and do something that would keep the audience engaged. The audience were instructed that the moment they lost even a tiny bit of interest they were to get up and leave the room. Many of us tried this and lasted around 10-20 seconds. (I remember coming up with what I thought was a really great idea to be interesting but it failed miserably). Then one guy got up and captivated us even though he wasn’t doing much at all, other than looking at the marks and holes in the old wooden floor boards. He lasted about a minute and a half before people started to get up and leave. At the end Keith said “He went up and was simply being interested. The rest of you went up and tried to be interesting. It doesn’t work like that. Interested people are interesting!”
Creating windows into your world is simply finding ways in which people can experience you being fascinated. This philosophy runs counter to much of the advice of how to succeed which suggests that we need to put in a lot of effort, structure and work to market our passion and convince others it is worthy of their attention - often to the point where the marketing and sharing begins takes valuable time away from the passion itself.
Creating windows into your world turns all of that on its head. It casts aside the idea that it is our responsibility to sell and promote our work and instead invites us to simply create cracks in the third wall that people can peer in and witness us being fascinated. Some people will walk by, peer in and carry on walking. But others will stop and be captivated. Some will become so fascinated that they will regularly stop by the window to peer in and may ask if they can come and join you. This philosophy completely changed my relationship with social media, especially Instagram. I never make things to show on Instagram. Instead, Instagram is a window through which you can see what I am currently being fascinated by at any point in time.
But a window can be anything that you want it to be. Social media is an example but, in my experience, a very limited one as algorithms act as traffic police, directing people to the content that it favours from a profit making perspective. A window could be a blog, a workshop. Even an actual window in a studio or an office.
Over the last five or so years I have experimented with creating all sorts of windows into my world - weird talks in which I tell stories about my fascination, public art installations, everyday spontaneous conversations in which I share more than I habitually would about what I am up to and how I perceive the world, sitting in parks on a rug painting sticks with a sign saying “Free sticks - please take one.” All windows are experiments and we never know who will look in. But the important thing here is that the window allows all of your attention and energy to be devoted to being fascinated.
Philosophy three: Learn to live below your means
I read somewhere many years ago, that the advice to “Simply follow your passion” is problematic if you also want lots of nice things and financial security. (This may have been from one of Austin Kleon’s books but I can’t seem to find the quote anywhere so I equally may have dreamed it.) But, wherever I read it, it stuck with me. Not like some sort of demotivating hopeless reverse mantra, but a helpful articulation of how the world (at least the western, capitalist world) is pre-disposed to a particular model of what it means to be a productive and successful human being.
It can feel like if we don’t have a clear plan of how to turn our fascination into profit or growth or have a big audacious end goal or be seen to be growing a huge monitizable following then we are deficient in some way. If expressing our spontaneous creative selves doesn’t translate into some sort of progress or commercial achievement then it should simply be relegated to being a hobby that there is only time for when the urgent and productive work has been attended to. (I find the concept of hobbies simultaneously lovely and sinister for these reasons)
At the same time though it is important for our basic sustenance and wellbeing to be able to earn a living and build some sense of security (be that a roof over our heads or financially. Many artists I have spoken to say “I don’t care about the money” which is a noble statement but, at the end of the day, everyone needs sustenance and shelter of some knd.
When I first painted sticks in Regent’s Park one of the most frequent questions that I would get asked is “What are you doing this for?” or “What are you hoping to get from this?” Occasionally I would get some unsolicited advice that I should start selling the sticks or set up an Etsy shop to make a profit from them. (I was simply painting sticks because I was bored, lonely, house-sitting in Camden and with only black and white paint which felt like a good enough reason to be doing it.) I was doing it “Just for nice”.*
I’m aware that who I am, where I am from, my age, gender and many other factors mean that my means are greater than others (and also less than others) and living below them is contextually and economically different to others who live in different circumstances. It is important for me to continually acknowledge this whilst, at the same time, asking myself the question “what is enough?” Through doing this I am continually learning to let go of anything more than enough in order to create space for fascination and spontaneous self expression that, most often, doesn’t directly lead to a monetary reward.
* Just for nice is a lovely phrase attributed to the Pennsylvanian Dutch that refers to an activity or thing having no purpose other than being “for nice”. (e.g. What is the point of having that vase of beautiful flowers on the table? They are just for nice.)
Philosophy four: Hang out with other weirdos
If we spend our lives being fascinated, opening windows so other people can see what we are being fascinated by, whilst trying to live in a way that means we can exist outside of the financial structures of modern capitalist society, it can end up being a lonely place. If everyone around us is working in a more structured and traditionally effective way then it can feel like we have maybe lost the plot a little. Over the years I have been attempting to live my life in this way there have been many times where I have thought that it would be so much easier (financially, psychologically, motivationally) to return to the world of the seemingly stable and predictable “normal”.
It can feel like a somewhat isolating experience if we are choosing to live our lives in a way that is generally counter to society and what our friends and family regard as normal. We can feel like we are going insane when things get hard or complicated or we have to resort to somewhat desperate seeming measures to make ends meet or find ways of coping with uncertainty.
The importance of finding other weirdos to hang out with is therefore critical for our mental, emotional and philosophical wellbeing. To seek and hang out with others who are experimenting with living their lives in a similar ways that allow them to put their creative self expression at the heart of all they do.
Having an understanding and empathetic cacophony* of fellow weirdos is vitally important for our own resilience, sanity and to remind us of why we are doing this. The weirdo/outsider can be a comforter, a kindred spirit, an encourager/darer. They can also be a huge inspiration. I have been inspired more by weirdos and outsiders than experts and authorities in every aspect of my creativity.
*The official collective noun for a close cicrle of weirdos
3.Upcoming workshops
I’m running less workshops at the moment but here’s a few things that you might like to come to.
Stick painting in the park with Stevexoh
Saturday 23rd August 2025
Regent’s Park, London
Sliding scale from £5 to £20 depending on income
I’ve been painting sticks in public spaces since the summer of 2022 and found it to be an amazingly simple way of experiencing flow, escape, connection, regulation, conversation and random adventures so thought I’d experiment by making an open invitation session.
The agenda is simple - come sit on a rug and paint sticks and chat with whoever else comes along and whoever passes by and joins in. Stay for as long or as short as you would like. All sticks and paint and materials are provided.
.:: MORE INFORMATION AND TICKETS ::.
Super Secret Musical Improv (SSMI XXXVIIV)
26th September 2025
£95. Limited to 16 attendees.
Shh! These are invite only musical improvisation sessions led by the legendary Heather and Joe, the worlds greatest musical improvisation teachers.
Happening at various times in the year they are an opportunity to come together with a curious, friendly and supportive bunch of people and improvise songs, scenes and musicals. No previous experience is necessary, nor is any ability to sing, improvise or be funny. In fact, any of the above can prove a disadvantage.
Previous participants have described these sessions as “life enhancing”, “beautiful” and “I need SSMI like I need to breath.”
.:: MORE INFORMATION AND TICKETS ::.
Mask Workshop
14th November 2025
£130 + VAT. Limited to 10 attendees.
This is my absolute favourite workshop to run. A day of using masks to explore parts of our personality that we have lost touch with or didn't know existed. We will spend the morning getting to know different masks and the afternoon putting them in different playful and bizarre scenarios and situations.
Previous participants say:
“Simply the best workshop ever.”
“Possibly the most liberating experience you might ever have.”
“I’ll never forget the bits of me I met for the first time at the mask workshop.”
“Very weird. In a very, very good way.”
"A truly magical experience"
"It is like going home with a bunch of new friends inside yourself!"
To keep it playful and intimate the workshop is limited to just 10 places so if you'd like to come along the grab a place ASAP as they sell out quickly.
..:: MORE INFO AND TICKETS ::.
4.New big posters in my shop
I decided to turn a couple of recent paintings into big (A2) lovely (250gsm) posters. I’ve not sold posters for ages but decided to experiment.
5.Markets, markets, markets
I’ve been doing less markets recently (I find them hard work). So instead of quantity I have focussed on quality and I have two lovely ones coming up.
Illustrator’s Fair
12th July 2025 11am-5pm
Granary Square, Kings Cross, London N1C
I took part in the Illustrator’s Fair last year and realised that it was my absolutely favourite market ever. I will be there from 11am-5pm selling prints, books, t-shirts, badges, cards, posters and other stuff.
Even if you don’t buy something, come along to say “hi”.
Surbiton Farmer's Market
19th July 2025 9am-1pm
Maple Road, Surbiton KT6
This is my “home” market. Right on my doorstep. I managed to get a stall here by getting to know local people and I get to know even more local people by having a stall here. Come along to buy art stuff and also meet other local makers and buy some great food, fruit, veg and other things.
6.Become a patron of my studio
I took on studio back in August 2024 as I was in a stuck situation of having no space to make art and no money to rent a studio because I had no space to make art. But I took on Studio Two anyway as it instinctively felt like the thing I needed to do.
I was then utterly blown away when people stepped up to become patrons and funded a year’s rent within a couple of weeks of me asking. This allowed me to then get an Arts Council grant to cover my rent until December 2025.
So, this is a regular call out to see if anyone else would like to become a patron and support this space which is not only great for me but a space in which I can invite people into my world and run little workshops and 1:1 sessions.
For as little as a 1 off donation of £10 you can become a patron, get an exclusive badge and certificate, a behind the scenes blog and your name added to the scroll of honour that is in the studio window.
Find out more about Studio Two HERE.
And sign up to become a patron HERE.
7. Wanna leave?
I hope that the switch to substack is a nice new window into my world but, if not, or if you preferred the Mailchimp format then you can unsubscribe here. And you won’t receive a passive-aggressive “We’re sorry to see you go” automated e-mail! :)
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