10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times And Bad
Edited by Ben. Turn to ContentPage
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目录
The Ordinary + Extra Attention = the ExtraordinaryYou have everything you need.Slow down and draw things out.Pay attention to what you pay attention to.
Words & phrases
extraordinary
/ ɪkˈstrɔːrdəneri /
adj.异乎寻常的，令人惊奇的；非凡的，卓越的；特别的，临时的；特大（或多）的；特派的，特命的
n.（公司正常业务活动之外的）非常账目，特支款项
She is a designer of extraordinary versatility.
她是位特别多才多艺的设计师。
“It’s as true today as it ever was: He who seeks beauty will find it.”
—Bill Cunningham
One of my art heroes was a nun.
In the 1960s, Sister Mary Corita Kent was an art teacher at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles. Inspired by a show of Andy Warhol’s work, she started screen printing. She would take pictures of advertisements and signs all over the city—the stuff we usually think of as junk, clutter, and eye pollution—and she would transform those things by taking them out of their context, adding them to handwritten lyrics from pop songs and Bible verses, and printing them as if they were religious messages. She turned a bag of Wonder Bread into a message about taking communion. She stole the General Mills slogan, “The Big G Stands For Goodness,” and made the “G” from the logo seem like it was referring to God. She cut the Safeway logo into two separate words and it became a sign showing the path of salvation. Finding God in all things is one of the tasks of the believer, and Kent found God in advertising, of all things. Kent took the manmade landscape of Los Angeles—not necessarily the first place you’d look for beauty—and she found the beauty in it.
Words & phrases
nun
/ nʌn /n.修女，尼姑She shaved her head and became a nun.
她削发为尼。
sister:
n.姐姐，妹妹；（称志同道合者）姐妹；（女权运动中的）姐妹；姊妹，大姐，妹妹（妇女对其他妇女表示友好和支持时的用语）；<非正式>姐妹，大姐，妹子（用作女性间的称呼）；<美>大姐，小妹（美国黑人妇女之间使用的称呼）；修女，女教友（Sister）；<英>护士（长）（Sister）；（美国大学）女生联谊会会员；（尤指组织之间的）姐妹（关系）
adj.同类的，同质的，如同姐妹的
immaculate
/ ɪˈmækjələt /adj.完美的；洁净的；无瑕疵的Her kitchen was kept immaculate.
她的厨房保持得一尘不染。
junk:
n.废旧杂物；垃圾，破烂；毫无价值的事物；<非正式>毒品，（尤指）海洛因；中国式帆船；（含有鲸脑油的）抹香鲸头部纤维组织
v.；<非正式>抛弃，丢掉（废旧物品）
He lived on a diet of junk food.
他把垃圾食品当饭吃。
clutter:
n.杂乱的东西；杂乱
v.乱堆，塞满；使（脑子里）塞满（乱七八糟的事）
There was a clutter of bottles and tubes on the shelf.
架子上胡乱堆满了瓶子和管子。
handwritten:
adj.手写的
v.handwrite 的过去分词
A brief, handwritten postscript lay beneath his signature.
一段简短的手写体附言位于他的签名下方。
verse
/ vɜːrs /
n.诗，韵文；诗节，（歌曲的）节；（《圣经》或其他经文的）节，句；（赞美诗的）独唱部，小组唱部
v.<古>作诗
This verse describes three signs of spring.
这节诗描述了春天的3个征兆。
communion
/ kəˈmjuːniən /n.共享；恳谈；宗教团体；圣餐仪式take communion 领圣餐
Ah! When will she take her first communion?
真的！她应当几时去领她的第一次圣礼呢？
stole:
n.女用披肩，女用长围巾；丝绸圣带，长绸带；长袍
v.偷窃，盗窃；剽窃，窃取（观点）；悄悄地移动（steal 的过去式）
She stole a glance at her watch.
她偷偷看了看表。
salvation
/ sælˈveɪʃ(ə)n /n.解救物，救星；解救，拯救；（基督教中）对灵魂的拯救，救赎The church's message of salvation has changed the lives of many.
这个教会的灵魂得救的训诫已经改变了很多人的一生。
manmade:
n.人工制品；合成品
adj.人造的（等于 man-made）
Now, China has turned the area into the country's largest manmade forest.
现在，中国已经把这个地区变成了中国最大的人造森林。
Kent said she made common things “uncommon.” (She thought “uncommon” was a better term than “art.”) “I don’t think of it as art,” she said, “I just make things I like bigger.” She had a particular way of looking at the ordinary world, and she taught this way of looking to her students. In one of her assignments, she had students create what she called a “finder”—a piece of paper with a rectangle cut out of it to simulate a camera viewfinder. She would lead her students on field trips, teaching them to crop the world, to “see for the sake of seeing,” and discover all the things that they’d never bothered to notice.
Really great artists are able to find magic in the mundane. Most of my favorite artists made extraordinary art out of ordinary circumstances and materials. Harvey Pekar spent the majority of his working life as a file clerk at the VA hospital in Cleveland, collecting stories and scribbling them into stick-figure scripts that would eventually become the comics in his masterpiece, American Splendor. Emily Dickinson stayed in her room and wrote her enduring poems on the backs of leftover envelope scraps. The Dada artist Hannah Höch used the sewing patterns from her day job in her collages. Sally Mann took gorgeous photos of her three children playing on their farm in Virginia. (Her friend, the painter Cy Twombly, used to sit outside the Walmart in Lexington and people watch for inspiration.)
Words & phrases
《美国荣耀》（American Splendor）也是一部讲loser生活有了起色的电影。
viewfinder: n.取景器；反光镜；检像器
You are your cameras best viewfinder!
你是你相机最好的取景器。
field trip: 野外旅游；实地考察旅行；实习；实地考察：学生或研究人员到野外或实地进行的教育或研究活动。
Field trips provide students with hands-on learning experiences.
实地考察为学生提供了实践学习的经验。
We went on a geology field trip.
我们去进行地质野外考察。
bother to do 费心做某事：花费时间和精力去做某事，通常是因为这件事情很重要或者有必要完成。
Now, why the hell would we bother to do this?
为什么我们非要费心去做这个呢？
mundane:
adj.单调的，平凡的，平淡的；世俗的，尘世的
n.平凡的事物（the mundane）
I lead a pretty mundane existence.
我过着相当平淡的生活。
file clerk
/ ˈfaɪl klɑːk /档案员：一位负责处理文件的职员。The file clerk organized the documents in alphabetical order.
档案员按字母顺序整理文件。
clerk:
n.办事员，职员；售货员，店员；（宾馆）接待员；（法庭、市政会等负责管理文书的）文书，书记员；<旧>（英国国教会的）牧师；<古>读书识字的人，学者
v.当职员（或文书、书记员）
It was strange, how invisible a clerk could feel.
很奇怪一名职员会感到如此地受人忽视。
scribbling:
n.潦草的字迹，胡乱的涂画
v.草草地写；乱涂乱画；涂鸦（scribble 的现在分词）
Early scribbling is one precursor to early writing which can lead to reading.
幼儿的涂鸦是一种书写，也是阅读的前兆。
stick figure
/ ˈstɪk fɪɡə(r) /1．简笔画：一种将人或动物的头部画成圆圈，其他部分画成直线的绘画。
My daughter loves to draw stick figures of our family.
我的女儿喜欢画我们家人的简笔画。
2．肤浅角色：缺乏深度和可信度的虚构角色。
The character in that movie is just a stick figure with no real personality.
那部电影中的角色只是一个没有真实个性的肤浅角色。
leftover:
n.剩饭，剩菜（leftovers）；残存物，遗留物
adj.剩下的，多余的
Come over here and help me pack up the leftover food.
过来帮我把剩下的食物打包。
sewing pattern 缝纫用型板
Mary was lost in the details of a new sewing pattern.
玛丽埋头研究一个新的剪裁花样。
sewing:
n.缝纫，缝纫业；缝制品，缝补物
v.缝纫；缝合，缝上；缝制（衣服）（sew 的现在分词）
She sewed the dresses on the sewing machine.
她在缝纫机上缝制了这些衣服。
gorgeous: adj.美丽动人的；令人愉快的；绚丽的，华丽的
It's a gorgeous day.
今天天气真棒。
people watch 观察人群：指在公共场合观察周围人们行为、举止、服饰等的活动，通常用于消磨时间或了解人际交往。
She likes to sit in the park and people watch on weekends.
她喜欢在周末坐在公园里观察人群。
It is easy to assume that if only you could trade your ordinary life for a new one, all your creative problems would be solved. If only you could quit your day job, move to a hip city, rent the perfect studio, and fall in with the right gang of brilliant misfits! Then you’d really have it made.
All this is, of course, wishful thinking. You do not need to have an extraordinary life to make extraordinary work. Everything you need to make extraordinary art can be found in your everyday life.
René Magritte said his goal with his art was “to breathe new life into the way we look at the ordinary things around us.” This is exactly what an artist does: By paying extra attention to their world, they teach us to pay more attention to ours. The first step toward transforming your life into art is to start paying more attention to it.
Words & phrases
if only 如果……就好了：用于表达希望某事发生或成为真实的愿望。
If only I had studied harder, I would have passed the exam.
如果我当时学习更努力，我就能通过考试了。
trade for 以……换得；贸易交换；用...换...
gang:
n.（青少年的）帮派，团伙；犯罪团伙；一群（体力劳动者）；<非正式>一伙（常聚会的朋友）；（安装在一起的）一套开关，插座（或其他电气、机械装置）
v.成群，结伙；将（电气设备或机器）连接，编组
A gang taunted a disabled man.
一帮混混儿羞辱了一个残疾人。
misfit:
n.不适合；不适应环境的人
vt.对……不适合
I have been made to feel a social and psychological misfit for not wanting children.
因为不想要孩子，使我觉得自己在社交和心理上与他人格格不入。
wishful: adj.渴望的；一厢情愿的
It is wishful thinking to expect deeper change under his leadership.
指望在他领导下有更深刻的变化是痴心妄想。
breathe v.呼吸；呼出，吐出；吸入；低声说；透气；（酒）通气透香；将……注入
He couldn't breathe. His chest was on fire.
他无法呼吸。他的胸部火辣辣地疼痛。
breathe into
/ briːð ˈɪntə /为某事物带来新的想法和活力Breathe into your left rib basket.
呼吸到你的左侧肋骨里。
“It’s always been my philosophy to try to make art out of the everyday and ordinary . . . it never occurred to me to leave home to make art.”
—Sally Mann
Words & phrases
philosophy
/ fəˈlɑːsəfi /n.哲学；哲学体系，思想体系；人生哲学，生活（工作）准则；（某一知识或经验领域的）理论基础研究，基本原理The book is simple homespun philosophy.
该书阐述的是简单而朴实的哲学。
occur to 想到：被某人想到。
It didn't occur to her to ask for help.
她没想到请别人帮忙。
“Let’s slow down, not in pace or wordage but in nerves.”
—John Steinbeck
Words & phrases
pace
n.步速，（移动的）速度；（发生、进展、发展的）速度，节奏；一步，一步之距；（马行走或奔跑的）步法；<文>步态；快节奏；快跑的能力；（板球）（影响球速的）两个三柱门之间的场地状况
v.（因担忧、紧张或不耐烦而）踱步，踱步于；（在赛跑中）为……定速度；为……领跑；为（书、电影等中的故事）设定节奏；调整自己的工作（或活动）节奏；步测；（马）走侧对步（主见于专门饲养或训练的马）
prep.<正式> （用于人名前，委婉提出不同意见）请……原谅
They set off at a steady pace.
他们以不紧不慢的速度出发了。
wordage
/ ˈwɜːdɪdʒ /n.（总称）文字；赘词；用词；字数This writer has the fault at excess wordage.
这个作家有过分啰嗦的缺点。
It’s impossible to pay proper attention to your life if you are hurtling along at lightning speed. When your job is to see things other people don’t, you have to slow down enough that you can actually look.
In an age obsessed with speed, slowing down requires special training. After art critic Peter Clothier discovered meditation, he realized how little he was actually looking at art: “I would often catch myself spending more time with the wall label in a museum than with the painting I was supposed to be looking at!” Inspired by the slow food and slow cooking movements, he started leading “One Hour/One Painting” sessions in galleries and museums, in which he invited participants to gaze at a single artwork for one full hour. Slow looking caught on, and now several museums across the country hold slow looking events. The ethos is summed up on the Slow Art Day website: “When people look slowly . . . they make discoveries.”
Words & phrases
我经常发现自己在博物馆里花更多的时间在墙上的标签上，而不是在我应该看的画上！
hurtling:
adj.飞奔的，疾驰的
v.急飞，猛烈碰撞，猛掷（hurtle 的 ing 形式）
A runaway car came hurtling towards us.
一辆失控的汽车朝我们飞驰而来。
at lightning speed 以闪电般的速度：形容非常快的速度，通常用于描述某人或某事的速度非常快。
He finished the task at lightning speed.
他以闪电般的速度完成了任务。
gaze at: 盯住；凝视
One remarkably simple method: Gaze at a photo of a loved one.
涂个非常简单有效的方法是：盯着你心爱的人的照片。
ethos:
/ ˈiːθɑːs /n.（某团体的）精神特质，道德意识The ethos welcomes anybody.
这种理念欢迎每个人（的参与）。
summed up: 概括；总结
She summed up the situation in a few choice phrases.
她字斟句酌地总结了情况。
Slow looking is great, but I always need to be doing something with my hands, so drawing is my favorite tool for forcing myself to slow down and really look at life. Humans have drawn for thousands of years—it’s an ancient practice that can be done with cheap tools available to everyone. You don’t have to be an artist to draw. You just need an eye or two.
“Drawing is simply another way of seeing, which we don’t really do as adults,” says cartoonist Chris Ware. We’re all going around in a “cloud of remembrance and anxiety,” he says, and the act of drawing helps us live in the moment and concentrate on what’s really in front of us.
Because drawing is really an exercise in seeing, you can suck at drawing and still get a ton out of it. In a blog post about picking up the habit of sketching later in his life, film critic Roger Ebert wrote, “By sitting somewhere and sketching something, I was forced to really look at it.” He said his drawings were “a means of experiencing a place or a moment more deeply.”
Drawing doesn’t just help you see better, it makes you feel better. “An artist using a sketchbook always looks like a happy person,” Ebert observed. “It’s sublime,” said author Maurice Sendak. “It’s magic time, where all your weaknesses of character, the blemishes of your personality, whatever else torments you, fades away, just doesn’t matter.”
The camera phone is a wonderful tool for capturing things when we’re out in the world, but drawing still offers us something unique. In the 1960s, photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, legendary for capturing life on film in what he called “the Decisive Moment,” went back to his first love: drawing. He wrote about the differences between his two loves in his book The Mind’s Eye: “Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing is a meditation.” In 2018, the British Museum started offering pencils and paper to visitors after they noticed an uptick in people interested in sketching the art. One of the curators remarked, “I feel like you dwell on an object a lot more if you have a paper and pencil before you.”
To slow down and pay attention to your world, pick up a pencil and a piece of paper and start drawing what you see. (The pencil’s best feature is that it has no way of interrupting you with texts or notifications.) You might find that this helps you discover the beauty you’ve missed.
“If you draw,” said the cartoonist E. O. Plauen, “the world becomes more beautiful, far more beautiful.”
“Drawing is the discipline by which I constantly rediscover the world. I have learned that what I have not drawn, I have never really seen, and that when I start drawing an ordinary thing, I realize how extraordinary it is, sheer miracle.”
—Frederick Franck
Words & phrases
我们都生活在“记忆和焦虑的云雾中”，他说，绘画的行为帮助我们活在当下，专注于我们面前真正的东西。
remembrance
/ rɪˈmembrəns /n.纪念，怀念；记忆，回忆；纪念品，纪念物；记忆力He wept like a child at the remembrance.
回忆起来，他就像一个小孩子似的哭了。
suck at 不擅长，不精通：指某人在某方面缺乏技能或经验，表达出对某项任务或技能的不熟练或不擅长。
I really suck at playing basketball.
我真的不擅长打篮球。
sublime
/ səˈblaɪm /
adj.崇高的，壮丽的，令人赞叹的；极端的，十足的
v.（化）升华；使升华；<古>使变得崇高（或高尚），使变得出众
n.崇高的事物，壮丽的景象，绝妙的东西（the sublime）；顶点（the sublime）
Now we are rewarded for our sublime faith in a mother's love.
因为我们对母爱的崇高信念，我们现在得到了回报。
blemish:
n.瑕疵；污点；缺点
vt.玷污；损害；弄脏
This is the one blemish on an otherwise resounding success.
这就是惟一那点小缺陷，否则将是圆满的成功。
torment
/ ˈtɔːrment /
n.（肉体、精神上的）折磨，痛苦；使人痛苦的人（物）
v.使痛苦，折磨；骚扰，捉弄
You said,"Don't torment me so—I'll tell!"
你说：“不要这样折磨我——我说出来就是了。”
camera phone 摄像手机：一种具有拍照功能的手机，可以用来拍摄照片和录制视频。
The camera phone has revolutionized the way we take and share photos.
摄像手机彻底改变了我们拍摄和分享照片的方式。
uptick n.小幅增加，微升；报升（股票成交价格比上一个交易的微高）
But an uptick in output does not augur prosperity.
但是，产量上扬并不预示着经济繁荣。
dwell on 纠结于；长时间思考或谈论某事
It's not healthy to dwell on past mistakes.
纠结于过去的错误对身心健康不利。
sheer:
adj.（用于强调）纯粹的，完全的；程度深的，数量大的；陡峭的，垂直的；（织物等）极薄的，透明的
adv.垂直地，陡峭地；<古>彻底地，完全地
v.急转弯，突然转向；避开（不愉快的话题）
n.精纺（或透明）织物（或物品）；（尤指船）突然偏航，突然转向；（船首及船尾处的）舷弧
His music is sheer delight.
他的音乐是纯粹的快乐。
“For anyone trying to discern what to do with their life: PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU PAY ATTENTION TO. That’s pretty much all the info you need.”
—Amy Krouse Rosenthal
感受
对于那些试图辨别生活方向的人：关注你所关注的。这差不多就是你需要的所有信息了。
Your attention is one of the most valuable things you possess, which is why everyone wants to steal it from you. First you must protect it, and then you must point it in the right direction.
As they say in the movies, “Careful where you point that thing!”
What you choose to pay attention to is the stuff your life and work will be made of. “My experience is what I agree to attend to,” psychologist William James wrote in 1890. “Only those items which I notice shape my mind.”
We pay attention to the things we really care about, but sometimes what we really care about is hidden from us. I keep a daily diary for many reasons, but the main one is that it helps me pay attention to my life. By sitting down every morning and writing about my life, I pay attention to it, and over time, I have a record of what I’ve paid attention to. Many diarists don’t bother rereading their diaries, but I’ve found that rereading doubles the power of a diary because I’m then able to discover my own patterns, identify what I really care about, and know myself better.
Words & phrases
psychologist: n.心理学家
He passed himself off as a senior psychologist.
他自己冒充是一名资深心理学家。
diarists: n.日记作者；记日记者
The dad diarists approach their subject like anthropologists, engaged in rational inquiry into an alien culture and the nature of nurture.
父亲级的日记作家研究的主题类似于人类学家，皆致力于理性探究异域文化和教育的性质。
bother doing 费心做某事：花费时间和精力去做某事，通常是因为认为这件事很重要或有必要。
We're wired to listen; we just don't bother doing it all the time.
其实我们也乐意听，只是懒得一直听。
rereading:
n.重读
v.重读（reread 的 ing 形式）
Why does the author like rereading?
为什么作者喜欢重读？
“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.”
—Mary Oliver
If art begins with where we point our attention, a life is made out of paying attention to what we pay attention to. Set up a regular time to pay attention to what you’ve paid attention to. Reread your diary. Flip back through your sketchbook. (The cartoonist Kate Beaton once said if she wrote a book about drawing she’d call it Pay Attention to Your Drawings.) Scroll through your camera roll. Rewatch footage you’ve filmed. Listen to music you’ve recorded. (The musician Arthur Russell used to take long walks around Manhattan, listening to his own tapes on his Walkman.) When you have a system for going back through your work, you can better see the bigger picture of what you’ve been up to, and what you should do next.
If you want to change your life, change what you pay attention to. “We give things meaning by paying attention to them,” Jessa Crispin writes, “and so moving your attention from one thing to another can absolutely change your future.”
“Attention is the most basic form of love,” wrote John Tarrant. When you pay attention to your life, it not only provides you with the material for your art, it also helps you fall in love with your life.
Words & phrases
flip back 翻跟头：一种翻跟头的动作，包括向后翻转并落在双脚上。
He did a flip back and landed perfectly on his feet.
他做了一个翻跟头，完美地落在了双脚上。
back through 穿过回来：从某个地方穿过并返回原来的位置或方向。
We need to go back through the forest to get to the starting point.
我们需要穿过森林回到起点。
flip:
v.（使）快速翻转，迅速翻动；快速翻阅，浏览；<非正式>勃然大怒，心烦意乱；（快速地）调频道，换台；轻抛，轻掷；按（开关）；（话题、活动或意见）突然改变，突然转换；改变，交换（位置）；突然变得热情，突然极感兴趣；为盈利而从速转卖（股份，财产）
adj.轻率的，无礼的
n.轻抛，轻掷，轻击；空翻；浏览，草草翻阅；<英，非正式>短暂旅行（或游览）；蛋奶酒
int.<非正式>讨厌（表示轻微厌恶）
"What's on the flip side?"
“背面是什么？”
sketchbook: n.小品集；写生簿；随笔集
We're going to draw an apple in your sketchbook.
我们要在速写本上画一个苹果。
scroll:
n.（供书写的）长卷纸，卷轴；一卷古书（或公文、文件）；（绘制或雕刻的）涡卷形装饰；印上格言（或题字）的丝带的描绘；（视频显示器屏幕上为查看新资料而设的）显示滚动装置
v.滚屏，滚动；使像纸卷合（或打开）那样移动
Now, we can scroll through our data offline.
现在，我们可以在我们的离线数据中滚动了。
scroll through 滚动；滚动浏览
Scroll through views?
在视图中滚动时呢？
Now, we can scroll through our data offline.
现在，我们可以在我们的离线数据中滚动了。
camera roll 相机胶卷：智能手机上拍摄的图像和视频的集合。
I need to transfer the photos from my camera roll to my computer.
我需要将相机胶卷中的照片传输到电脑上。
rewatch:
vt.重新看（某事，如电影或电视节目）
n.重新看
I rewatch Wall Street on the plane over and enjoy it as much as I did when I first saw it years ago.
我在飞机上重温了这部电影，同几年前初看时一样，我感到很享受。
footage: n.一组（电影，电视）镜头；（以英尺表示的）尺码，长度
The police replayed footage of the accident over and over again.
警察一遍又一遍地重放事故的片段。
“Tell me to what you pay attention and I will tell you who you are.”
—José Ortega y Gassett