The Arts whistle whilst you create

Andrew Cornell Robinson is an interesting guy. Soft spoken and kind, you don’t really expect him to thrive in the hussle-bussle, cut-throat world that is New York City. It seems like he’d fit better in a sleepy town in Oklahoma or Maine. He doesn’t speak particularly slowly, but you feel like he’s taking his time when he talks, and it almost calms you into submission. The fact that Andrew has taken his place at The Edward Albee residency, where we find him in Montauk, NY feels right. It feels like “Of course. Where else would he be? What else would he be doing?” Like there’s a little more balance in the world now that he’s there.

Andrew says in this video that to him, inspiration is showing up for work every day. It made us think about our jobs, and how they inspire us. But is Andrew talking about his job, or what happens at his job, or on his way there? See, there’s so much more to “showing up to work” than meetings, and presentations and time sheets. Just like “sweeping the floor” isn’t in the job description of an artist, riding the subway and dealing with tourists in Times Square isn’t in that of an art director’s or a copywriter’s. But the very act of showing up to work, the implicit assignment of physically getting there and being present is enough to inspire anybody willing to let it.

What’s cool about this is that nobody shows up to work the same way. You might take the same exit, or subway route as a colleague, or even show up wearing the same clothes, but no two people’s experiences are exactly alike. Yes, it might, and probably does sound cliché and used, and it might not even be what Andrew’s trying to tell us, but it’s true. If we take the time, and really open our eyes to look at our actions and surroundings, inspiration is friggin everywhere. It’s in the people you see, the intersections where you stop to wait for a changing light, or the guy who spills his soup all over the cafeteria. Everything around you has the seeds for inspiration if you have the mind to let them grow.

Andrew seems to be the kind of guy with rich soil up in his headbrain. He might not be the best reader in the world, but when these seeds enter into his personal consciousness, he has the goods and mental room to let them grow and thrive, and become something much bigger. Do you?

Visit Mr. Robinson's site: acrstudio.com »
Learn more about Residency program at The Edward F. Albee Foundation »
Watch: this video in HD quality on Ogilvy's Create or Else Youtube channel.