These vessels, or Acallis with which we express ourselves, are in essence bridges for dialogue between different cultures under threat. They are works that call to those who would offer their support. They depart from the local, but resonate with the global.

The question you’re wrestling with—whether the purchase of a copyrighted item permits you to use the item as part of another product—has come up several times in court cases.

Mastery means knowing in your bones what you donʼt know. It also means form is second nature—you didnʼt get up that mountain without learning how to hike. And it means youʼre free. When you come back down, youʼve been changed.

Art is not a eugenics program. We’re all mongrels with our own unique deformities, and that’s what continues to keep artists and the arts in general interesting.

I am inspired by artists who say “I’m going to write or paint this weekend” without regard to “what” they are going to write or paint. Sometimes we just have to put brush to canvas, without being attached to the result.

A society in which not all members are free is not truly a free society. Pussy Riot understands that and Pussy Riot stands in resistance. They stand for resistance.

The general rule is that you can keep and dispose of property once it has been deposited in a trash receptacle from which routine collections are made (and once the person throwing it away has left the area).

Moments of discovery come when you are tuned-in and not thinking about your own performance. This can come naturally after playing with a band over time, but it’s also easy to become worn out from the repetition of playing the same songs over and over again.

Iʼm pretty sure this is the freelancerʼs life. Unless youʼre truly gifted—I mean frighteningly, what-you-touch-turns-to-money gifted—youʼre probably throwing anything at the wall and praying it sticks.

I want to work on making things better, by voting, by talking about this stuff online and in person, by recognizing my white male privilege and not abusing it, by being a vegetarian, because “human privilege” exists too (and I know that the way we treat animals reflects how we treat each other).

Guest Blogger Meredith Graves shares: “I swim, because I would rather persist than drown, and because I know that since I am my own life raft, once in awhile, when the rapids abate, I can kick up my heels and float.”

If the underlying work is in the public domain, you’re free to do what you want with it. If the work is not in the public domain, you will need permission from the copyright owner to reproduce or sell the derivative (or risk a charge of infringement).

Pastel: “Creating murals is a way of working that can be observed as an informational tool, one that conveys local identity, nature, geography, economy, etc. The result is a kind of ‘micro architecture’ or a natural form of urban acupuncture.”

Can’t get to the mic? Can’t make it out to shows? You still wanna be a comic? Well then, my friend, it’s time to pitch in and help out the comedy community.

Having a song roughly the same volume or intensity is a formula for disaster. You’re thinking, “Oh no, not me. I always make songs with interesting progressions, builds and changes in volume. I ain’t no noob.”

When my band would get together for practice and our guitar player would use more than one pedal we would point and laugh and say things like, “Get a load of him! He thinks he’s in Oktober People!”