The Art of Art

One day ago, I’d never heard of Bud Smith. Now he’s my new hero.

OK, maybe I should pump the brakes a bit. After all “Bud Smith” sounds like some sort of Vegas alias. Or the owner of the used car lot where they sell hoopties for “$495 down – we finance!”

Actually Bud Smith is a writer.

Bud Smith is the author of the novel, Teenager, and the short story collection Double Bird, among others. He lives in Jersey City, NJ.

I’ve yet to read Bud’s novel or his short story collection. But I was born in Jersey City, so we’re kindred spirits of a sort. But the real reason we’re kindred spirits is Bud’s take on the creative process. I read this interview with my new bud Bud in The Creative Independent. (Hat tip to Cullen Lewis, who writes a weekly post on Substack, for putting this on my radar. Check out Cullen’s Bourn Yesterday today.)

You really should read the entire interview – Bud has countless pearls of wisdom to share. A few examples:

Avoid things that drain and do things that feel fulfilling.

Get comfortable doing sloppy work, malformed, phoned in, wonky work—believe you can fix it later. Because you can.

If you feel like you don’t have a place in an established scene, then you’re right, you don’t have a place, but you can always make your own spot—apart—you should. And eventually you’ll have put in your hours and you’ll have become a road tested creator. What I mean at its most basic level, if you are studying and working at something because it adds value to your life just by doing, then you’re doing it the best way. The most valuable way. Study what you love.

I love-love-love Bud’s take on the creative process. If you don’t fit in with the scene, make your own.

And if you’re doing something you enjoy, then the “ends” don’t matter. The journey is fulfilling enough.

Bud also offers up a bit of life advice, including this:

Get out of your house/apartment. Be human, see people, be part of town.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get out of my house and see if my local library has copies of Teenager and Double Bird.