growth
In order to perfect one’s own craft, one must grow. And how one grows is as unique in process as we are individuals.
In my experience, the process of growing (or the how) requires inward reflection. Of course, in our current social climate of mass stimulation, taking a moment to step back and be still is a tall order. But, the artists I most admire do this regularly, and make it look easy. An actor friend, when prepping for a project, takes the time to not make or push a character, but instead focuses on creating an empty space so that the character may enter, and be discovered. Then, her development work begins. Witnessing her process inspires me to make space too, to stop and take a long lens to a big picture.
So I try to do that. And when I succeed at jumping off of the metaphorical treadmill for a moment, be it for a day or a week, I find, much to my surprise, that rest and inward reflection always end up being more productive than I had ever anticipated. Many times it is creatively prosperous and other times it’s very pragmatic, but most of the time it’s a little of both.
We applied this method when developing our (this) new website. We let go of our preconceptions and a blank canvas appeared. Our idling process created room for reflection and gave us a clearer understanding of what it is we have been doing over the past years. The stopping and waiting was incredibly hard at first, but then it slowly became fun, and even energizing! Memories of projects, both recent and old, came flooding back, and we recalled specific moments of inspiration (in both casting and producing) that ended up being the catalyst for a job’s completion. We found our version of my actor friend’s process, and it was fantastic! This idleness also provided a deeper and renewed appreciation of our responsibility to the collaborative process with clients, filmmakers, actors and crew all while serving the story, the characters and the final product and creating the best possible experience along the way.
Throughout the website building process we were carefully, and thankfully, guided by both our website developer Ryan DeRose of Vibethink and his team and designer Jessica Lee of Willow Knows. As we were discovering the voice and character of our site and refining our vision of Arvold and ourselves, we were also reminded of how lucky and grateful we are to be doing what we do. I suppose we grew a little.
I encourage you to explore this site, learn about all the things we do, and let us know your thoughts! We’d love to hear from you!
-Erica Arvold
“Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body” – Tim Kreider, Anxiety; The ‘Busy’ Trap, NY Times