The Leonardo Path

I’ve been guilty of this too… everyone is in a hurry to get their work out into the world. To rush to create effects and make a splash. Pack it up as quickly as possible and send it all to the masses for consumption. And then only to find out that it didn’t connect deeply with their audience, it felt as though it was… flimsy. Not as well put together as they thought.

You start to doubt yourself and wonder what didn’t go right. It all seemed good when it was finished and people were gearing up and excited to have whatever you were making, but it didn’t make the people jump into excitement the way you wanted them to. 

In our ultra fast-paced, trending run world most people don’t have the patience to absorb their minds into the fine points and minutiae details that are intrinsically part of their work. To make something go from good to great it is critical to give attention to the more precise details. Without it, the work suffers and never reaches what it could have been. And that can haunt some people for a long long time, sometimes forever.

Most people listen to too many external factors and external pressures. People allowed themselves to get told when it needs to be finished, when it needs to be shipped, when it needs to be consumed. This creates a lot of anxiety and will take you out of the present moment where your focus should be and then later will reveal a lack of attention to the details and then it’s too late to change.

What made Leonardo da Vinci a one-of-a-kind even during the Renaissance was his total fascination and curiosity for the details. He had a hunger to get to the core of what he was doing so he could paint the most authentic paintings which led him to his extensive research on human and animal anatomy. 

He wanted his paintings to come from the inside out so he did what other painters did not, attended countless autopsies, and dissected cadavers sawing through bones and skulls. He did this religiously to understand the structure of muscles, bones, and nerves and how the bodies of his various subjects were formed. 

This resulted in his drawing and later his most famous pieces of art to be far well beyond what anyone else was doing for his time, his work was known for their realism and accuracy.

In our work we must follow The Leonardo Path, approaching things from the inside-out, not the outside-in. Once we connect deeply to our own work it will come to life through us, it will take on a life force of its own and affect anyone it comes into contact with. 

We crave to connect in one shape or another. We crave works of art that make us feel. No one has time to get to know the person who has made the thing, they’re either dead or live completely out of our reach, and there is just not enough time to get to know everyone. But you can get to know their work and get to know them through what they have created and form a connection that way. 

Once you see your work as a living thing and bring it alive, others will feel this as well.

It starts with you. It’s all inside you. Connect to your work deeply and you’ll become authentic and a one-of-a-kind. 

The answer is always within.

Until next time,

Brody