Art Tips - Parts And Age

I wish I wore glasses, so that right now I could emphatically remove them while slowly massaging my brow. You know, the universal signal that somebody is going to play the age-card and give you some advice.

I have become very into machines. I spent the last several years educating myself on how motors and engines work, how electrical transformers and generators and gearing systems work, how water sanitation works … I even spent the last two and a half years building a pinball machine from scratch, because it’s been a lifelong dream.

*A photo I took of the underside of my pinball machine during the build process. I built every part and crimped every wire. This wasn’t even the finished product yet.*

Machines are designed to be dialed in and working great when all the components are in a good state of repair. Most machines can withstand a part or two being out of alignment for the brief period of time it takes you to notice and fix it … but no machine is immune to becoming vastly compromised when parts wear down over the natural course of time. A machine’s parts are inter-dependent, so the physical wear of one part will affect how another works.

Your body is a big biological machine. And, given enough time, its parts will start to break down, too. That’s just how physical matter works. No machine, biological or otherwise, can avoid the reality of age and wear - and machines are not designed to work with bad parts. This is what I’ve learned to be of utmost importance with the machines we use in our lives, as well as our own physical bodies, so I’ll say it again: machines aren’t designed to work with bad parts.

You see, when I was young(er), I did not know this. I heard older people tell me about stuff like this, but I did not acknowledge or retain it. I didn’t even categorize it as ‘a problem for later,’ I was naive enough to think that the ‘later’ part would never come … at least, not for me. After all, I spent my entire 20s and much of my 30s in the gym, I was in great, healthy shape. ‘So why should it ever change?’ I thought. Silly me. Health is merely a small delay against time and wear.

These days, I have trouble with one of the tiny little stabilizer muscles in my neck (a muscle we don’t even bother to study in art anatomy because it’s so small and hidden.) But it prevents me from being able to hold my head upright, or even turn my head without having to endure pain. And the worst part? This sad state of affairs gradually manifested not because I was doing something physically risky or irresponsible … but because of my mattress, pillow and sleep posture, adding up over time. It has become more difficult to do art, because that involves stabilizing your head for prolonged periods of time. This is a thought I had never once considered: that I was naturally stabilizing my head, and what happens if I can’t really do that as well anymore.

Now I have weekly appointments with all kinds of physical professionals: chiropractors, massage therapists, physiotherapy and osteopaths. The parts are wearing down. The machine can’t operate to its full potential. And honestly, I am scared that this is my new life. And I feel like I am still too young for it to be my new life.

Please believe me when I say that I do not write this to complain or garner sympathy in any way. I still have my overall health, which I am eternally grateful for. But my point is: This kind of slow break-down will happen to me and you equally, because that's what time does to a machine. It is an immutable reality. Time is coming for you. More specifically - for your parts. It could be your knees, your back, your eyes, your hips, your feet, your neck. Even if you stay healthy (like I mostly was), age is inevitable and machines just aren’t made to run as well when its parts are worn. You can’t change it.

So what to do about something we can’t change? Obviously, do your best to stay healthy - that’s a given. But, as it pertains to being an artist, next time you’re out for a walk, stop and look up at the sky, enjoy the freedom you have to stand or move, to look and see what surrounds you. Enjoy the very nature of being able to experience. Get that into your art before it becomes harder to find that raw material.

What I’m Working On

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve probably noticed more business-related posts lately. There is a trio of people over here at Marco Bucci Art. I (Marco) of course do all the art and video lessons (as well as writing the words you’re reading now). But my wife Renee and our intern, Jay, have stepped up to put together a super cool business-side look at art. Basically taking some best-practices we’ve learned along the way, as well as hard lessons of things that haven’t worked, and we’re actively putting together new material that we hope helps other artists develop and run their own businesses. So stay tuned - things are coming fast!

The Art Industry: YOU as Your Own IP

I was catching up with an industry friend and colleague the other day. We worked at the same studio together from about 2006-2010. As we talked, a common theme was how many people have left the industry. My friend is also a teacher, and one of the hardest questions she gets from her new-grads is: So, what do I do now? In today’s industry, that’s not easy to answer. My advice is to treat yourself as your own IP. Develop your own worlds and characters. Put together bodies of work that you can show off on social media. Basically, think more broad than single images, and instead invent your own productions and do work to develop them. Keep posting doodles, but post fewer of those, so as to not direct focus away from your larger works. More and more, I think this is today’s way to “get noticed.”

Some of my Green Monster artworks over the years.

Worth Checking Out: My Latest Picks

In a similar vein to my interest in machines, I am super fascinated by how the Pyramids of Giza were built. These things are, in the purest sense of the word, Awesome. They’re also frustratingly mysterious. Nobody knows the exact building methods of the Great Pyramid, for instance, including how the *bleep* the workers were able to transport and lift blocks that heavy, and place them with such precision. The Great Pyramid is also endowed with measurements and angles so exact and bizarrely specific that they confound even today’s engineers with all our modern technology. There are many compelling and wild theories surrounding all the above, but that only adds to the intrigue and mystery of it all.

I was happy to discover a YouTube channel called History For Granite, which presents a sober, evidence-based and logic-based approach to solving the Great Pyramid’s mysteries, among other things. The narrator is passionate, and presents his life’s work in a very friendly way to people who (like me) are not exactly Egyptologists. His channel even boasts some of his own discoveries, that, at least I think, are breakthroughs in the field - including a very compelling case for the function of the Great Pyramid itself. If you like to fall asleep listening to a voice, this is great for that too. Go check it out!

PS. Have you seen the all-new FREE Pricing Workbook we just released? This is part of what's mentioned in the What I’m Working On section. You can get it here OR see more details.