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Artist Resources

Daily Inspiration: Leonard E. Read has Faith in the Pencil

"The lesson I have to teach is this: Leave all creative energies uninhibited. Merely organize society to act in harmony with this lesson. Let society's legal apparatus remove all obstacles the best it can. Permit these creative know-hows freely to flow. Have faith that free men and women will respond to the Invisible Hand. This faith will be confirmed. I, Pencil, seemingly simple though I am, offer the miracle of my creation as testimony that this is a practical faith, as practical as the sun, the rain, a cedar tree, the good earth.”

Leonard E. Read was an economist, with a thoroughly creative brain. He suggests in his memoir that if you have faith in the action of the pencil, that if you apply pressure while holding it – lead will be marked on a page, and this is the foundation of being creatively uninhibited. He’s talking about the ins and outs of post-industrial age economic theory, but it can be applied across creative fields too. If you believe in your art work with the same practicality as the sun, rain or a cedar tree, you’ll get a lot of good work done. Hopefully with the same regularity as the nature.

Tiger Tangle by micklyn