pablo picasso was one of the most
influential artists
in the world a true creative giant we
all know that and yet
the question remains how does somebody
get to that level how does somebody get
to the level of being
so prolific that they create over 50 000
works over the course of their lifetime
leaving behind a series of masterpieces
that are coveted to this day what am i
trying to do here exactly i have found
it fascinating to put myself in the
shoes of people that inspire me
that have shaped history as a way to
deep dive into their worlds and to see
what i can learn
more personally i actually have really
mixed feelings about picasso and the
person that he was
and the impact that he had on humanity
so to get to the bottom of this
i'm going to spend some time in his
world living the way that he did
i want to better understand the man that
was this complicated
artist
oh man i'm really excited to do this
honestly
but i first want to share what i've
gathered on his schedule during his time
in paris this process of creating a
picture of how he lived was greatly
helped by mason curry's book daily
rituals
how artists work basically picasso would
start off his day at a time i think most
of us
would consider quite late 11am and for
the next few hours he would have
breakfast
and then see friends up until about 2 or
3 p.m
at the boulevard he would shut himself
in the studio from 2pm
and work there until at least dusk he'd
have dinner from 10 to 11 p.m and then
he'd go back to work for another four
hours
until three a.m and then he'd go to bed
and the cycle would begin again
i'm not gonna lie this routine this
schedule
is very exciting to me in how counter it
is to every self-help
self-improvement and productivity guru
out there how many times have we all
heard that we must have a morning
routine
and this approach essentially
obliterates the potential of doing that
considering i'm going to be starting at
the end
of the morning essentially in the
afternoon this is more or less the
opposite of what i did when i tried
ben franklin's routine i don't know i
guess i'm curious
and i will admit i found it very
difficult to maintain my own
sleep schedule in terms of regular hours
and waking up early i found that i
naturally go to bed quite late
and so i actually think this is going to
be easier for me to
stick with and follow through on i'm
also really excited about this because
i have found i am so much more creative
at night in the evening
and this seems like it's built around
that
interestingly it didn't seem like
painting ever tired him out that's why
painters live so long
while i work i leave my body outside the
door the way muslims take off their
shoes before entering the mosque
[Music]
all right um
[Music]
day one good morning hello this is gonna
take a little bit of time
for me to get used to this is quite late
it's already 11 30.
honestly over the last few weeks i've
been building up to this point where i
wake up this late but even
even then it's just late this is late
i'm not used to this
i'd like to paint a lot this week it's
something that i don't make enough time
for but it's also going to have to be
balanced out with
my other work making this video writing
all the other projects that i have
in the works i guess i'm going to have
it's not really a breakfast
he didn't really have breakfast at this
point it's lunch
i'm excited about this because i feel
like picasso did such a good job
of creating so much space for creative
work
he was singularly focused on this and i
love that
so let's see where this takes me there's
one thing that i've learned
in doing this it's that adapting to a
new schedule can take time
hello it is 12 23
a.m as in night time and
i would ordinarily be probably heading
to bed
right around now but i will be painting
for the next two and a half hours
it's kind of fun to give myself
permission to do this creative work at
this sort of
unorthodox time i don't need anybody's
permission
okay so i feel a need to give a little
bit of context here
picasso has played a significant role in
my life as
a large source of creative inspiration
my mom is a painter
among other things and so she really i
found that she really inspired me to
start painting
on my own as a kid as a teenager i
remember
my first paintings being in the cubist
style because i was just drawn to it and
it's fair to say that he was
one of my heroes growing up but as i got
older
and learned more about him my views on
him definitely changed it became clear
to me that he was not someone i would
ever want to meet
i've done a considerable amount of
research and reading on the man
and i think quite honestly i am afraid
i'd be disappointed with what i would
find
on one hand he spearheaded entire art
movements
like cubism among other things and had
this incredible ability
to reinvent himself decade after decade
but
at the same time he was once described
to me by the french as
ambu undrinkable self-absorbed
competitive showman from what i've
gathered he was kind of an
especially with the women that
he was with which undeniably affects how
i see him
and there are no caveats to that and yet
you will find him
in all of the most prestigious museums
around the world and this is in no way a
justification
for the human being that he was but so
much of his work was
brilliant and illustrated in empathy for
people that had suffered at the hands of
violence
denouncing war it's hard for me to
square these contradictions
all in one person all right
i wanted to give a little update here it
is day three
and i've struggled a little bit to get
into the flow of this routine
but i have an idea i think what's
missing right now
is a commitment a singular commitment to
a task
at a time i have noticed that in my life
i'm
i attempt to multitask or jump from one
thing to another
far too often and i'm doing this to
myself so in the spirit
of picasso's incredible focus on his
work
i've decided to split up my days a
little bit differently it's still
in the framework of picasso's schedule
but
what i'm going to do is commit four hour
blocks of time to the three main things
that i want to focus on right now
video writing and painting
i'm ready for this okay i'm ready for
this even having said that
i feel like i've gotten a lot of work
done already and
i've been enjoying painting quite a bit
i'm taking this as an opportunity to be
once again more mindful and more
intentional about my work
i think this is the secret sauce right
here like we all talk about all the
techniques and the
packs and the productivity boosting
whatever
this is the secret sauce it is having
control over the intentional
flow of your attention and energy it is
day four
things are going great i honestly really
enjoying this so much
i thought i would share a progress
update
i don't really know where it's going but
i'm having a lot of fun with it i might
tweak the guy
a little bit still this one i feel a
little bit more mixed about
honestly i like the feeling painting for
me has
always just been a therapeutic hobby
really more than anything else i don't
think i want to necessarily make money
from it
i don't think i could in the first place
much like winston churchill who found
that painting helped him deal with
depressive episodes in his life i just
find
that this helps me deal with the
stresses in my life and
i'll be honest i'm finding the
permission to do this at this hour
incredibly liberating it's become my
favorite part of the day
obviously it would be a massive luxury
to be able to paint all day
and i am working throughout the day but
these hours at night
where i'm alone painting have been
just glorious i get to be in my own
little universe
there's nothing better there's nothing
better i have more canvases here so
we're going to keep going
one thing that really sticks out to me
is how much he despised distractions
without great solitude no serious work
is possible he's a famous quote of his
today is day eight i decided to continue
doing this for a second week
to really give this a fair run i'm
starting to really miss having mornings
i'm not gonna lie i do feel sluggish
well into the beginning of the afternoon
when picasso really
began working so i'm feeling like over
the long term this would be kind of an
unhealthy rhythm to maintain
i'm trying to squeeze in working out and
errands and everything else that needs
to happen
outside of work in those first two three
hours that i have in the day
he worked up until the day he died at
age 91
literally painting till 3 a.m on sunday
april 8th
which was just hours before his death
that's insane
that is dedication right there that's
one of the things that i like so much
about picasso or or rather what he
represents for me
he was unapologetic about what he did
think about the time and place too think
about the world that he came from
what he was doing was so different from
what existed at the time
what was acceptable all right we're
coming to the end of week two and i
think this is where this experiment is
going to come to an end
if anything this has made me intensely
aware of how much multitasking i do and
how detrimental that can be
there is no replacement for singular
focus on something
i really enjoyed large portions of these
last couple of weeks but
this does not feel like a fully
sustainable
rhythm for me at least and increasingly
i've just felt like i've been out of
sync
it's really hard to feel motivated and
to like get going when
you wake up so late for me this schedule
really illustrates that there is no
correct way to go about
living your life and finding a rhythm
that fits you
is the most important thing he did all
this without any visible
knowledge interest or application of
anything pertaining to productivity
if anything this reinforces my feelings
that productivity and so many things
that are attached to this word
is so overhyped so unnecessary i think
all anyone
really needs to live by are a few core
principles
a mission an outlet an energy and i try
to paint a little bit more of a nuanced
picture of his life and his work
it is clear that he was dedicated to
what he did
but i wonder to what cost you cannot
have the level of genius
and output of somebody like picasso
without a darker
tortured side there's a quote from the
book life with picasso that was written
by
francoise gilo which was one of his
lovers
also an accomplished painter that really
illustrates
this point everybody has the same energy
potential
the average person wastes his in a dozen
little ways
i bring mind to bear on only one thing
my paintings
and everything is sacrificed to it you
and everyone else
myself included he strikes me as a
creative genius with a certain degree of
emotional poverty in terms of
intelligence
uh or support this made him destructive
in many ways
which makes me sad honestly this is a
reminder that
even my heroes are human and that human
beings can be petty they can be lost
they can be that being said i
cannot deny
despite all of my critiques on his
character
i truly respect his work and his
devotion to what he did picasso had a
fundamental belief
that in his words art is a form of magic
and i think that's a pillar of the
legacy that he left behind he really did
things
his own way little did he know he would
be inspiring artists a century later
or maybe he did and we'll never know
every child is an artist
the problem is how to remain an artist
once he grows up
this video is sponsored by audible which
is probably my favorite app
on my phone if you haven't tried audible
i highly recommend it
yeah i don't know i feel like i've
learned so much
thanks to the fact that i could listen
to audiobooks audible is the leading
provider of spoken word entertainment
all in one place
they have a humongous library of
audiobooks and podcasts i'm a big fan of
listening to audiobooks when i paint
before i go to bed when i go on walks
there's a lot of opportunities one
audiobook that absolutely blew my mind
was the botany of desire by michael
pollan
i felt like it opened my eyes and the
writing was sublime
if you have any interest in nature or
human psychology i highly recommend it i
remember listening to it while driving
to different shoots
a few years ago while i was still
freelancing as a filmmaker he also wrote
and narrated how to change your mind
which was about his exploration in the
world of psychedelics
which was also just fantastic i highly
recommend it you can start listening now
with a 30-day audible trial
choose one audio book and get full
access to the plus catalog
absolutely free just visit audible.com
nathaniel drew
or text nathaniel drew to 500-500 the
link as always
is in the description also by the way
the price for a membership is lower than
usual for a limited time thank you to
audible for sponsoring this video
and thank you to all of you guys for
watching this video i hope you enjoyed
it i really enjoyed making it
and i'd love to know whose daily routine
would you like to see next let me know
and i'll see you soon
you