Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known. –Oscar Wilde.

I am for an art that takes its forms from the lines of life itself, that twists and extends and accumulates and spits and drips and is heavy and coarse and blunt and sweet and stupid as life itself. –Claes Oldenburg (1929-)

Do not imagine that Art is something which is designed to give gentle uplift and self-confidence. Art is not a brassiere. At least, not in the English sense. But do not forget that brassiere is the French word for life-jacket. — Julian Barnes (1946-), English writer. Flaubert’s Parrot.

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Every artistic discipline that strives to say something needs practice and some deep thinking if true Art is to be made (as opposed to mere commerce).

Here’s a video clip of a conversation between Matt Lauer and the brilliant and insightful scholar Michael Eric Dyson about the soul of Hip Hop in support of Dyson’s new book, Know What I Mean?: Refletions on Hip-Hop.

Want to learn more about the best ways to practice? Get an e-mail with a discount code when The Practice of Practice is published (June, 2014). To learn more about the book, check out a sample from The Practice of Practice.