Rebel Yell = "HELL YEAH!"
Newsletter + On This Day
Frustrated with some ongoing YouTube shenanigans, I sat down and made a bunch of digital art last night. Messy, abstract expression-inspired digital art. This is the kind of art I make when I’m mad as hell and need to chill it with a skillet.
As a kid, I would alternate between coloring inside the lines on one page of my coloring book and outside the lines on the next.
This amused my dad and frustrated my mom.
Dad was a freethinking, independent type. Mom was a conventional, follow-the-rules type. And me, their only kid, ended up a motley mix of them both—both in personality and temperament. Two—maybe three—parts dad, one part mom.
“Rebels,” Mom would call us when she was tired of our mess.
“HELL YEAH!” Dad and I would shout in unison…then quickly pipe down.
We both loved her and her square ways too much to piss her off (for long).
Dad was a man of few words. He was a deep thinker and a restless tinkerer. He always kept his hands busy—fixing things, building from scratch, or flipping through his latest sci-fi novel. While he never considered himself artistic or creative, I always thought he was both. He taught me that it’s a good idea—especially when you’re pissed off—to keep your hands moving and make something.
Last night, YouTube was the chaos. Between the gamified algorithm limiting views and some religious zealots spamming Bible verses in the comments, I was fed up with the platform’s noise and nonsense.
That’s when Dad’s philosophy kicked in: When it feels like the world is boxing you in, break out your tools and make something new. So, that’s exactly what I did—I pulled out my trusty iPad and made some messy, abstract, digital art that breaks the rules, ignores the lines, and lets me yell “HELL YEAH!” from the inside out.
As I layered on colors, “paint,” and textures, it reminded me of my childhood—half coloring inside the lines, half coloring outside the lines.
Only now, I’ve fully embraced both sides. And the colors are digital.
There’s freedom in making something that doesn’t fit neatly into a box, that doesn’t have to be advertiser-, algorithm- or family-friendly.
The digital work above—Throwing (Mom’s) Spaghetti At The Wall—is a tribute to my dad’s quiet rebellion, my mom’s colorful cuisine, and my own own personal creativity.
It’s the kind of art I make when I’m not interested in following anyone’s rules. And, like it or not, life is messy. So might as well rebel, break a few rules, and yell “HELL YEAH!”
When the world says color inside the lines, sometimes the only “right” response is to grab a bigger brush and throw more paint or pixels at the canvas.
Here’s to shaking off the frustration and creating through the noise and nonsense.
Thanks for reading and subscribing,
Clint
FOUND PHOTOS OF THE DAY
ON THIS DAY = OCTOBER 3
BIRTHDAYS
1856 = Timothy Thomas Fortune = American journalist and publisher
1900 = Thomas Wolfe = American novelist
1915 = Ray Stark, American film producer
1925 = Gore Vidal = American novelist, screenwriter, and critic 🌈
1941 = Chubby Checker = American singer-songwriter
1954 = Stevie Ray Vaughan = American singer-songwriter
1959 = Jack Wagner = American actor and singer
1962 = Tommy Lee = Greek-American singer-songwriter
1964 = Clive Owen = English actor
1969 = Gwen Stefani, American singer-songwriter, actor, and fashion designer
1973 = Neve Campbell = Canadian actor
1975 = India Arie = American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
1976 = Seann William Scott = American actor and producer
1978 = Jake Shears = American singer-songwriter 🌈
EVENTS
1789 = POTUS George Washington proclaims Thursday November 26, 1789, a Thanksgiving Day.
1863 = The last Thursday in November is declared as Thanksgiving Day by POTUS Abraham Lincoln.
1922 = First facsimile photo sent over city telephone lines, Washington, D.C.
1949 = WERD, the first black-owned radio station in the United States, opens in Atlanta, Georgia.
1957 = The California State Superior Court rules that the Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems is not obscene.
1961 = The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) announces a revision of its production code: “In keeping with the culture, the mores and the values of our time,” the revision advises, “homosexuality and other sexual aberrations may now be treated with care, discretion and restraint.” The new ruling paves the way for the release of films like The Children’s Hour and Advise and Consent, but the MPPDA later amends the revision to specify that “sexual aberration” may be “suggested but not actually spelled out.”
1961 = The Dick Van Dyke Show premieres on CBS.
1973 = NYC health administrator Howard J. Brown comes out publicly.
1980 = Congressman and founding member of the American Conservative Union, Robert Bauman, is arrested in Washington, D.C., for soliciting sex from a 16yo boy.
1983 = The AFL-CIO labor union votes to support gay rights legislation.
1990 = The German Democratic Republic is abolished and becomes part of the Federal Republic of Germany; the event is celebrated as German Unity Day.
1992 = Sinéad O'Connor rips up a picture of Pope John Paul II on SNL.
1995 = O. J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
2004 = Desperate Housewives premieres on ABC.
2007 = Pushing Daisies premieres on ABC.
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As you posted, you are more like dad than mom. Don't care much for "modern art". Dad sounds like fun. I like colors inside the lines. Was surprised the AFLCIO voted in favor of Gay rights legislation.
I usually say stuff it and go for a 🍺😎 Cheers DougT