Bake 1000 bad loafs
Then you might make a good loaf.
Maybe.
Before most folks even landed at MagicCon Minneapolis, before the buzz of the convention hall, the roar of the Shivan Dragon hanging from the ceiling, and the cheers from the stage during Game Knights Live, there was a small dinner downtown. It was at a place called Tosca, and was maybe the thing I was looking forward to most of the entire trip. It was a time when ‘Vorthos’ Mike Linnemann, Sam from Rhystic Studies, and myself could sit down to dinner before we all got pulled in different directions and “went to work” for the weekend.
Late to Dinner by Kev Walker
We ordered a round of local beers, each tried each one, and then picked our favorite. Shortly after, an unordered loaf of focaccia appeared at the table, compliments from the chef. He and Mike go way back, and the bread and accoutrements were, in a word, incredible. For the next few hours we talked about Magic, life, the hustle, writing, art, and all of those things the three of us have in common and hold near to our hearts. A dinner like this is something nigh impossible to do once an event begins, and I’m ever thankful for the time and space I get to share with these guys.
Rocco, Street Chef (Detail) by Jack Hughes
As we finished, a wrapped loaf of focaccia bread arrived for each of us, and chef Adam Vickerman stopped by the table on his way down the sidewalk. We thanked him for the meal, and as he and Mike caught up, it came back to the bread. Mike mentioned he’d been following Vickerman’s focaccia journey: a new loaf each day until he got it just right. What Chef Adam said, three very simple words, would stick with us for the weekend:
“Bake it everyday”
The three of us looked at each other and smiled. The hours of conversation, everything we’d talked about up to that point, could succinctly be summed up into those three words. It’s something I’ll never forget.
Bake Into A Pie by Zoltan Boros
Bake It Everyday
While these words “bake it everyday” might be new, you may be more familiar with the 10,000 Hour Rule popularized by one of my favorite authors, Malcolm Gladwell, in his bestselling book “Outliers.” The idea, distilled down, is that it takes an average of 10,000 hours of practice in order to gain what can be considered mastery level proficiency in a given thing. Mileage varies based on the particular skill, and obviously there are exceptions to the rule because it is an average. But it’s something I’ve thought about a lot since I began writing regularly five years ago. The nuance to understanding this idea is summarized by Gladwell from the original study:
“The point of Simon and Chase’s paper years ago was that cognitively complex activities take many years to master because they require that a very long list of situations and possibilities and scenarios be experienced and processed.”
Let’s think about the bread. Having never done it myself, my assumption was making focaccia bread might fall into this very category of ‘cognitively complex activities’, and after a bit of digging, found that to certainly be correct. Ingredients, and all the particulars of each one, play a huge part. Order of Operations. Process. Baking Temperature. Each possibility, as it were, plays its own role, and that’s just to get it made, not even to make it taste good. Thousands of different situations and endless experimentation can be done until someone finds the secret which makes their bread both good and their own.
You know this isn’t a baking column, so you guessed it; this too is true of art. Everyone’s early work looks as you’d expect. Donato Giancola didn’t immediately start churning out work like this:
Cartographer by Donato Giancola. Traditional.
He too, started with this:
Dungeon Master’s Screen by Donato Giancola, c.1981-82. Photo from the artist.
These pieces are often on display in his portfolio at shows, to show folks that everyone takes the journey. It’s baking the bread everyday that gets one to where they need to be. The thousands of combinations of materials, the endless experimentation, the perpetual practice and constant learning. To again reference Gladwell, this gives one the experience, knowledge, and preparation to hone a talent and head towards achievement..
Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar by Ryan Pancoast
Let’s come full circle back to the bread I bake. I’ve been writing articles at Hipsters for five years now. It took a long time to get them right, and longer to get (most) to what I would consider ‘good.’ I think about what I write about everyday. I look at hundreds of artworks every week, and thousands every month. It’s that constant exposure to variables and situations that creates understanding. It’s what lets me put words in the right order, and create meaning-making experiences for the folks who read my work. Even if it’s the 11:30pm pop into Scryfall to check something, or peeping on an artist’s website at 6am, each is a step forward. You have to bake it everyday.
Wrapping Up
This article is not what I intended to write this week. But after a full weekend of immersion with my people and those three words ringing in my ear, it was what I needed to put to paper. It doesn’t matter if you’re a chef, an artist, a writer, a content creator, a Magic player, or really anything else; if you’re reading this article, I charge you to live by these three words.
Do the very best at whatever it is you want to do, and do not give up. Don’t get discouraged when the first, or second, or tenth, or hundredth thing you do still isn’t what you’d like it to be. It will be someday. Be thankful that no one read the first couple articles, or watched the first few videos, or looked at the first page of the sketchbook. It’s probably not great, but you needed the experience; I know I did. Never let anyone stifle your creativity, whether you’re under the thumb of someone else that isn’t putting in the work or it’s that little voice in your head telling you that you have nothing to say. They’re both wrong. And remember, as Jerry Saltz always says, finish the damn thing, because it’s no good until it’s complete. But at the same time remember that no one actually dies if you miss a deadline, and sometimes things have to simmer just a little bit longer to get them just right. You’ll know what’s right when the time comes.
I’m going to finish this article the same way I started. The three lines at the top of this article are something Sam sent me once we were home. It’s simple, and poetic. I added the mantra to the beginning and the end, and now I think it’s complete. A serendipitous slogan, and something to always keep in mind, for all of us who travel down the creative path.
Bake It Everyday.
Bake 1000 bad loafs
Then you might make a good loaf.
Maybe.
Bake It Everyday.
Donny Caltrider (he/him) is a Senior Writer at Hipsters of Coast writing about all things related to the art of Magic: The Gathering and the larger imaginative realism genre. He has an M.A. in Museum Studies from Johns Hopkins University and enjoys telling stories about art, objects, and the intersection of fantasy with real-life. When he’s not writing for Hipsters or working with artists, you can find him traveling with his wife, petting his two cats, and watching the Baltimore Orioles.