The weekly podcast that helps you fight your creative battles!
Hosted by three professional game developers by day, and writer (S. M. Carter), musician (George Spanos), and artist (Eric Vedder) by night.
See liner notes for each show at warwithart.com
What happens when the drive to create something great becomes the very thing that stops you from making anything at all?
In this random-show episode of The War with Art, we talk about the post-TennoCon crash, the pressure to always be productive, and what happens when optimizing creativity starts to kill the joy of creating.
From reading physical books and rediscovering old musical tastes to experimenting with the opposite of our usual habits, we explore the value of curiosity, rest, and making things simply for the fun of it.
Maybe getting unstuck doesn't mean working harder. Maybe it means making mistakes, following unexpected interests, and remembering how to play.
In This Episode
00:00 — The post-TennoCon comedown and the creative void that follows a big project.
03:30 — Books, dreams, and giving your brain room to wander.
06:00 — The surprising satisfaction of making things away from a computer.
09:00 — Curiosity, wonder, and trusting the creative process.
12:00 — The Shining and the dangers of all work and no play.
14:30 — An experiment in doing the opposite of your usual habits.
19:00 — When productivity becomes the enemy of creativity.
22:00 — Why mistakes and detours aren't necessarily wasted time.
24:00 — Remembering how to play without worrying about the outcome.
Books and Ideas Mentioned
Wind, Sand and Stars — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Acid for the Children — Flea
Big Magic — Elizabeth Gilbert
Tao Te Ching
The Shining
Thanks for listening to The War with Art, where we talk about the messy, frustrating, occasionally ridiculous business of trying to make things.
9 Sept 2026
Oblique Strategies: "Use an Unacceptable Colour"
George, Eric, and Sheldon draw another prompt from Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt’s iconic Oblique Strategies deck. This episode’s pull delivers a simple yet provocative constraint: "Use an unacceptable color."
From out-of-key "blue notes" in jazz and microtonal progressive rock to structural leaps in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, we explore how breaking established rules creates lasting friction. We dive into visual art history with Hans Holbein’s 1533 painting The Ambassadors—and its jarring 3D anamorphic skull—while sharing personal anecdotes on using deliberate oddities to unstick graphic novels, music production, and newsletters.
The conversation closes on a reassuring truth: leaning into "unacceptable" creative choices isn't just a trick to surprise an audience—it's often the precise spark required to entertain yourself and jumpstart stalled momentum.
Timestamps
00:24 — Wilderness edition in Kincardine and Oblique Strategies intro
02:04 — Pulling the card: "Use an unacceptable color"
02:46 — Breaking key signatures: Out-of-bounds notes in music
05:54 — Graphic novels and structural contrast in Aardehn
07:48 — Mold-breakers and unexpected choral shifts 08:54 — Dostoevsky, Moby Dick, and jarring tonal shifts in literature
11:45 — Visual contrast and the anamorphic skull in The Ambassadors
13:28 — Blue notes, microtonal guitars, and playing between the frets
18:24 — Secret themes and using weird constraints to unstick writing
20:38 — How absurd prompts kickstart creative momentum
25 Aug 2026
Aardehn is DONE!
A small victory in the War with Art.
In this episode
What it actually feels like to finish a major creative project
The strange emptiness that can follow years of focused work
Why finishing something can feel a little like grieving
Learning to accept that a work is finished—even when you can still see things you'd change
The transition from making a project to letting other people experience it
The long journey of Aardehn: Awakening
Returning to Fan Expo, where the Kickstarter began
Finally getting a physical copy of the book in our hands
Why it's important to celebrate the wins, even in an endless War with Art
And, of course, Sheldon and Eric want to give a huge thanks to everyone who's been listening, backed, and following along on the journey.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.8 / 5
6 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
3 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 27 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
41
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
32
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