Month: November 2010

Doing something different than you have done before is audacious. Who are you to think your idea is better than everyone else. How come nobody has thought of this before if it is such a good idea. There are millions of people who could have thought of this first so why do you think you are the chosen one???
You ARE the chosen one.

You might have the best idea for where you are in the whole world.
Ideas are not doled out to the only the smartest people on the block. They are doled out to the ones who listen and ACT. You can’t just think about it and say oh that is my idea.
An idea without legs is just nothing. NO thing.
But an idea with guts and bricks and mortar, well that is the building of a nation.
If you have a good idea you MUST do it or you will not get any more good ideas.
People that act on one good idea will get another and another and another.
This is true. nothing less than flat out true.

I have been reading obituaries of late. They mostly say how loved the person was and that they lived and died and went to high school and had a job and some kids etc.

I think everyone should write their own obituary . It is the last thing you have to say to anyone on this earth. The profundity of that is overwhelming. It is the last time you have to say what you think is important to tell anyone who will listen. The last thing.

I would say what I learned by being alive. I would not list my accomplishments because it no longer matters. You do not sit around trying to justify your life by listing accomplishments. Life is a gift and what we do with it is our job, Nobody has to justify what is a gift. Nobody deserves to live. Nobody. It’s all a gift. The time we have is a gift. What you say before you leave this world should be so wonderful and life-giving to everyone you leave behind. Nobody cares if yo were the president of your class or a CEO now. They only care what you have to say right now as you are preparing to leave.

I know that this is not the usual approach and I read on the internet that an obituary is to sum your life up and notify others of your death. That is a very small treatment for a very big occasion. What you have to say in the last few months before you die – that is what I want to know.

Brother If I had a dollar for every time I thought I should be farther along than this by now, I would be rich. Now it will happen because a new agent is in my life and she is a wonder. Her mind just clicks clicks clicks away. WE are an unstoppable combo. There is no doubt that this is the missing link.

There is always a missing link. there is always something that you just arent seeing that someone else can see. We always stop ourselves from doing what we know we can. We do it to ourselves. Nobody outside is doing it. Nobody else cares.

When you sell tons of art two things happen. You can do more work and you can go more places and you can bless more people. Okay, three things.  It is sort of like creating a company. Companies are good because they make a product and employ people. All good, especially now. So if you should be a company and not just a person alone think about that. In this life you should do all you can do not just for you but for everyone else too. Its not all about you.

Go be a company!

photo by this person

This is a story about a rug and a painting.

I got the rug at a yard sale. A really nice Karastan rug. It needed cleaning but man oh man the quality is there. I take the rug home and put it on the floor. It has a stain in it that sort of looks like a woman. It really does look like a woman so I paint it when I get to the studio to just start out with. The painting turns out great and I am totally in love with it.

Now my question to you is am I seeing women everywhere because I am an artist or would that same stain look like something else to another person and just a stain to another person? IS everything meant to be?  Why do we pick what we pick and draw what we draw?  Why do we see what we see???? Is it only there when we are there are do our minds fill in the blanks?

You will find what you are looking for. If you know this you will be thrilled to start looking. Everything is already there.  We just have to find it.

My new studio is in the back of a dress shop. This is quite a change from the third floor walk up in an empty building where I painted mostly alone for 4 years.

I thought artist should be alone to work and it seemed nice and monastery like. But I am a person that thrives on people being around me. And with that said it makes more sense to be in a peopled place.

It is like the sky opened up and the dress shop owner came into my life and we clicked and then the studio in a dress shop idea was born. It is not like I was thinking I should move to a dress shop. But now that I see it in the flesh, it is like this idea painted itself into my life without me even trying. Everything just happened. One thing after another.

I am so thankful for the first studio because if not for it I would not have been here now.

This blog is about little steps that lead to a new place. Little inconsequential things, become monumental in the big picture. The big picture is made of lots of little things going someplace you don’t know about yet. Isn’t that exciting to think about.

It’s like you are driving the car but you aren’t driving. someone else is. Each of us had a new studio being formed all the time. The wonder of it all is really quite beautiful.