Category: Creativity

My new store is named Iota. just a small space which I love and it is pink. It is going to be filled with things I love and that is all. I will not let anything in that is not what I love.
Every store should be like that. Every dream should be like that.
Every painting should be like that.
You should never never do something just because you think someone will buy it.
You should love it.
Or else you will hate your job eventually and let that stop you from being yourself. You will become a mad person that does not know why you are mad.
You will be sad and not know why.
You can make yourself love something if you put your mind to it so it is not impossible but that should be the goal.
love should be the goal.
Does that sound hippy dippy. well then so be it.
I love going into my store to be and just sitting there looking and dreaming and soaking up juices so I can be a fountain of love.
I will guarantee you that if you do that people will love your store too because you will be a magnet and attract them. That also sounds hippy but it also is true.
If I was going to die next month I would still open the store.
That is the thing. YOU have to love it that much.
It is the most fun thing in the world and it will be wildly successful because it can not be anything but. It is pure.

I came across an artist that did such beautiful paintings that I cannot stop thinking about them.
Sometimes when you see work that leaves you awestruck it is hard to go on.
I literally needed a break from thinking about my own work and had to just think about hers.
When I am in the presence of a master I know when to be quiet.
This work is so important that I will not bla bla about it and just let you look.
Shhhhh we are in the presence of a master painter!

I think some people have an unsatisfactory idea of what humility is. A humble person does not think of themselves. They think of others and what can they do to help first and foremost. A humble person does not sit in the corner and not do anything because they are so humble they want someone else more capable than them to do everything.
Hey babe wake up and smell the coffee. You are a self absorbed snob and are hiding behind a false humility mask.
Get out there and give what you have to the world.
don’t had anything under a bushel or a sad face or a shy attitude.
Shy people are not humble they are self absorbed.
I am saying this to my self because even though I am a loud mouth sort of person sometimes I act shy when don’t want to do something.
I am only talking to myself so don’t get any ideas I am thinking of anyone else.
Even loud super confident wacko people like me can pull that card.
No fake humility.
I just realized this while I was weeding the winter weeds.
Them thar weeds was a speaking to me!

I have this store that I am renting and it is just sitting there waiting for me to do something to it or in it or for it.
LIttle store is very sad because nobody has taken care of her.
A store is like the owner so it is a female store.

Ok that is thought A.
Now thought B which is related to thought A.
One of the children in my art class drew a picture and I asked her to tell me about it.
She said it was four roses in a bowl and you have to add a cup of honey and stir it and it would make a flower bed.
I thought that was brilliant . What you can learn from a three year old.
My little store needs some honey and it needs to be stirred up and then it will be a flower bed.
That is what I want a flower bed where people and come pick flowers and bring them home to make their lives better.

Even though we have only done four classes and that translates into 8 hours with the children , I am beginning to see how they are and how they will be for the rest of their life.
Teaching art to a very small class is the only way to go. Art is a relational experience and sort of a sacred space as they are exploring their most personal and tender parts of themselves.
Caring for that area of their life at this young and tremendously vulnerable age is a great responsibility.
They are formulating who they think they are in this world and this is the time where you decide you are able to communicate on a unique level to the rest of the world. Well how important is that.
Let me tell you about Aiden. He is a 7 year old boy.
He has a quiet spirit and is very bright and articulate. He is able to quickly observe changes to his surroundings and makes comments about them.
He draws a picture using only part of the paper. I want him to use the whole thing because he has a lot to get out. His personality is very obedient and compliant charming. He is tremendously thoughtful too.
So naturally he is a total joy to be around.
I sense a profound well within him of talent and I want to be there when it starts coming up.
I figured that because he likes to draw small concise things I should give him bigger and bigger paper to work on so he will be forced to go outside his comfort area.
Yesterday he did an upside down drawing and commented that he thought that version was much better than the right side up one he had done earlier.
It was not an easy drawing he was coping either.
He did exactly what I told him to do and only look at the picture one line at a time and draw really slowly.
Another exercise we did was to draw a number over and over again on a large piece of paper till the whole space was covered. At first he is a neat row of 7’s across the top in a methodical manner, but when I said I did not want to see any paper showing at the end he started making giant 7’s really fast and furiously which is what I wanted him to do. Then we did a whole page of curved lines and he made these wonderful curves all over with abandon. I was really wishing I had a bigger space for the kids to do some expressive body movements right after that and then go right into super slow drawing. I have this feeling that that would be a great way to access a deeper part of his ability in super slow.

I am thinking next class I will give him an even more complex cityscape to draw.
We are going to the Glass museum on Friday and I will teach the kids how to see with their whole body.
This is a technique that I stumbled upon when I was in New York and did not want to forget anything that I saw in the museums.