I had a realization this morning. A really obvious one actually, but I can be dense sometimes. When I do something for me and my own reasons, I succeed. When I do something to prove myself, or get approval, or from a sense of guilt, I never get anywhere. Really simple, but it explains a [...]
I started painting this morning and 40 minutes in, realized I’d made a real mess of things. Sometimes it happens. You get bogged down in the details, and you lose sight of your greater vision. Whenever this happens, I sit down and brainstorm what I can do to save the painting. In some cases “save [...]
Don’t worry, I’m not going to start telling you that you need to eat organic foods and reduce your carbon footprint – many others are doing that far better than I could. No, I’m talking about my business, my career. Lately, I’ve woken up to the merits of organic growth. Note: this post will ramble [...]
It seems that a focused creative output has some side effects. Since the first week of April, I’ve finished 4 paintings and I’m about half way through 2 more. I’m feeling really good about my productivity right now. I seem to have found the sweet spot – a routine that works well for my creativity [...]
So on Friday, I announced that I’m doing a thing – a live painting marathon and auction. Which on the one hand, I’m totally excited for. And on the other hand – oh my god. So nervous! It’s just triggered all of my fears and all of my monsters. Self promotion It kinda makes me [...]
I’ve been thinking lately about how I had to cut “Watching Paint Dry” short rather unexpectedly. And I know a lot of people enjoyed it and would have liked to have seen the final show, but because I made the decision literally an hour beforehand, I didn’t have a chance to give people a ton [...]
Sometimes I drive Jesse nuts. He’ll ask me to do something (“Can you grab that plate for me?”) and my response is always, “Why? What do you need it for?” Not in an offensive way, of course. I’m happy to grab the plate. But I’m a questioner, a poker and prodder of life. I [...]
So I feel like I need to return to this subject and make a few clarifying points. Because I’m afraid I’ve been misunderstood. Lisa Call left this comment on my blog yesterday: I think this post is interesting in that it demonstrates that there are definitely some very negative ways to interpret the words success [...]
Two very loaded words, I know. And they’re tossed around so much that we don’t even pay them that much attention anymore. We just assume that they’re Important. The thing is though – what do they mean? What is success? What is failure? They’re tricky questions to answer. Is success making hundreds of thousands of [...]
It’s pretty much the greatest thing ever. Umm, not the painting (I’m not that conceited) but the fact that I finished something? Even a little something? Huge. I am celebrating. Probably with chocolate. I know I’ve been pretty absent here lately, but I’m going to try and keep you guys posted on my creative progress [...]
