Harley King

Have you ever listened to silence? These days it is hard to find silence because there is so much white noise. Even in nature there is little silence. We hear the wind, the insects, the birds and the animals. We fill our days with noise from the moment we wake until the moment we sleep. We turn on the television, plug in our iPods, and turn on our computers. 

And some of us are afraid of silence. If silence appears in a conversation, we become nervous. Many of us can't be home by ourselves without turning on the TV or the radio so we have noise. And cell phones allow us to stay connected to human voices so we don't feel alone even if we are deep in the woods. 

I believe silence is a good thing and that we need to find ways to enjoy it more. As an artist and writer I need silence to hear the voice of my muse. Too much chaotic noise blocks the sweet voice of my muse. Do you run from silence or have you learned to appreciate it?

Words can not always communicate what I feel. Sometimes silence is the best response to what happens.  As a writer and speaker I live and breathe by the word. In the beginning was the word and I felt whole. But I have also learned that there is power in silence. Too many words can confuse the communication. I need to allow time for silence. 

Silence allows me to process the tons of information that enters my brain. Silence allows creativity to take root and grow beautiful flowers. Silence allows for reason to prevail over ignorance. Silence helps me find my way through the maze of life. Silence opens my heart like a flower in the morning. 

Take time to enjoy the silences of your life.  Learn to appreciate and love silence.

Harley King

Conversation is becoming a lost art.  People pass each other like shadows in the night, absorbed in their small worlds.  We seldom listen to the stories that people have to share about their lives.  We have little time for family and friends and rarely do we risk speaking to strangers.

Growing up in a small midwestern farming community, we left our doors unlocked and our cars running when we went to the post office.  Everybody knew everyone else and rarely did we meet a stranger.  Our conversations were filled with stories, gossip and laughter.

Yet, today I live in a much different world.  I lock the doors of my car even when it sits in my driveway and I always lock the doors of my house even when I am home.  And most of the people I meet are strangers and rarely do we speak.

Life is about the relationships we develop with family, friends and even strangers on the paths that we choose to travel.  Some of the best conversations that I have had in my life have happened on an airplane with someone I had never met and will never encounter again.  

With strangers, we often open up and share our stories in ways that we do not with family and friends.  We know that the strangers are passing through our lives and that it is unlikely that we will meet again.  When we listen to stories of strangers, there is so much we can learn about the world and the people that inhabit it.  We will often find that we are alike and have much in common.

Listening to the stories of others can spark our creativity and make us better writers and artists.  Something they say may plant a seed that will grow and bear fruit.  Something they say may free us from the chains that bind our thinking.  Listening to the stories of strangers will give us small moments of pleasure and joy.

Georgia O'Keeffe

"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way — things I had no words for."

— Georgia O'Keeffe

American Painter

1887 - 1986

Sometimes words are not enough.  Words can be vague and without meaning.  Words can be phony and fake.  Words can hurt and destroy.  Words can confuse.  Have words ever failed you?  Have words ever failed to communicate what you were feeling?  Have words left you cold and alone?  Don't worship words.  They are only a tool to help us convey the thoughts of our hearts.

Jean-Francois Millet

"I want to put strongly and completely all that is necessary, for I think things weakly said might as well not be said at all."

— Jean-Francois Millet

French Painter

1814 - 1875

Potato Planters
(1861)

Does your art speak with a strong, clear voice so all can hear?  Or is what you say weak, vague and uncertain?  Creative leaders need to make powerful statements through their creative works.  The world needs to know where you stand.  Don't be a shrinking violet.  I am not talking about political or religious statements.  I am talking about sharing your vision of the world — your understanding of truth, your moment of honesty.

What is the message that you want to communicate?  What is in your heart?  What is in your soul?  When we read your stories or observe your paintings, do we hear you?  Speak loud enough for us to hear.  Help us understand the person you have become.  

Elizabeth Bibesco

"It is never any good dwelling on goodbyes.  It is not the being together that it prolongs, it is the parting."

— Elizabeth Bibesco

English Writer

1897 - 1945

Saying goodbye is difficult for some people.  They linger, wanting to stay longer in the company of their friends or family.  Saying hello is difficult for other people.  They are shy and afraid to meet new people.  Are there people in your life to whom you have difficulty saying goodbye?  

I have said goodbye to thousands of people over the years.  I say goodbye to the people who attend my seminars.  We know each other for two or three days.  We are almost like ships passing in the night.  We come together as strangers, share a few stories, laughs and tears before parting often never to see each other again.  So I have learned to say goodbye and to keep moving.

I have often said goodbye to my family because I have traveled so much.  It is much harder to separate from those you love than strangers you meet in the classroom, on an airplane or in a restaurant.  Saying hello to family is easier than saying goodbye.

Saying hello to strangers can be very difficult for me.  I was very shy growing up and still am when I am in a room of strangers.  If I am speaking, I have no problems approaching people who come into my  classroom and greeting them.  On an airplane, I have been known to strike up very enlightening conversations.  But if I attend a seminar as a participant, I usually don't approach the strangers.

Creative leaders must learn to say hello and goodbye if they are to be successful marketing their art.  And in today's world we have to market our products.  We have to attend book signings, art fairs, radio talk shows and if we are lucky TV talk shows.  We have to be good at saying hello and goodbye.

Marvin Gaye, the singer, had a difficult time performing in public.  He often cancelled his concerts because of his anxiety and fear of people.  He had difficulty saying hello.  How about you?  Do you meet people easily or are you filled with fear?

Susan Sontag

"I was not looking for my dreams to interpret my life, but rather for my life to interpret my dreams."

— Susan Sontag

American Author

1933 - 2004

I am a firm believer in dreams.  I believe they have a lot to teach us if we learn how to interpret them.  But I am not in the Jungian camp where dreams have universal meaning.  I think dreams are our own personal mythology.  I believe creative leaders should learn to pay attention to their dreams because they can help us with our writing, painting and other creative endeavors.  Dreams help us find the way through our problems.  They help us change who we are.  They help us become who we need and want to be.

Are you listening to your dreams?  What are they telling you about your life?  Your painting?  Your writing?  Your music?  I would love to have some of you who follow this blog to share a dream that has touched your life or changed your life?  I believe I shared in an early blog about the fact that I dreamed about my wife before I ever met her.  What have your dreams communicated to you?  What have you learned from your dreams?  

Odani Motohiko

"I used to find that idea of an ever changing, impalpable style appealing, but now I want to concentrate on the things I ought to be doing, the things that only I can do.  The result I hope will be works that like the Buddhist statues of the past will be capable of communicating with people for centuries to come."

Odani Motohiko

Japanese Artist

1972 -

Are you doing the creative work that you ought to be doing — that only you can do?  In today's world it is easy to get sidetracked and caught up in projects that have nothing to do with our true work.  There are many people and things that demand our attention and time.  If you don't know what creative work you are supposed to be doing it is easy to get lost.  Do you have a vision of the work that you should be doing?  Do you stay focused or are you easily distracted?

Will the creative work that you are doing still be communicating to generations to come?  Or will your work be forgotten as soon as you leave this world?  No one can predict which poems, or paintings or sculptures will last for centuries and which are meant for the dustbins of time.  Many artists and writers dream and hope that their creative works will give them immortality.    

To see more of Odani Motohiko's creative work, check out this site:

www.voiceyourtemper.com/obsess-were-obsessed/artgraffiti/430-odani-motohiko-sculptures

Medardo Rosso

"What the artist must aim at above all else is this: to produce, by any process whatever, a work which by the life and humanity emanating from it communicates to the beholder . . . ."

— Medardo Rosso

Italian Sculptor

1858 - 1928

Ecce Puer
Behold the Boy
(1906)

Who is the audience for your creative work?  This is a question I have struggled with for years.  Is there an audience for my work?  Is there someone who understands what I am communicating?  First, poetry has a very small readership in this country.  So the audience from which I can draw my readership is very small.  Second, finding this readership is very difficult.  One would hope that one could find a readership among other poets, but there are many people who write poetry who have never read it.  Third, what I write does not fit within the historical categories of poetry.  I don't rhyme or follow western forms.  I did spend seven years writing and studying Japanese haiku which many in the west perceive as an exercise for school children.  So after 35 years of writing, I have yet to find an audience for my writing who will stand in line for six hours to buy my next book.  In fact, there are days I can't give it away.  But I don't let the lack of an audience stop me from writing.  I keep writing and believing that one day someone will read and appreciate.

Wassily Kandinsky

"The artist must have something to say, for mastery over form is not his goal but rather the adapting of form to its inner meaning."

— Wassily Kandinsky

Russian Artist

1866 - 1944

When I graduated from college, I wanted to be a writer, but I had no idea what to write about. I had nothing to say — nothing that I wanted to say.  I had an idea about writing a historical novel about a sleeping preacher who had lived at the beginning of the 20th century.  Maybe through the life of someone else, I would find something to write about.  The novel never materialized.  I failed at the research.

Creative leaders must have something to say — something that needs saying.  If we focus on form but have no substance, we will not be successful.  Substance has the power to overcome weak technique, but technique cannot support a lack of substance.

What are you trying to communicate with your art?  What is the message that you want to deliver to the world.  What is the substance of your writing?  Or have you allowed your mastery of technique to overshadow the substance?

Composition X
(1939)

Sidney Nolan

"Painting is an extension of man's means of communication.  As such, it's pure, difficult, and wonderful."

— Sidney Nolan

Australian Artist

1917 - 1992

All the arts are about communication.  Whether you paint, write, sing or act, you are involved in the process of communicating.  And communication is one of the most difficult aspects of being human.  We never seem to get it right.  Marriages break up over the inability to communicate.  Children don't speak to their parents.  Bosses fail to inspire their employees.

Painting, poetry and novels are highly specialized forms of communication — an attempt by the artist to tell the world what he is feeling.  And sometimes he is successful and sometimes he is not.  Take this painting, Death of Sergeant Kennedy at Stringbark Creek, by Sidney Nolan.  What does it communicate to you?  If I asked 10 different people the same question, I bet I would get 10 different answers.  Communication is very difficult.  If it was easy, we probably would not have a need for creative leaders who work hard at communicating.


Even artists and writers don't always know what they are communicating with their creative work.  Paintings, poetry and novels are often communicating on multiple levels with multiple messages.  The painter, poet and novelist are aware of some of these messages but not all of them.  That is what makes art so fascinating.


If you are interested in feedback from your audience, don't ask whether they liked the work or if it was any good.  Ask: "What does my painting, poem or story communicate to you?"  Then listen with your heart and soul.  You may be amazed at what others see in your work.