Sharon Olds

"Poems come from ordinary experiences and objects, I think.  Out of memory — a dress I lent my daughter on her way back to college; a newspaper photograph of war; a breast self-exam; the tooth fairy; Calvinist parents who beat up their children; a gesture of love; seeing oneself naked over age 50 in a set of bright hotel bathroom mirrors."

— Sharon Olds

American Poet

1942 -

From where does your art come?  As Sharon Olds says, it often comes from the ordinary experiences and objects in our lives.  Poets often find the smallest moments from which to form their poems.  It may be a simple conversation between two people, or a flower laying on a gravestone, or meeting an old friend at the supermarket.  The common place and the everyday is what forms the basis of art.


Where does your art come from?  Is it rooted in reality?  The everyday?  Do you take the smallest of moments and build on them?  Painters capture moments in time?  A brief look at reality?  What holds your attention?  Not everyone paints the same subjects.  We choose different subjects.  Some people paint fields and others paint people.  What fascinates you about the world in which you live?  What demands that you paint it again and again?


Here is a poem by Sharon Olds.  


Grandmother Love Poem
by Sharon Olds


Late in her life, when we fell in love,
I'd take her out from the nursing home
for a chaser and two bourbons.  She'd crack
a joke sharp as a tin lid
hot from the teeth of the can-opener,
and cackle her crack-corn laugh.  Next to her
wit, she prided herself on her hair,
snowy and abundant.  She would lift it up
at the nape of the neck, there in the bar,
and under the white, under the salt-and-
pepper, she'd show me her true color,
the color it was when she was a bride:
like her sex in the smoky light she would show me
the pure black.

Harley King

"May your heart be lighter today."

— Harley King

American Poet, Speaker

1949 -

One year ago tomorrow I wrote my first blog entry.  Today's entry is the last entry of that first year so this quote is my wish for those who have read my blog and stayed with me.  Life is challenging and difficult.  There are many events that can break our hearts and make us want to give up on life.  I don't know what is on your heart today as you read this — maybe it is a terminal diagnosis, a divorce, the death of a loved one or maybe something as simple as a spouse who said something that hurt you. My hope is that you do not let the negativity of the world around bring you down and that you will lighten up.  The world is not coming to an end despite all the doomsday prophets who forecast the coming of the last days.  The world will go on with us or without us.  So don't fret.  Don't worry about what you cannot change.  You are still above ground and there is still hope.  

Mask 15
Pen and Ink
(2008)

I have been teaching people about the importance of touching and hugging for over 20 years.  Experts say we need 8 - 12 hugs a day to be emotionally healthy.  Four hugs is minimum.  Have you received your quota for the day.  If not, go out and give someone a hug.  It can change your life one hug at a time.  And here is a blog hug from me. 


I also teach people about the importance of giving people compliments.  I teach the S-O-S technique of giving a compliment.  S = Sincere.  O = On-time.  S = Specific.  I challenge you to pay 10 different people compliments today.  About 5 years ago, I was in the hospital recovering from surgery.  My nurse was grouchy and grumpy.  I complimented her on her ring and she suddenly brightened up and said it was a gift from her husband.  She also shared that her husband had passed away five years earlier.  You don't know what is on the hearts of the people you meet, so give them a compliment and lighten their hearts.

Here is a poem that I wrote on my 62nd birthday.


A Visitor


Early this morning I opened
the front door to my home
to retrieve the daily newspaper
and found a bearded old man
asleep in a corner of the porch.
I shook him awake and
invited him in for coffee,
an omelet and buttered toast.
As he swallowed the food I had
prepared, he shared the story
of his life and I saw the years
slowly fall away until he was
young again.  In his blue eyes I saw
myself some thirty years earlier
when I too stood at a crossroads
and had decisions to make.
I gave him a thermos of coffee and
a few ham sandwiches before I bid
him farewell.  He shook my hand
and a tear rolled down my cheek.


— Harley King

Maria Shriver

"Poetry can startle you, awaken you, make you fall in love, take your breath away.  When those words sink in, you'll never look at your life or your journey the same way again."

— Maria Shriver

American Journalist, Author

1955 - 

When you find the right poem, it can open up new worlds and change the way you look at life.  And so can a painting, a novel or even a play.  That is the power of art.  Planted within each story, painting or poem are the seeds of awareness that when they sprout in the heart of the reader or observer will change his or her life.

Unfortunately, in the American society, poets and poetry get the short end of the stick.  Fewer and fewer people read it while the number who claim to write it continues to grow.  I am amazed by people claim to write poetry but have never picked up a book and read any.  

One of Maria Shriver's favorite poets is Mary Oliver.  Maria's interview of Mary appears in the April 2011 edition of the Oprah Magazine.  If you haven't read it, you should.  Here is a poem by Mary Oliver that Shriver keeps on her desk. Very inspiring.

The Journey

by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save. 

Here is Maria Shriver reading The Journey in 2010.

Tomas Karkalas

"The shadows define the light and have nothing in common with the darkness."

— Tomas Karkalas

Lithuanian Artist

1955 - 

Without shadows, we can not define the light.  Without light, we can not understand the darkness.  Artists understand the importance of light and shadow in the creation of a painting or drawing.  Writers understand the importance of light and shadow in the telling of a story.  Without evil, we would never understand the power of good.  If we can't experience the good, we won't ever see the evil.  Some would say they are the opposite sides of the same coin.  One cannot exist without the other.  Creative leaders understand the importance of light and dark and the need to see both sides.  Celebrate the light.  Celebrate the shadows.  They are one.

Earth Remembers Everything

Georgia O'Keefe

"It is very hard work to turn out anything that looks like a good painting."

— Georgia O'Keefe

American Artist

1887 - 1986

What is quality?  Or beauty?  Or greatness?  Most of us make judgements about what art we like and what art we hate.  The younger generation rejects the elders.  And the elders look down their noses at the young.  What is popular today may be forgotten tomorrow.  What is rejected today may inspire others tomorrow.  Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder, but often we don't act that way.  Each of us thinks we know what is good, what is great and what is best, but it is only an opinion.  How can one judge if a work of art is great?  What makes a work of art great?  The fact that it is still in museums 200 or 300 years after it was created?  


Let's turn this question around.  What makes a work of art a failure?  How do you know when something fails — when something is no good?  Do you destroy your work because you feel it is no good.  Do you paint over your paintings?  Do you burn your manuscripts?  (I don't throw away anything I create even if I feel it is no good.) Why do people criticize a work of art?  What does the criticism say about the critic?  Who makes the critic the authority?  Can we trust that the critic is correct?  Do critics make mistakes?  I believe critics often make mistakes.  History proves them wrong.  Have faith in your work.  Don't accept the criticism of others.  They are human and often make mistakes.


Enjoy some of O'Keefe's paintings and become inspired.

Naomi Shihab Nye

"I love the solitude of reading.  I love the deep dive into someone else's story, the delicious ache of a last page."

— Naomi Shihab Nye

American Poet, Novelist

1952 - 

One of the great joys of life is reading novels.  From the first page to the last, I enter another world and explore the lives of people who I don't know.  From a very young age I have enjoyed reading novels.  And as Nye says, sometimes I don't want to close the book after I finished the last page.  I don't want the novel to be over.  

I believe we ought to applaud anyone who finishes a novel whether he publishes it or not.  Writing a novel is a lot of work.  I spent four years working on a novel that I have never finished.  John Cheever spent over twenty years writing his first novel.  Some novelists can turn out a book or more a year.  Piers Anthony, author of 36 novels in the Xanth series, works on three novels at the same time.  He is outlining one book, writing a second book, and rewriting a third book.  Are you working on a novel?  Please share your experience with others who read this blog.

If you are not a reader of novels, I would highly recommend it.  In the right hand column of this blog, you can find fourteen of my favorite novels.  Dive into one of these novels and experience the joy of entering another world.

Here is Naomi reading her found poem, One Boy Told Me.  Don't skip this.

Jerry Uelsmann

"I try to  begin working with no preconceived ideas."

— Jerry Uelsmann

American Photographer

1934 -

I have found that there are two ways that creative leaders work.  Some writers, artists, photographers plan their work.  Some writers will outline their entire book before starting to write.  Some artists will have planned their entire painting before painting the final work.  They will even do sketches of what they want to create.

Other creative leaders begin without any preconceived ideas.  They let the creative muse direct where they are going.  They start writing and let the story develop over time.  They start painting and wait to see what happens.

What are your working habits?  Do you plan everything in advance?  Or do you let the muse dictate where you are going?  Or do you do some combination of the two.

Here is a video of some of Uelsmann's surrealistic photography.

Pearl Buck

"I have the habit of forgetting what I do not care to remember."

Pearl Buck

American Novelist

1892 - 1973

Memory makes a strange bedfellow.  Have you ever forgotten something you needed to remember?   Or have you remembered something you needed to forget?  Some people can remember the smallest of details.  I tend to forget the details, particularly of place and fashion.    Clothes rarely appear in my conscious mind let alone in my memory.  And if I have been insulted by word or deed, I usually forgive and forget.  My parents and my wife can not understand how I forgot so much of my childhood.  

And yet the strangest of details will find their way into my poems.  Details from somewhere in my past.  The last twenty years have seen an unusual growth in memoirs — both truthful and false.  Yet memory continues to haunt.  Remembering the wrong events can hold you hostage to your past.  What we remember impacts how we behave in the here and now.  Our memory defines who we believe we are.  What memories do you need to forget?  What memories do you need to hold onto?  What memories influence how you behave and help create the person who you have become?  What memories appear in your writing or your art?

John Quincy Adams

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, you are a leader."

— John Quincy Adams

American President

1767 - 1848

Leadership is about influence.  As a creative leader, do you inspire others through your art, writing, music or storytelling?  For me life is about our relationships — the people we meet, the people we help.  As a creative leader do you mentor other creative people?  We each have a responsibility to pass on what we have learned to those who come after us.  We have a responsibility to teach our skill to others — to help other become better.  

Creative leaders often are not aware of the lives they touch.  As a speaker, I speak to many groups of people and often I don't even get to know the audience.  And unless people follow-up with you by letter or email, you never learn whether you touched their lives.  And in many respects the same is true of writers and artists.  Someone may look at your painting and be inspired to try painting himself.  Someone may read your book  or story or poem and be inspired to be a better person.  We often don't know the lives we touch.  

We also don't know who is watching us, observing us.  How we behave impacts people's lives.  I know of speakers who say one thing on stage and do something else in their private lives.  They don't practice what they preach.  And, believe me, people see this.  As a creative leader, you need to walk your talk.  

Malcolm Forbes

"Failure is success if we learn from it."

— Malcolm Forbes

American Publisher

1919 - 1990

Have you ever felt like a failure?  Have you been told that you couldn't write?  Or that you couldn't paint?  Or that you couldn't sing?  I have been told all my life that I can't sing.  And people still today tell me I can't sing.  Yet out of this failure came one of my greatest successes.  I have been paid to sing and to lead others in singing for the last twenty-four years.  As part of a seminar that I teach, I lead others in singing.  I have been able to turn a weakness into a strength.  No, I have not learned how to sing.  But I have been able to use my weakness to my advantage.

In every failure, you can find an opportunity if you look hard enough.  And as Forbes said, if you learn from your mistakes, it was not a failure.  I have come to believe that we often learn more from our failures than our successes.  Our successes usually don't teach us anything because we think we did everything right.  We should learn to tear our successes apart like we do our failures.  Then maybe we would learn something from success.  If you feel that you have failed, I encourage you to examine what happened and learn from it.  

Joyce Cary

"For the essential thing about the work of art is that it is work, and very hard work too."

— Joyce Cary

Irish Novelist

1888 - 1957

What most people who are not writers or painters don't understand is how much work it takes to create a work of art.  Writers appear to spend hours doing nothing.  What people don't see is what is going on in the mind.  The mind is working double overtime.  Even families of writers often don't have any clue about what is going on in the mind of the writer.  Sometimes the conscious mind must do nothing so the subconscious mind can connect the dots.  And when the subconscious is finished, it pushes the idea into the conscious.  Often the writer feels like the idea came out of nowhere.  And the same can be said about painters, storytellers, musicians and other creative leaders.

Unlike many people who work a nine to five job, a creative leader cannot turn off his mind.  Part of him is always working — whether he is grilling chicken, washing clothes or changing the oil in the car.  Writing and painting are 24/7 types of jobs.  You are never off-duty, even when you are having a beer with your buddies.  So don't let your family and  friends put you down because they think you are not working.  You are probably working harder than them.

Lucian Freud

Self-Portrait
(1985)

"A painter's taste must grow out of what so obsesses him in life that he never has to ask himself what it is suitable for him to do in art. . . . The painter's obsession with his subject is all that he needs to drive him to work."

— Lucian Freud

British Painter

1922 - 2011

When I graduated from college in 1971 with an English degree and no job, I wanted to be a writer, but I didn't know where to start or what to write about.  In college, I had written poetry but no short stories or fiction.  I wanted to write but I had not subject.  I had no obsessions.  During a four month trip through western United States and Canada in 1972, I came up with an idea for a novel.  I decided to write a historical novel about John Kaufman, a Mennonite sleeping preacher in the early 20th century.  Kaufman would go into a trance and preach a coherent sermon.  People stuck needles in him to see if he would wake up.  While in Oregon I did some research.  When I returned in early November to Goshen I continued the research.  When I reached my hometown of Roanoke, I tried to interview some people who knew Kaufman and I was told to cut my hair and find a job.  I let the novel slide into my subconscious. 

Sleeping Head

I have taken years to figure out what my obsessions are.  In looking back over the more than 5,000 poems that I have written, a key subject stands out:  my relationship with God.  I write to understand God.  Even forty years ago when I wanted to write a historical novel, my subject was God.  I have been told by atheists and non-believers that I should not write about God.  And conservative Christians are often offended by what I have to say about God.  Yet write I must.  I am obsessed.

What are you obsessed with?  What drives you to paint and to write?  What wakes you up and inspires you to pick up your paint brush or pen?

Here is a video showing several of Lucian Freud's portraits and includes interviews with some of the people who had their portrait painted.

Diego Rivera

Woman Grinding Maize
(1924)

"Looking back on my work today, I think the best I have done grew out of things deeply felt, the worst from a pride in mere talent."

— Diego Rivera

Mexican Artist

1886 - 1957

The old saying is that pride goeth before a fall.  And there is some truth to that statement.  There are two sides to pride — bad pride and good pride.  If we are vain and arrogant, pride is a negative and should be cast out of our lives.  But I believe there is a good side to pride.  You need to have pride in yourself and what you do.  A better word might be self-confidence, but I think pride works as well.  

But Rivera is right to say that art that is not based in feeling and only in technique and skill will never be as powerful or as great as art that is inspired by emotion.  When you deeply feel about what you are painting or writing, you will do a much better job.  If you have no feeling for your subject, you are simply going through the motions.  You are not connected to the subject so it doesn't matter  what you paint.  Technique is the only thing of importance to you.

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera

Paint what you are connected to.  Write about what matters to you, not what you think the publishers want.  Sing songs that touch your heart.  Have pride in the work you do.  Believe that what you do is important.

Blaise Pascal

"I bring you the gift of these four words: I believe in you."

— Blaise Pascal

French Writer, Mathematician

1623 - 1662

One of the greatest gifts that any creative leader can receive is the gift of knowing someone believes in his artistic ability.  Do you have someone who believes in you and your ability to create works of art?  Is it a parent?  A child?  A spouse?  A friend?  A teacher?  A mentor?

I have had a number of people in my life who believed in me.  My parents believed enough to send me to college and to pay for it even when I disappointed them with my religious views.  I have had teachers and professors who encouraged throughout my school years.  When I was in the fourth grade, a teacher pulled another boy and me aside and told us we needed to take a leadership role on the playground and prevent fights.  In college a professor asked to publish one of my poems in the college magazine my freshman year in contrast to another professor who criticized the poem in public and called me an ass.  Through out my 38 years of marriage, my wife has been very supportive of my need to write even when it brought us no money or security.  It took my time and energy.  My daughter has shown her support by incorporating my poems into her paintings.  Each one of these people said through their actions that they believed in me.

Who have been the people in your life who supported you and believed in you?  Have you said thank you lately.

Wayne Thiebaud

"If we don't have a sense of humor, 

we lack a sense of perspective."

— Wayne Thiebaud

American Painter

1920 - 

Pies, Pies, Pies
(1961)

Have you laughed today?  In these crazy times (and when have they not been crazy?), we need to be able to find humor in the absurdity of living or we will quickly lose perspective.  We will fail to see the forest.  Laughter and humor are essential for maintaining one's sanity in a difficult, confusing and chaotic world.  

Humor is something I have to work at.  I often don't laugh at what others find funny and yet I will have moments of belly shaking laughter which seem to arise out of nowhere.  Rarely, do I find comedians funny, particularly humor that puts down some group of people.  Yet, I will be listening to a news show on National Public Radio and I will find it funny.  I find humor in the absurd.  And politics are absurd.  Last week I was listening to a preacher on a CD and I broke out laughing.  I know that was not his intent, but I found what he said as ridiculous.  

Do you have a sweet tooth?  Then you will enjoy the art of Wayne Thiebaud — lots of pies, cakes and ice cream.  Go get yourself a bowl of ice cream and sit down and watch this video.  And don't forget to find something to laugh at today.  

Roger Crawford

"Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional."

— Roger Crawford

American Speaker, Author

1960 - 

We all face challenges throughout life — both personal and professional.  Some are physical challenges and others are emotional.  How we handle these challenges helps determine our character.  Some people throw in the towel when the going gets tough and other pick themselves off the ground and keep going.  What do you do when you face challenges.  Do you quit and give up or do you keep going.  

One of the things I've learned about dealing with obstacles is that you don't have to confront them head on.  You can go around them.  Shift into reverse and find another road to take you where you want to go.  Challenges can teach us a lot about ourselves.  Just don't let them overwhelm you.  The sun will rise again tomorrow.  Nothing lasts forever.

Take a few minutes and listen to Roger Crawford and be inspired.

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?  

Francis Bacon

Self-Portrait with Injured Eye
(1972)

"You know in my case all painting — and the older I get the more it becomes so — is an accident.  I foresee it, yet I hardly ever carry it out as I foresee it.  It transforms itself by the actual paint."

— Francis Bacon

British Artist

1909 - 1992

Even when we plan our creative work and think we know where we going, we often don't end up there.   The creative muse has a mind of her own and chooses to go where she wants to go.  Often what we set out to create is changed and molded through the process of creating.  Forms and shapes evolve and are reborn.  Words shift and transform themselves into something other than what they are.

Do you believe the creative work that you do to be an accident?  Or do your creative works turn out as you imagined them?  Do you work along side your muse or do you hide her in the closet and tell people she does not exist?  Do you ever surprise yourself by what you create?  Or does one plus one equal two?

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

"Taking a new step, uttering a new word is what people fear most."

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Russian Novelist

1821 - 1881

Why is it that we often fear attempting something new?  A new job?  A new place to live?  The unknown scares us whether we are creative leaders or not?  And often this fear translates into anxiety.  People often wonder why Hollywood actors who seem to have everything, lose their temper, overdose on drugs, and make foolish mistakes.  I think the underlying issue is anxiety.  We are afraid of the unknown?  What will tomorrow bring?  Will I still find work as an actor, writer, singer or artist?  Will my fans still love me?  

In reading Cheever by Blake Bailey, I saw how anxiety can drive a creative individual to drink.  We all have anxiety at one time or another.  Not having enough money is one of my anxieties and it has prevented me from starting my own business over the years.  I have a need for a regular paycheck to pay the bills.  Once I was offered an opportunity to go into the speaking business and I panicked — froze on the spot.  

What fears are holding you back?  What fears are you willing to live with?  What fears do you put into your work?  What fears restraint your creative efforts?  What fears inspire your creative work?  The fear of being poor inspires some people to work hard to be financially successfully.