Richard Wollheim

"Learning appears as a way of staying young, perhaps of staying alive, and also as a way of growing up, perhaps facing death."

— Richard Wollheim

British Author, Philosopher

1923 - 2003

Life-long learning is a powerful habit to develop.  Learning something new keeps us in touch with our youth and helps us to stay active and alive.  What have you learned in the last week?  Who has taught you something new about yourself or your art?  

We experience the world through our senses — hearing, seeing, tasting, touching and smelling.  And what we experience teaches us much if we are paying attention and alert to the possibilities.  Did you smell the wind today?  Did you hear the approaching storm?  Do you taste the rain on your face?

From the time we are born until we die, our purpose is to learn, to grow, and to change.  Most learning does not occur in school and we don't stop learning once we graduate.  Cultivate a learning attitude.  Unfortunately, many people do not learn from their mistakes.  They are not willing to change and grow.  To be a great artist or writer, you must be constantly learning about the world in which we inhabit.

And when we face death, it will teach us much that we have forgotten.  Do not be afraid of death.  Understand that it is a gift.  It is a door through which we pass, a gate that leads to another world.

The Power of Words

Do you believe in the power of words to change people?  Watch this.

Paula Rego

"To find one's way anywhere one has to find one's door, just like Alice, you see.  You take too much of one thing and you get too big, then you take too much of another and you get too small.  You've got to find your own doorway into things."

— Paula Rego

Portuguese Artist

1935 -

The doors we open and the doors we close hold the keys to our success.  What doors have you failed to open that would catapult you miles down the road?  What doors if you learned to shut them and throw away the key would prevent others from zapping your energy?


The door is an amazing invention.  It keeps out those people we don't want in our lives yet allows us to choose who can enter and keep us company.  The door serves a similar function for creative leaders.  We can keep out those elements of our lives that we don't want to appear in our art and we can invite in what we want to appear in our art.

The Family
(1988)

To paraphrase the poet, Robert Frost, doors make good families.  Doors give us privacy and keep prying eyes from seeing what we don't want them to see.  Some doors are simple and others are complex.  Some doors have intricate designs and others are plain.  Doors help us to manage and control our lives.  Doors help us to hide things we don't want people to see and to reveal things we want people to see.


Can you identify the doors in your life?  Do these doors help you be more creative or do they restrict your creativity?  Do you need to replace some of the doors in your life?  Do you need to add doors to your life?










Here is a video with more of Paula Rego's paintings.

Maria Luz Q. King

Dancer
(2007)

"I have learned that in life nothing is forever, so maybe our dreams are not meant to be forever.  But the memory is forever!  The memories are what we take to heaven."

— Maria Luz Q. King

Mexican-American Artist, Author

1952 - 

Homeless
(2007)

Have you ever let go of your dreams?  I don't mean quit on your dreams.  I don't mean give up on your dreams.  I mean let them go.  Maybe you have outgrown them.  Or maybe you achieved the dream for a short period of time and that was enough.  Maybe our dreams are not meant to be forever.  Nothing in this physical world is permanent.  Nothing lasts forever.  The seasons come and go.  And so do people.  

Are there dreams that you need to let go of?  Are there dreams that are holding you back from success?  Sometimes our fantasies and dreams become barriers that prevent us from becoming whom we need to become.  Are you clinging to some dream that will never happen?  Is it time to let the dream go?

Where do our dreams come from?  Our genes?  Our parents?  Society?  God?  Do we take our dreams with us when we die?  Or do our dreams die with our bodies?  I think our dreams are gifts that provide meaning to our lives.  Our dreams inspire us to do more — to achieve more, to be more.

Denis Waitley

"Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker.  Failure is delay, not defeat.  It is a temporary detour, not a dead end."

— Denis Waitley

American Author, Speaker

1933 -

How do you view failure?  When you feel you have failed at something, do you stop doing it?  Failure for many people is a dead end.  They don't view it as a detour on the road of life.  How you respond to perceived failure says a lot about who you are and what you will accomplish in life.  

Every failure is an opportunity to learn something new?  To increase our understanding of the world around us.  What have you learned from your failures?  Do you use your failures as inspiration to work harder?  Or do your failures become your excuse to quit and give up?  Failure is a test of your character and your determination.

Playing sports taught me a lot about failure.  In baseball, no batter gets a hit every time he comes up to bat.  In fact, if a batter gets a hit three out of ten at bats, he is considered to be an great hitter.  In Little League, I was not a very good hitter despite my size.  My best game was two weeks after appendix surgery.  I played three innings and had 2 singles.

In basketball, no player makes every shot he takes.  In fact, if a player makes 50% of his shots, he is considered to be a good shooter.  When I was a freshman in high school, I dreamed of playing in and winning the state high school championship my senior year.  And while my team had a record of 28 wins and 1 loss, we never made it to the state championship.  That final loss and failure to play in the championship became a symbol for my loss of religious faith.  And for years I held onto that symbol and let it guide my life.  What I saw as a failure was actually a very successful year.  To play 29 games and only to lose the last one is a fantastic record.  Many teams would love to have that kind of winning record.  But in my mind's eye I saw it as a failure.

What failures are you holding onto?  What failures do you need to let go?

Rita Coolidge

"Too often the opportunity knocks, but by the time you disengage the chain, push back the bolt, unhook the two locks and shut off the burglar alarms, it's too late."

— Rita Coolidge

American Musician

1945 - 

Has opportunity passed you by?  Are you so busy protecting yourself from the world that you have missed opportunities when they came calling?  Opportunity often requires that we move fast.  If we hesitate, we lose.  And sometimes we miss opportunities because we are waiting for the perfect opportunity to appear.  No opportunities are perfect.  They are all filled with risk.  And sometimes opportunity leads to failure.  But the bigger failure is to not to have tried at all.  And when we are open to opportunity knocking, we will be surprised by how one opportunity will open up other opportunities.  So get off your couch and open the door.  Opportunity is visiting and he doesn't like to be ignored.

Here is Rita Coolidge singing Superstar.  Enjoy as you contemplate your opportunities.

James Galvin

"Let us begin with a simple line,

Drawn as a child would draw it,

To indicate the horizon...."

— James Galvin

American Poet

1951 -

In drawing and writing, we almost always begin with the line.  The line turns into letters which turn into words which turn into sentences.  And eventually the sentences become poems, short stories and novels.  The same is often true is art.  The line becomes an eye, then a nose and soon a face.  The drawing begins as a simple line much like what a child starts with.  The artist then transforms that line into a beautiful portrait, landscape or abstract painting.

When we begin the canvas and the paper are blank, empty, without much meaning.  As creative artists our job is transform that paper or that canvas into more.  To create something out of a simple line.  To communicate our vision of the world through a simple line joined with other simple lines — one built on another.

The same can be said about life.  Each moment we live is like a simple line.  We build a life through living each moment to the fullest.  And millions of moments become a life lived.  

Here is the poem, Art Class, by James Galvin.

Art Class

By James Galvin

Let us begin with a simple line,

Drawn as a child would draw it,

To indicate the horizon,

More real than the real horizon,

Which is less than line,

Which is a visible abstraction, a ratio.

The line ravishes the page with implications

Of white earth, white sky!

The horizon moves as we move,

Making us feel central.

But the horizon is an empty shell —

Strange radius whose center is peripheral.

As the horizon draws us on, withdrawing,

The line draws us in,

Requiring further lines,

Engendering curves, verticals, diagonals,

Urging shades, shapes, figures...

What should we place, in all good faith,

On the horizon? A stone?

An empty chair? A submarine?

Take your time.  Take it easy.

The horizon will not stop abstracting us.

Beatrice Wood

Photo by
William Gray Harris

"Very few people know how to work.  Inspiration, everyone has inspiration, that's just hot air."

— Beatrice Wood

American Potter, Artist

1893 - 1998

I have often heard beginning writers say that they only write when they are inspired.  Unfortunately, if they wait until they are inspired, their output will be very small.  Most experienced artists and writers know they must work whether they are inspired or not.  Often when we work the inspiration will arrive on its own time and when we least expect it.  

Success comes from work.  Work when you are sad.  Work when you are happy.  Work when you don't feel like it.  Work when you want to go to a movie.  Our minds are very good at finding excuses for not working.  "I have to do the dishes."  "I have to wash the clothes."  And the list goes on.  Work takes discipline and will power.  

See writing and painting as a job that you need to show up to every day.  Since you have no boss but yourself, you have to hold yourself accountable.  Schedule your hours when you are most creative and stick to your schedule.  Maybe you write between 5 am and 6 am.  Or if you have the luxury, schedule your work hours from 8 am to 5 pm with an hour off for lunch.  Some writers write in the morning and do their research and marketing in the afternoon.  You have to find the schedule that best fits your temperament.

Oskar Kokoschka

"How do I define a work of art?  It is not an asset in the stock-exchange sense, but a man's timid attempt to repeat the miracle that the simplest peasant girl is capable of at any time, that of magically producing life out of nothing."

— Oskar Kokoschka

Austrian Painter, Poet, Playwright

1886 - 1980

The Bride of the Wind
(1914)

When I stop and think about it, the birth of a child is probably one of the greatest miracles known to the human race.  Although I must say that it takes more than a simple peasant girl.  A peasant boy is usually involved also.  Nothing we do as painters, writers or composers will ever equal the conception of a child.  But that should not discourage us.  What we create is our attempt at defeating death — to live beyond the few short years we are given.  And for some they work will survive hundreds of years.

How do you define the artistic work that you do?  Why do you do it?  What motivates you to create new pieces of work?  Where do you place creative work in the greater scheme of things?

Here is a video that displays some of the paintings of Oskar Kokoschka.  Enjoy.

Harley King

Self-Portrait
Oil Pastels
(2011)

"Sometimes we fight who we are, struggling against ourselves and our natures.  But we must learn to accept who we are and appreciate who we become.  We must love ourselves for what and who we are, and believe in our talents."

— Harley King

American Poet, Speaker

1949 - 

I have struggled much of my life to find myself and my place in this world.  I have never been satisfied, always wanting to do more, to accomplish more.  I wanted to be a famous writer.  But instead, my success came through my speaking.  While I have published 14 books, my readership is small and my paycheck is even smaller.  Yet, somewhere a long the way I learned to accept who I am and to trust that I am doing what I am supposed to be doing.  I touch people's lives with my words.  

I wrote the words above when I turned fifty.  Today I turn 62 and I feel that I have learned not to struggle against myself, and have accepted who I am as well as my strengths and limitations.  I have learned to hug myself and to love who I am.

Have you learned to love yourself and to believe in your talents?  Do you appreciate the life you live and accept your strengths and weaknesses?  None of us are perfect and the lives we lead are not perfect, but we are leading the life we have chosen through our thoughts and actions.  


Here is a link to my reading of my poem, Indecision, inspired by the Renoir painting, Umbrellas.  Click on Indecision and it will take you to a page on my website.

Maurice Chevalier

"A man must have his dreams — memory dreams of the past and eager dreams of the future.  I never want to stop reaching for new goals."

— Maurice Auguste Chevalier

French Actor, Singer

1888 - 1972

What does your future hold for you?  Have you ever wished you knew the answer to that question?  How would change your life if you could predict the future?  Do you read your horoscope regularly?  Do you wish you had a crystal ball into which you could gaze?

I do believe that we often know what is going to happen to us before it actually happens.  Years ago I kept a dream journal where I recorded a dream of marrying my wife a month before I met her.  I am convinced that some of our nighttime dreams can predict the future.  Learn to listen to your subconscious.

But I am also convinced that we can predict our future by setting goals.  Goals give a focus and a direction to our lives.  Our lives are like a journey.  If we have a road map, we are more likely to reach our destination, to achieve our dreams.  Goals serve as the road map.  But like any trip, there can be detours, flat tires and accidents.  The road map is not the journey, only a guide.  And sometimes it is the side trips that are more interesting than the interstate.  And the people we meet along the way will touch our lives and teach us much.

So what is the road map for your life?  Where are you headed?  Are you on a side road or the main highway?  Are you hitchhiking through life or are you driving a Corvette?  Who is sitting in the seat next to you?  Who is in the backseat?  When you reach the end of the road one day (and we all will reach the end of the road), what is the legacy you will leave behind?  Will you have achieved your goals?  Will you have produced the art you dreamed of creating?  How will you remember your life?

Here is a video of Maurice Chevalier with Hermione Gingold singing, "I Remember It Well."  Enjoy.

Flannery O'Connor

"Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days."

— Flannery O'Connor

American Novelist

1925 - 1964

Do you remember your childhood?  Some people block out memories of their childhood?  Others have a difficult time forgetting even the most painful memories.  As artists and writers we can mine our past experiences for inspiration for our art.  What events out of your childhood can you use in your stories or your art?  Remember art should transform the actual events into more than just the mere facts like spinning straw into gold.


Here are links to three story poems where I transformed childhood stories and events into more than family history — where I discovered a truth greater than facts.


Mary Lou
http://web.mac.com/hgking/HarleyKing/Mary_Lou.html

Sister
http://web.mac.com/hgking/HarleyKing/Sister.html


Brother Al
http://web.mac.com/hgking/HarleyKing/Brother_Al.html

Salman Rushdie

"Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives, power to retell it, rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change, truly are powerless, because they cannot think new thoughts."

— Salman Rushdie

Indian Novelist

1947 - 

Are you revisiting the stories that you tell about your life?  Are you able to change the stories that you tell about your life?  Are you able to think new thoughts about your talents and your capabilities?

We all face challenges in life -- challenges that impact the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of our lives.  How we tell the story either gives us power over the events or makes us powerless.

In 2006 I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and had robotic surgery.  I chose not to be a cancer victim.  Within a month of the diagnosis, I decided that the cancer was a gift that would open up new worlds and give me opportunities to meet new people.  I do not see myself as a cancer survivor.  I am very lucky to have received such a gift for what it has taught me.  I am a life-long learner and the cancer was just another experience in my life.

What challenges in your life do you need to reframe -- to retell?  We are all here to learn lessons.  What lessons are you learning from the challenges you face.  How are you retelling your stories to give you more power over the challenges?

Norman Vincent Peale

"Imagination is the true magic carpet."

— Norman Vincent Peale

Author, Minister

1898 - 1993

 

Our minds are very powerful.  What we imagine, think and say can impact what we do.  Creative leaders should use their imagination not only for their creative work, but also for their personal lives.  Can you see yourself as a successful writer, artist or actor?  Can you see yourself sitting at a desk typing that great novel or standing at a easel painting your best painting?

Do you want to change some habit or relationship?  Begin by imagining yourself in a new role or relationship.  See yourself successfully behaving in a new way.  We call this positive visualization.  Most of us already do negative visualization.  Do you ever worry about the future?  Worry is a negative form of visualization.

Through the process of visualization we can change who we are.  This is the power of positive thinking.  The easiest thing in the world is to be negative.  It takes a lot more will power to be positive in a negative world.  I challenge you to take five minutes each day and visualize your success.

Marian Wright Edelman

"Remember your roots, your history, and the forebearers' shoulders on which you stand.  And pass these roots on to your children and to other children."

— Marian Wright Edelman

American Author and
Founder, Children's Defense Fund

1939 - 

As writers, artists, dancers and actors, we need to know our roots, our history and the people on whose shoulders we stand.  To whom do we owe a deep debt of gratitude for paving the way.  Who are your mentors?  Those who have taught you about your profession?  Have you said thank you?

And have you passed on your knowledge onto others?  Have you been a teacher or a mentor?  Do you readily share your knowledge or do you keep your knowledge hidden?  Age and years of experience do not matter.  Even the novice has something to teach the master.  Any master who does not feel he can still learn something is not a true master.  We all must be open to new experiences and new ways of thinking.

This quote also applies to our family history.  On whose shoulders do you stand?  Were you like me to be the first in your family to attend college?  To whom do you owe thanks for who you became.  Without your parents, your grandparents or your great-grand parents, you would not be here.  Do you know your family history?  Have you collected your family stories?  Have you passed those stories onto your children and your grandchildren?

Benjamin Spock

"Trust yourself.  You know more than you think you do."

— Benjamin Spock

American Pediatrician, Author

1903 - 1998

 

Spock wrote these words to the mothers of baby boomers in his best selling book, Baby and Child Care, and he launched a generation.  And his advice is just as important to creative leaders.  As artistic people, we need learn to trust ourselves -- our intuition.  The knowledge we have to write, to draw and to act is inside of us.  We need to learn to hear that small voice when it speaks and then to do what it says.  Too often we second guess ourselves and do what we think we should do.

Believe in yourself.  Believe in your talent.  Believe in your creative gift.  Believe in that small voice deep inside.  If you learn to trust yourself, you will be successful.

John Maxwell

"The fear of rejection or failure creates inaction."

— John Maxwell

American Author, Speaker

1947 - 

Fear is a very powerful force that affects the lives of most creative leaders.  Some people are afraid to leave their houses.  Some people like me are afraid of heights.  Others are afraid of elevators.  This list could go on and on.  A person who claims that he is not afraid of anything is either delusional or a liar.  We are all afraid of something. 

It takes courage to look fear in the face and still do something when you are afraid.  If you give into fear, you will freeze on the spot and not move.  Creative leaders face a lot of rejection of their ideas and work.  But we must keep going.  What is the worst thing that can happen?  People don't like us.  So what?  Every famous writer, artist, singer or actor has people who don't like them.  No one is liked by everyone.  So why should you and me expect to be liked by everyone?  In fact, think about the famous people whom you don't like.  You, in a sense are rejecting them.

I learned a powerful lesson from a professional speaker.  He told me that 10% of your audience will not like you.  They may not like the color of your hair.  Or the sound of your voice.  Or the tie you are wearing.  And it has held true for me.  Ten percent of my audience don't like my loud voice.  So I focus on the other 90%.  I don't let my fear of rejection prevent me from speaking.

Rejection is a good thing.  It keeps us humble.  We are not perfect so we shouldn't let success go to our heads.  It lets us know that we are ahead of our time.  We have found people who don't like our work and that is okay.  So don't let fear stop you from creating and producing new work.

(For those who read my blog regularly, I apologize for not leaving an entry yesterday.  I have spent the last two days in the hospital because of dehydration.  I checked out about three hours ago and am healthy again.)

William James

"The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated."

— William James

American Philosopher and Writer

1842 - 1910

When was the last time you received a compliment?  Today?  Last week?  Last month?  When was the last time you gave someone a compliment?

We all have a need to appreciated and thanked for what we do.  Unfortunately, our society is very poor at delivering compliments and praise.  And people praise artists and writers even less.  If you want to receive more compliments, you must give more compliments.  We live in a very negative world where people feel it is kool to be in your face putting you down.  If we are going to change the world, we must first change ourselves.


I know that many writer groups are very negative and hostile.  They seem to enjoy tearing each others work to shreds.  And that does nothing but discourage the new writer.  Writers need a lot of support, encouragement and nourishing.  I don't believe in criticism -- negative or positive.  Most writers and artists are their own worst critics.  They can tell you all the things that they did wrong before you do.

I challenge you to look for the good in others and compliment them on what they do good.  Compliment the good you see in their writing or their art.  Be sincere and honest.  Don't lie.  Even in the worst of painting you should be able to find something to compliment honestly.  So start today.  Don't wait.  It will cost nothing, but the positive rewards will be great.

Michael Chabon

"A book itself threatens to kill its author repeatedly during it composition."

— Michael Chabon

American Novelist

1963 - 

Do you an unfinished novel laying on a shelf in your office?  Do you have unfinished paintings hidden in a closet somewhere?  I spent 4 years working on a novel before I quit to write a book on pet loss with my wife.  Many published and unpublished writers have books they have never finished.  And the same is true with painters.  In fact, painters often paint over old paintings.

In an essay, Burn Before Reading, recently published in the New York Times Book Review (March 6, 2011), Dan Kois identifies a few novelists with unfinished novels. 

• Saul Bellow
• Truman Capote
• Michael Chabon
• Junot Diaz
• Jennifer Egan
• Nikolai Gogol
• Chang-rae Lee
• Harper Lee
• Richard Price
• John Updike
• Evelyn Waugh

So take heart, my friend!  You are not the only one who did not finish a novel, a painting, a song or a poem.  The difference between those who are successful and those who are not is the successful artists and writers keep creating new works even if the old ones are not finished.  So keep writing.  Keep painting.

George Bellows

"The ideal artist is he who knows everything, feels everything, experiences everything, and retains his experience in a spirit of wonder and feeds upon it with creative lust."

— George Bellows

American Painter

1882 - 1925

Dempsey and Firpo
(1924)

Do you experience the world in a spirit of wonder?  Are you surprised by the things that happen or have you become cynical and negative?  A creative leader must be like a young child soaking up life and enjoying every moment of it.  Everything that happens to us — good, bad and indifferent — is fuel for our creative lust.  I don't believe artists and writers experience the world at a deeper level then other people.  It's more they have learned to use that experience to feed their creativity.

Creativity is both sexual and sensuous.  When we are painting and writing, we have a deep desire to create, to give birth.  We can feel the lust in our loins, the joy in our hearts.  How powerful is your desire to create?  Can you feel it deep within your body?  Does every part of you tingle with excitement?  Can you taste the lips of your lover?