Changes in Leadership

Make More Decisions

In keeping with the leadership theme of the last couple of posts... leaders don't always know the right thing to do, they just learn to live with the decision.

The more decisions you make, the more experience you'll have at living with the consequences.

The more art you make, the more experience you'll have at learning how to express yourself.

The more tv you watch the more experience you'll have at doing nothing.

Keep moving forward.

Beginning... or Finishing

What keeps us from beginning... or finishing?

Fear of...
Others
Pain
Rejection
Failure
Change
Embarrassment
Vulnerability
Critics
Loss
Poverty
Being Wrong
Madness
Death
Success
_________ (fill in the blank)

I watched the movie, Valkyrie recently. Good film, though it was sobering. I was reminded that Hitler wanted to be an artist. This isn't in the show, but apparently at age 18, young Adolph took his inheritance money and moved to Vienna to study art. He applied to the Academy of Fine Arts. I think fear won out.

"It was easier for Hitler to start WWII than to stare at a blank piece of canvas." Steven Pressfield, from The War of Art

Patience

Psalm 27:4 - Wait for the Lord; Be strong and take heart. Wait for the Lord.

”The artist’s life is frustrating not because the passage is slow, but because he imagines it to be fast.” Art and Fear

What are you imagining?

Are you more patient or less than you used to be?

What would others say about your "pace of life"?

The Artist and Freedom

Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, expereince treacherous, judgement difficult.
Hippocrates 460-400 B.C.

I was in San Francisco over the weekend. I had the opportunity to interact with some bands, musicians and lots of different artistic people. (You probably knew this but San Francisco has A LOT of different artistic people!)

What I've noticed about us artists (irrespective of geographical location) is we believe ourselves to be inclusive and nonjudgmental. We are free in our approach to try different "things" and we're open to those who do the same. It's not written in any book of rules anywhere I'm just pointing out that a quality that artists generally share is freedom of expression.

And thank God we do. This freedom of expression, this encouragement to look at life differently and express ourselves uniquely regardless of what the conforming pressures say benefits society. Because of us, our society experiences all kinds of life, art, grace, beauty and even truth. (Remember Plato said, "Poetry is nearer to truth than history.")

Hmmm, so artists esteem freedom and non-conformity... why then do so many artists I meet live in a prison of negativity, complaining about other artists, particularly artists who are popular? Why do we associate the popular with "selling out"? Why do we assume that the celebrated artists are no longer relevant?

Maybe they aren't relevant. Or...

Maybe it's just easier to "tear" someone down than to be appreciative of what they have. Maybe we really only want to apply the 'freedom' thought to ourselves, not to others. Maybe we're jealous. (No, not artists!)

Maybe that's what Milton thought of Shakespeare or Solieri said of Mozart or Rod Stewart thinks of Sting.

As artists we are pluralists. That doesn't mean we're all the same. It means we value a variety of different ways of expressing art. We value diverstiy. We value freedom. If you receive approval for your art, great, keep it up. If you're not, stop looking down on others who are. Here's a novel idea for all artist... Be happy for someone else and don't make everything about you.

Only one 6-billionth of all of this is.

Uncertainty is an Asset

I’m enjoying reading a little book entitled Art and Fear, Observations on the Perils and Rewards of Artmaking. One of the authors tells of an interchange he had with his piano teacher where in frustration he said, “But I can hear the music so much better in my head than what comes out of my fingers.” The instructor replied, “What makes you think that ever changes?” The teacher raised an expression of self-doubt to a simple observation of reality and as he did uncertainty became an asset.

And you say, “I had the idea of this job looking so much better in my mind than it is actually turning out.” Or “My vision of this marriage was so much more fulfilling than it is revealing itself to be.” Or “I see the spiritual victories more clearly and victoriously happening in my mind’s eye than what is actually happening.” Or any number of things along those lines. Yet, if it works out exactly each time just as you’ve guessed that it will there would be no uncertainty.

And there would be no reason for faith.

Uncertainty is your asset. The knowledge that this whole thing (i.e. job, marriage, dream, vision, hope, etc…) could fall a part if you’re not careful is what keeps you praying, hoping, and persevering. Virginia Stem Owens says, “To spy out the reality hidden in appearances takes perseverance.” The appearance is that the distance between your vision and the actual execution is too great. The reality is this tension keeps you focused.

Unless you quit.