by Marty Coleman | Feb 29, 2016 | Three Letter Words - 2016 |
Prepping for SXSW 2016
In continuing my workshop preparation for SXSW I am working the same angle I showed in my last blog post.
I am finding more three letter words that either inhibit or ignite creativity. Here are two more drawings I have done this week that will eventually illustrate these words and their meaning. The second thought bubble in each drawing doesn’t just contain a three letter word, they contain a sentence that has a word in it that I think ignites creativity. Any guesses?
Drawings and ideas © 2016 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 25, 2016 | Three Letter Words - 2016 |
SXSW Interactive Conference
I am going to be speaking at SXSW Interactive Conference in Austin, TX in March. I will be leading a workshop titled ‘Igniting Creativity with Periscope’. (Periscope is the streaming video app I have been using over the past year).
Three Letter Words
In preparation for the workshop I am creating some new drawings that illustrate my belief that there are a number of three letter words that, when added to statements we make about our selves, our limitations and our creativity can change our outlook and attitude from one of finality to possibility.
When I give the presentation I will not be showing the words at first. Being the mean person I am I will be making them guess. So, I might as well make YOU guess as well.
Two Illustrations
Those of you who know these words because you have heard me talk about them on Periscope or in past blog posts, keep quiet, ok?
Those of you who don’t know, guess away. What do you think the words are?!?
#1
#2
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 20, 2016 | Mind Image - 2016, Robertson Davies |
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See What?
Have you ever done one of those tests to see if you are colorblind? It shows a whole series of dot in various colors. If you aren’t colorblind you can see a number appear amid the dots. If you are colorblind, you can’t. Why is that? Because your eye’s retinal cones aren’t developed properly and so the color doesn’t register with the brain. In other words, you couldn’t see that color even if you wanted to.
YouTube Color Blindness Test
Trompe l’oeil
The history of art is filled with examples of the artist trying to fool your eye. As a matter of fact, there is an entire genre of art called ‘Fool The Eye’, better known by it’s French translation, ‘trompe l’oeil’. The goal is to make you think you see something that, in fact, is not what you actually see.
Pere Borrell del Caso, Escaping Criticism, 1874
Andrea Mantegna, Oculus (window to the sky), Palazzo Ducale, La Camera degli Sposi (The Wedding Chamber), (1467?-1474)
Surrealism
Another movement in art that uses the mind’s initial inability to comprehend is Surrealism. Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte are two who come to mind. There goal isn’t to fool you into thinking you see something you don’t. It’s to see one thing, then another and not easily understand how or why they go together. It’s that visual and mental dance of confusion that gives the art it’s power.
Salvador Dali – Three Sphinxes of Bikini – 1947
Rene Magritte, Empire of Light, 1950
What is Possible
The whole point of these and other works of art is to make you think about what it is you are seeing. To be fooled or confounded or challenged.
It’s telling about artists that so many like to fool us. Artists are great at challenging our pre-conceived notions of what is art, what is real, what is good, what is beautiful. Unfortunately, many of us respond to not immediately understanding something we see by cutting off our curiosity, our wonder, our open-mindedness. We judge and are done.
But if one is willing, in art and in life, to experience rather than judge, to allow for confusion and the unknown instead of demanding all answers immediately, then the rewards can be great.
Among the rewards are delight in discovering new ideas, enlightenment about how others see the world and inspiration for your own creative journey. And those rewards are definitely worth it in my book. How about you?
Drawing and commentary © 2016 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
Quote by Robertson Davies, 1913-1995, Canadian Novelist and Playwright
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 17, 2016 | Anonymous, Mind Image - 2016 |
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Understatement
At first I thought this quote was perfect for my ‘Mind Image’ series. Then after I drew the drawing I started to think it was somewhat pedestrian. Then I got it. It isn’t pedestrian, it’s understated. I can just imagine a upper crust British actor saying this in a period movie as Galileo is being tried for heresy or Socrates is forced to drink hemlock.
Religion
History shows us the consequences of new ideas in religion can be extreme. One need look no farther than Jesus as an example. He was crucified because of the threat his new religious ideas had on the established religion and the established government of the day. And there have been millions more over the centuries who have suffered and died because the threat their ideas pose to someone else.
Science
The process of proving something in science often starts with an individual having an idea that something may not be as it seems and starts to investigate. As he or she investigates their ideas are not yet fully proven and are often met with skepticism and distrust. Luckily, science has a built in mechanism, the scientific method, that eventually allows ideas to prove themselves. The recent proof of the existence of gravitational waves proving Einstein’s 100+ year old theory that they exist is a great example.
Art
Name an art movement and it probably started by being disparaged and attacked by the people involved with the more established art movements at the time. Sometimes even the movements’ names often started as a cut. Fauvism (Wild Beasts) was the dismissive name given to Henri Matisse’s art movement of 1905. Impressionism got it’s name when a critic took it from a title of a Monet painting (Impression: Sunrise) and wrote a satirical negative review of their first exhibition. In fact most art movements tend to take shape in rebellion against a prior movement. Pop followed Abstract Expressionism. Pre-Raphaelites rebelled against Raphael and the Mannerists who followed him.
Open Mind
It’s not likely you, or anyone, has a completely open mind. I know I don’t. We end up believing certain ideas and it’s hard to let go of them, no matter how open minded we are. So, how do we keep as open a mind as possible? Well, the goal, for me at least, isn’t to have a completely open mind. It’s to have a mind that holds on lightly to ideas. It doesn’t mean I don’t believe them, but it means I am willing to accept the possibility that a new idea might come along that changes my mind. I don’t grab new ideas willy nilly just because they are new. But I do allow my mind to consider new ideas before I judge them.
Drawing and commentary © 2016 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
Quote by Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788-1860, German philosopher
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 10, 2016 | Joyce Meyer, Mind Image - 2016 |
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Mind, Not Thoughts
Notice the quote does not say ‘Negative thoughts’. It says ‘A negative mind’ instead. That is because we all have negative thoughts and negative thoughts aren’t always bad. What is bad is when those negative thoughts become so predominant that one’s entire mind becomes negative. When your every response is negative. When your every judgment is negative. When your every decision is negative. Then you have become trapped. You have become automatic. And the automatic negative mind has no bridge to reach anything positive.
Starting Slow
So, how do you overcome this? You make the smallest of positive decisions. I have a friend online who has decided to do a half marathon later this year. She hasn’t run in over 2 years. My advice, and the advice of any reputable running coach? Start slow. Don’t try to run 13.1 miles tomorrow. don’t even try to run 1.31 miles tomorrow. Just get out and run 100 yards. Maybe do another 100 yards. Walk a lot. work up to greater distance, faster pace, etc. Have a plan, maybe a running buddy to hold you accountable.
The Plan
The same is true with our minds. Don’t make some grand proclamation that you are only going to be positive from now on. You know that isn’t realistic. What is realistic is when the next moment arrives where you have to make a choice on being negative or positive, choose positive. Maybe it’s complimenting food instead of critiquing it. Maybe it’s appreciating a view from your car instead of cursing the traffic. Something small, something you can actually do. Make a plan to do it with some regularity. Tell a friend what you are working on, maybe they will join you.
What Training Is
Then do it again. Little by little, as each moment arrives, you choose the positive as best you can. There will be times you won’t choose to be positive, just as in training for a race there will be days you will choose to skip a workout or shorten a run. That doesn’t mean you have failed, it means you are in training. Training means ups and downs, discoveries and doldrums, greats strides and pride, great feelings of failure. But training isn’t about success. Training is about practicing for success later on.
Success in Life
And what is success in life? It’s having lived a positive one. And you become what you practice.
Drawing and commentary © 2016 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
Quote is a variation on one by Joyce Meyers, 1943 – not dead yet, American Christian speaker and author
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 7, 2016 | Allison Keim |
5:22 AM, February 5th, 2016
Allison is up early. I can tell because she has answered my message from the night before asking if we are still on for today. The time she answers is 5:22 am. I am up at about 5:25 am and see her response. An early bird like me. That’s cool.
I always wonder what people do who get up that early. I know what I do: coffee making, exercise doing (sometimes), dog feeding, contest entering, kitchen cleaning, art making, news reading. But others? I usually think they are doing more momentous things. Some out of this world exercise routine that lasts for an hour and sculpts them into Greek Gods and Goddesses maybe? Perhaps they are making every meal for every person in their house for the entire week. Or they could be answering the 200 international emails from overnight, solving world problems and arranging to solve more.
Is Allison doing any of those things? I decided to ask. She doesn’t answer. Maybe she is busy doing one of those epic things I mentioned or maybe she went back to bed like I am inclined to do.
1:36pm, May 20th, 2015
Instead I decide to look through the photos I took the first time we met. It was at Philbrook Museum of Art here in Tulsa, Oklahoma in May of 2015. She worked there at the time. I had decided to do some blog profiles of local artists and she was one of the more interesting I had come across. She was a curator, a single mom, and an artist with a distinct style.
Allison and me at ‘La Villa’, the restaurant at Philbrook Museum of Art
She had just changed jobs from being an preparator (someone who gets the artwork and gallery space ready for exhibition) to being a fundraiser. Even though both jobs are in the same museum, it’s like going from being a blue collar warehouse worker to a white collar office worker. It’s going from jeans and tool belts to dresses and high heels. She talks extensively about the transition, how her background and her heart prepared her to be a preparator and fundraising is a brand new challenge tapping into a whole new range of skills she has or needs to acquire. It’s a challenge but very interesting and exciting.
We talked extensively about a very difficult childhood. It’s one that scarred her but also, maybe because of, maybe in spite of, instilled in her a unflappable vision of who she is and an equally fierce determination of who she wants to become.
This is evident by her current situation. She is a full-time worker, a full-time mother to 2 young children and a part-time artist whose bedroom doubles as her studio. She is not making any excuses. She is an artist and she is going to be one, even if that means she paints in her small bedroom.
While we were there we walked around the museum. I asked her which art piece was her favorite and she led me here. This is her very favorite piece of art in the entire world.
Allison with Milton Avery’s ‘Child with Doll’
Here is a better view of it.
Child with Doll, 1944 – oil on canvas – Milton Avery
It resonates with her deeply on many levels. For her it’s more than a child and doll. It’s a mother and child, it’s love, it’s family, it’s emotion in art. It’s always an honor to have someone show me their favorite piece of art, something profound and sacred about it for me.
Our plan was to meet up again at her studio to take a look at her work and finish up the interview. That doesn’t happen for a variety of reasons. I moved on to other projects and she did as well.
9:05pm, January 29th, 2016
Fast forward 7+ months and she contacts me saying she is no longer at Philbrook and is wondering if I want to meet again and update the interview. She is now a full-time artist she says. I really want to hear how this came about and get a chance to see her artwork. We plan to meet in a week.
5:25am, February 5th, 2016
Ah, she responds to my question about getting up early.
“I’ve always been a morning person, but when I’m in a super creative space, I am motivated to get up and get at it! This morning I’ve been reading a feminist blog I follow, doing some religious research, and was getting ready to start yoga but both of my sweet babies just crashed my bed!!!!!”
So, basically she was doing epic stuff.
10:08am, February 5th, 2016
I call her, lost. After having picked up her Soy Latte and my Caffe Mocha I have trusted my GPS and am now facing a ditch digger in an apartment driveway. I tell her I am facing the ditch digger. She kindly directs me to her apartment, which is in a different complex seemingly unknown to google maps, where I can see her waving from her 3rd floor balcony. Success!
We sit and catch up for a while. She is no longer at Philbrook. She took a giant leap of faith 3 month prior, after she got a very sizable commission for a painting, and left her employer to become a full-time artist. I am intrigued and want to know more about this.
Philbrook is an incredible museum. She was honored to work there. And she tried as hard as she could, but she hated being a fundraiser. It was causing her a crazy amount of stress, so much so she was being adversely affected physically and psychologically. She had to talk to someone about it and through that counseling was able to get a clearer idea of what was actually happening. What was happening? She was doing what others wanted, not what she wanted. She was fulfilling someone else’s dream of being a respected insider patron of the arts, with all the prestige and glamour that went along with it.
Philbrook at Sunset
We all do some things because other people want us to, but when it is your entire life you are designing for someone else instead of yourself, it quickly can become toxic and dangerous to your well-being. That is what was happening to her and it had come to a breaking point. She took a leave of absence to figure things out and finally, when a large commission made it feasible, she made the break towards the end of 2015. All she wanted to do was paint.
12:22 pm, February 5th, 2016
When someone makes a change this dramatic it is usually followed by other changes. And she made some serious changes. Changes like cutting her hair and going back to her natural hair color, becoming a more committed feminist, growing deeper in her religious beliefs and practices, and becoming an entrepreneurial artist/business woman. Three of those things it seemed she just naturally gravitated towards with her new found freedom. But the third, being both an artist and a business woman, was gravitation by necessity. She was now going to have to make her living as an artist, no fall back job, no fall back paycheck, no fall back, period. Scary. And exhilarating.
And where is she doing this painting? In her bedroom. In her small bedroom. On large canvases much taller than her and bigger than her bed.
And that is where she is now. She is in her studio. A studio that happens to have a soft horizontal surface with warm blankets where she can sleep. But where it is doesn’t matter. What matters is she is doing it. She is doing commissions, having exhibitions, hustling to make her dream come true. She is making art.
She paints in a very free expressionist style. If she is not doing a commission then she is not planning a canvas out in advance. She goes with what moves her. In this case she has a canvas that was given to her by her grandmother, also an artist, who is moving to Florida. The canvas had already been worked and so there are considerations. How much does she keep, how much does she cover? There is a extra layer of canvas her grandmother has put over the top 5th of the canvas. What to do with that? There are horizontal lines drawn in pencil. Does she use those or get rid of them? This is the same grandmother who really wanted her to have that job as a fundraiser more than Allison did.
This is not easy. The canvas is filled with emotion, memory and heritage even before she starts. She is filled with fight, self-determination, independence, rebellion, hesitancy. She is confronted.
She decides to do what she has set her sails to do. She is going on her journey, not her grandmother’s. She grabs the white paint, stuck shut, and uses all her strength to open it.
Then she makes her move.
During my visit we did a periscope live video interview where Allison tells about her life and her art. Here it is.
If you would like to find out more about Allison and her art, perhaps purchase a piece or commission her to create something for you, you can find her at her website http://allisonkeim.com
© 2016 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 4, 2016 | Christopher Paolini, Mind Image - 2016 |
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Body and Mind
The quote on my last ‘Body Image’ drawing was, “Loving your body only when it is in perfect shape is like loving your kids only when they are well-behaved.” While we were discussing the quote on Periscope (@thenapkindad) I realized I could switch out the word body for mind and the quote would still make sense and still be important. One’s body image is important, right? And so is one’s ‘Mind Image’.
What We Think Of How We Think
This can make a huge difference in our daily approach to life. For example, let’s say you think a lot of fearful thoughts. A few questions arise. Do you realize how much you think in fearful terms? Are you aware of how many stories you tell yourself about the past, present and future that have fear at their roots? It seems the answer would be “yes, obviously I am aware of that.” But that isn’t necessarily true.
Our Family Story
Have you ever heard a grown up tell a story, or perhaps you have told it, about when you first realized every family wasn’t like your family? That moment you realized not every family had the same rules as you, or the same discipline, or the same food. It was a revelation, right? Same is true with how we think. If you are raised with fear being the response your parents have to the world, then you could easily think fearfully and think everyone else must think fearfully as well. This could continue well into adulthood. There will probably come a time when you realize your fearful way of thinking isn’t shared by everyone else, but maybe not.
Mind Image
That is what I mean by Mind Image. it’s how you see your own mind and how it thinks. It’s watching it in the mental mirror just the same way as you see your body in the physical mirror. The difference is there isn’t one mental mirror like there can be one physical mirror. There can be many mental mirrors, both within yourself and without.
What To Do About It
It’s one of the best reasons to have good friends and family that you trust who will be honest about how they see you. I don’t mean you have to agree with how they see you, but it’s nice to know they are looking out for you and will tell you if they think your thinking seems to be off in some way. Maybe they notice you are being especially fearful and will ask you about it. Or maybe they will sense you are thinking depressed or anxious thoughts way more than you used to. If you don’t have that circle of trusted people, perhaps you have a therapist or a pastor or someone else who is paying attention.
Coach
I think of it like having a coach. Ever notice in sports that even those that are at the top of their games have coaches? Serena Williams, the most accomplished tennis player of her generation, has a coach. Lebron James, the greatest basketball player of his generation, has a coach. They have someone who can see what they are doing in ways they can’t see themselves.
The same is true with our mental game. Having someone who can watch and respond, help you see yourself more clearly, is of immense value in life. I am not simply talking about someone you talk to when you are in crisis. I am talking about someone to have by your side no matter what shape your mind is in. Waiting until a crisis arrives to let someone see how you feel or what you are thinking can often be too late. Having someone all the time is the key.
Do you have such a person or people? How have they helped you?
Drawing and commentary © 2016 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
Quote by Christopher Paolini, 1983 – not dead yet, American author
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