by Marty Coleman | Jul 14, 2009 | Beauty - 2009, 2015, Franz Kafka |
Day 2 in my week long series on beauty. If you have any great beauty
quotes send them along!
I love coming across explanations that just make perfect sense. This
one does. Being able to see (and appreciate) beauty is a sure sign a
person is curious, enthusiastic and joyful in his or her way of looking
at the world. It means they have the desire to explore because they
know there is a reward. The reward is beauty.
“Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.” – Franz Kafka, 1883 – 1924, Czech writer
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by Marty Coleman | Jul 13, 2009 | Beauty - 2009, 2015, Jean Kerr |
I am starting a week of beauty. I know what you are thinking, ‘but you
are already so cute Marty, you don’t need a week at a spa’. You are
probably right. I think I will forego the spa and just spend the time
drawing and talking about beauty instead.
The idea of beauty is problematic for an artist. If the artist is to be
honest he or she would have to say that outer beauty matters to them.
After all, they are creating objects that have outer beauty. They are looking
at the outside of things and giving their interpretation of them. They
are attracted to beauty. Beauty, of course, is defined differently by each
artist, but it is still a searching for and appreciation of beauty. Not
inner beauty, but outer beauty. The appearance of things.
So, how does an artist reconcile that desire to linger and study objects
of beauty and create objects that are also beautiful with the desire and
need to see the hidden beauty in things and people? How does an artist
build that appreciation for deeper beauty, the inner beauty while promoting
the value and worth of outer beauty?
Good questions.
“I am tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin deep. That’s enough, what you do you want – an adorable pancreas?” – Jean Kerr, 1922—2003, American author and playwright
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by Marty Coleman | Jul 10, 2009 | Dr. Seuss, Travel |
Hola Napkin Kin! Today is the last of my week-long series on travel.
Would love to hear your ideas for other week-long series when you have
the time. email me at marty@martycoleman.com or just post a comment.
I love to take trips when I can, whether it be by path, road, air or water
(road is my favorite). One of the main reasons is that I am a ‘noticer’ (thanks
to Erin for that recent designation of moi). I go somewhere and I notice the
different accents, products, clothes, food, store fronts, air, potholes, patterns
and ways of doing things. It is exciting to see all those new things, to notice
the differences, to experience the newness.
With the noticing comes education. I learn first how provincial I am. I get use
to my world, my town, my way of doing things. By traveling I learn that I am
small and the world is big. I get bigger when I realize that. And yes, I get a bigger
waistline too, from ‘noticing’ all the new food!
With education comes appreciation. I appreciate that the world is open to me.
I appreciate that I have a home and familiar places I can return to. I appreciate
how the world does not revolve around me. I love seeing the people on the street
in a new locale, especially if I draw or photograph them. I think of it as a little
collision of humanity in a large world, a bump and we are back on to our own
trajectory.
With appreciation comes gratitude. I am grateful that I have the means and the
ability to travel. I know it won’t last forever. I know I will someday be at a point when
I won’t travel. I will be gone from the earth. I don’t mind that. But I would mind
not being aware of that and taking advantage of the time I do have to move about.
With gratitude comes love. Love for those who I notice along my path. The waitress,
the hot dog vendor, the random person from Idaho next to me at the fireworks, the
couple on the boat on a romantic weekend. I have a heart of hope for them.
I wish them well. I encourage them. I love them.
The greater love is for those I know and am with on the journey. My wife, daughters,
friends. I see them in a new light. I see new aspects of them, their growth, their
struggles, their eccentricities and intelligence. I have more to love of them that way.
Travel is good. Get up and go.
“You’re off to great places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting so get on your way!” – Dr. Seuss.
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by Marty Coleman | Jul 9, 2009 | Marcel Proust, Travel |
It’s travel week on the Napkin Dad Daily. Ideas stimulated by my vacation
last week.
The hardest thing to do is to escape oneself. The construction of self takes
many years, decades. And when you travel it isn’t much different than
putting your home on a trailer and moving . You may go to a new location
but everything follows you. How do you leave your world behind and
reconstruct your self, even if just a bit, when you go away from home?
One way is to bring very little. Expect to buy things where you go. Maybe not
expensive stuff, but shampoo, accessories, certain clothing items, etc.
Don’t bring all the things you need to make yourself as you always are.
Go au natural with things, see what you discover about yourself and the
new place you go.
I remember going to Europe in 2003 with my daughters and one of the most
fun and informative things was going into grocery stores to buy food for picnics
and snacks, and other needed stuff. The hair product company, Garnier, was
everywhere and I thought the design and packaging was very interesting.
Lo and behold, a few years later they come to the USA and I see them marketing
to Americans.
Travel and see with new eyes.
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust, French Novelist, 1871-1922
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by Marty Coleman | Jul 8, 2009 | Augustine, Travel |
This is a week long series on travel, a result of my thoughts from my
recent vacation to Cape Cod and Boston over the 4th of July week.
It’s very easy in the current age to ‘see’ the world via photographs, video,
internet and words. It is easy to think you are exposed to it all. And in some
ways you are.
But go to that same place you have seen on TV and you quickly
realize how much more you experience in person. It is the air, the light, the
people, the accents, the birds, the animals, the manners, the food, the sidewalks,
the trees, the smells, the buildings, the events.
They all add up to the experience of knowing another place and reading more of
the book.
Go somewhere and really notice.
“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page.” – St. Augustine – church father, 354-430 AD
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by Marty Coleman | Jul 7, 2009 | Benjamin Disraeli, Travel |
Day 2 of decompression from my vacation. I am still thinking
about travel and so am going to continue this week (maybe) in drawing
about it.
During our vacations it is a tradition that about half way in we will turn
to each other and ask ‘what is your favorite part, so far?’. We will tell what
event was the best in our minds, and also what part was the least fun or
interesting. This year the whale watching was pretty much the #1 favorite
of the first half.
What is funny is that the first 2 1/2 hours of the whale watching trip was easily
the worst time of the trip up to that point. It was cold, it was very foggy (no
horizon in sight) and it was boring. The people around me were purple lipped
from the cold, red faced from the wind, eyes watering from the wind, and bored.
It wasn’t until we had pretty much given up hope and realized we were have to
return to the Provincetown without seeing a whale that 2 whales appeared. Then
the mood changed. Then the sun broke through just a bit. Then the whales came close.
Then the whales breached (jumped) out of the water. Sometimes completely. Then
they did it again, very close to the boat. They put on a show like the captain and the
naturalist and the crew hadn’t even ever seen. The lady next to us had been on
20 whale watching tours and had never seen one jump, much less the dozen or so we
saw. She was wooping it up like she was at a tight baseball game in the 9th inning!
The whale watching fiasco of a mere 45 minutes earlier was just a great lead in to the
big climactic story of the breaching whales in the glorious setting sun.
What we remember is greater than what we saw. It is the story, the arch of the event,
the people, the feeling, the mood and the mood swings, that we add into the event to
make it what it is in our mind. I love that about travel.
“Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember and remember more than I have seen.” – Benjamin Disraeli – 1804 – 1881, British Prime Minister (twice) under Queen Victoria
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by Marty Coleman | Jul 6, 2009 | Moslih Eddin Saadi, Travel |
Hello all you Napkin Kin! I am back from vacation with a new drawing,
appropriately about traveling.
I love traveling for the education and the sights and the uniqueness of
the place. Going somewhere for just sun and sand and doing nothing is
the goal for some, but for me I want to see the world, meet the people,
see the art, the sports, and eat the food.
I find out who I am when I travel. Partly by seeing who I am not by experiencing
a culture I am not a part of, and partly by seeing who I am by how I react
to it all.
I know one thing it always makes me feel. And that is gratitude that I can see
the world and love that the world allows itself to be seen.
“A traveller without observation is a bird without wings.” – Moslih Eddin Saadi
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 30, 2009 | Charles de Montesquieu, Success - 2017 |
I hope you are enjoying this selection of original napkins from 1998-2004 while I am on vacation. Comment when you are so inclined. I would love to hear any of your thoughts in these ideas.
The snake and the turtle have been buddies in my work since at least
the mid-1980s. They are often telling two opposite sides of the story
sometimes the snake being the antagonist, but often being the sweet
singing snake with no evil attached. The Turtle is more often a positive
figure, sometimes telling a needed truth, other times just saying something
wise or witty.
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 24, 2009 | Oscar Levant, Self |
What did you want to be? Once in a while I think of all the careers I
could have had, what I could have achieved.
When I was a kid most people said I should be a lawyer because I could
argue so well. I never wanted to become a lawyer. I did, however, want
to be President since my parents were such big fans of JFK at the time
and it seemed a very cool thing to be.
I have been told that I should have been a therapist. I have never wanted
to be a full-time therapist, but I did want to be a preacher. I like the idea
of thinking deep thoughts and then telling other people about them.
I have been told I should have been a masseur. I never wanted to be a
full-time masseur, but I did want to take classes and learn more. I haven’t
done that yet.
I had the heritage that said maybe I should be a pilot. I never wanted to
be a full-time pilot, but I always loved to fly and see the world from above
in a small plane. I don’t fly anymore, but maybe someday I will again.
I was told I should be a teacher. I actually was a teacher at the college
level for 9 years. I loved it. I tried to land a full-time job as a teacher and
never made it. I miss being a teacher and perhaps will again someday.
I was never told I should be an artist. Do you know why? Because everyone
already knew I was going to be an artist. I don’t think anyone ever thought
I would not be an artist. I am glad I am an artist.
It doesn’t mean there aren’t other things I wish I could have done and been.
I think any curious and enthusiastic person has more things in their wish
list than they can actually accomplish in one life.
I prefer that to having no wish list.
What did you want to be?
“It’s not what you are, it’s what you don’t become that hurts.” – Oscar Levant
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 22, 2009 | Fame, Mae West, Self |
A circular dilemma: you want to be noticed, seen, known, paid attention to.
You do what you can to make that happen. Then you realize that the
‘you’ that got the attention made the rest of ‘you’ invisible. So, you try to
downplay the attention-getting part and you discover you are still mostly
invisible. You don’t like that so you go back to emphasizing the parts that
got looked over. Then you feel the rest of you is invisible again.
Who wants to support the Napkin Dad? You can do so easily by PayPal via the donate button in the upper right.
“It’s better to be looked over than to be overlooked.” – Mae West
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