Feel or Fill

This image must be watched in its original size to be read.

I dont know what to do with this piece. I started it thinking it could be a magazine spread, and it ended up as a huge 16 x 8 inch print out. One more in the pile of my unused work, because of lack of energy and focus about how to promote my art.

The piece express the way i feel about all the substitution of happiness which i see in our culture, and maybe you can feel how saddened i am about this… how i wish my art could sparkle something in the viewer… wake up dear soul!

I’d like to see this piece displayed on fast food chain tables, instead of the traditional advertising for… more junk.

Join me in the QQ challenge

I found this Quality vs Quantity helper on Caterina.net, and judging by the amount of people who faved it on flickr, i am not the only one in serious need of guidance to reinvent the meaning of productivity (can one be productive by working just some hours each day?).

As always, these rules look rather simple to follow, but i would like to team up with you and try to really live by these rules for 7 consecutive days – would you join? I would suggest we do the test from next monday on, and try for some days to have the feeling that we’re on top of things (!).

Elizabeth Gilbert at TED

Art

Dealing with ideas

Overwhelmed with ideas, me and chris often struggle with this topic. So much could be done, only, we are only 2 heads, and 4 hands.

Which idea is good to keep, which ones are not? A pretty good conversation topic, if you feel like sharing a coffee with a stranger. I’m sure everyone has something to say on the subject.

Some interesting tips are give over here (link found via guylaine) :

1. Creative destruction. Create a weekly or monthly ritual to critically examine your pipeline. Prioritize your ideas and kill the ones that haven’t been actionable in the past year, are low on the priority scale (…)

4. Focus on Results, Not Time. Achievement should be measured by output, not by the amount of time spent on a project.

My way of dealing with ideas has changed a lot over the lasts weeks. I chose to dedicate myself only to the essential stuff : what brings me joy and a feeling of aliveness now, what sounds like music to my heart.

Otherwise, i throw out any idea which i suspect i might want to see happen only to feed my ego, in a reaction to fear, or to please others.

All the ideas i put my energy into must feed myself, and my vision. I realized lately that i can carefully choose the elements in want to play with in my life, the ideas i want to play with in my head – and the word play says it all.

Kind bloggers

This week’s poll

Inspiration benevolence

There is a silent revolution going on, a guerilla of creatives, leaving their footprints around. Goodness is spreading, slowly, but surely – and we each can be a part of it, but only by taking action, even the smallest one.

The picture above is from Natalija’s flower gifting – yes, gifting. Walking around and leaving flowers for strangers to discover, on the wiper of their car, at the feet of their door. Botanical benevolence she calls it.

Amongst many other inspiring activities, there is the Hope Revolution website which encourages you to create notes with messages of hope and leave them in public places. Visit their website, and flickr group.

This oh-so-needed inspiration benevolence should be an easy and fun thing to do, and as Christine suggested, you can make the difference in someone’s day with simple gestures: using chalks to write on streets, or add little notes to car wiper – whatever how, make it easy for your message to be shared!

Keeping a diary supports personal development

Sometimes people translate the daily stuff in words that affect us profoundly.

I am keeping a diary since i’m a kid, writing mostly everyday – the good, the bad, and everything in between. Expressing silently my biggest fears and dreams is something now part of my daily routine, like a silent meditation, because i know for myself that the ability to put words on what happens inside me brings a level of clarity which nothing else can bring.

And tonight i found this, from Stefan Sagmeister’s new project, Things i have learned in my life, a website and a book of the same name, which i am sure are both worth some of your time.