Sometimes we humans are in need of a little advice and comfort.  We need a message from the Universe, the Divine, God, whomever we look to for solace and a reminder that all will be well.  

I received such a message Monday morning.  

While I don't usually have any difficulty finding joy, I was struggling due to some family drama which, to my dismay and horror, was aimed at me.   So the Universe sent a message to me through Seth Godin, business blogger, writer, author.  Here's the message from his blog which is entitled, "The Rejectionists":

"We can choose to define ourselves (our smarts, our brand, our character) on who rejects us.

Or we can choose to focus on those that care enough to think we matter.

Carrying around a list of everyone who thinks you're not good enough is exhausting."

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2015/06/the-rejectionists.html

Don't carry around a list of people who think you're not good enough.  Get away from them, even if you share a common ancestor.  Let them go.  Set them free.  Whatever you do, don't hold on to anger about their rejection for "holding on to anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die".  

I’m reading a fascinating business book entitled “The One Thing; The surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results” by Gary Keller.  In it he describes Pareto’s Principle, which I had never heard of before.  Pareto apparently discovered the 80/20 Rule, which I had heard of.  The 80/20 Rule is that 20% of your efforts create 80% of the results.

This principle holds true in any human endeavor.  Any schoolteacher can tell you that they spend 80% of their time dealing with 20% of the kids.

Barney Davey, art marketer and art career advisor extraordinaire, makes this same point, albeit in different words, when he advises that we artists spend our time cultivating 100 collectors.  Only 100 collectors are necessary, Mr. Davey advises, in order to be successful.  Thus, we should focus the majority of our time on our collectors. His recommendation, phrased in Pareto’s Principle, would be that we spend 80% of our time on the 20% of the folks who are our collectors.

The question that came to mind while reading The One Thing was: does Pareto’s  Principle, the 80/20 Rule, apply to social media?   No doubt the fact that I am currently participating in Alyson Stanfield’s Creative Content Camp on social media (http://artbizcoach.com/ccc/) had something to do with this thought popping into my head.   Does Pareto’s Principle apply to social media?  Should we spend 80% of our time on 20% of the vast array of social media choices (Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Google+, blogging, etc.)? 

If indeed we should spend 80% of our time on one aspect of social media per Pareto’s Principle, the next obvious question is: which social media avenue is the 20% that we should be spending our time on?

Any ideas? 

Boy, sometimes the intimidation factor is overwhelming.  Faced with a blank canvas (or for me, a blank wooden panel), I get overwhelmed and completely intimidated.  What to do?  How to start?  Will this piece be as good as the last?  What if it's awful?  

I do some uplifting self talk.  I tell myself that I've GOT to get going, I've got to start.  If it is bad, well, it's bad.  I'll throw it out.  No one need know.  I've got a show to create for.  I've gotta get going!  

The "what if it is awful" scenario is a little scarier for me than for other artists, or so I think, because my wooden panels are so expensive and resin is so expensive.  

Worse yet, there are no "do overs" with resin.  If there is just one little flaw or part of the panel that didn't come out right, the whole thing is ruined.  I either throw somewhere between $30 and $100 worth of panel and $25 to $50 worth of resin out or I gesso over the piece and start over, knowing that the whole thing is going to be heavy, very heavy, with two coats of resin.

But such is life.  Not every piece I do is a masterpiece.  Not every piece is even worth saving.  

If this were easy, everyone would do it.

Hi All!  I'm curious; what music do you turn on or what music turns you on to when you create?  Long ago, I interviewed Roxanne Rossi who listens (at least then) Spanish guitar music.  Classy music for a classy lady, right?

I confess to a crazy level of eclecticism.  I listen to Pandora usually and my favorites are (in no particular order):  Donna Summer, ACDC, Huey Lewis and the News, Boz Skaggs, Hall and Oats, Sade, Jazz Liberators and TA DA my latest - Chaka Khan.  The currently titled "Malachite" (image below) was created to the tunes of Chaka Khan.

What do you listen to when you create?

Boy, is there anything better than selling art?  Even the trials that I won do not compare to the thrill of someone falling in love with my art.

I'm always on pins ad needles when a client from out of state falls in love with my art.  I Fedex my art off, hoping that they'll love, love, LOVE it.  And when they do, well, life is good.

Yesterdays' comment from my New York client who bought Calore, a triptych, in response to my "Did you receive it yet?" query:

    "Received and spectacular."

Life doesn't get better.

"Playing to the Gallery; Helping Contemporary Art in its Struggle to be Understood" by Grayson Perry is a lovely little book filled with subtle English humor levied in an attempt to explain contemporary art to "normal" people.  Normal people are those humans who are not in the art business and who do not have an art education.  "Normal" folks admit it when they "don't get it".  We artists would rather eat art supplies than admit that we don't get it.

Normal people are not loath to admit that Damian Hirst's dead bulls in a tank leave them cold.  It is for this audience that Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry writes.  He writes beautifully and with that Graham Norton sort of sly, self-deprecating humor.  Perry makes fun of contemporary art's self-referential nonsense while simultaneously explaining it, at least to the extent that it can be explained.

I recommend this fast read both to artists and to their families and friends.