I've been reading Linkedin's business advice and instruction posts and darned if some of them aren't super good.  For example, this one on listening:  

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/we-dont-make-friends-talking-listening-oleg-vishnepolsky/?trk=eml-email_feed_ecosystem_digest_01-recommended_articles-8-Unknown&midToken=AQH9SywkVbz0yA&fromEmail=fromEmail&ut=0gETQ-gBZnD841

The initial quote from Steven Covey (the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People guy) drew me in:

"Many people listen with the intent to respond, not to understand." Stephen R. Covey.

Boy,  isn't that the truth!  Haven't you met a ton of folks who are visibly so busy formulating their comments that they clearly aren't listening to you?  The instruction to listen and listen carefully goes to the heart of art selling.  Listen to your buyer.  Why do they like that piece?  Where will they put it?  What is stopping them from buying it?  Where are the bottlenecks to closing the deal?

Listen.   Such good advice.  So rarely adhered to.

I just read this article in Inc on 17 Smart Tips for People Who Work From Home. https://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/17-smart-tips-for-people-who-work-from-home.html?cid=nl029week03day16  As a fair number of artists work from home, these are quite relevant.  

I was especially fascinated by the recommendation that you keep track of your time.  I just recently started doing that in response to a friend's question about how much time I spent every day on art.  I kept track of my time in 6 minute increments for many years as a lawyer so I was always reluctant to keep track.  But having done so for a couple of weeks, I can tell you that I spend less time on art and art business every day than I thought.  So it's time to step up my game plan on that front for sure.

The title is a line from a poem in the book entitled "Salt" by Nayyirah Waheed, a wonderful poet.  Maybe the best thing about Instagram is following her, reading her poems and thinking about them sporadically during the day.   I've just requested her book, "Salt," via the fabulous Denver Public Library's Prospector system.  

Here's the whole poem:

"your heart is the softest place on earth.  take care of it."

There are some days when I feel that my heart really must be the softest place on earth for it hurts.  My heart hurts from the evil present in the world; from the pain that is being imposed upon Americans by those in power; from the suffering and fear experienced by regular folks, many of whom are just a paycheck away from homelessness and destitution; and from the losses that I too have experienced.

The Buddhists do an excellent job of dealing with heart hurting and "the fractured landscape of grief".  The Way is through mindfulness, of course, for loss and suffering come to us all.

So I'm off to meditate in the hopes of taking care of my heart.  

I've been working in red recently.  I love it.  The three pieces I've done (so far!) have 3 different shades of red in them.  In my medium, resin, the mixing of colors adds shading and depth to each piece.  And then, as the coup de gras, I laid some gold on top.  Yum!  Each piece seems rather ... Chinese.  Maybe Chinese New Years-y.  Exotic.  Fun. 

While working in this series, I happened upon an article entitled, "A Brief History of Red."  https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-history-red.

I hadn't thought about it before but the article is correct; red is the color of both revolution (the Red Chinese, the movie "Reds" about the Russian Revolution) and seduction (ruby red lips, Valentines Day).  

It turns out that red has been part of human culture since the Neanderthals starting using red ochre 250,000 years ago.  Compare that to blue which the Egyptians first began creating in 2500 B.C.E.   The article details the methods for making the color red throughout the ages, including the toxic extractions of cinnabar and "minium".  Other methodologies for making red included cochineal bugs, which were a valuable export from the New World to the Old.

Some reds were unstable and have faded over the course of time.  Indeed, even Rothko's lithol red, first used in 1962, by 1979 was so faded that his works in lithol red were removed from public view.  How sad is that?  A Rothko, worth millions upon millions, simply faded.

Red - the color of revolution and seduction.