Silent Solace

Brent Webb

A key part of communication is not communicating. The balance between articulation and silence is as essential as the ebb and flow of the sea. Silence as a response, in some cases, is better than a well researched answer. It allows air between two counter parts. The air is full of unknown; an abundance for opportunity.

The air lingers, floats, and wafts over each party, shaping potential. Exercise silence like the cognitive action of taking a shower in search of a “eureka.” Human nature dictates that communication will proceed in time, however the silence will work to move the unknown into a the known without forcing a solution.

Silence is another medium in the mixed media of communication art. Solace is the side effect. The peace comes not only because you find answers, but also because you learn more about others. People speak more when you don’t. Listen, respond with care and in time.

I found the artist Brent Webb, who went to MICA, the same school as my sister. I like his work. He’s currently showing at The George T. Dennis Visual and Performing Arts Center Gallery Southeastern Illinois College.

Relationship Art

Carolyn Roper

Painted egos are the visual art of relationships. Often times we paint what the other want to see on themselves to build a relationship that keeps our fears at bay. These works of art are beautiful and quite valuable but like any physical object, fade over time to reveal the raw materials underneath.

The only repair that can last a lifetime are those made from the inside. It’s only when we put the brushes down and stop busying ourselves with the touch-ups of those around us that we are aware of our own beauty. Once we accept our imperfections and understand their importance to our unique value we can achieve sustaining beauty with our relationships.

Agenda Free

Jamie Boynton - That's How I Roll

Now is the time of year we begin to act aggressively on all the strategies and resolutions we’ve promised for this year. Our heads filled with expectations and visions of what this year should look like and how we want it to turn out. We reach out to people, set meetings, make schedules, set agendas and carve a path that looks in our mind exactly like what we want it to look like because this is the way we believe we will make our goals.

This is how I used to exist.

This year I’m trying something different. I’m trying the strategy of “I don’t know and I’m okay with it.” I’m beginning conversations without a preconceived notion of what I want to get out of it or where I think it should end. I’m starting relationships with an empty mind and heart, unfilled with all of my baggage from past experiences. I’m looking at opportunities as just that, opportunities, not potential to make money or get something specific in return.

If I approach the world without an agenda, living in the moment, I don’t know what will happen. Not needing to know what will happen is a freeing and a more happy existence than constantly needing to know and worrying; or even trying to control which is futile and exhausting. So I’m just going to live agenda free and see where it takes me. I wonder if they teach this in B school?

No Land Today

Refresh - 1999

We say goodbye to Kenneth Noland today. I loved his work because he was an artist comfortable with color and space on a canvas. His earlier work is inspiring because of his choice of irregular shaped canvases. Again making my point about space as a great conversation comforter in art.

Today is what we’ve got. Irregular or not, make use of the space and colors at your finger tips. Jump high and land softly.

Verdancy - 1981

Artistic tools can be brushes, relationships, fabric, or words. Whatever your medium, now is the time to exercise your creativity to form your vision. Continue to build your body of work. Reach out to the people who are most interesting to you. Not the people you think can do something for you. Those relationships aren’t based on anything real anyway.

Focus on building meaningful content and meaningful relationships and the rest will flow from this important strategic intersection.

Tomorrow may not come, but I’d like to think what I leave behind is beautiful, so I’m working on my kind of Noland today.

Self Help Distruct

by Jody Barton

I’m pretty stubborn when it comes to letting others help me. I like to do things myself, be in control. I’m that friend that doles out advice and lends a hand. Admittedly, I like it this way.

Self help is big business. Self sufficiency is an important American goal. Grow up, move out, own a home, raise a family, be all you can be. From an early age it’s ingrained in us. So I find it difficult to ask others for help.

The irony in self-sufficiency is the set up for self-destruction because of the utter isolation from others.

Conversely, the process in building this self-sufficiency usually brings with it a network of people willing and able to help if you are brave enough to ask. The strange thing is we are so busy being self-sufficient and helping ourselves that we don’t even notice and the network doesn’t know because we are to busy putting on a show.

Asking for help is an opportunity to grow relationships around us. It’s a time for brave moves, a time to let go of guilt for needing help in the first place, a time for vulnerable acts. All of this is harder than self-sufficiency. All of this will bring you closer to those that you can be closer to in your life.

What would happen if we just leaped out and accepted the help that is all around us and let go of the need to only help ourselves? It might feel a little like floating, we might fall, or we might be caught by surprise. I’m willing to take the leap and find out.

Do Better

Have you ever had a time in your life when you thought you were doing everything you possibly could to the best of your ability and someone close to you said, “do a better job? This happened to me and I immediately got defensive.

Then I got introspective. How? What does this mean from their perspective?

We can’t often see clearly from our perspective how we can be better, only that we are doing our best. It takes someone who loves us and is courageous enough with their honesty to say “be better.”

I examined my actions from their perspective and took a few steps down to check the problem from a different vantage point. Once I did I was actually able to rise higher and not only do better, but feel better about myself and the relationship.

We can’t be our best alone, we have to have others around us who are not afraid to be honest with us, even if their not going to get the best reaction.

I’m thankful for this blessing.

Visceral References

The uplifting visceral connection I have with the color palate in peacock feathers has been the inspiration for my wardrobe choices for several years. It culminated in my design and creation of a costume to host my recent Halloween party revealing the Peacock as my alter ego.

At first I connected with the colors individually; green, blue, then indigo. I then began to wear layers of color in odd combination. I didn’t realize they existed in one object until I happened upon a piece of jewelry while style myself for a recent Twitter conference I attended.

Visceral connections to objects and people are the driving force in my life and in business. It’s often stated that women (and some guys) are too emotional. I have come to believe that it’s not emotion that I’m acting on, but a literal physical response to a person or situation.

People can make me feel sick to my stomach or euphoric and motivated; in person or just conjuring up a thought. This isn’t emotion, this is visceral. It affords me good instinct and foresight. For example, the thought of a person can make me feel nauseous, but lessons learned and positive experiences are easily remembered.

Applying visceral references to people and events in my life help to take emotion out of it. It allows me to logically see the greatness in experiences and keep positive memories, leaving feelings like sadness or anger for the non-verbal and physical part of my brain to process.

These visceral references in business an in life allow me to strut forward like a peacock, guiding me toward the useful insight and making me keenly aware of the rest. Regarding my choice in color palate; I’m pretty sure I’m over my peacock phase now; can’t wait to feel what moves me next.

Connection at Inception

At the start of most brand development, artists and business professionals alike focus on themselves. Plugged into the goals and aims of the idea at play so intently that there is little effort placed on the literal connection that will inevitably be made with the audience.

The social nature of this new economy has made every person the media. So connecting with our audience honestly, early, and often is imperative to success. The publishing and entertainment industries are beginning to understand. We see examples of success stories in people like the wine guy and author Gary Vaynerchuk and Grammy award-winning artist Chamillionaire.  They each have over 850K and 220K Twitter followers, not to mention the vlogs, Ustreams and countless other ways they connect with their communities daily. Their recent releases were chart toppers in their respective industries almost exclusively because of their intimate audience connections.

Consider this line of thinking, wouldn’t it be easier to sell tickets to a play if when casting for it you weighed talent and followers on Twitter and Facebook equally as variables for casting?

This new world is more interested in the human connection than buying “stuff.” Once artists and businesses alike make a human connection with people they will basically buy anything. (That’s not to say people are stupid, because every great marketer knows, you treat your audience like you treat your wife.) People want to be part of an experience; be a piece of a whole.

Connection with people at the beginning of an idea is what makes a brand. What you do with those connections; the possibilities are endless.

Listening in Slow Motion

Paper Clay Sculpture - Figures and Features, Meinsje Vlaming

I have recently adopted a slower pace of living, choosing a more focused, less cluttered life. I find myself saying the words, “no thank you,” more often to projects. I used to believe that exceeding expectations in business meant taking on every project; immediately. This may have been productive but it was very noisy.

The noise and busyness made it difficult to be introspective and long term focused. It is a luxury to be still, but I find great value and inspiration there. I was constantly guided by my daily task lists checking off one “to do” after another. What I realized is this was only the illusion of productivity, but when I looked up, I had no idea where I really want to go?

In the stillness I found a silence that allows me to hear myself and inspiration from brilliant people I painstakingly built relationships with throughout my career. Instead of checking off tasks, I “do nothing,” engaging thoughts, taking ideas to places I never had time for before. The projects I take on relate only to goals streaming from my mind.

The natural balance my life is beginning to take on is in slow motion compared to before, yet I feel more productive and fulfilled.

Building relationships is like modeling clay. In the beginning an artist can see a block of clay’s potential, just as one can assess another person’s attributes and gifts. The artist begins to shape and warm the clay just as two people who converse begin to form a relationship. Building a relationship, like sculpting, is an art form and contains its own surprise and mystery. Therein lies the beauty, but there is still some mystery about the potential for the piece and the relationship. Will it be a great master piece, end in a profitable business deal? It depends on the amount of effort and how well the two characteristics match from the start, and a little luck and chemistry don’t hurt. Of course, it still comes back to listening in slow motion and focusing on important goals.

Be luxurious and take time to “do nothing.”