Blog

Mary has sold many millions of copies of her books. There are authors who make such claims; Mary really has sold that many. However tremendous sales do not guarantee happiness and Mary is not happy. She wants to throw out the old and dive into the new but she has fans...

A fellow I know, a New Yorker who lives in New Jersey, makes his living providing businesses with ideas for stunts. He is paid a lot of money to come up with some idea for a stunt—the equivalent of jumping off a building, edging between two skyscrapers on a tightrope,...

I believe it was a ’56 Buick. I know it cost $50. It was my first car and I drove it mostly drunk, as I was drinking quite a bit in the Army. I would leave Ft. Dix sober, it being only Friday afternoon, drive the two hours to Brooklyn or Manhattan, and begin a weekend...

Calmness may not seem like much of a virtue to you. Maybe you prefer a life of excitement, adventure, and risk-taking. Maybe you harbor the suspicion that calmness is very much like premature death. Or maybe you do crave calmness and would love to live your life more...

For you, making art is one of your life purposes and one of your meaning opportunities. Are there others? There probably need to be, because putting all of our “meaning eggs” in one basket causes us to rise and fall precipitously based on how our art making and our...

Last week I chatted about why boldness is such an important attribute for an artist and how you can better manifest boldness by adopting a “seven-word rule”—that is, by training yourself to say what you need to say and want to say in short, strong sentences. It also...

If you were to ask me what single quality you should cultivate in order to become successful as an artist, it would be boldness. That isn’t to say that your art must be bold: you don’t have to produce solid-gold skulls, ten-story installations, photographs of valleys...

HOW TO MEET A PERFORMER’S TOP TEN CHALLENGES Are you a performer—a musician, an actor, a public speaker, or anyone who has to make presentations? Maybe 2014 is your time to get a handle on one or more of the following top ten performers’ challenges! 1. Performance...

    20 ARTISTS’ QUOTES ON NATURE 1. "I have gone into roses and have over a thousand planted.  There is nothing like making pictures with real things." -- Mary Cassatt 2. "I, too, find the flower beautiful in its outward appearance.  But a deeper beauty lies...

How might grief affect your art? Please read on … This week I received the following email from Ellen in Oakland: “Last month I lost my husband of 20 years and I am awash in grief and business details. I was wondering if you could do an article addressing the impact...