Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Do You DESIRE TO INSPIRE?
I am thrilled to announce I am on the roster of twenty contributors to Desire to Inspire: Using Creative Passion to Transform the World by Christine Mason Miller. In Desire to Inspire, readers will be introduced to twenty extraordinary women - writers, artists and entrepreneurs - all of whom share a unique example of how they create a meaningful life and, in turn, make a positive impact on the world. The stories and examples explore the roots of their desire to inspire and how they manage to pursue their passions in the midst of all the twists and turns life has given them. In addition to a beautiful collection of quotes, stories, and anecdotes, readers are given substantive, encouraging exercises aimed at supporting their own journey towards a meaningful, mindful life.
Published by North Light Books
Available November 2011
144 full-color pages, softcover
Pre-order your copy on Amazon today ~ http://amzn.com/1440310734
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Do YOU Want to KNOW the Secrets of Highly Successful Women?
Thanks to author Gail McMeekin, they aren't secrets any more.
THE 12 SECRETS OF HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL WOMEN -
A Portable Life Coach for Creative Women is destined for its
second reading on a flight I'm taking. This time I'll have a highlighter
handy.
I actively avoid playing the game of "What if's?" Yet I am compelled to wonder
how my business experience might have been different if I had had this book 25 years ago.
That is, indeed, a question that will remain speculative. For sure, today, I have this book in my hand. I anticipate it's going to continue to impact the ways I do business today. I'm here to tell you that this old dog is learning new tricks thanks to Gail McMeekin.
THE 12 SECRETS OF HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL WOMEN -
A Portable Life Coach for Creative Women is destined for its
second reading on a flight I'm taking. This time I'll have a highlighter
handy.
I actively avoid playing the game of "What if's?" Yet I am compelled to wonder
how my business experience might have been different if I had had this book 25 years ago.
That is, indeed, a question that will remain speculative. For sure, today, I have this book in my hand. I anticipate it's going to continue to impact the ways I do business today. I'm here to tell you that this old dog is learning new tricks thanks to Gail McMeekin.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
"What Religion Are You?"
It was one of my first New York Stationery Shows. The Javits Center overwhelmed me, as did the two floors of vendors waiting to ply their wares. The show lay out encompassed more than fifteen times the square footage of the downtown core in which I conducted my business. I was one of the largest employers in the small town I was from. Here, I was clearly one of the smallest fishes in a relatively large stream.
My booth set up was simple and I finished a day in advance of the schedule. No flashy pre-fabricated walls. In fact, nothing flashy at all. Just me and my work. So the simplicity bought me an entire walk around day in Manhattan that I hadn't anticipated. Most of the memories of that day are just ripped fragments of paper, the best falafel I'd ever eaten in my life, the burn on my thigh from resting on the stoop of a brownstone. Among the shreds of incomplete memories is one vivid picture.
Wandering the streets of Greenwich Village. Mired in thoughts of all the authors and artists whose footsteps I was inadvertently following...one door captured my attention. Then and now. In gilded letters on the glass pane of the door, just like a law office or an accountant, appeared THE CHURCH OF THE EXQUISITE PANIC. I never wanted to know about the church than the thoughts that the name conjured up*. And the name rose up in my experience whenever I was on the cusp of giving myself over, utterly, to some anxiety about a moment that was not "now." Without tithe or formality I enrolled myself in the Church of the Exquisite Panic by resisting the temptation to inquire further.
That is, until today. When I read Janet Conner's (author of WRITING DOWN YOUR SOUL and instructor of the process of Soul Writing) newsletter declaring she has finally found her religion. Perhaps someday, when I'm sauntering the hot May sidewalks of Manhattan I'll come upon a door that leads to Janet's religion, "The Church of the Exquisite Amazement." Perhaps. The great news is this, I'm already a member!
If you would like to read about Janet's journey, you may do so here: http://janetconner.wordpress.com/2011/06/22/i-finally-found-my-religion
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Thursday, June 2, 2011
"Who Taught You That?"
"Who taught you that?" is a question that is as much a part of my memories of childhood as my tree fort and banana seat huffy bike. Adults were frequent to question my source of knowledge. I read several grade levels ahead and my mother had arranged unlimited access to all the material in my local library. I was an early "dot connector." If THIS in true, and THIS is true, I would be able to conclude that likely THAT was true. And the source I would cite for the THAT? Me. I have considered my own soul a valued and viable source of knowing since childhood.
When I first became acquainted with Carmen Torbus and her art work, I noted she often described herself as "self taught." That reference would whoosh me back to my own learning experience where it was somehow implied that knowledge was more viable if one received it from a validated source. An OTHER source. My view toward knowingness is very different than what is generally accepted. I believe the knowledge and capacity we each hold within ourselves is our first line of education. That is the first "go to" place I use myself and suggest for others. Then, absent satisfying discovery there, the search begins to circle outward.
Torbus's "self taught" proclamation said many things to me. She embraces her own vision. She has courage. She's willing to fail in order to make discovery. She's innovative. She is imaginative. And over the time I've become more familiar with her and her work...these observations have been proven correct.
Carmen's book, The Artist Unique: Discovering Your Creative Signature Through Inspiration and Techniques, is wonderfully rich and inviting. A circle of five professional artists will be showing their personal, playful side during the month of June. Along with Carmen and me, Liz Kalloch, Christine Mason Miller and Christine Olivarez will each be picking a technique presented in Carmen's book. We each have our own "Creative Signature" known to the people who follow our work. The challenge for us is to choose a technique that we are not particularly familiar with, share the process of learning and, ultimately, give something we've created to a friend of ours. Even though each of us earn our livelihood through the creative process, we also love to give what we make to our treasured friends. Not all our creativity is tied to our careers. We are each passionate creatives who love to discover, explore and just make things...in our "spare time!"
Be watching for photos and story as I share my journey learning about a media I've been reluctant to try. In fact, I've chosen something that I've been heard to say, in low-hard-to-hear-tones, "I'm just not that good at that..." Carmen's inviting me to say something different! And now, when people ask me, "Who taught you THAT?" I'll be able to say, "Carmen Torbus, one of her friends and me!"
When I first became acquainted with Carmen Torbus and her art work, I noted she often described herself as "self taught." That reference would whoosh me back to my own learning experience where it was somehow implied that knowledge was more viable if one received it from a validated source. An OTHER source. My view toward knowingness is very different than what is generally accepted. I believe the knowledge and capacity we each hold within ourselves is our first line of education. That is the first "go to" place I use myself and suggest for others. Then, absent satisfying discovery there, the search begins to circle outward.
Torbus's "self taught" proclamation said many things to me. She embraces her own vision. She has courage. She's willing to fail in order to make discovery. She's innovative. She is imaginative. And over the time I've become more familiar with her and her work...these observations have been proven correct.
Carmen's book, The Artist Unique: Discovering Your Creative Signature Through Inspiration and Techniques, is wonderfully rich and inviting. A circle of five professional artists will be showing their personal, playful side during the month of June. Along with Carmen and me, Liz Kalloch, Christine Mason Miller and Christine Olivarez will each be picking a technique presented in Carmen's book. We each have our own "Creative Signature" known to the people who follow our work. The challenge for us is to choose a technique that we are not particularly familiar with, share the process of learning and, ultimately, give something we've created to a friend of ours. Even though each of us earn our livelihood through the creative process, we also love to give what we make to our treasured friends. Not all our creativity is tied to our careers. We are each passionate creatives who love to discover, explore and just make things...in our "spare time!"
Be watching for photos and story as I share my journey learning about a media I've been reluctant to try. In fact, I've chosen something that I've been heard to say, in low-hard-to-hear-tones, "I'm just not that good at that..." Carmen's inviting me to say something different! And now, when people ask me, "Who taught you THAT?" I'll be able to say, "Carmen Torbus, one of her friends and me!"
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