artists

saying yes to your dream: frank gehry + devotion

Even great artists sell out. Sometimes it happens post fame and fortune. Other times, as in the case of architect Frank Gehry, you sell your soul in the beginning of your career, on what you hope is your way up.

It's better to sell out early, if only because time is merciful and you can blame so much on youth and learning curves. You have time to recover and re-invent. It's exceedingly harder to redeem yourself once you've let your hit song be used for a burger commercial, or you've turned your personal touch into a factory franchise. So for all of you grinding gears in a day job while your heart is spinning bigger dreams, consider this:

One of Frank Gehry's first buildings, was a shopping mall, The Santa Monica Place. It was rigidly geometric and pale pink. He played it safe for investors and went LA-style. He hated it.

Meanwhile, as a more direct and personal creative outlet, Gehry went full out "Gehry" on building his own home. Sloping roofs, curvaceous windows, jutting peaks. Wacky and wildly organic.

The night of the grand opening of the Santa Monica Place, the president of the real estate company that had hired Frank was at Gehry's home for a dinner party.

Real estate Exec: What the hell is this?, he said to Frank, looking around Gehry's house, awestruck.
Frank: Well, I was experimenting, you know, playing with it.
Exec: Well you must like it if it's your house. You do like this, right?
Frank: Yeah. I'm happy with how it turned out.
Exec: So then...the building that you just did for us...the shopping mall...you can't possibly like that.
Frank: You're right, I don't.
Exec: Then why'd you do it?
Frank: Because I need to make a living.

Pause.

Exec: Well stop it. Don't do that kind of work anymore.
Frank: Yeah, you're right.

They shook hands that night and decided to quit everything they were working on (they were employing forty people at the time.)

"It was like jumping off a cliff," Gehry says. "It was an amazing feeling. I was so happy from then on."

Devotion can be that easy.

The moment you say yes is the beginning. It's not when you give your notice or when your novel is off the press. It's when you say yes to the desire.

"Maybe" clogs up the dream machine.
Do you want a career that amazes even you? Then say yes. Do you want a love life brimming with adoration and the sweet stuff? Then say yes. If you start to tell me why it's not possible or how bad you want it but you don't know how to get it - then you don't want it bad enough. Maybe isn't going to cut it.

And if someone great calls you out on your own greatness, consider it a sacred moment. Those opportunities are precious. To have your 'yes' witnessed is magic-making.

Even after his big yes moment, there were failures for Frank. He was supposedly cash-strapped more than once. He bid on projects he never got. He had to can staff. He questioned is own judgment.

But he never did another building that he didn't absolutely love creating.

Sketches of Frank Gehry by Sydney Pollack is one of my favourite documentaries. (The late) Pollack features in it and the interaction between the master director and master architect is inspiring and charming.

 

letting go of cleverness makes room for true art

{This lovely little animation of The Golden Mean / Rule of Thirds is breathtaking and descriptive. I felt like my heart rate slowed down while I watched it inner-fold. Click here to view it's movement.}

The best writing advice I ever received was this: "Sometimes you have to let go of the jewels."

You have to cut out the best part.
You have to detach from your brilliance.
You have to trust that the whole piece is better the individual shiny parts that make you seem clever or wise.

So that sexy slogan ... That rapier wit one-liner ... That fancy feature or added customer service ... if those gems are throwing the whole package or project or intention off kilter, then they probably need to be slashed.

Final works of art find harmony. In even vulgar, dramatic, and absurd works of art there can be a high degree of cohesion and that's what accounts for it's impact. That's where skill comes in. You can be as wildly inspired and as daring as you want, but if you don't know the rule of thirds, or a bit of colour theory, or how to help the members of your jazz trio be heard in fusion, then you run the risk of tampering with the objective, which is to create art that conveys.

It's easy to get attached to our inspired moments and what they produce. Those a-ha's are a rush. And the rush is goood, it's essential in fact. Let it move you forward instead of rooting you to one place, or one ray of light. Let your clever bits and genius fuel your courage rather than your ego. Diamonds shine only after they've been cut.

 

big view

 

magnetic attraction analysis 101

One of the most powerful questions you can ask yourself is: What am I drawn to? Plenty of people are inspirationally challenged - not sure of what lights their fire. Others are so selective about what floats their boat that not much new can get past their preferences.

Whether you’re confused or highly particular, curiosity is a form of power. Use it.

What are you attracted to? Make a list.
Here's mine. I'm attracted to, intrigued by, enamored with...

1. Pure rose oil, that's so pure it's peppery.
2. Kids.
3. People who are comfortable in silence.
4. Convents.
5. Old Egypt.
6. Word economy - saying a lot with a little.
7. Inquisitiveness!!!
8. People who are confrontational.
9. Old African men who smile with their eyes.
10. Scars.
11. Innovation.
12. Alleys.
13. Musicians who have never worked a day in their life.
14. Wealthy, self-made entrepreneurs who aren't excessive.
15. Philanthropists.
16. The seering brilliance and heart of the TED talks.
17. Filthy at the end of the day construction workers.
18. Rothko paintings.
19. Elvis in 1969.
20. The greeny turquoise with brown flecks.
21. Cosmology.
22. Nests.
24. Gold. Can't get too much gold.
25. Great teeth.
26. Text art.

What's on your magnetism list? Now ask yourself what’s so interesting, or soothing, or sexy about the things that you gravitate towards. Go with the first thing that enters your mind, no matter how silly or grandiose it may seem.

I can see a pattern in my attractions: mystery, hard work, glamor, sacred devotion, currency, artistry. Sounds like the essential ingredients to the masterpiece I want to create, or my everyday my ideal life.

Being aware of not only what we are attracted to, but why we’re attracted to it, gives us access to the most tender and creative places within ourselves. If you put your finger on the magnetism, you can attract more of what you want into your life.

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RELATED:

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take breaks for beauty, intervals of gorgeousness

"A beautiful thing, though simple in its immediate presence, always gives us a sense of depth below depth, almost an innocent wild vertigo as one falls through its levels."
- Frederick Turner

Writing and jamming all day, I need to to wrest my eyes from words and the screen. Even if I'm writing fluidly or fire starting with a fellow entrepreneur, I crave little bits of beauty like I crave milk chocolate at about 3:00pm everyday. Visual beauty quenches and cools the part of my brain that is usually on warp drive. A luscious image makes my cells go "ahhhh." We forget to brake for beauty. She's rarely on our to-do list. But she makes all the difference in the day.

6 ON-LINE GORGEOUSNESS SNACKS. EAT SOME DAILY.

1. These flower mandalas by psychotherapist and photographer David J. Bookbinder make my heart still. Absolutely mesmerizing: flower mandala photos {be sure to click "color" on LEFT tool bar} Bookbinder's blog on Beliefnet.

2. Coolhunter is so damn cool that I can hardly stand it.

3. My favourite new artist is Cheryl Sorg. I'm wild about text art, and butterflies, and neutral palettes. The preciousness and intensity of her work is staggering. I have two pieces of hers en route to me and I can't wait to hang them above our mantle. She's also allowing me to play with a fantastic line drawing of some flames for the cover of my book-in-progress (also called...yep...White Hot Truth.)

4. This photograph of Lance Armstrong makes me really, really like men even more than I already really really do: Lance @ treehugger.com

5. Impeccable Beyoncé, choreography by supreme Goddess attitude: Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) Video. When you're this frickin' hot you don't need any props.

6. One of my favourite Canadian abstract painters: Patricia Larsen.

ahhhhh.

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my fav doc of '08