Diversify and Limit

Diversify your talents. Get to know everything. Do as much as you possibly can to know as much as you possibly can about everything. Play the guitar, play the saxophone, play the piano, the hand drums. If you can pick it up and do it, do it. If you have pencil and paper, write something, whatever comes up. Practice yoga, all kinds and meditate. Sing, everywhere and with anyone. Do as much as you can to expand, evolve and nurture your spirit.

And limit yourself, to one thing and be brave enough to be a master. As you diversify your talents, you will nourish your creative spirit and prepare yourself for your soul's true calling. You'll get an idea while playing a tune on the banjo, you'll see things from a new light while running in the park, your body will be postured and aligned, ready for action at your work while stretching in yoga. The benefits of daily meditation will change your life, so that you will become the best at what you do the best, what comes most naturally, what your soul needs, who you are at your core, your true self.

It is a mature artist that has considered many different materials, ideas, ways of expressing a vision, disciplines and arrived at a conscious decision to commit to your own personal vision. It takes time and work. There's no easy way to get to this point. You have to experiment and get through all the frustrations, doubts and fears just like everyone. Perseverance makes the master. Good disciplined work makes the star. If you know what you're doing, if you've decided on your scope, if you've committed to your vision, if you've limited your materials, when the great moment comes, which it will if you don't give up, you will be ready and strong. You won't flounder.

I feel very strongly about being a well rounded individual. I feel very strongly about being the master of one thing that is very personal to you. I feel very strongly that if you do this, you will attract a niche audience that needs what you have to offer. You will thrive.

Diversify and limit. Get to know who you are. Follow every impulse. There does not serve you to say, "I can't play a guitar, I'm a painter not a musician." That is limiting and will constrict you from your true potential. Figuring out how to play a song on the guitar will free space in your mind to find new ways of understanding, it will build new connections, create new memories, establish new sensations and could very well be the catalyst to powerful ideas crucial to your work. The muscle memory that you build, the sensory stimulation that awakens you and the imaginative nature of doing something that is entirely new to you will enhance the possibility of you doing your life's great work better. And that's the goal. That is always the goal.

By narrowing your focus, scope and materials, you're acknowledging to your being, that you're ready to take this work seriously. You've tried everything, you've studied what you could and now you're ready to make bold steps forward. Now your ready to create a movement, a niche, a new way of understanding, and that is priceless. That is exactly what this world needs most. You are invaluable not only to your field but to your audience. You will establish vital connections that will take you further. You might even discover something completely new that changes the world for the better. It's possible to reach these kinds of goals in this lifetime.

I am going to give this idea my best effort. Diversify and limit. Be a complete person, able to hold discussions with anyone, able to feel deeply and expand the spirit, able to perceive the world from any angle, from any possibility, able to raise consciousness and establish relationships that will carry your work on way beyond your lifetime. You will be ready for anything.

Be a priceless human being. That's what this world is hungry for.

Where is your focus?

Focus on the feeling. Focus on the question. Focus on the reward.

Where is your focus?

Be decisive to clarify your vision.

Choice is redemptive. I'm realizing that it's not really so much about knowing what you're doing than it is about making decisions. Power is a decision.

When you take the first steps and make decision, the creative process will take over and you will figure things out as you go. There's no clear vision from the onset. You follow through the steps one by one and gradually your vision becomes clear. You are not an engineer, you are an artist. However having an engineers decisive call to action is exactly what you need.

Chances are great that what you end up with, what you develop, what you create, will be far from what you started with. It's a lot of small steps and the steps appear to you one by one as you evolve your work.

In the beginning, it is dark. You start with a hunch, a gut feeling, a vague idea. The most important part is that you start. Our creative spirit will make decisions based on the very first one. Remember, if you are afraid to make that first decision, just do something. When you do, you allow the consciousness of your being to evolve. Your brain will start figuring out what the next decisions are. It will start figuring out how to make things work. It will find its way to resolution. Your brain, the creative flow, when put together, is remarkably powerful.

There's no instruction manual for great art. All the genius's of our time know this. It is a slow and steady process and sometimes it comes together in huge leaps and bounds. Sometimes the best stuff happens with no idea what's going on.

Have courage to make decisions. And as you do, step by step, your vision will become clear.

If you're not inspired, you have no mojo

If you're not inspired then you have no mojo. The worst thing for an artist is to feel creativity blocked, your personal voice stifled, the flow stuck. It's agonizing, simply agonizing.

It's not really about content, it's about style, mojo, moxie, hotness. That's what it's about. And if you don't have it, then you'll be spinning circles around yourself, no matter how good you are, how much you have to say, or how much you care. You will die.

And that's unbearable.

What do you do when your feel stifled?

Take breaks. Go on walks, breathe, relax, see a movie, physical activity, preferably outside away from everything always helps me, a connection to nature, a connection to people, dancing, singing, playing, cartwheels, listening to music, make a collage, journal, cook, turn the damn thing upside down and try it another way, radically change things, simplify, obliterate, sometimes black on all the precious parts is just what you need.

There is a way out. There is always a way out. Don't ever give up. If you're stuck, it's ok, give yourself a chance to get unstuck. That's the first step, and I believe the most important one. Giving yourself a chance.

Because if you let the agony take over, you will dig a deeper hole for yourself. You will run more circles, make more excuses, complain to more people, and there is nothing cute about this. No one wants to see, experience or feel this.

Acknowledge the block. Then move forward.

Do something a different way. Go outside, take a long walk, find a new location to work in, rearrange things, clean, detox, make a new schedule, a new agenda, leave town. There are countless approaches to unclogging your sexiness.

Changing your environment is huge. Move things around, take things out, get rid of what isn't working. Find an entirely new approach, new location, new material, new scope, whatever you need to do to feel that good vibe of your true self deep in your guts. Do it and do it well, like the moment is all you have because it is, and it's viable and real and needs to come out of your system in your most creatively charged expression. There's no excuse. You've got it in you.

If it's not working, cut it out. Don't keep it. Don't stay in the agony. It's not worth it. Acknowledge the block, then make a step in a new direction. Sometimes the tiniest of things can be just what you need to stir things up again. Don't keep letting things suck your energy. If it doesn't work, acknowledge it, then let it go, sidestep, get rid of it.

It might mean you must be strong, brave, resilient, all very noble and beautiful things that are highly regarded, sought after and looked up to. What could possibly be wrong with that? Do you see the lesson here?

This will help you later. Acknowledge your process and give yourself some credit. Most importantly, don't ever give up.

Don't ever give up. There's a way out. Your mojo is worth the effort. You came here to thrive. You deserve to thrive. You deserve your mojo, juicy, hotness.

Find a way out. Make it personal. And do it now.

It's not really about content, skill or experience. It's about style, mojo, sure fire hotness. Drop it like you mean it and then back off, let the work speak for itself.

There's no great muse

And the great muse alas, isn't what you thought it was. It's not that glamorous. It's the paint underneath your fingernails, the varnish on your shoes, the dirty desk you work at every day. It's the same old apron that just keeps getting more covered with your paint love stains. That's what it is. It's not that glamorous.

If you think it's glamorous, stick to illusions and TV. It's not art. It's just not. It's dirty, it's hard, it's challenging... but it's yours, and that's priceless.

I think the muse is just having the opportunity to be yourself. It can come in any way, shape or form. You can see a magazine photo, a picture from some trip, or simply, the water bottle on your table. All of which can be equally inspiring, equally viable for your piece of fine art. I think it's all about the work. The daily grind, the getting up and getting to it no matter how you feel. Because it's not glamorous, it never will be.

Trust me. It's not. Who do you think you are to have some great muse? You have to work. Then if you get lucky, it all comes together without you really having to think. That's the best we can hope for. That's the goal, the reward and ultimately what you'll have.

I would give up everything I have simply for these moments. They are the most rewarding and the most genuine. I'm bringing sincerity to the art world. I'm bringing simplicity to this great big life. I'm bringing myself forward. That's all I have to do.

The rest is irrelevant.

What inspires me? Everything. The life I live, the people I meet, my journey, through movie theaters, parks, grocery stores, anywhere, everything, it's all valid. It's all useful. It's my world. I created it.

There's no great muse. Quit looking. Wake up to who you are, what you have, where you are in this moment right here and right now. Then get busy, get dirty, make a mess! That's where the life is, in the struggle, in the figuring out, and if you get lucky, it comes together. That's where ultimately, the magic is, in the work, every day.

There's no great muse. It's simple. All around you, the art is all around you.

Breathe

Take a deep breathe, inhale and exhale. Take it to the center, ground it out.

Now, get busy. :)

Every artist needs an audience

If you are an artist, you need an audience. You are hungry for that connection, just as you are hungry for the solace to create. You might think that you want to be hidden, kept away from the rush, kept away from the spotlight.

You need the spotlight, like you need the cave, ancient and buried in your heart.

You need the thrill, like you need the exile, a road that belongs only to you.

You need the panic, the fear, the "what if they don't like me and spit me out into a futile fog of destitution and agony."

What if they do just that? That thing I'm scared to death of.

Get over it.

You need them. No matter what they say. You absolutely need an audience. Only then will you be a real artist, forced to grow big and resilient and brave. That will fuel your work more than anything else will.

Who cares what they say. Who cares who they are. Who cares why. Put it out there. Put it out there like you mean it, like it's hot, like it's the only thing that matters, the only choice you've got, the only thing that keeps you alive.

Get it to them. Give it to them. Burn the fire and release it to the world.

Every artist needs an audience. You need a following, you need a spotlight, just as much as you need the source, your own energy, your own imagination, your own precious space. It's what you're here for and nothing else matters.

It's very important to have everything in balance for great work, all the elements connected and aligned. Yourself, centered with your higher calling, your skills sharp and ready for attention, your tools the best you can find, know how to use them, get to know intimately the ones you are most attracted to, your knowledge, expansive, experienced and bright, study everything you can and concentrate on what strikes your interest, and very importantly as well, your audience, hungry, ready and charged for what you've got.

Give it to them and mean it. The connection is vital. Get to know your audience, just as much as you know yourself.

It will keep you growing and pushing and paving a personal path through the unknown and that's all any artist every really wants.