In my most recent post, I touched on the concept of being able to blend two or more art forms with high quality in each. I’ve come back to this idea repeatedly in my thoughts since. For me, the most prominent examples with the most social impact are films and the music that underscore […]
What did you want to be when you were a child? Did you have any trouble answering that question when someone would ask? Did the answer change from time to time as you grew older? As our interests develop and expand, we are likely to have different aspirations. For example, when it comes time […]
In recent months, I’ve been taking part in the World Religions Book Club at the church I attend in Tucson. We are studying major religions, using The World’s Religions written by Huston Smith. This is a well-written classic book that gives an informed and objective perspective on all practices concerned. I have definitely expanded my understanding […]
The practice of art, in whatever form, is undoubtedly and inherently therapeutic. The question is, how can you most benefit in your life from the gifts the arts have to offer? To provide a foundation for answers you can fully understand, I’m going to start with a quote from The Art Therapy Sourcebook by Cathy […]
Living in modern society in most parts of the world calls for high energy activity in the near-constant pursuit of more money, more power and more stuff. Success is measured by achievement, accumulation, ascension, adoration and any other description of expansion under any letter of the alphabet. These can lead to stress, disappointment, anxiety […]
July 17th, 1915 marked the beginning of an ordeal that Cassandra Coraopolis would never forget. She and her two-year old son, Alex, were playing on the lawn of their beautiful Connecticut mansion. The summer sun was hot, the air still. With the thought of a cold glass of sweet lemonade, Cassandra rose to her […]
My series on the principles that enable the art of creating continues and concludes now with “Quality.” As mentioned in the two prior installments, I’m using a chapter from the fine book Everyday Greatness by Stephen R. Covey as the launching point for this article. It seems needless to mention that our works of art should […]
Behold! Yonder comes the bard, singing songs of novelty is his inimitable innovating style. Whence does his store of ideas burst onto the face of the earth? Why has no mind given birth to such avant-garde melodia in the memory of man? I wrote last about one of the principles that enable the art […]
“When asked why people invent, Mark Twain replied, ‘To give birth to an idea–to discover a great thought–an intellectual nugget, right under the dust of a field that many a brain-plow had gone over before. To be the first–that is the idea.’ Indeed, one of the deepest joys in life is to be creative; […]
Selling books isn’t easy. Selling songs isn’t easy. Selling snake oil isn’t easy. What you need is a formula, so they say. I submit that every successful salesperson or entrepreneur, be it an artist or an insurance agent, has discovered or followed a method that led them to their fortunate outcome. Make a certain […]