Why Are You An Artist? What Drew You To Your Craft?

I am an artist for three reasons. Truth, Freedom and Expression.

Truth:

Art is one of the truest forms of expressing the deepest truths of our existence. Whereas in normal prose, we understand through logic and superficial consciousness; in art we understand such abstract concepts like emotion, human archetypes, belonging, interconnectedness, curiosity, etc at a deeper level of knowing. Art serves to remind us what we already know but often forget.

Freedom:

In terms of freedom, being an artist allows me to do as I wish without normal constraints of others jobs. I am free to go for a hike anytime. I am free to dress the way I want. I am free to speak however feels right. In the art world, there is acceptance of the eccentric unlike any other field.

Expression:

And finally, art allows me to express myself. It allows an outlet for my emotions. Art allows my river of consciousness to be uninhibited. I believe creativity is the highest form of human expression.

Now let’s talk about why I am specifically a sculptor. The three dimensional nature of sculpture creates a gravity that cannot be ignored. Sculptures create and modify the literal space we inhabit. I have a particular penchant for large-scale public sculpture because of the accessibility to all. I believe it improves the quality of life for all people who interact with it by providing speed bumps to our normal hustle and bustle in the linear world of concrete and boxes. To lift people’s eyes from their phones. To encourage curiosity. To suggest there is still mystery and magic in the world. Public art breaks up monotony and therefore creates a crack for the seed of organic thought and self-awareness to sprout roots.

My sculptures become landmarks in people’s experience and consciousness. The child growing up passing my sculpture on their way to school has been imprinted with it by the time they are an adult. The young friends who meet at my sculpture and go on to get married have their experience marked by it. The business person who walks by my sculpture during their lunch hour has it in their heart. In nature, we often have landmarks to go by such as hilltops, rivers and trees; but in cities we have public art which serve a comparable purpose. The sculpture enters the sub-conscious of people’s experience and I hope it inspires positivity, a fertile curiosity and a heightened awareness.

I choose steel as my medium for it’s fluid malleability and easy translation into large scale.

What Is The Mission Of My Craft?

My purpose in life is to make the world a better place. I believe art can speak the deeper universal truths. I intend for my sculptures to inspire curiosity in people and to derail people, even if momentarily, from their tracks of normalcy. To create space that provide an excuse for people to stop, breath, look around, listen and become aware of both the inner and outer worlds.

What Is The Most Satisfying Aspect Of Your Art?

My art is my progeny. They will outlive me to go on to tell stories. They will go on to reproduce their purpose of creating inspiration. The most satisfying part of my art is not intrinsic within the piece, rather is in the hearts and minds of people who experience my art. Knowing that my art elevates our living environment and has a positive effect on people’s lives is the most fulfilling part of my career. I make art for humanity.

What Is The Greatest Challenge Of Being An Artist In Your Genre?

The greatest challenge is being a steel sculptor is procuring the tools and space to work. My paintbrush and palette in sculpture is the welder, angle grinder, plasma cutter and other tools. I began my tool collection at 14 years old when I had a job as a dishwasher at a local wine and jazz club; I invested all my money into tools. Having the space to house the tools, materials and work-area can be a challenge. For many years, I have fabricated outside in all the elements: wind, snow, rain, freezing to 120 degree heat.

What Recommendations Do You Have For Aspiring Artists?

Devotion.

One must be devoted to one’s art to an obsessive degree. Spend hours immersed in art. Thinking about art. Creating art. Drawing ideas. Practicing. Strive for your own definition of perfection.

Coherence.

To be successful, you must coalesce chaos into form. I believe inspiration exists in an etheric un-defined state. Our consciousness can witness it, but is up to us to manifest reality from the nebulous cloud of inspiration. Think of a laser focusing light into a cohered beam enough to cut steel.

Immersion.

Not to be confused with devotion, by immersion I mean being enveloped in the art world. Go to art galleries, talk with other artists, visit art museums, study the artists you like, read books on art, write about why you do what you do. Likewise, you become like those you hang out with. Choose your friends and environment wisely.

Sleep.

Sleep is often underrated in our society that rewards self-denial to attain greater goals. Getting at least eight hours of quality sleep will reward your creative inspiration and productivity immensely. Sleep cleans the brain of toxins that would otherwise lower our intelligence and stamina. Sleep also puts the mind in an important dream state that make sense of existence at the sub-conscious and un-conscious level.

Balance.

I have experienced burning the candle at both ends and ending up with adrenal fatigue. It took me a full year to recover. Since that time, I now spend more time maintaining the “machine”.

Authenticity.

Be authentic in what you do. Be honest. Maintain integrity. And create from a space that fulfills your heart. Express yourself in an empowered way that makes you alive and abuzz with ecstasy. Do what makes you want to dance. Don’t let others dictate your path. Always ask yourself first, “What do I want?”

Writing.

In the book “The Artist’s Way”, the author presents the concept of morning pages. That is where you write three pages of anything and everything that comes to your mind the first thing in the morning before you do anything. This clears the mind of nagging thoughts and worries that bounce around in our consciousness throughout the day and act like having too many applications up on your computer. It bogs us down. I often find that the process of simply writing out a problem or question in detail, reveals the answer. Writing is a form of meditation.

Limit Technology.

Speaking of computers, it is best to limit our use of technology. Studies have shown that the mere presence of a turned off smart phone reduces our intelligence including emotional intelligence. Technology provides distraction on what would normally be uninterrupted focus. Here are some recommendations to break the addiction to devices that sell your attention to companies. Turn off your phone at night. Avoid reaching for the phone to check in during the morning. Remove social media applications on your phone which push notifications and track your every move. Turn your screens into greyscale to be less attractive. Log out of accounts each time when you are done. Turn off the computer before you walk away. Tell people to call you instead of text.

Nature.

We came from nature. We derive sustenance from nature. Nature has been shown to relieve stress and provide inspiration even in the darkest times. Walking in nature washes away the haggard dust of civilized life to remind us of our deepest truths. Nature is the epitome of art, freedom and creativity. In nature we are content. Nature charges our batteries of consciousness. Prioritize nature.

The Value Of Creativity

In the age of machines, robots and computers replacing human tasks with greater efficiency, economy and effectiveness, we are left to ponder with posthuman angst…

What is left for humans to do? What is the value of humanity?

My answer to is creative expression. It is debatably the only thing that a computer or machine cannot do.

So let’s examine how we can cultivate this incredibly valuable resource.

How To Cultivate Creativity

Creativity comes from a place of acceptance, going with the flow, having an open mind and being in a state of reception. Consequently we were in our most creative bliss while in early childhood. It was a time when we didn’t have perceived limitations, self-imposed rules and concrete paradigms. We were open to all potentials … even imaginary friends and fairy tales.

But over the years well-meaning parents, friends and teachers told us how how things “should be”. About what we should and shouldn’t do. About what is real and isn’t real. About having “realistic” perception. We even heard jokes about how artists don’t make money till after they die. Or about the over-used phrase of the “starving artist”. All of these things from the collective society programmed us to “fit in” better and be a good citizen, but dimmed our light bulb of creativity.

Self-Limiting Belief System & Getting Over Social Programming

• The people who told us “no” or who brought us down when we were children. Such as parents, teachers, friends.
• How these sub-conscious scripts affect us our entire lives.
• Forgiving people. They did the best they can.
• Self-Love

The first thing to do in order to cultivate creativity is to realize and address self-limiting belief systems. If you believe you are not very creative, you must eliminate that paradigm in order to become creative. If you believe you can’t be extremely successful as a professional creative you must erase this in order to attain success. Our thoughts create our reality. Even outside of the new-age philosophy of “Law of Attraction”, there is a psychological phenomenon called “confirmation bias” where we look for and remember the things that confirm our beliefs while disregarding and forgetting things which are contrary to our beliefs. Indeed this confirmation bias even happens for negative self-limiting belief systems.

Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is important for identifying our limiting beliefs. Mindfulness can help us observe the thoughts crossing our mind like clouds in the sky. With regular introspection, we can label what thoughts are helpful and what are not; in so doing we can begin replacing the negative thoughts with positive affirmations. Some of these positive affirmations can seem elementary such as “I love and accept myself”, but are nonetheless powerful to the sub-conscious. Since we are talking about the sub-conscious, it is important to support these intentional thoughts with emotion because emotion is the language that percolates into the depth of sub-conscious. Feel the happy, bright, light feeling when you are confident in yourself and excited about new potentials.

Much like reprogramming self-limiting belief systems, we must also give ourselves permissions to break rules, be wild and go with the flow. I have gone to a variety of creative and esoteric workshops where the main gist is to create an environment where people can finally be free to express themselves. Indeed with conscious awareness we do not need other people to give us permission, rather we can give ourselves the freedom. I suggest creating a time and space everyday where you are alone and can express yourself however it feels right. This can include painting, drawing, dancing, singing and writing among other things.

Writing

Speaking of writing; recording your thoughts with pen and paper is one of the most powerful actions you can do towards cultivating creativity. According to the book “The Artist’s Way”, a wonderful way to start the day is to do something called “Morning Pages”, where you hand write three pages of anything and everything that is on your mind. This is completely unfiltered with no intention of having anyone read what you have written. With morning pages you write without regard to grammar, spelling or composition because those restrictions slow down the recording of pure stream of consciousness. Writing down all the stuff that bounces around in our minds does two things; releases them from the mind and allows us to look at them more objectively. By recording your thoughts outside of your mind, you are able to let go of all the chattering superfluous thoughts in the brain which slow down creative reception. The reason why we often think of the same thoughts over and over again is the brain’s attempt at remembering what it deems important … even if it’s as mundane as a song you heard on the radio. Writing gives our minds permission to let go of trying to remember all these things. It also allows us to view our questions and issues outside of ourselves. In other words writing –which is the the process of externalizing the inner world — allows us to objectively view the problem. Indeed half the problem is simply wording the question correctly. It also transforms often ephemeral angst into something more concrete. Let me explain further … Have you ever had a day where you just were in a funk? Things just didn’t feel right and everything that could go wrong did go wrong. You hit all the red lights while driving. The checker at the grocery store was slow. The weather wasn’t good. You spilled your coffee and stubbed your toe. It’s only when you start asking yourself the questions necessary to verbalize what you are feeling when you can identify the root of the problem. This makes what was hazy feelings into solid words which allows us to look at and solve it externally. Most of the time, I begin writing about something that is bothering me where I don’t know the solution, but by the end of several pages I discover to the answer because I was able to understand the situation better. 

Paralysis Of Perfection vs Loss Of Excellence

Moving on, let’s talk about another dichotomy of balance needed towards cultivating creativity … The balance between striving towards excellence and the paralysis due to perfectionism. I believe our society has become lax in striving for excellence. In the era of twitter and texting, our forms of communication has become elementary. People go to grocery stores with pajama pants. Newscasters have become more like reality TV than formal orators of information. And comedy has been reduced to base overt crassness as opposed to interwoven subtle complexity. I believe the many ills of our modern society is partly a result of the lost pursuit of excellence. Having said that, too much perfectionism can disable us from doing anything. This can be seen in the phrase “I will do ______ when….” or “if only ________, then I will…” or “I’m not good enough for _______”.

To give more specific examples, we might tell ourselves the following:

• I will start painting when I have the right brush, canvas, paint or class.
• I will start writing once I have the time, experience or laptop.
• I will start dancing once I have the right shoes, space or lessons.

This paralysis of perfectionism also relates to other non-creative areas of life:

• I will move once I fix this and paint the walls and….
• I will fix the car once I have the right tools and read enough books and practice and…
• I will get out of a bad relationship once I have enough reason and paperwork and money and…

Creativity flows best when we do not fear mistakes and accidents. Creativity comes from the exploration of the unknown.
Imagine a magical forest with mysterious creatures, plants and crystals yet to be discovered. There are no maps or laid out paths. You can choose either to be the person who perpetually prepares to make the expedition perfect but never actually accomplishes the dream, or you can be the brave person to just do it and learn as you go. You could also call this improvisation … another synonym for creativity. The most successful and creative people are the ones who foray into the unknown depths of experience and make due with the skills, tools and circumstance they have right now … they do not wait for the proverbial weather to be perfect. The most effective creative people invite accidents and rejection as learning experiences to evolve and improve from.

The Power Of Visualization

Visualization is one of the most powerful tools for creative reception. We all know how athletes who visualize their performance prior to the actual event do better than those who don’t. With visualization we are able to improve kinesthetic, social, health and creative performance.

A swimmer can visualize the arm strokes and feeling of enveloping water as they glide through the laps.

A stand-up comedian can visualize telling their stories and how to react to different crowds.

A sick person can visualize themselves healthy to activate the very real healing abilities of the placebo effect.

And the creative person can visualize the invention, painting, choreography or phrasing before actual physical manifestation.

Visualization or “day-dreaming”  is yet another thing we need to give ourselves permission to allow. Once I prioritized time to visualize without restriction, I found the world within my mind’s eye, including dreams, became more vivid and powerful. As our inner world becomes more vivid, our outer world follows.

I consider visualization a form of meditation because I define meditation as coherent thought. We are meditating whether we simply observe our thoughts like clouds passing in the sky or focus on a specific thought-feeling.

For greatest clarity, insight and well-being we must maintain our consciousness as we maintain our bodies. Two simple habits to bookend our day is to spend twenty minutes in the morning writing and spend fifteen to twenty minutes visualizing and meditating before bed. Speaking of going to bed, I want to highlight a powerful twilight state of consciousness which is a powerful time for creativity…

Hypnagogia. Intrinsic Vs Extrinsic Thought.

Hypnagogia is the transitional period between wakefulness and sleep. It’s a powerful time for creative insight.

We actually experience REM like sleep states right before real sleep and can enter a lucid dreaming type state. I have also learned there is extrinsic and intrinsic thought. Extrinsic thought is  reason and logic where neurons fire with other neurons that are close by. However intrinsic thought is feelings and intuition where neurons fire with distant neurons in the nether regions of the brain. Intrinsic thought is achieved during sleep and the twilight zone between awakeness and sleep. The twilight zone is a blend of theta and alpha brain waves. So next time you can’t sleep at night, try asking yourself questions.

How Sleep Literally Cleans The Brain; Likewise Important For Creativity

Speaking of such, let’s talk about how sleep is yet another important tool to cultivate creativity. Obviously the brain is the organ of creativity, so we know that creative ability is tied to brain performance. Sleep is critical for brain performance because it is when the brain flushes out toxins. One of the main neuro-toxins flushed out is something called beta-amyloid which forms brain plaque. Indeed sleep problems are dementia and alzheimers because of the lessened time spent cleaning the brain.  

Reducing Technological Distraction

Referencing the article “How Smartphones Hijack Our Minds” in the Wall Street Journal, the average iphone owner interacts with their phone 80 times a day which equates to 30,000 times a year.

Applications, social media and devices sell your attention to advertisers. The more they can get you addicted to “engaging” with their service or product, the more money they make. They employ the same psychological manipulation as casinos; giving small rewards that cause a spike of dopamine thereby getting us addicted. But unlike many addictions, we have convenient and seemingly legitimate arguments as to why we must keep getting the “hit”. We use it for keeping in touch with loved ones, accessing information online, scheduling meetings on our calendar, waking us up in the morning and communicating with clients among a thousand other uses.

Researchers are showing us that our recent reliance on smartphones is negatively affecting our productivity, intelligence and socialization. One study shows that when people hear their phone ring or vibrate their blood pressure and heart rate increase while problem-solving skills decline as our focus is further diluted.

The most damning of studies showed the mere presence of a smartphone negatively affects how well we perform on intelligence tests. The proximity of the phone was directly connected with the performance of focus and thinking. They also found that people who have become most dependent on their phones were the ones most negatively affected by the proximity experiment.

Another study found that students who didn’t bring their smartphone to class scored a full letter grade higher than students who did bring their smartphone.

Smartphones are making social interaction broader while less deep. With face-to-face interactions suffering the most. “The mere presence of mobile phones inhibited the development of interpersonal closeness and trust” and diminished “the extent to which individuals felt empathy and understanding from their partners.” The downsides were strongest when “a personally meaningful topic” was being discussed.

Indeed “Imagine combining a mailbox, newspaper, TV, radio, photo album, public library and boisterous party attended by everyone you know, and then compressing them all into a single, small, radiant object”.
Makes for an irresistible substance on par with heroin.

Here are some tips to break the technological chains….

Get a landline phone with “Link2Cell”. Link your cellphone to the base station via bluetooth and only have the secondary receiver in your office or main place of occupancy. This allows you to have the critical functionality of the phone while removing the tempting applications and notifications that only distract from the important things in life.

I have installed a call blocking app which sends everyone to voicemail. I do not tolerate interruption in the precious awareness what I am doing. The only people I’ve whitelisted are people who might call me in a medical emergency.

Avoid carrying your smartphone on you. Put it out of visual sight. Referencing the above study, the closer your phone is to you the more the brain drain.

Another great way of maintaining presence in reality is to keep your phone in your car while running errands. Whether we are in-line at the bank, grocery store or appointments, we so often mindlessly stare at our phones and completely ignore the other human beings around us, thereby missing opportunities for connection, networking and opportunities.

Avoid responding to texts immediately. When you do, the other person will likely respond immediately, then you will have respond immediately and now you are stuck in a clunky attention sucking conversation loop, once again pulling you away from more important things. By responding 30-60 minutes later, that’s 30-60 minutes of extra focus and an avoidance of a trivial conversation. If someone needs to talk urgently, tell them to call you. Phone calls relay more information in less time with less chance of miscommunication compared to text.

Avoid unnecessary apps and do regular purges of apps you don’t use. This reduces distraction and also protects your privacy since many applications clandestinely surveil. A prime example, of an unnecessary application is the “Facebook Messenger” app. You can access facebook from the browser which limits push notifications and privacy issues. Whereas with the facebook app, they will constantly remind you of notifications and to sell your precious focus. While you can’t send messages on your phone without the application — let’s face it — there are few conversations on facebook that need instant response. Get to it when you have access to a desktop. Once again, remind people that if they want a quick response just call. Also email is always preferable to facebook.

Set a technology schedule. Turn off or completely silence your phone at least a half hour before going to bed. Nothing disrupts our precious circadian rhythms than getting a notification right when you are about to fall asleep. Not to mention the blue light of the screen that tricks the primal body that it is midday. Upon waking in the morning, avoid grabbing for your phone to check email, facebook and other notifications. Use a real alarm clock instead of your phone to avoid tempting dependence. You have just spent hours away from technology in a technology fast; make sure you break that fast with awareness. Starting the day right with clarity and focus is enhanced by a combination of writing three things we are grateful for, going for a walk, reading something inspiring (not the news) or writing down stream of consciousness thoughts.

Avoid reliance on the convenience of the smartphone. There is no doubt that there are some very useful features on our smartphones. Calendar, notes, calculator and flashlight to name a few. But every time we access these useful non-inherently-distracting tools we are are tempted by distraction inducing social media and “fun” apps which we invariably check in on after using our useful ones. Instead keep a small planner like this one…

…which fits in your pocket or purse without notice, you can always transfer your appointments to your cloud calendar but this breaks the chain of reliance and distraction. Keep a notebook or piece of folded paper for taking notes. Multiple studies have shown that taking notes longhand makes for better retention of information than using a phone or laptop. It’s also faster, will never crash or run out of charge. Great excuse for buying nice pens too!

Make sure you sign out of websites and applications which distract. When we impulsively go to “check in”, we encounter an extra step of logging in which can snap us out of habitual reflex and remind us to not give our precious time to this superfluous brain drain. This is very a effective damper on convenient distraction.  

As for using technology to reduce distraction, I recommend installing an application called “Rescue Time” on all your devices which will measure how much time you spend doing productive and unproductive things. The statistics can be insightful and provide reminders of just how much time-wasters certain things can be when culminated over months and years.

Taking 5 Minute Break

Sometimes we hit a mental roadblock in our day. Perhaps we lack inspiration or motivation. Perhaps the mind becomes foggy and we are just drawing blanks for answers. The ubiquity of this lack of mojo we encounter in our day can be seen in such phrases as “writer’s block” or the “3 o’clock slump”. Instead muddling through or staring at your work in a trance, take a 5 minute break. Get up and go for a walk. This gets blood flowing and provides a change of scene which can be enough to nudge the boulder of momentum over the hump. Or try laying down, closing your eyes and focusing on your breath. This puts the brain in a different wave state and can once again nudge that boulder the right way. This 5 minute break can extend up to 15 minutes without becoming an excuse to just avoid work and is justifiable in our haste modern schedules.

Many successful creative companies are realizing the value of this and encourage their creative people to take breaks, play and chill out. These people know that the increase in morale, inspiration and motivation leads to more effective creativity. Would you rather have 2 hours of 100% productive happy imaginative effective work or 8 hours of 10% productive dull unimaginative uneffective work?

Having opportunity to play, walk and meditate for small intervals throughout the day enables the ultra-productivity to flourish.   

Morning Pages and The Power Of Writing As An Extension Of Our Brain

Writing is one of the most powerful exercises for gaining clarity, focus, insight and creativity.

This is detailed in the book “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron, where she describes the effective daily habit called “Morning Pages”. Morning Pages is where the first thing you do every morning is hand-write three pages of anything and everything that comes to your mind without regard for spelling, grammar or composition and no fear of anyone else reading it. Some might call this stream of consciousness. This is extremely effective for finding clarity and creativity.

Writing down your inner thoughts and feelings does a couple things…

Releases incessant thoughts from the mind by relinquishing the burden of the mind from remembering them. Both good and bad thoughts repeat themselves in our mind in an attempt to make sure we remember whatever it is the sub-conscious mind deems important. By recording these thoughts on paper, our mind can let go since we know it is recorded outside of ourselves. Once the mind releases the cyclic thoughts, new inspiration can take hold.     

Writing is an extension of the brain. It allows me to externally observe challenges, emotions and thoughts. Once we pull up the nebulous things from our sub-conscious and put them into concrete words we can deal with them.

Furthermore, writing is a form of meditation. My mind is singularly focused on the task at hand. I strongly suggest trying “morning pages” and seeing how much more productivity and clarity you find throughout your day.

Go forth and claim your most valuable tool humanity has … creativity.

Consciousness can be transposed on a spectrum of transmission and reception; of projecting and receiving energy, wisdom and knowledge. This is comparable to the difference between speaking and listening. When we are speaking we cannot listen. When we listen we cannot speak.

Just like anything else in life, transmission and reception must be balanced for the greatest efficacy.

When a person is predominantly in a state of reception, the person accomplishes little in life and would likely be overly dependent on others for the three dimensional necessities in life.

When a person is predominantly in a state of transmission, the person accomplishes many things but lacks a depth of understanding, a broader vision and can end up burned out.

Transmission and Reception balance is somewhat analogous to the production vs production capability balance outlined in the “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”. This is also referred to as “P and PC Balance”. Productivity is the end result; and production capability is the thing that produces that end result. An example of this is a car … with driving as the production (p) and mechanical soundness is the production capability (pc). We can drive our car non-stop around the country with no down-time for preventative maintenance. For a period of time (20-40,000 miles), production is incredibly high since there has been no down time, but soon that lack of maintenance causes your production capability to have major break downs. Now the engine requires a complete tear down resulting in major expense and loss of time. This could have been avoided by caring for the production capability as much as the production. Production is about short term yield whereas production capability is about long term sustainability. This relates to many areas of our lives. We can over-work our bodies and neglect our health resulting in burn out after an initial increase in productivity. In relationships, we can take more than we give, resulting in a fizzling relationship. Managers can whip their employees into shape for short term quarterly increase in sales but resulting in higher turnover rate and low morale. Life is about balance.

As a workaholic — where in the face of obstacles or stress I work harder — I know this lack of balance all too well. In 2014, I had two of the largest sculpture projects in my life with a tight deadline of completion. I did heavy fabrication work of which there was no precedent from 8am in the morning till 9pm at night every day including weekends and holidays. I had to push myself with caffeine to pull every last drop of productivity out of my body and mind. While the sculptures where successful, I was left depleted. I even had to go a naturopathic doctor because had lost my mojo. It took me over a year and many supplements to rebuild what I had lost. This lack of balance is not worth the short term gain because ultimately long term sustainability will wane.

Back on the transmissive and receptive state of consciousness … It is the while in the transmissive state when I produce. It is when I take action. When I affect the external world. When I speak. It is when I project energy and when I give. These are all critically important things to live a successful and well-adjusted life. But even good things can become out of balance.

If we put any polar opposites on a gradient spectrum, we can achieve balance in two ways. We can have a strong positive and a strong negative. Both are equally powerful and together they combine for maximum potency. There is weight at both ends of the scale. Conversely we can put the weight right in the middle this scale for complete neutrality. This centerline neutrality lacks potency … it is listless.
When we can harmoniously combine the qualities of two disparate things we can exponentially increase the potency greater than the sum. We can distinguish these two forms of balance as “Polar Balance” (weight on both ends) and “Neutral Balance” (weight in the middle)

These two different ways to approach balance can be applied to transmissive and receptive mental states. I naturally tend to put more weight on the transmissive side of the scale. If I were to utilize Neutral Balance, I would remove weight from transmission. Whereas if I were to utilize Polar Balance, I would add weight to the reception. When I add high levels of receptive wisdom to already high levels of transmissive action, it potentiates greater results.

How do we add to the receptive end of this balance?

It is taking time to sit and be. To meditate. To be present. To close your eyes.

Thoughts still exist in this receptive state, but they are different. Thoughts come from a deeper space in of wisdom and intuition. Receptive state provides answers.

The epitome of being in a state of reception is a tree. The tree exists. The tree breaths. The tree listens to wind in it’s canopy. A tree watches. A tree is still. A tree is strong with roots deep into the earth, synonymous with tapping into the collective unconscious. Sometimes I envision myself being a tree to remember the feeling of the receptive state. It is a powerful visualization.

Creativity comes from a receptive state. Creativity cannot be forced or willed into existence. Just like how authentic play cannot be forced. It must be gently allowed to manifest in waves like a mushrooms sprouting up on a rainy day.

We can begin meditation with questions then allow the answers to come though silence and presence of mind. Another excellent visualization is to imagine particles of energy being attracted towards our body and absorbed. Let me give an example of how powerful this is: During an eye gazing exercise where I looked into my partner’s eyes and she looked into mine for an extended time, I attempted a receptive focus (also referred to as yin focus) by visualizing my eyes actually receiving energy. While doing this I had glimpses of perfect vision with what are normally very farsighted eyes. I have learned that the eyes are not merely passive observers but also powerful transmitters like lasers. I have learned that my eyes are a form of bio-feedback where I can understand my state of transmission vs reception by noting how well I see.

Prioritizing the practice of entering the receptive state though meditation and presence aids physical, spiritual, emotional and intellectual well-being.

Where are you on the spectrum?

 

In the age of machines, robots and computers taking over almost every aspect of human life, we are finding that creativity is the real human value that has no substitute.

I am deeply grateful that I have been given the freedom and support in cultivating creativity in my life; not only in sculpture but other diverse modalities.

I believe holistic expression creates excellence in all endeavors. Whether science, medicine, art or socialization, having a broad and diverse mental library of experience enables us to see novel connections formerly unnoticed. It allows us to relate seemingly disparate subjects. I try to express myself in a multitude of ways … visual art, music, dance, cooking, poetry, videography, etc. Often creative ideas for sculpture will come to me while doing poetry; or perhaps I think of a musical concept while dancing.

Creativity can be an elusive and ephemeral creature. It is not something that can be forced and tends to come in waves. I try to capture these glimpses of creative insight when they happen, otherwise they evaporate from my memory like a dream. I have found the twilight zone between waking consciousness and sleep is a powerful state of mind that can yield tremendous creativity. This transitional state is called “Hypnagogia”. Our brain actually has both alpha and theta waves during this state. Furthermore, the normal waking constraints / rules / boundaries that our pre-frontal cortex governs lessens allowing our mind to break the usual paradigms … a reason why our dreams can be so wild at times. Consequently I keep pen and paper near my bed to record these fleeting “downloads” of creativity.

Art, in it’s many forms, is our spiritual progeny. Art is an expression of our being and extension of who we are. Our creative manifestations will outlive us and have a tangible effect in the future. Everything I create is my progeny. The will to create comes from the same energy as the will to procreate. The difference is I transmute that elemental energy into other outlets such as visual art and music.

You ask what it is like to having two artists as parents and how we all interact in the creation of our artwork. Let me first say that art by committee is fraught with difficulties. However, when the right minds come together, the synergy can create outstanding results. I strongly believe in the philosophy behind the phrase “Two Brains Are Better Than One” and this is evident in my creative interaction with my parents. My parents have been critical mentors in my creative career. Giving design and composition advice that take the art to the next level. Providing ideas that just click and take off. We are powerful brainstormers. Once again, this is part of the holistic approach I mentioned earlier. By having three people look at the same thing there will invariably be different perspectives — sometimes vastly contrasting — but by combining the best elements of these different perspectives you end up with an end result that is often superior than the original singular perspective. I must say that while we deeply consider one another’s opinion we must nonetheless stay authentic to what feels right in our individual art projects. In hearing critiques, some elements are helpful and constructive whereas others don’t feel right to what I had envisioned. Regardless, my creative manifestations are better as a result of the synergy that I have with my parents and creative muses.

Over the course of doing many art festivals and art shows, I have heard many comments from people. The most consistent thing people say about my art is that they have never seen anything like. That it is completely new and novel. This makes me extraordinary happy because I seek to be different. While there is no doubt I derive inspiration from many sources, I want my creative manifestations to be different than what anyone has ever experienced. That is part of the appeal of creating art … to alter people’s normal experience of reality; to give people a reason a detour from the linear path of normalcy and routine.

My art is diverse. When factoring all of my visual art, it ranges from flat paintings to large public sculptures; from colorful whimsical to patinaed contemporary; from perfectly finished to rough industrial. Exploration is essential for holistic inspiration. My current body of work rejects the concepts of perfection in favor of wabi sabi aesthetics. In other words, finding beauty in the imperfection and the incomplete. I try to leave fabrication marks, partially ground welds, oil-stick marks and natural entropy. By leaving these elements, the viewer can see the actual process of creation in the finished piece.

What Does “Entrepreneurial Spirit” Mean?

To me an “entrepreneurial spirit” means embodying a deep seated desire for freedom and self-actualization. It stems from the philosophy of freewill; our ability to create our destiny. Many would think that being an entrepreneur means “not having a boss”, but this is a false belief. Rather we entrepreneurs have many bosses in the form of clients.

“Entrepreneurial spirit” is generally associated with making money where you create your own work as opposed to having someone give you work. Whether we like it or not, we live in a society where money is power, freedom and the virtual life blood. The entrepreneur understands this at least on a sub-conscious level. The entrepreneur accepts a certain amount of risk with creating his or her own business. The risk is there is no guarantee for making money, that all your time and investment could potentially yield little to nothing. But the reward for taking this risk is having no limit to your success. There is no ceiling to how much one can earn when you are an entrepreneur.

There are many “hats” when running a business.
The technician; the person who actually builds the product or yields the service.
The manager; the person who manages the details of the back end of business such as finance books and taxes.
And the entrepreneur; the person with the overall broad vision to propel the organization forward. To speak metaphorically, the entrepreneur is the one on top of the hill looking out beyond the immediate vicinity to see new opportunities on the horizon.

The Development Of Entrepreneurialism

At the age of 14-15, I had a job as a dishwasher at a jazz and wine club. While I made good money, I had a growing desire to quit which developed over the course of 14 days … until I got the check which tamped down my desire to quit only for it do develop again. I got locked into the a vicious cycle where I felt obligated to stay in a job I did not like … A situation that many people find themselves. I learned that I must be an entrepreneur in my life so that I have freedom.

Incorporating entrepreneurship in my career is critical in making it an actual career and not a hobby. Indeed artists are often the best “technicians”; that is, they create massive inventory of product often totally engrossed in the creative process. The reason why the phrase “starving artist” exists is because many artists fail to utilize the important aspects of business. When I was younger, I despised doing finance books, but now I embrace it as a relaxing exercise to know what is going on in my business. The actual creative process is only a fraction what goes in to be a successful artist.

Some entrepreneur elements include networking, public speaking, seeking new opportunities, forecasting the “weather” of culture, marketing, money management, time management, etc.

It takes both sides of the brain to be successful … or having other people involved with the business that make up where you lack. Indeed successful people like Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie actually didn’t know how to build an engine or the mechanical properties of steel, but they surrounded themselves with knowledgeable people who did. They created win-win relationships with these complimentary people by giving them work while mutually reaping the rewards of their knowledge.

Time is the most valuable resource we have and the entrepreneur must learn how to potentiate the productivity out of every minute. I created a sign above my desk to remind myself to “Automate and Delegate”. I value being in control — like many business-people — believe I can do things better and faster than others; alas this is an Achilles heel of workaholics. Let me explain….

There are a lot of tasks we do in business every day. Accounting, sales, errands, networking, delivery, and fabrication. Let’s assume that I ought to make at least $50 an hour doing the most effective thing … standing on the hill looking for new opportunities to seize upon. Anything that takes me away from the most effective thing, is actually costing me money. For example, if I can hire a person to do delivery for $20 thereby allowing me to focus on the most productive activity, I am actually making $30 more an hour by delegating.

Likewise for automation. I can plasma cut metal parts by hand for negligible direct cost. Or I can get a loan for a CNC plasma cutter for $200 a month. While this is more expense every month, it allows me the freedom to do what I am best at. Even if I only use the machine 8 hours a month, which would be $25 an hour, this frees up my time to pursue $50 an hour tasks; effectively doubling my money. The concept of automation and delegation is a key characteristic of entrepreneurship.

The Risk Of Being A Creative Entrepreneur.

There are multiple risks associated with being an entrepreneur…especially the creative kind. Since my income is project based, this means I have to have a constant supply of projects in order to have a constant supply of income. Say I have a project which yields a net income of $10,000. The problem I have is not knowing when the next project will come. The question I must ask myself is “How long must I make this money last?” “Will this need to last a month or will it need to last nine months?” Consequently, it is hard to budget or ever take a break.

Obviously the solution to this is to take on more projects which can easily overwhelm my capacity. And overwhelmed capacity means delays which means unhappy clients. I need to take my own advice of automate and delegate to expand my capacity. As previously mentioned, automation often means incurring debt which is obvious risk. I haven’t talked about employees yet. Having employees has the potential to exponentially increase productivity; the first employee you hire is the only time you can double your productivity by 100%.. But this requires the investment of time to train the employees. As well as increased paperwork and increased injury liability. Employees can quit at any time which means a lost of invested time training. Employees can get hurt which can pose serious cost. Employees can even catch the entrepreneurial spirit and take your formula to create competition. These are risks one must weigh when hiring employees, but the rewards can be great.

Another risk of being an entrepreneur I have particularly experienced is the problem of never “turning off”. When you are an entrepreneur, it is completely up to you whether you will sink or swim (or fly). If you don’t put in the time and effort, you will sink. If you don’t invest yourself, you will sink.
For the lackadaisical person, the challenge is there is no person telling you to work from 9am to 5pm Monday through Friday. Likewise for the ambitious person the challenge is there is no person telling you to go home. Entrepreneurial life magnifies a persons personality. Because of the great personal responsibility to my success, I have found I never turn off the business mind. I am always thinking and doing in relation to my businesses. From the minute I wake up to the minute I go to bed, everyday including weekends … I am business. This can be toxic and cause fatigue. Let me reference “Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People”… where Stephen Covey talks about production vs production capability. Think about a machine which produces widgets. You can force the machine to produce widgets 24/7 with no down time and for a period of time you will have increased productivity. But eventually the machine will break down because of lack of maintenance. Productivity will suffer and repair costs will be steep. When amortized this way, we see that productivity, productivity, productivity all the time actually becomes inefficient. I have experienced this in 2014, where I had the two largest projects of my life to complete. I did industrial work from 8am in the morning to 9pm at night every day in freezing temperatures and in 120 degree heat over an entire year. I drove myself with energy drinks. I ended up burning my adrenals where I had to go to a naturopathic-doctor to learn why I lost my mojo. It took me a year of down time to recover.

“Production capability” means maintaining the machine or “sharpening the saw”. Production capability is absolutely critical for maximum long term productivity. This is why many tech companies like Google and Amazon have their workers take frequent breaks and have “fun-time”. It is in the down-time where creative insight sparks and morale is regained.

How Entrepreneurship Has Shaped Who I Am.

Being in International Baccalaureate program during high school, educators tried to program me by saying that the only way to be successful was to go to college. But I believe that an equal investment of time and money into a business can yield better results. Because I dove into entrepreneurship early, I have been able to rack up over 10,000 hours of experience. This is what Malcolm Gladwell says is required to become an expert in any given field. My “professors” are my colleagues. My “tests” are my projects. My “textbook” is my life. This depth and breadth of experience has allowed me to see patterns and make relationships in my mind thereby creating greater success and richness of life.

I have learned work ethic. I have learned that my success is solely my responsibility.

In our media and politics we always hear about the need for “jobs”. I believe this stems from a victim mentality where people think their success is solely dependent on external influences; the government, the corporations. What if we changed the dialogue from creating hourly jobs to creating entrepreneurship? I believe we would live in a more sustainable economy if we shifted such national focus.

Back on the personal level, my experience as an entrepreneur gives me the confidence that I can sustain myself regardless of the economy or politics. I have the power to create the life I want. Entrepreneurs have resilience unlike any other.

Advice For The Aspiring Entrepreneur.

The first bit of advice is that grit and perseverance is the number one determiner of success. It’s not financial background, class, beauty, or even intelligence….it’s grit. Please listen to the following ted talk on Grit:

On a related subject, the most important key to wilderness survival is the “will to survive”. This is the number one most foundational characteristic of the person who survives as opposed to the person who perishes.

Moving beyond developing a heart of perseverance, other advice would be:

1. Be a voracious reader of business, your industry, and of all other subjects. Reading expands the mind and opens new avenues of thought. Some suggestions would be “Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People” and “How To Win Friends and Influence People”.
2. Learn how to communicate effectively both orally and written. Grammatical errors can be used to discredit everything a person says in the minds of the critical audience. Body language speaks more than even tone and words alone; therefore it is important to understand what body language says.
3. Embrace your extroverted side and network like a honey badger. Talk with people of the same industry. Talk with clients. Talk with people in the grocery store line. Talk with everyone. Learn from everyone who crosses your path; everyone is your teacher. Subscribe to the philosophy behind the quote “We have two ears and one mouth; use them proportionally”.
4. Let go of self-limiting beliefs. People are told by family, teachers, or friends that they are good at some things and not other things. We tend to believe this at a deep level and often never break loose of these chains. Believe you ARE good at what you were told otherwise. Develop contrary obstinance to prove the nay-sayers wrong. Some people told me that I couldn’t build a 40′ diameter 16,000# arch sculpture in my driveway; this criticism fueled a fire within me to prove them wrong.
5. Strive for balance. Balance of the left brain with right brain. Balance of production and production capability. Balance of the masculine and feminine. Balance of being present yet planning for the future and learning from the past. Balance accounts. Balance introversion with extroversion.
6. Seek excellence in everything you do. Strive to be excellent in your speech. Your personal presentation. Your hand-writing. Your comprehension of what you read. Your driving. Your product or service. And if you make a mistake, be grateful for the opportunity to learn and be better moving forward. Excellence takes effort and time, but it’s increasing rarity makes it’s value all that much more important.

 

What is the solution when you can’t fall asleep and counting sheep doesn’t work?

Don’t resist the gift that was given to you…

Lately I have been getting incredible creative inspiration right before falling asleep. The visualizations, words, and ideas are so powerful that I am forced to turn on the light and write them down in the notebook near my bed. While some people would be perturbed by the inability to fall asleep because of all these thoughts, I try to catch the creative inspiration while I can. Even though I am a professional creative, it is extremely difficult to “turn on” creativity. Inspiration seems to come in spurts and waves. I have learned that I must record these thoughts during those times otherwise I forget and loose the inspiration.

In pondering and researching this phenomenon of increased creativity right before sleep, I have found that we actually experience REM like sleep states right before real sleep. Essentially I am experiencing a form of lucid dreaming. I have also learned there is extrinsic and intrinsic thought. Extrinsic thought is reason and logic where neurons fire with nearby neurons. However intrinsic thought is feelings and intuition where neurons fire with distant neurons in the nether regions of the brain. Intrinsic thought is achieved during sleep and the twilight zone between awakeness and sleep. The twilight zone called hypnagogia is a blend of theta and alpha brain waves.

So next time you can’t sleep at night, use it to your creative advantage.