Things to Remember When Everything Goes Wrong

My family. The 80’s were a strange time for hair.

On my way home from a little art show at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in Madison, WI last month my van quit on the interstate. Between the hotel, towing and new fuel pump it basically wiped out my show earnings. Which was also my Christmas money for the boys.

When we arrived home a day late and more than a few dollars short, the van quit again.

Apparently it wasn’t the fuel pump.

It would have been simple to have a melt down over the whole event. In reality that is life. Things happen. Then something else happens, and then something else. And over and over. What would a meltdown have achieved?

But we made a move and made the best of it.

Christmas was very lean (my partner and I didn’t exchange gifts) and we found a garage to work on it close to home. They let us leave the van there until we were able to get the money together.

One of my favorite clients at the 2013 Deep Ellum Art Fair.

However, in the last few days I started to feel a bit overwhelmed by some of the fallout. I’m going to miss one of my favorite art shows in Deep Ellum, TX because of finances. We had to buy a starter for the van, the boys had a birthday and some little nickel and dime expenses cropped up. Plus, I’m actively working to buy the house my mom left us from my siblings; the appraisal, probable home inspection and other costs are wearing out the clasp on my purse.

So as I meditated on it this article came to my attention. It really helped.

Since reading it I have tried to focus on the positive – no more shows until April, we made it home safely, we have the money to fix it – again. The van has been fantastic and this is the first money we have had to put into it. The closing is moving forward and the boys had a nice birthday (whether they know it or not). Plus we have wonderful families.

The other bit of reality, is that regardless if I had a “traditional” job, every business has the occasional cash-flow issue.

This isn’t an issue of whether or not my business is viable but whether I am willing to make the adjustments to my business to better fit the situation. We have been challenged to make some changes to my market approach in order to turn this problem into an opportunity. It is different and scary but as my partner has worked on these changes it has become obvious that there is something new and exciting happening to my business.

Most importantly, I finally have a Partner that doesn’t try to shame, humiliate or ridicule me. He stands-up for me and doesn’t believe in “his” team and “my” team. He doesn’t try to put me in the box or judge me for my beliefs or experiences. He has my back.

Plus, one of the reasons he loves me is because of my Vision. He is not jealous or afraid of me having a Vision and a life.

I’m very lucky he found me. And in truth, he tells me he is lucky I found him.

Life isn’t perfect but it is as good as we make it. 

First day with my van two years and over 20K miles ago.

You are valuable and worthy

I will just set this here for you: whether you know it or it or not, you are valuable, you are worthy. Even when you fail. Even when I fail.

Remember.

“We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us is something valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch.” — e.e cummings (via psych-quotes)

:

There is more to Rosebud than you think

Rosebud Magazine’s Fall 2013 Cover, Issue #55

I was honored this past fall to be selected for the Artist Profile in issue #55 of the nationally recognized literary magazine Rosebud.

The photo of me holding the magazine was taken at the 2013 Holiday Art Fair hosted by the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. In the photo is Rod Clark, publisher at Rosebud, and his wife.

Rosebud used images of my paintings throughout the magazine as touchstones to different stories and wrote a wonderful profile about my work. If you would like to see more or to purchase a copy of Issue #55 visit their website at Rosebud.

Rod Clark, publisher at Rosebud, The Vintage Painter, and Mr. Clark’s wife.

Wisconsin residents are the country’s most extroverted. Really?

One of my bohemian friends in Levering, MI.

Traveling Germany by rail, 1989.

So I travel. A lot.

I’m blessed to be able to live a bit of the bohemian life style so I participate in art shows all over the country. Some of the events are high-end museum shows while others are rocking music festivals or community events. As such, I meet an enormous cross section of Americans.

It is always interesting what sells from one show to the next. I may go to 10 shows and no one looks at a particular original or print and then in one show sell a half dozen in a weekend.

You just never know.

What is more fascinating to us is how people react when you say “hello.” At some shows a “hello” will run people out of the booth – they don’t want to talk to anyone. In other regions, if you give them space they think you are ignoring them.

My bohemian friend, Michael. Also, in Michigan. That is weird.

And don’t even get me started on how different parts of the country perceive the art of negotiation. We won’t get into that here.

Which is why I find this article so interesting. It tries to quantify and qualify the “mood” of a state.

I thought you might find it interesting. Take the quiz and see if your mood matches your state. Check out how your state stacks up against the rest of the country by clicking here.

The brain is amazing

I wonder who became the mover, perceiver, stimulator and adapter?

Not everyone understands the choices I make everyday as a painter and entrepreneur.

In school we would take tests based on the Briggs-Myers tests and find out if we are introverts or extroverts, sensing or intuitive, thinking or feeling and judging or perceiving. Often time it would be as simple as saying, “Well you’re creative so you must be left brained and he is good at math so he is right brained,” or some equally useless classification system.

What I’ve discovered at 40ish is the label doesn’t matter.

Sidebar: Is my age a label?

The bottom line is I do what I do because it is who I am. Which is why I like this article in the WSJ. It isn’t left or right brained but top or bottom brained. Depending on our brain activity we are movers, perceivers, stimulators or adapters?  

Based on the book “Top Brain, Bottom Brain: Surprising Insights Into How You Think,” by Dr. Stephen Kosslyn and writer G. Wayne Miller, it talks about their exciting research into how we really see the world. It highlights the new view of the brain and offers insight into our role within our families, teams, organizations and in relation to the world. 

We only have one life so why do we spend it in a manner dictated by parents, teachers, ministers, spouses and coaches? All too often we find ourselves in situations with people who would have us be something we are not. Happiness in life is found by conforming to our nature instead of conforming to what other people would have us be. I get along best with the people who understand who I am and compliment who I am intrinsically. I get along best with people who know who they are.

Isn’t our obligation to ourselves and our Vision? Why is choosing our lives selfishness if it is honest about who we are and our proper place in the world?

Maybe it is time to make a move based on who we are and not on who other people would have us be.

Click here to take the test.

Related articles

• Science: A New Map of the Human Brain (online.wsj.com)
• A New Map of How We Think: Top Brain/Bottom Brain (iamstem.ucdavis.edu)

What would you take? An essay on perspective and values.

As an entrepreneur and artist I am always trading off one thing against another to make way for my Vision.

As such, I enjoyed this excellent article on The Art of Manliness website about the Ernest Shackleton expedition to cross Antarctica in 1914.

It was a disaster.

The Endeavor was eventually caught in an ice flow and chewed open by the grinding of the ice against her hull. They were forced to abandon ship and make their way nearly 650 miles across the frozen landscape.

Remember, they did this before Gore-Tex, GPS, cell phones, radios and a host of other modern “conveniences”.

To aid survival Shackleton allowed his crew to take only two pounds of personal belongings on their treacherous journey.

The essay highlights what they kept and what they left behind and then draws some parallels to the modern issues of American life.

I thought it was interesting essay and wanted to share it with you.

To read The Art of Manliness article click here.

Lost Things: Beer cans and Georgia

Beer Can Collection (Original) by The Vintage Painter

My mom, Georgia, and my twins

It was very difficult to paint. It was nearly impossible to be creative.

As such, I had to find something more detailed and labor intensive that required more concentration than creativity. I settled on my brother’s vintage beer can collection. He inherited most of the 600 cans from an older cousin.

Out of the 600 cans I chose some for sentimental reasons and some simply because I liked the imagery on the cans. Almost all of them are from Minnesota and Wisconsin with the rest from Iowa and one from West Virginia.

During mom’s illness my Partner would tell me to go and paint. He would insist that I go and work on it for a few minutes or a few hours. It took me nearly a year to complete. This time frame was partially because painting in thin layers of glazes and paints requires long dry times and partially because of the mental fatigue brought about by life’s situations.

It is interesting at how many shows people of all ages stop and reminisce about their more-often-than-not lost beer can collections, which one they drank in their youth and which ones they remember a relative loving. People have even offered me money on the spot for he Grain Belt cone-top.

I can’t count the number of times someone told me they lost their can collection when they left for college and their parents threw it away. During the late 70’s and 80’s the trash-bins of America must have been full of steel and aluminum cans as kids left for college and boomer parents cleaned rooms and garages of “trash” in order to make way for the study or spare bedroom.

Almost all of these cans are as old or older than me…and I’m, um, older.

After talking to so many people and listening to so many stories, I see something more than oil and canvas. I see history, culture, family and my mother.

Beer Can Collection (Original)
16″ x 40″ Oil on Canvas
Framed: Recovered and re-purposed metal and barn-wood. Handcrafted.
$4000 + S&H

Beer Can Collection (Canvas and Paper Prints)
FREE Shipping through 10/31/2013.

Canvas Print
Small, 8″ x 20″, $95 + $12.99 S&H = $107.99 –> SPECIAL $95.00
Full, 16″ x 40″, $250 + $28.99 S&H = $278.99 –> $250.00
Framed, Small, 8″ x 20″, $250 + $49.99 S&H = 299.99 –> $250.00
Framed, 16″ x 40″, $600 + $79.99 S&H = $679.99 –> $600.00

Paper Print
Matted, 11″ x 17″, $25 + $3.99 S&H = $28.99 –> $25.00

All canvas prints are in limited editions and are signed by me.

Related articles

• Christmas is coming! Christmas is coming! (vintagepainter.wordpress.com)

Dig it : Pre-Raphaelite babes

Know your Pre-Raphaelites! There will be a quiz. Maybe. Just be prepared.

See more paintings online here.

Related articles

• Top 10 Romantic Moments (farfetch.com)
• Influencing Me – Pre-Raphaelite Movement (hadassaab.wordpress.com)
• Pre-Raphaelite Pilgrimage Map for Curiocity This map is my… (thisismikehall.com)

Detention To Detail

I was watching a documentary hosted by Andrew Lloyd Weber, who looks like he could be toad of Toad hall, the documentary was about Pre-Raphaelite painters and it was beautiful. I can’t believe it took me this many years to discover this style, because I can now see this movements influence in everything that’s happening in fashion right now. It’s such an indulgent-teenaged-girls-wet-dream style, reminds me of candles, tarot cards and diaries. Although I can see the tackiness and predictability in it, I dig it.

View original post

Food for thought

There are a lot of reasons to love street art. It is more than simply the scrawl of anarchists and bathroom stalls. Check out this fantastic article about street artists taking over a soon to be demolished building in Paris.

And if it is Paris why is so much of the work in English?

Hmmm…

Win free art!

That’s right! WIN FREE ART! 

Click here to sign up for my mostly monthly newsletter (I’m not that organized) and be entered into a drawing to win one of the 10″ x 12.5″ limited edition and signed canvas prints shown below. Your choice.

New winner every month.

One or two newsletters per month with updates on upcoming events, promotions and new art. Provide your city and state and I will let you know specifically when I will be in your area.

No purchase necessary. Opt out anytime.

Dog House (10″ x 12.5″) http://goo.gl/O2J1I2 All canvas prints are in limited editions and are signed by me. Copyright (C) reserved.

Pride of 1926 (10″ x 12.5″) http://goo.gl/Wfy2i1 All canvas prints are in limited editions and are signed by me. Copyright (C) reserved.

Bingo Grain Company (10″ x 12.5″) http://goo.gl/QlwqER All canvas prints are in limited editions and are signed by me. Copyright (C) reserved.

Winter Farm Scene (10″ x 12.5″) http://goo.gl/m6uwMZ All canvas prints are in limited editions and are signed by me. Copyright (C) reserved.

The Sunbath (10″ x 12.5″) http://goo.gl/OjH3Bf All canvas prints are in limited editions and are signed by me. Copyright (C) reserved.

Kittens in Black and White (10″ x 12.5″) http://goo.gl/GKtHuN All canvas prints are in limited editions and are signed by me. Copyright (C) reserved.

Tub Full of Sunshine (10″ x 12.5″) http://goo.gl/iPK5iV All canvas prints are in limited editions and are signed by me. Copyright (C) reserved.

Along for the Ride (10″ x 12.5″) http://goo.gl/hwcmf9 All canvas prints are in limited editions and are signed by me. Copyright (C) reserved.

The Buck Ride (10″ x 12.5″) http://goo.gl/EczwpX All canvas prints are in limited editions and are signed by me. Copyright (C) reserved.

Three for the Road (10″ x 12.5″) http://goo.gl/vpumQ9 All canvas prints are in limited editions and are signed by me. Copyright (C) reserved.

Shawnee Frigidaire (10″ x 12.5″) http://goo.gl/9dlUap All canvas prints are in limited editions and are signed by me. Copyright (C) reserved.