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Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.

Voltaire

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I invite you to visit my new group on Facebook called 1501 Quotes Questions & Pondering About the Creative Process and where I hope to engender some lively discussions about the creative process by readers sharing their experiences and beliefs. I have 500 new quotes in my collection that were not included in my EBook. Many of the quotes refer to the marketing of creativity. After all, marketing is part of the process, isn’t it?
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It’s All Good

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My days of whining and complaining about others have have come to an end.
Nothing is easier than fault finding. All it will do is discolor my personality
so that none will want to associate with me. That was my old life. No more…

…Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they are going to be dead by
midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can
muster. And do it with no thought of any reward. Your live will never be the
same again.

Og Mandino

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Give the newly re-popularised buzz phrase, ‘It’s all good!” the meaning it deserves. Believe it for just one more day. And another. And another. One day at a time. Be kind, caring, empathetic with everyone you meet without an attachment to any outcome. Build relationships without an analysis of what you are going to get. It is as simple as a smile, eye contact, and wishing another a good morning. Prepare to perform Random Acts of Kindness. The tools are simple: graciousness, a smile, and creativity.

I am writing this today because I was the recipient of an act of kindness two weeks ago and I am still smiling.

I was driving on the NY State Thruway, pulled off for gas, and continued another fifty miles or so. I stopped at the next rest stop for a cup of coffee. I could not find my wallet. I tracked back to the previous gas station. The wallet was not there. I started to panic. Sure I understood that it would be time consuming, frustrating and annoying to cancel all those credit cards. I thought, “It’s all good, whatever that means.”

Just then I received an email message from a woman named Rosemary who found my wallet and asked me to call her back so that she would know what I wanted her to do with it. Then I accidentally erased the call. The panic became overwhelming.

My friends and family were telling me to trust the universe. That is what I would have told them to do. However,I wasn’t believing it was all good. I got home five hours later. My wife and I had a late dinner. She helped me calm down.

The next morning, there was an email message from Rosemary telling me the wallet was in the mail. I wanted to call and thank her however there wasn’t a telephone number, last name or location. I returned her email with a note saying I wanted to send her a limited edition print as a thank you.

Rosemary wrote back promptly. She said, “All I ask is that you be kind to others.”

The wallet was returned via the post office three days later.

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It’s All Good may mean that nothing is bad. It may be used in a seemingly optimistic sense

Art Buyer:

Hey man. We gave the assignment to someone else. Sorry about that.

Photographer:

Oh, It’s all good.

It may also mean; despite any possible doubt, everything’s cool:

Photographer:

We agreed that the agency would send me a check for 50% of the production
budget, before tomorrow’s shoot.

Art Director:

Don’t worry. It’s all good.

It may be used when someone doesn’t wish to get into something difficult,
complex or just plan annoying. Whatever. Later for that. It’s all good.

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From Bob Dylan’s Song

It’s All Good

Big politician saying lies

Restaurant kitchen full of flies

Don’t make a big difference, don’t see why it should

But it’s alright ’cause it’s all good

All good, it’s all good

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Tuesdays with Ian:
Maxims for Revolutionary Photographers
a Complimentary liveBooks Webinar

July 7th

5 PM Eastern
4 PM Central
3 PM Mountain
2 PM Pacific

Join us for this One Hour Participatory Event
Register Here:

maxim |ˈmaksim|
noun
a short, pithy statement expressing a general truth or rule of conduct : the maxim that actions speak louder than words. ORIGIN late Middle English (denoting an axiom): from French maxime, from medieval Latin (propositio) maxima ‘largest or most important (proposition).’

pithy |ˈpiθē|
adjective ( pithier , pithiest )
(of language or style) concise and forcefully expressive.

revolutionary
adjective
1 rebellious, rebel, insurgent, rioting, mutinous, renegade, insurrectionary, insurrectionist, seditious, subversive, extremist.
2 a revolutionary kind of wheelchair new, novel, original, unusual, unconventional, unorthodox, newfangled, innovative, modern, state-of-the-art, cutting-edge, futuristic, pioneering.

How to use these Maxims. Take these questions and statements and extrapolate. Let them stir your soup. For example, if you were able to reinvent the concept of beauty, what would it look like? Some of these maxims appeared in Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s book: Poetry as Insurgent Art. I have adapted them for photographers and wrote a few of my own.

Ponder!

Creating is not a sedantary occupation. Stand up. Grab your camera, your sketchbook. Let them have it!

What music do people hear when looking at your artwork?

Reinvent the concept of beauty.

Stand up and rap out loud in front of a mirror or video camera.

Give the gift of sight to a blind world. Be an eye for the blind.

The sunshine of your artwork casts long shadows.

Make the invisible visible.

Like a field of sunflowers, artwork should not have to be explained.

Haunt independent bookstores.

Allow yourself dazzling flight — flights of outrageous imagination.

Make art without an attachment to an outcome.

Be a songbird; not a parrot.

If there is nothing to shoot, shoot it.

Make a photograph of common household objects. While you are at it, clean the cabinet under the kitchen sink.

Spend a day making art only in your mind’s eye. Shutterless pictures stored in the work flow of your brain.

What if the greatest magazines are from outer space. What if you were filing photographs to some supreme photo editor who wants to understand Earthlings and has a low tolerance for bullshit.

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Optimism is a tendency to expect the best possible outcome or dwell on the most hopeful aspects of a situation. Antonyms: doubt, gloom, hopelessness, pessimism.

How to be Optimistic in a Recessed Economy

How are you maintaining an optimistic attitude in a recessive economy? Some wallow in the deep dark doom and gloom prophesies emanating from government, politicians, media and other sources. Some gather in groups to complain.

Therapists advise that a way to relieve depression is to take actions. What actions may you take that will turn you towards hope, growth and abundance? Most readers of this newsletter are creators. Is there a way to use the power of creation to manifest your dreams?

Is photography a calling? If the assignment photography business continues a downward turn, would you continue to make photographs? Many of you are happiest when you are creating. Will you make pictures no matter what?

(more…)

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