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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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For the past three weeks or so, I have been posting 1501 Quotes Questions & Pondering on the Creative Process at my Facebook Group Page. I invite you to visit the group and sign up as a member. This is an opportunity to enter into dialogue with a wide range of people. You may post artwork based upon the quote. Add to the collection by posting quotes from your own collection on the FB discussion page. Think of each entry as an idea stimulator.

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When the Japanese mend broken objects they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold, because they believe that when something’s suffered damage and has a history, it becomes more beautiful.

Barbara Bloom

Installation Artist, Curator, Photographer, Designer

b. 1951

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For a synopsis of the book that accompanied The Collections of Barbara Bloom, by Barbara Bloom, at ICP.

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Photograph, paint, draw the face of a wrinkled elder. While you are working, imagine each crack filled with gold. How does that vision change the ways you see the subject? How different would our culture be if we valued elders this way?

Men are not born, but fashioned.

Desiderius Erasmus

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Albrecht Durer the Elder, Self Portrait, Silverpoint, Early 1500’s

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Art is a personal gift that changes the recipient.

Seth Godin

When I saw this image at the Museum of Messages I thought, how appropriate for Heartstorming.

Creating and change are intertwined.

It is not possible to create without change, risk, and some lost of security.

If you are not changing, you are not growing.

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Click on the image to see the Museum of Messages.

The Museum of Messages is Helena V’s way of calling attention to how we are

surrounded by verbiage that is significant to someone.

These messages are not your everyday graffiti —

but words she believes artists, as well as the general public,

create for individuals who are searching for humor, visual pleasure or guidance.

Since 1999, she has spent many days taking pictures on the streets and public venues of New York City

and throughout the world, where typographical art catches her attention and empowers her within.

Although the original messages are not her creation,

her role is to document and share the work of these anonymous artists in exhibitions and publications

so that others can enjoy their contributions.

She thinks that it is very important because these messages don’t have a very long lifespan.

Eventually they get painted over or washed away.

By focusing in and cropping these visual elements,

Helena V’s intent is to decontextualize the words

to the point where they are able to work independently as her own message.

Helena V’s Artist’s Statement

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