Art is long and life is short.
I'm so glad that May is over. It was a month in which I lost control of my schedule and time to an unprecedented extent. I felt stuck in a "create-on-demand" twilight zone, reacting and responding to almost hourly urgent-but-not-important requests and attending last-minute meetings that hijacked my thinking and real work time. I had to work late... Continue Reading →
It's been four months since my last post. Thank you for standing by, dear readers. My last post was about caregiving, and when I wrote it, I felt confident I could return to painting while my mom lived with me and fought pancreatic cancer. That wasn't to be the case, as the roller coaster of this... Continue Reading →
At some point in every artist's journey, art will imitate life. I think that point may be approaching for me. My mother has pancreatic cancer, the most lethal cancer there is. The struggle with the diagnosis in August - and the debilitating effects of the disease and its treatment on her and our family since -... Continue Reading →
I recently attended my second professional seminar in the University of Texas at Austin's new program Human Dimensions of Organizations. The seminar, titled Flourishing in the Workplace, took place on April 25 and was the second seminar in the Smarter Thinking certification series. I blogged about the first seminar late last year and am excited... Continue Reading →
The San Miguel market is located in the heart of Madrid's tourist center, right next to the Plaza Mayor. Completed in 1916, it is the only surviving iron structure market in Madrid today, having been rescued from abandonment and disrepair by a group of investors in 2003 who restored and reopened it in 2009 and adapted it... Continue Reading →
Once a year I pull out my "finer things" for the festivities that lie ahead. From the linens and flatware that adorn the table, to the menus I plan and the food I cook, to the clothing I wear and the care I take to look my best, I put in the extra time and... Continue Reading →
In my last post, I described how I learned about UT Austin's new program Human Dimensions of Organizations and why I was investing my personal time and money in the professional seminar series. I attended the first seminar, Maximizing Mental Agility, on November 13 and have been applying the insights ever since. Lewis Miller, HDO's... Continue Reading →
I recently decided to make a financial and time investment in my education in a topic that I'm very interested in, one my alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin, so brilliantly calls Human Dimensions of Organizations. For the last five years, I've seen some negative changes in business culture that worry me. Knowledge... Continue Reading →
I write about the creative process and its importance, but, I have to say, stepping back from a completed painting is such a joy. In my post Confronting a disappointing piece, I described how I was determined to get my painting mojo back during the summer by taking a break from a difficult work that wasn't... Continue Reading →
Before the wonderful TV show Mad Men made us conscious of how we have exchanged sophistication and "dressing up" for casual comfort in our clothing in the last forty years, I had felt for some time that something was "off" with clothing design and quality. Buying modern, unique, quality clothing at mid-range prices has been... Continue Reading →
Where's my paintbrush? 