This past week, I attended a seminar on Networking and Branding. The purpose of the seminar was to persuade the audience to turn over a new leaf.
Copyright James E. Martin 2014 Turning Over a New Leaf
Overall, the content and delivery was fair to poor within the context of the audience that attended. It lacked vitality and relevance. I didn't hear anything new that I didn't already know. The seminar failed in its objective of making the message relevant to working professionals. The presenter had a challenge to take the precepts of new technologies using social media and persuade old dogs to perform new tricks.
I was able to receive the content more appropriately when I tuned it to my use of the art blog. I was the only individual in the generally older audience that had been actively using electronic social media applications to network and communicate. My takeaway from the seminar based on the discussions and opinions rendered....if you are going to use the tools and applications, one must manage one's time, manage the methods, and manage for intended results in order to stay focused on obtaining effective communications. Things can and do get out of control online.
Why blog over the last few years? To formulate and express my thoughts. I think that is the bottom line of this Journey thus far. For me. Even with the occasional hiatus in the diary. There are times to speak and times to be outwardly silent. The outward silence speaks volumes also.
The Journey of the Creative Pursuit and the Artistic Endeavor is a struggle. It has ups. And downs. Days of movement forward. And days of rest. And days of reconnoitering.
And I think I have been straightforward in my blog objective and profile in outlining that this has been a portrayal of my emerging worldview and perspective. My interest in Art has been a vehicle in which to live deliberately and a lens through which I see the Self. If I haven't been Expressing on the blog, I have been Impressing through reading, observing, and adventures. The adventures have been both outward and inward.
The year 2014 has been a milestone year for me. Improved physical health based on knowledge learned and applied. I can physically walk again. Without chronic pain and discomfort. After 7 years.
Along the way, I think the most valuable skill has been the development of my eyes. I see things. Differently. And seek the Meaning in what I am observing. So the mind and the heart is involved in the selection, filtering, and attenuation of the objects observed. There has been much drawing and painting and sculpting in my head. Because that is how I have been able to successfully manage my time available during the day to accomplish my art. And there has been much enjoyment and self-fulfillment as a result.
It has been a time of Collecting and Gathering. I have a sense over the last few months though that my "Cup is Filled to Overflowing".
However, people around me don't understand the Dream. Especially my family. Those closest to me. I have experienced the rejection that artists receive and write about. The Banter. The Bicker. The Blarney.
I went to a Christmas party last night hosted by some former golf friends. I used to play weekly before my youngest child, Itsy Bit, came along. Perhaps the advent of the child, my chronic health concerns about walking, and other employment-related duties all converged to keep me from my golf endeavors during the past eight years.
The last Christmas party we had attended with this lively group of folks, was when we brought the baby along in a carrier just after she was born. It's been eight years. The folks were wonderfully still themselves. They love the game. They are a fun-loving, humorous bunch. They are still singing the same set of Christmas carols. It's a lovely tradition.
It was really nice to talk with two of the folks at the party because they are amateur artists also. I connected with them about their current Journey. Made Connections about art stuff. Explored a couple of potential new Commitments. Local Art Clubs. Art galleries. Monthly workshops. Meeting with others on a monthly basis. Picking up picture frames for artwork.
A Connection with one guy who doesn't paint as much as he would like....developing a potential Commitment for Collaboration together to each paint one larger work every two months. To stay in touch about art. And getting together more often to do art. Each of us had a partially finished work-in-progress that had been set aside and we discussed how to get it to Done. Since we summer in the same area in Maine, doing a pleine aire Jaunt in Maine together next year.
So today's activity was about Connecting with others. And renewing Commitments. And reinvigorating the Creative Pursuit and the Artistic Endeavor. Not just inwardly. But outwardly.
Copyright James E. Martin 2014 A Bright Clear Winters Day
A different walk. At a different pace. In a different direction. Networking with folks of like mind. Branding the message. Step by step. Just thinking on things.
