A Placeholder

Till I return and/or decide to show up at all

Playing dress-up, Pinterest

I find myself falling more in love with creativity and the trying of new things without judgement and without a marketing plan. My talents have been spent mostly in music and art design finding what worked fast and made sense but not with total artistic freedom. The safe voice suggests that perhaps the old things that worked can be repurposed into something genuine and meaningful. I don't think so anymore. It's time for a clear desk: a new whitespace.

I've never written an entire novel but I'm up for it. I've never composed a song, but I'm up for it. I've never used oil paints, but I'm up for it.

I love playing exceptional pieces of music and I love doing cameo performances. Repetitive playlists bore me. Art commissions bore me. I look at the patterns in my life and seem to have always chosen the safest route, the route of the cash cows - Oh, yes! The Purple Cow¹ that propelled a million business owners to rename and reframe and rethink their "WOW" factor. We all wanted to be 'remarkable' and rise to the top of Google analytics. Machinations all.

Lindsey Stirling, lindseystirling.com

I may be the only one who thinks it is droll to hear the old saying, "Just follow your heart and everything will work out (i.e. the money)." Seriously? Fun Fact: i.e. is Latin id est meaning: in other words. I have met many artists. Some have found great success translated into bank decimals and others, equally as gifted who struggled to eat. Of those artists I write of, talent and gift did not necessarily play the role in selection for publicity and sales. I saw it was mostly being in the right place at the right time with lanterns. Ok, some were gas-lamps.

If you are like me, we do not not simply watch a movie or read a book or experience a performance for the entertainment aspect - we immerse ourselves inside it, we explore every nook and cranny, we research the heck out of it, we glean our inspiration while behind the scenes we are in situ creating our next art work, our next writing, our next performance.

I'm not out of my comfort zone, I just enlarged 'It'
G.S.

My Placeholder. 'Gone to a Hallmark movie'. I find these movies to bring the inspiration to reach further and imagine more and become a romantic: Why not? and What might happen if? A life that is steady and certain has never been my path. But there are the rare times to sit, be still, and reflect. Especially when making life changing decisions, considering commitments, and setting goals.

Blind Date Book Club²

Short plot summary: Meg Tompkins, a bookstore owner in Nantucket, runs a unique book club called “Blind Date with a Book.” In this club, readers select books without knowing their titles— the books are covered in brown paper and tied with twine with only a short tagline description on each book. The twist? The club can unexpectedly bring people together in romantic ways. During an NPR radio interview about the book club, bestselling author Graham Sterling takes an interest. As Meg and Graham connect under his pseudonym, they find commonality in literature and the challenge of personal decisions which lead them into the unfamiliar over the safety of past achievement.

I love to read, therefore it makes sense that I also love books. Bookshops are filled with knowledge and imagination, instructions and learnings. Books are a vehicle that transport us to other worlds, live other lives for a time, and awaken our feelings to experiences that we may or not ever have in real life. The words written in books can fuel our dreams and give us hope beyond our hope.

It would be tidy if our creative endeavors had a shelf awaiting for us to display our wares. There would be the section for our correct genre, capturing the right demographics, and voilà our guaranteed success. Success without a conscience.

I'm good at This, but What If I'd rather do That?
G.S.

I am good at This. It has been qualified/identified by what people like to hear and what people like to see and what they buy. But if I am going to kick the purple moo and go for my true creative spirit, then I have to dig deeper than I have ever dug before. Most artists and writers know when the spark, the click, the 'hit the nail on the head' happens. We live for that moment. And then the next and the next after that.

We live inspired by our own art. We are never in competition with anyone but ourselves. We reach a destination point and then we set a new destination point to challenge our art to grow, to go beyond our expertise. We do not settle for a creative formula, becoming a machine like a cash cow.

But what if I'd rather do That? And this is exactly where I find myself with music and with art. I am no longer satisfied by just getting by with doing what sells, or just playing old songs over and over.

My music is taking a form of its own composing a triad music score. The composition is simple, then surging, then frenetic. I am enjoying the layers and emotions.

Finish date: sometime before Christmas.

I practice to become a composer;
I sketch to become a painter.
G.S.

My art is stretching into the outer limits into an unknown expanse of techniques and skills for equine realism in oil painting. I know I have attained my apex when I literally feel like I'm coming apart at the seams and there is no remedy but to charge forward. Every day I give myself a Permission Pass of No Expectations, suit up and show up, learn the techniques, keep the Zoom video off, just be there. I am an artist. I have shown my work in galleries. Be of good courage.

Finish date: mid to late October.

POSTCARD #2

The Hôtel des Invalides, commonly called Les Invalides, is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, containing museums and monuments. Les Invalides is a former military hospital for veterans and a national monument in Paris, where Napoleon's ashes are buried under a dome.

Place {of importance}

A place can be a destination. It is a construction. A thing built. A significant sight to see for the tourist. When a place is spoken of, it is referred to by its most important feature, its name, its purpose and its location.

I love history and research. Names, places, locations, and stories are all part of the intrigue and mystery of a place, its people, its origin. I may not be physically in Paris this week, but the virtual walking tour The Conquer Paris Challenge³ is incredibly enjoyable and amazing. It broadens my world view. It connects me to humanity across the Atlantic Ocean. It brings me inside the culture, arts, and lifestyle. I can walk into a boulangerie and musee.

POSTCARD #3

Rue Crémieux is The Most Beautiful Street in Paris. This colourful pedestrian street in Paris, built as workers' housing in 1857, is a one-block pedestrian street in the 12th arrondissement of Paris. A cobbled peaceful lane free of car traffic. 144 meters with 35 pastel-coloured houses.

Holders {of colour}

I look at all the books that have colored our world written by Classic literature Authors: Longfellow, Wadsworth, Austen, Homer, Twain, Tolkien, Alcott, Dickens, and the Master painters of Fine Art: Rembrandt, Michael Angelo, DaVinci, Monet, Manet, and my favorites Russell, Parrish, Hanks, Doolittle, and Carr [nikkicarrartist.com]. These are the holders of the art chalice of colour.

What would the world be like if these few artists decided to sleep in, go work in a different field, and deny their talent?

I am certainly not putting myself on par with any of the above mentioned, but it still takes the same courage to show up and do. The same courage to face fears. And the same persistence, tenacity, dedication, commitment, and love of creating that defines artists and writers.

Flamingo It!
say bye-bye to the purple moo

Flamingo It!
show up regardless!

Flamingo It!
fall in love with doing

Flamingo It!
give negativity its Burn Notice

Flamingo It!
turn safe-mode [OFF]

Flamingo It!
seek your Style!

Flamingo It!
set a Placeholder

Till We Meet Again! {xoxo}

1. Seth Godin, 2003. The Big Moo, 2005.

2. Starring Erin Krakow, Blind Date Book Club, 2024. Hallmark Movies Channel

3. The Conqueror Events, 2024. https://theconqueror.events