This Creative Life

A Brand New You?

2012-02-15T15:22:00.000-08:00

I grew up thinking that “branding” was something Rowdy Yates did to a herd of cattle. I never planned to have a ranch, so it never occurred to me that I would have to design a brand. But here we are in the new millennium and branding is something we do to people and companies and products, and if you don’t brand yourself cowboy, you’re nobody.

To survive the fatal virus of anonymity we are encouraged to swallow the medicine of constant self-promotion. Some of us are better at this than others, of course, but this daily push toward fame and acceptance has an inner impact on all of us.

We are living in a time of mass commodification. Everything and everyone must be part of the market place. Whether you want to succeed in business or love, you’ve gotta have a good head shot and snappy copy. My question is: what’s happening inside of us with this continuous push to expand our number of “friends” and contacts? We are bombarded with the message that we are not enough, and we are not doing enough. If one is an adult meeting this new age of marketmanship, then a sense of pre-existing inner equilibrium could help counter balance a healthy identity and sense of innate value. But imagine being thirteen!

Between mass media and social media young people and women, especially, are taught to be thinner, younger, and/or sexier. Everything from mascara to face cream is sold as the magic elixir or potion to ‘make you shine’. Men should be “winners”, a goal that apparently counteracts both age and girth.

We all want to look and feel our best, but with the constant professionally-powered force of Madison Avenue, it takes an extraordinary personality to maintain a fully self-determined identity. Even the most polished players in the fame game are criticized and dissected, in fact that dissection is big business, too. “The 10 Worst Dressed.” “Who’s got cellulite in Hollywood?” Who are the top A-Listers this year? The Ten Wealthiest in the World? The Sexiest Man? All these meaningless headlines will reach you even without a television, unless you grow all your own food, wash your clothes at the river bank, and don’t have access to a computer.

I’m not against fashion trends or Hollywood headlines, I just want every person to be optimistic and joyful, to find their own style, and to express themselves without bashing or being bashed. We can look great, we can be healthy, we can even be ‘fashionable’ on our own terms. But in this mass media driven society, that’s not just a choice, it is a process. Look forward to my next blog to learn more about it!

Techno-Block

2011-11-15T13:07:00.000-08:00

A few posts back I wrote about creativity blocks, and today I'm writing to kvetch a bit about "techno-block", the reason I haven't written for a while.
I enthusiastically looked into the new design possibilities here in Blogger, and decided to take a leap. I switched the format of this blog to a spiffy and colorful format. But when I clicked the bookmark I usually use to write new posts, I saw that the blog, in the new format, was still opening to an old post featuring my photo with my dear friend Morrie Turner. Why is it still doing that, I wondered. Next I tried going to the Dashboard to make a new post, but I couldn't access the Dashboard. So I went to the Blogger website, went through the questions forum, scrolled the pictures of Google Blogger employees having fun at a recent conference, and perused the sidebar of subjects that had nothing to do with my problem. What I hoped to find was a Help link. No luck.
Frankly, I'm not even sure how I got to this place where I was able to revert the format (I think) to the old pattern. So, not every block in creativity is in one's head, and the most important element of success in such cases is perseverance! Stay tuned, I am bound to be victorious, and hope to create some interesting new posts in the near future.
I had some very good feedback regarding the creativity block material, if you have a topic or question you'd like to see here, please let me know. I'd love to hear from readers. Thanks!

Stop the Block

2011-08-31T18:06:00.000-07:00

Sometimes Creative Block expresses itself with a bunch of noise inside your head. Especially in this technologically oppressive age, the brain often finds itself overwhelmed with input. We lose sight of how many messages and flashing lights are constantly coming at us. The brain and the eyes are the organs that are constantly fielding that input (imagine a soccer or hockey goalie constantly bombarded by balls or pucks from the other team). Just in the course of an ordinary day the whole sensory system gets exhausted. So imagine what happens when you sit down with your sketch pad or your drafting table or your computer program and it's nine at night, and you decide you want to create something.
What your sensory system needs is a break. It needs you to STOP. You feel that fatigue (I know you do), but you've finally got a little time. The house is quiet. The kids are asleep. But the body is not a machine, and your mind lives all over your body. You can stave off a wrestling match with The Creative Block, by knowing when not to work.
Have you ever looked at a guitar at rest? Or a violin, or any musical instrument. They are beautiful. The shape, the wood, the detailing, all those aspects of a musical instrument make it a work of art even before it makes music. Well, you are just the same. Your whole physical being is a work of art; it has beauty and value even when at rest. You don't have to do anything. And, in fact, to get the most beautiful 'music' from your instrument, you need to give it a rest.
Repose and recreation are ways to catch up with yourself. Time for the body to recover from neural bombardment and the stress of urban and suburban life. Take time to meditate, watch the sky, walk, or dance.
I have worked a good deal with teenagers. When they begin to paint or draw, I first see a reflection of the culture around them. Words, symbols, images from advertising or product designs, come right out of them and onto the clean white page. When I get to work with them in small groups I have a chance to ask questions like: What does this symbol or word have to do with your life? If I ask directly to see something that is not so commercial, something more personal, they don't know what to "come up with". Amazingly they access the personal by reflecting on poetry, which carries a lyric message across time, and lends itself to personal visual expression. Whether it's Rumi or Emily Dickinson, even young people who live in a hip hop world respond to the truth in poetry with their own truth.

So this gives you two more weapons against The Block: Know when to stop and rest (this means put away your creative tools and do something else). Then immerse yourself in the art of others. The two activities actually require the same thing: disconnect from your urges and drives. Lose yourself in the world around you for a while. When you go back to your "drawing board" begin by reflecting on someone else'swork. Let their work lead you to reflect authentically without reference to common symbols and slogans. In that reflection you will find yourself.

Busting the Block

2011-08-22T13:22:00.000-07:00

In the last blog I started talking about out-smarting the dreaded Creativity Block. We all know that The Block is a tough customer, it takes more than one approach to get rid of the thing. So in this posting I'll pass along another technique that works for me.
The graphic to the left is a good example of playful improvisa- tion, something I use whenever I'm feeling like the creative flow is dammed up. This piece is a collage of paper and bark with pencil and tempera paint. There's a little incorporated message cut from a magazine at the bottom, it says "When one door closes they say another one opens."
I remember playing with all the pieces for quite a while, rearranging them, adding and subtracting things that I had cut and torn. It helps to have a lot of things to work with. I collect interesting images and quotations from old magazines and keep them in big manila envelopes. So when I feel the shadow of The Block cross my path, I pull out my saved clippings and open a sketch pad. This piece wound up looking really nice, but a lot of collages meander into being over a long time and are often over done. It takes patience and playfulness. This particular piece taught me the importance of space in compositions and in my attitude. The important thing is to become deeply involved in the process. Keep breathing consciously and get rid of the idea of "making" something.
I usually turn the page (or canvas) over, looking at it from every direction. Doing that stops me from making a commitment too soon. It also let's me catch myself being clever. You don't want to end up with something cute or cliché. The idea is to keep risking. Keep throwing out the easy answer. Instead of making a piece that "reads" easily, make a piece that presents a riddle or a Buddhist koan. You don't need to please anyone. Use the improvisation process to have fun and knead your creative energy into a pliable state.
How about dealing with a Life Block?
This blog is dedicated to having a creative life, so the obvious question that comes to mind is: How does dealing with a block in the artistic creative process help with the rest of life? Here's where I find journaling to be really important. The collage gives me the process of turning a chaotic jumble of images and words into something organized. It's hard to do that with life's elements unless we use some symbolic form to help us. That's where the journal can be a great ally. Sometimes I can make lists, or draw some shape that feels appropriate to what's going on in my life. I can draw a circle on the page and write down all the things that are going on inside the circle. Looking at it that way, I can then ask myself, "What do I need to take out of the circle to make things workable?" Then I can do that visually and see the situation changing.
My coach's training has taught me to develop many ways to help clients improvise seeing and understanding their life situation. But I recommend journaling as one of the best places to improvise solutions to creative blocks that happen in life.

The Ubiquitous Creative Block

2011-08-16T13:37:00.000-07:00

The whole world knows about the ogre that haunts creative people, the monster known as Creativity Block. Even people who have never written a story or a poem, even people who've never picked up a brush or a pencil know about the dreaded Block. You'll be glad to know that we don't need a super hero to pulverize this nemesis into Creativity Block Powder. We can defeat this enemy ourselves. Yes, we can. I know what I'm talking about because I did it, and once I developed a new way of thinking and working, I never saw The Block again. It didn't happen overnight, of course. It took a lot of self-examination to get rid of the pesky thing.
It's important to understand the ammo required to destroy the Block. What worked for me was a lot of self-examination. You see we each construct The Block in our own creative way. That's right, you may hear echos of other voices in The Block, but its power comes from your belief in it. For some people the block may be a wall of bricks (individual self-negating, judgmental messages neatly cemented together). For others it is a stone monolith of voices and experiences, fears, and self-doubt. No one builds The Block for you, and no one can take it down for you.
In the next few blogs I'd like to dissect The Block, and let others see what worked for me. I hope that through my teaching, writing, and coaching I have helped other people dismantle their blocks. This blog is one more place where I can hope to do some good.
Looking back on my own battle with The Block, I recognize that an important contributing factor was a paradox of expectations. In order for me to really value what I was creating I had to see that it was exceptional. I had absorbed that ridiculous myth about great artists being discovered like Lana Turner sipping a soda in Schrafts. Believe me, if you have that "star is born" I'm-gonna-be-discovered mythology in your head, wash it out now. The world recognizes Pablo Picasso was an artistic genius, the artistic giant of the twentieth century, but Pablo did not come out of the womb wielding a paint brush, instead he was taught from infancy about art by his father who was not only an artist but an art teacher. He surrounded little Pablo with the finest art and instruction from the time he could hold a crayon. In fact, the boy skipped normal child forms of expression and spent his lifetime trying to attain it. The same was true of Frank Lloyd Wright probably the greatest architect of his time. His parent's groomed him to be an architect, selecting the creative tools for that profession and surrounding their son with them.
Most of us were not so fortunate. Trying to value your work by comparisons to those giants is only going to add mortar to the Block's blocks. Wanting to be famous as an artist or in any field is not a serious creative goal, it is an ego trip. Living a creative life isn't about fame or recognition of any kind, it is an adventure of the spirit and the intellect engaged with the world, its creatures, animate and inanimate.

Someone once said of Picasso after observing him looking at a painting, "It's a wonder there was anything left on the canvas." His eyes were voracious consumers of the world around him. And that is first weapon in the destruction of The Block: a passionate hunger to see the world around you. Seeing becomes so important that drawings become authentic recordings of that seeing. Here is the key: the experience of seeing becomes more powerful and important than the product. This helps the artist disconnect from the opinions of unqualified critics. We can always learn from the guidance of teachers, but the easily-garnered opinions of others are meaningless.
The Creative Block feeds on ego insecurity. And those insecurities come from a morbid concern for the opinion of others regarding the final "product". Remove the "product" focus of your attitude and your Creative Block becomes an anemic and hungry pauper.
The drawing about is a study I did of the pouch in which I carried pencils, erasers, sharpeners, and sand blocks, the tools of my drawing practice. Once the drawing was finished I wrote that piece that you see above it, which reads as follows: The metamorphic body of this post-white sac slumps and stands, folds and collapses according to its contents. Its sensual shapes and formations seem as infinitely transformative as the images that eventually emerge from its cargo of pencils and paints that, hidden away, play a clinking song like tinker toys from another age.
The whole process of the drawing took me back, as the last line suggests, to my childhood, and it taught me that I'd been carrying around pouches of pencils all my life.
Whenever I come to a creative place that feels stuck, I interact with something at hand and make that thing the whole world. I challenge myself to make it my inspiration. It takes my mind off of the stuck place and keeps me working. The creative process from the distraction usually teaches me something to apply to my stuck place and before long I have kicked myself into gear again.

What does it mean to live a creative life?

2011-08-14T13:03:00.000-07:00

The title of the painting above is Echo Off Stone. When I look at it, I find myself inside a cave hearing the muffled noises of things that live in its dark recesses.
You know what an echo sounds like, but how does it feel? Continuing from the earlier post, I want to reflect on the power and richness available by expanding the conversation between the mind and the body. The body is the source of intuition, the most powerful untapped talent of every person. And intuition is an important element of creativity.
Modern medicine is finally accepting the body-mind-spirit connection, but public education is still largely in the dark ages on this important reality. Most of us were taught to read words, but not to read our body. Schools focus on everything outside of the body: history, mathematics, civics (do they still teach that?) and science. And everything we learn comes from reading texts and watching screens as if our only way to take in information is through a highway from the optic nerve to the brain. Only in special cases do students get three-dimensional approaches to learning.
In coaching, when understanding and clarity stall, I often ask what or how the client feels. The body is always ready with information. This is a method I use with myself. I use it when I realize I'm painting from pure intellect that the work has become forced or clever. Cleverness is death to art. When it happens it's time to take a break and come back with the authenticity of the body's experience.

I often ponder the question: What does it mean to live a creative life? Authenticity is a key element to a creative life. Intention is another. Most importantly a creative life comes from living with a curious awareness about the next moment, and an organic responsiveness to that moment. Get something new from something ordinary. Hear an echo and ask yourself, how would I paint that? It's not important that someone else look at your painting and know that it's an echo, it's only important that you followed your curiosity and created an original response to life.

Listening to Consonants

2011-08-14T12:15:00.000-07:00

The above painting is titled Consonants. It's part of a small series I did about how language feels in my head. I think a lot about how to help others incorporate creativity into their way of living and this painting (in fact that whole series) illustrates one of the tools of creativity that can be put into practice.
That tool is going into the body for information.
The marks on the canvas are not in themselves consonants. You can't see a p or a k or a w, but you see what consonants feel like to me. The marks are also elements of the written consonants without being the consonants themselves. So the painting grew from an intuitive sense, from a feeling inside me. Artists are credited with mysterious talents, often envied by museum and gallery visitors, but mostly the talent artists have is an expanded sensory awareness and the courage to value and follow that awareness into action.
Everyone gets information from the body. Your stomach growls, you know you're hungry. You yawn, it's time to get some sleep. Now imagine that you start listening more closely to the responses of your body to the world around it. There lies a seed of creativity: curiosity.

Revisiting The Sixties?

2011-07-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

The piece I've selected to accompany this post is a work on paper titled "Reflection".
It seems that I am increasingly involved in conversations about aging these days, and it started me thinking about offering some coaching to help get us prepped and in gear for the future. Let's face it, a lot of us are turning 60 and above, and we never imagined ourselves to fit the definition of (excuse the term) "old". Now, when we look at our reflection it's impossible not to notice a change in our jaw line, the elaboration of lines around our eyes, and if we haven't fought like an Olympian to stay in shape, there's a little paunch around the waistline!
Whether we are ready for it or not the future is going to make us older! There will be a future, you know. What will your future look like? And what kind of person will you be in the future?
It may be time for a little, uh, Reflection.

I love being a coach because it allows me to companion clients in their reflection and move them forward through our joint process. A coach is trained to ask the best questions to take you from where you are to where you want to be. Now, just for the sake of transparency, I'm going to guess that you might be thinking, 'oh she's trying to sell me on coaching.' Well, if that means that I'm trying to sell you a happy future, then you're right. If it means I'm trying to sell you a good night's sleep, right again.
Coaching doesn't sell you anything but your best life. And when it comes to this issue of aging, well, some days may make us question whether the best part of life didn't already happen. But we don't have to be afraid to look at that, when we are set to make the future the best part of our life.
What is true is this: your life, at any age, is determined by the choices you made or make in each life situation. You can reflect on your youth, or any period of your life and think about the choices you made. Some of them led you to some of the best things in your life, and some of them led you to things that were less than optimal.
So think about tomorrow. Think about next week. What choices will you make? And what future will they lead you to? Honestly, I'm always amazed how much coaching helps me (yes, coaches have coaches). It's like laying your thoughts out on the table and perusing them with a smart friend. No advice. Just good questions and meaningful discussion all about you.
Unlike therapy, coaching doesn't last for years, but its effects are lasting. If you want to know more, or want to try a sample session, write me at adriana@yourcreativelifecoach.com. Let's make the second sixties as great as our first!

2011-06-24T16:22:00.000-07:00

The painting in this posting is actually a close-up of a larger painting. The materials converged in this painting through strokes, and shoves, pressure points, pourings and scrapings. And when they'd all gathered together at just the right time, they seemed to unite and accelerate themselves into something I had to call "Launch". What you see in the close up, could be construed, I suppose as the launching pad.
People often ask me about the process by which the paintings take shape. And while there are some common aspects of the creative process, not every work follows the same pattern of creation.
I am greatly inspired by those accumulated materials in the studio. I 'take a shine' to something and think, "Maybe I'll start out with this." Objects usually need to be supported in some way. I can't just stick it onto the canvas and expect the canvas to embrace it like a stranger at a family picnic. So I begin building my surface in relationship to the object or materials I start with.
This is where I stop to notice how art teaches us about life. The basic preparation of events, meetings, meals, games, or social gatherings all need the same approach. We just don't realize that we are in the creative process, when we're planning our Fourth of July barbecue. In that case, we set up the patio table(s), trim the garden, pull out the big platters that live normally on that shelf that's too high to reach. We pull out our biggest and best flag and hang it proudly from our house, and maybe even buy red, white, and blue cups and napkins. We prepare the "place". Set the scene.
Recently I gave a webinar presentation regarding creativity in life and career building. One of my first points was to remind our participants that creativity is not something bequeathed to artists. Human beings have a creative instinct that is as keen as the fight or flight instinct. We are creating all the time. Every time you fix something that's broken instead of throwing it out, you are using your creative instinct. Start to pay attention. Check yourself. How many times in a day are you called on to solve a problem, find another way to do something, or figure out how to use a gadget, or substitute something for the usual tool.
Where artists have the advantage is this: we surrender more easily to not knowing. In fact, we love not knowing, because it means we can go on a creative hunting party. "I'll try this." "No, I'll try it this way." "Well, now I know two approaches that don't work, so I'll try this!" And the more we shove the elements around, the happier we get. We scowl. We bite our lower lip. We wipe our sweaty brow. We may even swear. But, damn, we're having a great time!
Many people think artists are the ones who know what to do with art materials, but the fact is, we're happiest when we don't know what we're doing. That's when every brush stroke yields a surprise. We watch the materials drip, holding our breath, involved in the suspenseful drama of art. And LIFE IS JUST LIKE THAT. If your life doesn't feel like that, either you're living a life of tedium, or you're not paying attention.
Here's a suggestion: why don't you go out and paint or sculpt, build or write your own launching pad!
Good luck!

Open Studios 2011

2011-06-08T15:25:00.000-07:00

Once a year East Bay artists come out from behind their easels and drawing boards to accompany their work in exhibition. This event is known as Open Studios. It is choreographed and presented by Pro Arts, a non-profit art advocacy program and gallery in downtown Oakland. This is my fifth year participating in the event, and it is always and exciting season.
The coming weekend: June 11 and 12 is the second and final weekend of Open Studios 2011. I will be at 401 26th St., Oakland (between Broadway and Telegraph) from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. with 19 of my colleagues. We have a beautiful venue: Uptown Body and Fender. Believe me, you've never seen a body shop like this. Check out their website and get the 411 on all the events and fundraisers held there. It's a very special place (and a great place to get your car repaired).
So enough for the promotion. My regular readers know that painting is a deeply spiritual and personal practice for me, and you might wonder how it feels to put myself 'out there' hoping to sell the work. In reality, there's a lot more connecting and schmoozing with people than selling which is good and not so good. The fact is, an artist cannot continue to produce without selling. For one thing, unsold work takes up space in the studio. My studio is not terribly big, so I hope to sell my work to good people, so that it can fulfill its life as art. No matter what our art form is, we cannot horde it. Hording is against the flow of creativity. We only horde things that we're eventually going to use in our art (which means that along with unsold paintings my studio stores wire, small sections of fencing, jars of insects that died of natural causes, jars of broken colored glass, shells, old canceled stamps, spools of thread, discarded snake skins, old costume jewelry, etc.)
Selling a work brings a beautiful feeling of completion to the artist. Artists are like fruit trees, the crops that come through us, are meant to be out nourishing our community and society at large. As trees need water and sunlight, we need funds to maintain our lives. Though there is no true equity in our financial realities, artists deserve to be recompensed for their craft, their time, their originality, their intellect, their skills, and their unique abilities to reflect the human condition in a symbolic or abstract way. Only a very small minority earn on a par with other professionals of equivalent talent or years at their craft.
Unlike the 19th Century image of the artist as Bohemian ne'er-do-wells, contemporary artists mostly work at other jobs while maintaining a serious creative practice. Many have families and meet all the responsibilities of parents, and/or children of aging parents. This is a reality check for people who still think artists live on the margins of society. Not many of us are wealthy, but we work hard to maintain our commitment to our calling along with our commitments to our other professions and loved ones. You can see why we cannot afford to sentimentalize our connection to the pieces we create. And even though original art seems expensive to many people, believe me, the prices asked don't even cover the overhead of studio costs.
So come to Open Studios and support a unique "tribe" of people who love their craft so much that they sacrifice summer vacations for it. They go without new shoes for it. They drive old cars, go without health care, and after a 40 hour work week, they spend weekends in the studio. Artists are people who don't put their money where their mouth is, they put their money where their heart is.
I'd love to meet some of my blog readers. Hope you will come by a say hi.
*The painting with this posting is entitled River Psalm, and it is on exhibit this weekend at 401 26th St., Oakland, (unless someone buys it before you get there).

Culturally Aware Coaching

2011-04-29T12:53:00.000-07:00

Since establishing my personal website, I've had the good fortune to come together with a small cohort of coaches to focus on an aspect of coaching that, in our opinion, gets too little attention in the coaching profession. That important issue is Cultural Awareness.
We are all coaches of color and began to get together in an informal monthly lunch to talk about how cultural awareness came up in our coaching practices, and in our personal lives. After a year of such meetings, we realized our commitment to the topic, and learned that we enjoyed an affinity and a manner of working together that encouraged us to go further. So we established ourselves as Prism Coaching.
Each Prism coach maintains their own practice, while working on shared goals and activities of Prism Coaching as well.
I have not yet added a Prism link to my website, so I want to add it here. For more information about the individual coaches, and the work of Prism Coaching, please go to www.prismcoaching.org. There you can learn more about Culturally Aware Coaching and about the gifts that each coach brings.
The one thing I will say, in this limited space is this: Cultural awareness is not another name for "diversity training". We can see, though, just with this comparison of terms, that our language has been evolving, toward recognition and respect of all people. We've come a long way from "the melting pot" terminology and ideology of the 1950's. We now talk about the culture of a business environment, for example. If a person moves from one company to another, he or she must adjust and learn the cultural norms of the new place. When we stop to realize the number of American businesses that now hire employees from foreign countries, and from distinct American ethnic communities, we begin to guess at the complex cultural landscapes of the American business world. When women began to move into managerial and executive positions, that too caused a cultural shift. That's just a glimpse at cultural awareness in business, and it doesn't begin to touch on the components of gender and lifestyle.
I have to admit that when I got my Masters degree in Culture and Spirituality, I had no idea that it would lead me to this work, but I guess it just proves that when you stay on your own path, you are guided, inevitably, to where you are supposed to be.
I just want to add that I'm grateful for the friends and colleagues I discovered through what has become Prism Coaching: (I've listed them in alphabetical order by last names) Jennifer Chien, Kim Fowler, Donald Gerard, Belma Gonzalez, Wendy Horikoshi, Johnny Manzon-Santos, Ernest Mark, Alfredo Vergara-Lobo, and Fresh! White. Go to www.prismcoaching.org to learn more about each of us, and more about Culturally Aware Coaching.

Don't Look Down

2011-04-12T19:47:00.000-07:00

There is a new movie out called Soul Surfer. It's about Bethany Hamilton, the courageous young surfer who returned to her sport after the loss of an arm to a shark attack. I haven't seen the movie, but I did see an interview with AnnaSophia Robb, the actress who plays Bethany in the film, and she was asked about her own fears in learning to surf. She said that in teaching her, Bethany told her not to look down, and she found that to be the key to keeping her mind focused. In fact, when I heard Bethany interviewed, it was the key to keeping her head and surviving the attack. She said she realized that she was bleeding badly, and instead of trying to see how bad the damage was, she focused her mind on getting back to shore.
When I heard her say that, "Don't look down" suddenly it struck me as a piece of universal wisdom. I say it frequently when teaching people to dance, and I've heard it said about wire-walking and rock climbing. You've probably heard it about other things you've learned (from riding a bicycle to roller skating).
There are two reasons why "Don't look down" is good advice. First, the human head weighs approximately 10 pounds. As soon as the head goes forward, even slightly facing down, the whole body is pulled off balance. Anyone who has tried yoga knows that the alignment of the head with the rest of the body is very important in reaching and maintaining an asana (a Yoga pose).
The second reason "Don't look down" is good advice is: Looking down means letting focus and determination wane, and opening a window to let fear in. Looking down reinforces one's sense of danger. So "Don't look down" is good advice whenever you're taking on a new endeavor that takes courage.
When I heard AnnaSophia Robb say that in her interview, I realized that it was a message to me. For the last two years I've been involved with writing my first novel. I originally set out, about six years ago to write a non-fiction book, but I couldn't find the right voice. Eventually, I had the idea to incorporate the subject I wanted to write about into a story. So I started studying writing fiction, and by the time I heard the Robb interview, I had the novel completed, to such an extent that it was time to start "shopping it around" to agents. Suddenly, I looked down in the sense that I thought "Oh God, what have I done?" I have devoted months to this project, and now I am out here at a point of no return.
What could I do at that point to regain my focus? I had to accept the possibility of worst-case scenarios. I realized that there was no way the project could fail, because I had carried it to it's creative completion. The only way to "fall off my board" would be to stuff it in a drawer.
The drawing posted with this blog post is about the creative process. It's about those moments of fear when we balk or stop ourselves because we have 'looked down'. The blank page can be both the best catalyst and the worst bully. It can look like a deep canyon beneath you, or a space laid out just waiting for your self-expression. So, I hope when you have the next moment of hesitation, you too will remember Bethany Hamilton's life saving advice.

The Power of Poetry

2011-03-29T10:58:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Rap music, poetry and spoken word have surfaced in the life of American Pop culture.
But the role of poetry in the U.S. has largely been relegated to the intelligentsia, and with the crumbling state of our educational structures, it's not too likely that the mass majority of young people will know much about poetry beyond Rap and Hip Hop. This, in great part, is because of the democratic, if contentious, nature of our lifestyle.
Sadly, most Americans think poetry is about rhyme, or used in greeting cards to send well wishes to distant friends and relations.
But if we look at the role poetry has played in other parts of the world throughout history, we see that poetry is politically powerful. And in realizing that, each of us, can be empowered to read more poetry, and even write it for ourselves.
The painting published with this posting is called Antiquity. The markings coming out of the center are the foundational impulses of language expressed by the human hand. They are sophisticated in their symbolism, though ancient and primal. That's how I see the instinct of human beings to make poetry. It grows from the most independent and honorable impulse to be heard, to speak one's truth about life, and, in doing so, effect change.
Mary Pipher is a wonderful writer, and certainly very successful. She's the author of at least seven books, including the N.Y. Times bestseller, Reviving Ophelia. She also wrote a thought-provoking book about writing called Writing to Change the World. In her chapter about poetry, she talks about the power of poetry in the history of the Soviet Union, where samizdat, or underground poetry was an important subversive means of maintaining morale, communication, and strategies against a profoundly oppressive government. Even Doctor Zhivago, which most Americans treasure as a powerful love story, was smuggled out of the country in segments. Boris Pasternak, its author, barely escaped execution.
Russian poets became creative and skillful in ways of sharing their work. A good deal of it was memorized and recited in little clubs or gatherings. They made recordings on ex-ray film that could be played like phonograph records. There were also recordings of music and literature made on magnetic tape.
We have have never had to fight for the free expression of our poetry. Not that there hasn't been censorship in our country, but for the most part, poetry is not thought of as a political act in this country. That's where learning more about the subject, and the lives of American poets can set you straight.
I write this to raise consciousness about the freedom of creativity we enjoy. One has to wonder if a limitation isn't a catalyst. When someone tells you not to do something, don't you want to do it more? Stay away from those brownies. Don't drive so fast. You're not going to wear that are you? Think about it.
Now, don't go start writing poetry to tell the truth about the life you're living. I dare you.

In Remembrance

2011-03-27T13:18:00.000-07:00

Last November a dear friend of mine lost her life in a light plane crash. Even as I write, four months later, after memorials and hymns and prayers, I cannot believe she's really not dancing on this earth.
Peg Noonan was a graceful spirit. She was a spiritual daughter of the muse Terpsichore in her love of dance. She was a teacher of NIA, and Zumba. At sixty-four she was in great shape, and seemed to love working out almost as much as she loved dancing.
But the thing that stayed with everyone who met Peg, was her vivacious love of life. She made friends with everyone she spoke to. And those of us who were fortunate enough to be her friend, knew that she was always with us in spirit whether she lived on the east coast or the west.
There was one small consolation to her death: she died with the sweetheart she'd finally found after more than twenty years of being divorced. They'd met only months before, and planned to marry this year. I did not know him, but I pray for him with my dear friend, that they may have, after all, a sweet life together.
Attempting to come to terms with Peg's death, I wrote the following poem which I leave here, in memorial.

For Peg
copyright 2011, Adriana Díaz

In my grief
I think of you
suspended in
an interminable
cessation
of being.
There's not a word
not an adjective,
or verb,
not an expletive,
nor a bleep.
There's no phone call,
or cyberspace correspondence.
No questions.
No answers.

This silence is a coffin
we share.

You are no longer breath,
nor graceful step.
Yet chassé you shall
on the memories
of dance floors we knew.

Our last lunch together,
sitting on the hem of the ocean,
the Pacific sun eavesdropping
on our buoyant words;
I see you there
as if I could touch the red curl
of your hair, or
hold your gentle hand.

If I had known you were
to fall from the sky
like Icarus from the sun,
I'd have prepared a field
of wool, dense as clouds,
and a bed of flowers,
fragrant and supple.
I'd have summoned birds
to give you wings and
bring you to rest
in slow, descending reverie.

But you enjoy now
the spacious affection
of stars.
You, aglow in
the cosmic landscape
beyond our understanding,
will visit Earth in
the echo of your laughter,
the remembrance of your
kind words, and the
persevering joy of your
vivacious spirit.

We, still planet-bound souls,
celebrate the grace of your
diaphanous presence,
sorrow's gravity dissolved by
the transcendent warmth of your
radiant smile.

Too late to say goodbye,
dear friend,
I lay my voice across the page
to say, at least, adieu.

Observing Lent for Fun and Profit

2011-03-19T11:58:00.000-07:00

First, let me thank you for your perseverance. If you are reading this, it means you check in from time to time, because you believe in me and my desire to maintain a blog. I'm not remiss in this venture out of laziness. No, no. I really am involved in a very creative life. In a while I will reveal the project that has been absorbing so much of my time, but for now, I want to let you in on my Lenten promise.
As you may or may not know, Lent began last Wednesday. If you have trouble remembering it, the Catholic Church came up with a great reminder: Mardi Gras! (what, you think that's not a Catholic invention?) So last Wednesday, still revved up by the Zydeco party the night before, I decided I wanted to do something for Lent. In the old days I gave up things, but I have enough restrictions in my life, I thought, so what can I take on that could be a healthy practice that I might continue beyond Easter Sunday?
I already exercise and eat healthy food. I don't smoke or carouse or pick up men in bars, so it needed to be something I really needed. If you've followed this blog, you'll be proud of me for choosing a self-promotional Lenten habit. I promised myself that I'd do something every week to promote my work: Coaching practice, my work as a painter, writer, or teacher.
Yesterday I realized that it was Friday, and the first week was slipping through my fingers! Yikes! I still hadn't done anything self-promotional! So, here it is Saturday, and in the eleventh hour I am updating my blog.
The question is: does this blog really qualify as a self-promotional tool? That's where you come in! All it would take is one referral from you, and the answer is yes! So, get on that Twitter, email, or telephone and send someone my Coaching webpage (www.yourcreativelifecoach.com), or send them to see a few paintings (www.adrianadiaz.com). Of course you can send them straight to me: (adriana@yourcreativelifecoach.com). Honestly, I am a great coach. Your friend is welcome to a free sample session.
I'm also a fabulous teacher. With forty years of experience working with students of all ages (5-95), I can plan and execute classes for small groups or large (up to 25). No one teaches Creativity Empowerment like I do. My approach is ecclectic, non-threatening, enlightening, and FUN! I can focus on writing, painting, drawing, or a combination. I love to get the whole brain working together. A little workshop format party could be an exciting experience for your club or organization.
I'd love to hear more ideas for my Lenten self-promotion. Please mail them to me through this blog or send them to adriana@yourcreativelifecoach.com.
By the way, the painting on this posting is titled "Dark Tracing" It is 36"x36", mixed media on canvas. It is, like most of the work that accompanies this blog, For Sale.
Thanks for your help in keeping up my Lenten commitment. Keep watching here, I hope to be back soon.

2010-09-20T13:06:00.000-07:00

Holy Days
I was raised Roman Catholic. This means, that religion aside, I enjoy ritual. Maybe 'enjoy' is not the right word. I should say rituals tap into a part of me that goes untouched through the normal course of events.
When I left the Catholic Church, as a teenager, it wasn't a matter of drifting away. I had attended with belief and purpose, and I left with belief and purpose. But I was young, and I realized after a while, that I felt like an orphan. It was as though the Church was holding God captive, and without going into a Catholic Church, I couldn't get to Him (as God was called in that time of my life).
I grew out of those beliefs, of course, and even though my reasons for leaving the church remain, I have fond memories and deeply embedded experiences of the rituals. These days I live by a phrase from Gibran's The Prophet: "My daily life is my temple and my religion". I create my own rituals, alone or with friends.
Then, last week a dear friend gave me a special gift, a ticket for Yom Kippur services in the Kehillah community she attends. I had no idea what to expect except that I had been forewarned that the service would be three hours long. I was quite excited to attend.
Maybe I should mention that I have long suspected that my family, especially on my mother's side, had converted to Catholicism during the Spanish Inquisition, when thousands of Jews were run out of Spain, tortured, or burned. Those who missed out on one of those options, converted to Roman Catholicism. So part of attending a Jewish service was a way to see what had been taken away. Aside from all that, I have long felt that everyone should celebrate a day of atonement. Let's face it, we all need it.
I found the service to be beautiful, meaningful, moving, and spiritually uplifting. Everything had relevance. And there were candles and historical ritual, a meaningful sermon, and best of all music. The cantor, a beautiful woman with a wonderful voice, smoothly led the congregation through some very complex melodies.
It was not just a time to think about forgiving ourselves but also a time of contemplating the very nature of forgiveness. It was also a time for asking about the nature of the wrongs we commit. How about the failure to stand up for what we believe, is that a wrong against our self or against our community? And if we fail to give words of support to a colleague or a loved one, is that person the only one diminished?
I came away asking myself those kinds of questions. And the experience made me realize that there are many ways to be spiritually connected to the community we live in. Spiritual practice, in fact, is not just about how we feel about God, it's about the energy we put out into the place where we live. It doesn't happen on Sunday or Saturday or any other specific day of the year. Every day is a holy day if we make it that.
I am grateful to my friend, and to the Kehilla community for making this Yom Kippur a special event in my life.

Creative Surrender

2010-09-01T13:36:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has read my book, Freeing the Creative Spirit, knows that my approach to the creative process encourages spiritual centering and awareness. When you think about it, creativity and religious or spiritual belief have a lot in common. For one thing, they are both dealing with invisible forces. Both require a commitment to creating a better or beautiful world. Creativity, like spiritual faith, has an appreciation for the past as well as the future even though the paramount concern is the present moment.
Is it any wonder, then, that so many people lose faith in their capacity for creativity? I mean, spiritual seekers can go to weekly worship services, or study with meditation teachers. They can read sacred texts like The Bible, The Torah, or the Upanishads. The faith in creativity, however, has to be self-sustaining.
The greatest testaments to creativity are experience and evidence. Evidence is not necessarily a studio full of paintings or an archive of films, it can be as simple as looking at the hair on your head. The body shows us that creativity is our natural state. The body is constantly creating and discarding. It is part of the transforming universe. The body doesn’t create art directly, but it teaches us that art is only one form of creativity. The body creates hair, water, carbon dioxide, and some bodies even create children. And it does all that without permission from the ego.
When it comes to the creation of art, the ego is the ogre that stands in the doorway. If we can be in charge of our own ego, we have at least a fighting chance of succeeding. Unfortunately, too many of us suffer from an ego that has been influenced, maybe even abused, by other people. If we could get that ego to stand out of the way, most of us would have a far greater enjoyment of our creativity.
Often the ego latches onto a religious or spiritual practice and uses it as a crutch. This can be dangerous. And when the ego latches onto creativity, we lose all autonomy in the creative process. We start trying to please people, always looking for compliments. Our creativity becomes a process of creating a product, not original, authentic expression.
The key to adult creativity, is just like the key to spiritual happiness: surrender. When we are toddlers we have no control of anything, so surrender comes naturally. Consequently, human beings in the toddler state, play day in and day out. Watch toddlers with their food: they play with it! This is where we all began. If we can surrender that ego, we can return to that naturally creative state at chosen times.
I’m not suggesting that you play with your food, but I am suggesting that you surrender your ego from time to time. Whether in prayer or in creative play, the ego appreciates a vacation, and the rest of you will too. Creativity becomes a healthy past time, lowering blood pressure, calming the body, and engaging the mind away from worries and social and financial demands.
Creativity can be meditation, a time of prayer. Try it! It may not come easy at first, but making it a practice can help teach surrender in small doses.

2010-08-28T12:26:00.000-07:00

The Makeover Issue

Have you seen the latest issue of O Magazine? It’s the Makeover issue. The whole thing is about transformation.
Women know a lot about makeovers. Every season we’re supposed to learn the latest fashion thing, and purge our wardrobe of the current style no-nos. If transformation were that easy everyone would be in their “higher self” attaining unimaginable superhuman feats.
Real transformation, however, is not as easy as changing shoes. God bless Oprah for her courage to take the weight issue out of the shadows of shame. Yet many still struggle with body image. We each have to deal with our own issues. What’s yours? Money, work, addiction, procrastination, guilt, revenge, temperament, self-doubt?
The first step toward transforming anything is naming it. The second step is determining to be in charge of your life. Any shift you make is a victory. It will empower your decision to persevere. One of the most rewarding things about being a coach is expanding the perception of a client. Those ‘Ahah! Moments’ when the client has a new insight give me goose bumps.
I don’t believe in creative blocks in art or life. I believe the ‘block’ is a locked gate. And the key is hidden somewhere nearby.
One of my ‘issues’ is not being able to promote myself. I was taught that saying anything good about yourself is bragging. The Catholic Church taught me modesty in all things. Frankly, those two teachings are not good business practice! So in the spirit of helping you with your transformation, I’m using some Oprah-style courage to tell you I’m a terrific life coach, and I’d love to work with you! Let’s find that key to your locked gate. Give me a call!

Adriana Díaz * Creative Life Coaching*

510 530-4182. Tell your friends! 510 530-4182

As Oprah concludes in the back of the recent issue: Reaching your potential is more than an ideal. It’s the ultimate goal.

Get Some Perspective

2010-08-19T11:54:00.000-07:00

It’s easy to understand why perspective is important to a painter or a photographer, but how does perspective play a part in daily decision-making? Recently I read a quote from Irish author Anne Enright that offers wisdom about perspective in writing and life. “All description,” she said, “is an opinion about the world. Find a place to stand.” Perspective is the geography of politics, ethics, and values.
“Find a place to stand” tells us to “take a stand”. We ask the question ‘where do you stand’ on gun control, the death penalty, or abortion, for example, to learn someone’s perspective. You may be very clear about your opinions on the larger issues of life, yet feel unclear in deciding whether or not you would really go through with cosmetic surgery.
Issues arise that stop us in our tracks, because we can’t discern a clear personal perspective. Someone who’s out of a job buys groceries with a perspective of cautious spending. The perspective of limitation guides each decision. Someone with cash to spare, however, buys food from a perspective of desires, abundance and freedom.
What do you want? What are you working toward in your life? Before you take steps toward making it happen, solidify the foundation of your actions by taking the time to know your perspective. What are you risking? What values are attached to the goal you seek to achieve? Are those values in line with what you stand for? Take a look at where you’re standing, literally and figuratively; imagine two separate decisions and try to see three years beyond the possible actions. That distance gives you a chance to see the “bigger picture” and the possible influence of time.

Think you might need a coach? Curious about the coaching process? Give me a call at 510 530-4182. I’m happy to take questions and talk about what coaching could do for you. Just three months of coaching can set you on a new path armed with a fresh understanding and tools for decision-making and evaluation.

Watching Paint Dry

2010-05-06T13:22:00.000-07:00

All over the East Bay artists are working busily to prepare for Open Studios. I am one of them.
Unlike the old stereotypical image of the artist as a Bohemian living in a garret on the outskirts of society, the twenty-first century artist has to be a hardworking, dedicated individual, developing her/his art in a world parallel to work and relationships.
When we get into the studio, we have to lock the door of our mind in order to engage in the love affair that is art-making. We try to remove ourselves from all the pop culture images, slogans, and values in order to "think outside the box", a phrase that has become,itself, a cliché.
What does it mean, to think outside the box? For me, (I can speak only for myself because every person's process is their own) it means sinking into a place of no thought at all. My fingers join my eyes in seeing, and my eyes join my fingers in perceiving the visual and sensual materials with which I work.
Then there is the leap! The daring act of marking a clean surface. The audacity of putting a hole into a canvas in order to attach wire and bits of fabric. I scribble and scrape, spray water, attach objects. I enter a state of creative inebriation. . .if I'm lucky.
Then there comes the moment when the artist must let the materials do their own thing. Yes, time to watch the paint dry.
This is not an idle time. It is a time of practicing restraint. A period of meditation and study. I look around the studio and play "what if":What if I sanded it next? What if I rub in some crayon? But I do nothing but watch.
In Freeing the Creative Spirit I wrote that creativity is a process of making something happen, then letting something happen. Every now and then I realize that life is just the same.

A Face Without Lines

2010-02-01T14:08:00.000-08:00

I did the drawing on the right as another meditation on age and beauty. It's titled: "A Face Without Lines is Like a Book Without Words".
I've always loved the elderly. My grandparents were my special guardian angels. They taught me about my ethnicity and the original language that has nearly been gutted from my family by anglo-American culture. I know that my experience was very unusual, especially in the U.S. where most kids don't grow up around their grandparents, and I'm still grateful for that opportunity. I'm realizing now, that they also taught me to value aging.
Women, of course, are more sensitive to cultural prejudices against aging than men. After all, there is a tradition in Hollywood to cast the youngest starlet as leading lady opposite an aging actor. Richard Gere, Harrison Ford, now George Clooney: all seem to have a phobia about love scenes with a woman their own age (on or off screen).
The only bias not considered politically incorrect, in fact, is derision toward age. Sure, it's against the law to say that a person is fired or not hired because of age, but it's not against the law to do it, as long as it's done for another, permissible, reason. Listen to advertising. Products for hair color, and especially make up and face creams openly warn us of the debilitating signs of AGING. With so many people of all ages looking for mates, AGE is the single most marginalizing or discrediting feature. It's true our culture hates fat, too, but body size is alterable, age is not in our control.
If humans didn't learn through experience, if we didn't change and evolve over time, we'd live in a world of Barbies and Kens. How would we destinguish ourselves from the masses? Youth, itself, would lose its meaning. What I advocate is a culture-wide multi-dimensional understanding of beauty. Why should we idealize skin with the light-reflective quality of ceramic glaze?
Imagine a world in which the title of my drawing were printed on billboards and in print ads across the Internet. "A face without lines is like a book without words." Lets believe in that. Let's encourage our daughters to get smarter, wiser, and more compassionate.
I remember discovering Confucius and Radhakrishnan in college. It was as exciting as science fiction. My face was young and fresh, but my mind was excited by what is ageless in the world. Then, reading Jung's Memories, Dream, Reflections for the first time, I realized that the mind itself was a vast universe.
Developing my skills as an artist took me deeper into the study of line, and that's when I understood what makes the aesthetics of visual humanity most interesting. Line can be read like words. Some lines are dark, gouged by time into canyons of anger or hatred. Some lines are playful, they develop through the habits of laughter and play. There are worried lines, sorrowful lines, loud lines, and quiet lines.
Each of us has our own book imprinted into our faces and our bodies. I think it was Lincoln who said, 'Anyone over forty is responsible for his face'. Our habits write our story. Take a look in the mirror; don't be afraid. Read your story. What will be written there tomorrow?

2009-11-17T11:27:00.000-08:00

I said I'd post a photo of myself so here I am with my dear friend Morrie Turner. Morrie Turner is one of the lesser-known heroes of the civil rights movement. He was the first nationally-syndicated African American cartoonist in America. His endearing Wee Pals cartoon strip was the first to depict people of color, making Morrie not only a pioneer, but an inspiration for young cartoonists of all colors. The wisdom that comes through the children in Wee Pals is equal to that of the Peanuts gang, and the strip often takes on issues of race with amazing charm and candor. If you are a reader of the Oakland Tribune, you're familiar with Wee Pals, but you may not know much about Morrie. To learn more about this talented, modest, and genuine man, please go to: http://www.creators.com/comics/wee-pals-about.html.
In the photo, we were at the San Francisco Library where a special exhibition celebrated Morrie's illustrious career. I'm so proud to call him a friend, and I'm sure you will be glad to know about his unique and creative contribution to the world.

Your face

2009-06-28T23:15:00.000-07:00

I just did something I hadn't done for a very long time: I Googled myself. First I saw a terrible picture of me, God only knows where it came from, and then several pictures of beauty queens half my age who share my name. Frankly, I am not well represented by any of those images.
I realized, then, that I don't have a picture of myself anywhere. There is not one here, nor one on my Facebook page (that's a new thing), and not even a portrait on my website. Frankly, I don't trust cameras, never did. This drawing I did a while back represents what I really believe about our face: it is not contained within itself, it spills forth through our words, our smile, our kindness, our impatience, and our attitude.Our face is a representation of who we are, and that's not just about two eyes, a nose, and a mouth.
People have told me that I am photogenic, I translate that to "lucky". Women are, after all, valued by their looks, and only as I grow older do I understand how tenuous that value can be.
We live in an age-ist, sexist society. . .ah, now I'm sounding feminist . . .and women know this personally, men only agree with it when they are intellectually savvy or it somehow touches them on a personal level (like someone saying, "Hey, what's an old man like you doing with a 25 year old girl?").
It's kind of a game for me, I think, because I look quite good for my age. Being a dancer, I stay in shape. I pay attention to Olay commercials, wear sunblock and moisturizer, and night cream, etc., etc. I walk that line between "I'm an intellectual, an artist, and a writer, I don't have to worry about what men want to see. I know that the male gaze has been the controlling factor in advertising, fine art, and pop culture for centuries, and I'm smart enough to be in charge of my own self-esteem. And on the other side of that fine line I live with the woman I've been, young enough to get attention, second looks, and long gazes. Sure, they felt good (most of the time), but the depth of personhood I have now, after forty (okay, after 50) could not be traded for anything.
I will put a photo on my Facebook page as soon as I figure out how to do it, and then I'll even put one here too . . .just as soon as I get one that looks. . .good enough.

Bravo, America!

2008-11-29T18:23:00.000-08:00

It's wonderful to feel patriotic again. I had actually forgotten what it felt like, until the night of Barack Obama's election. Joy and peace reigned in the city of Oakland that night, in a way I have never seen it before.
When I decided to write a blog entry about this happiness, though, I found that it was amazingly harder to write about than my complaints and disgust with the previous administration. The darker emotions are such powerful muses that they seem to write about themselves; I hardly have to do any work at all. But happiness, now there's a slippery fish!
I'm sure that our new president will give us plenty of things to complain about, we can't imagine he will please all of us all of the time. So when he does, I'm sure to speak quickly, and hopefully with some eloquence and critical wit. For now, I am just happy to breathe in the autumn air and kick colorful leaves along the curb.
Mostly I'm writing today to say "Bravo, America!" Thank you, thank you, for recognizing a good and intelligent man. Thank you for discerning the subterfuge of some, and the inadequacies of others.
Maybe the film industry played a part in teaching folks how to judge a good performance from a bad one. Then, thank you Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep and Al Pacino, along with those other nameless film professionals who taught us to recognize bad acting when we see it.
May the great creative spirit who goes by many names bless our country, and our planet.

Debate, what debate?

2008-10-03T15:02:00.000-07:00

The longer I live, the more fascinated I am with the human mind. I wonder if there aren't some physiological factors that determine the vast differences between opinions and observations. I mean, is it possible that the shape of our ear canals, for example, make words sound different to each of us. . .so much so that they take on different meanings? Our current presidential election campaign is a good field of study in this regard. What makes one person hang rapturously on every memorized cliche that comes out of Sarah Palen's mouth, while another person wonders whether Sarah hasn't begun mocking Tina Fey, and is waiting for everyone to get the joke.
During that so-called debate, for example, I thought she might have been auditioning for Saturday Night Live, (hey, T.F. watch out or yer gunna be out of werk here darn soon).
But seriously folks, it wasn't Saturday Night Live, it was only Thursday, and God knows she wasn't funnin' us. The wise cracking, repetitious, self-determined monologue we heard from Mrs. Palen was only punctuated with peripheral dialog from the moderator and Palen's opponent. She listened to him just enough to pick up the key words that set her off on the next rehearsed, commercial-like message.
As a person who grew up learning to debate in actual forensic competitions, and who has taught and prepared students for the rigors of forensic debate, I was dumbfounded to see that poor facsimile of a debate qualify as part of our process for selecting national leadership. If the debates are truly for the sake of informing the American people, it seems to me that the moderator should have been able to request or direct Governor Palen to answer the question at hand.
Clearly, Senator Biden had prepared to debate a peer. He had given his adversary the highest respect in planning for an exchange of ideas and factual counterpunching. What he was given in return was a person of limited knowledge and experience who was groomed to combat reason with slogans, falsehoods, and innuendo. The press was waiting to catch Biden disrespecting his opponent because she was a woman, but when that woman disrespected him, her bad manners and wise-cracking comebacks were hailed as political accuity.
Of course, I must give her credit for her pre-debate strategy. She did such a brilliant job of preparing the world for a Burns and Allen experience through her television interviews, that all she had to do was stay at her podium repeating campaign slogans to win kudos from the press and Republican viewers across the country.
So I am still wondering if there isn't some physiological component to the vast difference in human comprehension. I know about nature and nurture, but there still seems to be a missing link in determining what makes us look at the same cow and argue about whether it is a black animal with white spots, or a white animal with black spots. At least we agree on the name.

The Trickle Down Theory has married the American Dream

2008-09-22T18:00:00.001-07:00

This financial crisis is a consequence of the cold civil war going on in the United States. Just as Ronald Reagan promised when he began deregulation, greed and visions of grandeur trickled down to even neighborhood realtors and bank officers who passed it on to others who believed that they too could be as affluent as those sitcom families of television. The Trickle Down Theory has married the American Dream, and now every working man and woman can know the same type of financial disaster that once was reserved for the wealthy and the would be-wealthy.
The situation with the California budget fiasco is another sign of the cold war we are living through. It's always "Us" against "Them". Left versus Right. Donkeys versus Elephants. Red versus Blue, just like the gangs in the hood. No wonder there is so much violence in our communities. We are at war with ourselves. We don't need to think about Al Qaeda to feel afraid.
It's no wonder that we cannot help the Israelis and Palestinians find peace; we don't know what peace is. This is not a peaceful country. This is a country in which people have trouble sleeping at night. People have trouble digesting their food. Watch, mindfully, the ads on your television screen for one evening (you can even watch them with the sound off). You will come away with a list of medications designed to help (but not cure) every possible malady: hypertension, acid reflux, impotence, bladder spasms, diarrhea, diabetes, headaches, arthritis, allergies, and on and on. You will see an add for a diet system, sure to make you slim, followed by an ad for seductively steaming mashed potatoes laced with gravy as a side dish to glistening crispy fried chicken, lip-smackin' good. Advertising seems to be set up like political time, there needs to be a "rebuttal" to everything. And the one thing that all ads have in common is that the truth of their message is not to be assumed. Let the buyer beware.

Memorial

2008-08-05T12:00:00.000-07:00

Your soul is a sunflower
that has grown to such a height,
you can no longer contain it.

As it bursts forth, your sun seeds fall
back into the hearts of loved ones,
to be cherished and tended with care.

A very dear friend died last Saturday. His name is Robert Rice, and he was one of the finest men I’ve ever known. If the word gentleman had not already existed, it would have been invented to describe Robert.
He was enormously talented. He had danced with the Merce Cunningham dance company, and kept dance as a vibrant part of his life. He was an accomplished painter whose work was always rigorous and beautiful. Perhaps his greatest talent, though, was as a teacher. The classroom was an exciting place for Robert. It was a magical blending of energies creating a transformation environment.
It was his courage that made him so good at everything he did. At one point he was having considerable success selling beautiful paintings, but he knew that he had taken his technique as far as he could. It wasn’t teaching him anymore, and he wasn’t excited about the prospect of the next piece. So, he just stopped. “Well, I’m not working like that anymore,” he said to me one day. “I’m going to go in a whole new direction.” And in order to do that, he made a new level of commitment to his work: he rented a little cabin with none of the amenities (electricity, for example), and he lived like a religious hermit for three years. After he’d been in his hermitage for about a year I saw him and he joyfully declared, “Oh, I’m making paintings that are so ugly! You have to see them! I’m really happy with the direction the work is taking.”
As teaching colleagues we met up in a meeting one day and he dropped into a chair beside me. “These people are so challenging,” he said. “I had my class prepared for this morning, and I started out directing them in a certain kind of movement, and they just didn’t want to do it. And I spent hours preparing that class.” I asked how he had handled the situation. “Well, I asked them what they wanted to do, and slowly they created the whole class. I followed their lead.” That ability to listen, receive, respect, and move with the creative energy of the moment is what made Robert such a terrific teacher, and an artist of life, itself.
As a friend, you could talk to him about anything. He was never judgmental, never overbearing. He was always tender, compassionate, and supportive. His spirit will live on in everyone who was lucky enough to know him and learn from him.
You can see his inevitably beautiful work on his website: www.robertriceart.com

2008-07-31T12:09:00.000-07:00

2008-07-31T11:52:00.000-07:00

This blog has taught me something I guess I've never realized about myself: When it comes to my work, I'm a perfectionist. I can't seem to get myself to just write something and send it out. Consequently, there are not too many blog entries, in case anybody is actually reading them. So today's blog is my first step to freeing up my own creative writing process for the sake of blogging more freely and adventurously.
Each entry is accompanied by a piece of my visual work in an attempt to bring writing and visual art together, within the Coaching arena. Some may say that these things have nothing to do with Coaching. Coaching is about achieving our goals, breaking past our limitations, and learning to be our own cheering squad. Well, nothing teaches those things like a commitment to art. I know firsthand that artists have to learn to deal with rejection, competition, and the realities of a challenging market place.
Being an artist is a little like internet dating, in that you are forced to put yourself out into the world, expressing your most personal feelings and ideas. You constantly feel vulnerable. You know that there are thousands of other artists out there (in the Bay Area: over 40,000 artists!) vying for attention and selection, and you know that your work is only going to appeal to a few viewers. You just hope and pray to reach the right people.
This is just one of the reasons that I based my Coaching on the creative process. Everyday I seem to learn another parallel between Coaching, Living, and being a committed artist.
Now, I'm going to hit the POST button (okay, I will check for spelling errors) POST!

Creativity as a Healing Force

2008-03-17T11:33:00.001-07:00

Creativity as a Healing Force

In 1989 I was invited to be on the Community Advisory Board of an upstart non-profit called Health Through Art: Signs of Recovery. I thought I’d volunteer for a couple of years, just to get the project started. Instead, since then I have become increasingly involved, and am now the only original Board member still on the Community Advisory Board.
The Project has evolved by conducting focus groups every two years, asking people in Alameda County about the burning health issues in their communities and neighborhoods. Then the Project distributes a brochure with the results of those focus groups and a call for art submissions meeting the themes named by the public. Winners receive $500 and their work displayed on billboards, buses, benches, BART stations. Consequently what began as a billboard campaign to combat addiction and racism, has become a multi-media force supporting healthy choices, non-violence, an end to racism, sexism, and all physical and social disorders contributing to unhealthy lives and environments. This is a unique and challenging task.
The Health Through Art Project takes on the challenge of transforming billboards from inner city blight to inspirational messengers of wellbeing. Beyond ad campaigns, billboards are powerful tools of manipulation in the formation of public attitudes. Sexism, racism, addiction, and consumerism are the stock and trade of billboard campaigns. Subtle messages, images, and situations sell unhealthy products and attitudes, for the sake of a profitable return. All that, and the professional skills of the advertising industry make the HTA vision an ambitious crusade.
Over the years the Project has provided such uplifting slogans as: “The best thing about a person you can’t see from the outside”, and “Stay sober, you’re life is riding on it.” One five year old gave us the benefit of his wisdom with a happy face surrounded by a circle of peas and carrots; “Surround yourself with good stuff”, was his simple, Zen-like slogan. I never saw a single person look at that poster without smiling (and now neuroscience is beginning to recognize that a smile has the power to heal the mind). Ever since the discovery of endorphins, even scientists have started to realize the healing power of images, prayers, and intentions.
The Health Through Art Project is always in need of financial and volunteer support. I can tell you that you will always meet good people at events, board meetings, and office visits. You can see the history of winning designs (which you’ve probably seen on an AC Transit bus or in a BART train, if you live in the Bay Area), and learn about our distinguished awards by visiting the Project website: www.healththroughart.org. Perhaps you know of a venue for the HTA Roving Art Show, or maybe you’re looking for a worthy volunteer project. Call 510 549-5990. Donations are tax deductible.
I believe in this project so whole-heartedly that I invite all my friends to our events, I hope to meet you there, too sometime.

Happy New Year!

2008-02-07T15:36:00.001-08:00

Just in case you have forgotten or abandoned those new year resolutions you made in January, Chinese New Year allows you to reconsider and redetermine your priorities. So today's the day to set one new goal or one new habit. Tomorrow is waiting to receive you, this is the day to
Fall in love,
Take a stand,
Make an impression
Be a star!

Do Something Different for a Change

2008-02-07T15:16:00.002-08:00

On November 18, 2007 one of my dearest friends, Michael Grbich, celebrated his 75th birthday by tap dancing across the Golden Gate Bridge. He did it to embody the message “you are never too old to do exciting, fun, and unpredictable things.” Michael also walks a tight wire (that is stretched across his living room), and he creates fabulous paintings incorporating discarded materials.
Many of you may be saying, “oh, he’s an artist,” as if he were born with an extra set of hands or two brains. Michael is unusual alright, he is unusual because despite the losses he has suffered (and they have been considerable), he refuses to be overwhelmed by the swells of life’s stormy seas. His greatest “weapons” against depression and malaise are gratitude, creativity, and a strong spiritual connection to his physical being.
Those “weapons” empower Michael to joyously entertain the idea of creative risk. He’s willing to risk making a bad painting, or falling down in public for the sake of physical and mental adventure. This keeps life interesting. It keeps him engaged and fully present in every moment. It’s no wonder that people admire and love him.

So how does your life compare with Michael’s? What was your last creative risk? When was the last time you did something out of the ordinary, just for the sake of spontaneity? Just for fun!
Routine and habit are great for making us feel secure and sane, but if we want to keep growing throughout our life, if we want to live joyously, we must be willing to open the doors of chance by welcoming the unpredictable.
You can start with small risks. Buy a vegetable you don’t like, to pique your culinary creativity. Challenge yourself to cook that vegetable in a way that makes it appealing to you. Smear peanut butter on it, or grill it with you favorite barbecue sauce.
Try parting your hair on the other side of your head. Get a henna tattoo that will fade in a week. Wear your t-shirt inside out. Do something different for a change.

Add unexpected choices into each day. Surprise yourself! This will prepare you for dealing with the improbable when it’s thrown at you, and that could happen any day now.

Is your closet a time capsule?

2007-10-29T15:40:00.000-07:00

In the last posting I gave some guidelines for using an altar to cherish the spirits of deceased loved ones. In Latin cultures we are very cognizant of valuing the past in personal and cultural history. In this next posting, however, you will see that such valuing can get a little out of hand.

Recently I received one of those postcards from a non-profit that would be collecting old clothing and household items in my neighborhood. Remembering the last safari through the undergrowth in my closet while hunting for something to wear, I welcomed the opportunity to clear out that jungle. Filling an old suitcase from the garage would help me clear space there too.
I’ve usually considered it an asset to have stayed the same size throughout my adult life, but when I got into the darkest reaches of my closet, I realized that that asset has its drawbacks. There was the dress I wore to the Black and White Ball fifteen years ago, and behind that was an embroidered sheath I bought in Athens ten years before that. There were pants I’d had for twenty years, and blouses still older. If a piece of clothing had been a gift, I remembered who’d given it to me, and on what occasion. Memories stored in fabrics were released as a train of mental snapshots went speeding through my mind. Clothes I hadn’t worn in years had accumulated like photos in an album. Very unexpectedly, by cleaning out the closet I had opened a time capsule.
It’s no wonder I couldn’t find anything to wear, my closet was so full of the past, I had little space for the present or the future.
There was a lot of letting go that day as I filled the suitcase, and several bags. (To tell the truth, there is still more to be let go of when the next postcard arrives.) I felt pangs of anxiety while placing the bags on the porch. Maybe it’s because I am a Taurus (we love to have our things around us), or because I’m from a family that never forgot the poverty of the past, I am a saver. “Just in case”, and “you never know” could be etched onto our family crest (if we had one). It is a characteristic that has had its advantages and disadvantages over the years, but the closet safari taught me something new, and it’s worth passing along.
I recognize that I’m at a stage in life when love for the people and events that are gone, can inhibit my ability to move forward. When we are young, we can stand out in the clearing of life hungry to meet whatever comes; but as we grow, after we’ve lost loved ones, gotten hurt in the process of loving, and stumbled somewhat awkwardly toward our ambitions, we come to a deep understand of vulnerability, and it can be paralyzing. Something tells us that the things of the past will give us a railing to hold onto for support, but the fact is, the railing is within us. We support ourselves by remembering the lessons we learned, not with the material evidence of life. Those old clothes might still fit my body, but they no longer fit my identity.
If your closet is a time capsule, I recommend a day of reminiscing and letting go. Hunt out the things that are keeping you anchored in an old identity, acknowledge your memories, keep what you need, then say good-bye to the rest. Pass along any objects that could enhance someone else’s life, say good-bye to the person you once were, and move on into the future.

Welcome!

2007-10-16T14:13:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the inauguration of This Creative Life, the blog for Adriana Díaz and Creative Life Coaching and Mentoring. For those who are not familiar with my work, please check out my websites www.yourcreativelifecoach.com. and www.adrianadiaz.com.
The second website will give you a gallery of paintings, excerpts from my book Freeing the Creative Spirit. and feedback from readers and clients. (You can find other feedback on Amazon.com.)

October 2007

Summer departs along with the colorful leaves swept into compost piles to replenish the hungry earth for another season. Beyond the playfulness of Halloween, we honor the season ‘when the veil is thin between the worlds”.* Whether celebrating Samhain, the Wiccan new year, or All Souls/All Saints’ Days in the Christian tradition, this is a time for honoring our departed in some special way.
The Mexican tradition of building altars is a colorful way to honor the dead, but you don’t have to be Mexican to build an altar. My family is not from Mexico, but over the years I have accumulated some knowledge about this practice, and enjoy building an altar every October. So I’d like to pass on some basics, suggesting that you add this creative practice to your autumn season. Remember that an altar can be as big or as small as befits your situation.
Marigolds are traditional for honoring the dead at this time of the year, so bringing some of these flowers to your altar is a great start. Use a colorful scarf, weaving, or sheets on the base. Photos of the beloveds will go on the altar, and memorabilia from their life. It is traditional to put the foods they loved on the altar, too. (If you can’t get the real thing, try some type of facsimile.) Candles are also appropriate. I like to place elements of earth, air, fire, and water on my altars. Mexicans decorate with papel picado (cut paper); you can make your own out of tissue paper, or buy some already cut.
In parts of Mexico, families decorate the tombs and burial plots of their family members and spend the whole night there, playing music, praying, and having a welcome party for the spirit of their beloved. The altar is a way to honor our departed loved ones, and welcome their spirit in for a visit. You might want to read a special poem or passage.
You can include people in public or intellectual life who have also been important to you. Dr. Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Susan B. Anthony, Chief Seattle, Eleanor Roosevelt-anyone who has been a meaningful mentor or role model can be honored.
Building an altar can be a uniquely powerful experience, something you can do with your family. It can be a very nice tradition for children, learning to cherish and honor the departed.

Happy Halloween!

*The Spiral Dance, Starhawk.