Chocolate Silk Morning Update

While I am waiting for a thunderstorm to pass...

Here's a sneak peek at this morning's dip into the chocolates and coffee.

Now, quick check of radar, then I am grabbing a beverage and going back out for deeper darker chocolates this afternoon. How are you doing today? Was that thunder, I just heard?? uh oh...that's not on my plan... I am so laughing at myself... there's another roll of thunder...hmm...might have to bake chocolate chip cookies while this one passes to get my chocolate this afternoon. Yep, that was lightening...Ghiradelli here I come. Hey, if I have to paint in the garage we ARE having cookies. My inner diva says so. I am so sure Jasper Johns has none of these difficulties, the artist says shaking her head and chuckling....what a day.

Chocolate Silk Coming Up

This is a 2 minute post. I am painting chocolate colored silks this morning before it gets so hot outside or rains, or both. I hope to post them this afternoon. So good morning. Good coffee...ooh coffee..that would be good to paint too...well...see how this is going? See ya later today.

4 Questions To Get a Clue

Saturday I had some time to reflect.

A few weeks ago this calendar was blank.

But I put some goals in place and the beginnings of a timeline.

Here's the beginning of this week. I like the 2 minutes. Those work. They help me stay present. Staying present, that's very important, especially when there is a big task, or a large challenge that is practically guaranteed to knock you to your knees every once and awhile.

This week, along with the usual work, I am after 4 really good targeted questions, matchmaking ones.

I need to cold call some galleries pretty soon. Yikes. I have a partial list of galleries from a coaching session. I am broadening the search though. This is where 2 minutes comes in very handy. Staying present. If you leave it at just a phone call, the whole this could change my life anxiety thing is lessened. Since I don't want to waste my time or theirs, but I do want to get to know them, I want 4 very specific questions. This means doing your homework and being prepared. Designing questions? Am I nuts? I want specific information, but I am also testing and taking a pulse. Are we a good match? Is this a passive gallery or do they know what they are about? Is this someone I want in my life? Can they sell my work and build my reputation? Do they get what I do? I am looking for someone who can fall in love...with me. Well, actually with my work, but I come with. See? Guaranteed to knock you to your knees along the way, like dating, only there's money and a career involved.

So this week I need to belly up to the bar and come up with some keenly insightful questions of my own. I have a checklist of questions from the coach's notebook, the usual qualifiers, and the calls will only go to acceptable "suitors". I want more. I can see my friend Patti smiling at that. I have been disappointed in the past with passive galleries. I want a fabulous relationship, and for that, the usual suspects of questions will not do. So I am doing some pre-visualizing...okay a little dreaming...to see if I can imagine that meaningful conversation...that sparkle. What are the four most important things that I want to know?

Maybe there is a post in that," How the gallery searches are like dating"? Maybe. So I will take notes, but for now it is organizing Monday. Yes, I have 3 MIT's and an armful of 2 minutes. The silks will continue. The paintings are coming along. And now these questions...what would you want to know if you were looking for the gallery love of your life?

Oh and I have to go back and read Dave's posts on getting up early. Phew, It is definitely Monday morning.

A Few 2 Minutes-Part 3

Here are 2 more 2 minutes- a new possible maybe gallery and ideas for some PDF's.

Small steps. Small tools.

I am looking at personal resources, bringing back revenue streams, mining some inner gold.

It's like rebuilding one rafter at a time.

The value to me of these 2 minutes is training in staying in the present. Limbo is a hard place to be. Walking that tightrope between what was and what will be requires more than a little skill. So while the tugs on my heart keep me conflicted, my 2 minutes can be a bridge between my past and my future, an improvisational present. These 2 minutes are golden in that respect. They get me to the next step. Help build a little rhythm and a beat. Speaking of which, there was a very thought provoking post yesterday by Tim Ferriss all about restructuring our lives to be more like a jazz quartet rather that a work/life balancing scale. I intend to read Dr. Friedman's book. It's about leadership in all facets of our life. It seems to me it might make those 2 minutes even more of a resource. We all want that vibrant music in our life don't we? So what kind of 2 minutes are you putting in? Are they all they tuned in to a sweet melody? Brush is liking them so far. He's feeling more of a flow. Next thing you know, he'll be wanting a beret and sunglasses and be joining a band.

Yeah, 2 minute beats... What's next? Brush and I are going to go get in the zone.Our muse? Maybe a little Buddy Guy and friend,'cause we have some low country painting to do...with feeling...It goes with all this heat and humidity we're having too.



Oh yeah, we're ready now. Grabbing a beverage. Going to paint.

A Few 2 Minutes-Part 2

Houston we have silk.

We have rich luscious color.

And we have probably a few less pounds.

It was stinkin' hot outside yesterday. Well, humid for sure, and we all know, "It's ( everyone repeat) not the heat, it's the humidity. " But I had my arms full of 2 minutes and a plentiful supply of limeade. So before the thunderstorm and lightening hit in the afternoon, we, brush and I, painted lovely silk outside. Painting in the garage was not an option. No breeze there.
Here's another 2 minute accomplishment from this week. I applied to become an Amazon Associate. Look over there, on the right. There's a new Carousel Widget of good reads. They said, " we approve." Go for it. So I am. If you look, you'll see some friends of mine. Black Widow is the newest of Randy's Doc Ford novels with a great new character, Sir James. If you can find a copy of Twelve Mile Limit, you will find that Doc Ford's best friend and sidekick wears original silk sarongs hand painted by moi. Randy is one of my favorite muses and one hell of a storyteller. Besides, how cool is it that my lovely silks grace the hips of manly man Tomlinson? Mojitos and fresh breezes always come to mind when I think of Dinkins Bay.
So another 2 minutes lets me bring you another passion of mine. I am a voracious reader as my friends know. Ahh, I am liking this test. How are your 2 minutes going? Let's see, what was next on that list? Definitely more limeade. Come on, Brush.
And because I love this so much. Here we go with hot and smooth.

A Few 2 Minutes- Part 1

Before the storm, I painted silks too.

These were sold at several Ritz Carltons and The Bellagio Gallery in Asheville and some other exclusive locations.

Less than 2 minutes is what it takes to thumbnail a sketch for a silk.

I have a makeshift set up here in Dallas, but yesterday, in 2 minutes, I outlined a silk series to paint over this next few weeks. 2 minutes of original thought, born of years of experience. So today, I will haul out the frames. Get out the clips , the mixing bowls, the brushes, the plastic covers for the garage floor, the silks stashed away. I will paint sensual silks in a Texas garage. Ahh, the glamorous life of an artist. You'll probably get to see some of the process. And when they are done and all neatly pressed and packaged elegantly, I'll send them off to their new homes. It's wearable art, a movable exhibit. If you want one. Let me know. Oh, the price? Around 200.00.

Who'll be on my ipod? Some Sexyback, some Smooth, some Choux Pastry Heart, some Need to Know ...painting silk is half paint, half dance...a regular little party in the garage today. I think we'll need some beverages as well. It's pretty hot. So how are your 2 minutes going?

A 2 Minute Question

What can you do in 2 minutes?

I can draw a complete nude figure.

Or do the thumbnail for a painting.

Some things take longer.

I read this this weekend in Eckhardt Tolle's A New Earth. It's about reconciling inner and outer purposes:

By realizing that your your entire life journey ultimately consists of the step you are taking at the moment. There is always only this one step, and so you give it your fullest attention. It doesn't mean you don't know where you are going; it just means this step is primary, the destination is secondary.

He also said that we cannot manifest something that is not within us, something we do not already own.

Yes, it was a bit of a contemplative Sunday. My 2 minutes seem very important to me now. Not that they weren't before, but they seem like larger resources. So I thought this week would be a very good test to see what could be made of them. In Dave Allen's Get It Done, he is very keen on 2 minute chunks of time. I have some pretty hefty things to accomplish and a September goal line. I thought that if it is already in me, well, let's bring it out because I would love to see these particular things realized.

By the way, those are friends of mine in the photo, rebuilding. The eye of Katrina hit steps away from that doorway with a 20 foot storm surge. It's a camp that was originally built in the 1920's, a family gathering place. The bulk of my wetlands paintings come from that land. It is a private reserve adjacent to the Pearl River in Mississippi. The rafters to the sleeping porch were yesterday's project there. I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to see the progress. The destruction was massive. So a little at a time...some resources...and some friends...

So step by 2 minute step. What can you do in 2 minutes? Yes. It is organizing Monday.
3 Most Important Tasks and an armful of 2 minutes. This day ought to be fun.