breakTHROUGHArts 11-09 State Changes and Too Many Hats





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November 2009 Contents
I. State Changes and Too Many Hats
 II. Energy Management: Translations from the Psych Research Lab, the Board Room, and the Shrink’s Couch
III. Friends in Print: When you feel like reading, listening, or surfing the web
IV. Newsletter and Info: Share this newsletter, subscribe, or unsubscribe

I. State Changes and Too Many Hats
Suddenly I’m nervous about people seeing my work. I’m revamping my website to include my art and it feels weird to see it all in bunches on the screen. I’m used to having my art up on others’ walls, and often I meet the folks who look or buy it to live with. I know the good feeling of mailing off pieces I’ve created all by themselves to make new friends. The addition of website marketing, though, feels like putting on a whole new hat.

It doesn’t help that I’m trying on this new hat just as we come into the holiday season when I and many artists have to switch repeatedly into their “family and friends” hats. Plans are made for Thanksgiving in the U. S. and soon who’s-going-where for the December holidays will be a topic of conversation in many countries. Too many hats!

Now that I’m facing the experience of art onto my website, however, I’ve found a way to feel less like a hat juggler. Because the work is so familiar to me, web marketing is more like a shift in perspective. In scientific terms this could be called a ‘state change’, one where the same substance moves through different forms but remains the same in essence. Water, for example, remains H2O even while it shifts from solid ice to liquid water to gaseous steam (technically, not quite a gas, but you get the idea).

As an artist, I’d already become familiar with the way I change states from creating to getting my work out into the world. I could see that adding marketing on the internet, weird as it feels, was like a state change since the essence of myself and the work didn’t change, even though it took an unfamiliar form.

As we head into the holidays, I encourage you to use the concept of state changes to negotiate the shifts between family gatherings, time to create, and getting your work out into the world. Focus on how the essence of you remains the same, even as your behaviors and even your outer form may change.
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“Once an inner gift has been realized, it may  be passed along, communicated to the audience. And sometimes this embodied gift – the work – can reproduce the gifted state in the audience that receives it.”  Lewis, Philip. The Gift. 2007. p. 195

II. Energy Management: Translations from the Psych Research Lab, the Board Room and the Shrink’s Couch
 Hyde, Lewis. Philip. The Gift. 2007.
 Hyde explores how every creative work is a gift in that it is partly beyond the will of the creator. The artist’s willingness to be open to inspiration imbues what’s made with that creative spark. This is different from Target’s latest line of kitchenware, where assembly-line skills are used to lower prices on what has become a commodity regardless of how fine the original design.

“. . .works of art exist simultaneously in two “economies”, a market economy and a gift economy.” Lewis, Philip. The Gift. 2007. p. xvi

He proposes that when an object has this unwilled or received inspiration all the way through its production, it then carries this gift quality even when a price is set for it. This is what makes a tension between art and commerce. Even though I’m not an anthropologist, I enjoyed his examples from early cultures where gift giving links community members, and where it is often beyond bad taste to speak of ‘price’ or barter value. Similarly, he describes contexts where sacred objects are held to be beyond buying and selling.

If you are working out a balance of when to give, donate, sell or keep the works you make, Mr. Hyde warrants a closer look.
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“Who you are is a unique version of the holy human prototype, with personality included.”   Blanton, Brad. Radical Honesty. P. 86

III. Friends in the Media: When you feel like reading, listening, or surfing the web   
Blanton, Brad. Radical Honesty. 2003.
Blanton is the guy to read you to increase your awareness of your essence, who you are regardless of what roles you might be playing. He’s a deft surgeon, cutting through the myriad ways we withhold truths about ourselves, embroider a pretty surface for others to admire, and become downright skillful in lying about ourselves. Even if you skip his special sections on getting honest with anger and partners, his well-taken points shed light on how to become and stay connected to who you are. His prescription to tell the truth is not an easy one to take, but is presented so you can do it in small daily doses. In addition, he offers other books and personal coaching (http://www.radicalhonesty.com/index.php). Not a bad companion for artists at any time, but especially for the upcoming holiday season.
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IV. E-mail changes. To change your e-mail address, subscribe, or unsubscribe please e-mail connect@dianereardon.com. If you use a spam filter, please add this e-mail address to your list of approved senders. This material is included on the breakTHROUGH Creativity Coaching (website www.dianereardon.com) All material is copyrighted ©, 31 October 2009, Diane Reardon. All rights reserved. Visit the website for back issues and details on scheduling a complimentary one-hour coaching session.
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