Ray Charles: Let It Be!

The Creativity of Children

There's nothing like spending the day with a group of children to remind me of how much creativity is born in us. I think from day one, we are born with a wonderful curiosity for life. If we're lucky, we don't lose that zest for life. Unfortunately, most adults spend so much time worrying that they forget to release the tightness of their brow to let in a little daylight.

I had the good fortune to spend the day last Friday with four creative children. They had a teacher conference day so the parents brought their kids to the Columbia Art League, where I got to teach them art from 9-5. It was a day of questions and quick thinking. I was reminded of the old show "Kids Say the Darndest Things". I was also reminded of the gentle grip they have on life. Kids aren't bogged down by all of the details. Instead, they are more about possibilities. The one little girl in Kindergarten was much less concerned about how her drawing was "supposed" to look, as the Third grader who mentioned that she "couldn't draw something right". Anyhow, I noticed my own "supposed to" thoughts as I was helping these kids make artwork. When I let go of those insidious messages, that's when the real creativity can begin.

Here's to a creative beginning....which is always today!
Josie

Have a garbage free day!

A dear friend of mine sent this story to me. It couldn't have arrived at a better time. I like the philosophy behind it so I wanted to share this with those who read my blog. Enjoy...or I might say In Joy...live in joy....spread your goodness today to others. And of course, have a fearless day!

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One day I hopped in a taxi, and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us.

My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches!

The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really
friendly.

So I asked, 'Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!' This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, 'The Law of the Garbage Truck.'

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks: They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it, and sometimes they'll dump it on you.

“Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets,” the cabbie said.

The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so...

Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don't.

Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!

Have a happy, garbage-free day!

Eddi Reader: Moonriver

I think it depends on how old you are when you listen to this song if it means anything to you or not. If you're young, you may think, "that's an old lady song". I'm 45 and this song reminds me of my mother. She used to sing it in the car on long trips from Nashville, Tn. to Hardy, Ark. So, this song reminds me of my youth and brings up only positive images and memories. I found it while looking through some of Eddi Reader's music clips. I love her and her version of this golden oldie.

Enjoy,
Josie

"You've Got a Friend in Me"...Lyle Lovett, Randy Newman

Here's a song that reminds me of all of my friends and the way that I love each and every one. As I grow older, I appreciate my true friends more and more. I guess with age, we realize who those people are and cherish them with a deeper reverence. I'm offering this song to all of those people.

Great News!

Today I had a miracle happen! I went in to get a biopsy of a growth that the hospital found on my thyroid. I was so scared of having a needle put in my neck. So, there I was lying on the cot and they put the jelly all over my neck to do the ultrasound so that they could guide the needle in to the growth. I could feel my throat closing from being so nervous. The Doctor looked and looked but couldn't find anything. She left and called my primary doctor. Then, she came back and checked again. Unbelievably, the growth is gone! I asked if she was absolutely sure and she said YES!
YAY!!!!! I skipped through the parking lot back to my car. I still can't believe it. It's got to be due to prayer. I asked her if that was normal for growths to go away and she said no. Wow! I think I'll do art about this.

Smiling the BIG smile,
Josie

Ab Fab- Bubbles and the New Year

Here's 57 seconds of silliness from Ab Fab. It's part of my Happy New Year wishes to all those that I love.
Fresh new beginning hugs,
Josie

The Prayer of St. Francis

Visual Poetry

Today I'm feeling quite blue. I found this piece on Youtube and it just fit for me. I appreciate the creativity that went into this bit. Tomorrow maybe will bring some sunshine and a lighter heart. I certainly hope so!
Josie

Northern Exposure : "Northern Lights"

MORE LIGHT!
I find this clip amazing in the connection of lights and the creativity that brought the array together. Once again, I find inspiration in the talent that put "Northern Exposure" together. I think this is a nice piece to put up before Christmas. It's community that holds us together!

Who is a light in your life? Have you told them?

With Light and Love,
Josie

Happy Thanksgiving!

Raul Midon once again gives a message with his music. I thought this was a great piece of musical creativity for this week of giving thanks. I am fortunate to be spending the weekend with some dear friends of mine who have offered to help me with my grandmother's cabin. We will be playing and working and more playing. This place is on a beautiful river and the weather is perfect for a bonfire. I can't wait to hear the laughter in my family's home. I give thanks for the friends that light up my soul everyday.

Here....art....now....take a look.

Everyone who deals with fear around their own creativity has to walk out in faith at some point. Whether that is about doing the work, showing your work, marketing your work...you name it. It's all about moving toward the light. I don't know who did this piece but I've always loved it!
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Swimming by the Nudist Beach by Josie Sullivan
$90 (12"X 12")
Acrylic Painting
********************************************************************************

Silence by Josie Sullivan
$100 (w 9.5" X 37")

This piece is etched on the back of plexi-glass.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
add shipping cost and it is yours!
+
I've discounted my prices in reflection of the economy.
Haven't we all?

Josie

Seasons of Love...I'm going "Broadway...ish" here...

Just for Now

Raul Midon

I feel rather somber today. I've decided to post a musician who I found on Ted.com. His name is Raul Midon. He sings with a passion that gives me chills. The first time I heard his song, "Everybody", I teared up. Music sometimes does that to me. It moves quickly from my ears to my soul. In this clip he does two songs (Everybody and Peace on Earth). The second song just made me think about the hope that this nation needs right now.

Enjoy,
Josie

Barack Obama- Our new President Elect

Here is the email I received last night from the Obama campaign. (it went out to millions).
It is time for our country to come together and support our new president so that he can do the work that will need to be done to heal our country.

Josephine --

I'm about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first.

We just made history.

And I don't want you to forget how we did it.

You made history every single day during this campaign -- every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it's time for change.

I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign.

We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I'll be in touch soon about what comes next.

But I want to be very clear about one thing...

All of this happened because of you.

Thank you,

Barack

Northern Exposure- Ed's gift to Ruth Ann

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uJx_Mg5HWk&feature=related (3 Min.s)

Here's another short clip from Northern Exposure. You may remember Ed (played by Darren Burrows), who worked in the shop with Ruth Anne( played by Peg Phillips) and longed to be a film maker. I loved both of these characters. I loved Ed for his simple tactless honesty and creativity. He was a soft spoken character that made me want to move closer to the TV to hear every word he was saying. Ruth Anne was a similar character in that way, but every now and then, she would surprise the audience in a elderly wise woman way. In this clip, Ed gives Ruth Anne a tiny piece of land, in view of the mountain for her birthday. His intention is to give her this spot for her grave. It's a humorous clip with a tender feel to it.

Enjoy!
Josie

Northern Exposure - We are here for each other.

Chris on the Radio:
Link is 1 min. and 59 sec.
Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF0VEq7N904


Today I picked a clip from Northern Exposure, a show that I wish was still running. I always loved what Chris had to say on the local radio station in the fictional town of Cicely Alaska. It was actually filmed in Rosalyn Washington and I had the good fortune to visit the town during that time. It was like walking into the twilight zone when I walked by the side of the building that the moose walks by in the opening of the show. Of course, we took photos and did the tourist thing with a flare.

When I walked in front of the radio window where the character of Chris did his show, I stopped...looked in and saw the set up...just like the show. What was missing? Well, Chris, played by John Corbett wasn't there. He made the KBHR station come alive with his presence. He read from many of the great thinkers and shared musings on the nature of life. He always gave me something to think about. I miss shows like that. There are a few for me, but this was one of my favorites. I think this clip, which is only 1 min. and 59 sec.s says it all for today.

We are all here for each other.
Have a fearless day,
Josie

Have a Little Faith...and fearless car singing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UkKTlzyLhQ

Today, I chose an image of "reaching out" through the cyber world. This can be challenging due to the fact that we can not see the other person's face, reactions, body language... but have you ever received an email and read it with your own spin on what you think it sounds like? My guess is yes, we all have done this if we are at all trying to communicate through email.

Cell phones and email have replaced the actual visit from a friend. It is a substitute for chatting and a poor one at that, but we continue to reach out without seeing the other person's eyes...which I believe tell the whole story.
I believe, like Rhonda and Marta taught me, assume innocence first. I have read an email this week and I am trying to assume innocence...and it is a challenge...without having that person in front of me to really look at while she is talking. Yes, I am a visual processor...imagine that!
I am also becoming aware of how I might sound in an email and have been really aware of what I write and how. I never intend to hurt another and I am working at believing that other people intend the same.
When my heart hurts, it is difficult to hear a raised voice or a raised email. So, what then?

What I know now is to practice breathing. I imagine the other person in warm light... the light of peace... the light of what I choose to call God...the light of kindness and wholeness. I do not choose the path of judgment for today...and tomorrow...well, that is left to be seen and I hope I make the same decision. The link is short and it is a song by John Hiatt that I have loved for years. I remember sitting in my car in Springfield Mo., about to go home and this song came on...well, I just started singing like nobody's business...you know.... the woman in the car rocking out to her song...LOL! ....I get kinda the same reaction when I hear RESPECT...I mean the singing wildly in the car thing... not anything about feelings like Have a Little Faith

Pardon my "...'s", that's when I take a breath.
Anyhow, Please enjoy!

Josie

Lyda Phillips- a guest appearance by one of my favorite people!

Today I am sharing a testimony of sorts by one of my favorite writers. Lyda Phillips has recently gone out of her comfort zone and here is what she has to say about that.
Welcome! Lyda Phillips...applause.
Lyda- I changed the color but oddly, your writing changed into many colors despite my efforts to make it just one. LOL

The past year has been intense. I launched my son into college and put my house on the market, while living away from my husband, working full-time and still trying to keep up my writing. I have managed to keep picking at various novels-in-progress, but at my last literary brunch with my writing partner here in D.C. we confessed to each other (she's been going through the same kind of pressure--colicky baby, returning to work, husband diagnosed with liver disease) that we have just been sort of squinting and straining and flinging words onto the page that make some kind of vague sense and move the novels marginally forward without any real organic growth or creative essence.

So along about the time I got the boy off the college, I went down to Hardy, Arkansas, for the annual reunion at the camp where I spent my summers from age 10 to 18. I rented a little car and sped up to the Ozarks through the Arkansas Delta with a Memphis hip-hop radio station blasting out the windows, and I thought, "Yanno, this is the first time I have really felt like myself in a loooonnnngggg time."

It really does so often happen that you get what you need. Those sweet, short two days were just the plunge into a watery, emotional, natural world that I craved coming out of the desert I'd been crossing. An oasis centered at Josie's house, where I have always felt nurtured and nourished despite continually catching myself before I speak to her collection of mannequins. Whatever. It was just what I needed. The company of women, the friends (I almost typed fiends) of my childhood, a return to a place and a community where I felt stronger, bolder, more competent and more accepted than any other time in my life.

Josie gave me her blog address, and when I got home I found that she blogged about connecting, or reconnecting with our creativity. Once again, just what I needed, when I needed it. I tried Josie's left brain/right brain exercise with the names of colors in typeface of a different color than the word (wow, that's hard to describe succinctly, another limitation of language). I had such trouble doing that exercise that I realized I was brain-locked. I had been so focused on just getting through these transitions, day by day, that I had completely locked myself in my left brain--even to the point of spending inordinate amounts of time at work playing msn.games. I'm afraid I still have a lot more left-brain days ahead before I can get myself into the next stage of my life (freelancing part-time in Nashville and writing much more). I feel like one of those sci-fi movie images of emerging through a shining silver membrane.

So practically the next day after the color/word exercise, I got a forwarded e-mail from a dear friend in California. This was written to her by William Kennedy, one of her co-workers at the Equal Justice Society, after he had undergone brain surgery.

"I had an incredible experience in the few weeks after my surgery in which you played an important role. The tumor that was removed from my brain was the size of a mandarin orange according to my doctor. It grew from the mid line of the brain into the left hemisphere. To the extent that there was damage it was to the left hemisphere, the rational, linear part of the brain and residence of the ego and identity. Consequently, I retreated to the right hemisphere where the first thing that struck me was the silence from brain chatter. My experience of the right hemisphere was that people are not visualized or understood based upon their accomplishments or time and place of meeting, but instead are felt as part of a whole based upon their unique energy. IN this hemisphere all people are connected as 'one'. Each is a part though barely distinct from the whole. So, I saw you there, Eva. You and Kimberly along with other people with whom I have worked. It was strange and awe inspiring to experience people in their awesome fullness without filters."

So a few nights later, inspired by Josie's fearlessness and William Kennedy's poignant testimony to the power of stopping the left-brain chatter, I turned off the computer, turned off the TV, opened the windows on a late afternoon of pouring rain, turned on Bluesville on the XM radio, burrowed in my desk for an ancient box of Crapas. I had intended to continue drawing maps of an imaginary world I'm creating for one of my novels-in-progress, a middle-grade sci-fi novel. Instead, I picked up something I had been doing more than a year ago during boring meetings at work. Then I had drawn little pictures of my dogs. The humidity made the paper slightly damp and curly but that hardly mattered. This time I found myself starting with the fluffy tail I usually start with when I do the drawings of my dog Cid. But it turned into a little horse. And I looked upon the little horse and found it good. I colored it chestnut. I gave it a little grass and a fleck of sky. The little horse was pleasing to me, calming, curative. And I sat back, admired the horse, listened to the rain and the blues, and realized that I was more perfectly happy than I had been in a long time.

A couple of days later I was revising a chapter of one of my other novels-in-progress and for the first time in months, the words flowed from the creative well, unforced, unfiltered, taking an idea that had come to me in one of those moments when you're not trying, and letting it out onto the page. And for the first time in months, when I leaned back and looked up, hours had passed and I had been unaware of time or place. I had been in my book's world, in my character's head, again. Finally.

I am so grateful for this strange and wonderful chain of events, and meetings, and places, and people that helped me begin to push through that silvery fluid curtain into my new life.
Lyda Phillips: http://writerworking.blogspot.com

Two Alternative Views

Presently, I am preparing for a show that I do every year. It will be held at Tellers Restaurant/Bar/Gallery which is one of my favorite places to show here in Columbia. This year the show will open on my 45th birthday, so that makes it even more special.

If you live in the area, please come downtown and help Lisa and I celebrate. Mark your calendars for Wednesday, October 1st, 6-8pm. I hope to see you there!
Josie

Shared Humanity: Chris Abani from Ted.com

So, I saw this talk and connected to it spiritually, at a core level.This man brings up the idea of daily grace...actually he says, "the world is never saved by grand messianic gestures but rather by the simple accumulation of gentle, soft, almost invisible acts of compassion".

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/chris_abani_muses_on_humanity.html

It is a powerful combination to join creativity and compassion. I hope this man touches your heart as he did mine. Let me know what you think.
Enjoy!
Josie

Website Creativity and Marketing...Miranda July is the Queen for the day!

http://noonebelongsheremorethanyou.com/00025

A friend of mine sent this to me and it was one of those rare moments when I thought, "OMG!...I wish I had thought of that". The link above is a slide show of sorts that is absolutely clever and creative. I laughed so hard at the idea and the simplicity, that I raced to Miranda's site and signed up for any other website/performance art/silly brilliant marketing things she might do in the future. It takes about a minute or two to click through. At one point you can go to the link of her website directly or choose to stay with the little arrows at the bottom. I've done both and I recommend staying with the arrows until the end. Geez, I'd love to pick this woman's brain!

I'm going now to alert my favorite writer friend, Lyda Phillips, who also has a sly cleverness that seeps from her pores. Then, I may just go write all over my appliances in the kitchen...watch the link and you will understand!

Have fun in a fearless way!
Josie

Education and Creativity...a clip from TED.com

I taught art in Kansas City Mo...
My Masters thesis was done on this topic.
This man started talking, and in one minute he had me.
He tells the truth about creativity and schools.
Please take a moment to enjoy him.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html


Josie

The Art of Storytelling

Here's another Gem from the archives of Ted.com
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/carmen_agra_deedy_spins_stories.html


Carmen Agra Deedy has a story to tell. Her topic is about storytelling. She is delightful, poignant, and one not to be missed. As we hear all sorts of stories from political candidates, this was a nice break from having to determine which stories are true and which are false. At the end of Carmen's story, I dare you not to wipe a tear from your face and at the same time you may find yourself letting out a knowing chuckle.

I'd like to quote something that Ms. Deedy says here... "Good storytelling is crafting a story that someone wants to listen to. Great storytelling is the art of letting go!"

That's how it is with creativity. We all have our craft, our skills, our tools...and when we learn to use them it can be so much fun. When we learn the art of letting go in that process, we dare to jump off the creativity cliff only to find out we had wings all along.

Today, I am letting go. I am going into the studio and play with paint for a while and who knows...maybe I'll do another landscape. As some of you learned in a earlier post...I'm not a landscape kind of girl...or maybe I am. Yikes!

What will you do today to stretch your imagination? Is there an area of your life that "letting go" could be just the thing to transform you?

Enjoy!
Josie