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| San Miguel de Allende, Dec. 2006 |
The pages to the right ---> are by category and include Projects - my ambitions for the upcoming months and 20 Hours - an outline of the specific new things I aim to learn.
Statement: I have been an artist, a writer and a musician my whole life. Most of the time, to support those endeavors, I've taught. I've also had nearly every part time job imaginable, including pumping gas on the rural Oregon interstate, working shows as a stagehand, building and running a flower nursery business and lots and lots of office jobs.
I'm an artist but I'm also an entrepreneur. I started my flower nursery in a gravel driveway with some tomato plants that my buddy Lewis gave me. On consignment. A few weeks later, after the last freeze, I bought twenty flats of annuals, displayed them on straw bales, and Goose Creek Nursery was born.
There's always been things people said I should be: a social worker, a professor, a lawyer (?).
Instead, I became a tender of wolves and macaws, a keeper of dreams and a rhythm guitar player. I nurture plants and dogs and cultivate crows wherever I live. I collect pieces of obsidian. I don't own a TV. I have a degree but I'm self taught. Every place I've lived has been more beautiful when I left. Fictional characters have been best friends. Generally, my students like me.
This isn't comprehensive. Maybe two thirds of the paintings I've done were ever photographed. I leave paintings everywhere I go - on loan, as gifts, donations ... they've also been stolen numerous times. Now and then one will break (but for being old wood windows, they're pretty durable). I've walked into houses, theaters, cafes, and have been startled to see a painting of mine hanging. I rarely know my buyers since most of my work is sold by shop owners. All together I think I've painted around 320 windows since '99.
Some music was recorded, most wasn't. My first band, The Spirit of '76, formed in the late '60s, consisted of me and four of my girlfriends all playing baritone ukes. Our repertoire was strictly protest songs and a couple by Stephen Foster. I've been in a dozen choirs, a couple of orchestras, several garage bands and a gypsy jazz duo.
My writing is all over the place. I've been published by literary magazines. I've kept journals (and later blogs) since childhood. I have a folder of rejections, many from back in the day when they were pieces of paper that arrived in the mail. Most days I write. I've written more days of my 56 years than not. When I'm not writing I practice or I paint and when I'm not doing anything I read.
Finally, this quote from Danae Ringelmann, co-founder of IndieGoGo:
“Entrepreneurship is simply taking an idea and turning it into reality. It requires a clear vision for what’s possible, a strong “why” or “reason for being” to warrant that vision, and a robust resilience to guide you through the many forms of resistance (e.g. rejection, ridicule, self-doubt) until you realize that vision. A great entrepreneur is someone who keeps saying ‘yes’ to what’s possible, when the world is saying ‘no’ to the unknown.”
My main website, Storytelling Productions, is here.
Thank you for your support.
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