Be Bold Enough to Admit what you Truly Desire

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“Pacific Ocean Deep”, Ann Rea, oil on canvas

 

Although the artist-coaching program helps artists shape their business and marketing strategies we first have to ask why.  “Why” do you want to “be” an artist?  What does that mean to you?  What do you value?  What do you really want?  What would you create if you had a magic wand?

The first assignment that my artist coaching clients receive is to turn on their imagination and to create a dream map.  A dream map is a collage of positive and present-tense words and images that express their vision of the life that they want to create for themselves.  Clearly creating your life’s vision will determine your ultimate happiness and success.  I can attest that it’s worked for me.

These collages are not meant to be a piece of art for show.  This is simply a powerful and personal exercise designed so that each person unearths their passions and expresses what they really want to create in their life, before we get started.

I’m following Michael Gerber’s assertion, author of eMyth. Gerber asserts that you design your business  so it supports your life, and so that you are not spending your life supporting your business.

So the next question is, what do you want that life to look like?

I made a dream map about seven years before it manifested.  I boldly admitted, although I couldn’t really believe it at the time, “I live and have an art studio overlooking the ocean.”  Along with several words and images I tore out a picture of a big poufy bed overlooking the ocean, some random light fixture, because why not?  I can imagine anything.

Then I lost track of this creation until seven years later when I moved into my private live work studio overlooking the ocean.  After my friends helped me move in, and arranged my furniture, I discovered the dream map.  My bed was in the same position as the photo.  The headboard was on the same side of the room and the bed’s position was the same relative to the ocean.  The nautically styled light fixture hangs above my dinning room table today.

I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to make it all happen, live in pricey San Francisco and paint for a living?  Yikes!  But I knew in that instant that I was on the right path.

The first step to living a fulfilled and happy live is to boldly admit what you truly desire.

The Painter of Light files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

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Thomas Kinkade, I loath, and I used to actually admire him.  Artistically, an average professional painter.  Entrepreneurially, ground breaking.  But in my never to be humble opinion, he had it comin‘!.

Let’s start with what I admired.  He clearly defined his market, conservative Christians, and he “delivered” (no pun intended) a unique value proposition, and in a way that they would appreciate.  How?  This particular physiographic is quite literal.  So Thomas Kinkade scattered lots of graphic symbols throughout his paintings to celebrate this group’s values. Little hearts signify the sanctity of marriage and the “Painter of Light”, a not so subtle reference to the light of Christ, used an over abundance of artistic devices to convey light.  The result.  Saccharine sweet paintings that make my teeth hurt.

Where it all went wrong was that he also leveraged the general ignorance of this market.  A market that is not typically a group educated in arts and culture.  By saturating the market with “limited edition” prints of 250,000, or more, he was out of integrity.  In the state of California, Mr. Kinkade’s domicile, only 250 prints are considered “limited”, legally.

His genius? He used the franchise model to build his empire, a la eMyth’s approach to building a business.  That’s right, all those Thomas Kinkade galleries that you see closing are franchises, like McDonalds.  But many of these franchise owners sued him, forcing the company to delist from the New York Stock exchange.

Imagine.  An artist with a company listed on the New York Stock exchange.  I had to know more.  So I actually interviewed one of his CPAs and he shared the basic mechanics and history of Thomas Kinkade’s empire. Horrified and fascinated, I thought, “What if I learned from his success but I applied these lessons in a way that I’m proud of and with integrity?”  Isn’t that what Jesus would do?

Recently an arbitrator awarded franchise owners a $2.1 million judgment.  And on Friday, the “Painter of Light” was arrested and jailed in Monterey  for driving while under the influence.  We’re reminded again that integrity is the cornerstone to any lasting and prosperous enterprise, whether its oil and gas, banking, or art.