“Most of us have two lives. The life we live and the unlived life within us. Between the two lies Resistance.”
Steven Pressfield knocks IT out of the park in his revolutionary book : “The War of Art”. If you haven’t picked this up yet- well it’s time that you did! It is EPIC. A short read, compact, Yet packing super adrenaline laced power in it’s 163 pages that overflow with pure, inspiring, motivating, creative truths! Clearly Pressfield knows what he is talking about and lucky for us decided to write it down and share it with the world!
Any creative who has not read this art Bible is cheating themselves, because the core message gives us art people the mental tools we need in order to combat, maim, and ultimately kill RESISTANCE! Only then will you be able to pursue your dream, your “Vein of Gold” – as Julia Cameron, author of another artist Bible “The Artists Way”, defines it, in spite of the naysayers, the threats, the enemies of distraction and procrastination attempting to thwart your passion, your path, your power.
DONT. ALLOW. IT.
Pressfield lays it out so clear, so concise, so real. He has lived it, learned it, earned it, and loves it. You will read this book many times, until you get it and then you will read it again just to confirm and inject some needed art plasma into your vein. Of Gold.
Right now I am reading a wonderful memoir by Fernade Olivier, in which she describes her relationship with Picasso, in their early twenties, in Paris, painting in his hole-in-the-wall studio, known now as the Famous Chateau Lavoir, freezing and burning, in Monmartre during the early 1900’s. Talk about resistance! It was an ongoing challenge he fought 24/7 /365! Painting while starving and just barely managing to survive.
For the artist this is an eternal, persisting life story. Whether it be surviving the environment, social 
condemnation, or internal resistance, there will always be some challenge to overcome. The more invasive the artists resistance is, the less he or she paints, dances, writes, photographs, acts, composes! This for the artist can be lethal. Pressman describes this hideous conflict in his book of knowledge, and crystallizes the absolute necessity to detect, defuse, and destroy!
Many artists died by their own hand, while drawn into the abyss of other temptations, gazing into the prism of fame from a distance, the challenge is often to great to overcome and continue to create.
Because it’s NOT an easy path, yet sooooo rewarding in ways that the 9-5’ers can not, will not understand. So it’s cool beyond belief. If you have the Steven Pressman mojo helping you fuel your drive and keep you going, in spite of walls, mountains, waves attempting to obstruct your momentum and prevent you from the personal success and satisfaction that is your destiny!
This is crucial fuel in the Artist Arsenal of dynamite necessary for our propulsion into that exciting world where creativity and resistance are the ying and yang, the oil and water, the yes and no, the dark and light. Resistance does NOT work.
Stephen Pressfield says it best:
” The Enemy is a very good teacher” Artists need to make friends with this enemy, learn from it, and prosper!”
The artist produces from that mystical source where nothing is real, making it real, by producing the form in real time on canvas, stage, paper, or thru instrument.
Strawberry Fields, is a small tranquil place in Central Park directly across the street from the Dakota , the residence where John & Yoko lived before he was assassinated by a crazy fan in December 1984 Is one of the most popular tourist destinations in NYC, it is a strange combination of the old and the new where musicians strum guitars to the beat of vintage Lennon, kids take photos at the “Imagine” plaque, and old hippies, aka baby boomers, relax on benches, observing the scene, as they reminisce of latter days, where they partied, made love, danced, and dreamed to The Beatles infinite musical repertoire.
It’s a cool place to visit now, yet also a sad place, because it has become a shrine to a man who was killed because of his talent, his fame, his celebrity, which made him loved by many, hated by many, the object of envy, and a target for the crazies. The dark side of fame. And it is. The artist is creating protected, as a lone wolf, obscure and free, until he is discovered. Then everything changes. Fame becomes the enemy, the friend, the desired, the despicable. “Be careful what you wish for.” The artist then becomes a victim of the world, the society out there whose love he craved, whose admiration he dreamed of, can become the vampire draining his life’s blood. How to know?
John was way too open and trusting as he and Yoko hung out in Central Park, strolled CPW, treating NYC as their new best friend. Yoko is still a resident at the famed Dakota! They had a love affair with NYC. How could they ever think it would be the city that destroyed his life by the act of a random fan ? They couldn’t. But it wouldn’t have changed a thing. He was still the John of Strawberry Fields Forever, Imagine, Lucy in the Sky, the White Album, and so many more, a cornucopia of music, giving the world new musical vistas for eternity!
Art IS forever. The artist is the venue, the tool, the channel. But the Source from where this gift originates is so much more. The inspiration, or as writer Julia Cameron describes it – the “Vein of Gold”. This is why Van Gogh could keep on spilling his paint on undiscovered canvases hidden for many years after his premature death, why Picasso could create while freezing or burning in the squalor of Bateau Lavoir, why “Le Dounier” – Rousseau could paint while being mocked as an object of ridicule while toiling days as a lowly clerk, why Modigliani could paint masterpieces, while wasting away from illness in his Paris Garret studio, that are now being auctioned at Sotheby’s for over 100 Million !
That Vein of Gold is a powerful lifeline to the artists creative source nourishing and providing an infinite abundance of wealth! John was struck down, and yet his Central Park Mecca remains 35 years later a place where he is very alive!
Whenever I visit galleries which is often I find that I spend the most time gazing at a painting sculpture etc. that is the least pretty or beautiful or cute. The ones that capture my interest are either ugly, weird, or just downright confusing. Because yes, it’s true that we all like pretty, but pretty wears off fast, gets old, tired, and empty and we go hungering and thirsting after something heartier, more filling, more substantial. Paintings can be like that. Was Warhol pretty? Picasso was hideous, and Twombly just plain confusing, what about Richter? 
Pretty is Not the Point. It’s the Anti point. helloooooooo
Was not nyc more glam in the dirty scary seventies than it is now in its gentrified sterile prettiness?????? Of course. But the only people who know it are the ones who saw it back when . The millenniums and the gen y ‘s have no clue. As they try to be artists in this uber tech society with the grunge the grit the gory grotesque horror neatly cleaned up and filed down. 
be hidden by sterile perfection. This quality is actually sexier and more interesting than someone who is physically perfect. We see this in the modeling world where top models, like Kate Moss, Turlington, Twiggy, Penelope Tree, or any of the London models made famous during the age of Mary Quant and Piccadilly, during the Hippie Age of Drugs Sex and Rock n Roll, like Verushka, all made their fame and fortune spectacular in their unconventional look. That made them objects of fascination for everyone who wanted to be them, but just did not have that edge, that extra something. And that’s true in the art world as well. Perhaps it’s true in every aspect of life. One needs that Extra Something, the new, different, often irregular, offbeat, crazy, that makes people take notice. Otherwise it’s just same old same old. And that doesn’t make art!
Pretty. A compliment? I think not. More than likely a dismissal. An after thought. A crumb of “let’s pretend”. Who really wants to be pretty? What painting could be worthy of interest if it’s only claim to fame was pretty? Pretty doesn’t go far. It’s merely one step above cute.
Oscar Wilde said “No object is beautiful that under certain conditions will not look ugly”.
Looking at some of the older works of Ny artist Julien Schnabell prints in his book of memories called CV.J. I can’t find one pretty painting. Most are a melange of chaos on a canvas, broken plates, harsh words, confusing images, and muddy colors, and again broken plates! Not your everyday pretty painting. Suzanne Valdon’s bastard son, and sickly alchoholic, Utrillo, was a master of pretty paintings, still sold today as postcards and prints. His images of Montmartre, during the early 1900’s, appeals to the masses today as frame – able, hangable, non disturbing art. Guaranteed to decorate, promised not to disturb. And that’s OK.
“They have to take a chance, everything they do is taking a chance, but they feel so much safer when they take it on something they know to be ugly, vain and stupid.” Ayn Rand
Gatekeeper: a human who controls Access to something, like a city gate. But according to Webster the term is also used metaphorically, referring to people who decide whether a given message will be distributed by a mass medium. Like the internet for example.
Your personal Gatekeeper stands alert aware and on guard, to any threat attempting to thwart your creative destiny. Don’t be a sitting duck waiting for the avalanche of naysayers, doubters, and haters praying for you to fail, give up, join the herd, and ride the train into oblivion with those who just don’t GET IT.
You can be your own Gatekeeper. Letting in who you want and banning those you don’t. Those who agree are IN. Those who don’t DON’T matter.
How we think about our art gives our personal Gate Keeper power. It can tear it down or build it up. Like the Gatekeepers who serve computers, there purpose is to keep out the hacker, the virus, the poison, and so do we, if we choose, share that purpose, continuing on our creative path preserving and protecting our chosen work.
So, being a Gatekeeper is serious. It allows you to continue on your artistic journey, keeping out the naysayers, the doubters, and the egomaniacs who can only relate legitimate work to dollars, popularity, and prestige.
From an Arab proverb:
“It’s easy to stand in the crowd, but it takes courage to stand alone” Mahatma Gandhi
There is only One when it comes to the unique individual, who does, acts, creates, lives, in a different spectacular universe far removed from the rest of the rest. Encompassing the Best of the Best.
Van Gogh had it. Michelangelo nailed it. Gertrude Stein invented it. Picasso owned it. Einstein invented it. Warhol flaunted it. Dylan folk singed it. Kerouac wrote it. Neil Cassidy drove it. EE Cummings rhymed it. Billie Holiday sang it. Emerson thought about it. Einstein hypothesized it. Freud analyzed it. Kerouac typed about it.
ONE signifies the pioneer spirit of discovery! It’s revolutionary and life changing in theory and process . Who wants to run in a pack? Who wants to be a sheep when clearly it’s the sheep herder possessing the real power? But it takes guts, perseverance , creativity, solitude ,and self awareness, to separate from the sheep herd, and run alone.
While the world seemed flat to most, for the explorers coming from their unique revolutionary experience of thought they knew that there was another theory waiting to be proven. And prove it they did. But it required charting unknown territories and blasting through the cemented thinking of popular opinion.
Following your dream, passion, fantasy, whatever you want to call it can be a lonely and torturous road. One beset with rejection, poverty, and disappointment. You have to put your Man Pants on if you want to crush it! You have to keep it moving, or you may fall off, never get back on your unique ride towards your individual destiny.
But what’s the alternative?
Picasso painting selling for 179 MILLION $$$$$$
Why are these phantom buyers spending like it’s going out of style for random paintings? And they are spending like there is no tomorrow! Oh yes, hype tells us they are spectacular, beautiful, unique priceless, genius, but what does our gut tell us? It screams that these prices are a joke!
“Beautiful, dirty dirty rich rich dirty dirty beautiful dirty rich”
do they love the thrill of the game, the ego blast of ownership, the love of dabbling in the arts, because truth be told, “those that can’t do teach” only substitute teach with BUY. Those That Can’t Do Buy! A kerfuffle indeed.
This is how I see it . Because artists paint, sculpt, do their thing out of love, passion, or some natural genetic attraction, whatever their calling or motivation they just DO IT. Few are raking in big bucks, and yet they pursue. Picasso met dealers repeatedly, often making them beg him for a price on a painting they already had a buyer for. He was on a mission and it wasn’t to gratify greedy art dealers or satisfy a customers need to pretty up her dining room with a floral still life. On the other hand, Warhol was the ultimate consumer junkie. He loved the dollar and was not ashamed to profit whenever he could. He craved the wealthy socialites attention, the celebrity sycophants, flaunting their abundant bank accounts, ready to spend on the hot new fad which of course was Andy Warhol in the sixties. Didn’t a recent painting of his recently go for mega millions????? He sold a painting of a soup can and made people love it. Was it really about the can, the soup, the painting, or the Warhol persona?
Impressions are everything!!!!!! EVERYTHING!!!!!!. If something is perceived to be cool, then chances are it IS cool, and then everyone wants it. Warhol was freezing. He made Cool look Warm. There are no midpoints also known as average in the world of impressions. It is either Cool bordering on cold, ultimately freezing, OR hot, heading towards burning ! burn it up, or melt it down!! Warhol took it to sub zero and he took the people with him. They say thatafter he died, when discovered, his townhouse revealed a five floor hoarding zone, full of his Manhattan flea market pillargies, his Madison Avenue scavenger hunts, and a massive collection of pure junk. But who cared? The point is that he is Warhol, and he made his impression in the concrete of NYC much like a handprint blazoned into wet cement leaving that permanent imprint for eternity . And YES his painting of “Elvis” at Christies auction sold for 69.6 Million my friends!
Jargon is always floating around to artist types about “just do it, don’t resist, follow your dream, passion is the thing”, I could go on and on , but you get the idea. Steve Pressfield, the artists guru of persistence vs. resistance, vows that the “enemy of creativity is resistance”, and then he lists his top ten Greatest Hits of the true artists play book, and they all are in direct and aggressive opposition to today’s Wild West of art commercialism and the rampant status symbol stepping stones to success! Pressfield makes a statement in his very COOL book, “The War of Art”, ” the artist cannot look to others to validate his efforts or his calling. If you don’t believe it, ask Van Gogh, who, produced masterpiece after masterpiece and never found a buyer in his lifetime.” He goes on to say “to labor in the arts for any reason other than life is prostitution.” Yet……
TODAY, how does one live on such a dreamy fantastique philosophy, when the cost of living is f’ing obscene? Dylan could hang in greenwich Village on 20$ a week playing for pennies in the GV coffeehouses like the legendary GasLight on Macdougal Street, Basquiet could roam the barren alleys of SoHo, do graffiti, and be discovered in the clubs on the Bowery, and Blondie and Patti Smith could sing at CBGB for broke, and be discovered as superstars, while Jackson Pollack was networking in his drunken rages at the Cedar Tavern with the other New York School painters slumming it in Greenwich Village back when that was possible!
But hey, NYC isn’t what it used to be Dorothy! That’s over, and anyone trying to survive being an artist, today in the NYC State of Mind, will wake up real quick, when the rose colored glasses come off and reality sets in. The days of the Belle Epoch, the Greenwich Village sixties, the Punk Bowery days eighties, the dirty, freaky seventies, are long gone. Replaced by technology, social greed, excess of materialism, and the computer. It’s called progress baby! Deal with it!
Choosing a book while browsing your favorite or not so favorite bookstore can be difficult. Oh you may say what are you talking about? You walk in, look around, see a book, buy it and leave. Heading towards your next spectacular NYC Paris London or Rome adventure.
Nobody just walks in said bookstore, chooses said book, pays, and leaves with such easy breezy detachment, nonchalance, state of mind.
Well. True that. Also today it can be an expensive commitment. Meaning that even Amazon isn’t exactly book cheap though perhaps book cheaper than most book stores. And that’s great –Except real book folk enjoy the process.
Book buying and painting buying share a common denominator. You are willing wanting wishing to PAY for an experience of the soul you will not get anywhere else. A new house won’t do it. A new pair of Loubatins won’t do it. A new wife won’t do it. Nor will the priciest Rolex in the store.
You are going to read your way into a new experience, a familiar one, an insane journey, or a mental miasma, or a memory or a fantasy or a dream or a revelation . Be careful what you choose. This is Not a joke.
>> Artists are very much aware of the literary connection here. Our paintings are read by the viewers. Some like. Others dislike. Choosing a painting is no different than choosing a book . You, as the individual are confirming the profound realities that say – “this is interesting to ME . I want it. I will pay for it. I want to go on this journey.” This trip is personal and unique to you alone at the moment you make your decision. The non – reader might opt to minimize the unique process that goes into book choosing. That’s ok. They aren’t familiar with this extraordinary act . Maybe one day…….
So, I’m in McNally Jackson, which is a gorgeous bookshop in SoHo, Nyc, on Prince street. This is a biggie, as far as book choosing goes, because it’s not for me. And I have to get it right. I kind of know where I’m going with it, but haven’t zeroed in on the object of my affection so to speak. But I will. Point is we do this all the time. Choices. Whether books, art ,food ,clothes ,shoes, or movies . The personal power that makes us choose can’t be overstated. Money out of pocket, book into pocket, ideas into mind! It’s really an act involving so many facets — like intellect, economy, personality, entertainment, emotion,drama,time,place, influence…….I could go on and on.
The Narcissist. ICK factor on steroids. A toxic poison that has flooded like a tsunami into our lives these days, drowning us with its vicious suffocating torturous chant of “MeMeMe” and then more of Me!
Narcissism. Who even knew what that word meant 30 years ago? Or ten years ago? Not me. And I had a close relationship with one. Intentionally, and innocently. A dangerous combo. The 4th cocktail you should NOT have drunk. The absinthe mixed with brandy, Toulouse Lautrec kept stashed in a vial in his walking stick, always available for easy consumption, also lethal. “The Maiden Blush, The Earthquake,” his death defying cocktail mixes were similar to the tightrope walking that people engage in with narcissists. One step over and you are a dead man. Or woman.
Who could anticipate the the trap, that messy, nasty, ugly, mucky, quicksand that engaging in a relationship with a narcissist could create?
The so-called misnomer of reality shows is actually non reality! But years ago, nobody knew or cared about the danger of narcissist/sociopaths, while today the minions are equally naive about the danger of falling into the empty abyss that these reality shows , this Facebook Fantasy World, this Selfie obsession , can bring to the mental miasma of the everyday follower.
The viewer becomes a victim of the “narcissistic supply source ” the necessary crack cocaine fix that fills his crazy sicko need, satisfying the neurotic craving like any street crack head.
Picasso, narcissist imperial , sucked the blood vampire style, out of every woman who had the misfortune to know him.
The vampire needs a body to stay alive. The narcissist needs the minions supply, including neediness, low self esteem, dysfunction, attention, worship, praise, interest, admiration, in order to breathe, just like the vampire needs blood.
Anyone who has had the misfortune to be in a relationship with a Narcissist, male, or female , has been Schooled! Aware of its insidious danger. it’s Jekyll and Hyde duplicity, it’s empty shell psychosis, it’s un empathetic DNA , it’s insanity. Watch out! These TV shows, and the selfie nation, the facebk phenomena,compadres, unified in their Me First needs, are all components of the narcissist play book, toxic as powerfull arsenic, lethal as Lautrec’s EarthQuake Cocktail. ready to maim, kill, and destroy at the moment of pleasure !
The Narc has no feelings of empathy for anyone . ANYONE. They just don’t give a shit. They play by their own invented sadistic rules. Other people do not count. The players in the “Reality”shows are no different. They care only about their image, the mirror, the mask, the mirage, they submit on their resume to the needy public, desperate to be entertained, empty lives, on the clock, numbed, coddled, pacified, as they watch people expose revolting examples of inhumanity, in their personal lives, in the name of entertainment with payback. Or paycheck. Ugh. It’s a No Fly Zone for the mind and if you enter – do so with caution because it’s extremely lethal.
We may have the misfortune of watching ” NeNe ” and her sycophants, or “Vanderpump” and her crew, ” Kimmye” and her ass, or the ” Millionaire Matchmaker”, who seems to have a hard time getting matched up herself, but poses as an expert, to the unquestioning public, selling her shtick with her foul mouthed vulgarities pushing the desperate phonies into sudo fake relationships for their own narcissistic gain.
Kim K? What IS that? Her ass, her sex partners, her fake wedding, her bikini wax, her new book “Selfish”????? Only today would something that irrelevant fly!
What we have now is an empty fake take on love , falsified by our reality tv icons , posing as cool and gorgeous and hip and rich, selling their bs to the subservient public who make these idiots rich, famous, and popular, by a mere click of the remote sending them further and further into fame and fortune. It’s a trivial pursuit of celebrity status , egos built on the publics shallow needs.
How did it happen that food became the new luxury item, to be desired with the excitement one would normally give an overpriced status symbol, be it a car, a watch, a handbag, a new pair of Louboutins, ocean front property, just to name a few. Well, now we can include food in this list of desirable expensive pleasures. And it starts at the bottom, working its way to the top. The organically grown, fed, nurtured at seed, the celebrity chef preparation, the five star, Michelin rated restaurant, the expensive gourmet grocery, all join in this new contemporary status food fest we are experiencing today. Yet we are told to watch our weight, constantly reminded of the dangers of obesity, while simultaneously being “fed”, pardon the pun, a non- stop media overload of cooking shows, celebrity chefs, eating contests, restaurant wars, makeovers, best thing ever eaten, the newest craziest food fad to come down the block, the list is endless.
To eat or not. That is the question. Walk into a Nyc grocery today, pick up a lemon and check the price. You will go into shock. When did food become the newest luxury? Food. The staple of life. The bread and water we need to keep us alive. Who would have guessed that it would become so chic, so pretentious, so commercial? Who could have predicted this phenomena? Used to be, we ate to live, and some just ate more than others. Socrates said “we should eat to live, not live to eat” A pleasurable evening out in a restaurant used to be a once in a while occasion, not a hot passion driving us to the latest hot food fad! The 
cheese addiction is an example of this food madness. Check out the cheese sections in any major grocery and we will be instantly transported on an excursion into the land of extravagant indulgences for the palate. It’s obscene because we have been manipulated by the media to make us want many of these food items that we not only do not really want, we definitely don’t need! Its a food lust fetish that defines one of the seven deadly sins. Gluttony! This lust and craving for food not for dietary purposes or sustenance but purely to “feel good” or status driven gives “gluttony” new meaning.
These pricey food items will bankrupt the average person quickly if they indulge. Think about it. Eating is a Verrry temporary quick pleasure ending almost as quickly as it begins. We are really satisfying the human hunger urge, and anything else is a bonus. A bonus with a steep pricetag. Those rich, decadent, expensive cheeses, that fresh water salmon flown in from Nova Scotia, those varied and exotic mushrooms, truffles, the top grade beef , Kobe or Wagu, fruit- the new indulgence, all pricey, all unnecessary. Let’s not even talk about the price of any food item that has “organic” attached to it. Out of control!
Is it about impressing others, making ourselves feel better, obeying Ina Garten, or Guy Fieri, or the ubiquitous Bobby Flay “Cook what I cook”, it’s amazing, but wait — you need to spend $$$$$ in order to actually assemble the ingredients necessary. Sandra Lee tries to go practical, along with her peer, Rachel Ray, but they are in the minority. And do we really need to be told what to do with canned food? No. So the bottom line is, why do we watch these food shows? The Chopped, Iron chef, Padma and her various Top Chef contestants, all fighting, 
spatula in hand, for the big bucks.? Is it because we feel some nostalgic comfort relating back to childhood, when mommy served us our meals? Back to childhood, Top Chef style. Is it really that thrilling watching people create food for money, or millionaire chefs tell us what and how to cook? This is their bread and butter. The food they create puts food on THEIR table! But what does it do for us? It’s their living. Their money pot. Food has an entirely different meaning and purpose for the celebrity chef, the television personality, the Michelin restauranteur, than it does for most people. We are just trying to figure out what to make for dinner, and it probably isn’t anything like Flay’s latest hot pepper encrusted fantasy, Pioneer Woman’s greasy, sloppy, cowhand ranchers delight, or Rachel Ray’s latest college dorm roommates casserole. Come on!!
To make the food dilemma even more confusing we have Michelle Obama and her obesity campaign telling people what NOT to eat, slim down, lose weight! Talk about mixed messages! What goes on here? We can’t have it both ways, stuffing ourselves on Humbolt Fog cheese, AND lose 10 pounds. This double message is annoying. Yeah we all like to eat, but if we listen to the hype the Food Network delivers we will all be obese, shopping, preparing, cooking, ordering these tasty, high caloric, gourmet delicacies.
News flash! Sitting is really really bad for you. As bad, if not worse than SMOKING! I hear that the longer you sit during the course of a day, the closer you get to developing some scary diseases. Great. Another insurmountable frightening and impossible dilemma, that people have to either ignore, laugh at, or deal with. The news flash says “one must get up and walk around every hour for at least ten minutes” in order to keep out of the danger zone. It doesn’t explain how you tell your boss why you keep jumping up and walking around for no obvious reason, it just says that you better do it OR ELSE you are in for a world of pain!
nteresting how the old becomes new and the new gets old. Computer use in business and the home has made sitting for hours at a time a given. It has created a “sitting culture.” That’s NEW. OLD is the idea that walking and standing, moving ones body is good for you! According to the recent news science gurus, doctors have recently discovered that sitting can KILL you. Oh, please, let’s break this down even more. Like for instance why NOW? So many dangerous things for us to contemplate. Right? Smoking, booze, drugs, air, water, food, chemicals of all varieties, dust, weather, people, politics, sex, the list is endless, and now add to it “sitting!” Wow.
Many professionals have to sit as part of their professional pursuits. For hours. Most of us get up naturally to stretch our legs, walk around as part of our day, but not as a regimented fear -based routine. Or because it’s the cool thing to do. Or because Sanjay Gupta said so. So does this mean that in the workplace chairs should be removed for part of the day, as a forced requirement to get people healthier??
But we know that it’s about the future. The past is history. Sitting it seems is getting old school. It is getting some bad rep. Jogging, gym use, spinning classes, being fit, has increasingly become the norm. It’s only the sluggish, uninformed, un disciplined who haven’t figured out their sport of choice, their thing they do that keeps them upright. Vertical is hip. Horizontal – not so much. And now it’s confirmed by the experts, which gives it instant credibility!
Writers sit. A lot. Painters stand. A lot. Chefs, stand. Always. Musicians both sit and stand. Potters sit. Gurus sit. Cat Stevens, now, Yusuf Islam sings about “Sitting”. “Sitting on my own not by myself, everyone’s here with me” he states the obvious, but then goes on to recant that “we’re right back where we started from”. Hmmm. History. Most jobs will involve a standing -sitting balance occurring naturally during the course of a day. It’s not a big deal. But when we are told by society’s powers that be, that suddenly it IS a big deal! Stop sitting! Then it becomes a very different situation. In corporate, the business world, in tech jobs, and more. So what’s the answer? New office spaces designed for standing room only? Used to be that was the punishment for not affording a theatre ticket, or getting to the show late after everyone was seated! It could be that it is the new normal. The new black. The new cool thing. We don’t want to get caught sitting after all it’s NOT GOOD FOR YOU!
When I think of life in a World where standing, walking, running, skipping, hopping, jumping become the way to go, the healthy, cutting edge standard, it’s not such a far out concept. We could reach that reality, sooner rather than later! It’s no different from the recent taboos focused on – red meat, soda, asbestos, eggs, cigarettes, water, fruit juice, veal….the list goes on and on.
for the magic to do its work and reveal the photo waiting to appear from the chemicals. Digital makes that process obsolete. It’s fast, functional, and perfection is the goal. It’s the way today!