Sailing into the Season

"The Pacific Northwest-Anacortes, WA"

(Small watercolor study)

The calendar declares today December 1st.  The Christmas season is here....ready or not.  Most of us would prefer the "ready" part.  This all implies that there is a need to prepare. The question follows...prepare for what?  Your answer reveals what your focus will be.  For some, it may be hitting all the malls and stores for good shopping deals, getting the long list of names on the Christmas list crossed off.  That makes me tired already.  For others, it may be attending the numerous concerts and parades.  For still others, it entails getting out the family recipes for great-grandmother's plum pudding or other generational dishes.  For some, it is selecting the Christmas tree, putting up all the decorations and hanging the lights.   

Those activities can all be enjoyed if attended to at a good pace and with time management. But I encourage you to get to the heart of "the what" it is for which you are getting "ready".  The bottom-line reason for this season and all its accompanying activities is to celebrate the first Advent of Christ 2,000 plus years ago in Bethlehem.   Many of us know that and would say that is our focus.  The difficulty comes in maintaining that as the foremost purpose of the season.  So much activity and lists of things to get done can rob us of the peace and joy that this historic event is meant to bring.  So I encourage you to be deliberate in your focus and intentional in preparing for your observance of Christmas.  One way is to celebrate Advent with daily readings in Scripture.  Books are available that provide readings and meditations. Another way is to immerse yourself in the rich, beautiful Christmas music.  One such source I enjoy is the classical King FM Christmas Channel from Seattle streaming online.  This channel plays only the beautiful and best of the Season's music, not the tinny jingles that have nothing to do with Christ's birth.  

Before the paling of the stars,

Before the winter morn,

Before the earliest cock-crow

Jesus Christ was born:

Born in a stable,

Cradled in a manger,

In the world His hands had made 

Born a stranger.

---Christina Rossetti

Here's a favorite Christmas carol of mine that brings a quiet hush to one in the midst of all the going's-on of this wonderful season:  

Live bravely and beautifully!

The Bugler of the Yellowstone

"Bugler of the Yellowstone"

24.25" x 31.5"

$580.00 USD

Available

Did you know that elk once roamed nearly all of the United States and parts of Canada? With the expansion of explorers, fur trade, railroads, settlers, and the gold rush came the encroachment of Native American wildlife habitats.  Large numbers of species were greatly diminished or caused to become extinct.  Thankfully, with conservation and sportsmen's groups working together, the elk are living in various parts of the country again.   One such group is the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.  They state that herds are now located in the western United States, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina.

The bull elk can weigh around 700 lbs. and have antlers weighing 40 lbs.  Their antlers can grow more than an inch a day during summer growth.  They lose their mighty headgear later in winter after the rut season and mating are over.  I have had the privilege of being in the Rocky Mountains during the fall rut season and hearing the elk bugling all around me as I painted.  Here is a sample video of that wild sound:  

I greatly enjoyed the entire process of woodburning this bull elk on birch panel.  If you love the wild outdoors or know of some sportsman who would enjoy having this elk hanging in their den, please contact me.

Lastly, this is Thanksgiving Day here in America.  We have so much for which to be thankful!! May yours be a joy-filled thanksgiving!  My art manikin Michelangelo and my studio wildlife give their Thanksgiving encouragement!

Live bravely and beautifully!

Make Today Your Masterpiece

"Mt. Shuksan"

Small watercolor study

The great basketball coach John Wooden shared a piece of advise his father told him when John was 12 years old:  "Make each day your masterpiece."  Looking at the legacy John Wooden left demonstrates that he took that to heart.  That motto is available to each of us to incorporate into our lives.  What are some ways that you can do that?

1.  "Be where your feet are."  ---Cassandra Barney

We live in the age of attraction distraction.  The digital world slips into every available nook and cranny of our conscious lives.  Drive down a busy city street and you find people with their heads down and their cell phones up.  Constant checking of emails or social media messages can become a dictator and minimizer of our focus, productivity, and a life well-lived.

Counter that impulse with a desire to cultivate a rich and fulfilling life.   Be aware of what's happening in your world and with the people you care about.  Purpose to be outdoors beholding nature regularly.  Read a REAL book with paper and pages to turn.  Read often! Listen to great music and look at great art.  Engage in lively conversation with the people around you.  Notice everything...colors, sounds, smells, temperature, moods, activity, weather.

2.  "Life is the total sum of what you do with the moments given you.  ---Erwin McManus

Staying in the present demands focus.  What happened yesterday is past.  What entices you to worry about for tomorrow hasn't happened, is not guaranteed to happen, and probably won't happen, so why waste your precious time there?!  Today is what counts!  That is where your opportunity to create value and benefit people's lives exists.  Evaluate your time usage of each moment by asking critical questions like:  "Is what I'm doing right now in this moment making a difference for eternity, moving me closer to my goals, or helpful to other people?"  Never underestimate the power of the small!  If what you are doing right now is a wise choice though a seemingly small action, it will accrue interest for you down the road.  C.S. Lewis wrote:  "Good and evil both increase at compound interest.  That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of."  

All you have is today, these moments.  Make them count!  Make today YOUR masterpiece!

Live bravely and beautifully!

America Said Yes!

"Freedom Flying High"

Watercolor

What an historic week this has been in the United States!  The results of the national election are now realized.  America said "yes" to a whole new direction for the country!  

*Americans said "yes" to life!

All citizens, including the unborn, are included in the right to life.  Hopefully Supreme Court justices will now be selected that reflect the heart of the American people.

*Americans said "yes" to limits!

A country without borders is no longer a sovereign nation.  The laws of the land and the requirements to live in this land are to be upheld.  The safety of the country's own citizens and the needs of the veterans and homeless must be given a priority.  When a country can operate from a position of strength and flourishing, it is better able to care for the needs of a hurting world.  America welcomes legal immigrants who understand what made this country great and wish to assimilate and contribute to that culture.  As for the world chaos that has created a refugee crisis, there are better ways to care for those people groups closer to their countries of origin.  Americans are rejecting massive immigration without proper vetting of peoples' backgrounds and intentions for entering the country which endangers the safety of U.S. citizens.

Americans also said "yes" to limits to big government and it's overreach into our lives. The voters said "yes" to less taxation and more fiscal discipline in government."A Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of Government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess of the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that Democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy..." Professor Alexander Fraser Tyler writing when the states were still colonies of Great Britain, explaining why democracies always fail.  They said "yes" to limits on globalism and corporate agendas that do not serve the best interests of America.

*Americans said "yes" to liberty!

Our U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights is a cherished living document that safeguards our rights as free citizens.  Our elected officials are sworn into office promising to uphold the Constitution and abide by its laws.  "In a government of laws, the existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy." Justice Louis Brandeis

One final thought about the recent election is this:  no government or leader on this earth is perfect.  The effects of the fall and sin corrupt all of us, from the halls of government all the way to our own hearts.  Let us pray for wisdom for our leaders and for ourselves as citizens of a nation that we will all work for what is true and right and beautiful...that is art!  We ultimately look forward to what George Frederick Handel wrote in his masterpiece oratorio, The Messiah, :

Hallelujah!  

for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth

Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!

The kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our Lord

and of His Christ

And He shall reign forever and ever

King of Kings and Lord of Lords

Hallelujah!

Now for a little bit of presidential trivia...my family has had numerous encounters with Presidents of our country.  My second cousin Audrey had President John F. Kennedy speak at her college commencement address.  My older brother, Gordon Whitbeck, met with President George W. Bush regarding small business administration.  Here's a photo of my brother with President Bush:

And finally, I got to see President-elect Donald Trump on May 7th this year at a huge campaign rally in which I heard Mr. Trump speak.

(from my sketchbook that day)

Live bravely and beautifully!

Shakespeare and Your Vote

"Josie"

Small watercolor study

This coming week will contain an important event in the United States.  It will be Election Day, a wonderful opportunity for U.S. citizens to choose their leaders for the coming term by casting their votes.  It has been a wild and wearying campaign season.  I do encourage you to exercise your right to vote!

Sometimes it seems like corruption and greed loom large in leadership.  The task of overcoming strong powers that want to keep the status quo and use American taxpayer dollars freely without submitting themselves to the same systems can seem daunting.  Our leaders are violating the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights that they vow to protect.  But our vote is our voice!  Please exercise your right to vote.  It does matter!

You may think that it's too late to effect change or useless.  Let me remind you from history that many times when the odds have been overwhelming, the minority was able to overcome the insurmountable and win.  Remember the famous Battle of Agincourt in which England's King Henry V rallied his small battle-weary troup who were vastly outnumbered by the French.  Shakespeare immortalized King Henry's St. Crispin's Day speech in his play, Henry V.    Here is a video clip of it here:

Most of all, pray for the United States and the leadership it needs.  Pray that what is right and good will prevail, that selfish and corrupt interests will be exposed, that we will truly be one nation under God again, and that people's lives can flourish and thrive in our country.

Be strong, take heart, and...vote!

Live bravely and beautifully!

Effects of Attention Residue

"Racking Up the Points"

24" x 36"

Pyrography on birch

First, before I dive into a look at attention residue, let's deal with Mr. Moose here.  I just completed him this past weekend and now he is looking for a good home with ample supplies of water lilies, pine cones, lichen, moss, catkins, tall water grasses, and Moose Tracks Ice Cream.  

Okay, what is attention residue, you ask?  Research has been looking hard at our digital communication pattern, especially in the work place.  They have come up with this term to describe work strategies where you switch from some Task A to another Task B, but your attention doesn't immediately follow.  I have been reading Cal Newport's latest book, Deep Work:  Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, in which he addresses the impacts of distraction on our work.  He asserts that deep work is the only type of work that optimizes your performance.  His definition of deep work is this:  "Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your congnitive capabilities to their limit.  These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate." This is in contrast to shallow work which is non-demanding and often performed while distracted.

I think common sense would make Cal Newport's assertions obvious, but the research results with their stunning implications really drives home the import of what he is saying. One research findings on a particular company found that the company spent over a million dollars paying their employees to process emails instead of focusing on the specialized tasks for which they were hired.  Cal refers to this hard-to-measure amount of time that employees spend on email, social media, and in-house meetings as a metric black hole.  In our own personal lives, if we tracked the amount that we spend on social media per day, we would probably be astounded at the percentages.  It is a black hole that can steal valuable time on more important tasks if we aren't employing limits on ourselves.  

How does one make use of social media effectively without allowing it to become a tyrant with our time?  Cal Newport suggests some surprising but interesting solutions in his book that I'll not divulge here.  I encourage you to read the book.  Some things he touches on are rituals, downtime, embracing boredom, scheduling internet use, accountability, and working like Teddy Roosevelt.  

In another aspect, I wonder if the Deep Work aspect applies to our relationship with God. Are we making the time regularly to be in God's Word and allow Him to do that deep work in us, enabling us to become more like Him?  None of us is immune to the tyranny of the urgent, our busy work lives, the social sphere, and daily life.  Is that why God has reminded us in the Psalms to "Be still, and know that I am God!"  and "Be still in the presence of the LORD...".  As our Creator, He knows that we are only dust and that physically, emotionally, and spiritually we need times of quiet and deep focus on who God is.  This allows His restoring work that King David spoke of in Psalm 23: 

"The LORD is my shepherd;

I have all that I need.

He lets me rest in green meadows;

He leads me beside peaceful streams.

He renews my strength..."

When this is our priority, our performance and quality of life is enhanced.  We are able to deep focus and do our best work.  The world needs more of this kind of living!

Live bravely and beautifully!

Art and Fear

Tree Trimmers with a Bucket Truck

(by a 5 year old artist friend)

Remember when you were in Kindergarten and the task of drawing anything was pure joy?  Nothing daunted you in portraying the concepts you had in your head.  You charged into the project with confidence.   Now as an adult, you shrink from any kind of rendering and say the usual utterance, "I can't even draw a straight line!"  What happens along the way from childhood to adulthood that smothers and demolishes our creative endeavors?

For one thing, we become more self-conscious.  Suddenly we are no longer expressing ourselves freely, but are now aware that others are also creating and we start to compare our work with their work.  Alas...along comes the painful realization that maybe ours is not like theirs and is not "good enough"!  Ouch!  Away goes the pencil and paper, the crayons, the brush, the clay and we shut the door to that part of our lives.

Right now I am privileged to see mass production on a daily basis by the little five year old artist who portrayed the work above.  He is prolific!  Nothing daunts him.  If he gets an idea, off he runs to the well-stocked paper supply shelf.  Back at his table with head bent down, his hands are busy depicting the latest inspiration.  Then comes the jubilant and elaborate detailed account of what the drawing is all about.  It is precious to experience and inspires me in my art production.  My goal with my little artist friend is to keep the creative fires burning, to help him deal with creative works that disappoint him, to work with some that are fixable, and to keep moving on to the next work of art.  I hope he never loses that exuberance and confidence!

What are some tips that can help nudge you back onto the creative path?

1.  Recognize that everyone experiences insecurity and fear about what they create.  

2.  Just sit down and do something.  You are not going after a masterpiece.  You just want to create something that expresses what you are thinking or feeling about a subject.  Set a timer and draw for 15 minutes.  Do that every day for a week.  Keep a small sketchbook handy for those odd moments when you are waiting for something and capture a gesture or a leaf shape.  I was in a busy grocery store line that was slowly moving.  I whipped out my tiny sketchbook and quickly sketched the harried cashier.  

3.  Creativity involves a battle.  Steven Pressfield wrote his famous book encouraging artists called The War of Art.  He dealt with the issues of resistance in an artist's thinking to creating art work.  He said, "Creative work is a gift to the world and every being in it.  Don't cheat us of your contribution.  Give us what you've got."

Chris Orwig had this to say about creativity in his wonderful book, The Creative Fight:  

"The creative spark can easily get snuffed out.  It must be tended to like a campfire on a cold and rainy day.

"You have to go after [creativity] it to claim its prize.  Creativity requires a fight....it is about effort ...the secrets to becoming more creative are always accompanied by habit, practice, and work."

So grab your pen or pencil and join my 5 year old artist friend in the joys and wonder of freely creating.  And don't give me that "but I can't draw a straight line" excuse!  Straight lines are boring!  If you can write your name, you can learn to draw.  

Live bravely and beautifully!