Making connections

Yesterday the wonderful Doris Stahl of http://art-affair.blogspot.com/ asked for my favourite line of my favourite song for a series of images she is producing based on a collection of peoples suggestions.

Without hesitation I sent her a line from Starry starry night, by Don McLean then looked it up on You Tube and found several beautiful versions with Van Goghs images set to the music. Looking at the images I remembered being in the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam when I was 17 (yes 30 years ago) and taking illegal photos of some of the images hoping i would not be arressted.

I then realised that I have had a beautiful minature enamel teapot for the last five years on my kitchen dresser with Van Goghs images on each side. And I also have a rather sick cartoon of Van Gogh having difficulty keeping his glasses straight that has been dog eared in my diary for years.

Then it hit me. Starry Starry night is about Van Gogh, whom I have been connected to since I was very young and my little ebook was called Sunflower Seeds, and of course, Van Gogh was famous for his sunflowers more than any other painting. Doh!

Never realised how connected the teapot is to my favourite song, the song to my favourite artist and the artist to my Little Book of Sunflower Seeds (and other bits of good news and happy thoughts).

It took a german artist living in Orpington who is on a mission to produce a prolific amount of work in time for an exhibition in August to highlight an Irish womans subconcious connection to a dead Dutch man!

If you want to listen to something really beautiful and look at something special at the same time, check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkvLq0TYiwI and stop what you are doing for 4 mins and 20 seconds. You'll be glad you did!

A sunflower seed about to take root

This morning I made a decision that has been germinating in my brain for a long time. In October of this year I will be having an art exhibition.

Not as part of a group, not in partnership with another artist but on my own and by myself.

The thought of it is as exciting as it is terrifying but there is no point whatsoever in encourging people to be themselves, do what they want and not putting my money where my mouth is.

And like all things big and scary, once the decision is made the motivation is natural and I have set a target of 35 paintings, of which I have 13. No pressure there then. At all.

I love to paint and the more I paint the more other work comes in and the more I find time to do the things I enjoy and having had two previous exhibitions in almost twenty five years, its high time I went for my own precious goal and see what happens.

The decision was crystalised in a coaching conversation with a colleague in fifteen minutes this morning (Fidelma Greene www.fidelmagreene.com, no point in being a coach if you dont have one!!!) who realised her own sunflower seed come to life recently when she delivered a powerful seminar called 'Leading with Spirit and Soul'.

Once Fidelma got clear on what she wanted the seminar to be about, her natural gifts and talents kicked in and she led a powerful day that will be followed up in September by an equally powerful seminar.

So today I am finishing the images for Sunflower seeds (getting copyright issues sorted) and buying 15 canvass's before I change my mind and spend another winter wondering if I should do this or not, assuming with total Colgate confidence that everything I need to make this happen will kick in and all I have to do is plant the seed in a sunnyplace and give it light and water.

Invites going out in September!!!

Sunflower Seeds, taking off....and a real challange.

Having slaved for 3 years over a novel which I loved writing but can see why epics take lifetimes, I wrote Sunflower Seeds (& little bits of good news and happy thoughts) over two nights in 3 hours.

I sent it out in pdf as a little pick me up for clients/colleagues etc.

I am overwhelmed with the amount of people who want a print copy.

You have to laugh!

So now I have the challange of finding a printer that dosent want a kidney or a pint of blood to produce this simple little book, so I can sell it on my website/amazon/bookshops and anywhere anyone wants it.

Simple.

The book that is, the challange is not.

In the meantime, if you want a free copy of the ebook version before we hit the printers,

just email info@mcdonaldcoaching.com with Sunflowers in the subject line and you will have a copy in your inbox in jigtime.

This week continues to be miserable on the news, and beautiful on the beach across the road from my house, hard to reconcile chaos in the economy with a blue and silver tide and the smell of sweat pea.

In every recession there is an oppurtunity, in ours I think the oppurtunity is to look for ways in which we can help. Whether its clients, friends, colleagues, family or just people you meet, take inspiration from Arvind Devalia and see how you can make a contribution to make someone's day brighter. Check out his amazing work on Web: http://www.arvinddevalia.com/. and his latest book http://www.getthelifeyoulove.com/ which by pure coincidence, and ironic given that he is highly allergic to sunflower seeds, has a sunflower on the front cover!!

I have known Arvind for several years and he is a genuinly caring person, making a huge difference to the world. Now THAT is a REAL challange!!