Hi everyone,

I just got back this weekend from one of my painting trips. I went to Salt Spring, in the Gulf Islands just off the coast of British Columbia. We rented a house on St. Mary Lake. We visited art galleries and art studios. We talked art and we lived art. And we painted. This complete immersion in art is very inspirational. This past week was very productive. I came home with 3 finished paintings and one half-way there. It%92s hard work, but it%92s such a nice break from every-day matters and worries and stresses. It%92s refreshing and inspiring and wonderful.

I%92ll be taking pictures of my 3 new ones and posting them later this week. Watch for them.

“I always thought I couldn%92t create art unless I was %92inspired%92. Now, I find that inspiration is a by-product of discipline - simply getting up everyday and planning, plotting, sketching, setting up or applying paint to a painting. The inspiration comes during this process of discipline." (Beverly Claridge)

Comments always welcome.

Suzette

What do YOU dream about? I don%92t mean nighttime dreams over which we have no control, although those can be pretty interesting too. No, I mean daydreaming, wishful thinking, the %92if I won the lottery%92 kind of dreaming.

So what%92s your dream? What would you do if you had the means?

For me, there are a few things. But mostly, it would be about living the artist life. One scenario has me living on Salt Spring Island with a nice property and studio, but with a nice apartment or townhouse in Maple Ridge. So I could go back & forth between the two, enjoy the artist bohemian life in Salt Spring, but still maintain my ties and friends in Maple Ridge.

In another scenario, I would open an artist co-op facility. It would be a large building which would include individual studio spaces, a teaching space for workshops and classes, a large gallery space and a gift shop. A number of artists would have studios and would take turns teaching classes. Different artists would be invited to show in the gallery. Local artisans would sell their art in the shop. It would be a busy community of artists, students and art lovers.

Isn%92t it fun to imagine such things? Even though these two particular scenarios will never come true (unless I win the lottery), it is fun to imagine, to answer the question %92what would I do if I could?%92. I believe it%92s good for us to daydream, I actually read that somewhere. And for us creative folks, what%92s more creative than to imagine new wonderful adventures for ourselves. You never know what it might lead to.

What%92s YOUR dream? Share with us by clicking on %92comments%92 below.

Suzette

You see things and you say %92Why?%92, but I dream things that never were, and I say %92Why not?%92 (George Bernard Shaw)

Last month, I talked about happiness and what it means to be happy. Today, I%92d like to talk about success. Happiness and success usually go hand in hand, don%92t they? Or do they? What is success? What does it mean to be successful?

There are obviously many different ways of being successful. The key is finding out which one is important to you, which one will make you happy.

There is personal success: being well adjusted, confident and happy about who you are.

There is life success: having close friends, a spouse and children if that is what you want; in other words, having achieved a level of intimacy with close ones, that is fulfilling and rewarding.

There is professional success: having found work that is enjoyable and fulfilling, and that pays sufficiently for a nice living.

There is artistic success: having found a passion, like painting, and being able to pursue it, as well as being able to achieve a level of proficiency in that passion, that it is both challenging and rewarding.

There is artistic recognition success: being recognized by your peers through professional organizations, competitions, awards.

There is artistic financial success: being able to generate sufficient sales to make a living from your art.

Those are the ones that come to mind at the moment. I am sure there are many more.

So, as part of our search for happiness, we need to ask ourselves %92what does success mean to ME?%92 and %92have I achieved success as I define it?%92.

It may be that a well-considered answer to these questions may turn out to reveal to us that we have indeed been successful where it counts, and that discovery may in fact contribute to a higher level of contentment and happiness.

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful." (Albert Schweitzer)

Your comments are always welcome.

Suzette