You have to be an egomaniac.
You have to have a little bit of talent.
You have to have a massive amount of luck.
-Leonard Baskin
It's not so much egomania as intense focus- self absorbtion is not really the same as egomania.. I have no social life right now, but that's ok because I am excited and fulfilled by the work….
I am painting very, very intensely still getting work done for the Bellevue Artsfair show. which has to be shipped out to the west coast in three days. Success is about hard work and being in the right place at the right time. Andrew Russell Towl says that you make your own luck.
This painting of a black oyster catcher nest on a stony beach with remnants from a Haida sculpture is for the show. I've been immersing myself in north western Native imagery- reference material that I have had since writing This is Our Forest- the children's musical about ancient forests. Sigh. Another lifetime!
I did just take time to read an editorial by Nicholas Kristof about Three Cups of Tea.
It is of course, brilliant: both the editorial and the book. Kristof speaks to the success of Greg Mortenson's school building diplomacy, as contrasted with the Bush administration's policy of giving immense sums of money to governments. I had assumed fearfully that Mortenson's schools were being demolished by the Taliban along with other schools, but apparently they are not.
Did we learn nothing from our decades of continual tragic errors in Latin America?
Here is a link to the Kristof article.