Category Archives: balance

Feb 20 2 comments
balance, Japanese, Japanese Proverbs

>They Who Smile

>A vintage napkin from 2003, given to my daughters’ in their lunches. Two daughters (at the time) were in high school and I drew a napkin for each of them.


Of course, it’s a balancing act. It isn’t realistic to just smile at all things. If you do you aren’t able to protest injustice, you aren’t able to let your anger be known, among other things. But in the end, the angry raging person is unhappy, becomes shrill and unattractive and as a result is weaker and less able to be a positive influence in the world.

If you have trouble finding the smile inside, try to think about what you get out of being angry. What does it feed in you, what does it validate, or hold at bay? Do you really need that anger and rage to be successful or happy in life? Take a chance, let go of it, just a bit. I bet you will smile at the results.

Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily

Quote is a Japanese proverb

Dec 27 0 comments
balance, Jerry Garcia, originality, uniqueness

>You Do Not Merely

>The dilemma of the artist and their desire for attention, admiration, dissemination, success is in how to be unique but still have people be able to relate to you and your work.

When I was applying for teaching jobs back in the 80s and 90s I once had a Professor from UCLA, the Chairman of the Art Department, tell me that the job search committee loved my unique imagery. They admired my style and combination of disparate elements into a one-of-a-kind artistic statement.

He then wanted to know who my influences were and where my influences came from. He said that the committee had a hard to placing me in a continuum of styles and artists because I didn’t really fit any directly.

I explained the best I could but also mentioned that the influences were indirect in most cases and not a case of me directly developing my style from an immediate predecessor. He liked that answer but I didn’t get the job. There were a lot of reasons going into me not getting it I am sure. But I do think they weren’t comfortable with that element that made it hard to place me.

That is the essence of the dilemma for the artist.

Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily.

Quote by Jerry Garcia, 1942-1995, musician


Jun 13 0 comments
Arthur Schopenhauer, balance, friends

>Everyone's Friend is Nobody's

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napkin_09-26-03_friend

We have heard it again and again, but there will always be a part of most people that
wants everyone to like them, or at least not dislike them.

When raising my daughters I tried to strike a balance between teaching them not to
worry about having everyone like them and having them try to be kind and fair and
open to everyone they met. The result I hoped would be that indeed most people would
like them, but their behavior would be a result of wanting to do what is right and
kind not out of some desperation to be liked.

Of course children learn more from what you do that from what you say so they watched
their mother and I and saw two people who struggled with finding this same balance.
All I could hope is they saw us making progress in our efforts, not that they saw us
being able to achieve the balance perfectly at all times.


Apr 29 1 comments
balance, Frederich Nietzsche, living

>Why To Live

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napkin_01-06-04 - Why to Live

That sounds simple enough, just find out why to live. However, what struck me as I
uploaded this just now is that those people who have to struggle desperately with ‘how’
to live (poverty, war, concentration camps, illness) are the ones that usually find out
the ‘why’. Sort of a chicken or the egg type thing I suppose?


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