Jan
11
As I mentioned earlier this week my first one-person exhibition of my art work in 20 years is now up. My last one-person show was at Smith Gallery on the UC Santa Cruz campus in 1991. I moved to Oklahoma in 1994 and gave up being an exhibiting artist for a while. My first piece in a show in Oklahoma was at Apertures Gallery in 2005, 11 years after moving here.
What that means is that most of my exhibiting art life I have been a ‘could-be’. Sometimes I have been an ‘are’. For while there I thought I was a ‘has-been’ wondering about my ‘might-have-beens’. What I am glad about though is no matter what happens in the future I will never be a ‘never-was’.
There is one, and only one reason, I won’t be a ‘never-was’. Because I made the effort to make something happen. I made that effort again and again and again. I took advantage, I networked, I got things in on deadline , I paid attention and I woke up each morning willing to do it again. Most of all, more important that any other thing, is I kept doing the work. All the time, any time, I did the work.
It doesn’t matter if I spend most of my time as an ‘are’ – well known with accolades and money, or most of my time as a ‘could-be’, hoping for those things and the opportunities it brings. What matters is that I did the work. The work is what guarantees I won’t be a ‘never-was’.
Are you doing your work?
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, an artist with an exhibition up at Living Arts of Tulsa until Jan. 26th. You should go see it.
Quote by Milton Berle, a funny man.
Oct
23
I am down in Waco, Texas at the Baylor University homecoming. Our daughter, Caitlin, is a typical sleep-deprived, coffee-infused college student. Not enough time, too many obligations. Everything is hard and will end in certain disaster. Except it never does.
I really think college is much less about learning stuff and much more about learning yourself and your limits, and how many times you can go over that limit and still survive. So far, so good for Caitlin.
Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Mar
03
>Hola travelers! The Napkin Dad is on the road in Waco, Texas taking care of my daughter after her back went out. I thought I would take the opportunity to photograph (with my iPhone) the napkins in the situation I find myself in. This was taken at ‘Common Grounds’ a college coffee house near the Baylor University campus.
One of the things people forget is that treating other people well while treating your children badly is not very effective. They can’t just watch you as a witness, they need to see, feel and hear your direct care and love for them. Of course they do if you are a good parent, but even good parents have to make choices in response to childrens’ behavior and attitudes.
Are you the adult? Then prove to them you are one by responding as you would like them to respond to their children when it is their turn. There is no better and more effective way of paying it forward to the world than that.
Of course, the secret they can’t possibly know until they have a child of their own is that what they see as your ‘sacrifice’ or the ‘burden’ they are for you is so trivial compared to the complete and utter privilege it is to be granted the gift of loving someone so completely. They don’t yet know that good parents would rather take care of their children than do anything else in their life. Nothing else has the meaning, the value, the fulfillment of that.
