We are getting flooded with all these “brands” mostly new ones. Being in the apparel industry for 7 years now I get to see a lot of new clothing companies while staying up to date with the current power houses: Nike, Billabong, Forever21, Quicksilver, etc; there is tons. As I stated these new “brands” are just being thrown at us from every outlet that the “company” can use: facebook updates, tagging, tumblr, reblogs, twitter feeds, etc etc. This saddens me to see all these (mostly) young entrepreneurs just “branding” everything possible with their “brand”. As a potential customer that is exhausting to me. We live in an age of social media and being connected with whoever and whatever is going on, so it is only natural that these areas get flooded with “brands” by the (younger) entrepreneurs. My feelings on this is let your brand speak for itself. If you are producing a product that is well-made and “stylish” than with a little( i do mean a little) marketing your “brand” will go far. This all being said I do realize that companies have made it huge by doing this, and this is nearly my opinion on the matter. I just believe that a little, key marketing is all it would take if your “brand” can speak for itself.
From what I have gathered about art, in my personal opinion. It is more about what you can remove rather than what you can add. Much of the time I find myself adding and adding to my art only to later delete the majority of the unnecessary components that I happen to just “add” to the piece. To go all philosophical on everything, life has the exact same quality, as we tend to crowd our lives with the unnecessaries. In life we are always searching, always trying to fill that void in our life, when in reality we have everything we could ever need. I feel, if we were to keep things simple, whether it be in art or in life, that it would be exactly what we are looking for, no more or less.
As I sat watching fireworks in Kansas City with my girlfriend and best friend. Something crossed my mind.
There were fireworks going off all around us, some closer than our comfort level would like them to have been. But we stayed because they looked pretty. The fireworks going off around us were all small with an occasional medium sized explosion over our head with sparks flying. But on the horizon miles and miles away was the biggest and best fireworks.
This was a brief reminder that in life when there seems like chaos and loud, beautiful things happening right next to you, to keep your eyes forward and looking to the horizon. For what is coming is so much better than what is holding your attention at the time. To not focus on just what is around you but to take a look at the big picture and realize that even when life seems to be surrounding you, “closer than our comfort level”, breathe and know that what is on the horizon is so much better.
Don’t be afraid of chaos around you, embrace it and find the beauty that follows it, like fireworks, first the bang then show. But at the same time, don’t forget to keep your eyes cast on the horizon for there is things in the future that are so much better than today.
Unsaved artwork is No artwork.
First one into work today.
It was quiet, peaceful.
No humming of fluorescent lights or buzzing of the dryer as the conveyer spins round and round in essence not getting anywhere it hasn’t been.
No chatter of voices, no background sports talk radio.
May everyone find time in their day to be at peace, whether it be in the quiet or in the chaos of what’s going on around you, pursue peace.
Got get yours.
Taken with instagram
Can beauty ever die, I mean can something that is naturally and primitively beautiful ever truly die?
I don’t believe so.
I am struggling with a concept that is something that we Americans have implemented and quite frankly based our entire “giving/sharing” idea on. My heart is struggling between the rich and poor and the gap that is bridged by the “10% rule.” My struggle is not of who is better but of the equality that each has to offer. In Leviticus 27:30-33 the Lord tells us that 10% of our crop belongs to him. And that it is holy to the Lord. Now the struggle in my heart begins when Jesus tells the story of the rich putting their gifts in the temple treasury, followed by a poor woman that puts 2 copper coins (all she has) into the treasury. And Jesus says that the truth is that the woman has put in more than ANY other. Because she, even in her poverty, has given all she has, to live off of. Now to me there is a large gap that is created between the rich and the poor in this story, that is bridged by tithing (giving 10%). I believe all of what we have is already the Lords. And in my struggle I posed the question to my mother. Out of all respect to her, her answer only made the gap wider and the bridge longer. She told me that the millionaire christians were most likely giving millions of their dollars away to charities and churches and such. Amounts that we as non-millionaire people couldn’t even fathom. And that they tithe 10% of their earnings as we tithe 10% of ours, creating an equality that we should respect. I would like to believe that we bridge this gap by not giving 10% of our crop but giving up to the Lord what is already his, our life in its entirety. Because what is giving up a few million dollars if it means nothing to your comfortable well being, or what is giving 150 dollars when it has no effect on our comfortable financially stable life. So I hope that we can get out of our comfortable lives and not be equally comfortable on our own “class” level by giving 10% but to give our lives and everything in it to the Lord. And we can be equal in that.
I sometimes wonder if the surfaces and the lines that are created understand the texture that each holds and each has to offer; or if we as humans understand what we hold and what we have to offer.
“If grace is an ocean then we’re all sinkin’ “
God truly loves each and every one of us, we as individuals either accept this love, cannot accept, don’t realize it’s there, or reject it. As Mcmillan sings over and over “woah… how he loves us” I can only feel the peace that it gives me, knowing that he is there and he wants to be right by my side through everything. I want others to feel this same love, and at the same time I want to not only point them in the direction of God but to love individuals as I have been loved. So I pray that I do not become another worldly statistic, but instead I be able to accept love and to furnish love.
Thanks.
I see ghosts out my window, and just as my heart starts to race, I realize they are only reflections of what’s inside.
