Focus on Your Dream

Snow Dreams, 12x12 pastel

“My father encouraged me to focus on my dream instead of the obstacles to achieving it.”

So often we focus on obstacles and lose site of our true mission and why we started something. We get caught up in the hardships of success and the more masculine business aspects; writing a business plan, strategic long-term planning, securing finances, etc. We see obstacles instead of solutions because in the moment our imaginations are not expansive enough and won’t allow us to go beyond a certain way of thinking.

That’s why it’s crucial to keep your eyes on the dream. The dream is where you started and fulfillment on it is where you’ll end up. Everything in between remains to be seen and obstacles along the way are just that—obstacles, not hindrances to dream achievement.

--from Ladies Who Launch at ladieswholaunch.com

Sandzen: Ecstasy of Color

Sandzen: Ecstasy of Color : Colorado Public Television, KBDI 12 in Denver, Colorado

January 2
Denver 7 p.m./Austin 8 p.m.
KBDI 12

You can watch this on line. Click on the link above. Tune in at 8pm January 2nd. Sure looks like an artist to know about!

Reality Check

Looking Out from the Rabbit Hole

This time of year we all tend to get a bit introspective. We examine our achievements and judge whether or not we are reaching our goals, becoming successful or in need of an over-hall, at the gym, in our relationships, at work or on the mountain top. I found this article on choosing priorities a helpful reminder...and a good reality check into my own!

"Success in life depends upon persistent effort, upon the improvement of moments more than upon any other thing. A great amount of time is consumed in talking nothing, doing nothing, and indecision as to what one should do. If one would be successful in the future, let him make the most of the present." --Mary Baker Eddy

"Choose Your Priorities" by Ralph Marston

Your priorities are not determined by what you say they are. Your most genuine priorities are expressed by what you actually do with your life and your time.

Look around you, and you'll see very clearly what your priorities have been up to this point. Those priorities have brought you to where you are right now.

If something is truly a priority for you, you absolutely are able to find a way to reach it. If it's not a priority, it's probably not going to happen for you.

You can set your priorities and you can change them at any time to be whatever you choose. But merely wishing for something does not make it a priority.

The priorities that are really priorities are the ones that dictate where you focus your awareness. The priorities that truly matter are the ones in which you invest your interest, your attention and, most importantly, your action.

You can follow whatever priorities you choose, and in every moment you are constantly choosing. Remember, as you go through each day, to choose those priorities that will bring the special joy and fulfillment that is yours to live.

Copyright ©2008 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. All rights reserved for greatday.com

Being Now

First Kiss by S'zanne Reynolds

I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life - and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do. --Georgia O'Keeffee

Always do what you are afraid to do. --Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Just Do" by Ralph Marston

There is no need to try. Just do.

Feel what you feel without judgment or regret. Those feelings connect you with the power of your authentic purpose.

Use your head wisely to follow your heart faithfully. There's much that you can think, and yet even more that you can know.

Let the experience of each moment come, and then let it go. Rest assured that the goodness will stay with you always, because you love it so.

Be now in spirit where you would most like to be. Imagine waves of pure joy as they carry you along.

Somewhere within you, all is well, no matter when, no matter what. Feel the peace of knowing the beauty of who you truly are.

Copyright ©2008 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. All rights reserved for greatday.com

Just Keep Swimming

I love the character Dory in the movie "Finding Nemo". She never sees the big picture, has no clue where she is going, often forgets who or where she is. Optimistic and caring, she just keeps on swimming towards the goal, one fin at a time, and sings about it! "Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming, just keep swimming." She makes it in the end. Here's a bit by Ralph Marston on the subject of achievement:

"Pathway to Achievement" by Ralph S. Marston

The best way to figure out how to do something is to do it. Make the commitment to make it happen, and you'll start working your way through the details.

Don't get bogged down speculating on how something will come about. Instead, get started on the best approach you have, and follow the path wherever it may lead.

When traveling along a road, you can never see the entire road at once, but that doesn't really matter. What does matter is successfully making your way through the portion of the road that is right in front of you.

Work through the things that are to be done right now, and you'll put yourself in position to handle the things that come along later. Travel down this section of the road, and you'll then be able to travel the next section, and the next.

If you put all your energy into worrying about every little detail of how to reach your goal, you won't ever get started. Instead, put your energy into reminding yourself why you have chosen to go there, and then do whatever it takes along the way.

You'll never know precisely how something is to be done until you actually do it. So go ahead, get started, and discover your own unique pathway to achievement.

Copyright ©2008 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. All rights reserved for greatday.com

HURRY to save $50 on Pastel Workshop

Pastel workshop is only $150...through Friday, Dec. 31.
After Friday, classes go back up to $200.

Plan some post-holiday fun and take some time for yourself. Beat the winter doll-drums with exciting pastel classes!

In my pastel workshops, students will strengthen drawing and painting skills while discovering and/or fine-tuning their own painting style. I'll work with you one-on-one to facilitate establishing individual daily painting practices or rituals, to increase productivity and instill more confidence and freedom. All levels welcome.

Monday Pastel Painting Group $150
Mondays, January 10-31, 12:30-3:30 p.m. (4 three-hour sessions)
@ Hobby Lobby on 183/Lamar
8000 Research Blvd Austin, TX 78758

Tuesday Glass Painting Class

Ring in the New Year from your own hand-painted champagne flutes. It's the perfect activity for visiting family and friends. I'll be there to help you paint a pair of flutes, and if YOU bring an unopened champagne bottle, you can paint the bottle to match your glasses.

Tuesday, December 28
6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
at Cafe Monet, Triangle location
4700 W. Guadalupe
512-906-2200

$35 per person
Couples (or 2 friends) that sign up together, SAVE $5 each.
Extra pairs of flutes available for $10 per person.

Flutes and paints provided. BYOB to paint or sip from. BYO food and snacks.

Far More than Usual

Haunting Red Spirits, 12x16" oil

This morning I found myself perusing a recent Christmas gift-- a delicious book on Georgia O'Keeffe called "One Hundred Flowers". The publisher described this excellent collection of paintings as being produced during a "period of extraordinary and sustained creativity".

Ah...extraordinary and sustained creativity...I feel a New Year's resolution coming on!

Sustained: adj. maintained at length without interruption or weakening; continuous.

Extraordinary: adj. far more than usual or expected; beyond what is ordinary or usual; highly unusual or exceptional or remarkable; syn. wonderful.

So "extraordinary and sustained creativity" would be uninterrupted or continuous creativity... which we all acknowledge would require a process of painting far more than usual which would, in fact, be wonderful!

So if extraordinary creativity is to paint or express oneself far more than usual, in a continuous manner...which would be wonderful...what would that look like in our life? and why aren't we doing more of it? Sounds so simple, yes?

If we at present, don't paint much at all...wouldn't painting "far more than usual" start with painting one hour a day? And, would continuous painting mean working on a canvas for a concentrated period of time, even if between loads of laundry or rain storms if you're a plein air painter...and not interrupting your train of thought by phone or internet? And wouldn't that be, wonderful?

Of course, many moments of continuous painting will add up to far more than usual on any given day. The above painting was done in three to four 15 minute increments over a 4 hour period of extreme weather in which I had to seek shelter for the majority of the time...or wait for skies to clear. But, you say, I was interrupted? Not really. I never stopped creating in my head or with my camera. I stayed in the creative zone...and it was quite a wonderful experience. The painting actually turned out better than some other creative efforts in which I'd completed the painting in two continuous hours.

I'm signing up for a little wonderful today and every day in the New Year...an extraordinary and sustained creative experience! Won't you join me?!

==============

Once you dance for a year,
it's part of your day.
I mean, it's prayer.
Dance your dreams each morning,
Let your images move in your body.

Coming Home to Myself
by Marion Woodman

Here's my adaptation:

Once you paint for a year,
it's part of your day.
I mean, it's prayer.
Paint your dreams each morning,
Let your images dance across your canvas.

Christmas Quietude

"Quietude"

"I love to observe Christmas in quietude, humility, benevolence, charity, letting good will towards man, eloquent silence, prayer and praise express my conception of Truth's appearing." --MB Eddy


"Blue Heaps"

I loved the idea that these qualities could be my Christmas list for enjoying the holidays. It also seemed to me that this would be an excellent list of qualities to express in a painting or while shopping for gifts, looking for a parking space, or cooking holiday cookies...as well as while spending time with family and friends this season...or any time of year, really. And they seem to be great qualities to share with our lonely or ailing friends as well.


"Her Majesty"

So wishing you quietude, humility, benevolence, charity, good will, silence and prayer time with the sweet angels of His presence, bringing us into the day star of our Christ-Being.

"Angels of His Presence"

"6th Street Cool" at Christmas in Austin

6th Street Cool

Had fun exploring east 6th street last night in downtown Austin. Found this great food court of trailers with live music and fire pits...enjoyed tasting the fried egg sandwich, fried pickles...and fried Oreos!


Bus and Trailer Food Court Delights


At the Window


What to order?


Pig Vicious Bacon Heaven


Pig Vicious Customers


Thursday night live music, food and fire pits


Copping a feel and a smooch!


The Local Yolk


Deviled Eggs and S'mores!



Night Lights


Fire Flies


Cheese Steaks, Burgers 'n Dogs


Number 19 and a lil' Christmas Tree



Santa's Stockings


Mr. Octopus Goes for a Ride


Looming Pinata


Lining Her Up



Pinata Fun


Ugly Banjos


6th Street Cute


Tip Your Dillo


Tail Lights

2011 Calendar for Sale

make custom gifts at Zazzle


Enjoy my photos from my October "Big Sky and Open Road" trip...all year long! From Sedona, Arizona to the Grand Canyon, enjoy the great outdoors with me. You can order your calendar directly from Zazzle. Click on the calendar image above. Merry Christmas!

What's Stopping You? Road Block or Mirage?

"Somewhere within each obstacle is a pathway for moving forward."

~Ralph S. Marston

Challenges on our journey to success often feel like insurmountable road blocks. Often we stop right there, never moving forward and give up on our dreams-- dreams of better health, the perfect love, the inspired painting, the big trip, the grand career, the great revelation. I find myself at the year's end, no closer to going on my painting trip than I was last year...no closer to a date for New Year's Eve, and not much closer to my ideal weight...or my ideal painting!

...or am I?

"What if the things you thought would hold you back actually were to provide you with new ways to move forward? What if within your greatest annoyances (you) could find your greatest effectiveness?" -RM

Even though it's not a good time to sell my house (or go on a diet), and even though it seems impossible to get financing for an RV (or find a date), and even though my bills are stacked high against me...I feel closer mentally to my goals than ever before. I'm having to find new ways to look for solutions that are making me clarify what I really want--and take a deeper look at what I'm holding on to and why.

"Instead of fighting against the perceived obstacles, take a closer look at them. Somewhere within each obstacle is a pathway for moving forward."

I'm also reminded of a possibility that I'd declared for myself over the last two years: "I am unstoppable creativity". So am I really being unstoppable creativity? Am I applying it to the house, the RV, the bills, the dates, the diet...not just my paintings?

"Consider that it's not the obstacle itself that's stopping you. What's stopping you is your assumption that you can be stopped." -RM

And, I find myself wondering if the so-called obstacles are rather more like a road mirage than a road block. Notice my photo above. It looks like a huge boulder will be further down the road, preventing me from going forward...the end of the road! Yet, I know, because I've been there, that the road will continue to take me around what is really a small mountain. It looks like there is an obstacle directly in my way, but in reality, there is none.

"Yet you can change that assumption. You can choose to find a successful way through the situation, whatever it may be." -RM

How many of life's problems are just like that? And, how many of life's solutions are already inside us, waiting to be discovered? I made just such a discovery this fall. I'd been thinking that I have to strive for perfection...the perfect painting, the perfect life, etc. I began to see that I have everything I need in me already to create the perfect Zanne picture of life. In fact, I cannot not paint a Zanne painting or somehow stop being Zanne. It's going to come out just as it's supposed to...in certain colors, tones and a specific point of view...in true Zanne fashion...a perfect, Zanne work of art....a perfect Zanne life!

"The various challenges that come your way can be quite intimidating. Yet when you let go of the intimidation, you'll see that those very same challenges are filled with opportunities." -RM

We each of us have what we need to be who we are...to express perfect health, love, creativity and supply...in the way that is uniquely us. These forms of self-expression are innately a part of us...how we are already made and inherent to our being. So what of the road blocks? Aren't they just there to help us on our journey of self-discovery?

"Embrace those obstacles, embrace those challenges. For they are essential components of your eventual achievement." -RM

=========
Inspired by a tid-bit by Ralph S. Marston:

"What if the things you thought would hold you back actually were to provide you with new ways to move forward? What if within your greatest annoyances could find your greatest effectiveness?

Instead of fighting against the perceived obstacles, take a closer look at them. Somewhere within each obstacle is a pathway for moving forward.

Consider that it's not the obstacle itself that's stopping you. What's stopping you is your assumption that you can be stopped.

Yet you can change that assumption. You can choose to find a successful way through the situation, whatever it may be.

The various challenges that come your way can be quite intimidating. Yet when you let go of the intimidation, you'll see that those very same challenges are filled with opportunities.

Embrace those obstacles, embrace those challenges. For they are essential components of your eventual achievement."

Copyright ©2008 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. All rights reserved for greatday.com

=========

Putting One Foot in Front of the Other

"The people who succeed in this world are the people who get up
and look for the circumstances they want, and,
if they can't find them, make them."
- George Bernard Shaw

Today one of my blog followers shared a wonderful excerpt by Ralph S. Marston, Jr. (thank you!) that can be applied to any goal your reaching for... from dieting to painting to finding your true love! Enjoy...

Intention into Reality by Ralph S. Marston, Jr.

The moment you have the intention is the moment to begin moving steadily toward the fulfillment of it. Habits, distractions, procrastination and discouragement can stop you if you let them, so make the decision not to let them.

Your desire to persevere can be stronger than anything, which stands in your way. Every single moment you have the option of continuing in the direction of achieving what you intend to achieve.

The moments will pass whether you make full use of them or not. They can lead to achievement or to regret. If you're sick and tired of enduring the sting of regret, you do not have to experience it even one moment longer. Always, you can choose to give all you have to all you can be, and what a grand experience that is.

Always you can choose to put the moments to work, to put yourself to work making a difference, making headway, making it happen. Always, you can choose to take one more step in the direction of your goal, and after that another step, and another.

There is no deep, dark secret for turning intention into reality, yet there is every possibility for anyone who is willing. When you put one foot in front of the other, take one step and then the next, when you start immediately and then keep on going, whatever you intend to do will get done.

Copyright ©2008 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. All rights reserved for greatday.com

Crumbs of Comfort

I went to hear the Austin Symphony's performance of Handel's Messiah this week and the message was never so inspiring! Here are a few of the highlights:

For unto us a child is born.

It suddenly struck me that unto me a child is born! I always wanted to have my own children, but find myself without any. Then I realized, this Christmas babe is my Christ-child, too-- born to me not just annually, but every day, moment by moment, for me to cherish and love and care for. It made me consider, how well do we love our own Wonderful, Christ-child within? Do we tenderly care, nurture and feed our babe with patience, protecting our innocence as we would a small child? What does this babe look like in our lives? Perhaps it has the face of our creativity, our hope, our faith, our love? Or, even that sweet face that's looking back at you in the mirror!

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.

If you've ever tried online dating, then you KNOW what it is to be rejected by men! I had to laugh as a friend and I were just discussing how difficult it can be to be alone during the holidays and the fruitlessness of the current dating scene. How comforting it is to see that even the Master was rejected by men...not quite in the same way, but you get the idea. We've all known our own grief or disappointments. The Son of God has been there and back again before us, working and praying to show us the kingdom of happiness within. How nice it's been to turn my thought into giving unconditional love this season...no matter if my attentions are returned or not! And the fruits have been so inspiring since then!

Prepare ye the way of the Lord: make straight in the desert a highway for our God!

What's highway are we preparing for this next year? Is it the road to better health, the road to a new job, the road to selling more paintings, the road to love? Whatever your road is, let's remember to get on the fast track to fulfillment and get on God's highway--it's sure to lead to blessings everywhere we need it to!

Falling in Love with Graphite

Tone on Tone, graphite 5 1/4 x 4 1/8"

Nothing like rediscovering drawing! Thanks to a recent master class with Edward Povey, I'm seeing in a whole new light...and remembering how drawing has nothing to do with talent and everything to do with learning a craft and training yourself to see...much more simply. And, I think I'm beginning to fall in love with the graphite pencil!

Gift Certificates Available

Give the gift of painting...with a gift certificate of art classes and workshops.


Beginners to advanced...


Pastels, oils, acrylics...


$150 for four 3 hour classes...


or $35 for one 2 hour class.


Ages 10 to adult.


Don't be afraid to find your creative side!

Sign up NOW to Save $50 on Pastel Workshops!

Normally $200, 12 hours of class are only $150 through Dec. 31.
After the holiday frazzle, plan to take some time for yourself. Beat the winter doll-drums with fun and expressive pastels!

In my pastel workshops, students will strengthen drawing and painting skills while discovering and/or fine-tuning their own painting style. I'll work with you one-on-one to facilitate establishing individual daily painting practices or rituals, to increase productivity and instill more confidence and freedom. All levels welcome.

Monday Pastel Painting Group $150
Mondays, January 10-31, 12:30-3:30 p.m. (4 three-hour sessions)
@ Hobby Lobby on 183/Lamar
8000 Research Blvd, Austin, TX 78758

Please register with me by confirming the class via email first, and then sending me your check for $150 by December 31. Supply list will be emailed to you upon confirmation.

Have a safe and blessed holiday season, and many happy paintings in the new year!

Ringing in the Season

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