39 years ago, on the first day of summer holiday, I bought a holiday-pass. It was the first time that my small German village had such a holiday pass. One of the offered activities was a trip to an attraction park in the Netherlands. Oh, how much was I looking forward too this, it would have been my first time abroad! With the holiday pass in my bag I was on my way home, by bicycle, when a car hit […]
Local initiative Last Friday I was at the opening of COEN, a local initiative with workshops for artists to become more commercial. At the reception a theater maker told me how difficult it is for her to combine commercial thinking with creative action. We had an interesting conversation. Problems as artist ‘They want us artists to become commercial entrepreneurs. But as artist, I want to create without having to think about the commercial value. ‘ ‘I agree, it’s your creativity […]
Have you ever had a mentor or a coach, asking you where you want to be in five or ten or twenty years? I had a coach shortly after I became partner in the company. She asked me that question, and I didn’t know. I do my work, I know what I like and what I’m doing it for, without having a goal or a picture of where I want to be in five years. I felt like I was […]
Here’s your very own director’s chair. Are you ready for it? Are you ready to take direction of your own life and career? A director knows the direction, knows where he wants to go with the picture. He also looks at the actors from a distance, sees the big picture and works on it in the detail. He needs a certain distance and engagement at the same time. Are you able to look at yourself from a distance? Do you […]
This is a new word I’ve learned, abundance. It’s for plenty, opulence, exuberance. Julia Cameron writes a whole chapter about it in her book “The Artist’s Way”. And in the last week I stumbled over the word and the theme various times, so I guess it’s time to write about it. Let’s start with a common belief upon artists that represents the opposite of abundance. Many (wanna-be) artists think that they have to be careful with their art and creativity […]