I stumbled upon these photos today. They made me think once again about beauty and war. Actually about how thin is the border between them.

These are signs of beauty and acceptance in Mursi tribe, Ethiopia.

Photo by Eric Lafforgue

This is what a woman has to endure in order to get to this kind of beauty. I call it declaring war to yourself.

Photo by Eric Lafforque

Just looking at an image and ignoring what it explicitly says, can trigger a metaphor that can lead you to a surprising space.

This is what happened to me today.
I stumbled upon an image.

Photo by Craig McDean

Then the following 10 things happened in the next 5 minutes:

1. I thought: “This image is eye-catching.”

2. I stared at the image for 5 seconds.

3. The first word that came to my mind when seeing it was “reverse”.

4. I asked myself: “What are the reversed things that seem interesting to me?”

5. My answer was: “Reverse thinking appeals to me.”

6. I googled for the concept of reverse thinking.

7. This is what I found.

8. I said to myself: “I want to experience this.”

9. I thought: “This is an idea that makes me happy” and I shared it on Trigwee.

10. I said to myself: “Now it’s safe. It won’t get lost among hundreds of ideas that cross my mind everyday. Even if I don’t practice reverse thinking right now, I will certainly stumble upon this idea every time I log in to Trigwee and I will end up doing it.”

My intention was to share a way in which I use Trigwee and how the image - idea philosophy is valuable to me. We are still figuring out what would people get out of using lists of visually represented ideas. So, you are welcome to share your thoughts. They would be extremely valuable to us.

These days I broadcast a question that seemed to come randomly into my head. It’s the question from the title.

I’ve got some interesting answers so far:

• “It’s a way to communicate beyond spoken language, and the conscious mind.”

• “A release.”

• “Why does one dream? Art is a stimulant we all are able and ready to make, when we dream it is only easier than when we stare into a canvas, or a heap of steal or clay. It is a drug, an opiate for the masses to wake up and shake the disease of what ever it is they feel they are stuck to. It is an eye opener to the blinded and departed. I make art for you to experience something new and exciting, take what I have given you, and evolve the frequency to fit your desires… And so on, its an infinite thing with marvelous proportions.”

• “This was a very complex question I must say! But I think the need to create is something that has always been a part of the human mind. For artists art is a way of expression, their voice in a sense. Why people consume art? Well, for some it might be just for the pure pleasure of looking at something beautiful or interesting. In cases of looking at older art, it might be to understand history better. Art is our most clear representation of older history, since written sources in many cases are sparse. But again, this question is very complex, and a multitude of answers can be given. Art is in many ways extremely subjective, and so is the answers possible.”

What is your opinion about this matter?

dreamsfromthevalley:

We are Catalina, Octav and Vlad, founders of Trigwee.com, the social network where you build your dreams and meet dreamers like you.

We designed Trigwee having in mind a purpose - people to know the dreams of humanity. Silicon Valley is a special area for the future development of the humanity, considering the importance of technology in today’s economy. In the same time, this area is populated by highly creative and innovative people that make an important impact on our planet. That is why we chose to highlight their dreams with the help of this project. Knowing what they are dreaming about, anyone can get involved and contribute to the creation of a better world.

There is also a question to be answered by the results of this project. Is there a connection between a person’s, a community’s dreams and their economical development?

We are going to ask a couple of questions intended to explore the dreams of each person. We answered these questions ourselves, here they are:

What’s your dream? The dreams of the people from Silicon Valley to be accessible worldwide

Photo credits: canbalci

What inspired you to dream it? A broader dream, that people know the dreams of humanity and also the huge impact that entrepreneurs, students, artists, investors, tech guys, teachers from silicon Valley generate in the world.

What’s the impact that you intend to achieve? If anyone will know what dreams of Silicon Valley are, anyone could get involved in order to contribute to the creation of a better, more interesting world. Also, as a result, we intend to publish a book with the same name and donate the generated revenue.

Who would you like to be involved in this dream? All extraordinary people from Silicon Valley area.

paintedquestions:

Asked by Octav Druta. Image copyright: India Richer

Here is a very famous story that I found today and I would like to share it with you.

A number of frogs were travelling through the woods. Two of them fell into a deep pit. All the other frogs gathered around the pit. When they saw how deep the pit was, they told the two frogs that they were as good as dead.

Photo credit: Tim Heraud

The two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump up out of the pit with all of their might. The other frogs kept telling them to stop, that they were as good as dead.

Finally, one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying and gave up. He fell down and died.

The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Once again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and just die. He jumped even harder and finally made it out.

When he got out, the other frogs said, “Did you not hear us?” The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time.

This story teaches two great lessons:

There is the power of life and death in the tongue. An encouraging word to someone who is down can lift them up and help them make it through the day.

A destructive word to someone who is down can be the push over the edge. Be careful of what you say. Speak life to those who cross your path. Anyone can speak words that can rob another of the spirit to push forward in difficult times.

Special is the individual who will take the time to encourage another. So my wonderful friends, always be kind and encourage others.

A question I painted for Paintedquestions.com.

The default future is a concept proposed by Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan in their book: The Three Laws of Performance. This is the future that each of us privately fear or hope for. It is not a fantasy we don’t believe in, but it’s something that seems like the truth about us and our future. For example, in a down economy, the default future for most of us is “spend less, work harder, grab for straws, panic that you’re likely to get laid-off or fired, be paranoid that others question your performance, dread the company won’t tell you how bad things really are - and hope or pretend that none of this is really happening, cross your fingers, pray for a miracle and wait for it to get better.”

Photo by Pablo Alfieri

Then there are the mindsets, which one can shortly describe this way: “Whether you think you can change things or not, you are right.” Have you ever heard this before? In her book called Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol S. Dweck discusses two fundamental mindsets that people tend to adopt, the “fixed” mindset and the “growth” mindset. According to her, people who adopt the fixed mindset believe that “we live lives mainly determined by heredity and that most of our attributes are, if not carved in stone, largely resistant to efforts to modify them”. Those with a growth mindset “see themselves and their lives as amenable to choices and effort. They are not wishful thinkers who think that simply believing something is possible is enough to make it happen. Growth mindset individuals are willing to make the effort required to bring about their goals and to realize their dreams.”

These concepts are some interesting tools one can use in order to redesign our futures. How so?

Photo by Virginia Kraljevic

First of all, in order to change a thing you have to be aware about the fact that that thing exists. So start by acknowledging the existence of the default future. Then, based on what your daily actions, thoughts, fears, doubts are, envisage your default future. What does it look like? Is it something you want to keep or rather cut and start fresh?

Then, play a little bit with your mindset. What’s the category you fall in? Make sure you are sure that the change is possible.

On the third step erase everything: remorse, feelings of guilt, of pride, prejudices. Imagine you have a piece of paper with a drawing on it. Then, imagine you draw something another over that initial drawing. What would your masterpiece look like? In order to have a beautiful, accurate drawing you should have a clean piece of paper, right? Think of the masterpiece as your life. Make a cleaning first, then start designing your future.

Now you have the positive mindset of a powerful person. You have a clean space on which you can build. Fill it up wisely. Dream big and beautifully. Dream your most desirable future. Action ambitiously upon your dreams!

I wrote originally this post for Trigwee blog.

While reading Iulia’s interview with Kathryn Elyse Rodgers, a fashion illustrator whose works I love, I stumbled upon this question: “What are the most challenging aspects of your job?” Kathryn’s answer was not surprising for me so as, I believe, any artist has the same problem - the lack of time:

Illustration wise, is keeping up with everything since I have to do it all in my spare time. I’ve had some very overwhelming days, because I want to do almost every project that is requested, but there is only so much time in a day and at the end of the day I’m the only one that is working on it. I can’t go out and hire help. That is one huge challenge. It’s all on me! I love it so much though, that it’s completely worth it. I just have to start deciding which projects are more important, and which ones I have to let go of. The biggest stress for me is time.

So I started thinking whether it’s possible for someone else to “take” your talent and to do your job for you? Perhaps some of you will say NO! I would have said the same a while ago, too. A while ago, until I have read Coco Chanel’s story and until I have seen Karl Lagerfeld’s Spring Summer 2010 fashion show for Chanel.

So, the hypothesis I’m proposing is: You can “teach” someone else your talent. But, you really have to be passionate about what you do, love it with all your heart. So much as to give up your ego. You have to be willing to give your talent away. You really have to be grateful for what you have received and be generous. It’s more about the attitude than the action itself. The actions will actually follow. I believe this is what Coco Chanel did. That’s why the brand survived it’s creator. Her talent is still alive though the first hands that materialized it into clothes don’t exist anymore.

I agree, to “teach” someone else your talent is a big challenge, but there’s nothing impossible, right? What do you think?

Would you like a similar video for yourself?