#writeitdown

im thinking about a venue with low lights, some nights....swank seats and conversation couches, refreshments...one where you enter through the middle room and have a seat towards the front...towards the venue windows...windows where the street view faces a stage...a stage with live music.. the stage has live painters with strokes to the beats....acoustic and mirrors catching lights...mini projections of beautiful edited videos...mic checks... thats what im thinking. Tonight i took some video...im thinking I need to get a better mic system for the filming...maybe the bluetooth system will work...beyond any of that - i have a couple of leases to make it all happen... its gonna happen...write it down.

 Downtown -900 Ryan Street Lake Charles, LA

combining art and changing lives.

2.9.2012 8 pm

a quiet night amongst the revelers...

The mini movie -with only 4 minor changes away from completion-we have completed. 

I am so proud to have combined a message with beautiful editing and composition-connecting the world with music, images and thoughts, using art and changing lives through it. 

wow. 

Today a woman wanted the collection; "strength". it must be for someone she knew that fought or is fighting cancer....she wanted the ribbon green.

it all made me think... the painting, the jewelry, the shirt and something else I forgot what it was that she ordered... 

How Does art change the world, how it really does connect in waves of passion and merriment...

how does mine, I ask myself

..i remember,

sometimes words are prayers...there are echoes in the silence. we captured THAT in this video I would say. Or at least its meant to give you one chill...

Idk

...sometimes it gets creative what we do. :) 

Coincidences with open eyes and capturing as much bliss as we one possibly can. 

I truly feel like I have recently completed a humble masterpiece. I believe it portrays my love and passion to create images and ideas...the paper and the pen through these entire manifestations, and how art can change people's lives. 

Dreamed up, have dreamed, lived, cried, starved, camped, wanted more...manipuated through paper and ink and printing presses, documented.

Do u know.?

I keep digging for more...

What is the next video about, I ask myself... or is it since I began this 3-d portfolio of millions of still shots...called video....that its all one large story?

only documented and shared using technology and the most creative concepts. We do that. You read it.

I could not be happier with what we are about to introduce to YOU!, or even what may be around the next corner.

Stay excited. 

Tennis has been really fun and Im taking this seaweed stuff... been feeling pretty good lately...

not writing as much as i want to, thinking about the next garden I would like to grow...

and about to light a fire on this near Mardi Gras Night.

thoughts... 

edited during a fire burnin'.

making room...

 January 11, 2013.  12:06 PM  (1742)

Sometimes we meet people in our lives....today is a new day.  And i think I have realized that it's pretty amazing...the feeling when you free up space to do something that you've wanted, or to allow yourself to be open enough to SEE the signs of what you have always wanted, or what we've put out there. I find myself talking alone and wanting to get these prayers out, or remaining grateful, the messages...these feelings of true passion... there is something else working in the background.  And If i try to do the right thing or my best or what i truly believe is right...trying to be at peace with the world, that's all my message is about.  If i can use technology to share that... i realize how my artwork connects many people...  and thats a whole other beast in itself is realizing that. THats what this film is about.

Its nothing I just recently realized...something i have always wanted to do. When we actually take the time to stop, to realize that it can happen,  if we make room for it...if you make room for something in your life that has inspired you, or a person that has inspired you. If we make room to realize why you loved that or why we didn't like that...is really, to me- why we are on this planet. Relationships. Energy. Spirituality. God. Music. Universe.  I believe in all of these things. I believe in something from many cultures, religions, prescriptions, eastern and western. Green or not. I don't know much, i'm just trying to learn it all, making it all up as i go along. And if i expose myself to things that i love, and surround myself with people who i want to be like. I want to be around people who are smarter than me, people who can teach me. People who can ultimately connect - love. If we truly love what we do, what can be better than that..than a world filled with people who all love what they do.  

My job on this planet, my message- is to share that through people, through work, through pieces of paper- which is ultimately how we know history and books and places and master paintings, the renaissance.  And The timeline goes on. I guess for years i've always wanted to be that person that was still alive that would be in history books, or to have made some of the most awesome pieces, because something inspired me and it was a shot in the dark. Its all about a shot in the dark. But I believe We have to make a first move...making that first move is about making room and making time to be alone, to be at one, to do the artist's way.  whatever it may be.    Sometimes I  realize how everything is connected by waves, and how what we put out there makes people feel and think. I always look forward to doing it in an empathic way, trying not to speak too much or too soon. I look forward to staying on the path, where ever that may take me. IF we can connect people by love and passion, whats better than that.

about me.

At a very early age I would sit on our gravel road in the country, sorting out rocks and fossils of all sizes, shapes and colors, trying to make sense of them.   I grew up witnessing my family's small farming business and would help my father in the crawfish ponds.   In my spare time I would draw or make little art pieces with anything I could find available.  I had pet raccoons, chickens and grew up near a bayou.  

      My life changed at the early age of 11.  In 1990,  John Sayles filmed a movie, "Passion Fish" in my hometown. It seemed like yesterday....  I met a "real artist" working on the backdrop paintings for the set of the film.  For years she stayed in touch with me, sending me books, paintbrushes, tools and her original drawings.  I knew this day that I was destined to become an artist.  The following year I was completely inspired when Floyd Sonnier (Lafayette Artist) drew with me at a French Festival.  To this day, I am completely interested in getting adults and youth involved in the art world, giving back just like those who inspired me.  These days I am currently filming a major video project, telling stories and documenting how art changes peoples lives. Because it changed mine.

   I grew up in the small town of Hathaway (12 miles North of Jennings, LA)  I have to admit that at an early age, 4-H changed my life because I was always involved in leadership projects, demonstrations, public speaking, and of course any creative project I could imagine.   I always wanted to be a fashion designer and I have always wanted to make a movie, and I will.   I have not held any other job other than doing what I love to do: connecting the world with my art.

     In 2002 I graduated from McNeese State University, Cum Laude -with a bachelors degree in Visual Arts and a concentration in printmaking and engraving.   I established Alexander Art Studio in 2002 and immediately hit the road traveling with a baby printing press, making a living out of my van, campgrounds, renaissance faires..even selling my work on the streets of NYC.   I lived in campgrounds and in parking lots in Jackson Square.  I starved but I did what I loved to do.

     In 2007 I realized that I came back home to Louisiana, only to find out that what I was searching for was here the whole time: my roots, my tribe and a dream unfolding right before my eyes, something I manifested through prayers and writing for years.

I began my most popular work, "Fleur de lis- Worlds Within Series"  in Lafayette- December 2007.   This new work is a combination with the earliest printing processes to the most advanced techniques.  I push the question of "what IS an original?"   For the past 12 years I have made my way from a struggling starving artist to opening a 5000 Sq. Ft.  gallery and studio downtown Lake Charles, LA.  With collectors nationally and internationally, my goal remains to connect people through love and through art.     In 2010 I was nominated Artist Of the Year in Lake Charles.  In 2013 I was voted Southwest Louisiana Best Artist by the people.  I have designed several festival posters and  currently have a team of 5-10 people who are amazing members and I call them my "dream team".  We strive to buy local and create local.   I have an amazing family and friends who support my passion as an artist.  I love to garden, I love to play tennis, travel and collaborate ideas with other artists.   I look forward to continuing on this path by remaining true to myself  and I am grateful to be blessed to have people who love what I do.  I can say that I have the best supporters in the world!

ive always wanted to make my way...

All this rain is freaking me out. I want to go to Thailand in 8 weeks for 3 weeks. This week I've met an amazing person. This post is random i know. This week I start the actual filming process ive been wanting to do forever. 2 years seems like forever until its the past and you realize its only been 2 years. I've been writing alot lately and doing anything I can to document thoughts and ways to remember them. I'm completely inspired on many levels.

jet planes nearly can take us half way across the world. 

American by lana del rey 

innovators and artist.

 Hands down. This was a confirmation reading tonight.  Im so excited about the work I'm doing..even though its mostly in a fourth dimension concept...as in- its all in my chest and my head right now...getting ready  to combine the 2 and 3 dimensions.

 http://designmind.frogdesign.com/blog/what-innovators-can-learn-from-artists.html

Andy Warhol knew it all along: “Good business is the best art.” And lately, a number of business thinkers and leaders have begun to embrace the arts, not as an escapist notion, a parallel world after office hours, or a creative asset, but as an integral part of the human enterprise that ought to be woven into the fabric of every business—from the management team to operations to customer service.

John Maeda, the president of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and author of the bookRedesigning Leadership, predicts that artists will emerge as the new business leaders and cites RISD graduates Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky, co-founders of Airbnb, as prominent examples. The author William Deresiewicz heralds reading as the most important task of any leader. John Coleman makes acompelling case for the role of poetry in business. Intel named pop musician will.i.am as director of creative innovation. And the World Economic Forum has been inviting arts and cultural leaders to its events for several years and this year added the ‘Role of the Arts’ to its Network of Global Agenda Councils.

Indeed, the “art” of business becomes ever more important as the “science” gets ever more ubiquitous. Against the backdrop of our hyper-connected economies and as Big Data and sophisticated analytical tools allow us to maximize process efficiencies and standardize best innovation practices worldwide, intuition and creativity remain as the only differentiating factors that enable truly game-changing innovations. Like any “soft asset,” they cannot be exploited, only explored. And like artists, innovators must develop a mindset and cultivate creative habits in order to see the world afresh and create something new.

How do artists think and behave? Here are twelve traits any individual aspires to make his or her mark on the world would do well to emulate:

1. Artists are “neophiles.” They are in love with novelty and have an insatiable appetite for finding and creating new connections, for inventing and reinventing, even themselves. Art means changing the meaning of things or creating new meanings. That’s exactly what innovation is all about. Like artists,great innovators seek to create “black swans.” They know that variance, through the deliberate disruption of mental models and behavioral routines, creates that rare combination of awe that is characteristic of groundbreaking innovations.

2. Artists are humanists. They are experts of the “human condition” and observe human desires, needs, emotions, and behavior with a sharp, discerning eye and a high degree of empathy. As the archeologists of human vulnerabilities and as genuine ethnographic researchers, they can feel with and for others, which should be every innovator’s distinct strength as well.

3. Artists are craftspeople. They “think by making” and unite the “hand and the head,” as sociologist Richard Sennett describes it. Like art, every innovation combines excellence withsignificance. It has both a physical dimension (exhibiting mastery in craftsmanship) and a meta-physical dimension (connecting a new product, service, or business model with the broader zeitgeist and cultural climate). Nike’s Fuelband, for example, masterfully integrates software and hardware, while also being an expression of our society’s growing demand for self-managed, preventive healthcare embedded as a fun, positive activity into our everyday lives.

4. Artists are like children. “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up,” Pablo Picasso famously said. Artists retain a child’s unique sense of possibility and wonder. Innovators should, too. It may sound paradoxical, but innovations are always nostalgic. The most meaningful of them, although seemingly all about novelty and the future, reconnect us with a basic human quest or even our childhood dreams (think of the iPhone and our desire to touch, or sharing sites such as Facebook or Pinterest which can be viewed as modern, digital versions of former trust-based tribal economies and cater to our innate urge to share).

5. Artists rely on their intuition. It seems counter-intuitive but intuition is ever more important in the age of Big Data, because it is the only feature that is faster and deeper than the massive flow of real-time information. Nothing comes close to intuition as innovators seek to anticipate trends and make decisions swiftly. Data is knowledge, intuition is pre-emptive knowledge. Like artists, innovators trust their intuition, and then constantly experiment and prototype to validate it.

6. Artists are comfortable with ambiguity. By design, they deal with things that are not measurable and can’t be easily quantified. Innovators, too, should value what may not be easily captured in quantitative terms. In stark contrast to more mechanistic models of management, they must be able to tolerate uncertainty and open-ended questions, hold two opposing truths in their mind, and appreciate the beauty of the “and.”

7. Artists are holistic, interdisciplinary thinkers. Art can stimulate and challenge our understanding of the world around us and within us. Artists are masters of lateral thinking who can connect the dots and take things out of their original context. Likewise, innovators contextualize and re-contextualize, mash up and remix, and embrace the new insights and ideas that magically spark at unexpected, unlikely, and often serendipitous intersections (the most famous examples of such “accidental innovations” may be the pacemaker or 3M’s post-it notes).

8. Artists thrive under constraints. They often have to work within very structured formats and meet scarce resources with ingenuity and resourcefulness. In fact, these constraints might even stimulate their creativity. Inspired by the phenomenon of “Jugaad” in India, innovation gurus like Navi Radjouhave now popularized and globalized the concept of “frugal innovation” as a polycentric and improvisational mindset that can inform various product and business model innovations (e.g. the mobile SMS disaster response platform Ushahidi or the portable “roll-on” hospital hand-sanitizers SwipeSense). Frugal innovation has become the new hallmark for the art of creating maximum value with minimal resources.

9. Artists are great storytellers. They tell a story with their art but also often tell the story of their art. The same holds true for meaningful innovations. The connected age requires products to have “aura” again. Great innovators design experiences that spawn (social media) conversations. Just look at ideas funded on Kickstarter: The product is also the story of the product.

10. Artists are conduits and not “masters of the universe.” Most artists – painters, sculptors, writers, film makers, or musicians – will admit that they derived their inspiration from a spiritual sphere that transcends their own individual creativity and skills. This applies to innovators, too. Whether they’re spiritual or not, a new humility suits them well as the social web and its wave of crowd-based collaborations have rendered the myth of the lone genius obsolete. Great innovators transmit memes, they nurture ecosystems of ideas and co-create with employees, customers, and even competitors. They recognize that their new playing-field extends the institutional boundaries of their organization as their products themselves are becoming multi-purpose and involve multiple sectors and disciplines.

11. Artists are passionate about their work. In fact, their work and life are impossible to separate. That doesn’t mean that innovators need to be workaholics, but basing their ideas on deep beliefs and fervent passions is crucial. Innovation is a leap of faith, and innovators need to be believers. Like artists, they will often face rejection, but if an idea is not worth fighting for, it might not have been the right one in the first place. Strong innovations are always the product of strong convictions.

12. Artists are contrarians. Artists can see the “cracks through which the light gets in,” as the old adage goes. Likewise, great innovators come up with solutions to problems because they see what is missing. They are eccentric, which means they literally view things from the fringes – and that’s typically where the best ideas come from. Both artists and innovators see the world as it is not (but could be). They look upon our world, as Proust would say, with “fresh eyes.” You might also call that vision. They are always “initially wrong” to be “ultimately right” as Kathryn Schultz wrote in her book, Being Wrong. They are the fools who speak the truth, have “insane” ideas, and make change happen.

Like art, true innovation has the potential to make our lives better. It stretches our souls and combines the exploration of possibilities with action. It connects and reconnects us with deeply held truths and fundamental human desires; meets complexity with simple, elegant solutions; and rewards risk-taking and vulnerability with lasting value. However, businesses must refrain from making art a disciple of innovation—and they must refrain from designing innovation as a mere process. That is perhaps the golden rule artists and innovators have in common: only if they allow ample space for new things to happen that could happen, will they happen.

This post was first published by CNNMoney/Fortune and MIX (Management Innovation Exchange)

Image credit: Komonews

Tim Leberecht is the CMO of frog and the publisher of design mind.

Happy 5th Anniversary. Fleur de lis-Worlds Within Series By Candice D. Alexander

Happy 5th Anniversary, Fleur de lis-Worlds Within Series!

alexander art studio

im holdin' on tight

music plays in the background, sia, i think from the twilight soundtrack,

thoughts of the livlihood of the connecticut families, 

i go through my email and move with my own life, happinesses, and sadness.  

quiet. 

My cat is an angel and sometimes brings me joy. Yesterday the assistants mentioned to me how he even rode out in a baby stroller. lol

tonight i worked long in the studio. tonight was a good night. 

everything is coming together, i manifest how to move success and in what direction would be best.   Art and the compass.