You Have More Talents Than You Think

My Poor Bloggy Blog!  I can't believe it's been over a month since I last posted on my blog!  I'm sure my faithful readers are all writhing in pain from the lack of brain stimulation due to my laziness...

Ok, well maybe it's not so much laziness as it is busyness.  Whew!  A lot has happened!  Mostly I just changed jobs at work.  I finally got out of sales - I'm quite happy about that.  I'm now in the marketing department which is a much better fit for me.  Of course, with my luck, all the deals I was working on will close this month and I'll have missed out on huge commissions!

But you know what?  I get to spend more time with my family, and I don't hate my job.  That's got to be worth it's weight in gold, right?  Well, that's what I'm telling myself so SHADUP!

Anyways, there's another reason I've been neglecting this a little bit.  I don't know if it's the past year I've spent doing practical and uncreative day-to-day work, or the work I've been doing with my Career Coach identifying my strengths, or maybe it's just progress in my quest for self-actualization; whatever it is, I've been spending a lot of time tapping into my creative side lately.

I may have mentioned previously that I've started getting back into the music industry to find my place there.  Well, I've found another guitar player to collaborate with in Denver and we've got a pretty cool project going so far!  It includes a number of remakes of old tunes, and will include a large amount of original material as well.  One step closer to that album I've always wanted to produce!

On top of that, I've been...wait for it....keep waiting...one more just to draw this out so the climactic word shows up on the next line... painting!  I've never really painted.  Ever.  Seriously.  I mean, I did when I was kid, but that doesn't really count, right?  I always just considered myself a person who's not very good at creating something from a blank canvas.  There's just too many possibilities and narrowing it down to one painting has always seemed overwhelming.  I've thought about giving it a try several times in my life, but never nipped it in the bud.  Well, after an inspiring trip to the Denver Art Festival in downtown Denver (and a realization that it's worth trying to create the paintings I want for my living room wall if it's gonna save me $1,000), I pulled the trigger. 

I've been using a tree theme.  My best friend recently got a gorgeous tattoo of a tree that I absolutely love, so I'm guessing that was my inspiration.  But I wanted something with some deep green, maroon, and yellow/gold colors in the background to match my living room decor.  This is what I got with my first attempt:

I was pretty proud of myself - nope, not gonna be humble here, it was pretty damn good for a first try. 

Then last night I gave it another go - was it just a coincedence the first time?  Did I get lucky?  The second one turned out even better!

So now I'm really excited about this painting thing!  And to bring this full circle with the point of my Scratch Paper Ideas blog purpose, this fits perfectly with a business idea I thought of a few years ago, but didn't think I had the talent to execute: Custom Artwork Consulting. 

What's the most common way to buy art?  Look around at shows, shop at the store, purchase online, or talk a well-known artist into doing a custom piece for you ($$$).

Well, what if there was a consultant available who could come into your home and do an analysis of the following:

•  the shape and size of the spot you'd like your artwork to be placed
• the feel and colors of the room's decor
• the subjects/ideas/images that are meaningful to you                                                           

Perhaps even go through some other favorite pieces to get an idea of the person's personal style.  Then a custom piece is created just for that person that fits perfectly in that room.  It wouldn't be a cheap thing to do, but not being a well-known artist, I could charge a little extra without being ridiculously expensive.
And the only reason I've never made an attempt at this business idea is because I thought I was completely talentless at art.  Never assume you can't do something until you've given it a fair shake.  I've lost years of practice over a stupid assumption.

But pretty cool, huh?