The Queen of Pictavia

Irish Wolfounds the size of small tractors bound out of the backroom of a Santa Barbara storefront on State Street near Hwy 101. My eyes are the size of saucers; I’ve never seen one in person before. Standing up at the gate, knowing they are going home, they dwarf all 5’ 7” of me. Named after their purpose – wolf hunting – not their appearance, Irish Wolfhounds are, on average, the tallest dogs on earth. (I must have had a really scary ‘big dog’ experience as a child because any time I see a big dog my first impulse is to throw up my hands.) However Irish Wolfhounds are known to be sweet-tempered, patient, generous, thoughtful and trustworthy with children.

Presiding over them is the world famous Queen of Pictavia, tattoo artist Pat Fish. The minute I first saw her earlier in the day, I realized – having seen photos on her web site www.luckyfish.com -- that she has lost a lot of weight since those pictures were taken. I see a face with fabulous bone structure – the kind models have.

I’ve driven from San Jose – a four-hour Saturday drive from Santa Barbara – with my husband and ‘partner in adventure’ -- just so I can get my tattoo from the Queen; it is her design. I’ve looked and looked for a couple years -- and Eureka! -- this is ‘the one.’ She’s asked me to arrive 2 hours before our appt. so that I can work with her assistant, Colin – whose face, voice and mannerisms are entirely known to me although I’ve never met him before, at least in this life – to make sure I’m getting ‘my’ iteration of the tat, making any design modifications and that it’s sized properly for me.

Early on Colin and I have the conversation about whether the tat – an armband for my upper right arm – will go all the way around, or will it leave the tender underarm unscathed. The answer? Only girlymen do the half-way thing. My husband and I joke about how many people will see it before someone asks if it goes the whole way around.

Finally I’m on my back on the table; the Queen – who’s been doing this for 25 years – has a light hand. With a low threshold of pain, I consider myself somewhat sissy-ish. But I find it only mildly unpleasant to ‘I’m drifting off into my head’ for minutes at a time; the underarm is more tender but only slightly so.

I love my new tat. And I’m already planning the next one a month or two down the road (literally and figuratively) – with the Queen. Of course.

Oh…! And how many people saw it before THE question? The very first person who saw it, on our trip home. He says “Nice tat. Does it go all the way around?” I say, “Yeah.” He says, “Didn’t it really hurt?” I say, “Nah, not that much.”

Dharma and ‘Right Work’

A Buddhist-inspired adage says "’right work’ is when all of one's life experiences come together." That is so true for me as a jewelry artist. I can’t think of an experience or learning or skill gathered from my many past employment situations – good and bad -- that isn’t applicable in my current ‘job’ -- many times miraculously so. That's because my ‘right work’ really isn’t about the jewelry, it’s about the human connections I make, both influencing and being influenced by others; jewelry is but the means to accomplish this, not the destination.

Scott Wolfram, a Minneapolis astrologer, puts it this way:

“One’s dharma is supported when one adopts a career, or life’s work that is also one’s ‘right work.’ Right work implies doing both what is rewarding and meaningful to your sense of purpose in life as well as providing some needed service to society.”

Without using the same phrase, I believe Wayne Dyer refers to ‘right work’ in his book Excuses Begone when he says,

“Dharma is the calling in your soul that you are to fulfill…. Passion within you is god speaking.”

It was a serendipitous experience in 2002 that revealed to me that designing jewelry was to be my new path; I had but to listen and follow. Don’t die without achieving your dharma.

Listen, then follow. 

Not All Who Wander Are Lost

"Why are the sun, moon and stars constantly on the move? If you know the purpose of their movement, then move in harmony with them. If you do not know, then move in harmony with them still, for by doing so, one day you will know their purpose."

Gurudev Swami Rama of the Himalayas

Did Curiosity Really Kill the Cat?

A 2002 study by psychologists at the University at Buffalo suggested that curiosity is very good for people. The study -- related to the field of "positive psychology" --concluded that the degree to which people are curious actively influences their personal growth opportunities.

One of my favorite college professors was Louis Swartz, a young South African émigré who taught my freshman English Lit class. He loved poetry. Intimately acquainted with its layered complexities, he also loved sharing his enthusiasm -- which is how I came to know Alastair Reid’s poem, “Curiosity,” at the age of 17. Although I did not know it at the time, this poem would become the underlying theme of my nomadic adult life.

Curiosity

may have killed the cat; more likely

the cat was just unlucky, or else curious

to see what death was like, having no cause

to go on licking paws, or fathering

litter on litter of kittens, predictably. 

Nevertheless, to be curious

is dangerous enough. To distrust

what is always said, what seems

to ask odd questions, interfere in dreams,

leave home, smell rats, have hunches

do not endear cats to those doggy circles

where well-smelt baskets, suitable wives, good lunches

are the order of things, and where prevails

much wagging of incurious heads and tails. 

Face it. Curiosity

will not cause us to die--

only lack of it will.

Never to want to see

the other side of the hill

or that improbable country

where living is an idyll

(although a probable hell)

would kill us all. 

Only the curious have, if they live, a tale

worth telling at all. 

Dogs say cats love too much, are irresponsible,

are changeable, marry too many wives,

desert their children, chill all dinner tables

with tales of their nine lives. 

Well, they are lucky. Let them be

nine-lived and contradictory,

curious enough to change, prepared to pay

the cat price, which is to die

and die again and again,

each time with no less pain.

A cat minority of one

is all that can be counted on

to tell the truth. And what cats have to tell

on each return from hell

is this: that dying is what the living do,

that dying is what the loving do,

and that dead dogs are those who do not know

that dying is what, to live, each has to do.

Alistair Reid (b. 1926)

Bad Design

To paraphrase Will Rogers,

“Everyone talks about bad design but nobody does anything about it.”

Last Friday, I talked about the process of good design. Today we’ll go in another direction.

Who designed kitchen stove oven controls to have “Broil” right next to “Off”?

So much for the home-grown sun-dried tomatoes slow-drying in a 150 degree oven for 4 hours. Hubby got up at midnight to turn the oven off (what a sweetheart!) and, well, “Off” looked a lot like “Broil” at 12am.

Creativity and RBF (Rhythm, Balance and Flow)

Everyone knows good design when they see it, touch it and/or use it. It simply works -- simply and beautifully. It IS.

In my mind, it has “RBF”: rhythm, balance and flow -- the standards I use to judge my work. (image right: fire opal & peridot in 22K vermeil. SOLD)

Take the first characteristic, rhythm. The most basic and natural flow that we experience in our lives is our own internal natural rhythms. So during the design process, for me there’s a musical quality; I find myself counting -- different cadences for different pieces or portions of pieces. I become conscious of a drumming heartbeat – a deep  connection to my inner intuitive self -- as the design takes on life. Other designers I admire have told me they experience the same thing.

As for balance, I’m a Libra whose most visible element is the scale. The ideal being to have all things in balance, Libra’s function best in a state of equilibrium. However, I’m not talking about design symmetry (although I struggle to create asymmetrical pieces - it doesn’t come naturally) but in coming from a point of equal balance between any powers or influences, including mental and emotional balance. Ergo, I must be experiencing equanimity within myself to achieve a balanced result.

Artist Robin Hopper in his book Functional Pottery says:

“Balance is the point of equilibrium where stimulus, analysis and concern are matched by skill, imagination and understanding. “

(image left: rutilated quartz pendant on hematite with 18K gold) Intimately associated with rhythm is flow. Most obviously, flow is about the  compositional elements – how the eye perceives the parts as a whole; there’s a natural flow, rather than a whirlwind of chaos. But in addition, for me there’s a liquidity factor to the process; I feel like the design is literally pouring out of me through my heart and hands – I am giving birth as a design moves from an invisible internal concept to an external reality.

When these three elements are in sync, I feel like I’m flying; I’m mentally and seemingly physically off the ground, weightless. It doesn’t get better than that.

Stand Out From the Crowd

Given that glass ceilings have been shattering at a record rate throughout the business world, isn’t it about time for smart women to move on from the simple ‘Dress for Success’ credos of the 80’s and 90’s?   

Now that we’ve gotten past all that silliness and women no longer have to mask their gender to appear competent or demonstrate leadership at the highest level, what’s the next frontier, fashion-wise? We’ve learned that femininity is a plus, to make color and fun -- even  fashion forward -- pieces work for us, but are we still wearing the same old ‘safe’ jewelry? 

Without a doubt, the one area in business attire where women have a striking competitive advantage over men is that they can sport drop-dead gorgeous conversation-starting jewelry, the one-of-a-kind pieces you can find at Glimmerdream and Elle Schroeder.

My friend and client, Karen, owns a consulting company that works with top management in Fortune 500 companies to help them achieve breakthrough performance in their organizations. She recently told me that at an East Coast convention last month she met a CEO whose company she had targeted as one who could use her firm’s services. The first thing he commented on as they introduced themselves to one another was her stunning necklace.

Let Elle Schroeder and Glimmerdream start the conversation. You get to finish it.