Equinox. Winter is ending

Popcorn Flowers and New approaches towards money through the lens of Art

Meike sent me Popcorn Flowers on Monday. I love them! Isn’t amazing how it captures an atmosphere, it fills me with spring and joy watching them. This piece of art reminds me to see beauty and magic in life.

May it do the same to you! Happy Equinox! Happy spring or autumn, whatever season comes next for you ;)

During the pandemic lockdown, here in Germany at a certain point, politics declared art not to be system relevant’. I felt irritated/sad and had to admit that I followed this ‘Germain’ mainstream attitude over many years. Today, I know for my system, art is highly relevant. Experiencing art stimulates my inner life and doing art is when I feel most aligned, and vital, no matter if this is dreaming, dancing, writing, or painting.

For the first time in his life, he stopped worrying about results, and as a consequence, the terms “success” and “failure” had suddenly lost their meaning for him. The true purpose of art was not to create beautiful objects, he discovered. It was a method of understanding, a way of penetrating the world and finding one’s place in it, and whatever aesthetic qualities an individual canvas might have were almost an incidental by-product of the effort to engage oneself in this struggle, to enter into the thick of things.

Paul Auster

The last years I often felt a heavy tension between earning money and being creative. As if I needed to turn my back on money to make space for creativity. Working on my own for more than 10 years, I have some freedom to decide where to put my energy … but every NO to a project or collaboration also needs courage and is linked to a splash of existential fear and the question behind: Can I really afford to be creative?

Lately, I feel more and more the tendency to integrate the artistic part in all that I do: leadership training, coaching session, conflict facilitation, and communication strategies. Yes, it all needs analytical skills, professional experience, and well-trained competencies and at the same time, it is all artifacts, all inspiring stories of transformation. And also sales negotiations and fundraising is becoming creative relationship work and wow, they become so joyful co-creative interactions.

I shared Amanda Palmer’s video already last time, but I can not resist doing it here again. At the very end, she says, and when we really saw each other, we would love to support what the other does.

And then comes her finish: What would happen if we, as artists, did not ask ourselves how to MAKE people pay for music, but rather how can we LET people pay for music?

I think in this final question lies a whole different approach toward money. I love to find ways to practice this more in my giving and in my being rewarded for the ‘music’ I create.

Any reactions or thoughts on your side? This is where I am at … would love to hear you on that, and enter a conversation from here.

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Happily, I want to announce two other creative projects that just go live:

1- The Podcast, PioneerSpirit & MainstreamThoughts, first episode Winter is Ending is currently uploading !!! Here is a direct link.

2- Online course, Your Elixir - Share your voice InsideOut. A transformative journey that

• invites you to connect to your inner wisdom and creativity,

• aims to distill your ‘unique signature’ and

• supports you in unfolding a future story you want to tell.

The course design is built on process-oriented psychology and transformational storytelling. Please bring curiosity to meet yourself and the courage to step into some new territory. More Info on Eventbrite

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