A Look at Art & Design

Charlestown Gallery New Website

Dave Gilly Gilstein and Renee O'Gara are lovely. Talented in their own right as artists, designers and photographers, their Rhode Island gallery reflects their fine eye for art that embraces abstract work, landscape, seascape and photography. This summer will see several openings and exhibits at the gallery. Artists include David k. Anderson, Jeanne Tangney, Antonia Tyz Peeples, Burl
Dawson, H. Gray park IV, Joseph Keiffer.

Check the Charlestown Gallery's brand new website for openings and shows, an extensive artist portfolio and contact information.

The Art of Self Management

Things have been getting hectic in the office and despite my ever present Filofax I'm finding it a bit of a challenge to keep track of all the "goings on."  I'm thrilled that my business is healthy and the list of happy clients is growing and so to keep the business vibrant, I've been thinking lately about getting a personal assistant.  And not just for my business...but for my life.

This morning I read with delight about The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss (found via 43 Folders).  Honestly, you have to read the excerpt from "Outsourcing Life"... I couldn't stop myself from smiling and exclaiming "Hey I want that too!"  I was tempted to immediately put Tim's new book into my shopping cart at Amazon, but then thought better of it...why not just go out to the bookstore and buy that book RIGHT NOW?  Yeah...well once the phones started ringing, and the deadlines started popping and the emails started coming in...I completely forget about the book until now. (Thus a perfect example of the need for a personal assistant...I can't even get to the bookstore to buy the book to help me help myself, for heaven's sakes!)

A few weeks ago I bought my first Blackberry.  It took the sales dude an hour to talk me into the purchase.  Now that I have this sweet little phone (yeah yeah...it's not a IPhone but I'll never switch over to AT&T) I can't imagine how on earth I got along without it.  Of course now, the purchase of a shiny new gadget requires...hoho...time to learn about the new device and the software to sync the device to my MAC.  Fine.  I did a bit of research and because all my stuff is on my MAC I needed something that would sync the phone to the MAC OS without duplicating contacts or messing up my carefully culled calendar entries.  After reading some reviews on PocketMac (see...another thing my personal assistant could have helped with) I settled on downloading Missing Sync.  It worked very well, didn't mess up any of my contacts or calendars and I'm pretty much pleased with it. But gosh, if I could only do more with the emails and calendar to organize them and link them to the associated projects that would be great.  I have many projects and often each project has quite a time line of tasks that need to be completed and several people to be contacted along the way.  The trick is getting each application to sync with the other and then sync to my Blackberry.

Somewhere I read about Market Circle's Daylite and once again via Missing Sync I was reminded of that program. I absolutely hate Microsoft's Entourage and the calendar on my MAC hard drive doesn't do all I want it too.  I don't want to access all my info from a web server so BaseCamp is not a option for me. Could Daylite be the personal assistant I am searching for?  Or even better...could Daylite be of assistance to my personal assistant? Today I downloaded Daylite Productivity Suite. I've so far synchronized my calendar and contact list with the program and am now going thru. the stages of learning *sigh* the new program.  I'm still convinced that an actual 3 dimensional personal assistant is someone I'd like to get to know better but until then my hope is that by putting everything in order I might make better use of my time.  As I discover Daylite I'll keep you posted on the pros and cons.  I'm also looking to a billing and invoicing program to make nice with my filing system (which presently consists of a box). How do you manage your daily activities?

Thai Arts

My mother was an incredible jewelry hound.  She had boxes full of gold, diamonds, emeralds, rubies, pearls and you name it.  She loved it all. Some of those pieces came from my father and had special meaning but most were acquired because she just loved the stuff and couldn't resist it.

As for myself, I prefer to choose more selectively and I don't buy frequently.  Usually I choose silver and I always make my selections based on uniqueness, quality, design and meaning.  I have recently come by many of my mother's treasures and so I have no need for want to be sure, but it is the pieces I chose for myself because of their uniqueness and their stories that are my favorites.  These special pieces that I choose to adorn myself with have almost become extensions of my person.  I feel in some way that they absorb some of my energy and spirit and after some time...they truly become mine.

Today I received my beautiful cuff from Novica.  It is designed and created by the Thai jewelry artist Achara and her family. It was shipped to me from Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand.  It arrived by FedEx sooner than I expected and in opening the packaging I was surprised to find my cuff encased in a lovely fabric bound box...with a pillow inside to safely store the cuff.  A postcard from Chiang Mai was also enclosed with a HAND WRITTEN note from "Team Thailand."

Taking the jewelry from it's box I was immediately enchanted.  It is an exceptionally fine piece of artistry. It is detailed and a bit complex in its design yet beautifully simple. It is heavy on my wrist.  Good heavy, good weight, the kind of heavy that makes itself known without getting in the way.  I like that. There isn't a flaw in the piece.

The mission of Achara is "to create unique designs in great quality silver jewelry as well as to preserve Thai and hill tribe cultures."  I love this and I chose my piece from Thailand because it is a country I want to visit. This is not a piece of jewelry you can buy at the local franchise jewelry store.  It's not even a piece you could get at Tiffany's or Lux Bond & Green.  This is special. This is handmade.  This has history and purpose.  And it makes me feel like Wonder Woman with her invincible wrist cuffs! I've only worn it for an hour and a half and already it is mine!

Read more about Thailand, Chiang Mai and the Hill Tribe Cultures. 
Visit Novica online to browse many beautiful paintings, artworks, baskets, (fabulous Mexican hammocks), apparel, handmade jewlery and more from around the globe. I, for one, will be a return shopper.

Zero Tolerance

While the conversation over at the Copyright Law post is a hot topic, and I'm so happy to see discussions of this nature taking place here at ArtLOOK, I feel I must place a notice here to those entities who are trying to place their spam and porn links on this site via the comments and trackback options. This is not tolerated at ArtLOOK and for each attempt at commenting with spam links on various posts at ArtLOOK, please know that your IP, comments and links have been reported to Typepad as spam and then promptly deleted.

Things I’ve learned on my journey through life:

It's Sunday morning and that means it is time for me to be catching up on the blogs that have been posted over the last week.  43Folders by Merlin Mann, discusses Stefan Sagmeister's views on design and happiness. I recommend watching Sagmeister's video entitled "Yes Design can make you happy" over at TED. It's really quite enjoyable and will put a smile on your face.  Mann has provided the list of 16 things which has helped Sagmeister be more open and happy.  Inspired I've written up 16 things that I've learned on my journey through life, so far :)

• Don’t consider yourself a victim in life, lest you become a victim of your own life.
• Money in the bank makes me feel secure. 
• Hard work works for me.
• Travel is good for mind and soul. It gives a different perspective on life.
• Don’t judge others until you are perfect.
• Reflect on experienced hardships and add them to your life’s portfolio.
• True love is inspirational.
• Lying is a waste of time.
• Learn, learn, never stop learning.  Seek it out and apply it.
• Spending time alone is good for me.
• Too much thinking can cause me to be stagnant.  Sometimes you have to stop thinking and go for it.
• When decorating your house, don’t scrimp on details.
• Being helpful to others makes you feel good. 
• Sometimes being polite just doesn’t work.
• Take care of those who take care of you.
• Find beauty and wonderment in simple things.

Top 10 Spammer Arrest

On May 31, 2007, Robert Alan Soloway was arrested and charged with mail fraud, wire fraud, email fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering. He is described as one of the world's most prolific spammers...One of the top ten in the world, in fact. The feds said computer users would notice a decrease in spam and indeed they are correct. Since Soloway's arrest I've noticed a significant decrease in the spam coming into my inbox. I applaud this. Have you noticed a difference in the amount of spam in your email accounts? What say you?

Sometimes I feel like this...