Big Brushes and Little Triangles.
Exito: "Success" in Spanish.
To attain a favorable or desired outcome.
Merriam Webster says.
And how do you define it?
And allow that to define you?
Were you successful 6 weeks ago?
Now your not? or Less so?
Is it because you have less money?
Physical freedom?
Success is relative.
And favorable outcomes?
Under a rising sun
every drug score ever I made
seemed successful.
As far as favorable outcomes
(and Merriam Webster be damned):
They were all a rollicking "10."
In Cairo.
Leaving my apartment in the early afternoon and heading to Khan el Khalili
with the express purpose of buying marijuana
and then sitting in a falucca on the Nile
in the darkness
and the sounds of the Sufis in the distance;
and then stepping off that moored vessel
with a sandy bag
of mostly sticks and stems:
Success by all accounts.
What seemed impossible that morning
went up in smoke that night.
John F. Kennedy played his part in helping
me define my personal parameters of success.
But it wasn't really JFK, he just wrote the book: Profiles in Courage.
And he quoted John Quincy Adams' Diary and letters.
Primary Source Information.
John Quincy Adams in his own words in 1819:
"I am forty-five years old.
Two-thirds of a long life have passed,
and I have done nothing to distinguish it by usefulness to my country and to mankind. . . .
Passions, indolence, weakness and infirmities
have sometimes made me swerve from my better knowledge of right
and almost constantly paralyzed my efforts of good."
And then when he was 70, he wrote this in his Diary:
"whole life has been a succession of disappoint- ments. I can scarcely recollect a single instance of success in anything that I ever undertook.”
Until his death at eighty in the Capitol John Quincy Adams held more important offices
and participated in more important events
than anyone in the history of our nation:
Minister to the Hague, Emissary to England,
Minister to Prussia,
State Senator, United States Senator,
Minister to Russia,
Head of the American Mission to negotiate peace with England, Minister to England,
Secretary of State,
President of the United States and
member of the House of Representatives.
He figured, in one capacity or another, in the American Revolution, the War of 1812
and the prelude to the Civil War.
Read Books in Place.
Profiles in Courage $3.99 on Amazon.
I ganked a PDF
from an Indian Site (dot not feather).
And although I read the above quote 30 years ago.
I knew right where it was in the book.
I could see the page.
And I never forgot.
Like it'd become a part of my soul
way back when
(or maybe it already was).
Just keep swimming. And when you can't swim... Just float a bit.
Read Books in Place.
Iris Burchi, Abstract Artist. Venezuela.
The economy of the Brush and the Artist.
Larger brushes are for larger formats.
More area equals more paint.
More paint costs more money.
Small brushes lend to smaller formats
(and smaller price tags too.)
Paint in Place.
See more of Iris Burchi's work on her IG.
And check out South Art Dealer for their Women of the World
Small Format Collective Exhibition 2020
Chelsea, NYC.
Many thanks Iris Burchi.
How do you define Success?
Gracias a la vida, que me ha dado tanto!
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