Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Work time

I love silence. I move through it as if it were water. It slows me down and bubbles past me as I walk. My ears fill up with silence and force me to listen to the words in my head. I close my eyes and images flash before me. A child tugging at his mother's skirt in the museum. The grasshopper on my hand in the insect zoo. The Thanksgiving table. I do not miss the voices in the house. I'm not worried about the lack of laundry sounds. I do not need music.
Purrr. Ivan breaks the silence.

Monday, November 28, 2005

Web site redesigned!

My web site , completely redesigned, is up and running thanks to John Bald. I hope you will take a look at my easier-to-access portfolio images.

I am busy sending out promotional postcards to everyone I can think of. I have 1000 postcards and 200 stamps. I guess I'll have to stand on the corner handing out the last 800, or if you are a close friend expect these as your holiday greeting cards.

I am fighting the creative slow down that I often get around the holiday season. I just returned home after a week with my parents. I did not create one sketch, not even a doodle but would like to return to the natural history museum in DC with a sketch pad and no children. The taxidermy and skeletons are plentiful and the scenes with children are too. I tried to get a lot of "memory photos" of the dino bones from the perspective of being on my knees. They look even bigger from down there. I hope my writing and illustration groups will give me the push I need to keep drawing and writing. To this end, I better get off the internet and get to work.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Platform for life

Another election day and recent television offerings made me think about what we are trying to say to our leaders by what we choose to watch. First let me say that I've been a bit of a couch potato recently and I'm somewhat embarrassed to report on this at all but here goes.

The West Wing has been in the middle of an election. Sunday's episode was a live (really) debate between the two candidates who on air, abandon the rules and agree to a straight debate. Each of them has moments where they choose to be straight with the "American public" about their ideas and the shortcomings of their policies and programs. The new show about the presidency with Geena Davis as the president has her confronting the press and setting the record straight on an insider tell all book.
Lesson: We are craving honesty and straight forward communication from our political leaders. We have been lied to by presidents of both parties and their inner circle as well as business leaders and celebrities. We are trying desperately to teach our children honesty and responsibility but are faced with constant unethical behavior by those in the public eye.

I think My Name is Earl is the funniest show on tv right now. Earl has resolved to change his life and is trying to make good on the bad things he's done.
Lesson: Do unto others as you'd have them do to you. Kindness pays. Have an open mind. Wouldn't it be nice if corporations our leaders would consider the golden rule as they create environmental and labor policies.

The Biggest Loser is one reality show I'm willing to watch. Here are people who have pledged to turn their lives around in the face of our fast food eating self indulgent culture. They are losing weight and exercising, providing role models for others of the millions of obese individuals who are watching. I've never seen reality show contestants that are more remorseful to say goodbye to the other contestants. They have formed a bond that has helped them succeed in reaching their goals.
Lesson: We can succeed if we join together. We are stronger united than divided. Competition can be helpful and can push us to increase our expectations of ourselves. There is no goal to difficult to reach if you have the appropriate support and education.

If you just read the lessons you'd have my platform for life. Remember this on Election Day 2006, Tuesday, November 7th. VOTE!

Monday, November 07, 2005

Toothfairy partners with Great Pumpkin

At the Boll household, Halloween candy was taking over. Here is how I solved the problem. I told my children that they could pick their 20 (you could always say less or more) favorite pieces. The rest we put into a decorated bag and set by the jack-o-lanterns at night. Guess what? The tooth fairy came, took the candy, and left each kiddo $1 to put in their piggy bank instead. The money could go to trick-or-treat for unicef as well. My kids put a little in the Tzedakah box at synagouge each week so I, I mean the toothfairy, gave them the money. Much less candy. No arguments. Happy Mom. Happy kids.

Thursday, November 03, 2005

I'm out here

Recently, I have been thinking about marketing. Thoughts of marketing often come up around the end of the year. Consumers are gearing up to buy stuff. I have cute t-shirts for kids on my website. Very few people know about them. The thing about cyber space is that it is so spacious. It is hard to get people to navigate to your very own small spot in cyberspace. So what do you do? Take out ads, post on other sites, send email notices to friends and family? How do other people deal with this? Certainly if I had a book and could market off of its success it would be a different story. But then, I'd have to market the book as well. Hmmmm.