Month: June 2009

art, simplicity, values

My Year of Hopefulness – Jackson Pollack, Explained

Christa Avampato

I was in DC a few weekends ago and met up with a bunch of friends from business school. One member of the group who is more a classmate than a friend of mine criticized Jackson Pollock and his work, citing that even he could drip a bunch of paint on a canvas. (And this guy doesn’t have an artistic bone in his body!) At the time, I had no words to explain Jackson Pollock, and I was really upset by the guy’s criticism. I like Pollock’s work very much, though must confess I never understood it. I just love the patterns, colors, and textures of it.

As luck, and karma, would have it, today I found out why I love Jackson Pollock. If only I had read Matthew May’s book In Pursuit of Elegance before my DC trip! May explains the genius of Pollock’s work, thanks to the research of Richard Taylor, a physicist from Australia.

After studying Pollock’s work in connection to his physics research, Taylor recognized that Pollack built his paintings based upon fractals: “repetitive patterns nested within each other that remain the same at differing scales of magnification…[fractals] are simple rules…that create beautifully organized and highly complex designs [that are pleasing to the eye].” Trouble is Pollock died in 1956 and fractals weren’t discovered until 1975. Pollack lived and died ahead of his time, precisely 19 years ahead of his time.

I have been thinking about fractals all evening, their importance to physics, to Pollock, and to every day life. In a very real sense, our core values are fractals: repeating patterns that remain constant, even when examined up close. We don’t abandon them at our front door or in certain company. They stay with us and play themselves out in every area of our lives. From those simple values (aka, simple personal rules) – honesty, kindness, loyalty – we build complex, intricate relationships that form the very foundation from which all our life experiences grow. Fractals make art, and life, appealing to the eye, the mind, and the heart.

Lest we think that life is all about politics and facades and putting on airs – it is not. Life is about getting down to the simple matter of what matters to us. At the end of the day, what really counts? What do we want to be known for? What are the constants that underlie who we are, under all circumstances? It’s those things, those constant, consistent patterns, and their intersections that help us build beautiful lives.

The image above is of Blue Poles by Jackson Pollock. It recently sold for $40M.

art, books, music, silence, writing

My Year of Hopefulness – It’s what’s missing that counts

Christa Avampato

Today I started reading In Pursuit of Elegance by Matthew May. May’s premise in the book is that what’s not there – in a product, a service, a piece of art, a book – often trumps what is. 12 pages in and I am completely hooked. It’s about what we choose not to do that shapes as our lives as much as what’s on our to-do list. It’s about editing, making decisions, and taking away the unnecessary so that the necessary can shine.

May quotes a lot of sources, referencing everything from ancient Chinese proverbs to pop culture. It never feels contrived, forced, or overly ambitious. He is making connections between seemingly disparate ideas, and teaching us how to live a more valuable, satisfying life in the process.

Early on, May quotes Jim Collins’s now infamous essay that he wrote for USA Today on the subject of “stop-doing.” Collins says, “A great piece of art is composed not just of what is in the final piece, but equally what is not. It is the discipline to discard what does not fit – to cut out what might have already cost days or even years of effort – that distinguishes the truly exceptional artist and marks the ideal piece of work, be it a symphony, a novel, a painting, a company, or most important of all, a life.”

It’s these last two words that got me. I understand editing a novel, a piece of music, a company. We spend a lot of time, maybe most of our time, stuffing our lives full of experience, people, places, and things. We do more and more and more to the point that we can’t remember what we did 10 minutes ago. So what if we did and said less and less and less. What would our lives look like then? What if we only put the precious time we have with one another toward things that passionately, ardently interest us? How would we be different, and how would the world around us be different? Could we actually have a greater positive impact by focusing on the precious few things that really matter to us rather than the mediocre many?

Jazz great John McLaughlin said, “All the music that was ever heard came from the inner silence in every musician.” I extend that quote to say that every human accomplishment has come to be because someone took something from their inner being, from their own personal silence, and gave it to the world. It’s really the only work we ever have to do: strip away the fascades, the excess, what we can live without so that we can know and nurture the handful of things that really count.

entrepreneurship, Examiner, music, technology

NY Examiner.com: An interview with Steven Cox, CEO of TakeLessons.com

Christa Avampato

Inc. Magazine featured TakeLessons.com a few months ago. The company capitalizes on the growing trend of learning an instrument through the use of technology to match up music teachers with music students. From guitar to voice to trombone, in cities that stretch across the U.S., TakeLessons.com connects people with a mutual love for learning and music. It simplifies and enhances the quality of the experience of finding the right music teacher and ensuring that the student’s needs are being met with 100% satisfaction.

To read my interview with Steven Cox, CEO of TakeLessons.com, please visit: http://www.examiner.com/x-2901-NY-Business-Strategies-Examiner~y2009m6d22-An-interview-with-Steven-Cox-CEO-of-TakeLessonscom

child, children, family, kids, language, New York City, speech

My Year of Hopefulness – The Gift of Gab

Christa Avampato

My family is loaded with talkers. My mother taught us well. We have strong opinions and we claim them loud, proud and often. I didn’t know there was a developmental advantage to this trait until my friend, Liz, told me that by age 3 it becomes very obvious which children come from families who talk to their children regularly and those who don’t. Children from families who talk to them often have triple the vocabulary when compared to children who come from families that don’t talk to their babies and toddlers.

I wasn’t quite sure what Liz meant at first. What family doesn’t speak to their children? And then I started to observe a little more closely. On the streets of New York and in the subways, I have seen too many adults ignore the children they’re with. They don’t answer their questions and concerns, or when they do it’s with a harsh tone. Too many sit with their children and don’t interact with them. It’s a prevalent, serious issue.

Sometimes I’ll hear people on the subway talking to their children so much, in sing-songy language seemingly about nothing at all, that it actually drives me to move. Little did I know that these adults are doing a wonderful thing – they are advancing their children’s mental capacity for language and understanding. These children are the writers and thinkers of tomorrow. These children are just like me, with adults who love them with their hearts and words, exactly the way my mom did. And this knowledge is making me smile on my subway rides next to little talkative kids. Gab on…

film, friendship, human rights, justice, movie

My Year of Hopefulness – Human Rights Watch Film Festival

Christa Avampato

“My favorite place is my imagination.” ~ Jackie Pagan, featured narrator in Youth Producing Change

My friend, Linda, invited me to the Human Rights Watch film festival here in New York at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theatre. We went to see Youth Producing Change, a documentary created from the stories of 10 young film makers on issues ranging from youth homelessness to HIV / AID to water conservation. The stories are deeply moving, and all the more remarkable because they were made by film makers under 18 years old, many from impoverished countries who belong to marginalized populations.

How often do we catch ourselves saying, “how can I make a difference?” or “what change can I really achieve in this complicated world?” We had the great privilege to have a question and answer session with the film makers after Youth Producing Change had its screening. The producers don’t ask themselves these questions. They have gone confidently in the direction of their dreams, believing now only that they can have an impact, but rather that it is their obligation and their duty to create change.

Most times, young people are told to respect their elders, to follow the lead of adults, to learn from their mentors. Sitting in the Walter Reade Theatre today, I found that these young adults have much more to teach us than we have to teach them. They have seen, heard, and experienced life in a way that is very difficult for most of us to even imagine; the vivid images and language of the documentary give us a frame of reference that is critical to build our empathy and compassion for the human experience. Thankfully, their stories are the stuff of movies now, and we should do our best to nurture, support, and encourage their drive, ambition, and courage to tell their stories.

Youth Producing Change will be screened in high schools across the U.S. and was shown at the festivals in Chicago, Toronto, San Francisco, and London. The Human Rights Watch film festival continues in New York through June 25th.

entrepreneurship, experience, luck, writing

My Year of Hopefulness – Know Where You’re Going

Christa Avampato

“The world stands aside to let anyone pass who knows where he is going.”
~ David Starr Jordan, ichthyologist and peace activist

I have come across a slew of powerful quotes recently. This quote by David Starr Jordan is one that had special meaning for me this week. I have been considering a number of different new business ventures, cranking along in my writing, and moving ahead with projects that have been in the queue for a while. This week I started to notice that while I am extremely busy, I’m in a groove. The world seemed to remove all obstacles from my path and allowed me to pass through with ease. And more than once, I noticed that a happy coincidence and helpful resources presented themselves. I’ve even found my typical junk mail helpful!

Nothing has recently changed in my life. I make the same amount of money, have the same skill sets, know the same people. So how did I cross over? How has life managed to somehow get easier as of late?

For one thing, I am asking for help, input, and advice with greater frequency. This is not something that’s easy for me. I pride myself on being tremendously self-sufficient. However, the projects I’m most excited about at the moment require expertise beyond my own knowledge. And therefore, necessitate my reaching out. I’ve been blown away by the willingness of others to help me.

I’ve also noticed my confidence, in my writing and in my business ideas, has also grown. I’ve been playing ‘fake it until I make it’, and guess what? It works. My years of writing and developing idea, products, and services is paying off as I cross over form being a novice with an interest to someone with concrete experience and tangible work to show for my efforts.

Finally, I know where I’m going, making me more aware of the help that has been around me all along. I’m on the path to starting my own company, and I know what I want it to look like and how I want it to function. Knowing where I’m going has made articulating my vision and values much clearer, to myself and to everyone else. It might be a long and winding road, though it’s much easier to keep going when the world provides its encouragement and assistance.

blog, entrepreneurship, Examiner, media, New York City, New York Times, social media, technology

NY Business Strategies Examiner.com: "You’re the Boss"

Christa Avampato

The New York Times has a new blog about entrepreneurship called “You’re the Boss”. Covering a wide range of topics, the blog’s authors hope that they can create a place where entrepreneurs can “compare notes, get advice, learn from one another’s mistakes, and keep up with the important changes coming out of Washington.”

For the full post, please visit: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2901-NY-Business-Strategies-Examiner~y2009m6d18-Youre-the-Boss–a-new-blog-about-entrepreneurship-by-the-New-York-Times

community service, NBC, volunteer

My Year of Hopefulness – Everyone Has Something to Offer

Christa Avampato

Tonight’s Making a Difference segment on NBC featured Coach Tim, a man who grew up in the Compton neighborhood of Los Angeles. Compton is now known as a haven of drugs, gangs, and violence. When Coach Tim was growing up, he played baseball in Compton – on a baseball diamond that was abandoned decades ago. He returned to the neighborhood after years of his own troubles – drugs, alcohol – to revive that baseball diamond into his own field of dreams for kids growing up on the same streets where he was raised.

The segment was enough to make any viewer choke up with emotion – and then, the real kicker. Coach Tim is homeless. For two years, he’s lived in his car. At night, he watches Dodgers games on his portable TV and reads the Bible for strength to get through another day. He could go to a shelter, though because he knows he got himself into his situation, he wants to get himself out of it without public assistance.

Those kids on his baseball team serve a larger purpose in his life – they give him a reason for being, for getting out into the world. They give him a way to do some good in a neighborhood that is faced with so much difficulty and saddness and loss. He’s keeping those kids from going down a path that he and so many of his childhood friends took simply because they didn’t know any better.

Coach Tim’s story made me think about how much we all have to offer, regardless of our situation, means, and history. Or maybe, like Coach Tim, we all have something to give precisely because of our history and situation. To make a difference in your neighborhood, visit Volunteer Match, Serve.org, or United Way.

entrepreneurship, Examiner, social entrepreneurship

NY Business Strategies Examiner.com: the defining value of entrepreneurs

Christa Avampato

When I was a kid, I loved Mr. Rogers. My favorite part of the show was the very beginning when he would come into his house, take off his dress shoes, and put on his sneakers – signaling that he had left the outside world and his job behind. The fun was about to begin the moment he put on his sneakers.

For the full story, please visit: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2901-NY-Business-Strategies-Examiner~y2009m6d17-The-defining-value-of-entrepreneurs

career, writer, writing

My Year of Hopefulness – Our Defining Value

Christa Avampato

“You could argue that every profession has its defining value. For carpenters, it might be accuracy: a carpenter who isn’t accurate shouldn’t be a carpenter. For diplomats, it might be loyalty: they can lie and spy and cheat and pull all sorts of dirty tricks, and as long as they are loyal to their government, they are doing their job. For journalists, the defining value is honesty–the attempt to tell the truth. That is our primary purpose. All that we do–all that is said about us–must flow from the single source of truth-telling.” ~ Nick Davies in Flat Earth News

My friend, Jamie, sent this quote to me today. His professor, Andy Gelman, posted it on his blog. It got me thinking about how this applies not only to professions, but to our lives in general and who we are, what we stand for. Many people are defined by their jobs. One side effect of this tough economy is that many people who have lost their jobs (and in some cases lost their entire industry) are being forced to reconsider who they are when their jobs are peeled away.

When I was a kid, I loved Mr. Rogers. My favorite part of the show was the very beginning when he would come into his house, take off his dress shoes, and put on his sneakers – signaling that he had left the outside world and his job behind. The fun was about to begin the moment he put on his sneakers.

I live this kind of life, too. The moment I leave my office and hop onto the subway to zip home, I take off my work title and become a writer – exactly what I am at my core. I write almost every day and collect quotes, magazine articles, books, and experiences that all get rolled into my material. They are the stories and activities that comprise my life. And my one truth that I’m living is to be helpful – to write something that makes a difference, that gives someone some inspiration, gets them through the day with a little wider smile and a little more hope for tomorrow.