ArtBizVoice: A Different Sort of Life Part 2

Dear Mr Trump,

With all the help I received from Social Security and  The Virginia Department of Rehabilitative Services there is one thing that was never addressed: How to overcome the limits of Isolation caused by on going poverty.

Counseling happens and that helps those who are disabled to overcome the self image issues.  It is also true that some spending does happen and field trips but those are mostly to show what is possible and be encouraging. It is all helpful however it doesn't address my problem.

You see most people who have seen the possibilities and  have over come the self image issues would have already developed social graces and would already have put aside money to join organizations that would give networking possibilities. Disabled and impoverished people don't actually have that opportunity.

Here is why: It costs money and effort. And it needs someone savvy and experienced to generate the income in doing it. There are 7 or 8 Local organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce, Business Women Associations, Artists groups and guilds, Rotary, etc etc  and all of them take cash.  And even if you had the cash  most of the time if you haven't had a good meal or you are disabled, fatigue and clarity of mind are not going to be an asset you can draw on. Then of course there is the problem of accessibility.

All of the rehab programs in the world are not going to get the disabled where they need to be if there is no one to partner with who can do the networking and the sales and marketing leg work.

I don't have money so I tried to get somewhere with this through the only two options left to me. The SCORE organization of retired business men who help small businesses to get started And my local church.

Here is what happened. The available gentlemen from SCORE wouldn't even touch what I am doing because I currently use Internet Marketing venues. I didn't need more information on Internet Marketing I needed a way to connect to real people and real businesses face to face and I needed some alternate ideas on how to do that since I  am unable to do it myself. SCORE wouldn't touch me.

I  also joined the only church in my community that  had access to the building for disabled people. Well they refused to help even connect me with any business people and got mad at me because I would not commit money I didn't have to participating in galleries or art shows. And they got even madder when they saw that I had no money to give to the church.  My dad was a pastor, I never heard him not help anyone who need it, even helping people get jobs. So that was a real shock.

Really, I need some help here. Do you have any ideas on how I can network or who can be my networking face?

~L

ArtBizVoice: A Different Sort of Life Part 1

Dear Mr Trump,

Wow, I just saw your endorsement of  Mr. Netanyahu. Surprising, but nicely done.

It reminded me today,  I was thinking that Israel has had a lot to over come in its long and varied history. The first being that many out side of a few countries, think it only came to be a nation as a result of World War II.  History is so important. The nation of Israel has historically been the only nation to make the desert bloom.  When I was a child I remember seeing photos of Israel from people who had lived and visited there and I thought wow how dry and barren, rocks upon bare earth, upon rocks all where the houses built the same color as the earth. It made me feel thirsty just to look at the photos.

Yet, just before Christmas this year I saw a wonderful photo of Israel now. It is blooming and green and thriving and feeds a good portion of Europe. Why would people want to destroy that which makes the desert bloom?  Seems to me instead of trying to destroy it that all of its neighbors would want to make friends so they too could  learn the secret to making life happen and letting people thrive. Then if they focused on those things instead of the quarrels of generations past everyone could thrive and have peace.

I realize I've just over simplified about 70 years of recent world history from my naive perspective.

I suppose different people are disabled by different things and that makes them impoverished. The "I can't " mentality is very prevalent in the disabled. Isolation is one of the greatest causes of it. And the fact that people other than themselves make decisions about their lives so that they think they can not.  Then there are physical limitations as well as limitations by society. Its hard to climb out of the box when you start seeing yourself as others stereotype you.

One of the things I read about Israel today is that many in the opposition think by following Mr. Netanyahu's plans that it will bring isolation to Israel and that will impoverish it. Um. I think that is incorrect. A country, just like a disabled person, can become an oasis in the midst of a dark world simply by remembering how far they have come and what they hope to do and reminding people of it so no one forgets.

I firmly believe that rising above one's circumstances is not dependent upon what others say or think about you, but about what you know and remember about your self.  It doesn't hurt to have advocates that agree.
You are an "Agreeable Advocate" in this Mr. Trump.
~L

ArtBizVoice: Limitations (The Joy Is In the Striving!)

Dear Mr. Trump,

My Limitations:

  I have never used my disability as an excuse for failure.  I wanted my art to stand on its own merit. Thus I never  advertised myself as a disabled artist. Pity does open doors; however, it won’t necessarily make your work timeless or masterful..  

One of my friends years ago told me it is not  about beating the competition, its about beating your own last best effort. He was an endurance rider who  competed in 100 mile rides. He told me you have to be able to run a marathon in order to do it because you don’t want your horse so tired at the end that he cannot go on for another  20 miles, if needed. That means knowing when to rest, knowing when to let your horse carry you and knowing when to get off and run along side him.

I asked him once why he did it. He had this far away look in his eye and said “ The joy is in the striving”.  He was passionate about it. He loved it and the challenge to accomplish it was what drove him.
He died of cancer in 1988. The only race I ever remembering him not finishing was the one before he was diagnosed. People knew him by his dedication and passion. Many people joined the sport because of him.

When I look at my limitations, I think it is not the fatigue, the weakness I have sometimes, the pain in my legs, and how hard it is to move around . Sometimes I think that my biggest limitation has really been the stereotypes.  I am stereotyped as a artist. It hinders me with people who could help because they think I should be showing at shows, exhibiting in galleries. At my income level, as a disabled person that just doesn’t work, and is a complete waste of money.  Those who I have approached ( and no they don’t know about my limits physically beyond what they see) do not talk to me about what I am trying to accomplish and they don’t want to hear my vision. The word artist puts me in the artist box.  Just like the word disabled puts me in the disabled box. 

For me, the Internet has been a lifesaver and away to get the word out about myself and my art. I have a cult following of appreciative followers. However, for me to thrive and really be successful, I really need more. I need a way to get the word out to the majority of the people who don’t have time to be on-line. It takes preparation. It takes mentorship and it takes a person to partner with me just like my friend was partnered with his horses. In the mean time I am following my passion. Because, the joy really is in the striving.

Blessings of the Day to you.
~L

ArtBizVoice:We Shall Over Come( Skills Development)

Dear Mr. Trump,

I hope you had a very nice weekend. Today I'm writing to you about some of my experiences and skills development.  I have done many things to improve my situation, develop my talents and overcome the limits of my health. My motto is not  “I can not do it” but  “How can I do it.”

One of Two of the programs I have benefited by is The PASS ( Plan for Achieving Self Support)program with the  Social Security Administration. I was told at one point that I was the first person to be admitted into the program in the state of Virginia in 1992. They actually allowed me in the program because I could prove to them that I could still paint and make art from bed if I had to.  I have, too.

The second is the Virginia Department of Rehabilitative Services. They have been instrumental in helping me obtain much needed equipment, training and counseling in doing business better. I cant thank them enough for their hands on approach.

In addition to developing my skills at making and selling art, I also in the 1990s published a Regional Thoroughbred Racing paper, freelanced for a number of regional papers as a feature writer, researched and developed my own interest in my faith enough, so that at one point, I was leading groups at my local church and offered myself as a lay speaker.  I am a spiritual mentor now. I also from time to time worked with homeschooler families holding Highshool and college prep level art classes in their homes.  I also was able to photograph horse sports for a number of years.   All of these things were in spite of my disability and from them I gained amazing experiences. They also helped me to go out into the community for short times and connect with people I was serving.

One of the most difficult things for the disabled to overcome, in my opinion is the isolation and inability to connect with everyday people.  It is a skill they often lose by isolation. So even though I wasn’t making a living going out I was trying to maintain my social skills. I have to admit it was scary. I still don’t do very well in large groups of people especially where I don’t know anyone.   This may be the largest hindrance to successfully integrating the disabled into the work place.

Somehow in all that time I have managed to keep on developing my skill as an artist, I’ve kept up with trends in the horse industry and worked with some wonderful animal and people service charities to help them in fund-raising.

More about challenges and limits tomorrow.

Have a prosperous Monday.
~L

ArtBizVoice: A Life Before Limits ( A little personal history.)

Dear Mr. Trump,
 I have read your bio  so I will give you mine now. Well, ok it will be more like a personal history.

I am a 57 year old college graduate who trained in art and education.  I really wanted to have a business and journalism degree, however,  I have dyslexia. I was willing to try but everyone did all they could to talk me out of it. Since spelling is a bit of a problem for me; well one must adapt.  Lets just say in the 1970’s no one was going to let someone who couldn’t spell into those sort of jobs. I also trained for a year at a small western Virginia college in Horse management. I have a life long love horses.

One of the problems with having Dyslexia is that you really seem sort of dumb to the rest of the world and lets face it, people who can see fine have no trouble making fun of people who fumble for their words, cant tell the difference between g, h, d, y, and b ( if I close my eyes I can sometimes write them correctly with a computer) and  cant tell when to punctuate or when a letter doesn’t belong.  I have been laughed at many times by people who should know better. Intelligent people even.

The up side of Dyslexia is that I can look at a model in art class and draw it completely backwards in detail.  Which on a number of occasions surprised my Professor. The scary part of Dyslexia is making sure your check book is balanced.

After college I was hired by a small rural private school to teach art and fill in. It seemed I was so talented that they eventually gave me my own class and made me liaison with the public school system in dealing with special needs children. I was 23.

 I loved the children, however,  being in the class room made me claustrophobic. I was encouraged to go for a Masters in special education with recommendations to University of Virginia. However,  the truth was  I was afraid I couldn’t pass the entrance tests  and qualifications exams, and how on earth would I ever write so people could read it.  How on earth could I ever read all those books.  The one thing that really never crossed my mind was how much it might cost. 

At that time, I also intuitively felt myself  becoming weak, it was just a feeling. I knew I only had a small window of time to have horses, so I bought a few and started training and coaching. I don’t regret it one bit.  I was at my happiest but  I was having issues either with genetics or just that my body wasn’t made for that kind of work.  One minute I was filled with hopes and dreams of helping anyone, rich or poor to work with horses and the next I was flat on my back with a number of health issues. I don’t think I was as depressed as much as I was in mourning.  In 1988 I went on disability.  I have been trying ever since to figure out how to get off of it and using my talents and skills to sustain my own life.  I was right at the edge of actually pulling it off in 2008 when “change” happened.

I'm trying to keep these letters short so I will share with you what I did to improve my chances for success  in my next letter.

Have a wonderful weekend. I hear that we are suppose to be having  very warm weather on the east coast.
~L

ArtBizVioce: Searching For The Way In

Dear Mr. Trump,

I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to write to you over the last year. Finally I did. Then, when I went to discover how to get a letter to you, Well I realized that you would probably never see it. One of the reasons that you might not see it is because, well, how could one man possibly read all that mail.

So I saved my letter and decided to pray about it, because I do pray. Prayer tends to be something that works for me. So I prayed and I waited and some how I made it through the holidays. And the thought hit me that perhaps I wasn’t the only one who needed input, perhaps I wasn’t the only one who was trying to be successful and just needed a little bump to get there.

So I figured if I write this blog then maybe one of your assistants might see it and then they might recommend it to one of your underlings and if it seems useful maybe you or one of your children might actually see it. In the mean time, maybe I can voice the real problems that people like me have. Perhaps I can help a few along the way. So, I thank you for reading this in advance and for paying people to search out the Internet to find little bits and blurbs that contain your name.

By the way, I loved your website biography. I think you are uniquely qualified for what you do and years of experience haven’t hurt that one bit. I appreciate people, every person, who takes what they have and at least tries to do something creative and at times flamboyant, simply for the joy of doing it and because we have the Freedom in the United States to soar. Thank you for sharing so many of your experiences with us.

You know I read that you wanted to be in show business when you were young. You did it! Maybe its not how we start out but really what we do to get where we want to go that makes the most difference in our lives.

Have a wonderful Day. ~L

ArtBizVoice: In the Begining: The Letter Story

A lot of people are going to be wondering why I started this blog. I have a lot of projects going in Fine Art and Design and Several blogs already.

You see  my life style and circumstances are perfect for an artist; however,  they are not so perfect for someone who wants to succeed in business. They are even less so for someone like me who needs to have the support financially and mentor wise. So I decided to write a letter to Donald Trump.

When I finished the letter and went to search out where to send it. I immediately got on the Trump Website. I realized after reading the biographies and searching the site that the probability of Mr. Trump actually seeing my letter was probably less than tripping over a burning asteroid in my back yard.

I have several ideas about business expansions but I am really not ready to do that sort of "development proposal". I need a person! Gosh I need persons! Passionate persons, with a lot of skills I do not have to market the products I do have and help me develop new products and new markets. And they need to be willing to work on the project like I do, for the shear love of it. Success  being the payoff.

I was hoping that Mr. Trump could advise me or even connect me with someone who might point me in the right direction to finding such a person.

I needed to put the letter away and rethink it. And I thought well I need a mentor anyway and maybe others do too so why not blog my letters and the answers I find. And maybe someone might one day see it and I will have the connection I need.  So here goes.