Day 5 Of Delusional Optimist's Guide To Achieving The I'mPossible

Day 5... 

I completed almost all of yesterday’s goals but I failed to drink all the water (one glass short) or spend any time stretching. I am still surprised that I got so much done yesterday in six work blocks even though I didn’t do the easiest things. While on my walk, I wrote an entire Seattle-based pilot episode for my non-existing Adult Swim show to send along with my series proposal. It’s such a lofty goal but it is Plan A at this time so I at least have to try. If I don’t shoot my shot, I’ll always wonder. The show could potentially help ALL of my favorite artists have sustainable art/music careers so it’s a damn good ask.

Poorly lit set of @TheRingOfDOOM & Eddie's cardboard box apartment in Seattle.

The pilot starts out in @TheRingOfDOOM’s cardboard box house in Seattle with his roommate Eddie The Eight Headed Mink Snake who was the costar in my Sun Ra Tribute video I filmed in the desert (as seen below) last summer while attempting to figure out what I most want out of life. I completely realize that my iPhone videos are pretty terrible but I am learning a ton while also shining light on art, music, and doing the stuff that makes me smile. I’ve given up on the videos so many times over the last year because I know I’m bad at it but I gotta start somewhere and they are hilarious to make. When everything goes as planned, I'll be able to pay my ridiculously talented peers to make the videos pro-style.

Since the only Monday-Friday 9-5ish job I’ve ever held was a summertime camp counselor job in Lake Tahoe about fourteen years ago, all seven of the days of the week are work days. I’ve heard that Sundays are supposed to be for relaxing, showing your allegiance to organized religion, and/or watching sports but I’m gonna glue more water onto my 3D aquarium while half-watching movies from the library and YouTube videos about people who kick ass… again.

Current Library Score; love that you can leave the library with everything you want for free.

I keep reading things like, “the answer is always no if you don’t ask the question,” so I’m feeling inspired to start asking at least one improbable question every day. At the encouragement of @garyvee @timferriss and @chasejarvis podcasts, I’ve already asked some crazy questions. For example, I asked D*Face in an email if I could interview him while he was in town or when I go to London in a few months (no reply of course), I asked MF DOOM’s team if he’d like me to stop using his likeness and if it was okay to sell @TheRingOfDOOM zine I had just made (they asked me to send them the zine via email, no reply cuz it was my first zine and it sucked, still haven't printed), and I reached out to JR of the Faces & Places documentary etc. if he thought I should make a documentary instead of a series via DM on Instagram (no reply). The funny thing is that I remain afraid to ask the people in my own city who I already know to do the same thing. I 100% believe that interviewing local musicians in the woods and posting on YouTube could lead to bigger opportunities than getting paid less than $100 to play a small show in Seattle but I still haven’t reached out. The possibilities are truly endless if I dare to ask ALL the questions. *Note I have not added it to daily goals cuz I’m still scurred.

Could not be more inspired by Bobby Hundreds ⬆⬆⬆

My previous experience as a show booker under the guidance of a Superhero Talent Buyer taught me that you can make truly epic things happen just by tapping your fingers on a keyboard. The questions I have asked others via email in the past have brought thousands of people together. I couldn’t be more proud of the events I curated and the people I brought together via typing questions. It’s kinda funny that we can be afraid to tap our fingers on a keyboard. I’ve mostly worked with musicians in the past so reaching out to visual artists is new to me. Every to do list and/or collection of ideas I’ve made over the last few years has interviewing people written right at the top. I’ve circled back around to the idea of filming interviews with artists in nature on my iPhone every few months for the last five years but have still only interviewed one person. Maybe I’ll do it now because I told the internet about it… we shall see.

Today’s Goals

1.     Drink 64 oz. water

2.     Go For A Walk

3.     Stretch at least 10 minutes

4.     One Post On Website… Shared (post on all four blogs on Medium also)

5.     2-3 Instagram Posts Per Account @206liz @TheRingOfDOOM @MyDefOfCool

6.     At least 2 x 90 minute work blocks on big water collage & others

7.     90 minute work block storyboarding Adult Swim pilot I’ll film shortly to send with my proposal

SONG OF THE DAY

Aim – “Cold Water Music” 1999 – I’ve been addicted to this song for weeks now.

Day 4 Of Delusional Optimist's Guide To Achieving The I'mPossible

Day 4

I completed ALL of yesterday’s goals in seven 90 minute work blocks and a field trip. My walk was only to and from my car and at art shows but I left HQ for a bit and I’m making the rules here; sometimes getting outside your box is good enough. Feels weird to photograph @TheRingOfDOOM in Seattle galleries where people may recognize me from my previous incarnations which is exactly why I should be doing it. All of my life experience has led me here and I should be proud of my journey even if I’m a broke 40 year old woman with a clay figurine and a tech deck in my pocket. Still convinced that by studying the Visual Art world and learning how to promote my own art, I’ll be able to help musicians and other artists get out of struggle mode and into a place where their infinite potential is within reach. I’ve been in struggle mode for six years due to my upside down car loan/working in the music industry/trying to live alone in Seattle (Happy Recent 100,000 Mile Birthday Car!) and have only been able to make my life work with the overuse of credit cards which my delusional optimism can justify as investments in myself with truly terrible interest rates. Can’t wait to see what myself and others can do when we’re not in a constant panic about Bezosian Rent Warfare and the state of our country.

@claude206 Art as seen at Photon Factory

@acodd03 as seen at Photon Factory

Since I’ve stopped applying for the very few jobs I actually want out of fear that I’ll lose respect for my heroes when they fail to recognize my genius… again and I no longer can stomach working alongside people who falsely assume they’re permanently trapped in their current reality, I have no choice but to be my own boss. If I work even half as hard toward my own goals as I have for evil corporations, I will get everywhere fast but since I must start somewhere, I started with Etsy. I will be cutting out the middleman and selling art on my own site very, very soon but for now I’m selling belt buckles, patches, and zines on my Etsy page (90 minute work block win).  I haven’t paid a bill late yet but if I don’t start bringing in some fundage in the next couple weeks, that is a strong possibility. I’ve been cooking up some crazy ideas of how to creatively sell the artwork I created for #100DaysOfTheRingOfDOOMCollages and can’t wait to show you how they develop.

Yesterday’s curiosity about how to get to five figure art prices was explored with this video about Kaws and his empire while gluing pieces of water… Complex’s The Blueprint series has so many gems.

In my seventh 90 minute work block yesterday, I poured the resin on another layer of collages which always feels like a win; metaphorical and otherwise. One of the hardest parts about being single for so long is making decisions alone. For most of my life, I let others choose my destiny and I spent decades following others around but when I finally started making decisions for myself, my world got much more interesting. To me, every resin pour means that I’ve made a bunch of creative decisions and ran with it. Taking the time to discover what I must run toward has been truly priceless and I now find myself happily sprinting toward my distant destination in confidence I will find health insurance, financial stability, and like-minded optimists along the way.

Today’s Goals

1.     Drink 64 oz. water

2.     Go For A Walk

3.     Stretch at least 10 minutes

4.     One Post On Website… Shared (post on all four blogs on Medium also)

5.     2-3 Instagram Posts Per Account @206liz @TheRingOfDOOM @MyDefOfCool

6.     90 Minute work block of Adult Swim series proposal

7.     90 Minute work block of @TheRingOfDOOM video set building

Song Of The Day

James Blake – “Put That Away And Talk To Me” 2016

Day 3 Of Delusional Optimist's 48 Day I'mPossible Mission

I accomplished all of my goals for yesterday in six 90 minute work blocks. Woo! After looking into the Vice IGTV Contest, I realized that once again, using MF DOOM’s likeness is holding me back from pulling the trigger on too many things. I’ve been waiting to email the Gas Drawls team again until I finished my Adult Swim series proposal (add it to my daily goals maybe?) to ask if it is okay to sell @TheRingOfDOOM art. I am fully aware that many others profit from the use his likeness, even most likely the artist who created the ring itself, but since my end goal is to help artists make a living with their craft, I would feel douchey profiting from his likeness without permission. I’ve been procrastinating the launch of my newest character because it doesn’t fit in my pocket. After reading all the rules, I decided to make IGTV @TheRingOfDOOM movies anyway but not enter the contest. 

Went to see the D*Face show at Treason Gallery, Shohei Otomo at Statix, and a few other galleries last night before coming back here to work on my own art. No photos taken because unless there’s room to put @TheRingOfDOOM on the ground and back away, I prefer to photograph art outside. I would really love to learn exactly how D*Face reached the point of five digit art prices because selling one piece of art at that price would fund my Europe trip, pay all my bills until I get back, and buy me some much needed dental work in Spain. Just throwing this out there… when I do get into the six-seven digit art sales, these pieces I’m making now will be $$$. Invest in living artists pretty please; we don’t have health insurance. Feel free to contact me to make an offer. 

First layer of 3D aquarium collage under curing resin. 

I finished the first layer of waves on the water collage AND poured a layer of resin on it as well as a few others shown above. Due to my limited space, I wasn’t able to get a good video of the resin pour itself but I decided to unearth an un-uploaded video I had fermenting on my iPhone and share that instead. The newly uploaded YouTube video includes the resin pour of @TheRingOfDOOM belt buckle I’ve been wearing every day. While museum crashing at the Hirshhorn in Washington DC with @TheRingOfDOOM, the security guard told me he liked my belt buckle more than most of the art in the museum; 🙌.

Today’s Goals

1.     Drink 64 oz. water

2.     Go for a walk

3.     Stretch at least 10 minutes

4.     One post on website

5.     2-3 Instagram posts per account; @206liz @TheRingOfDOOM @MyDefOfCool

6.     Add new water to resin projects (At least one 90 minute work block)

7.     Go to Untitled; the art show of @acodd03 @leo.shallat @claude206 at @PhotonFactory and the Pirahna Shop Vice & Virtue Opening

8.     90 Minute Etsy Belt Buckle Work Block (haven’t done one since I started keeping track)

Art Show poster that is better than yours.

Song Of The Day...

Day 2 Of Delusional Optimist's 48 Day Mission To Europe

Day 2… 47 Days To Go

Yesterday I mostly completed all six of my goals but only posted one post on each Instagram account. It’s so easy to tell yourself that it isn’t necessary but every single thing we do to work towards our goals will get us closer… even if it’s just an Instagram post. I’ll do better today! I had not been drinking enough water lately so that surprisingly felt like the biggest win. I accomplished this productive day using the 90 minute work block system I borrowed from Chase Jarvis. The Instagramming and my blog post were completed within two 90 minute work blocks and the other four work blocks all were spent gluing tiny pieces of water to my 3D aquarium collage. When you wake up and make your own schedule every day, structure is key. See below for my crude system that works… I started this board to keep track of all my personal projects on January 21 and currently am in the 224th 90 minute work block. I do not factor in the many, many hours of walking and taking photos or any of the social media stuff I do on tour. Like the FREE Duolingo app for learning new languages, it's truly on some Mary Poppins ish because it made my "work" into a game. 

Today is already looking to be even more productive because I woke up earlier and Art Walk days inspire me more than most to get my shit together. This week, the London Street Artist D*Face has been in Seattle painting murals and prepping Treason Gallery for his art show that starts today. Since I once made a video for @TheRingOfDOOM in Las Vegas that invents the sad love story of the characters in his murals, I could not have been happier to see the lovers reunited on the streets of my very own city. Curious to know if he has seen my ridiculous YouTube video (very unlikely at 57 views) but I do feel a Part Deux coming on. Looking forward to checking out D*Face’s show at Treason Gallery tonight as well as Shohei Otomo’s show at Statix and then coming right back here to make stuff so I can be in their shoes someday.

D*Face's New Mural On 1st & Lenora In Seattle

Today’s Goals

1.     Finish first layer of water on 3D Aquarium Collage

2.     One Post On Website

3.     2-3 Instagram Posts On Each Account @206liz @TheRingOfDOOM @MyDefOfCool

4.     Drink 64 oz. water

5.     Go For A Walk

6.     Stretch For 10 Minutes Plus

7.     Research And Storyboard Vice IGTV Contest for August 6 Deadline

3D Aquarium Collage Under Construction

The Delusional Optimists Guide To Achieving The Impossible... Day 1

48 Days To Departure...

Close proximity to greatness has shown me that hard work, blind faith, a contact list, and the courage to use it will get you everywhere.

In 2009, I started a music blog to show off to the world what good taste I have. By the end of 2015, I had worked with a third of the artists I blogged about and found myself in some jaw-droppingly star studded situations on a daily basis. I worked in as many positions in the music industry possible to learn as much as I could about how I could best help the musicians that inspired me. The experience I had acquired working for independent and corporate music venues, hip hop promoters, and record labels taught me that what I really want to build would look more like a media company with lots of merch and an amazing soundtrack. Since the realization that the corporate music industry must be overthrown and I will help make it happen, I vowed to never work for corporations again and to only work on teams whose missions align with my own. For the last year and a half, I’ve been unsuccessfully scraping together a living as part of a catering team and a freelance Merch Manager for touring underground hip hop artists while also declaring myself to be a Traveling Street Art Photographer.

As an unemployed, over-achieving, workaholic, 40 year old single divorcee, my situation could go many ways. Due to my delusional optimism and saturation of entrepreneurial podcasts, I am currently in the eat shit for a few years so I can have caviar for the rest of my life phase(Gary Vaynerchuk metaphor…I prefer sushi/tacos). I couldn’t be more confident that the ROI on investing in myself will be priceless and that all of the knowledge I’ve acquired over the last 40 years will lead me somewhere totally amazing… like Europe for two months starting this September 17.  It is this quickly approaching deadline that inspired me to take extra steps to make sure I succeed via the potential of public humiliation for quitting before I’ve even tried. My mission is to figure out how to go from negative $0 to two months in Europe photographing Street Art and filming my fictional character having epic adventures. I’m leaving for London in 48 days.

I have many, many lists of ways to reach my goal but all of them require the courage to reach out I have yet to find within myself. My greatest fears include looking like a moron in front of people who don’t care about me and actually creating the world I’ve envisioned for myself. When all of my To Do’s are checked off, will I even be able to handle the light being shined in my direction? All I know for sure is that if I don’t reach for this seemingly impossible future, I will ALWAYS wonder what could have been.

Fueled by the determination to art my way out of this tiny box I stay in and to create opportunities for the artists that inspire me, I’ve decided to share my progress toward creating the Intergalactic Art Bridge I believe is possible. Instead of over-analyzing how much of my story to tell and procrastinating, I will stop looking backwards (ha) and just get to work. At this time, I feel that going all in with my own art will take me everywhere I want to go so I’ve been making the art I will display when I finally get the courage to ask for an art show and succeed. I’ve yet to sell any of my own art so it will be interesting to see how this plays out. 

Today’s To Do List… (I’ll let you know tomorrow if I did it)

1.     More work on the first layer of my 3D aquarium collage.

2.     One post on my website… shared on social media accounts

3.     2-3 Instagram posts per account; @TheRingOfDOOM @206liz @MyDefOfCool

4.     Drink 64 oz. of water

5.     Go For A Walk

6.     Stretch 10 Minutes Plus

Today’s Art... 2’ x 3’ paper collage of water