Blog 2 and 3

This blog is free. Absolutely free. Yes, I'll try to make money from it, any way I can. But basically, the blog is free. You don't have to pay anything to read this. Ever. Thank you, internet.

Much of the Science of Originality podcast is free as well. I don't mind creating a lot of art and stuff for free. I'm an artist. Not getting paid for a lot of the stuff you prodcue comes with the territory.

The neat thing about the net is that one can provide free content and eventually make a lot of money doing that. This is on the agenda. As I write this post, I am not making any money writing this blog or doing the podcast. I am not making any money at anything but sculpting copper frogs. That's been my bread and butter for about twenty years, and it still is. (For more info, go to beautifulfrog.com). That said, I do not plan for another twenty years to go by and I'm still making frogs for a living. I hope.

So let's talk about what this blog is about and how you can benefit from reading it. This blog is an extension of material I call the Science of Originality, a science that evolves from observing the creative process. A lot of people besides me have contributed to this project, unkowingly. In other words, these people don't necessarily know about me. They have cotnributed to a pool of knowledge, or maybe a lake, or maybe even a small sea: knowledge about the creative process. I must admit here that "creative process" is a clever phrase that encompasses such august topics as consciousness and human spirituality, The creative process is a spiritual endeavor. Whether the artist cares to recognize that or not. If he does not recognize this, he does so at his peril. Powerful, archetypal forces inhabit the creative process. Thus, in podcasts about VEF - vision, essence, flow, aka, creative energy - I say that the main way to increase creativity is to develop a personal spiritual path. This is a path of one. Nobody but you can walk this path. Your spiritual development is up to you. So you pick and choose from the information and disciplins and practices and spiritual awareness that's out there in the world. You alsolisten to your own guidance. You also work at your art. For eample, the act of painting brings vision. The act of developing your ability to recreate images on canvas and paper and now on a screen and so on increases the psychic force we call vision.

Back to how this blog will benefit you. As with the Science of originality podcast, I plan for the blog to help you increase your creativity. If this blog does nothing more than that, still you have gained a lot by reading it. I do hope to teach you (and me) how to become a better artist. If you do not consider yourself an artist, perhaps my blog can teach you how to make choices that lead you to considering that you might be an artist after all. Every one of us have inner beauty. Being an artist is much about eploring that inner beauty, mainly by manifesting it in the form called art, also called literature, music, dance, and so on.

But one does not have to choose a typical path to be an artist. That is, one does not have to work in the fine arts or write or make music or even work in a craft or prepare food... Art is about more than the form. Art is about consciousness and life. Thus, art transcends all forms and mediums. Art is life. As you listen to the podcst and read this blog, you will see more and more what I mean.

This blog is something of an experiment. As I have said, this blog is an extention of the Science of Originality. The primary subject I have to observe is me. The blog and podcast allow more objectivity because I will now not be the only observer. I will not be the only person to make observations and arrive at concepts and conclusions and things like that.

Personal attacks are not welcome. Comments from the peanut gallery... Well, I suppose I'll have to field some of that. What I would enjoin you to do, if you want to be part f this, is to observe and make useful observations. What did you learn about the creative process? What are your ideas? Did this blog stimulate any knowledge in you. Of course, I also welcome positive feeedback. Look, I am putting myself out here. I guess I'll get some negative feedback. That's part of being an artist. One must learn to live with rejection. That's part (a painful part, agreed) of the creative process.

Now, just how creative is this blog? Am I living up to the standard I have set for myself? Is the blog creative? Does this blog radiate CREATIVITY?

If I try my best to be creative all the time in this blog, I probably won't be very. I'm not trying to be creative. I am creative. I have developed that skill. I wish I had developed the skill of creating money. I'm still working on that one.

Want a laugh? Here's a little tune I was working on last night on the computer. My son heard it this morning and said, "Dad, that's horrible... It sounds like a 70s Tango." For being 9 years old, my son is a remarkable critic. Editor's (the editor is the author) note: We (AKA I) had some technical difficulties getting this song up on the podcaster I chose, who is not the podcaster who hosts the Science of Originality show. Probably by the time someone reads this, if anyone ever does...I'll have the song up. So much for multi-media. Well, this blog aspect of the blog podcast multi-media thing is mainly about the word aspect of it. Did that make sense? This is one helluva ruff draft you are reading. Which is okay at this point because I want to share vision. This blog is at this point somewhat like a painting. (What crap!)

Okay, so I need to keep working on my skills at making music completely inside the computer. I mean, I made this song using a mouse. This is entirely digital music. Okay, so it needs work, but... It's creative.

And that's what you will see. You will see creativity. What I show you won't necessarily be incredible art - some of it will, but probably not all of it. Yeah, I'm pretty sure all of it will not be incredible. That said, it will show a lot of creativity. And that's what I am after.

If you read this blog and listen to the podcast and find yourself inspired to create stuff, well then, you know the blog and podcast are performing, doing their stuff.

Wouldn't it be amazing if I could end up making money doing this? What would that mean? That would mean, basically, that I had figured out how to make money simply being creative. That's it. Have fun being creative and make money doing so. Presently, I have no funding for this project. But...considering what some artists end up being able to fund, I could get money for this blog.

As I said, this blog is free. Most of the podcast is free. What I would ask of you, if you would be so kind, is to consider -consider, mind you; that's all I'm asking - looking at my other sites and buying some of my art. Look at it this way: I am a talented and skillful artist. I produce art. Not everything I create is great, but even the crummy stuff has life. The best stuff is not just the walking talking Pinnocio. It's also the real boy. This is an analogy I use to describe developing master. In the begining, you learn how to create life. That's the Pinnocio puppet that comes to life. Later, once you gain mastery, the puppet becomes real, the real boy. That's mastery. So not everything I create is a real boy. But most of it, probably all of it, is alive. What I am saying: the art is good. It has soul. Buy it and benefit from the depth and soul, the talent and skill.

I'm not a kid. I've been an artist all my adult life, a professional sculptor for over twenty years. I'm 46. This is not kid stuff I create. I'm a serious artist. Not all my subjects are serious subjects, but I am a serious artist.

Interestingly, this blog is here doing something I lthought of doing a while back, which is write a paphlet or small book about why people should buy my art, why it's such great stuff. I probably won't ever write such a book. This blog is probably what comes closest to writing such a book.

Increasing value by declaring it and claiming it. The blog allows me to do that. Note that in the concept of this blog being a device that can radiate creativity. Maybe creativity is a talent that can produce money... Certainly creativity is valuable... The secret - maybe it's not much of a secret, although many artists sadly treat it as one, one they don't know - is to apply the creativity, make use of it, capitalize on it. And also, disseminate it, get attention for it, put it out there, in other words.

Buy my art or information product... You'll be contributing to the Science of Originality. You'll be buying art, not crap - this in itself is a great thing. If you buy my information product, you'll be buying something with depth and something that's honest. For example, I have an information -

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Wow! I had stopped writing at this point. I was about to talk about my information product and launch intot hat, although, technically, the thing hasn't launched yet. It won't be much of a launch when I do. I'm on a learning curve here. This is my first product. Give me a break.

Is this at all funny to read? I hope so because at this juncture that's about all you and I are getting out ot this. Anyway, stay tuned. Or don't. Gee wiz, I hope you do stay tuned. I'll try harder, I promise. Struggling artist, that's me. I hope not. It HAS been me. Help me change that. Yes, in your sweet and relatively incredibly easy way, you can help change this.

I'm not asking for money. (Not yet, anyway, right?) All you have to do is read my stuff. Just...keep me in mind when you want some entertainment and creative stimulation. And...well...if you really want to do a little extra, click on a link or two.

Ohmygod! I'm beggin for visibility on a %$#ing blog! Outrageous. Well, I wouldn't be the first. You know it so happens that a lot of artists create art out of a need to commuincate, whether they actually ever do or not.

That's right, go observing other artists, take the attention off yourself for a moment so you can attempt a save. Look, let's admit, the past few paragraphs have been not much more than pure bunk. Pure, self-absorbed bunk. Let's cut this thing before it get's any more out of control.

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This blog created and managed by Beau Smith, the Persuasive Digital Media Pro.

I am a writer, musician, sculptor, painter, all-around creative guy...I've got to blog. In this blog I am going to share all the different forms of work I create in. I consider myself a multi-media artist. That's not currently how I make a living. I make a living sculpting and selling human-sized copper frogs. For more on that, go visit my beautifulfrog.com site, which I have had up for many years. You'll hear plenty enough about frog sculpture on this blog, more than you'd like, maybe, but to get a quick idea of what I do, check out that site. Besides, I'd love to have you on my beautifulfrog.com mailing list. I offer a freebie ebook I made all by myself, about my frogs. So go there and check it out. If nothing else, you'll see a true artist site, what a site should be. I don't claim that this is how your site should look or that all artist sites should look like my site. No way. And I'm sure that as much as I do things right on my site, I'm probably doing some stuff wrong as well. Oh well. I keep at it.

I love the web and digital media. Love it. I grew up without all this stuff. I'm 46. On the tail end of the boomers. I'm a boomer tail kid. Though I'm not a kid anymore. My wife tells me I need to grow up. But, let's face it, I'm not a kid.


It takes guts to write the sort of blog I am writing now. Guts. This is the traditional blog. Can you believe it, there's such a thing? Yes, well, before everyone started making so much money with these things, there was the guy (or gal - politically incorrect?) who just wanted to say..."Hello, world!" Which is, if you don't already know, though many of you do, what a Wordprerss blogger page, among others, says when you first open it up to set down your first entry. The traditional blog is the one that gives you journalese.

This does not have to be such a bad thing. Look at the Beatles. According to Lennon (and I agree), McCartney liked to write about others and Lennon wrote about himself. So you have "A Day in the Life" by Lennon and McCartney (I.E., Lennon) and "Lovely Rita: Meter maid", by McCartney. Now that might be unfair. I picked a great song by Lennen and a lesser song by McCartney. Well, that's just what I could come up with on the spur of the moment. If you look at McCartney’s songs, you find he writes about characters other than himself. If you look at all Lennon’s songs, you see Lennon writing mainly about himself. This is a matter of a different style, a different way of coming at art and the art process. That's all. The way I term it, and I will talk about this in my Science of Originality series, McCartney is an Illuminator, whereas Lennon is a Director. I've already explained myself enough here. I won't go into these two terms, Illuminator and Director. They are two different styles of making art. I include a third style in my basic model of how artists go about making art: the Master.

I've said so much here that apparently I'll have to go into this for a moment. So I will. The Illuminator emphasizes subject matter. He illuminates his subject, and that's where the substance of his art comes from. The Director has a personal vision of the subject. The art becomes more about him. The Master, in contrast to the other two, focuses on his medium. That's what gives his art substance.
Three different styles. I am a Director. Thus, the traditional blog is perfect for me. There are dangers. After all, I'm writing about myself. As my wife has commented to me more than once, all the blogs she ever read were incredibly boring.

Well then what accounts for the huge success of blogs? Someone, many someone’s, must be reading them. Yeah, and you are reading this blog right now. This is of course a neat trick because I seem to be reading your mind when I am simply stating the obvious. If I wanted to be more honest, I'd give you my blog stats, which are not great right now because this is early in the game. Check up with me on this.

Hugely boring. Okay, that is the danger. But revealing. That could be a strength. Not so if I embarrass myself, of course. As Lewis Grizzard used to say, "I wouldn't of told that."

Embarrassment of this sort is not just embarrassing for the writer or artist of whomever is the originator of said blog: It's embarrassing for the audience as well. Maybe not as much because there's some pretty racy and revealing stuff on the net. If we can all know the intimate details of a president's sexual escapades... Be that as it may, I don't want to embarrass you or me.

This is a narrow ledge. Ont he one side is embarrassment. On the other side is a damn boring blog, if it is about me and I don't reveal anything. So what is the answer?

I'll try, as best as I can, to give you art. I may not be John Lennon. Yes, on inspection, I am not John Lennon. But I am an artist. Further...

I believe in the net. I love it. I dream of being, among other things, and among being an artist and writer, an Internet Marketer, of sorts, anyway.

Thus, a traditional blog needs to be part of my repertoire, for a number of reasons – among them, the Science of Originality. The Science of Originality is based on an ever-growing model of reality (and non-reality; this thing is vast.) that originated in me one day when I was out running. It came to me that painting brings vision, writing brings essence, and music brings flow, and that vision, essence, and flow – VEF, as I sometimes call it – is the primary and originating substance of creativity and indeed of all reality, which is life. It later occurred to me that non-reality is death, and that reality and non-reality are polar opposites in this game we play called life. And so on.

I am an artist. I am also, in a way, a scientist, though I doubt anyone but me would call me that. Soft scientist, to be sure, but a scientist nonetheless. (Well, my wife is a psychologist. That’s one scientist in the family. My dad actually was a scientist. He’s also a sculptor, but he got a degree in thermodynamics.) I am a scientist of art-in-facts. Okay, that’s just a play on words. I am a scientist in that I observe the creative process. I read about the creative process, study it, look at it in the lives of others, artists, creatives, businesspeople, anyone who interests me. Mainly, though, I get the information from watching my own process. This is the most direct input of information. Subjective, yes. I try to be objective, though, hence, scientist as well as artist.

As I say, I have set up a podcast that has a lot of the Science of Originality material on it.

Science of Originality… I might also have called it Science of Reality… I bet that one’s taken, at least in the URL world. Maybe not… I’ll give it a try a little later on.

I have called this science the Science of Originality because it’s mainly about creativity – life, in other words – and where creativity comes from, hence the Source, hence originality.