Oh, hi friends!
And we are back to it.
What’s your “it” today?
Your passion project? Your grind-it-out job? Your mission to achieve Inbox Zero?
Now what if your goal today wasn’t to simply get through…
Or to tough it out…
Or to make it to Friday…
What if your goal today was to achieve excellence?
There’s a scary, thrilling thought.
Photo by Alena Koval from Pexels
Don’t forget: You are the seed. (Also: This looks messy.)
“Do something challenging.”
"Soon after we arrived in Ashland last spring, I met the astonishing local artist, Betty LaDuke, who at 86 continues to paint portraits of those who tend the land or make art themselves in the world’s most forgotten places. She turns her sketches into enormous colorful acrylics, painted on plywood cutouts five feet tall and bigger.
I first encountered LaDuke's work the day we flew to Ashland with our four suitcases and two cats. Her recent collection of large cutouts of local farm workers and farmers graced the terminal at Medford Airport, our starting and ending point for air travel these days. They took my breath away.
LaDuke is a force of nature, taking her sketchbook from Eritrea to Central America, passionate about social justice and indigenous female artists. She looks 16.
Almost fifty years ago, on her first sabbatical from her position teaching art at Southern Oregon University, her husband told her: ‘Do something challenging.’"
***
I met Barbara Cervone through this newsletter and have loved reading her blog Postcards from the Rogue Valley. Her story about Betty LaDuke (excerpted above) amazed me. There are stories everywhere—and if you pay attention, you can record them, too. Be inspired by Betty—and then write “DO SOMETHING CHALLENGING” on a Post-It and stick it in on your bathroom mirror. I’m going to.
Lights, Camera, Brother
2018 was a biiiig year—and that’s true for my brother Eric Cotti, who had a stellar year acting in a lot of exciting projects, including the hourlong monologue David Levine: Some of the People, All of the Time at the Brooklyn Museum (which The New York Times included in their Best Art of 2018 highlights and called “one of the first great works of art of the Trump era"!!!)
Now 2019 is starting off like a rocket and Eric has put together a new reel with moments from his recent projects—watch it here and make his day (and mine!). I’m always grateful to my bro for supporting my work and being the best collaborator and am so happy to pay that support forward.
Do you like these daily emails? Please share with a friend!
Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara