At Kutztown University we asked, “How can you be an advocate for others?” Life is hard and sometimes it takes all we have just to make it through the day. But in all of the people I have interviewed through the years, I have seen that the magic happens when we can take our eyes off our own needs and think about the needs of … Continue reading Advocate
I spent time in New York City last week. Meetings, reconnecting with friends, gallery hopping, networking. It was a chance to refill my creative cup and to imagine new possibilities. After all, our new book has been out for two months now. My head is filled with all sorts of “what’s next” scenarios. Maybe it’s the small town Wisconsin boy in me, but I am … Continue reading NYC
I spent time last week at the Nebraska Women in Agriculture conference in Kearney. We asked participants, “What has called you to this work?” I like questions like that. They are open-ended. They let people bring their own experience to the studio and share what is close to their hearts. This group was started 39 years ago to offer support, encouragement, and solutions to women … Continue reading Calling
“When have you felt a sense of belonging?” That’s the question we asked in a small rural town in Minnesota. I’ve worked with the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center in the past. They hosted one of my earliest exhibits there a decade ago. I spent a couple weeks there for an artist residency while I was editing our American Stories book. So, when I … Continue reading Belonging 2.0
Here’s how the book was looking in the wee, dark hours of the morning today. All the pages have run through the press and are stacked on pallets, waiting to be assembled. I’ve spent much of my career producing images for magazines and newspapers, so there’s something familiar…comforting even…about walking out onto the pressroom floor, smelling the ink and hearing the hum of the rollers … Continue reading Press check
We spent a few days this fall with K-State Research and Extension professionals in Manhattan Kansas and asked, “When have you been inspired to engage with your community?” And this is what people said. What inspires you to engage with your community? Continue reading Engage
We are about a month away from the delivery of our new book, Lessons on the Road to Peace. I’m pretty sure I understood that an 11-month turnaround to write, edit, design, and produce a 304-page book was a ridiculous pace, but I decided to do it anyway. In part, to help process the enormity of this 2-½ year journey Karen and I took across … Continue reading The home stretch
I spent a week in Corvallis, Oregon gathering stories of belonging. It was a broad coalition of campus and community organizations that brought us to town and as a result, we were able to include a broad range of voices. It’s important, especially when we talk about belonging, to have a big tent, to include as many different voices as possible. We all tend to … Continue reading Belonging
Eighteen days at ArtPrize was quite the run! We installed our new exhibit, Lessons on the Road to Peace for the first time at the future site of Silva, currently a gorgeous and raw space. Now that the artists have cleared out, check out what the place will become. We ran a public studio and asked people “When have you found unexpected courage?” I am … Continue reading Courage
One of A Peace of My Mind’s roles in the world is to foster hope. In people and in organizations. There are good folks in the world doing good work and if we can amplify and encourage those efforts, we all do better. We all know it’s tough out there. The world can be discouraging. Sometimes it feels like the challenges of the world are … Continue reading Hope
