Important Update

As many of you know I have been busy launching The Global Institute for the Arts and Leadership (TGIAL) over the past year.  Please check us out at www.artschangeleaders.org.  Our mission is to build a better world through the arts and art making.

We have been building an amazing international network of artists, academics, researchers, entrepreneurs, human potential professionals, business leaders and scientists.

TGIAL holds the potential to become a powerful platform for bringing art based processes and techniques to changing the way we look at the world, ourselves and the way we do innovation and catalyze social change. 

 

This continues to be a labor of love, commitment and belief and it is only beginning.

The reason I am writing now is to let you know that after 5 years I will no longer be writing my Bloutcher.  As part of the TGIAL platform we will be incorporating a blog feature which will include guest entries from thought leaders and doers.  I will be integrating my own thinking/entries into these as well.

I plan to move the email addresses of Bloutcher recipients over to the TGIAL distribution list so you will begin to receive TGIAL's blog and newsletter updates from time to time.  I also wanted to give you the opportunity to opt out of this distribution list.  Simply let me know if you would like to be removed by responding to this email and I will be sure you will not be moved over to the TGIAL distribution list.

In the meantime, here are a few other updates:

• ·         This past August, I co-taught Global Leadership; Redefining Success at McGill in Montreal with Prof Nancy Adler.  Professor Adler is a true pioneer in bringing art into the leadership conversation.  Click here for a link to one of her earlier articles.

• ·         I have been asked to expand the MIT program The Leader As Artist.  In October I will be teaching, along with Aithan Shapira, a program entitled The Observational Leader which explores how the ways we observe the world influences the way we see possibilities and pathways to innovation.

• ·         I launched my new book Can Art Save Us?  earlier this year.  My response to the title question might surprise you.  I wonder what your thoughts are?  To order a copy of the book click here.

• ·         I took a Japanese Woodblock Printing Workshop in July.  I am now addicted and my studio is gradually be organized around the carving, printing process.  Here’s a piece I recently completed.

• ·         I have been invited to join the Art of Science Learning faculty which is underwritten by a major, multiple year grant from the National Science Foundation.  One of the things that is exciting about this initiative is that the Art of Science Learning is about to come out with game changing research that clearly demonstrates the powerful impact of arts based processes on a range of outcomes including creative problem solving, collaboration, resilience, innovation, engagement and on and on.  Stand by for this research!
• At TGIAL we are beginning work on our Hands Across the Globe initiative.    We intend to build a virtual platform that inspires artists around the world to act as catalysts for social change in their communities.

I would like to thank you for allowing my Bloutcher to enter your life over these past several years.  I especially appreciate your comments, insights and reactions.  They have made me feel that we are all taking this arduous, challenging journey toward societal and personal wholeness and creative vitality together.  To be continued through The Global Institute for the Arts and Leadership!

My New Book

I wanted to let you know my new book Can Art Save Us? is about to be released.

It is actually up on Amazon now, but its official launch will be in a week.

Can Art Save Us? is organized around three important questions:

1.       Where do ideas come from?

2.       What happens to ideas in the process of converting them into something real?

3.       Does art and the art making process have relevance to the wider world beyond the studio walls?

I’ve been fortunate to get strong support for the book.  Nancy Adler who is the S. Bronfman Chair of Management at McGill and who was just named the top ranked female leadership guru in the world wrote:  “With his unique fusion of executive experience, artistic creativity, and profound humanity, Mandell… challenges us to believe in the power of art and art-making to transform the maker, the viewer and the broader community.”

You can order a copy on Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Can-Art-Save-Fred-Mandell/dp/1502853876/ref=sr_1_3_twi_2_pap?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1428694499&sr=1-3&keyword

I would also love to hear your thoughts.  This is a deeply personal book, but one which I believe has great relevance to the state of the world at this particular moment in time.  I also welcome a review on Amazon (5 stars, of course!)

It would be great if you could put a plug in for the book through your networks.

Of course, let me know if you have any questions.

With Appreciation!!

Perils of the Practical Person

In This Bloutcher;
Where Art, Life and Leadership Collide

• The Perils of Heeding the Practical Person
• The Mother of Creativity
• Another Iteration

The Perils of Heeding the Practical Person
(Excerpt from Memory Calls; Reflections on Paradox and Creativeness in Art and Life by Fred Mandell, unpublished manuscript.)

Nor is the will to power the only threat to creativeness.  Of a lower order but in many ways more insidious threat is the Practical Person.  For such a person Utility is the highest order value.  The Practical Person has a built-in sonar that scans for efficacy, efficiency, productivity, serviceability, convenience, appropriateness, good old "common sense"--the bland array of the tried and true.  The Practical Person does not see past his/her current context.  For this context is the sum total of the Practical Person's reality.  The Practical Person has little patience for dwelling in the imagination, among the outliers or the phantasmagoric--little tolerance for the unknown or ambiguous.  The Practical Person is a reductionist and is quick to judge that which cannot pass the litmus test of well worn belts and suspenders.  The Practical Person, without malice intended, has a gift for making the Creativeness Person feel that s/he lacks an essential quality of being a contributing member of society.

The Mother of Creativity

I recently delivered a featured presentation at the National Career Development Association Global Conference entitled The Artist Within; Creating a Masterpiece Practice. Here is one of the slides from my power point.

 We often think that dissatisfaction is not normal.  That normal is being in a state of equanimity and harmony.  If we were to be honest with ourselves, though, we would acknowledge we are in a state of dissatisfaction more often than not.  I would suggest that being in a state of dissatisfaction is more normal than being in a state of equanimity.  So rather than see such a state as an annoyance, an anomaly, why don't we view our dissatisfaction as useful information and empower our dissatisfaction to act on its own behalf.  At its core dissatisfaction is the mother of creativity!

Another Iteration

In my last bloutcher I showed images of "Hands of Paradox."  Here's the latest iteration with gouache and some words added.
                                             Paradox is hands open;
                                             Uncertainty trembles,
                                             Loosening the grip.