Clarity

Time in Vermont has a great way of putting everything into perspective.  The mountains are emerald green.  The air is crisp.  You can actually drink the lake water you swim in without worrying (too much).  The bounty of nature is everywhere.  We try to come up here every summer to leave the big city behind, rest and rejuvenate.   It does not disappoint.

A favorite activity of ours is visiting all of the micro-farms in the area: dairy, goat, horse, even an emu farm.  The farmers are incredibly generous with the children and more than willing to open their lives to us.  Their path is not easy by any means, but it is straightforward.  They know what has to be done and it has to be done every day.  The farmers’ goal is only to create a product that epitomizes and can sustain their way of life.  None of the farmers strive to be anything that they are not – no dreams of cattle barons or mega-farming here.  And as much as their lives are a struggle, joy is abundant in the choices that each of them has made to do what they do.  You can literally taste and touch it.

In our world where we are all chasing the golden ring in some form or another, it is so refreshing to be reminded that it all begins and ends with integrity.  Who are you and what do you do?  At minimum, we have to be able to know who you are and what your creative business is all about.  But if all you do is stick a familiar label on yourself – designer (graphic, event, interior, fashion), photographer, stationer, florist, architect, planner, etc. – you are cheating (mostly yourself).  We need to know your essential nature and you need to have the courage to put it out there for all of us to see without apology.  Your creative business has to be a reflection of that nature not its camouflage.  You cannot be Picasso if your business is set up to look like Walmart and, yes, vice-versa too.

I am not saying that your art and your creative business cannot be subtle, multi-dimensional and ever evolving.  It can and should be. I am all for innovation and creating the next new thing.  But we have to be able to see who you are everywhere we look and know what it is you are trying to sell.  Just like Fat Toad Farm Goat Cheese, it has very little to do with the cheese itself (which is ridiculously delicious) and everything to do with the integrity behind it.