“You are what you think about”.

I’m not sure who to credit this statement of truth but I remind myself of it often.  In order to imagine painting for a living I had to think big, much bigger than I had been thinking throughout my life while I was working away in a cubicle.  And as I continued to look at the stars, think big, and succeed at making these big thoughts into my reality I noticed that the people in my life fell into two camps.  There where those who thought that I was unrealistic or who plainly ignored me when I shared my victories, literally changing the subject, most often to themselves.  Then there where those who cheered my on, and who at times, would hold even more of a belief in my big ideas than I did.

Over the past five years I’ve watched a whole group of small thinkers fade out of my life and a whole group of big thinkers step in.  In fact, they are still showing up.  Bob Proctor who is a personal development guru, and has worked with the likes of Ellen DeGeneres. David Mathison who is a thought leader in the renaissance of new media. Jonathan Fields, author of Career Renegade, to name a few. And lesser known names, but no less important, who are definitely big thinkers and who are leading change, imagining new frontiers, and who I appreciate knowing.

I’m quite sure that it’s thinking bigger that has allowed my path to cross with big thinkers.  I can remember Bob Proctor saying, “I really don’t like small talk, I like big talk.” Although on one level its sad to see some people fade out my life, I recognize that rarely does anyone stay in your life forever, that nothing is permanent, and it’s often for the best because it makes room for people who are positive influences.

Artist Ann Rea

Occasionally I’m asked, “Who are your art partons?“  I’m fortunate to say that I have a growing list of collectors and celebrities across the US, Canada, and Europe, including, Bob Proctor, host of the movie The Secret.  And I have an increasing number of art patrons in England.  Maybe they sense my dual citizenship?

My list of patrons goes on but this describes a few; architects, interior and graphic designers, CEOs, wineries, winery and vineyard owners, entrepreneurs, attorneys, physicians, sales executives, stay at home mothers, and marketing folks.  Really my patrons come from all walks of life and socio-economic positions.

One of my first steady collectors was a divorced mother of three; she did not have an art budget.  But she came from a highly aesthetically minded and accomplished family.  Her father was a respected landscape architect and she was an interior designer with a background in textile design and a recent degree in architecture from UC Berkeley. UC Berkeley has a rigorous and competitive architectural degree program.

She saw a black and white image of my painting in the Davis Enterprise announcing one of my first art receptions hosted by the Davis Communicare Health Clinic.  She phoned Communicare so that she could contact me.  She asked if we could meet before my art reception so that she could preview the collection before anything was sold.  To my delight she purchased the painting featured in the Davis Enterprise before the reception.  She then went on to acquire seven or more of my paintings.

This patron’s early enthusiastic support created a foundation of confidence that has led me in this direction.  Each time a new patron comes into my life I feel supported and grateful that they are helping me follow my bliss.

When is the book coming out?

I’m working on it!  Soon.  Very soon.
 My book was actually born out of an abandoned book project.  I completed over 100 paintings of Sonoma vineyards that were to be featured in a book for a major winery, a very BIG winery, maybe even the biggest. Wink. Wink.

It sure seemed like a wonderful opportunity at the start.  I even met with a top editor at Chronicle Books.  We had lunch, twice. But like with so many corporate sponsored projects, the priorities revolve.  I was handed to one brand manager and then another, and then I could hear the sound of crickets chirping.  They didn’t care about art, they cared about their reviews and the politics that threaten what little job security they have.  Can’t say I blame them.  The project lost momentum. Then it was just plain deserted.  Leaving me, holding the bag.

Based on the enthusiastic response to my work and continuous national media attention fueled by word of mouth I decided to redirect my creative energy.  I was still determined to create a book, one that I could control, one that I would be proud of, and one that would not be tainted with a tired marketing message from a major winery.

So I decided to take my lemons and make some damn lemonade, and the idea of “Colors of Terroir, and artist’s tour of Sonoma” was born.

Last year I was commissioned as a surprise birthday present to paint Bob Proctor’s garden, host of the move “The Secret” and author of “You Where Born Rich”.  I was flown to Toronto and hung out with the man who appears on “Larry King” and who coaches Ellen DeGeneres.  And while I was there he coached me a bit.  Through Bob I met very notable authors, including Mark Victor Hansen co-author of “Chicken Soup for the Soul Series” and Peggy Mc Coll author of “Your Destiny Switch”.  Last year Jonathan Fields profiled my business in his book “Career Renegade” published by Random House.  These authors, along my friend Leslie Harrington, an amazing book designer and art director in London, convinced me that the very best path to take was the rapidly evolving and exploding path of self-publishing.  Traditional publishing is in fact withering.  So really, it all turned out for the best.
The content for the book is now complete.  The layout and editing is underway. And this is my book.  Nobody’s book but mine.

Now I’m beginning the sequel, “Colors of Terroir, and artist’s tour of Napa.”  This book will feature the privately commissioned paintings I create in and of Napa, no more corporate involvement.  I already have two patrons whose paintings will be featured in this book.  Now I’m looking for the rest.  So if you own a Napa vineyard, or you simply enjoy wine from a Napa vineyard, and you would like to commission a painting, and help sponsor this project, I’m currently accepting applications for 2010.

My collectors often ask how I see the colors that I paint. So while I was visiting Bob Proctor to paint his garden I offered to introduce him and his family to the way that that I see color.

I sat with Linda Proctor and her grand daughter, who was armed with a new box of colored pencils and paper. With a white egg on a piece of white paper in front of them, I asked them to relax and tell me all of the colors that they were seeing.

They blinked their eyes and gave me blank stares. When I prompted them further they said that they saw a white egg on white paper with a grey shadow. Wrong answer. I asked them to just consider that fact that we could not just be seeing white because we are perceiving forms and shadows of the egg on the paper. The colors of the shadows where not gray or it would be like looking at a black and white photo. Grey does not exist in the natural color spectrum. White is just how our left-brain classifies white paper and white egg. Then once classified we stop seeing. They were thinking, not seeing. The key to seeing is to relax and to feel into it.

In fact, the natural spectrum of light, the rainbow, was vibrating at different frequencies all over the paper and all over the egg. Our right brain can perceive these colors. These colors formed our perception of a white egg on white paper. What colors were there? By simply relaxing, and trusting their perception, the layers of colors reflecting and bouncing in space began to reveal themselves. Their interest peaked as they began to see the essence of color.

Although Bob did not have time to draw eggs that day he did wonder back and forth as we worked.

At dinner that evening he very astutely remarked, “Ann, I know how you see the colors you paint. You simply relax and let yourself see them.” He stated it perfectly. I have learned to relax and savor the colors in each moment, see my previous blog.

He also gave me some business advice. “Your paintings are spectacular. But if there was a way to offer your collectors the experience of seeing color, as you showed us, and the opportunity to get to know you. Now, that is something you could charge anything you want for. And there are many people like me who have gardens that they treasure.” Bob had taken great pleasure in watching his painting evolve from a walk in the garden, to a sketch on a canvas, to a finished oil painting. It was a unique and memorable experience.

My reaction was, inside voice, “You’re right, but how the heck am I going to do that, Bob?” Now the universe works in interesting ways to answer our questions. Before I had left for Canada, Valerie at First Republic Bank asked if I would like to feature my paintings at a lavish event for their private banking clients. Once I returned she asked if I would be willing to do a demonstration painting during the event. I was a little reluctant, but I said yes. Then she confessed that she is always searching for new ways to provide unique and memorable experiences for their guests, who have often done everything. Would I consider teaching their guests how to see color by creating a collaborative painting during the event? Now before I visited with Bob that would have sounded crazy, but Bob’s business advice popped into my head and I knew that the path of “how the heck am I going to do that” had just revealed itself.

How many can say that they have experienced creating an original oil painting with a nationally acclaimed artist? Not many.

I could help people host an event of a lifetime. Guests could paint alongside me, while I guided them in a welcoming and approachable way. Kind of like a cooking class. Guests who painted, or those who just watched, are introduced to a unique understanding of color and light. Once they are done with their part they sign the back of the painting.

Of course I must get paid, so while the painting itself is being completed, the guests may acquire the piece through a silent bidding process. And the host and the guests have the option collecting mementos, or thank you gifts, that feature the very same painting created at the event, including: note cards, prints, and crystal paperweights.

As long as the bid on the painting exceeds my teaching fee, there is no cost to host me beyond the art supplies. A win-win scenario that is beginning to really take off. I hear a lot of self critical comments from guests during the events that I have done so far. “I can’t do that.” “I will ruin it.” “I am scared.” But I assure them. There are no mistakes.” “Oil paint is very forgiving.” “We can always make changes.” “I will help you.” “Don’t worry.” “It’s fun, just give it try.” “When will you be able to do this again?”

I love working with the people who often have not painted since kindergarten, but have the courage try. They immerse themselves in the canvas. They savor the moment. They love it.

-Bob Proctor: of the movie “The Secret” (The Law of Attraction)

“Bob’s Garden”

See “Bob’s Garden”
I could not have imagined this moment two weeks earlier … or two years earlier, for that matter!  I had just flown in from San Francisco and was looking for a black Mercedes at the Toronto airport while holding a sign that read:  “Hi Linda Proctor. I’m Ann Rea.”  Thankfully, Linda spotted me rather quickly.  She got out of her car and we hugged.  Then we were on our way to give Bob a surprise birthday present.

When we arrived at their home, I followed Linda into Bob’s office overlooking his garden. There he was, sitting at his desk, bigger than life – the charismatic man I had only ever seen before this moment in the movie, The Secret.   It was all very surreal.

Linda introduced me by saying, “This is Ann Rea.  She’s your birthday present from Carol Gates.”  Bob greeted me and said, “I just saw you on TV!”   Earlier in the day Carol had asked Bob to watch a national TV broadcast “Fine Living” segment featuring me as ‘the wine country it girl’ (known for painting California vineyards).  When Bob watched it earlier in the day, he had no idea I’d soon be standing in his doorway with an easel and blank canvas!

I quickly explained, “Yes – that’s me and I’m here to paint your garden.  So let’s see it.”  Bob and Linda led me out to view the lush landscape surrounding their home and, as we turned the corner to the side of the house, I noticed that the sky was lighter and the shadows softer than they are in California.  I was struck by a vivid crimson Japanese maple and noticed a stone bridge in shadow, a symbolic element.

I choose that spot to paint Bob’s Garden.

I would return to Bob’s home the next day to create the painting, but before taking me to the hotel for the night, Bob and Linda graciously invited me to dinner.   We connected easily and immediately. A highlight of the evening was when Bob paused and thoughtfully said. “Ann, I know how you see the colors you paint.  You simply relax and let yourself see them.”

He stated it perfectly.  I have learned to relax and savor the colors in every moment … and now I help others experience that same sense of tranquility through my art.

Bob asked me how long I had been painting and I shared my story with him. After art school, I got married and decided that a creative career just wasn’t practical.  I believed that I had to follow a more conventional path, so I worked a hodge-podge of corporate jobs that I didn’t like.  It was clear early on that the marriage was not going to work.  After a painful and difficult divorce, I fell into a serious episode of depression and chronic anxiety.As a result, I didn’t paint or draw for a full 7 years.

“You were angry.” Bob said.

“You’re right, I was.” I replied. “I believed that I had no choices.”

“When did you start to paint again?” Bob asked.

The answer to his question was a remarkable sequence of events that eventually led me to his doorstep … all of them due to the Law of Attraction, although I didn’t know it at the time! It began with a personal development seminar in San Francisco where I met an author who was also attending. I hadn’t painted in 7 years and he had writer’s block, so we related to one another.  A week later, back home in Ohio, a good friend urged me to pick up my paintbrush again.  She had encouraged me before to no avail … but this time I decided to give it a try.

The next day, we sat on a park bench and my emotions welled up as I readied myself to paint for the first time in 7 years.  Just then I glanced up and was stunned to see, only ten feet in front of me, the very same writer I had met at the seminar in San Francisco!   What were the random chances we’d meet again, just one week and 2000 miles later?  I knew the meeting was anything but random.

We chatted for a few moments and I asked him, “Do you still have writer’s block?”He told me, “Yes I do.”  It was at that very moment that I had an instantaneous flash of understanding.  As he walked away I realized that he was choosing not to write … just as I had chosen not to paint.  It was a matter of choice … and I could change it.

More than seven years of inertia melted away and I began to paint again with a new resolve – and pleasure.

I also created a dream map – a collage of images and words expressing the feelings I had around my dream, including this affirmation: “I live in and work in my very own art studio overlooking the ocean.”  Of course, at the time, an ocean view seemed about as likely as the random meeting of my friend with writer’s block!

I now approached painting with a whole new objective:  To focus my attention on color and as an active meditation to calm my mind and to help alleviate anxiety.

I began selling my work and found it interesting when collectors told me that the paintings made them feel happy and calm.  One collector remarked that my work reminded him of Wayne Theibaud’s artwork.  Theibaud is an American art icon. His canvases sell for millions. So, I wrote Wayne and requested a critique. He gave me several critiques. As I read his letter of recommendation I knew I had found my true voice and purpose.

All the while, I continued to work in a corporate job I didn’t like.  I met two stage-four breast cancer survivors during that time.  One was my very same age and I was struck by the cubicle-sized limits of my own life.  Although I didn’t know how, I was all the more determined to seize my dream:  “I live in and work in my very own art studio overlooking the ocean.”

One day, I literally woke up and decided: I am done.  I quit, sold my house.  As I shared this story over dinner with Bob, I said, “By sheer luck, I found a place on the beach in San Francisco overlooking the ocean.

“It wasn’t luck.” Bob immediately responded. “It was your dream map.”
He was exactly right, of course.   Remarkably, at the time, I had completely forgotten about it – and yet I had duplicated the pictures on my dream map with inconceivable detail.  In fact, my bed is in the very the same position as the picture of the bed overlooking the ocean in my dream map.

After arriving in San Francisco, I began masterminding with friends ways that I could earn a living with my art. My vineyard paintings tended to sell and now I lived close to wine country.

I realized that I could help wineries leverage their largest asset, the unique beauty of their vineyards.  So I offered to complete a series of original oil portraits of a winery’s vineyards and to sell them the reproductions and accessories at wholesale.  In exchange, they help me market the originals and my large scale commissioned paintings at their events.  Wine enthusiasts would have a way to take home a piece of the wine country and the wineries gain permanent advertising in their customers’ homes while earning a profit. My model was unique. I started cold calling.

I knew that if I was going to thrive as a painter I would have to become prolific so I enrolled in a biofeedback course at San Francisco State University where I attended a lecture by a prominent neuro-feedback researcher, Dr. Thomas Browne.  We discussed the use of this science to enhance creative productivity.  I immediately began working with him. Since then, I have created nearly 400 paintings!

After watching The Secret, I recognized how the Law of Attraction had been working in my own life and was inspired to learn more.  I discovered that many of the teachers in the movie had studied with Bob Proctor, so I decided I would go right to the mentor of mentors.

I enrolled in his year-long coaching program, and had some questions.  I spoke over the phone with Carol Gates for more than an hour and she told me the same thing so many others have said – that my paintings help her feel calm and relaxed.  As we talked, she was struck with an idea and asked me if I would paint Bob Proctor’s garden.

We immediately began making plans and it all happened very quickly, as is often the case when we allow ourselves to become emotionally involved with a big idea!   It was a bold adventure that I’ll cherish for a lifetime.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said, “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”

“Fortune” magazine recently featured my story and quoted me “If there’s something you really want to do, do it now.”

See “Bob’s Garden”