I know I'm on my phone too much.  I am constantly trying to squeeze in a quick text, tweet, email or facebook post, all in the name of business.  But I also know it's a type of compulsion.  The emails and messages pour in, and I get stressed about them piling up or leaving someone's question unanswered. . . and there's always the possibility that someone has posted a life-changingly humorous photo of a kitten with a conversation bubble.

I am a born multi-tasker, and I feel if I can respond, export, touch-base in those in-between moments, I can move through my to do list a little more quickly.  But I am curious to know if this is even true.  If I set aside certain times each day to respond to emails and check in with social media outlets (a necessary evil for what I do) and spend other times more fully engaged with the people and the life in front of me, will I get more done overall?  Will I feel more balanced and less frenetic and scattered?  Will I train the people who are trying to reach me that I am not always available, and that a delayed response does not mean a lack of interest?

I suspect at the very least I will feel more balanced, and I hope a change would make me more productive as well.  And I know it will make me less annoying to the people around me.  I don't want to be "that person" to everyone I know, and I especially don't want my kids to think of my phone as the sixth member of our family.

So an experiment.

1.  I will set aside two times per day to respond to emails and check in with social media. (I do use Hootsuite to schedule tweets and Facebook postings, which is amazing.)

2.  Since I know that if I have my phone on or with me, I will look at it, I need to be ok with turning it off or leaving it in my car at certain times, at least until I can break the habit (I am so pathetic).

3.  Definite times of disengagment with the phone will be 6pm (or when I get home from work, whichever is earlier) to 8pm during the week.

4.  I will turn off my phone during coffees, lunches and other arranged social and business events or meetings.

Starting to wonder if my phone will ever be on. . . But let's give it a try.

Tomorrow is Day One.  Will you join me?  Do you think it will work?  Give me some support or feedback.  I'll check in twice per day. . .

In case you missed it, here you have four hours of fun condensed into one minute of video (click on the image to play).

Today I picked up the bus.  After the Test Drive of Terror, I was more than a little apprehensive to drive Lady Blue from the mechanic's place to the gallery.  My husband brought me up there, but he had to follow me back in his car, and so the Lady and I were left alone to find our way with each other.

We started off tense and unsure, but pretty soon I realized she was a lover, not a fighter.  We went through many stoplights together with nary a stall.  Here's a short clip of that magic moment when we found each other.

And then, we hit a snag.  I was confidently accelerating on the highway, but Lady Blue was decelerating.  Where did we go wrong?  The closer I pushed the pedal to the floor, the slower she went.  And then I pulled over, and we were done.  Engine wouldn't turn over.  A slap in the face.

I called the mechanic, and apparently when the gas gauge says half full, what it really means is empty.  Luckily, a hero was on the way.

The Lady started right up, and I got off at the next exit to get to a gas station.  The mechanic (let's call him Richard) followed me, which turned out to be a very good thing.

Yes, that's gas on the ground.  Easy in, easy out.  Apparentlly my "H.E.R.O." tore some rubber seal between the gas pipe and the side of the bus when he put the gas in.  But Richard worked it out, and I was soon back on the road, alone with my Lady.

We arrived safely at the gallery, and I feel we are in a good place now. We've had some long talks, and I think we are going to be fine tomorrow at the Bus Bash.  We are excited to move forward and forge a beautiful relationship together.

Since we are not art festival veterans and purchased our tent (without instructions) off Craigs List, Meghan and I thought it would be a good idea to give it a trial run before Saturday morning.  Generally I'm a pretty competent putter-togetherer of things, but I do tend to finish a project with at least one unused piece, resulting in a mostly functional but slightly shabbily constructed finished product.  Eh, details.  

Here's a quick (very quick) video of the trial run - pitched up right in the gallery.  And yes, there are a few unused parts. . . they're probably not important.

I got my second tattoo in Portland during Photolucida, a photography festival.  I was holding the hand of my best friend, and yes, I put a bird on it in Portland.

So I'm all about the time and place.  It also matters who I am with and the challenge I am currently facing.

If you are reading this blog, you are well aware of the challenge.  I am totally committed to this Crusade, to working toward an incredibly challenging goal, to driving an undriveable bus around the country.  But if I think about it for too long, my head will explode.

This is my tattoo - it is a famous quote by Rabbi Nachman of Breslav: The whole world is a very narrow bridge.  The most important part is to not be afraid.

Recognize your challenges, face your fears, work to cross your bridge.

You are watching me cross mine.  

A big thank you to Jason Houston for taking these pictures and being my person.

As a gallery owner, art lover, and photography collector, I think a lot about who buys art and who does not buy art.  The younger generations – a group consisting of a wide age range from college aged through early 40s – as a collective whole do not support art and artists like we should.  We do not prioritize buying art, and we do not value original work.

Culturally, we are in our prime.  We have sophisticated tastes and crave unique experiences.  We are on-trend, we are curious, we are seekers. 

And yet, we do not buy art.  We do not patronize galleries and museums, and we do not support artists.  Abstractly, we think art is interesting and to be valued, but we are not collectors.

I am on a crusade for collecting.  For cultivating a new crop of art collectors.  For making collecting cool.

Because it is cool.  Falling in love with an original piece of art and buying it.  That is collecting.  It does not have to cost you thousands of dollars or even make a huge dent in your paycheck.  It is about the connection.  It is about looking at something and having an emotional response.  Feeling something.  And then purchasing that piece and hanging it on your wall and living with it.  Your home becomes personal.  Your walls start to describe you, and everywhere you look you see something you love.

That is collecting.  And that is beyond cool.

The Ten

Last June I launched an online photography project called The Ten (www.thetenphoto.com) with the goal of encouraging collecting original, signed photographs at an affordable price. 

The Ten is a highly curated monthly online exhibit of ten photographic images.  Each image is available at a 13x19 size in an edition of 25 for $250.  The uniqueness of The Ten comes from its curation and its exclusivity.  Images on The Ten cannot be sold in any other size in any other location.  Once an image has been included in The Ten, it must be retired from sale.  The only opportunity to purchase that image is on the website for The Ten, and once 25 are sold, it is sold out forever.

I think of The Ten as the gateway drug to larger collecting.

But in order to hit the message home, I need to get out there – bring the art to the people.

The Tour

In March of 2013 I begin a ten-week, ten-city tour in a 1977 VW bus.  I will do pop-up shows of The Ten work in each city by partnering with like-minded retailers or coffee shops, pitching an art tent in their parking lot, inviting food trucks and local musicians. . . festival style.  An art revival.

In addition to staging the pop-up show, I will be doing press in each city and giving my Crusade for Collecting talk at different venues (universities, cultural/arts centers, museums, etc.).

A different Ten photographer will be traveling with me on each leg of the trip.  We will do video and audio updates to the Crusade blog daily, as well as tweeting and using other social media outlets to connect with Crusade followers.

I have already built a lot of momentum around the tour.  I funded a successful Kickstarter campaign and raised $16,000 to go toward the purchase and refurbishing of the VW bus.

Local press has been very responsive to the project (click on the images below to link to the articles), and several large press outlets are interested in covering the tour once it begins.  

The Route

The tour will leave from Atlanta and travel to New Orleans, Houston, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago and New York.  Additional mini-stops are planned for Austin, Santa Fe and Boulder.  (Click on the image below to watch the video explaining my route.)

And there you have it - a glimpse into the depths of my insanity.  I'm just crazy for art.  Check out recent blog posts to see a short (and hilarious) video where I drove the bus for the first time and my trip with my daughter Lila to "the license plate store".  And be sure to check back in - the Crusade is only just beginning.

My friend Jeni agreed to risk life and limb to come with me to capture my maiden voyage on video. Brave soul, that Jeni.  She's a true crusader for art.

We arrived at the mechanic's, and he had Lady Blue hoisted up high so we could walk underneath while he pointed out the various issues that needed repair.  I honestly have no idea what he was talking about, and I was way too concerned that we would burst into flames from him smoking his cigarette so close to mechanical things. Oh, and I was very busy taking iphone pictures.

Richard (the smoking mechanic) offered to take us for a spin around the block to show me a few things before I ventured off on my own.  Apparently, the stick shift of terror is really something to fear.  It has a mind of it's own - a quirky little personality which I will have to learn, and I will have to rely more on intuition than actual shift/clutch rhythms. 

The video below gives you a taste of how the test drive went.  In a nutshell - Richard peels out, stalls, bus dies, we get a jump, I take the wheel, I begin swearing like a sailor, hilarity ensues, Jeni gets whiplash.

We did eventually make it back to the shop.  Clearly all of those things Richard pointed out under the bus need to get fixed.  And I need intensive driving lessons. . .

Here I am, a little worse for the wear -

Didn't want you to miss out on the DMV fun, but thought it wise to condense the experience into three minutes. . . (click on the image below to watch)

click on the image to watch the short clip

antenna is inside bus for transport,chrome parts have wax applied for protection, spare keys in glove box. best of luck and thanks again! 

She's coming!!  I can't wait to take her for a spin!