Lisa Mikulski's Living a Life of Art And Design

AIGA Connecticut is doing it again and is presenting what promises to be another extraordinary workshop.  On March 10, 2010, award winning photographer and writer, Sean Kernan, will talk about real creativity.  This is not the creativity we learned in school or at work, but the stuff we knew from the start. The workshop will explore how our basic creative impulses affect our lives and our work and how new thinking can open our eyes to the wonderment of what might be an enhanced creative lifestyle.

According to AIGA CT, this workshop will not help you get work, fall in love or make you healthy, but it might just get you back in touch with those creative ideas that you perhaps might have had as a free thinking child.

Sean Kernan

Sean Kernan  lives and works on the Connecticut coast. His photographs have been shown in museums around the world, including the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the Museum of Photography in Greece, and the Whitney Museum in the United States.  Mr. Kernan has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Communication Arts, Graphis, and the Atlantic Monthly. He is the author of Among Trees (Published by Artisan Books, May 2003) and The Secret Books, with Jorge Luis Borges.

This event is $40 for AIGA members and $50 for non-members. If you sign up to become an AIGA member at this event, the event is FREE!
To purchase tickets, visit AIGA CT Online

Perhaps I’ve been reading too many business marketing and motivational books.  Seth Godin, and The Red Lemon Club have provided me with advice on how to be more productive and extraordinary. Taking them at their word, I’ve decided to conduct an experiment as part of my approach at living a bigger life of art and design. I’m ditching TV.

This measure is requiring a certain amount of bravery on my part. While I don’t watch that much TV anyway, there are certain times when I really truly just want to relax in front of the tube and let it take me away.  It’s candy for my brain.  Regardless, this week I’ll be calling up my satellite provider and canceling my account.

It’s not just a matter of wanting to be more productive… if I wanted to be more productive, I could always elect to just not turn the thing on. But, my Directtv bill is approximately $90/month and I find that ridiculous. I don’t receive the premium channels such as Showtime or HBO.  Nope, that $90/month goes for perhaps 4 channels I watch regularly and a whole bunch of other channels I rarely use.  I’ve called Directtv and eliminated some channels in attempt at making the monthly bill less like extortion, but that only brought my bill down by about $15 and eliminated Ovation TV, which I loved.  So with the support of my kids, off it goes and here are the benefits we’re hoping to gain:

1. More productivity and a enhanced lifestyle
2. I can either save that $90 or use it toward attending a social event.  That’s $1,080/year and that’s some significant vacation money!!
3. Less stress… I find that often the background noise of TV causes stress for me.  Quiet is good. Music is good. Bombs blowing up, repeated bad news, loud TV commercials…BAD.
4. I can enjoy television and programs without the monthly bill.  I can rent DVDs from the library. Watch Hulu.  ABC provides many of their regular programs online at abc.go.com. I can read the news online or in print.  These things are all “On Demand”.

I think that with the economy being such as it is, and with the inflated prices Comcast, Directtv and others are demanding, television will eventually go the way of the dinosaur.  Why should we pay $90+ when we can get what we need for less and On Demand.  My mission, my attempt, is to take back control.  Come on, join me.  I’ll keep you posted on my progress.