Number two

My second limited edition art print release goes live on Friday (2pm EST / 1pm CST / 11am PST). It’s been really exciting to plan and launch these prints. This one is an edition of just 3, and I only see them getting more limited! I want them to feel extra special to you and to me.

They are all signed and numbered and are printed on Canson Aquarelle 310gsm matte finish paper and look really great.

I’m posting videos, close up shots and other process videos on my Instagram - @evanlaruffa.

If you’re into red, this particular release might be your thing.

https://www.evanlaruffa.com/shop/post-all-bills-no-1113

I imagine a fire raging nearby.

Books and covers

Don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Hell, don’t judge people based on superficial extrapolations either.

We’re living in a weird time where multiple social issues are colliding. We’re all trying to figure out how to be human beings again, while the crux of our social division is precisely that separation.

Demographics divide us more than ever, sometimes in ways they hadn’t before, and assumptions are ripe.

I know we’re all doing our best to emerge from the longest winter ever, but I think it’s important that we depersonalize all of this a bit.

I’m doing me, I have to do this, I, I, I, I…

And that’s fair. We all do. I don’t know how much of a slogan it is though.

This timing requires we buffer all this reactionary thought.

Every action has a reaction, but I worry that all of our personal quests, the most important story in America, are really the product of of this lack of connection, dating back to before the pandemic.

Do you, by all means.

But how does redefining the subject change the vibe?

How does other people being the focus change how we feel and the way we communicate?

Discernment

Figuring out what to do at what point in time is the essence of strategy. I need to accomplish this now because it moves the needle is a lot clearer and productive than, fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!

In an increasingly fast-paced world, slowing down is the tonic.

We make our list, buffer resistance to get at priorities, then act. And discernment is the skill we need most. The ability to filter the static from the signal, to tune our station to the most dialed-in, clear nuggets.

It can’t all happen right now as impatient as we are…

So what can happen now? And more importantly, what SHOULD happen now?

My first limited edition print release... and more to come

On Friday I released my first Limited Edition fine art photography print in an Edition of 5. I've been making this type of work for a few years and released open editions on Society6, but it's been really fulfilling to produce and share it in this way.

I'll never reprint this (scouts honor), and 3 buyers already made a move, so there are two copies left!

https://www.evanlaruffa.com/shop/post-all-bills-1115

The process is a mix of meditation, found art, photography, and digital manipulation. I'm kinda always wondering, "what does it look like from there?" It's a thought that feeds a certain type of discovery spawned by a remix.

After I take a ton of photos, I pick the one with the most satisfying composition, then play with it in post, adjusting, color, contrast, and everything else until it hits.

Thanks for taking any interest! :)

P.s. More to come…

I make art.

For some reason that feels like a slightly odd thing to say, even though I have been making art my entire life. Mostly with my pen as a kid, but also in illustration. I also played bass, drums, made videos, worked in photography, wrote poems, etc.

I have always been so much more about the idea than the medium. At times it has made me feel spread thin, but it also has allowed me to pull ob various creative threads without attachment. My art, regardless of medium, is often much more intuitive than intellectual. For me, things need to just feel right. Whether lighting or texture or angle.

Over the last 10 years I’ve worked in photography specifically, a lot of digital work, post production, and focus on textures, vignettes, microcosms, and a mindful awareness that sees the art before it’s real. It’s a meditation and a creative practice at the same time.

I’m releasing a few of my photographs as Signed and Numbered Art Prints on premium quality papers in a Limited Edition of 5, at most. Some, even less. I’ll be making a few prints available as voted upon by friends and followers on my Instagram page.

The first of those releases will be ‘Post All Bills No. 1,115’ which will be available on Friday, June 25th at 2pm EST / 1pm CST / 11am PST via my newly published shop page, EvanLaRuffa.com/shop.

I’ll be in Los Angeles shortly to pick papers, review prints, and sign them. I’ll be sure to keep you posted via this newsletter before and just as prints go on sale.

Thanks in advance for any and all interest! The idea that my art will live in the home of appreciative souls makes me feel really good.

I see it looking amazing in a baroque frame, but I’ll leave that up to you. :)

I just added ‘Artist’ to my LinkedIn profile. That feels like a big one!!

P.s. I also wrote this little reflection when I posted this piece on Instagram a few weeks back. It feels like a necessary part of the offering…

‘Post All Bills No. 1,115’ … radical feedback is the theme of the week, the air feeling more Iike pudding as I walk and simmer. It’s amazing how intentionality creates the tip of the spear. How focus breeds clarity. How insight (should) spawn action. Growth doesn’t happen in a vacuum and communication is a two-way street, even when we’re talking to ourselves. It’s not a dialogue as much as a reckoning for those intrepid enough to be a pudding-traveler.’

Everything is an experiment

Everything is an experiment. Don't forget that.

Polished answers and lightbulbs descending from overhead are better for fables than user manuals.

I've had plenty of good ideas, but none of them were amazing until they got tested.

It's just a theory until you try it.......... so, go ahead.

I believe in you.

HOW is a path forward

"I already did that" is just resistance. Especially since there are so many ways to do any one thing...

Maybe you built a website, published an e-book, launched a blog, started an organization, or worked day and night to get something done. Way to be gritty.

But you need more than grit.

The question is not, WHAT did you do?

It's, HOW did you do it?

You can cut a pie any way you want. But people tend to cut pieces radiating from the center because we've found out it works well.

There are 37 ways to do anything.

Saying "I already tried that" is running rough shot over strategy, nuance, clarity, focus, and in the end, getting anywhere.

This is merely resistance dysmorphia. And she's like water, she'll find a new way...

But HOW is a better question, and it helps us get better. Rubbishing an entire project because "it just doesn't work" rarely works for people.

And it doesn't feel good either.

HOW means we can do something about it. HOW is a path forward.

Great outreach

Outreach means connecting with people. It means extending oneself, offering support, and helping.

Great outreach converts at 8%.

And ‘great’ can mean a few different things, including care, kindness, generosity, empathy, and most importantly, good solutions.

But shooting out flares that are more like extinguished sparklers as a method of outreach won’t work.

At the end of the day, there are two main bullet points:

1) What

2) Why

The rest is about being authentic, earnest, and transparent.

Great outreach doesn’t give up after one email.

It also doesn’t pretend that one-sided communications will prove to the people you serve that you can be trusted to do so.

A random event, added to the snowball

It’s wild to me how much of who we are is beyond our control, and has nothing to do with choice. So much so that we recategorize the specifics of our lives as the things that makes us who we are.

But they aren’t.

I am not a fan of a team, a person who likes a certain thing, etc etc etc. These are not immutable things, and we are not carved from stone.

Choices that become the customization of our personality and perspective are the result of a context we had no bearing on when we arrived.

We like to think of ourselves as somehow immune to the same trappings of context and subjectivity that govern the rest of these humans walking around this planet. These specifics, how the snowball amasses, is up to us. Push it a slightly different way and the next batch of snow that makes the ball bigger is a whole new reality.

No matter how much we attach ourselves to these choices, these cosmetic preferences, there’s value in remembering that flip flopping is just a stupid term written by political strategists.

If we look beyond the surface, beyond these simple choices of little real importance, we could probably come together a lot more.

Loving what you do......

…. is an incredible differentiator.

Mint Mobile

I don't usually gush over basic utilities, but Mint Mobile is the best cell phone provider I've ever had service with. Reliable and way cheaper than everything else.

8GB a month, 5G, $260 all in with taxes for 12 months.

Can't shake a stick at that. Especially when you're running a small business!

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Chain employees to desks at your own peril.

I love that in 2021 we can build an international team of professional, diverse adults who handle business, need no hand-holding, and help us build great projects with targeted expertise.

Currently the IPaintMyMind Team includes folks in Bangladesh, Portugal, Canada, Ohio, Minnesota, UK, and of course, Chicago.

Real professionals don't need to be watched to do great work. In fact, they are more productive, thoughtful, and responsible when you give them space to create their own workflow for contributing optimally. Chain employees to desks at your own peril.

If Covid-19 taught us anything, it's that employment isn't about attendance.

It's about great work.

Reverse engineering our stories

There are two ways we can reverse engineer our stories.

1) Professionally - We can build out our story intentionally so that it clearly speaks to the person we serve, the problem we solve, and solution we propose. This is great because it gives us a chance to really focus on delivering value to the community we’re helping.

2) Personally - it’s a little more slippery. Is the story we’ve built a way to preserve the fact that we haven’t embarked upon the voyage of taking on the harder work we know lies between us and a better version? Only we know.

Or can our story be a little more blunt, real and helpful?

I don’t know if there is any solving for the way in which we are able to cognitively jump ahead. It both helps us tidy things up and makes for a practical excuse.

Who have been our guides? What have we learned along the way?

And how does this bird’s eye view of our story provide the altitude to get it right?

Yea, but how are you going to fund it?

When do-gooders envision a future in which the problem they’re passionate about is solved, we begin to move in the right direction.

And there are plenty of problems to solve, so we’d better get to it.

But let’s notice that when people talk about these visions of better futures, there’s a singular focus on the problem. Education, food insecurity, and access to healthcare, just to name a few.

Usually some personal experience opens our heart up to a problem that now feels more proximate, and we’re inspired to help out. The thing is, the process I’ve described happens every day, on its own. For millions of us.

The part I’m more focused on is how we think about funding the solutions to the problems we’ve identified.

We know our WHY, what we need is better systems-thinking around the HOW.

Markets tell us that products and services are how value is delivered. That means you better have one or the other, otherwise it’ll be hard to understand why you’re involved. Especially as a nonprofit.

So why don’t we give HOW a try?

The WHY will get people onboard, the HOW will take us there.

flow + service = purpose

being in the thing + helping others = meaning ……

5 Nasty Nonprofit Myths

1. Nonprofits can’t sell products & services.

2. Nonprofit leaders take a vow of poverty.

3. Running a nonprofit is very different from running a small for-profit business.

4. Earning a proper salary isn’t possible at a nonprofit.

5. You have to fundraise to run a nonprofit.

But honestly…

Do or did you think that any of those 5 myths were true? Do you still even though I said they aren’t? Have you worked in a nonprofit? Have you started one? Are you thinking about starting one but aren’t sure how?

I’ll unpack those topics as well.

For almost 15 years I’ve been thinking about the future of good work. What that means to me, what that means for every cause worth working on, and how I can help pry open a few new avenues.

Throughout the course of 2021 I will be writing more here about business, art, & nonprofits, but no worries, you’ll still get random little ditties about intentional living, questions to ponder, and an occasional riff.

Off we go.

Freak Flags & Gifts Given

What does it mean to be ‘yourself’?

We’ve all heard that being yourself was the best thing to be. As if somehow being who we are in a single moment is an authentic thing to be forever.

I don’t believe authenticity has anything to do with staying who or where we are; it’s about being present in a way that makes others feel at home in who they are. When we do this, genuine connections ensue.

For that reason, I’ve always been a huge proponent of flying my freak flag high. The thing is, I’m a big proponent of everyone flying their freak flag high, assuming the gifts given are the items in focus.

Showing your feathers is about implicitly encouraging others to show theirs.

Living freely & openly is about what it does for other individuals, not the fact that you’re the subject of a larger story when you express yourself. However, being the subject does put you at the center for a moment, and there’s something dubious about that.

Dubious, in that other people can react to it in two ways based on how genuine they feel you are. They can celebrate with you or they can play the naysayer. They can high-five you or cut you down.

As someone with the personal tendency to live colorfully, I’ve experienced both. I’ve also noticed that my personal authenticity, which is a sensation I can feel in myself, is directly correlated with how people feel when I speak my mind, turn up my volume, or otherwise express myself openly.

We all know the difference between ego & equanimity. We’re all plugged in, despite our various ways of describing it.

Even so, there are times when the ego wins out. It says, ‘I want the glory dammit!” and well, that’s a hard voice to reason with sometimes. But being attuned to it is good for all of us. It creates the space to come together, occasionally mutually digesting things instead of pitting them against each other.

Checking in with ourselves, the worthwhile question seems to be the following:

Is this expression of mine about being the subject, or is it coming from an authentic place?

As long as we can keep an open dialogue with our ego, life can be about what we create for others when we live authentically.

Living your truth, following your bliss, growing your passions, developing your skills, engaging with your community, and constantly learning, are about giving others permission to do the same. As great it feels to live your life that way, it’s really not about us.

It’s about leading by example with so that everyone can ‘be themselves.’

Fly your freak flag & give a gift. It’s one of the most generous things you can do.

Don’t you think?

Originally Published May 11th, 2015.

Intentionality

Social entrepreneurs often speak to the market forces that allow them to make the social impact they do. As in, because they can make a lot of money, they can then donate a lot of money, either personally or as a company. And when you think about it, a real philanthropist gives money that is theirs, not a portion of their companies’ profits.

Even so, companies like Tom’s or Bombas have been able to create really profitable companies with 1 for 1 models that really do help a lot of people.

My question has always been about intentionality and how the structures we employ secure specific ends.

If Exxon Mobile needs to degrade the environment horribly, as we know they do, to extract oil and sell it to us, then the fact that they take a tiny percentage of their profits to combat environmental degradation is really a token effort to create the perception that Exxon isn’t, on the whole, fucking up the earth.

I’m not saying Tom’s is Exxon, and I’m not saying Exxon is the devil.

But let’s not kid ourselves when we talk about social entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurship is 99.9% of the time, a for-profit enterprise. That means they are incentivized toward profit first. Above all else. So they can continue to exist.

And that’s gravy. I’m not mad at it.

But don’t tell me Tom’s or Exxon was built to make the world a better place. They were made to make money. And the good they do respectively, exists on a scale within which their transgressions are also weighed, with the rubber meeting the road precisely where we spend our dollars.

If your company is intended to serve a mission MORE than it is intended to create personal wealth for you - make it a nonprofit.

I’m even happy to chat with you about the various reasons why.

Intentionality is everything. And it means we get to decide.

But let’s be real about when its really about us and when it isn’t. There’s a lot to be gained from being honest about our priority list.

Including clarity for ourselves and others, as to why we’re actually doing this.

Nostalgia’s double edge

Nostalgia is a super interesting quantity. It makes us feel at home yet can trap us in the past if unchecked. It comforts us yet can calcify us if we flex that muscle too often.

It all depends on the hue, as far as how we characterize it - good nostalgia or history worth forgetting, but it’s always valuable to note the quantities’ range or scale.

Its almost like pH balance. As the liquid we’re measuring varies, it changes from basic to acid.

Nostalgia that provides a happy anchor can be nice in the right proportion. Too much, or nostalgia with the wrong tint, can range into a strange nether world that limits our ability to exist and grow TODAY.

As we enter a time of year chock full of family, history, and patterns, it’s helpful to understand the scale for what feels like an annual litmus test.

Luckily, nostalgia, like most aspects of life, is customizable.

We get to decide if we’re acid, basic, or evenly balanced.

5-10%

The work only takes 5-10% of the total time we spend thinking, delaying, questioning, wondering, doubting, self-critiquing, shuffling, asking, and looking for assurances no one can really provide.

If we just did the work, it would be done ... and soon.

That’s called ‘upside.’