I am a dreamer, artist, speaker, author and mentor. I’m often described by my friends as a Renaissance man.
This is my personal blog. It is focused on “creativity and influence.” My philosophy is that we all should be creating culture and influencing influencers.
I write in black and white (and sometimes red) about creativity, watercolors, culture, influence, artistry, religion, my own struggles and social media. I also occasionally write about the gray layers of life that don’t quite fit into a nice little system. You know— things like magic, religion and stuff like that.
My goal is to create honest, candid content that will give you hope for a more creative and influential life. If you consider yourself creative—or aspire to be—then this blog is for you.
I typically post three to four times a week. To make sure you don’t miss my newest posts, you can subscribe via RSS or email.
My Top Posts
If you are new to my site, you might want to start with my most popular posts. Here are my top posts in several categories:
Culture: The Persons I Wish I Had Known
Religion: Homogenized Religion, Inc. – Where Are The Women?
Artistry: Letters From A Devastated Artist (4)
Influence: Why It Costs To “Connect With Me” and “Pick My Brain.”
You can also check my blog’s archive for a list of every post I have written or use the search function in the sidebar to find other subjects that might be of interest.
Biography
I read voraciously and favorite authors include Ayn Rand, Frederick Buechner, Montaigne, Madeline L’Engle and David McCullough.
I have also written four books, one of which landed on the Amazon.com bestseller list. You can view and buy three at my official author page at Amazon.com. You can purchase my latest book titled Letters from an Artist by clicking HERE.
I revel in the sensory overload of climbing America’s highest mountains and I once navigated the Uganik River with only a tent and raft in grizzly country for a week in the wilderness of Kodiak Island, Alaska. I’ve completed twenty full marathons (yes, 26.2 miles each).
A self-taught artist, I began painting with watercolors in the winter of 2002 at the age of forty-two. A lifelong love affair with graphite sketching provides the foundation for the watercolors and anchors my distinctive style. I particularly enjoy painting faces and the female figure. Originals, commissions and limited edition prints can be purchased at my online art gallery, elrodart.com I recently served as artist-in-residence at the O’More School of Design.
All profits from my paintings benefit our 501(c)3 non-profit charity, Kalein, which provides rustic elegant retreats for creative solitude. Kalein has several locations where world-class master teachers teach and mentor gifted artists and leaders.
I teach regularly at Lifework 2.0, a one-day social networking class about engaging clients and fans in the digital world.
For the last eleven years, I have gathered global early adopters and creatives together at the annual re:create Conference and Thinktank. On October 19, 2011 re:create will convene a One Day Gathering in Austin, Texas.
I also do a limited number of one-on-one mentoring retreats each year called 48 Hours of Solitude.
One-Minute Video Bio
Below is a one-minute video that provides a snapshot of my current life in just sixty seconds. This video was created recently (I’m amazed at how fast many of the social networking stats have changed) by my son-in-law in preparation for a “dream job” application at a Sonoma County winery.
My Contact Information
You can contact me via email or follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.
Colophon
My blog is built on WordPress 3.0 (self-hosted). My theme is a customized version of a Woo Theme, a simple, easy-to-use WordPress theme. Lifework 2.0 did the initial customization.
In terms of design, the body text, font titles and subhead fonts are “Arial.” A few other random text elements and photos are my own creation—including the blog banner font. I get most of the photos for my individual blog posts from iStockPhoto.
My site is hosted by BlueHost.
