The Art of Positive Thinking

One of my favorite quotes is by positive-thinking pioneer and author of "Think and Grow Rich" Napoleon Hill:

A digital drawing I made of Napoleon Hill with his words of wisdom.

I committed myself to being an artist during a difficult time in my life. You know those tests that assign points to stressful life events? A number of those events occurred in a short period of time so my score was pretty high. One thing that helped get me through this time was the New Thought or Positive Thinking movement, especially books by mind-power pioneers like Neville Goddard and Joseph Murphy.

Dr. Joseph Murphy taught the power of the subconscious mind.

During this time, my friend Mitch Horowitz challenged me to create a body of work featuring portraits of New Thought heroes like Neville and Dr. Murphy. And so for the past four years or so I have been creating portraits of positive-mind philosophers.

My friend Mitch Horowitz challenged me to portray the giants of positive thinking.

Emma Curtis Hopkins, the "teacher of teachers"

"The Power of Positive Thinking" author Norman Vincent Peale.

The truly heroic Helen Wilmans.

This was Neville's reply when someone urged him to compromise his message.

The legendary Dr. Holmes

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As you can see I like combining pictures and words

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"Every day in every way, I am getting better and better." Émile Coué inspired the Beatles.

Marcus Garvey was inspired by mind metaphysics.

Positive thinking goes Steampunk.

And so it was during a time of adversity that I committed myself to being an artist, and embraced the philosophy of positive, transformative thought. Once I committed myself to this project of portraying New Thought Heroes, I gained confidence and a sense of purpose. I no longer was just sketching without a sense of meaning. And I now had a Definite Chief Aim-- to become a professional artist. My sense of purpose changed all of my artwork. My drawings of cats now had the purpose not just of capturing their beauty and personality but also to help promote animal welfare and animal rescue. "Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit..." I hope that this quotation will inspire you as it has inspired me through some difficult hours. I also hope that my artwork will be a reminder (to myself as well!) that this quotation is true. It was during a season of "adversity...failure...heartache" that the seed was planted and I was taught by life to learn--the Art of Positive Thinking.