White Flag

Happy Independence Day!

Regular readers of the blog might notice from time to time that I drop in the occasional modern art image to accompany some of the posts I run here. On Independence Day I figured why not run a post that just featured probably my favorite American modern artist and one of his most famous 'flag-based' works?

Jasper Johns, (1930 - still happily alive and well), is an American artist born in Georgia, and who studied briefly at the University of South Carolina (my alma mater, go Gamecocks!), and went on to study and work in New York City where he began to produce some of the period's most iconic and interesting paintings and collages.

Johns often used flags and maps and targets as a basis for his work, and in 1998, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York bought possibly Johns' best known piece White Flag (below). While the Met would not disclose how much was paid, "experts estimate [the painting's] value at more than $20 million.

Here's what 20 large worth of White Flag looks like:

Jasper Johns - White Flag, 1955

You could, I suppose, read some kind of deep, political or philosophical significance into the re-imagining of the iconic American Stars and Stripes in this monochromatic manner, but art historians tend to think that really wasn't what Johns was intending with White Flag.

Rather, the artist challenges the viewer to think differently about an object with which they would be instantly familiar, and one they have only envisioned in the expected way. We've all, at least those of us here in the USA, have seen the flag thousands of times. It appears, always, as we'd expect it to.

With White Flag, Johns asks us to confront our expectations and assumptions - not so much about the actual flag itself, or our country, or its politics - but more deeply and fundamentally about anything with which we've grown familiar.

You 'know' what the flag means and looks like, right?

White Flag makes you question that, or at least think about it some, and perhaps think about anything that we believe we've already figured out, take for granted, and might not ever change.

Or maybe it's just something cool to look at.

Have a great day!

Happy 2013! Time to let something go

Happy New Year and many, many thanks for spending a part of your New Year's Day here!

The new year figures to be another challenging, interesting, and hopefully succesful one for all of us, as we continue to navigate the demanding and always changing waters of the workplace, of talent management, of technology, and the thousand other things that will keep us occupied in 2013.

These last few days I have been re-running some posts from 2012 that I liked, were popular, or for one reason or another felt to me like they deserved another shot - maybe a newer reader or two missed them the first time and would find them appealing, that kind of thing.

But there was one more post from 2012 titled 'Carrying Costs', that I did not re-run, probably because I simply overlooked it last week, but that actually sums up almost exactly the kinds of things I've been thinking about heading into a new year.

The entire piece is here - but I'll save you a moment and re-state the key idea, that the burdens of what we carry with us from the past (professional, personal, doesn't matter), can be a kind of yoke that we can't easily shake, and that our inability to accurately and honestly reflect on our history holds us back to a degree that we often underestimate.

In 2013, if there is any one idea, theme, or goal I have in mind it's this - to be more honest with myself, to evaluate ideas, practices, technologies, habits, and progress more rationally, and to know what things to keep and what things to let go.

Have a wonderful, happy, safe, and productive 2013!

Christmas Past - Can you tell all the Mad Men were men?

Keeping up a little tradition on the blog here and sharing some vintage Christmas and holiday ads of days gone by - this time sharing a few examples that remind us how far we've come (let's hope).

Nothing says you care like the gift of a household appliance:

For the lady that needs to drop a not-so-subtle hint or two about what she'd like for Christmas: (that toaster looks sweet!)

How did the menfolk figure out what to get for the wonderful women in their lives? Over some holiday whiskey of course! Nod nod, wink, wink - 'Well Carruthers, you sure have that Mrs. of yours in line!'

And finally, once the gifts are exchanged and it's time to sit down to that fantastic Christmas family dinner men often had to worry that the cook would somehow botch up the meal. But at least she can't ruin the beer!  

Am I right gentlemen?  Am I right?!?

Ah yes, the good old days....

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas - full of fun, familycleaning, and trying not to drive each other crazy!

Thanksgiving games (and thanks)

If there is one thing I dislike about social media, online networking, blogging, etc. it is the propensity for some folks in the online world,  (more than you think), to take up the role of the collective conscience for the rest of us.

You know the type - they are always bugging you to hug your Mom, thank a Veteran, treasure your kids, make time for your friends, plant a tree, and spouting various other admonitions that seem more appropriate for an elementary school lecture than for an (alleged) adult discourse and exchange of ideas.

If you are one of those people I mean no offense, but I am asking nicely for you to quit it already.

It's Thanksgiving.

We ALL know we are supposed to take some time to count our blessings, (which for most of us, thankfully, are many). We KNOW we are supposed to really connect or re-connect with our families and friends. We don't need any more reminders to do that from anyone on Facebook. In fact, shouldn't those people be connecting with their OWN families instead of taking the time to go online to tell the rest of us what we should be doing?

Ok, I feel better. I apologize for being so crabby on a holiday, because really, I truly have a lot to be thankful for.

And I do want to say thanks (not because someone told me I should),  for the folks that spend some time here reading the blog. I am incredibly appreciative that busy, smart, and accomplished folks like you elect to take a few minutes each day to read, comment, share, and hopefully, at least occasionally, get something positive out of your investment.

I hope you have a fantastic Thanksgiving, and if you are a non-US reader, I hope you have a great Thursday.

Wow - it stinks to be a non-US reader today, huh?

But if you are celebrating today, you might find these Thanksgiving Bingo cards, posted up at Flavorwire, will add a little bit more fun to your celebration. I have posted one below, you can find the full set over at the Flavorwire site.

Have a fantastic day!

I know you're bored. Me too.

If you are a USA-based reader and actually reading this post the morning it was published, Tuesday July 3, 2012, then that means one of two things. One, you got stuck working the day before the 4th of July holiday while the rest of the office is busy getting their BBQ on; or, you are actually off from work today, are still messing about online, and apparently the action over on Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest or wherever you like to waste time do research was not getting it done this morning.Which are you?

Either way, whether you are here by choice, by accident, or by habit - chances are, on a warm, summer day-before-the-holiday morning, you might be just a little bored. Or maybe just a tiny bit tired or burned out and ready for a break.  Or perhaps if you are a regular reader of this and other HR blogs you are DONE with #SHRM12 reports, reviews, reflections, and retrospectives. I mean COME ON, how many more of those can you read? 

If you happened to miss one of the SHRM posts, don't fret, they were all, (including the ones I wrote), pretty much the same - SHRM was/is incredibly big, Malcolm Galdwell was cool, Seinfeld was funny, social media will some day be a big deal to normal HR people. I get it. We all get it. 

So going with the assumption if you found your way here on July 3 you have to be at least the tiniest bit bored with whatever else you have have happening, I wanted to offer up a little distraction, something I stumbled upon over the weekend while I was processing all my learnings from SHRM trying to remember if I did anything embarassing at one of the parties.

So I offer up a link to a really cool set of images titled '100 Posterworks', by Anna Gray and Ryan Wilson Paulsen, and as you can see from the image on the right hand side of this post, includes at least one about, you guessed it, boredom. Seemed both fitting and cool as the images themselves, if you do take a few minutes to scroll through them, are anything but boring. According to the artists, "Through the posters we address philosophical questions, comment on political or artistic issues, quote, complain, poke fun and indirectly document our lives. They can be read as a kind of cumulative (and often contradictory) artist statement".

I am not sure about all that, but I thought they were pretty cool to look at anyway.

I hope folks in the USA have a fantastic 4th of July holiday, and to anyone reading in the UK, hey, no hard feelings?

I'll be back when I have something more interesting to write about than SHRM or whatever the latest buzz is on TechCrunch.