The Paintings of JR Shaw - The Monday Morning Memo

Hi Indy,
Last week you posted that great image from Grant Wood that is about to be auctioned. FYI – Grant Wood was from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. His lifelong patron was the Turner Family who owned Turner Mortuary. Grant lived in a studio apartment provided by the Turners on the mortuary property. I grew up in Iowa and won a competitive scholarship to the University of Northern Iowa for fine art.

Just a side note, if you look on Google street view for my house in Conroe, Texas, you can see me painting in my garage.
Happy New Year!
JR Shaw

“In many organizations there is hardly time for lunch, let alone assessing the past. Appropriate reflection is the nourishment that feeds our future. Without it, how can we be sure of the ground from which we wish to move forward? As the saying goes: ‘If you don’t know where you’ve been, or where you are, how the hell can you know where you want to go?’

Of course, there will be the practical assessment. We will know the figures, and the statistical analysis against the projections. But how often do we take time to tell the story of the past? Not the result but the process, not the ‘what’ but the ‘why’ and the ‘how’? Wherever we are and whatever we do, we are all, always, part of a story. Human beings have always passed on knowledge this way; stories are storehouses of wisdom that can teach and inspire us. There is not a day goes by that we do not tell, hear, read or see a story, from children, partners, friends, or the media. But we go to work and start reporting facts and speaking in acronyms. A leader who does not know what story he or she is in, and where they are within it, is missing an essential route to inspiration.”

- Richard Olivier, Inspirational Leadership, Henry V and the Muse of Fire, p. 10

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