Kicking off a series of two-part posts by pairing some of my thoughts about working with artists and a client’s notes about our work together. Look for similar posts here at Artbux every other Monday, and please submit your ideas for paired perspectives on collaboration. – Elinor Slomba, CSM

CONSULTANT’S PERSPECTIVE: In my administrative career – which began in 1994 – I have chosen to work alongside highly creative people. The ongoing effort to connect their great ideas with the resources needed to help actualize them has been the gist of my professional life so far. Mostly I have done this through the written word.

I LOVE artists! I love their vulnerability and sensitivity, and the strength of their convictions. I love how they see things others don’t. And so, in my case, as Kahlil Gibran says eloquently and with more than a grain of truth, “Work is love made visible.”

When you listen for the spaces between words and help someone who’s struggling with the seed of a new idea capture a coherent structure for his/her thoughts, it’s like having a superpower. So many amazing individuals are contributing their time and talent and intelligence – their very substance – to collective vitality right now…and running experiments using models proven viable in specific fields. I am proud to function as “glue” in the arts world and across sectors among them.

I appreciate the trust it takes to put your ideas into someone else’s hands and ask for help giving them form and expression. Whether or not it’s true what Daniel Pink says about connectors and synthesizers having a special place in civilization these days, and I like to think it is, helping artists be more successful is a permanently cool gig.

Meanwhile, jumps and twirls. Here’s to every day being different, with some more different than others. This hedge against conformity – respect for difference and celebration of meaning among differences whether stark or sublimely subtle – is the main, most substantive thing artists are expert at conjuring in our midst. It is extremely valuable to business. At this point in history, artists are selling what everyone else desperately needs.

ARTIST’S PERSPECTIVE: Contributed by Helen N. Hanson

Until recently I had never experienced a truly inspirational collaboration. I took the opportunity to collaborate with Elinor Slomba.

Elinor is a storycraft consultant, and she is excellent at her job. Due to illness I have had to transfer from the medium of Acting to the medium of Collage. Same artist, different disciplines, different form of interpretation.

When I first started working with Elinor, I was a bit all over the place, scattered, and not quite sure how to move forward.

We have now worked together for several months and I am quite clear on the direction of my work, the discipline it requires to produce it, and the structuring of my time so that I work as an artist, I tend to my health, I practice meditation, and I practice Collage. Of course all at the same time, there is my family, our home, our pets, our bills, my dear and wonderful friends near and far. LIFE in big capital letters!

Elinor has introduced ideas that would not have occurred to me, she speaks better than I do, she represents me more articulately than I do and she listens well. She has consistently come up with innovative and unusual combinations that prove to be an excellent avenue of getting work out there.

We check in once a week; and in that meeting, we accomplish quite a lot of very fine work. it has been very interesting to listen to her knowledge of social media and her take on what’s a good combination of social media to drive the customer that is already looking for my work. I have learned the importance of navigating and always staying on task on the World Wide Web.

It took a bit of time to find my online limits.  It was a valuable lesson to learn. While I may have a ton of energy, my body, especially now when I am in a healing crisis, may need nothing more then rest and food/ or sleep.

It is been a true pleasure having Elinor as my storycraft consultant.  If you are an entrepreneur, an artist, a dancer, a blogger, a poet…etc., and want to take what you say and perhaps haven’t said clearly and put it out into the worldwide marketplace for thought and/or goods exchange, Elinor Slomba can assist you.

Cross-posted on Helen Hanson’s blog  – nontoxicspiritart.wordpress.com