Click here to listen. © Jane Pollak 2026 The day after Professor Cavanaugh asked me to be the property mistress for the fall 1969 production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle, he called me into his office. I knew nothing about the plot line or magnitude of...
Click here to listen. © Jane Pollak 2026 Last year I signed up to audit (for free) an art class at Hunter College. As a lifelong learner, I couldn’t resist. The registrar pointed me to an opening in a course called Everything is Personal (last spring’s...
Click here to listen. © Jane Pollak 2026 I moved to New Jersey on March 11, leaving Manhattan after nearly fourteen years as a full-time resident. A team of organizers packed me up on the 10th. Movers hauled my belongings to my new home at Lantern Hill...
Click here to listen. © Jane Pollak 2025 As a fellow card-carrying member of AARP, I barely blinked when one friend moved from Greenwich, CT to Sarasota, FL. I was only mildly curious when another friend told me about her winter place in Arizona. But,...
Click here to listen. © Jane Pollak 2025(illustrated with pieces of my art process along the way) In March, my granddaughter Chloe became Bat Mitzvah – a time of recognition and celebration when a 13-year-old Jewish girl is welcomed into her...
Click here to listen. © Jane Pollak 2025 (illustrated with pieces of my art process along the way) I’ll say it. I hate being a beginner. Which is kinda silly, because anytime I try something new, which I love to do, I’m in that role. I don’t like failing....
Click here to listen. Talk about ink in one’s veins! This birth announcement, created by my dad, is prominently displayed in my baby book from 1948. My mother, too, had a way of making things newsworthy just by naming them. When a neighbor in the Midwest...
Click here to listen. I took a hard stumble in mid-September, broke my shoulder and have had to pivot my well-organized life to accommodate what is. Still, I’m able to create exciting new digital mock-ups of wall installations. My fantasy: I would announce to you...
Click here to listen. This post tells the story of an exception to the rule of thumb: Never meet your heroes. In the early ’70s, when my art students from Westhill High School competed in the state’s Scholastic Art Awards annual competition, we were upstaged and...
When I first got back the personal essay I submitted during my 5-week writing-for-magazines class, I cringed at the amount of red ink covering the pages. "I'll never get this right," I cried inwardly. But then I remembered a comment my teacher at Gotham Writers...
I'm thrilled to report that my first free webinar last week attracted over 50 participants and that every space available for my upcoming program sold. In my own business and the businesses of my colleagues, and what I see in the world at large, we must keep trying...
I've worked with Arlyn over the course of a few different Mastermind Groups and have seen an evolution and unfolding of her imagination and skills that reinforces why I do this work. I'm not sure if everyone has the 20-20 vision to see the artist inside the...
In my current skill building around coaching relationships I learned a term for the space between where you are and where you want to be: edge. Two examples in my manual are: Trying on a new idea or perspective. Being a shy person and choosing to speak up. I...
...Mastermind Group member Nikki Bates (see 11/10 post) recently sold a piece of her jewelry for close to $10,000. We track goals of each participant from when they enter my group until the final meeting. One of her earliest goals this session was to create a...
It doesn't get any better than this for a client or her coach. Attending Patti Tower's View From the Tower Open House on Saturday was like watching a vision unfold. She had several dozen guests and clients visit and purchase items from her new collection of...
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