Road to Innovation

Artist Nance Wheeler - A Practical Approach to Stepping Out

It's always satisfying to see someone fully embrace their life's passion and step out to own it. Sometimes people do it quickly and sometimes they take a more circuitous path in fulfilling their dream.

Encouraged by her mother to paint and explore the arts at an early age, it would be decades before Nance Wheeler would pick up a brush again to paint.

Stepping out to claim her dream as an artist took an act of courage. But Nance is now taking bolder actions to move her dream forward faster from participating in more public venues to launching her website www.NanceWheeler.com and blog Practical Palette.

I caught up with Nance during this year's Silicon Valley Open Studios 2008 event, where every year, during the first three weekends in May, more than 300 Silicon Valley artists open their studios to the public.

Length: 5:35

Crossroads definition: Individuals taking bigger actions to reinvent their lives in pursuit of a dream.

Conversation with Artist, Mary Lonergan - Bold and Persistent, Keys to Success

Mary Lonergan, San Francisco Bay Area artist and writer, might remind you of the person who works alongside you in the gray cubicle by day, but after work, her life is anything but drab.

After years of struggling to claim her artistic talent, Mary's advice to others is to live life bold and pursue your dreams no matter who judges and criticizes you. Persistence in pursuit of a goal has been her path to success where she aims to become a "wildly successful woman on her terms". 

Mary's discipline and perseverance has paid off with her first public art show opening in Florence, Italy this December. She shudders at the thought that this international door almost closed before it ever opened...

(length: 6:19) 

Crossroads Description: Individuals taking bigger actions to reinvent their lives in pursuit of a dream.