Given the choice between paying 5 dollars in parking fee OR risking a 1/1000 chance of paying a parking fine of 5000 dollars, which would you choose?

Given the choice between keeping your decent paying dayjob OR joining that new startup company which may land a 20,000,000 dollar IPO in 1 year, which would you choose?

Given the choice between leaving your decent paying dayjob for 1 year OR risk missing out on the 20,000,000 dollar IPO, which would you choose?

Risk perception is different for gains and losses. For this reason we often prefer uncertainty when faced with gains but certainty when faced with losses.

The only way to get around this is to frame the same dilemma in a different way. How do you frame your life?
Are you comfortable with the choices you have made if you present them to yourself in a different way?

In the dilemma above, feel free to replace IPO with: travelling the world, becoming a stay-at-home parent, getting creative, taking up acting, building houses in Haiti etc. etc.

Enjoy “The life of the artist” below: the second in a series of 3 paintings.

“The life of the artist” from Artworks by Carl Frederik Waage Beck

I love photos, don’t get me wrong.

But sometimes the best way to catch the essence of someone else is by not being accurate. Painting is not a replacement for cameras. There’s just no comparison to a digitally enhanced Nikon D3X photo, so no point in trying.

No way.

Besides, Hanging a 60×60 cm. photo of yourself in the living room might seem a bit self-absorbed.
A painting however can pull it off :o)
Enjoy!

Best regards, Carl

“Anne” from Artworks by Carl Frederik Waage Beck

Dear friends,
these days something is happening in Iran which hopefully will improve the ability of thousands to speak their mind and express themselves however they see fit.

I am not trying to promote a certain political view here, but when artists, writers and people in general are prohibited from expressing themselves the way they see fit, that is a concern to me.

I encourage you to do what you can to make this change possible:

• Set your timezone on Twitter to “Tehran” which will make it harder to track the people actually tweeting from Iran.
• Re-tweet important messages and tweets on the development in Iran.
  
• Tweet the following message: “See how you can promote free speech in Iran http://bit.ly/uBnMZ Pls RT #IranElection”
• Share this post on Facebook and Twitter.
  
• Search for #IranElection on twitter and you will see a live view of the change in progress.

best regards, Carl

Hi friends,

I should be writing a lot of thoughtful stuff here on why I decided to paint this naked woman and how she relates to modern society and blah blah blah.

But the real reason for painting her, TADAAH, is that I just felt like painting a naked woman, and I just love the thought of couples arguing on whether to hang paintings like this one in their diningroom.

SO, for the next couple of months I AM GOING TO PAINT NAKED PEOPLE — true shocker, isn’t it? :o)

I know I’m having fun doing it, and hopefully you folks will enjoy it too.

Afterall, there is hardly anything more beautiful than the naked human body.

Enjoy!

Best regards, Carl