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With each portrait in the My Sleepless Nights collection (and each piece in The Art of Nothing collection), Greg makes an entry into his Artist's Journal -- sharing his personal thoughts about the person he has drawn and/or the process of drawing them (and/or the story behind the seemingly worthless item he has turned into art). When one of the collections are on display at an event, the Artist Journal entries are available for display as well - paired up side-by-side with the drawings (or pieces) which correspond to them. Here is an example of one of Greg's Artist Journal entries from each of the two collections:
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JOHN TRAVOLTA
One of my favorite movie characters is Governor Jack Stanton - the hopelessly flawed Presidential candidate portrayed by John Travolta in Primary Colors. If you ask ten people familiar with the movie to pick out a Jack Stanton Moment, I imagine most of them would pick a moment that highlights one of his many missteps (and understandably so). But when I think of Jack Stanton, the moment that always comes to mind first has nothing to do with his many foibles. When I think of Jack Stanton, I always think of his holiday party -- an event which brought together people from all different racial, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds -- from single moms to CEOs, from deep-pocketed donors to the guy that sold him doughnuts. When someone at the party asked how Stanton brought all these diverse people together, the response was something to the effect of 'Some guys collect stamps. Others collect cards. Jack Stanton collects people.' And it was meant in a good way. For whatever his flaws, no matter how many he may have had, Stanton genuinely seemed to enjoy staying in touch with everyone he met, no matter who they were, and then connecting the dots between them -- people whose paths might never otherwise cross. - greg forbes siegman
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THE STRAWS
In the beginning, my nonprofit foundation's college scholarships were funded by the usual suspects -- bankers, lawyers, business executives and the companies which they run. Then, one day, five teenagers contacted me and said they would like to prove they were capable of following in those same philanthropic footsteps. As fate would have it, right around the same time, another group of students -- ten in all -- signed up for the same challenge. The students in the two groups were the same age, from the same kind of background and had the same level of education. On the surface, with all those parallels in mind, it seemed logical to assume that the group was twice as big would get things done twice as fast. The exact opposite turned out to be the case. The smaller group managed to reach their goal much faster because they worked cohesively and communicated frequently while the larger group found it hard to get all ten members on the same page at the same time. Whenever I think about that, it reminds me of a good lesson -- the success of a project cannot be determined solely by the number of people involved. It all depends on their willingness to set aside their personal interests and work as a team toward a common goal.
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