Christopher Brown writes about having a meaningful life

David Marquez thought the idea of combining art with psychology was such a novel idea he just had to buy the book, "The Art of Meaningful Living."

Marquez, 32, also jumped at the chance to meet the author, Christopher Brown, at a book signing Thursday evening at the book store of the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College.

"I thought it would be a great opportunity to meet the author. I was already interested in the book," said Marquez, who works for the dean of students at the school.

The book is an innovative approach to the self-help genre and is aimed at helping people wanting to make changes so they can pursue their true passions in life. Produced in a coffee table-style format, its large print, pullout quotes and subchapters combined with colorful abstract artwork make the work palatable to those who normally would avoid self-help books.

"That’s exactly what we were going for," said Brown, 37, a clinical social worker who practices in Houston.

"This is the process I used in my own life to turn my life from one of quiet desperation, or maybe not so quiet desperation, to one that I’m really excited to get up and live every day," said the married owner of a golden "non-retriever" dog. "So I got the ideas from my own personal experience first."

Those ideas include Acknowledge Your Cast, a subtopic of the chapter Start that encourages readers to recognize the people who played the most important roles in their lives. The chapter Wisdom includes thought-provoking information under the subhead Understanding the Control Problem, which discusses the self-annihilating practice of trying to influence things over which people have no control.

"Focusing your energy on things you cannot control or influence," he writes in a pull-out quote, "leads to ineffectiveness, disappointment, and frustration."

Smaller subtopics follow the boldfaced words acceptance, change, and discernment. Acceptance, he writes, "requires acknowledgement of the limits of our abilities to make things the way we want them. …Change is the act of making something different. … Discernment is the ability to tell the difference between what you can and cannot control."

Throughout the book, readers will find the abstract art of John Palmer.

"Some are on canvas, but others are on wood boxes," he said. "He has sculptures, as well, that are wooden boxes with oil paint on the box itself. The ones that hang in my office are pieces that are on wood boxes. But he also featured in the book plenty of canvas and paper pieces. He tends to label it mixed media."

Brown, who was in business before he became a clinical social worker, said he and Palmer had an "interesting synchronicity."

"He had a different career," Brown said, "so like me he was doing something else in another chapter of his life. But when his father died he began painting. Similarly, I started writing when my mother passed away. And so we have a nice personal connection there and what I like about John’s work is that he really thinks his art healed him and therefore can heal other people."

The book signing Thursday went very well, he said.

"It was really a lot of fun for me," he said. "We had a great discussion. It was pretty lively, a lot of questions, a lot of ideas, and frankly an idea for a new book about how to apply these concepts to people who are students coming out of college or about to enter their first job, how to walk the line between meeting your responsibilities practically while following your passion."

Marquez said he wished more students at the university would take advantage of opportunities like the one Thursday. He now had his signed copy.

"I just glanced through it," he said, "and I’m really looking forward to reading through the entire book."

"The Art of Meaningful Living" is available at  

www.theartofmeaningfulliving.com, Amazon.com, and at the UTB-TSC bookstore.