This is from my guest interview featured on Sarah Leonard’s blog series Curious Creatives.
1. Tell us a little something about your creativity. What do you enjoy creating the most?
I am all over the place with my creative efforts… from sewing machine to paint to photography to clay to odd crafts, but I just seem to need the variety and clutter as part of my soul journey and process. I love to find new uses for old items and recycle/re-purpose materials. I also love to include nature in my art, whether actual twigs, flowers, and leaves or with references and shapes. I try to invite something beyond myself to flow through me with found words (flipping to random pages in a dictionary or using old books/magazines/catalogs to find poetry or encouraging messages). One of my teachers, Kristin Steiner, called creativity “a dance with the divine” and I love when it feels like that. What I enjoy most is probably the prayer and meditative aspect that is part of my creative process. I always try to bring positive energy to my artistic play time, whether singing uplifting songs as a kind of prayer/meditation or actually focusing on specific well wishes for all those that come into contact with my creations, especially the final recipient. For example, I selected the words joy, nourish, bless, home, kindred, and such for a wall-hanging I made as a housewarming gift as part of the blessings I hoped for the family in their new home. When crocheting, I focus throughout on well wishes for the wearer, such as good health, love, joy, wisdom, connection, the list goes on and on as it takes a while to crochet even a small hat! If I find my mind drifting, I may focus on singing the lyrics of a song with loving energy, such as “joy to the world” (the hippie version as opposed to the hymn because that’s the one I grew up hearing and it makes me happy) or “love, sweet love” or “here comes the sun” or “you’re beautiful” by Carole King (an all-time favorite of mine!)… so many great ones! A current favorite is “happy” by pharrell. “Clap your hands if you feel like happiness is the truth!” I have a list of some favorite songs (and will be adding to it) on my site.
2. What made you decide to start creating?
I recently called myself a “born again artist” while having a discussion with a classmate and that seems to describe my experience pretty well. As a child, I remember loving art. I can recall one Christmas when I got one of those big crayola art sets in a case with lots of crayons, colored pencils, paints, etc. and being thrilled with this! Unfortunately, I don’t think I picked up a crayon or even doodled with a pen much after elementary school until I finally had children of my own to “play” with and teach to hold a crayon. I was never really encouraged with art much as I grew and was even discouraged through the few art classes I had. I have “art scars” like so many others. I was pushed to “practical” academics and career paths. I fell into the role of being a straight “A” student and pleaser and doing what others said I should be doing without ever trying to listen to the whispers in my heart (and they were there all along). I was valedictorian and went on to get a master’s degree all while just following other’s suggestions for what would make me “successful” and get a decent job. When I had kids and chose to leave my prior career behind to be a stay at home mother, everything changed. That’s when I started playing with art supplies again, but still only with my kids. I hadn’t yet realized that it was okay to have my own creative time aside from preschool art projects and such. When my mom passed away in 2010 after losing the battle with ovarian cancer, my world was turned upside down and inside out. That’s when I started creating again for the sake of creating and for healing. That’s when I started PAS it on, in her memory, which has evolved into Loving Rd. That’s when I found that art could lift me up and help me process the grief and brokenness and turn it into something beautiful, that I could acknowledge the bitter aspects of life while still choosing to focus and be grateful for the sweet. Instead of turning to anti-depressants or sleeping pills when I struggled with grief and insomnia, I turned to art. Instead of turning to the bottles of wine in the evenings to try to numb the pain and unsuccessfully attempt to get some sleep, I finally found healing through art. Instead of finding solace in religion, which is a whole different story, I found it in art. Hence, the idea of being a “born again” artist. I found my way back to the joy of creating that I had long forgotten from childhood. I found mysterious messages coming through the art to speak to my heart and soul. I found a way to honor my mother’s memory and her love of life and to hear the echo of her love and joy and vitality coming through in the art. I knew she would want me to teach my kids to love life, as she had taught me, and not to focus on the grief and pain. She was 62 when she died, I was 34 and my kids were 5. I felt cheated out of having a Grammie for my kids, even though I know how fortunate we were to have her for so long and to have her meet her grandkids and be part of their lives for a while (I have other friends that were not this lucky). Yet, I knew in my heart that I had to get through the grief, the tears and the fears and let love guide our lives. Art, including writing and journaling, has been a huge part of being able to do that and focus on the best parts of life again.
3. Where do you get your inspiration from for your creative endeavours?
Nature, music, family, friendship, memories, stories, poetry, photography, travel, other artists, everywhere, when I remember to look and really see!
4. What do you if you feel creatively blocked? How do you get past that?
Sing and dance, go for a walk in the woods, go to the lake, play a game with my kids, write in my journal, or just play with art supplies to make backgrounds or try a new supply/technique that I haven’t used before, browse the beauty created by other artists, read, go through old photos, breathe deep.
5. Do you have any advice on silencing your inner critic?
This has been a big issue for me! I sometimes feel like a fraud surrounded by so many with much more talent. I try to keep reminding myself that we are all artists… that is how we are made… to be creative, regardless of talent or profession… so I keep following my heart for the therapy and love of it, but I often wonder if I’m wanting it too much sometimes and trying to force something that isn’t meant to be. Yet, something keeps pulling me to it and I think I need to go with that! Perhaps some of the time and things made are like warm-up exercises? 😉 I hope to get to a place where I feel more in the flow and find myself singing my song. Some days I feel more that way than others. Earlier this year, I was blessed with an amazing gift. There is a very unique school near my home, John Campbell Folk School, and I was able to use a local scholarship to take an incredible mixed-media/surface design class called “Field Guide to Creativity” (see pictures below) taught by Kristin Steiner and Susan Edmonson. This felt like the universe guiding me and cooperating with me to encourage me on an artistic journey. Being in that class felt like another kind of “home” to me. I try to remember how grateful I am for that and move past the inner critic.
I also try to let go of the misplaced responsibility for reactions to my creations versus taking the action. It’s a lesson I have to keep learning and reminding myself! I am only “responsible” (though I want a different word here to better explain) for taking the action, for creating from the heart, I am not and cannot be responsible for the way others react to what I make/offer. Though I cannot predict or determine reactions, I am extremely honored to be following my creative whispers when I hear that my creations have positively impacted someone. I have two friends that sell some o f my creations in their local shops and they have both passed on comments from customers that filled my heart with gratitude and have given me encouragement to keep creating! When my friend asked a customer who she was buying one of my wooden signs for, the customer replied, “for myself, because it makes me happy.” That is such a compliment to me and helps me to trust the creative process and calling and ignore the inner critic.
5. What would be your top tips for living a more creatively fulfilled life?
Play more!!! I have found that approaching my creative time as “play” time helps me to open up more and feel more free to experiment. I have already noticed what a difference it can make if I get too focused on whether or not something I create might sell. I am blessed that I do not have to sell my art to pay the bills currently, but I do hope to help support my family financially with these efforts, to supplement my husband’s income and ideally, relieve him of the entire burden of providing for our family financially so that he, too, can spend more time doing things he loves. As soon as I decided that I wanted to devote more time and energy to creative endeavors, the monetary aspect started to haunt me. Art supplies can be very expensive so I, at least, need to cover expenses and, at best, I would like to be an example to my children of going after my dreams and being able to combine play and work to “make a living” financially as well. This has sometimes made it a challenge to remain focused on creating for the sake of creating! Approaching it from the “play” side more than the “work” side has helped me to let go of the stress of thinking about sales and trust the process more. And wouldn’t it be great to truly be able to use the words play and work interchangeably, as one in the same thing?!
I would also suggest to slow down. Take time to smell the roses, to see the details of the petals unfolding, to feel the delicate, soft texture of the silky petals, to look at the morning dew glistening on an intricate spider web, to hear the sheer joy in a child’s laughter, to sway with the trees dancing in the breeze, to find images in the clouds, to listen to the songs of the birds, and to look at the world again with the wonder of a child, the child of the universe that you are. Yes, I am a hopeless romantic!
6. Pick one of your creative projects to feature here – it could be your favourite, your newest or a popular piece. What do you think is so special about that item? Tell us more!
I call this my “reflective realization” series. This was really my first effort at making a kind of series to offer for sale. I wanted them to be positive affirmation mirrors. Hence, the idea of reflective (mirror) realizations (affirmation) that would be an affirmation for and uplifting reminder to the person looking in the mirror. I recycle (re-purpose) bulb and seed catalogs for the lovely bloom pictures around the frames. I build the frames myself after using mod podge to collage the flower images and words and acrylic paint to decorate them. I like to highlight certain words from the catalog descriptions as a kind of found poetry around the frame.
I had listed the first one (pictured here) on Etsy for sale last year, but my son said he hoped it didn’t sell because he wanted to keep it. He got his wish and it now lives in our home. I am glad that it is here and the message to “bloom” is a lovely reminder to me. I did 3 more, by request, for friends and family that purchased them to be gifts, two for their mothers and one for her daughter. They chose the primary color and main words (divine, joy, and shine) that guided the creation of each. I currently have one for sale in a local gallery (my first piece to be featured in a real gallery!), River’s Rim in Brasstown, NC, similar to the one I have in my home (and pictured here) with the “bloom” affirmation. I have enough supplies to make more by request. Anyone interested could request a custom order through my Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/shop/lovingrd or contact me via email at lovingrd@yahoo.com.
Thanks to Sarah for inviting me to participate! Sarah’s responses to the guest interview about her on my blog can be found here. 🙂
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