Episode 4: Resolutions & New Beginnings
EPISODE 4: Resolutions & New Beginnings
Susan and Dan are catching up at the end of 2015 after a crazy December full of holidays, family stuff and life. Dan has been helping the kiddo learn about color and engage with it in different ways. The kiddo is 6-years old and obsessed with arts and crafts. She has a new paint station and likes to mix paint to make new colors. So, it's a starting point with the color wheel. Dan finds it personally fulfilling to foster her interest in creativity. We discuss taking on art as her "sport" in terms of early training and finding creative outlets.
Dan's personal project of the moment is inspired by the California Job Case, which he takes a few minutes to explain for those uninitiated in printing geekery. Dan is contemplating a type-related project and incorporating 3-D printing and graphics.
Artomatic 2015 closed, and Dan is really excited to have sold a piece to a local collector. Dan reflects on his experience showing work at Artomatic and having his first show in 20 years. He is excited to see that prepping for a show is like riding a bike and he still remembers how to do it. It feels great to get his work out there and have it be well-received by visitors. He is submitting work to other juried shows and feels motivated to shop his work around at local galleries, as well as extending efforts to engage in the Baltimore art scene.
Susan reflects on the Crafty birthday party - weaving, shrinky dink jewelry, snowman cupcakes. The party was a success, even though it looked like an art store blew up in the apartment. Susan received a weaving loom for Christmas (thanks Dan!)! And finally jumped into a tapestry weaving project. The loom and accessories were created by Lost Pond Looms, who have a shop on Etsy. Susan has been watching weaving tutorials on CreativeBug to get started with various weaving techniques. She's excited to practice and take time to learn how to use different techniques to engage with color and texture in new ways. Susan's also excited to have new ways to use her handspun yarns and art yarns that she hasn't always wanted to wear as a garment. She's excited to see how weaving will provide new opportunities to push her spinning skills in new directions.
Taking the holiday week off has been great for creativity - more time than usual to create. Time is still the biggest creative challenge. Dan is giving himself time to rest and not feel the pressure to be creative in his non-working life. Susan has felt it really hard to squeeze it all in this month.
Dan is reading How to Fly a Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention and Discovery - a history of creativity by Kevin Ashton, the author of the book The Creativity of Things. It's a book about the myth of the "lone creative" and an exploration of human experience of creativity.
Susan is inspired by weaving and diving into the whole world of weaving. She's in a really open space and working hard to not listen to her own demons that stop her from taking new steps.
We're at the end of 2015. We discuss our thoughts about creativity looking ahead to 2016. Dan is excited to continue showing his work and expanding the body of black and white work, as well as an accompanying book. Our daughter is excited to work with polymer clay and sculpture, and Dan inspired to explore that as part of his California Job Case project.
Susan is diving into weaving and developing the skills to execute her vision for weaving pieces. She is also committed to creating a community around crafting and personal connections with others. As a first step, she is being more open and extraverted in terms of social media interactions, and sharing her own creative practice as part of developing a broader online community. The podcast and blog are also creative and community-building endeavors - important avenues to reach out of her shell and generate inspiration from new places.
Susan is determined to find the secret sauce of work-life-creativity balance. Resolution for 2016: 15 minutes of creativity a day as a baseline.