Authentic Obsessions

Takeaways

1. It all starts with being curious about the world.

2. You can have multiple careers across different industries – all you need to do is take a chance on yourself.

3. It’s worth peeling back the layers when you meet someone. There is something wonderful to behold when you take the time to look a little closer.

4. Embracing failure means you are learning.

5. The person that's holding you back is the person in the mirror. You need to be kind to yourself and allow yourself to have failures and missteps and learn from them and laugh at yourself and move through it. You will be more resilient and better off for it.

6. The beauty of art is that it can allow an artist to take something that would be controversial or difficult to think about and put it in such a way that everyone can consume and think about it.

Mentioned

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Linda Marcus Art

In Conversation: A WMQFA Zoom Panel Discussion with Linda Marcus, Heidi Parkes, and Nirmal Raja

Saint Kate the Arts Hotel

Sheila Hicks

Anni Albers

Takeaways

1. In our busyness and urban-ness we’ve been taken away from the beauty and mystery and magic that exists around us.

2. You have to be able to live in that uncomfortable zone in order to get to new and magical things.

3. The job of the mentor is not to change your opinion or your work, or not to tell you what's not going right, but to bring your nose off of the mirror and allow you to see it in a different or wider angle and have a more global perception of what you’re doing.

4. When the silence is so full, like in the forest, it’s not a silence of emptiness, but it allows you to become deeply in tune to your own thoughts and your way of looking at the world.

Mentioned

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Vicky Lentz’s website

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Mardens Surplus and Salvage  

Agnes Martin

The torus

Created Here magazine

Takeaways

1. “I have a lot of tabs open in my browser.”

2. Creativity does not need to be artistic - the mere act of being alive is creative.

3. Engaging in process art with no intent, no direction and no meaning is a great way to PLAY!

4. Take a lesson from the kindergarten crowd and when you make art just react from your gut, from your soul, and from your intuition.

Mentioned

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Natalie’s Native Essence Art website

Takeaways

1. There’s a real strength in knowing your weakness.

2. What I learned in art school taught me to expand my vision and self-critique.

3. Fear no longer gets a vote.

4. So often our fear pushes us away from our internal voice and toward security and what might be an argument.  My greatest successes in life have been when I’ve faced the fear and listened to that voice. 

5. “Get in the short lines first.” - Gary Kelly

6. “There's no such thing as a no-win scenario there's always a way to make it work.“ - Captain Kirk

7. “Success is 99% failure.” - Thomas Edison

8. “A 10 year old can't sing a love song.” - Smokey Robinson

Mentioned in this episode

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Aaron Boyd’s website

Takeaways

1. You begin to realize you’re limiting your options and every positive choice that you make to do something means there are other things you don’t get to do.

2. Do what you can to quiet the internal voices that tell you you’re not very good at this and say, “thank you for your opinion, we can have this discussion another time” and just go to work.

3. Make the thing you need to make and then do it again and show up tomorrow and do it again and show up the next day and do it again.

4. It’s so much easier to keep showing up once I realized that it’s never going to get easier, that it wasn’t a problem I had, that it’s not inherent in me, it’s just that a creative life is hard.

5. Pants before noon.

Mentioned in this episode

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Nick Petrie’s website

Boswell Books

Daniel Pinkwater

Takeaways

1. Stretching a canvas in the studio is like making a sauce in the kitchen.

2. It’s still challenging to realize there will be another painting after this one.

3. Not every painting is going to be a painting you’re happy with but there’s something in it that may challenge you and move you that gets resolved in the next one.

4. Short bursts of bouncing (on a trampoline!) are very good for the spirits.

5. With a limited palette comes endless possibilities.

6. My painting practice is where I recover from other stuff that’s going on in life.

7. I trust that all the interior landscapes of my life inform how I understand the natural world landscapes around me and what actually winds up on the canvas.

Mentioned in this episode

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Jennifer Pazienza’s website

Gotta Minute? videos

Art NXT Level Academy

Upper Canada Stretchers

Takeaways

1. Let your field go fallow for a while. Step away from it and allow things to percolate.

2. If you get to the point where you're not able to tap into that pure place where you’re “just making the work because you love it”  then the work suffers and the whole thing starts to fall down.

3. You’re the only one who can take your shower.

4. Having different stages of your artwork in your back pocket allows you to work on some aspect of your art regardless of your emotional or mental or physical state.

Mentioned in this episode

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Megan Woodard Johnson’s website

Megan’s Mastermind information

Check out Megan Woodard Johnson’s Pinterest

The tube wringer!

Takeaways

1. You show up, you commit, you don’t let people down, and you put something back into the community.

2. Don't give up when you get frustrated by your materials.

3. Don’t overcomplicate things.

4. Work hard, be generous and don’t take yourself too seriously.

5. Chiropractic and acupuncture treatments, wine, and a dog go a long way to self-care.

6. The technical aspects of art didn't come together until I had something I wanted to say.

Mentioned in this episode

Follow Abigail Bowen on Instagram

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Abigail Bowen’s website

Takeaways

1. Just because you carry the load well doesn’t mean it isn’t heavy.

2. You don’t have to be just one thing.

3. It IS a good day to have a good day!

4. No colors clash in nature.

Mentioned in this episode

Follow Jes Zange on Instagram

Jes Zange’s website

Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival

Fiberwood Studio

Takeaways

1. Everything around you is touched by an artist. Artists are the ones who tell our story.

2. Self expressions is the key to storytelling. It’s about hearing everyone's individual stories and finding out what we have in common through those unique stories.

3. My community is a constellation, not a congregation.

4. Strive for fewer better things.

5. Talent is a real slippery term and it’s just not enough because art making takes a ton of perseverance and loads of patience.

6. It’s really about resilience, creative problem solving, being able to argue a point, to look at something from a different point of view, to take negative criticism, and to give challenging criticism.

Mentioned in this episode

Follow Laurie Pearsall on Instagram

Laurie Pearsall’s website