Kites and Strings

Note: there are a few adult-words in this episode

Greg Westby is, in no particular order, an artist, designer, custom woodworker, musician,  songwtriter, photographer, broadway set designer, window display artist and an all around good guy.  He works predominately out of NYC but Catherine and Steve catch up with him in New York State's upper tier and truly enjoy hearing about his creative path to creative lifestyle. 

Having started off very practically focused on carpentry, Greg shares how he took a somewhat circular route to arrive in his current creative career, and along the way we hear about his plans to create an acoustic guitar from scratch, a 12+ year old furniture design that might just be put into production, his sampling and writing of electronic music, and his strong belief that the trades and those who work in the trades are not given the respect they deserve.  

Greg is also down for artistic collaborations, and in the episode shares his two instagram accounts - hit him up...        @gkwestby.photo          @gkwestby.design

Click here to see photos of Greg's childhood artwork and a recent desk design and build. Also, please feel free to check out the following music as written and performed by Greg.

Westby911 - full album
https://soundcloud.com/westby911

Ninnyhead by Greg Westby
https://www.reverbnation.com/westby911/song/4252483-ninnyhead  

This is a special art education episode featuring art teacher extraordinairre, Danielle Leveston. She teaches in a suburban Cook County Jr. High School, and this interview takes place just prior to the 20/21 school year. We learn just how anxiety-provoking the planning process is during the pandemic. Very little seems set, making it difficult to prepare, and this year teachers need to expect that everything will change at a moment's notice. So much teaching will be done virtually, (or will it) which is especially difficult for art teachers who's instruction is so hands-on.

Danielle shares how things are up in the air for her school year, but she still demonstrates, professionalism, flexibility and grace while sharing hopes for the ideal; like integrated multi-disciplinary approachs such as STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineeriing, Art and Math). She speaks to the importance of ensuring lessons and curriculums pay respect to the Black Lives Matter movement. In addition to learning about Danielle's teacher persona, we learn about how she finds balance and exercises her creative muscles through her arts-based small businesses.   

Note: Kites and Strings will typically drop an episode every two weeks, but because of this episode's timely nature, it is being dropped on an alternating week, between two regularly scheduled episodes.   

Danielle's website and social media links:
Paintin and Poppin Facebook Page
Skys the Limit Art Academy Website

The Kites & Strings theme song is By Harrison Amir and other original Music for today's episode is from pixabay.com/music/

Steve and Catherine discuss the ebb and flow of their creative output after being largely in quarantine, now for over four months. This leads to an informative discussion about the role emotions play in our creative process. We start off discussing anxiety as related to the pandemic and the rate by which things are opening up, but we also discuss pain and hurt, and how gaining control and feeling relief can be achieved through expressing and working through those often difficult feelings. You will learn about why we have emotions and about your own emotional refrigerator. 

We reference Catherine's book, Feelings are Complicated F**ckers, which is available through Amazon.  Check it out here.  

Steve and Catherine have their first guest, Anastasia Robieson.  "Stasia" is a talented, multi-instrumentalist musician, a songwriter, an author, a storyteller and a visual artist, who plays music with Steve in the band, Butterfield Creek. She is also in the band The Uh Ohs  with her husband, Josh.  Click here to check out the Uh Oh's Facebook page so you can be on the lookout for their new album, Boot Straps.     

It was so much fun to talk with Stasia and we were so pleased that she jumped right into the topic of how she uses creative measures to get through difficult times, ranging from unrequited teen love to difficult school lessons and an international relocation at the age of eleven that nudged an existential crisis. She shares how creativity helps her learn and to  solidify her spirtuality practices today, which includes soul gardening and an old-man bench. 

There is some wonky audio in this episiode and we apologize for that. We're close to getting those bugs worked out. 

In episode three Steve and Catherine discuss what it takes to be creative. The role of parents/caregivers is touched upon, and sports examples are used. How important it is to understand ourselves so that we can engage in creative endeavors that are a good fit and that ultimately encourage us to keep at it is explored. The joy of being swept up in our creative process is also a topic, as both Steve and Catherine provide examples of how they engage in their art even when technically they are not even doing their art. The role of being an audience member and/or observer of another person's creative work is also touched upon.   

In this second episode of Kites and Strings we conitnue to make the case that all people are creative even though calling it by a different name seems to make it more palettable for some. We follow up on one of the topics touched upon in our first episode.  That is, how is it that people seem to become more creative when their backs are against the wall or when things are more difficult. We talk about how the pandemic and quarantine orders have forced us all to be more creative in our work, when we socialize, and in the ways that we create. We both talk about how we feed our pets and we pose a challenge to listeners by the end of the episode. 

Here are two links to the "distance jam" videos talked about in this episode  This one is of Steve's band, Butterfield Creek, and this one features Steve playing guitar on a John Prine tribute produced by his Facebook Group, South Sub Music Live and the Homewood Art's Council.

We anticipate dropping episodes about every-other-week, but because we  have a few episodes recorded, edited and in the hopper, we figured try to gain some early momentum.  We apologize for the less than perfect audio, but we are still new to this podcasting thing and we are using new programs and software. We don’t quite have the hang of it yet in this episode, but we anticipate getting those things worked out real soon.

NOTE: there is some explicit language in this episode. 

Welcome to this re-released episode of our first episode.  We have been thrilled with the success we have found in doing this podcast- the number of downloads, the number of countries and cities in which we have been listened to (respectively 42 and 637, and counting).  Most of all, we have had a blast. As you may be aware, or as you will learn at the onset of this episode, which was recorded in early May 2020,  Kites and Strings, shortly after this first episode, moved to ensure that we have interesting guests., which has been a blast since making that switch in episode four.

In this first episode of Kite's and Strings, Catherine and Steve explore how as a society, we're too often discouraged to find our creative selves or to live lives that center around being creative.  We discuss some of the barriers and the ways that creative/ artistic people are dismissed or discouraged from being a creative. We explore the idea that regardless of what people think, we are all creative and that there are a variety of ways that people find to balance and manage being a creative. Oh, and we introduce the metaphor of the kite and the string. 

Also new is that Kites and Strings has jumped into the world of social media. Please see the links and addresses below and also take note of our Patreon link, as that is the one that you can visit to become a patron of this podcast.  A single dollar per month will really help us "keep the lights on" and there are special perks for donations not much larger than that. Thanks for your consideration.  Now, here are the links...

https://www.patreon.com/kitesandstrings
Kites and Strings Website: https://www.kitesandstrings.com​
​Facebook: @kitesandstringspodcast
Twitter:   @Kitesandstrings
Instagram:  @Kites_and_strings