Podcast 008, Art As Affirmation with Stephanie Lee
On this episode, Jeanne talks with Stephanie Lee, an artist, teacher, deep thinker, warm-welcomer, and friend based in southern Oregon.
4:16 “I’ve spent a lot of years believing that my presence as an artist was a lot more separate from who I am as a person than it is…”
5:08 “The reality is every aspect of life involves a certain perspective, a certain creative ingenuity, and that shows up in how we parent, how we garden, and the colors we put on canvas.”
9:32 “I did metal smithing for a long, long time, and because of the way I was relating to it, I did it longer than I should have. I was doing it to please the people who enjoyed it…”
10:15 “One thing I know is that the medium is going to let me know it's time to be a part of my creative practice again.”
11:06 “Am I doing the thing that feels really enjoyable for me to do, even if it is the same thing I did yesterday and last month and a week ago and a year ago…”
14:15 “Leaving lots of room for those conversations about yourself and your world and your life and your creativity to evolve over time in your head is the biggest benefit of doing work that to others may seem like it’s the same work.”
15:02 “Our creativity is not ‘just’ for making beautiful things, as important and necessary as beauty is in our lives; our creativity is also to be a tool with which we can start transferring our curiosity in mediums that we given into difficult limited circumstances.”
17:59 “It really is about helping people think differently and move at the pace that feels true to them. Because sometimes it’s not what you do, it’s the timing of when you do it.”
23:17 “It was an uncomfortable way of growing when I started realizing I need to be my own best advocate here.”
24:13 “Collaboration has helped me get more rooted in my own skills and talents and gifts that I have to offer the world, and it’s also made me more open to recognizing where somebody else is bringing something to the table that I don’t have.”
26:21 “Every hard thing that I’ve been through now is serving as information that I can share with people who are on that path, too.”
Stephanie Lee grew up among the mountains and red rocks of Utah but now calls Southern Oregon home. She lives with her (adorably sexy) husband, Vince (who can build/fix/do anything he puts his mind to), teenage daughter Annabelle, dogs Elsie and Rumi, and three cats who really need to up their game in their mole hunting duties. Vince and Stephanie share four more grown children (one of whom she brought into the world) and she's decided that being a grandma before the age of 40 is pretty much the best thing ever.
Her therapist is her garden and the backpacking trails where nature and Stephanie have pretty good conversations about all the things. She has pretty good homesteading skills and she admittedly fantasizes about living off the grid in a cozy cabin where there is snow in the winter and the summer finds her growing and canning her own food by the bushel (with a cute little coffee shop within walking distance, of course) and reading real paper books in the evening by firelight.
How Stephanie would describe herself:
I cry easily, even (and especially) when laughing and have amassed a plethora of other potentially useful skills that I have so far totally underutilized. These include, but are not limited to:
Playing the piano and guitar
Cooking over a fire
Canning and preserving food
Making new friends
Saving ab workouts on Pinterest
Using the very last drop of toothpaste out of the tube before throwing it away. (Waste not, want not!)
Things I would like to add to this list but have heretofore managed to under-excel in:
Running three miles without a lung collapsing
Being an overachiever (while simultaneously cultivating an Instagram feed of enviable “simple life” images, of course).
Earning “cool mom” status
Dancing in a way that does not look like a long armed troll trying to act casual when he just tripped over his shoelace.
Yodeling.
One thing is for sure: If you are excited about something, I will be SO excited with you and I will do everything I can to make sure you know how awesome you are. Because, if nothing else, I want you to feel really, really good about being all in with your unique and exquisite creative expression.
Stephanie Lee Art
You can find Stephanie on Instagram
Stephanie's new online course Art as Affirmation.
Ten Tips To Take Back The Peace
A free ebook if you are looking for some rest in your day-to-day like I was.
Get your free resource Ten Tips HERE.
Become the artist you dream to be. Creativity is Calling at jeanneoliver.com.
You can connect with Jeanne on Instagram and Facebook.
