Viewfinder

The word process means a series of actions or steps taken to achieve a particular end. A natural and intentional series of changes.

Process is one of my favorite words to talk about. Because I feel like when I cracked mine—when I realized and accepted what worked for me, I felt like I achieved a superpower. A level up. A way of working that I completely trusted and had unwavering confidence in.

viewfinder is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new episodes and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Reflections

In this episode, I give an inside look at my process.

* Collect: I let myself observe and participate in imagination.

* Process/Reflect/Understand: I write, read, research, conversate, think about, and find mentors in my ideas.

* Make: I explore the creative output.

Resources

* Join the waitlist + get early bird pricing for my new class, Process, releasing next Tuesday, February 27

* Building the House, Mary Oliver (download the essay from the artist mixtape)

* Rick Rubin — Magic, Everyday Mystery, and Getting Creative, On Being

Connect

If we haven’t had the pleasure of meeting - I’m Lauren Sauder, an artist, writer, and mentor. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider writing a review. Here are a few more ways you can connect with me:

* Download your viewfinder—Print it, cut it, and carry it with you.

* Download the artist mixtape—a mix of books, playlists, and residencies to provide inspiration and company in the studio.

* Receive letters from me—bi-weekly letters from me about what I’m working through in my creative practice and life.

* Enlist me as your mentor—if you are interested in unlimited support and guidance to grow your creative practice.

* Get in touch with me directly—send an email to [email protected].

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The word mentor means a trusted guide. They typically give influence, guidance, or direction to someone with less experience in a particular topic.

I find mentorship in a lot of different places. Back in 2023, I wrote about how I don’t think we are meant to hold creativity alone. And I still think about this notion. Creativity encompasses a lot—it’s both internal and external and I find it incredibly helpful to look to others to help guide me in areas I feel less sure about.

This looks different in any given season—depending on my current circumstances and what I need. I ebb and flow and move in and out of looking to mentors for support and guidance.

viewfinder is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new episodes and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Reflections

* I search for mentors to guide me in how to BE.

* I find mentors in different seasons, depending on what I need.

* My mentors don’t have to be physically present and in conversation.

Resources

* We aren’t meant to hold creativity alone

* Artist Study

Connect

If we haven’t had the pleasure of meeting - I’m Lauren Sauder, an artist, writer, and mentor. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider writing a review. Here are a few more ways you can connect with me:

* Download your viewfinder—Print it, cut it, and carry it with you.

* The artist mixtape—a mix of books, playlists, and residencies to provide inspiration and company in the studio.

* Receive letters from me—bi-weekly letters from me about what I’m working through in my creative practice and life.

* Enlist me as your mentor—if you are interested in unlimited support and guidance to grow your creative practice.

* Get in touch with me directly—send an email to [email protected].

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The word collect means to bring together things, typically scattered or widespread things. To Gather, accumulate, assemble, stockpile, store.

For a long time, I have considered myself an avid collector. And I realize that’s sort of a different word to use inside of creative practice. In this episode, I want to talk about the act of collecting—what it means for me to be in process. Because I think it’s the act of collecting, and deciphering what I collect, to turn it into material that is process.

viewfinder is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new episodes and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Reflections

* My process for collecting isn’t linear.

* I collect what I am curious about.

* I don’t only collect ideas, I also collect visual information.

* I let myself be the researcher.

Resources

For note-taking

* Notion

* Moleskin sketchbook

* Notebook (this one was gifted to me)

* Softcover notebook

* Pocket notepad

* Everyday notepad

* Spiral notebook

* Sticky notes (<3 them all)

* Steno pad

* Voice memos app

* Notes app

* Film photography (I shoot on a canon AE-1 program and an olympus XA2)

* Phone camera (I have an iPhone 13 mini)

Connect

If we haven’t had the pleasure of meeting - I’m Lauren Sauder, an artist, writer, and mentor. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider writing a review. Here are a few more ways you can connect with me:

* Download your viewfinder—Print it, cut it, and carry it with you.

* The artist mixtape—a mix of books, playlists, and residencies to provide inspiration and company in the studio.

* Receive letters from me—bi-weekly letters from me about what I’m working through in my creative practice and life.

* Enlist me as your mentor—if you are interested in unlimited support and guidance to grow your creative practice.

* Get in touch with me directly—send an email to [email protected].

Share

Language defined is the principal method of human communication. It consists of words used in a structured and conventional way and conveyed by speech, writing, or gesture. It’s a system of communication used by a particular community.

Language is communicating with others and also how I communicate with myself. The language I choose to use is a large part of how my reality is shaped - and it’s within this reality that I find - become aware - of my source.

viewfinder is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new episodes and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Reflections

* I use language as a tool in my creative practice.

* Language can also hold me back.

* Language challenges me to stay curious - a value deeply engrained in my creative practice.

Resources

* On Being, Clint Smith What We Know in the Marrow of Our Bones, Krista Tippet,

* Clint Smith, more on

Connect

If we haven’t had the pleasure of meeting - I’m Lauren Sauder, an artist, writer, and mentor. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider writing a review. Here are a few more ways you can connect with me:

* Download your viewfinder—Print it, cut it, and carry it with you.

* The artist mixtape—a mix of books, playlists, and residencies to provide inspiration and company in the studio.

* Receive letters from me—bi-weekly letters from me about what I’m working through in my creative practice and life.

* Enlist me as your mentor—if you are interested in unlimited support and guidance to grow your creative practice.

* Get in touch with me directly—send an email to [email protected].

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Attention defined is the behavior a person uses to focus the senses. Focus being the keyword. It’s the action of taking special care of something.

I believe that once I bring something into my realm of attention, I begin studying it—and that’s where my creative practice really begins. It’s where the “work” starts. It’s where my dialogues and narratives take shape. Where concepts, ideas, themes, and subjects emerge.

viewfinder is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new episodes and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Reflections

* I have complete control over what I choose to focus on.

* I take special care when bringing things into my realm of attention.

* My attention begins and builds my narratives. The stories I tell myself and the stories I share with others.

Resources

* White Pine: Poems and Prose Poems, Mary Oliver

* Red Bird, Mary Oliver

* Upstream, Selected Essays, Mary Oliver

* How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, Jenny Odell

Connect

If we haven’t had the pleasure of meeting - I’m Lauren Sauder, an artist, writer, and mentor. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider writing a review. Here are a few more ways you can connect with me:

* Download your viewfinder—Print it, cut it, and carry it with you.

* The artist mixtape—a mix of books, playlists, and residencies to provide inspiration and company in the studio.

* Receive letters from me—bi-weekly letters from me about what I’m working through in my creative practice and life.

* Enlist me as your mentor—if you are interested in unlimited support and guidance to grow your creative practice.

* Get in touch with me directly—send an email to [email protected].

Share

Awareness is defined as the state or ability to perceive, to feel, or to be conscious of events, objects, or sensory patterns. In this level of consciousness, sense data can be confirmed by an observer without necessarily implying understanding. There’s no immediate need to comprehend the stimulus but instead be cognizant of it.

To me, awareness is like turning a small light on near the source. A guidepost to signal to your brain you want to return and study it more. It’s being curious about what catches your interest. It’s becoming aware of who I am.

It’s through awareness that allows me to springboard into ideas. It’s what makes me notice inspiration, muse—my artistic self.

viewfinder is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new episodes and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Reflections

* Awareness is my entry into creativity.

* I can always be learning to become aware.

* I can expand and narrow my awareness.

* What I become aware of is a reflection of who I am.

* Awareness helps me become a better, a stronger, decision-maker.

Resources

* The Creative Act, A Way of Being, Rick Rubin

Connect

If we haven’t had the pleasure of meeting - I’m Lauren Sauder, an artist, writer, and mentor. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider writing a review. Here are a few more ways you can connect with me:

* Download your viewfinder—Print it, cut it, and carry it with you.

* The artist mixtape—a mix of books, playlists, and residencies to provide inspiration and company in the studio.

* Receive letters from me—bi-weekly letters from me about what I’m working through in my creative practice and life.

* Enlist me as your mentor—if you are interested in unlimited support and guidance to grow your creative practice.

* Get in touch with me directly—send an email to [email protected].

Share

Honesty is defined as a means to tell the truth—being truthful to oneself. Finding fairness. Sincerity. Self-respect. It is one of the first things that comes to mind when I think about my creative practice. I think about the importance of being honest in my practice and my artwork.

viewfinder is a listener-supported podcast. To receive new episodes and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Reflections

* Honesty might be more evident sometimes and less evident other times. And I am always open to learning it.

* Honesty isn’t static. My honesty can always be changing.

* Honesty isn't always easy to admit.

* My honesty will look different than others.

Resources

* Building the House, Mary Oliver

Connect

If we haven’t had the pleasure of meeting - I’m Lauren Sauder, an artist, writer, and mentor. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider writing a review. Here are a few more ways you can connect with me:

* Download your viewfinder—Print it, cut it, and carry it with you.

* The artist mixtape—a mix of books, playlists, and residencies to provide inspiration and company in the studio.

* Receive letters from me—bi-weekly letters from me about what I’m working through in my creative practice and life.

* Enlist me as your mentor—if you are interested in unlimited support and guidance to grow your creative practice.

* Get in touch with me directly—send an email to [email protected].

Share

This podcast is a body of work—a collection of words distilled from looking through my viewfinder. Each episode explores the meaning of different concepts, themes, ideas, and subjects floating around in the liminal spaces of my creative practice. A place to collectively explore the themes that enter the creative realm.

Episode Introduction

I’ve catered to the idea of doing a podcast for a long time now. And yes, I use the word cater with intention because sometimes an idea needs more than just a simple acknowledgment or doing. It needs time to be nurtured and molded into a shape where we can coexist. I do my best to stay open to my ideas, to observe and process them. To find it has an opportunity to become more curious about them. And find myself in them over time. I’ve played around with voice recordings as a medium to slowly build the courage to embrace this way of working. And I think I’m there — I think I am ready to enter a conversation with this idea in real life.

Why viewfinder? This year, as I continue to find presence and navigate life with chronic rumination, I rekindled with my paper viewfinder—a tool I often used in high school to learn how to frame things interestingly. I found myself using this tool both literally and metaphorically. In a literal sense, it’s a piece of paper with a square or rectangle cut from the center to frame scenes. In a metaphorical sense, it’s helping me narrow my attention, to tune in, and learn how to frame my values—themes that come up regularly in my creative practice. It’s encouraged me to ask more questions about these consistencies. To go deeper with things that I place great reverence on in my creativity.

While I view this podcast as a body of work, I hope this body of work can inform your creative practice. I see it as a vessel to explore ideas collectively. For creative people looking for inspiration and support in their studio. That is—to accept the invitation to go deeper with the subjects, concepts, themes, and ideas present in your creative practice to help develop both honesty and quality in your work.

Episode Resources

If we haven’t had the pleasure of meeting - I’m Lauren Sauder, a visual artist and creative mentor. If you enjoyed this post, here are a few more ways you can connect with me:

* Download Your Viewfinder—Print it, cut it, and carry it with you.

* The Artist Mixed Tape—a mix of books, playlists, and residencies to provide inspiration and company in the studio.

* Receive letters from me—bi-weekly letters from me about what I’m working through in my creative practice and life.

* Enlist me as your mentor—if you are interested in unlimited support and guidance to grow your creative practice.

* Get in touch with me directly—send an email to [email protected].