Windowsill Chats

Margo is joined once again by Lisa Congdon. This time, to discuss pushing past your limiting beliefs and doing the hard things. Lisa specifically shares her experience of getting involved in gravel racing and recently competing in one of the hardest gravel races in the world - The Oregon Trail Gravel Grinder Race. Although this challenge was not directly related to her career necessarily, there is so much that can be taken away and compared to the challenges of getting creative, entrepreneurship, learning new skills, and so much more.

Lisa and Margo discuss:

• The importance of detaching from your work at times
• Challenging yourself in new ways
• Resilience and how we're often much more resilient than we think
• Feeding both your mental and physical endurance
• Why you have to get uncomfortable in order to level up
• And more!

Connect with Lisa:

https://lisacongdon.com/

https://www.instagram.com/lisacongdon/

Learn more about the Oregon Trail Gravel Grinder Race

Margo goes solo in this episode and shares all about niching down. From practicing what you like, to understanding what you're good at, finding success in your creative career will require a niching of some sort. Margo dives into the many challenges of feeling novice in your business and how niching can actually help you expand as well as ways to reflect growth and the old adage, practice makes 'perfect'. Niching down is one of the many topics discussed in the Relish Your Creativity membership community which you can join today!

Learn more about Relish Your Creativity

Connect with Margo:

https://www.instagram.com/mtantau/

https://www.instagram.com/windowsillchats/

This week Margo is joined by Elizabeth Silver, a professional surface pattern designer and a licensed artist for the stationery, gift, and textile markets. With 18 years in the industry and hundreds of designs in her portfolio, she also teaches beginner surface pattern designers how to move past overwhelm and obstacles to create a profitable creative business in her 'Start Your Surface Pattern Design Business' course, a straightforward blueprint to help artists find clients, pitch their work with confidence, and build the business of their dreams. Elizabeth is passionate about design trends, keep-it-real business advice, and sugary treats.

Margo & Elizabeth discuss:

• How she honed her skills and the art of collaboration
• Her experience working with many well-known names in home and apparel
• Why she started her own business and the things necessary to make a creative business successful
• Understanding business finances and structuring
• The importance of connection within the art industry
• Awareness around personal wants and needs
• And so much more!

After diving head first into running her own business, Elizabeth branched out from textile design and now spends her days creating art for all kinds of industries, including stationery, dinnerware, stamps and socks. Working with clients to come up with trend forward illustrations and prints and then seeing those drawings become products on the shelf never loses its appeal. By designing for so many different end products she's learned a versatile set of skills that clients love. She is always looking for new ways to decorate the world.

Connect with Elizabeth:

http://www.elizabethsilver.com/

https://www.instagram.com/esilverdesign/

https://www.youtube.com/c/ElizabethSilver

This week, Margo is joined by not one but two guests, mother daughter creative duo, Lori Siebert and Kenzi Elston. Lori has a very whimsical design sense and loves to play with color to give each collection that and she designs its own unique personality. She started taking private art lessons at the age of 7 and continued to study art throughout high school. This led to a degree in graphic design from the University of Cincinnati. Lori opened her own design firm, Olika Studios, just 3 years out of college in 1987 which has developed branding and design programs for influential clients such as Target, Bath & Body Works, Nickelodeon and Universal Studios. Kenzie is a born creative who loves color, pattern and all things floral. As the daughter of a graphic designer, she has been surrounded by creativity since she was born. Some of her earliest memories are crafting with her mom, making physical dolls out of her quirky childhood drawings and creating stories through tag team doodles. Growing up in a creative environment fueled Kenzie to follow her lifelong passion and pursue a degree in graphic design (she also attended the University of Cincinnati and even had many of the same professors as her mother). Now she works part time for her parents' design and licensing firm. When she's not illustrating, she is home with her 3 and 5 year old sons so you'll most likely find her slinging fake Spider-Man webs or making room sized blanket forts.

In this episode, Margo, Lori, and Kenzi discuss:

• How Lori's fearlessness landed her many big opportunities
• The right time to take on work that you may not be ready for
• Hiring and growing an agency and design firm
• The importance of community and collaboration
• Advice for designing products
• The 'puppy in the window' hiring technique
• How to manage comparison traps
• And so much more!

Resources & Artists Mentioned:

Chris Sickles of Red Nose Studio

Chair Whimsy

ArtBizJam

Artists Rising

Connect with Lori & Kenzi:

https://lorisiebert.com

http://www.instagram.com/lorisiebert.studio/

http://www.pinterest.com/lorisie

http://www.facebook.com/lorisiebertstudio

https://www.instagram.com/snippetsofwhimsy/

https://moitoistudio.com/collections/kenzie-elston

Sign up for Lori's Weekly Newsletter

Margo sits down with pattern designer, block-print artist, and the owner of BEENANZA, Bethany Andrews-Nichols. After graduating with her BFA in 2006, Bethany worked several graphic design jobs rounding out her corporate career as the Associate Creative Director for an in-house agency that supported several breweries in the U.S. In 2017, she took a trip to Jaipur, India to learn about the ancient art of block-printing. She was immediately HOOKED & that is where the BEENANZA story begins.

Margo and Bethany discuss:

• Listening to intuition and knowing when it's time to step away from projects/jobs/etc
• How Bethany got into block printing
• Why should should actually mean no (i.e. I 'should' do x, y, z)
• Rediscovering oneself through creative practices
• Putting yourself and your art or interests out there
• Not being precious with your work
• The importance of community
• And so much more!

She often block-prints her highly graphic repeats to embrace the uniqueness inherent in the process. Whether the design stays a graphic repeat or becomes a block-printed mural, a hand-printed pattern on leather, fabric or paper, or a washi-tape repeat in her sketchbook, she believes the addition of pattern anywhere & everywhere helps add an element of humanity.

Connect with Bethany:

https://www.beenanzadesign.com/

https://www.instagram.com/beenanza.design/

Margo is once again joined by the wonderfully creative Lisa Congdon to discuss what it means to have a visual vocabulary, accepting and giving yourself permission to be you, and ways to hone in on your own creative voice and style. Lisa Congdon is a Portland, Oregon-based fine artist, illustrator and author known internationally for her colorful drawings and hand lettering. Her playful work is recognized for its vibrant palettes, geometric patterns and uplifting messages.

In this episode, Margo and Lisa discuss:

• How to organize your portfolio
• Developing your own visual vocabulary
• What makes your work consistent
• The process of discovering yourself as an artist
• Giving yourself permission to be you and giving yourself grace
• Authenticity
• And more

Connect with Lisa:

https://lisacongdon.com/

www.instagram.com/lisacongdon

Find Your Artistic Voice: The Essential Guide to Working Your Creative Magic (Art Book for Artists, Creative Self-Help Book) by Lisa Congdon

All of Beth Snyder's life she's been driven by her creative impulse to be a maker. As a teen in the mid-nineties, her first business "Beth's Bauble & Beads" was successful enough to put her through college, while her sisters both worked at the local truck stop. Between then and now, the great creative project of starting and growing a business has inspired multiple endeavors including iconic stationery company 1canoe2, Hemlock Goods: a bandana company, and a couple of management companies to rule them all. Margo chats with Beth about her creative business endeavors and the many lessons she's learned from them.

Margo and Beth relish in:

• Her entrepreneurial path (where it started and how it served her)

• How she earned herself an Emmy Award
• The job that took her back home and gave her a love for farm families
• The importance (and basic requirement) of having a job where you feel like you're contributing
• Why her sisters call her 'Old Happy Ass' (and the distinction her mom makes between her and her sisters)
• The delight of choice versus the burden of choice
• Culture and management of creative teams
• Creativity in a product driven world
• Civic involvement and how to make a difference

To Beth, nothing is more satisfying than creating a product that people love, crave, and can't wait to purchase, but by far her biggest triumph is gathering a team of smart, scrappy people (mostly women) and providing them just enough guidance to take off and help the company soar.

Connect with Beth:

https://www.callmeliz.co/

https://1canoe2.com/

https://hemlockgoods.com/

https://www.instagram.com/1canoe2

https://www.instagram.com/hemlockgoods

https://www.instagram.com/hemlockgoods/

https://www.instagram.com/1canoe2beth/

Margo chats with artist, designer, and ceramicist, Molly Hatch. Molly began her career as a studio potter, infusing her tableware and home decor items with contemporary sensibilities and classical charm. With a formal education in ceramics and drawing, Molly launched her first tableware collection from her home studio in 2010. Her signature blend of 18th century aesthetics with modern whimsy quickly garnered a loyal following, launching her brand into a wide range of lifestyle products for the home.

Margo and Molly chat:

• How she went from living off of food stamps to licensing with Anthropologie
• Being unafraid to ask questions and stand up for what you believe in when it comes to creating
• Sustainability and fair trade in the creative realm
• Her unique ways of making things old, new again
• Living up to your big, lofty goals
• Her new clothing line collaboration

Molly Hatch collections can be found through the brand's partnerships with retailers worldwide. Molly works from her studio in Florence, Massachusetts, where she continues to hone her craft and make the traditional new again.

Connect with Molly:

https://www.mollyhatch.com

https://www.mollyhatchstudio.com

https://www.instagram.com/mollyhatch/

https://www.instagram.com/mollyhatchstudio/

www.joanieclothing.com

Margo chats with previous guest Nataley Shepherd. Nataley is a handmade brand consultant and owner of Studio Shepherd where she helps makers elevate their businesses into sought after brands through simple, intentional, and scalable practices. Margo and Nataley are discussing action taking, creative business, creative community, and the things it takes to push forward and find your success. Together, Margo and Nataley are launching Hello Chartreuse, a Monthly Creative Community, to give everyone a chance to have a vibrant vision for their own creative future.

Learn more about Hello Chartreuse:

www.hellochartreuse.com

Connect with Nataley:

https://www.studioshepherd.com/

[email protected]

https://www.instagram.com/studio_shepherd/

This week Margo is joined by Ana Bianchi, an artist, designer, illustrator and children's book author. Ana started creating when she was 5 and first learned printmaking from a master printer. From branding and illustrated graphic design projects to personal art projects and everything in between, color is the common thread. Ana has exhibited her art in Mexico, Italy, Netherlands, India, Greece and New York City.

Margo and Ana discuss:

• Connecting your art practice with practical application
• Treating and using color as a form of entertainment
• How Ana feeds her own creative mojo
• Her dreams of entering the story telling space (in a very unique way)
• Treating each project she takes on individually (and not tying it to herself or her client)
• How her creativity has changed and evolved over the years
• Some of the many incredible and different projects Ana has had the pleasure of parking in
• Her "diagram of influence" chart
• Being inspired by her daughters art

Originally from Mexico, Ana is currently living in the Bay Area where (finally) she has a garden she uses as a natural color lab.

Connect with Ana:

https://www.analovescolor.com/

https://www.instagram.com/analovescolor/

https://www.papergirlcollection.com/

https://www.facebook.com/AnaLovesColor/