Your Creative Push

Andrew Salgado is a Canadian figurative painter who lives and works in London and has exhibited his work around the world. His paintings are large-scale and incorporate elements of abstraction and symbolic meaning. He is featured in books, is the subject of a documentary (Storytelling), and his work will be displayed at his latest exhibit, The Fool Makes a Joke at Midnight, which will be in New York City from May 7-28.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/andrewsalgado

-How he fell victim to the clutches of London.

-How he incorporates things around his studio and from his life into his artwork and anything that is around him is "fair game."

-How he approaches his paintings in a fluid fashion and being as flexible as possible.

-The importance of having fun when you paint and to enjoy the creative process.

-The dangers that can come when you try to emulate your favorite artists too closely and how it can start holding back your personal style.

-The fact that art is a marathon not a sprint and how young artists expect too much too soon.

-How every artist's definition of success is different and what his personal idea of success is.

-How money, or the promise of money, almost always affects an artist's creativity.

-The idea of a debut being an experience in which you reveal your art for the first time.

-The power that comes from seeing art in person.

-How he has a trusted few people that he will show his work to, because otherwise too many opinions can derail his creative process and make him think too much.

-How attempting to make the perfect piece of art is a beautiful thing to do, despite it being a futile pursuit of perfection.

-Bjork as an artist.

-The significance of the title of his latest gallery, The Fool Makes a Joke at Midnight.

-The power of social media, but the disservice that it does for viewing art.

-How figurative painters are treated as though they haven't evolved to a higher understanding of aesthetics like abstract painters do, and how angry it makes him.

-How the beauty of art happens when you really push yourself outside of what is comfortable.

"I think of myself as a scientist tinkering about in a laboratory."

"If it's in the studio, it's fair game and it can end up in a painting or it can end up inspiring a painting."

"I let the paintings take me on a ride as opposed to getting frustrated when they aren't going the way I want them to go."

"As soon as I started letting the paintings tell me what direction they wanted to go, I became stronger."

"Whatever you need to do to make yourself a stronger artist -- go for it."

"The more we experiment and nurture our processes and don't feel bad about our processes, we can reach higher levels of painterly transcendence."

"Art is about process, and it is a lifelong process."

"People can make casual comments that can really unhinge the creative process."

"As artist, we totally know when that painting isn't sitting right."

"What I am trying to do with my work is learn how to reevaluate the figure through the language of abstraction."

"I'm trying to make my works challenging for myself to create them and I'm trying to make my works challenging for my viewer to receive them."

"If you think you know what you're doing with too much conviction, you're probably not pushing yourself hard enough."

The Fool Makes a Joke at Midnight (Andrew's exhibition)

Fantasy of Representation

Bjork on Song Exploder

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Philip Ruddy is a Los Angeles-based depth psychotherapist, who previously spent fifteen years as a writer, producer and development executive in Hollywood. He now works with writers, artists and performers, helping them explore and transcend creative blocks, anxiety, depression, and the unique stressors of the film and television industry. He can be reached via his website ActivelyImagine.com.

If you missed Part 1, you can listen here.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/philipruddy2

-The importance of his clients being sober when coming in for treatment so that they aren't "unconscious" during the process.

-Why creative people rely on drugs or alcohol to subdue their minds from the constant thoughts, and healthier ways for them to disengage.

-An extremely disheartening experience that he went through in the past, which helps him to relate to his clients today.

-The journey that he took after having his original screenplay taken, which led him to becoming a psychotherapist.

-His masters thesis on transcending writer's block based on Active Imagination.

-The concept of the "wounded healer."

-His advice for someone who wants to open a dialogue with his or her blocks.

-How the subconscious part of your psyche that will hold you back from doing work will often have insights that your conscious mind isn't aware of.

-The importance of creating a friendly and welcoming dialogue with your block and treating it like a guest in your house.

"I found that after that experience, I really began to shut down as a writer."

"I just looked around and I thought I have found my tribe."

"Going into film production is kind of like the French Foreign Legion. You can literally work 24/7. That job is never over."

"I went through it myself -- that is why I'm able to help others."

"Sometimes the most effective healers are the ones that have been injured themselves."

"Don't invite your critic in while you're creating."

"The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron

"The Red Book" by Carl Jung

"Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life: How to Finally, Really Grow Up" by James Hollis

"An Evening with Ray Bradbury - 2001" (YouTube)

"The Hero's Journey... For Writers, Artists & Performers" (from Philip's blog)

Website / Blog

Philip Ruddy is a Los Angeles-based depth psychotherapist, who previously spent fifteen years as a writer, producer and development executive in Hollywood. He now works with writers, artists and performers, helping them explore and transcend creative blocks, anxiety, depression, and the unique stressors of the film and television industry. He can be reached via his website ActivelyImagine.com.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/philipruddy

-His journey getting to the point he is now as a depth psychotherapist.

-His explanation of what depth psychology is.

-How he is able to tap into his experience as a development executive, screenwriter, and a short story writer in order to understand what other creative people are going through.

-How writer's block is a personal thing that differs for every person that he works with.

-The notion of befriending your creative blocks.

-The idea of Active Imagination.

-How we imagine the harshest of critics will judge our work, but in reality, if someone doesn't like your work, they typically just move on.

-The traumatic effect that negative comments from teachers can have, especially at an early age.

-The importance of seeking out a tribe and a group of peers, and not necessarily rely on the influences that your school district had as art teachers.

-Creating a new persona.

-The interplay that happens between your persona and your "true self," both positive and negative.

"What's the personal myth that you are leading your life by?"

"Writer's block is something that you're probably going to wrestle with for many years to come if you don't make a decision to focus on it now and come up with some ways to navigate it."

"Befriend it so that you can transcend it."

"The idea is not just to exterminate this writer's block but to engage it in dialogue. I actually mean that quite literally."

"Write out a dialogue with this writer's block and see what it has to say."

"Writer's block is often an unexpressed part of ourselves that wants to be heard, so if you actually give it some time and engage it, it will often tell you what it wants of you."

"We're often far worse critics than the real flesh-and-blood critics that we encounter."

"The first creative act is reinventing yourself. Creating your new self as an artist."

"To reinvent ourselves, to become who we are destined to be, takes an incredible amount of strength."

"The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron

"The Red Book" by Carl Jung

"Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life: How to Finally, Really Grow Up" by James Hollis

"An Evening with Ray Bradbury - 2001" (YouTube)

"The Hero's Journey... For Writers, Artists & Performers" (from Philip's blog)

Website / Blog

Brooke Shaden is a fine art photographer, author, and motivational speaker from Lancaster, PA. She grew up near the "Amish Country" until attending Temple University. Brooke was photographically born in December 2008 after graduating from Temple with bachelor degrees in film and English.

Self portraiture for her is not autobiographical in nature. Instead, she places herself within environments she wishes to explore, where secrets are exposed, impossibilities are tested, and life is questioned in eras beyond our own.

Brooke works to capture fantastic realities within her photographic frame. By using painterly techniques as well as the square format, traditional photographic properties are replaced by otherworldly elements.Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/brookeshaden

-How photography felt like a rebirth for her because it was one of the first things that she considered herself “good at.”

-The story of the first time she picked up the camera and started with self-portraiture.

-How she has always loved writing and her reason for starting her blog “Promoting Passion.”

-Her reason for starting her YouTube channel despite her extreme fear of public speaking.

-How she doesn’t like working in teams if she can avoid it.

-How she is able to balance her time and produce all of the content that she is able to put out in her various mediums.

-The importance of knowing your business so that you can focus solely on the things you love and want to produce and say “no” to things that don’t fit that.

-The story behind “Phoenix.”

-The story behind “Capturing Inspiration.”

-The many factors that contributed into her starting self-portraiture.

-How she feels like "The Falling of Autumn Darkness" entirely captures her essence.

-One of the things that holds her back is wanting to create images that are darker in nature and fearing the backlash that might come from doing so.

-How she has recently decided to slow down her creative pace to make work that will take her longer but will be more creatively fulfilling.

-A creatively fulfilling moment in Iceland where she was able to really push herself.

-How it's okay if who you think you want to be ends up not being who you become, especially when it comes to art.

“It was quickly evident that photography would morph into the thing that I would continue to pursue.”

“I could just pretend that my camera was a friend standing in front of me and sharing my insights, my failures, my successes – anything I had going on at the moment and do that really vulnerably.

“I think the moment that we accept our weaknesses and turn them into strengths, then we have control over those things.

"To me, self-portraiture is the best way of expressing who I am and being able to do that in the most genuine way while keeping control of the whole creative situation."

"Art is the best way of understanding yourself and the better we understand ourselves the more fulfilled our lives can be."

"Every single time I put pen to paper or I pull out my camera, it's that question of "Who am I now? Who do I want to be? And how will I portray that? And that is the biggest gift."

"It's fine if who you think you want to be turns out to not be true."

"Whatever you feel you need to be doing in your life, do it. Forge your own path and let others follow in your footsteps."

-Promoting Passion

-Brooke's YouTube channel

-Promoting Passion Convention!

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Jessie is an award-winning blogger, screenwriter, and freelancer who just published her first novel DEAD RINGER. She also created and runs the monthly storytelling series, Sunday Night Sex Talks, which features racy tales by real people and offers a No Boys Allowed as well as a Co-Ed version of the show.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/jessierosen

-Her background before she got into all of her varied creative pursuits.

-How and why she started Sunday Night Sex Talk and the differences between the Co-Ed and No Boys Allowed versions of the show.

-How she still gets nervous about having a sex talk show

-The "vow of silence" that all of the people at the show agree to take.

-How many of the first shows were only attended by a handful of people and how she was able to power through that discouragement.

-Her suggestion to people who are starting out with a very small audience, to ask people for help.

-The power in asking for specific help and knowing what to ask when reaching out to others for assistance.

-How she started her blog because she wasn't given any assignments and still wanted to create a body of work so that she might be given a chance once people saw that she could write.

-Her inspiration for writing "Dead Ringer" and the challenges that it presented to her.

-One of her useful tactics to get more things done, by purposefully giving herself less time to finish a project so that she doesn't try to make it too perfect.

-Her strategy for balancing her day as well as her time in general.

-How putting too much pressure on yourself ends up leading to zero productivity.

-How working on more than one project at one time is not necessarily a bad thing, as you can flip flop and remain fresh.

"I'm still nervous to have a sex talk show."

"We would have shows where there were five people in the audience."

"It does take time, and also really believing in it."

"I try to make the blog about coming of age at every age."

"I was just a girl who wanted a byline and nobody would offer that opportunity

"Blogging has been this way for me to consistently develop and find and re-find my voice. Because my blog writing is as pure me as it gets."

"Dead Ringer" by Jessie Rosen

"Sunday Night Sex Talks"

20-Nothings Blog

"Daily Ritual: How Artists Work" on Amazon

Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

David Talley is an internationally recognized photographer, director, and producer operating out of Portland, OR. His works exhibit the darkest moment before an explosion of light, a story broken, but changed for the better, and the ability to transform the present problem in to a prospering future. David is the founder and creative director of the world's largest photographic collaboration event, Concept Collaboration.

If you missed Part 1, click here to listen!

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/davidtalley2

-How sharing your single sentence with people that you care about allows them to hold you accountable for the things that you believe in.

-How more than art, he wants to be able to help people.

-How he balances his time, working hard and then playing hard, along with the concept of sabbath.

-The importance of having some "zest" to your life.

-The Pareto principle and how it applies to him and other artists.

-His greatest inspirations: God, J.J. Abrams and Gregory Crewdson.

-The origins of Concept Collaboration and how it helped many artists and photographers to work together and share resources.

-His ebook "The Single Sentence" and how it breaks down the process of developing your own single sentence and helped many people find vision and focus in their own creativity.

"If you want to be something and if you want to say that you're something, then go do something."

"The art that I create is a direct extension of the strongest parts of who I am."

"Who I am at my core is what feeds into my creativity, what feeds into my art, and what ultimately becomes what I produce and what people see of me."

"Go start today. Don't wait until tomorrow because you won't do it. Start today."

"If you want to take the next step in being who you want to be as an artist or a creative person, go take the first step today. Right now."

"Do your art every day for the next 30 days and it will destroy you in the best way. It will completely awaken who you are going to be."

"'Someday' is a very dangerous word."

"The Single Sentence" by David Talley (David's ebook!)

Gregory Crewdson (Wikipedia)

"The Gap" by Ira Glass

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David Talley is an internationally recognized photographer, director, and producer operating out of Portland, OR. His works exhibit the darkest moment before an explosion of light, a story broken, but changed for the better, and the ability to transform the present problem in to a prospering future. David is the founder and creative director of the world's largest photographic collaboration event, Concept Collaboration.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/davidtalley

-How his personality doesn't lend well with a normal job where he is told what to do.

-How many people are afraid of making money with their creative talents because they love it so much and don't want that love to disappear.

-His "single sentence" and how it applies to his creativity as well as his life in general.

-How if you want bad things to turn around, you have to seek out your "explosion of light."

-How his creativity was nurtured from a very young age.

-An important first experience photographing a sunrise in Hawaii.

-How many potentially creative people are idealistic so they never go out and create that first thing to get the ball rolling.

-How lack of structure as well as lack of deadlines holds many people (including David) back from actually creating work.

-How beginning a 365-day challenge gave him the structure and framework to actually take photographs and strive to get better, which actually began his career.

-How it is impossible not to grow when you do something every single day.

-The moment when he realized that he didn't have an answer for why he takes photographs and the way he found an answer, which ultimately led to his single sentence.

-One of his worst moments, when all of his camera gear was stolen, and how he was able to look at the situation from above to realize that in six months, everything would be much better.

-The power that comes from being able to step outside of situations and attempting to determine exactly what is going on and how your single sentence fits into it.

"I don't know if it's like this for other creative artists, but I have a problem with authority and I don' want to be told what to do."

"I was afraid of making money with my creative talents for a really long time."

"At the end of the day, if you're not failing in your art and learning, you're not growing."

"The sentence itself is the guidepost for everything I do and everything I create in terms of art and in terms of life."

"I'm just snapping photos and framing these images and I'm just dying inside. Like this is the best thing ever. I love this so much."

"I think the biggest thing that holds creative people back is a lack of structure and lack of a deadline."

"The first part was take a photo every single day for a year and the second part was try to get better every single day. With that, I found my calling as a photographer."

"As creatives, we love the idea of things, and we hate the idea of hard work. We need to combine the two into one so that we can get stuff done."

"The Single Sentence" by David Talley (David's ebook!)

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Mattias is an incredible artist and illustrator from Sweden whose drawings feature infectious characters, fantastical worlds, sci-fi elements, and gentle, pleasing colors. His work has been seen in the New York Times, The Onion, and Spotify, just to name a few. He has released 4 personal books, and his book “The second in line, from the sketchbooks of Mattias Adolfsson won “Most beautiful Swedish book” in 2014, as well as several other awards.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/mattias

-His initial journey in the workforce as he discovered what his true artistic passions were.

-How his body physically told him that he could not work at the video game company after only a few days of working there.

-How it can be a shock when you start freelancing because you are used to a steady paycheck.

-The development and expansion of teams that work on video games going from a close-knit team of a few people to very large teams of hundreds of people.

-How his only real hurdle in terms of creating things is his lack of time to create personal art.

-How he actually gets excited if his plane gets delayed, because it gives him more time to create.

-How his time with his sketchbook is like spending time in his own sanctuary.

-His hardest time creatively when he quit his job at the video game studio.

-How many artists wonder if they would be able to make the leap into a full-time career with their art and how scary it is to make that jump.

-One of the deciding factors in him quitting his job was when one of his coworkers described himself as "elite."

-How his brain and body already made the decision for him to quit.

-How his best creative moments are when he is able to meet his fans.

-How having children really taught him to appreciate what little time he has and to make better use of it.

-The power in shutting off your phone in order to get work done (or breaking it!)

-How creativity brings him a sense of calmness in his life.

-His love for music and how electronic music is more international and universal than other forms of music.

"I just filled up the sketchbooks with doodles."

"My body just said "No, I can't continue making video games."

"The older you get, the more sluggish your brain becomes."

"I really feel that I have to create something personal each day."

"It's almost like the sketchbook is a kind of sanctuary for me."

Mattias's Books

MUSI 112: Listening to Music (Open Yale Courses)

"Pump up the Volume: The History of House Music" (Youtube)

Website / Facebook / Behance

Rik Garrett is a photographer and artist from Chicago who utilizes analog photographic processes to explore themes surrounding the invisible. His latest book, “Earth Magic” is a collection of photographs taken with an antique camera that explore witchcraft, the female form, and nature.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/rik

-How he was influenced by his mother, who was also a photographer.

-How he took all of the images in his series "Earth Magic" using the wet plate collodion process.

-All of the challenges that come with taking photographs with an antique camera and developing process.

-Why he enjoys taking photographs with the wet plate collodion process even if it means more time, planning, and moving pieces.

-Embracing the "mistakes" that occur as serendipitous events that can possibly tie the piece together.

-How he often publishes "outtakes" on his social media pages.

-How he is sometimes caught off guard by what people resonate with, especially if it is something he did on a whim.

-His interest in witchcraft and the occult, but more broadly his interest in the unexplained.

-How "Earth Magic" was his attempt to imagine a documentation of witchcraft and outsider women as photography was being invented.

-How he made a book of inspiration, using photos and other sources to develop the theme that he wanted to create with his photographs... and then put his own photos into it as well.

-How being obsessive about your art can sometimes be helpful in terms of remaining focused and getting things done.

-How he has a tendency to overthink things and how this can end up slowing down his work.

-How deadlines always ensure that he is putting in the time and effort to get the work done.

"It's a hurry-up-and-wait kind of situation."

"I just instinctively go for the tactile aspect of photography."

"The serendipity of this mistake is actually what makes the image more compelling."

"There are a few of my photographs that ended up in the book that I think wouldn't have been nearly as interesting if there hadn't been some mistake that had happened there that tied everything together."

"I would always go to the areas of unexplained things, and I think that has influenced my artwork."

"There's this whole history of occult thought and knowledge. It's this wealth of creative information that you can draw on. It's fascinating to me."

"For a long time I saw it as a side interest, not really connected with my artwork.

"I wanted to be a part of those histories in a way."

"You can always hone and tweak something for the rest of your life and never quite finish it or call it 'done.'"

"Allow yourself to really sink into the world you are trying to get out there."

"Earth Magic" by Rik Garrett

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Pascal Campion is a prolific French-American illustrator and animator from the San Francisco whose clients include: DreamWorks Animation, Paramount Pictures, Disney Feature, Disney Toons, Cartoon Network, Hulu, and PBS. Working in the animation industry for over 15 years, currently he is the Art Director for the Netflix/Warner Bros “Green Eggs and Ham” series. His feature work includes Visual Development of "Mr. Peabody and Sherman" and "The Penguins of Madagascar." Pascal also has worked with Marvel Comics since 2013 and has steadily posted over 3,000 images of personal work to his “Sketches of the Day” project since 2005.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/pascal

-How he started his "Sketch of the Day" project.

-His advice to anyone struggling to do the work every day, to take it one step at a time.

-How if you are impatient with your art, it is something that you can work on with your daily practice.

-The importance of finishing a drawing, because your brain starts to recognize the beginning, middle, and end of creating a piece of art, and if you don't finish the piece, you don't recognize those landmarks.

-How as you create art and get better, your goals change as you continue to learn more and more.

-How many of his less-favorite pieces end up being more popular than the ones he loves the most.

-How you can compare yourself to other talented artists, but they might be comparing themselves to you as well.

-His advice for people who might be afraid to draw or paint everyday scenes.

-A story about the time he watched a duck for 20 minutes.

-How when you are younger you want to be someone else, but as you get older you grow to accept who you are.

-How hard it is when you are young (or even older) and you are told to “be yourself,” when you don’t know exactly who you are.

-The beauty of being able to recognize that you are changing as an artist and a human being.

-Being able to let go of things you are good at for the sake of progressing, especially if those things found success.

-What it is like for him to get into the “zone,” and how it is like deep-sea diving.

-When he gets into a flow state, how it feels as if he is a conduit for something else, and how he is just there to help it along.

-The importance of staying physically fit and the relationship that it can have with your art and creativity.

"I have a hard time doing an image without telling a story."

"After a few minutes, I have this nervous energy where I just want to get to the end really quickly."

"Patience and the amount of time that you can sit down and draw is something that you can work on. It's like running. It's like a muscle. The more you exercise it, the better you get at it."

"If you don't finish a drawing, you don't get those landmarks in your head."

"If you actually put yourself through the paces of finishing a drawing, your brain is going to create a grid: This is the beginning, this is the middle, and this is the end. You'll have an idea of the trip that you're going to be taken on."

"Always finish your drawing. The more you finish, the more you understand the whole process and the easier it is to get it done. If you keep starting and not finishing your drawings, you will never get the map in your head of the amount of work it takes to get a drawing done."

"I get incredible pleasure from creating images. Even if they are bad, the actual process of it is fun to me."

"As long as you enjoy it, it's going to show in the drawing."

"When I turned 30, things got a whole lot easier in my life because I wasn't trying to become something else anymore."

“The more you keep saying you’re going to do something when you have time, the less likely you are to do it.”

“There’s no better time than NOW to do what you want to do.”

“The ME of ten years ago would not do the same drawings as me now, even if we were at the same technical level.

“My best days of drawing are often when I’ve done a lot of physical exercise.”

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