Your Creative Push

Since 2009, Can't Stop Won't Stop has been cobbling together beats, rhymes and rhythms that call back to the early days of hip hop. Drawing on influences like the Beastie Boys, A Tribe Called Quest and Wu-Tang Clan, and new school lyricists like Spose and Watsky the sound is upbeat and decidedly revivalist. Can't Stop Won't Stop has been featured on the homepage of some of the most prestigious culture sites on the web. Buzzfeed, Gawker, ESPN, YouTube, Huffington Post, The New York Times, USA Today, TechCrunch, TheChive, etc. All totaled, and across platforms, their music has been listened to over 150 million plays. Despite frequent reconstruction and occasional setbacks, the music has been (and is still being) made by a core group, namely: David Eff, Fresh Big Mouf, Davey Hawkins, Chuck Wild and Fade Simmons, and David Eff comes onto the podcast today to talk about his and the group's creative journey.

http://yourcreativepush.com/csws

-The ever-changing members of Can't Stop Won't Stop and how it is more of a collaboration than a group.

-The challenges that come with having moving pieces in the group.

-How it is usually easy to tell if an artist loves what they are creating or not.

-His opinion on when songs he personally loves are not as popular ones he isn't as proud of.

-The idea of authenticity and how your day job shouldn't necessarily define who you are in your soul.

-How people who are creative don't want to feel pigeon-holed and need to be able to express themselves via many different means.

-How he gets the same level of creative fulfillment from marketing and branding of the group as he does from creating the actual music.

-How like Jack Kerouac, he appreciates the "mad ones" -- the one that loves what they do.

-Human progress comes from people who see a problem in the world and can't move on until that problem is solved.

-Usemysongs.com and why they allow their music to be used for free by artists.

-Why he lets filmmakers keep the ad revenue that they generate while using his songs.

-How to collaborate with artists in other fields who are also trying to put out the best content they possibly can.

"Our big hustle is through YouTube."

"There's good and bad to it. The good is that all the stuff that gets written comes from a place of really being inspired and having an itch that needs scratching."

"To be perfectly frank with you, there's a couple of songs in our catalogue that I think are slightly more phoned-in than others."

"Anything that moves the needle comes from someone that lost a bunch of sleep over it because they were just so sure that they could do it better. And I'm really glad that is ingrained in the human psyche."

"It's hard. It's really hard to pull that trigger."

"I'm going to turn 50 some day, and I will just have to tell the story that maybe I could have been in a hip-hop group that did something someday. And instead, the story I get to tell is that I did it."

Devin's videos

Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Youtube / Use My Songs

Tai Taeoalii is an amazing artist who uses ballpoint pen to create surreal pieces of art intended to stimulate the viewer’s mind and evoke honest emotion. Tai has recently taken his art “on the road,” using the time that he is not busy creating to tour the U.S. at various art galleries, museums, and art fairs.

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

-His creative origins, doodling in class with a ballpoint pen, until selling his work on Ebay.

-How he is now 38, but only really discovered who he is and his style 6 or 7 years ago.

-How at art festivals and art fairs, you get to talk to the people buying your work and you get to get feedback from them.

-How he starts a piece with an idea, and doesn't think much from that point on until the piece is done.

-Listening to music helps him tap into his subconscious, much like doodling while on the phone.

-The difficulty he experiences in attempting to do commission work, and why he doesn't do it anymore.

-What it is like to be an artist on the road and how it makes him a better person and a better artist.

-Why he makes his artwork affordable.

-The process of making timelapse videos of him making a piece, and how they are like an out-of-body experience. But setting them up takes some of the spontaneity out of drawing.

-His method for writing ideas down on his phone, then being alone to flesh it out onto paper, and then shading when he is at his shows, when he is able to multi-task.

-How he obtains his Bic pens.

"I'm 38 now. I really just discovered who I am and my style 6 or 7 years ago."

"When I create, I don't have to think at all anymore. I can just make, and what I make works."

"That whole 10,000 hours thing is totally legit."

"What really makes the difference is the confidence."

"It's like I dream while I'm awake."

"I usually experience the drawing for the first time after I'm done. After I've put the pen down and I've signed it."

"The trick that I discovered to tap into my subconscious was music."

"There's something kinda romantic about the artwork that I create eventually fading away with time."

Timelapse from Tai's Youtube channel

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Michael Shainblum is a professional photographer/filmmaker whose work consists of Fine Art Landscape Photography, Aerial Photography, Aerial Filmmaking, Travel/ Adventure Photography and Commercial Timelapse Photography. He has worked with clients like Nike, Samsung, Verizon, Disney, BMW, Google and many more, and his work has been published by National Geographic, Wired Magazine, Huffington Post and The Weather Channel.

http://yourcreativepush.com/michaelshainblum

-That he was always trying to create from an early age. And he knew by 15 or 16 that he wanted to be a photographer (and went with it).

-What "Eat, Sleep, Create," means to him.

-How creativity does something for him directly and it also does something for him through other people.

-The joy that you can get from the simple act of creating something.

-How being able to share and get feedback from people adds a special element of excitement to his work.

-Why he thinks that his photography of nature and space resonates with people so closely.

-The process of creating timelapse videos and what goes into them.

-His reaction to the unexpected response of "Existence" going viral.

-How he originally had no intention of sharing "Mirror City" with anyone but his friends.

-All the other things that go into running a photography business besides shooting and editing, and how he balances that time.

-The struggle of taking a true "break" from work, where you are thinking about all the things you should be doing while you are taking time off.

-The importance of keeping a variety of work so that you don't get bored or burnt out.

-His advice if you want to start doing astral or nature photography or timelapse, and how much it might cost.

"I was just so interested in everything photography and I was so excited to create all the time."

"It's just really really fun and really really satisfying to create something."

"I still haven't gotten over how cool that is. How cool it is to create something and say 'I did this.'"

"I don't really ever think about what somebody's going to like or not going to like."

"I'm creative first, technical second."

"If I find I'm doing too much of one thing, I'll switch it up so that I'm doing something else. It keeps it fresh and it keeps me excited about what I'm doing."

"You just need the drive and the passion to want to do it. That's the most important thing."

The Art of the Timelapse

"Existence" by Michael Shainblum

"Mirror City" by Michael Shainblum

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Adonna Khare is an artist mainly focused on large-scale pencil drawings. Her work has been collected by prestigious public and private collections throughout the world. And in 2012 she won the world’s largest art competition, ArtPrize, competing against over 1500 artists from around the world. She has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, NPR, The Huffington Post, Daily Mail, Juxtapoz Magazine, and Mashable, just to name a few.

http://yourcreativepush.com/adonna

-How she got to the point of drawing such large-scale drawings.

-How much of her progress comes from permission. Permission from a professor and permission to go bigger, and permission from herself to create large environments.

-Her advice for people who brush off "big ideas" -- to instead give themselves permission to do them.

-How she has many ideas stew in her mind, jockeying for position, and when she sits in front of the paper, that is when one in particular comes to the front to say "I am ready."

-Why it can helpful to work on large and small projects at the same time, because when the bigger projects start to lose steam, she can work things out while working on the smaller projects.

-How her daughter has helped her to become more productive with her time, as she has much less of it to spare.

-The role that animals play in her art and how they are more than just animals.

-The story behind her "screaming bear."

-How each piece is like a diary, where she knows her exact situation in life at the moment she was drawing it, but on the flip side, how each piece can bring personal meaning to each person who views it.

"You have those moments in your life where the light switch clicks on and you ask "Why did it take so long for me to figure this out?"

"I realized there was something in the scale of it that was the magic that I was trying to capture."

"What I was trying to do was create this entire environment that would bring people in and invite them to stay for a long time."

"If something is so strong within you that you're incomplete without it, I would say give yourself permission. Because that's all you need in the end anyway."

"I've had drawings sitting in my brain for 10 years, saying 'It's not time yet.'"

"Creating it was my therapy, my friend, and my diary."

"When you do something that you love and you have to give something else up for it, it makes it valuable."

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Adam Gaines was a Staff Writer on NBC's drama State of Affairs and his work on the FX drama The Bridge included co-writing the penultimate episode of the second (and final) season.

He published the eBook Mixtape, a collection of one-act plays available as a free download on iBooks, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. And most recently released a sequel called Fire Sale, available on the same platforms.

On the feature side, his script Negative is currently in production. Directed by Joshua Caldwell and starring Katia Winter, Simon Quarterman, and Sebastian Roche. And he’s set to make his feature directorial debut on the indie Prepaid, which he also wrote.

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

-One of his first creative moments, in his creation of "R-Man."

-Some of the things that held him back from creating.

-How doubt begins to creep into ones creative life and how to get through it by trusting your instincts.

-His advice for writers or anyone else who want to try their hand in writing screenplays or scripts.

-The value in reading the scripts of your favorite movies (and your least favorite).

-The hardest moment for him creatively in moving to Los Angeles for the first time.

-Having to throw out his old work and redefine himself once he arrived in LA.

-Attempting to find a balance between finding a job to make money and working on his craft.

-One of his best moments, when the day job and the dream job finally met for the first time as a staff writer.

-"Mixtape" and why he created it and put it out into the world for free.

-The unexpected benefits of putting your work out for free that you might have never expected.

-His formula for managing his time.

-The importance of turning off the Wi-Fi so that you can concentrate on being creative without distractions like deadline.com.

"It was just a crippling amount of doubt that the same blinders that I had on that other people didn't have on at an early age made me second guess, 'should I be putting this much pen to paper?'"

"You can learn just as much from a bad movie as you can a good movie."

"I said I was going to do this my whole life. Now I'm here. Two bags, one-way plane ticket. It just got very real."

"I decided to take a page out of a rapper's book. Let me put out free content on the Internet in the hopes of landing a job, or attracting representation, or even just starting to build a fan base."

"I work on my brand and my one man operation and my business every single day.

-Mixtape by Adam Gaines (Amazon)

-Fire Sale: Another Collection of One-Act Plays by Adam Gaines (Amazon)

-Hollywood Animal by Joe Eszterhas

-Scream

Twitter

Oscar Gregeborn is a 17-year-old artistic phenom from Oslo, Norway who has a distinctive style of painting that you might confuse with that of a painter who has been painting for half a century. His color palette in addition to his mesmerizing scenes leave you staring at the painting, yearning for entrance into his imagination.

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

-A glimpse into his life as a high school student and his intentions for college as well as the industry.

-How he blends together the things he loves about his favorite artists into a kind of soup in order to develop his own style.

-How he feels as if he still has a long way to go before he truly enters the scene, but he has the advantage of time.

-His advice to young people who haven't "entered the scene" yet to develop their style and continue to work on their art.

-The power in sharing your art.

-His theory of "leveling-up."

-How 10,000 hours might not be enough for artists, as it is a lifelong commitment to improving.

-The story of one of his first creative moments at a water park.

-His advice to get down your ideas onto the canvas as quickly as possible, and then worry about filling it in later. Just get the idea out there.

-The danger of comparing yourself to the artists that you love.

-How he took a three month hiatus from drawing because of doubt, and how he got back to the art with baby steps.

-What it was like to have his piece, "Naypyidaw" become a Daily Deviation on Deviant Art.

-How he never pushes himself to paint, but only does it when he wants to do it.

-His strategy for starting a painting in regards to planning it out.

"I try to level-up with every painting that I do."

"The response I get from people is always incredibly motivating and keeps me going."

"You've gotta remember that you only have one life. You've gotta make the most out of it."

"Our eyes develop faster than our skill."

"I use it as a way to relax and meditate. I just put in some good music and let my intuition guide my hand."

"All the ideas, locations, stories, and colors that I have in my head become something more than just an idea in my head. They become a place on the canvas for someone else to see."

Oscar's Daily Deviation

Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter by James Gurney

Website / Facebook / Deviant Art

Natasha Wescoat has been a full time acrylic painter since 2004 and has sold over 1000 original works to private and corporate collections worldwide. Her art has been featured in ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and hit sitcom "The Middle" as well as Hollywood films like "Marley & Me". She is also the founder of Art Career Academy, an online mentorship program for artists.

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

-How she has been interested in art since a very young age.

-The start of her business of selling her art on Ebay.

-The woes that come from starting out as a young artist.

-The value of getting input from the people who are watching you, as you can learn about your business and about yourself by listening to them.

-How the business aspect and having a family can bog you down and drain you from your creativity.

-Her worst creative moment.

-The importance of separating your creative days from your business days.

-Her best creative moment, when she started making a completely different type of art.

-Her reason for starting Art Career Academy and what it can provide for artists.

-Her formula for balancing her time with everything she has going on.

"I had really no idea that it was totally okay to do this on my own and be independent."

"You've really got to be brave and take those risks."

"Put yourself out there. Be willing and open to learn and change and evolve."

"It's a matter of focusing on getting that time to yourself that you need to build that creativity to keep yourself filled up."

"Make it a regular routine. Your mind starts to prepare itself and it becomes natural to get in the mode and the flow to create."

"Having a better understanding of my own vision and what I wanted to offer to the world outside of making a living from it... that is when things really changed for me."

Art Career Academy

Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins

Gary Vanderchuck

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Suresh is a gifted public speaker, the host of the daily podcast BlissHacker Radio, and the author of the upcoming book “Be”. He is also a contributing writer to the Good Men Project. In addition to this, Suresh is a talented composer.

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

-How he doesn't fit into a particular category except for "creative."

-How you question everything when you go through something like a divorce.

-How hearing Robert Rodriquez talk about how he doesn't know how to do the things he does but just jumps in and does them anyway really affected him as a creator.

-How people want to edit as they go, but how we can learn from children, because they just keep going and figure out the "editing" later.

-His advice for people who are afraid of just jumping into some creative pursuit because they think that they will be terrible.

-His method of "crowd-sourcing" for things he doesn't know how to do.

-What he means when he describes himself as "limitless" in terms of being able to connect with people around the world with a greater knowledge.

-Finding "warp pipes" to get ahead, by contacting people who have already been down the path that you intend to go down.

-The importance of knowing how and what to Google.

-Neuroplasticity and the way your brain changes every time it learns something new.

-The power of YouTube when you are trying to learn something.

-Advice to not be so rigid, and to keep exploring to find ways to get your creative message out if you happen to not be very good in one particular discipline.

-Tips for achieving a flow state (safely) with your art.

"The root skill is being creative."

"The only question that people have is, "Who am I?"

"You don't have to know anything. You just be."

"People feel that they need to know before they do, and that limits them because they realize how much they don't know."

"I'm not limitless, but I know how to connect with all the people on this planet. And since I know how to do that, there is no limit to me."

"The vision is more than myself."

"I want you to think as if the entire world was your oyster and everybody on it was on your team. Now think what you can do with that, because that's the truth."

-"Be" (Motivational video)

-Robert Rodriquez on The Tim Ferris Podcast

-The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance by Steven Kotler

Blisshacker / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / E-mail!

Aunia Kahn is figurative artist, photographer, creative entrepreneur and inspirational speaker. She has created a hybrid art form combining many disciplines. She designs, builds, and executes characters, non-existent places, dreams, illusions, fears and fables into creations, melding elements of classical and contemporary art.

Aunia also runs/hosts the Create & Inspire Blog & Podcast where she helps and inspires creatives to follow their dreams!

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

-How and why she started the "Create and Inspire" blog and podcast.

-How John Lee Dumas of "Entrepreneur on Fire" inspired her to start a podcast (just like Youngman Brown with "Your Creative Push").

-How most artists don't realize that their art can be a business and many of the mistakes they make when trying to sell their work.

-Her first creative moments with a Kodak Fisher Price camera as a child.

-How even though we are the most photographed era in time, we are going to be left with no actual photos.

-Her journey through various forms of art, and how she wanted to be a painter, and a surgeon, and a veterinarian, amongst many other things.

-How health issues inhibited her from being able to sing, and how that led to her beginnings as an artist.

-How art was therapeutic to her and gave her the feeling of having a purpose.

-The story of what made her start to share her work and the unlikely person who encouraged her to do so.

-Her advice for people who might be afraid to share their work because they are embarrassed or shy about the content or subject matter that they create.

-The importance of just messing around and experimenting, not worrying if it is good or bad, and just learning from it.

-How you shouldn't base your progress on the amount of Facebook likes that you get.

-The value in aiming to affect one person as opposed to appealing to a broad audience.

-Details about her gallery

"Music is where I cultivated a spiritual and artistic vibe within myself."

"The art itself was never supposed to be shown to anybody. It was, "I am suffering so tremendously that if I don't do something, I don't know how much longer I am going to be here."

"When you are sick and you are bedridden and you can't leave your house, you feel like you don't have a purpose."

"For some reason, I felt like the camera was a sketchbook for me."

"Everything feeds itself. It is like a self-generating greenhouse of creativity."

"I went to the show and I actually saw a woman cry in front of my work. After that, I had to go home and think about this."

"Maybe this is how I'm supposed to help people, by using my own creativity to help myself and indirectly helping someone else without getting too close."

"You don't need to make this for anybody but yourself."

"For one person who tells you that they like what you're doing or appreciates you, there's a dozen more that are maybe too shy to say anything."

"We can literally do anything that we put our minds to. Our minds are amazing. They are so strong and vast."

"Life is too damn short not to go for everything you've ever wanted, even if it seems ridiculous."

"If you can see what you want to do and it seems like you could reach that, you're not reaching far enough. If you want to do something and its ridiculous and crazy and amazing and "I can't believe I could ever do that," then you need to go for that."

Aunia's gallery

The Artist's Way Workbook by Julia Cameron

The Best Motivational Video Speeches Compilation - Youtube

Jim Carrey's Secret of Life - Youtube

Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Create & Inspire / Alexi Era Gallery

Julie Zantopoulos is the author of Shoot Down the Wendy Bird. Before she published her first book she was Editor-in-Chief, creating content for a national print and online magazine, The Indie Chicks. She now runs a community of writers and fosters creativity in others. She will be launching Nobody's Beauty Guru, a site dedicated to her beauty addiction, in March.

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

-Her favorite trashy SciFi movies and how they can actually serve as inspiration if they are able to be produced.

-One of her first creative moments as a writer when she went to Greece as a young girl.

-The process of writing her book Shoot Down the Wendy Bird and the emotional journey that it takes both her and the reader down.

-Her advice for people who might find it hard to put themselves out there in their writing or their art.

-Her advice for writers or bloggers who want to write a book.

-The importance of having trusted people to read your work.

-How it is not always good to push yourself to write if you are not in the proper headspace.

-The importance of going out and experiencing life, so you actually have experiences to draw from.

-How her worst moments creatively are when she gets in her own head and begins to doubt the value of her own work (and how to break that cycle).

-How one of her scariest moments was switching from the comfortable scenario of personal blogging and taking the leap as a business owner of The Indie Chicks.

-The empowerment that comes from realizing that you are good at what you do and that you can make a living from it.

"I treat my writing as an outlet and a coping mechanism."

"The hardest part is hitting publish. That doesn't change over time. It's not something you get over but it is something that you get used to."

"You need to trust in yourself and your own unique view on things that there is somebody out there that wants to read it and probably needs to read it."

"The world deserves to hear your voice. And it should be heard -- you were given it for a reason."

"I don't think there's any greater joy than when you do finally let go, and let your work be appreciated by other people."

"You grow so much more when you allow yourself to share and get feedback."

"There's nothing to write about if you do not give yourself time to go out and live an active life."

"When you do it even though you're afraid of it, you gain such strength."

"Claiming myself as a writer was one of the most profound and amazing experiences."

"You never know where one decision where you push past fear will lead you. Each one of those small little decisions that seem like nothing, can lead you to pretty amazing places."

Shoot Down the Wendy Bird by Julie Zantopoulos

Website / Facebook / Twitter / Nobody's Beauty Guru