Ep.052 Revealing Rituals

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What kind of rituals do you use to start, end, or otherwise use to shift to or from a creative state of mind? Are you aware that you have rituals, or do you even have any? Brett and I got into an intense discussion about this over lunch one day and just popped into the studioto record it for you. Come join us as we explore and learn to appreciate the acts that we use to get into, wrap up, or shift gears for a creative session.

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Contact my guest:

Brett Varon – https://www.instagram.com/brett.varon/

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CREDITS:

Cover design by Sage; Illustration by Olga Kostenko

Music by Playsound

Transcription

(AI transcribed, unedited. Please excuse the copious errors.)

Ep052 Revealing Rituals.mp3

Sage

But I love that I.Love the idea that you can spend time appreciating your materials as part of your ritual.

It is. It is cool.

Sage

Because some materials you just kind of like have fallen in love with, right. So why not acknowledge that love and just take that time to appreciate it? Hello, all you mindful creators out there. Thank you for joining us on the Sage Arts Podcast. And I do say us because. I am sage. If you don’t know.

That already and think they would by now, yeah.

Sage

You would right? Well, only if they actually listen. To it more. Than once, but what if? This is the first time they listen to it so.

Sage

You know, that’s what I have to say. It’s me. All the time. It always sounds weird, but yeah, it’s me. It’s sage. And then the other voice is Brett. Yeah. So, yeah. So I’m here with Brett in the podcast room, and we’re trying out the the lounge situation here. So I think I mentioned.

Brett, I’m here again.

Sage

My previous episode last episode maybe that I moved to this bed lounge thing that I have because I have this very strong belief that every creative area has to have a place to nap.

Sage

My thing, but any case it’s now in the podcast room and Brett is trying it out. How? How, how how’s that cozy corner? Yeah. I mean, there’s there’s so much room for other people. So some more if you want to come join us. I think you know how many people we get like another 3-4, five people or something. Yeah. I would say it turns out.

Yeah, not bad so far. Party in the podcast really? Let’s do it.

Sage

How much personal space?

That’s true, though no you.

Sage

If we can get another three or four people in, yeah. And we left the dogs out because we weren’t sure how that was going to go. So it’s it’s just us. Yeah. But we have this thing before we start recording we.

Could easily fit three people. A ritual.

Sage

Yes. Yeah. So we have a ritual. Yeah, you did babies.

I beat you to it. Sorry. I really embraced it. Yeah, I tried to anyway. Yeah. How did I do? I did pretty. Good, because I I’m just like, Oh my gosh, let’s let’s just get talking. But there’s so much procedure before then.

Sage

Yeah. Well, what happened was, is we were, yeah, we were just having lunch. And as we do, we start talking about random, whatever and philosophizing about something. And I don’t know what we were talking about when we start talking about rituals associated with what we do.

I was asking you if you had a a flat long brush that has to borrow.

Sage

How much friends?

And then you describe this whole. Thing you do about your ritual with it, like how do you clean it? Why, of course you clean it and all the the good reasons there and you know my response was like I just I just use it and then put it in some water, you know.

Sage

My brushes. Take care of my brushes. I know, I know. And that’s why I had to say something cause I was like, OK, if you’re gonna use my brushes, honey, you have to treat them nice. Yes, because I like my brushes to last a long.

Yeah, yeah. With respect and, I would of course. Yeah. No, I know you know.

Sage

Time because. You know, you try to buy some decent, decent brushes, so you spend that money and like.

Sage

You know, if that disposable, that’d be different.

And wasted materials too, but you make the people who sell brushes very. Happy they count on.

Sage

Well, no, you no you you making.

People. Yeah, I do. Yeah, yeah.

People so much.

They count on people like me. I’m not that bad, but.

Sage

No, you’re not that bad. Yeah. Yeah. We were talking about, you know, what I do to clean it and whatnot. And then you said it’s like a ritual, and then we start talking about rituals in art. And we realized this should be a podcast. So we did our pre recording ritual, which is you need to make a cup of tea or a cup of coffee. Situate ourselves and get everything like, you know, placed in the room and and then test and make sure everything’s gonna work and yeah.

And there’s all kinds of sound tests, and putting on the the headphones right and and getting near the microphone in the right way. So everything’s clear.

Sage

So we did our little ritual and now we’re talking to you and we wanted to talk about rituals. Not because there’s. Like we have a strong feeling like everybody has to have a ritual, but I don’t know if a lot of people realize they have rituals, and sometimes when we’re really busy or, you know, just something we’re thrown right and we can’t do our usual thing. Sometimes we continue to be thrown throughout the our studio session or the process. Whatever it is that we’re trying to take care of, if we don’t do our rituals, I think sometimes we continue to have whatever was going on before him, still kind of existing with us in the studio, in our creative time. So we just thought we’d take a moment to just talk about our rituals and take a moment to appreciate the fact that rituals are actually a really useful and meaningful thing for a lot of people. Now, not everybody has any particular ritual, but I think a lot of people do, and they may not even know they have rituals. So as we’re talking about our rituals and why we do it, and why we think it’s important, think about your rituals. Think about what it is that you do that might help you get into your work may help you kind of exit and and transition from your creative time into your day-to-day or whatever it is. And there’s probably rituals during the creative process. Or like when you finish a piece, some of us have rituals as well, and we just thought it would be fun to acknowledge it and talk about what we do and let you have the opportunity to think about what it is that you do and just kind of giving yourself a measure, giving your rituals a measure of what they mean to you and your creative process. So. In any case, yeah. Brett, do you want me to start? No. With my.

No. Yeah, no. This whole conversation started with with me asking for a paintbrush or to borrow paintbrush, and then it it got me thinking about my rituals, you know, and how much they, you know, they mean to me, without even being that conscious of it. I just do these certain things. I’m not as articulate as you are.

Sage

Right. All right, yeah.

When it comes to how many levels of things you you do when you’re doing acrylic painting right now, right, so that that takes a lot of.

Sage

Yeah, and there’s a. That you.

Realization I would be less inclined to to do it because of that. Yeah, that’s something more immediate, you know.

Sage

Do as much, but you actually started in the conversation. You said I don’t have a ritual. I just. I have to get to it. I have. To get to my stuff right away.

I mean I. Do have a little you know, it’s like, make a cup of coffee or or tea or whatever and.

Sage

Then sometimes sharpening. A pencil would be a good part of a ritual.

Sage

Didn’t, didn’t you say like back in the day when you did storyboards on actual paper that you sat down and you, you’d sharpen like a whole bunch of pencils or something like that?

On actual paper, that’s easy to say that you know. But yeah, I would sit there and and sharpen one after the other and just the sound of it would.

And actual people.

Kind of. Kind of. Yeah. Load me into a different it’s it’s. Excuse me to to be like, OK, I’m going to go to. They don’t get into the zone kind of thing. Go to an area that that you you don’t just turn on and off like a switch. It’s pretty immediate though like I.

Sage

Lower you into the state of creativity, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Get right to business and.

Sage

When you think about like they talk about a lot of our senses, we we use our sense of sight and hearing. So much, but also sense of smell, sense of touch. So all those things that you do in a ritual are kind of cues to your physical being that you’re going to be going into this other mode and your brain is going to follow.

It’s like changing gears. Yeah, you’re stepping into more abstract kind of place where you’re you’re, you know, you’re applying your skills that you know, but then also, as you do it, you get into flow.

Sage

Thanking the creativity, yeah. Yeah, and sometimes it’s really hard to get into. Some people have a harder time to get into.

And you can’t. Yeah. Generally, yeah.

Sage

It than others. Especially if you’ve been like, I get up in the morning and I try to write first thing in the morning and then I take care of all the things that will. Be hanging over my head like the the the grocery shopping and the laundry and the accounting and all those stuff because I want that stuff out of the way before I can get to my creative.

Very organized that, yes.

Sage

But then you have to transition from that banal, boring, whatever. This other way of thinking. But I The thing is, it can be hard to transition from the kind of day-to-day taking care of life things in. To the creative time. And so for me, the ritual is really important and I never really thought of it as a ritual until we just start talking this afternoon. But it’s true. I do have rituals for all of my things that I do, and I mean definitely, I think for most people making a cup of coffee or a cup of tea or, you know.

Well, you listed like 5 things that you do. Minimum. So then remember well what I was saying was like, well, what if, you know, you would do it now? Person. So what if you know, you put on your apron on the? Apron string is is.

Sage

Broken. I would go fix it.

And you’re like she would go sell. It So what? What if every step of the way, you know, every little part of your ritual has a thing that takes you down another rabbit hole? And then?

Sage

I ran into something. I would say today the universe decided I was not going to.

Be what if you didn’t have the right colors fed and and you had to go?

Sage

You doing this creative stuff?

To ace to go pick it.

Sage

Ohh I would not.

See and that’s like.

Sage

I wouldn’t. Afternoon. Where you go to Ace.

Yeah. Oh, I’m just advertising, ace, I guess. No, that’s stupid. Yeah. Sorry. That’s. Yeah, that’s our. Yeah. Joanna’s. Yeah.

Sage

The hardware store. I think I got to go to. In any case, most people will get together whatever kind of beverage they’re going to have for their session and turn on the lights and plug in the machines. If there’s machines that need to be plugged in and put out those supplies. If there’s supplies that are normally stored. Like my acrylic painting process, my ritual for that is different than like for my polymer clay. And we were talking about this when I worked as a a working artist. It was primarily polymer clay that I worked with and. I had a really short ritual. I made my tea or coffee or whatever, and then I sat down. I cleared my table because there was always ever it was giant. How big is that table I have out there? I’ve had that same table for. All it’s like.

Yes, it’s huge, yes.

Sage

6 feet by 4 feet surface, right? So it’s pretty good big working surface, but I would always end up with a 10 inch square. Of clear space, they could actually work in because there’s so many things involved. So polymer Clay was a pretty simple thing. I if I didn’t put my tools away at the end of the last time, put the tools away so I know where. The thing is and then spray down the tabletop and clean it so there’s no linked or anything that would get into the clay and and then I would just jump in. I was saying it was kind of different for me because when I was doing that kind of work, I was a full time artist and designs for polymer and what I wanted to try next was a constant presence in my mind. It’s almost like I never left. That’s state of mind most of the time because I it pretty much I’d get up, go to the studio, work all day and then go to sleep and get up and do it again. Yeah, those of you who are working artists, I do the same thing. But I think the transition from whatever I would do first thing in the morning that I had to do before I could go into the studio and just work was not that much and not that long. And I didn’t need a big ritual to get into it. My ritual was very. Right. It would last all a minute or something. Yeah, 2 minutes maybe. And then I just sit down and work, you know? But I always knew what I was doing, and I always had a series of things going. And I had a list of stuff I had to make for the next show and that kind of thing with the acrylic stuff because I’m more in a learning phase, too. Right now, I go in, I do all my water cups, organize my brushes and get out my canvases and get out the paint. Get out the mediums and it’s like this whole long thing, but it gives me a lot of time to think about what it is I want to do and then most of the time I didn’t have much of an exit ritual in my process, like when I was finished for the day or finished for the session. In polymer. A lot of times would be wrap up the clay so it doesn’t get lynched and dust on it and that would be about it. That would be about the only thing I did with the painting. You gotta take care of the brushes and you gotta clear things out. And if make sure everything’s closed up so things aren’t drying out and I go into the garage and I have a little setup for cleaning my brushes. And I just sit there and clean my brushes. But it’s. It’s really. I really, really appreciate being forced to do that because then I sit there and I review what I did for that session. What did I do that I liked? What did I do that I felt accomplished? What did I do that I would like to do different or? Better or what would I like to try next time and then? Having had those. Thoughts. When I do my ritual to start the next day or session, I already kind of know what it is I want to do and it makes moving into the creativity, moving into the into that session a lot easier.

Easier. That’s interesting. Wow. You never quite articulated like that. That’s good. That’s really interesting.

Sage

Yeah. So and I just thought, wow, I really, I really, really appreciate that ritual. And I was thinking, since I wasn’t thinking about my past in terms of doing a ritual. If the days. Where things were harder and I was struggling and I felt like the whole day was off. I’m wondering if I skipped rituals some of those times. Because I think you do these things and. Your body becomes so used to this being part of the process that if you skip it, you’re thrown like your system is thrown, like your brain is like, wait, we skipped a step. I don’t know. I mean, for some people it probably wouldn’t matter at all, but I wonder if for a lot of us, if we recognize our rituals. And understand that they are a important part of our process that.

Or an important procrastination to our Princess. We could.

Sage

No, and it is a part. It is partly procrastination. I know it can be for me, but it gives you time to think and it gives you time to.

It is but. It’s transitioning, it’s transitioning.

Sage

Mentally get into. It. Yeah. Yeah. You just have to kind of, you know, have some rains and and and be OK. I’m not going to fix this apron string. I’m just going to get to work. It’s fine.

Yeah. The important thing that we’re there for is. To sit and do.

Sage

If I can do it, you know, so my ritual has become really important. Both the intro or of getting into the work ritual and then the exiting the work ritual has actually become really important to me because I am in more of a learning phase and I’m not 24/7 thinking about. The work in the design, because I’m not a working artist like I. Used to be. So now for you. I find it. Your insight on this interesting because you have a day job that is creative and it’s well, it’s creative but you also because you’re director, you do a lot of managing people. So you have both of those things during your day and then you, I don’t know, I guess you should tell us are you doing your creativity in the morning? And then also in the evening and then also on the weekends for yourself or how how is that working for you right now?

It’s it’s been touch and go because it’s it gets so busy.

Sage

So have you established? Rituals before you begin, and if you have, do you find there are times where you don’t do the rituals that it makes it harder? Or does it make any difference to you to have that?

Do you know? I don’t know. That’s a really, really good question. I don’t think it makes that much of a difference. It depends on the circumstances. Yeah. If I have the time, like, for instance, I know I have 3 hours without interruptions or something. I might take my time getting into it.

Sage

Whether you have a ritual or not.

And setting up everything. Maybe you’re even organizing my area because right now it’s actually a big mess, you know. But I really like things in their place.

Sage

You’re working with alcohol inks and and brush pens and things like that.

Alcoholics right now, just.

Sage

Experimenting. Yeah. So maybe there’s not as much preparation for some of that stuff, but is there not still a whole? Like, I’m gonna sit.

Well, there’s.

Sage

Down and do. This ritual the you put on music usually or you.

Know sometimes with the only I’ve been just doing. Silence.

Sage

Yeah, really big on silence. In the creative mode, but that’s just.

Me. Yeah. Certain. Certain music that has no words, you know? Yeah.

Sage

Yeah. So we have had a hard time getting into creative stuff, but you managed a few things this weekend, right?

Yeah, it did. Yeah, I got a little other assignment.

Sage

Was there a ritual involved in getting into those that allowed you?

I think it’s it’s like a active assertion initially because I’ve been I guess I’ve been so busy. I mean, my energy is lower or something, but that said, I will once I sit down and I turn my light on. And start looking at like whatever the tip of a pen or a pencil. And I just look at the materials and the way the lights hitting it and it. Just sort of. Inspires me, I guess, and I’ll just start to make lines and.

Sage

So isn’t your ritual then kind of an appreciation of your materials, like the aesthetic appreciation of your materials?

Yeah, it might just be.

Sage

Yeah, I guess so. I bet I’m not the only one too. I bet there’s lots of people who feel that way.

Sage

You know, doing. Yeah. No. You know, when I did so I did the backsplash for our kitchen with granite copper. And glass. And I know I spent time with the materials beforehand and really appreciate the. Materials cause it’s just beautiful, I mean.

See, that’s cool.

Sage

After working with Polymer for so long, and I’d love polymer and obviously nothing against it, but to actually have real granite in my hands and not a grand polymer that looks like granted or well, part of it is when you’re doing mosaics you are picking individual pieces to go in.

Yeah, hopefully. Yeah, right. Right.

Sage

You know, and some of the stuff. Very like, you know in in areas that we’re going to be seeing a lot over or directly under a light or whatnot. And so I would spend some time looking for. The best pieces, but also. Appreciating like some of the grand it was. Just so beautiful with. These little like rest lines that would come through and all of a sudden or this is a really evenly speckled striation of.

Sage

Ran it in just like a pure black and white kind of thing, and I just you know.

So what was your ritual? You were sitting down, and would you organize the colors together or?

Sage

Well, it had trays with all the different colored glass and then long, thin pieces of granite.

So did you organize them?

Sage

Well, there are more or less organized to start with. When I pull them out, lay them all out. Out and then I would start picking through and being like, OK, I’m going to start this new section. Which pieces do I want to be kind of front and center and in the process of going through that I would. Take time to appreciate the material.

So did you do an eenie, meenie, miney Moe sort of process when you?

Sage

I don’t need any money. More much of anything.

And then just this one we used, put it up there. Just kidding.

Sage

But I love that I love the idea that you can spend time appreciating your materials as part of your ritual, because then just kind of, I don’t know, some materials, you just kind of like have fallen in love with. Right? Yeah. So why not acknowledge that love and just take that time to appreciate it in that framework?

It is. It is cool. That’s yeah. Because I think it just comes from childhood, too, having always drawn a lot of really cool things happen with a pencil or pen, you know, so you just you start to appreciate your relationship with the like you’re saying, yeah.

Sage

With the materials, is there any kind of transitional ritual that you use between types of work that you’re doing? So I was trying to think if I did that, I don’t know if I do then.

Well, I guess you know, there’s the Alcoholics have, like, a an eye dropper at the top and you have to drop it in. You know, the the pigment. To like a little palette tray thing. So you know there’s a little bit of that, but usually I’m just like, just do it, you know, but well, you know, the reason for I was thinking about it and the reason for it is I grew up on, you know, markers, you know, and it’s just instant you. The only thing to do is pull like a cap off, you know, and then use. Then there’s your color.

Sage

Trade. Yeah, yeah. A little impatient.

You know, and you can mix and you can do some cool things with it. So that was my whole childhood and for a long time. And then I started painting in college a little bit, you know.

Sage

And I discovered that I was impatient with like the materials. I did not learn to mix colors. Like properly. Yeah. I mean, I know the basic basics, but there’s a whole art, of course, to mixing colors.

Sage

You didn’t mix colors, did you? Yeah. Well, I I have actually known quite a few people in like, say polymer because we deal with color. You know, lots of color and big artists too, who are like, I never mix colors. I just do it straight from the package. I’ve never learned to mix colors. And it’s like, OK, yeah, no, it’s it’s not. It’s I.

That makes me feel better. Yeah, well.

Sage

Don’t think you have to. With the stuff that’s out there. I mean, I do think it limits what you. Can do. I love mixing because I love being able to say there’s this thing in my head and I want to create that that thing.

I I I envy that a lot, I. That’s really cool.

Sage

Yeah, yeah. Color mixing can be a fantastic ritual. I think I did a lot of that. I would sit down with my clay and I know a lot of people that would do this when they worked in polymer clay. We’ll sit down and mix all their colors first, you know, and then you just sit there and it’s nothing. You have to really think too deeply about. You know, if you’ve chosen A pallet for the year, a lot of people, especially if their production. Level they’re doing wholesale or whatnot. They will pick a pallet for the year. And then they will just sit down and mix those colors when they need to sit down and make whatever they’re making. They mix the colors they need for that project or those projects and that is a big part of the ritual. I would say that they start their session with. So if you have something like that where you can spend some time preparing, I think. Especially if you have a hard time getting into the work initially, that is a way to get your mind set that we’re in creative mode, but it’s going to be easy and it’s going to be kind of a Zen entrance into it by doing something like mixing colors or like I do with my setup and and pens and.

Cause and they are those things need to be done anyway, so why not incorporate them as a ramp up instead of? I mean I’m speaking for myself.

Sage

They need to be done anyways.

Yeah, instead of a. I’ll just get this out of the way so I can get doing the thing.

Sage

Yeah, yeah. But you can look at that in and of itself as being something that’s not just, oh, I have to get this thing out of the way, but it is the ritual that tells your brain and your body this is what we’re going to be doing. You can relax into it. Your brain can move from whatever state it was in previously, like you were doing your bills or whatnot. And now you’re going to go into creative mode. Actually gives you a transition.

Yeah. Escape hatch you.

Sage

Know but, but it’s so it’s kind of like mindfulness. Because you stop and you look at the things that you need for that for that session, and you can stop and appreciate your materials if you’re mixing colors, then you stop and you’re just thinking colors and you don’t have to think about the design and the construction or whatever it is that you have to put into the project that day. And I think it makes it a really nice. Ease into what you’re doing, and I personally appreciate that opportunity to slow down, do something really simple and easy. But that’s also going to prepare me for hopefully a really good and successful session and like color mixing like with my acrylics, I mix as I go. But that’s because acrylics dry so fast you can’t like do a whole lot of premixing unless you put retarders and mediums in it. But anyways, the whole nother thing but but like in polymer clay, you can mix as you go and I know a lot of people who do that. But what a thing to just spend some time at the beginning mixing all this stuff and then. Talk about there’s no interruption. From that point, you’ve mixed all your colors or sitting there waiting for you, and then you just start cutting and forming and go, you know, and you just start putting things together from already pre mixed clay and you don’t have to stop and do that.

That’s great, yeah.

Sage

And I think cause every time you stop to do some preparation work during your creative process, it’s probably going to. Be a shift right?

Yeah, you have to use your brain differently for a moment, yeah.

Sage

Yeah. Yeah. So like, like mixing colors is definitely a different brain mode than. Designing something.

It’s like pulling if you’re on a race track, it’s like you’re pulling out of. Over for a pit stop real quick, yeah.

Pit stop, but they’re all part of it. I think they’re all the thing that kind of gets us there. Yeah, I think it’s great.

Sage

Yeah. We just wanted to stop and talk about the rituals. So you have the opportunity to stop and think about what it is that you do to get into your work or what do you do during the process to transition from one thing to another.

That that’d be a fun thing to, you know, to hear peoples like rituals because like, some people might just like, OK, they need to break something. Maybe that’s the first thing you need to do, you know.

Sage

I would love to hear that. And you know, that’s funny. I feel like I just talked about this. Maybe I didn’t. I used to when I was in art school, when I was doing painting, I was doing independent study in the last semester, and I was having a really hard time with. Just some personal stuff. And so I had something I called the slash canvas. Really. I I took some leftover stretcher bars and they made this really strangely proportioned it was.

Sage

Like 18 inches wide and like 4 feet tall or something. So this big long thing and I would just do whatever I wanted to when I came in and that was actually my ritual for painting. Then it said I would.

Just slash it a few times, yeah.

Sage

I I sometimes it would be slashed, sometimes I would just throw paint on. It sometimes I. Would just whatever modeling taste and throw it.

So these are precision. These aren’t precision cuts. This is these are.

Sage

Throw it on there. Like, well, I called it a slash canvas because one of the first things I did after I started painting on it was I took an exacto to it and put a big slash in it. And then I took some needle and thread, and I stitched it back up. And then I slashed another part on like a week or two later. And so-called in slash.

Sage

Canvas because it’s just.

Sage

That represented the feeling I had that I could just take out whatever frustration or anything that was bothering me on this campus. I could just slash at it, whether it was a literal slash or I was just throwing paint on it and he’s, you know, slashing motion, whatever. So it was my ritual to go in and just. Attack this canvas with whatever it would get things out. It would also make me a little less precious with my materials.

Mm-hmm. Wow. Intense. With the materials, yeah. That it’s true, all that stuff costs, especially in college. And so it’s kind.

Sage

Yeah, when you’re in college, you have this, you know, I was making, like, I don’t know, like 250 an hour. There’s a long time ago, but I didn’t make a lot of money. And so all this stuff.

Sage

Was precious to me, but at the same time, sometimes it would be. Yeah. So I was like, look, you, you have to let go of that. If you’re going to do what you want to do.

So they made it hard to be creative in it because like, I don’t want to waste this paper or this canvas, you know. That’s so true. I literally just pull will go into a page and just start scribbling and then just to to to just, you know, to break it in, you know.

Sage

Yeah. Well, yeah. I used to do that. I mean, actually still do that with sketchbooks. The first like page page, but the inside cover.

Yeah. Yeah, no.

Sage

I just draw whatever. I just put stuff down. Like what? Doodle, cause you just need to like not be completely blank cause it’s so intimidating.

A whatever pains kind of thing. It’s like staring back at you. Yeah, I don’t. I don’t stare at the white page where I put stuff down because.

Sage

Just pages and pages of perfection. And they’re like oh. Well, you you do that all the time. You’re so good at that.

That way. Yeah, that that way, even if you do terrible things like things that you just hate, you know, you’re like, oh, well, I could do better than that. Or. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no. Yeah. No, just like the drawings or the like. If I do thumbnails or something, it’s like, ohh, you know, just put anything down. Yeah. And that’ll give me something to build off of and.

Sage

OK, not terrible. Things like you didn’t like, you know, beat somebody up or. Choice. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then it gets better, yeah.

Sage

That’s that’s kind of a little ritual, too. You get a clean sketchbook and you gotta do something to it right away. You gotta it’s gotta be a working sketchbook. As soon as it gets into your hands. I know. I’m like that, too. Yeah, so there’s little rituals through all of this stuff and.

Sage

Micro micro ritual. I like that. I like taking this time to appreciate that we do have these rituals and and try to think about what it is that they do for us and what they mean for our work and our process. And then those times where we’re tempted to not do the rituals, you know, could be something that you just stop and think, hey, is this worth it? Is is the extra 5 minutes I’m gonna get worth me not doing this ritual because I’m not going to do what I usually do and my system, my whole, my body, my brain is not going to feel settled. Really. I mean, for some people, it’s not going to matter. For some people, it makes no difference whatsoever. Like I said, when I was a working artist, it didn’t matter because my brain was always there. Anyways, but for those. Of us who have a lot of other things that we do, yeah, like doing the podcast is a very different kind of mental creativity, cause teaching, you know, versus sitting down, actually doing my work.

Busy. Busy. Right and yeah. Because then you’re when you’re actually sitting down doing your work, you’re more in the the, you know, the unknown. Like you don’t. Yeah, you probably have a plan of what you’re going to do in some way if you know you, but but you’re still not sure what it’s going to be and how it’s going to like what you’re going to tap into the the thing.

Sage

And that that reveals itself, you know? Yeah, it does.

Sage

Yeah, it does and all this. Stuff the the whole. The the revealing happens in the process of in everything that I do.

And that’s the cool part, you know, not like cool man. I mean, more like, that’s just the good part. Yeah.

Sage

Yeah, and. But it’s good to have that kind of like get into that mental state because you’re more open to those things revealing themselves. You know, like sometimes I think I’m gonna sit down and I and I, I script out the podcasts because I don’t always. I’m not. Always able to. Talk coherently. I don’t know. To put that. I I yeah, I don’t. We do. I do so much better when I’m talking to you. But yes, I know. I guess because we just have.

You’re telling me? They’re not. Really. Yeah.

Sage

This mode that we are always in, but if I try to just sit down and like talk out a podcast without scripting something first, I will stumble all the time. And I also conversation is different.

Yeah, yeah. Ohh, I see. See conversations different cause you’re feeling you’re bouncing off. We’re bouncing off of each other. You know.

Sage

Yeah. Anyway, so I know what that had to.

That’s the work, yeah.

Sage

Do with ritual but. Here we are, yeah. But this is our conversations. This is how our conversations go.

Yeah, this is the way we talk over over lunch today and well, in general, you know, so, you know, I think there’s a a real fun quality to to just letting that all unfold in front of us because. But it is like, you know, no net kind of thing like, OK well, what are you gonna say now? I have no idea.

Sage

And yeah. And don’t get. Well, today we had no net because we were talking at lunch. I’m like, this is a great conversation and I’m like, do you want to go do this? And I think we’re actually procrastinating cause we have.

It is a good. Good one, yeah.

Sage

To clean the garage. It’s like, hey, you wanna do a podcast? Yeah.

Well, you well, after talking about this, I want to go to my room and do some stuff, you know.

Sage

Right. So I’ll go to the garage.

Are you gonna organize the tools? So I’ll. I’ll take the puppy and and.

Sage

I gotta organize the tools, yeah. Wow, your days sounding a lot more fun than mine. But before we get too, of course, what if someone doesn’t have a ritual? Do you think that’s something people can invent, or or should they look into? I don’t know. You know, lighting a candle, I think you said earlier.

Well, I’m sure everyone has a ritual. I maybe they’re not conscious of it, but yeah, if maybe there’s ones you could add or invent. You know, I think candlelight puts me in the mood, so I invented that at one point. I think in college I started doing that and it’s not something I did before that.

Sage

Yeah. So, like if people are listening to this and thinking like I don’t have a ritual, I just jump into it now. Maybe for some people, that is all they need. They just need to get into it. They don’t need to do all this kind of stuff.

I’m kind of that way, but I have a few things.

Sage

But do you think people should try it out? Like let me try having a little ritual, whether it’s making my tea and sitting down and and admiring my materials or.

Maybe it’s stretching, you know, like doing some yoga poses, yeah.

Sage

You can do some yoga. That’s actually not a bad idea, honestly.

It’s really kind of a good.

Sage

So the kind of.

Dear cause you you breathe and you, you.

Sage

Get out. And you relax and and you probably get your brain waves and into what is it? The brain, the creative brain waves. Alpha. Maybe. I can’t remember. Alpha. Beta. Yeah. No, I don’t know if people should invent A ritual that seems.

Change gears. What? Yeah. Remember Alpha beta when we were kids, yeah. That’s our West Coast there.

Sage

You’re trying to put something into place that doesn’t naturally exist, but.

That’s a good point, I suppose.

Sage

But maybe if you find yourself having a hard time getting into the work, if it takes you a while to get into the work, maybe ritual could be something and it could be as simple as cleaning your table. Or it could be looking through what you did the previous session or the previous day, or the last time you. Worked, but for some. People ritual won’t probably be a big. The thing maybe trying it out or trying a few things to see if there’s some kind of preparation for the work that is helpful or or.

Ohh, taking taking an ice bath. Do that, yeah. What what would be the craziest ritual? Yeah, that’d be a lot.

Sage

I’m I’m not doing that. Oh, there could be all kinds of crazy rituals, but yeah, we probably don’t have time to get into.

Sage

All the potential. But I have really valued that exit ritual. You know, my cleaning of my brushes and organizing my space and that kind. Thing I find the reviewing what I did to be really I don’t know. It’s it’s like downtime for me almost. It’s like, OK, I’m gonna not just jump from this creative stuff to the next thing. I’m gonna take some time to appreciate what it is that I just did. And that’s a mindfulness thing, right? That you are in the moment realizing the the value of the moments that you’ve just been living.

And like you were saying earlier, it’s a. Level of awareness and and. Being very present in what we’re choosing to do.

Sage

And what we’re doing? Yeah, yeah. Which, you know, I mean, some people might not find that helpful, but I think, you know, considering all of the research and the material that is out there about being more mindful and being more present in the moments because it’s the only thing we ever, ever know that we have is that moment that we’re in. This very moment is the only thing we know we’re going to have. They have an appreciation for that. We’ll probably bring more joy to the work and more fulfillment to know that you are allowing yourself and giving yourself this time. So yeah, so maybe it’s just a. Care of giving yourself that time to appreciate what you’ve done. And I think we don’t stop to like, think about what it is that we’re doing and why we like it and why it works for us. Don’t you realize? What is that we appreciate about what we’re doing and having that exit time for me is what that is. It’s appreciating what I just did. Recognizing my successes because I think that’s super important cause a lot of times we can just beat ourselves up over what we didn’t accomplish. But if you’re taking that time to look at your successes, looking at you know what you liked about what you did as well as what you want to try to do differently or better or you know, explore next time is really grounding for yourself as an artist.

When I was in figure drawing a lot, I would make a commitment to not look at anything that I did that day. At the end of the session that. Was part of my ritual because I would. I would hate everything. But then if I look back on it and a day or two, then I’m like, oh, then I see the progress or I can appreciate it like someone else did it. And look at it a little bit more objectively.

Sage

Ohh cause you. Critique it, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And that could be a great initial ritual getting. Into the work.

Sage

Because you look back at what you did because the day of you. Always. You’re ready? Yeah. You’re ready to just say, like, I suck? It’s maybe because you’re so close to at that time, you know, all the areas that you’re frustrated in. You know, the areas that their mistakes are at.

It’s too raw.

Sage

But if you come back to it later, you may have forgotten all that stuff and you just kind of see it with fresh eyes and go, oh, look at those beautiful lines. I did. Ohh, look at the the way I shaped that. That was great, you know, because you don’t have that awareness of the the struggle that you went through as much. It’s not like out front. So yeah, that’s probably a really good thing to do as well. So look at what you did. Previously, but only if it’s giving yourself enough time to set aside all those things that may have bothered you in the process of doing it. And and come to appreciate the things that you did well. And I just, I just think that’s really really important to spend time seeing what we do. Well, if you can come back to it later and that could be an opening ritual for you to get into your work is to look at what you did previously and get yourself excited about. Look what I can do. I’m so good.

I guess you get the PAT on the back thing, I suppose, but but more importantly the experience of doing it should. Be the thing that draws us.

Sage

But for some people, yeah, it definitely is. And some people the end result. So there’s that thing. There’s some artists are into the journey and some people are into the destination. Some people are into both, you know, and either to different degrees. So but yeah. Yeah. So there you go. That’s another ritual. So if you don’t have a ritual to get into your work, maybe you looking at what you previously did, especially if it is bolstering.

Sage

To you, if it encourages you, if it, if it proves to you that you’re good at what you do and not just remembering how frustrated you were last time trying to do something but you stop and look and go oh.

Whatever works.

Sage

Gosh, that was really cool. What I did. Yeah. So think about your rituals or if you don’t think you have them, whether that’s something that you’d want to do and what kind of ritual might be useful for you. And if you do have rituals, I think just an awareness of that could be good for you to know when to not ignore it. You know, when it’s useful for you. And you can build on it a little bit. Without procrastinating too much to get into your.

You really. Yeah, you.

Sage

Into your process.

Really got me thinking about it a lot and yeah, that that’s the fine line. When it becomes procrastination, I guess. But you know, it depends on how much time you have to sit down, what a kind of chunk of time you have ahead of you.

Sage

Yeah, could be. And then we’re going to and then, you know, intro. Rituals, extra rituals, exit rituals. I guess the extras. What is our exit ritual for the podcast?

Exit rate vegetables, yeah.

Sage

Ohh it’s been like 2 hours we. Got to stop this now.

Yeah, I gotta walk the dog or something.

Sage

Something comes up. So we gotta go. See you. Thanks. It’s been fun. No, it’s it’s.

Sage

Good, but yeah, hopefully this hasn’t been an interesting thought process for you to become aware of what it is you do either before or during after. Or like when you finish our thing, there’s probably rituals when you like finish a project. You know, you go. You take a picture of it and you show it to your significant other or you know, you just you go get a drink cause you did it, you know, so rituals like that I think are important too. And I think it’s not just the rituals telling our brains to do what they need to do to get into the mode or to review what you’ve done for the day, but to also just stop and appreciate.

Hanging on the wall.

Sage

The experience and the process, and realize that this is a huge part of why we do what we do usually. The process itself and so I think the rituals will help in having us appreciate and probably be happier than what we’re doing because we have stopped to think about it and have that glass of wine. When we finish the project or have a glass of wine when you finish the session. Yeah before.

Sage

That really quickly, if you would like to tell us about your rituals because we would love to hear what you do. For get into work and have your work in the middle of your work, any of that, write me at the sears.com there’s a contact page there. If you get the newsletter, which you can get by hitting the news and notices button on the homepage of the sagearts.com, you can reply to that newsletter and tell me your stories or tell me what you think. Or criticize what I do. I don’t care. I just like to hear and get that feedback so I can continue to work on focusing this podcast for you. And if you like what I’m doing and you want to support the podcast and give back, there are donation buttons on the homepage about halfway down through PayPal or buy me a coffee. And of course, all these links can. Be found in the show. Notes or description section of wherever you are listening to this podcast from. And if you haven’t done. Already, please hit that follow button on your podcast player so you know when the new episodes are out and if you want to leave a review. I’d love that as well. I don’t ask for that enough, but I’d love to see that cause that’s also feedback for me. You can also write me or follow what’s going on through social media, primarily Instagram. That’s primarily what I work on at the sagearts.com podcast, the Facebook as well you can reach. Me through messaging or any of the posts there at the Sage Arts Podcast on Facebook. And that said, maybe we go get a glass of wine.

I like wine. Yeah, and have a wonderful glass of wine.

Sage

So, well, thank you. Well, thank you all for joining us. Thank you, Brett, for jumping into the podcast room with me so suddenly this afternoon. Yeah. And you all go out there, figure out rituals and and see what you think of them. And then, you know, of course, feed that news and be true to weirdness and then join us next time on the stage.

It was very fun. Yeah, we had. A good time, as always.

Sage

It’s podcast.

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