Ep.056 The Very Human Side of Art

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you fail or fall short of your expectations? Are you hard on yourself? Do you get frustrated or have moments when you just want to give up? The fact is, most people do. It’s just part of the human experience but that doesn’t mean it’s not difficult or valid. What it is though, is something to be aware of and have a game plan for dealing with it so it doesn’t get in the way of enjoying your creative experience, or any life experience!

That’s what I’m speaking about today. This is a really casual conversation filled with little stories and a few tangents, but it’s a very human look at the very human side of being a creative in this crazy complicated world.

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CREDITS:

Cover art & design by Sage; Illustration by Olga Kostenko

Music by Playsound

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TRANSCRIPT:

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

The ability to not only prioritize your art, but not be hard on yourself when you don’t. To forgive yourself for what you might see as shortcomings. Hello, all my amazing and adventurous. Great is out there. Thank you for joining me on the Sage Arts pod. Cast this episode is just me and it’s going to be a little bit of a wacky one, maybe more from my aspect than from your aspect, but it’s just been a wacky week that I’ve been having. In one way, I’m actually really ahead as far as the podcast, have three things that are recorded, but they’re all going to be edit intensive, which means I need some significant time to get those ready for. But this week is supposed to be a Brett and Sage episode, and that didn’t happen due to weather because we have to record when it’s not raining outside and it was raining again all weekend and it sounds like a metal drum in here when it’s raining and now I have limited time because I am leaving at the end of the week to go see family. So I am winning this one completely 100% winning this. I have two dogs in the room with me and they are not. Settling. But if I don’t do it now, it’s probably not gonna get done. So you’re gonna get, like, the really raw. Like, this is how it is in my life version of a podcast today. And I’m actually going to talk about a subject matter that surrounds that whole. Like, we’re always trying to. To do what we’re supposed to do or work in some kind of ideal condition that allows us to do the best work that we can. But most of our life just does not cooperate. It is so not cooperating right now. So I’m going to just talk through my thoughts. I actually don’t have any research done. I don’t have an outline. I don’t have, like partially scripted text in front of me, which is what I usually do. So I’m not doing too many ohms and OHS and trying to figure what I’m gonna say next. But some days you just have to work with what you got, including jog with a squeaky toy. See if I can get. That one taken away from her. Poor thing. And oh, I want to tell you a story about her. That was I I don’t know. I guess as a parent of any type of furry parent, a a small human being parent, we have things that happen here. Like they’re just so exciting and other people are like, yeah, yeah, sure. But I think as furry parents out there, all the furry parents will understand this. If you’ve ever adopted. A dog from a litter and you’ve met the rest of the puppies and you go home and you raise this little creature. And don’t you ever wonder, you know, what happened to the rest of the family? You know what happened to their siblings and you know, maybe you’ve met the parents, maybe haven’t met the. But we as human beings are so strongly connected in terms of family, but we bring pets home and then they are usually forever disconnected from whatever family they had. I always wondered what happened to her sisters when we got river. We met 3 from a litter. They were all white cattle dogs and never mentioned this part. But I know in episode. 50 on original thinking, we gave you the whole story about getting her and and how she picked us and all that. But she had two other sisters which are just as cute as she was, and we did spend some time thinking, you know, are we picking the right one and and can we have? Three dogs at lunch. But she’s a white cattle dog, and as it turns out, and her sisters were white as well, white cattle dog coats are considered undesirable, which is just bizarre to me. I mean, undesirable in terms of a working cattle dog, because the darker modeled look of the cattle dog actually makes them harder to see, so they’re less likely to get kicked by cattle. As the cattle can’t see them readily and a white one, of course it should be pretty obvious, but nonetheless, they’re they’re beautiful, adorable, super intelligent. So she’s really active. So we have something called zoom room here and their agility courses for dogs. And they have puppy classes. So we took her to a puppy. And she passed her beatings with flying colors. So she got to move immediately into jillie. I’m a very proud doggy parent here. She did so good. She just skipped into a puppy, Julie. And so we showed up to puppy agility week before last. And I’m outside having her try to do her business before we go in for the class. And another guy gets out with another white cattle dog. And I thought that’s so cool. Another white catalog that’s so unusual. And then I look at the dog and I’m like, I know this dog. It was her sister. I was so excited. I go running back in and cause Brett’s inside and I’m like it’s her sister her. Sister’s in the. Parking lot and the trainers like. What are you guys talking about? And they come in and they still recognize each other. Just river turned into kind of another dog. She is usually a very mellow, mild mannered dog and she was like my sister. We wrestled when we were young. Let’s do it. They were just going at it and they’re having these conversations with each other like one dog would kind of rubber and the other dog would stop and wait till they were done and then they were row back. And so this back of our conversation, it was just absolutely adorable. Her sister was adopted by a gentleman in a kind of neighboring area near. Was and in his area, the other sister was adopted by one of his neighbors. So now she knows all of her. Well, sort of knows all her family. She has him at the third one. But the two of them did their agility stuff together. And the trainer just started calling sister one and sister two. So they have no names there, just they’re just the sisters. And and everybody got excited about the story. While we were there. But it was so thrilling. 2. Find out what happened to the rest of her litter and they were abandoned in a really bad part of Los Angeles. It probably because they were like backyard breeders and these white cattle dogs. They’re not worth anything comparatively. So they were abandoned. In any case, we really don’t know the whole story, but they were in really bad shape when they came in and now look at them. They’re all hanging out in Ventura County doing their thing. Being smart and active puppies and now they even get to know their family. So we’re so excited. I just thought that was a really cool story and I’ll post pictures of the sisters before and when they met. So I’ll do that on Instagram cuz for all you puppy people, all you dog and and pet people, you’ll probably get a kick out of that. In the meantime, she ended wrestling with her sister. Peter and she had wrestled with another dog, a friend of mine, a couple days before, and I think all that activity was a bit much and she ended up pulling a shoulder muscle. And so she is. On so-called bed rest, which you can’t put a six month puppy on bed rest. So I’ve got this chaotic thing going on and I constantly give her chews and then got family stuff going on and we’ve got yard stuff going on. We have a leaky roof going on. We just it’s. Like one thing after another. This is life, though all of us have these things in life. Life is so complicated these days. Ways. I mean, I think when we were younger, it was less complicated because maybe we had less responsibilities. But I think it’s more than that. We now have the ability to have so many different things that we didn’t before when I was a working artist. The first time I was a working artist, I was a just a construction jewelry, would beads and leather and this kind of thing. And I just went around to some stores said you wanna sell my stuff. And did consignment work. That’s all he did. Since I made my jewelry, I sold it and it got me a little extra money. Besides what I did while I was going through art school. And then the second time, I would just go to shows. You know, so working hours you make your stuff, you go to shows. I did have a web page, so that would be like 1215 years ago and move to modern day. We have the ability to reach people in so many different ways that now as artists we not only make the art and market it, you know, build a website or get an online marketplace. Go to shows, set up a booth and then on top of that we have to do social media and get attention through that and you know, try to draw the market that is going to buy our work to sustain what we’re doing now. Some of you out there, I know quite a few of you actually don’t do this to sell or don’t do this. To make money, so it’s not important that you are getting into the big shows and that you’re making your nut every month just you know, a lot of you, a lot of you sell just so you can buy more art supplies, which is fabulous. And then some of you make your art and then just teach and that kind of thing. So this may not exactly apply to all you, but even if you were not trying to sell to make a living, all of these things that we now seem to have to do as artists in order to be what might be considered viable artists, at least. Monetarily speaking, financially supporting our craft, if not our life, has so many moving parts and on top of that, even life is like so complicated it’s gotten just so crazy for just people in general and artists or anybody who’s trying to do something on their own. It’s overwhelming. And yet, in the midst of all this, we are supposed to be able to work through our creative expression, create unique things that show our unique side, and our voice is coming through. But I think mentally we’re often not in that space, not as much as I remember being. In that space, when I was a working artist back in the day. And when I say in that space, I mean, like mentally being able to be entrenched in the creativity and the really imaginative creative mindset, I think it’s really hard to get into because of all the other things that we do that are not of a creative mindset, doing the social media marketing, the websites. Applying and setting up for shows those all take a more logical problem solving approach. So I was actually going back through the book, drawing on the right side of the brain by Betty Edwards. It’s like a really basic book. It’s like for people who don’t know how to draw. And I’ve been through art school. I’ve been drawing and doing some kind of art my entire life. But every once in a while, I just go back to the basics because there’s things that get lost in the complexity. And chaos of our lives. And when I was going through the very first sections, in fact, Brett and are going to go through all the exercises together. Not because we don’t know how to draw. I mean, Brett draws for a living, but over time, I think the logical brain, the area which is trying to make sure that we are making a living and keeping the job and. And doing the things that we’re supposed to to keep up with the Joneses or whatnot. I think that takes over or I think, at least for me, it’s taken over a lot of people I’ve talked to have had similar issues as artists being able to just get into the artwork and I’ve been struggling with that a lot. And you know on the end of the podcast as well. And I take care of the house here because Brett works so much. And I think for one, if you haven’t listened to the episode on the necessity of doing nothing, that is a big part of this. We don’t stop often enough and just exist and let our mind Mull through everything that we have experienced and learn. And the novel things that we have to bring into the studio don’t. Always get to go through that filtering process, so if you haven’t listened to that episode or if you have and you haven’t listened to it for a while, I think it’s one of the most important. And interestingly enough, all the episodes that I put up on YouTube. Of all of them, that one has been listened to probably 50 times more than all the rest of them. It just goes to show. I think that’s really speaking to people. And I think it’s really important that we remind ourselves that we need to stop and do nothing sometimes. So if you’re doing housework, if you’re sitting in the car, if you’re standing in line somewhere, don’t pick up your phone, don’t put on a podcast. Including me. Don’t put on audiobooks. Don’t scroll through social media and look at videos or whatever. Just let yourself and your mind take some time out because we did not evolve to be constantly getting input, and yet we are in a world that we do constantly get input and I think that is shorting. Out some of our ability to switch into creative mode. So that’s one thing. But the other thing is is that we have in the back of our mind or in the front of. Our mind sometimes. These expectations of ourselves about what we should be able to do about what we need to be doing in order to be successful as an artist. And again, I have past episodes that speak to these things. If you don’t understand what success is for you, go to the. Define your success episode 49 to define what your success is and understand what it is that you are after and not just be chasing the thing that everybody else is after. Cause it’s not gonna necessarily be what it is that you need or what is it’s going to make you happy or make you feel fulfilled as an artist. And then kind of the third aspect that I’ve only maybe recently been realizing the importance of is the ability to not only prioritize your art, but not be hard on yourself when you don’t. To forgive yourself for what you might see as. Shortcut. Because of course, if you aren’t enjoying what you’re doing and you’re giving yourself a hard time over it, you’re less likely to do it. So yeah, I really want to just talk about how we give ourselves a hard time and the what I just mentioned is kind of an umbrella version of giving yourselves a hard time. You’re not getting the work done. You’re not. Doing as often as you should, you’re not producing the amount you should. You’re not producing the quality that you should. You’re not marketing in the way you should. You’re not building your market the way you should. Any of those things are kind of these overriding stress points for us as artists, and I think they short out our creative brains many of the times cause when worrying about that instead of just letting ourselves get into the artwork while leaving all that outside the studio door, which let me just jump in here. And tell you. You should if at all possible, leave any of the aspects of work that is not part of your creative production. You know you know your process of actually making art, like the marketing and the social media, and signing up for shows and all that stuff. If that stuff can be left out of your creative area, preferably in a separate room, or at least in a place in your room where you can’t see it from where you’re actually working. I think you’ll usually be better off because you do not need that in your creative headspace, which means it’s best not to be in your physical space. Now I know a lot of us have limited space in which to work, and so sometimes all of that has to be within the same space, but do. Which you can to disguise it or change the feel of the room while you’re doing your artwork so that that doesn’t come to mind. So that’s not intruding upon your creative process if at all possible. I really do think it is very, very helpful to separate the business side of your artwork if you have that in your life. And the actual creation of the artwork itself. And I think if you can do that, you are less likely within the process of creating to be giving yourself a hard time about the things that aren’t done, especially on the business end. So that’s one kind of way that we really beat ourselves up. I think on what we’re not accomplishing as a successful art business. Or or selling or or just getting the attention that we desire through social media and and the ways that we get our work out there. And then the other thing that every artist in the world I have ever met has done is giving ourselves a hard time about when we fail. Our lack of success. In the artwork itself, like you, you create something and then you realize you did something really stupid like, you know not to mix those colors or you know, you should have done this first before you did this step, because now you’ve got to start all over again or, you know any of those things. We make mistakes. We’re human beings. We will make mistakes every day of our life and if we can stop with that kind of negative self talk where we’re just saying you’re you’re dummy or you have no talent or you’re a failure, you’re stuck. You’re a one trick pony. Your whatever we all have. Kind of like go to things that we do. Mine is usually about being rusty, like I don’t do the work often enough that I feel like it takes me a long time to get into my work these days, so I do get frustrated. I do get fed up with the lack of skills that I’ve always had. That isn’t just right at my fingertips. The way it used to be. So there’s a couple of things about this. Number one, just because we make a mistake just because we do something poorly one day just because we are behind on keeping it, but with their skills, whatever it is, that does not make you always that thing, I will not always be rusty. I will not always. Lack the prioritization of my artwork that it’s having right now. We can change those things so we can, yes, acknowledge that we are not living up to our expectations or that we did something poorly or we made a. Mistake and just. Laugh at it. I mean, we’re humans. This the stupid stuff that we do. And oftentimes later down the line, you will look at stuff that in a moment seems horrible and awful and frustrating, and you can laugh at. But see if you can do it more often in the moment, because the one thing that we can always count on is things changing, including ourselves, and not only will we absolutely change, we have the ability to make that change happen in the direction that we would like it to go. Sometimes it takes a lot of false starts to get there, but. You can get there if you want to, so don’t beat yourself up, make yourself frustrated and find yourself at some point just walking away from your work. That’s my biggest fear for any of you that if you are a creative soul, creativity is part of who you are and what you do and you. Need it that you’re going to walk away from it at some point because it’s not meeting your expectations. Either your version of success or other people’s versions of success, and that you will set aside what is probably one of the most essential parts of you and you. Being human, I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I do believe creativity. Is one of the most essential parts of being human. I think it is the thing that differentiates us from animals, creativity, not our thumbs, not language, because other animals do have the ability to communicate with each other. There are animals with the. Double thumbs but creativity creating and making beautiful things for the sake of beauty is something that is not a part of any other creatures existence. Creativity should not be something that you lightly throw away. That’s my belief. You know, other people may have other opinions about it, but you’re listening to this podcast because you have some sense of need to be creative and to reinforce that need and the skills and the. Life of a creative. So the negative talk has to go laugh at what’s going on, do whatever it is you have to do to get past it in very short time. I I never want to say that your emotions in the moment are something that are wrong or that you need to ignore cause our emotions are what they are. They’re literally just the cause and effect of a certain situation and you acknowledge it and say this is how I feel. I’m mad at myself or I’m mad at something. I’m frustrated with myself. I’m sad about how this came out. I’m disappointed. Never put your stuff down. Walk out. Get some chocolate. Get some sunshine. Play with the dog, talk with a friend and just acknowledge this happens. And then when you’ve been able to get over the peak of this emotion, move on. And for each of us, moving on is a different thing. So I am really, really big about journaling something. If there’s something that. Keeps pestering you that keeps eating at you, right it down or draw it out or talk it out with somebody and just get it out of your head. You never want to. Keep something rolling around your head over and over and over again, because it will get in the way of being able to do pretty much anything else in a joyful and useful way. So yeah, negative self talk, do what you can to. If not, get rid of it. Ameliorate the effects of the emotional aspects that come into play when you are having a hard time. And it’s gonna happen to all of us, right? So you just be prepared for it and know that you are definitely not alone and every single artist and I just talked to a couple of really big artists over the past few weeks and they all have some version of these stories of being frustrated or realizing they did something wrong, missteps, disappointments. This happens to everybody. So it doesn’t matter. How good you are or where you are at in your journey. It’s gonna happen. It’s fine. This is life. Take those lessons and move. And. And then I think the other thing that is so important in the creative process that doesn’t seem to get talked about or certainly isn’t focused on in so many of the things available to you to help you with your artwork or help you with your your business or whatnot since there isn’t end goal focus to so much of the information out there is that. The process of creating is oftentimes the most important part of what you’re doing cause think about it like you go out for a hike or you go to a movie or you go to a party. Any of those things that you do for joy, those things that make you happy, those things that don’t have any particular end goal like you don’t go to a movie in order to gain some, I don’t know object or a particular skill or check something off on a bucket list. Usually movies are there to entertain. Ourselves hikes are usually to kind of fill our souls and enjoy. The world, and we do these things as a process that really enriches our life. And your artwork is a process that really enriches your life. And so although we are making end products, although I don’t like the word product, it is what we’re doing. We’re making an item, we’re making an object that can be. Used to gain monetary returns or admiration, or to put on a shelf and to look at and commemorate your work and your successes. But the process itself is probably the thing that you’re going to remember the most. The process of doing the work, that feeling of being lost in the creative process itself, getting into the zone, getting into the flow, just feeling like you’re one with the world and you’re, you’re one with the energy around you. I mean, this is getting kind of woo, but you call it whatever you want to call it. But we do get into a state of mind. That is so elevated and fairly unusual in any of the other things. That we do. Creative flow is, in my personal opinion, the absolute best thing in the world. It is the best feeling. It is you and your materials and all the things that you do and all the things that you can bring to it, and it’s nobody else’s. It doesn’t belong to anyone else but you. And I think that’s really precious. And really important in our lives that we have something that. Is just ours. And sure, some of you out there do things in collaboration with other people, but there are parts of that collaboration where you sit down and you do your thing and your thing in that flow in that creative moment is invaluable. These are memories that you’re building. These are enriching experiences that not only. Are good for you in the moment. They ripple out into your life into the satisfaction and contentment that imbues your whole. Life now being happy and content in your artwork doesn’t mean that your life will be happy and content, although it can and does heavily contribute to it. But we also have relationships and you know our financial situation and our security and just tons and tons of other things. But if you can remember that it is the process. And the time that you spent actually creating that is probably the most valuable thing that you get out of creating art. And some people may argue that that’s not true. The end product is the thing for them. But really, if the end product was the only thing. Mattered. Then why aren’t you just having AI make your artwork or employing somebody else to make it, or just buying artwork? Because if it’s just about the end product, there is wonderful stuff out there by all kinds of people. And if all you really want is the end product, why spend your time doing it to get it when there’s so many other? Easy shortcuts to just gain these objects of beauty. I mean, obviously it’s not going to be the thing that came from you. And so for many of us, the end object is actually extremely important. And I’m not saying that it’s not. What I just think that if you really spend some time considering what it is that drives you to create for the majority of us, it’s not going to be the thing that you make. But the process of making that thing the process of creating that painting or that sculpture or that mosaic. Or that story, or that song, or that dance, whatever it is that you’re creating is a a kind of excuse. To go through that process, you know, and that is how I see it for myself and each of us will have varying degrees to which that end product is an excuse or it is the goal and it is the thing that you want to have actually existing. So I create to. Crate I create for the process of creating like I go for hike for the process of going through nature and experiencing it and seeing it and bringing in new images and feelings and and sensations into. Life. What I really am trying to say here is that no matter what is going on with your artwork, no matter how successful or unsuccessful you are in terms of your own definition of success, don’t get frustrated that you’re not reaching those endpoints whether it’s selling. Or whether it’s just the object itself, the the artwork itself that you are. Remember that you are getting so much more out of this than just that end product. That end goal. You are gaining these wonderful experiences. You’re have these wonderful memories. You get to spend large chunks of your day-to-day life. If you put the time aside, I guess. Doing something that’s really just amazing. To be able to create something that didn’t exist before, I think it’s such a miracle that we’re able to do that. So if that’s what you’re doing, regardless of how successful you are regardless, with how you feel about the end pieces you are giving yourself and your life something that is just not attainable. Any. Your way and if you are getting frustrated with your work and feeling like why am I doing this? What is the point? I am not succeeding in the way that I want to succeed #1 maybe you need to reassess your version of success. Maybe pull your expectations back a little bit and then the other thing is is if you’re actually putting the work in. I guarantee you no matter what, no matter how difficult it is right now, if you put the work in, you will get to a point of making. The kind of really satisfying work that you are after the kind of work that makes you look and go. Yeah, I did that and makes other people stop and go. Oh my gosh. Look, this wonderful thing that you did we. Yes, we need that kind of appreciation. We need that kind of feedback from other people and from ourselves. You will get there. It does take time. For all of us, I mean, I’m a trained artist. I have a degree. I have made a business out of it and I am right now feeling. The lamest person trying to get back into acrylic paint. I’ve been doing it all year. I’ve been doing it most of last year and I’m still because I haven’t put that much time into it. Honestly, it’s like it happens a couple of times a week. Right now I haven’t put the time in yet and I have to stop and tell myself. You need to put that time in and once you put that time in, you’re going to find that ease in your skill level. You’re going to find that rhythm and that Ave. that really speaks to you, but you’re not gonna find it if you don’t do the work, right? So don’t be frustrated if you’re not getting to where you want to be now because you’ve made some kind of change or you’re really just starting out in art and and I think it’s wonderful, number one, that you’re listening to this kind of podcast. If this is something that you’re kind of starting out with and it’s fairly new to you, kudos to you for, for doing that. And any of this kind of stuff that does feed your muse and does feed you and get you thinking. And helps move you along and helps keep you energized and excited about your work. Good for you. That is fantastic that you realize that sometimes we need outside. Hope, and hopefully this podcast is helping a. Lot of you out. There. If you’re doing that, you are going to get where you are happy and content most of the time in your artwork. We’re never gonna be content all the time in what we’re doing. So just that’s life, right? And that’s what I really wanted to get across today and hopefully. In my little meanderings that I’ve done here, I have been able to relay that. Since that you can look at what you’re doing. And not be so hard on yourself that you aren’t doing the work that you’re afraid to go sit down at the studio table, that you are gonna give up because what is the frigging point? The friggin point is is you enjoy it. It’s part of who you are. So go do the work. Take the time. Little steps. It’s all little steps. Get the rest out of the risk by just practicing, and if it’s just, I’m gonna sit down at my desk for 5 minutes today and draw or paint or sculpt or mush my materials around until. Something looks cool and I can play with that. Whatever it is, you spend some time on it and like me, like I was saying, we’re having a hard time getting things done and sitting down at an acrylic paint is a little harder than sitting down doing polymer because there’s a lot more preparation and clean up work involved. But I have been on my iPad with Procreate. As a great program that can emulate painting and emulate various types of sketching drawing materials, so I sit down with that and I play with that at no. Work in what you can and it doesn’t have to be the actual work that you’re trying to accomplish. The primary medium that you want to work in. If it’s difficult to get started or difficult to work in. In short, little bursts, find something else that you will work on. The main thing is that you are keeping the idea of being creative and working. Your brain out of the logical mood that we are in, so much of the day and into the creative mode as often as. Possible. And if you need some kind of structure and some kind of impetus outside of yourself to get yourself going on the stuff #1 if you have another artist friend or another creative of any type that would be willing to talk to you about the stuff, and you can talk through what it is you’re trying to accomplish cause just voicing it can really help. To get us into that place, because otherwise it’s just this thing rolling around in our heads, put it outside of yourself, talk to somebody, make them your accountability, buddy, as they like to say, I don’t know who says that? I’ve adopted that word, but someone that can help make you accountable. Not everybody works well under those kinds of circumstances. So the other thing that you can do is find something that gives you step by step, being able to do things in very small steps can really facilitate a new learning process or a frustrating process by taking it and reducing it into very small little mincing steps. And this is. Why Brett and I are doing the Betty Edwards book not because we need to learn how to draw again. But because it’s going to force us to think more like that, like it gets your brain into that mode, and that’s the whole point of Betty Edwards drawing on the right side of the brain book is to get you out of the logical mind and into the more creative, non assuming mind, because the logical mind has all these shortcuts that it does all the time. And the creative mind is exploratory and more childlike, and so you can do that. You can go find classes on Udemy. That’s my favorite place to get online classes Udemy dot. Tom and if you guys want to sponsor this podcast, let me know. And he went out. And you? Dummy out there. A lot of the teachers on there will go through step by step and learn new skills or relearn skills that you already know, and I have been thinking about doing a podcast just on education cause we will never stop learning. You should never stop learning. You should never say I know enough, I don’t need. To look back at previous materials that I’d already learned because, well, I learned them. But you forget so many things so. Or find local classes on anything. It doesn’t have to be within your material, as long as you’re doing something that gets your brain into a creative mode. And actually I think it is super, super helpful to actually work in a different medium and do something that’s hard because when you do something that’s difficult that you’re not familiar with and isn’t. Easy for you to do. This will help engage some of the more creative sides of your brain, and it also makes you think differently about creativity and. The visuals and the motifs and the types of design elements that you use in your particular material, because other materials tend to lend themselves to their own particular set of design elements that are more common to be included like textiles, Marks and lines and shapes and color are primary, but in. Say wood sculpture or even ceramic sculpture is going to be more about form and texture, that kind of thing. So pick something that you’re interested in and go try it out. It may actually get you motivated to do more of your own work, or it could bring new things into your present. Work. Wow, I feel like I was just kind of all over the place there, which is where I usually write this stuff up, but hopefully for all of you out there in all the different stages of your journey, you have found something in this conversation that is getting you thinking, hey, yeah, I I’m going to shake things up a little bit or I’m not gonna be so hard on myself and I’m going to realize that I’m a human being. And my creative life as well as my regular. Is really going to a roller coaster. They’re gonna have ups and downs or good times or bad times. That’s just the way it is and that I will have a better appreciation of the value of the time that I spend going through the creative process and realizing that it is in and of itself a valuable part of my life and a valuable. And goal to have. OK, so with all that said. I am going to leave you to it. I know I haven’t had a lot of interviews recently and actually this week was supposed to Brett and I, but like I said, lifes been crazy and it didn’t happen. So this is what we got. But I actually have a bunch of interviews coming up. I actually have two already recorded, so we have color. Here is Tracy Holmes, the first weekend of May. And then I have Kathleen, Dustin. I’m so excited, which will probably be June when those will come out. So I am bringing other people into the podcast studio I. Promise. You don’t have to just listen to me, but we just gotta work out all these crazy ups and downs that we’re going through. In any case, thank you so much for joining me today. If you have any of your own stories, any commentary that you would like to send me, please do reach out at sagearts.com on the contact page or you can go to Instagram or Facebook at the Sage Arts podcast pages and direct message me or put stuff in the posts whatever you’d like. And if you do enjoy this. Podcasting do you want to support it? You can do so by going to the homepage of the sagearts.com scroll about halfway down in there are donation buttons for PayPal and buy me. Coffee. But that’s not the only way you can support this podcast. You can do so also by hitting the follow button, and then you know, I don’t ask for this too often, but if you have the opportunity to stop and do a review of the podcast on whatever podcast player you are listening to this from, at least the star rating would be fantastic. Actual commentary would be wonderful so people understand. What it is you’re getting out of this, I’d appreciate that. If you can do that. And then if you want to keep up with this wacky schedule that I have had putting these podcasts out, I am now doing it. The other week, so that’s should hold. I’ve got enough already recorded to take care of the next two months. So at least for next two months we should be good. But if you want to keep up with any of the news and then also when I’m doing the design stuff or anything that needs visual support material, the newsletter is actually the best way to get it. So sign up for the newsletter at the news and notices. On the sagearts.com homepage or look for the links for any and all of this in the description section or show notes section of the podcast player from which you are listening to this. Podcast with all that said, thank you so much for spending the time with me today and with the puppies who have finally gone to sleep. Of course now and Amber’s not snoring so loud anymore. But in any case, thank you for joining me and do go out there and just enjoy the experience of being a creative of having a creative aspect. To your life, do you feed that Muse stay true to your weirdness and join me again next time on the Sage Arts podcast.