Could you use more community in your artistic life? Have you discovered the wide range of connections available to you as an artist on and off line?
My guest in this episode is Megan Skelton, a self-taught urban sketch artist known for her whimsical and cheery watercolor and pen depictions of city life. Although she hasn’t been on her artistic path long, she has already achieved her top two artistic dreams and beyond while also cultivating a very full and active community life both on and off line. I talked to Megan about her accidental and surprising journey as well as picking her brain about how to get involved in a variety of artistic communities, where to find them, and what community can do for us as creatives.
Contact my guest:
www.instagram.com/megansbrushstrokes/
www.etsy.com/ca/shop/MegansBrushStrokes
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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.)
MEGAN – 0:00
The other people who do that channel and will come in and they’ll go, Oh, I like how you did that challenge. That’s pretty cool. And they’ll follow you and then you get them in your group. And if you say a few kind words or comment on any of their stuff, then you kind of get some chats going. It’s just nobody needs to be lonely.
SAGE – 0:18
Hello, my wonderful save community. Thank you for joining me on the Sage Arts podcast is a sage, of course, and I’m going to be joined today by a really wonderful guest who has kind of an unusual journey into art, as well as a love for communities that she’s found through her artwork. So I’m going to read the preamble kind of short so he can get directly to this really interesting interview. Let’s get some shoutouts and some links and some business out of the way. First, a shout out to Icomfort, who gave me some thoughts on possible improvements for the podcast. I really appreciate that kind of feedback. I really need as much information as you guys can give to me to help me improve and give you the kinds of things that you need. So thanks AKA also Cathy from Florentine Original. Thanks for stopping by on Instagram to tell me how much you’re really enjoying the podcast. Those are always really encouraging comments to hear and then Pat Trentham, you cracked me up. I got this message from Pat shortly after the last episode came out and the message just said, I am doing nothing. It was after the podcast from last week, which was on the necessity of doing nothing, but I had of course moved on to other things. It was a Saturday and I was doing whatever and I was like, Why is someone telling me they’re doing nothing? Did I start a conversation I forgot about? And then I realized, Oh yeah, the podcast. But apparently this podcast episode, the necessity of doing nothing, really spoke to people because yeah, we don’t stop enough. We don’t stop and, and let our brains process. And it was something that a lot of people were trying like immediately after listening to it. So I was getting a lot of comments about that and I was going to rattle off the names of everybody who wrote me a little comments. But unfortunately, that little list is in my phone and my phone was in the pond earlier today. So because the pond was having a little problem and I bent over to see what was going on and yeah, I forgot I didn’t secure my phone. So yeah. So it’s has a literal time out. Well, it’s drying out, so I’m sorry, I don’t have that a list, but thank you everybody for sending me those messages and letting me know how important that episode was for you and how interesting and exciting it was to try to really just let your brain completely unplug. I think we’re going to have a lot of great ideas coming out of that. So and thank you particularly for Pat for cracking me up.
MEGAN – 2:36
With the.
SAGE – 2:37
One sentence message. That was awesome. So in any case, I would love to hear from all of you, so continue to send me those messages. You can, of course, leave me messages on social media, on Facebook or Instagram under the Sage Arts podcast. And of course you can write me through the Sage Cars.com website. Go to the contact page for that email form. And if you value what I’m doing here on this podcast and have the ability to give back, you can send messages with a donation, you can find the donation buttons halfway down the home page of the Sage Arts dot com website. There will be a buy me a copy and PayPal donation button, and a few of you have found the recurring donation through PayPal. So if you go the PayPal donation, you have an option to do a one time donation or you can give a little something every month. And thank you so much for those of you who’ve decided to dedicate a little bit of your funds to this project, I so appreciate that. And then also, don’t forget to hit the follow button if you’re listening on a podcast player. So you know, when the new episodes come out and of course share anything I send out that would help other people find the podcast who might enjoy these conversations. So I’m going to leave the business stuff there and we’re going to move on to our guest who has found so much joy and connection through community, both online and offline. And she’s going to give us some thoughts about how to find community, because I think community is super important for artists, not just for the camaraderie, because, you know, working as an artist can be a very isolating thing sometimes, but also for encouragement and motivation. And she has thoughts on how to develop community and including what it can do for you and what you can do for your community. So if you want to listen with some questions in mind, I would be asking myself how involved you want to be in community? Could you use more community than you have already? And would that be in person or online or both? And what would you like to get out of these communities that you find him? What would you like to give back? So without further ado, let’s go check in with our guest.
My guest today is Megan Skelton. She’s an urban sketch artist working in watercolor and pen. She’s coming to us from Ontario, Canada, today. Thank you so much for joining us, Megan.
MEGAN – 4:54
Thank you. Hi. Thanks for having me.
SAGE – 4:56
Yeah, I found you on Instagram just drawing these wonderful, whimsical things. I didn’t know a whole lot about you, so we’ll have to get a bit of background. So let’s start with what would you say is your artistic or creative focus in your artwork and what kind of artwork is it?
MEGAN – 5:13
Well, it’s kind of playful. And when I started Art, I figured I’d be in landscapes. That’s what I was hoping for. But I can’t draw trees, so I kind of put the kibosh on that. And then I started drawing buildings. I don’t even remember why. It was just things I was seeing around town and I kind of liked them, right? And then when they got sort of playful, I liked them more, right? And now it’s sort of become if I can keep it light and playful and make people smile and laugh and stuff, that’s kind of my goal, right? Because, yeah, even when I was volunteering at an art co-op this past year and I’ll see people in the gallery come in and they’ll, they’ll be standing, chatting and laughing about my art, like, no, I think that it just it’s kind of it’s not not knowing I’m the artist, but I’m like, you know, chuckle, chuckle. And it’s like, Oh, that, that’s good. That’s enough. That’s all I need is.
SAGE – 6:07
Yeah, I think we had you, right? Yeah.
MEGAN – 6:10
Oh, yeah.
SAGE – 6:11
So tell us where you live because where you live is important to your work.
MEGAN – 6:14
Well, I’m in Waterloo, Ontario. It’s really close to Toronto and I do a lot of sketching around town. Yeah, right. And try to put some things out there that people are familiar with. Yeah. And I realized the people in the community seem to respond really well to my local scenes because they all have a history there, right? And everybody kind of knows it and spends time there. And the local stuff has taken on a life of its own because it’s relatable and it brings out stories and. Right. People tell the tell me stories about it. So it’s like it’s you know what it is, but it’s it’s got like a little sort of a playful bent to it. Like, everything is kind of crooked in my mind. It’s it’s really straight.
But then when I see it, when I take a look at it on, you know, it’s like it’s not straight at all.
SAGE – 7:09
Well, that’s what that’s what attracted me to the work in the first place was the whimsical nature, the kind of loose, very, very energetic movement in these buildings and these, you know, scenes that you have the people in the flower carts and the cats. And there’s a lot going on. There’s a lot to look at. And it all just feels really fun and positive.
MEGAN – 7:29
Oh, yeah, Yeah. I do try to keep it that way, just like, you know. No, No Sad music on your playlist. No, no, it’s sad art. So to be happy. Yeah, right. Yeah.
SAGE – 7:40
Very happy. Very colorful.
MEGAN – 7:41
Everything good? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I’ve tried doing stuff very neutral and serious. I know there was a fellow in Scotland said, I’m trying to get people to paint this picture I took because he wanted to get some artists doing it. So I was like, All right, I’ll do it, you know, because he’s a nice guy. But it was a cemetery scene. Oh, it took me like a while because I painted it and I’m like, Oh, that’s pretty grim. Oh, no. So? So I had to sit and it was racking my brain trying to figure out how to do a cute, playful kind of. Yeah. You know, I didn’t want to look like, you know, Casper the Ghost and Playful, but it was like. It was like, actually turned out really, really cute and was like, Oh, well, there you go. Who did it? Because it’s like, it’s still got to be cheerful, even though it’s a cemetery. Yeah.
SAGE – 8:30
Oh, that must be a challenge.
MEGAN – 8:32
Yeah.
SAGE – 8:33
Now, art isn’t your full time job, right?
MEGAN – 8:36
Yeah. So I was a massage therapist when I moved to this town 25 years ago, and you have to start from scratch again and rebuild your business. Right? So I just got a job at an office while I was going to get my business going again. Yeah, And it’s 25 years later and I’m still working. I didn’t go back to massage therapy. I know. And it’s like, well, it’s not what I was expecting. It’s just like, you know, it’s clerical stuff. But no, I’m kind of quiet, so I don’t even know if anybody knows I paint. I kind of like, Oh, yeah, yeah. I just I keep that separate. I keep my art over here.
SAGE – 9:12
How would your family and friends describe what you do in art?
MEGAN – 9:17
Oh, I don’t know. It’s funny. They’re very supportive, right? Myself? Yeah. Well, I don’t know. Like, in my mind, I’m still just kind of goofing around, huh? Yeah. Yeah, right. But, you know, my daughter will always post pictures on her Instagram of her and her friends or boyfriend or whatever. Right around my public art and virtual shows share things she’s proud of on her Instagram site, but they’re just all so proud of me. And then when I got into the little art gallery co-op, my daughter’s like, Oh, my younger one is like, You are your big, cool mom vibes, right? Like big boys for.
SAGE – 9:56
That, I’m like.
MEGAN – 9:57
Wow, Well, that’s.
SAGE – 9:59
Really beautiful that you’re so supportive and they’re so excited about your work now. Do you have any other passions besides your artwork?
MEGAN – 10:06
Yeah, actually, fitness. I’ve just been like a health and fitness nerd. Oh, since I was a teenager, to the point that mostly it’s all I was doing. And, you know, when my daughter was a teenager, my oldest one, I was saying to her, like, make sure you’re well-rounded and make sure you’re kind of an interesting person. And then I sat back and I thought, All I do is work out and design little, little nutrition programs and stuff. And I’m like, I got I got a burrito, right? So, yeah, you know, and it was around the same time I was going to be traveling and I thought, maybe I’ll take this little watercolor class right? I won’t just be a one trick pony, albeit two trick pony, so I can do fitness and I could do painting. But then what has ended up happening was we hike, bike and walk everywhere. Like we try not to drive as much as we could. And so while we’re out, that’s where I’m finding all of this stuff to sketch and paint. So it’s like.
SAGE – 11:02
It totally dovetails. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, right. And one of my favorite questions, because I think it’s really revealing. It is whether you’re a planner or a panther, do you plan things or do you kind of do things by the seat of your pants? Yeah.
MEGAN – 11:15
Yeah. I wish I was a seat of the pants kind of person. Yeah, but I plan stuff out. I usually have a little list all in place for like, okay, then I’m going to paint this one. Then I want to paint this one because I lose track of stuff. So I have like little post-it notes all over the place going, Oh yeah, I want to be that one and I want to paint that one. And then a new one will come along. So I’ll be like, Okay, I got to shift that one and I’ll do this one Tuesday and I’ll do that one there. Then I just know, okay, I got my whole week, I can go ride my bike, I can do whatever, and I know that I’m going to work on this one for Tuesday. Just makes life simple.
SAGE – 11:49
Looking at your work, I would have thought you were a dancer.
MEGAN – 11:52
Oh, wow. So the last piece of your line.
SAGE – 11:55
Oh, like.
MEGAN – 11:57
Yeah, Hardly ever.
SAGE – 11:59
Very interesting that.
MEGAN – 12:00
Well, and like with Instagram, which is kind of my art home base, I guess I’ve got my local community and then I’ve got my global community of friends, which they kind of came during COVID when, you know, I wasn’t too rich, I just wasn’t reaching my local community yet.
And what happened was they’ll they’ll have challenges where they’ll say, let’s everybody in the you know, everybody in the community, how about we put this picture and we’ll all pitch in. We’ll all have different versions of it. And some are like, you know, just beautiful and some are goofy and some are like white, whatever. Some are just a sketch, some are painting, and we all just support each other. So so I like to stay involved in those challenges. So once a week I’ll do a challenge and then once a week I’ll do something local. And then once a week I’ll do I’ll just do whatever I want. If it’s a challenge, that’s fine. If it’s local, that’s fine. Or it could be anything right?
SAGE – 12:59
Like it mapped.
MEGAN – 13:00
Today. I painted a coffee shop that somewhere in I think it’s in Taiwan and it has like little TVs piled outside of it and. Oh okay. Oh, it’s just like a funny little coffee shop. Yeah, it’s very cute. And so it’s just like, that’s what I feel like painting right now, right? Yeah. And then I stopped under a bridge on the way home and was sort of sketched out all the graffiti under this, this underpass. Right. And, and it’s like, that’s what I feel like painting. So. Yeah, so but.
SAGE – 13:29
That’s a little painful. But along the way.
MEGAN – 13:32
Yeah, well, a little bit. Yeah. Right. I don’t want to be a rigid person, but in my heart I kind of am.
SAGE – 13:40
Well, that’s really interesting. Yeah. Yeah. And when and when listeners, when you look at her work, you’ll see what I’m talking about when you like. Wouldn’t think that she’d be a planner.
MEGAN – 13:48
Oh, well, yeah, well, you know, in the planning, kind of just. It keeps me on track. So then if I’ve done something local, then I’m like, Okay, well, now I want to go do a challenge That’s to be the next thing I do, right? And any time doesn’t matter.
SAGE – 14:02
Yeah, I think a lot of creative people have a hard time with structure, you know? So yeah, I think it’s very supportive of what you do and you’re very prolific. I mean, there’s a lot of stuff. I mean. Alicia Post Yeah, I’m assuming there’s probably more than one she has post, so, so that’s probably super useful for what you’re doing. Yeah.
MEGAN – 14:20
I also do a lot of very tiny paintings, right? Like they’re like the size of a business card I love. Oh, cool. Oh, yeah. Yeah. They’re like, yeah. She writes, and I think I fell in love with that stuff. And I used to travel because you could bring home little paintings when you traveled and you could just bring them home in your suitcase or your backpack or whatever. It was easy. Yeah. So and they were really cute and kind of they’re just a little impact when you walk around a corner or something. So then I started that’s what I started making. I don’t even know why. I just think I was drawn to them. So yeah, yeah. So it’s a little easier to, you know, whip something off when it’s a business Grinding. Yeah, Still a lot of work.
SAGE – 15:01
But you’re.
MEGAN – 15:02
Sure. But it’s not a giant. It’s not like these paintings behind me here that are. Yeah. I mean a massive.
SAGE – 15:09
The small size is less intimidating.
MEGAN – 15:11
I know. Yeah. Yeah.
SAGE – 15:14
All right, well, let’s get talking about your artistic journey because you have a what I think is an interesting story. Your coming to painting was completely on your own and have a very different objective than what you ended up with.
MEGAN – 15:28
You know? Well, I mean, I was broke, but I was going on a trip and I had an apartment with no art and I had no money. And, you know, but I was always putting in my little bit of money I had into a trip and I was like, well, maybe I could just make my own art because I can’t buy art when I go away now. So, you know, I’ll make my own souvenirs and bring them back with me. Right. And I had sort of heard of a little watercolor travel journal, right? I think I’d seen it. And some, you know, like we have CAA, the Canadian Automobile Association, and they put out little travel magazines. And in this travel magazine, there was someone who had sort of sketched their way through, I don’t know, Alaska or something like that. And they just had a little you know, they had a little picture of the coffee shop. They had coffee and a little picture of the cruise ship out in the and they were just kind of very light and playful. And I was like, well, maybe I could do a couple of sketches and do something like that, right? So but I didn’t know what to do or how to do it so near my home there was a little sign that said, you know, I get her watercolor classes. So there were four classes. I went to three of them and then I didn’t bother going to the last one, so I just couldn’t be bothered. I was like, I have enough information now. But then, you know, in hindsight I can see now that what I really was interested in learning was I think, well, but I didn’t know the different mediums, right?
SAGE – 16:51
So yeah, yeah.
MEGAN – 16:52
So I was like, Well, okay, so now I have all these watercolor paints and some paper, so I guess I’ll just keep going until I get good at this and then I’ll switch, right, Right. I’ll learn the other one, right? Because I mean it costs money to take a course and, and have a lot of money. So I was like, Oh, I’d better make this work. So I just start sketching things around my apartment and yeah, sketching. I wasn’t sketching anything in particular, right? Maybe it was a wine bottle or a I remember trying to do a scene that was on a wine bottle and I’m like, I’m like, All right, I could maybe try that. Yeah, I tried making it up a few things up, but that didn’t work for me. Like, I’m so impressed with artists who could just go, I’m just going to just make this whole thing up in my head because I paint from a picture. Yeah, Or it came from something that’s right in front of me. And so, I mean, now I’m kind of to the point that I can, like, take a reference photo and I can say, Well, I like that, but I’m going to add in some lamp posts or a couch. Yeah. Oh great. And or mattress or whatever. So I can sort of play with it a little bit more now that I, you know, as I get more relaxing. Go on. But yeah, so really it was just to be able to do a little watercolor scenes from my trip and bring the back with me. But the trip was like only a month away from when I took the class. Oh, so I had no idea as to what I was doing. Oh, boy. Oh. So I showed up in Iceland and I’m like, I can’t do a thing with this. I did the trip with it. But after the fact, After the fact, right now, I even got a little travel paint brush and a little travel kit. And I was like, Yeah, I’m going to do this. But I was I just was really bad. So I didn’t have any I just didn’t have my teeth in, I guess. So then when I came back, I would look at my pictures and I tried painting a few of those and it probably took me about a year to get little scenes that I liked.
SAGE – 18:44
So then, because I don’t think we mentioned the date of 20.
MEGAN – 18:46
17.
SAGE – 18:47
When you took the classes.
MEGAN – 18:49
Yeah. And went away. And then I just kind of dabbled with it. But then at a certain point, just before COVID actually, so just prior to everything shutting down, I thought, Oh, right, I’ll just see if I can sketch every day in. My daughters were going like, Go on Instagram, mom. And I’m like, Why would I do that? But I tried it. And it’s funny because if I go back to the beginning of my Instagram thing, I’d have like four likes or 12 likes. And I remember saying to my kids, like, this one went viral. I had eight. He looks like it’s all relative.
SAGE – 19:23
Yeah.
MEGAN – 19:23
Oh, yeah, exactly right. And then, you know, as time went on, I didn’t know there was an art community out there, so that was a total surprise to me. I didn’t even know who I was trying to share stuff with.
SAGE – 19:35
Right.
MEGAN – 19:36
Yeah, but then other artists sort of became serious little friendships, which, you know, like there were times in my life when I was really lonely and I would have loved to have these friendships. Yeah, right. Where we’re just like, Oh, my gosh, you painted that or You did such a good job or or will joke around, you know, and I get little side conversations going, right? But, you know, so but when I started, I thought, well, even if I’m not posting a picture, I should say something nice. So it really it’s like, right, you know? So yeah, there’s hardly any effort to just like it costs nothing to be nice. Right? Right.
SAGE – 20:09
So that’s how it started. Yeah. Yeah. Your art is now shared publicly in a lot of different forms. So I find it interesting from just half a dozen years ago to now, it’s not just you on Instagram. You’ve got your work. Yeah. In various public places. Tell us about that.
MEGAN – 20:26
Yeah, that’s a funny thing because once I started kind of going with my art, I remember saying to my family, like, I only have two dreams. I want my art in the park because I, you know, bike and walk past. I would like to have my art hanging there. That would be like a dream come true. And I said when I found out that people have art on beer cans, I’m like, Oh, I like beer. You like craft beer? I’m like, I want my art in a beer can. Those are my two dreams. And then I’m done with art. Oh, then I’m done. That’s all I need. And the city put a call in for art and I submitted it and I didn’t get chosen that year, you know? And then I kind of got really bummed out. Yeah. So the next year I told all my support people, I was like, All right, I’m going to try again and make it more of a local feed. Yeah, right. And you know, you had to say why it was important to eat, right? So I drew the path that it hangs on to. It hangs on a bike path that heads into town. Yeah. Through this big park. And so that’s what I drew. And I drew these little snow gnomes. We have a local snow sculpting guy who does really funny little snow sculptures around most mostly on his front lawn. But he puts them through the park, too, just for fun and just love that and everybody sees them. And so I drew that. I drew his little gnomes in there. And the little train we have a high speed train that goes through town now. And so then the city in the distance, in the bike pedestrian path. And I but I told everybody, if I don’t get accepted again, you have to be there to support me because you’re going to get bumped. Me do Yeah, it was accepted. So it now it’s this great big huge banner hanging in the park and of your. Yeah, I kind of get I get a little teary.
SAGE – 22:10
Oh yeah.
MEGAN – 22:11
I will testify. Yeah right. And I go out of my way to go past that even if I’m not supposed to be doing that way.
SAGE – 22:17
I’m just like, Oh, yeah, path my art.
MEGAN – 22:19
It’s only there for a year. I better enjoy it.
SAGE – 22:21
How wonderful.
MEGAN – 22:22
Yeah. And then for the beer, can, it was weird because like I said, I don’t really talk about my art at work. I guess I keep it separate. Yeah, but I was talking to my one friend at work and I said, Oh, I said, Well, my art’s in the park now. I didn’t know if you knew that. I said, My only other dream is a beer can, right? So that’s what I have to work toward now. And she said, Oh, that’s funny. She said, I know these people who just bought a little craft brewery and they’re trying to rebrand it. Yeah. Oh yeah. And I was like, Oh, that’s, you know, haha. Anyways, and then they reached out to me and said, like, Yeah, we love your work. Could you, could you draw the village? So it’s in a little village outside of Waterloo. And so I drew a little village scene and they put it on their village portrait. No, no Stars Springs Village Porter And yeah, then they blew it up. And they also have it hanging in their taproom. Oh, my goodness. That’s just.
SAGE – 23:13
Wonderful.
MEGAN – 23:13
Oh, that’s so cool. All right. So of course, then I was just, like, buying case after
every family event where you get a case in my bureau. So, like, we.
SAGE – 23:24
Pick the right lady supporting our.
MEGAN – 23:27
Business, and then as soon as the beer cans thing happened, then a big developer in town said, We want you to paint all of these big buildings that we’re developing, right? So they’re taking like sort of old factories and updating and putting newer parts on them too. And so they wanted them hanging in their board rooms, in their new offices. So each of their buildings, they just had me do it. I mean, they work with architects and stuff. They could get really good drawings. Yeah, well, they wanted to support local art and that’s.
SAGE – 23:56
What they see every day. So they wanted something new. Yes.
MEGAN – 23:59
Yeah, right. So that was like, Oh, okay, that’s kind of cool. So that’s in their offices and they’ve given them, as you know, gifts to people who worked on the buildings with them. And oh, that’s right. They had me do their Christmas cards of their new office building, right? So it’s just like, well, it’s just kind of fun.
SAGE – 24:17
Well, it’s obvious that something about your work is speaking to people. And it’s why I reached out to you, because I just felt that there is so much going on. Just so much energy and so much personality in your pictures. So I’m not really surprised. It’s all over the place. Oh, yeah. Now I want to get to kind of the core of the conversation because you really kind of lit up when you first started talking about the communities that you’re involved in. Can you tell me a bit about the online Instagram community and what is your local community like and what does it do for you, you know, and what are you able to do for them?
MEGAN – 24:53
Oh yeah, the online community didn’t see it coming at all. You know, this one week I was just kind of having a bad week. My heart wasn’t working. I was upset about something else in life right. Because life happens. And so I just kind of went quiet on Instagram that week and people were kind of used to me posting, you know, a few times a week or commenting on their stuff. And people started reaching out, kind of going like, Hey, you okay? Like everything all right over there? And and I’m kind of thinking, Jeez, this is crazy. Like, I’ve gone away on vacation from work before, and people, I know you’re gone. You didn’t know. I think it’s, like, not hurt, but it’s kind of like, Oh, that was just, like, really touched. Yeah. So I was like, Yeah, yeah, I’m okay. So I thought, okay, well, this is interesting that these people even notice I exist. Yeah, right. You know, I.
SAGE – 25:52
Realize on this side of the screen, you.
MEGAN – 25:54
Know. Yeah.
SAGE – 25:55
You know, having out there.
MEGAN – 25:56
Yeah, right. And it’s like, maybe I’m adding something to this little community. We can joke around and get goofy about stuff, and it’s more fun than I ever could have imagined. Like I had said years ago, I was just in a place where I was horribly lonely. And if I’d had this community that something like this existed, yeah, like that would have made a huge difference. Right? And I remember getting on when I was on Instagram and I thought, okay, these people are kind of fun. And I saw this woman in Wales and she was running a little art coffee. They were going to get together over Zoom because this is during COVID and draw fancy pajamas. So I’m like, All right, I’ll pay. I’ll pay £5 for that. And so it’s like six in the morning, five in the morning or something like ridiculous here. And I’m like, Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I’m on a Zoom call drawing fancy. But these people in there, they’re all got that hilarious British sense of humor and they’re snappy because they’ve had lots of coffee. All right? And I’m just like, Oh my gosh, I cannot keep up this. But it was fun, right? It was just really, really fun. And the paintings were terrible. My paintings were terrible. There’s probably close to her, but it didn’t. It didn’t matter. Just didn’t matter. Right? It was fun. Yeah. And that’s when I’m like, Oh, there’s more to this than I realized. And then I started hearing about other artists that, you know, three or four of them would get together and bid sketch together. Yeah, they were doing this on Zoom and they were just all strangers to start with. And then they kind of were having fun on Instagram. I know Instagram gets such a bad rap with teenagers and all that, but there’s this other side to it that people just they it in the community. And I know there have been especially now since school, but there’s been a lot of studies about online communities and can they be the same and as in person stuff and they totally can. And that’s kind of how I got to know my local community during COVID through my posts. Now they’ll say like, Hey, for coffee, I want to come. We’re going to sketch together. And so these different little groups around town will say like, Hey, you know what? These are you do you work in Girl will book this on a day. You’re not working so you can come right and good. They kind of like want me to come home like it just sort of surprising, like I’m kind of shy. Okay, so to go to these things with people I’ve never actually met in person is like, kind of, you know, scary, right? And then you get there and you realize, I know these people, they’re fine, right? I don’t need to be scared. They’re my friends already.
SAGE – 28:27
Yeah. What a great feeling.
MEGAN – 28:29
Yeah, it really is. But that’s what this art community has done. Like for me, sitting by myself, looking at my art, I might go, Oh, but all of these other people come in and they’re kind of like, No, no, it’s good, it’s unique. And then, you know, we look at there is and it’s like, No, that’s good, too. And that’s good too. So it’s not like everyone has to look a certain way. It’s like we’re celebrating all the differences and that’s what makes it fun, right? Because if we all just were producing the same thing, it would be so boring. Right? Right. And it’s like, Oh yeah, this works with you. This it matches your personality, and so it takes away all that negative stuff. Yeah. That, that maybe social media, it’s feeding you or it can get in your head and it never is. It says you can improve your painting if you did this That doesn’t happen.
SAGE – 29:19
Yeah right. If you can skip over the ads and just go into the conversations, you’ll be in a much better place. I mean, it’s not like I stop at all the ads or anything, but they’re just there, you know, and they get in my head and I think, you know, you’re just being sold stuff all the time, which I understand as people. It’s a business. I’m trying to promote my podcast or I was trying to promote the magazines or books or whatnot. So unfortunately I have kind of a market mindset when I get on social media, which I don’t want, and I try to actively shut down. But it’s still very hard to, especially when you’re seeing people selling to you as well.
MEGAN – 29:53
Exactly.
SAGE – 29:53
I love that you see it as community and you see it as support and motivation. That’s really encouraging for me just to think it can be like that. And if I approach it in a different way than I am, maybe it would be like that.
MEGAN – 30:05
Yeah. Yeah. Like you said, you are enough, right? Right. There I am. I have enough.
SAGE – 30:11
People do this all the time. But, you know.
MEGAN – 30:13
I don’t.
SAGE – 30:13
Know. As I say, not as much.
MEGAN – 30:17
But we all struggle.
SAGE – 30:18
And it’s good to have reminders. Yeah. Right now. How did you find these communities? How did you find the Instagram community? First of all?
MEGAN – 30:25
You know, I just started posting and then as artists would follow me, you know, we’d start chatting and then I’d sometimes read through their comments and see funny comments other people were making about their art. And so I’d chime in and say something, and these are maybe I was a little braver than I would have been in person, right? Yeah, and kind of funny conversations going. And now it’s been a few years. So I make make sure I make time to be a contributing member and the local stuff. I’m making sure I’m making time to get together with people or make it to their little events that they’re running. I didn’t even know there were little events. Right? Right. Like, that would never have occurred to me that people actually get together in coffee shops or little pubs and sketch. But they do. Yeah, right. So, okay, so just get outside my comfort zone and start, you know, going and participating in these groups. So I guess it’s just when you start talking to people and it’s like, Oh, you’re in town. Well, you know, we’re doing a thing this weekend, right? So, I mean, some of us are going to drive to the next town over and go sketch together. And so now I’ve invited somebody to come along with me. Right. And she’s kind of newer on Instagram, so just pull people in right now.
SAGE – 31:42
You talk about the Instagram people like there’s an official group.
MEGAN – 31:47
Oh, no, just gotten to know each other. And I mean, like it’s to the point that my one artist friend locally is she went over to some other country and there’s artists we know in our sort of Instagram community. So it’s not an official community. Yeah, we’re just a group of people who want to share our art because it’s fun to share art are.
SAGE – 32:09
They’re all in watercolour or sketching or painting in general or any kind of.
MEGAN – 32:13
Everything. And so then when when this artist from here went over to maybe the Netherlands, she got together with the girl we always talked to over there, and they went out and sketch together. Right. They’d never met before, but they just were like, Hey, well, I’m coming to the Netherlands. You live in the Netherlands. Let’s get together and sketch. And it’s like, okay.
SAGE – 32:32
That’s amazing.
MEGAN – 32:33
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so now, now when we do talk about maybe traveling IMO, I’m like, Oh, well, if we went there, I would let you know this person. No, and maybe why Cuckoos get with them one day or you know, But it’s weird. I never would have thought this even existed in the world.
SAGE – 32:49
It could, right? And I think that’s the thing about our world today, because our community is not just local. We have the ability to talk to people literally all over the world with their magazines. I got to know so many people. I mean, I remember talking to someone in Russia. She didn’t speak English. I didn’t speak Russian, but we had Google Translate. So we talked. You know, we just kept I mean, it was kind of funny, some of the translations, I’m sure, from both sides. So when I do travel, same thing. Now, no matter where I go, I’m like, okay, what polymer people are there? And yeah, I ring them up.
MEGAN – 33:20
Yeah. And so you got that through a magazine.
SAGE – 33:23
Through periodicals and magazine. Yeah. So I was wondering about yours in terms of that, like if it was particular to a medium or whatnot, but it sounds like.
MEGAN – 33:32
No, not at.
SAGE – 33:33
All. As long as it’s 2D visual. Yeah, Yeah. Sculptors and such as well or.
MEGAN – 33:39
Yeah, I do have a few sculptors. Now what we’ve got like with the art challenges, for example, I did a challenge with a local photographer and we used her picture at just a heritage building here. It’s kind of a cool old mill and ended up getting people from all over the world painting it and somebody did it wool felted wool, right? So they did their picture that way, right. And you know, other people were sort of just sketching it and other people were doing it. No bald acrylic, other people, you know, would draw little people working on the boards with a hammer and stuff. So they were just getting really creative. Yeah. Yeah.
SAGE – 34:19
That’s amazing.
MEGAN – 34:20
Right?
SAGE – 34:21
Is it just like someone posts a picture just a general feed with, we’re going to do this and maybe a hashtag you.
MEGAN – 34:27
Oh, yeah, definitely like hashtags, right? You learn that as you go. Like what? What the hashtags will do. And then we we’ve got a fellow in Paris who will share them every Friday. He’ll share a whole bunch like, you know, sort of six or nine.
SAGE – 34:41
As a kind of an overseer of the situation.
MEGAN – 34:44
Yeah, he’s just helping who just happens to have a whole lot of followers. And so he’s got an audience. So he’s like, Well, here I’ll share all of these challenges everyone’s been putting out so I can go into Google Translate and go, Can you share my challenge right? And are you going to read it?
SAGE – 35:00
Yeah, yeah. And now it’s wonderful. Yeah, have today.
MEGAN – 35:04
Yeah, yeah. And some of the local people, some of them started doing it too. So I don’t think there were really people in my community here. Didn’t really seem to know about the challenges and I just happened to have found out about them. So like this global community came into my community and sort of held their hand and and said, Hey, come on, come on over here and play right in. So then there’s this nice flow back and forth and it’s nice, right? When they seems over local people, you know.
SAGE – 35:33
You’re.
MEGAN – 35:33
Working with the. Yeah. It’s like, oh that’s like, oh so yeah, absolutely.
SAGE – 35:39
Yep. Now how did you meet the people locally?
MEGAN – 35:42
Gee, I, you know, probably posting local things and using local hashtags and some of my earlier paintings were local landmarks like little, you know, it’s a mom and pop restaurant’s been in Waterloo for this long, and then maybe the city of Waterloo would share that because I’d put in a hashtag that was like City Waterloo or whatever, and then they’d share it. And then some of those people would say, Oh, she’s a local person. Who’s she? Right? And they go in and, Find you that way? Yeah. Like I did a painting from a local butcher shop. I sort of did their storefront, which has this big weird Angus cow in a kilt playing baseball. You’re all in the front window. So I’m like, Oh, my gosh, I kind of have to paint. It’s brutal to do. So I try to put a little story with everything, right? So I have a story, my history with the little butcher shop and Instagram, and then the butcher shop shares it on his stuff and says, Oh my gosh, look at this, this is awesome. And then all these other local people, everybody knows the butcher shop. So they start diving in and that. So other artists find me and just other people. And surprisingly enough, all these people wanted pictures of the butcher shop and it’s like people want to hang a picture of the butcher shop in their home.
SAGE – 37:00
But it has good memories attached to it, especially.
MEGAN – 37:02
Yeah, yeah. And then, you know, other artists, you know, you meet them because you’ll see them doing shows locally and you know, you’ll stop and talk to them and kind of go, Hey, well, you know, like I’m on Instagram, you’re on Instagram, same thing. People used to do it with Facebook, right? They still do. I don’t know.
SAGE – 37:18
But you got out of your shell a little bit, it sounds like, in going to the shows and talking to people.
MEGAN – 37:24
Huh? Yeah, it’s been actually really good for me to get into my show because I think I was getting like, I have a tendency to sort of turn in word a bit and just keep to myself and think nobody probably is interested in talking to me at all. And so having these communities, I don’t know, maybe I do have some value and I prove to you otherwise. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I do remember making a very conscious decision maybe a year and a half ago now, I looked at my Instagram site and I saw what was happening with other artists and I thought, Nobody knows who I am. I need to let my personality come in, which was one of the scariest things I ever did, right? So I started kind of putting some little jokes in my write ups. Yeah. And a very conscious effort to just sort of add personality to my site because I thought, well, I mean, worst case scenario, this shut the site down, right? If if the personality is a bad thing. And and it was well-received, that’s when the conversation started happening and it would just get kind of funny. Yeah. So then it was just kind of a free for all and and the jokes just did stuff, but I had to actually get myself out of my shell just to try, right. Which very much out of character for me to put myself out there. But I’m glad I did. Yeah.
SAGE – 38:43
Yeah, absolutely. So you’re reaching out. You were having conversations, you were showing your personality. You were letting yourself be open so people could become familiar with you.
MEGAN – 38:53
Yeah. And getting a little goofier with the staff and stopping a ruler when I was dry.
SAGE – 39:00
Oh, okay. So there was kind of a parallel between what you’re doing with your art and what you were doing with your stuff socially.
MEGAN – 39:06
Yeah. So I guess I was just maybe trying to just expand a little. Yeah, naturally, it was just time to experiment. I don’t know. And then it’s like, Well, okay, so I’m not using a ruler now. And so now my building goes way. But that’s, you know, that’s okay.
SAGE – 39:21
It absolutely works with your stuff. Yeah, I if your stuff is straight, I don’t know.
MEGAN – 39:25
Yeah, I know.
SAGE – 39:26
It would be such a different thing.
MEGAN – 39:28
Like something. Yeah. Yeah.
SAGE – 39:31
So if somebody wanted to get online and find a community for themselves and the challenges in that kind of thing, do you have any advice on what to look for, what kind of hashtags to use or any of that kind of information?
MEGAN – 39:43
Yeah. Oh, well, so for challenges, you know, they could follow me and I can help them. I don’t always, always help people because people will ask me like, how did you do that? Or they’ll say, you know, how do you find these? Right? Or they’ll they’ll see me do a challenge. And then somebody who’s not in the challenge group will paint it anyways, right?
SAGE – 40:01
So why don’t you give us your Instagram tech?
MEGAN – 40:05
Oh, it’s at Megan’s brushstrokes. So Meghann SBIR U.S. Agent. Yeah, this is a bad idea, so I just have to R okay. Yes. Got it.
SAGE – 40:18
Okay. So Megan brushstrokes.
MEGAN – 40:20
Yeah, I can sort of get you set up, get anybody set up with where the challenge is. And I know about our but then there’s always other ones that come in because once you do a challenge, then the other people who do that challenge will come in and they’ll go, Oh, I like how you did that challenge. That’s pretty cool. And they’ll follow you and then you get them in your group and if you say a few kind words or comment on any of their stuff, then you kind of get some chats going. It’s just nobody needs to be lonely. That’s great. It’s just it’s right there. Like, I don’t even actually have a computer, right? Everything’s just on my phone and there’s no expectations.
SAGE – 40:55
So everything you’re doing just kind of meshes together. You go out and you buy, you get your fitness in, and then you do your painting and then you have this community that you know is going to support you locally and what’s what a great setup.
MEGAN – 41:08
Yeah, it is. It’s just been such a surprise. So yeah.
SAGE – 41:11
Let’s go ahead and kind of wrap up with some of these closing questions. I tend to ask everybody one, how do you feed your music? What kind of things do you do to keep yourself inspired?
MEGAN – 41:20
Wow. Okay, So obviously the challenges give me a constant right flow. But I’ve also found urban sketchers from all over the world who like the little coffee shop that I was seeing I did with the little TVs. It’s always him standing outside his coffee shop, drawing it. But I like the coffee shop. So then it’s like, Oh, can I use your picture? That’s an awesome picture.
SAGE – 41:41
Yeah.
MEGAN – 41:42
So then of course he’s like, Sure, you know, I go nuts, right? Because people like to have their stuff appreciated and we like to share. I don’t know why what it is about sharing in art, but it’s it’s important if you’re not sharing it. I don’t know what’s the point?
SAGE – 41:57
Yeah, everybody has their own ideas, but I think for many of us it is a way to connect to other people, if not in the fashion of I want to share my aesthetic or my vision or the things that I enjoy with other people through creating things in art and sharing those out publicly or selling or whatnot. I mean, some people just want to do it for the act of creating in and of itself. But obviously for you, this is extremely important and you’ve really built your kind of world around communities.
MEGAN – 42:26
Yeah, it’s important and very like, you know, I’ve sort of dabbled in selling art this year. It doesn’t give me a lot of joy, but sharing it with people and having people approach me and tell me how much they love my stuff and some toe year old coming to where my daughter works and going, I love your mom’s stuff. It’s like a 20 year old boy in university going everything she does. I love and I’m thinking a 20 year old boy. Yeah, that whimsical view of the universe.
SAGE – 42:54
So new.
MEGAN – 42:55
Yeah. Yeah, right. So it’s like sort of this broad appeal, which is just very satisfying. That’s much more satisfying than selling something. Yeah. So.
SAGE – 43:04
Well, do you have any new or novel experiences or anything unusual to share with the listeners?
MEGAN – 43:08
Really, I’ve just kind of tried to embrace the mundane around me, right? So that’s when my partner had suggested, Don’t you paint stuff around here that we see every day when we’re out biking and hiking? And I thought, the heck, yeah, but I want to do that.
And I mean, some days you’re not go into a very exciting, glamorous place and sometimes it’s a garbage can and a lamp post. Yeah, but if you kind of play with that stuff a little bit or say that’s going to be kind of a cool alley over there in downtown, nobody pays attention to the alley. But I look down that alley every single day on my way to work or when I’m walking to here, like today when I found myself, you know, walking down under the road, I was walking along and going down to where the train tracks are and all the graffiti under the bridge and yeah, sketching that. And I thought, What am I doing down here? Yeah, to me it’s graffiti, it’s trade tracks. It’s like, but there’s some beauty in it and it’s just part of my world. Like I always look down at it as I’m going over the bridge. I’m always like, Wow, that’s cool graffiti down there. And it’s funny because when you appreciate what’s outside your front door, it’s very satisfying.
SAGE – 44:28
It sounds like also the new and novel experience isn’t so much about going to finding something you haven’t seen or haven’t done, but that you’re looking at the things that you do see every day in a new way. So you find what’s new about it.
MEGAN – 44:42
Yeah, right. And so this desire to actually do something local, what’s a tweet that you know what sometimes at certain times of year, especially when I walk and bike most places like I’m not really going to drive a long way to find something. So it’s like it’s got to be accessible to me. And so it’s like, what am I going to paint this week? Right? And then it’ll be like, okay, come on, wrong. Let’s go look at this and we’ll find some stuff and see if there’s anything over there down that path. I’ve seen the path a million times. Let’s go explore that or I’ll say, Let’s go this way and we’ll go to the market. Maybe you’d see something in the market you’d like to pay right? Yeah. So we’re always kind of going, What do I want to sketch, right, that I haven’t already sketched and just want to do the same thing over and over again or. Yeah, right. But sometimes I do the same thing and I’ll, you know, I’ll do a comparison and say, Oh, I did this a year ago and now this is me here. Like, look at the difference, right? And you don’t even realize you’re growing right? And so it’s kind of fun to see.
SAGE – 45:42
Well, it sounds like, yeah, you’re forcing yourself to see the world in a new view. Yeah, that’s great. And then the last and I think most important question for all artists, what is your definition of success for your art and your artistic journey? I mean, you’re on the beacon and you’re in the park, right? You get those things down with.
MEGAN – 46:03
That was originally my definition. Right now it’s just making people smile. The fact that my art just makes people kind of happy. Yeah, that’s not what I was ever aiming for. I was just kind of doing what I do, I guess. And the fact that it makes people giggle like I did a sort of a one man show, which I was a little overwhelmed by. It was too much. And I thought, This is terrible. But I had sort of filled this great big, huge room with my art and I came in to check on how it was doing this year for a couple of months, and I came into the room, these two elderly ladies all dolled up for an evening out, right? So they’re sitting back in the couch and they said, Are you the artist? And they just talked to me forever and about how much they loved the art, Right? And nobody was talking about buying the art. They were just sitting there enjoying it because it was fun and it was vibrant and just made them so happy. And of course, they have ideas about places I should sketch, right? Because, yeah, as soon as people see that you’re painting a lot of local stuff, they go, Oh, you should do this place before they tear it down because, oh, do you remember? You know, and then they have little stories to go with that and it’s like, oh, okay. And it just it brought nothing but joy to them. And they were just sitting there having a great time before deciding where they were going to go for dinner. Yeah.
SAGE – 47:20
And it kind of made their night. Yeah. Yeah. Wonderful. That’s like the best thing. Just to see somebody happy or smiling or their day or their life or whatever is a little bit better because of what you’re doing.
MEGAN – 47:31
Yeah, that’s success. So.
SAGE – 47:34
Well, before we sign off, we’ve told them your Instagram at Megan’s brushstrokes. Is there anywhere they can buy your work or any other links or sites that they should know about to find you?
MEGAN – 47:46
Oh well, like I do have an Etsy shop called Megan’s Brushstrokes. That’s about the only places I am. Yeah, that’s enough. Yeah, that’s enough, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. All right.
SAGE – 47:57
Well, this is a great conversation. You’ve really inspired me. I think. I don’t reach out enough like you. I’m fairly shy, but I. Yeah, I think I’m going to try reaching out on Instagram more as well in my local community. And I’m sure you’ve inspired a lot of people that were listening. So thank you so much for sharing that with us, Megan. I appreciate it.
MEGAN – 48:13
Oh, thanks for finding me. However, you found me and made me a.
SAGE – 48:18
Self out there. That’s how I.
MEGAN – 48:19
Know.
SAGE – 48:20
Oh, great. Well, thank you so much.
MEGAN – 48:23
Thank you.
SAGE – 48:26
Well, I hope you got as much out of that conversation as I did. It really got me thinking about how involved I am in communities both locally and online. I mean, I’m always working, I’m always busy. I don’t feel like I have the time to make that kind of connection for myself. And that’s probably really to my detriment. So I’m going to work on that. I’m going to search out challenges, which I did after that conversation. If you want to look for challenges for yourself now, Megan offered to help direct you to the ones that she knows about. And what I was able to see through her pages is there’s a lot of sketching and drawing. So if you’re drawing, painting, sketching to do visual arts, she probably can help you out with that. Otherwise, it looks like you can just Google challenges. There’s people who put out these lists. So putting in art challenge and the type of medium that you work in or kind of general area of art that you work in should bring you up some of potential challenges on Instagram. Primarily, that’s the biggest one. Twitter has some as well. And then locally going to art openings and art walks and, networking with groups on meet up. Or you could look for guilds. If there are guilds in your area, there are usually some kind of guilds or organizations that promote and support your particular medium in your particular art form. So you can look for those as well. So some idea is just think about what you might need from community. If you need more community, if you need more connection to something larger than your self, your little circle, whatever it is that you work with at this time. But yeah, I just thought that was a fantastic conversation. I’m really looking forward to checking all those options out and that actually dovetails into some ideas that I’d been thinking about for a while now. It would be great if we could build a community of people who like to discuss the types of subjects talked about on the podcast, but maybe more extensively and with some back and forth and the ability to ask questions and stuff, right? And to do this in order to better our lives as creatives, not just in our techniques and our medium in selling, but all the other things. There’s so many other aspects to our lives as artists. So I had thought about doing something where we could get together, maybe online and have discussions or create together. Now, I used to have a group in Denver friends mostly, that we would get together and do something called the Station Bitch. Sorry for the language, but if you’ve done those before, it’s just basically getting together and doing what you do while you talk. Now, in Megan’s case, she would get together other folks at coffee shops or wherever, and sketch, which is great because it’s very portable. If you’re in a craft art or messy art form, sometimes it’s harder to take your work out with you. So there seems to be online opportunities for that. I was thinking maybe I can make that one of the things that I can do, you folks. So if you are interested in expanding kind of the siege arts community, let me know what it is that you would like and the kind of things that you would like to see and the formats in which you would like to see them. Any input on that would be great. It’s not something I can really dive into until later in May because the first half of May is kind of full. But let’s talk about it. Tell me what you’d like. Tell me if you if you want to have conversations, if you want to have group art sessions together, and I’ll see what we can set up. And it may involve some kind of membership thing, just because there are services that I would need to employ that will add additional financial burdens to the to the process and the project. But I’m happy to do it. And let’s see what we can come up with. So would that on your mind, put yourself out there, have more active conversations online, put more of your personality out there, try some challenges and see what kind of community you can build and then reach out to people locally. And I hope that brings you the kind of community that you might be looking for. In the meantime, if you go out and do that kind of thing, and locally or even online, those are new and novel experiences that will help feed your muse. So do you feed your muse with those new experiences? Be true to your weirdness and join me again next week on the Sage Arts Podcast Community. You can build and then reach out to people locally, and I hope that brings you the kind of community that you might be looking for. In the meantime, if you go out and do that kind of thing, and locally or even online, those are new and novel experiences that will help feed your muse. So do you, your muse, with those new experiences, be true to your weirdness and join me again next week on the Sage Arts podcast.
