Artfully Told

We have come to the end of Season 1. After the first eighty episodes interviewing amazing people, it is time for your host, Lindsey, to take a break. Learn more in this episode, and we'll catch you next time!   Enroll in Lindsey's dance and wellness courses: www.elevateart.thinkific.com  Support Artfully Told: www.paypal.me/elevateart Artfully Told links: www.facebook.com/artfullytold | www.artfullytold.podbean.com | elevateartskc@gmail.com Get a free audiobook through Audible!  http://www.audibletrial.com/ArtfullyTold   Season 1 Finale [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome to Artfully Told, where we share true stories about meaningful encounters with art. [00:00:06] Krista: I think artists help people have different perspectives on every aspect of life. [00:00:12] Roman: All I can do is put my part in to the world. [00:00:15] Elizabeth: It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. It doesn't have to be perfect ever really. I mean, as long as you, and you're enjoying doing it and you're trying your best, that can be good enough. [00:00:23] Elna: Art is something that you can experience with your senses and that you just experiences as so beautiful. [00:00:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Artfully Told. I'm your host, Lindsey, and I have some news to share with you. So I have over the last year and a half, had the most amazing opportunities to meet and interview some of the coolest people that I have yet to encounter. They are artists and creatives of all kinds. And whether they consider themselves to be professional or hobbyists or somewhere in between, what has made them all so special is their love and appreciation for art and the way that art brings us together and the stories that emerge from it that just make it so very cool. I have really thoroughly enjoyed this opportunity to chat with people and to hear their stories and to allow them another outlet to be creative by being on a podcast. And it's been an amazing outlet for me personally, especially after COVID shut down most of my other artistic endeavors. [00:01:39] This has been an amazing thing for me to be able to do, but I am going to be taking a bit of a break. I don't have a particular timeline in mind right now. I have some big life changes coming up that are super exciting and they will allow me to actually really expand my horizons, expand and grow as a person and then, you know, even explore other artistic endeavors for myself and, or meet other people with other artistic endeavors too. And I'm really excited about this life change, but it is something that's gonna kind of need me to focus a little bit elsewhere for a while. And so I'm not saying that I won't be back, because my hope and plan is to be back at some point. [00:02:29] But at the moment, what I would encourage you to do is first of all, shoot me an email if you have feedback on any of the episodes I've done so far and let me know, what are the things that you enjoy? What's your favorite part? What's your least favorite part? Good, the bad and the ugly. I'm all here for it. I'd love to hear what you have to say. And then in addition to that, I would love if you would listen to all of the back episodes. Each person that I've interviewed has brought really unique perspective on what the arts mean to them personally, as well as their experiences creating and being creative. And it's just such an inspiring group of people that I've had the opportunity to chat with. And I think you'll enjoy each and every one of them. So I would highly encourage you to take some time and go back through the episodes and really listen and, you know, absorb because that's pretty cool. [00:03:30] And I just want to also say, you know, again, this isn't the end, this is only the beginning and I hope it's the only the beginning of your own artistic journey. What a fun opportunity for me to be able to do this and share this with the world and, and hopefully for you as listeners as well. I have appreciated so much every single one of you who has listened to even one episode, because it's meant that art gets to be explored and talked about and demystified again and again and again, and that is an honor to me, and it's a joy to me and I'm grateful. [00:04:07] And I just want to tell each and every one of you that you are important, you matter, and what you bring to the world is beautiful. So thank you so much for listening to Artfully Told and cheers to the future for you, for me, for Artfully Told and for the world, and we will catch you next time. [00:04:34] I hope your day has been Artfully Told.   ZT8dxa2ULI9lngB6spjD

In today's episode, I welcome Erica Johnson! Erica owns her own business providing hair, skin, and makeup services to customers in the Kansas City area and beyond, and she is a prolific artist, always learning and taking courses in new art forms, including photography, metal-smithing, and more. She shares how she can retain hope even when life has thrown way too many curveballs at her over the last two years, and the ways that art has played a powerful role in her healing journey.   Get in touch with Erica Johnson: www.ericajohnsonhairandmakeup.com Enroll in Lindsey's dance and wellness courses: www.elevateart.thinkific.com  Support Artfully Told: www.paypal.me/elevateart Artfully Told links: www.facebook.com/artfullytold | www.artfullytold.podbean.com | elevateartskc@gmail.com Get a free audiobook through Audible!  http://www.audibletrial.com/ArtfullyTold   Episode 080 - Erica Johnson [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome to Artfully Told, where we share true stories about meaningful encounters with art. [00:00:06] Krista: I think artists help people have different perspectives on every aspect of life. [00:00:12] Roman: All I can do is put my part in to the world. [00:00:15] Elizabeth: It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. It doesn't have to be perfect ever really. I mean, as long as you, and you're enjoying doing it and you're trying your best, that can be good enough. [00:00:23] Elna: Art is something that you can experience with your senses and that you just experiences as so beautiful. [00:00:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Artfully Told. I'm your host Lindsey and I am so very delighted to have as my guest today, Erica Johnson. Erica is an amazing human being first and foremost, absolutely lovely person with so much to share and offer the world. And I'm so excited that she's here, but she is also an amazing artist and has not just dabbled, but become proficient in, many different art forms. And she just brings a wealth of experience and expertise as well as perspective that is so unique. And so, Erica, thank you so much for being here today. I'm so excited to have you. [00:01:14] Erica Johnson: Thank you for having me. [00:01:16] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, of course. Well, I would love if you wouldn't mind sharing just a little bit about your background, maybe how you got involved in art in the first place and, you know, kind of where your career has, has led you, if you don't mind. [00:01:30] Erica Johnson: Sure. So basically I do hair and skin for a living. It's something I've always wanted to do. I've always wanted to just sort of make a woman feel beautiful, not just on the outside though, more or less on the inside as well, because we all know beauty fades. And you know I've been doing it since 2009 and it's what started as just me doing like hair and skin. I kind of dabbled into working with models and traveling. And then, you know, years later, I mean, I became self-employed and my business has turned a little more into like a ministry. So I it's, it's really cool to see how God works in my business and how he sends like-minded people too, whether it's the strength in me or me to strengthen them through encouragement from God or just a word of prayer. [00:02:37] And leading up to that I, since 2020 have had just a really hard, hard circumstances obviously with the COVID situation, but I've had significant amount of losses in my life. From February last year, leading up to currently September, this year I've lost 12 people, family and friends. And so with being in support groups and just in different Bible studies I decided to just sort of get my hands into photography and metal- smithing. And so I've been taking a couple of classes, a way just to sort of express my grief, but also make sure it glorifies God. I, I just sort of use art to express my pain, but also what the elements, whether it be scripture inspired or just whatever God leads me to, but I express it through art, if that makes sense. [00:03:43] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Well, and I know, like you've mentioned, you've had quite a bit of loss over the last couple of years, and I'm sure that has informed a lot of your life, of course, but I think it's really interesting that you've chosen to use art as an outlet to express what you need to, what you need to express, but then also that you have chosen to do it informs that have deep meaning for yourself. But then, I think, also could really maybe help other people as they're struggling maybe as well, or just, you know, maybe they're past the struggling, but they're, they're trying to also go through the emotions. And I know, you know, we have talked a lot about how, if you have faith that there is something more and that there is intentionality, you can at least, at least try to wrap your head around the concept of hope. And you're one of the most hopeful people I've ever met. And I'm wondering if you wouldn't mind speaking to that, especially considering that you could have every right to kind of just throw your hands up and be done, but I'd love if you would share more about, you know, your, your reason for being able to be so hopeful, and then also kind of how that's informed some of your work despite the hurt, if you're willing. [00:05:11] Erica Johnson: Sure. I dunno how to describe it the best way, but I can basically go off of just my daily relationship with God and how God has met me exactly where I am, even in the middle of the pain and just-- perfect example of the metal piece in my metal- smithing class, we had to construct like a commemorative vessel and cast a piece that will go inside it. Well, I kind of struggled with commemorative vessel. And I really kept trying to make it go my way and, you know, put a perfect spin on it and just, you know, just trying to figure out where, where do I fit in or just find my way. And it's really interesting. It was back in June. Earlier this year, I decided to drive to the Weston State Park and I had just lost a dear pastor that I valued. And of course my dad's birthday was this particular day. And then my grandma had also passed away. My uncle passed away within the same timeframe. [00:06:34] So as I'm driving to the Weston Park, I just asked God to give me a sign, give me hope to make it through this day. And you know, I see these three crosses on the side of the road anytime I drive, but this particular day, they literally like jumped out at me and I kinda just pondered. I'm like, "Wow. Okay." So as I get to the park, I'm just sitting there just kind of listening to the wind and watching the birds fly around. And I opened my little book that is from my group support book. And as I open it, I'm reading and it literally is speaking straight to my heart's cry about the cross and how without the cross and Jesus dying on the cross, every person that I have lost, there would be no opportunity for me to ever be able to see them again. But because of Jesus dying on the cross, I will get to see them in eternity and they, they won't be sick. There will be no suffering. There will be, you know, they'll just be made new. And constantly over and over again with this little short grief journey, it's been quite the, I mean, it's just, God has been showing me the cross, the cross. And I guess in a way that's, that's where my hope is, is how God has just met me every step of the way. [00:08:10] And even, even, as I said before, with me trying to construct a commemorative vessel piece, making it perfect or trying to go my own way, God has met me in the middle of that and reminded me that nothing is ever perfect. Only Jesus is perfect, who died on the cross and basically like just really strengthening my faith because by nature, I'm naturally a planner. Things do need to go my way. They need to go a certain way, but this faith walk is not that way. It is, that's truly to me what God is showing me. That's what faith is. And if you're so concerned about your plans, you're never going to be open to God's plans that He has for us in. And for me like to trust in God's character, that God's character, one of his character traits that I always cling to is He is good. [00:09:06] So it helps me to be hopeful that even though this is painful, the beauty that God gave us a savior who suffered so much, but that on the cross and left us with the Holy Spirit to guide us and comfort us, that that to me is more hopeful and reassuring. And the fact that literally it's becoming very essential to my life. And just resting in God's promises. I mean, they, they truly have never returned void. If that makes sense. [00:09:47] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I think your perspective is so helpful and beautiful in that way, that, that you are able to take, you know, difficult situations, but still find beauty and hope despite them, or, or even through them, kind of like you said, getting met where you are is really a powerful concept. You don't have to try to be anybody else or be in a different emotional state or anything, you're just --you're you. And that's, that's a beautiful thing too. And so I'm curious, obviously you have had multiple different art forms that you've pursued over the years, which is super cool. Was photography and also metalworking-- where those always interests of yours or did they kind of develop later on, or how did all that come about for you? [00:10:37] Erica Johnson: Well, I let's see. I've always loved to take pictures. I always kind of had like an interest in taking pictures, but I didn't really know how, or like, I don't know. Hair and makeup was the main focus. So I, I just, it was always just kind of like, "oh, I'll try one day," but didn't really, you know, happen until the day after my father died. That's the first thing I grabbed. I went in his house downstairs and I picked up his cameras and I don't know, I just clinged to them so tightly. And when COVID happened, I just started

In today's episode, I welcome Hannah Biggs! Hannah is primarily a mosiac artist who also draws coloring pages and has self-published two comic coloring books for kids. She talks about the process of being given the inspiration for her largest mosiac project to date, along with its design and creation, as well as about a really impactful experience she had witnessing art used in an Orthodox church. Part of the profits from all her sold art go towards supporting missions and charity projects around the world. (Fun fact: the cover image of this episode is of the mosaic Hannah talks about in this episode!)   Get in touch with Hannah Biggs: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063717901468 | https://www.facebook.com/wanderlustcedarville  Enroll in Lindsey's dance and wellness courses: www.elevateart.thinkific.com  Support Artfully Told: www.paypal.me/elevateart Artfully Told links: www.facebook.com/artfullytold | www.artfullytold.podbean.com | elevateartskc@gmail.com Get a free audiobook through Audible!  http://www.audibletrial.com/ArtfullyTold Schedule your own interview as a featured guest with Artfully Told! https://calendly.com/artfullytold/podcast-interview   Episode 079 - Hannah Biggs [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome to Artfully Told, where we share true stories about meaningful encounters with art. [00:00:06] Krista: I think artists help people have different perspectives on every aspect of life. [00:00:12] Roman: All I can do is put my part in to the world. [00:00:15] Elizabeth: It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. It doesn't have to be perfect ever really. I mean, as long as you, and you're enjoying doing it and you're trying your best, that can be good enough. [00:00:23] Elna: Art is something that you can experience with your senses and that you just experiences as so beautiful. [00:00:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Artfully Told. I'm your host Lindsey, and I am very excited to have as my guest today, Hannah Biggs. Hannah is a mosaic artist, maybe primarily, but that barely scratches the surface of all the cool things that she is and does. And, full disclosure-- I'm so excited especially to have Hannah here because she is one of my lovely cousins and it's so much fun to see all the art in our family. It's just so cool to see how we all kind of branched out into little different artistic endeavors. So, Hannah, thank you so much for being here today. I'm thrilled to talk to you. [00:01:16] Hannah Biggs: Thanks for having me. [00:01:17] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course. Well, I would absolutely love if you wouldn't mind sharing a little bit about your background, maybe what got you interested in art in the first place and sort of how that has changed and evolved over time? Because I know you've had a lot of really cool opportunities, especially, and I just love to hear all about it. [00:01:39] Hannah Biggs: I don't remember a time in my life I've not been interested in art. As a kid, my mom would print out a list of all of the ways you could enter art at the county fair. And she would tell us that we had to do a certain number of them from the different categories in order for us to like pass art for our homeschool. So I tried a lot of different medium and it's just always been a part of my life. [00:02:04] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, well, that's great. I did not know that. That's hilarious. Actually, I can picture that. So I'm curious-- I guess I'm not familiar with that-- so, so what kinds of artistic things did you try? I mean, you said you tried a lot, but I'm just curious -- does any of them particularly stand out as being like, you know, "oh, I, I loved that project and you know, it was important to me because." [00:02:29] Hannah Biggs: Probably not. They all happen when I was pretty young. I guess the thing I liked most was just trying all the different things. And as a child, if you're the only person entered in a certain category, you automatically get the blue ribbon. So. [00:02:44] Lindsey Dinneen: There you go. That's hilarious. Well, yeah. And of course that's exciting, you know, obviously as a kid, I'm sure it'd be just as exciting as an adult to be like, "yes, I'll take it and run." Oh, awesome. Okay. So you don't really remember a time when art wasn't a part of your life, but I do know that as an adult, you've probably developed further into skillsets. And granted you're a wife and a mother and you have lots going on. So I'd just love to hear about how that your artistic endeavors have changed over the years and like over time, how has that evolved? [00:03:19] Hannah Biggs: Okay. In high school I got into poetry. And then in college I started doing a lot of drawings. And then when I had kids, I did a lot more sewing and, you know, made them like costumes and stuff. And then my pastor's daughter at my church is a stain glass artist and she's phenomenal. And I mean, glass is just so pretty. So I asked her if she would teach me how to do it. And I went over to her house one day and she was showing me some of the basics, but we didn't have time to do the whole project. And as I'm walking out the door, she asked if I was interested in mosaics and I have always loved the look of them, but I've never done them. And so that's what I told her. And she's like, "would you be interested in trying?" Like "yes, of course." So she hands me like a box full of supplies tells me that she has tried it and doesn't want to do it anymore. And since she does stained glass, she always has all these scraps laying around that she doesn't know how to get rid of. And so she just kind of sent me out the door with a list of instructions and didn't show me how to do anything. And I went home and tried it and fell in love and never looked back. [00:04:34] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, that's awesome. I love that, you know, one artistic endeavor can inspire a new one. You know, you and her that such a complimentary set of things. That's so cool. And yeah, stained glass is the most beautiful thing ever. That's one of my artistic, you know, would love to try in the future. But okay, so you started doing mosaic work and what kinds of projects have you done with it? I mean, I, I, I have a little bit of a sneak peek, so I get the behind the scenes a little bit, but I'd still love to hear your journey because if I'm not incorrect, you've recently finished a pretty major mosaic project. Is that true? [00:05:15] Hannah Biggs: So the most recent, I should say the largest project I have ever done was a project I did for my church two and a half years in the making. I was actually working on a different project and I was also reading in Revelation at the same time. And I, I swear God spoke to me and gave me the inspiration for this because there's no way I could've come up with it on my own. But in Revelation chapter four, it talks about the throne room of God and how behind the throne there's a rainbow, like an emerald kind of radiating out from the throne. And so the picture is seven arcs of the green rainbow and three worshipers in different poses of adoration, and the bottom there's like the streets of gold. But the really cool part is that each arc of the rainbow represents a character trait of God. And the gold foundation has 12 large stones each surrounded by 12 small stones. And the 12 big ones represent both the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles and the 144 little ones is symbolic of the prophet. There's a verse that talks about our faith being founded on the apostles and the prophets and teaching and stuff. And so there's just a lot of symbology in there and it's now in my church. [00:06:50] Lindsey Dinneen: That's amazing. That's so cool. What a, what a beautiful vision and a representation. I think, I mean, I love art for so many reasons, but I think that is just, it takes it to a new level, right? When you have a very particular inspiration that, you know, is divine. I mean, yeah. Like you said, it's not from you and so, and so you were able to bring this to life and show especially God's character. I liked that idea of, you know, that being incorporated in the mosaic of like, this is that interpretation and you do that through just a really beautiful medium. So, okay. So two and a half years in the making. So how, how big is it actually? Let's start there. [00:07:36] Hannah Biggs: It's, it's two feet by two feet. I wasn't working on the glass part for two years, but the design of it has been in process for two years. But the actual glasswork itself took seven months. [00:07:50] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay. Still substantial. And so when you go, yeah, no, I, I mean, for sure. So because I'm not a mosaic artist, so this is, you know, really interesting to me is of course you have to design it first. So when you first got this vision or this, you know, idea, was it like crystal clear exactly what you were supposed to represent or did it take a lot of sort of tweaking of the design over time to, to get it to a point where you thought, "Okay, this is in line with what I had this vision?" [00:08:24] Hannah Biggs: So when I, when I first had the idea and I sketched it out, it was mostly like the people in the colors and that hasn't changed. Like that part itself has looked exactly the same since the beginning. But the arcs and their symbols has taken more tweaking, trying to figure out how best-- like which, which stories have the, the simplest symbology what character traits of God are. So I broke up the arcs into, I guess, three categories. So the center arc has Hebrew in it actually. And it's the name of God. So it says I Am that I Am, and on the three arcs closer to the throne are who God is without us. So God is infinitely sovereign. God is omniscient, all knowing, orderly-- that's one category. [00:09:28] And then I learned a new theological word called aseity, which means that God is complete within himself. He doesn't need anything from anyone. And so I did a braid for tha

In today's episode, I have compiled some of our more recent guests' answers to the question, "What is the most important role of an artist?" This delightful compilation brings a plethora of unique, honest, and inspiring answers to that question, and I'm excited to share part two of this series with you today. Enjoy!    Enroll in Lindsey's dance and wellness courses: www.elevateart.thinkific.com  Support Artfully Told: www.paypal.me/elevateart Artfully Told links: www.facebook.com/artfullytold | www.artfullytold.podbean.com | elevateartskc@gmail.com Get a free audiobook through Audible!  http://www.audibletrial.com/ArtfullyTold Schedule your own interview as a featured guest with Artfully Told! https://calendly.com/artfullytold/podcast-interview   Episode 78 - "What's the Most Important Role of an Artist? - Part 2 [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello and welcome to Artfully Told, where we share true stories about meaningful encounters with art. [00:00:06] Krista: "I think artists help people have different perspectives on every aspect of life." [00:00:12] Roman: "All I can do is put my heart in to the world." [00:00:15] Elizabeth: "It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. It doesn't have to be perfect ever, really. I mean, as long as you, you're enjoying doing it and you're trying your best, that can be good enough." [00:00:23] Elna: "Art is something that you can experience with your senses and that you just experience as so beautiful." [00:00:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Artfully Told. I'm your host Lindsey, and I am delighted to be bringing you another special episode today. We are going to explore all of the different answers to the question, "what's the most important role of an artist?" Over the last year and a half I have gotten to ask that question of so many artists and guests that have been on my show. And I absolutely love hearing people's perspective on this question. So I'm excited to bring it all together for you in this special episode that I hope you thoroughly enjoy. [00:01:11] Mike Huerter: Probably just be true to yourself. You know, you, you can't fake art. It's, I mean, yeah, I'm portraying a role in something, and I guess people would maybe think that's fake, but for me, I want to do it to the very best of my ability. I want people to--when they, when they look and see me doing something, they don't see me, they see the person or, you know, that I'm trying to portray. [00:01:38] Gregg Gonzales: I think, I think it's to delight. Truly, I think it's to delight those, whether that delight can be in the form of, "I appreciate it. I think it's garbage. I think it's the greatest thing ever." I think it's to gain, to get a response from the people who are experiencing the art, whether it be music, whether it be a painting, whether it be a book. You want a response. You want, you want them to feel something. So to me as an artist, I want my people to, or I want the people who are experiencing my work to feel something. I know that sounds very general, but to me, it's about feeling. [00:02:23] Jami Robben: I would say the most important role is probably sharing your gifts with others, just to again, make them happy. I think a lot of times are sometimes can be, you know, just kept to yourself if you're scared of showing other people. But the best thing you could do as an artist is share it and inspire others with it. [00:02:44] JaJa Smith: To be honest, because we as people have dealt with enough bologna sandwich that, you know, it doesn't do anything for anyone, if you're just doing something for the sake of the adoration or the sake of a finished product. But if you're true and you're intentional and you're authentic, I mean, that is the product that people can truly get on board with. You know, I think that that is to not just to people, but also to the work itself, and then to the artists, because there have been a few times I may have flubbed or played it safer. And then, you know, I stepped back and the scene is over and, you know, I was just like, "What are you doing?" Like you, you know that you cheated yourself and you're like, "Why did I do that?" So the biggest thing to me is just be honest, be authentic with your work and everything that you do. You know, I don't see any need to talk about things that you don't understand. You know, like if, if you're a music artist, that's like, you know, tell your story. You know, you have a story. And it's beautiful. I mean, it's yours and it deserves to be told. [00:03:49] Darnell Benjamin: I think the number one rule for an artist is to be honest. I think that, to be honest, whatever that means, to be honest. [00:03:59] Emily Moores: I think that there are a lot of different kinds of roles for different kinds of artists. Like some artists have you reflect on, you know, historical events or connect you to maybe an idea or group of people that you wouldn't have a connection with. And I guess in any situation, whether, you know, like if I'm just creating artwork to be playful, I'm still creating a connection to this like physical, tangible object existing in space. And so for me, I would say artists create connections where we maybe haven't thought about them previously. [00:04:39] Harlem Lennox: To be themselves and to be truthful about what it is that they are trying to convey, whatever it is, no matter how dark you might feel that it is, or no matter how light it is, because it just-- I feel like if you can feel something and you can get something, some type of meaning from whatever it is, then it is art. And so if you are making, whether it's a piece of music or painting, if you're dancing, whatever it is, if it has meaning, and it is true to you, then I think that is the response. That is the responsibility of an artist. I don't want an artist who tries to be the next whomever. I don't want an artist who, okay, what is everybody liking right now? Let me try to create that. And I understand that people got to do what they got to do to get where they're trying to go. And so maybe they start off that way because they're still learning. But when you get to a point where you're confident enough and brave enough to be able to produce your own work, your own truth, whatever is in your soul, then I definitely think that that people have a responsibility to bring themselves to the art world, because like I said, we need it. We don't need another Van Gogh. He's here. He did his thing. Thank you Van. But I want to see another whomever it is: Brittany, Sam, you know, Godfrey, whoever. Bring me your art, bring me your truth. Or else it doesn't mean anything. [00:06:23] Christina Stanton: It's to tell their truth, because we all are having such different experiences in this world that what you want is that somebody is expressing your experience somewhere in art, doing something. And you just want to connect with art that's expressing your particular experience that you're having on this planet and is sharing your human experience. And so I just think artists should be telling their truth of how they're viewing the world and their experience, because there's going to be people out there that can relate and want to relate and want that comradery, and wants somebody to quote unquote, "understand them," but I just feel like it's a shared experience. So it's a story that, that can be shared with several people. We're not all having the same experience, but there are people out there who are having, you know, the same struggles, and the same highs and lows and joys. And they're looking at life in the world and God, and in the same way, do you want to connect to art that is speaking to you personally. [00:07:33] Jeffrey Holst: I think that artists bring perspective to everything. If we didn't have artists, our world would be very boring. So I think perspective and entertainment are probably the two things that are most important. [00:07:49] Lucas Zellers: The role of an artist is to tell us what to think about. And I think my experience with monsters and the study of them and sort of the practical use of monster theory is that art gives us a way of saying things that we couldn't say, or feeling things that we couldn't feel or experiencing things that we had no other way to experience. [00:08:13] Kristin Beale: The important role: to entertain and not to entertain others for that is a big plus, but to entertain yourself, to keep yourself happy to stay while you're doing it for it to be a good, you know, way to keep yourself happy. And, you know, it's a major plus if it can bring happiness to other people too. [00:08:34] Doug Motel: Well, I think the, the role of the artist is to lead us in our evolution. I think that you know, Darwin pointed out that we evolved from creatures in the sea, you know, we keep evolving and I think that there's an assumption that evolution is just kind of like on autopilot, but I don't. I believe that we could actually hasten the pace of our evolution. We can you know steer and direct our evolution and the ones that do that are the artists. So the role of the artist is nothing short of saving humanity. [00:09:15] Gloria Grace Rand: Well, the most important role-- I think it's just being true to who you are and to trust yourself to be able to communicate whatever it is that you want to communicate. Because if you're going about doing something in the arts to please someone else, it's not really ultimately going to be successful. I think you've gotta be able to do whatever it is from your heart to really be able to please yourself. And it may not please everybody. And that's okay. But as long as you are conveying what you want to convey from your heart, then it is going to touch someone else's heart. [00:09:58] Donna Kay Yarborough: There are many different roles that people have depending on their abilities and what their focus is. So like I mentioned earlier, some people just want to bring joy into th

In today's episode, I have compiled some of our more recent guests' answers to the question, "What is the most important role of an artist?" This delightful compilation brings a plethora of unique, honest, and inspiring answers to that question, and I'm excited to share part one of this series with you today. Enjoy!    Enroll in Lindsey's dance and wellness courses: www.elevateart.thinkific.com  Support Artfully Told: www.paypal.me/elevateart Artfully Told links: www.facebook.com/artfullytold | www.artfullytold.podbean.com | elevateartskc@gmail.com Get a free audiobook through Audible!  http://www.audibletrial.com/ArtfullyTold Schedule your own interview as a featured guest with Artfully Told! https://calendly.com/artfullytold/podcast-interview   Episode 77 - "What's the Most Important Role of an Artist?" - Part 1 [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello and welcome to Artfully Told, where we share true stories about meaningful encounters with art. [00:00:06] Krista: "I think artists help people have different perspectives on every aspect of life." [00:00:12] Roman: "All I can do is put my heart in to the world." [00:00:15] Elizabeth: "It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. It doesn't have to be perfect ever, really. I mean, as long as you, you're enjoying doing it and you're trying your best, that can be good enough." [00:00:23] Elna: "Art is something that you can experience with your senses and that you just experience as so beautiful." [00:00:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Artfully Told. I'm your host Lindsey, and I am delighted to be bringing you another special episode today. We are going to explore all of the different answers to the question, "what's the most important role of an artist?" Over the last year and a half I have gotten to ask that question of so many artists and guests that have been on my show. And I absolutely love hearing people's perspective on this question. So I'm excited to bring it all together for you in this special episode that I hope you thoroughly enjoy. [00:01:11] Ashley Taylor: I wrote about this one time and I'm going to try to summarize what I said. I believe that the role of an artist is to observe. Observe and express. So observation is a very important part of-- if you're the landscape painter, you have to spend a lot of time looking at the landscape that you're going to paint. And you have to observe the details in ways that you may not ordinarily if you're just looking at this picture, but trying to put it down on paper, you have to consider all of this at great detail. And so a metaphor that I love is -- as an artist drawing or painting or doing something visual like this, you have to always ask, "Where are the shadows in what I'm drawing, where the shadow is falling?" And that tells you: "Where is the light and where's the light coming from to cast these shadows?" and so when I expand that into sort of a metaphor for what the artist is doing, I think, I think that's what we are supposed to be doing personally is like, okay, I'm looking at life or I'm looking at the situation. Where are the shadows? Where are the dark things, the bad things? [00:02:24] Right? But then if, if these are the shadows, okay, there's gotta be light coming from somewhere because shadows don't exist without light. I mean, if there was no light, you'd be looking at a blank black piece of paper. And we all know life is more than that . Anyway, so all that to say, I think the role of the artist is to say, "Where's the darkness, where are the shadows, where's the light? How do I represent both fairly?" And then let you draw your own conclusions. Like I can infuse my conclusions into what I make. But in the end, art is up for interpretation. It's usually subjective. And so, you may look at my story. And say, " well, the darkness is way more important than the light there. The shadows, you know, outweigh the light in this." But somebody else might say, "wow, look at the way the sun is shining." So that's what I would say to be a careful observer of the world and to draw out where the good things are as well as the bad. [00:03:30] Bryant Williams: Artists needs to be truly authentic. You know, in this day and age, you know, whether people like that or not, it's--art is subjective--and be authentically you. [00:03:40] Krista Eyler: I think artists help people in the world, see things in a different way. I think I think artists help people have different perspectives on every aspect of life. I mean, what would we do without, you know, the great playwrights who have shown us corners of the world that I will never see or make music from different countries that I, I didn't grow up in that tradition, so I would never have heard it. I mean, an artist's job is to enrich life for others. I don't, I mean, I inherently, I think the creation of art is kind of selfish because we have to, it comes from our brain, comes from our hand. [00:04:25] We're very happy or sad with it. But I really think art is, for me--it's so cliche--but art is for everyone, and artists need to create for people out in the world who are non-artists, so they can see a different perspective of the world--they can hear something, see something, do something different that will be better and change, possibly even change your mind and then change how you operate in your daily life. I mean, that is a profoundly important thing that art can do is change how people think. And I mean, that's powerful. It's very powerful. [00:05:02] Rick Wright: You know, I think there's some responsibilities that the artists have. I think honesty and, personal, personal perspectives. I think there's things that happen in this world that we need artists, creatives, performers to react to, to communicate about, guide, challenge. I think that's one of the more important jobs right now. There are brilliant, passionate artists out there that are that are making a difference. And I think that's super important. And I'll be honest that I don't necessarily think my own work is challenging any norms in society, per se, but I think those that are out there doing that really have my, my respect and I, I value that we all have a duty just to be honest with ourselves and you don't have to put up a front, you know, just be, be the person you are, do the work that you want to do and put it out there. You can choose how much of yourself to put out there. I mean maybe you're a little bit conservative by nature and that's fine, but you know, just those, those little, little pieces of truth are, are valuable. [00:06:15] Roman Mykyta: I think the most important role of an artist is to be truthful about reality and how they see it. And along with that, to be honest, that opens up a lot of different doors, whether being truthful and honest is being very joyful and expressing the beauty in life, or it can be expressing the pain that we all feel, and then the way you treat that, whether it's with humor, with seriousness or drama, I feel like there's a place for all of those things. I'm sensitive personally about not overloading audience with what's negative. [00:06:52] It's really important to be honest, to be raw and to express pain, honestly, but in a way, I feel like we are so inundated by bad news, and just other dramas and political things that I almost feel like if we're so out of balance that way, I would encourage artists to-- it gives the audience a bread and life from the other side. 'Cause in my personal life, I feel like in the people who I know we need more of a goodness color and light than we need more anger, but ultimately it's important to just be honest and truthful. [00:07:30] Danielle Guy: Once again, going into the true thing, just tell the truth. I hear this all the time with actors where they're, where they say, "Oh, acting is my escape." And that's, those typically are the actors that are kind of hard to work with because it's not an escape. A lot of these characters are created out of some sense of reality. And I feel like we do them a dishonor by taking someone's potential life or potential situation and putting it on as a mask to escape the reality in our own. So it's just, you know, doing honor to the text doing honor to what has come before us. [00:08:09] Erin Paige: To be authentic. I think it's vital as an artist to be as true to yourself as you possibly can. To be as authentic--oh, I just got covered in goosebumps-- that's, that's how I know I'm speaking from my authentic self, I always tell people. Yeah, just to be as authentic as possible, and that serves others. If you're not showing up in your most soulful or authentic self, you are denying those of us that are looking at your art, watching your art, listening to your art--you're denying us that divine gift. So please, please, please. think it's vital for artists to be responsible in their artwork by being as authentic as possible. And that's, that's what I have to say about that. [00:09:04] Elizabeth Cooper: I would say being true to yourself and your passion. A lot of art is--it's interpretation of what, what you see around you and what inspires you. So you know, I would say that it's really being yourself and letting yourself and what you see shine through. [00:09:27] Jeremiah Kauffman: I can't speak for all artists, but for a lot of us, the role of an artist is to, to move people and to hopefully elicit, inspire some kind of change in others. Some kind of, so, all right, you know, it could be producing positive change in society. So the role of the artist might be, of some artists might be, let's take-- the, the novels that were written about the canneries and the meat packing plants. That was a form of art, but it was designed to move people to make change and make positive change in society. The role of the artist is to entertain. You know, the role of the artist is to help other people love more deeply, to feel more deeply, to elicit joy, to elicit critic

In today's unique episode, I have compiled some of our more recent guests' answers to the question, "What is art to you?" This delightful compilation brings a plethora of unique, honest, and inspiring answers to that question, and I'm excited to share part two of this series with you today. Enjoy!    Enroll in Lindsey's dance and wellness courses: www.elevateart.thinkific.com  Support Artfully Told: www.paypal.me/elevateart Artfully Told links: www.facebook.com/artfullytold | www.artfullytold.podbean.com | elevateartskc@gmail.com Get a free audiobook through Audible!  http://www.audibletrial.com/ArtfullyTold Schedule your own interview as a featured guest with Artfully Told! https://calendly.com/artfullytold/podcast-interview   Episode 76 - "What is Art to You?" - Part 2 [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello and welcome to Artfully Told, where we share true stories about meaningful encounters with art. [00:00:06] Krista: "I think artists help people have different perspectives on every aspect of life." [00:00:12] Roman: "All I can do is put my heart in to the world." [00:00:15] Elizabeth: "It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. It doesn't have to be perfect ever, really. I mean, as long as you, you're enjoying doing it and you're trying your best, that can be good enough." [00:00:23] Elna: "Art is something that you can experience with your senses and that you just experience as so beautiful." [00:00:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Artfully Told. I'm your host Lindsey and today I have a very unique episode that I'm really excited to share with you. It is a compilation of the different, amazing answers I've received over the last year and some change to the question, "What is art to you?" I love asking this question, because the answers I get are always so diverse and beautiful and unique and challenging. And I just can't wait to share the insights that I've gathered over the year with you. So enjoy and I'll catch you next time. [00:01:14] Mike Huerter: Well, you know, art takes many forms: dance, acting, obviously drawing, painting. So I mean, for me, I think I probably gravitate more towards the acting, dancing role of art then, but that doesn't take away anything from any other art form, by any means, you know, musicians and all that. My sons and daughters are very musical. I love music. I, I wish I could play it, but I can't. So I'm in total admiration of people who can. I mean, it's such a gift that they can just-- my son's trying to, you know, he was trying to teach us to harmonize some time. They say, "Dad, it's right there in front of you." And it's like, "No, you don't understand. It's not right there in front of me. It might be for you." 'Cause he's got that ability where he can just pick out notes and play them, that kind of thing. So this would be a very sad world that any form of art . I think art-- it saddened me to see you know, some schools, they, it's not very high on their priority list. I think it's a great outlet for people to express their feelings as things that are going on, maybe emotionally in their lives. It's a great outlet for them, for them to, to bring that out without actually, without actually having to sit down and talk to somebody about it. I mean, they can express it in whatever form they want to. And it's, I think art's more for us, you know, the people are performing it than it is for the people that we're actually presenting it to. [00:02:38] Gregg Gonzales: I think art to me is about self-expression in its truest form. That's why I think about the work that I do with my authors. They, they don't think about, about it as writing, but if you're speaking it, you're expressing yourself. You know it, to me, it's no different than if you were to sit at a computer and write, or pull out a pen and write in a journal just as the same way, you know, traditional authors do it. It's no different than someone sculpting a piece of raw clay into something beautiful, or a painter taking a blank canvas and creating something from their own self expression. So to me, art is the ultimate form of self-expression. [00:03:21] Jami Robben: I would say art is just anything that expresses someone and it doesn't take any sort of level of talent or anything like that. It just is something that you express yourself with and it makes you happy. And it's something you're able to share with others and make them happy with it too. [00:03:40] JaJa Smith: Art is expression. Art is a hundred percent expression. You know, whether you are a painter or you are a, a sketch artist or a actor, or whatever your canvas is, it's this release of energy. Some people don't know how to articulate themselves. So for them to be able to have this outlet, it's this beautiful thing. And then when it comes out, sometimes it's angry. Sometimes it's heartbroken. I remember very vividly my dad passed away on the night of an acting class, but I had to go because I didn't know how to handle my emotions outside of that. And you know, my, my acting class is my family, but I just needed that, that outlet, you know, it was just one of those things. It's like air almost. I think for a lot of other artists out there, I think art is their microphone to tell the world how they really feel, and in the way that best articulates it for them. [00:04:44] Darnell Benjamin: I guess the best way I would describe art--art is perspective. Art is when someone shares their perspective through a specific medium whether that be film, theater, dance , visual , music. I mean, the list goes on. It's perspective. I think art is a person's perspective through a medium. I know that sounds very simple, but I think that that's, that's how I would define what art is. [00:05:16] Emily Moores: I know maybe this isn't like the right answer, but I actually don't really worry about defining art because I think there's a lot of people who push, you know, especially when you think about like the past. A hundred years where people are like doing social practices, art, or they're switching into doing installations and all of these norms were broken, but they're still really meaningful ways of engagement. Sometimes I think if we get too caught up in trying to define something, then we can lose our ability to be open. And, and so I'm not-- I guess I'm not as concerned with having a definition. I know for me, I definitely practice within like the realm of installation and within, you know, making wall works. You know, like maybe I'll go back to making paintings or drawings, but like if I were to walk into a gallery and there's like a performance and it's mostly dance, I don't feel like I wouldn't necessarily want to adhere to a definition. [00:06:20] Harlem Lennox: So to me, art can be just about anything. I don't like telling people like, "Oh, that painting -- that's not art. That will never be art." I look at art from a very broad sense where people will probably be like, "Well, then nothing is art if everything is art." But I look at, so for example, my daughter can make something, or my son, or my other son can make something, and I will look at it as art and I will seriously react to it the same way I would react to it if somebody showed me any piece of art. I look at nature as a form of art. The way that each tree is beautifully unique. And I have an obsession with trees and the way each tree is beautifully unique. And the simple fact that there's all these different changes and stuff like that within the universe. [00:07:26] And so, 'cause I was actually thinking to myself last night, like even after-- you know, this is so morbid, but even after we're all gone and maybe, you know, like the dinosaurs, humans are no longer on the earth or whatever-- like the world, the earth is still going to be making art. I look at a lot of different things as art and I define art is anything that gives a person meaning. If you can look at it and feel something within yourself, within your soul deeply. It doesn't matter what it is, whether it's a positive or negative feeling, if you can feel something and it makes you think, then I consider it as art. [00:08:12] Christina Stanton: So I think art helps us understand and appreciate and navigate life. I mean, it is life, but art bleeds over into every section of our lives and it just helps us through life. And you know, personally ,the most joy and love and sadness, the strongest emotions I feel, is through art. I'm pretty straight as an arrow and and other places in my life. But nothing makes me feel the human experience more than art does. [00:08:50] Jeffrey Holst: So for me, art is, is any kind of creative endeavor that's that allows the creator to express themselves. [00:09:00] Lucas Zellers: So for a while, I tried to come up with, with my own definition of this and I was sort of laboring under the impression that a definition that I hadn't written wasn't authentic. But I found one that I really liked. Elaine de Baton wrote this in his book," The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work." He said, "art is anything that points our thoughts in important yet neglected directions." [00:09:25] Kristin Beale: Ooh, so I define art as an outlet because that's what it is to me. It started as an outlet. And so now , it's turning into an outlet for me when I got hurt and all this stuff. And now it's an outlet for my creativity and for my humor and for my personality. Whereas before it was an outlet for my frustration. I mean, at times it still is not for my frustration, but an outlet for my frustration and my new experiences and kind of digesting the world around me. So it looks like for me, it looks like, you know, real life experiences are relatable things or just things that will make you laugh or things that's a way to entertain people. Yeah, so an outlet for my creativity. [00:10:05] Doug Motel: I think that art is when you actively step into creation and extend that, whatever, you know, whatever it is that c

In today's episode, I welcome Kelsey Aicher! Kelsey is a trapeze artist and coach, as well as the Artistic Director of Aerheart and the Training Company Program Director for Kansas City Aerial Arts. She shares her experience with mental health issues and why she's so passionate about opening conversations about it. She shares with us her heart behind her latest show "n0rmal" (premiering in Kansas City and on livestream soon!) and some of her exciting future plans. (Fun fact: the cover image for this episode is part of the show image for "n0rmal"!)   Get in touch with Kelsey Aicher: www.kansascityaerialarts.com | kelsey@kansascityaerialarts.com Enroll in Lindsey's dance and wellness courses: www.elevateart.thinkific.com  Support Artfully Told: www.paypal.me/elevateart Artfully Told links: www.facebook.com/artfullytold | www.artfullytold.podbean.com | elevateartskc@gmail.com Get a free audiobook through Audible!  http://www.audibletrial.com/ArtfullyTold Schedule your own interview as a featured guest with Artfully Told! https://calendly.com/artfullytold/podcast-interview   Episode 75 - Kelsey Aicher [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome to Artfully Told, where we share true stories about meaningful encounters with art. [00:00:06] Krista: I think artists help people have different perspectives on every aspect of life. [00:00:12] Roman: All I can do is put my part in to the world. [00:00:15] Elizabeth: It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. It doesn't have to be perfect ever really. I mean, as long as you, and you're enjoying doing it and you're trying your best, that can be good enough. [00:00:23] Elna: Art is something that you can experience with your senses and that you just experiences as so beautiful. [00:00:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi friends, whether you are just getting started or you're a seasoned professional looking to up your game, I have an exciting opportunity for you. Did you know that I am actually the creator of 10 different courses online that range from ballet, jazz, tap. They also include a mindset detox course and two Stretch and Tone courses. So if you're looking to start a new hobby or get a little bit fitter, or you're looking to do a deep dive into your mindset, really perform a true detox, I have the course for you, and I would love to help you out with that. So if you go to elevateart.thinkific.com, you will see all of the different courses I've created. [00:01:26] You don't have to step in a classroom to take your first dance class. I teach a signature 20 Moves in 20 Days course that allows you to learn 20 steps in just 20 days. It's a lot of fun. We have a great time together. And I think you're going to absolutely love the different courses. And Artfully Told listeners get a little something from me. So if you go, you'll sign up and use the promo code "artfullytold," all one word, and when you do so you'll get 15% off the purchase of any and all your favorite courses. All right, listeners, enjoy that. Again, it's elevateart.thinkific.com. See you there. [00:02:11] Hello and welcome back to another episode of Artfully Told. I'm your host Lindsey and I am very excited to have as my guest today, Kelsey Aicher. She is a trapeze artist and coach. She is the Artistic Director of Aerheart and also the training director for Kansas City Aerial Arts for their training company. She's the director for that. And I am just absolutely thrilled that she is joining us here today. Thanks so much for being here, Kelsey. [00:02:43] Kelsey Aicher: Thank you for having me. [00:02:44] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course. Well, I would love if you wouldn't mind sharing just a little bit about your background, maybe how you got involved in art in general, and then specifically in aerial arts and let us know a little bit about what you're doing now to, if you don't mind. [00:02:58] Kelsey Aicher: Yeah. So I have a very strange accidental journey to where I am right now. I've always been really good at math. And that's honestly what got me into art was, I was just, I skipped a grade in math and in third grade and was always advanced. And I was so bored in all of my math classes in high school because I just felt it was too easy. So I started writing short stories instead of paying attention in class. And that's when I fell in love with writing. I started taking creative writing classes, realized I love writing short stories and wondered if I could make a profit or like make a career out of it. So I started studying screenwriting by reading every book that I could. And when I was a junior in high school, I took a summer screenwriting camp at Drexel University and studied screenwriting intensely with the professors and fell in love, went to NYU at first and then switched to Columbia College to finish my Bachelor's in Screenwriting. [00:04:01] And then my life pulled me into Portland. My ex-husband got a job there and I didn't know what to do. And so I was freelancing as a screenwriter doing commercial scripts. I started taking aerial classes to do something, to feel, to feel productive. It was just a hobby. And then a year later I started performing and coaching. And a year after that, I was hired professionally to perform trapeze and just somehow accidentally became a trapeze artist. I don't think that's most people's journey. And now moving to Kansas City, I moved here four years ago. I've been able to combine my love of writing and my aerial arts by writing circus stage shows for the training company, student company, and the professional company. [00:04:54] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. That's amazing. I love that you've been able to incorporate both of your passions into this one cool endeavor that you've been able to undertake. So that's, that's really interesting. So, like you said, sort of the accidental everything coming together, but it sounds like it, it came together pretty, pretty, perfectly, so that's, that's great. So you talked about, you know, starting with the background in, in writing. And so I'm curious how that transition has been, because you were talking about screenplays and whatnot. So, so how have you found that background to be obviously incredibly helpful as you plan out shows, but then also, how has it changed or evolved over the years just because it's necessary to do so with producing a, an aerial show versus let's say a movie? [00:05:45] Kelsey Aicher: So starting at NYU for college, they have your freshman year, you have all the --all dramatic writing students are combined to a class. So it's playwrights, TV writers, and screenwriters. And the first semester, all we did was study plays. And then the second semester we started moving into TV and films. So I actually got a lot of training in playwriting as well as part of my education into screenwriting. When I write a show: one, I think just in general, any type of writer, whether it's short story, novels, whatever, there's still always standard structures of a story. They're generally three acts and character development, multiple plot points. So just understanding story, I think, helps with creating any type of show on stage. Even if it's silent, like ours are-- I shouldn't say silent, but free of dialogue, like ours are-- in a circus show. But having the playwriting understanding actually helps me more. I treat it like I'm writing a musical, so I still outline all my habits and stuff like that like I do for screen writing. I write like my treatment, my outlook. [00:07:01] But then when I think about it, conceptually, I think of it like a musical, because a musical has this narrative story, but then the idea of having a musical number where you're just singing is so removed from reality that it's like a large moment that's just capturing one tiny little feeling. And that's kind of what I do with aerial is like, okay, we're having this story flowing through. And now we have this character locks eyes with this character. And instead of singing a song about it, we're going to have three aerialists on silks doing a whole dance that's showing how these two characters have just fallen in love at first sight. [00:07:41] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, I love that. Yeah. I can completely see that. It's so helpful to have that background of understanding the, the building blocks of creating a story in order to translate it to an art form that you really can't do as much with as far as-- well, you could, I suppose with dialogue-- but traditionally you don't. So yeah, I think that's, that's really neat. And I'm curious, has there been one show in particular that you've worked on, perhaps that has been the most difficult to translate from your concept in your head and like, "I know I want to get these messages across" to put it on, you know, an aerial production where they can, they can interact with each other? Yes, you can see those very human moments and these connections, but still to get across your main point, you know, what was, what has been one of the most challenging that you've experienced so far? [00:08:36] Kelsey Aicher: I think the one that has not actually been released yet. I wrote a show for the training company, Kansas City Aerial Arts called "The Spaces Between," and it's very conceptual. I started writing it-- honestly, I think it was the first show I started to write. But it just didn't make sense to have them start with the students, start with like a really highly conceptual show. And so I put it on hold for several years and we finally were doing it to debut on April 3rd, 2020. So we spent six months building up for this show, getting everything ready. And the three weeks before the show, we shut down the whole studio. And so we actually just filmed it in this past April, April 2021, and it's still in the editing process, so I haven't seen it yet. So that's why I'm interested to see if it goes across. [00:09:33] In the past I've written really, really narrative shows. We've did one about the story of Prometheus and the one that we

In today's unique episode, I have compiled some of our earliest guests' answers to the question, "What is art to you?" This delightful compilation brings a plethora of unique, honest, and inspiring answers to that question, and I'm excited to share part one of this limited series with you today. Enjoy!    Enroll in Lindsey's dance and wellness courses: www.elevateart.thinkific.com  Support Artfully Told: www.paypal.me/elevateart Artfully Told links: www.facebook.com/artfullytold | www.artfullytold.podbean.com | elevateartskc@gmail.com Get a free audiobook through Audible!  http://www.audibletrial.com/ArtfullyTold Schedule your own interview as a featured guest with Artfully Told! https://calendly.com/artfullytold/podcast-interview   Episode 74 - "What is Art to You?" - Part 1 [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello and welcome to Artfully Told, where we share true stories about meaningful encounters with art. [00:00:06] Krista: "I think artists help people have different perspectives on every aspect of life." [00:00:12] Roman: "All I can do is put my heart in to the world." [00:00:15] Elizabeth: "It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. It doesn't have to be perfect ever, really. I mean, as long as you, you're enjoying doing it and you're trying your best, that can be good enough." [00:00:23] Elna: "Art is something that you can experience with your senses and that you just experience as so beautiful." [00:00:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Artfully Told. I'm your host Lindsey and today I have a very unique episode that I'm really excited to share with you. It is a compilation of all of the different, amazing answers I've received over the last year and some change to the question, "what is art to you?" I love asking this question, because the answers I get are always so diverse and beautiful and unique and challenging. And I just can't wait to share the insights that I've gathered over the year with you. So enjoy and I'll catch you next time. [00:01:14] Ashley Taylor: To me, art is way for us to make sense of the world that we live in at its most basic level. I think we can do that a number of different ways. For one thing, sometimes when I think of art, I think of still life painting or landscape painting. That's like a very basic example of art. Or even going back to like the cave paintings, which is little stick animals, right? That's a way of humans who are saying, " Here's what I see. I'm going to try to copy it or represent it." [00:01:45] And that's a very simple, almost primitive way of trying to make sense of the world of the world that we live in. So we can start there, or we can go all the way to very abstract paintings or dances or music, which sometimes are so abstract that the audience doesn't even understand what the inspiration was, but that is somebody trying to make sense of the world in their own way. [00:02:08] I'm sure even trying to say, I can't make sense of the world--life is meaningless, so I'm going to make this hard to tell what it means art about it, right, that's still representing something. It's our way of trying to grapple with what we're seeing and experiencing. [00:02:24] Bryant Williams: Art to me is inspiration. Art to me is vital. I think that's the best--where art is vital and art is a form of expression meant for the world to share in a mutual experience. [00:02:39] Krista Eyler: I think it's making something from nothing. And no, there's a song called "Finishing the Hat," and it talks about that creation of, you know--I made a hat where there never was a hat, and art to me is really just that. And I'm glad I rhymed those two lines. It's making something from nothing that hopefully will make somebody else feel something very important or have a very visceral, emotional response. I mean, everything I write musically is to reach someone else, is to entertain someone else, is to give, you know, that pleasure in your ears from some really great music and singing. [00:03:27] That's, that's kind of how I see art. You know what? I'm not a scholar of art. I'm not a scholar of dance. I'm not a scholar of music theory. I'm basically not a scholar of anything except the raising my children, but when it comes to art, I just, I just really feel great satisfaction when you make something that wasn't there before and then it's there, then you've brought it into existence and then you wonder why it was not there before. [00:03:58] Rick Wright: I feel like to me, you know, it, it's an outlet and an exploration first and foremost, and I think if we're lucky it becomes an end product, but I don't know that that is necessarily the most important. I think there is, there is value in the exploration that, that just happens with all things creative, whether it's dance or it's paint or it's clay. It's about communicating, it's, it's communicating with different materials or in different ways than the verbal or auditory that we're used to. I, I think it's, you know, it's a little bit of your, your soul, you know, uncovering your soul, whether you realize it or not. I think it's about just exposing your, your true self. [00:04:52] Danielle Guy: Art is expression of truth done a visual way. So where it is taking some form of reality and putting it in a way that can be physicalized, whether it be by, you know, painting or drawing or by moving, or by speaking--just a different way to look at it--that is different from what our normal reality is, which can be quite boring. [00:05:19] Roman Mykyta: Art is ultimately a worldview. I think art starts with a worldview. It's very intentional and it's very presentational and it's always a form of communication with the creator and the viewer. But where my head is now as well, I kind of feel like art is everywhere around us. Even just looking out the window, the art is within the worldview to be able to see anything and to give it meaning, and it can be good or bad meaning, but I personally always like the good meaning, and to just kind of commune with all of these things in our life, which are indicative of something. [00:06:02] Erin Paige: Art to me is an expression of the soul. And I think that that just comes in many forms, whether it's a street performer that feels the need--even a little kid that is dancing to some music, I consider that art. So really anything that you're inspired to do that your soul is telling you to do? That's how I see art. [00:06:33] Elizabeth Cooper: I would say I would define art as a piece of work that someone is inspired by, like someone sees something around them and they're inspired by it and so they want to then recreate it in a way that means something to them. I feel like art is, you know, it's a very personal thing, you know, everybody sees it differently. And so yeah, I guess I would, I would just define art as anything that, that is inspired by the things around you, that then you create something from that inspiration. [00:07:12] Jeremiah Kauffman: I guess art is any creative process to produce something that's meaningful to the artist and they want it to show up other people. And I don't really, I don't think there are any boundaries to what art is. There are no limitations. And if you produce a sculpture or a performance, choreographic performance, apart, whatever or painting. And someone says, ah, that's not art. If you say it's art, because the creative expression of what you're trying to share with others and it is art. So, I'm not one that looks at a particular, you know, like painting, you know, all right. [00:07:50] So somebody paints hyper-realistic babies or, or kittens. And someone says, yeah, that's art because that's hyper-realistic. But the, the abstract painting that somebody did --that's not art. That is not true. The abstract painting is just as much art is the cute little kittens. It's just the art is the expression of creativity. That's all it is. I don't think we should pigeonhole art. Art's anything that illustrates emotion from both the artist and the viewer. It's something that entertains and teaches, and something that can be used to make our lives better. It can be something that improves our society or just makes us happy or just helps us feel better about ourselves or helps us. It gives us comfort when we need comfort or gives us inspiration when we need to be inspired, and if it affects and produces all range of emotions. And I think that if there's an emotional response, then that's also art. [00:09:02] Katheryn Krouse: So I think I would define art as a thoughtful form of expression. I think it doesn't have to necessarily be creating a painting or writing a song or a poem. I think it can also include how you dress or how, how you cook, how someone cooks can be a form of art. I think that it can be anything or any way that one chooses to carry themselves--how, you know, how they decorate or different, different things. I think all of these are good forms of art. [00:09:40] Heidi Loubser: I think if I'm trying to one sentence to it, I mean, art is the act of creating . You know, we take one resource and we transform it into another. We take a body and we mold it to do certain things on stage. We take clay and we turn it into a sculpture. So maybe, yeah, the act of creating, if I had to boil it down to a phrase. [00:09:58] David Weinraub: I define art as anything that can enhance an emotion. I can go outside and I can see, you know, a turtle on my back deck who somehow found its way, you know, up the stairs to onto the porch. And, I find beauty in that and therefore that is art. To me, it elicits an emotion when it happens. Some people say that's where they see God in the world. And, I think in some ways, God and art are synonymous. [00:10:37] Grace Strachan: Well, I think art is in the eye of the beholder. I really believe that. I consider art nature. I consider art beauty. I consider art feelings. I consider art love. I really believe that art is all aro

In today's episode, I welcome Sandy Woodson! Sandy is a filmmaker and photographer who recently quit her 9-5 to be a full-time documentarian. She discusses her experiences helping to share the stories of those whose voices have been historically silenced in Kansas City, including in the LBGTQ communities, and also about her passion for widening the audience for all artists in KC, whether they produce art for major companies or for their own small shows. (Fun fact: the cover image for this episode displays a tulip flag from Womontown, which you can read more about in the full episode notes.)   Get in touch with Sandy Woodson: sandywoodson12@gmail.com Enroll in Lindsey's dance and wellness courses: www.elevateart.thinkific.com  Support Artfully Told: www.paypal.me/elevateart Artfully Told links: www.facebook.com/artfullytold | www.artfullytold.podbean.com | elevateartskc@gmail.com Get a free audiobook through Audible!  http://www.audibletrial.com/ArtfullyTold Schedule your own interview as a featured guest with Artfully Told! https://calendly.com/artfullytold/podcast-interview   More about Sandy's project "Womontown:" In the late 1980s, Drea Nedelsky and Maryann Hopper had a vision.  They imagined a neighborhood where they could be themselves without fear,  a place where women could walk hand in hand down the street without the judgments and criticisms normally encountered in the straight world. Drea picked the Longfellow / Dutch Hill neighborhood from 30th to 27th, Harrison to Charlotte, because it was cheap. This was a neighborhood that had once housed Kansas City's elite but had fallen on hard times by the time the 80s rolled around.  Drea saw the economic benefits and security home ownership could provide and wanted to make that available for the people like them who were on the edges of society and faced countless discriminations not only because they were lesbians but because they were women.  In the late 80s and early 90s, a woman in Kansas City could not get a home loan on her own.  She needed a parent or husband to cosign. Being handy, Drea had no fear buying a house with no windows, electricity or plumbing even though it was next to an apartment building that housed drug dealers. Drea could see a future of like-minded women, buying these beat up, cheap houses and helping each other fix them up to make homes.  So Drea and Maryann put the word out and lesbians from all over the United States responded by coming to KC, buying houses and setting up a new community. As an organized effort, it lasted about 5 years, but the ripple it created is something that 30 years later can still be seen and felt.   Episode 73 - Sandy Woodson [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome to Artfully Told, where we share true stories about meaningful encounters with art. [00:00:06] Krista: I think artists help people have different perspectives on every aspect of life. [00:00:12] Roman: All I can do is put my part in to the world. [00:00:15] Elizabeth: It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. It doesn't have to be perfect ever really. I mean, as long as you, and you're enjoying doing it and you're trying your best, that can be good enough. [00:00:23] Elna: Art is something that you can experience with your senses and that you just experiences as so beautiful. [00:00:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi friends, whether you are just getting started or you're a seasoned professional looking to up your game, I have an exciting opportunity for you. Did you know that I am actually the creator of 10 different courses online that range from ballet, jazz, tap. They also include a mindset detox course and two Stretch and Tone courses. So if you're looking to start a new hobby or get a little bit fitter, or you're looking to do a deep dive into your mindset, really perform a true detox, I have the course for you, and I would love to help you out with that. So if you go to elevateart.thinkific.com, you will see all of the different courses I've created. [00:01:26] You don't have to step in a classroom to take your first dance class. I teach a signature 20 Moves in 20 Days course that allows you to learn 20 steps in just 20 days. It's a lot of fun. We have a great time together. And I think you're going to absolutely love the different courses. And Artfully Told listeners get a little something from me. So if you go, you'll sign up and use the promo code "artfullytold," all one word, and when you do so you'll get 15% off the purchase of any and all your favorite courses. All right, listeners, enjoy that. Again, it's elevateart.thinkific.com. See you there. [00:02:11] Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Artfully Told. I am so excited to have as my guest today, Sandy Woodson. She is a documentarian, which I am so excited to hear all about how that journey came about. But thank you so much for being here, Sandy. I'm really excited to talk with you about art. [00:02:35] Sandy Woodson: I'm excited to be here. Thanks for the invite. [00:02:38] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course, absolutely. Well, Sandy, you know, you and I met through Kansas City Fringe Festival, which I have talked about many, many times on this podcast because I think it's such a special thing. But I would love if you wouldn't mind, maybe we could start there, sharing a little bit about how you've helped the festival over the years and even your own participation and then go from there. [00:03:01] Sandy Woodson: Okay. Yeah, it was somewhere around 2009 or 2010. We haven't really been able to remember between Cheryl and I, but early on, I was in a freelance mode. I was contracting with KCPT or KCPS. But I was just contracting and I had some open time and somehow or another, I think I first talked to Cheryl because I wanted to create an app that all the festivals in Kansas City could be listed on. I knew through the film festival, Kansas City Film Festival, introduced me to Cheryl to talk about that. And then as always, you know, if you talk to Cheryl, you become a volunteer pretty quickly for the Fringe Festival. So that's what happened. And at the time I had extra time, so I got involved with, you know, I jumped in with both feet and also, that was the first time I really started displaying photography. I've always been interested in it. I've always had it as a hobby. And I actually did some photography for Fringe that year. I believe it was that year. And I've pretty much done it every year since then. I haven't been as involved in the last couple of years, but in all the years leading up to that, I was pretty involved in the organization side of it. [00:04:17] Lindsey Dinneen: For sure. Yeah. And, oh my gosh, I know you, you know, basically once, well, even beforehand, but certainly once the festival starts, you're hitting the ground running like literally almost 24/7. [00:04:30] Sandy Woodson: Yeah. For a lot of years, it was like that. And then, like I say, the last couple of years, I kind of stepped back a little bit because my work started to get more intense. And so I didn't have as much time as I used to. [00:04:44] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, for sure. Well, are you planning to still, you know, participate in some ways and, and continue to exhibit your own work? [00:04:53] Sandy Woodson: Yeah, absolutely. And hoping to get now that I'm not nine to five, full-time somewhere. I'm hoping to get more involved with the festival next year, too. I'm happy that it looks like we're going to be able to meet in person again. That'll be awesome. [00:05:09] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, hallelujah. I'm so ready for that. Okay. Yeah. Well, yeah. Thank you for sharing a little bit about that. And then, you know, specifically with your artwork, do you want to share what you kind of focus on as far as your photography? [00:05:26] Sandy Woodson: Yeah. So early on, my big thing was kind of spawned by the fact that I've, you know, had the way I put it-- I went to one too many bad photography exhibits where it's nothing but naked women. And I was like, so where all the naked men, you know, so I kind of got started on that path and did that for quite a few years. I was helped by that with not only Fringe where I could literally post, you know, or hang whatever kind of photos I want to do. At the time April McInerney, who I love, had a gallery called Slap and Tickle Gallery. And so she really opened things up for me. There was one time where she let me take over the whole gallery space and I hung, I had probably four or five different themes or years of work that I hung up. And then I set up a little area with rope and stanchion and a TV and a recliner and a cooler. And I said, I had a sign that said the "North American Male in his Native Habitat." And I had different guys show up every half hour to sit in the chair and do whatever they wanted to do. I was like, I don't care what you do. We just kind of want to here's guys. And here's what they do because that kind of went with the theme of all the photography I'd been doing the years leading up to that. [00:06:46] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Well, and that is an interesting thing. Again, native habitat. I like it. Yeah. And what a cool opportunity to get to take over that gallery, so to speak and that's awesome. [00:06:56] Sandy Woodson: Oh yeah, she was so awesome. I mean, she let the gallery go a few years ago. But you know, with Fringe, I was always able to do two sets of photography every year because they had a blue gallery or the gallery where the naked stuff went and so for Fringe, I'd always have something everybody could see and then something people not everybody could see. And April, her gallery, it was like whatever I wanted to put in there. Yeah, so it was an awesome time. And in the years since then, particularly in the last couple of years, I have been documenting LGBT history in Kansas City or what I'm hoping, you know, history in the making, things that are happening now that in the future, hopefully somebody will want to look back at and s

In today's episode, I welcome Giovanna Salas! Giovanna likes to create, and she has dabbled in and become proficient in multiple medias, including art, literature, and film. She is the founder and owner of Heart of Hollywood Magazine and Motion Pictures, and in this episode, she shares about the importance of making opportunities more accessible for artists along with her heart and passion for helping others' succeed. (Double fun fact: the cover image for this week's episode is not only a recent cover of Giovanna's Heart of Hollywood magazine, but it also featured Sandy Rodriguez, one of our former guests!)    Get in touch with Giovanna Salas: https://www.heartofhollywoodmagazine.com/ | https://www.hohmp.com/ Enroll in Lindsey's dance and wellness courses: www.elevateart.thinkific.com  Support Artfully Told: www.paypal.me/elevateart Artfully Told links: www.facebook.com/artfullytold | www.artfullytold.podbean.com | elevateartskc@gmail.com Get a free audiobook through Audible!  http://www.audibletrial.com/ArtfullyTold Schedule your own interview as a featured guest with Artfully Told! https://calendly.com/artfullytold/podcast-interview   Episode 72 - Giovanna Salas [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome to Artfully Told, where we share true stories about meaningful encounters with art. [00:00:06] Krista: I think artists help people have different perspectives on every aspect of life. [00:00:12] Roman: All I can do is put my part in to the world. [00:00:15] Elizabeth: It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. It doesn't have to be perfect ever really. I mean, as long as you, and you're enjoying doing it and you're trying your best, that can be good enough. [00:00:23] Elna: Art is something that you can experience with your senses and that you just experiences as so beautiful. [00:00:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi friends, whether you are just getting started or you're a seasoned professional looking to up your game, I have an exciting opportunity for you. Did you know that I am actually the creator of 10 different courses online that range from ballet, jazz, tap. They also include a mindset detox course and two Stretch and Tone courses. So if you're looking to start a new hobby or get a little bit fitter, or you're looking to do a deep dive into your mindset, really perform a true detox, I have the course for you, and I would love to help you out with that. So if you go to elevateart.thinkific.com, you will see all of the different courses I've created. [00:01:26] You don't have to step in a classroom to take your first dance class. I teach a signature 20 Moves in 20 Days course that allows you to learn 20 steps in just 20 days. It's a lot of fun. We have a great time together. And I think you're going to absolutely love the different courses. And Artfully Told listeners get a little something from me. So if you go, you'll sign up and use the promo code "artfullytold," all one word, and when you do so you'll get 15% off the purchase of any and all your favorite courses. All right, listeners, enjoy that. Again, it's elevateart.thinkific.com. See you there. [00:02:11] Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Artfully Told. I'm your host Lindsey and I am very excited to have as my guest today, Giovanna Salas. She likes to create, and she has dabbled in and become proficient in many multiple medias, including art, literature, and film. She also is the founder and owner of Heart of Hollywood Magazine and Motion Pictures. And she also has a streaming platform that is in development, I believe. And I can't wait to dive in and hear all about the different things that you are up to. So thank you so much for being here. I really look forward to our conversation today. [00:02:57] Giovanna Salas: Hi Lindsey! [00:03:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi! Well, I was wondering if you don't mind just starting us off by telling us maybe a little bit about your background, how you got involved in art and kind of go from there. [00:03:11] Giovanna Salas: Absolutely. Well, first of all, I want to thank you for inviting me to your podcast. It's a pleasure for me to be here and well to make a story short, I started as a painter. You know, I, I love art. I use that oil media. That's that's my favorite. And one thing take to the other, I am visual person. And so I dive into learning photography and video. And so I have an interest later on into becoming a filmmaker. And so that's how everything is. [00:03:43] Lindsey Dinneen: Wow. Yeah. Okay. And so then you decided to become a filmmaker, which is a huge endeavor and undertaking. So can you tell us about that and what led you to that interest in that passion to create even your own company? [00:03:59] Giovanna Salas: Well, I wanted to become a film director. And so once I came to Hollywood, I saw there was very difficult. It's a lot of difficulties. And in word, it was not going to be easy. And the best way was to learn the business and learn what happened behind the scenes. So I began working with a couple productions and after that, I decided it was time to open my own company because I wanted to bring opportunities for people, they just started. Artists are underground, I feel. They, also people that were foreigner. Okay. And so for everyone, I just wanted to make it a place they have a door open for everyone that they need. It. [00:04:47] Lindsey Dinneen: That's amazing. And so now with your company, and I realized that there are three sort of branches to it. Can you tell us a little bit about each one and sort of who you, you serve as a result of the different branches and, and how that all works together? [00:05:04] Giovanna Salas: Sure. So, well, the company is called Heart of Hollywood Motion Pictures. And from that we had three different divisions. The first division, that's how we started in post-production. So the services that we offer was like color corrections, you know, edit of scoring. We've put together different individuals working in the industry and sometimes here and there, you know, behind the scenes, maybe a project that was already done, but they needed to do something where we can help with some of those services. And also giving consultations such as like screenplays, you know, like a script doctor, I had different consultants. So sometimes I do consultations, but it's more like a producer restructure. And we have a modern consultant. So it's along, all the kind of what it takes to, to get your, your project or package in a, in a better format. I think that's, that's the first one. [00:06:01] The second one is that the vision for the Heart of Hollywood Magazine. And this has started because we want, we have members within the company and we're gonna, we want it to give more exposure to the members. Well, when we published the first magazine, everybody was very positive about and now that became three years of publications. So we are very happy of what we're going. And I believe that the magazine is like a car for everyone to share the stories, get into the car and get more exposure. But also the purpose of this magazine is for our to get inspiration and motivated. [00:06:43] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. And then the third branch is something you're still in development for, or is that also live? [00:06:51] Giovanna Salas: No, we, well, I mean, working the third is a, an a streaming platform of Heart of Hollywood Cinema, and I been working with my engineer team. And it's not easy. It's been for a couple of years, like I say, but we have tested. We created last year. We tested with production. The, I was a producer for a, the Brain 19 Fashion Films. Okay. We did it virtually during COVID and we use the streaming platform to for, for the films. So I think it would take us a little bit longer to, to make it available for all the public, but the finally will be an option for all the filmmakers. They need to put their films in other platform. It's good to have different platforms such as, you know, Amazon and Netflix and all of that other ones that we already know. But it's also good to have another option and where you can put your films as well. [00:07:52] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, that's amazing. Well, it sounds like you are making such a difference for so many different people in so many areas, so yeah. Kudos to you for doing that. That's just amazing. And, you know, you mentioned at the beginning that you personally felt like it was, and I'm sure you're not alone, that it was really difficult to to kind of get into that world. Do you mind telling us a little bit more about your own story of how, you know, some of the challenges that you faced as you were starting off in Hollywood? [00:08:27] Giovanna Salas: Well, I will say one of my first challenges was the language because my first language is not English. It's a Spanish. And so I think the not, I didn't grow in the US, like I came here and I start, you know, working here in the entertainment. And one thing that I know is, is if you don't have connections in LA or people working in the industry, it's very difficult. And a lot of those connections are not easy to build. You have to be in the right place, meet the right people that have family members sometimes. And sometimes you don't, you don't have, you know, family members, so you don't have any connection. So, and then you have the problem with an artist trying to showcase but nobody wants to listen. So I think the why, because people pay more attention. I go rather with a person that has 30 more years experience or 20 years experience, or how are they going to get the experience if they don't get the chance to showcase what they can do or what they can bring to the table? [00:09:34] And so my, I don't, I feel there is not many companies that perhaps are really seriously approaching this issue. And at the beginning of my company, my number one priority was to approach this issue, was to make an statement that this company, it was going to be for the artis

In this week's episode, I again welcome Ashley Taylor! Ashley was our very first podcast guest and we're delighted she came back to share about her manifesto to artists about the importance of intentionality in every choice when creating and sharing their work. She offers blunt yet insightful advice about how artists can be meaningful in their works' presentation. (Fun fact: the cover image of this episode is of Ashley & Lindsey when they were promoting the 2019 premiere of "Cracked! A Reimagined Kansas City Nutcracker.")   Get in touch with Ashley Taylor: https://www.ashleyrebeccataylor.wordpress.com  Enroll in Lindsey's dance and wellness courses: www.elevateart.thinkific.com  Support Artfully Told: www.paypal.me/elevateart Artfully Told links: www.facebook.com/artfullytold | www.artfullytold.podbean.com | elevateartskc@gmail.com Get a free audiobook through Audible!  http://www.audibletrial.com/ArtfullyTold Schedule your own interview as a featured guest with Artfully Told! https://calendly.com/artfullytold/podcast-interview   Episode 71 - Ashley Taylor [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome to Artfully Told, where we share true stories about meaningful encounters with art. [00:00:06] Krista: I think artists help people have different perspectives on every aspect of life. [00:00:12] Roman: All I can do is put my part in to the world. [00:00:15] Elizabeth: It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. It doesn't have to be perfect ever really. I mean, as long as you, and you're enjoying doing it and you're trying your best, that can be good enough. [00:00:23] Elna: Art is something that you can experience with your senses and that you just experiences as so beautiful. [00:00:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi friends, whether you are just getting started or you're a seasoned professional looking to up your game, I have an exciting opportunity for you. Did you know that I am actually the creator of 10 different courses online that range from ballet, jazz, tap. They also include a mindset detox course and two Stretch and Tone courses. So if you're looking to start a new hobby or get a little bit fitter, or you're looking to do a deep dive into your mindset, really perform a true detox, I have the course for you, and I would love to help you out with that. So if you go to elevateart.thinkific.com, you will see all of the different courses I've created. [00:01:26] You don't have to step in a classroom to take your first dance class. I teach a signature 20 Moves in 20 Days course that allows you to learn 20 steps in just 20 days. It's a lot of fun. We have a great time together. And I think you're going to absolutely love the different courses. And Artfully Told listeners get a little something from me. So if you go, you'll sign up and use the promo code "artfullytold," all one word, and when you do so you'll get 15% off the purchase of any and all your favorite courses. All right, listeners, enjoy that. Again, it's elevateart.thinkific.com. See you there. [00:02:11] Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Artfully Told. I'm your host Lindsey and I am extremely delighted to have as my guest today a returnee. She actually had the very, very first episode that I ever released with a guest was with Ashley Taylor. So thank you, Ashley, for being back. I'm just beyond excited. Ashley is a dancer. She is a choreographer, teacher. She is also a writer. In fact, maybe sneak peak. Can I say that you're working on a novel? [00:02:47] Ashley Taylor: Of course you can! [00:02:49] Lindsey Dinneen: Awesome. Yeah. And then also, goodness gracious. I think your artistic list goes on and on. You can paint, draw, what can't you do? Maybe we should start there. [00:03:02] Ashley Taylor: Well, I'm going to answer that question later. [00:03:04] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay. Fair. That's true. Anyway, artist extraordinaire, very creative and very good at what she does. So, Ashley, thank you for being back. [00:03:17] Ashley Taylor: Thank you for having me. I'm super excited to chat with you again about artsy things. [00:03:22] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Well, first I'm really curious to know sort of what what you've been up to lately, especially considering, you know, when we did our recording last year, of course it was COVID central and it kind of still is, but things have changed and opened back up. So I'm curious how you've been able to navigate sort of getting back into more artsy things? [00:03:50] Ashley Taylor: Yeah. So I would not say I'm fully back in, in the way that I would like to be, but that's fine. I've had the time to explore a lot of writing and editing and found a community of creative writing people, which is great. So we meet virtually once a week and read each other what we're working on and give feedback, which has been wonderful, highly recommend creative community as a side note. So yeah, I, as you said, I have been working on a novel. I, I am editing it. I think this is my third draft right now. I've got some feedback recently from some readers, so I'm editing it. And the goal is to get it sent to some agents and see what the possibilities are there in the next couple of months. [00:04:44] So that'll be, that'll be an adventure for sure. In addition to that, I am starting to gather ideas for another writing project, which would be my own and other people's stories about being in the professional dance world and the good, the bad and the ugly of that. But focusing on the good hopefully. And so, yeah, writing, lots of writing. As far as dance goes, that's my other main thing. And I am starting to do some auditions and have a performance with you coming up, which I'm super excited about. And yeah, I that's pretty much it for now. I will see if any other opportunities arise, but I am trying to go with the flow. [00:05:33] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Well, and by going with the flow, obviously you are also very involved in lots of things. So that seems like quite a bit to keep you busy, not to mention, you know, you're a wife and mother and, you know, details. Well, congratulations on finishing or working on draft three of the novel. I mean, first of all, that's a huge undertaking to finish, let alone to get to this next point. So congratulations on that. And obviously I'm wishing you the best in your publishing journey and I'm sure our listeners are as well. And once that happens, you'll have to be on again and talk all about your book. [00:06:15] Ashley Taylor: I would be glad to do that. [00:06:17] Lindsey Dinneen: All right. And then so you mentioned getting back into various forms of art. And then I'm also curious because when we talked last time, you were essentially a brand new mom. And now you-- I mean, I guess you'd maybe consider yourself still kind of a brand new mom, I don't know-- but... [00:06:44] Ashley Taylor: It changes every day pretty much, a little bit. [00:06:49] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. And I'm curious how that has impacted your either expression of art or I mean, obviously ability to do art changes a little bit I'm sure. Or a lot, but I'm just curious if it, if you feel that also being a mom or having a little one has, has impacted just the way that you express yourself through art. [00:07:13] Ashley Taylor: Hmm. That's a great question. I think, I think I have two answers to that. So the first thing is now that I'm a mom, I obviously have additional demands on my time and energy. So that's, it can be a difficult thing, but it's also a good thing in the sense that I am a lot pickier now about what artistic endeavors I spend time on. So early on in any artistic person's career or foray into artistic things, just kind of taking whatever opportunities come your way, because you want to get out there and get recognized and build experience. And I've done that. And I've spent a lot of time doing that in the past. And I-- it's not that I have every experience I'd ever want under my belt and you know, I'm an expert now-- certainly not, but I think I am a little less willing to just kind of do whatever at this point. I'm interested in spending time on projects that I find really meaningful, which means I weed things out very quickly if I see audition listings or whatever it may be, and I think that's good. [00:08:25] I think, I think it's good to have that perspective now. Like I'm not, I'm not desperate enough to just do whatever. So that's good. And then as far as how it affects the expression of art, I do think it's not like I'm thinking about my son all the time while I'm making art, but I, I do think you, there's less pressure to throw your entire identity onto your art, because you know that you have other more important things waiting for you at home. Just gives you a different perspective and you realize you are more than, you're more than being a mother. You're also more than being an artist. You are all of those things at once. And you get to use the wholeness of that. You bring the wholeness of that into whatever you're doing at the moment, if that makes sense. [00:09:15] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, it absolutely does make sense. And I think that's really an amazing perspective to have, because it is so easy to get caught up in, you know, I'm, I'm a dancer. I've always been a dancer. I, you know, struggled with that myself quite a bit last year with COVID and not dancing for a year. I mean, not performing for a year and feeling like I've always identified myself, you know. When people meet me and I tell them that I'm a dancer. They're like, "Oh yeah, that makes sense." You know, it's just part of my DNA. And, and so there were many times last year I sort of had these like identity crisis moments of, "Well, who am I without this?" And, you know, and what, what do I need for my soul to, to feel like I can still identify as a dancer? Yeah. So I definitely relate to that, but I love the perspective that you have of sort of there's, there's more to you. Like you have, you have a myriad of sides to y

In this week's episode, I welcome Rachel Moore! Rachel is a licensed marriage and family therapist, specializing in psycotherapy for the creative community of writers, artists, and musicians. As a prolific artist herself--having trained in piano, voice, improv, writing, acting, photography, and more--Rachel brings a unique perspective to her therapy practice in a way that authentically connects with artists. Her episode is full of great stories and sage advice. (Fun fact: the cover image for this episode is one of Rachel's photos!)   Get in touch with Rachel Moore: https://www.rachelmoorecounseling.com/ Enroll in Lindsey's dance and wellness courses: www.elevateart.thinkific.com  Support Artfully Told: www.paypal.me/elevateart Artfully Told links: www.facebook.com/artfullytold | www.artfullytold.podbean.com | elevateartskc@gmail.com Get a free audiobook through Audible!  http://www.audibletrial.com/ArtfullyTold Schedule your own interview as a featured guest with Artfully Told! https://calendly.com/artfullytold/podcast-interview   Episode 70 - Rachel Moore [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome to Artfully Told, where we share true stories about meaningful encounters with art. [00:00:06] Krista: I think artists help people have different perspectives on every aspect of life. [00:00:12] Roman: All I can do is put my part in to the world. [00:00:15] Elizabeth: It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. It doesn't have to be perfect ever really. I mean, as long as you, and you're enjoying doing it and you're trying your best, that can be good enough. [00:00:23] Elna: Art is something that you can experience with your senses and that you just experiences as so beautiful. [00:00:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi friends, whether you are just getting started or you're a seasoned professional looking to up your game, I have an exciting opportunity for you. Did you know that I am actually the creator of 10 different courses online that range from ballet, jazz, tap. They also include a mindset detox course and two Stretch and Tone courses. So if you're looking to start a new hobby or get a little bit fitter, or you're looking to do a deep dive into your mindset, really perform a true detox, I have the course for you, and I would love to help you out with that. So if you go to elevateart.thinkific.com, you will see all of the different courses I've created. [00:01:26] You don't have to step in a classroom to take your first dance class. I teach a signature 20 Moves in 20 Days course that allows you to learn 20 steps in just 20 days. It's a lot of fun. We have a great time together. And I think you're going to absolutely love the different courses. And Artfully Told listeners get a little something from me. So if you go, you'll sign up and use the promo code "artfullytold," all one word, and when you do so you'll get 15% off the purchase of any and all your favorite courses. All right, listeners, enjoy that. Again, it's elevateart.thinkific.com. See you there. [00:02:11] Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Artfully Told. I'm your host Lindsey and I am so excited to have as my guest today, Rachel Moore. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist based in San Diego and she works primarily with creative people and artists, which is most of us. So I'm so, so excited that you're here, Rachel, and so excited to chat with you. Thank you for being here too. [00:02:38] Rachel Moore: Thanks so much, Lindsey, I'm really excited about it too. I can't wait to just chat with you about fun, artsy things. [00:02:45] Lindsey Dinneen: Right? It's my favorite. All right. Yeah. Well, I would love if you wouldn't mind sharing just a little bit, maybe about your background, kind of what got you interested in art and then of course, a little bit about what you're up to these days. [00:03:00] Rachel Moore: You bet. Gosh. Yeah. So actually my first intro into the creative world was through music. And so when I was seven, I started taking piano lessons, really liked it, did not like practicing, but that's another thing. And did piano from seven to 14, started playing a saxophone and in, in middle school and then went into high school and continued with that and jazz band and stuff. And then also started playing auxiliary percussion in marching band and met some really great friends there. So lots and lots and lots of music, instrumental music. And meanwhile, I forgot this other track this whole time. I was always a writer. Pretty much been writing since I was like five and I made my first little book or whatever. So writing and music, sort of the more performative arts, have always been something I've been interested in and good at. [00:03:53] I not a great drawer. I tried my best, but this art isn't quite what I do with it. So, you know slap something together. But yeah, for me, music and writing and I actually, my first career was as a newspaper copy editor. So when I was in college, I got a degree in creative writing focused mainly on poetry. And I think it's kind of cool actually that I then went on to a 14 year career in newspapers where I would do editing. I would do design of the news pages. And I also importantly, would write headlines, which required the skills of finding the best words and also looking at line breaks, right? And if you're writing a headline. So that was going on. And then in the meantime, I, I finally went into singing when I was like 30. I lived in LA, I went to this great community college program. They had an applied music program. I was still working and also doing this program where I got private lessons, singing lessons for the first time. And really it was able to kind of develop my voice and learn a lot of technique that was just super helpful. And so that's been really fun. [00:04:57] And so that's kind of all of the basis of the, the fun, creative stuff I like to do. Then when I was about 35, 36, I decided to become a therapist, went back to school, got my master's degree. All that had to do 3000 hours of supervised internship before I could get licensed. And meanwhile, thinking to myself like, well, who am I going? Who are my clients going to be? You know, what, what am I going to focus on? Who am I going to serve? When actually it was kind of right in front of me the whole time, which is people like me, people who were into art. And I can talk more about kind of what that's like from my perspective as a therapist and why I think that's important, but that's, that's kind of the, the quick and dirty version of my life. There you go. [00:05:41] Lindsey Dinneen: Perfect. Oh my goodness. I love it. So many questions based off of that. I love it, but, but let's, yeah, I would love to hear more about what you just talked about with your practice and working with creatives and things like that. I would love to hear more about that whole thing and how that became your focus as opposed to, I mean, therapists are needed all the time. So I'm just curious how that kind of became your, your niche. [00:06:07] Rachel Moore: Sure. Yeah. I actually had a particular therapy experience with my own therapist when I was trying to explain to her that I went to a friend's house and I sat down at her digital piano. And, you know, I live in San Diego. It's kind of hard to like haul pianos around. I don't really have a lot of access to pianos. With that piano, the piano was my first instrument and it really means a lot to me. And so explaining to my therapist, how I sat down with this digital piano. And I had no idea that they, they've improved them so much now that they really do feel a lot like a piano when you sit at it. And I felt like I was playing a piano and, and what that meant to me, you know, how it felt in my body and how it felt emotionally and, and all this stuff. And my therapist, like, it's, you know, she didn't do anything wrong. There's nothing wrong with her, but she was just kinda like, oh, okay. Like she just didn't get it. You know? [00:06:59] I thought, wow, wouldn't it be cool to just off the bat, be able to have that connection with my clients where I understand, generally speaking-- you know, it's different for everybody, but I understand that for them, art may be like a life or death type thing. Art may be the reason that they are alive and, and the most important thing in their life. I just thought it would be cool to be that type of therapist who could serve people like that. And, you know, the most practical thought there is that it just saves a lot of time. You know, I'm like, okay. Yeah, I get it. Great. You know, I don't have to, they don't have to explain it to me on a deeper level. I think it's just cool to be able to be a person who gets it on some level and when it comes to being a creative. [00:07:45] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. I absolutely agree. And I can even just hearing you tell that story, I can definitely relate to, you know, it, it's totally fine when you, when you're talking to people who don't have the same experiences and, you know, and being able to share like, well, this art means this to me because, and you can sort of explain it, but until you have experienced it yourself, it's just not the same. So I can totally see that. So, and I'm curious too, do you find, or have you found that-- I'm trying to figure out how to word this exactly-- that I guess, like I've said, I, I'm a firm believer in therapy, but I think that I'm just curious, how has it been to attract creatives to your practice? Is it, is it helpful because you're also an artist and that's sort of, again, how they've connected with you? Because I still feel like there's a little bit of stigma, even in the art world of like, "oh, you know, I can't, I can't do that because you know that that's not for me," I guess. [00:08:46] Rachel Moore: Yeah, that's a really good question. I mean, I think that, you know, when it comes to, you know, by the time people are finding me, they know they want to go to therapy, I

In this week's episode, I welcome Natsune Oki! Hailing from Japan, Natsune is an author, speaker, and entreprenuer, who has reimagined herself and her career multiple times. Her unique perspective about creativity and art allow her to inspire others with a positive mindset coupled with business acumen. (Fun fact: the cover image for this episode is of Natsune and the book she wrote!)   Get in touch with Natsune Oki: https://www.lifeupeducationtv.com/ Enroll in Lindsey's dance and wellness courses: www.elevateart.thinkific.com  Support Artfully Told: www.paypal.me/elevateart Artfully Told links: www.facebook.com/artfullytold | www.artfullytold.podbean.com | elevateartskc@gmail.com Get a free audiobook through Audible!  http://www.audibletrial.com/ArtfullyTold Schedule your own interview as a featured guest with Artfully Told! https://calendly.com/artfullytold/podcast-interview   Episode 69 - Natsune Oki [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome to Artfully Told, where we share true stories about meaningful encounters with art. [00:00:06] Krista: I think artists help people have different perspectives on every aspect of life. [00:00:12] Roman: All I can do is put my part in to the world. [00:00:15] Elizabeth: It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. It doesn't have to be perfect ever really. I mean, as long as you, and you're enjoying doing it and you're trying your best, that can be good enough. [00:00:23] Elna: Art is something that you can experience with your senses and that you just experiences as so beautiful. [00:00:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi friends, whether you are just getting started or you're a seasoned professional looking to up your game, I have an exciting opportunity for you. Did you know that I am actually the creator of 10 different courses online that range from ballet, jazz, tap. They also include a mindset detox course and two Stretch and Tone courses. So if you're looking to start a new hobby or get a little bit fitter, or you're looking to do a deep dive into your mindset, really perform a true detox, I have the course for you, and I would love to help you out with that. So if you go to elevateart.thinkific.com, you will see all of the different courses I've created. [00:01:26] You don't have to step in a classroom to take your first dance class. I teach a signature 20 Moves in 20 Days course that allows you to learn 20 steps in just 20 days. It's a lot of fun. We have a great time together. And I think you're going to absolutely love the different courses. And Artfully Told listeners get a little something from me. So if you go, you'll sign up and use the promo code "artfullytold," all one word, and when you do so you'll get 15% off the purchase of any and all your favorite courses. All right, listeners, enjoy that. Again, it's elevateart.thinkific.com. See you there. [00:02:11] Hello, and welcome back to another episode of artfully told I'm your host Lindsay. And I am so excited to have as my guest today, Natsune Oki, who is an author, speaker and entrepreneur. And she actually is coming to us from Tokyo, which is awesome. I'm super excited to chat with you about art. Thank you so much for being here. [00:02:36] Natsune Oki: Hi, Lindsay, thank you so much for having me today. I'm also very excited as well. [00:02:41] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, of course. Well, I know you have a super interesting background. I mean, obviously what you're up to nowadays is amazing. So of course I'd love to hear maybe how you got started and, and how it led to what you're doing now if you don't mind sharing. [00:02:59] Natsune Oki: Yes. My name is Natsune Oki. I, I was born and raised in Japan and so well, not Tokyo, but Japan and I decided to study abroad when I was 18. And then I went to the United States and I finished my business degree. Well, I would say I didn't finish my business degree, but basically I did like halfway on my college and I decided to work like getting work experience in America. And at that time, like my English was broken. I didn't even have a degree. I didn't have enough money, like nothing, but I just decided to just put myself out there, right? And then see what I go to get. And then very fortunately this time turned out to be one of the best time that I had in the States where I, I was able to work in like startup, entrepreneur- heavy like community. Because back then I lived in Seattle and Seattle was such like a hippie community for tech startups. [00:03:59] So during that time I was able to network with lots of entrepreneurs and investors who were working around technology and then who were really being in the possibility of with technology and expanding that possibility further. And I was really intrigued by it. I was really inspired by the vision that they had and that story kind of delays to later what I'm doing today, but I'm going to come back to it later. And then after that time kind of ended, I decided to go back to school to get my economics degree. And then I finished economic study and once again without like no plan, I didn't even have money or job lined up or anything, but I just decided to move to Florida and you know, without having anything really like no connection, no place to live, like it was really tough, but I just wanted something different. [00:04:57] So I moved and, yeah, some like really hard things happen because it was just really random, right? But I did it anyway and I was able to get like a consulting job. And then I worked as like a consultant, like digital marketer, marketer kind of role, the business agency. And then after that, I, after a while, I decided to come back to Japan for a little bit, because, there was opportunity with Olympics that was supposed to happen last year. So I came back and then I was still working with the same company, but then I always had this like tremendous interest in entrepreneurship. And I knew that I was going to have that like entrepreneurship experience at some point. And I think it was going to be actually, I was going to, I knew that I was going to be entrepreneur for like a very long time. I don't say I just needed to like time, like when that was going to happen. And that was the perfect timing. [00:05:56] So I decided to go like individually, like I just stopped the contract with the previous company and basically I'm doing what I was doing at my previous company. I do it like individually now. And that's how Foreign Connect to basically started. And I explain Foreign Connect as a business service that helps Japanese companies to expand their business launch and expand their businesses in America, and also Latin America because I have some connections in Florida. And Florida is like full of like, like Spanish speaking people. But basically that's what I do with Foreign Connect. And then I also have another very, very exciting media channel, which is the platform that I reached out to you from. It's called the LifeUp Education TV. And coming back to the earlier story, the reason I started that I started LifeUp Education TV is because I was really inspired by all of these tech entrepreneurs, their ambition toward like expanding the possibility of humanity. [00:07:02] And I mean, of course it's a business, so they do have this like money mentality and business mindset behind it. But I was more intrigued about it how they were so visionary and excited about the possibility of a technology, how that can make impacting people's lives more than like making money necessarily. That's why, like I made this tonight, the shift from studying business to economics, because economics, you have more space for broader thing than just money, but you know, it has consideration for economics. It has constellation for education, political science, and more things that has to do with people element of the society. So I, I made that size shift. And then, so today how that relates to like LifeUp Education TV. So like I said, I was really fascinated by how people were so excited about the future. [00:07:57] And when I think about future, I think of it as possibility and creativity, something that we haven't seen yet, right? And then in the same token, I guess in the opposite side of it is a past. There's a past. What is past? The past is what we already know what we already know as, for example, data, knowledge, or the history we already recorded it. And with having that, to being the opposite side of the spectrum, I believe that future is existing already inside of us. We tend to look at future as like external thing that we were searching for, right? Like the humanity is searching for the future, but I think vice versa. Like we already have the potential, we already contain the potential for the future. We just need to dig into it. And we just need to find the possibility and the future inside of us from our creativity we already have and what prevents us to do. So it's sometimes it's data and knowledge and experiences and the limits, so to speak. And how, because, you know, the limits tells us something is impossible, right? [00:09:16] Because, and then by the data we've already done it. It's impossible. Like that's the forest that we are against. So that's why, like, that is why I'm so excited about the future and really talking about pushing the limit. And when I talk about pushing the limit, I think like great connection between creativity has to do with like creativity and like art, our ability with like creating something from nothing, right? And I call that as a form of art. So this is why, like my channel LifeUp Education TV heavily promotes the idea that the potential that put the full potential of humanity really lays on our art capability. And that's what we like to talk about in this show is how can we unlock it? How can we stimulate it? How can we take the most advantage? [00:10:13] Lindsey Dinneen: Wow. That sounds amazing. Well, first of all, oh my goodness. So much of your story is so incredibly inspiring.

In this week's episode, I welcome Justin Alcala! Justin is an author and tabletop gamer and his episode is packed with crazy, amazing stories, including about growing up in a house that was built on behalf of the South Side Mafia in Chicago with a tunnel to the house across the street. He shares about how his daughter has informed his work, along with his advice for aspiring artists. (Fun fact: the cover image is Justin's personal logo artwork!)   Get in touch with Justin Alcala: https://www.justinalcala.com Enroll in Lindsey's dance and wellness courses: www.elevateart.thinkific.com  Support Artfully Told: www.paypal.me/elevateart Artfully Told links: www.facebook.com/artfullytold | www.artfullytold.podbean.com | elevateartskc@gmail.com Get a free audiobook through Audible!  http://www.audibletrial.com/ArtfullyTold Schedule your own interview as a featured guest with Artfully Told! https://calendly.com/artfullytold/podcast-interview   Episode 68 - Justin Alcala [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome to Artfully Told, where we share true stories about meaningful encounters with art. [00:00:06] Krista: I think artists help people have different perspectives on every aspect of life. [00:00:12] Roman: All I can do is put my part in to the world. [00:00:15] Elizabeth: It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. It doesn't have to be perfect ever really. I mean, as long as you, and you're enjoying doing it and you're trying your best, that can be good enough. [00:00:23] Elna: Art is something that you can experience with your senses and that you just experiences as so beautiful. [00:00:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi friends, whether you are just getting started or you're a seasoned professional looking to up your game, I have an exciting opportunity for you. Did you know that I am actually the creator of 10 different courses online that range from ballet, jazz, tap. They also include a mindset detox course and two Stretch and Tone courses. So if you're looking to start a new hobby or get a little bit fitter, or you're looking to do a deep dive into your mindset, really perform a true detox, I have the course for you, and I would love to help you out with that. So if you go to elevateart.thinkific.com, you will see all of the different courses I've created. [00:01:26] You don't have to step in a classroom to take your first dance class. I teach a signature 20 Moves in 20 Days course that allows you to learn 20 steps in just 20 days. It's a lot of fun. We have a great time together. And I think you're going to absolutely love the different courses. And Artfully Told listeners get a little something from me. So if you go, you'll sign up and use the promo code "artfullytold," all one word, and when you do so you'll get 15% off the purchase of any and all your favorite courses. All right, listeners, enjoy that. Again, it's elevateart.thinkific.com. See you there. [00:02:11] Hello. Welcome back to another episode of Artfully Told. I'm your host Lindsey and I am excited to have as my guest today, Justin Alcala, who is an author, tabletop gamer, self-proclaimed nerd ninja from Chicago. And I am just so excited to hear exactly what that means, because I know there's a rich history I can already tell that goes into, to becoming who that person is. So thank you so much for being here, Justin. I appreciate you. [00:02:46] Justin Alcala: Thank you. Thank you. You can add literary misfit too. [00:02:50] Lindsey Dinneen: I like it. I like it. Fantastic. [00:02:53] Justin Alcala: And dork. [00:02:54] Lindsey Dinneen: But now, oh, I can't wait to hear all about all of it. So I will just love if you wouldn't mind telling us a little bit about, you know, your background, maybe how you got started into art in the first place, and then what's occupying your life now. [00:03:10] Justin Alcala: Ooh. All right. We'll start off with a doozy. So I was, I'm a, I'm a novelist, short story writer. And I was sort of my background I was raised in the sootier part of the south side of Chicago. By no means that I have it bad, but, you know, observed some colorful events here and there that everyday people might not be witness to. But that plus I went to a little more stringent Catholic school and, and sort of union of the two taught me "Be quiet, comply. Don't be weird." And what I realized though is, you know, life is weird. And so those, you know, those curious thoughts, the innocently, spooky, funny, kinky ones, you know, that's really what makes a human who they are that's hard to ignore. So once I figured that out and I figured out that I wanted to get into writing during college I just sort of combined it all sort to start my writing career. [00:04:02] Lindsey Dinneen: Wow. Okay. Yeah. And so having the experience of feeling like you had to conform and fit a certain mold, how did that inform what do you do now? [00:04:15] Justin Alcala: Yeah, so long story. You know, my parents were blue collar artists. My mom was a painter, my dad, he did glassblowing metal work. He did all sorts of things, but, you know, to, to make ends meet. They, they both worked very hard. And I was in Catholic school and there were many rules. And, you know, so you have these interesting things where you're you're in the-- we'll call it industrial world-- growing up in, and long story short, after a while it started feeling wrong to always stay quiet. Always I was the little pipsqueak nerd by the way. And so opening my mouth either could get me beat up. It could get me in trouble with the nuns' ruler. Or just get me funny looks. So I stayed quiet for a long time, but then there's just one day where, when I was going to college believe it or not, I started off, I was going to be a police officer. And thank God I didn't go down that one because I probably couldn't fight, fight my way out of a wet paper bag. [00:05:11] I had always been writing since I was as a kid, my poor buddies, John and Dave, and all of them. Johnny, I would write them comics and notice sort of graphic novels and other small pieces and forced them to read them. But one day I was in college. I was taking an English class and I had that Eureka moment where I'm like, I'm already always writing. I had been tabletop writing for a while as well, just you know, my friends playing Dungeons and Dragons, all those great stuff. And I realized that I loved it. And so I started indulging into it and kind of talking to professors, and as well I knew a couple people who knew editors for publishers and it kind of just sparked off from there. And you know, eventually you get some good encouragement, you get bad encouragement too, but you're getting good encouragement and people saying, "Hey, you know, you're really good at this." And you know, that was, holy smokes, 15-16 years ago. And now, poof, what do you know? You know, we have four novels out, about 30 publications and still going strong and it's just been, it's been fantastic. [00:06:16] Lindsey Dinneen: That's awesome. Yeah. I know sometimes it can be hard too to finally let your voice be heard if you're not used to doing so, but kudos to you for getting to that place and, and, and, you know, recognizing that it, it's not only okay to be different, it's great to be different. I mean, people are unique and there are lots of different types of people who sort of end up liking the same things. Like, you know, I'm sure you met a whole group of people who were all tabletop gamers that just got along super well. And it's not like you by yourself anymore, you know, it's this group of people. [00:06:54] Justin Alcala: You unionize, right? [00:06:55] Lindsey Dinneen: There you go. I like it. I like it a lot. So, you know, as somebody who is not as familiar with that world, you had mentioned writing, tabletop writing, and I'm curious, because again, this is I, I'm not super familiar. So I'm just curious when you play these games, can you describe for those of us who don't know what it's like when you're playing them? So are you simultaneously writing it as you go? [00:07:21] Justin Alcala: Oh yeah, I'm gonna warn you right here. This is about to get as nerdy as you can. This is going to sound painfully geeky, but let's, let's walk you through the process. So long story short you, and a couple of other people, you get together, you pick your game you want to play that's kind of your environment. That's your world. You know, you can think of fan fiction. It's, it's, it's what you want your protagonist to stay in. Your friends they go ahead. If you're going to be the storyteller. They pick their protagonist and they create them. And there's all sorts of rules that takes a couple of years of advanced math to figure out. But once you do all that, you are, you are their enabler. You tell their story, you move them through the story arc based off of this world that you've sort of created. And through rules of dice and stuff, you find out actually what the answers are. But what I found out was as I was going along, you know, everyone starts off pretty painful. That's the fun thing about the beginning is there are so many parallels with just writing a book, writing a graphic novel writing whatever, your novella, coincide completely with you just sitting around eating Doritos and drinking Mountain Dew with your nerdy friends while you play elves and wizards. So yeah, that's, that's in a nutshell and I promise it would be nerdy and holy smokes probably nerdier that I thought it would be. [00:08:42] Lindsey Dinneen: No, I love it. And I do appreciate it. It is something that's really interesting to me, but I haven't dabbled in it yet. So I'm, I'm always curious to know, okay, these art forms that I haven't learned about yet to like, just tell me all the details. I, I love the nerdy nitty gritty. [00:08:58] Justin Alcala: You put your, you had to put your, your guard down in order to enjoy, but once you do, holy smokes, I've, I've had some of the most serious uptight people pl

In this week's episode, I welcome Aunia Kahn! Aunia is a true jack-of-all-trade artist. She has excelled in many different art forms, from a painter, graphic designer, and website developer, to podcast host, speaker, and writer--with a brief stint as a one-woman band. She shares her artistic journey and lots of sage advice in her delightful episode. (Fun fact: the cover image for this podcast is one of Aunia's original paintings!)   Get in touch with Aunia Kahn: https://auxiliumhaus.com/ | https://auniakahn.com/ Enroll in Lindsey's dance and wellness courses: www.elevateart.thinkific.com  Support Artfully Told: www.paypal.me/elevateart Artfully Told links: www.facebook.com/artfullytold | www.artfullytold.podbean.com | elevateartskc@gmail.com Get a free audiobook through Audible!  http://www.audibletrial.com/ArtfullyTold Schedule your own interview as a featured guest with Artfully Told! https://calendly.com/artfullytold/podcast-interview   Episode 67 - Aunia Kahn [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome to Artfully Told, where we share true stories about meaningful encounters with art. [00:00:06] Krista: I think artists help people have different perspectives on every aspect of life. [00:00:12] Roman: All I can do is put my part in to the world. [00:00:15] Elizabeth: It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. It doesn't have to be perfect ever really. I mean, as long as you, and you're enjoying doing it and you're trying your best, that can be good enough. [00:00:23] Elna: Art is something that you can experience with your senses and that you just experiences as so beautiful. [00:00:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi friends, whether you are just getting started or you're a seasoned professional looking to up your game, I have an exciting opportunity for you. Did you know that I am actually the creator of 10 different courses online that range from ballet, jazz, tap. They also include a mindset detox course and two Stretch and Tone courses. So if you're looking to start a new hobby or get a little bit fitter, or you're looking to do a deep dive into your mindset, really perform a true detox, I have the course for you, and I would love to help you out with that. So if you go to elevateart.thinkific.com, you will see all of the different courses I've created. [00:01:26] You don't have to step in a classroom to take your first dance class. I teach a signature 20 Moves in 20 Days course that allows you to learn 20 steps in just 20 days. It's a lot of fun. We have a great time together. And I think you're going to absolutely love the different courses. And Artfully Told listeners get a little something from me. So if you go, you'll sign up and use the promo code "artfullytold," all one word, and when you do so you'll get 15% off the purchase of any and all your favorite courses. All right, listeners, enjoy that. Again, it's elevateart.thinkific.com. See you there. [00:02:11] Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Artfully Told. I'm your host Lindsey, and I am very excited to have as my guest today, Aunia Kahn. She is a creative entrepreneur extraordinaire. I feel like that's maybe a good summary there. So many different things that she has dabbled in and obviously is an expert in, so everything from podcasting to graphic design to writing, I believe, and I would say probably a whole smattering of things in between. So thank you so much for joining us today on your I'm so excited to have you here. [00:02:53] Aunia Kahn: Thank you. And yes, I do. [00:02:56] Lindsey Dinneen: Very good. Okay, good. I thought so. All right. Well, I would love if you would just share with us a little bit about your background, kind of maybe how you got started, if you're okay with that. [00:03:06] Aunia Kahn: Yeah, totally. So I kind of came into art in a very strange way. A lot of people come into art because that's what they just want to do. And I didn't come on to art that way. I grew up in a family where I wasn't really supported artistically and I was really encouraged to do like, quote unquote, normal job. And so that's the direction that I went with. My life is studying psychology and other things completely outside of art, but I had always been somebody who just loved art and enjoyed it, but never thought it could be a career. And then I got really sick around the age of 19 and started to have some pretty extensive health crisises, crisis's crazy. Anyway, it's a weird word. Health, health concerns, health issues. And I ended up turning to art as a way to work through those challenges. And because I was always a really driven individual, I've always been very goal oriented and like check off the boxes kind of person in my life that in doing so I felt like I needed to do something with it, not just make the art, but maybe do something with it. [00:04:27] And one day I was out of my house, which I didn't go out very much. I mean, I was very housebound. I went out to this little park and it was this art thing for kids, and I was there and I was at a little table and I was doing some watercolor pencils. And some gentleman walked up to me and said, "Can I take a picture of you?" And I was like, "Mm. Yeah, no, like who are you?" And he said, "Well, I'm a local, you know, photographer for the local newspaper and we're doing a little thing." And we ended up talking, becoming friends and down the road, he is the person that talked me into first exhibiting my art and putting it out there publicly. And that's how it all started. I started to submit to exhibitions. I started to win awards. I started to get into ,shows but that's kind of how I got started in the world of exhibiting art. [00:05:25] Graphic and web design I was doing prior to 'cause I was really interested in music and doing music covers and websites well before the art stuff, just for fun. But that's kind of how I got into art and how I got kind of pushed into a place that I really didn't think that could ever support me or that I'd ever be good at, or I'd ever really have success. I just, I was like, oh, okay. This is kind of weird, but I felt connected, Lindsey. I felt really connected with people because I would put my artwork and shows and I would have people make really intense reactions to the work because the work back then was a lot more dark. It had a lot to do with childhood trauma and other really difficult situations. So it was hard for me to even put that stuff on a wall, let alone deal with people's reactions to my work from a distance, but I realized that it was cathartic. [00:06:23] And since I'd always been somebody who is interested in psychology, I kind of learned that I couldn't be a therapist because of my illness and because I'm too empathetic, but in a way I'm inadvertently helping people by working with trauma and challenging situations through my art, where other people can relate to them and be able to work through it on their own as well. So that's kind of it in a nutshell. And of course it goes on from there, but that's, that's the nutshell over the last 15 years. [00:06:56] Lindsey Dinneen: Perfect. So, well, I love the nutshell. That definitely that is so cool. It encapsulates so many different experiences and wow, what an amazing story to go from this like random chance encounter to then that's what kind of sparked your, your creative journey to a different level. Like you said, you were already a graphic designer and so you had that artistic bent, but then too, Oh, my word. Just take it and run through meeting this stranger who asks you this awkward question? I really love that story. [00:07:32] Aunia Kahn: And I was just going to say it was the same with the graphic design element. I ended up having a friend who had an extra computer and he was just like, "do you, do you want it? It has Photoshop and all this stuff on it. And I know you were interested in web stuff for the band that you were doing." And I said, "yes." And now we're 15 years later and I'm, I do web design, websites and graphic stuff and all that kind of stuff, you know, for a living alongside my art. So two chance encounters, really two, two very different situations and two very different people who I've definitely let them know, like, "thank you." I wouldn't be here today without you, kind of changed my life. [00:08:12] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. That's, that's awesome. Sometimes I think it only takes, you know, one person, whether it's a chance encounter or someone you happen to know or whatever, but they just say the right thing at the right moment. And then it like launches something you, you wouldn't have ever expected. I mean, I've had that experience too. It's special. It's, it's-- you never know when you're going to be that person to somebody else too. So always, you know, pointing people in an encouraging direction, and I'm going off on a tangent here. I'm just recognizing the fact that sometimes those individuals don't realize how much of a difference they're making in the moment. So, yeah, I think it's cool that you go back in and say thanks. [00:08:51] Aunia Kahn: Yeah. People don't know. I mean, how many times has people's lives been changed by one person and that one person doesn't ever have any clue. [00:08:59] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, exactly. Okay. So you had mentioned graphic design and website design, but then you had sort of snuck in this thing about having a band. What was that? [00:09:11] Aunia Kahn: I don't anymore. This was, this was a long time ago. I did, I did music. I had my own, like a project that was the best way that I could explain it for like the layman, is I was kind of like a female Nine Inch. So I did all the percussion. I did all of the vocals. I did all the mastering of the tracks. I did all the work. I am not at all successful like Nine Inch Nails. So I'm not comparing it like that, like I was amazing. Just kind of like the similar, how, you know, music is constructed. I really didn't have other people with me. It was really just my own th

In today's episode, I welcome Phillip Andrew Bennett Low! Phil is a writer, storyteller, and playwright, who actively participates in Fringe Festivals across the United States. He shares stories from his artistic journey, including sage advice for those who don't feel ready to dive in, along with memories that really stand out to him as moments that matter. (Fun fact: the cover image of this episode is of Phil!)    Get in touch with Phillip Andrew Bennett Low: https://www.maximumverbosityonline.org/ Enroll in Lindsey's dance and wellness courses: www.elevateart.thinkific.com  Support Artfully Told: www.paypal.me/elevateart Artfully Told links: www.facebook.com/artfullytold | www.artfullytold.podbean.com | elevateartskc@gmail.com Get a free audiobook through Audible!  http://www.audibletrial.com/ArtfullyTold Schedule your own interview as a featured guest with Artfully Told! https://calendly.com/artfullytold/podcast-interview   Episode 66 - Phillip Andrew Bennett Low [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome to Artfully Told, where we share true stories about meaningful encounters with art. [00:00:06] Krista: I think artists help people have different perspectives on every aspect of life. [00:00:12] Roman: All I can do is put my part in to the world. [00:00:15] Elizabeth: It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. It doesn't have to be perfect ever really. I mean, as long as you, and you're enjoying doing it and you're trying your best, that can be good enough. [00:00:23] Elna: Art is something that you can experience with your senses and that you just experiences as so beautiful. [00:00:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi friends, whether you are just getting started or you're a seasoned professional looking to up your game, I have an exciting opportunity for you. Did you know that I am actually the creator of 10 different courses online that range from ballet, jazz, tap. They also include a mindset detox course and two Stretch and Tone courses. So if you're looking to start a new hobby or get a little bit fitter, or you're looking to do a deep dive into your mindset, really perform a true detox, I have the course for you, and I would love to help you out with that. So if you go to elevateart.thinkific.com, you will see all of the different courses I've created. [00:01:26] You don't have to step in a classroom to take your first dance class. I teach a signature 20 Moves in 20 Days course that allows you to learn 20 steps in just 20 days. It's a lot of fun. We have a great time together. And I think you're going to absolutely love the different courses. And Artfully Told listeners get a little something from me. So if you go, you'll sign up and use the promo code "artfullytold," all one word, and when you do so you'll get 15% off the purchase of any and all your favorite courses. All right, listeners, enjoy that. Again, it's elevateart.thinkific.com. See you there. [00:02:11] Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Artfully Told. I'm your host Lindsey, and I am absolutely delighted to have as my guest today, a fellow Fringe Festival producer. I'm always so thrilled to meet and chat with fellow Fringe producers, because there's just such this cool community and comradery. And I just, I'm so thrilled that you're here. So today I have Phillip Andrew Bennett Low as my guest. He is a writer, storyteller and playwright. And thank you so much for joining me, Phil. I'm so excited to have you here. [00:02:48] Phillip Andrew Bennett Low: Hey, thanks so much for having me. [00:02:51] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course. And I would love it. If you wouldn't mind sharing a little bit about your background, maybe what got you started in your artistic pursuits and go from there. [00:03:01] Phillip Andrew Bennett Low: Yeah, sure, absolutely. I'm, I'm one of those guys in show business who's done a little bit of everything at some point or another, but I'm probably best known as a storyteller, as one of those guys who tours the Fringe circuit and does one- man shows. I've been doing this for a pretty long time. I'm, I was one of those kids, I was one of those kids who sort of knew he wanted to be a writer right away. I didn't have the, the soul seeking, hand ringing angst about that, that a lot of people in our generation did, but the form of that has changed a lot. And frequently over the years, but I always sort of knew I wanted to put words together in front of an audience. [00:03:45] And then as a teenager, I fell into the world of community theater and I was one of the people who wasn't smart enough to quit. So I just, you know, kept going and going and and yeah, eventually I ended up on the Fringe circuit. I was writing plays for a while. I fell backwards into doing a storytelling show, which took off and then I did more. And then I toured and you know, I, I wish I had some sort of like, you know, conversion story, some like Damascian revelation where like I hated art, and then one day I, I, I learned that it was great. I've been a convert from early on. [00:04:22] Lindsey Dinneen: Very good. I love it. Well, okay. So, so many questions popped into my mind immediately when you're just doing the intro. So I love it. The first thing is, can you explain the difference to our audience that might not know actually, including myself, kind of how you differentiate between sort of a one- man show versus a storytelling show? Is it-- because they're kind of separate, it sounded like the way that you were describing it and I may have misinterpreted, but. [00:04:51] Phillip Andrew Bennett Low: So I I can not answer that question without making a lot of people angry, but I'm game to give it a try anyway. [00:04:58] Lindsey Dinneen: Great. [00:05:00] Phillip Andrew Bennett Low: That storytelling is one of those disciplines where people are very protective of the definitions that they form of it. I favor a very broad one. I sort of feel like if you walk onto a stage by yourself and use words to tell a story, I'm comfortable calling you a storyteller. And I get that that encompasses some standup comics and slam poets. And I'm totally okay with that. I'm, I'm happy with that door being wide open, but yeah, I mean, there's, there's, there's a lot of different ways to draw circles around that. I mean, people who do monologues as a specific character. There's people who jump out and act out a bunch of different characters. There's the people who tell a story in a more traditional way from sort of a third- person omniscient point of view. And I am, I am just wholly uninterested in building walls up between those things and creating a definition that's going to block people out of it. I think if you call yourself a storyteller, and if your audience would call you a storyteller, I am, I am perfectly comfortable with that being flung towards anyone who finds it useful. [00:06:09] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. No, that's, that's, that's helpful. Cause it's, it's just, you know, one of those, one of those things-- not being a theater person, super appreciative, love it, but not being in that genre myself-- I've noticed that, you know, it there often is it sort of a distinction, like storytellers talk about being a storyteller and this is a storytelling show or whatever, versus like I'm doing a one man production and it's, and it almost seems like they're two separate things, right? Yeah. Okay. That's helpful. Thanks. I like, I like it. I like the idea of it being more inclusive of a more broad range of people. [00:06:47] Phillip Andrew Bennett Low: Yeah. You've, you've, you've mentioned you have a dance background, right? [00:06:50] Lindsey Dinneen: Yes. [00:06:51] Phillip Andrew Bennett Low: So you're, you're, you're perfectly familiar with people getting sort of weirdly dogmatic about where to, where to build those barriers and definitions over what they do. [00:07:01] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh yes. Oh yes. Yes. I think the safest thing is probably to label yourself as a dancer, but, you know, so that you don't get into too many of the genre wars, but yeah. Yeah, and then, okay, so you mentioned doing Fringe quite a bit. How did you first learn about Fringe as a, as an organization, as a whole and what made you dive in? [00:07:25] Phillip Andrew Bennett Low: Oh man. It's, it's a sad story. I was, you know, I was one of those, those guys where I was just writing plays and writing plays and just blind submitting them to theater after theater, you know, going through the drama, the source book with a red pen and, you know, building up a big stack of rejection letters. And I, it was back in the days when news groups were a thing. You know, for the young ins listening, that's like Reddit before there was Reddit, but it was me just throwing out this pleading, "I'm writing all this stuff and I just want to get it in front of an audience. How can I do it?" And someone responding, "Well, there's this thing called the Fringe." And you know, me doing lots of Google because Google was a thing. And yeah, and me just sort of diving into and falling down that rabbit hole. The 2004 Minnesota Fringe was my first Fringe Festival. [00:08:16] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Okay, perfect. And then are, is this something that you do on a more full-time basis as, you know, they do the Fringe circuit or is this like a seasonal kind of thing for you to do Fringe Festivals? And I know everything looks a little different these days, but let's say, back in the day when it was in person in the, in the before times. [00:08:40] Phillip Andrew Bennett Low: Yes, I was one of those guys doing the circuit, although that's slowed down recently .I'm a stay at home dad. So traveling has new challenges reached in that for me, but I definitely still try to get out to a couple of festivals a year when those festivals happen. Although now I'm, I'm streaming to a bunch of different festivals. So in a way that door's weirdly half open again. Yeah. Yeah. I definitely, I am totally a circuit guy. If I could afford to

In today's episode, I welcome Will Blaine! He is an artist as well as the author and illustrator of the short story series, "Wildly Inappropriate Stories for Children," which feature common scenarios of adventures kids get themselves in, such a getting lost at a beach, or getting covered in jam while making themselves breakfast. Will's interview is funny, inspirational, and insightful, and he shares about all the twists and turns his artistic journey has taken him so far. (Fun fact: the cover image to this episode is Will's company's logo!)   Get in touch with Will Blaine: www.instagram.com/curiousmindofwill  Enroll in Lindsey's dance and wellness courses: www.elevateart.thinkific.com  Support Artfully Told: www.paypal.me/elevateart Artfully Told links: www.facebook.com/artfullytold | www.artfullytold.podbean.com | elevateartskc@gmail.com Get a free audiobook through Audible!  http://www.audibletrial.com/ArtfullyTold Schedule your own interview as a featured guest with Artfully Told! https://calendly.com/artfullytold/podcast-interview   Episode 65 - Will Blaine Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome to Artfully Told, where we share true stories about meaningful encounters with art. [00:00:06] Krista: I think artists help people have different perspectives on every aspect of life. [00:00:12]Roman:  All I can do is put my part in to the world. [00:00:15] Elizabeth: It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. It doesn't have to be perfect ever really. I mean, as long as you, and you're enjoying doing it and you're trying your best, that can be good enough. [00:00:23] Elna: Art is something that you can experience with your senses and that you just experiences as so beautiful.  [00:00:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi friends, whether you are just getting started or you're a seasoned professional looking to up your game, I have an exciting opportunity for you. Did you know that I am actually the creator of 10 different courses online that range from ballet, jazz, tap. They also include a mindset detox course and two Stretch and Tone courses. So if you're looking to start a new hobby or get a little bit fitter, or you're looking to do a deep dive into your mindset, really perform a true detox, I have the course for you, and I would love to help you out with that. So if you go to elevateart.thinkific.com, you will see all of the different courses I've created. [00:01:26] You don't have to step in a classroom to take your first dance class. I teach a signature 20 Moves in 20 Days course that allows you to learn 20 steps in just 20 days. It's a lot of fun. We have a great time together. And I think you're going to absolutely love the different courses. And artfully told listeners get a little something from me. So if you go, you'll sign up and use the promo code "artfullytold," all one word, and when you do so you'll get 15% off the purchase of any and all your favorite courses. All right, listeners, enjoy that. Again, it's elevateart.thinkific.com. See you there. [00:02:11] Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Artfully Told. I'm your host Lindsey, and I am very excited to have as my guest today, Will Blaine. He is an artist as well as the author and illustrator of the short story series, "Wildly Inappropriate Stories for Children," which I am so excited to find out what that means. So I am just delighted to have you here. Will, thank you so much for being here. I definitely appreciate it. Can't wait to chat with you about arts. [00:02:42] Will Blaine: Thank you. It's a pleasure. [00:02:43] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. I would love if you wouldn't mind sharing a little bit about your background, maybe what got you involved in art in the first place? A little bit about your life journey, if you're okay with that. [00:02:55] Will Blaine: Yeah, of course. I, I've always been kind of an, an artist and an author. I have always done that since I was a kid and I don't know why, after I break out in my twenties and everything like that, I I don't know. I didn't do it as much, but I always told stories to my, to my daughter. And, and I think this is kind of my-- if anybody knows me, they know this is true about it-- when I read my daughter books. When she was younger, I never actually read the words. I just  made up stories as it went along. And the same went for like games, my daughter to this day, she still gets on me because she goes, "You used to cheat at Candy Land." When she was little, she didn't understand what the rules were, so I just made them up as I went along because she didn't know them anyway. So I was just kind of having fun with her, just time, you know, spending time with my daughter and everything. And she, she was about five years old and she realized that I was not following the rules, when she learned to read and understood how the game works. She's like, "Hey, that's cheating!" And I've never lived it down. So I've always just kind of made up stories and, and liked drawing and, and things like that, pretty much all my life. My grandfather was an artist. And he was mostly doing landscapes and he would draw people's farms and things like that. And I think it probably had a little bit of an influence on me as to what I would like to do when I grew up as, as far as my art is concerned. [00:04:08] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. So kind of having had the opportunity to grow up around it sounds like it was inspiring to you because you liked what you saw and you were like, "Oh, maybe I could do this too." Did he ever have a hand in helping teach you any of, of what he had learned himself? Or did you learn through others? [00:04:26] Will Blaine: Yeah, he didn't really have that much of an influence on me. Though he did, he did give me lessons a few times, but it was mostly, mostly on my own that, that I've been doing this, the artwork. And I think that I, I need a lot more practice for sure that. Very happy with doing what I'm doing. It's just turned out pretty, pretty well. And I, I like it myself, if nobody else does, at least I do. [00:04:45] Lindsey Dinneen: Well, and there's a lot of value to that, for sure. I was talking recently with somebody on the show who was talking about just creating art for art's sake for yourself. And it doesn't have to be shown to anyone. I mean, if it is, that's great, but if it's not, that's fine too. It's just about the process of creating and allowing yourself that outlet and you know, it, it just in the end it's, it's that. That's what matters. [00:05:10] Will Blaine: Yeah. And it's been, it's very therapeutic in many ways too. I mean, it's just, it has a calming effect and, it's a form of expression an outlet that most people don't take advantage of. I think anybody can become an artist really. I mean, just because you don't think that you can draw up a particular thing doesn't mean that you can't draw. You know, I think with a little like practice and some lessons, I think anyone can be a pretty decent artist. [00:05:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. I agree. And I think like, I really like what you said about it. It's maybe not so much about that particular thing. So me, for instance, if I were to sit down at a table and look at this bowl of fruit and try to recreate it through a painting, I would fail miserably. And I know that because I've tried and I'm so bad. But if I just sit down and create like whimsical, sort of fun art work that I do paint that's just like my imagination coming to life, I can totally do that, but yeah. Yeah. All about finding the right medium for you, I think. Or the right expression. Yeah. I love that. [00:06:09] Will Blaine: Right. [00:06:10]Lindsey Dinneen:  Yeah. So, okay. I have to find out all the things about your, your book series, because that just sounds like so much fun. So tell me about that. [00:06:19] Will Blaine: Yeah. So the wildly "Wildly Inappropriate Stories for Children" book series is about all of the things that parents do not want their children to do, but all children do invariably. So my first book is called "Vlad and the Vast Beach" is a little boy, about a little boy that runs wanders away from his mother during the day at the beach. The second story of my series is called "Sticky Fingers from Jam." It's about a little boy that wakes up early in the morning and decides to make himself breakfast, and all these are based kind of loosely on my own experiences in life. So "Vlad and the Vast Beach" is based on my experiences going to New York City in the Brighton Beach area. [00:06:56] I don't know if you know anything about Brighton Beach, but Brighton Beach is an area of New York where everything is Russian. All the people are Russian. All the signs are Russian, the restaurants are Russian, the stores are Russian. Everything's Russian.  So my wife and I speak Russian incidentally, so we would, we would go there a few times a year, take a walk along the boardwalk and walk to Coney Island in the evenings. And there would always be people out on the beach, you know, you know, having a good time. And that's where I got the idea for " Vlad and the Vast Beach," having that urban beach setting and having, having Vlad wander off and have a little adventure on his own. [00:07:27] Lindsey Dinneen: Nice. Okay. So how many books have you published so far? [00:07:32]Will Blaine:  I've only published two, I've written probably 10 or 12, but I haven't published them. And my first two books are not illustrated. I just put them out there just because most people were, a lot of people were saying, "Hey, I want a copy of this." And I got tired, tired of emailing people. So I put it on Amazon and you know, it's just selling decently, but yeah,  my next story that's coming out is called "The Glorious Gizzard of Roz." It's about a little chicken and it will be fully illustrated. So I look forward to that. That's going to be the first time that I've had a fully illustrated book. [00:08:04] Lindsey Dinneen: Great! That's exciting. And so I'm curious to kno

In today's episode, I welcome Sally Brown! Sally is a feminist, artist, curator, and writer, who strives to always elevate and amplify women artists and their work. She shares about her journey from art reviewer and museum curator to embracing her own unique body print artwork, and what that has taught her about being a mother, and about women in general. (Fun fact: the cover image for this episode is a photo of Sally!)   Get in touch with Sally Brown: www.instagram.com/sallery_art | https://linktr.ee/sallery_art Enroll in Lindsey's dance and wellness courses: www.elevateart.thinkific.com  Support Artfully Told: www.paypal.me/elevateart Artfully Told links: www.facebook.com/artfullytold | www.artfullytold.podbean.com | elevateartskc@gmail.com Get a free audiobook through Audible!  http://www.audibletrial.com/ArtfullyTold Schedule your own interview as a featured guest with Artfully Told! https://calendly.com/artfullytold/podcast-interview   Episode 64 - Sally Brown Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome to Artfully Told, where we share true stories about meaningful encounters with art. [00:00:06] Krista: I think artists help people have different perspectives on every aspect of life. [00:00:12]Roman:  All I can do is put my part in to the world. [00:00:15] Elizabeth: It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. It doesn't have to be perfect ever really. I mean, as long as you, and you're enjoying doing it and you're trying your best, that can be good enough. [00:00:23] Elna: Art is something that you can experience with your senses and that you just experiences as so beautiful.  [00:00:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi friends, whether you are just getting started or you're a seasoned professional looking to up your game, I have an exciting opportunity for you. Did you know that I am actually the creator of 10 different courses online that range from ballet, jazz, tap. They also include a mindset detox course and two Stretch and Tone courses. So if you're looking to start a new hobby or get a little bit fitter, or you're looking to do a deep dive into your mindset, really perform a true detox, I have the course for you, and I would love to help you out with that. So if you go to elevateart.thinkific.com, you will see all of the different courses I've created. [00:01:26] You don't have to step in a classroom to take your first dance class. I teach a signature 20 Moves in 20 Days course that allows you to learn 20 steps in just 20 days. It's a lot of fun. We have a great time together. And I think you're going to absolutely love the different courses. And artfully told listeners get a little something from me. So if you go, you'll sign up and use the promo code "artfullytold," all one word, and when you do so you'll get 15% off the purchase of any and all your favorite courses. All right, listeners, enjoy that. Again, it's elevateart.thinkific.com. See you there. [00:02:11] Hello, and welcome back to another episode of our Artfully Told. I'm your host Lindsey, and I am so excited to have as my guest today, Sally Brown. She is a feminist, artist, curator and writer, and I'm so excited to dive into all the different things that she does and has dabbled in and is proficient in. And I just can't wait to have a conversation about art with you, Sally. So thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate it. [00:02:40] Sally Brown: Well, thanks for having me. It's an honor. I'm excited. [00:02:43] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, of course. Well, I would love if you would share maybe a little bit about your background, what got you into all the different, cool things that you're doing and maybe what you're up to these days. [00:02:55] Sally Brown: Yeah. Thank you. Well, it's like, how far back do I go? I was a fashion design major in undergrad before I took a drawing class and fell in love with it and just decided to be an art major. And when I graduated from undergrad though, I thought, "Oh, there's too many artists. I, I don't need to put my, my art out there." So I went into working for the galleries and museums doing fundraising and administration. And I kind of got burnt out. Then I had my babies and I kinda missed, you know, missed making art, missed being in the arts. So I started writing arts reviews for the local paper, and I also started modeling for art classes. Kind of an interesting way to get back into the arts, but that kind of led me to get more confidence to use my voice in an artistic way. And you know, if people don't buy it or see it, it doesn't matter, but I still, I had to create, so I got back into drawing and painting that way around, I dunno, 30. [00:03:53] And I also kind of noticed I felt bad as a mom. Like I felt selfish for taking time to make art and, and in that weird art and I mean, self portraits, you know, some, some nude work and some body prints. And I was feeling like I had to have a reason for that. So I started interviewing women artists about their work and their background. And I found several local in Omaha. This is in Omaha where I'm mostly from, who are making this like unabashedly amazing figurative feminist work. And they were moms or they weren't moms, but they were doing it and they weren't afraid. And that is how I started my blog Les Femmes Folles, which means wild women in French, and I also started curating a series of exhibitions featuring women artists around the body, and in Omaha, and they're very popular. They're still popular. People could hardly get to the door. It was so exciting. So it really kind of boosted my confidence, not only to make my own work and share my voice and, and be okay with that as a mom and as a, as a woman. [00:04:59] And also just looking to other artists, supporting other women artists, and seeing, respecting their voice in all the different ways via curating and my blog and revealing. I ended up having a a local weekly column in the paper about the arts which I greatly enjoyed. And so yeah, I started doing these body prints. I saw Yves Klein's body prints. He's modernist, mid 20th century, who did performances with women. He wore a full black suit and he directed nude women to paint on their bodies and do these body prints. And I knew of his work, but when I saw his work in DC a couple of years ago, maybe like 10 years ago, I was like, "Oh my gosh, I love this, but I have to do it." I have to be the director of the model of the artists. And I want to do it in all colors. Yves Klein did blue. I wanted to do all the colors. So that's when I started my series of body prints, and I integrated my interviews with women artists. And then my body prints. [00:05:58] So I took like excerpts about being a woman artist or being mother artists, and I scripted them on my body prints. And so I did a series of-- my first series was "A Voice" and that was from my first series of interviews. My second series, after my first show, I noticed a lot of people asked me about being a mother and doing it, nude work. And I thought it was interesting because nobody was asking me about the work. They're asking me what my kids think, what, what are their friends think? And they see me nude and all these questions about being a mom, rather than like asking me about the work and my interviews. So my next series was about that. It was called "What Will Her Kids Think?" and I did a lot of research on mother artists and pulled quotes from both mother artists and artists about their moms, and I integrated them into my body prints. [00:06:48] And I also started a collaborative series of drawings with my kids. When they were 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, they would make hundreds of drawings and paintings every week. And I would give some to relatives and I would keep some for keepsakes and I would recycle some. And then I thought, "Well, why don't I just play with it?" So I started doing a series of some portraits on their childhood paintings and drawings, abstract, which I continue today. I still, I use some of their homework and my body prints today are a series inspired by my master's study. My second master's degree is in art history and I focused on feminist artists. So part of the reason that I feature, I attribute feminist artists is so that I can learn about, I'm forcing myself to learn about them 'cause you don't really learn about them in main art history courses. So I've been doing my own research. I'm learning about them and then also put their names in the titles. [00:07:45] So if somebody sees my work and they're like, "Oh, tribute to Hannah Hawkes. Who's that?" they might go look and find out about her. So right now I'm continuing my feminist tribute body prints. I'm also doing some feminist tribute drawings where I have a self portrait and a mini reproduction of a feminist artwork in the background. And I'm also, I just curated a show, Feminist Connect, with 42 international artists work co-curated with Leslie Sotomayer and all of the artwork is inspired by another feminist artist. So that's really kind of a grounding theme throughout all of my writing and curating and artwork. Yeah. So that was a long answer to your question. [00:08:24] Lindsey Dinneen: No, I love it. No, it's great. It's really helpful to, to get some background and, and explore a little bit more about, you know yeah, what led you to what you're doing right now. So I really appreciate that. And I'm, I'm curious because, you know, feminists can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. So I'm wondering how you like to interpret that in terms of yourself being an artist and in terms of the women that you are highlighting and trying to to honor through your work. What, what do you, what does feminist mean to you in that context? [00:08:59] Sally Brown: It means supporting other women. I mean equality, you know, someday at the very base. But to me, feminist artwork is supporting other women and youth and exploring our experiences as women, because we have been marginalized and obliterated from history and

In today's episode, I welcome Patricia Karen Gagic! Patricia has had an absolutely amazing journey, getting to learn from some of the most highly-acclaimed artists in the world, including Monsieur Dragic, who mentored her in France for years. Now, she combines her love of fine arts and education in mindfulness to create Karmic Art Experiences for her clients. (Fun fact: the cover image for this episode is a photo of Karen herself!)   Get in touch with Patricia Karen Gagic: www.patriciakarengagic.com | www.inspiredtoberewired.com | patgagic@gmail.com  Enroll in Lindsey's dance and wellness courses: www.elevateart.thinkific.com  Support Artfully Told: www.paypal.me/elevateart Artfully Told links: www.facebook.com/artfullytold | www.artfullytold.podbean.com | elevateartskc@gmail.com Get a free audiobook through Audible!  http://www.audibletrial.com/ArtfullyTold Schedule your own interview as a featured guest with Artfully Told! https://calendly.com/artfullytold/podcast-interview     Episode 63 - Patricia Karen Gagic Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome to Artfully Told, where we share true stories about meaningful encounters with art. [00:00:06] Krista: I think artists help people have different perspectives on every aspect of life. [00:00:12]Roman:  All I can do is put my part in to the world. [00:00:15] Elizabeth: It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. It doesn't have to be perfect ever really. I mean, as long as you, and you're enjoying doing it and you're trying your best, that can be good enough. [00:00:23] Elna: Art is something that you can experience with your senses and that you just experiences as so beautiful.  [00:00:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi friends, whether you are just getting started or you're a seasoned professional looking to up your game, I have an exciting opportunity for you. Did you know that I am actually the creator of 10 different courses online that range from ballet, jazz, tap. They also include a mindset detox course and two Stretch and Tone courses. So if you're looking to start a new hobby or get a little bit fitter, or you're looking to do a deep dive into your mindset, really perform a true detox, I have the course for you, and I would love to help you out with that. So if you go to elevateart.thinkific.com, you will see all of the different courses I've created. [00:01:26] You don't have to step in a classroom to take your first dance class. I teach a signature 20 Moves in 20 Days course that allows you to learn 20 steps in just 20 days. It's a lot of fun. We have a great time together. And I think you're going to absolutely love the different courses. And artfully told listeners get a little something from me. So if you go, you'll sign up and use the promo code "artfullytold," all one word, and when you do so you'll get 15% off the purchase of any and all your favorite courses. All right, listeners, enjoy that. Again, it's elevateart.thinkific.com. See you there. [00:02:11] Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Artfully Told. I'm your host Lindsey, and I am absolutely delighted to have as my guest today, Patricia Karen Gagic. She is an international contemporary artist, an author, and the chief visionary officer of a nonprofit charity. And she has such an amazing background and wealth of experience in the arts. So I'm just so thrilled to be able to talk art with her today. Thank you so much for being here, Patricia. [00:02:43] Patricia Karen Gagic: Oh, hi Lindsey. Oh my goodness. I'm thrilled to be here with you as well. Thank you so much. Amazing opportunity to talk art. [00:02:50] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course! And I would love if you wouldn't mind sharing just a little bit about yourself, maybe how you got started and, and take us from there. [00:03:00]Patricia Karen Gagic: Sure. So I've been a always curious person and when I was very young, I thought, "Well, I want to be a fashion designer." And I think I was probably about three years old when I started actually drawing Elizabethan ball gowns. I had never seen one. I have no idea. My family could never figure out how I was drawing these, but there was something inside of me, just this intuitiveness that I just love drawing. And then that catapulted into, you know, me pen in hand wanting to do something different. But as I went through school, I realized I needed to have a career and my family really wanted me to do something more astounding with my life, even though I thought, "You know, having being an artist would be amazing." But you remember the old saying, "artists are poor," so it's not really going to be the way you're going to manage your life. [00:03:58] So I, I did actually become involved in finance and I joined the bank and by the ripe old age of 25, I was probably one of the first female bank managers here in Canada. And I ruled with, you know, 92 employees and I sort of was climbing the ivory tower, but at the same time, I was still doing these more surrealistic ink drawings, sort of the Salvador Dali style. And, and then my world just, you know, kept going and going until I finally said, "You know, I want to be a painter." And that's the moment that I really fell in love with art, with actually with painting. So that, that's sort of the beginning of the journey. [00:04:46]Lindsey Dinneen: Perfect. Yeah. And so then you, so you had your career in finance, but you obviously still had this passion and wanting to continue doing art. So what led you to your next step in the journey? [00:05:00] Patricia Karen Gagic: Well, I thought, you know, not having any lessons in art, you know, in painting, that I should probably, yeah-- get myself involved in, you know, an art school. So there, we do have something here. It was McMaster University, and I enrolled myself in a program. And then the, there was the Burlington Cultural Center. And I had an opportunity to be actually taught a master program with an artist who is quite revered in Canada. His name is Tony Urquhart, and he was also teaching at the University of Guelph. So he had invited me one summer to come out, and as they were doing different tutorials and what, I was really feeling, you know, this, this place that I felt very comfortable in. [00:05:48] And then it was not until 1999 when my husband decided that we should take a trip to France, and that was really the beginning of my, my most synchronistic part of my life. In order, there was a little apartment called the Sunflower Apartment and they always had an ad in the newspaper and my husband called the ad and he said, "You know, we'd like to go and stay." The gentleman who owned the home said, "Sure. Have your wife come and see me, pick up the keys, I'll share everything about it." So we did. And I, I went to his home and, "Oh my goodness." It was an art gallery basically. He had three floors of amazing paintings and said, "Would you like a tour?" I said, "Yes!" [00:06:32] I see this painting up on the wall. And it's this very abstract white horse, which would've never really, you know, attracted me because my brain was more in the Jackson Pollock style. And but I looked at the name on the painting and it said, D R A G I C. And that's and I said, "Oh, Dragic," because it's a Serbian name, and this gentleman looked at me and he said, "No, no, no, no, no, this is Dragic, and he's in the top 10 percentile and a wonderful artist." And in that moment, I don't know why, but he said, "You know, and it's about three or four hours away from where you will be." and I went, "Okay, I want to meet this guy." Why I even thought that I have no idea, but it was just that auspicious moment. [00:07:18] So we managed to get ourselves to France and made the phone call to le Monsieur Dragic, and he said no. He said, "No, I'm not seeing anybody. I'm not interested." And I was devastated and I went, "Oh my goodness. I've come all the way here. Now I'm on a mission. I definitely want to meet this, this man, this artist." And then finally we called back and he agreed. And we went to a little fifth century village in Provence. And when we met him, I sat in complete, absolute disbelief because when we got up into his Italia, he was showing me pictures of himself with, you know, very famous artists. And he had also exhibited in some of the most beautiful galleries in in the south of France in Avignon, as well as Grenoble and with Christo and Picasso. And he knew all of these people and he, he was part of that top 10%. [00:08:22]So I, I was realizing that this man had made an entire life, his whole entire career to flawlessly dedicated, you know, to art and the study of art. And that inspired me. So as we were leaving back to our car, he said, and he does not speak English, only French and Serbian. So thank goodness I had some high school French, but my husband speaks Serbian, so we were able to communicate quite easily. And he said, he said three things. He said, "What does she want? Does she want fame? Does she want money? Or does she want the truth?" And you know, in that moment, the response of course was, "The truth." And he invited me to come back six months later for a week, and this is back in 1999. [00:09:10] And he said, "But you're going to have to learn to speak some better French so we can really communicate and talk about the art." So I spent 38 hours over the course of those few months with a tutor trying to upgrade my French. And and then we arrived and that was the beginning of a long, 20 plus year relationship. I've been back and forth to France many, many, many, many times each year studying with him. And just could not even begin to tell you how precious that decision was and how, you know, accepting he was of me. [00:09:49]Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Oh my goodness. What an amazing story. I love the way that, oh my goodness, all came together, but I just-- kudos to you for being so bold and brave and really putting yourself out there. I mean, that's, that's fantastic, but I, you know, my goodness just to see th

In today's episode, I welcome Jessie Katz Greenberg! Jessie has had an amazing journey of being a graphic designer, a podcast co-host, an arts and crafts teacher, a freelance artist, and the DIY Content Creator for Jumprope. She shares about how teaching and encouraging others to create has led to a very fulfilling career, and how being open to possibilities has allowed her to experience art in so many different ways. (Fun fact: the cover image for this episode is the logo of her co-hosted podcast, Craft Hangout.)    Get in touch with Jessie Katz Greenberg: https://www.crafthangout.com/ | https://www.jumprope.com/ | www.instagram.com/jessiekatzgreenberg |  Enroll in Lindsey's dance and wellness courses: www.elevateart.thinkific.com  Support Artfully Told: www.paypal.me/elevateart Artfully Told links: www.facebook.com/artfullytold | www.artfullytold.podbean.com | elevateartskc@gmail.com Get a free audiobook through Audible!  http://www.audibletrial.com/ArtfullyTold Schedule your own interview as a featured guest with Artfully Told! https://calendly.com/artfullytold/podcast-interview   Episode 62 - Jessie Katz Greenberg Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome to Artfully Told, where we share true stories about meaningful encounters with art. [00:00:06] Krista: I think artists help people have different perspectives on every aspect of life. [00:00:12]Roman:  All I can do is put my part in to the world. [00:00:15] Elizabeth: It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. It doesn't have to be perfect ever really. I mean, as long as you, and you're enjoying doing it and you're trying your best, that can be good enough. [00:00:23] Elna: Art is something that you can experience with your senses and that you just experiences as so beautiful.  [00:00:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi friends, whether you are just getting started or you're a seasoned professional looking to up your game, I have an exciting opportunity for you. Did you know that I am actually the creator of 10 different courses online that range from ballet, jazz, tap. They also include a mindset detox course and two Stretch and Tone courses. So if you're looking to start a new hobby or get a little bit fitter, or you're looking to do a deep dive into your mindset, really perform a true detox, I have the course for you, and I would love to help you out with that. So if you go to elevateart.thinkific.com, you will see all of the different courses I've created. [00:01:26] You don't have to step in a classroom to take your first dance class. I teach a signature 20 Moves in 20 Days course that allows you to learn 20 steps in just 20 days. It's a lot of fun. We have a great time together. And I think you're going to absolutely love the different courses. And artfully told listeners get a little something from me. So if you go, you'll sign up and use the promo code "artfullytold," all one word, and when you do so you'll get 15% off the purchase of any and all your favorite courses. All right, listeners, enjoy that. Again, it's elevateart.thinkific.com. See you there. [00:02:11] Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Artfully Told. I'm your host Lindsey, and I am very excited to have as my guest today, Jessie Katz Greenberg, who is a craft content creator, podcast cohost and a DIY content director at Jump Rope, which all of those things sound super cool. So altogether, I'm just so thrilled that you're here, Jessie, and can't wait to chat art with you. [00:02:40] Jessie Katz Greenberg: Thank you so much, Lindsey. I'm so excited to be here. Thanks for having me on. [00:02:44] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course! Well, I would love if you wouldn't mind starting out by sharing a little bit about your background, sort of what got you into art and crafting and podcasting, and all the things. I'm just so excited to hear about you. [00:02:58]Jessie Katz Greenberg: Sure. So it is, you know, quite the journey from art to sort of where  I am now. So I'll kind of give-- I'll try to give a brief rundown. I have always just been creative and obsessed with crafting and making. I went to art school and fell in love with graphic design and typography there. So that's what I ended up majoring in, and after college worked as a graphic designer, but I really missed, you know, being more hands-on with my art and making things with my hands now that everything I was doing was on the computer. So that really set me off on this journey of just experimenting with my own craft, my own work, and networking within the maker community. [00:03:41] So I did. I started by doing just a lot of hand lettering illustrations. I really started doing hand drawn Facebook statuses. Like before Instagram was a thing, I would post, I would draw my Facebook status and post a picture of it to Facebook and sort of got into hand lettering illustration that way. So I had the opportunity to show some of my lettering in galleries and in cafes and through that, sort of morphed into --I had two handmade businesses, selling handmade jewelry and selling stationary. I sold online on Etsy, at local boutiques and craft fairs. I was lucky enough to have some fun opportunities through those businesses. [00:04:20] My jewelry was made out of recycled materials, so I got some cool local magazine write-ups and actually had it featured on The Today Show. And this whole time I was still working full-time as a graphic designer. That was always the constant. And I was just kind of finding all of these other creative outlets along the way. So eventually I decided I needed to kind of run with these creative side businesses full-time so I left a really secure graphic design job in order to freelance full-time. So I could have more time to spend on my stationary business, specifically doing greeting cards and wedding stationary. And even through that, through running my own creative business, I was still outside of that, looking for like this creative community. And that's when I started hosting a craft nights with my friends. The art making part of my creative businesses was really fulfilling, but the actual business side of it, I realized I didn't love. [00:05:21] And I feel like that was a difficult realization to come to as an artist, like this entrepreneur side of it is so tied to being an artist. And I kind of realized that I didn't, you know, love the business side of it as much. So we ended up moving, going to New York City. I got a job as a packaging graphic designer at a textile company. And this whole time, the constant was always striving to find and be more dedicated in this creative maker community. So I started teaching workshops, a lot of craft workshops, everything from hand lettering to floral monogram wall hangings, to embroidery, to glass etching. I was teaching sometimes three nights a week after work and on weekends. [00:06:05] And that is what I was loving was sharing my art with others. And that's how-- so through all of this, through really just like pouring myself into this aspect of the creation community that I loved. That's how I ended up meeting Eliza Kapitan, who is the creator and host of Craft Hangout. I guested on that podcast and then ended up joining as a cohost a few years ago. And through that I met Jake, the CEO of Jumprope and, you know, a couple months after meeting him joined Jumprope full-time as their DIY Content Director. So sort of made this major shift from being a graphic designer to now joining a tech startup and being able to be sort of like their liaison from the tech side of the company, to the DIY art craft content creators that are creating on the app. So it was a long journey to end up where I am today, but it was one where I just kept sort of following my passions and following what I liked about crafting and art and landed at this job now that I totally love. [00:07:11] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, I love that. Well, first of all, I'm so glad you found something that just touches on all the things that you love and are passionate about. I think that just sounds like such a synergistic opportunity, essentially. So very-- like it was hand tailored for you is what it sounds like. [00:07:27] Jessie Katz Greenberg: Exactly. It was one of those things where I, I was like, I knew the full-time job I was at wasn't for me anymore, but I didn't know what I wanted. And it was just, just keep doing what you love and something has to show up. It just has to, and luckily it did. [00:07:44] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Well, and I think that's inspirational also in the sense of, you know, keep doing what, you know, you need to do and keep doing what you're passionate about. And even if it's on the side for a while, you just never know where one opportunity will beget another opportunity if you're just open. So how cool. [00:08:02] Jessie Katz Greenberg: Exactly, exactly. And, you know, I've-- this whole time I've just loved especially when I was teaching workshops, I loved connecting with artists like who are on all different levels of their artistic journey. And then now at Jumprope, like that's what I get to do even more so since we're, you know, an, an app specifically for creators sharing their skills and creating content. So it's, it's been really great. [00:08:25]Lindsey Dinneen:  Yeah. Awesome. Well, and I, I was just so struck by, you know... You know, looking back, it might seem like, "Oh, of course this thing led to this thing led to this thing," but of course when you're in it you're, you don't necessarily see how it's all going to eventually get woven together. But I, I really loved how you were talking about, you know, you got to this guest on this podcast and then a couple of years, or a couple, a little while after that, then you've got to, you know, have this opportunity to be co-host and how that meant something else. And it's just such like the perfect example of things coming together because you didn't stop creating, you just created and you've allowed your creativity to kind of evolve. [00:09:04]Je