Your Creative Push

Suzanne Santo is an American singer/songwriter and actress.  Before branching out on a solo musical career, she spent a decade as the fiddle-playing frontwoman of HoneyHoney.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/349

-The power of podcasts, especially Joe Rogan and Duncan Trussell.

-Feeling like an imposter at the Grammys.

-How it’s just as important to not write as it is to write.

-Honoring the process when you are getting constant inspiration because it’s not always there.

-Branching off from Honeyhoney to create her first solo album, “Ruby Red.”

-Working with Butch Walker and having complete freedom.

-How she knows what songs are ready to be brought to the table.

-Working with John Spiker on her new album, “Yard Sale.”

-Shedding catholic guilt.

-Where she finds inspiration when it is lacking.

“You truly get back what you put out there and when you put all this love, hard work and sweat into your passion, you have to sit back and let it come back to you.”

“You have to be out in the world to find your inspiration.”

“The departure from Honeyhoney was like leaving the womb.”

“Get it out there.  The world needs you.  We need to be inspired.  We need to inspire each other.”

“If you are called to be creative but you’re too scared to do something about it, you’re doing other people a disservice.”

Ruby Red by Suzanne Santo

Duncan Trussell Family Hour

David Bowie & Mick Jagger - Dancing in the Street

Harry Potter Series

Website / iTunes / Spotify / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

James Gurney : Website / Instagram / Blog

Alatar is a nonbinary artist and mystic weirdo from Nashville, Tennessee. They enjoy drawing figurative erotic art, and see their artistic practice as one facet of a spiritual practice which draws them ever closer to their authentic self. Their mission is to enchant and inspire the world with every breath.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/348

-How they are dealing with the initial Coronavirus quarantine.

-The problems that Youngman has recently gone through.

-The Rat Park Experiment and how it relates to addiction.

-How easy it is to be negative and pessimistic in difficult times.

-Working with Shamanic practitioner Chiron Armand in “soul retrieval.”

-How their “shadow part” took the form of Anakin Skywalker.

-The light side versus the dark side in everything.

-The positive and negative aspects of the drive that we find in ourselves.

-How we sometimes have to play out the narrative and hit our rock bottom.

-Making compromises with your art.

-How we as creative people need to decide what world we want to live in after the Coronavirus pandemic.

-What made minimalism “bioavailable” to them.

-Discovering what kinds of strophic cascade.

-How this is the perfect time for experimentation in your art and to also hone your skills and touch up your “problem areas.”

“You don’t have to try to be a negative piss baby.”

“Healing and growing past the things that damaged us is incredibly hard.”

“I felt like something was behind me, whipping me.”

“The conditions of the world as they were before this outbreak – is that really what we want to get back to?  Or can we dare to start dreaming of a better world?”

“If anything needs to die, it’s that veneer that we all put on, that perfectly curated self that we put on for the world.”

Alatar on YCP Episode 232

Alatar on YCP Episode 296

Alatar on YCP Episode 336

Real Magic: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Science, and a Guide to the Secret Power of the Universe by Dean Radin

Science Set Free: 10 Paths to New Discovery by Rupert Sheldrake

Talking Weitko and Mediumship with Chiron Armand - Rune Soup

Talking The Dreamtime and Understanding Country with Munya Andrews - Rune Soup

Jung, Toldein & the Imaginal - Becca Tarnas / Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio

Talking Real Magic with Dean Radin - Rune Soup

Dr. Rupert Sheldrake Sets Science Free from Dogma | Consciousness Science

What Does "Rat Park Teach Us About Addiction? | Psychiatric Times

Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor

The Red Book: A Reader's Edition by C. G. Jung

The Minimalists Podcast

Everything That Remains: A Memoir by The Minimalists

Newgrounds / Patreon / Twitter

Suzanne Santo : Website / Spotify / iTunes

Djamila Knopf is an independent artist and Schoolism instructor based in Leipzig, Germany.

She creates illustrations that evoke a sense of wonder and nostalgia, and primarily focuses on personal projects. She believes that art is a unique accumulation of experiences, beliefs and aesthetics. That's why, when you look at her work, you might catch a glimpse of the summers she spent strolling through the woods and fields around her grandparents' garden, and you might also see her love for Japanese animation.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/347

-How she was given the feeling that her art was not “proper” and how that made her stop drawing for a long period of time.

-Finding a balance when she first became a professional artist.

-The moment she discovered the way in which she could sell her own work.

-Her advice for people who are considering selling their own work online.

-The mentality of using a “pay what you what” policy on Patreon.

-Sharing the learning process on your Instagram feed, especially when you are just starting out.

-How she curates her Instagram feed.

-The case for visual artists to share their work on Twitter.

-Where she finds inspiration.

-How she curates her collection of inspiration.

-The way in which she starts her drawings through writing.

-What a typical day and week looks like for her (and the current week’s breakdown).

-The accountability of timers.

-Knowing when to stop working for the day.

-What people can expect from her Schoolism course, “Catching Lightning.”

“I always had the idea that what I was doing was not proper art and wrong, so I stopped drawing for a long time.”

“Since I started getting into environments and landscapes a bit more, it feels like the whole world opened up to me.”

“I think it is easier to form an idea before you start to draw it.”

“My attention span is four hours long for painting and then I start to feel weird, my head gets mushy and I have to stop.”

One Fantastic Week

Instagram for Artists: How to Get More Followers (Djamila's YouTube)

Toggl

Story-Driven Illustrations w/ Djamila Knopf (Schoolism course)

Studying at Hogwarts Ambient Background Noise

Bobby Chiu on YCP Ep. 138

Website / Store / Patreon / Instagram / Twitter

Alatar : Website / Newgrounds

Adam Paquette is a painter from Australia, currently living in Berlin.  He has been creating artwork for Magic: the Gathering since 2009 and in that time has illustrated over 250 cards.

He also works with Sterling Hundley for Legendeer, which aims to be the connection between a life well-lived and the creative process.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/346

-The literary and verbal emphasis from his childhood.

-How he first got involved with Wizards of the Coast.

-Why he is living in Berlin and how it brings out his artistic side.

-His shifting frame of reference from the mind to the body.

-The cyclic way in which our location informs our art and mindset and vice versa.

-Breathing in and breathing out in terms of input and output.

-The various disconnects that artists encounter and the concept of the “embedded artist.”

-Legendeer and working with Sterling Hundley.

-The idea of transparent studios.

-What Antonio Lopez taught him about the pointlessness of art.

-Dealing with perfectionism and overplanning.

-Balancing personal and professional work and learning to say “no.”

“What this city brings out in me creatively makes me trust that it’s where I’m meant to be.”

“People ask, where do you get your ideas? and I say, where can I hide from my ideas?  Where can I get a break?”

“Art is that thing that you do when you are wholeheartedly, innocently and earnestly investigating life.”

Fully Alive -- Being a Creative in uncertain times -- Your Creative Push [YouTube]

Adam on One Fantastic Week -- Talking about his dissociated experience

Legendeer

Website / Magic Website / Instagram / Twitter

Djamila Knopf : Website / Instagram

Piper Thibodeau a former full-time character designer for DreamWorks TV and a freelance designer.  Her clients include DreamWorks TV, Nickelodeon, Intel, Sesame Street and GameLoft.

In a self-imposed challenge, she has created a new painting every day before midnight since 2012.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/345

-How she started her daily painting challenge (which she has kept up with for seven years and counting).

-Getting professional illustration work from Nickelodeon Jr and Dreamworks Television while still in school.

-Some of the initial setbacks she encountered during her daily painting challenge.

-Her attempt to not go “stale” by switching it up between illustrations, character designs and pun drawings.

-Her advice for anyone wanting to start a daily challenge.

-The value of having an “offline” reference library for yourself.

-Her resistance of schedule conflict and how she gets past it.

-Her advice for aspiring freelance illustrators.

-The experience of creating Dragon Draw.

“I find that when I start to Google, it is very easy to get distracted.”

“I think that ideally you just want to have a peaceful slot in the day for you to work so that it doesn’t become a burden in any way.”

“I’m like a light switch.  I’m either all in on something or I’m a complete and utter mess.”

“Learning skills is easier when you apply it to an actual project.”

Dragon Draw: Learn to Paint, Draw and Design Dragons by Piper Thibodeau

Will Terry’s Channel

Will Terry on Your Creative Push Episode 176

Toggl - Free TIme Tracking Software

Website / Patreon / Tumblr / Instagram / Twitter / DeviantArt

Adam Paquette : Website / Instagram

Daniel José Older is the New York Times bestselling author of the Middle Grade historical fantasy series Dactyl Hill Squad, the Bone Street Rumba urban fantasy series, Star Wars: Last Shot, and the award winning Young Adult series the Shadowshaper Cypher, which won the International Latino Book Award and was shortlisted for the Kirkus Prize in Young Readers’ Literature, the Andre Norton Award, the Locus, the Mythopoeic Award, and named one of Esquire’s 80 Books Every Person Should Read. 

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/344

-What it was like to be a New York City paramedic.

-What the Jedi can teach writers when it comes to finding their voice.

-How the essence of being a writer is not what you’ve read in books but what you’ve experienced in your life.

-The importance of listening in writing and other creative pursuits.

-Making the transition from paramedic to full-time writer.

-Persevering despite Shadowshaper getting rejected 40 times.

-The support he received from Sheree Renée Thomas, Tananarive Due and Nathan Bransford.

-Writing the Other.

-Why we shouldn’t italicize other languages.

-Using humor.

-The advice that changed the entire trajectory of Shadowshaper.

-Why everyone should write a book (but not everyone should publish one).

-Why he spent the last year not writing.

-Finding comfort in writing his Ambulance Stories.

“The idea of sitting down and writing a book seemed so free.  Because it was just me and the laptop.”

“That’s why I write.  The world is destroyed and very much on fire.”

“The bones and blood of being a writer is what you’ve lived, not what you’ve read.”

“I feel like I’m writing to get the world to be what I know it to be.”

“I just didn’t know if it was in me to write a good enough book to be worth writing a book.”

12 Fundamentals of Writing The Other (And the Self) [Buzzfeed]

Writing Begins With Forgiveness: Why One of the Most Common Pieces of Writing Advice is Wrong | Seven Scribes

Ambulance stories

Sierra Santiago and the Invisible City - Daniel José Older - Wattpad

Website / Twitter / Instagram / Tumblr

Piper Thibodeau: Website / Instagram

Emilija Angelovska (born in Macedonia, living in the Netherlands) is an artist, educator, and change agent.  She is fascinated with the popularity of community art projects and does a deep dive into creative communities in her Back to the Drawing Board podcast.

Emilija has shown her work in galleries in Amsterdam, Calgary and Edmonton, Alongside her artistic and research practice she holds professional experience from the Smithsonian Institution and Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. In 2016 she was the recipient of the Kathleen & Russell Lane Canadian Art Award.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/343

-How she started her podcast as a result of having lost her creative community and wanting to make a new one.

-The ways that community informs the individual and the individual informs the community.

-Her advice for anyone looking to build a creative community.

-How art and life are so closely intertwined.

-The importance of surrounding yourself with individuals who might challenge your worldviews and experiences.

-The elitism of art galleries.

-How to create for the sake of creating.

-What she has learned from the people that she has interviewed on her podcast.

-Seeing teachers and professors as peers with individual opinions and tastes.

-Why it is crucial to have diverse individuals in your creative community.

-The symptom of quantity over quality caused by social media.

-Learning to not take what other people say about her work too seriously.

-Why adults should always be learning and exploring.

-The importance of sometimes doing absolutely nothing.

-Her love of books and why it’s fun to wreck them.

“Living a creative life is often times a lonely activity.”

“It’s very difficult to learn anything or to go anywhere if you are only communicating with people that have the same types of beliefs as yourself.”

“Whether you get bored and a new idea comes up or you are completely exhausted and your body simply needs time to settle, those moments of just doing nothing are really important.”

Back to the Drawing Board Podcast

things that art school did not teach me

Emilja's Bookshelf

Website / Podcast

Daniel José Older : Website / Twitter

Dan Berry is a cartoonist, illustrator, podcaster and educator based in the town of Shrewsbury, UK. He is a frequent collaborator with the author David Gaffney and is currently working on the follow-up to The Three Rooms in Valerie’s Head; a book called Rivers.

Since 2012 he has produced the podcast Make It Then Tell Everybody in which he has spoken to over a hundred and sixty other artists about what they do and how they do it.

Between 2008 and 2019 he was the Programme Leader for the illustration, comics and children’s books degree courses at the School of Creative Arts, Wrexham Glyndwr University.

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

-His fascination with being able to create something that puts ideas and images in other people’s minds.

-Being hospitalized from the extreme stress he experienced working as a designer for a marketing agency.

-His decision to quit teaching.

-How everyone has different responses to stress, and the value in being able to determine your own.

-The large amount of work that you can get done in one hour.

-The stress level of effort and “half-assing it” to aim for a B-grade instead of an A.

-Why he called his podcast “Make it then Tell Everybody.”

-Illuminating the “grubby underbelly” of the creative process.

-The BMX story and the false belief that growth in your career has to come from the outside.

-Telling people about your work, both old and new.

-Some of the resistances that his guests have experienced.

-How he gets past “page fright” – the fear of the blank page.

-How he interacts with his ideas and why he is wary of the ones that come into his head fully formed.

-Why he draws people as birds.

-The experience of drawing an entire comic in 24 hours and other forms of “stunt drawing.”

“It was a good and fun job.  Up until the point it wasn’t.”

“Creativity is not a muscle that you can just flex.  It’s also a gland and you’ve got to relax it.”

“I managed to convince myself that everything else was stressful aside from the thing that actually was.”

“You could be the best artist on the planet, but if you’re only drawing in your bedroom and never showing anybody, you basically don’t exist.”

“I had this belief that any growth in my career had to come from outside.”

“Trying to remain enthusiastic about something that isn’t representative of your current level of ability is difficult.”

“If it exists, then you’ve done it right.”

“Once you have something that exists, you have something that’s editable.”

Make It Then Tell Everybody | How artists do what they do

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud

The Three Rooms in Valerie's Head by David Gaffney and Dan Berry

Dick Rivets & Other Stories by Dan Berry

Website / Podcast / Store / Twitter

Emilija Angelovska : Podcast / Website

Danielle Clough is a multi-disciplinary artist from Cape Town, South Africa who specializes in the mediums of embroidery, photography, graphic design and video art.

She has been profiled by Instagram, Colossal, CNN, Vogue and The New York Times and had her work and in various exhibitions in South Africa, The USA and Russia.

Her new Skillshare class shows the basics of how she creates so that you can give embroidery a try for the first time.

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

-Her mindset when she made the decision to quit school and also to change career paths.

-Learning to trust our heart and our instincts when they tell us that things aren’t right.

-How we sometimes think too far into the future and put too much pressure on ourselves before, during and after the creation process.

-Her biggest takeaways from Red & Yellow School of Logic & Magic.

-Seeing herself as a brand instead of an artist and her work as a product as opposed to statements.

-Keeping her personal life out of her social media presence.

-Her perfect formula for defeating imposter syndrome (and also cultivating it).

-Her mental state while creating pieces that take longer than a month.

-How she often feels like she is the sum of the last thing that she created, for better or worse.

-Why she doesn’t like the word, “inspiration.”

-Her advice for anyone who wants to get started with embroidery.

“I stumbled into embroidery through a sequence of opportunities and mistakes.”

“As soon as you say you’re going to ‘stick something out,’ that’s probably an indication that it’s not right for you.”

“I always feel like I am the sum of the last thing I put together.”

“That motivation to actually turn something into something tangible is so much more important to focus on than those neurons firing for three seconds.”

“Trust yourself and trust what you love.”

Danielle Clough's Skillshare class

Red & Yellow School of Logic & Magic

“Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert

Skillshare / Website / Facebook / Instagram

Dan Berry : Website / Make it Then Tell Everybody

Donald M. Rattner is an award-winning residential architect and educator.  As a consultant he draws on scientific research to help individuals and organizations maximize occupant creativity in workplace, residential, wellness, hospitality and retail environments.

In his new book, My Creative Space: How to Design Your Home to Stimulate Ideas and Spark Innovation, Donald draws on the latest psychology and productivity research to offer a practical guide to designing your home to optimize your creative potential.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/340

-Why you should have a designated creative space.

-The importance of nature in our creativity and in our mental and physical wellbeing.

-Facing your space and setting up your surroundings to make yourself more open-minded.

-How we feel more creative when we feel safe and comfortable.

-How music and sound affects our creativity.

-The best decibel level for boosting your creative process.

-The surprising benefits of napping to our creativity (and why it works).

-Idea seeding.

-How working walls can help you externalize your ideas, work through your ideas, collaborate and think bigger than you normally could.

-The debate on messiness and creativity.

-Some free, cheap and simple tactics that people can use RIGHT NOW to optimize their creative spaces.

“Creativity, health and happiness all tend to operate on the same spectrum with regard to environment.”

“Walls are for more than just separating spaces.  They can be active agents in the creative process.”

“Ideas flow from the hand to the brain just as much they do from the brain to the hand.”

My Creative Space: How to Design Your Home to Stimulate Ideas and Spark Innovation by Donald M. Rattner

Raining.fm

Coffitivity

Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina

Website / Facebook / Medium / LinkedIn

David is an internationally acclaimed and collected artist who continues to push the limits of contemporary realist oil painting.

David and his family live in Olympia, WA.

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

-His early interest and later pursuit of architecture.

-His experience at the Schuler School of Fine Art in Baltimore, Maryland.

-The unanticipated joy that he received from painting still life in oil, and the subsequent artistic career path that it took him on.

-Finding a balance between work, art, school and family.

-Imagining painting, and how it is almost as valuable as painting itself.

-How he started pricing his work.

-The inspiration he gets from David Goggins and Eckhart Tolle.

-His method for approaching a still life.

-Experimentation and how there has to be the possibility for failure in a piece of art, or else it is not going to be interesting.

-His advice for honing in on a specific focus.

-Realizing how important it is for his mental wellbeing to use small blocks of time to get to his art.

“No matter how much time I have to create, I never feel like it’s enough.”

“It’s better to err on the side of selling your art too quickly as opposed to keeping it forever.”

“If you’re just stacking up old paintings in your studio – that’s like creative baggage.”

“There has to be the possibility of failure, or else it’s not going to be interesting.”

“Always keep the focus at a higher level of detail.”

David's NOH/WAVE Tutorials

Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins

The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle

Website / Book / Instagram / Workshops

Tiffany Miller Russell is a wildlife artist and natural history illustrator.  She delights in the unique and unusual, and her goal is to communicate that excitement with her viewer.

Her paper sculptures are created with found specialty papers.  After drawing is carefully made, she hand-cuts the papers and forms them by hand to create a three-dimensional collage.  With the exception of small 5x7s that she creates in limited editions, all of her pieces are one-of-a-kind works of art.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/338

-Her initial exposure to paleo artist Gary Staab.

-Discovering people who were combining art and natural science.

-Picking dead animals apart in a zoology prep lab.

-How some of her pieces take up to 300 hours to complete.

-How listening to podcasts keeps her in her chair while doing her work.

-Dealing with her time management difficulties by turning it into a game.

-The psychological differences between rewards and costs in your creative tracking.

-Some of the mental and physical resistances that she deals with on a daily basis.

-Drawing without reference.

-Battling perfectionism and comparing herself to others.

-The inspiration she receives by subscribing to Sketchbox.

“I like the challenge of having a challenge.”

“If you know that you can get addicted to something, why not apply that to your work?”

Gary Staab

The Guild of Natural Science Illustrators

Leo Monahan

https://www.amazon.com/Paper-Sculpture-Step-Step-Guide/dp/1564963292

Level Up Your Life: How to Unlock Adventure and Happiness by Steve Kamb

Sketchbox

Website / Facebook / Etsy / Instagram

Nick Ulivieri is a photographer who likes his verticals parallel, his skies wild, his colors bold, and hanging above Chicago.  Shooting structures & architecture is his profession.

He is a commercial photographer based in Chicago who specializes in shooting architecture, real estate, food & hospitality. 

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/337

-How a trip to Italy sparked his interest in photography.

-His family friend asking him to take photographs and how that led to him starting his business.

-What it was like in the early days of his photography career.

-The importance of design, messaging and consistency of voice.

-How he got clients when he first started out (and how he gets them now).

-How he fell into taking photographs of architecture and how he finds ways to give the same structures and landscapes a new feel.

-The experience of shooting aerial photographs in a helicopter.

-The process of choosing which photographs he shares on his Instagram and Twitter feeds (and in what order).

-His thoughts and advice for growing a following on Instagram.

-How the business end of photography actually ends up being a resistance to his creative side.

“Sometimes ignorance is bliss when you’re learning something new.”

“I was indirectly promoting my services just by practicing my craft around the city and sharing the photos I took.”

“You can do it.  You may be surprised with what you can do if you have a passion for something and you work hard at it and aren’t afraid to take that risk.”

Website / Facebook / Instagram / Flickr / Twitter

Tiffany Miller Russell: Website / Etsy / Instagram

Karan Bajaj is a #1 bestselling Indian novelist with more than 200,000 copies of his novels in print, both optioned into major films.

Karan's first worldwide novel, The Yoga of Max's Discontent was inspired by Karan's one year sabbatical traveling from Europe to India by road and learning yoga and meditation in the Himalayas.

Karan has also worked in senior executive roles at companies like Procter & Gamble and the Boston Consulting Group and was named among Ad Age's "Top 40 Under 40 executives" in the US.

-The "4, 1, 4" rule and how it helped him to thrive, not only in his career, but in his life.

-His "conscious goal-lessness" during his time off, especially when he is so driven during his working years.

-His advice for someone who struggles to get to the point of realizing that they are already equipped for life and don't need to concentrate so hard on improvement.

-The idea of taking mind- or self-dissolving vacations, where you actually try to change and better yourself as a person as opposed to simply going to a new location.

-How he kick-started my meditation practice with a 10 day silent vipassana retreat and how a vipassana retreat is actually quite accessible for anyone who is interested in trying it (it's free!)

-How his 10-day silent retreat helped him to see that he had been in a constant mode of wanting, or feeling as if he was lacking something instead of living in the moment.

-His one year sabbatical and how he spent the time.

-How living extremely simply for a long period of time helps you to realize that you really don't need much in your everyday life to survive and it helps to make you stronger when facing tough situations.

-The benefits that his retreat gave to his creativity.

-His suggestion to always start with concentration-based meditation approaches.

-What to do when other thoughts begin to creep into your consciousness while you are meditating.

-The joy and inspiration that comes from seeing yourself on a hero's journey. Even if you don't reach the goal, the act of trying is a success.

-How art fixes the world for him.

"What I have learned through this period is that my sabbatical year has to be almost the complete antithesis of my working years."

"I'm always shunning this idea that I have to constantly be better than who I am."

"I just try to operate with this idea that I am complete and I have enough depth to tap into, versus wanting to be more than I am."

"You can't help but to be different after those ten days."

"It's not like some instant moment of enlightenment. You start understanding the endlessness of our thought waves."

"I almost feel that every artist is creating out of a sense that this world is incomplete and they need to create a more complete and idealized version. Art fixes the world for me."

The Yoga of Max's Discontent by Karan Bajaj

"My 4,1,4 rule, or why you shouldn't feel the pressure to become an entrepreneur" (From Karan's blog)

Your Creative Push Ep. 2: Approach the first brush stroke with ENERGY (w/ Karl Mårtens)

Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

Just a quick update as to why there hasn't been a new episode in the past month and plans for the future of the podcast!

Alatar is a genderfluid digital artist who creates character-driven adult illustrations. Their work includes both fanart and original content, and attempts to explore a wide range of body types, ethnicities, gender identities and sexualities (with perhaps slightly more attention paid to abs). They are also the host of the podcast Blue Magic, where they interview other creatives in the erotic field.

-What their Miracle Morning has looked like recently.

-Realizing that they might have ADHD and some of the methods and hacks they have been using in order to stay more focused.

-How working on yourself is the greatest creative act you can embark upon.

-The way in which the creative process has become a religious experience for them.

-Writing your own Gospel and living your own Myth.

-Their recent experience with magic mushrooms.

-Taking the “Journey to the Imaginal Realm” course with Becca Tarnas.

-Cultivating a relationship with our unconscious.

-How SESTA/FOSTA changed the landscape for adult artists.

-Dealing with the emotional despair of sites changing the landscape for adult artists.

-Bugs Bunnying your way through any situation.

“Working on yourself is just another creative act.  It might not be a pretty piece of art, but it’s YOU.  And you are your best work, when you come right down to it.”

“To me, pursuing art has become the path that teaches me how to pursue life.”

“Our unconscious is extraordinarily powerful.  What we think of as the self is the tip of the iceberg.  And it goes all the way down to the root.”

“What are you waiting for?  This is your chance.  You don’t know if tomorrow is going to come.”

“Take one step right now.  Your soul is on the line.  This is the most important thing you can do for your life.  So just do it, already.  You have permission.  Go.”

The Disorganized Mind by Nancy A. Ratey

Organization Solutions for people with ADHD by Susan Pinsky

Yoga With Adriene

Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio

Journey to the Imaginal Realm (Becca S. Tarnas)

Becca Tarnas on Rune Soup [1] [2]

Tolkein “On Fairy Stories”

Stop SESTA/FOSTA

Alatar on YCP Episode 232

Alatar on YCP Episode 296

Website / Newgrounds / Podcast / Instagram / Tumblr / Patreon / Twitter

Nick Ulivieri : Website / Instagram

Nick Runge grew up in Colorado. Coming from a creative family of professional artists, he was always interested in drawing and imagining ideas visually. After working as an illustrator full time from 2004-2015 he shifted focus to more personal work using oils and watercolor.

As a portrait/figurative painter, Nick works from life as well as photography, describing his art as something close to “abstracted realism”, with an objective of expressing as much of the realistic human element of life as possible through a limited and often simplified approach to his rendering or brushwork, giving an illusion of realism while, at the same time, breaking shapes and form down enough to have a close balance with abstraction.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/335

-Why he came back to drawing and painting.

-Balancing personal work vs. client/commission work.

-Finding a love for painting with oils and watercolor.

-The experience of making the movie poster for “The Death of Superman Lives.”

-His advice to become obsessed with things that you enjoy doing.

-His advice for selling your work on social media without feeling slimey.

-What a typical day looks like for him.

-The fear of showing old work or failures.

-Getting past ruts.

-The power of secret sketchbooks.

-Putting aside your five favorite pieces of art to open your mind to making new “favorites.”

-Dealing with shyness.

“You have to hold that initial excitement for art like a fuel through all of the tough times.”

“Drawing has felt like I’ve been cheating on normal life.  That’s why I love it.  It seems forbidden -- especially in America – to draw or create.  It’s seems great, but how do you make money at it?”

“If you find a specific painting or a subject matter that you really do just enjoy, maybe just obsess over it a little bit more.”

“I find that any time I think ‘I need money right now so I’m going to paint this thing,’ it almost never works.”

“If you want to paint or draw, do just a little bit every day and it really will get to be more of an addiction.”

“Start” – Nick's piece that was unfinished

Marie-Noelle Wurm on Your Creative Push Ep. 320

Watercolor Workshop in Seville Spain (May 16-19 2019)

NOH/WAVE course

Alatar on Your Creative Push Ep. 232

Alatar on Your Creative Push Ep. 296

Website / Shop / Instagram

Alatar : Newgrounds / Podcast / Instagram

Jeff Wright is a storyteller and a podcaster.  He specializes in “edu-tainments”: storytelling with depth and message AND presentations enriched through entertaining story.  His podcasts, Odyssey: The Podcast and Trojan War: The Podcast are now available everywhere.

Jeff's live show, "A Whack on the Side of the Head: A Concussion Story" tells the autobiographical story of his personal journey through concussion and invisible injury.  The one-hour show comes complete with Jeff’s amusing anecdotes, good humor, insightful take-aways, and inspirational messages.

Contact Jeff personally at [email protected], or Jeff’s agent [email protected] for show information and booking details.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/334

-How he got interested in theater and public speaking.

-Dealing with the unrelenting standards placed upon him by other people and eventually by himself.

-How suffering from a concussion changed the trajectory of his life.

-If some major life issue forces you to start from scratch, build on something that you are already good at.

-How the Greek Epics were what “stuck” for his lectures.

-Transitioning from a full-time teacher to a shorter-term guest speaker.

-The changes that he had to make in his presentation when he took his “act” from small classrooms to large auditoriums.

-Watching tapes of himself and evaluating, but not being too critical.

-Gaining power over your demons or monsters by learning their names.

-Using a damaged brain to try to figure out what was wrong with his brain.

-The unfair feeling of wanting to justify his invisible injury to other people.

-How we overly value the negative reviews and comments.

-Not being able to see his audience due to bright lights (and having no physical audience during the podcast).

“I think an awful lot of creative people or high achievers get so much of their self-concept tied up in the work that they do.”

“The thing about these stories is that they’re humanities original Game of Thrones.”

“When some life event throws your life off of its nice intended tracks, if you can build on something that you know you already do well and you are passionate about, then at least you have a few aces in your hands as you start on the parts that are going to be new and difficult for you.”

“The journey to success is paved with failures.”

“When shit happens and your life is turned upside down, don’t deny it.  Don’t try to go it alone.”

Odyssey: The Podcast

Trojan War: The Podcast

How to Make Love in a Canoe

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History

Website / E-mail / Facebook / Twitter

Nick Runge : Website / Instagram

If there is one thing that Youngman has learned in the three years of creating this podcast, it is the fact that the best creative output comes when you share your own story.

Often times, it takes time and effort to figure out what that story is.

In today's episode we are going to explore the fact that your story doesn't have to reach a completion for you to start sharing it.  You simply have to share what’s inside of you.  The closer you can get to that message, the better it will be… not necessarily in quality, but in the weight that it carries for you and for others.

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

“That’s the glory of sharing your story.  It doesn’t have to be a story.  It simply has to be what’s going on inside of you.  As concrete or as confusing as it may be to you.”

"There are a million ways that you can get off-track from telling your story.  And all of them are very quick derailments."

"Sharing your message is THE THING.  That's the focal point and the guidepost that will put you on the right path."

"When we're talking about using your art to tell a story, what better story is there than the story of your life?"

Creative Coping Podcast

The Art Marketing Project Podcast

Kick in the Creatives Ep. 33 Using Art to Convey a Message or Story

3 Point Perspective Podcast

Amber Rae on YCP Ep. 289

Johnny Anomaly on YCP Ep. 329

Adonna Khare on YCP Ep. 46

Bobby Chiu on YCP Ep. 138

Daniel Robinson is a television writer for ABC’s hit drama How to Get Away With Murder.

He’s self publishing his first novel, First They Ignore You, a deeply personal work of fiction that explores the decade it took for him to establish his career in Hollywood and the lifetime it continues to take for him to battle with his personal demons who mostly manifest as an intense desire to drown anxiety and self-loathing in a sea of fast food. 

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

-How the skills of a basketball player translate to the creative realm.

-Seeing things being done at a professional level, and what that did for his mindset.

-Embracing failure.

-Writing for a television series with a team versus writing for yourself.

-Being a mercenary with your creative skills.

-How everyone has their own story to tell.

-Putting himself on the page via dialogue between his characters.

-How his editor was able to bring out the best in him.

-Pushing himself to “dig deeper.”

-Calibrating his sensitivity to make it a tool.

-Guarding your attention and dealing with distractions.

“I was fortunate in that I was consumed by this almost pathological belief or vision that I could accomplish anything.”

“Storytelling is such a powerful thing.  Once people feel like they’ve told their story, it can lift so much weight off of their soul.”

“Those dopamine feedback loops are so addictive.”

“As an artist, you have to guard your attention.  There are so many distractions nowadays that it’s hard to push those things aside, channel your inner voice and do that work that is so important.

“You have to free yourself from any expectation of what this thing is supposed to be, where it’s supposed to take you, what it’s supposed to do.”

“What the world needs is charged up, thriving, vital people who are passionate about what they are doing.”

First They Ignore You by Daniel Robinson

Kick in the Creatives: Using Art to Convey a Message or Story

How to Get Away With Murder

Book / IMDb

Suzanne is an asexual woman with a great love for writing erotic romance and enjoys spending her time confusing people with that fact. She believes there is a need for heightened diversity in erotic fiction and strives to write enough stories so that everyone can see themselves mirrored in a protagonist.

Her new book, Playing Around, is available April 15!

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

-Writing erotic romance as a way for her to investigate the wide range of sexualities and sexual behavior.

-How she was able to see sexual interest and activity as a form of character motivation.

-Why she felt it was important to start writing queer romance.

-How and why she began sharing her work.

-The experience of working with NineStar Press.

-How she lets her characters explore and tell the story (and how that affects the editing process).

-Being a “Plantser.”

-The initial fear and guilt because of her religious upbringing.

-Aphantasia and how that affects her writing.

-Her strategies for dealing with depression and anxiety.

-Using programs like Omnifocus and Habitica to help her manage her time and organize the tasks that she needs to get done.

-The rewarding experience of writing commissions.

“Sometimes I’m waiting for a reader to stand up and say, ‘You know, it’s really not that serious and you’re putting way too much thought into all of this about your characters.’”

“As I began to research into possibly publishing some of my material, I realized exactly how big the small press and independent queer author community was.”

“I think if I had been exposed to more works like that when I was younger, then it wouldn’t have taken me until I was 25 years old to recognize my identity and my place in the queer community.”

“It’s very hard sometimes to trust my characters and believe that they are telling me what I need to hear.”

“You’re going to bring breathless, beautiful, boundless, bountiful life to your creation – the kind that brings people to tears when they realize they are not alone.”

Playing Around (Rough Play Book 1) by Suzanne Clay: NineStar / Amazon / Books2Read

OmniFocus

Habitica

Website / Goodreads / Amazon / Facebook / Twitter

John Wentz is a contemporary painter whose work is an exploration of process and technique. Working within the classical idiom of the human figure, his goal is to reduce and simplify the image to it’s core fundamentals: composition, color, and mark making.

John was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has had 3 solo exhibitions in San Francisco and numerous group exhibitions both nationally and internationally. His works have appeared in many publications and have won multiple awards. 

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

-How he landed in fine art after his foray in illustration.

-How a Gerhard Richter exhibition changed his life and remapped his brain.

-Art being about discovery and experimentation.

-The power that comes from disconnecting in order to do some soul-searching.

-Cave paintings and how we have always been creating art, and even risking our lives to do so.

-How he has struck a balance from his former lifestyle of a donut a day and being disconnected from friends and family.

-How he picks his subjects and how he paints them.

-How he was taught that he should never paint anybody that he knows, and why he is rebelling.

-Why he purposely doesn’t analyze certain aspects of his process in order to maintain some of the magic.

-Why and how he started creating his assemblages of his art, photography and reclaimed items.

-The story behind his series, “Navigation Unknown.”

-How he chooses which ideas to move forward on.

-The dark ways in which social media platforms are controlling your creative process.

-Dealing with anxiety.

-Turning your list of priorities upside down so that you get to your creative passion before all of your other “needs.”

-His new course at the NOH/WAVE Academy.

-The differences between living in Paris and the United States.

“For me, making art is about discovery and experimentation.”

“Just unplug and take time for yourself.  It’s okay to not be connected.”

“There are certain aspects of my process that I don’t analyze too much because I want to keep that unknown to it.”

“Making it is only fifty percent.  The other fifty percent is getting it in front of an audience and creating a dialogue.”

“On paper, being a painter is the worst business plan imaginable.”

“The people that I end up working with and being friends with are great people to be around and they ignite something inside of me.”

John's course on NOH/WAVE/ACADEMY

John Wentz on Artist Decoded

Pale Blue Dot (Carl Sagan)

Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

Suzanne Clay : Website / Goodreads

In the ever-evolving landscape of today's music industry, Nashville-based independent artist Ron Pope has plotted his own course. Uncompromising and relentless, Pope has evolved into one of the top grossing independent acts in the business while garnering a legion of devoted fans the world over.

Taking the industry-road-less-traveled and holding fiercely to his independence has proven fruitful for Pope; to date, he has sold out shows on three continents and in more than 20 countries, sold over 2 million digital tracks, had over 290 million streams on Spotify, 700 million plays on Pandora, 150 million views on Youtube, and has more generally crushed every metric used to measure what is possible for independent artists.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/bestof13

-His creative origins and how he got to the point he is today as a songwriter and musician.

-His involvement at the inception of “The District.”

-How he writes such a large quantity of songs because he knows that not all of them will be good enough to make a record.

-The belief that if you want to be a songwriter, you just have to sit down, shut up, and write songs.

-How he doesn’t really believe in writer’s block.  It is just accepting that some of the stuff you write will be garbage.

-The importance of working harder than everyone else if you want to excel to the highest level of your creative field.

-One of the times that he was having a very difficult time writing a song, and then all of the sudden he was struck with the song in its entirety.

-How doing the hard work every day and getting used to what the work feels like puts you in a better position to capture inspiration and put it into its “physical” form, even in just one take.

-The role that music played in his life when he was younger to make him feel more connected and less alone.

-The profound connection that comes when people play his music during special events.

-How his song “I Do Not Love You” played a special role in Youngman Brown’s life as his first dance at his wedding.

-How art is subjective and it doesn’t matter what the artist thinks about it once the viewer or listener has given it his or her own meaning.

-How hard it is to comprehend large numbers of listenership, and the power that comes from one-on-one connections.

-What he has been up to creating and touring his new album Ron Pope & the Nighthawks.

“That songwriting circle was really the difference for me.  If I hadn’t joined that group, I don’t know if I would have been able to become a professional songwriter.”

“I just feel like I’m not good enough to sit down and write ten songs and have all ten of those songs be bangers and have that be the record.”

“For my last album, Ron Pope and the Nighthawks  I wrote 150 songs.  We recorded 40 of them or so to get to the 11 that we have on the record.”

“Really almost everything is like this.  If you want to do it, and you want to do it at a high level, you’re going to have to work harder than everybody else.”

“It was like I got hit by lightning.  It was into my brain immediately.  The song in my bones just existed.  The whole thing.  The melody, the lyrics, the chords, the whole thing.”

“You put yourself in a much better position to have chance favor you if you do the right kind of work.”

“It made me excited when I stumbled upon music that made me feel something.  It made me feel much less alone.”

“I very rarely share the stories behind my songs because I want you to take them home and make them your stories.”

“It’s still a really powerful feeling to know that whatever you’re creating is a part of people’s lives.”

“For me it’s the singular achievement of my life as an artist.”

“You’re going to have to work hard on something eventually whether it’s something you choose or something that people make you do, so if you have to pick, you might as well work hard at something that you love.”

“It’s worth it to work hard on things that you love.”

Buy Ron Pope & The Nighthawks

East Nashville Spice Company

Website / iTunes / Spotify / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / YouTube

John Wentz : Website / Instagram

Johnny Anomaly is a spoken word poet, author and public speaker who has been entertaining audiences with the emotionally charged storytelling of his life for the past six years.

He is also the creator and host of The Creative Coping Podcast, where he and his guests discuss the trauma that has acted as a catalyst for their creativity.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/329

-How he turned to writing and spoken word poetry after the loss of his son.

-How your greatest ministry will most likely come out of your greatest hurt.

-The way in which his motive changed from wanting to be a rock star to wanting to help other people realize that they are not alone in their difficult situations.

-Getting past the denial phase.

-The importance of producing finished work with the tools that you have.

-Dealing with procrastination.

-His process of creating a spoken word poem.

-How he used ten song titles as the basis for his first album, Inspired by Tragedy.

-The art of sublimation.

-Personifying pain.

-Why he started the Creative Coping Podcast.

-Having an alias.

-The experience of interviewing his wife and daughter.

-How easy Anchor makes it to podcast.

“There’s a lot of healing involved with being able to say what I want to say.”

“I was saying things that probably shouldn’t be said in front of an audience, but I felt that was the way I had to grieve and get things out.”

“You have to personify that pain.  Give that pain a face.”

“I don’t know what I would do if I wasn’t able to express myself in my writing or in my performance poetry.  Oh my gosh.  I’d probably kill someone, man.”

“As insignificant or insecure as you may feel, just remember that you have a voice and you are worth being heard.”

Dare To Be Different with Nevaeh LeBoeuf

Marriage & Mental Health with Jammie LaBoeuf

YCP Ep. 326 w/ Teresa Coulter

YCP Ep. 325 w/ Alisa Kennedy Jones

YCP Ep. 241 w/ Andy J Pizza

YCP Ep. 300 w/ Chrissy Moyer

Anchor

Creative Coping Podcast / iTunes / Spotify / Soundcloud / Instagram

John Wentz : Website / Instagram

Andrew Tischler is an artist from New Zealand who has been a professional artist for the last fifteen years.  He was born in the United States and moved to Australia when he was 10 years old, where he studied his craft for more than twenty years.

In 2019, he and his wife Rachel will be opening their gallary, Tischler & Co Studio Gallery.

-How his father encouraged him to pursue art when he was young.

-Growing up in the United States, New Zealand and Australia.

-How there is beauty everywhere and it is just about having the eyes to see it.

-Dealing with introversion.

-How his father had time for only his art and his family.

-How his wife has allowed him to accept himself and to also flourish into who he needs to be.

-The way in which we distract ourselves from the things we are supposed to focused on.

-How we are all here for a purpose or a calling.

-The way in which we are being raised to be cogs in a machine (and why people feel like they don’t fit into that system).

-The incredible power of the internet and social media for artists or anyone who wants to share a creative message.

-The importance of writing down goals in all aspects of your life and referring to them every day.

-His issues with anger in the past and how he has conquered it as of late.

-The ways in which you can distract yourself with goals that aren’t aligned with the things you actually need.

-Taking the life philosophies of the thought leaders you admire and plugging them into your own life where they fit.

-How he flags certain aspects of life (like the news and negativity) as distractions that are trying to keep him off of his mission.

“People have more power than they give themselves credit for.”

“Get on with it.  Do it now.  Don’t wait.  Stop the excuses.  You can do something small, now.”

“We’re slowly being prepared to be these cogs in a machine, and I feel like that’s why people feel like they don’t fit with the current paradigm.  They’re punching in and punching out.”

“I was already a professional artist for twelve years before I started my YouTube channel, and I can’t believe I didn’t do it sooner.”

“I think it’s time that we dispel that myth that we need to suffer.”

Why Beauty Matters? - Roger Scruton

Painting Outdoors  in Paradixe - EPIC EN PLEIN AIR

The Creative Endeavor - Ep. 3 - Dr. Demartini

Website / Shop / YouTube / Facebook / Instagram

Johnny Anomaly : Podcast / Facebook / Instagram

Vanessa Vakharia is the Founder and CEO of The Math Guru, a boutique math and science tutoring studio in Toronto with a unique approach that works - like actually!

She is also the co-founder of Goodnight, Sunrise, an indie-rock-and-roll-superfun-party band based in Toronto, Canada.

Vanessa is also the author of Math Hacks, which is designed for kids (and their parents) struggling with math anxiety and looking for a new approach to homework, studying, tests and marks.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/327

-How her life started when she failed math twice.

-The way in which we define ourselves as “good” or “bad” at something and then live that narrative.

-How her tutoring organically grew into The Math Guru.

-How the focus should be in doing something new, creative and enjoyable as opposed to profitable.

-The power in outsourcing.

-Her realization that taking the time to get to one of her pursuits must come from one of her other endeavors.

-Taking a Time Inventory.

-Her lifelong dream of becoming a singer and the stumbling blocks along the way.

-How one man called her “the worst singer he had ever heard,” and how she took it as a positive.

-Growing immune to rejection and how that allows her to try for crazier opportunities.

-How anything is possible, but getting small examples of that for yourself as proof.

-Her take on the experience of opening for Bon Jovi and all of the synchronicities involved.

-The story behind her book, Math Hacks.

“Where I am today started with this grand failure.”

“It takes a lot for someone who is ambitious to realize that part of what needs to happen is slowing down a little, but also being creative and outsourcing.”

“I’ve always liked being underestimated because it gives me the opportunity to surprise them later.”

“It’s all about mindset.  Cultivate a mind that is a hotbed for creative magic because it’s so full of possibility.”

“None of the things associated with failure are as bad and scary as never trying to achieve your dreams.  That’s the scariest thing.”

“The hustle is in your control.  The luck isn’t.  You’re trying to get to that perfect pinnacle where the two meet and you’ve done everything you can to take advantage of the lucky moment.”

Math Hacks: Cool Tips + Less Stress = Better Marks by Vanessa Vakharia

The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck by Sarah Knight

Jia Jiang: What I learned from 100 days of rejection | TED Talk

The Math Guru / Instagram / Spotify / iTunes

Andrew Tischler : Website / YouTube / Instagram

Canadian emerging Artist, Teresa Coulter lives in Calgary Alberta Canada. She is known for her Abstract Expressionism. Her portrait series called “ Sock Drawer Stories”  forged a new pathway to address the social stigmas associated with Mental Health in the workplace. What started as a small artistic venture to heal herself, as well as Paramedic colleagues, has since grown into a narrative on a national stage. Teresa has been awarded several awards such as: The ATB financial Healing Through the Arts Award in 2017, Hometown Hero Award , and a Public Service Award through TEMA.

Teresa’s art raised awareness of Mental Health well beyond her Art studio, and first-responder network. She is honored to have participated in and collaborated with: Calgary Police Services, Legacy Place Society,  The Other Side of the Hero documentary; the #nowimstronger 60 day campaign with Canadian Mental Health; White Coat, Black Art with Dr. Brian Goldman; and Uptalk podcast with Sean Conohan . Articles of her work have published and can been seen in:  Global News, Challenger Magazine, Link magazine, and  Live up Magazine.

Since 2000 Teresa Coulter has been a Practicing Primary Care Paramedic and continues to work at building resilience in the First Responder community.

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

-How she got into emergency services but always had a desire towards creativity.

-How she became a nude model because she wanted to see herself through somebody else’s eyes.

-The vulnerability that holds us back from asking for help.

-How she uses her art to help her interpret the world and to interpret PTSD.

-The way in which she came up with the title for her Sock Drawer Stories series.

-Her experience of opening up and cleaning her “sock drawer.”

-How she appreciates when people have a reaction to her art, whether it be positive or negative.

-The ways in which PTSD causes you to lack the words to describe what you are going through (and the way that art can help you to express yourself).

-The value of long-form conversations, and how social media has taken that from us.

-How creativity allows us to be present in the moment.

-The idea of your mind being a garden.

-The power of the story that we tell ourselves and the boxes we put ourselves in.

-How Bob Ross changed the course of his life through art.

-How people can have more comfortable and safe conversations about struggles with mental illness.

-How to handle a situation in which someone is suicidal.

“I became a nude model and would sit for these incredible artists because I wanted to see myself through somebody else’s eyes.”

“A photograph captures one second, but when you are sitting for an artist, there are multiple seconds that are passing and being captured into one final product.”

“I don’t paint for people to love everything that I do.  I actually appreciate if somebody is strongly disgusted by my art.”

“Art is this incredible thing that you can use for change.  We need it in our lives.”

“People want to see your growth.  There’s something beautiful in the process of growing.  Why wait until you think that you’re good enough because that will never be achieved.”

“We have the ability to change the course of our lives whenever we want.  It’s just about connecting to that internal compass and honoring it, feeling it within the depths of ourselves.”

Mental Health First Aid Courses

Sock Drawer Stories Series

Website / Facebook / Instagram

Vanessa Vakharia : The Math Guru / Goodnight, Sunrise

Alisa Kennedy Jones is an American memoirist, blogger, novelist, and awkward public speaker. A regular contributor to NPR, her wildly popular blog Gotham Girl has amassed nearly 50K avid followers worldwide. She also writes for television and theater and lives with the absurdly titled "ecstatic epilepsy" which she's less than ecstatic about.

In her new book, Gotham Girl Interrupted: My Misadventures in Motherhood, Love and Epilepsy, she shares a collection of comedic essays about life with epilepsy as a single mother in Manhattan.

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

-The story of her first seizure and being diagnosed with epilepsy.

-Learning in television and film that “nothing is precious.”

-The lesson that can be learned from improv acting: “Yes, and…”

-When it is time to move past the denial stage.

-How our brain’s function is to tell a story.

-The way in which it felt like she had a blank slate after every seizure.

-How she wanted to make her narrative different than the typical ones that involved suffering and alienation.

-The differences between writing a book and writing for television.

-How she had to push to express how she was feeling “right to her edge” in her writing.

-Dealing with the ultimate imposter syndrome of not recognizing yourself in the mirror.

-The importance making room for neurodiversity in our world, and why that was a major reason for her writing Gotham Girl Interrupted.

-How she wrote the entire first draft stream-of-consciousness.

-The experience of meeting the people who have read her book.

-How neuroplasticity helped her to find her words again.

-How boredom can actually be useful.

“You can be doing things in the way that you think that you are most creative and then suddenly the world rushes in to tell you that you have some more thinking to do.”

“What was happening around me wasn’t that I was dying.  For me, it was like being trapped in a Van Gogh painting.”

“Denial works until your head is really hurting.”

“It was the ultimate reboot, in a way.  It was like waking up with a new brain.”

“I wanted to get at something more than just complaining about this thing that had happened.  I wanted more invention.  I wanted more imagination.  I wanted more.”

“I think that our world is better for a space that allows for neurodiversity.  Everyone is very differently wired.  I want us to make room for all different kinds of brains.”

“Don’t be afraid to write or speak to the edge of yourself, of your fears, of everything.”

Gotham Girl Interrupted: My Misadventures in Motherhood, Love and Epilepsy by Alisa Kennedy Jones

Website / Blog / Twitter

Teresa Coulter : Website / Instagram

-Her history as an ultra-marathoner.

-The similarities between ultra-running and creativity.

-“Binging” in the studio.

-How she first got interested in making jewelry.

-Dealing with her own feeling the being a jeweler is less legitimate than other forms of art.

-How calling herself a “maker” allows her the permission to try out other forms of art.

-The importance of remembering that art is meant to make others feel happy.

-How writing her artist statement gave her a backbone and motivation.

-The story of getting through a major injury.

-Her vow to find her true self after realizing that she didn’t know who she was.

-The difference between her killer instincts in racing versus her shyness to “win” at art.

-The need for creative individuals to find their tribe.

-The various ways that she is attempting to get in the back door of the industry.

“I cannot stop being creative.  It’s like this fountain that’s just overflowing.  And the cool thing about it is that I feel like it’s never going to run dry.”

“I do not have to apologize for how I choose to thrive.”

“I’m thinking of all these backdoors and creative ways to get into the industry that other artists aren’t thinking about.”

“You cannot flourish if you are living with shame.”

Website / Etsy / Instagram

Alisa Kennedy Jones : Website / Twitter / Blog

Jason Polins graduated from Boston University’s Visual Arts Program then attended Florence Academy of Art in Florence, Italy. After graduating, he returned to Boston area to pursue direct studies with notable painters such as Nelson Shanks, Thomas Dunlay and Gary Hoffmann. All of whom Jason remain closely connected to as mentors and friends.

Moved by the beauty of nature and our modern world. His genre of expertise include portraiture, figure, still life and landscape/cityscape. Jason works in graphite, charcoal and oil paint.

Outside of Polins Atelier, he also teaches art classes in oil painting, drawing at Northeastern University and several local art centers.

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

-Studying in Florence using the sight-size method.

-The “reset” that he got through working with Nelson Shanks.

-The innate search for truth that art allows us to investigate.

-His advice for people to stop stewing in their own angst and let go in order to get to their art.

-His mantra of “Make a mark to adjust a mark.”

-Just how much of an artist’s time is spent practicing.

-The importance of separating yourself from your preconceptions of what you are painting (and how to do it).

-How his mind works with straight lines and angles versus curves.

-His attempt to keep his brain more engaged than the moment that just passed.

-Looking at the world scientifically, through a series of theories and proofs.

-Gathering, organizing and presenting.

-Being mentally present in your decision-making.

-The various ways that he makes money.

-His friendship with Alexander Soukas.

-The importance of not just seeking out mentors and teachers, but also gaining as much wisdom from them as possible.

“Visual art is a conversation that I don’t think that I’ll ever figure wholly but always endeavor to understand better.”

“It’s not about your skillset.  It’s about how you use it.”

“The idea of, ‘Make a mark to adjust a mark,’ is just a fundamental starting point to clarify that you have to do in order to do better.”

“People don’t practice enough.  We get pushed ahead to create masterpieces.”

“What’s the measure of success?  I don’t like it to be money.  I don’t even like it to be that I finished something.  I’d like it to be that I showed up and put in time.  If I can do that I think that I’m moving forward somehow.”

“It’s not ‘in it to win it’ with art.  Forget that.  It’s just being in it.”

“It’s really important to be able to be impressed by a student that you might have and to also impress upon them.  Something excellent comes out of that.”

“It’s too big for us to connect individually.  Life is short and art is long.  We don’t get to see the whole picture.”

Alexander Soukas on Your Creative Push

Florence Academy of Art

Nelson Shanks

Dennis Miller Bunker

Website / Polins Atelier / Instagram

Sada Crawford : Instagram

Ahmed Aldoori is a digital painter and illustrator who has worked on a range of projects from movies, theme parks and video games.

He also has a popular YouTube channel where he shares tutorials, sketchbook tours, critiques and original artwork videos to his 200,000+ subscribers.

Ahmed also has a bustling community on his Patreon page, where he not only shares his art, but also assignments for his patrons.

-How he went to school for Computer Science and quickly realized that art was too big of an obsession.

-Wishing that he hadn’t taken the “safe path” and researching the fact that there actually was a path for him to pursue art from the start.

-Whether or not you should go to art school.

-The moment that made him realize how he needed to structure his Patreon community.

-The way that his Patreon supporters and Discord chat mimic the university scenario of going to war with your friends.

-The camaraderie that he shares with his community when he lets his guard down and shares that he struggles with certain things as well.

-How writing things down allows him to be a therapist to himself and address his resistances head-on.

-His advice for those who are scared of writing their “inner-most secrets” in their sketchbooks, where others might eventually see it.

-Gaining clarity from taking a break from his creative pursuits.

-Being able to look back at his life as an outsider and the way that changed things when he came home.

“It works for some people to have something laid out for them.  But I think for creative people, we temperamentally tend not to like to be put into a box.”

“That’s the case for any artist.  There’s always going to be that thing that you keep chasing.  It’s like a carrot on a stick, and it’s a different carrot every time.”

“Look at your flaws head on.”

“I looked at my life in America as a movie that I was editing, and when I came back I decided that I was going to let it play out the way I wanted it to, based on the things that I had overcome.”

“Vulnerability is the one that shows that you’re human and will have that limbic resonance with other people.  It is the through-line.”

“Every artist got to where they are because of their obstacles, not because of their conveniences.”

“Find out where you want to be in ten years and reverse engineer how you’re going to get there.”

Brainstorm School

Medcast41 - Art Envy

Website / YouTube / Patreon / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Pinterest

Lily Hevesh is a professional Domino Artist who produces weekly videos on her YouTube channel, Hevesh5, while also doing professional projects for companies, ad agencies, brands, schools, and others seeking Domino Art. 

She currently has over 600 million total YouTube views and 2 million subscribers, making her the #1 most subscribed Domino Artist on the web.

Her videos have been featured on NBC, FOX News, Nickelodeon, CNN, CBS, MSN, the front page of Reddit, the front page of YouTube, and other various sources.  She has also worked with Will Smith for the feature film, Collateral Beauty, as well as Katy Perry for the launch of her new album, Witness.

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

-How she first got interested in domino art.

-The video that went completely viral, getting three million views in the first two days.

-The business opportunities that came as a result of her channel growing.

-How much planning goes into her elaborate projects.

-The method by which she makes complicated words, logos and images with dominoes.

-The way that she is able to limit the damage in case disaster strikes.

-The importance of learning from failures.

-How she learned to work the camera during the topples.

-The experience of working on Collateral Beauty with Will Smith.

-Being able to travel the world.

-The experience of working with other domino builders and people who understand “domino language.”

-How she decides whether or not to play it safe or take risks with her tricks.

-The love/hate relationship she has with large live events.

-How posting content every week has given her a career (and also allowed her to cut down her perfectionism).

-Her plans for the future of Hevesh5.

“Even though I do plan it, most of the magic happens when I actually start building and I can see it on the spot.”

“I’m a mixture of hopeful and nervous as I’m putting down the dominoes.”

“Failure is part of the process itself.”

“When I have a deadline, it pushes me a little bit more to actually get things done.”

“It’s definitely important to be consistent, especially when you’re posting online.”

Insane Domino Tricks

Website / YouTube / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

Ahmed Aldoori: Website / Instagram / Youtube / Patreon

Marie-Noëlle Wurm is a multidisciplinary French-American-German artist & illustrator who paints, draws, sculpts, creates puppets, lives at night and loves chocolate.

Her paintings are often filled with whimsical creatures that seem lost, floating in undefinable worlds that are colorful and strange.

She is also a top Skillshare instructor where she shares her skills, tools, tips and tricks.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/320

-Getting her degrees in biology, English literature and film, and puppet theater.

-How Sandrine Gaudet’s class broke down all of her walls that had been keeping her from drawing and painting in a serious way.

-How literally anything can be a source of inspiration.

-The way in which seeing your art simply as information can take some of the pressure off of yourself.

-The importance of seeing all creativity as an experiment.

-Why she has a particular distaste for the word ‘talent.’

-Why a fixed mindset is so detrimental to human beings.

-Her attempt to create a space where people can reconnect with the natural world and ask themselves questions.

-What it is like to receive feedback on how others interpret her art.

-How she got involved in Skillshare and eventually became a top Skillshare instructor.

-How she deals with her creative fears, blocks and resistances.

-How the more you create of something takes the pressure off each individual thing that you create.

-Treating yourself with more compassion when you are afraid or blocked.

-Distracting the self-critical part of her brain with podcasts.

-Her “Project Mossweaver” and the importance of juicy goals.

-Predicting potential resistances and writing down solutions so that you are immediately ready to deal with them in the most effective way possible.

“I have an issue with the word ‘talent.’  I think that it’s a huge block to a lot of people’s creativity.”

“That class is the one that really changed my trajectory in a profound way.”

“Anything can be a source of inspiration.  And I really believe that.  Literally, anything.”

“It’s more about experimenting.  And that’s at the root of how to overcome fear that’s linked to creativity.  See it as an experiment.  If you see it as that, then you learn a lot and you also have fun.”

“There’s nothing more detrimental to us as human beings than a fixed mindset.”

“If you cultivate curiosity, then it’s only going to bring you to interesting places.”

“Cultivating self-compassion is a huge part of overcoming fear or self-doubt.”

“The fear is a message and it’s telling you that the thing that is scaring you is super-important.”

Unleash Your Creativity: Draw Without Fear in 5 Simple Exercises (Marie-Noëlle's Skillshare)

Derren Brown on The Joe Rogan Experience describing hypnotizing a guy who wanted to fight

Dream Plan Do Planner

Project Mossweaver

Life (David Attenborough-Narrated Version)

The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit

Rumi (Wikipedia)

A Tale for the Time Being: A Novel by Ruth Ozeki

Hevesh5: The Amazing Triple Spiral (15,000 Dominoes)

Website / Skillshare / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Youtube / Patreon

Lily Hevesh : Website / YouTube

John Guydo is a New York City based Illustrator working primarily in the traditional medium of pen and ink. Inspired by master engravers like Gustave Dore and Albrecht Durer, John crafts detailed illustrations through intricate line work. Much of his recent focus has been on creating poster prints licensed by Marvel, DC, and Warner Brothers.

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

-How he realized that he missed drawing after doing a lot of work in graphic design and web design.

-The importance of taking some breaks from your creative pursuits.

-The way in which he started sharing his work on social media.

-Why he shares intricate, detailed shots of what he is working on.

-The long-term project that he is working on with poet David Herrstrom.

-His strategy for sharing his work on Tumblr and other social media websites.

-The way that social media not only allows you to put yourself in front of new audiences but also allows you to be the audience to artists that you would have never witnessed.

-Doing alternative movie posters for Blade Runner, Batman, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

-What it is like to work with Bottleneck Gallery.

-Not thinking about his work as a career, but rather as entertainment.

-The challenge that he faced to incorporate so many Marvel characters into the 10-year anniversary poster for the MCU.

-Working digitally and incorporating color into his work for the first time.

-How he sometimes overthinks the business aspects of creating art.

-Dealing with overwhelm when it comes to choosing the version of a piece he wants to create (and how he makes a decision).

-How he spends a lot of time before he even makes the first mark to ensure that he is happy with the composition and the idea as a whole (and then it is off to the races).

-The importance of creating things that you want to see rather than trying to cater to what others want.

“Drawing in your own sketchbook is one thing, but having audience really changes things.”

“I’m the type of person that likes to really obsess over things.  Sometimes too much, actually.”

“One of my resistances is coming up with a final decision on what I’m going to do, because there is only going to be one image at the end of the day.”

“It usually takes me a long time before I actually put pen to paper.  I really need to lessen that and get started on these things quicker.”

“To me, the most important part of the process happens before you put pen to paper.”

“Give art to others as you would like to receive from them.”

“The only type of success that I ever found was when I stopped trying to be successful and just started doing the artwork that I found interesting to myself, and then that little bit of success came along.”

John's MCU Poster

Bottleneck Gallery: Website / Instagram

Illustrating the Beasts of the Bible

Incubation, Ideation, and the Art of Editing: Beethoven on Creativity

Store / Instagram / Twitter / Tumblr

Marie-Noëlle Wurm : Website / Instagram

Sandra Busby is a still life artist who paints in a contemporary style using traditional methods.  Inspired by the ordinary, she strives to capture the playful light in glass and other still life with her paints.

Tara has been in the Graphic Design industry for over 20 years and is the creator of the hugely popular blog, ‘The Idea Medic’. She also has a design website www.roskelldesign.co.uk where you can see an abundance of her quirky creations.

They came together to create Kick in the Creatives, a website, podcast and community where you can find an abundance of existing online creative challenges all under one umbrella and with some brand new ones added to the mix.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/318

-What Kick in the Creatives is all about.

-What it was like to meet in person for the first time.

-Learning some of their resistances such as imposter syndrome.

-Finding ways to detach yourself from your work.

-How to handle the insecurities that arise from listening to your own recorded voice.

-What they’ve learned from the members of their community via the challenges and discussions.

-The encouragement that is rampant in their Facebook group.

-What they learned from the challenges that they participated in (and the children’s book that came out of it).

-Getting past the fear of drawing in public.

-Some of their upcoming challenges, including Art Journal January, Aqua January, February Fables, Five Minute March, Cartoon in June, April Poetry, and Early Rise August.

-Overworking your sketches because you love the process of drawing so much.

-What it was like to interview some of their creative heroes.

-The lessons they learned from Danny Gregory, Jon Burgerman, Joanna Penn, Tracey Fletcher King and Callum Stephen.

-What they learned from Jake Parker about deep and shallow creative blocks.

-Getting past imposter syndrome.

-Finding comfort in the fact that all creative people go through the same struggles as them.

-Some of the various ways in which the members of their community have collaborated and helped one another.

“I don’t think either of us knew how much work it would be, but definitely worth it.”

“We were standing in front of everyone in that museum and somehow it cured me there and then of that fear of drawing in public.”

“I think the reason that I take so much time drawing is because I love that process so much that I actually don’t want it to end.”

“This whole Kick in the Creatives thing is all about trying to form a creative habit.  It does take time, but you do get there eventually.”

“Just start.  Every day that you don’t start is a day further away from getting to where you want to be.”

“Unless you try it, you don’t know if you’re good or not at that thing, even if it takes you a little while to learn it.”

“It’s like writing.  If you just throw in your first draft without editing as you go, it just gets out there on the page.  It’s the same with drawing quickly.”

“It’s not just about the challenges.  It’s about all these people coming together.  There are definitely friendships being formed in our group.”

“Nobody really knows and nobody should discount you or tell you that you can’t do something.”

“Even five to ten minutes is enough to do something creative.  Don’t waste those small moments just because you think that you don’t have time.”

Kick in the Creatives

Facebook group

Danny Gregory on KITC

Tracey Fletcher King on KITC

Jake Parker on KITC

Joanna Penn on KITC

Callum Stephen on KITC

Website / Blog / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

Website / Podcast / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

John Guydo: Instagram / Big Cartel

Help support the show and check out my #Cramuary progress:

http://yourcreativepush.com/patreon

And be sure to tag your own #Cramuary goals and progress!

Philip Ruddy is a Los Angeles-based depth psychotherapist, who previously spent fifteen years as a writer, producer and development executive in Hollywood.   He now works with writers, artists and performers, helping them explore and transcend creative blocks, anxiety, depression, and the unique stressors of the film and television industry.  He can be reached via his website ActivelyImagine.com.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/bestof12

-His journey getting to the point he is now as a depth psychotherapist.

-His explanation of what depth psychology is.

-How he is able to tap into his experience as a development executive, screenwriter, and a short story writer in order to understand what other creative people are going through.

-How writer’s block is a personal thing that differs for every person that he works with.

-The notion of befriending your creative blocks.

-The idea of Active Imagination.

-How we imagine the harshest of critics will judge our work, but in reality, if someone doesn’t like your work, they typically just move on.

-The traumatic effect that negative comments from teachers can have, especially at an early age.

-The importance of seeking out a tribe and a group of peers, and not necessarily rely on the influences that your school district had as art teachers.

-Creating a new persona.

-The interplay that happens between your persona and your “true self,” both positive and negative.

-The importance of his clients being sober when coming in for treatment so that they aren’t “unconscious” during the process.

-Why creative people rely on drugs or alcohol to subdue their minds from the constant thoughts, and healthier ways for them to disengage.

-An extremely disheartening experience that he went through in the past, which helps him to relate to his clients today.

-The journey that he took after having his original screenplay taken, which led him to becoming a psychotherapist.

-His masters thesis on transcending writer’s block based on Active Imagination.

-The concept of the “wounded healer.”

-His advice for someone who wants to open a dialogue with his or her blocks.

-How the subconscious part of your psyche that will hold you back from doing work will often have insights that your conscious mind isn’t aware of.

-The importance of creating a friendly and welcoming dialogue with your block and treating it like a guest in your house.

“What’s the personal myth that you are leading your life by?”

“Writer’s block is something that you’re probably going to wrestle with for many years to come if you don’t make a decision to focus on it now and come up with some ways to navigate it.”

“Befriend it so that you can transcend it.”

“The idea is not just to exterminate this writer’s block but to engage it in dialogue. I actually mean that quite literally.”

“Write out a dialogue with this writer’s block and see what it has to say.”

“Writer’s block is often an unexpressed part of ourselves that wants to be heard, so if you actually give it some time and engage it, it will often tell you what it wants of you.”

“We’re often far worse critics than the real flesh-and-blood critics that we encounter.”

“The first creative act is reinventing yourself. Creating your new self as an artist.”

“To reinvent ourselves, to become who we are destined to be, takes an incredible amount of strength.”

“I found that after that experience, I really began to shut down as a writer.”

“I just looked around and I thought I have found my tribe.”

“Going into film production is kind of like the French Foreign Legion.  You can literally work 24/7.  That job is never over.”

“I went through it myself — that is why I’m able to help others.”

“Sometimes the most effective healers are the ones that have been injured themselves.”

“Don’t invite your critic in while you’re creating.”

“The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron

“The Red Book” by Carl Jung

“Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life: How to Finally, Really Grow Up” by James Hollis

“An Evening with Ray Bradbury – 2001” (YouTube)

“The Hero’s Journey… For Writers, Artists & Performers” (from Philip’s blog)

Sandra Busby on Your Creative Push Ep. 220

Tara Roskell on Your Creative Push Ep. 247

Website / Blog

Sandra Busby & Tara Roskell : Website / Sandra's Instagram / Tara's Instagram

David Kochberg is a musician, a mechanical engineer and the co-founder of Goodnight, Sunrise, an indie-rock-and-roll-superfun-party band based in Toronto, Canada.

David started out in engineering, but discovered a love for music and became a mostly self-taught guitarist, drummer, songwriter and producer.

Goodnight, Sunrise has played almost 300 shows across Canada and the UK and they have started their own label called Rejection Records for their band business operations.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush/317

-How he got into music later in life.

-Why he left his job in mechanical engineering to travel the world for 14 months.

-The perspective that you can achieve by experiencing the rest of the world, especially when you are being intentionally introspective.

-Coming home to Toronto and the experience of making music more of a part of his life by joining a band.

-What makes a successful and “easy” creative collaboration.

-Maintaining a creative relationship despite the romantic relationship working out.

-How to make sense of the puzzle pieces that are floating around creative people’s heads.

-The balance of a day job with a creative side hustle.

-Building up confidence to tell other people that he is a musician before any other definition of himself.

-Learning to be happy with the success of creating music as opposed to the “acclaim” that one particular song receives.

-Putting yourself in the position to capitalize on luck.

-Opening for Bon Jovi and how that experience shaped his view of opportunity.

“A big pattern in my life is coming up with really great ideas and then not following up with them.  That’s something that I constantly still struggle with.”

“Set yourself up for luck to strike you.  Then if luck does strike, you will actually be able to make the most of it.”

“Any time I think that’s impossible, I always remember that we did open for Bon Jovi, and that’s technically impossible, so anything is worth a shot.”

“Look at every opportunity that comes your way as a chance to try something out and learn from it.”

“Confidence and self-confidence are much more in our control than we realize.”

Remember Now (live, opening for Bon Jovi)

SUCCESS LOVES SPEED (YCP Ep. 239 w/ Maria Brophy)

Website / iTunes / Spotify / Bandcamp / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

Felix Semper is a Cuban American painter and sculptor.  He gained popularity with his sculpture of the late rapper The Notorious B.I.G. which he crafted from thousands of layers of glued paper.

Semper's work has been collected by global corporations and celebrities such as Business Insider, Marriott International, Champs Sports, A$AP Rocky, Wendy Williams, Elvis Duran, Ryan Seacrest, and Kelly Ripa from Live with Kelly and Ryan, as well as numerous private collectors and institutions.

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

-How he describes his unique sculptures.

-Taking a long break from his artistic endeavors.

-How cutting paper in a print shop was one of the seeds that had been planted long before he started his sculptures.

-His career building properties and what happened during the housing crash in 2008.

-Getting back to his creative roots as a means of healing his pain.

-The way that he creates his material by gluing pieces of paper together.

-How time disappears while he is making his art.

-The spontaneous and explosive bursts of creativity that he gets through his painting, which helps him balance the monotonous and long process of creating one of his sculptures.

-The doubt that creeps in as he starts a piece (and the eventual moment of recognition when the piece appears, sometimes weeks or months later).

-The structural integrity of his sculptures and how people have to learn how to handle them.

“I went back to my roots and started drawing to heal my wounds and to heal what was happening on my outside.”

“We think that everything has been invented and everything has been done, but in reality it hasn’t.  There’s still so many angles you can take just based on your creativity.”

“It was something that I was doing for healing, waiting for the next thing in my life to happen, never knowing that this was the thing that was going to happen.”

“I don’t want to do anything else for the rest of my life.  I want to do art.”

“I wake up every morning and go to my studio and start working and I am the happiest person on earth.”

Kelly & Ryan Anniversary Mugs [YouTube]

Biggie Stretches [YouTube]

Felix Semper's Frida [YouTube]

Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / YouTube

David Kochberg of Goodnight, Sunrise: Website / Soundcloud / Spotify

Aimée Rolin Hoover is a contemporary animal painter who is originally from Philadelphia, PA but currently lives/works in southern California.

Whether her subject is a canine, cow or a black rhino, her hope is that her work offers the viewer—in some small way—what animals have the power to do in person: to inspire us to be exactly where we are in the present moment. A space in which we don’t necessarily have to think or understand, but instead feel and connect.

Her paintings hang in collections all over the world, from the U.S. and Canada, to Europe and South America.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/315

-Her reflections from her Fly Mask series.

-Saying “yes” to Between Worlds despite her fear of collaboration, being on camera and putting herself in an unknown scenario.

-What it was like to work with Black Light King.

-Her earlier lessons on collaboration.

-Why she decided to make her fourth year of 30for30 paintings her last.

-Her dedication to move toward what she doesn’t know.

-How she doesn’t want her work to be for everybody.

-How she handles her e-mail list.

-The support that she receives from her husband, Scott (especially during the busy times).

“Once I have an idea, I just have to get it out.”

“I hadn’t been that scared in a really long time.  Like truly scared.”

“Just go with your gut.  I think our heads get in the way of the work that we create or the excuses we give ourselves to not do our work.”

“You need to go towards what excites you and pulls you into being creative.”

“Follow your gut before your head gets in the way!”

“Do the weird stuff.  People out there are waiting for your weird stuff.”

Between Worlds: Two Artists Fuse Styles On One Canvas

Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

Felix Semper : Website / Instagram

Adam Wilber is a world-class magician, author, inventor, and keynote speaker who believes that creativity isn't a finite personality feature -- it's a skill that EVERYONE can master with the right mindset.

As a keynote speaker and creative thinking workshop leader, Adam engages, challenges, and inspires audiences with the promise that everyone can learn how to be creative and his five books define the magic formula of creativity and are the must-have manuals for anyone that wants to improve their creative quotient.

Upgraded magic tricks and brand-new illusions skyrocketed Adam’s career as a professional magician. The never-before-seen inventions and illusions were highlighted on national television shows, including Penn & Teller, and in front of thousands of awestruck audiences at private and corporate events.

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

-How creativity saved his life.

-The response he got about a magic trick pertaining to creativity that set him on a new course.

-How he fooled Penn & Teller on “Fool Us.”

-The role that creativity plays on his life.

-The way he handles imposter syndrome.

-How the tide has changed in terms of companies getting behind creativity as a focal point in their long-term vision.

-Becoming an author.

-How he goes about developing a new magic trick, specifically looking at his trick, “Decibel.”

-How he feels about other magicians using his tricks.

“They say once you start doing what you’re supposed to do and what you’re passionate about, that’s when you become successful.”

“Your expectations are never as bad as the reality of the situation.”

“That’s where magic lives.  It lives in the mind of a spectator.”

“If you have that one thing that’s been with you your entire life -- you’ve always wanted to do it, you’ve always tinkered, you’ve always dabbled -- then that’s it.  That’s the thing you need to put your heart and soul into.”

Penn & Teller: Fool Us // Adam Wilber Totally Baffles Them!

Aimée Hoover on "Between Worlds"

Aimée Hoover on Your Creative Push Ep. 174

Website / Facebook / Instagram / YouTube

Aimée Hoover : Website / Instagram

Jordan Hill is an illustrator and storyteller with a focus on characters and connections. She is the creator of The World of Immensum, which was born around seven years ago when an idea for a book series took on a mind of its own. Every short story, novel or illustration she creates take place in the same universe, with their placement in that universe depending on the planet, location on that planet, the time period it takes place in, or even the particular sub-timeline/alternate universe it is a part of.

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

-Her creativity from a very young age.

-How she navigated the “in-between” of being equally left and right-brained but wanting to fully pursue art.

-The negative experience she had of paying for college classes but not receiving an education.

-How she was able to double down on NaNoWriMo while she was also taking college courses and holding a job.

-How she always feels happier and more fulfilled when she is creating and exercising.

-The story of how The World of Immensum came to be.

-Embracing her joy for comic book style art.

-The way in which our interests, our past and our previous styles all come together to create our unique voice, which can’t be copied.

-Constraints versus an entire imaginary universe with multiple realities.

-How ideas often come in great numbers as you are creating.

-The importance of writing down all of your ideas.

-Her goal of trying new things and putting herself out there.

“For some reason I just got it into my brain that I couldn’t do art as my career.”

“I had this moment where I just thought, Why am I paying money for them to give me a grade when I could just buy the book and teach myself?”

“When I thought that I might not be able to do it, I put every ounce of my spare energy and free time into it.”

“Art is basically a culmination of your entire life presented in a physical object.”

“The funny thing about art is that the more you make, the more ideas you have.”

“Just because an idea isn’t necessarily relevant now, it doesn’t mean it won’t be later.”

“Find what you love to do and let yourself be bad at it.  Eventually you will progress and you will get better.”

Website / Pinterest / Instagram / YouTube / Twitter

Adam Wilber : Website / Penn & Teller: Fool Us

Marco Bucci began to study classical drawing at age 19, which led him to kindle a love for painting and illustration. He hasn't looked back since. 

His experience includes books, film, animation, and advertising. His clients include: Walt Disney Publishing Worldwide, LEGO, LucasArts, Mattel Toys, Fisher-Price, Hasbro, Nelvana, GURU Studio, C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures, Yowza! Animation Inc., Pipeline Studios, and more.

Marco is also a passionate teacher, and currently teaches "The Art Of Color & Light" at CGMA, a course specifically designed to build painting fundamentals from the ground up.

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

-How he learned how to learn to draw.

-The way in which he pursued art after abandoning it as something that he wasn’t as good as other people who “could draw.”

-How the path to your goal is never a straight line and how you should embrace the fact that the path will be curved.

-The labor of love that is his YouTube channel.

-The way in which he plans and structures his YouTube videos.

-Trying to solve problems before starting a piece.

-How to avoid paralysis during the creation process.

-The difference between art and creativity.

-How we are all born with creative curiosity and don’t question it (or our skills) until later.

-How he always tries to push himself to do something new with each piece of art so that he doesn’t become complacent and rely on any formulas.

-The battle between hard work and fun.

-Starting small so that you can have small successes before taking on a big project like writing a book.

-Not fully defining the path that you are going to take to become the artist you want to be, and being willing and excited to venture off into new directions.

-How his short film Cindy, with Bryce Sage came to be.

“I didn’t have the inborn talent to draw and my jealousy became a stubborn resolve to figure out this whole drawing thing.”

“I never realized that drawing was a skill you could actually learn so I thought I was doomed from the start.  But it turns out you can learn to draw.”

“A big part of the creative process is discovery.  You have to be able to make a right turn when you should have gone left and only discover that later.”

“We’re all born with the desire to create and so many of us snuff out our own flames.  It’s such a tragedy.”

“I try my best to not repeat the thing I just did.  Even if the thing I did was a huge hit.”

“Start small and don’t bite off more than you can chew.”

“When it comes to becoming an artist, don’t try to preordain your own path to success.”

“It’s better to create bad stuff than it is to not create anything.”

Sketching With Focus [From Marco's YouTube channel]

Creativity and the Campfire by Marco Bucci

CINDY - a love story

Meet SpaceX's First Moon Voyage Customer, Yusaku Maezawa

Your Creative Push Ep. 306: Softly conquer the world! (w/ Cat Rabbit)

Website / YouTube / Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest

Jordan Hill : Website / Instagram

Fran Meneses aka Frannerd is a self-taught Chilean freelance illustrator who recently moved from Hastings, United Kingdom to New York City.  She takes a deep interest in her followers and patrons and her work often reflects the things that they want to see.

She also has a popular YouTube channel in which she talks about pencils, paper, illustration and her daily life.

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

-Her recent move from the United Kingdom to the United States.

-The way in which she burns herself out before drawing the line and allowing herself to rest.

-Her constant battle with feelings of guilt for working too much or too little.

-How she needs to give herself more self-love and treat herself and talk to herself the way she would treat her best friend.

-How to know the difference between “urgent” and “important.”

-The way in which ideas go from one person to another.

-How her graphic novel About to Leave came to be.

-The way in which the big projects such as graphic novels force you to face the things that you don’t know how to do and also to emerge at the end as a new person.

-Taking notes as she is out in the world and cherishing the things that resonates with her at a deeper level as well as the things that make her feel awkward.

-Her thoughts, studies and art about friendship as adults.

-Balancing her work and projects amongst Instagram, YouTube and Patreon.

-The gratitude she feels for her patrons.

-The rules we make up in our own head about social media.

-How and why she made her YouTube channel (including inspiration from Art Attack).

“Since I love what I do so much, sometimes I’m not very respectful of myself and where I draw the line and let myself rest.”

“A graphic novel is a test to yourself.”

“Having Patreon and having my online shop changed the way I approached creativity and my working life completely.”

Art Attack

Instagram / YouTube / Etsy / Patreon

Marco Bucci : Website / Instagram / YouTube

Joshua LaRock is internationally recognized as a preeminent figurative artist. His exquisite paintings are an ode to the past filtered through a contemporary life. LaRock’s portraits and figurative pieces alike are memorable for both their emotive quality and for evoking an eerily present feeling. Inspired by Bouguereau and other masters of the past, Joshua imbues a shade of the timeless, drawing the viewer deeper into his personal interpretation of how the world ought to be.

Among Joshua’s most striking works are those of his wife, Laura. In 2012, “Portrait of the Artist’s Wife” was hailed as ‘deserving special attention’ during the historic America China Oil Painting Artists League exhibit at the Beijing World Art Museum. While “Laura in Black” was part of the prestigious BP Portrait Award 2016 exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London and is the subject of his premier instructional video “The Layers of Portrait Painting”.

Joshua currently lives in North Carolina with his wife and two children.

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

-His initial interest and study of music and music business.

-How he became aware of classical realism and his discovery of John Singer Sargent, Jacob Collins, and ARC.

-The common experience that he shared of being an artist that didn’t start from a young age.

-Controlling his anxiety during “quick sketches.”

-How long it takes him to do each of his paintings and how he sometimes wishes he spent more time in the planning stage.

-His first portrait of his wife, Laura and what made it special.

-How you only need to do one good painting for people to take interest in you.

-His advice for making decisions, or putting yourself in the position to have to make decisions.

-What it feels like for artists to take on the additional title of “entrepreneur” (and a great example from Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel).

-His stance on classical realism and the fact that not as many people are doing what he does.

-How soon artists should consider teaching others.

-How to push past imposter syndrome, especially when it comes to teaching.

“There’s always a point in each painting at which I think ‘this is not going to work.’”

“There are points where you need to take it off the easel and put it against a wall and not look at it for several months.”

“There’s always a little bit of a dance between things that you’re really passionate about and things that you have to do day to day.”

“I don’t think there is a ‘too soon’ to teach art.”

Tim Ferriss Podcast Ep #325 Featuring Derek Sivers

John Singer Sargent

Jacob Collins

Art Renewal Center (ARC)

Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

Frannerd : Website / Instagram

Limbo is a musician from the Bay/Los Angeles area of California who is interested in creating sounds for your ears, minds and hearts.  While she wears a cat mask to take her identity out of the equation, she opens her heart with her diary-like lyrics and beats.

Her new album is called Lonely But Never Alone and is available here.

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

-How she taught herself to play guitar and use Ableton via YouTube tutorials.

-Why she chose to use a pseudonym and wear a cat mask to hide her identity and the superpowers that it gives her.

-How she developed her unique style.

-Her creation process and the starting point for each song.

-Being self-taught vs. a formal education.

-How she finds the motivation when she doesn’t feel like learning or working.

-What went into making her new album, Lonely But Never Alone.

-Resistances that she deals with such as self-doubt and comparison to others.

-What went behind her decision to make the plunge of becoming a full-time musician, and what that journey has been like thus far.

-How she built her initial audience with consistency.

-The inspiration she gets from Jim Carrey.

“I feel way more comfortable with a mask on.  It does give me superpowers.  It makes me feel more confident.”

“We’re all taught to grow up and think that you can’t be a rockstar so it’s hard to have that dream and believe in yourself sometimes.”

“That’s what any artist or creative person dreams of, is not working somewhere they don’t want to and being able to create whenever they want to.”

Ableton

Website / Soundcloud / Spotify / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

Joshua LaRock : Website / Instagram

Fieldey is a professional artist with over 16 years experience in art and design. She specialises in street art murals, portraits, painted surfboards and skateboards, and commercial illustration, all created with a style that combines realistic painting with a cheeky retro old-school tattoo flavour. She is well known internationally for her instantly recognizable iconic style and her popular YouTube channel, Fieldey TV, which features some of the best art tutorials on the web. Fieldey works with brands to create custom illustrations and artworks for their needs. Clients include Coca Cola, Citroën, Iron Fist Clothing and Seven Skates.

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

-Her initial interest in art and the thing that made her put it off.

-The way in which surfing brought her back to art.

-How her studies in graphic design helped her to create a brand for herself.

-The way in which the limitations and restrictions of surfboards as a canvas helped her to develop her style.

-Her advice for honing in on your own style and then busting out.

-Knowing when it is time to shake things up and move on with your art.

-The way in which people on the internet curate their work and their lives to make them seem perfect.

-Wanting to show that she makes mistakes and how she fixes them.

-Preparing for and getting through the “ugly stage” of your art.

-The importance of breaks from your work.

-The tiny amount of negative comments that she has received compared to the amount of negative comments that she feared she would receive.

-The importance of having someone who will support you but also give you honest feedback about your work and progress.

-How she reacted when her murals were vandalized.

-How having another career is not necessarily a bad thing for artists.

“I was so scared of failing that I never really gave it everything.”

“I thought, you know what?  I’m just going to film this and chuck it up on YouTube.”

“The things that make surfboards difficult which is the shape and the fact that you can’t just use any old materials on it, were the things in the end that crafted my style and created it.”

“At the start, I was terrified of making mistakes, of failing, and of people being mean to me.”

“Having a process and having a system is what makes you feel more secure.”

“Sometimes the fear that you have as a creative is actually a good thing, because it is keeping you honest and making you do your best work.”

“When you’re creating and you’re close to your work, you don’t see it for how it really is, so that second pair of eyes is really helpful.  Especially if they are a sympathetic set of eyes.”

“Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert

Website / YouTube / Facebook / Instagram

Limbo : Website / Soundcloud

Sophie Gamand is a French award-winning photographer and animal advocate living and working in New York.  Since 2010, she has been focusing on dogs and our relationship with them. Sophie travels around the U.S. photographing shelter dogs for free, to help bring awareness to their fate, and help them get adopted.

Her most known series are Wet Dog and Flower Power, Pit Bulls of the Revolution.  She has won several prestigious photography awards for her work (including a Sony World Photography Award in 2014), as well as advocacy awards for her dedication to animal rescue and adoption. Sophie's work has been published in the press worldwide, online and in print (Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, Oprah Magazine, ....).  Her first book, Wet Dog, came out in October 2015.

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

-How her overly critical father killed a lot of her creative drives.

-Her time spent in Art Law, opera singing, and creating a photography magazine.

-Moving to New York and starting with a clean slate.

-Deciding to tackle the thing that scared her the most – taking photographs of strangers.

-Her visit to a vet clinic and the photography of a bulldog that was the catalyst for her new body of work.

-The way in which we come full-circle back to the things we were interested in as children.

-The question of where she would be had she been encouraged to do exactly what she loved.

-Learning to ignore the destructive voices in your head, yet still trust the kind voices.

-How she was mauled by a dog when she was younger and how she confronted that fear.

-The bad reputation that Pit bulls have and how she is attempting to change that with Pit Bull Flower Power.

-Being rejected by publishers for her book despite the enormous amount of traction that it received on social media.

-Using Kickstarter to fund Pit Bull Flower Power.

-The power of social media, especially for female artists.

-How working with shelter dogs has affected her creative process.

-The other creative outlets that her photography lets her tap into such as writing and making flower crowns.

-Being frustrated with feeling like she doesn’t belong in a specific type of creative box.

-The importance of that easy/difficult first step.

-Taking a step back and getting perspective of the impact of your creative contribution.

-The positives and negatives of the goalposts constantly moving for creative individuals.

“I had a clean slate and all the room to spread my wings and figure out what am I going to do now?  Who am I going to be?  That was scary as hell but also very exciting.”

“The Universe just handed this to me on a silver platter with a little bow on it and I chickened out and walked away.”

“We should trust our inner child more when it comes to our creative process.  As children, we know where our truth is.”

“It was shattering to spend all those months being rejected when I thought this was going to be a walk in the park.”

“As a creative, especially when I am in a darker mode, I cry and I think why can’t I know what I want to be?”

“That first step is the easiest, most difficult and most important step.”

“Art is about harnessing our fears.”

Pit Bull Flower Power by Sophie Gamand

Sophie Gamand on the Pawprint podcast (talking about Frida)

Youngman Brown on the Pawprint podcast

Sophie's exhibit at The Invisible Dog Art Center

Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

Fieldey : Website / Instagram

Cat Rabbit is a Melbourne-based textile artist and designer.  She makes plush sculptural works of my imagined characters and the worlds they might live in.  She also makes books for children and other fantastical artworks with her collaborator Isobel Knowles under the name Soft Stories.

She have worked and collaborated with clients such as NGV, Soludos, Lunch Lady Magazine, Frankie Magazine, Odd Pears and Bakedown Cakery, and has work in permanent collections at Loreto Mandeville Junior Library and Melbourne Girls Grammar School.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/306

-The roundabout way in which the thing that she was doing on the side became her career.

-How she had to carve her own path and take the “scenic route.”

-The advantages and disadvantages of being the first to market.

-How she figured out how to price her work.

-Re-purposing her pieces so that they can more effectively work for her.

-How and why she first started making her creations.

-How her process has evolved over time (and continues to evolve).

-The value in not having expectations for the end result.

-Embracing mistakes and imperfections.

-Getting inspiration from the real world.

-How she prioritizes her time for learning new skills or working on big projects (while still getting to her daily work).

-Dealing with self-doubt and the balance of having too much or too little confidence in your work.

-Her early negative and positive experiences on Instagram.

-How she deals with trolls and negative comments.

-Collaborating with Isobel Knowles for Soft Stories.

-Setting “play dates” with other creative people.

“I was just making small crafty projects on the side and then they ended up taking over my life, I suppose.”

“It seemed like the Universe just wanted me to make stuff.”

“I had to chisel this little path myself, and I didn’t really know I was doing it at first.”

“Giving lots of different access points to your work is a good thing to work out.”

“I purposely don’t have expectations because then it’s easier to embrace what comes out.”

Soft Stories

Isobel Knowles

Owl Know How

Website / Big Cartel / Instagram / Twitter / Tumblr

Sophie Gamand : Website / Instagram

Miss Led aka Joanna Henly is an artist, illustrator and art director based in East London.

As an artist Jo works from portrait commissions to large scale complex works, this work is often in public spaces or a live performance as part of an event – or she is the event, also creating portraits of guests of responding to a gallery or theme. In addition she creates personal work which is exhibited globally, as well as selling prints online.

-How each year of her career has been defined by something big.

-A look into the highlights of her career from the eight-year gap to workshops to working with agents.

-The way in which you think differently when you are teaching others and on the spot having to move quickly.

-The difference between teaching in-person and teaching through her books Figure Drawing and Portrait Drawing.

-Not having a day off for six weeks.

-Properly understanding burnout and how to deal with it.

-How everything she creates starts with writing things down, even if it is a very rudimentary idea or self-coaching.

-How The Artist’s Way and morning journaling changed her life.

-Putting yourself in a productive and positive state of mind so that you create opportunities for yourself and also have the confidence to jump on opportunities that are presented to you.

-Signing up for and taking a course, and how it brought her out of the darkest part of her eight-year gap.

-How her seasons or years become themed.

-The forethought that goes into each project in terms of style and composition.

“When you take your ego out of the picture and it’s not about you anymore, you start thinking differently.”

“Push, but know that you can’t go all four cylinders all the time.  You can’t.  You need to have some time out.  And thank your body for telling you that you have to stop.”

“It all starts with words.  It starts with writing things down.  Even if that’s just self-coaching myself.”

“My brain works like too many Google tabs open all the time.”

“I always put everything on paper first.  I have tons of notebooks.  They are core to my practice and to my ideas and to my mental state.”

Portrait Drawing by Joanna Henly

Figure Drawing by Joanna Henly

Why People in Cities Walk Fast

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

Website / Store / Facebook / Behance / Instagram / Twitter

Cat Rabbit : Website / Instagram

We lost a dear member of the Your Creative Push family.  Nathan Carson aka Streetarthustle passed away a few weeks ago.

In this update, Youngman pays tribute to the artist that made him rethink what it means be open and honest, yet still wonder why not open up?

Rest in peace, Nate.  You were an incredibly talented artist and a wonderfully kind person.

YCP Episode 54: When the path disappears, PIVOT PIVOT PIVOT (w/ Nathan Carson)

YCP Episode 100: The Universe wants you to be alive! (w/ Nathan Carson)

Matthew Miller is an artist in Tallahassee, FL who likes to paint natural beauty and human activity from life. Creating live paintings at sports events, music venues, and more, he paints with an energy that can be seen in the final product.

Matthew started painting seriously three years ago because it makes him feel at peace and confident. "I started self-medicating with art therapy," he says, "and ended up getting addicted." Matthew is currently finishing a PhD in Philosophy at Florida State University, where he is writing a dissertation about the role of flow states in a good human life. In his free time, he can be seen playing outside, usually without shoes.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/304

-Moving to Tallahassee to finish the PhD program that he had started a few years ago.

-How jumping into art full-time jeopardized how special art was to him and it became a stressor.

-How he was letting other aspects of his life go to the wayside when he started pursuing art as a full-time career.

-His experience working on athlete’s art at sporting events and the stark contrast of working alone in the studio.

-Dealing with personal struggles and the need for art to be therapy

-Pursuing plein air painting and how, since it is a new pursuit, he is able to think less about where the painting is going to end up and more just about pursuing excellence.

-How live painting is similar to a triathalon because it forces him to find a zone and to also not get preoccupied on mistakes.

-His decision to honor the sacredness of the creative process by not defiling it with excessive process pictures and Instagram stories.

-The power of flow states and the challenges of our environment in this technological age.

-Wanting to start a podcast.

-His increased interest and experimentation with cold exposure (and how it sets a base line for what is actually “hard” to do).

-Determining the ways that he wants to express himself with his upcoming ideas.

-The way that he has been communicating with his friends.

“Going full-time in art and putting myself in that position jeopardized how special art was to me because I was taking it too seriously.”

“Art will always go better if I have my other ducks in a row.”

“I don’t want to contribute to people vicariously living the artist life through me, I’d rather people just do it themselves.”

“I think today in order to live a fully good human life, we need to develop new types of virtues that enable us to manage all these new technological forces and preserve, protect and be stewards of our own brains and attention span.”

Matthew Miller on YCP Episode 238

Website / Facebook / Instagram

Miss led : Website / Facebook / Instagram

Polly Guo is a storyboard artist, currently working for Dreamworks.  She has previously been a storyboard artist for Adventure Time, and she has produced varied personal works such as Gawain's Girlfriend and the Green Knight and Houdini & Holmes.

Polly lives in Los Angeles with her boyfriend, her rat Brown, and her dog Aggie. 

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

-Her creative upbringing, from drawing Pokemon in middle school to storyboarding for Adventure Time.

-Realizing that a certain style or method isn’t for her and then questioning why she doesn’t draw like everyone else.

-The story behind Gawain’s Girlfriend and the Green Knight.

-Advice that Sam Alden gave her to draw in a very tiny space to make decisions very quickly and not be too precious.

-How art should be something that you discover as you’re creating it and from as much of the subconscious as possible.

-The inspiration that she takes from Paul Thomas Anderson.

-The story behind creating Houdini & Holmes.

-How working on guilt and fumes can get things done, but it doesn’t lead to a proper lifestyle or mindset.

-How incredibly important it is to complete your first personal project.

-The difference between using creative criticism to be helpful or to tear someone down.

-Valuing criticism from someone who is completely disengaged from your creative pursuit.

-The difference that she sees between personal and professional work.

-Her biggest source of resistance of trying to figure out who she is outside of her work, as she came into herself so much through her art.

-How she continues to make personal work despite every bone in her body wanting her to relax.

-The power in working with other people.

“Something I like about writing is letting yourself be taken by the process and letting yourself discover what you’re writing as you’re writing it.”

“Who you are as an artist doesn’t exist inside Pixar’s 20 Rules of Storytelling or any other rulebook.”

“When you get to the point where you’re creating work not on purpose and it reveals something very deep about you that you didn’t even know yourself, that’s when people really start to relate to it.”

“I feel like before you’ve completed your first big personal project, the wall of completion is nearly insurmountable.”

“Get to the finish line by any means necessary.”

“My biggest source of resistance is trying to figure out who I am outside of art and outside of my work.”

“Art stagnates if you don’t live your life and have new ideas and influences.”

Gawain’s Girlfriend and the Green Knight by Polly Guo

Houdini & Holmes by Polly Guo

Matthew Miller on Episode 238 of Your Creative Push

Website / Tumblr / Twitter

Matthew Miller : Website / Instagram

Mike Lowery is an artist and illustrator living Atlanta, Georgia.  His work has been seen on everything from greeting cards to children’s books to gallery walls all over the world.  His illustration clients include Hallmark, Random House, Nick Jr. Magazine, Viking, American Greetings, and Disney, just to name a few. 

He is also the co-founder of Paper Ghost, a gallery and studio space in Atlanta, and he is a Professor of Illustration at the Savannah College of Art and Design Atlanta.

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

-The enlightening experience of a client asking him to make his final product feel more like his original sketches.

-Why he encourages people to sketch and doodle (and not throw away your sketchbooks).

-How Random Illustrated Facts came to be.

-Not telling other people your ideas and instead simply making it.

-Saving your old work and ideas.

-Keeping lists and then attacking them later, piece by piece.

-How and why he started his Kickstarter.

-Getting caught pretending to draw on his helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon.

-How Paper Ghost Press started.

-How he find the time to be a part of his band Minor Miracles.

“It was a relief because I realized that the work that I could get paid to do started looking like the work I was doing in my sketchbooks.”

“I think that it’s important to get out of your head when you’re making art.”

“Start with the little pieces.  Set aside thirty minutes a day to get to your work and I genuinely think that stuff will start to grow out of that.”

Stefan Sagmeister

Minor Miracles

Paper Ghost Press

Slightly Jet Lagged : The Travel Sketchbooks of Mike Lowery

Website / Instagram / Tumblr

Polly Guo : Website / Tumblr

Sara Fabel is a Finnish model, illustrator, tattoo artist and actress currently residing in Los Angeles, California.

Sara lived her early and late teenage years in Helsinki, Finland.  She worked as a primary school teacher (grades 1-9) until moving to Australia and pursuing a career as an illustrator and later transferring in to tattooing.  Her tattoo work is well know for it's bold lifework and fine lines.

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

-How she went from being a teacher to making her first tattoo.

-How she deals with having a large following and how it can sometimes negatively affect her relationships.

-Trying to only work with and surround herself with people who are good people.

-The difference between highbrow and lowbrow art in terms of social media followers.

-The notion of ego and how toxic it can be.

-How some A-list tattooers can abuse their power.

-How a tattoo is not just the piece of art on your body, but it also comes with the memories of getting the tattoo and having a conversation with the artist.

-The importance of tapping into other people’s energy.

-Doing collaborations with Megan Jean Morris, Ryan Murray, Pony Wave and Cory Divine

-The purpose that writing served for her.

-Her advice for people who have multiple interests, to get specific and hone in on one specific niche.

-How young artists should be prepared to be comfortable being broke while they are starting their careers (and how to not let any emotions attached to that get into their art).

“I make a conscious effort to only work with people that are morally nice.”

“If you’re willing to get very specific, you’re going to cut out 90% of the market, but that 10% is willing to invest in you more.”

“I think it’s important to be prepared to be really poor when you’re an artist because that time is you working towards the bigger purpose.”

“If you’re going to say ‘I can’t do it,’ you’re the only thing standing between you and the success.  You are your own worst enemy.”

"Tattooer" vs "Tattoo Artist" w/ Sara Fabel & Megan Jean Morris [YouTube]

Website / Facebook / Instagram

Mike Lowery : Website / Instagram

Christina Moyer is an elementary art teacher from Pennsylvania.  Her personal work includes oil painting, watercolor and paper art.

She is also Youngman Brown's sister and the illustrator of their collaborative children's book, The Adventures of Tidy, Messy & VeryMessy, a project that has been in the works for a decade.

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

-How she became interested in art.

-Starting out as an Art Therapy major in college and the decision to become a Fine Art major.

-What led her to decide to become an art teacher.

-Not getting to her personal work for a long period of time because she was so focused on developing her skills as an art teacher.

-The “false starts” that occurred while creating the illustrations for The Adventures of Tidy, Messy & VeryMessy.

-How to determine whether you are dissatisfied with your progress because it isn’t right or because you are a perfectionist.

-Her breakthrough in illustrating The Adventures of Tidy, Messy & VeryMessy in which she completely changed things up and worked with a new medium.

-What was different about one particular summer in which she and her husband created more than any summer before.

-The creative inspiration that she gets from her husband.

-Dealing with a lack of confidence, especially after a long period of not creating.

“I had at least seven or eight false starts.”

“You’ve got to find something that makes you feel good while you do it.”

“I give teaching 100% of me so I don’t allow as much time for myself in my own creating.”

“During that period of not creating, you lose confidence, big time.”

The Adventures of Tidy, Messy and VeryMessy by Michael R. Young (Youngman Brown) and Christina Moyer

Yupo Paper

Cassie Stephens on Your Creative Push

Etsy / Instagram / Classroom Instagram

Sara Fabel : Website / Instagram

Alexander Soukas is a contemporary realist painter from Denver, Colorado.  His serious training in the fine arts began upon attending the Walnut Hill School for the arts, one of five high schools in the country dedicated to rigorous training in music, ballet, theatre, writing, and visual arts.

Unsatisfied with his studies, and desiring to pursue a career as an artist, he began homeschooling as a way of earning his diploma while undertaking an apprenticeship with realist figure painter Jason Polins.  Soukas studied traditional painting and drawing in Boston with Polins for 4 years, where he now visits as a guest instructor at Polins' atelier, The Boston School of Painting.

After high school, Soukas studied with scholarship, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in a coordinated program with the University of Pennsylvania for a year before leaving to seek a more rigorous classical training at Studio Incamminati.  While there, he worked for and studied under Nelson Shanks as one of his last apprentices.

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

-What spurred his initial interest in painting.

-The decision he had to make between painting and playing the cello.

-His experience at the Walnut Hill School for the Arts and with Jason Polins.

-His experience at The Philadelphia Academy of the Fine Arts and Studio Incamminati.

-His advice to anyone that is unsatisfied with their education.

-Working for and studying under Nelson Shanks.

-How to approach working itself and understanding how to most effectively learn.

-The importance of play (and how to find it).

-Color studies and which types of people succeed at them.

-Attacking your weaknesses.

-Realizing the importance of enjoying the act of painting as opposed to worrying about creating a work of art.

-How he balances his time.

-Giving yourself a full line of questioning before quitting your job to become a full-time artist.

“You just have to follow your gut.”

“All education is self-education.”

“Trust that internal compass and seek out what you need no matter what the risk.”

“You will not find the perfect school.  It does not exist for anyone.  Part of the education is learning what you don’t want.”

“I decided to attack that weakness and now it is one of my strengths.”

“The struggles never end.  In fact, they only get more complicated.  But you get better at handling them.”

“Your painting does not lie to you.  It simply can’t.  It’s a very intense mirroring of your inner life.”

After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path by Jack Kornfield

Poet Robert Bly

Studio Incamminati

Website / Instagram

Koosje Koene is an artist, teacher and co-founder of Sketchbook Skool. She has studied graphic design and worked as an award-winning photographer but it was her passion for drawing and painting that became her lifelong mission. Her enthusiasm as an illustrator inspired her to share her learnings online and became the basis for Sketchbook Skool today.

Koosje lives in Amsterdam.

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

-How she was encouraged from a young age to pursue her creative passions.

-Her entry and exit from the world of photography.

-How she became interested in drawing.

-How a dull job can actually make you more creative.

-The experience of creating her own first courses and then meeting Danny Gregory.

-The importance of community for creative individuals (and how Sketchbook Skool’s community differs from others).

-How Draw Tip Tuesday started and how she has been able to stay so consistent for six years.

-How creating Sketchbook Skool and creating instructional videos has changed the way she makes and thinks about art.

-Some of her own creative resistances and how she gets past them.

-How to trick your inner critic.

-How to be able to determine whether you need to move onto a different creative realm or whether you are simply in a funk.

-How she manages her time.

“I realized that I was making things because people were telling me to make them instead of making things that I wanted to make.”

“Every time a course comes out I learn so many things, and that really has made my art evolve very quickly.”

“I loosened up as a person so my art also loosened up.”

“If you want to be creative, make it a habit.”

Your Creative Push Discord

Sketchbook Skool (Use offer code SBSPUSH to get 10% off!)

Danny Gregory on Your Creative Push Ep. 293

Website / Facebook / YouTube / Instagram / Twitter

Cassie Stephens teaches art at an elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee.  She spends a lot of her free time sewing wacky outfits to accompany art lessons, thrift shopping and just making stuff.

She is also the creator and host of the podcast Everyday Art Room, a podcast that offers a glimpse into the world of elementary art and offers advice, stories and ideas to improve your teaching.

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

-Going from a comfortable identity as the “weird artsy kid” in high school to an uncomfortable self-conscious lack of identity in college.

-The difference in mentality between her fine art classes and her art education classes and classmates.

-The biggest lie she was ever told and how it stayed with her for years.

-How she put so much effort into teaching art that she let go of creating for herself for seven years.

-The ways in which she got back to her personal creative side.

-The ways she tries to align her DIY creative side with her teaching side.

-How she balances her time.

-The logic and emotion behind her decision to stop pursuing painting.

-Why we should never create from a place of obligation or guilt, because the work will always reflect those emotions.

-Why we lose our childlike excitement for creativity.

“I had to decide – did I want to be an artist?  Or did I want to be an art teacher?  Because I was led to believe that I couldn’t be both.”

“Because I spent so much of my time figuring out how to teach art and trying to do the best job that I could, I completely let go of the idea of creating.”

“It’s like a vitamin deficiency.  When you’re a creative person and you’re not creating, then something feels off and wrong.  You’re not taking your vitamins.”

“I am still an epic poor manager of time but somehow I force myself to find time and to make time.”

“I spent so much time letting my professors in my head and losing track of who I was and why I loved painting.”

Everyday Art Room Podcast

YCP Morning Motivation: Facebook / Discord

Blog / Facebook / Instagram / YouTube / Twitter

Koosje Koene: Website / Instagram

Alatar is a genderfluid digital artist who creates character-driven adult illustrations. Their work includes both fanart and original content, and attempts to explore a wide range of body types, ethnicities, gender identities and sexualities (with perhaps slightly more attention paid to abs). They are also the host of the podcast Blue Magic, where they interview other creatives in the erotic field.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/296

-Hopping universes.

-Feeling like a NPC (Non Player Character) in your own life and taking control of

-How the Miracle Morning was a game-changer.

-“Voltroning” resources or inspirations together.

-Visualization, manifestation and prioritization.

-Watching movies through the lens of your favorite character and asking, What can I learn from him/her?

-Seeing yourself doing the daily hard work as part of your montage (and even adding a soundtrack to it).

-How the “silly” and woo-woo are preferable to the serious.

-Gnosticism and how it relates to creativity.

-What to expect (and warnings) for people who are starting to try something like The Miracle Morning.

-Having “hills to die on” and deciding what is most important to you beforehand so that it is no longer a decision.

-Tips and hacks for actually waking up earlier every day.

“I close my eyes, exhaled and decided that I had hopped universes.”

“The moment you start working on yourself and changing how you operate in the world, the rest of it flows from there.”

“A big way that I interrogate reality is through stories and mythology.”

“Imagine The Matrix, except all of us are Neo.”

“Build the small victories every day.”

Your Creative Push Discord Server

Alatar on Your Creative Push Ep. 232

The Miracle Morning: The Not-SO-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM) by Hal Elrod

Rune Soup with Conner Habib

You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero

Neville Goddard

CircleThrice

John Cleese on Creativity in Management

The Morning Sidekick Journal

Newgrounds / Instagram / Tumblr / Patreon / Twitter

Troy Plota has been an award-winning Professional Photographer for over 30 years. His work has appeared in top magazines including Vanity Fair, GQ, Rolling Stone and many more. His advertising work has also appeared on dozens of billboards in New York's Times Square, as well as on the Vegas strip.  He has photographed dozens of celebrities like Heidi Klum, Usher, Mariah Carey, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and many more.

Troy has always been on the forefront of technology and gave the Ted Talk titled "The Future of Photography."  Troy's latest creation is the digital sharing platform Plotaverse, which also features his award winning app, Plotagraph.  It was the only App featured on the Apple Store for the release of the iPhone X.

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

-How he tries to constantly push the limits of technology.

-The importance of having the perspective of an artist while creating software.

-How challenges and contests have grown and matured the Plotaverse community.

-How he helps photographers and visual artists with monetization.

-The significance of motion art.

-How he was able to get 4 million downloads.

-Reaching out to his competition and realizing that they all have very similar stories.

-Why traditional artists might want to consider adding motion to their art.

-Some of the difficulties that he is seeing other photographers having as technology continues to change.

“I don’t think there’s anything more important than helping artists monetize their work.”

“To monetize your passion is freedom.”

Plotaverse

Alatar on Your Creative Push Episode 232

Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

Alatar : Newgrounds / Tumblr

Aliza Einhorn is a writer, an astrologer and a tarot reader.

Her first book, The Little Book of Saturn, is a smart, friendly introduction to the astrological Saturn.  It is a book for curious readers who know there is more to astrology than their sun signs.

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

-How her first book ended up not being a poetry book even though she thought it would.

-Why she stopped writing poems while in her thirties.

-Identity and whether or not we can define ourselves by something we no longer do (or haven’t done for a while).

-A crash course of Tarot and how it can help people with their creative blocks.

-Having a dual-identity, where one-half of you is focused on a day job and making money while the other half is focused on your creative passion and doing what you truly love.

-How astrology is a tool for self-awareness and self-discovery.

-The validation that creative people can get when they are (finally) told that they might be meant to do the thing that they’ve always known that they are supposed to do.

-Why Saturn is so important.

-Working with Tom Hart and the Sequential Artists Workshop.

-How creating art and finding your audience is like internet dating.

-The experience of writing and publishing her first book.

“I remember thinking ‘I’m not going to write anything anymore unless it is directly related to my income, which I want now to be astrology.’”

“It’s not one-size-fits-all.  You can create your work and create your life.  You just have to do it.  You can’t wait for someone else to do it for you.”

“People are afraid.  They’re afraid of others seeing their insides.”

“If you don’t expose yourself, people aren’t going to care.”

Youngman Brown's astrology reading

The Little Book of Saturn: Astrological Gifts, Challenges, and Returns by Aliza Einhorn

Sequential Artists Workshop

Tom Hart on Your Creative Push

Astrology and Tarot Readings by Aliza

Website / Facebook / Patreon / Twitter

Danny Gregory is an artist, author, teacher and co-founder of Sketchbook Skool. He taught himself to draw in his mid-thirties after a tragic accident changed his life, bringing with it a new peace and perspective. One that informs his creative habit everyday.

Danny has written nearly a dozen internationally best-selling books on art and creativity including Art Before Breakfast, Everyday Matters, The Creative License, Shut Your Monkey, An Illustrated Life and many more.

Before starting Sketchbook Skool, he spent three decades as one of New York’s leading advertising creative directors and has created award-winning, global campaigns for such clients as Chase, JPMorgan, American Express, IBM, Burger King, Ford and Chevron amongst others.

Danny resides in New York City.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/293

-The importance of your partner understanding your creative needs.

-Creative postpartum depression that often occurs when we are finished with a project.

-Why he left the advertising industry.

-Meeting Koosje Koene and how Sketchbook Skool started.

-The value in seeing how many different artists make art as well as seeing where they make it.

-The role that community plays in developing as an artist.

-The difference in motivation when you are paying for something as opposed to getting it for free.

-Going to clown school.

-Giving yourself constraints or challenges.

-What it means to clear space in order to start new things (or finish old things).

-How he got past imposter syndrome (and his advice for Youngman in getting past his).

“I think that having a partner that understands you and your creative needs is essential to be able to focus on your work.”

“If you want to start something new, you need to clear some space for it to happen.”

“Thinking you know yourself too well can be limiting.  Sometimes you’ve got to just jump off the cliff and see what happens.”

“I think it’s really important to have skin in the game.  If it’s too easy to walk away from, you will.”

“I always find that if I have that glimmer of an idea, if I have that grain of sand to put in the oyster, I’m on the way.  I’m going to get to the end just by having a beginning.”

“There are people out there waiting for your art.  Give it to them.”

“Every time you have the impulse to distract yourself, instead try to focus that energy into making something new.”

Sketchbook Skool (Use offer code SBSPUSH to get 10% off!)

Danny Gregory on Your Creative Push Ep. 50

Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Blog

David Talley is an internationally recognized photographer, director, and producer operating out of Portland, OR. His works exhibit the darkest moment before an explosion of light, a story broken, but changed for the better, and the ability to transform the present problem in to a prospering future. David is the founder and creative director of the world's largest photographic collaboration event, Concept Collaboration.

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

-How his personality doesn't lend well with a normal job where he is told what to do.

-How many people are afraid of making money with their creative talents because they love it so much and don't want that love to disappear.

-His "single sentence" and how it applies to his creativity as well as his life in general.

-How if you want bad things to turn around, you have to seek out your "explosion of light."

-How his creativity was nurtured from a very young age.

-An important first experience photographing a sunrise in Hawaii.

-How many potentially creative people are idealistic so they never go out and create that first thing to get the ball rolling.

-How lack of structure as well as lack of deadlines holds many people (including David) back from actually creating work.

-How beginning a 365-day challenge gave him the structure and framework to actually take photographs and strive to get better, which actually began his career.

-How it is impossible not to grow when you do something every single day.

-The moment when he realized that he didn't have an answer for why he takes photographs and the way he found an answer, which ultimately led to his single sentence.

-One of his worst moments, when all of his camera gear was stolen, and how he was able to look at the situation from above to realize that in six months, everything would be much better.

-The power that comes from being able to step outside of situations and attempting to determine exactly what is going on and how your single sentence fits into it.

-How sharing your single sentence with people that you care about allows them to hold you accountable for the things that you believe in.

-How more than art, he wants to be able to help people.

-How he balances his time, working hard and then playing hard, along with the concept of sabbath.

-The importance of having some "zest" to your life.

-The Pareto principle and how it applies to him and other artists.

-His greatest inspirations: God, J.J. Abrams and Gregory Crewdson.

-The origins of Concept Collaboration and how it helped many artists and photographers to work together and share resources.

-His ebook "The Single Sentence" and how it breaks down the process of developing your own single sentence and helped many people find vision and focus in their own creativity.

"I don't know if it's like this for other creative artists, but I have a problem with authority and I don't want to be told what to do."

"I was afraid of making money with my creative talents for a really long time."

"At the end of the day, if you're not failing in your art and learning, you're not growing."

"The sentence itself is the guidepost for everything I do and everything I create in terms of art and in terms of life."

"I'm just snapping photos and framing these images and I'm just dying inside.  Like this is the best thing ever.  I love this so much."

"I think the biggest thing that holds creative people back is a lack of structure and lack of a deadline."

"The first part was take a photo every single day for a year and the second part was try to get better every single day.  With that, I found my calling as a photographer."

"As creatives, we love the idea of things, and we hate the idea of hard work.  We need to combine the two into one so that we can get stuff done."

"If you want to be something and if you want to say that you're something, then go do something."

"The art that I create is a direct extension of the strongest parts of who I am."

"Who I am at my core is what feeds into my creativity, what feeds into my art, and what ultimately becomes what I produce and what people see of me."

"Go start today.  Don't wait until tomorrow because you won't do it.  Start today."

"If you want to take the next step in being who you want to be as an artist or a creative person, go take the first step today.  Right now."

"Do your art every day for the next 30 days and it will destroy you in the best way.  It will completely awaken who you are going to be."

"'Someday' is a very dangerous word."

"The Single Sentence" by David Talley (David's ebook!)

Gregory Crewdson (Wikipedia)

"The Gap" by Ira Glass

Website / Facebook / Instagram

Danny Gregory : Website / Sketchbook Skool

Carson Ellis is the author and illustrator of the bestselling picture books Home and Du Iz Tak? (a Caldecott Honor book and the recipient of an E.B. White Read Aloud Award). She has illustrated a number of books for kids including bestsellers The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, The Composer Is Dead by Lemony Snicket, and The Wildwood Chronicles by Colin Meloy (who happens to be her husband).

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

-Going to school for painting, even though she had a desire to become an illustrator.

-Doing album art for The Decemberists.

-Working in bars while doing her art on the side and why she finally needed to leave.

-Her stance on working for free or working for “exposure.”

-Working with her husband, Colin Meloy.

-What it is like to live on a farm and being surrounded by animals.

-The importance of having your own creative space.

-Battling procrastination.

-How to know when to take a break from a creative project that is giving you problems (and how to know when to come back).

-Creating a new language for her book Du Iz Tak? and some of the other challenges that that book presented to her.

-How she enjoys the laborious process of drawing by hand.

-Getting to her childhood dream in a roundabout way.

-How artists should always be pushing themselves and taking on projects that make them feel uncomfortable.

“It was important for me to do all that art for free because it made me work.  It gave me stuff to do and made me feel like I was part of the art scene.”

“I got into this sort of spiral of not knowing how to solve certain problems in the book so I just didn’t think about it for a month and then came back and had a better sense of how to do it.”

“I think that part of the practice is getting through the parts that aren’t inspiring you.”

“In every project I feel like there’s a really inspired part where I’m in a mystical art-making place, and then there’s a boring part where I have to paint blades of grass all day.”

“If you love to do something creatively, make it your practice.”

Du Iz Tak? by Carson Ellis

The Decemberists

Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Tumblr

Shayne Taylor is an illustrator, designer and maker originally from Detroit, but now making her home in Chicago, Illinois.

She attended The College for Creative Studies in Detroit and worked a variety of jobs in illustration, design and restoration before becoming a full-time freelance illustrator and designer.

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

-The game-changing realization that she could actually make a living from her creativity.

-How things changed when she took Illustration at The College for Creative Studies in Detroit.

-Her decision to move to Chicago and her early experiences there.

-Doing craft shows and DIY trunk shows and how they can help you to make not just sales but connections.

-Why we struggle to call ourselves artists and instead define ourselves by what we do to make money.

-How to handle our parents not understanding what we do creatively.

-Restoring vintage circus posters.

-Unpredictability and how it plays a role in her art as well as the projects that she takes on.

-How she handles self-doubt and expectations of others.

-Finding ways to make yourself uncomfortable, because that is where the growth comes from (and you always feel better after).

-How she started using wood as a canvas.

-A quote from Ed Catmull that inspired her to quit and go full-time freelance: “Always take a chance on better, even if it seems frightening.”

“The idea of drawing and telling my story without having to talk was the best thing in the world.”

“When you put yourself into a new atmosphere, you become different.”

“If someone doesn’t like it, it’s not the end of the world.  It’s just one person and you’re never going to please everybody.”

“It’s interesting to try to explain what you to do people who have absolutely no clue what you do.  It feels like you’re making something up.”

“The unpredictability is a huge part of being creative.”

“You learn so much when you make yourself do things that you don’t necessarily like doing.”

Creativity Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull

Youngman on The Kick in the Creatives Podcast

Website / Etsy / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

Carson Ellis : Website / Instagram / Facebook

Jan Urschel is a freelance concept designer and illustrator working in the entertainment industry, designing for feature films and video games. Clients include: Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros, Lucasfilm, Marvel, EA, Sony, Ubisoft, LucasArts, Cloud Imperium Games, Psyop etc.

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

-His decision to go to school for Japanese studies and what that did for his art.

-Living and working in Singapore as a graphic designer.

-His inspiration to become a concept designer and the thought process behind making the switch.

-How he started and stopped his art many times over many years.

-How he got his first job at LucasArts and what it was like to work there.

-The struggle of either not being allowed to show the work that he did on a project, or not wanting to show it because it has been so long.

-The importance of doing personal work as a freelancer and how he attempts to find the balance of personal work and client work.

-How he is in his most productive and effective state when he is employing painful self-discipline.

-His “Project T” and the importance of pursuing your own personal projects for the simple purpose of self-pleasure.

“As a freelancer, you need some material to show off what you can do.”

“In order to put yourself out there in a way that is true to yourself, you really need to put out personal work.  And a lot of it.”

“You have to follow your own path and listen to your creative ideas.”

“Live your life and have a bit of fun.  People are too focused on making money or becoming a superstar.”

“Experience as much as you can and live a full life.  That will help you to become a better creative in the end.”

Website / Instagram / Twitter / Behance

Shayne Taylor : Website / Instagram

Amber Rae is an author, artist, and speaker whose work invites you to live your truth, befriend your emotions, and express your gifts.

Her writing blends raw, personal storytelling with actionable aha! moments and has reached more than 5 million people in 195 countries. Her public art has spread to more than 20 countries, and she's spoken to and collaborated with brands like Kate Spade, Apple, Amazon, and Unilever.

Her book, Choose Wonder Over Worry: Move Beyond Fear and Doubt to Unlock Your Full Potential is your official invitation to face your fears, wake up to your truth, and get to the source of what’s holding you back.

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

-Her journey of self-discovery.

-Always pushing herself to be honest and vulnerable in her book instead of being “safe.”

-Choosing to focus on the people who love your work rather than the people who might not understand it.

-Being told from a mentor that her story “didn’t matter” and how it affected her mindset and her output.

-The difference between “toxic” worry and “useful” worry.

-Using journaling to talk to your worries and other resistances.

-How and when perfectionism can actually be a good thing.

-How we stop ourselves from progressing or self-sabotage with upper limiting.

-How we are often afraid to lose our suffering because we are afraid to lose our excuses.

-Her suitcase analogy for people who say that they don’t have enough time.

-How she felt while writing the book and how she feels now that the book is finished.

“Am I going to write the safe book or am I going to write the true book?”

“In order to be raw and vulnerable, that requires deep and profound honesty with yourself.”

“You can think of worry as both an inner child throwing a tantrum as well as a parent trying to protect us at the same time.”

“What are the excuses that you’re telling yourself and how do you face them?”

“There is something inside of you dying to be born and you know it.  You feel it.”

“What is that thing that is dying to come through you and how will you spend five minutes with it today?”

Gay Hendricks: The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level

Overcome Your Upper Limits (Article by Gay Hendricks)

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

Website / Book / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

Jan Urschel : Website / Instagram

Iris Compiet is an artist and Illustrator living and working in the Netherlands.  She worked as a graphic designer for 16 years before making the decision to become a full-time freelance artist and illustrator.

She draws inspiration from European folklore, mythology, fairytales, ghost stories and anything from tombstones, Victorian photography to popular movies and music.  She explores the depths of darkness to find the light.

Iris used Kickstarter to successfully fund her book, Fairies of the Faultlines, a collection of drawings that she started in May and June of 2016 when she participated in the #mermay and #junefae challenges on Instagram.

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

-Her experience of going to school in the Netherlands and working as a graphic designer for 16 years.

-How the Kickstarter for her book, Faeries of the Faultlines torpedoed her to become a full-time artist and illustrator.

-How and why she decided to go full-time as an illustrator.

-Dealing with imposter syndrome and the fact that we all have it and should talk about it more.

-Defining “fame.”

-How she wanted her faerie art to have more grit.

-How she handled her battle with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

-Doing the #mermay and #junefae challenges.

-How she grew her Instagram followers from 1,000 to 50,000.

-Treating her sketchbook like a playground and always saving her old ones so that she can look back and get new ideas.

-Sharing your rough drafts, sketches and mistakes.

-Finding time throughout your day that you are normally wasting in order to create your art.

-Continuing to sculpt and how it has helped her see things in a new way.

-The triumph of her Kickstarter for Faeries of the Faultlines and some of the pitfalls that she encountered along the way.

“People always think that you need to be successful before a certain age, and I think that is a load of BS.”

“It’s very important to talk about imposter syndrome and acknowledge that it is there.  It’s not a problem that it’s there.  Just know how to deal with it.  We all have it.”

“It sucks that you second guess everything you do.  But that’s just your mind telling you things that aren’t true.”

“All of these influences and inspirations I had as a child are finally finding their way into this world.  I’m painting faeries now!”

“My Instagram exploded, just by daily posting.”

“I don’t believe there are failures.  I believe that there are tries.  Your ‘failure’ might be a trial for a new piece or the first version of something else.”

“I took away the expectations that I thought people were having, and I just had fun.”

“I call my sketchbook my playground.  I can do anything I want.  There’s no restrictions, there’s no laws.  It’s just me, the paper, my pencil and an eraser.  I just have fun.”

“Art is life.  It’s like breathing and eating.  I need it.”

Faeries of the Faultlines Kickstarter

Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Tumlbr

Amber Rae : Website / Instagram

In this episode, Youngman explains why he decided not to do the #Cramuary challenge.  Yes, the very challenge that he created. 

Was it fear?  Self-sabotage?  Laziness?  Burnout?  Bitcoin, even?

He's not sure, and he's been too ashamed to talk about it, but by the end of the episode he gets a much better understanding of why, even after two years of constantly thinking and talking about it, Resistance can still hit you with fists of fury. 

And that's nothing to be ashamed of.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/287

"I was thinking about doing all of that work and putting in all that time, and I was just dreading it."

"It's not a big deal if you push off your big project.  You shouldn't feel shame about realizing that it's not the right time or you're not in the right mindset or place in your life to be able to do something that you care very deeply about.  You can always do it later, you can always do it better.  As long as you do it."

"I don't know why I felt for so long that I should be invulnerable to creative blocks and burnout."

"I promise to you that I will open up my heart and soul to you and share all of the creative blocks that I am going through myself."

"It's okay to do other projects.  It's okay to take breaks.  And it's okay to say 'no' to something that you said 'yes' to earlier."

Youngman Brown on The Blue Magic Podcast

Casey Neistat (Video about starting 368)

Tom Hart is a cartoonist and the Executive Director of The Sequential Artists Workshop, a school and arts organization in Gainesville, Florida. He is also the author of the New York Times #1 Bestseller, Rosalie Lightning, a book about the loss of his daughter. Rosalie Lightning has been translated into French, Italian, Portuguese and Chinese, and was featured on many best of 2016 lists, and nominated for two Eisner Awards.

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

-His early love of Peanuts and the exuberance, confusion and anger that Charles Shultz was able to convey through his characters.

-His artistic educational journey.

-How Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics changed the way he thought about approaching comics.

-How he was able to continue working on comics through his initial artistic shortcomings.

-Following your instincts.

-His own push towards creating comic strips.

-Dealing with adversity, setbacks and failures in an extremely difficult and frustrating business.

-His book How to Say Everything and how it remained 90% finished for nearly a decade.

-How he got past the roadblock of wanting to say everything by realizing that you have to start by saying something.

-Getting used to putting things behind you and moving forward.

-How SAW started and what its students accomplish.

-Tricking your inner critic into thinking that what you’re doing really isn’t that important.

“In my first year of art school I think I made two pages of comics.  I just didn’t get it.”

“You’re never going to say everything.  So just say something.  Say the next thing.”

“We’ve exalted art in some ways, but it can be simply something that you do.”

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud

Julie Doucet

Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

Amy Dresner is a former professional stand-up comic, having appeared at The Comedy Store, The Laugh Factory, and The Improv. Since 2012, she has been a contributing editor of the online addiction and recovery magazine TheFix.com. She’s also written for the Good Men Project, The Frisky, Refinery 29, and has been a regular contributor to Addiction.com and PsychologyToday.com, where she has her own addiction blog entitled “Coming Clean.” My Fair Junkie is her debut book.

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

-How she got into the position to write her first book.

-The misconception of creative people that you need drama, tragedy or addiction to have a significant life or art.

-Finding inspiration by simply being outside of your comfort zone.

-The connection between addiction and creativity and seeking a connection to something outside of yourself or something greater.

-How she was able to be so open, honest and vulnerable in writing My Fair Junkie.

-If you had the nerve to live what you lived, you should have the nerve to write about it.

-Dealing with the resistance of not wanting to put herself in the headspace of active addiction.

-How it is never too late to start something or to change (and how you’ll never feel ready).

-How you do anything is how you do everything.

-Allowing yourself to have “shitty first drafts.”

-How she writes for herself and why she never reads the comments on her articles.

-Putting yourself out there and owning all of your mistakes, flaws and humanness.

“I’d finally had a real narrative arc where I had a transformation and a story to tell.  I landed in a different place and I had something to say.”

“What was comfortable for me was the chaos.  What’s uncomfortable is any kind of normalcy and things going well.”

“As a writer, I know that the stuff that you don’t want to put down on the page is exactly the stuff that you need to put down on the page.”

“Ironically, the more specific it is, the more universal it is.”

“You get ready by doing it.  If you’re waiting to feel ready, you will wait forever.”

“I feel weirdly bullet-proof.  A big way that I deal with my own shame is to own it.  I put it out there.  Because then what is anyone going to say?”

“There is a freedom in owning it.  Because nobody has anything on you.  There’s no secret.”

“It’s always scary when it’s new.  The more you do it, the less scary and hard it becomes.”

“I faked that I didn’t care for a long time.  Until I didn’t care.”

“Fuck your feelings and take your action.  Take consistent action every day.”

Too Sober to Be Creative (The Fix)

My Fair Junkie: A Memoir of Getting Dirty and Staying Clean by Amy Dresner

Website / The Fix / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

Tom Hart : Website

Kan Muftic is a London-based Animation Director and Concept Artist, who has worked on projects like Annihilation, Godzilla and Guardians of the Galaxy.  He is also the animation director for the Netflix and Channel 4 show, Kiss Me First.

Kan's first book, Figure Drawing for Concept Artists is a comprehensive guide for learning figure drawing techniques to aid every concept artist's skill set.

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

-His early desire to be a zoologist and his decision to become an artist instead.

-Discovering concept art and how he knew he had to pursue it as a new career and passion.

-The terrifying decision to leave the stability of his current work in order to learn a new way of approaching art.

-How your interest is the thing that will lead you to success because it will ensure your motivation to keep learning and working hard.

-Having to push past the fact that actors and writers are given directorial roles without question, while traditional artists are doubted.

-How he approached the idea of being the leader of a creative team for Kiss Me First.

-Dealing with moments of extreme self-doubt.

-His practice of mindfulness and how it helped to get him through his rigorous 2-year project.

-Neuroplasticity.

-How he was also able to complete a book during the busiest two years of his life.

-Realizing the value of being able to communicate through drawing.

-Speaking with Ridley Scott.

-His approach to the uncanny valley.

-The experience of working with Netflix and what surprised him the most about the company.

“It was just a thing that I had to do and it felt completely right.  I’ve only had that with concept art and when I met my wife.”

“I realized eventually that the only thing that matters is to do what you really really really want to do and that life takes care of the rest somehow.”

“Listen to that quiet, deep guttural voice inside of you.”

“I had levels of self-doubt that I didn’t even know I had.”

“The ability to communicate through drawing is absolutely invaluable.”

Figure Drawing for Concept Artists by Kan Muftic

Kiss Me First

Headspace App

Website / Facebook / Instagram

Amy Dresner : Website / Facebook

Cindy Hohman is the creator of The Art Marketing Project, which helps independent artists by teaching marketing and promotion skills so you can do what you love and make a living with your art. Her goal is to make art and creativity a viable, sustainable, and profitable career path.

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

-Her background working at the Art Students League of Denver and the Denver Art Museum.

-How and why she started the Art Marketing Project.

-Why it is so important to develop a marketing plan and not just do what everybody else is doing.

-The importance of keeping track of your numbers and analytics.

-How to know when to quit your attempt at a particular social media tactic.

-Building a brand for yourself that you choose, and then finding your ideal buyers.

-Whether or not you should create a new identity if you plan on doing a different type of creative work.

-How to push past the icky feeling that comes with marketing and self-promotion.

-Being a hedgehog.

-Having a strong website and also making sure you make it clear that your work is for sale.

-Not being afraid to make real-world connections.

-Disney’s rule for selling art and how it is never too early to start selling your art.

-More information about her new course.

“Without a marketing plan, you can easily get caught in the shiny object syndrome.”

“Marketing is hard, but you should enjoy a good part of what you’re doing with it.”

“Your ideal buyer is for you to choose, not for your past buyers to tell you.”

“Don’t try to be acceptable and pleasant to everybody.  What you do should hit right to the core of who it’s meant for.”

“You don’t even have to have your website up and completely functional and perfectly done to sell your work.”

“Sharing your work is great.  Being clear that it is for sale is even better.”

Art Marketing Project goodies for YCP listeners

Website / Facebook / Instagram / LinkedIn / Pinterest

Kan Muftic : Website / Facebook

Heidi Gustad is a knit & crochet designer, Midwesterner, & one-time Librarian who is obsessed with colorful knitting, crochet & yarn crafts.

She is also the creator of Hands Occupied, which features dozens of free knitting & crochet patterns, over 250 step-by-step How-to posts, and 100+ inspiration posts to help you dream up your own DIYs.

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

-How she got into knitting as a child as a way to battle anxiety and insomnia.

-How she pushed her knitting to the side because of her talent (and responsibility) with the oboe.

-Getting involved with blogging.

-Her realization that she could have been monetizing her side hustle for years.

-How much easier it is for younger people to learn things.

-Why she finally made the decision to quit her job as a librarian and pursue her creativity full-time.

-Dealing with the question of Am I defined by what I do for a living?

-The importance of finding your own happiness so that you can help others.

-Balancing a knitting and crocheting world in which some people have a lot of money to spend while others do not.

-How she achieves flow state.

-Being able to get to know yourself.

“I was Knit-Flixing back before that had a name.”

“Creativity has always been a way that I’ve handled my anxious behavior and anxiety within myself.”

“It’s so funny to me now that this is my full-time job that I just sat there missing all these opportunities to monetize my side hustle.”

“I just had this gut knowledge that I needed to come back to creativity as the foundation for my life.”

“You can sit there forever and not pull the trigger on doing your creative work, whether its as a side hustle, or part-time, or full-time or sometimes.”

Heidi's Free Patterns

Youngman Brown on The Blue Magic Podcast

Website / Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest / YouTube / Twitter

Cindy Hohman : Website / Facebook

Alex Strohl is a Madrid-born, French adventure photographer whose work is characterized by his extraordinary existence. Instead of creating contrived scenes, Strohl creates authentic moments and captures them as they unfold before him— continually blurring the lines between work and life.

Strohl’s photography has been featured in prestigious publications such as Forbes, Vanity Fair, and Gentleman’s Journal and his client list includes dozens of household names. He is based in Whitefish, Montana—but spends the vast majority of his time on the road with his partner Andrea Dabene; they often journey to the most remote reaches of the world.

His new course, The Adventure Photography Workshop offers an in-depth look into his mindset, methodology, and strategy, not just as a photographer, but as a creative thinker.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/281

-His recent traveling, including his recent trips to the Pyrenees and Iceland.

-How he plans his trips and his shoots.

-The reason he created the Adventure Photography Workshop.

-Training yourself to enjoy doing the difficult work, and some of the tips he has for getting yourself in that mindset, like taking cold showers.

-Finding motivation in previous successes.

-Some of the things that he didn’t expect about creating a course.

-Deconstructing his methods and what that did for his mindset and strategy as a photographer.

-How investing in knowledge up front can save you time later.

-Splitting up large projects into more manageable pieces.

-Dealing with uncertainty as a creative person and developing certainty by creating a system for yourself.

“When you’re a freelancer, you’re the asset.  You’re the business.”

“It’s all about drawing energy from our high moments.”

“You can’t be someone else.  People are going to see right through that.”

“The value is in the implementation, not the idea.”

The Adventure Photography Workshop (Use Coupon Code CREATIVEPUSH at checkout to get $100 off (Limited to 25 orders))

Alex Strohl on Your Creative Push Episode 180

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth

Get Out of a Creative Rut - Woody Allen's Shower Hack to Master Creativity

Website / Facebook / Instagram / Tumblr / Twitter

Heidi Gustad : Website / Instagram

Dougie Hoppes is a Dark Fantasy Artist living in Hillsborough, NC. During the daytime, he writes software for a neuroscience company, and at night and on weekends, he works on his art business and spends time with my family.

He is also the creator of the ShadowMyths Cards, designed to inspire idea generation, and the upcoming Shadow Myth's book, Selik's Road.

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

-How he got a later start in his art than most.

-His wife’s wise advice to paint what he truly loved instead of what he thought he was supposed to paint.

-Going to his first Comic-Con at the age of 47 and the creative shift that it gave him.

-How he destroys 90% of his work, but documents it all.

-A glimpse into the way in which he has evolved as an artist (and continues to evolve).

-Getting past the tiredness.

-Taking calculated risks.

-His style of finding the images and the story after he makes marks.

-His upcoming Kickstarter for Selik's Road.

-How he came up with the idea for his Shadow Myths book.

“In the beginning, I did stuff that I thought people were going to buy.”

“If you’re going to improve, you’ve got to take risks.  Nobody ever improved by just sitting there.”

Shadow Myth's Kickstarter

Illustration Master Class

One Fantastic Week

Terry Crews on The Tim Ferriss Podcast

Website / Facebook / Instagram

Jennie Nash is a book coach, a writer, and the founder of Author Accelerator, a strategic book coaching service that offers the sustained editorial support writers need to complete their projects and make a powerful impact on their target audience.

For eight years, writers serious about reaching readers have trusted Jennie to coach their projects from inspiration to publication, landing top New York agents and book deals with houses such as Scribner, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette.

Jennie is the author of four novels, three memoirs, and one self-help book for writers. She has taught for 12 years in the UCLA Extension Writer’s Program, delivered three courses for CreativeLive, and spoken at writing conferences all over the country. Her guest posts have appeared on popular writing sites including The Write Life, Writers Helping Writers, and The Book Designer.

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

-The inspiration that her father gave her as a hard-working writer.

-Her lifelong pursuit of trying to prove the power of story.

-How she developed as a writer after her 4th grade debut.

-The importance of grabbing onto whatever creative thing is calling out to you.

-How she became a book coach and what she does to help her clients.

-Wrestling with her identity.

-How the creative parts of our lives are mostly spent in solitude, spending time with our own minds.

-How anxiety, doubt and stress are emotional resistances that all writers and creative people will deal with their entire lives.

-The importance of knowing why you want to do something creative like writing a book so that you can get through all of the resistances that you encounter along your journey.

-How to know when it is time to walk away from a project, temporarily or permanently.

-More information about Author Accelerator.

“If you’re writing aimlessly, it’s easy to not end up anywhere.”

“A book is an incredibly linear thing.  But a book is not written in a linear fashion and a lot of writers get into trouble when they think that it is.”

“Even the most successful writers are having the same struggles as you.  It doesn’t end.”

“Project: easy.  Editorial solution: easy.  It’s the emotion that’s hard.”

“Why do you care about this particular story.  Why?  What about it is calling you and moving you?”

“Writing is hard for so many reasons.  But it shouldn’t be painful.”

Blueprint for a Book (Author Accelerator)

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek

Website / Facebook / Google+ / Twitter

Dougie Hoppes : Website

Jeff Leisawitz is an award-winning musician/producer, a critically acclaimed author and internationally distributed filmmaker who has devoted his life to creativity.  He burns with a mission -- to inspire writers, artists, musicians, filmmakers, entrepreneurs (and everyone else) to amp up their creativity, heal their hearts and shine in the world.

Not F*ing Around: The No Bullsh*t Guide for Getting Your Creative Dreams Off the Ground is Jeff's first book.

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

-His early interest in music, photography, and writing.

-The importance of focus when you have many creative impulses.

-NLP and how it can aid creative people.

-How creativity is a way for us to be seen, expressed and healed.

-How to get past your inner critic.

-Seeing your art as ephemeral and being willing to destroy it.

-How the movie, Patterson inspired him to take up the daily practice of writing a poem.

-The notion of building up resiliency to rejection.

-The lessons that he learned from improve comedy such as “Yes, and….”

-His advice for people to shift from the fucking around mindset to the not fucking around mindset.

“If you don’t focus on something, you’re never going to get very far in anything.”

“Creativity is a way for us to be seen, expressed and healed in our lives.”

“The inner critic is the super villain of the creative self.”

“If you’re going to step out into the world as any kind of artist, you will be rejected most of the time.  And that’s okay.  The trick is to remember that you are not your creation.”

Not F*ing Around: The No Bullsh*t Guide for Getting Your Creative Dreams Off the Ground by Jeff Leisawitz

What I learned from 100 days of rejection | Jia Jiang's TED Talk

Website / Book / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

Jennie Nash : Website / Author Accelerator

Matt Madden is a cartoonist and teacher best known for his book 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style (Penguin), a comics adaptation of Raymond Queneau’s Exercises in Style.  In addition to his personal work he has written two textbooks with his wife, Jessica Abel, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures and Mastering Comics, (First Second).

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

-How he got a later start with art and cartoons.

-How he discovered Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau and he instantly knew he wanted to do something similar with cartoons.

-Oubapo.

-How giving yourself rules or constraints can help you to get past the fear of the blank page.

-How he has come to terms with certain limitations of his own creative process and pace.

-Some actionable advice for anyone wanting to implement some limitations or constraints in their own work.

-His advice for people who might feel as if they got into their creative passion too late and are “behind pace.”

“I rarely have that terror of the blank page.”

“It’s a very slow moving thing and a long time before I get that gratification of finishing a project.”

“You have to be careful what you draw in those panels because you are condemning your characters to relive that scenario eternally.”

99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style by Matt Madden

J.S. Bach - Crab Canon on a Mobius Strip

Jessica Abel on Your Creative Push Episode 179

Website / Facebook / Tumblr / Twitter / Blog

Jeff Leisawitz : Website

Pascal Campion is a prolific French-American artist, illustrator, concept designer, character designer and animator whose clients include: Dreamworks Animation, Paramount Pictures, Disney Feature, Disney Toons, Cartoon Network, Hulu, and PBS.

Passionately inspired by his wife and kids, he is best known to his tens of thousands of fans and followers for “Sketch of the Day”, a ritual of drawing a new image first thing in the morning from his home studio in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/pascal2

-How he started his "Sketch of the Day" project.

-His advice to anyone struggling to do the work every day, to take it one step at a time.

-How if you are impatient with your art, it is something that you can work on with your daily practice.

-The importance of finishing a drawing, because your brain starts to recognize the beginning, middle, and end of  creating a piece of art, and if you don't finish the piece, you don't recognize those landmarks.

-How as you create art and get better, your goals change as you continue to learn more and more.

-How many of his less-favorite pieces end up being more popular than the ones he loves the most.

-How you can compare yourself to other talented artists, but they might be comparing themselves to you as well.

-His advice for people who might be afraid to draw or paint everyday scenes.

-A story about the time he watched a duck for 20 minutes.

-How when you are younger you want to be someone else, but as you get older you grow to accept who you are.

-How hard it is when you are young (or even older) and you are told to “be yourself,” when you don’t know exactly who you are.

-The beauty of being able to recognize that you are changing as an artist and a human being.

-Being able to let go of things you are good at for the sake of progressing, especially if those things found success.

-What it is like for him to get into the “zone,” and how it is like deep-sea diving.

-When he gets into a flow state, how it feels as if he is a conduit for something else, and how he is just there to help it along.

-The importance of staying physically fit and the relationship that it can have with your art and creativity.

"I have a hard time doing an image without telling a story."

"After a few minutes, I have this nervous energy where I just want to get to the end really quickly."

"Patience and the amount of time that you can sit down and draw is something that you can work on.  It's like running.  It's like a muscle.  The more you exercise it, the better you get at it."

"If you don't finish a drawing, you don't get those landmarks in your head."

"If you actually put yourself through the paces of finishing a drawing, your brain is going to create a grid: This is the beginning, this is the middle, and this is the end.  You'll have an idea of the trip that you're going to be taken on."

"Always finish your drawing.  The more you finish, the more you understand the whole process and the easier it is to get it done.  If you keep starting and not finishing your drawings, you will never get the map in your head of the amount of work it takes to get a drawing done."

"I get incredible pleasure from creating images.  Even if they are bad, the actual process of it is fun to me."

"As long as you enjoy it, it's going to show in the drawing."

"When I turned 30, things got a whole lot easier in my life because I wasn't trying to become something else anymore."

“The more you keep saying you’re going to do something when you have time, the less likely you are to do it.”

“There’s no better time than NOW to do what you want to do.”

“The ME of ten years ago would not do the same drawings as me now, even if we were at the same technical level.

“My best days of drawing are often when I’ve done a lot of physical exercise.”

Website / Shop / Facebook / Instagram / Tumblr / Twitter

Matt Madden : Website / Facebook

Amber Kane is an educator, textile designer, entrepreneur, and stellar day dreamer.  She received her Art Education degree from Messiah College, and earned her masters in Creativity Studies from Union Institute and University.

She taught high school Art for 8 years in the public school system, while running her textile design business on the side.  While teaching she learned that our schools are teaching creativity and dreams right out of our students, while developing an obsession for empty standards.

In 2015, she resigned from her public school position.  She now teaches online AP Art and Art History courses for PA Homeschoolers, works part time at the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, and creates one-0f-a-kind textiles.

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

-Her first years working as a teacher, and the pushback that she was getting from the school.

-Her decision to quit her teaching job and move into an abandoned home.

-The early process of getting settled in the new situation that she had “flung herself into.”

-Her realization that she needed a safe space to process the last eight years of her life.

-How her textile design business started.

-The power in being a teacher and a working artist.

-How she is still surprised that she was able to convince her husband to move into their “Freedom House.”

-How she wrote herself termination letters in order to reassure herself that she couldn’t be fired for her ideas.

-How she reestablished her reasons for being an art teacher at the beginning of each school year.

-The power in telling other people your plans, even before you are fully convinced that you are capable of executing those plans.

-How she created The Unstandardized Standard.

“I think it’s actually been within the last six months that I started to feel comfortable using my voice again.”

“I realized that I could not get my daily actions to line up with my ‘Why’ anymore and that was a clear signal that I needed to get out of there.”

“If it feels really hard but you still want it, then that needs to be the thing that you put all of your focus and energy into getting.”

The Unstandardized Standard

Website / Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest / Twitter

Paul Adshead is a Hat Wearer, Beard Owner, Crazy Golf Enthusiast, and Peanut Butter Fan.  On the rare occasions he's not doing photography, he loves being outdoors, blind drawing, eating carrot cake and people watching.

Paul also uses old, out of date film in even older antique cameras to attempt to capture the past as he attends and photographs World War, Victorian and American Civil War events.

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

-How he never studied photography or take creative courses academically

-How he has made his transitions slowly.

-How his work is dark and cinematic, and how most clients don’t want that.

-The different types of “darkness” in his work.

-The thought and planning that goes into his shoots.

-How he likes to leave things to people’s imaginations.

-The power of brevity.

-His love for history and the way that he tries to recreate it in his art.

-Using antique cameras and what that does for his process and mindset.

-How he uses his Instagram descriptions to help to add value to his pieces and to give the viewer additional information.

-The relationship that he has with his own Resistances.

-Having multiple projects going at once.

-Using Parkison’s Law to his advantage.

“I personally never like to compromise my style.”

“For me, people’s imaginations is better than any creative out there.”

“I just find the past more interesting than the present.”

“The second you set a date, everything falls into line and the job gets done.”

“The more you do anything, the more chance it will have a positive effect on your life.”

The Luck Factor: The Scientific Study of the Lucky Mind by Richard Wiseman

Website / Instagram

Amber Kane : Website / Instagram

Todd Henry teaches leaders and organizations how to establish practices that lead to everyday brilliance. He is the author of four books (The Accidental Creative, Die Empty, Louder Than Words, and Herding Tigers) which have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and he speaks and consults across dozens of industries on creativity, leadership, and passion for work.

Todd is also the host of The Accidental Creative Podcast, which has delivered weekly tips and ideas for staying prolific, brilliant, and healthy since 2005.

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

-How the pressure to be creative all day at our jobs can wear and tear at us.

-His discovery in The Accidental Creative that successful people all share many of the same habits and qualities.

-His FRESH method for finding and solving your problems quickly, and managing your relationships, energy, stimuli, and hours.

-The importance of saying “no” to things that you know will drain your energy from the more important things that you intend to create.

-The power of secret work and private victories.

-His advice for people who are starting to consider turning their side hustle into their “main” hustle.

-His new book, Herding Tigers.

“We’re not wired to produce creatively like machines.”

“Which of these good things in my life needs to go away so that something better can be born?”

“What do I need to prune from my life so that I have the energy I need to be able to focus on the more important stuff that I’m tasked with?”

“Cover bands don’t change the world.  You have to find your own unique voice if you want to thrive.”

Herding Tigers: Be the Leader That Creative People Need by Todd Henry

The Accidental Creative Podcast

Website / Books / Facebook / Twitter / Podcast

Paul Adshead : Website / Instagram

Born in Brittany (France) in 1976. Virginie Ropars’s figures are in between sculpture, fashion design and illustration, building up visions full of wonders

Virginie's work is shown throughout Europe in art galleries and art shows and also in United States and Russia.

Her work has been featured in many magazines and publications. Her dimensional interpretation of Brom's main character Jack, in The Plucker novel won the Spectrum 19 Gold Award (in 2012), she also received the Spectrum 20 Gold Award (in 2013) for one of her personal work, Acanthophis III.

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

-Working in the video game industry and then shifting to make her own personal work.

-How she considers her first doll to be “monstrous.”

-Her process for deciding which sculpture to make.

-How long each of her sculptures takes and the process that goes into making them.

-Where she gets her inspiration.

-The struggle of having to finish a project when you actually want to be working on something else.

-How excitement for a creative pursuit or project typically translates into the quality of the work.

-Her daily routine and the importance of thinking.

-The danger of repeating yourself instead of innovating if you aren’t constantly feeding yourself with other inspirations.

“It is a lot of experimenting, and I quite like that.”

“It can be very misty how inspiration works.”

“The more excited you are about what you do, the better the work is.”

Website / Facebook / Instagram

Todd Henry : Website / Accidental Creative Podcast

Dave Roberts is an artist out of Las Vegas, NV who makes fine art using the Etch A Sketch.   He draws landscapes, architecture, portraits and more, preserving all of his work.

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

-His artistic history and how he first started using an Etch A Sketch.

-Finding out that other people were using the Etch A Sketch to make art and then learning from them.

-Developing a method for preserving his art.

-Coming up with a goal to be featured in a gallery.

-Entering (and not winning) a Red Robin contest for a gift card.

-Trying to not get lost in your own negative thoughts.

-Creating accountability by telling people about your goals.

-His decision to achieve his goals despite the fact that all of his previous excuses were still a part of his life.

-Building resiliency by getting knocked down and getting back up again.

-The experience of seeing his dream of being in a gallery come to fruition.

“If things don’t go your way are you going to start tearing yourself down and be your own stumbling block?”

“I hate to say it, but art became this thing that I used to do.”

“Attitude is everything.”

Jordan Peterson - The Curse of Creativity

SKYE Gallery

Website / Facebook / Instagram

Virginie Ropars : Website / Instagram

Daniel Reyes is an award-winning TV producer with nearly 2-decades of experience. Daniel has worked with NBC, FOX Sports, ESPN, DAYSTAR and SYFY networks in the past. The shows he has created have aired on the local, national and international level. Recently, he was in development on a program for HGTV.

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

Make your own Heirloom Film

Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee

The Screenwriter's Bible by David Trottier

Website / Facebook

Dave Roberts : Website / Instagram

Gwenn is a full-time artist, portraitist, and free-culture advocate. Her beautiful, unique portraits as well as all of her other work is intentionally free from copyright.

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

-Making political art and tapping into the power of anger.

-Attempting to make art for an anti-audience.

-Being aware and cautious of scams in the art world.

-Her tips for promotion and social media.

-The power of taking photographs of yourself doing the work and documenting the act of doing the work.

-Her promotional calendar and the importance of posting something every day.

-How your surroundings and your physical setting affects your art and how you see the world.

-Her advice to people who find themselves disappointed when a potential opportunity doesn’t work out.

-Discrimination in the art world.

“I believe that a truly successful artwork is one that people feel belongs to them more than maybe to you.”

“Location affects us, but it doesn’t have to rule us.”

“You are this new, completely unique thing in the world.  Never forget it.”

How to avoid art scams (from Gwenn's blog)

Mark Anthony Martinez

Your Creative Push Episode 26 w/ Gwenn Seemel

Gwenn’s article about discrimination

Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Patreon

Daniel Reyes : Website

Shayla Maddox is an artist who uses Light as her medium, along with acrylic, sand, salt, crushed glass, sea shells, garnet, quartz, candle wax, and even cinnamon to create what she calls "light reactive paintings."  These paintings change appearance throughout the day, season, and year, and also react into the UV spectrum so that they continue to glow into the night.

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

-How she decided to make one painting while she was an actress, and how she never looked back.

-Her decision to stop showing at traditional galleries and start throwing her own.

-Some of the things that surprised her when she decided to throw her own shows.

-Her advice for anyone thinking about throwing their own show.

-How she started with her “light reactive paintings.”

-How she is intentionally experimental in her art and always trying to find new materials and new ways to create in order to challenge herself and keep her feeling uncomfortable.

-Her interest in exploring the intersection between science and spirituality and “thin spaces.”

-Some of the frustrations that she encounters when trying to share her work on the internet.

-Her experience with Patreon and how it has encouraged and enabled her to communicate with her audience in a new way.

-The idea of throwing your hat over the fence and then figuring out how to get it.

-Her experience of becoming sick and taking a break from her art (and how she got through it).

-Attending Patrecon and what she learned there.

-The value in following people in other genres and other art forms and gaining inspiration from them.

“I found that the shows that I was throwing for myself were far and away more successful than the shows that the galleries were throwing for me.”

“I loved being my own director and I loved being in charge of my creative vision for my own shows.”

“I’m intentionally experimental in my art and I don’t like to master anything.”

“Go completely nuts.  When you have that opportunity when nobody is watching you, you can do anything.”

“The difference between successful artists and unsuccessful artists is that the successful ones just keep going.  If you stop, you’ve guaranteed that you failed.”

Patrecon

The Long Game Part III: Painting in the Dark by Adam Westbrook

Gwenn Seemel on Your Creative Push

Website / Instagram / Twitter

Gwenn Seemel: Website / Instagram

Legendary tattoo artist Freddy Negrete is best known for pioneering the black-and-gray tattoo style, honed while serving time in a series of correctional facilities during a youth mired in abuse, gang life, and drug addiction.

Freddy was honored with the Tattoo Artist of the Year Award in 1980 and a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Body Art Expo in 2007 and his new book, Smile Now, Cry Later recounts his story.

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

-How he was a “troubled youth” and involved in gangs and incarceration.

-How the Chicano subculture influenced him from a young age.

-His experience at Youth Authority and then at Tamarack.

-Working with Good Time Charlie, Jack Rudy, and Ed Hardy and how they influenced his mindset and his art.

-How he approached his tattooing career after incarceration.

-The experience of winning the Tattoo Artist of the Year Award in 1980.

-The mindset of trying to get better with every single piece you create.

-Some of the harder times that he went through and learning from the mistakes that he made.

-Coming back to the tattoo scene with a new focus.

-His renewed commitment to be teachable in all the things that he had missed out on.

-How rehab changed his life.

-The way in which meditation helped him to maintain focus with his art.

-The experience of meeting Steve Jones and writing his new book, Smile Now, Cry Later.

“Ed Hardy’s objective, which became our objective, was to get the world to see that tattooing was a form of art.”

“I came back with this new focus, and I realized that things had really changed.”

“That was the commitment that I made.  To be teachable.”

“It’s almost like a new beginning for me.”

“Nothing comes easy.  Everything requires hard work and determination.”

“Always fight.  Always work hard.  And always push forward.”

Smile Now, Cry Later; guns, Gangs, and Tattoos - My Life in Black and Gray by Freddy Negrete and Steve Jones

Website / Instagram

Shayla Maddox : Website / Instagram / Patreon

Academy Award winner Matthew W. Mungle is regarded as one of Hollywood's premier make-up special effects artists. With over 200 film and television projects to his credit, Matthew has earned accolades and recognition as one of the industry's top masters of makeup effects illusion.

He has been nominated four times for the Academy Award for Best Makeup, winning in 1992 for Bram Stoker's Dracula.  He has also received 26 Emmy nominations, winning 6.  In addition to Dracula, he has also received Oscar nominations for his work on Schindler's List, Ghosts of Mississippi, and Albert Nobbs.

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

-How he initially became interested in makeup effects and some of his initial inspirations including movies and Richard Corson’s Stage Makeup.

-The experience of moving to Los Angeles and his early work in film.

-A walk-through of many of his films including The Guardian, Edward Scissorhands, and What About Bob?

-His experience in working with Tim Burton and Frank Oz.

-His Academy Award win for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and his nominations for Ghosts of Mississippi, Schindler’s List, and Albert Nobbs.

-His advice to young people who are considering getting into makeup effects.

-How he took on the “Oscar Curse.”

-The change that occurred in his work and career after he stopped working from home.

-Learning to delegate.

-His advice to always find a way to learn from your mistakes.

-Maintaining a professional relationship with actors and actresses.

-What he’s up to now, including helping James Glavan with the new edition of Richard Corson’s Stage Makeup.

“I never started my career out thinking ‘I’m going to win an Academy Award.’  I just did it because I love this profession.”

“If you really love what you do, you’re going to be successful.  Because you point yourself in that direction and it’s a positive thing in your life.”

“60% is working with people, listening, being kind, and doing your job.  And 40% is your talent.”

“I had to learn to let go of some of my idiosyncrasies and demands of myself and put that onto others.”

Richard Corson’s Stage Makeup

Website / IMDb

Freddy Negrete: Instagram / Book

Hannah Faith Yata is half Japanese and  was born and raised in a small town in Georgia. She grew up with a deep love of nature and animals passed down by the beautiful surroundings in the country and her mother.

In her paintings, Yata seeks to interweave the parallels of the unconscious with the struggle of the natural environment and how it relates to views regarding the body of the woman and that of nature.

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

-Her early career as she worked other jobs while doing her own work in her free time.

-Doing work for B.o.B.

-The role that nature (and human interference) plays in her pieces.

-Her process and the amount of planning that goes into her pieces.

-Magic and synchronicity.

-How you often get rewarded for going after the thing you’ve always dreamed of going after.

-The difference between commissions and personal work and striking a balance between them.

-The importance of surrounding yourself with other likeminded creative individuals.

-Learning from her husband, Jean Pierre Arboleda’s experiences.

-Some of the creative resistances that she faces.

-Not getting too caught up in what other people are doing, but keeping your head down and doing your own best work.

-How to bridge the gap between lack of skill and taste.

“You never want to put yourself in a place that you can’t do your own work.”

“I can’t tell you how many people asked me, ‘Why are you going to college for art?  This is a waste of a degree.”

“I feel like half the time you are making things, you’re in a frustrated state.”

“Do your best work.  Don’t look at anybody else.  Keep doing what you feel is comfortable and right for yourself.”

“I did a lot of work and I sucked at a lot of it, but I kept making it and learning from those mistakes.”

“I really believe in creative people and I think that the world needs more of them.”

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth

Martin Wittfooth on Your Creative Push

Stuart Holland on Your Creative Push

Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

Matthew Mungle : Website / IMDb

Nikki Rae is an independent author who lives in New Jersey. She explores human nature through fiction, concentrating on making the imaginary as real as possible. Her genres of choice are mainly dark, scary, romantic tales, but she’ll try anything once. When she is not writing, reading, or thinking, you can find her spending time with animals, drawing in a quiet corner, or studying people. Closely.

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

-How she started writing when she was 14 and homebound after breaking her leg and having nothing else to do.

-The frustrating and fruitless experience of querying her first novel out to publishers for five years.

-The differences between indie publishing and traditional publishing.

-How independent publishing takes away the gatekeepers.

-Being able to interact with and get feedback from her audience as she is writing.

-Getting burnt out.

-Her strategy of writing for half of the year and promoting for the other half.

-How everyone struggles with imposter syndrome… even Neil Gaiman.

-How she battles her inner editor through word sprints.

“I feel like when I was querying the story, I was asking for permission for my story to be real to people.  The more I did it, the more I hated the idea of other people being in charge of what I wanted to put into the world.”

“It’s like two-parts writing and a-million-parts promoting.”

“Rejection isn’t an excuse to not put a book out there anymore.”

“Any creative person that’s good at what they do hates half of what they do.”

“Your world is in your head, and it’s up to you to make it real.”

Metamorphosis Editing Services

Kelly Killagain on Your Creative Push

Write or Die

The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help by Amanda Palmer

Website / Books / Goodreads / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

Hannah Yata : Website / Instagram

Megan Carty is a New England-based artist who makes cheerful abstract floral paintings that are uplifting and color-drenched for people who have a flair for bold statements and tailored style.

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

-How she always knew that she wanted to be an artist or an art teacher when she grew up.

-The seed that was planted in her at a young age to seek praise or to do what her teacher liked rather than what she wanted to create.

-The dangers of comparing yourself to others.

-Some of the trials and tribulations she went through after college, including sexism, 9/11, depression, layoffs, breakups, and struggling to find the right fit career-wise.

-Being appreciative of the negative experiences while you don’t know what brings you joy, because they inform you of what does bring you joy.

-Getting involved with Etsy and the double-edged sword of being able to do anything, but also getting frozen by being able to do anything.

-The important decision to not wait until you reach Point B to be happy, but to attempt to experience happiness today and throughout your entire journey.

-How following your joy leads to finding more joy (and also spreading it to others).

-How she battles negative thoughts and even depression.

-How wishing on a star is a skill we have as children that we gradually lose.

-How artists need to take their creative “medicine” or else they start to feel ill.

-Donald Trump in relation to creativity.

“I just let all of the roadblocks overcome me.”

“I was on the wrong path and I was doing all the wrong things.  Everything had to blow up in order for me to get on the right path.”

“I had lost the sense of joy of creating.”

“What is it I want to make, and what is it that makes me the most happy while I’m making it?”

“If you have a creative passion that you’re not pursuing, chances are you’re feeling a little bit negative and sad about it.”

“There’s nothing that can stop me except for my own thoughts.”

“If it’s tickling your heart, then that’s the right thing.  Do more of that.”

Matthew Miller on Your Creative Push

Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires by Esther Hicks and Jerry Hicks

Paul Selig on The Duncan Trussell Family Hour Podcast

Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

Nikki Rae : Website / Twitter

Justin Hopkins is a talented artist, originally from Mukilteo, Washington.

Yoshino is a photographer, director, and the creator and host of the Artist Decoded podcast.

Together, they created NOH / WAVE, a multidisciplinary creative group located in Los Angeles, Ca.

Full shownotes: http://yourcreatvepush.com/nohwave

-How Yoshino got into photography and what inspired him to start Artist Decoded.

-How Justin and Yoshino met and how they were able to see how they both had similar creative mindsets.

-The importance of recognizing individuals and opportunities that come up for you that are in line with your own philosophies.

-Finding a tribe (or building your own).

-What NOH/WAVE means and what they are attempting to do with it.

-How they are balancing their own personal work while attempting to run this large project.

-Learning that everyone goes through insecurities and other creative blocks at all points in their career.

-Trying to find a way to maintain creative honesty.

-Being adaptable and not becoming a caricature of yourself by doing the same thing over and over again.

“We just realized it’s better together rather than competing against each other.”

“There’s something that happens when you push towards something that you feel you are meant to be doing with as much energy and passion as you can.  Things will just start happening.”

“By understanding other people’s creativity, I can understand myself even further.”

“Be honest with yourself and be able to adapt and evolve with the process.”

NOH/WAVE

Artist Decoded

Justin Hopkins on Your Creative Push

Justin's Website / Justin's Instagram / Yoshino's Website / Yoshino's Instagram

Megan Carty : Website / Instagram

Carrie Waller is a watercolor artist working in a realistic, detailed style.  With a background in Interior Design and her studies in Graphic design as well as her time spent living in Europe and Asia have influenced her as an artist.  Her unique works are bold, vibrant and dramatic.

She is a signature member of the American Watercolor Society, Louisiana Watercolor Society and the Mid-Southern Watercolorists.  She teaches workshops and private classes. 

Carrie is also a co-host and contributor for the Artists Helping Artists #1 blog radio art podcast.

-How she maintained a creative life with a husband in the Air Force.

-How the movie Julie & Juliet gave her the inspiration to start a blog in which she would do a painting a week.

-Listening to the Artists Helping Artists Podcast and how she eventually became involved as a cohost.

-Taking a watercolor workshop with Paul Jackson.

-The importance of having accountability partners or groups and her own personal group, WAM.

-How traveling has influenced her art.

-How she balances her time with being a wife, a mother, and an artist.

-Dealing with self-doubt.

-What Artists Helping Artists is all about and what people can get from it.

-Being brave and reaching out to other creatives that you want to connect with.

“It’s this friendship and this professional group that has made all the difference in my life.  They keep me focused.”

“I move so often that I have to reinvent this community for myself.”

“I have a clear goal and a clear idea of where I want to be so that keeps me motivated and moving.”

Artists Helping Artists

Carol Carter on Your Creative Push

Justin Hopkins on Your Creative Push

Website / Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest

NOH / WAVE : Justin Hopkins / Artist Decoded by Yoshino

She also writes non-fiction for authors and is the creator of The Creative Penn, which offers information and inspiration on writing, self-publishing, book marketing and how to make a living with your writing through articles, podcast episodes, videos, books and courses.

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

-How she felt spiritually empty and creatively dead from her job, yet stuck in the “golden handcuffs” of a job that pays the bills.

-The importance of taking action after you have determined what you want out of life.

-Determining the things that you are going to give up in order to achieve your dreams.

-The experience of writing her first book.

-How she used to think that the only thing worth writing was something that would win an award.

-Doing NaNoWriMo for the first time and how it changed her life.

-Her take on getting ideas.

-Her advice for anyone who is considering doing NaNoWriMo.

-How something good can come out of a writing challenge, even if you fall short of your initial goal.

-Being able to meet other people who are doing NaNoWriMo.

-Some of the struggles she initially had with dictation and her advice for writers who want to try it.

-How your first draft is like producing a block of marble, and the later drafts allow you to chisel away at it to make a sculpture.

-Self-censorship and fear of judgment.

“If you set your mind to it and then take action, you can live the life of your dreams.”

“There are lots of ways to get information and ideas.  You just have to tune into the things that are most interesting to you.”

“The temptation for creative people is to do those practical things.  It’s much easier to maintain your website or blog or do social media than it is to sit down and do something new.”

“Take that creative push and go create!  Make the time and do it because you can absolutely change your life.”

On Writing My First Novel -- The Creative Penn

NaNoWriMo

Dragon Dictation

Writeordie.com

Website / The Creative Penn / Books / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

Carrie Waller : Website / Instagram

Amarilys Henderson is a watercolor illustrator who graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design.  After mostly working in illustration and painting commissions, she started to paint for the sake of her own sanity.  By letting go of the finished product, she began creating "Watercolor Devos" -- a way for her to combine her watercolors with her Christian Devotions.

Amarilys is also a successful and popular instructor on Skillshare.

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

-Getting back to her art after having her first child and having no expectations from anyone as to what that art should be.

-How she combined her time with watercolor with her time with her Christian devotion to create Watercolor Devos.

-How she initially told herself that she wouldn’t show her new creations to anyone.

-Starting her Etsy shop and her blog.

-Getting started on Skillshare and winning the teacher challenge.

-Her advice for anyone wanting to start their own courses on Skillshare.

-Her advice for anyone wanting to take Skillshare classes to be strategic with what classes they want to take and to also share their projects.

-Some of the resistances that hold her back, such as putting her face to her art/teaching.

-How she balances her time by noticing the rhythm of her week and having lunch with herself on Fridays to recap how things went.

“It makes sense to take what you’re really passionate about and simmer in it with whatever your creative with.”

“I just start painting where I’m at, and then I’m able to think deeper and receive anything else that is going to take me further.”

“You don’t know what you’re good at until you try it.”

“The greatest question you can ask yourself is what makes my heart jump up and what is connecting me to what I really am and what I was made for?”

Amarilys on Skillshare

Racheal Cook's podcast

James Wedmore's podcast

Cloze App

Website / Skillshare / Instagram / Facebook / LinkedIn

Joanna Penn : Website / Facebook / Twitter

Even Mehl Amundsen is an illustrator and artist out of Copenhagen.  He is originally from Norway, where he was able to specialize in visual art before living and working in England, Prague, and California, where he worked for such companies as Blizzard Entertainment, Games Workshop, and Volta.

Even is currently a full-time freelancer and is soon releasing his TEGN Book 1, the first of three in the series.

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

-Going to school in Norway and being able to specialize in visual art.

-Traveling and working in England, Prague, California, and Copenhagen.

-His advice to be aware that your mindset might be incorrect.

-Working a little bit, always.

-How he eased into a drawing-a-day challenge and what it did for his art and his creative production.

-How he purposely sacrificed some of his social life during that year-long challenge in order to find the time each day.

-Why it is important to sometimes be self-centered when it comes to your creative life.

-Letting ideas percolate until they are ready to be put onto paper.

-Allowing ideas to come to you from your life experiences.

-Getting offered a job at Blizzard Entertainment, working there, and what made him want to leave.

-Dealing with the pressures of other people wanting you to do something that you know isn’t the right fit for you.

-His upcoming TEGN Book 1.

-How he lacks a ruthlessness when it comes to working with clients.

-His advice for young artists.

“I never sit down with the express intent of Alright, it’s drawing time, let’s come up with something to do.”

“The drawing process doesn’t start when the pencil meets paper.  It starts when I have an idea that I want to put down on paper.”

“Whenever you see something that appeals to you aesthetically, make a note of it, try to figure out why you like it, try to figure out what aspect of it pleases you, and then figure out how you can use that for the creation of your own ideas.”

“The quickest way to get quicker is to slow down.  To make choices deliberately and with forethought and intent.”

TEGN Kickstarter

Artstation / Facebook / Instagram

Amarilys Henderson : Website / Instagram

Bill Logan is an artist who left his career as a commercial illustrator to devote himself to fine art, with a particular focus on drawing, bronze casting, woodwork, and the creation of very intricate sculpture.  He has participated in over 2 dozen group and juried shows, 4 solo exhibitions, and has enjoyed a very well received New York debut.

He is also a passionate writer, writing articles about fly fishing and fly tying in the United States, Japan, and Great Britain.

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

-Switching back and forth between multiple creative disciplines.

-How he has enough ideas and things that he wants to create to last him for 500 years.

-Trying to go in one creative direction, but also trying to take all of the interesting side trips at the same time.

-Looking back on work that isn’t even that old and having the feeling that it is, in fact, old.

-Those rare moments of creative “genius” that seem to come from somewhere else and trusting that they will continue to come through dedication and determination.

-The difficult task of not judging what you are doing.

-Saving your old work.

-The importance of the encouragement of the people that he loves, like his wife and his sister.

-How he balances his time.

-The beauty of “stop days.”

-Some of his experimentation with drawing blind or drawing with his left hand.

-The importance of realizing that your art is at your mercy, you are not at your art’s.

“Sometimes the best work happens when you’ve been so damn stubborn that you haven’t walked away.”

“It’s just dedication.  It’s just stubborn determination.”

“There was a period in my life where I tried very hard not to be an artist, but I couldn’t do it.  To feel right and whole and as much like me as I needed to be, I couldn’t walk away from art making.”

“If you’re not making judgments or decisions, then what is directing you?  How do you move?”

“Do what feels right in the moment, and then allow yourself a whole lot of time after that moment before you decide whether what you did was right.”

“How do you be what you want to be, and also be what you have to be?”

Bird by Bird: some Instructions on Writing and Life by Annie Lamott

Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies by Ross King

Website

Even Mehl Amundsen : Artstation / Instagram

Scott Listfield is known for his paintings featuring a lone exploratory astronaut lost in a landscape cluttered with pop culture icons, corporate logos, and tongue-in-cheek science fiction references. Scott grew up in Boston, MA and studied art at Dartmouth College. After some time spent living abroad, Scott returned to America and, shortly before the real life, non-movie version of the year 2001, began painting astronauts and, sometimes, dinosaurs.

Scott has been profiled in Juxtapoz, Wired Magazine, the Boston Globe, New American Paintings, and on at least one local television station. He has exhibited his work in Los Angeles, London, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Miami, Montreal, Boston, just to name a few.

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

-How he wanted to be an astronaut as a child, and how that would later (greatly) influence his art.

-High school art class, and how it took him some time to realize that college art classes could be similar.

-The experience of travelling abroad and not feeling at home, and how that feeling remained with him after he returned to America.

-Watching Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and how that influenced him to use an astronaut as his protagonist.

-How he could have never expected the astronaut paintings to last as his subject matter for so long.

-How and when inspiration strikes him.

-The obligation that he sometimes feels to cover current political issues.

-The importance of getting out of your everyday routine if you are lacking inspiration.

-His daily struggle of not having enough time in the day to do everything he wants to do.

-How he was nervous about running out of ideas once he became a full time artist (but found the opposite to be true).

-His advice for balancing a full-time job with your own personal artwork.

-Building a routine out of your creative passion.

-The amazing tool of the internet and social media.

“I felt like I had been tossed into the deep end of American pop culture and I didn’t feel at home or comfortable.”

“There’s this idea of artistic inspiration.  The artist is usually wearing a beret with a pipe in their hands, staring at a blank canvas, saying ‘Aha!’  And that is never the case for me.”

Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Tumblr

Bill Logan : Website

Become a patron!  http://patreon.com/yourcreativepush

Just a quick one today, asking you to please consider donating what you spend on one cup of coffee, once a month. 

So much of my time, effort, and money is required to keep this show going, and it is starting to really add up.  And with sponsorship not yet panning out, I need your help in order to keep up the quality and quantity of episodes that you are used to.

If the podcast has helped you to get to your creative passions, please consider becoming a Patron.

It will go a long way to helping out the show, and it will make me love you more than I already do.

Thank you so much for your support, and thank you even more for getting to your creative passion every single day and making the world a better place!

<3 Youngman

Glen Phillips is an American songwriter, lyricist, singer and guitarist, who is best known as the singer and songwriter of the alternative rock group, Toad the Wet Sprocket.

This episode features songs from Glen's latest solo album, Swallowed by the New, which is available everywhere music is sold (and links below).

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

-The story of how Toad the Wet Sprocket started.

-How he originally wanted to be a teacher and didn’t think that he had the ego or the thick skin to be a professional performer.

-His thoughts on religion, spirituality, and his desire to reclaim the word “God” for himself.

-The importance of being grateful.

-The singing circles that he is taking a part of and the sense of community that it has brought to his life.

-His take on the purpose of music and how it is not about one person singing and everyone else listening.

-His attempt to be vulnerable and share his pains so that it can act as a tool for other people.

-How he felt miserable for years in the role of provider that he put upon himself.

“In some ways it’s everybody’s dream and it’s everybody’s nightmare because you’re getting up there and bearing your soul in front of people and allowing them to judge you.”

“Life gives you the coursework you need, not the coursework you choose.”

“I just feel a great compulsion to give thanks.”

“Everyone came in here, ready to wake up and the music is serving as this solvent to take away all this stuff that’s secreted over everyone’s soul and kind of free them up for a moment.”

“Music is not about being the star.  It’s about sharing and losing yourself in the song and ceasing to exist for a moment and realizing that you are a part of something larger.”

“The happiest people I know are the hardest working.”

Swallowed by the New [iTunes] [Amazon] [Physical]

Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

Scott Listfield : Website / Instagram

Jake is an illustrator who has worked for 15 years on everything from animated films to comics to picture books.  He is the creator of the Missile Mouse graphic novel series published by Scholastic, and he has worked for Blue Sky Studios, creating sets and environments for feature films like Horton Hears a Who, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Rio, and Epic.  He now freelances out of his home studio in Utah.

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

-A bit about his personal life and what he is currently up to.

-Why he started SVS School, who his target audience is, and what you can learn there.

-Some of his earlier memories of drawing.

-How his parents and teachers were very supportive as well as his friend's mom, who was a painter.

-How doubt, comparing himself to others, time restraints, and over-committing to things are the main things that sometimes hold him back.

-How sometimes he compares himself to other people who are doing other careers and making lots of money, but then he remembers the freedom and joy that drawing gives him.

-How he gets through negative thoughts and battles through his resistance.

-The influence that both his wife and God play in his life, especially when he feels lost or discouraged.

-One of his hardest moments creatively, which actually came as a result of accomplishing one of his lifelong goals.

-An e-mail that completely changed his perspective when he was feeling like Missile Mouse was not having an impact.

-If you are taking on a large personal project, making sure that you create an appropriate balance with all of the other things that are important in your life, such as family, friends, and work.

-Making a large project into a marathon, not a sprint, and chipping away at it.

-The importance of rewarding yourself as you reach milestones.

-Finding a way to create accountability with self-imposed projects.

-How he balances his time, by making sure that everyone knows what is expected of them and being able to be flexible.

"For this little artist kid, there was all this opportunity and I just ate it up."

"If I faced any resistance then and now, it's always been self-imposed."

"I think being an artist as your career choice is probably the hardest thing you can do to make money."

"Yea.  I could be sitting there on the beach, thinking, Man, I wish I was drawing."

"Life is hard enough as it is with everything that people are doing, and I'm happy to provide a place for someone to escape to when they need.  And that's what keeps me going."

"It doesn't work to have accountability to yourself.  Because yourself knows all your excuses and sees the validity in them and will give you a pass."

"You need a final product, you don't need a project."

Society of Visual Storytelling (SVS School)

You Need a Product, Not a Project e041 (Jake's YouTube channel)

Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Pinterest / YouTube / Tumblr / Store

Glen Phillips : Website

Shawny Sheldon is an artist who is inspired by nature and quirky whimsical stuff.

She forged a path for herself as a high school art teacher, and she has been teaching for twenty five years.  She is also the creator of Lily the Hedgehog.

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

-Her poor eyesight as a child and how it affected her as an artist.

-Some of her other early influences like her father, water, New York City, and the great masters.

-The experience of going to California.

-The decision she made when faced with the choice between the commercial route and teaching.

-Her decision to forge forward with her goals, even when people told her that she couldn’t find a job as an art teacher.

-The influence that teachers and professors have and why they shouldn’t be discouraging.

-The fears that she had in starting her Instagram account and participating in Inktober.

-Creating Lily the Hedghog, and how she became a symbol of strength.

-Learning to let go of perfect.

-Her creative relationship with her son.

-Some of the most important messages she attempts to teach her students, not just about art, but about life.

“I was just set in my way that this was what I was going to do.  And I did it!”

“If you are supposed to be doing something, you can feel it in your body.”

“Teachers have great power.  And they can abuse it.”

“When things don’t go right in your life, it’s actually a new opportunity for you to reinvent something or for you to be better at something.”

“Perfectionism is not about being meticulous.  It’s about fear.”

“You woke up in the morning.  You’re here.  You have a gift.  You have the gift of today.”

Inktober

Keith Haring

Instagram

Noah Bradley is an American artist, known best for his work on Magic: The Gathering cards, as well as his The Sin of Man project.

He is also well-known as the guy who told everyone "don't go to art school.  As a supplement to that advice, he founded Art Camp to help art students all over the world learn to make better art.

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

-The list that he made of things he wanted to do with his life, and why he chose “artist.”

-His experience at RISD and VCU.

-How he decided to become a landscape and environment artist.

-The confusion, disappointment, and excitement that he felt when people started responding to his landscape work.

-Being plagued with the desire to move onto another piece as opposed to finishing the one he is working on.

-His experience working for Wizards of the Coast and doing art for Magic: The Gathering.

-Why he gave away free prints at Illuxcon and what that did for his art career.

-The difficulty he has in scheduling his life and knowing where he is going to be the next day.

-Why he believes that people should not pay for art school.

-His advice for people who have difficulty keeping self-imposed deadlines and holding themselves accountable.

-The importance of making your creative passion a habit (especially in the morning) so that you can take the decision-making process out of it.

-Finding an external source to hold you accountable.

-Quitting social media and what has happened since.

-His personal project, “The Sin of Man.”

“For my own happiness, I can’t just sit around and not make something.  If at the end of the day I don’t have something tangible in my hands or on a screen that I made, I don’t feel happy about how productive I was that day.”

“Just go for it.  Whatever happens to click for you is the thing that you should be pursuing.  And it’s often not the thing that you originally set out to do.”

“Find ways to make it a habit rather than a decision.”

How I Became an Artist by Noah Bradley

Don't Go To Art School by Noah Bradley

Art Camp

The Sin of Man

Website / Art Camp

Shawny Sheldon : Instagram

Chrilz is a contemporary artist whose work focuses on human nature -- our experiences, our relationships, and our emotions.

Everything Chrilz creates is in a Neo-Figurative Expressionist style that uses the human form as its vessel.  Through color, line, geometry, and realizm, he is constantly seeking to visually express this severely emotional, dynamic life.  Every pieces is both formal and conceptual in a very intentional way, all of which serving the ultimate goal of expression.

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

-His experience at college and determining which path he wanted to devote his time and energy towards.

-Getting together with Michelle Tanguay and what that did for his outlook on a creative life.

-What to do when you don’t have a creative framework in your life.

-His grandmother’s advice that you need to stop saying you want to become an artist and just say that you are an artist.

-Being inspired by the talented artists in the Detroit area.

-How you can simply “cold call” someone you look up to.

-How he is so intentional with his art.

-How artists don’t create artwork, they beget it because it is such a big part of you.

-Finding contentment from creating something honest that pleases you, not someone else.

-How he developed his style.

-Being conscious of what he is doing and what he is saying with his art.

-The importance of writing down ideas for later exploration.

-His writing and his “conceptual statements” that go along with his pieces, and how he is often unsure of whether they come from himself, his art, or the figure in his art.

“Keep doing it if it’s bringing you that joy and you still feel that passion for it.”

“If you put it off until tomorrow, it’s never going to happen.”

“Be honest with yourself.  Be honest with the artist that was built within you.”

“As an artist, you don’t create artwork, you beget artwork.  It is such a large piece of you.”

“Make something honest and then put it out there.”

Chrilz' Art Prize Page

Michelle Tanguay

Francis Bacon

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Website / Instagram / Art Prize

Noah Bradley: Website