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Just Vibin' w/ Elora Blessing
32 Plays10 days ago
Join me with Elora and just vibe! As we wish all artists could do all the time. But alas, there is capitalism to survive. But we can still be weird and thrive together. Elora Blessing (she/her) is a queer Tacoma artist with a background in graphic design and a BFA in the field with a minor in printmaking. Most of her work is digital illustration, and centers around themes of feminism, queer identity, and body acceptance. She shares her struggles with perfectionism and how she's working on letting go and putting herself out in the art community and all the beautiful surprises that has brought her.
You can see her three days after this episode comes out at the Brewery District Maker's Market on Thursday, December 18. And be sure to follow her on social media @hello.hysteria and reach out to her about commissions!
References
Cassandra Kuring @cassnackwichez
Phi Pottery
Arts at the Armory
Welcome to Slime Time
Recommended
Transcript
Intro
Introduction and Personal Style
00:00:39
Lore Alexander
Hello everybody! Welcome back to the Ugly Podcast. It's me, Your host, Lore Alexander. i use they them pronouns. And I'm your white curly headed androgynous weirdo um with big glasses. Today I'm wearing my um best mix frizzle jumpsuit. It has like rainbows and bunnies and tarot cards and I don't know what else on it. It's great. It's colorful. It's delightful.
00:01:08
Lore Alexander
um Makes me feel like a crazy art teacher who's going to take you on all kinds of wild adventures.
Meeting and Guest Background
00:01:14
Lore Alexander
of And I've got a really great guest for you today. um This person saw me at the, we encountered each other at Arts the Armory here in Tacoma, and she promptly was like, I recognize you from the internet. And i was like, oh my gosh, that's amazing. That does not happen to me. So great. um So welcome. My guest is a queer Tacoma artist with a background in graphic design and a BFA in the field with a minor in printmaking.
00:01:42
Lore Alexander
Most of her work is digital illustration and centers around themes of feminism, queer identity, and body acceptance. Welcome!
00:01:51
Elora Blessing
Hi, thank you. Thanks for having me.
00:01:53
Lore Alexander
Yes!
00:01:54
Elora Blessing
Yep. my like Like you mentioned, my name is Elora Blessing and my um my art brand or handle that I go by is Hello Hysteria.
00:01:54
Lore Alexander
yeah
00:02:05
Elora Blessing
um i am a white woman with pink hair and like I'm really going for the colorful vibe today. I've got lime green glasses and some worm earrings and this like weird tie-dye shirt.
00:02:20
Lore Alexander
Hell yeah. I love it. Thanks so much for being here with me. I'm ah so glad that you agreed to just come be awkward and weird with me on the podcast.
00:02:30
Lore Alexander
It's delightful.
00:02:30
Elora Blessing
Yeah, I love finding a fellow awkward weirdos to to talk to and hang out with.
00:02:39
Lore Alexander
it's It's great. We're hard to find because we like to... you know, a lot of times like cower away our weirdness or hide. Like that's how I spent the majority of my like first 30 years of my life was really hiding a lot of my weirdness.
00:02:52
Elora Blessing
Yeah.
00:02:52
Lore Alexander
But like now that it's a lot more out there, then I get to like actually meet people that are like, hey, I see your weirdness. The weirdness in me is weirdest in you. Namaste.
00:03:00
Elora Blessing
Yes, we're we're matching.
00:03:01
Lore Alexander
It's great.
00:03:02
Elora Blessing
We're matching weirdness. Yeah. I like the second that I saw you at Arts with Armory, I was like, I sort of know this person and I want to know them in real life. So yeah.
00:03:13
Lore Alexander
Hell yeah. I appreciate it.
Artistic Transition and Fulfillment
00:03:16
Lore Alexander
um Let's jump right into it.
00:03:16
Elora Blessing
yeah
00:03:19
Lore Alexander
Tell me, tell the people um kind of about your relationship to creativity, what you do. um ah Yeah, just we'll start there and see where but we go.
00:03:31
Elora Blessing
Yeah, well, like you mentioned in that lovely introduction, I have a background in digital and graphic design. So most of my career has been spent in that space. I have a bachelor of fine arts with ah with a major in graphic design. I've spent a lot of my career doing not so exciting ah creative design related things. And in the last year or so, I've spent some time just taking a step back from the corporate-y capitalist world and tried to focus a little bit more on creating things that I enjoy that like fill my cup and and bring me happiness, which is a lot of, i don't know, like um drawing bodies.
00:04:23
Elora Blessing
I'm really into drawing bodies.
00:04:24
Lore Alexander
Mm-hmm.
00:04:25
Elora Blessing
all different types of bodies and things that just kind of speak to to ah my identity and things that I hope would resonate with other people.
00:04:36
Elora Blessing
um i mostly work, like I said, digitally, but um I try to translate that sometimes into a physical space. So I've I print out a lot of my digital stuff.
00:04:49
Elora Blessing
I try to move some digital things to a canvas or ah or even some like sculpture stuff I've played around with in this last year.
00:05:01
Elora Blessing
But yeah, I've been.
00:05:01
Lore Alexander
Oh, cool.
00:05:02
Elora Blessing
I've been a ah lifelong creative. I was a high school art art club nerd and I've never, um art has never not been a part of my life with that fun double negative, but yeah.
Graphic Design and AI's Impact
00:05:22
Lore Alexander
Amazing. And then, so when you were deciding to go into like corporate marketing and like print it making that kind of thing was there like something ah was it just kind of like that's the thing that's going to make me money like I like drawing I like this kind I like working with things visually and this is the way I can do that and get paid was that was that the thinking or like what was what kind of drew you into that space
00:05:47
Elora Blessing
Yeah, I mean. Yeah, absolutely. ah Unfortunately, when I was in in high school and not quite sure what career I wanted to go towards, my mom saw saw my future being a starving artist who like cannot support herself. And she really pushed graphic design because she was like, there's there's always jobs in graphic design. You'll be able to like have a career. You'll be able to have a steady paycheck. And I,
00:06:21
Elora Blessing
I kind of drank that Kool-Aid. I mean, i i focused most of my um my art school time was spent focusing on like just completing school and moving towards getting a ah ah career so that I could be successful and make money. And i I'm now realizing that i don't want to focus on that so much anymore. I don't want...
00:06:51
Elora Blessing
my, what drives me and my creativity to be centered around how am I going to be able to monetize this? I just want to be able to create stuff and um maybe not worry about that so much.
00:07:05
Elora Blessing
I think that realistically, I still have to a little bit because it is my my livelihood. I don't have any other nine to five
00:07:11
Lore Alexander
Right. We do live under capitalism still. Yeah.
00:07:14
Elora Blessing
Exactly, exactly. But um yeah, yeah.
00:07:16
Lore Alexander
Got to survive.
00:07:19
Elora Blessing
And I think that that um that that's a little bit of a challenge when it comes to trying to continue being creative and. um and and not getting so stuck in like, how am I going to, how is this going to make me money? but But that's definitely what ended up originally driving me towards graphic design and the career that I chose. And yeah, I'm just like at ah at ah ah a crossroads or a turning point in my life where I'm
00:07:50
Elora Blessing
looking for something different. I'm thinking that I want to start shifting gears and focusing more on creating and less on how I'm going to make money from creating. So.
00:08:02
Lore Alexander
Yeah, that is a big decision and like a huge shift in one's creative practice.
00:08:09
Elora Blessing
Yeah, yeah, I think that um it's ah part of it is part of it was originally hold on give me a second here to think about how i'm gonna phrase this um i think part of it originally was um kind of forced on me with um with ai and with the changes of the digital world and all of this like kind of dystopian stuff that's happening in artificial intelligence in the art community and especially like digitally creating things um I'm seeing more and more that in graphic design and in marketing and in creative jobs that are within this field, ah there's less of a demand. There's a lot more folks that I know that are in graphic design that are having a hard time finding work because of ai and So originally, i was kind of forced upon me to, like, reevaluate ah how I navigate creativity and um what what I view success as success and um and what I want to do as a career. But the more i was...
00:09:25
Elora Blessing
The more I sat with it and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that like, yeah, I don't I didn't really enjoy making things that were, quote unquote, creative for big corporations or for um for other people to make large amounts of money. Necessarily, I want to shift my creative focus to be more meaningful and to focus more on things that bring me joy.
00:09:51
Lore Alexander
that's great congratulations so exciting what are what are you struggling the most with with like now that there's that shift to like focusing on
00:09:53
Elora Blessing
Thanks. Yeah.
Perfectionism in Creative Work
00:10:05
Lore Alexander
you know, your joy and meaning, meaning making with art, ah and at the same time having your livelihood hinge on that what are you, what are you finding is is the most struggle for you at the moment?
00:10:22
Elora Blessing
Yeah, um I think that once I stepped outside of this like hustle grind culture that we a lot of us have subscribed to of like working these intense nine to five jobs and not really.
00:10:38
Elora Blessing
not really giving ourselves a lot of time for creative space. Now that I kind of have the opposite problem, ah sometimes I struggle with like not and not knowing where to start necessarily or like, okay, what is my next creative project going to be What is it going to look like now that i have less of a sense of urgency, I guess, to, um, to, for that like hustle and bustle. I sometimes I'm just a little bit paralyzed with like where even to start. Um, and I do think that, uh, I know that the, the, the core of this, uh, podcast is about kind of stepping outside of perfectionism and, uh, allowing yourself space to make things that are a little less, uh,
00:11:26
Elora Blessing
less perfect or or just giving yourself a little bit of grace with the creative process.
00:11:29
Lore Alexander
Mm-hmm.
00:11:32
Elora Blessing
I um i do think that i still struggle with that a little bit when it comes to creating for other people.
00:11:42
Elora Blessing
So if I'm taking a portrait commission, or if I'm designing something like, I don't know, a logo or something for somebody, um i I still have a hard time kind of stepping outside of the like, this needs to look really sharp, this needs to look like the person that I'm drawing the portrait of.
00:12:04
Elora Blessing
This needs to like look as I need to give it my all. I need to put in my best effort because somebody is paying me for this and I want it.
00:12:12
Lore Alexander
Mm-hmm.
00:12:13
Elora Blessing
i I want it to come across as, as, fully baked and and finalized as possible. And I think that sometimes that ah creates that little bit of struggle of not allowing my self-grace to mess up sometimes or to kind of make the ugly thing. And um I still try to give myself space to create things that without the intention of trying to sell it. And that allows me to make make weird stuff, make stuff that maybe nobody will buy. And you know if I go to a market and somebody does end up buying this thing that I maybe don't think looks the best, but somebody else does, then it's kind of a cool a cool bonus.
00:13:05
Lore Alexander
Yeah, absolutely.
00:13:07
Elora Blessing
Yeah.
00:13:07
Lore Alexander
Well, and I'm curious, do you think that, because, I mean, I'm seeing you, like, do the stuff, like, you are at Arts at the Armory, you have your table of stuff, you're taking commissions, like, you're doing the things. So I'm curious, like, where you think perfectionism is a problem?
00:13:26
Elora Blessing
Um, I think that perfectionism is a problem just because, uh, like in, in my experience, living in the world of creatives and, and being a creative myself, uh, I know that we are our own biggest critics and we're really like harsh on ourselves. And i think that it's, um, um,
00:13:52
Elora Blessing
It's really hard to to to break away from that idea of like, ah the thing that i the thing that I created isn't that great, or like the thing that i that i um that I painted or that I drew, nobody's really going to like it, or this is just for me. And I think that it's ah it's an interesting cycle when you are doing something like markets or or you're showing your artwork to your friends and family and you're getting this like positive feedback and validation, regardless of if it's... um
00:14:25
Elora Blessing
regardless of if it's somebody buying something, if even if it's just a friend telling you that the thing that you made they think is kick-ass, I think that it helps quiet that... ah that inner critic a little bit, and it does allow you to have a little bit of grace with yourself and focus a little bit less on things having to be perfect.
00:14:47
Lore Alexander
Yeah.
00:14:50
Elora Blessing
So I don't know if that answers your question, but I think that um i I've just... As time's gone on and as I've been a little kinder to myself and my work and my process, um I just feel like naturally i'm I'm getting that fed back to me through validation of other people enjoying my work.
00:15:15
Lore Alexander
yeah
00:15:15
Elora Blessing
whereas previously, i was so focused on like trying to make things look perfect and make things look a certain way that I was more i was more terrified of getting things out into the world.
00:15:29
Elora Blessing
And so it's like, ah it's a little bit of a balancing act of um of of putting yourself out there and putting work out there that you're proud of but maybe you don't think is perfect and seeing seeing what what the responses from other people because it's usually better than you think it's gonna be so
00:15:30
Lore Alexander
Mm-hmm.
00:15:50
Lore Alexander
Yeah, absolutely. i i love all that. What I hear you describing is like, to a T, like the difference between adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism, um which have you heard of the book, um The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control?
00:16:02
Elora Blessing
yeah
00:16:08
Elora Blessing
No, but it sounds amazing.
00:16:10
Lore Alexander
It's incredible. It's by Catherine Morgan Schaffler. And it is like her whole thing talks about how perfectionism can either be the thing that holds you back from your dreams or it can be the driving force pulling you towards this like really beautiful life that you have envisioned for yourself.
00:16:15
Elora Blessing
Okay.
00:16:32
Elora Blessing
Yeah.
00:16:32
Lore Alexander
And so like, yeah, like that when you're letting the perfectionism and that negative self top stop you from putting yourself out there, that's when you're just like resting in that avoidance in that like maladaptive space.
00:16:43
Elora Blessing
Yeah.
00:16:44
Lore Alexander
And then once you can like start to realize like, okay, I can put my imperfect work out there. I can, like I can try the thing and make mistakes.
00:16:51
Elora Blessing
Mm-hmm.
00:16:55
Lore Alexander
Then you start venturing into like that perfectionism. adaptive perfectionism which actually is just kind of like striving like it's you know um like so when i was when i was listening to you talk about like you know getting that commission just right for your client like that desire for a really beautiful piece of art for your clients like that's a wonderful drive like that's a beautiful striving to have um so that's that's really beautiful and it like
00:17:00
Elora Blessing
Yeah.
00:17:04
Elora Blessing
Yeah.
00:17:19
Elora Blessing
Yeah.
00:17:24
Lore Alexander
It sounds like you are you're you're doing all the things to like challenge that perfectionism in like healthy and hard ways. And like I just want to commend you for that.
00:17:34
Elora Blessing
Thank you. Yeah. And um just to like ah speak a little bit more about commission work and like how perfectionism ah I feel sometimes holds me back, but ends up like if I kind of just loosen the reins, it ends up working out.
00:17:46
Lore Alexander
Mm-hmm.
00:17:51
Elora Blessing
um i almost always will send a commission to a client, like an initial draft to get their feedback.
00:18:02
Elora Blessing
And when I send them the initial draft, in my mind, I'm already thinking like, there's a lot of stuff that I need to update on this. There's a lot of stuff that I still want changed, but I just want to like see what the client thinks and see like if they think that this portrait is is what they were hoping.
00:18:20
Elora Blessing
And I tend to send it with the assumption that they're going to give me a lot of feedback. um And almost always they are just like, this looks great.
00:18:31
Elora Blessing
Don't change anything. And it always it almost always throws me because I'm like, I can i see a ton of stuff that I like... I could tweak. I could keep tweaking. I could keep like making this a little bit more perfect.
00:18:43
Elora Blessing
I could keep making this a little bit better. But um but that's that's that perfectionism of like just keep going. And if I leaned into that too hard, I would never be able to complete anything.
00:18:55
Elora Blessing
I would never be able to finish a commission.
00:18:55
Lore Alexander
Yeah.
00:18:57
Elora Blessing
So um it's it's definitely a balancing act of like trying to decide, okay, I think that this is in a good spot where i can show i can show the person that that hired me and I can get an idea of like if they like the direction I'm heading, if they don't like it and and then get that feedback from them of like, this is great.
00:19:18
Elora Blessing
You don't have to put in 20 more hours into this ah into this piece of art because it's it's almost done.
00:19:23
Lore Alexander
Yeah.
00:19:24
Elora Blessing
so yeah. Yeah.
00:19:26
Lore Alexander
Yeah. Oh my gosh. the The time I have wasted just like making the tiniest changes to anything from like emails to social media posts to like ah just the endless tweaks you can make to things.
00:19:33
Elora Blessing
Yeah.
00:19:43
Elora Blessing
Yeah. and And when you do that, you just, it's just like, well, I'm never going to get anything done if I just like keep changing it a little bit, a little bit.
00:19:48
Lore Alexander
Mm-hmm.
00:19:49
Elora Blessing
I'm just going to keep adjusting this this painting a little bit. I'm just going to keep working on this like digital illustration a little bit. And if at some point you're not like, okay, this is I need to step away.
00:20:00
Elora Blessing
This is this is great.
00:20:01
Lore Alexander
Yeah.
00:20:01
Elora Blessing
This is good for what it is. I don't need to like keep, yeah, you'd you'd never, you'd be paralyzed. You'd never be able to get anything out into the world. Yeah.
00:20:09
Lore Alexander
Yeah, absolutely. And like, especially when you're working for yourself, you're selling your own art.
Valuing Art and Community Influence
00:20:16
Lore Alexander
yeah and we live under capitalism, like, your survival is also tied to your time.
00:20:22
Lore Alexander
And, like, time is money.
00:20:23
Elora Blessing
Yeah.
00:20:24
Lore Alexander
And and when you are spending so long on this one piece that you're only getting a certain amount for...
00:20:32
Elora Blessing
Exactly. Well, and it's, it's so interesting to, um to, ah as a creative who's trying to make a living off of the things that I, that I make. um It's, it's been a really interesting mind shift when it comes to money and valuing myself and valuing the work that I do. um Because depending on the area that you live in, depending on the people around you and how they value art, like different different communities will ah feed into create creativity and the arts community in different ways.
00:21:13
Elora Blessing
And i growing up, the area that I'm from now has an amazing art community and puts tons of money and resources into the local art scene.
00:21:24
Elora Blessing
but At the time, i kind of was getting this like external messaging that ah art is like kind of i don't know frivolous is the right word, but like you like it was it was always really difficult to prove
00:21:41
Lore Alexander
Yeah.
00:21:42
Elora Blessing
your worth as an artist in in that space and um i think that that's that's something that i've had to practice and learn um i've gone through my career and valuing myself and kind of like putting putting ah worth on my work and not letting other people determine what the value is um But yeah, it's it's hard. I still struggle with it because to your point, it's like, okay, i'm going to charge this amount, which I think is reasonable for a piece of art, but also but how long am I going to realistically spend on it versus how long i should like how much I'm charging for it. Yeah.
00:22:23
Lore Alexander
Right, yeah, exactly. Yeah, makes sense.
00:22:26
Elora Blessing
Yeah. ah
00:22:29
Lore Alexander
um As you, so you said this has been your first year kind of like entering into the artist space in Tacoma, correct?
00:22:38
Elora Blessing
Yep. Yeah.
00:22:39
Lore Alexander
Yeah, how is that going for you?
00:22:39
Elora Blessing
yeah
00:22:41
Lore Alexander
What are some of like your takeaways? What are you learning?
00:22:43
Elora Blessing
it's been It's been really interesting. i So I've lived in Tacoma since 2016, and I have spent the majority of the time just being like a a ah lurker of the art community and going to markets and and purchasing from local artists and and checking out the museum and galleries and things like that, but not really actively engaging or like like inserting myself into the community as a fellow creative.
00:23:15
Elora Blessing
And so this year i that was like kind of my mission to put myself out there a little bit more, put my art out there, see if I could make connections with ah other artists.
00:23:16
Lore Alexander
Yeah.
00:23:28
Elora Blessing
And it's, it's been really great. um I think that markets are a little bit of a mixed bag ah ah for creatives because there's, the there's so many it's very Tacoma is very saturated with markets and I think that each each one offers a different clientele or a different crowd and if you know if if I'm selling illustrations of fat AFAB bodies in a in a market where that's not really the thing that people are interested in in purchasing, then I'm not necessarily going to see a lot of ah ah monetary success in in those spaces.
00:23:44
Lore Alexander
yeah
00:24:09
Elora Blessing
But that doesn't mean that that that I haven't been successful um in in putting myself out there like that because um participating in markets like that allows me the chance to connect with other local artists and kind of get...
00:24:30
Elora Blessing
get ah an idea of what other people are making and and even just yeah like talking to people that that attend markets and that's been that's been really cool to experience um market stuff aside I've been trying really hard to um put myself into spaces that are outside of my comfort zone like ah I attended a mask making class, I believe in the spring that was really cool and it was hosted by ah an amazing local artist named ah Cassandra Kering, I believe is her last name. And she and that's how I met this um other amazing local artist. And um i and and I participated in a ceramics class through a fee, which was really cool. And it it's just been like.
00:25:29
Elora Blessing
putting myself out there in in spaces that are outside of my comfort zone has brought me a little bit of financial like minimal financial success but mostly like networking and meeting other people and learning about the community and and connecting with other artists has been the thing that has brought me the most uh joy and has filled my cup the most and
00:25:51
Lore Alexander
Yeah.
00:25:53
Elora Blessing
um like you mentioned, us meeting at Arts at the Armory, that market, it has been my favorite market for years as ah a patron of the arts. But being there for the first time this year as a vendor was such an amazing experience because I got to
Growth Through Rejection and Collaboration
00:26:13
Elora Blessing
talk to so many people that are there specifically to support the arts. So I met people that work in nonprofits around town. I work in, I met people that,
00:26:26
Elora Blessing
do murals that we shared ah information about like maybe collaborating and it was just really i mean i i met you i ended up on a podcast because i put because i put myself out there and i put myself into a market that i um that i like maybe previous me would would have been like hesitant and and stuck in this, like, is my stuff good enough to even participate in this market?
00:26:33
Lore Alexander
Cool.
00:26:36
Lore Alexander
Yeah. Yeah.
00:26:40
Lore Alexander
Yeah.
00:26:53
Elora Blessing
And and it's just, like, it's worked out really well. I've i've definitely applied for some some local mural projects and grants and things like that that i that i didn't that I ended up getting rejected for.
00:27:06
Elora Blessing
And I think that that is also healthy to experience, like, a little bit of a rejection therapy of, like, okay, they'll...
00:27:13
Lore Alexander
Yeah.
00:27:14
Elora Blessing
I didn't get it for this one, but that's not going to stop me from seeing, like, applying to another project and seeing if I can get, you know, participate in that. So it's it's been a good year of growth for me as far as ah a getting more involved in the Tacoma Arts.
00:27:23
Lore Alexander
Yeah.
00:27:30
Elora Blessing
so
00:27:31
Lore Alexander
Yeah. Oh, that's so amazing. I love that. I love that you're on this journey. That's wonderful.
00:27:37
Elora Blessing
Thanks.
00:27:37
Lore Alexander
I, I really love how, and this is something that you mentioned um in like, are planning for the podcast, but like the, um, how collaborative the arts community is here.
00:27:51
Lore Alexander
um and just like the, the ways that people focus on collaboration over competition is really beautiful.
00:27:56
Elora Blessing
Yeah.
00:27:59
Lore Alexander
um I don't know if you have other thoughts on that, but like, I, that's something that I've really appreciated. That's, I appreciate that about like the editing community that I'm a part of. Um, like editors are always so willing to like share ideas and share clients when we when we're booked up and just share information and so yeah it's wonderful to see that in the arts as well
00:28:18
Elora Blessing
Yeah, yeah. I think that it was it's something that um I personally have needed to spend some time rewiring my brain about a little bit, like as I've gotten older and and gone through my my journey as a creative of like...
00:28:29
Lore Alexander
mm-hmm
00:28:35
Elora Blessing
understanding that creatives are not we're not in competition with each other I mean there are so many amazing glass blowers in Tacoma and they all have ah like different similar skill sets but completely different art that they create and it's really cool to see the communities like that around town come together and work together to learn from each other and ah and grow and let you collaborate and make this like really cool stuff that that normally in I don't know, in um a more competitive setting, you would just kind of be isolated and focusing on making your thing the best thing so that it's better than this other person that you're that that's also working on something similar.
00:28:52
Lore Alexander
Yeah.
00:29:24
Elora Blessing
It's just i like, yeah, I just really i think that collaboration and um and And knowing that when another creative is giving you input on something or or advice on something that it's not, it's we're all just in it to to to grow and learn from each other.
00:29:25
Lore Alexander
Right.
00:29:43
Elora Blessing
And it's not necessarily, it doesn't need to be like a slight or it doesn't need to be taken as an insult. I i think that in the time that I spent working in the corporate world, i was part of the i was part of these processes that involved a lot of like checks and balances.
00:30:04
Elora Blessing
There was ah an art director that would give feedback on some some work, and there were junior designers that were learning from senior level designers. And I think in those processes, I learned very quickly not to take feedback personally, which is kind of hard to do when you're a creative because the thing you're creating is very personal.
00:30:21
Lore Alexander
Yeah.
00:30:23
Elora Blessing
um Yeah, it's like I made this thing and you're saying that I need to change it.
00:30:23
Lore Alexander
It's personal, yeah.
00:30:28
Elora Blessing
But once I shifted my mindset to to understanding that when people are are providing you feedback on something,
00:30:39
Elora Blessing
i mean one you can take take it with a grain of salt you can take it you or leave it um but also it's it just use it as an opportunity to grow and make something something even better um and yeah i don't i don't know i just uh i want all creatives to just like
00:30:44
Lore Alexander
Yeah.
00:31:00
Elora Blessing
of vibe and enjoy each other it and enjoy each other's uh work and and not not always be in competition because we're this the world we live in is already very stressful and competitive and art should be fun and relaxing and it should bring joy to people so
00:31:16
Lore Alexander
Yeah.
00:31:22
Lore Alexander
Yeah. Aww, I love that. We should all just vibe.
00:31:26
Elora Blessing
We should, I just want all the artists of the world to vibe. don't
00:31:32
Lore Alexander
Spectacular. i love it.
00:31:33
Elora Blessing
know.
00:31:35
Lore Alexander
Title of the episode. Let's just vibe.
00:31:38
Elora Blessing
Let's just vibe. Yep.
00:31:42
Lore Alexander
Well, would you like to vibe and make some ugly art together?
00:31:46
Elora Blessing
Let's do it. I am. ah I'm definitely not stressed about making some ugly, ugly art in real time on this podcast. It'll be great.
00:31:54
Lore Alexander
It's gonna be great! it doesn't it It's gonna look how it looks.
00:31:56
Elora Blessing
that's
00:31:58
Lore Alexander
It's gonna be spectacular.
00:31:59
Elora Blessing
Exactly.
00:32:00
Lore Alexander
ah
00:32:00
Elora Blessing
do you have do you have like a method for how you start these? This ugly art? Is there like a like what?
00:32:06
Lore Alexander
So...
00:32:06
Elora Blessing
Yeah.
00:32:07
Lore Alexander
For me, i like to kind of invoke my body, bodily intuition, and just kind of like ask how my hand wants to move.
00:32:20
Elora Blessing
Okay.
00:32:20
Lore Alexander
um So I like to start with a ah just a scribble on the page. um
00:32:25
Elora Blessing
who
00:32:26
Lore Alexander
And if I need help figuring out what color to start with, I have color dice. um
00:32:30
Elora Blessing
Wow, I love this.
00:32:31
Lore Alexander
So I can roll some color dice. um If you'd like, I can roll some color dice right now if I can find them. I think they're back there.
00:32:38
Elora Blessing
Amazing.
00:32:38
Lore Alexander
They fell toward the back of my desk.
00:32:42
Lore Alexander
um And then I am very inspired by your earrings. So I feel like I want to make some ugly worms.
00:32:50
Elora Blessing
Yes, do it.
00:32:50
Lore Alexander
of some kind. Yeah.
00:32:53
Elora Blessing
The artist, I don't know if I mentioned this or not, but I'm just gonna, since i since we've talked about the worms, I'm gonna do a shout out to the local artists. Their Instagram hand but handle is welcome to slime time.
00:33:05
Elora Blessing
And they tend to be at a lot of really cool markets around town and they make the coolest worm earrings. So please check them out. ah
00:33:13
Lore Alexander
Incredible. I love that name. That's amazing.
00:33:16
Elora Blessing
Welcome to slime time. Yep.
00:33:18
Lore Alexander
Welcome to slime time. Perfect.
00:33:22
Elora Blessing
Yeah.
00:33:23
Lore Alexander
um What would you, how would you like
Returning to Education and Creative Growth
00:33:26
Lore Alexander
to start? Would you like a color dye? Would you like a more specific prompt? are you good?
00:33:33
Elora Blessing
I like the idea of just starting with a squiggle and seeing seeing where it goes. So I think I'm just going to do that if that if that works. um It kind of reminds me of um this ah get like game, I guess, I used to play when I was a kid called, I think it was called the Scribble Game or the Doodle Game.
00:33:41
Lore Alexander
Yeah, let's do it.
00:33:55
Elora Blessing
i don't know if you've ever played it or something similar since I just made up that name. But... but
00:34:01
Lore Alexander
I'll have to hear more.
00:34:02
Elora Blessing
it uh it's with you so you play it with at least two people and you um you make one person makes a squiggle and then the next person has to like take that squiggle and figure out what like do and create an image from that squiggle so that like as soon as you were like I start with a squiggle I was like ah
00:34:21
Lore Alexander
Yes.
00:34:24
Elora Blessing
the squiggle game the doodle game I've I've been here
00:34:26
Lore Alexander
the squiggle game yeah i i did that my mom did that for my brother and i when we were kids on like road trips we would do those um yeah absolutely that absolutely has influenced where this came from for sure um yeah i'm just uh i set a five minute at timer and we'll just kind of doodle and um if you can chat while you doodle um
00:34:32
Elora Blessing
uh-huh
00:34:36
Elora Blessing
uh
00:34:43
Elora Blessing
a
00:34:52
Lore Alexander
then can do that. If you would like some time to just focus on your doodle, we can just doodle in silence.
00:34:59
Elora Blessing
I like the idea of chatting. um i could I could probably do both.
00:35:01
Lore Alexander
Okay.
00:35:03
Elora Blessing
i don't know. This is going to be an ugly doodle, right? So there's there's low stakes, low pressure.
00:35:06
Lore Alexander
Yeah.
00:35:08
Elora Blessing
Yeah.
00:35:09
Lore Alexander
Very low stakes. um So I wanted to ask you, as somebody who has an education in an art field and a desire to continue schooling, because yesterday you shared with me that you would like to go get your master's, um what are some of the things about like formal art education that you enjoy and what are some things that you wish were different?
00:35:25
Elora Blessing
yeah
00:35:34
Lore Alexander
Yeah. Because I hear a lot of complaints about art school, and I think you're maybe the first person I've talked to on this podcast, at least, that wants to return to art school.
00:35:45
Elora Blessing
Oh, that's so interesting.
00:35:46
Lore Alexander
So I'm fascinated.
00:35:46
Elora Blessing
Okay. Yeah. Well, I'll give you, um ah like like I mentioned, my my previous art school experience. One, the university I went to wasn't technically an art school. They just had an art department. um But i I think that the the thing that seems the most appealing to me about going back to art school is more the change in myself and my own mentality about how to navigate education and not focusing so much on the actual education of it. um So like I said, when I was going, ah when I was getting my BFA, I was really focused on just like finishing, just getting it done. and I didn't time
00:36:39
Elora Blessing
spend a lot of time um really using the resources that I had available as an art student. I didn't, um I was just trying to like jam through my classes and get and get the thing done and get the degree. And i looking back and now that I don't have access to like a a designated studio space or like a ah ah kiln or, you know, metal metal making things it, it kind of makes me sad that I didn't yet utilize those spaces better take more advantage of them and um So I think that that's really the appeal of going back to art school for me is just that i have a shift in my own mindset and I um am excited go to art
00:37:09
Lore Alexander
Mm-hmm.
00:37:36
Elora Blessing
head back to a space where um i my whole, the whole, the whole focus of being there is to create. um i I, I don't think I've experienced a whole lot of spaces like that, that you don't have to pay for.
00:37:53
Elora Blessing
Well, I guess you pay for so education too, but um ah it's, it's more, it's more about that for me of just like, I don't know, like,
00:37:54
Lore Alexander
Yeah.
00:38:05
Elora Blessing
being excited to to create. And um i i don't know what grad school's gonna be like. that's that's what I think that's the other thing that's kind of the big unknown is i only have an undergrad, which is very different from grad school from what I hear.
00:38:25
Elora Blessing
So I don't know i don't know what I don't know.
00:38:26
Lore Alexander
Yeah.
00:38:28
Elora Blessing
And that excites me too. And like I mentioned earlier about like, The things that I've taken out of this last year and being part of the community and like networking unintentionally and meeting new creatives, I think that that's the thing that excites me the most about going back to school is...
00:38:50
Elora Blessing
I feel like doors are going to open for me that I don't even know are there. And I'm going to meet such cool creatives while I'm in school.
00:38:55
Lore Alexander
Yeah.
00:38:59
Elora Blessing
And that's that's really what is the most exciting for me about it all. um I don't know if I have a whole lot to say as far as complaints of um of of education, because my my BFA was
00:39:12
Lore Alexander
the
00:39:18
Elora Blessing
like 13 think i got it 13 years ago at this point and i um i don't know i was a little like sassy early early 20s kid at the time and i i didn't i didn't like school but i don't think that it was because of the school i think it was because i was like i just want to get out of here and i just want to i just want to move on with my life and being an an an adult and um
00:39:36
Lore Alexander
m
00:39:44
Elora Blessing
Yeah, so I don't, I don't know, it'll be it'll be interesting. Maybe talk to me in a couple of years after I've gone gone through grad school. I might have something different to say.
00:39:52
Lore Alexander
Yes, we'll have you back on.
00:39:53
Elora Blessing
Yeah, I have something very different to say at that point.
00:39:54
Lore Alexander
ah
00:39:57
Elora Blessing
But who knows?
00:39:58
Lore Alexander
No, I love that. I think your your perspective on it is like exactly what art school should be and hopefully will be. And like the yeah, I think.
00:40:12
Lore Alexander
Yeah, that's that's wonderful. And I'm really I'm really excited for your your future studies and how it goes for you.
00:40:20
Elora Blessing
yeah yeah i think it's gonna be i mean i I'm going into it with positivity and I hope that that's what I'm able to get out of it too and I don't I don't leave art school and and a master's program feeling feeling I don't know burnt out and jaded I think that it's gonna be it's gonna be good i think that it's gonna um help help me unlock parts of my my creativity that I don't even know are missing so pretty cool
00:40:48
Lore Alexander
Yeah. Well, like so much of that just depends on the teachers and like the, the main thing that I talk to people about, like here on this podcast with like the issues with education is like, you'll have that one teacher that tells you that your art is bad and it just sticks with you.
00:40:52
Elora Blessing
who
00:41:03
Elora Blessing
okay
00:41:05
Lore Alexander
and like
00:41:06
Elora Blessing
Oh, I know.
00:41:06
Lore Alexander
And so the more, well and like, I mean, i hope it's okay if I share this, but you mentioned like thinking about becoming an art teacher yourself sometime, someday.
00:41:14
Elora Blessing
Yeah.
00:41:15
Lore Alexander
And like,
00:41:16
Elora Blessing
Yeah.
00:41:17
Lore Alexander
after like these conversations with you, i feel like you would be such a wonderful art teacher. Just like, you know, like it's, it's the difference between the art teacher who
00:41:22
Elora Blessing
Oh, thank you.
00:41:28
Lore Alexander
thinks that your creativity has to be expressed along the guidelines or has to look a certain way. And if it doesn't, then you fail.
00:41:35
Elora Blessing
yeah Yeah.
00:41:37
Lore Alexander
and And then like the art teacher who's like, your creativity is unique to you.
00:41:37
Elora Blessing
Yeah.
00:41:42
Lore Alexander
And like, how can we foster that and explore that? And how do you want to connect with an audience? And how do you want to express yourself? Like this, yeah.
00:41:50
Elora Blessing
Yeah, absolutely. um it it reminds me of this conversation that I had with a high school friend back in high school where ah he he was getting really frustrated with this art teacher because she was telling him that the art he was making was like wrong.
00:42:09
Elora Blessing
And it was like not the like, what? ah fine art does not have any thick black outlines and when you make art you have to make sure that it and like she in her mind had a very specific way that she wanted art to look and the art that she taught to look and he was really upset by that because that's not the style that he wanted to create art in and he went on to be a really successful game developer and designer and he like makes all these really cool video games now.
00:42:39
Elora Blessing
And guess what? There's black lines all over his art and he is successful.
00:42:42
Lore Alexander
ah
00:42:43
Elora Blessing
And I think that, um, having little experiences like that and little interactions throughout my education and, and talking to other creatives, um, hopefully will help if I do end up getting into any kind of academic ah um field or teaching ah will help me be mindful of taking taking people and creatives as they are and their work as it is and just kind of maybe pushing skill sets a little bit, but not necessarily telling somebody that the art that they're making is bad because it it doesn't look the way that I think art should look, which is such a weird thing considering art is so subjective.
00:43:18
Lore Alexander
Yeah.
00:43:27
Lore Alexander
Right. Yeah.
00:43:28
Elora Blessing
Yeah.
00:43:30
Lore Alexander
Yeah. Well, what did what did you make? we're we're We're well past five minutes, but we were having a ah good talk, so.
00:43:36
Elora Blessing
Yeah, yeah i drew
00:43:38
Lore Alexander
ah
00:43:39
Elora Blessing
I drew a I started with a squiggle, but then it turned into a belly button and then it turned, and then that turned into a torso. And so I've got this like disembodied torso, like there's no head, there's no legs. It's just a torso ah belly button and boobs and shoulders. So
00:43:59
Lore Alexander
Hell yeah. I love it. Wonderful.
00:44:01
Elora Blessing
what did you make? Let me see.
00:44:03
Lore Alexander
i made worms
Embracing Creative Liberation
00:44:05
Elora Blessing
Yes. Whoa!
00:44:05
Lore Alexander
and it just, as a bunch of worms standing up out of the ground and it says worms time.
00:44:12
Lore Alexander
yeah.
00:44:13
Elora Blessing
ah amazing ah um yeah i do enjoy worms very much i made this uh this little drawing that i turned into a sticker um a while back that was i don't know if you ever saw the like the the thing on the internet that was like if you would you still love me if i was a worm um uh i drew two worms that were like entangled with each other uh
00:44:15
Lore Alexander
so yeah
00:44:37
Elora Blessing
it one worm is saying to the other one um would you still love me if i was a human and the yeah oh you got yep that one that's the one they say you already yeah
00:44:50
Lore Alexander
My partner bought it. My partner bought it, yeah.
00:44:54
Elora Blessing
amazing cool yeah it's just so funny to me i think it's so silly um but i don't know
00:45:01
Lore Alexander
Yeah. Would you still love me if I was a human? Ew, no.
00:45:05
Elora Blessing
no humans are a little ah worms worms are great worms have no nervous systems worms have no like concept of no concept of capitalism no concept of government they're just vibing we should all just vibe amazing amazing uh
00:45:11
Lore Alexander
Ugh, to be a worm. I wish.
00:45:20
Lore Alexander
They are We should all just vibe like the worms. um my god. This is
00:45:27
Elora Blessing
amazing amazing ah
00:45:30
Lore Alexander
so good.
00:45:31
Elora Blessing
Yeah. ah Well, thank you so much for this conversation. This has been so lovely.
Upcoming Events and Local Art Scene
00:45:36
Lore Alexander
Yeah, thanks for thanks for joining me, Laura. um
00:45:40
Elora Blessing
hi
00:45:40
Lore Alexander
Would you like to talk about anything you'd like to plug ah for yourself, for anyone you're working with, or upcoming events?
00:45:51
Elora Blessing
um Yeah, I would say, I mean, I know I've been talking a lot about markets on this, ah on this podcast and I do have one final market coming up this year.
00:46:01
Elora Blessing
That's um it's the brewery district makers market. It's at seven season Tacoma from five to nine. It's free. You can go get a local beer and check out some awesome artists for any like last minute, I don't know, things that you need for the holidays.
00:46:20
Elora Blessing
And, And the other thing that I've mentioned in excess here is that I take commissions and try very hard to not be too in my head about them.
00:46:30
Elora Blessing
So I'm always down to draw people and pets and all of that stuff or just I don't know if people want me to draw something weird, that'd be really cool.
00:46:32
Lore Alexander
you
00:46:40
Elora Blessing
I haven't gotten a lot of weird commission requests. But Yeah. And then um I would love for listeners to check out my Instagram, which is hello.hysteria.
00:46:53
Elora Blessing
And it's painfully inactive because I'm bad at social media, but I try and i post things once in a while.
00:47:03
Elora Blessing
So check it out.
00:47:06
Lore Alexander
Excellent. Sounds good. And um i you might have mentioned it, but I think I might have missed it. What was what weekend is that market that you mentioned?
00:47:13
Elora Blessing
Oh, it is December 18th. I probably didn't.
00:47:17
Lore Alexander
Oh, perfect. Okay.
00:47:18
Elora Blessing
Yeah, it's coming up.
00:47:19
Lore Alexander
That is great because this this podcast will come out on the 15th. So if you're listening to this right, once it comes out, it is going to be in two days or three days.
00:47:23
Elora Blessing
Oh, cool.
00:47:27
Elora Blessing
Oh, sweet.
00:47:30
Elora Blessing
You have two days to go to this market.
00:47:32
Lore Alexander
Yeah.
00:47:33
Elora Blessing
Yeah, no. Great. Cool.
00:47:35
Lore Alexander
Excellent. Great.
00:47:37
Elora Blessing
ah Awesome.
00:47:37
Lore Alexander
Well, thank you again. and thank you, everybody, for listening. Go out and make something ridiculous. Make your art be weird and keep it ugly.
00:47:47
Elora Blessing
Yeah.