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Stay Sparked #18 - "Art & Creativity"
7 Plays2 years ago
What is Art? What makes art good or bad? Are YOU an artist? What gets in the way of our creative expressions? How are authenticity and creativity linked? How has Burning Man influenced our artistic journeys? What are types of artistic expression beyond painting and sculpture? (i.e. Movement, body work, home decorating, fashion.)
So much inspiration in this episode of Stay Sparked.
HOSTS
BETSY FINKLEHOO is a healer of massage therapy, CranioSacral and Dharma Coaching. She is an 8 year burner and has spent the last several years seeped in the personal development world, cultivating her passion for transformation and growth. Her recent project, The Power Affirmation Journal and virtual group empowers women to cultivate self awareness and healthy habits so they can live in greater freedom, mind body and spirit.
http://poweraffirmation.com/
Click here to get a FREE affirmation for Stay Sparked Listeners!
HALCYON is full-time Love Ambassador. He is the founder of Hug Nation YouTube channel and daily zoom gratitude circles. He is co-founder of the Pink Heart Burning Man camp and the 1st Saturdays project for people experiencing homelessness. In his free time he coaches individuals on how to live joyfully and authentically. His other podcast is "Hard on the 80's."
http://JohnStyn.com
JANUS REDMOON is a 10-time Burner, and has spent the last several years as an advocate for psychedelic medicine research and treatment. He is the founder and CEO of NuWorld Nutritionals, a nutritional supplement company providing mushroom-based, all-natural products to improve and maintain health for both body and mind. (Use code "SPARKED" for 10% off)
http://www.nuworldnutritionals.com
MASSIVE Thank you to Dub Sutra for their beautiful opening music. Check out their incredible music catalogue online.
https://dubsutra.com
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Art and Creativity
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Welcome to Stay Sparked.
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On this show, we explore how to stay inspired in the modern world through the most profound lessons from Burning Man, relationships, entrepreneurship, psychedelics, spirituality, travel, and more.
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On this episode of Stay Sparked, we talked about creativity and art.
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What is art?
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Are you an artist?
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What is the difference between art that comes from inside and art that you buy at the store and put on your wall?
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We talked about our own explorations of being an artist and how Burning Man has inspired our perceptions of art and how we interact with art.
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What sort of art are we inspired to create?
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Are we indeed an artist?
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And if so, how do we tap into that authenticity to put our authentic selves out there in an artistic way?
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Enjoy the episode.
Meet the Hosts and Their Projects
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Welcome to Stay Sparked.
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We are three friends here to share conversations aimed to inspire and light you up.
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Thank you so much for listening.
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If you have been enjoying our conversations, we absolutely appreciate you leaving us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts.
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And please share to help spread the sparks.
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I'm Betsy.
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I'm Janus.
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And I'm Halcyon.
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I am the founder and creator of the Power Affirmation Project, helping to teach life skills for sustainable happiness.
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I am the founder and CEO of New World Nutritionals, a nutritional supplement company with mushroom-based products designed to help you with your state of mind.
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I am a full-time love ambassador with a broadcast at 9 a.m.
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on Facebook, a noon and 6 p.m.
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Zoom gratitude circle sharing positivity in all ways.
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And all three of us are vibe bringers professionally.
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And we always love starting these conversations with gratitude.
Gratitude and Personal Growth
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So, Yanus, what are you grateful for this morning?
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I am grateful for, I have a couple of kitty cats that are always giving me something to do and always keeping me entertained.
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You know, waking up to litter dogs.
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cat litter kicked everywhere or uh or the food tipped over or something like that and just being like oh just but uh but it's like having having you know a a beast that is a rascal that you just can't they're so cute you can't help but love them so so i'm grateful for them they uh it feels like i i have a couple of rascally little babies and uh they're fun so cute
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This week, I am so grateful for my father.
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He just turned 82 years old.
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And I've been thinking about him when I was a kid and what it was like for him to be this young man raising me.
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just having so much gratitude for you know what kind of fear and and craziness and wackiness it must have been uh to be dealing with his responsibilities and dealing with a young child especially as i am you know growing in my relationship with my bio son uh asher who turns four next week so i'm gonna see him
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And I'm just so in this beautiful reflection of awe and appreciation for my father and learning to be, you know, the best male role model I can be.
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Just feeling so grateful for being in this space right now.
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Amazing.
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That's so beautiful.
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I am going to share my gratitude for a new baby I got to meet this weekend.
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One of our dear friends and Stay Sparked listeners, Tamara and Jilson, I got to meet their beautiful little baby who's two months old and she fell asleep in my arms and I just got to like nestle her and got to just connect with mom and dad as they're in this very precious
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time of becoming new parents.
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And I'm just so grateful to get to have that little bit of quality time.
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It was just an hour, but it was just so wonderful.
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So I'm just really grateful for a little baby Ruby.
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Nice.
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Oh, mm hmm.
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All
Burning Man's Influence on Art and Lifestyle
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right.
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Well, let's dive in and start sparking it up.
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So we are inspired to talk about art, creativity,
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What has Burning Man inspired us in our lives around this topic of art?
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Are we artists?
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Let's see where we get to go.
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So why don't we start us off with just the perspective of our own artistry.
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Do you guys see yourselves as artists at this stage in your life?
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And if so, how do you express it?
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If not, love to hear more.
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At this stage, absolutely.
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But I think it's important for me to think about that in terms of like where that came from, because you mentioned Burning Man and before Burning Man, I had an idea of art as it was the kind of thing that you go to museum to see.
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It's a thing that you go to buy in a poster and you put it on your wall.
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And so there's this very defined,
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framework of which what an art art is inside a frame it is on a pedestal it is it is defined as as a an object or a thing that is created by someone who is an artist and burning man kind of helped me to see that creative expression happens in so many ways and it's really about the the
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the creativity that you bring to your choices.
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And so once I shifted that thinking about, you know, what can art be, then I feel like, oh, well, now I can choose to be an artist in the way I do almost everything.
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From dress to... Well, okay, to answer your question, how do I feel like I'm an artist?
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For the longest time, my business card said a lifestyle artist.
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after going to Burning Man, I'm like, well, I'm going to live in a way that my life is my art.
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This is my canvas.
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I'm going to present to the world as an expression of
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of who I am.
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So yeah, I'll say that.
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That is how I'm an artist.
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I'm a lifestyle artist.
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Amazing.
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All right.
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Nice.
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I love that so much.
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Nice.
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A quote I saw during this, when the AI art thing really popped a couple months ago, one of the things I saw in a response to that, because there's been a lot of debate about that,
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as to art what is art and one quote that really hit me or really hit home for me was art has no rules
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So people like whatever you want to call art, I think you get to do that.
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I think whatever, whatever medium you want to choose, if like, you know, making your life art.
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Sure.
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Why not?
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I think anybody gets, I think anybody gets to do that.
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I think we all are, are artists.
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How that gets expressed is really up to the individual and whether or not that gets expressed is up to the individual.
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There's a lot of people just because,
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somebody might not see themselves as an artist and they had nothing they could point to, to be like, yeah, that's, that's some art I created.
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You know, does it, if, if, you know, somebody doesn't necessarily want to own that title, that's fine.
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They don't, they don't, they don't have to do that.
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I think we all are artists.
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We all certainly have the capability and the capacity to do so, but whether or not we managed to fulfill that and how we choose to fulfill that is, you know, up to the individual.
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Mm-hmm.
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So true.
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I know.
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I've had so many different conversations with people over the years around like, oh, I'm not creative.
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I'm not an artist.
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And I could relate to that at a stage of my life because I used to think...
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you know, that, oh, to be an artist, you have to know how to paint.
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You have to know how to draw.
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You know how to, you have to know how to like make art.
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And this idea of what art is, you know, was kind of imprinted that it was these physical things similar to what you were talking about, Halstian, around like, oh, it should be up on a wall, right?
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But yes, Burning Man definitely cracked me open.
New Artistic Expressions and Playfulness
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to be able to find my own expression of my artistry.
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Because I tried painting, but it's not really a thing.
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This was many years before I went to Burning Man.
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But when I started going to Burning Man, I actually discovered my artistry through textiles and through clothing and through sewing because the costumes, you know, really encouraged.
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And so I just all of a sudden got this fire lit under me.
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Thanks to Kiwi out there who many of you might know Kiwi Craig.
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He sparked me for my first burn and got me my first sewing machine.
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And all of a sudden I became this textile artist and it really changed everything for me.
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I'm not sewing anymore, but I completely resonate with what you said too around being a lifestyle artist and finding different ways to create art every day, even if it's a simple flower arrangement or maybe sometimes I put body paint on even on a Tuesday.
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I feel like allowing myself to be creative, it helps to also instigate that inner child, right?
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The play.
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How do I keep things light every day and not get so serious?
00:09:36
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I love that idea of that.
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It's you, if you decide it's art or if you are in an artistic headspace, like one of the things that I think the old school, traditional art world mentality that, that makes us think that it needs to be in a frame on a wall is that there is like curation.
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There's an idea of that.
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This is good art or this is bad art.
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And the burning man mentality is that
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It's if you made it, it's art.
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And especially the only thing that is judged on is degree of authenticity.
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You know, if you are authentically expressing yourself, it is celebrated.
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Doesn't mean I like it, but it means I respect it and I will encourage you to do so.
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And from that place of like, oh, wait, if I can authentically express in any way, then that is a genuine artistic expression.
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I think that's a liberating idea.
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And so when you said about can some people have trouble with the idea of being an artist, I think that's a really powerful spiritual pursuit.
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If you can actually let go of what the reasons are that you don't think you're an artist, it's probably the same reasons that you're struggling to be authentic.
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Mm hmm.
00:10:49
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So powerful.
00:10:50
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Yeah, that's a good one.
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That's a good one.
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And yeah, and also that that questioning, like, am I an artist?
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I think a lot of people if someone out there is listening and has been like, I don't I don't know that I'm an artist.
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I don't think I'm an artist or I don't know that I can be an artist.
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I would just say stop and look around your space at the room you're in or at your house.
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Nobody's living in like this stark, you know, four walls in a box kind of thing.
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It's like, look at you likely have stuff on your walls.
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You know, who chose that rug that you've got to like look at your kitchen, look how things are set up.
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Like there's an element of artistic space.
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expression that is that permeates our lives and it speaks like some you know halcyon like just like you own it like i'm the lifestyle artist like there's just i'm surrounded by art i'm creating in every aspect of my life we're doing that whether we are acknowledging that or not and i think it's you know if if somebody is questioning their capabilities it's like it's like you've got we're surrounded by evidence uh for that so um in my own life i found going back to burning man
00:11:59
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I co-created camps for a number of years with people.
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And there's always been this artistic element to it.
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Burning Man kind of demands that.
00:12:12
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You can do it like it's like and also applying like function, you know, to form like, yeah, it's got to be artistic, but it also has to withstand the elements.
00:12:19
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So that's where it's like, I'm not an artist.
00:12:22
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I'm a builder.
00:12:22
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It's like, well, yeah, but there's there's some artistic, you know,
00:12:27
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what's the word I'm looking for?
00:12:28
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Artistic inspiration that has to come along with that as well.
00:12:32
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So yeah, so there's an, so like Betsy, like I may not, I may not paint, but I do write and there's all certain, I definitely have some, never, it took a while before I saw myself as an artist, but looking back on it, especially now that we're talking about it, yeah, I've got art, just, I've expressed myself artistically throughout much of my, throughout much of my life.
00:12:55
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Mm-hmm, it's such a vital part of staying inspired for me.
00:13:01
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So I had a cool thing happen last week that I'd love to share, and it has to do with allowing art to come through in many forms and letting it fuel other aspects of
Overcoming Creative Blockages
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life.
00:13:13
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And so I have this project that I'm working on, and I have some to-do lists to go along with it, and I was feeling blocked.
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It was like something that I know I needed to do.
00:13:25
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And I was like, okay, I just can't access the inspiration for these things to come through in this project I'm working on.
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And so I actually started working on some other art that was not related.
00:13:40
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That was actually not even really going to contribute to anything except for
00:13:47
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my own expression of art.
00:13:48
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And so I went ahead and followed that inspiration to create.
00:13:52
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It was a earth mandala.
00:13:54
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I love making mandalas.
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Many of you have seen some of my pictures.
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I think some of you probably make mandalas, but it felt really good to just get out in nature, collect some flowers and some sticks and some crystals and things.
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And I made this mandala.
00:14:09
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And it's very impermanent, you know, it's Earth Mandala, so it's going to get cleared.
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And then what ended up happening, then I came to this other project I was working on, and all of a sudden, things started to open up.
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And the creative flow started to rush in.
00:14:25
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And I was like, oh, yes, there it is.
00:14:28
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And so one of the things I've learned in my journey of being creative is that to allow different mediums to fuel.
00:14:37
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That used to happen as well with when I was a clothing designer.
00:14:41
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If I had a custom piece I had to work on and the inspiration wasn't coming through, then to pause, go make some other art that had nothing to do with that and let the channel start to open, right?
00:14:53
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Let those...
00:14:54
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just sparks start to come through in a different medium and then see how it inspires the other things we're working on.
00:15:02
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The idea of opening the channel, I love that.
00:15:04
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It reminds me of the Artist's Way and Morning Pages of just like getting stuff out, you know, and part of what we've been writing, the idea of like, don't be afraid to write crap.
00:15:14
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You know, you just got to like get it out, let it out, let it out.
00:15:19
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I wanted to say that there's, you know, if you are someone that feels like, oh, I'm not an artist or I'm not creative, that it's not your fault that you feel that way, because we have a culture that trains us to be consumers, that trains us to be the receivers of our entertainment.
00:15:38
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and really kind of discourages us to be creative artistic people.
00:15:43
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And so it takes a lot of courage and it takes a community of support and it takes a lot to allow yourself to be a non-professional artist, to be someone who just creates because humans create.
00:15:56
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And I think that there's a real powerful acknowledgement of that, that humans are creative.
00:16:01
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It's one of the things that separates us from
00:16:04
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everything else, you know?
00:16:06
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And, and so to acknowledge it, it's okay to,
00:16:09
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And it's just okay.
00:16:10
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Making creative expressions, no matter how crappy that you might judge them or you might think someone's judging them, is a part of your expression.
00:16:19
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It's part of being a human being.
00:16:21
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There's a game that I like to play called the squiggle game and where everyone gets the same squiggle and then you turn it into something.
00:16:28
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And people always say, oh, I can't draw.
00:16:32
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I can't draw.
00:16:32
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I'm like, that's not how the game is played.
00:16:34
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The game is not about drawing the coolest picture.
00:16:36
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In fact, if you want to just make a
00:16:39
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just point to, I was gonna draw this and I thought it looked like this.
00:16:43
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That's okay.
00:16:44
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It's about just like letting yourself think creatively and opening up that channel, open up that channel.
00:16:50
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Cause I think, you know, as you said, Betsy, when the channel starts opening, things come out that are way more than you have really control over.
00:17:00
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Yep.
00:17:02
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We gotta get out of the way.
00:17:04
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Yeah.
00:17:05
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Yeah.
00:17:05
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And kids are kids are good at that.
00:17:07
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I don't think anybody has to tell a kid to like be artistic, you know, or a child is always drawing.
00:17:14
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They're always like painting, finger painting, you know, whatever, like just give you don't have to give a kid anything.
00:17:20
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They'll make something crazy out of like whatever they get, get their hands on.
00:17:24
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It's the imagination.
00:17:25
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Yes.
00:17:26
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I love that.
00:17:27
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It's so true.
00:17:28
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And that's why I was saying earlier, it's like we got to let ourselves play as adults, right?
00:17:32
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Children just naturally play and they use their imagination to make art.
00:17:39
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And there's like this joy that comes from it.
00:17:41
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And so where does that stop?
00:17:43
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You know, it's oftentimes it feels like as adults, we kind of like pull us away from being imaginative.
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And so art can help.
00:17:52
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again, open the channel for, for play and for creativity and for imagination.
00:17:57
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I had a really cool experience.
Childlike Creativity
00:18:00
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Uh, I was via webcam drawing with Asher, who's almost four, and we were both drawing monsters.
00:18:07
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And, and I was, I was kind of, I wanted to, to impress him.
00:18:11
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I wanted to draw a really cool looking monster, you know, and then, and, and then I look at his drawing and it's,
00:18:18
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awesome, but totally crazy, chaotic, you know, and he's very clear about what it is, you know, even though I can't really tell, you know, and he said, but there's nothing in his mind.
00:18:28
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He's not going, man, darn it.
00:18:30
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It doesn't look like, you know, a real monster.
00:18:33
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He just, he's not attached to what it's supposed to be or what it should be.
00:18:38
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It's just his, this is his expression and it's perfect as it's coming out.
00:18:42
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And I was like, ah,
00:18:45
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this is so cool.
00:18:45
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Like I, he's, he's not looking at my drawing being like, wow, Bada is really good artist.
00:18:52
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Yeah.
00:18:55
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Yeah.
00:18:55
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That's, and that's something that I, that we get, we lose like, you know, as we get older in something, you know, when, when Asher, any child does something, I've never heard a child say, Oh, that, and I don't remember ever saying it when I was that age.
00:19:09
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Oh, that's not what it was supposed to look like.
00:19:11
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That's not what it was supposed to be.
00:19:13
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It's not supposed to be anything.
00:19:14
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It just, it is what it is.
00:19:16
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And they're just like, yeah, I just did this thing.
00:19:19
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And it's like, great.
00:19:19
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Now I'm going to do this other thing.
00:19:21
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And,
00:19:22
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if we can hold onto that, this, the idea that it's supposed to be something or it's supposed to look a certain way or evoke a certain feeling and just like, no, I just, I'm expressing myself because that's just what I want to do.
00:19:36
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It's like the, you know, it's again, it comes back to the spiritual lesson of undergoing action without attachment to outcome.
00:19:43
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The action itself is the,
00:19:46
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The service is the joy.
00:19:47
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We don't do the thing in order to have an outcome of joy.
00:19:52
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We do it because it's joyful to do.
00:19:55
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Dude, I just got a huge spark hit because one of the things I have written on my wall right now is you can't do it wrong.
00:20:03
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And it's been going back to this kind of like childhood stuff of like fearing that, you know, is there a right and wrong way?
00:20:10
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And so I've really been sinking into that idea.
00:20:12
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And I think that that's one of the traps of keeping us from our creativity and our art is, is, am I, is this good enough?
00:20:19
Speaker
Am I doing it right?
00:20:20
Speaker
Am I doing it right?
00:20:20
Speaker
And if you can really sink into that, you can't do it wrong.
00:20:24
Speaker
You can't do it wrong.
00:20:25
Speaker
That's the child attitude.
00:20:26
Speaker
You can't do it wrong.
00:20:27
Speaker
That is there's so much creative power can come from that pipeline.
00:20:32
Speaker
If you just let it out, knowing that you can't do it wrong, if it is authentic.
00:20:37
Speaker
So true.
00:20:38
Speaker
And when we provide ourselves a space to express in that way, it's so powerful.
00:20:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:44
Speaker
And not attached.
00:20:46
Speaker
Right.
00:20:46
Speaker
That's why I really loved the mandala practice.
00:20:48
Speaker
Right.
00:20:49
Speaker
Making making art to make art.
00:20:52
Speaker
I also recently have been coming to that place to around like, OK, if I make something, what the heck is it for?
00:20:59
Speaker
What am I going to do with it?
00:21:00
Speaker
You know, I've actually struggled with that in a way where I'm like, I just want to make art, but then I have this art and I don't have anywhere to put it.
00:21:07
Speaker
And what am I going to do?
00:21:08
Speaker
Like, just give it to somebody just because I don't have anywhere to put it.
00:21:11
Speaker
You know, it's like, oh, actually, maybe I can make art just to make art and not have the attachment to it actually, you know, sticking around, you know, to just create the time to, you
00:21:25
Speaker
Yeah, like I was out in nature recently and I love sticks and I collected some sticks and I ended up making some really cool mobiles with them with like some silk ribbons and some really like beautiful kind of like dream catcher type of things.
00:21:40
Speaker
And it just, when I was making them, I was like having this overwhelming feeling of just joy and beauty and like, oh wow, this is...
00:21:49
Speaker
feels so good and then I was like okay well I'd have nowhere to put these I guess I'm just gonna take them apart now and it was like even that was really powerful for me to just like get into that place too like not attached to it so so Betsy is the Blair witch I could have I could I could have guessed the stick figures in the woods that are scary
00:22:14
Speaker
Oh, gosh, no.
00:22:16
Speaker
I might leave little, like, yeah, maybe some little trails of beauty.
00:22:21
Speaker
Yes, yes, not at all.
00:22:22
Speaker
I use witch in the most positive sense of the term.
00:22:25
Speaker
Yeah, but yeah, the idea, and this comes, for me, from all of us, I think it comes from Burning Man, the idea of, you know, impermanence.
00:22:34
Speaker
There's a lot to be said in that.
00:22:36
Speaker
I spoke to somebody who helped build a temple.
00:22:39
Speaker
This is like early on when I was during my when I first started going before the lessons really started to like kind of kick in for me and become a way of a way of life.
00:22:49
Speaker
Speaking to somebody who was working on Temple and she was saying that.
00:22:54
Speaker
The the the building and the the thing about the temple was almost like secondary to her.
00:23:00
Speaker
She's like getting together with a group of people and creating this thing.
00:23:04
Speaker
She's like, that's what the juice was for me.
00:23:06
Speaker
She's like, I love what we did.
00:23:08
Speaker
She's like, but the connections I made with the people I was working alongside.
00:23:12
Speaker
That's why I did it to meet these people.
00:23:15
Speaker
And these people have become lifelong friends, like sharing this endeavor with a group of people and something that was super impermanent.
00:23:22
Speaker
She's like, but those connections are permanent.
00:23:25
Speaker
And they feel like that's the reason that she feels like she keeps going back to create this art with a bunch of other artists.
00:23:33
Speaker
And the project itself is almost secondary to that connection that they were feeling.
00:23:39
Speaker
And that was a pretty important download for me.
00:23:44
Speaker
That impermanence aspect is, I think, huge because to embrace impermanence, we have to fight against, again, these cultural kind of pressures to acquire and build and value and that art gets trapped in these traditional things of value and commerce and transactional things.
00:24:07
Speaker
And so we think it has to, like, how could you destroy something so beautiful?
00:24:13
Speaker
Well, it's not intended to be forever.
00:24:17
Speaker
It's intended to be an experience.
00:24:19
Speaker
And that is so contrary to so much of our bigger, better, more grow mindsets.
00:24:27
Speaker
And so to...
00:24:29
Speaker
that that struggle that we have with impermanence i think is is it's almost like the struggle when you like learning to meditate like how can i let go of all the stuff that is in my head and embrace this moment can i embrace this creation how can i do that and if you can then the the depth of that experience and that the the way it can hit you can be so much deeper expansive yeah the possibilities grow
00:24:57
Speaker
One of the things I feel really sparked about in this
Emotional Impact of Visionary Art
00:25:00
Speaker
conversation of art is how keeping specific types of art around us has an influence on us, right?
00:25:10
Speaker
So I love visionary art.
00:25:13
Speaker
Burning Man absolutely has inspired my deep love of visionary art.
00:25:19
Speaker
And we're so blessed to have these people in our community and at this time in history where there is this incredible evolutionary art.
00:25:28
Speaker
Autumn Sky, Andrew Jones, Jessica Pearlstein, there's Carrie Thompson to name a few that have really put out art that is encoded from what I see, encoded with certain types of frequencies, right?
00:25:45
Speaker
It evokes emotion, art always evokes emotion.
00:25:48
Speaker
What I noticed is some of these incredibly talented artists are creating these ceremonial pieces
00:25:57
Speaker
that can really transform a person from witnessing them.
00:26:02
Speaker
Another one of my favorite visionary artists is Michael Devine.
00:26:06
Speaker
He had a gallery some years ago, just a real small pop up before he got so popular.
00:26:14
Speaker
it was the first time i ever stood in front of an art piece and was brought to tears i just couldn't something overcame me and it was the first time i ever invested a good amount of money in an art piece because it evoked a deep sense of emotion and then i had that art piece on my wall for many years and it just continued to inspire my life
00:26:36
Speaker
It continued to help me to anchor into that deep feeling of just connection to my own soul.
00:26:44
Speaker
And art has that ability to do that, right?
00:26:48
Speaker
And so when we look around our house, like you were saying, Yonis, you know, what is on our walls?
00:26:53
Speaker
Is the art around us inspiring us?
00:26:56
Speaker
I had a client last week who I've been helping him to transform his bedroom into a sanctuary.
00:27:02
Speaker
And one of the things that was first to change was the art because he had art on the wall that just really meant nothing to him.
00:27:10
Speaker
I asked him about it.
00:27:10
Speaker
He's like, I don't know.
00:27:11
Speaker
Some interior designer got it for me at Ross.
00:27:14
Speaker
Like, I don't really.
00:27:15
Speaker
It's just random.
00:27:16
Speaker
And I was like, okay, well then why don't we find some art that makes you feel really inspired and good.
00:27:22
Speaker
And so we found this art piece he connects to the trumpet and like jazz.
00:27:27
Speaker
So we got some jazz pieces that just, you know, when he looks at them, he's, oh yes, like that evokes a fire in my soul for the passionate musician that I am.
00:27:38
Speaker
And it's a completely different feeling in the room now.
00:27:41
Speaker
And it's amazing how just slight shifts can really change our lives.
00:27:47
Speaker
That's a good example of how little choices of making a conscious choice, actively making a choice as opposed to passively receiving.
00:27:56
Speaker
I would consider getting art from Ross as being a passively accepting what is considered art.
00:28:03
Speaker
It's not really an active choice of yours.
00:28:05
Speaker
And that happens all the time.
00:28:07
Speaker
And often we do it because we're not totally sure what we like and don't like, and it's safer to just select
00:28:15
Speaker
you know, what's pre-selected as good.
00:28:18
Speaker
The same happens when we go to Nordstrom's and we buy clothes off the rack.
00:28:22
Speaker
We say, hey, professional, I trust you that if I wear this, I won't be teased.
00:28:28
Speaker
Okay, cool.
00:28:28
Speaker
Now this is what I look like now in the world, but it's not an active choice.
00:28:32
Speaker
Whereas you can,
00:28:34
Speaker
make a creative artistic choice in the way you walk through the world with your clothes.
00:28:39
Speaker
And it takes, again, it takes courage, but it's, there's these, that's why I like to think of a lifestyle artist, because there's little choices like that all the time in the way that you put things on your wall, the way that you dress yourself, and in the way that you give a massage.
00:28:55
Speaker
I mean, there's so many choices that we can make when we allow ourselves to make the choice ourself, as opposed to
00:29:03
Speaker
uh, accept the choices that have been given to us or told to us.
00:29:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:09
Speaker
And, and what you're speaking to comes back to the idea of authenticity.
00:29:14
Speaker
Um, like who, like, who, like the art, the art that is on our walls, isn't like what you, what's in your home is an expression of who you are, um, on the inside, even if nobody sees that.
00:29:25
Speaker
And that's,
00:29:26
Speaker
your home should be your sanctuary and use your home deserves to have this art, this authentic expression of yours, where no matter how you decide to decorate, no matter what you put on the walls, it's important.
00:29:40
Speaker
It's important to tap into that, that level of authenticity and have your, you know, your expression means something that's not to mean anything to anybody else.
00:29:49
Speaker
It just has to, it feels good to,
00:29:52
Speaker
put yourself out there and even to see like we have in our, at our home, my partner is a pretty fantastic artist, pretty, pretty fantastic painter.
00:30:00
Speaker
And there is like one, two, three, four, five paintings of hers, like on the walls.
00:30:05
Speaker
And it's, it's nice to have, you know, her stuff on the walls.
00:30:09
Speaker
Like once he's not here, she's still here, you know?
00:30:12
Speaker
And, um, yeah.
00:30:13
Speaker
And I, and, and I like that and it's good to, uh,
00:30:18
Speaker
You know, just it's there's something there's something rewarding about putting yourself out there, even even if it's only for yourself.
00:30:26
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:30:27
Speaker
And I feel like we'll just kind of circle right back around a Burning Man like we always do.
00:30:32
Speaker
It really has provided a powerful place for so many people to share their art, right?
00:30:42
Speaker
It's like there are thousands and thousands of people over the many years that Burning Man has been in existence.
00:30:49
Speaker
that there is a place for people to get to see it, right?
00:30:52
Speaker
There's people that spend the entire year building art pieces to put out there.
00:30:56
Speaker
And it's like, oh, wow, it's a very different feeling to make an amazing art piece or structure, sculpture, whatever it might be, and keep it in your garage.
Burning Man Artists in Public Spaces
00:31:06
Speaker
versus putting it somewhere out in the world for people to get to enjoy.
00:31:11
Speaker
And then watching over the years how now a lot of those beautiful sculptures and art pieces that these artists from Burning Man have made are going out into cities and are in parks and getting to be shared in this beautiful way.
00:31:25
Speaker
I'm like, I know personally there's been times where I'm like out in the world and I'm like, Hey, I think I saw that art piece at Burning Man.
00:31:31
Speaker
It's so amazing to get to see how the art of Burning Man has started to influence the art in the world.
00:31:41
Speaker
I was just noticing that I have seven photographs of myself at Burning Man on my walls and four paintings of myself at Burning Man on my walls.
00:31:52
Speaker
But that's what inspires me.
00:31:54
Speaker
It brings me into that place of my art, my life, and this place where I get to feel the most creative and artistic, I reflect that in my walls.
00:32:03
Speaker
And I want to say also that not to knock Ross art.
00:32:07
Speaker
If you see something at Ross that inspires you, that's part of being authentic.
00:32:13
Speaker
It's not going, oh, this is tacky because it's from Ross.
00:32:15
Speaker
No, or if you see something at some,
00:32:18
Speaker
seascape that you get at a thrift store and you're like, whoa, this reminds me of my childhood.
00:32:23
Speaker
I just got a hit.
00:32:24
Speaker
Oh, I'm going to put this on my wall.
00:32:26
Speaker
Like that's part of the courage of being an artist is to say, no, no, I get to decide.
00:32:30
Speaker
I get to decide what, what lights me up.
00:32:33
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:32:35
Speaker
Yes.
00:32:35
Speaker
Does it evoke emotion?
00:32:36
Speaker
Does it evoke sensation?
00:32:38
Speaker
Does it spark you?
00:32:40
Speaker
Right?
00:32:40
Speaker
I know for me, one of the ways I stay sparked with art is by moving art around and changing art around my house.
00:32:49
Speaker
You know, I don't know why.
00:32:50
Speaker
It's just something that...
00:32:53
Speaker
I just, I do every season or so.
00:32:56
Speaker
Like if I have, you know, something on my wall for a number of months, then I change it.
00:33:03
Speaker
And then when I walk into the room again, something in my brain chemistry starts to go like, look at things differently.
00:33:09
Speaker
New neural pathways start firing, new perspectives start getting shifted, you know, and that's such a beautiful thing to just keep the, keep the inspiration flowing.
00:33:19
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:33:22
Speaker
There was a passage in the book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, where he talks about the difference between a painting and a print, you know, that a painting has the energy of an artist.
00:33:38
Speaker
in it this is like a vibration of this you can see the strokes you can feel their energy whereas a print is a picture of art and for a long time i really struggled to enjoy prints you know because it of that distinction but i think that that as you were mentioning let's see that like if something if an image has a code in it or has a a reaction to you a picture of a piece of art
00:34:08
Speaker
that hits you is still, you know, absolutely a valid way to decorate your walls.
00:34:16
Speaker
Yeah, that's yeah, the image itself.
00:34:20
Speaker
Yes, I understand.
00:34:21
Speaker
I get and I appreciate the distinction, certainly, but certainly the image
00:34:27
Speaker
and the impact of an image should not be discounted.
00:34:29
Speaker
I mean, just the fact that there's a whole, the whole realm of photography, that's an image and some pretty powerful images have, have resulted from that.
00:34:39
Speaker
And I'm recalling a 2006, I remember this, I,
00:34:46
Speaker
I was helping set up for a, uh, a function as began to carry Thompson.
00:34:50
Speaker
He had donated a bunch of large murals that we were going to hang from the rafters.
00:34:56
Speaker
And I just, I just said, maybe two weeks off of my, um,
00:35:02
Speaker
my very first DMT experience and the imagery was still very profound in my head.
00:35:08
Speaker
And so I'm up in the rafters, unfurling this, this large piece from Kerry Thompson.
00:35:15
Speaker
And I'm like 10 feet up on a ladder
Shared Human Experience of Art
00:35:18
Speaker
attaching it.
00:35:18
Speaker
And then I have to unroll.
00:35:19
Speaker
I had no idea what the, what's on the mural.
00:35:21
Speaker
I unroll this thing right in front of me.
00:35:24
Speaker
And it is exactly what I saw in that trip.
00:35:27
Speaker
Like, and, you know, painted, painted on a mural in front of me.
00:35:31
Speaker
And I was like, immediately went back to that space.
00:35:33
Speaker
And I'm 10 feet up on the ladder, like, oh, like, like wobbling, trying to catch myself.
00:35:36
Speaker
It's a diving head first into this mural.
00:35:38
Speaker
And I had to find him.
00:35:40
Speaker
And I was like, dude, you captured exactly my experience.
00:35:43
Speaker
He's like, yeah, that's what, yeah, that's, that's, that's what I'm trying to do.
00:35:45
Speaker
It's like, let's, and I did it over.
00:35:47
Speaker
And this is, this painting is another experience I had.
00:35:50
Speaker
And just, you know, and,
00:35:52
Speaker
Yeah, those and this just speaks to again, the images, what, whatever that whatever evokes that feeling and that experience from you, the medium.
00:36:04
Speaker
almost secondary whether it's you know because music has the same has the same thing and like you might hear a piece like we've got we all have some fantastic musician friends and uh one of them uh is david bergeau and a lot of times when i'm listening to him play it's a piece that is improv that will not be created again um but he's he's somebody who definitely drops you know he's very comfortable with the idea of impermanence so he's happy to
00:36:30
Speaker
just play and some of the some of those feelings that his pieces evoke while you're in the presence of it it just uh just profound and like taking those taking those feelings away from that that singular performance that will never be recreated again exactly the same um is is pretty good it's pretty good so i was so scared that you were gonna fall off that ladder during that story
00:36:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:59
Speaker
Would not be the first time I had her into something for sure.
00:37:04
Speaker
I love what you're speaking to also around how music is art.
00:37:08
Speaker
So is movement.
00:37:09
Speaker
You know, I find dance and expressing the body as art is so powerful.
00:37:19
Speaker
Like witnessing a performer, a ballerina, a dancer, a contortionist, you know, my own self-expression of movement and dance, it's totally an access point to art.
00:37:34
Speaker
And I feel like that is...
00:37:37
Speaker
What are the greatest gifts I know for me to be able to tap into that?
00:37:41
Speaker
Right.
00:37:41
Speaker
So if I'm getting really serious or logistical or like I need to move my body in a way that feels like it activates the right brain, the creativity.
00:37:53
Speaker
And so I feel like dance is definitely a wonderful expression of art, too.
00:37:59
Speaker
Mm hmm.
00:37:59
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:38:00
Speaker
Are you, I think I know the answer for Halcyon.
00:38:04
Speaker
Are you into, are you guys into contact dancing?
00:38:07
Speaker
Those contact jams?
00:38:08
Speaker
Is that your jam?
00:38:09
Speaker
It's not my jam.
00:38:10
Speaker
I appreciate it.
00:38:12
Speaker
I love contact dance.
00:38:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:14
Speaker
Yeah, and for those of you out there, what contact dance is, it's like partner dance or multiple people in a dance expression where there is always one point of contact.
00:38:23
Speaker
And it's very intuitive.
00:38:25
Speaker
There's this non-structured expression versus like tango or more traditional partner dancing.
00:38:35
Speaker
This is very abstract.
00:38:39
Speaker
It's kind of like the Van Gogh of partner dancing.
00:38:44
Speaker
Or the Jackson Pollock.
00:38:47
Speaker
Nice.
00:38:48
Speaker
I have never done it.
00:38:50
Speaker
Quite honestly, that would be an edge for me.
00:38:53
Speaker
I think I've seen people do it, and it's one of the things that kept me away from ecstatic dance for a long time, because I'm like, I don't know what this is all about.
00:39:02
Speaker
You know, it's kind of weird at first.
00:39:03
Speaker
It's like one of the things that actually has come out of my exploration of contact dance, because I had that same thing where it's like, oh, this is awkward.
00:39:12
Speaker
How do I, you know, I might stumble or I might put an elbow in somebody's face on accident.
00:39:18
Speaker
And I, one of the phrases that I love, it's called the integration of the awkward.
00:39:25
Speaker
And that term actually came from an album title from my muse.
00:39:31
Speaker
But I feel like contact dance really teaches that.
00:39:34
Speaker
And so does many different expressions of art, right?
00:39:36
Speaker
Integration of the awkward.
00:39:38
Speaker
Like awkward is going to happen.
00:39:41
Speaker
we're going to move our bodies awkwardly.
00:39:43
Speaker
We're going to say something awkward.
00:39:45
Speaker
We're going to like, you do something awkward, but how do we move through it?
00:39:49
Speaker
You know, integrate it into the flow and just keep, come right back, you know?
00:39:54
Speaker
And that's why I'm also like, just on this topic of art and my journey of learning is,
00:40:00
Speaker
Around how to just keep listening to the evolution of art to know when to stop.
00:40:09
Speaker
Like, where's that stopping point if you're working on an art piece?
00:40:12
Speaker
How do you know when you're finished?
00:40:15
Speaker
How do you know when to keep going?
00:40:17
Speaker
So I had this really cool insight from working on a hat that I was making many years ago.
00:40:24
Speaker
Our friend Dax had commissioned me to make a hat for him.
00:40:28
Speaker
And I really wanted to make it good.
00:40:30
Speaker
And I was like, oh my gosh, like he's going to be wearing this out in the world and I want him to feel really good about it.
00:40:36
Speaker
And I started making it and then it started turning really weird.
00:40:39
Speaker
And I was like, oh God, like this is not cool.
00:40:43
Speaker
It looks like a freaking scarecrow hat.
00:40:45
Speaker
I can't give this to him.
00:40:46
Speaker
And he had given me the base hat and I was so scared that I like ruined it.
00:40:49
Speaker
And I was like, Oh God.
00:40:51
Speaker
so i stopped working on it and i felt horrible about it and it was totally awkward and i so i set it on the shelf and then i came to a point of realizing just keep going just keep going just keep adding some layers right just just see what comes through and so then when i i did that then all of a sudden something new started to emerge and it was like oh my gosh okay
00:41:16
Speaker
the awkward started to turn into grace and beauty and this new form started to reveal itself the more that I continue to tend to it right it's kind of like painting right there's just there can be layers and layers and layers and layers and you might not know what's to come until you keep going and so just to keep keep going and know when to stop has been one of the greatest teachings of my artist expression
00:41:45
Speaker
It's the difference between, I think, you know, it's like the difference between the mind and the heart.
00:41:50
Speaker
You know, the heart is, the mind is where we get the skill from.
00:41:55
Speaker
And the heart is how we apply that skill.
00:41:58
Speaker
And I think that going back to the idea of contact dancing, contact jam,
00:42:04
Speaker
the, the only instruction, I remember the one time I went, I went twice, but one time, the first time I went, the instructor, the main lady who's kind of over overseeing kind of the, the flow of it was like, we need,
00:42:18
Speaker
your mind needs to get out of the way of the expression.
00:42:21
Speaker
And that I found kind of applies across the board to art.
00:42:25
Speaker
So when we're, you know, so when you're creating a hat, for example, Betsy, it's like the Maya starts to be looking, oh, this is awkward or whatever, you know, what have you.
00:42:34
Speaker
And I think, you know, once you
00:42:35
Speaker
But we all have our own process.
00:42:37
Speaker
So but and I think it's wise and there's a lot of wisdom in that idea.
00:42:42
Speaker
OK, I'm going to set this aside.
Supporting Artists and Authentic Expression
00:42:44
Speaker
I'm going to come back to it later and then coming back to it with your heart and be like, no, it gets more.
00:42:48
Speaker
Get weirder.
00:42:49
Speaker
Get more.
00:42:49
Speaker
Get more awkward with it.
00:42:51
Speaker
And I'm sure that was I'm sure that hat was received by Dax.
00:42:54
Speaker
Like I was pretty giddy to get it when he when he finally received that.
00:42:59
Speaker
He was, and he looked awesome.
00:43:01
Speaker
And the cool thing is he's one of the most supportive friends of my art.
00:43:05
Speaker
He really taught me so much around how we can support each other as artists, because he would just give me his complete trust.
00:43:15
Speaker
you know, and I think healthy and you probably can relate to this considering you've commissioned so many of your friends to make these art pieces for you.
00:43:23
Speaker
You know, it's such a gift to be able to encourage each other as the artists that we are and to just say, Hey, like I want to pay you for your magical expression.
00:43:34
Speaker
And I feel like that has been one of the greatest gifts of this Burning Man community is that we fan each other's flames.
00:43:41
Speaker
We support each other.
00:43:43
Speaker
And I feel like, um,
00:43:44
Speaker
You know, the more that we can do that, the more than that authenticity starts to come through.
00:43:49
Speaker
Right.
00:43:50
Speaker
I know the people in my life that have, have been there for me in that way have just helped me to become even more creative.
00:43:57
Speaker
And so then I get to keep doing that to my friends and fan their flames and remind each other like, wow, your art is so needed and it's so valuable and I appreciate it.
00:44:06
Speaker
And I want to buy it and I want to share it.
00:44:08
Speaker
And it's, it's such, such a gift of this community.
00:44:12
Speaker
Yeah, that's such a wonderful gesture, you know?
00:44:19
Speaker
I mean, it's not really about, I mean, there's a thing about, you know,
00:44:26
Speaker
using your art as a way to make a living, which is a whole different, I think, topic.
00:44:31
Speaker
But the idea of just valuing someone's art and trying to kind of vote with your dollar and say, look, this is worth something in the world, you know, more of this in the world.
00:44:45
Speaker
And to be able to tell someone who is struggling with that kind of
00:44:49
Speaker
cultural story of like, we do not value our artists, we do not value our art.
00:44:53
Speaker
So if you can have the means to give someone the very clear message, no, this is important.
00:44:59
Speaker
I think, you know, purchasing of someone's art can mean so much, even if you just bought like a postcard of an artist, you know, or buy their sticker or something like that.
00:45:07
Speaker
You know, if you see someone at an art show, it's such a big difference.
00:45:10
Speaker
It's saying, I love your art is great.
00:45:14
Speaker
But saying, I'm going to use what our culture uses to decide importance, and I'm going to tell you this is important and this is good, it makes a big difference to an artist, I think.
00:45:23
Speaker
It does.
00:45:24
Speaker
It's such a vulnerable thing as artists to put themselves out there and invest their time, energy, money, resources to say, hey, here's my authentic expression.
00:45:35
Speaker
And I feel like we are at a time where there is this whole new way of getting to be an artist in the world, you know, with social media platforms, providing a space for artists to get to be seen in these whole new ways.
00:45:48
Speaker
Like on my Instagram, I follow a lot of amazing artists and it's
00:45:53
Speaker
so cool to see some of these artists way that they're sharing their paintings and sharing their art.
00:45:58
Speaker
And then like thousands and thousands and thousands of people are getting to see it out in the world.
00:46:04
Speaker
I just absolutely love getting to see, um, also how artists are able to take their paintings, for example, and turn it into clothing, turning it into, like you said, stickers, um, uh, all these different ways of being able to fuse, um, um,
00:46:23
Speaker
mediums for different ways of getting to share art in the world and actually create sustainable business models for artists.
00:46:30
Speaker
I love seeing how so many people that I know are doing well as artists.
00:46:36
Speaker
Whereas not so long ago, I have a couple of generations or less, whereas like, oh, you want to be an artist?
00:46:42
Speaker
Yeah, no, no, no, you're not going to make it.
00:46:45
Speaker
You better go back to school and become a doctor.
00:46:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's definitely easier than ever.
00:46:53
Speaker
Yeah, definitely easier than ever, I think, for artists to to do well and to thrive.
00:46:59
Speaker
There's it's simply because it's easier to get your stuff out there.
00:47:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:05
Speaker
And so, yeah, yeah, we live in an artistic age.
00:47:08
Speaker
But there is that, that, that means that your job is professional artists and that there is a lot that going into being a professional artist that is beyond just creating art in terms of playing social media games and promoting and all those things.
00:47:20
Speaker
And I definitely know some artists who really struggle with that aspect.
00:47:25
Speaker
They just want to paint, you know, and it's, it's a, it's a, there is a
00:47:31
Speaker
That's a big challenge.
00:47:32
Speaker
And so to kind of come full circle with some of the things we've talked about, you know, I think that it's amazing that there are people who are able to listen to their muse and still make a living, you know, and at the same time, each of us needs to spend some time listening to our muse
00:47:50
Speaker
just because it's an incredible part of being a human being is to to be expressing yourself so making your your crappy art with no intention of ever making money off it no intention i mean i think that's a really dangerous motivation if you're creating anything with the idea of like can i make value out of this and sell it um you have instantly lost the connection to the muse um so i
00:48:19
Speaker
being an artist as a professional thing is a yay yay yay bonus love that i'm glad people are doing it but we can all be artists no matter what certainly that feels like a good uh exclamation point yeah right well i love that because we always we always close it up with sparks was that your closing spark calcium um
00:48:48
Speaker
He's got more.
00:48:48
Speaker
He's got more sparks.
00:48:49
Speaker
Squeeze them out.
00:48:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:49
Speaker
I guess just that the one other spark is just that, you know, to be aware of the cultural binds that have –
00:49:05
Speaker
kept many of us away from considering ourselves artists and being an artist and to forgive yourself and to notice when your voice says, I'm not creative or I'm not artistic.
00:49:14
Speaker
And as you start to challenge that voice and look around your house and your wardrobe and your decisions and your choices, you know,
00:49:23
Speaker
is, is there little places where you can start to make choices based on some inner inspiration, as opposed to the things that you have been served from externally your whole life, and following those little choices here and there?
00:49:40
Speaker
That's the artist path.
00:49:43
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I think the the that what that sparks in me is the
00:49:48
Speaker
You know, the idea of allowing ourselves to be surprised or allowing ourselves to be to be, you know, positively surprised by what are who might be inspired by our art or what our art might inspire out in the world.
00:50:06
Speaker
I was surprised.
00:50:08
Speaker
a little while ago i was speaking to a friend of mine she's she's very attractive and she likes to post like boudoir photos of herself uh online uh just not not a lot but you know somewhat regularly and they're all they all look fantastic it's she's really she's just one of those really photogenic people and i commented on one of them i'm like i hope you're saving these for like a coffee table book or something and she was like
00:50:32
Speaker
Uh, no.
00:50:33
Speaker
Would, is that something that you'd be interested?
00:50:36
Speaker
I'm like, oh my gosh, like I think anybody would.
00:50:39
Speaker
And so it's like, they're just really, they're gorgeous.
00:50:41
Speaker
They're artistic.
00:50:42
Speaker
They're, um, yeah, I would love to, I would love to have a book of those, um, sitting on my table at home.
00:50:47
Speaker
And it's, it's, it struck me as something that she had never even considered.
00:50:51
Speaker
And it's just like, no, it's like, don't, uh, you know, let's don't, we shouldn't sell ourselves short.
00:50:56
Speaker
Like we hold like this.
00:50:57
Speaker
If we're, if we're, if we have it to, if we have it on, like we're putting it out there,
00:51:03
Speaker
you know, it's, it will likely be received.
00:51:07
Speaker
It might not in the way you might not be expecting, but the world, I think, wants what we have to, to offer and appreciates what we have to offer.
00:51:19
Speaker
And so allow ourselves to be inspired by, by the world, be surprised by, you know, you never put yourself out there.
00:51:26
Speaker
You never know what might come of it.
00:51:28
Speaker
Nice.
00:51:30
Speaker
I am feeling sparked.
00:51:32
Speaker
I'm like, okay, I want to end this conversation so I can go make some art and go collect all of the images and the photos that I've done.
00:51:40
Speaker
I've done some modeling too.
00:51:42
Speaker
It's a really great idea.
00:51:43
Speaker
I love that.
00:51:46
Speaker
I feel like my closing spark is to make art to make art.
00:51:50
Speaker
Right, just to let it spark some inspiration, let it evoke that sense of imagination and play.
00:51:58
Speaker
And really that being the intention, you know, maybe it is also an intention to share that art with someone.
00:52:05
Speaker
like painting rocks, for example.
00:52:08
Speaker
You know, painting a rock is just like, it's a fun thing, and then you can go give it to someone to put in their garden, for example.
00:52:15
Speaker
You know, something so simple can actually just create so many lasting smiles.
00:52:22
Speaker
I found a painted rock actually not too long ago, and I picked it up, and I put it right by my front door, and every time I see it, I just, ah,
00:52:31
Speaker
So beautiful.
00:52:32
Speaker
Somebody painted that.
00:52:33
Speaker
I have no idea who, and it's really good.
00:52:35
Speaker
So to keep those sparks spreading with, um, with our imagination, our joy, our play, our creativity.
00:52:46
Speaker
Love this conversation with you guys.
00:52:48
Speaker
Thank you guys so much.
00:52:49
Speaker
And so as we close it up, we love to always share a little more about who we are and how you can find us in the world.
00:52:57
Speaker
So how about you want to start us off?
00:52:59
Speaker
Halcyon, where can people find you in the world?
Halcyon's Creative Projects
00:53:01
Speaker
You can find all of the wacky, wild and diverse expressions of my lifestyle artistry at johnstyn.com.
00:53:10
Speaker
J-O-H-N-S-T-Y-N.com.
00:53:12
Speaker
That's got my gratitude circles, as well as like, I like to express myself artistically.
00:53:17
Speaker
I make t-shirts as a way of expressing my art.
00:53:20
Speaker
And, and I've got a book, several books.
00:53:23
Speaker
And so this, if you would like to, to traipse along my artistic path, johnstyn.com.
00:53:31
Speaker
amazing fantastic fantastic uh i've got a um as mentioned before i've got a nutritional supplement company out there called new world nutritionals spelled n-u world nutritionals.com and we make mushroom based products designed to improve one's state of mind helps to alleviate symptoms of anxiety depression performed all forms of dementia um
00:53:58
Speaker
ADHD, things like that helps you focus, helps your memory, all things for the brain.
00:54:03
Speaker
It's good.
00:54:03
Speaker
It's good brain food.
00:54:04
Speaker
So you can find us again at newworldnutritionals.com.
00:54:07
Speaker
Use the code SPARK for 10% off of any product.
00:54:11
Speaker
I would imagine that it might help with your creativity also.
00:54:16
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:54:17
Speaker
There are definitely some artists that use it exactly for that.
00:54:20
Speaker
Amazing.
00:54:21
Speaker
To great results.
00:54:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:22
Speaker
I love that.
00:54:24
Speaker
And I have many forms of my creative expression out in the world.
00:54:29
Speaker
In the last few years, I have been turning my art into affirmations.
00:54:35
Speaker
And so I created a journal that is called the Power Affirmation Journal that really is an expression of my heart and my passion for personal growth and development and really cultivating practices that can help with sustainable happiness.
00:54:51
Speaker
And so you can find that on poweraffirmation.com where I have shared many of my
00:54:57
Speaker
most favorite affirmations that I've written and also that I've collected.
00:55:00
Speaker
And I've also put out into the world, some audio affirmations that really inspire all kinds of different mindset hacks, whether that is using affirmations for traveling or for mindful eating or for getting, cultivating deeper gratitude.
00:55:18
Speaker
So affirmations is my current, um,
00:55:23
Speaker
creative expression.
Holistic Healing as Creative Expression
00:55:24
Speaker
And there's that.
00:55:25
Speaker
And then also for those of you that are in Southern California, I love getting to support people one-on-one in person with body work, energy work, healing work.
00:55:34
Speaker
I'm a holistic healing practitioner.
00:55:36
Speaker
And so I love getting to just put my hands on people and love them up.
00:55:40
Speaker
So grateful to get to be here with you guys in this form of our expression on staying sparked.
00:55:46
Speaker
So thank you guys for listening.
00:55:47
Speaker
Thank you for leaving us reviews.
00:55:49
Speaker
Thank you for sharing the sparks.
00:55:51
Speaker
And we look forward to getting to continue these inspiring conversations with you.
00:55:56
Speaker
Fantastic.
00:55:57
Speaker
You want to close this out with a affirmation?
00:56:00
Speaker
Yes.
00:56:02
Speaker
All right.
00:56:03
Speaker
I love it.
00:56:04
Speaker
You know, I love my affirmation.
00:56:05
Speaker
So all right.
00:56:06
Speaker
I know I can't get enough affirmation enthusiast over here.
00:56:12
Speaker
All right.
00:56:13
Speaker
So infusing our consciousness today with sparks of inspiration, simple affirmation.
Closing Affirmation for Creativity
00:56:20
Speaker
I stay inspired every day.
00:56:23
Speaker
I find ways to stay inspired every day.
00:56:27
Speaker
I find ways to stay inspired every day.
00:56:31
Speaker
Every day in every way, I am finding ways to stay inspired.
00:56:36
Speaker
I find ways to express my art in new ways every day.
00:56:42
Speaker
I am inspired, I am inspired, I am inspired.
00:56:46
Speaker
Letting yourself repeat that in your mind again and again and again, I stay inspired.
00:56:51
Speaker
I am inspired.
00:56:52
Speaker
I am inspired.
00:56:56
Speaker
And so it is.
00:56:58
Speaker
So it is.
00:56:58
Speaker
Thank you, Betsy.
00:56:59
Speaker
Thank you.
00:57:00
Speaker
Stay smart, people.