Creative Courage Soul Sisters: Part I

Photo of artist Lisa Congdon by Leslie Sophia Lindell Photography

Hello there! I'm excited to share a new Creative Courage Soul Sisters post with you today! These incredible women will be sharing their secrets with us in exclusive interviews in the next session of my Creative Courage e-course. 

I LOVE doing these guest interviews with talented, smart women who are running thriving creative businesses and following their dreams. I learn so much from the interviews myself, and I'm always inspired and pleasantly surprised by the responses I receive.

Creative Courage starts in only 2 weeks, and I'd like to invite you to join us here! 

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We'll start today with San Francisco based illustrator and fine artist, Lisa Congdon - author of the unique book A Collection A Day, which documents her 2010 blog project, published by UPPERCASE. Lisa is represented by the prestigious agency Lilla Rogers Studio and her clients include Chronicle Books, Target, and Urban Outfitters.

Lisa was raised in upstate New York and Northern California surrounded by trees and animals, and her artwork is inspired by her love of nature. She now lives in San Francisco, and she's also an avid cyclist and swimmer.

Lisa loves cooking vegan meals, visiting flea markets, watching films, and spending time in her light-filled studio. 

When asked about her creative dreams for 2013, Lisa told me: "In 2013, I'd like to start making large, abstract paintings." 

See Lisa's art portfolio, and visit Lisa on her blog, Facebook, Twitter, in her Etsy shop and on Big Cartel.

Another lovely guest joining us this session is Faythe Levine, documentary film maker, writer, artist, photographer, curator, events organizer, creator of the well-known film and book Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY Art, Craft, and Design, as well as the new Sign Painters book and upcoming film.

In her hometown of Milwaukee, Faythe curates an art space called Sky High Gallery. Since 2004, she has also organized a wildly successful local show called Art vs. Craft that supports innovative makers of handmade goods. 

Faythe writes: "I am continually searching for good things-- music, food and art objects. My desire to share and collect drives me to keep searching and meeting new people at home and while I travel." 

One of Faythe's creative dreams for 2013: "In 2013 I am determined to step away from computer based research and carve out studio time for myself to go back to making visual art."

Learn more about Faythe's many fascinating creative projects on her blog, including more about the Handmade Nation book and film and her new Sign Painters book and film.

Our next guest is Laurie Wagner, poet and writer, creative writing coach, author of 7 published books and numerous magazine articles, creator of the 27 powers Traveling Writers series, Wild Writing classes, and the Telling True Stories ecourse. She's also a mixed media artist, mother of two, and a "one time amateur racquetball champion."

I adore how Laurie tells us more about herself here: "The ceiling in my dining room is gold. The walls are blood red. I have a fire pit surrounded by a motley crew of comfy chairs, in my front yard.  My garden refuses to be tamed... If I'm in a bleak mood, I won't try to hide it. If I'm feeling like a luminescent moonbeam, I won't hide that either."

Laurie has personally taught over 1000 writing students, and she currently leads weekly writing classes at her home in the Northern California Bay Area and in Berkeley at The Teahouse Studio. Her Telling True Stories e-course is wide open and welcome to writers of all ages, around the world.

When I asked Laurie to tell me about one of her creative dreams for 2013, she replied:

"My creative dream for 2013 is pretty simple, it's to have a create person's wet dream. For this, I need the trinity of: 

1. Good ideas

2. The time to execute them

3. The energy to inspire them

Often I'll have one or two of them - the ideas, but no time - the time, but no get-off-my- tush-inspiration to execute them.

Having all three  - ideas, energy and time - is all I want for 2013. I don't care what I make, I just want to make it up and make it happen!"  

Don't miss Laurie's 27 Powers website and blog, and there is still time to sign up for her Telling True Stories e-course starting this week!

I'm delighted to have ceramic artist Diana Fayt joining us this session too! 

Diana is based in San Francisco and her internationally celebrated ceramic art has been featured on the cover of Ceramics Monthly magazine and in many American and Japanese publications. Diana's artwork is exhibited all over the world, and her clients include Heath Ceramics.  

Diana received her ceramics and printmaking degree from the California Arts and Crafts, but beforehand she spent a year retracing her Hungarian family roots in Budapest in 1983/84. 

In Hungary with her distant relatives, Diana "explored Communist Hungary with a pack of former circus stars who drove an old Cadillac, frequented burlesque shows and liked to "Boogie."  Sounds like fun to me!!

I asked Diana to share one of her creative dreams for 2013: 

"My one creative dream for 2013 is to learn new things. I've spent so many years as a solitary maker and teaching others that I am yearning to re-fill by learning new things and be challenged in new ways. The number one thing I want to do is learn better sewing skills so I can start making my own clothing."

Connect with Diana on her blog, on Facebook, see her beautiful website portfolio, and visit her online shop.

Another Creative Courage Soul Sister who loves to combine her travel and creative process as much as I do is Maya Stein - ninja poet, writing guide, creative adventuress, creator of the Type-Rider: Cycling the Great American Poem and Tour de Word travel writing projects, and leader of the Feral Writing Workshops.

Maya was born in Nova Scotia, but grew up in New England, has more freckles than she can count, loves making crepes, and is a self-proclaimed "perennial 12-year-old" and "seeker of hidden places and mystery."

Maya's weekly poetry practice10-line Tuesdayreaches more than 1000 people each week, she has self-published four books, and she just completed her fifth.

In 2010, Maya completed her "Tour de Word" project - a two month, 12,000 mile driving trip through 30 states, during which she lead writing workshops for children and adults.

In early summer 2012, to celebrate her 40th year, Maya began her "Type Rider: Cycling the Great American Poem" travel project. For this tour, Maya rode her bicycle (towing a typewriter) for 40 days and more than 1,200 miles from Amherst, Massachusetts to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, while stopping to gather words and images from strangers in the communities she visited.

Regarding her creative dreams in 2013, Maya told me:

"Aside from finishing my Type Rider book, what I'd REALLY like to do is be asked to come for a speaking engagement somewhere. I'd love to be able to share some of my experiences - about writing, about teaching, about building an audience around poetry, about navigating online spaces with my work, and about manifesting creative projects. I'm hungry for live interactions, opportunities for genuine learning and exchange, and I'd really like to offer up more of myself in this way, to help others through the process of moving their creative lives forward."

Join Maya on her website, find out more about her classes, and peek inside her shop.

The always inspiring Portland based photographer Andrea Jenkins will happily be joining us this session as well! 

In addition to being a photographer, Andrea is a writer, modern dance teacher, core contributor to UPPERCASE magazine, as well as a regular contributor to Poppytalk and Shutter Sisters. Her work has been featured in numerous art/photography books and magazines.

Andrea describes herself as: "one part freelance photographer, one part writer, one part teacher, one part (modern) dancer, one hundred parts mama. kidding about that last part. well, not really. I live in portland, oregon with my spectacularly bearded husband and two extraordinary children in a small house filled with too many collections and probably too many legos."

Her loves: "instant photography and lists that tell stories plus old school photo booths and movement as art. plus vintage everything, lemon sugar anything."

Andrea's creative dream for 2013:

"to shoot with as many different cameras as I can. and write about it. in fact, it's a new project I'm about to begin." 

I adore Andreas' lovely Hula 70 blog and her Etsy shop full of gorgeous prints featuring her dreamy Polaroid (and other) photos.

You can also connect with Andrea on flickr, twitter, pinterest, and instagram.

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A giant, warm hug goes out to all of my Creative Courage Soul Sisters for sharing their time and thoughts with us, and I hope you enjoyed meeting them and having a peek behind the scenes. 

I can't wait to share their interviews with you in the course! Part II is coming up later today.

I hope you'll join us for the next inspiring new session of Creative Courage, starting January 28th. To get more information and register, simply click here.

xoxo

Stephanie

diana fayt : artists who blog

from May 15th, 2008:

It's time for another Friday "artists who blog" interview, and this week I was lucky enough to convince San Francisco ceramic artist Diana Fayt to participate. I fell in love with Diana's beautiful work on first sight. In addition to making gorgeous ceramic work, running her own online shop, and showing her art around the world, she also writes the lovely One Black Bird blog, which she richly embellishes with superb photographs of her work and studio.

Why did you decide to start a blog?

I started my blog, One Black Bird two years ago when I was taking a break from San Francisco and was living in the Hudson Valley in New York. Where I lived was very rural and I began to feel a bit isolated so I started reading blogs to help stay connected to things. It was then that I thought I should give it a go myself. I really liked the idea of being the voice behind my own work. Before the Internet, galleries and stores were the interface for Artists and it was really refreshing to be able to speak for myself directly to people about my experience as an Artist and the work I made and get direct feedback from people.

How did you come up with the name "One Black Bird"?

People often think I am making a reference to blackbirds because of my blog name...I know it is a little confusing. But in truth the name comes from the fact that I paint silhouetted birds in black on my pieces. My icon is actually a baby wren (painted in black) and not a blackbird. Also the father of a friend of mine had suggested that I use the bird image and my insignia because he thought it looked like me. I thought it was funny because no one had ever told me I looked like a bird before. The "One" part of the name is because the number one has a lot of significance in my life (I was born on October 1st and when you add up all the days in my birthday it comes out to the number one. So I took all those little personal details, put them together and came up with the name One Black Bird.

How has blogging affected your work as an artist/designer?

It has turned my world around. For many years (before the Internet) I exploited the only available avenues to Artists to show my work (applying to shows...with yes, slides and handwritten applications!), participating in craft fairs and showing my work at galleries and high end boutiques. I had a good response to my work but doing things that way is really slow going and hit or miss. I had to have a second job waiting tables to ensure I could pay my bills. Now I am so busy I can barely keep up. Being able to have my own online store has also been made a huge difference I credit this to blogging. It is really a fabulous thing and has made it possible for me to live out my dream to be a self supporting Artist.

What are your favorite artist/designer blogs? Why?

Okay, this is a little funny because the truth is my favorite blogs are not Artist blogs but food blogs. Though I do have a few favorite Art blogs amongst the many I read. Here they are:

Lisa Solomon. Lisa's Musings. I really like how Lisa intertwines her love and appreciation for craft and fine art and discusses this with her readers in a way that is inviting and also thought provoking. Not to mention she is an amazing talent and I adore her work.

Whitney Smith. This Artist's Life. Whitney writes a really fabulous blog about her experience as a professional potter. Whitney is smart and wickedly funny. She kicks your butt to the curb but will be there offering you a hand (and a drink) to help get you off your ass. Whitney's work is also stunning, extremely well crafted and I admire her commitment to doing what she loves.

For an all around Art Blog, I really like dear ada. Not only does she write about all kinds of Art and does not exclude ceramics from the pack she talks about Art in a way that is sharp and delightful. Her love for the Art she discovers and shares with her readers is infectious. She also shows a really nice variety of work that is always fresh and new.

One of my favorite food blogs is Orangette. Molly writes funny, honest and tasty entries. A combination that can't be beat.

Why do you think blogs have now become so popular with artists and designers?

Art is so much about communication. It is also about making, process and formal concerns. Most often the end result is an expression of an idea in the form of an object whether it is a painting, sculpture, a print, jewelry, a pot, photographs, a quilt, the list goes on... I think blogs are a great extension of that desire to communicate and share ideas and work. Plus it removes the middle person. Though I have a great regard for store owners and galleries (it is not an easy road for them either) Artists can navigate their own careers and have an audience for their work that is no longer dependent on the acceptance of galleries and the so called Art experts. It has cracked things wide open and it has been so delightful to see what people are doing out there. Blogs and the Internet has made it possible for that to happen.

Do you have any advice for artists/designers who are starting a blog?

Something I have had to deal with from time to time is people wanting me to share my process. This can get complicated (and time consuming). It is important to have boundaries when it comes to sharing information about yourself what you do. Don't be afraid to stand your ground if you feel like people are asking about things you are not comfortable sharing.

What has been the most positive/inspirational aspect of having a blog for you?

The amazing community of people I have come to know and become friends with because of blogging. Having a serious studio practice can get pretty isolating so having people to share your experience with at your fingertips is pretty damn wonderful.

Thanks so much for having me Stephanie!

Thank YOU Diana!