Interview with Michelle

Michelle and I get together online to cowork every so often. Sometimes we watch and work on online classes together or we just work on our own projects and chat. We egg each other on in making things. We are the best of all possible “Yes, do it!” partners when it comes to cooking up projects.

A month or so ago, we had a conversation about making journals. Michelle and I both make journals as something to do when we aren’t sure what to do next. We were having this conversation over text and Michelle was talking about how satisfying it was to make journals. Something clicked for me and I realized I needed to start interviewing my creative friends because they have such interesting stories.

So here we are kicking off this new series where I’m interviewing folks about what their creative life is like. I have a set of questions that I came up with that are a little bit Krista Tippett, a little bit Danielle Krysa, and a lot bit my own curiosity. I think talking about our creative stories is a way to bind us together and encourage us to keep going on our own creative path. I’m excited to be asking these questions and to be sharing these creatives’ answers with you. So to start it off, here’s Michelle.

Tell my readers a little bit about you.

My name is Michelle. I live in the midwest. When I am not teaching at Hogwarts I am working in my studio at home. I am married to another creative and we have two dogs. Recently, I had the most delicious and cheesy grilled cheese. It was a savory, flavorful blend of creamy, cheesy goodness with a bit of fig jam. I want to try and make it at home. The Hulk is my favorite Avenger. I love working with creating my own journals and sketchbooks, reading, knitting, crocheting and drinking coffee. 

Misty: This grilled cheese sounds like a life changing experience. I may need a recipe.

What is your first memory of creativity?

I was incredibly fortunate to grow up in a home where creativity was valued and modeled on a daily basis. My Dad was a draftsman and always had projects he was working on around the house and in our backyard. Mom sewed, cooked, baked, collected stamps, enjoyed gardening, painted ceramics, made shadow boxes, was an avid crossstitcher, sold things she made at craft shows in the mall, enjoyed paper dolls and fussy cutting out different ephemera she would use in crafting, rubber stamping and cardmaking.

My parents took my brother and I to the library. We were allowed to play with Dad’s wood scraps in the basement. Mom would go to print shops and ask for their off cuts so we could have lots of different types of paper at home to cut, color, write on and play with. She made homemade playdough for us. My brother used string and cups to make elevators for his GI Joes to move around in. We built various contraptions with Legos, Tinkertoys, Bristle Blocks, and Lincoln Logs. Dad refurbished a doll house for me and later on a desk and vanity set for my room. Mom saved art projects and hung them up in the house.

My parents created a space in the basement for my brother and I to color, paint and play in. I don’t know if it was their intention or not but my parents lived creative lifestyles. They instilled this gift of wonder and play in my brother and I. My brother is also incredibly creative. He likes tinkering and refurbishing, he builds furniture and is good at repairing loads of different things. He likes to read the newspaper like my Mom does. I loved reading books and visiting the library like my Dad did.

While creativity exists in all of us, my parents modeled a lifestyle that helped our creative interests thrive in childhood and throughout adulthood. This is an immeasurable gift and I am forever grateful. I am an artist today because of my parents. 

What did you love to make as a kid and are you still making some variation of that now?

Collecting stickers! Hoarding stickers! Writing in notebooks and journals (then diaries). I was cutting out and gluing things in various notebooks I was gifted. I remember pasting papers into a Trapper Keeper Folder and made a journal to glue valentines, notes, and whatever else I could find to put in it. In 5th grade my Mom got me a Ramona Quimby Diary,  I LOVED THIS SO MUCH! I am still making journals, collecting stickers (hoarding some too), gluing things on papers, writing, coloring, drawing in notebooks and sketchbooks. It still brings me so much joy and light in my daily life. 

Misty: I was a sticker hoarder too! I had a little 2-ring binder with zip pouches that I kept them in. Now I buy stickers and immediately find someplace to put them because life is too short not to enjoy your stickers.

What is your favorite creative supply and why can’t you live without it?

Oof, WHY is this question so hard?!  I need things I can make marks with on paper.  Prismacolor colored pencils, Tombow dual brush pens, black fine liners that are permanent, water reactive media, Neocolors, Crayola markers and crayons. I do have to say that hard favorites for me are Bic Cristal Pens ( they write bold and smooth and come in lots of fun colors),  a 4-Color Bic click pen (ahh, nostalgia!), and a Mitsubishi blue and red pencil. I can sketch and write with all of these and they don’t take up lots of room in a bag or pouch so they are easily portable.  But let me be honest here, I never carry just one pencil and two pens with me, it’s usually something like 47 or 82 because hey, I like choices. 

Misty: We are maximalists. I love getting to say that. I know minimalism is all the rage and I do like it for some things but in art, I’m all about ALL OF IT.

What is a creative question you ask over and over?

“I wonder?”

“What if I?” 

These always get me thinking and revising and hypothesizing about what next steps I take with whatever I am working on. I also think it is interesting that scientists often ask themselves the same questions, in this way I feel like creating is also very scientific in its own way and I love that. 

What gets you to start a new project?

So many different things! A color, a pattern, a flower, nature, a monthly challenge, seeing what my friends/other artists are creating and making. Mundane things like junk mail and paper bags make me squeal in delight because I see pockets, pages, tags, and journals waiting to be created. I love repurposing packaging to make ephemera and collage fodder for my journals. Once I wondered if I could make a journal out of a flattened LaCroix can so I gave it a go and totally made one. 

What is a book on creativity that you come back to again and again?

“Big Magic” by Liz Gilbert I love the part when Liz reminds us that our inner critic can sit in the car with us but is never allowed behind the wheel to drive. 

I love Austin Kleon’s “Steal Like An Artist” series, so much good stuff in those books. 

“What It Is”, “Making Comics” and “Syllabus” by Lynda Barry, she is incredible. 

Misty: I just finished “Syllabus” and it I got some real gems from it. I’m currently attempting to implement her end of day diary practice to help improve my memory for what I hear and see throughout the day.

How did we meet?

In a Zoom meet up via Get Messy Art.

You and I share a love for making books. We recently had a conversation about why that is. That conversation is actually what sparked the idea for this interview series. Talk about why you love making books and why you come back to it again and again.

I think binding your own journals is an incredibly powerful thing to do. It brings me so much joy. I make journals for projects I want to use them for, I try new bindings just to see if I can do it. I make them when my world feels upside down because it calms me and gives me a sense of control when I feel like I don’t have any. Or I make them for gifts, I use most of them and save others, sometimes the journals I have made were never meant for me and find their way to a friend of mine.

I love gathering and organizing the papers to create signatures, I like using loads of different types and textures. I love how the journals expand as I work in them (if you think about it, they grow just like we do, isn’t that awesome?!). The chunky goodness and the sweet, sweet crinkle of the pages make my heart bliss out.

I love breathing new life into old books and using them in a new and different way. Binding books is a puzzle and a process that I love to sit with and figure out and I get lost in that delicious state of flow when creating them. Binding books teaches me patience and allows me to experiment, it helps me practice forgiveness and learn when to let go.

Bookbinding is straight up magic and the best kind of sorcery I have learned to date, it has made a positive and profound influence in my life and I am forever grateful for the people in my life that have help me learn this craft. 

How can people find you?

On the Gram @knittyscrapper 

Michelle, thank you for sharing your creative stories with us! Learning life lessons from our creative work is one of the best possible of outcomes. I had a blast thinking up these questions for you and then reading your answers. And I know my readers will enjoy it too. (These photos belong to Michelle. She graciously let me use them in this interview.)

What about you? Are you formulating your answers to these questions? I’d love to know your answers! Catch up with me on socials, email me, or go oldschool and leave a comment on this post to be immortalized for all of time.

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