What about these interviews?

I recently sat down for a podcast interview with April of the Inked April podcast. She sent me some amazing questions to answer for her show. While I was answering her questions, I was fine tuning my own questions for my interviews on creativity. The process for her interview made me realize that I really love listening to and reading interviews. People’s stories are fascinating. I find I have a soft spot for people talking about their lived experience. There’s so much variety in the human condition and I have come to understand that I can learn so much from others in this space.

Hopefully by now, you’ve seen the interviews on creativity I’ve been posting. They are quite fun so if you haven’t read any of them, go check them out! I’m asking 10 questions in my interview and a few of them are modeled after other interviewer’s questions. Here’s an overview of a few of them.

What is your first memory of creativity?

This one is much like Krista Tippett’s question about your childhood faith that she asks at the beginning of every On Being interview. Because just like faith, creativity is learned behaviour usually from your family in childhood. Makers begat makers. And to me it feels like there is more than a little bit of faith in that creative space. I think there is often a good bit of hope in making. Hope for connectivity with self and others. Hope for the future. Hope for better.

Creativity, in many ways, is childhood. Exploring and figuring out how things work. Smashing things together to see what happens. Experimentation and making are the rhythm of our days when we are kids. I love seeing this playout in this interview question.

What did you love to make as a kid?

I love hearing people’s stories of creativity. There’s something that is primal among all of the stories I’ve been getting from people. I get the sense that we all have this built-in drive for creativity but sometimes our life experiences hinder that. So we spend a lifetime unlearning habits so we can once again tap into that creativity. There’s a really great conversation about this between Elizabeth Gilbert and Brene Brown in the Magic Lessons (Season 1, Episode 12) podcast. It starts around the 4 minute mark but the whole episode is only 35 minutes long. So just grab a coffee and a muffin and listen to the whole thing. Treat yourself!

This story is at the heart of why I am asking the question “What did you love to make as a kid and are you still making some variation of that now?” I wanted the artist to flip through their memories from childhood and find the thread that runs from then to now. That thread is made of pure magic. It seems like we go back to the source over and over. For me it’s paper. But I’m watching what others are saying and we all seem to revisit these early loves in some way. I just love that.

What is a creative question you ask regularly?

I LOVE this question. BIG LOVE for this question. Because my question that I ask over and over is good but it’s also a habit. Habits get stale after a while. And reading other people’s questions gives me a different way to approach my work.

Also, people ask amazing questions. Stuff I just never think about. I am so dreadfully unimaginative sometimes so letting someone else’s question light that spark for me is a real gift.

What gets you to start a new project?

One of my interviewees described the itch she gets when it’s time to start something new and that is so relatable. Makers have itchy hands. The making soothes the itch. I think there’s a mental health component that we should talk about more. Making helps keep me emotionally regulated. I’m just less grouchy when I making and there’s no better reason to start a new project than that!!

When I first started, I wondered where the ideas would come from. But after 10 years I feel like I can safely say that generating ideas is a muscle you build up over time. What do I do next? Here’s the list of ideas I’ve been keeping. Just pick one and off we go!

I also think a lot of creatives are self starters. We have to be able to generate our own energy because there’s no boss to say go or a schedule laid out for us. So we just make up our own things to do. Rock on!

How did we meet?

This one is me being purely selfish. I want to know what other people remember from our first meeting. Sometimes my memory is not great so I love this refresh for myself. Also I know I have an interview coming up where the person and I met in such a whackadoo way that it’s kinda it’s own story. I can’t wait for that one.

But also, creative people tend to clump up. We find each other. Makers do so much solitary work that we just gotta have compatriots on the journey. And I don’t care what kind of creative you are. We can probably find common ground by talking about process. Because so often it’s very similar for all of us.

A note to my artist friends

I so appreciate the artists who have already agreed to my interviews on creativity! I have multiple artists somewhere in the process. They are answering questions or I’ve gotten their answers and their interviews are scheduled or I’m in the process of formatting and scheduling. If you are an artist and you are wondering why I haven’t asked you yet, DO NOT FRET! I’m sure your time is coming and I’ve just not gotten to you on my list. My list is loooooong and I’m working it slowly since I’m only posting one interview a month. I don’t want to have too many questionnaires out at once.

I wanted to take this post to talk about what these interviews are bringing to the conversation. It’s a subject near and dear to my heart so getting other artist’s opinions and experiences seemed like the natural next step for this blog.

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.

---

If you liked this post and don’t want to miss any news from me, sign up for my PencilBooth micro-newsletter. It will only be 2-4 items! Things like: links to my recent posts, a pic or link I think you might like, and a pic of Anwyn the studio dog in your inbox once every so often. Sign Up here.