Interview with Starr

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. This month’s interview is Starr

Tell my readers a little bit about you.

My name is Starr and I’m from Alabama. I am an artist and I like to do ALL OF THE THINGS. I like to grow plants, draw, travel, sing in choir, exercise, hike and backpack, teach, study Southern folk medicine, read, learn new things and sit around doing nothing. I just finished brewing a batch of homemade root beer with some stuff I foraged in the woods, and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I’m also a high school art, foreign language and environmental education teacher. I hope reincarnation is a thing, because I have way more interests than I have time to explore in this one lifetime.

What is your first memory of creativity?

My family was always making things. When I was a kid, my mom made jewelry, home crafts and even did a little wood work from time to time. My dad created his own hunting gear and would make things for me (like stick whistles!) when we were outside. My grandfather made bent willow furniture. My grandmother once made me a doll from an old soda bottle and some fabric scraps. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t involved in making things, but I do remember learning to draw. I would sit in the living room floor, drawing on brown paper grocery bags that my grandmother would give me. By the time I got to about the 3rd grade, my mom signed me up for a pastel class at a local art studio.

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

I used to collect nature doodads from the woods and make things from those, create crafts from odds and ends around the house and try art projects from books that I checked out from the library. One of my favorite things was to make terrariums. I still do all of those things. 

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

Watercolor paints! They are so versatile. I use them for everything, whether I’m working in a sketchbook, adding dye to a ribbon bookmark or creating a large painting.

What is a creative question you ask regularly?

“What outcome would I love?”

I ask this question of myself whether I am creating a piece of art, trying to figure out what to do on a school break or designing a garden bed. It gives me a best case scenario to aim for and starts the process of generating ideas. 

What does your creative practice show you over and over?

I can’t just sit around and wait for inspiration or motivation. I have to start doing something and the inspiration will follow. Sometimes I’m lucky and the inspiration comes first, but I can’t count on that if I want to make progress. I need to show up and see what happens.

What gets you to start a new project?

It usually begins with a spark of interest in something around me… a story, an item, the way some candlelight shines through a glass, etc.  Then my imagination starts churning. Eventually, there’s a project underway. 

What is a book on creativity that you come back to often? Why?

I don’t really spend a lot of time reading about creativity. I mostly just go back to whatever I’m reading that has captured my imagination. Sometimes this is a story or sometimes it’s a work of nonfiction on a topic that I’m interested in. I usually have two or three things going at once: an audiobook to listen to while I drive or exercise, a digital book to read when I find myself with unexpected time and then a physical, paper book. I draw creativity from many sources. 

How did we meet?

We were both working on one of Mary Crowell’s album covers. I was doing some watercolor illustration and you were doing the graphic design side of things. The three of us started meeting up periodically and named our group the “Vague Coffee Wavers” because of a silly inside joke. You have also visited my high school art class several times over the years as a guest artist to share your mixed media art ideas and techniques with my students.

You teach art at a rural high school and even wrote a grant to provide AP art for your students. I know the stereotype of rural folks being uninterested in art exists in a lot of minds. I’ve visited your classroom and found you have highly engaged students. Can you talk a little bit about your experiences around this?

I think about this a lot. People tend to think that the arts are not valued in our rural communities. Art education programs in rural systems do typically lag behind the city schools. The truth is that the arts are highly valued in the rural South, especially among the older generations, who grew up in a culture rich with the folk arts of southern Appalachia. When I started this art program, the outpouring of support from the community was mind blowing. People here want their children to have opportunities in the arts. The problem is not that the arts are not valued; The problem is that the arts are not funded. 

How can people find you?

For my nature and environmental education stuff: instagram.com/alabamanaturalist/
For my art stuff: instagram.com/StarrWeemsArt/
For artwork and prints: https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/starr-weems?tab=artworkgalleries

Starr, thank you for sharing your creative stories with us! I had so much fun reading your answers to my questions. And I know my readers will enjoy it too. (These photos belong to Starr. 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! If you want to know more about this series read the post What about these Interviews? 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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