Sustaining Craft - Episodes Tagged with “Creative”

Episode 31: Robert Bean, Part 3: Giving the Work Space

Elizabeth Silverstein — Fri, 14 Apr 2023 14:00:00 -0400

Robert Bean, a Little Rock visual storyteller, is back on the Sustaining Craft podcast for the third time to share what he's been up to, how to gain separation from your art in a healthy way and get feedback, along with how it's impossible to have expression without practice.

"Give the work space. I think part of the problem we have is that if you're stuck in a drawing; you're stuck in a piece you're making, you're often very involved in that peice and sometimes you're very emotionally invested in that piece, too. One of the things I think that helps is putting that piece away for awhile. That while may be a couple of days. That may be a couple of weeks. ... Put it away where you can't see it, so you stop thinking about it as much and it's not always there, consciously bothering you. After that, then pull it out, reasses it yourself, and then get someone to look at it. Because you've given yourself some space. There's a preciousness that comes with making. Right at the moment of making is when it's the most precious. ... If you can give it some space and distance, it doesn't have that kind of impact. It may not hit you as hard. The easiest thing is give it a little bit of breathing room and then come back to it." - Robert Bean

Robert Bean Episode 1: https://sustainingcraft.fireside.fm/15
Robert Bean Article 1: https://hewandweld.com/robert-bean/
Robert Bean Episode 2: https://sustainingcraft.fireside.fm/27
Robert Bean Article 2: https://hewandweld.com/robert-bean-parttwo/

Find out more about Robert:
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/rbfineart/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/RPBean
Classes - https://www.rbfineart.com/classes
Newsletter - https://www.rbfineart.com/contact-us

Brandy Mimm's Listen with Your Eyes Dance Troupe - Resurgence Tickets for April 22, 2023: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/listen-with-your-eyes-dance-troupe-resurgence-tickets-509749684027?mibextid=Zxz2cZ.

Sustaining Craft provides storytelling resources and shares the tales of those pursuing their art or craft. There are no fees for artists and craftspeople to participate. Music provided by Jim Ciago (Seven Second Chance on iTunes and Spotify & Nomad Neighbors in the Denver area most weekends).
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sustainingcraft/
Facebook - http://facebook.com/sustainingcraft
Website - https://www.sustainingcraft.com

Special Guest: Robert Bean.

Episode 27: Robert Bean, Part 2: Investigating People Through Visual Arts

Elizabeth Silverstein — Fri, 01 May 2020 13:00:00 -0400

Robert Bean has noticed how the rest of the world has realized how much they need the arts. “All of a sudden, they’re starting to draw, play music,” Robert said. “I’ve seen the stuff that says, ‘You don’t support the arts? What are you doing right now? You’re reading books. You’re coloring. You’re doing all of these things.’ And I’m 100% behind that. We should be funding and supporting the arts, not letting them go or devaluing them.”

Creatives haven’t been stopped by the limitations of social distancing, either, like Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, which used Zoom, a business tool, to create a music video for their song, Phenom, by pivoting in a matter of weeks. “To me, that’s the power of the arts and the creative brain,” Rober shared. “‘Okay, we get hit with this setback, but what do we do instead?’ It doesn’t just grind to a halt. They just go, ‘Okay. I’m gonna roll up my sleeves and I’m gonna figure out a different way to do this.’ And they get in there and do it. And I think that would benefit everyone so much more if we would fund and teach that kind of thing to everybody.”

Read the rest at: https://hewandweld.com/news/

Find out more about Robert:
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/rbfineart/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/RPBean
Classes - https://www.arkansasartscenter.org/how-to-register

Sustaining Craft is a passion project of Hew & Weld Writing. There are no fees for artists and craftspeople to participate. Music provided by Jim Ciago (Seven Second Chance on iTunes and Spotify & Nomad Neighbors in the Denver area most weekends).
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sustainingcraft/
Facebook - http://facebook.com/sustainingcraft

Find more from Hew & Weld:
Website - https://www.hewandweld.com/news
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/hewandweld/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/hewandweld/

Special Guest: Robert Bean.

Episode 26: Chris Swasta: Hearing in 3D

Elizabeth Silverstein — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 16:00:00 -0400

In 2016, when he came back to Little Rock, he found a job at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre. “My old high school teacher was working with me and she was like, ‘Hey, I’ve been following you throughout your college years. I know you started doing pottery. Have you heard about the art center?’ And I was like, ‘No, what is that?’ And so I went there the next day.”

He signed up for classes with Kelly Edwards. “I walked into her class, and I wasn’t going to leave,” Chris shared. “I was going to make something before I left. That’s how it started, and I’ve been there ever since.”

Now, Chris teaches an afterschool program for students ranging in age from 10 to 18, and he’s a part of the work-study program at the center. And after hearing a Radiohead song, he made 6,000 pieces over the past six months, crediting his creative drive to synthesia. “Anything see, anything I hear, I visually relate it to a 3D form,” Chris explained. “This installation is inspired by a song.”

Read the rest at: https://hewandweld.com/news/

Find out more about Chris:
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/rollinghillspottery/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/rollinghillspottery/

Find more from Hew & Weld:
Website - https://www.hewandweld.com/news
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/hewandweld/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/hewandweld/

Special Guest: Chris Swasta.

Episode 25: Morgan Allain: Discovering New Mediums and Techniques

Elizabeth Silverstein — Thu, 02 Apr 2020 19:00:00 -0400

In the four years since we last talked, Morgan has moved on from her Muse series, which she focused on for two years. She's branched out into working on several different series, with focus ranging from Greek mythology to folklore to mushrooms. She's also teaching herself new methods and skills. "It’s fun trying new papers and different brushes and stuff because I’ve been missing out on a lot," Morgan said. "I’m kind of sad I didn’t discover this stuff sooner because it’s working on different mediums or different papers. I have to learn how to use the paint totally differently than on other stuff that I’ve worked on. It’s really interesting and keeps me from getting bored."

Read the rest at: https://hewandweld.com/news/

Find out more about Morgan:
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theinklinggirl/
Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TheInklingGirl
Etsy - https://www.etsy.com/shop/theinklinggirl/

Sustaining Craft is a passion project of Hew & Weld Writing. There are no fees for artists and craftspeople to participate. Music provided by Jim Ciago (Seven Second Chance on iTunes and Spotify).

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sustainingcraft/
Facebook - http://facebook.com/sustainingcraft

Find more from Hew & Weld:
Website - https://www.hewandweld.com/news
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/hewandweld/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/hewandweld/

Special Guest: Morgan Allain.

Episode 24: Hannah Genevieve Lawrence: Weaving Functional Art

Elizabeth Silverstein — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 11:00:00 -0400

And then COVID-19 hit the United States. “A few weeks beforehand, my boss was telling me, ‘No one’s gonna, with all the stuff going on, no one’s gonna go to your show,’” Hannah said. “I was like, ‘It’s not gonna be a big deal. It’s gonna be fine.’”

Ultimately, the exhibition was postponed until February 2021. “Then it just all gets taken away,” Hannah said. “I taught a lot of extra classes to have money to buy art supplies. I missed out on things with friends to stay home and make stuff. One of my friends recently moved away, and one of the last dinners they had before they left, I didn’t go to because I was like, ‘I really need to stay home and make stuff. I’ve already been out too much this week.’ It makes me a little bit sad that I missed stuff like that.”

Read the rest at: https://hewandweld.com/news/

Find out more about Hannah:
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/hannah.genevieve/

Find more from Hew & Weld:
Website - https://www.hewandweld.com/news
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/hewandweld/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/hewandweld/

Special Guest: Hannah Genevieve Lawrence.

Episode 15: Robert Bean: Reading a Painting Through Visual Vocabulary

Elizabeth Silverstein — Thu, 15 Nov 2018 00:15:00 -0500

Robert Bean found himself stuck between needing a job that didn’t involve his craft, wanting to spend time with friends, and still being able to practice his art. “I have to practice, I have to draw, I have to create,” Bean said. “At the same time, I don’t want my life to be nothing but, I go to work, and then I come home and go to work. … I got creative and I said, ‘Well, what would happen if my friends were going out to dinner, or we’re going out to grab a beer or something--what happens I just take a sketch book with me?’ And so I started drawing on site. I started going out with friends and I would take a sketchbook and I would sketch while we were out. I do that all the time now.”

Bean turned the idea into a class at the Arkansas Arts Center, Urban Sketchbook, where he also serves as the Painting & Drawing Department Chair of the Museum School. “I encourage my students, if you’re sitting around in the doctor’s office, take a sketchbook,” Bean advised. “Draw in the waiting room. If you’re sitting at the DMV, draw while you’re sitting there. Waiting for your car to get fixed, sketch. You can find the time to sketch. You can find the time to keep those drawing skills alive because we have a lot more dead time in our days than we realize. It’s the idea of developing those kinds of disciplines that eventually roll around into making money. Because as soon as you start to create enough, as soon as you start to draw enough, you build body of work. Once you build that body of work, then you can show it. It took me ten years of figuring things out. I do look back at that period in my twenties and go, what if I had that mentor when I was 21 years old that would come in and say, ‘You’ve got to do this and this and this’? Maybe I would have started to make money earlier, but I was in my late twenties before I started making money somewhat consistently with my work."

Get more of Robert's work:
Gallery 26 - http://www.gallery26.com/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/rbfineart/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/RBFineArt
Website - http://www.rbfineart.com/

Sustaining Craft is a project of Hew&Weld Writing. There are no fees for artists and crafts people to participate. Everything is funded through Hew&Weld and partnerships with friends: Joshua Kurtz, Morgan Allain (The Inkling Girl), Jim Ciago (Seven Second Chance & Nomad Neighbors), and Local. Magazine.

Find more from Hew&Weld:

Each episode of Sustaining Craft comes with a companion article, which can be found at hewandweld.com/news.
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter: @hewandweld
Sustaining Craft is also on Instagram: @sustainingcraft

Special Guest: Robert Bean.

Episode 14: Legenia Bearden: Opening Horizons with Affordable Art Classes

Elizabeth Silverstein — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 23:00:00 -0400

Determined to fulfill the vision she’d had as a child, Legenia Bearden began researching to make her dream, the Bearden Productions Center for the Arts, a reality. In 2006, she found the resources to file for her 501(c)(3) status and was approved three months later.

But it would be another eight years to fully get her vision off the ground. “I just stopped doing stuff, once we got our 501(c)(3) status,” Bearden explained. “It just wasn’t moving fast enough for me when I tried to actually start the business, so I kind of let it just sit there and nothing happened until 2014.

She taught drama for a bit, then worked for the city until 2014. “When I started Bearden Productions, I was still working at the city, and it would just be on my heart every day as I was driving to work,” Bearden shared. “And I’m like, I’m thinking, ‘Oh, I don’t want to be going to work.’ I just knew I was not supposed to be doing it. I just knew in my heart, this is not something I’m supposed to be doing. So I remember, that one particular day, I was crying on my way to work. I went to work, I sat down, and I’m still crying. I’m working. During my lunch, I said, ‘Ok, if I do this, I’m going to need a building.’”

She found the space, renting a dance studio in the basement of a church for $300 a month. “And it was ours,” Bearden said. “Just that simple, just that quick. Like all within a week. I thought about it, I moved, and I did it.”

--
More of Bearden Productions Center for the Arts:

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/beardenproductions/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/bppas_

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/_bpca/

--
Want the full article about Bearden? Head on over to http://hewandweld.com/news/.
Find Hew and Weld on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter as hewandweld.

Special Guest: Legenia Bearden.

Episode 13: Katy Raines: Melding Structure and Creativity for Career and Community

Elizabeth Silverstein — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 14:00:00 -0400

Ever the researcher, Katy Raines discovered that becoming a graphic designer meant she could create as a career without foregoing the paycheck. There was also the freedom of creating the art she loved in her spare time. “I figured I could do the graphic design full time and then do fine art on the side and still have fun with it,” Raines said.

In 2014, Raines graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with a degree in graphic design and a job. The job started as an internship in 2013, over her senior year of college. A professor had emailed her about the position, suggesting she apply. “I saw it and I was like heck yeah,” Raines said. “It’s an internship, they just want part-time, this would be perfect for my senior year or over the summer, whatever. So I was actually in Hawaii when I found the email on my honeymoon. My husband was still asleep so I got up super early and luckily I had my laptop with me and I finished my portfolio and sent my resume. And I sent it to my current boss now and she emailed me back the same day.”

They scheduled an internship after her return. Jet lagged, Raines thought she’d bombed.

She began the internship at Colliers International soon after while she finished her degree, working 20 hours a week while going to classes. “They didn’t have a marketing department at all about a month before I started,” Raines explained. “And then my boss said, ‘We have to have a designer.’ And so now I’ve gotten to do everything from photography to web to social media to actual graphic design work.”

Special Guest: Katy Raines.

Episode 12: Katie Childs: Problem Solving with Photographs

Elizabeth Silverstein — Wed, 10 Oct 2018 12:00:00 -0400

Now, Katie Childs photographs over 30 weddings a year, along with family portraits. In 2018, she booked 35 weddings, but hopes to reduce to 20 yearly. That may prove challenging--she’s already booked 14 weddings for 2019. Childs also started working with the Arkansas Times this year, traveling to farms for Food and Farm, and working on family-based shoots for Savvy. Savvy has brought projects that have been familiar due to her previous work, while Food and Farm offers opportunities to learn additional photography skills. “We’ll do the farmer’s portraits and try to pull a story from their farm and situation,” Childs explained. “With the cattle and corn, I’m just doing a documentary kind of style. A lot of the time, with these shoots, I don’t get to choose what time of day or what situation the cattle or the corn is going to be in. So it might be in the middle of the day. I’m trying to make the best use of whatever’s happening. And that is its own specific challenge, but I love figuring things out like that, it’s kind of my favorite thing. If it were super easy all the time, I don’t think I’d enjoy doing it. I like being thrown into a situation and having to figure it out.”

Special Guest: Katie Childs.

Episode 10: Diane Harper: Exposing Boogeymen with Ink Blots

Elizabeth Silverstein — Wed, 26 Sep 2018 22:00:00 -0400

Harper’s parents met while her father, Hal, was stationed overseas--her mother was French. They became a military family, with Harper the middle child of three. “I was a sick kid a lot and I grew up overseas in the military,” said Harper. “Just past toddler age in Berlin, when the Berlin wall was up, and things were pretty heated for the Cold War at the time. And I think my boogeyman was born in Berlin. Everything had barbed wire. There were armed guards everywhere, and so it was just kind of a terrifying place through a five-year-old’s eyes, but you don’t really have the vocabulary to deal with that. And then to be a sick kid in a military hospital with mostly adults around you, not a children’s hospital. It was kind of an unfriendly place. And there were noises at night and things like that, and my father was a police officer. so I knew there was danger and boogeyman out there but I didn’t have a vocabulary for it, so even as an adult I have a hard time coming up with that vocabulary, but I don’t have a hard time coming up with a visual vocabulary to describe it. And by allowing them to come to surface from my subconscious, it kind of allows me to embrace them in a different way as an adult and kind of be playful with them and be grateful that I had such a vivid imagination from the way we lived and grew up. I lived in the heart of fairy tales. We traveled in Bavaria and the Black Forest was around there, and the birthplace of Hansel and Gretel. And all of these kinds of bizarre folktales that we grew up with that were basically cautionary tales to children to mind their moms, but it was kind of a wonderful place.”

There are a few ways to find Diane's art in person: she'll be at Art on the Creeks in Rogers, Arkansas on Sept. 29; she'll have some work in the Fiber Arts Show on Nov. 2, and at the Gallery 26 Holiday Show. She also has a booth at South Main Creative.

Special Guest: Diane Harper.

Episode 8: Tabatha Reeves: Storytelling with Candle Scents

Elizabeth Silverstein — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 13:00:00 -0400

And they keep their product lines interesting, even taking special orders. “We have these really unique niche scents in some of our candles, so they work really well for historical reenactors, but they’re not going to sell to somebody else,” Reeves said. “We have a state park that we contract to that deals with historical reenactors all the time, and one of their properties on the park is a jail. We designed an entire line of candles just for their jail, scents that would have been in a jailhouse in the mid-1800s to early 1900s when it was operational.”

One of those specialty scents is called The Sheriff. “It kind of smells like this dirty man that’s been smoking a pipe,” Reeves explained. “When I smell it, I get the thought of the cowboy with his feet up on the desk, and the big sheriff badge and a hat over his face, sleeping while his prisoners are in the cells behind him. That’s what it conjures for me. Many of our scents are like that. You can smell it and you can conjure this idea of what it is supposed to be in your head.”

But not everyone can smell the candles. “A lot of men can’t smell,” Reeves explained. “I didn’t realize this until I started dealing with men on a regular basis. Men, blue-collar workers, a lot of them can’t smell because they’ve worked around chemicals their whole life. Or they’ve worked around major smells their whole life. My dad is a maintenance man at a roofing plant. My dad can’t smell anything. Asphalt’s burned the inside of his nose. So he can’t smell candles. My dad can’t smell when something is cooking. And he’s not the only one.”

Special Guest: Tabatha Reeves.

Episode 5: Suzanne Godbold: Baking the Perfect Sugar Cookie

Elizabeth Silverstein — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 11:00:00 -0400

When Long moved to Florida, Godbold and Cook divided the remaining responsibilities. While they at first tried splitting the baking and the decorating, they found the workflow wasn’t efficient. Cook, who has a degree in business, took over the finances, taxes, and practical business needs. Godbold took on all of the baking, decorating, social media, and marketing.
Along with refining her baking skills, Godbold learned that her customers weren’t on Instagram or Facebook. “At the beginning, I was trying to do paid ads and do all these things and market on Facebook but that really doesn’t sell for this market,” she explained. “Most of my customers didn’t find me on Facebook. It was word of mouth or they tried our cookies at someone’s event. Once I figured that out, it took a lot of stress off of social media. Social media is just fun. It’s a fun case to showcase our art and product and meet people.”
Referrals turned into regular customers, and they also started selling cookies at the Me and McGee Market, a stand dedicated to local produce, meats, cheese, products, and crafts.
“When we first started marketing, it was a little bit of a struggle trying to find who our customer is,” shared Godbold. “Who would appreciate what we do and who is looking for what we were offering because we’re not trying to compete with Walmart. We’re not even trying to compete with some of the other local storefront bakeries. You can’t call me up on a Tuesday morning and say, ‘Hey, can I have three dozen decorated cookies by this afternoon?’ It’s not going to happen because I need at least three days. It took a little bit, but once we really found our customer base, who understands us, they understand what we put into it. They know that I’m a stay-at-home mom and that I do this from 8 pm until midnight or sometimes later during the week. They appreciate our work and are willing to pay for what we’re offering.”

Special Guest: Suzanne Godbold.