Learnandcreate

Exploring Valdepeñas and Cordoba Spain

Wed, 27 Sep 2023 17:23:00 +0200

Learn And Create

Learn And Create - creative art ideas, inspiration, resources, and courses

This is Day 3 of my Portu-Spain Adventure travel blog series through southern Spain and Portugal where I share my travel experiences along the way. Join me three days in as we begin exploring Valdepeñas and Cordoba Spain, the food, culture, history, and architecture. Portu-Spain Adventure Travel Blog Day 3 On day 3 of our...

The post Exploring Valdepeñas and Cordoba Spain appeared first on Learn And Create and is written by Sheri Oneal

Why Is Self-Confidence Important For Success?

Sat, 23 Sep 2023 20:42:29 +0200

Learn And Create

Learn And Create - creative art ideas, inspiration, resources, and courses

Hello everyone, I hope your year is off to a great start! I spent the last few months rethinking the subject matter for this creative endeavor and I am back with some great things planned ahead! I have been working on a Vlogging studio in my basement that I will share with you all soon...

The post Why Is Self-Confidence Important For Success? appeared first on Learn And Create and is written by Sheri Oneal

Madrid In A Day: Art, Architecture, Food And History

Thu, 21 Sep 2023 21:26:22 +0200

Learn And Create

Learn And Create - creative art ideas, inspiration, resources, and courses

I recently took a 12-day trip through southern Spain and Portugal so for the next few weeks I will be sharing about my travel’s here on The Creative Push. This Portu-Spain Adventure travel blog series is about the beautiful places, culture, history, people, architecture, and food that I experienced along the way. Today showcases exploring...

The post Madrid In A Day: Art, Architecture, Food And History appeared first on Learn And Create and is written by Sheri Oneal

LEGO Master Kerry Woo

Wed, 12 Apr 2023 08:43:00 +0200

Kerry Woo is a tech-savvy, creative self-made entrepreneur. Not only is he a sought-after architectural photographer in Nashville, but he is also a LEGO Master. In 2022 he participated in the third season of the popular television reality competition show, LEGO Masters. The show features teams of two competing in various challenges to construct LEGO...

Letterpress Printer Nan Flynn

Sun, 19 Feb 2023 18:09:02 +0200

When Nan Flynn saw her very first letterpress-printed Hatch Print Poster in 1986 she fell in love with the imperfections of the ink on paper, the sharp edges of the type, and the timeless irregularities. Today on any given night or weekend as a letterpress printer, she rolls up her sleeves and gets her hands...

Printmaker Terrell Thornhill

Mon, 17 Oct 2022 23:56:05 +0200

Master printmaker Terrell Thornhill uses old-school methods of screen printing from the early 1900s combined with his painting techniques to craft beautiful limited-edition prints on paper. Using a single mesh screen he spends hours squeegeeing individual layers of colored ink through the screen onto paper. Self-taught, he has spent over 40 years perfecting his style...

Singer-Songwriter Rafe Carlson

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 06:15:11 +0200

Rafe Carlson is an up-and-coming singer-songwriter and performer new to the music industry. At over 6’ tall, his handsome features and kind demeanor will likely have the ladies swooning after him soon. His eclectic acoustic style, upbeat rhythm, and raspy vocals share similarities with his musical influences Chris Cornell, Layne Staley, Dan Fogelberg, Chris Stapleton,...

Glassblower and Artist Michael Allison

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 06:20:01 +0200

Michael Allison is a professional glassblower, jeweler maker, and mixed media artist specializing in narrative sculptures. Living outside of the Nashville area in Joelton, Michael converted the cattle barn on his property into a fully operational glassblowing studio. Here, Michael works with glass, creates mixed media art, and teaches the art of blowing glass. “I’ve always been an artist, for sure,” Michael says. From an early age, Michael admired the beauty found in nature. Michael’s grandmother was a big advocate of his creativity. He recalls that when he was eight, she bribed him with an oil painting set in exchange for taking swimming lessons. Born in Yankton, South Dakota, Michael has lived in various places across the U.S., including cities in Arizona, Utah, Texas, Alabama, and Louisiana. He’s also lived in major metropolitan areas like Atlanta and Los Angeles. Michael jokes, “It’s all discombobulated in my mind, too, since I was all over the place when I was younger! There were parts of my life where I was traveling between a divorced mom and dad.” Michael says that moving around as much as he did expose him to a lot of natural beauty and culture. Art was the ideal outlet for Michael, as it allowed him an escape from feeling so isolated. It served as a form of self-therapy. Sipping from so many cultural wellsprings helped Michael to become well-rounded. After high school, Michael went to a community college to study digital animation and film production. He shares, “I quickly realized I didn’t like creating inside of a computer system. I wanted to actually build something with my hands.” It wasn’t long after attending this college that Michael was exposed to the glass art of Dale Chihuly. Before college, Michael had been making jewelry and knew that something in the form of 3D art would be his calling. Seeing how glass was made, what it could do, and the fragility and risk involved, Michael instantly fell in love with the process. According to the website for the Florida-based youth arts program DMG, “Glass blowing is a glass-forming technique that humans have used to shape glass since the 1st century B.C. The technique consists of inflating molten glass with a blowpipe to form a sort of glass bubble, that can be molded into glassware for practical or artistic purposes.” Michael was enthralled with what he learned about the art of blowing glass. Still in Scottsdale, Arizona at the time, he found a glass studio not far away from where he was living. He offered the owner free labor in exchange for the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of the trade. Michael worked for this glassblowing studio for a couple of years. Still, in his early 20s, Michael wanted to move on to other studios to see what he could learn. He moved in with his father—who was living in Atlanta at this time—and immediately found Janke Studios (Janke). He also offered his labor for menial work to Janke in exchange for the owner’s tutelage and permission to use the studio. The studio owner also accepted this offer. Michael had grown to be a respected member of the team. However, the studio was still unable to pay him for his work. Michael found another opportunity at a bronze foundry operated by a friend of Janke’s owner. There, Michael learned to create large-scale bronze sculptures. “That whole process was really fascinating to me. Here I was playing with fire in a different form—melting bronze—and making molds. Mold making transfers over into a lot of different mediums that I was really fascinated with,” Michael says. Blowing glass and molding bronze at the same time allowed Michael to master two art forms at once. He describes the experience as a “brain explosion,” and constantly worried that he would forget crucial parts of either glassblowing or bronzing. But Michael’s interest in both modalities kept him in his seat. This dedication to each craft put the other in a new light for him. “It was so valuable at that particular time in my life,” Michael says. Soon after learning to both blow glass and work at the foundry, he began officially working at Janke. This included teaching classes and assisting in various glasswork projects. Coming into his own as a glassblower, Michael rented Janke out for his own projects. Michael stayed in Atlanta for almost 12 years. During this time, he taught glassblowing classes at both Savannah College of Art and Design, Atlanta, and Kennesaw State University through Janke. Janke served students as an off-campus classroom. After finding the perfect property to build his own studio, Michael eventually moved to Middle Tennessee. He wanted more than just his own studio. He wanted extra space that he could use for various glassblowing and mixed media projects. Michael says, “I needed land. As a sculptor of any medium, you accumulate a lot of stuff. Sometimes it’s junk that’s inspirational. Sometimes it’s the equipment you can use to do better work. Either way, I needed a piece of property with three acres and a barn for this reason.” At the time Michael purchased his home, the barn was without a concrete foundation, electricity, or running water. Michael did much of the renovation work himself, converting the barn to his needs as a glass studio. Today Michael creates art year-round, blowing glass and teaching classes during the winter months. Blowing glass requires a constant temperature of over 1000 degrees. This temperature must be carefully controlled in order to keep the glass from cooling too fast or breaking entirely. Because the heat from the glassblowing studio is intolerable during warmer months, Michael works on other mixed media wood and metal pieces during spring and summer. It should be known that heat presents a number of other problems to the glassblower. According to the popular website How Stuff Works, “Blowing glass is challenging work, and there can be a lot of risks involved. Glass can crack and explode if it is not worked properly — and let’s not forget about burns. Plus, a lot of the ingredients in a glass batch are either toxic or if airborne, can cause respiratory problems over time.” Michael is currently in the process of creating various works for future shows, including some onsite exhibits at his studio. He plans on growing his class size to teach the art of glassblowing to more students. He also plans on making some functional pieces. Michael is represented by The Copper Fox Gallery in Leipers Fork, TN. For further information about his art, be sure to visit the gallery’s website. You can watch the Artist Interview on Youtube below. Here is the podcast interview with Michael for The Creative Push! If you would like to see more photos with Michael while he was working visit Sheri Oneal Photography.

Watercolor Artist Phil Ponder

Wed, 16 Mar 2022 06:51:13 +0200

Phil Ponder is a Nashville watercolor artist known for his hand-painted iconic architectural imagery. Using watercolors and his own mathematical technique his detail-oriented work often represents the subject matter down to the exact number of bricks. With more than 700 paintings under his belt despite becoming an artist after retirement, Phil has built a name for himself while preserving Nashville’s everchanging architectural history. Phil was born in Ocala, a place he never dreamed he would leave as a kid. This small town, founded in 1885, is located in north-central Florida. As a child, he often spent time at Silver Springs, known for its crystal blue water, Spanish moss, and glass-bottom boats. The once privately owned Silver Springs Nature Theme Park was the first commercial tourist attraction in Florida. It was later obtained by the state in order to keep the land from being developed. Phil’s father Lester William Ponder was a bookkeeper and was much older than his mother. As a kid, Phil says his dad felt more like a grandfather than a father. According to Phil, his father worked for Carl Rose, owner of the first horse farm in the area called Rosemere Farm in 1936. Over the years Ocala has gained notoriety as being the horse capital of the world due to many of the award-winning thoroughbred horses coming out of Marion county. It is also home to The World Equestrian Center, the largest equestrian complex in the United States. “Growing up in Ocala was like growing up in Mayberry, a place you think you will never leave, there is no place as wonderful as Ocala,” Phil admits. Phil’s mother Oniezima Cecilia Chazal Ponder was part owner of a beauty salon. She was active with local civic organizations, served as a Regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and taught art to troubled kids. Onie lived to be 112 years old. At the time of her death in 2010, she was the oldest woman in the state of Florida, the 9th oldest in the US, and the 21st oldest in the world. Phil also has a younger brother Carswell Ponder who still lives in the Ocala area with his wife. Phil admits that his mom was his biggest inspiration with creativity, she was an artist who painted with oils and watercolors, did ceramics and rug hooking. When Phil was in high school he took some art lessons from a family friend, Susan Carmichael, whose family owned the Silver Springs Nature Theme Park where he and his friends spent time. As an accomplished local artist who had attended the Chicago Institute of Art, Susan offered Phil basic painting techniques. While Phil enjoyed creating art as a hobby he never considered becoming an artist, instead, he would stumble into that role much later in life. Phil started college at Florida State but later transferred to The University of Florida in Gainesville to be closer to home. On the weekend commuted to Ocala to work at a Jordan’s, a small shoe store that sat on the historic downtown Ocala square. He graduated with a degree in Business Administration with an Industrial Management major before joining the Navy. After being commissioned as a Navy officer Phil married his high school sweetheart Dot. He met Dot at the age of 9 when she moved in down the street from his grandmothers. They have been married for 65 years. Dot and Phil moved several times with the Navy before leaving the military and accepting a job with Genesco for a training program related to his former shoe store experience. The position was in Nashville, Tennessee where the couple settled in with their daughter, Terrie, two months later they had their son, Rob. A few years later they welcomed their daughters Deb and Stephanie and today they have eight grandkids. In 1977 Phil was reintroduced to painting after creating some art for his kids as Christmas presents. That encouragement pushed him a year later to paint the Market Street buildings on 2nd Avenue in downtown Nashville. After seeing a painting on the wall at the work of a little Italian village with no sky or land, for the first time he applied the same concept to this piece. That first painting with his newly adapted style would change his future paintings and his career. When he went to a local frame shop to have his painting framed a chance meeting with local, Charles Wallace, would also change the fate of Phil’s career as a painter. “I would not be talking to you today if Charles had not asked for my number after seeing my painting and suggesting that I make prints. He called me 6 times trying to convince me that I needed to have prints made even offering to help. I only agreed because I wanted him to stop calling, Phil says. Charles sold prints where he worked and felt that Phil’s paintings would be perfect in the Nashville retail market. Charles convinced Phil he could sell his work and would help him with the printing process. He introduced Phil to his friend Daniel Boone who worked at a local printing company. In 1979 they began making reproduction prints from Phil’s original work and would continue their business relationship for the next 35 years. From 1979-to 1989, Phil primarily painted a single painting each year for himself, due to his workload and travels with Genesco. The more he shared his work with others the more they began asking him to create new pieces. When he retired in 1989 from Genesco, painting became his second career. The more projects he created the more printed copies were produced and sold. A few years later gallery owner Matt Fisher began representing Phil as an artist. He helped him print and distribute his work to the public through his retail store, Picture This in Donelson, Tennessee. “I do art because it creates memories for others and that is my objective in life now. God created my subjects from scratch. I’m just the guy that paints them on paper. It’s such a blessing that I am still able to do this at 89 years old,” Phil explains. After many years of helping grow Phil’s reputation as an artist selling his imagery, Matt had an idea to develop a book of Phil’s work. He and fellow colleague Duane Chambers released the book in 2021 that includes 461 images dating back to Phil’s start in 1979. Matt collected and compiled all of the copy for the book. Duane prepared the digital imagery, the design and handled the printing details when it went to press. The attention the book has created and the sales have proven to be very successful for Phil as an artist. Phil has a waiting list for his commissioned work. He adds each potential client to his list and when he gets to their name if they are still interested in having the painting created he starts the work. He begins each piece by first taking an array of photos at the architectural location while studying every detail of the structure. He uses the photos to outline the important visual aspects often counting the number of bricks, stones, or blocks, down to the exact number. Using his mathematical background and a calculator he is able to accurately scale the subject as he begins sketching the image outline with a pencil. In the next step, he applies permanent ink over the sketched pencil image. He then begins the tedious process of painting the image with watercolor paints. The total process can take up to 100 hours from start to finish depending on the project. Phil’s perfectionism and intricate details are stylishly recognizable within his work. In 1980 he began adding a secret element to his work that many people may not be aware of today. As he was reviewing photos taken for research to begin a painting he noticed a pigeon sitting on part of the building. When he began sketching the Silver Dollar Saloon, a historical downtown structure in Nashville, built-in 1893, he decided to include the bird. This was only the fourth painting of his career, he explains, “On the right-hand corner of the roof, there was a pigeon and I decided to include him in the painting to see if anyone would notice. Soon after people began commenting how they liked that I added his little friend so I thought if people like it I am going to put that little bird to work for me. He has become my “wheres Waldo” in all of my paintings since.” The bird with no name, earned his feathers, so to speak after more than 30 years when Phil made a connection to his friend’s name, Happy Birdsong. Today, hidden in every painting since the ’80s his grey-blue pigeon is now known as Happy. Phil works the most during the spring and summer months because he says it is the best time for him to be able to mentally focus on his painting without distractions. Throughout most of his career as an artist, Phil relied on Matt Fisher to print, publish, sell, and market his work. Phil handles all of his commissioned work on his own. For many years Phil had other retail accounts outside of the Nashville area and often traveled but today his work is primarily sold in the Metro Nashville area through the gallery and in a few other gift shops and tourist locations. Phil admits, “Today I am experiencing a decline in the sale of my Nashville historical work. Sadly, there are so many people moving here with no immediate interest in Nashville’s history. I am glad I have been able to preserve that historical value but I also understand that it is just the nature of change.” At 89 Phil doesn’t show any signs of slowing down the creation of his artwork. He is adamant that he will continue painting for as long as he is able. Although Phil became an artist late in life he has painted historical buildings, homes, mansions, schools, churches, lighthouses, and other public places from all across the US as well as internationally. He also paints trees, flowers, balloons, trains, insects, and animals. Phil shares his passion for what he does, “What I do is try to visually capture the spirit of a building and its beauty based on the feeling I get when I see it in person. I want to go there and experience that myself first so I can find a way to incorporate that into my painting for the viewer. My hope is that they will also feel that magic. I want to share what is special about a place or a subject. I want to be able to create artwork that is timeless.” On December 25, 2020, a bomb exploded on Second Avenue in the downtown historical area of Nashville, Tennessee. The blast referred to as, the Christmas bombing, damaged 65 buildings displacing both businesses and residents. In an effort to help preserve the history of the buildings dating back to the 1800s, Phil’s “Market Street, Too” painting will be reproduced as a lifesized metal etched mural. The piece will be a mirrored image displayed on the side of the refurbished exterior of the AT&T Data Center that was damaged. It showcases the historical buildings that existed across the street before the bombing. Phil is excited that his painting has been chosen to commemorate Nashville’s downtown architectural history, something he would have never imagined was possible. He acknowledges how grateful he is for the success that his work and career have offered later in life. He admits that the only regret he has is that he did not become an artist earlier. You can find more on his work at Picture This. You can watch the YouTube video interview below. Here is the podcast Artist Interview for The Creative Push. You can see more photos of Phil from the interview on my photography...

Carousel Woodcarver Ken Means

Fri, 18 Feb 2022 08:08:43 +0200

Ken Means is a master woodcarver, a painter, a bronze artist, and a creator of authentic Pacific Northwest Indian masks. His career success as an artist spans more than 60 years, and today he is respected as a maker of highly detailed carousel animals. Ken considers himself part of a lost art of carvers bringing such characters to life for children and adults to enjoy. Born in the Los Angeles area, Ken spent his time as a child tracing and copying Disney cartoons. This is how he learned how to draw. He also enjoyed building complex wooden model airplanes, which was a common activity of that era. Ken was inspired by his father, a man who loved to paint vivid desert scenes before his paralysis from serving in WWII. Outside of school or his own creative pastimes, he enjoyed riding the carousel at Lincoln Park. Little did he know that all of these experiences would become part of his creative future. One of Ken’s first major artistic accomplishments happened when he was a teen. He was approached to create the illustrations of sports cars for a novel called “Thunder Road,” a book about the world of racing. This was a big deal to Ken and gave him a serious confidence boost to try other things. Following his high school graduation, Ken gained clarity in his career after attending the Laguna Beach Annual Art Festival. Still going on today, this festival has brought artists together from all over the world since 1927. Seeing the quality and selling prices of the art at this event, Ken was motivated to learn how to paint. For his 19th birthday, his parents bought him some oil paints and brushes to help him get started in his new direction as an artist. Ken recalls, “I painted furiously every single day for a couple of years. I would get my paints from the trash can of a guy who painted cars because I didn’t have any money. At the end of every day, I would collect the empty gallon cans, scraping out the residue at the bottom and putting that into jars so I could paint my art.” Since he had no money, Ken would paint on cardboard boxes to practice different techniques. While teaching himself how to paint, Ken also started learning how to carve in order to bring in money. He would sculpt decor pieces of Spanish ships and American eagle heads out of redwood, embellishing them with stressed metal for an antiqued effect. On the weekends, he would join other artists on the streets of Rodeo Road in LA. There, he would sell his art in order to make a living. Eventually, Ken was able to get hired by a billboard company painting advertisements. There he learned how to do lettering, patterns, and to “pounce.” The early days of painting billboards required using a device called a “pounce wheel” to create perforated lined patterns. These lined patterns were then filled with chalk to generate outlines of the desired subject that could then be painted as larger-than-life images with oil paints. Ken’s experience working with the billboard company helped expand his growth as a painter. His work led to opportunities to paint backdrops, murals, and even movie sets in and around Hollywood. He worked as a painter with the Pasadena Playhouse, the Hollywood Wax Museum, and on the production crew of the 1966 Steve McQueen film “The Sand Pebbles.” One Christmas—when Ken and his family were trying to save money—Ken’s wife Betty asked him to make their daughters a rocking horse. Betty wanted something that resembled the old carousel horses Ken grew up riding. Every night for a month, Ken would cut, carve, and paint after the kids were put to bed. His labors paid off. On Christmas Day, his daughters discovered their gift, which they immediately loved. The beauty of this rocking horse made it the talk of the entire neighborhood. Both kids and parents alike were so enamored with the horse, they began telling their friends about it. The popularity of this initial horse resulted in people reaching out for him to fix their broken carousel animals. There weren’t any books available to Ken on how to repair these animals. So, once again he relied on his own skills, experimenting with different restoration and carving techniques. After developing these skills, Ken became the “go-to” carousel repair person in his community. Ken’s reputation as an artist grew to earn him the title of “master.” A close friend suggested that he apply for an accreditation program in the area that was being offered to artists by California’s Governor Jerry Brown. This program offered experienced professional artists who lacked the educational requirements the opportunity to teach at local art colleges. Ken entered the program, gaining his teaching credentials. He was then able to work as a college art instructor for the Pasadena City College, and later the prestigious Otis Institute in LA. While Ken loved teaching, he was tired of living in LA. What’s more, his father had died, and his mother couldn’t sell her house in Oregon. After quitting, Ken and his wife bought his mother’s house and moved to Myrtle Point, Oregon. Ken still wanted to teach. He set up his own private woodcarving school in a three-story building. There, Ken taught how to carve carousel animals and Pacific Northwest Indian masks. For 24 years, students came from around the globe to attend the three-week workshops Ken offered. The school included a showroom where his carved carousel animals were showcased. There was also a workshop residence for students to stay in, as well as a dedicated basement space for the woodcarving courses. The parking lot allowed students to park their campers if the upstairs housing amenities were full. His workshops immersed his students into deep creative concentration without the distractions of phone calls or TV. It demanded a strict regimen of commitment beginning each day at 6 a.m. This policy often inspired students to work late into the night. Many of his student friendships forged from those workshops are still strong today. Ken’s desire has always been to pass down the forgotten art of carousel wood carving in hopes to keep the craft going. Despite his success, Ken still feels like he has a lot to learn. He explains, “I enjoyed teaching others how to carve. It’s like everything else in life: It’s a learning process, and it takes time. The important thing is to never give up. I hope to be a good carver someday. I’m not there yet. I have a long way to go, and I am running out of time.” Ken still paints, carves masks, and does the occasional commission. But these days, it is his carousel animals that get all of the attention. For years, Ken has been building his own carousel. As the traditional carousel becomes harder to find with a new generation of amusement park rides, Ken wants to honor the historical legacy of the merry-go-rounds of the past. In 2019, Ken and his wife came to Nashville. He had already wanted to be closer to his grandkids but was prompted to relocate after his daughter rented studio space at The Factory in Franklin (Franklin, TN). There, most of the carousel animals can be seen through the workshop’s windows. The ride’s many parts feature a menagerie of beasts, including 11 stationary animals, 20 moving animals, and two chariots (one wheelchair compatible). The carousel will play music courtesy of a replica Wurlitzer band organ, for which his wife created most of the cabinetry and stained glass housing. This one-of-a-kind organ will feature seven different instruments for the music. At the time of writing, Ken still had a few animals left to complete. He shares, “The reason I started making my carousel was partially because of my children but also because when you go to an art gallery or museum you can’t touch anything, and you can’t take pictures. I want to create something that people can enjoy for at least 100 years!” Each animal Ken carves is developed as a character and he starts every piece by first drawing the rough idea for the carousel animal. This initial image is something that will inspire him, but not anchor him to a particular detail. After he develops the personality of the animal, he begins the process of sculpting. Every piece is created in sections, as opposed to one big chunk. Through the process of “coffin box construction,” Ken starts with a central box that will hold the other pieces of the animal. The head, legs, and everything else are all connected via this hollow, wooden box. Though it starts out as an empty wooden frame, Ken shares with our readers that this doesn’t stay empty for long. It will eventually hold a time capsule, containing a secret item of personal or historical value to Ken! This gift-within-a-gift is a reminder to all of those who ride the carousel that each animal comes from a particular moment in time and that every moment is momentous. Once the central box is created, each piece gets a rough carving to flesh out a very basic shape. Just like his days with the pounce wheel, Ken starts with an outline before adding the finishing flourishes. After the rough carving of the sections is completed, they are glued into place and left to dry. Next, Ken carves and sands the different parts of the animal until he is happy with its final development. Then, Ken primes the paint mounts the animal on a stand, and paints the finished pieces. The process can take weeks to months to complete depending on the size and when he feels they are up to his expectations. Retirement has never crossed Ken’s mind as an artist. He enjoys the excitement kids have when seeing his animals, reminding him of his own childhood memories and that drives him to keep working on this legacy that will outlive him over time. “I love watching kids come in with excitement while touching all of the animals. I get a lot of older people to come in and share their fond memories of riding the carousel as a kid. That’s why I love building this carousel!” Ken explains. Here is our podcast interview for The Creative Push. If you would like to know more about Ken you can visit his website or check out his Instagram page. You can watch Ken’s video interview below! You can see more photos from the interview at Sheri Oneal Photography. Listen to Ken’s story on The Creative Push podcast!

Custom Harley Builder John Archer

Wed, 19 Jan 2022 14:28:02 +0200

John Archer is a Harley Davidson motorcycle aficionado and owner of Dos Hombres Cycle in Ocala, Florida. Known by many as a custom Harley builder that thinks outside of the box while honoring the traditional authenticity of the Harley Davidson brand. For over 30 years the bike creations by Dos Hombres have won awards and graced the covers of motorcycle enthusiast magazines across the country. Harley Davidson Motorcycles In 1903 William S. Harley and Bill Davidson founded the Harley Davidson brand and it is the oldest continuously operating motorcycle company in the United States today. Harleys were used in the U.S military and by allies in the World Wars for reconnaissance and courier duties. They are rugged, nostalgic, innovative, and designed to last. Often referred to as a HOG (Harley Owners Group), people who love them are loyal to the brand and feel a sense of belonging to others who also ride. John’s earliest memory as a child was riding around San Francisco on the gas tank of his dad’s Harley, he explains, “Dad set me up there on the tank with a huge pair of goofy aviator sunglasses and we would ride around the Bay area in California where we lived until I was in my teens.” In those days he says he idolized his older cousins Bill and Jim Archer because they were both heavily into motorcycles and he attributes his interest at a young age to wanting to be like them growing up. John’s dad gave him his first Harley Davidson motorcycle, a 1949 ST 125 pre-hummer when he was around eight years old. John was riding on the streets and highways in Arkansas at the young age of 14. As a teenager, he says he was breaking a lot of bikes and trying to learn how to fix them on his own. Looking back he admits that many of the things he was doing for fun were extremely dangerous and often followed by broken bones and stitches. As a kid, John’s family moved around the US due to his father’s engineering career eventually settling in Blytheville, Arkansas when he was in high school. In college, he studied Civil Engineering at the University of Arkansas and soon after began tinkering regularly on motorcycles as a hobby. He attributes much of his interest in the ’70s and ‘80s to the group of friends he was hanging around who were socially like-minded. In order to be a part of the group he had to know how to work on the bikes, it was a vital part of being accepted, he explains, “At that time in life things were pretty different with what we were doing with Harleys today, it wasn’t so vogue like it is now. My social group required being able to build a motorcycle, if you couldn’t do it you couldn’t be part of the group.” At that time he and many of his friends were riding long distances across the country. Much of what he knows now he learned back then while traveling and having to make repairs along the way. He says during that time he was introduced to a lot of unbelievably good mechanics, many of whom are no longer alive. He has kept in touch with those who are and often reaches out to pick their brain or help when he is struggling with a project. Tommy Bayman is one of his biggest mentors and is usually the first person he calls when he needs help. After bumming around the country for several years on a Harley, John relocated to Ocala, Florida in the mid-’80s. For a short time in the early ’90s, he and a few others taught a three-day class called Chopper College, where they demonstrated to attendees the basics of bike building. Dos Hombre Cycle The inception of starting a custom bike shop came about when John and his best friend Richard Reed built a 1947 Knuckle together. The specific Harley-Davidson motorcycle engine is dubbed “knuckle” due to the distinctly contoured knuckle-shaped rocker box valve cover. As he and Richard were building this bike they began brainstorming possible business names and in 1992 they started their custom Harley shop named Dos Hombres Cycle. Custom Motorcycle Building Each motorcycle project starts with a customer idea infused by a twist of John’s creative design expertise. He then searches to find a donor bike for used parts, often having to fabricate specialty items himself. John prefers to preserve the nostalgic Harley Davidson brand while accommodating the build to fit the stature and physique of the customer. He is adamant in making sure that the person riding the bike feels confident and comfortable. Sometimes he has to determine how to use two pieces of components that aren’t supposed to work together, something he says he really enjoys. After mocking up the motorcycle completely he then rips it all apart and outsources the painting, powder coating, and plating before putting it back together. His usual go-too guys are Rusty Broadhurst of Jen-Co, Dwayne Olsen & Lad Peliman for the paint, and Luke Scanlan for any artistry design work. He encourages people not to paint their frames any crazy colors because of the time involved and the decline in resale value. He also advises against using lighter colors on chassis components because it ends up showcasing the crud and the leaks Harley Davidson motorcycles are known for among enthusiasts. Today John says many people are interested in the bober-style patina look, which he likes because of the traditional aesthetics and the easy rideability. He refuses to destroy the authenticity of a vintage bike, or create something he doesn’t feel is safe and he is selective with who he decides to work with, “I have no idea how many motorcycles that I’ve built, not a clue. It’s kind of cool when I’m somewhere, especially in another state and I recognize a bike that I built, all these years and it’s still on the road. It feels nostalgic and it extends my legacy all at the same time.” John loves it when he sees work from an amateur builder that blows him away. Seeing something totally different and unique at a bike show inspires him to continue with his own designs. Knowing someone built a bike dreamed up in a private garage using what was available to work with fuels John’s creativity. Like most custom bike builders, he is not a full-time builder and has a side gig, he explains, “There are very few bike builders out there that build bikes full time, if you reach that level, you should consider yourself very, very fortunate. I’m pretty sure if I were to concentrate all my energy on just building motorcycles I would burn out. It is important to me, and I am passionate about it but I also do other things.” John Archer In October of 2021, Richard passed away causing John to change how he wants to run the business moving forward. He plans to be more selective with who he takes on as a client and wants to create custom builds he is truly excited about. “There are a lot of fads out there now like the big wheel dresser craze with nutty stereos and painted like an Easter egg, those do absolutely nothing for me. It’s funny, a lot of the stuff that was cool in the 60s and 70s is coming back around again. I guess it’s a lot like fashion. All those guys that threw away all their old chopper parts in the early 80s, like me, are regretting it now because they bring in a ridiculous amount of money online,” John shares. John occasionally works on British bikes, but the only motorcycle that he failed at completing in his long career of builds was a Triumph 650, and says it almost drove him nuts. He admits that his creativity is inspired by boredom and the need to be doing something all the time. He will dream up something in his head and loves the reward of seeing it come to life in his work as a physical product you can experience. John currently owns nine bikes, many of which are his own custom builds as well as a few scooters. Over the past several years aside from building motorcycles, John has also been working on some personal projects building hot rods. He has a 1930 Ford Model A that he built several years ago, and his current project is a 1949 Dodge truck. “Occasionally I get lost when it comes to four wheels, but I’m having a good time doing it. I’ve got a great mentor, Jim Sutton, who helps me a great deal,” John admits. When he isn’t building Harleys or working on a hot rod he says he loves sailing, which he feels is a bit of an oxymoron to motorcycles. John has never had to go out and find work, he doesn’t have a website, has never advertised, does not pass out business cards yet people hunt him down through word of mouth or find him through his Instagram page. Over the years John has had some minor bike spills but in 1999 at the age of 39, he almost lost his life in a terrible motorcycle crash when he t-boned the car of a woman who pulled out in front of him. He was laid up for more than six months, had to have his face and hand reconstructed, and still suffers from pain caused by that accident. Five years later one of his best friends died in a motorcycle accident and John admits those two events changed his life but not his love for riding, he explains, “You know, sooner or later, something’s going to happen. When you’ve ridden a motorcycle as long as I have and as many miles as I, it’s just the nature of the beast. If it happens to you in a car, you don’t quit driving.” John acknowledges that those events changed his perspective with how he looks at life today, what he wants to accomplish, and the importance of the time he spends with others. Before the crash, he admits he was pretty wild, lived on the edge, indulged in a lot of unhealthy behavior, and associated himself in some really rough circles. With age and maturity, he is thankful for all of the crazy adventurous memories from riding cross country to the friendships he made. He only wishes he had been more appreciative in the moment during special times not realizing how important they would be to him today. John shares one of his most memorable cross country adventures from when he was younger, “I rode my Harley to Alaska but stopped in Prince Rupert because I didn’t bring any Canadian money. The teller at the bank saw my bike all packed down and offered her family’s homestead for camping off the Alaskan highway, up a gravel road nearby. I set up my tent there and crashed after riding all day. In the morning when I got up, the sun was coming up and I could see a whole herd of caribou moving around about a mile below, it was almost spiritual. I thought man, how cool it would be to live here, to grow up here and see this on a regular basis. It was just a fluke that she offered the place to me but it is still one of my most memorable moments while traveling alone.” After 29 years of operating Dos Hombres with Richard in the same location, John relocated in January of 2022 and plans to build bikes on his own at a slower pace, scaling down on the amount of work he wants to do. He believes the biggest hurdle with his passion is that there is not enough time to allow his creativity to flourish without the urgent need to meet a deadline. He is being more selective and only wants to...

Custom Harley Builder John Archer

Wed, 19 Jan 2022 14:28:02 +0200

James Suh And The Rise Of Taco Diplomacy

Wed, 24 Nov 2021 21:54:21 +0200

COVID-19 has given Nashville data strategy consultant James Suh the time to build a platform to share with others his love of authentic Korean flavors. His desire to offer a place to experience the beauty of Korean food and other international flavors in very comfortable and accessible forms led to the rise of Taco Diplomacy, a food pop-up concept that may soon become a restaurant. His recipes for dishes like Tteokbokki, Bulgogi, and unique tacos along with his love of great coffee invite people to experience something very unique. Born in post-war South Korea in 1972, James moved to San Francisco when his mother met and married a US service member. For nearly the entirety of his childhood, he and his sister spent their time alone taking care of themselves, which included finding and preparing their own food. Always experimenting with cheap and available ingredients, James created his own sweetbread his sister dubbed Ghetto Bread, when he was around 12. This sweetbread was a simple mix of water, sugar, flour, and some spices that were popped in the microwave for 90 seconds. Interestingly, his sister and her kids still make and enjoy the recipe today. As part of a military family and later as a service member, James has lived in 4 different countries and 10 US states. All of these moves gave James incredible exposure to diverse foods and flavors from cultures around the world. His strongest flavor memory is Tteokbokki, which is a spicy Korean rice cake with an incredibly complex and distinct flavor profile. To his dismay and despite countless attempts, James had been unable to faithfully recreate this flavor until very recently. His newfound recipe is now featured in many of his Taco Diplomacy’s popup and catering events. James admits his childhood was a very difficult time in his life and those experiences shaped many of his future decisions, he explains, “My high school situation wasn’t fantastic, I actually wound up living in a stolen car for a good part of my senior year. I didn’t feel like I had a lot of options when I graduated so I decided to look for a reset and joined the Navy.” Even with these living conditions, James graduated in the top 5% of his class yet no one encouraged him to go to college or even made him aware that the path was available. Unsure of his options, he joined the Navy to become a Naval Nuclear Reactor Operator. After completing his training, James was selected for a University Scholarship to Rensselaer, where he earned a degree in Computer and Systems Engineering. During his junior year, he also petitioned the military to allow a transfer from the Navy to the Marine Corps. In the ’90s, he began thinking back to his childhood and trying to find ways he could hold on to the few positive memories from his past. James started looking for ingredients and recipes that would allow him to recreate the foods he remembered as a kid. This labor of love would take him 15-20 years of iterative changes before he felt he had mastered the process. Originally, he was concerned that Korean cuisine such as kimchi and other more pungent foods would not be palatable to many of his US friends. He only cooked them for himself and never considered sharing them with others. Today he feels that because Americans are more exposed to different cultures and international foods, he can enjoy experimenting and sharing more of his recipes. Despite owning a successful data consulting business, recent interactions with business executives forced James to reconsider the value of his time and with whom he was spending it. He began thinking about how he could have a better impact and bring more joy to the world. The importance of being ethically and culturally aligned with the people around him became his primary goal moving forward. Those business experiences pushed James to spend more of his time and energy working with non-profit organizations (Make A Wish, Middle Tennessee is a client). The pivot also gave him more free time to explore and build on his passion for food and coffee. He explains his own words, “I have never ever made anybody happy with data, people are excited, they’re interested, they like seeing it, it helps drive business and enterprise value, but no one comes up and says I love this data! Can you make some more? When I make tacos, Tteokbokki, or some of my other recipes people are genuinely happy, they love it, and that in turn brings me joy.” When James met his now-wife, Karri Suh, the hobby baker I featured recently on The Creative Push, they began entertaining more from their East Nashville home. It was then that he introduced his Korean tacos to his friends and found that they were a hit. That gave him the desire to share more of his recipes and food ideas with others. 2020 was a pivotal year that brought about a lot of change for almost everyone. James and Karri moved to the west side of Nashville, got engaged, and officially tied the knot all within 10 months. The COVID lockdown also provided a lot of downtime for James to explore his love of cooking and coffee while Karri pursued her passion for cakes and pastries. They started offering free cake tastings in their front yard to people in their neighborhood, a slice of cake, and a latte in exchange for online critiques using scannable QR codes. “Seeing Karri explore the baking side and gaining traction with something she really enjoys doing made me consider this a something we could make a living from …If I do decide to launch a brick-and-mortar business she will definitely be involved,” James explains. During one of these events, their friend and owner of Miel Restaurant, Seema Prasad, offered her space for an official Taco Popup. This was just the encouragement James needed to move forward with the idea. He and Karri spent an entire month planning the menu, working out the logistics, finding a team, and creating a brand. Despite all the work and preparation, James was still surprised by the turnout and the response to the pop-up. The overwhelmingly positive feedback and attendance at such a low-key event provided the motivation to take the Taco Diplomacy idea to a new level. As he develops and perfects his unique recipes, James is learning how important it is to write down precise measurements so that he can be consistent with his flavors. Creating formal recipes is something he admits has been difficult since he has no culinary background and generally has always improvised when he cooks. The top dishes James is sharing at his Taco Diplomacy pop-ups and tastings currently include: The Real Korean beef taco, using a very thin bulgogi beef ribeye with a popular Korean sweet marinade as the base. It is garnished with lettuce, pickled root veggies, house red sauce, scallion, and takuan, which is a sweet, pickled daikon radish found as a side in many Korean dishes. The Unreal Korean, a vegan tofu taco, and The Sauer Diktator, a German bratwurst taco. Each is served on a house-made blue corn and flour tortilla. He also serves Tteokbokki, a savory, spicy rice cake that is a popular traditional Korean street food. Tteokbokki It is made by cooking rice dumplings in a spicy soup stock. The rice dumplings (or rice cakes) are made from sticky rice and sweet rice flour. The stock is made by cooking down seaweed, anchovies, daikon radish, green onions, and raw sugar for several hours then straining then mixing in tamari, gochujang (a fermented hot sauce paste), and gochu-goru (hot pepper flakes). The rice dumplings are then added to the stock and cooked slowly for about an hour and served in a small bowl topped with house cheese sauce, green onions, toasted sesame seeds, and a few slices of takuan. The day I met with James for our interview and photoshoot he shared with me his Korean seaweed rolls, which are similar to a Japanese nori roll. He prepared his with steamed rice, sesame oil, sea salt, takuan, egg omelet with scallions, cucumber, bulgogi, all wrapped in seaweed. If you want to see more photos check out my post at SOP. Some other taco recipes he is working on include an Irish taco, a pulled pork taco, and breakfast tacos. James also has a true love for good coffee, he talks about that more in our podcast for The Creative Push. The ginger-spiced orange salted rim latte is a specialty of his, he explains, “This latte reminds me of so many places we’ve traveled but the complex and wonderful mix of flavors quickly brings me back to what I love the most about Nashville. I’m constantly amazed by the unexpected beauty that emerges from the most diverse mix of ingredients.” Today James is focusing on sharing his international recipes with a larger audience. Together he and his wife are looking into the possibility of opening a small Taco Diplomacy restaurant to offer his branded Korean foods, quality coffee drinks, and Karri’s cakes. In the meantime, they are participating in local pop-up events and offering catering for businesses in the Nashville area. “Taco Diplomacy is not just about tacos, it is about introducing international flavors in familiar forms. Cake is a familiar form, coffee is a familiar form, and tacos are a familiar form of street food. Karri is definitely my inspiration, I don’t imagine I would be doing this if she wasn’t also interested in doing something with me,” James explains. Together James and Kari have completed a business plan, have begun researching business opportunities, and are scouting locations to decide their next move. James believes that this pursuit is not very risky for him since he can always return to the high-demand data analytics consulting work. Be sure to check out The Creative Push podcast with James and the photos from the day of our interview. Personally, I love the pop-up concept and have enjoyed his Korean tacos, tteokbokki, latte, and Karri’s cake variations on multiple occasions. Be sure to follow along with James on Instagram or his Taco Diplomacy site so you will know when his food is available again to the public. Want to be a part of this creative tribe? Sign up for the Learn and Create newsletter! There is much more on the way!! Do you know someone who would make for an interesting interview? Please feel free to reach out via email and social media! I’m always looking to connect.

Acoustic Pop Artist Carl Wockner

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 05:52:55 +0200

Acoustic pop artist Carl Wockner is a one-man musical show who uses complex live looping gear to create the sound illusion of an entire band performance. His soulful music style and audience engagement make you want to get up and dance or sing along. His upbeat rhythm and powerful hitting vocals along with his amusing sense of humor offer entertainment that will accommodate almost any audience. As an individual entertainer, Carl’s live performances beckon to be remembered. His signature red-rimmed glasses, incredible vocal range, and bold personality combined with the energy and complexity of what he offers in a show make him extremely memorable. Although this all-in-one musical beatbox and musician recently gave up his iconic dreadlocks, his music has always stood on its own both for its toe-tapping appeal and lyrical content. Carl was born in Bundaberg, Queensland on the east coast of Australia. His mother played piano and sang and his father, a builder, loved listening to all kinds of diverse music. In grade school, Carl and his siblings had the option to play one sport and choose one musical instrument to learn how to play each year. At the age of 7, Carl chose violin lessons, then piano at the age of 10, and guitar at 15 years old. He then started playing in various bands but never really considered making a career of it. When he picked up a gig at a local country club and surprisingly got paid after the show as a teen the idea of making money playing music sparked his interest. He went on to college and received a teaching degree but realized he was already making more money playing music than he could as a teacher. At that point, he set out to grow his career as a musician, performer, singer, and songwriter. For a few years, Carl toured around Australia, playing at clubs, festivals and events. In 2010 he visited Nashville for the first time after meeting music producer Michael Flanders at an event in Australia. He struck up a conversation with Flanders, they hit it off and Michael invited Carl to visit his Nashville studio. Michael set Carl up on several co-writes with some prominent writers over his ten-day visit allowing him to complete 20 songs during his visit. Five months later Carl traveled back to Nashville to record his first album with Michael as his producer. In 2016 Carl, his wife Karli, and his two kids Goldie and Alto packed up and relocated to Nashville to see if he could grow his career as an artist. They sold everything and relocated to the US to start their new musical journey. Carl hired an agent prior to his move in order to have some steady gigs set up when he arrived in the US. Unfortunately, when he got into Nashville, he found out that the agent hadn’t done what he paid for, the cost of that experience took years to settle financially. Carl found himself having to hustle playing venues and bars as he had earlier in his career to make ends meet. It took two years of hard work growing his fan base before he was able to establish enough steady gigs at events and house shows. Those higher-paying opportunities allowed him to walk away from the small lower-paying gigs at the small local venues. “I’ve realized that no matter what happens, when you look back on something you never regret anything that happened because there is always something amazing that is going on right now that you wouldn’t trade anything for, Carl admits.” What makes Carl different from most musical performers is his ability to use live looping gear to create multiple instrumental tracks within each song while performing in front of a live audience. Using a special looping pedal he singlehandedly creates all of the musical parts during a show, the lead vocal, harmonies, bass, guitar, keys, and even drum beats. With each repeating loop using only his voice and small body Maton guitar, he creates different instrumental layers as he plays, building what eventually sounds like a full live band performance. He stumbled across the looping process when he borrowed a friend’s set up for a show years prior to moving to Nashville. Wanting to offer something unique as a new transplant to Music City where there is a saturated music market, Carl found that there was no one really using the looping process. He perfected his technique deciding to grow his reputation in the US as a looping performer. Years ago in a sold-out arena, Ed Sheeran performed alone in Nashville using a looping pedal. The fullness of sound and the complexity of the looping process were impressive and extremely entertaining. Watching Carl play using the same technique recently at the private Nashville event, Bands In The Barn was just as exciting, you can listen to the whole show here. Carl Wockner knows his gear and works hard to challenge himself as he grows into larger event performances. He thrives in playing private house parties and large events expressing how much he loves the intimate experiences and relationships that often result from those shows. While he has the ability to play almost any cover his desire is to produce and play his own music, that alone fuels him to cultivate his creativity along the way. In the studio, Carl still works occasionally with producer Michael Flanders on projects but in the past few years, he has become great friends with Michael’s son, Ben, an incredible pop music producer. Together Carl and Ben have worked together challenging each other through the creative process that has resulted in several singles Carl admits would never have been as exceptional had he done them alone. The way they push each other in the studio is something Carl believes every musical creative should experience in their career. As a father, Carl has a deep belief in family values and is very close to his family back in Australia. He spends quality time at home with his wife and kids and wants to be sure that they see him living his dreams so they will be inspired to live their own. He says that his kids often inspire many of the songs that he writes. His wife Karli is a classically trained cello player, reads sheet music, and also sings beautifully Carl admits. He has always played music by ear so when he and Karli worked on a song together called, Husband To Be, that he wrote for their wedding day, the experience was ambitious for both of them. Each had to step outside of their comfort zone in order to learn how to work together. His ability to create music by ear and hers to create by reading chart music was challenging but the experience and the outcome is something uniquely special. *Carl explains that process and how he rigged her cello so they could play live in the YouTube interview if you want to hear more. Musically Carl has influences in all genres of music. He resonates with the tonal parts of songs that he likes and that inspires his creativity rather than the genre of music itself. Some of his influences include artists like John Mayer, Maroon 5, Jason Isbell, as well as other music genres like R & B, Soul, 90’s Rap, and Pop. He believes the proper beat of a metronome is the key to staying in a perfect rhythm, not the internal metronome many performers often use when creating. In 2015 he was awarded as the first Australian to win Top Honors at the 2015 International Acoustic Music Awards for the release of his album, Crayon Days, he was also voted as Best Soloist by Scope Magazine. His first two singles gained national radio play on the Billboard Charts both in the US and in the UK. In 2016, his album, Better, received a nomination for Best Adult Contemporary Album in the Independent Music Awards. Recently he was awarded Musician Of The Year 20/21 for the QLD Prestige awards. When COVID hit all of Carl’s live performances stopped. He was forced to find online ways of creating income so he dug into virtual shows for private and corporate events, he also worked at growing his original shows on his YouTube channel. The downtime allowed Carl to look at where he was in his career and refocus on the content he enjoys creating. He was able to set new goals and started developing more of his own music in the process, he explains, “I spent a lot of time building my YouTube channel doing live shows and growing my audience during COVID. Moving forward I would like to keep being a musician, to tour and play as many original shows as I can while being able to afford recording and releasing original music.” His goal for his music is to grow his fan base through house shows so at some point he can have a booking agent to take care of that part of his career so he can focus all of his attention on his music. Being a solo artist and running the business alone often takes away from his creative time. Before he can afford an agent he has to be sure he can make enough money to support his family and to pay for the cost, it takes to produce and record new music. “I feel like any good business needs really good people on your team, I want that someday with my business, Carl says.” Carl’s diverse style and strong work ethic combined with his love of music continue to drive his career allowing him to grow as an independent artist despite the competition in Nashville. His music is organic, nostalgic, and peaceful and his live performances are family-friendly. His songwriting abilities have allowed him co-writing opportunities with other well-known writers such as Greg Barnhill, Kim Tribble, and Chase Flanders. He continues to work with other writers and enjoys the energy and talent that is available in Nashville. “Something that I have realized with my music and that I am humbled by is that it has reached a point that it is beyond me. I am very fortunate to have people and fans that get something out of my music that is different from what they can get somewhere else, says Carl.” In business, Carl feels his marketing works best when he is genuine with his feelings yet positive in how he shares them. He enjoys connecting on a deep level with his followers and is active on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok on a regular basis interacting with his fans. As a father, the most important thing Carl says he wants for his kids is for them to see him as a positive role model and for them to pursue something that they themselves are very passionate about. In his career, he says that they give him more strength than they ever could as a limitation and that alone is a true gift. Carl says in the end he and his family will return to Australia because they miss their extended family but he doesn’t see that happening any time soon. For now, he is in the US and charging ahead pushing himself to get better at writing, singing, performing, and looping. His music is the perfect fit for anyone looking for a talented live entertainer that can interact with an audience through intrigue while belting out upbeat tunes guaranteed to make you want to get up out of your seat! If you would like to see more about Carl’s music you can visit his website or his Instagram page. Be sure to listen to Carl’s recent podcast artist interview on The Creative Push and there is also a special accompanying BONUS podcast showcasing the live show that you don’t want to miss! Thank you for reading, if you liked this story please share it with other creatives. I hope that...

Fiber Artist Twyla Lambert Clark

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 06:36:36 +0200

Twyla Lambert Clark is an innovative fiber artist sewing and weaving repurposed fabric remnants into exquisite signature coats, shawls, belts, and other beautiful textile items. As an artist, she finds joy in taking fabric remnants that people have given up on to give them new life as one-of-a-kind fiber art while keeping them out of the landfills. Twyla grew up in Shirley, Massachusetts, a small New England town where a community of Shakers was established in 1793. Her fascination with the simple beauty of the Shaker style is a big influence in Twyla’s work. Her dad was a school teacher of High School Chemistry and her mom worked part-time at the US Post Office while growing a family of six children born over 12 years into a strict Catholic environment. Twyla was inspired by her grandfather who was a weaver in the textile mills, although she never saw him actually weave. His constant cheery attitude despite the long hours working in the mills as a blue-collar weaver had a big influence on her outlook on life. Twyla’s younger sister Paula Lambert Perkins who lives in Dublin, Ohio is a poet and artist. Her sister Karen, also creative, loves to do embroidery work. Her great aunt Cora was an interior designer and another aunt Bet was a nun who taught art. All of these family members helped to contribute to Twyla’s interest in learning how to weave and sew later in life. In 1981 Twyla moved to Nashville with her then-husband who was a songwriter. As a housewarming gift, her mom gave her a spinning wheel because she felt it would look great in front of the fireplace. That gift sparked Twyla’s interest to take a weaving class through Metro Parks at Centennial Park in Nashville hoping she could also learn how to spin yarn. Her experience with that class opened her mind up to the possibility of expanding her talent into working more with textiles. Twyla saved up enough money to take a felting class at Arrowmont School Of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The encouragement of her instructor, Layne Goldsmith, gave her confidence and inspiration in sewing, dying fabrics, and developing her own color schemes. She later joined the Hand Weavers Guild of Nashville to become better at spinning and weaving while working several odd jobs to pay her bills. At the time her weaving was a hobby that she enjoyed during her free time. Twyla took a job working at Tropical Design, Inc., an office and interior landscape design company. For nine years she took care of tropical plants in hotels, restaurants, hospitals, and other businesses around Nashville. She enjoyed starting very early and finishing her day around 2 PM leaving her free to catch a movie matinee. But after years of heavy lifting and manual labor, her elbows began to give out resulting in a medical disability. Those health issues forced her to leave the industry and re-evaluate her next career choice. With only a year of college and no degree, after taking various odd jobs around town Twyla started entry-level in the printing industry at American Color. Her starting position as an assistant to the table strippers introduced her to the old school methods of printing, when ruby lith was cut film burned to make plates for the commercial printing presses. Her work schedule of 4 PM to 4 AM six days a week at five dollars an hour was a tough road to making a living at that time in her life. She slowly grew a career in the commercial print industry moving from production to customer service and eventually ending up in sales at McQuiddy Printing then Lithographic’s. Twyla developed a niche of working with graphic designers helping to bring their artistic vision to ink on paper. She loved what she did, loved her clients, and was able to make a good living for many years in the print industry through 100% commissioned sales (meaning without the security of a salary.) Over the years the long work hours regardless of weekends or holidays took their toll on her and in 2018 she decided to leave believing that her career was literally going to kill her. It was then that she set out to pursue her dream of becoming a self-employed fiber artist. “I had this thought in my head that I wanted to be a production sewist, I thought that it would fit me and that I could figure out how to have my own business working from home bringing in money and doing something I really liked,” Twyla says. Through one of her now-defunct non-profit clients, The Nashville Fashion Alliance (NFA), she had learned of a sewing school called The Sewing Training Academy. Twyla reached out to program director, Trishawna Quincy, to find out more. She was accepted into the school and began taking full-time classes learning how to sew for manufacturing on industrial machines. “I always thought that a lot of weavers did beautiful work but their finishing was terrible because so many of them didn’t know how to sew. In my mind, I’d always thought that if I could weave I’d have to learn how to sew beautifully to bring it all together. So I had this self-imposed goal of wanting to be the fiber artist where the finishing was as nice as the fabrics. That the inside of my coats are just as beautifully finished as the outsides, that’s been my goal,” Twyla admits. Twyla set out on her own to sew and weave her own textiles, coats, and other items where the colors and different fabrics worked together and were finished beautifully. At the same time, she wanted her work to showcase fabrics that she finds and uses from yard sales, thrift stores, estate sales, and other resources and are considered deadstock, destined for the landfill. Her ability to repurpose fabric into her creations is extremely important to her, she explains, “It’s really a goal about the environment to take things that have been given up on and still make them beautiful and functional. I try to make everything functional whether I’m weaving a potholder or sewing a coat” Twyla believed that if she took the next three to five years to learn and grow her ability with sewing and weaving she could make a successful leap into self-employment, despite her fears and limited savings. She felt that if she took the right classes and spent the time to learn how to sew, how to market, and share on social media she could make her business work. In the beginning, the transition from commercial printing to fiber artist was hard. She was happy with her freedom but when the emails and social media interaction stopped she worried that she had been forgotten. As with so many artists coming out of a corporate environment into an atmosphere of solace, the transition is mentally difficult and isolating at first. Many of her clients over the years had become good friends so she says she had to remind herself that she needed to reach out from time to time. When COVID hit Twyla admits she was filled with fear at first and concerned about what was ahead. She tried to keep her mind on sewing, learning, and staying focused on her work. She determined that she enjoyed sewing women’s coats because not many others were doing them and the pattern she slightly re-designed from Folkwear out of Ashville, NC was one she really loved. Her classic swing coat design has a lot of motion to it, doesn’t button, has pockets, and is very free-flowing. She felt the open back was an opportunity to put her own design into it by adding a flare using fabric “surprises” from remnants. She predicted that Nashville offers a viable community where she could create signature women’s coats from denim or canvas that would fit the weather, climate, and fashion sense. She believes that she can find the right market with her designs, she explains, “My overall idea is that every year I will try and find and create one or two new women’s coat designs as unique offerings. I really like making coats but I have fallen into making women’s shawls as well that use less fabric and don’t take as long to sew. They are also a classic design and I think they can elevate the way that someone feels about themselves.” To use up scraps, Twyla creates unique greeting cards sewing fabric into paper, and weaves potholders with different color combinations that are lively and fun. The potholders she makes are oversized to fit your hands comfortably and made of cotton so they are easy to wash. She takes pride in that almost all of her pieces are easy to clean and practical. Twyla creates her textile products using mainly fabric remnants repurposing them into beautiful coats, shawls, and other fashionable sewn and woven creations, even note cards! She has made shawls from cloth napkins, and even a coat sewn from drop cloths. She loves not only sewing but the challenge of figuring out how to combine remnants together in a way that enhances her signature designs. She loves to weave on an Inkle loom, where you use your hands to manipulate the yarns rather than harnesses. She creates long pieces of fabric in this manner to use as belts, straps, and on her dresses as adornments. Moving forward Twyla wants to keep her business small, take her time creating, and put time into the individual items that she makes. She has no intention of growing into a large commercial business, doesn’t want to hire anyone to help her sew but she is open to collaborating with other artists. She wants to find painters interested in giving up their old paint-splattered drop cloths so she can create coats from them. Her primary goal as an artist is to create a life full of personal fulfillment as she explains, “This is about personal joy, balance, and family happiness. It’s about seeing how good I can be at something for me.” Twyla works from her home in the Sylvan Park neighborhood of Nashville. Her cozy home studio is in the attic of her renovated bungalow. She spends long hours developing custom signature wares under the natural light from the skylights during the day enjoying the process of creation. To see more photos from my photoshoot with Twyla visit my recent SOP post and be sure to listen to The Creative Push podcast with Twyla! If you would like to see more of Twyla’s work you can visit her on Instagram. Her website is under construction, hopefully, to be launched by January 2022 as Lambert Clark, LLC. Twyla will be showing her work at the holiday market, SewPOP, on December 3rd & 4th in Building B on The Clay Lady Campus, 1416 Lebanon Pike in Nashville, TN. SewPOP will feature alumni and students of the Sewing Training Academy and 30% of their sales will go back to support the school. Many student collaborations will be featured at the silent auction including shawls sewn by Twyla and artistic collaborations added by fiber artist Jen Wilkins and Liz Hodder. Twyla has also taken the step of applying to Porter Flea for their show on December 10th & 11th – fingers crossed she gets in! Thank you so much for reading and please share with other artists. I hope you will sign up for the Learn and Create newsletter to stay a part of this creative tribe! There are more stories are on the way!! Do you know someone who would make for an interesting interview? Please feel free to reach out via email and social media! I’m always looking to connect.

Fine Art Figurative Artist Buddy Jackson

Thu, 14 Oct 2021 03:30:34 +0200

Buddy Jackson earned a name in Nashville as one of the top designers with more than twenty-five years in the business. His talent in the music community won him many awards including two Grammys for best recording package. Today he shares his career path and how he left the commercial world to become a fine art figurative artist pursuing his love of sculpture, photography, and painting. Growing Up In Knoxville Buddy grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, with his father, mother, and two sisters. When he was around 6 years old he remembers drawing in the kitchen with his grandfather, a sign painter, and artist on his mother’s side. His grandfather gave him a drawing challenge to create expressions of emotion using only simple dots for eyes, eyebrows, and a mouth. That was the beginning of what sparked Buddy’s interest in drawing and sketching figures. In high school, Buddy was influenced by comic book characters especially Mad Magazine. He dreamed of being a cartoonist but didn’t really believe it could be a career. When he started college at the University of Tennessee he signed up to pursue painting as a major in fine art, minoring in sculpture. In his last year of college after a professor said he would never make it on his own as an artist, Buddy left school, moved to Nashville, and started working at a small printing company. At the time he didn’t realize that he was learning the skills of becoming a graphic design artist, he explains, “Most of the people that did design work and art direction were schooled in how to be designers and art directors but I was taught how to manufacture ideas as opposed to executing ideas. I think it gave me a leg up in doing proper design work.” Growing An Award Winning Career While working at the printing company Buddy learned the printing process from beginning to end, completing entire jobs in a day. He started as a production artist but about a year later the company merged with an advertising PR firm. There he excelled, growing his skills to become Creative Director and Senior Vice President 7 years later before leaving to start his own company. When Buddy set out on his own to start Jackson Design, he put a strong portfolio together and marketed it to people in the corporate world that he knew bought art for a living. He targeted his work to marketing directors at publishing houses and record label companies. His background in marketing helped him secure work writing and consulting for ads and design production. In the ’90s his company was one of the first to go digital working in the music industry primarily with Christian, southern gospel, and black gospel artists. Despite the stress of deadlines, he loved working the long hours and getting lost in the creative process of his work. “I realize at some point that stress is not an environment, it’s your reaction to the environment. That thinking allowed me not to stress out very often. I wasn’t afraid of deadlines or of working all night although I know it really frustrated some of the people that worked for me,” he admits. After twenty-five years of growing his design business, Buddy was offered an opportunity to merge with a large corporate advertising agency, the Buntin Group. At first, he was really excited about the change but soon after he realized he just was not cut out for the corporate advertising world. The commercial industry of design made him feel as if he was deceiving and misleading his audience. Having signed a non-compete agreement, Buddy found himself unable to start a new company of his own so he decided it was time to explore his dream of being a fine art artist. He explains, “I really kind of hated advertising. I feel like it’s fundamentally dishonest. I told myself that the design side is more honest, but I realized that was kind of a lie too. Branding and positioning to make a person look cool, smart, or unique still feel like a lie in the industry to me.” Buddy had also grown tired of commercial art and needed to feel connected to something that had some longevity. He felt that fine art had a longer lifespan and value compared to the design work he had created over the years. During that time he was making sculpture as a hobby, had been showing his work at the Zeitgeist Gallery in Nashville, gaining interest, and believed it was a great place to begin his next creative adventure. He explains, “I realized at one point while working on a piece of sculpture, this art is going to be around for a long time but those twenty-five years of design work, those seventeen or eighteen thousand projects that we handled through our company are all gone. I realized it was all just nonsense in terms of being art… it’s not art. I think if someone else is defining what your work is going to be, it’s not really yours.” Becoming a Fine Art Figurative Artist The first few years of shifting from the busy work of commercial design to the slower pace of becoming an artist were difficult. Buddy says going from the business of constant phone calls, answering the vast number of daily emails and the experience of being in demand to silence was like turning off a switch. “Nothing work-related was there, nobody was calling, there were no deadlines to chase. It was pretty weird, it was not fun and it took me a while to get my feet back underneath me,” Buddy admits. Buddy built a large studio in his backyard right away to paint and do sculpture in, and immediately felt buyers remorse. He says that going from an environment with people all around him to a quiet empty room made him feel uncomfortable and he avoided it for several years. He says he always strived to be the same person at work that he was at home. He believes he is not characterized by what he does, though it is a part of who he is as a person. He discovered in an instant that being a fine art artist felt like the loneliest job in the world. “I don’t know any job that’s less lonely than being a fine art artist. Sitting in a room somewhere by yourself with some medium in front of you that you’re supposed to turn into something of value, is so difficult,” Buddy admits. He tried to paint but felt lost with his art. He went through a period of feeling creative guilt due to the lack of ability to work and believed he was doing something wrong. He didn’t like forcing himself to try and paint then hating everything he created. When he injured his right hand and experienced nerve damage he thought that working with clay would be good hand therapy. He realized that creating three-dimensional art excited him much more than two-dimensional painting. He began splitting his time between sculpture and painting to keep from getting bored. Later when a friend asked if he would take some photos of her, he began experimenting with alternative photographic processes. All of Buddy’s fine art focuses on the human figure. His early work centered around fantasy themes of people doing things they would never do like obese businessmen doing yoga. Later he became obsessed with realism but prefers to work from his head rather than duplicating something he sees. When he gets stuck he changes up his medium and experiments with something new that he has never done before. His goal is to stay loose in his thinking rather than enter into the process of tightening up on a technique and the work becoming stiff. He often gives himself challenges such as painting with only three colors with a two-hour deadline. Similar to the challenges his grandfather gave him as a child, he feels limiting his resources often opens up his mind to new ideas taking him into an unexplored direction, he explains, “I often try to find a path to loosen up, opening up the pathways between my brain and my hand instead of worrying about what my hand is actually doing so nothing is ever too intentional. What’s Ahead With His Figurative Art Work Buddy prefers to have fun creating large pieces of art in an unintentional way that allows a constant array of mistakes. He appreciates the imperfections of his creations rather than getting bogged down with the technical aspects of making his work perfect. He says he is struggling with the realization of aging and wants to keep creating and experimenting while he physically can. He has some small watercolor paintings that will soon be shared at the Stanford Fine Art gallery. He continues to make sculptures, paint and experiment with alternative photographic techniques and has several upcoming events that will showcase his work in the Nashville area. Learn More About Buddy Jackson If you would like to see more of Buddy’s work you can visit his website or his Instagram page. Be sure to listen to the recent artist interview podcast on The Creative Push where Buddy offers a deeper understanding of his creativity and technique. Thank you so much for reading and please share this story with other creatives. I hope that you will sign up for the Learn and Create newsletter to stay a part of this creative tribe! To listen to more artist interviews be sure to check out The Creative Push Podcast! More stories are on the way!! Do you know someone who would make for an interesting interview? Please feel free to reach out via email and social media! I’m always looking to connect.

Hobby Baker Karri Suh

Wed, 29 Sep 2021 15:10:30 +0200

Karri Suh is a hobby baker passionate about creating her own unique delectable cake recipes and bringing people together socially through the joy of food. I came across her ad on Nextdoor, a neighborhood discover app, looking for cake tasters in the area. Having a weakness for sweets there was no way I could pass up free cake! I was intrigued by her free peach basil slice of cake to strangers in exchange for an honest critique. Those who responded received a message with a pickup location, her front porch, and she invited each taster to take their sample home or sit and chat while tasting. Peach basil was a flavor combo I had never heard of so I was interested in seeing how those flavors worked together. At 10:00 AM on a warm Saturday morning, I walked up to her porch where she had a display set out on a table. As others visited to pick up their samples I spoke briefly with Karri about the possibility of showcasing her story on The Creative Push, a week later we met again and I did our interview while taking some of the photos here. Karri’s love for baking began as a child while spending time in the kitchen with her grandmother inventing recipes. Her grandmother, also a ceramic painter, offered Karri a creative outlet for ideas through flavors and decoration. She gave her some decorating tools and an old cake decorating book that Karri used to learn how to bake from home. Growing up Karri watched Julia Child’s on PBS regularly and found an interest in wanting to create her own unique concoctions. Her mom allowed her to spend as much time in the kitchen as she wanted as long as she cleaned after she was finished. Her love of experimenting with flavors, recipes, and baking grew into a passion. Karri often found herself mesmerized while watching the bakers at Kroger decorate the cakes when going to the grocery store with her mom. She was intrigued by all of the choices of colors, flavors, and frostings. Both Karri and her sister’s birthdays were around the Christmas holiday, so her mom made them both feel special each year with a delectable strawberry birthday cake made from her secret recipe. In college, Karri was known for making homemade cinnamon rolls each week that brought all of her friends together socially. Over time the celebratory aspect of food became an integral part of her love of baking, especially how it brought people together, she explains, “As I’ve gotten older, I have enjoyed more flavor combinations and the structural limitations and challenges that come along with making layered cakes. I always just gravitated towards baking cake more than anything else.” For the past five years, Karri has been perfecting her recipes as a hobby baker mostly for friends and family. She documents her creations on Instagram like her peach basil, peach galette, lemon and thyme, banana puddin’, and her Mexican chocolate cakes. She created a special margarita cake for a friend who wasn’t much of a cake person but loved margaritas. She has since changed up the recipe each year. Karri got the idea to find cake tasters after reading through a pie recipe book, where the author mentioned how she found a group of people she could offer pie samples to in exchange for feedback. Karri used the same methods to test her own recipes after moving to the Sylvan Park neighborhood in Nashville during the Pandemic last year. She figured it would also allow her to meet some of her neighbors in the process. Karri has an education degree and taught art and English in the Tennessee public school system for four years but works in marketing as a career. She and her husband started a data analytics company together a few years ago where she works in analytics gaining feedback between customers and vendors. Understanding the importance of a target audience she applied her marketing knowledge to her baking research in order to get honest feedback from cake testers on Nextdoor. She explains, “I needed to test out my new recipes and I needed to know what people liked and didn’t like. I had to create a method of tasting that was easy for people to offer their opinions, but I also needed to be very specific with the questions I asked in order to get the answers I needed to perfect my recipes. I asked specifically how the texture of the buttercream was and gave options to choose from knowing it would offer much more constructive feedback to know what was working and what I needed to change.” Karri created a Google Q&A form with a QR code people could easily scan on their phones and taped it on top of each to-go box of sliced cake. This was an easy way for her to give a sample in exchange for easy and honest feedback from each taster, myself included. While she understands there is always a percentage of personal preference, the Q&A results still helped her determine changes she could make to improve her overall recipe. Karri enjoys all kinds of baking but when it comes to cakes she prefers three layers and says it generally takes her three to four bakes to get the filling and frosting recipe down. She often infuses seasonal fruits and uses Italian buttercream icing for decoration. Recently she has learned that the structure of the cake and the filling needs to hold up when selling slices. She admits she had not considered this aspect until she started baking cakes for a small local restaurant called Miel. Her husband has known the owner for 12 years and when their normal baker suddenly became unavailable they reached out to Karri after seeing her cakes on Instagram. Each Tuesday every week she bakes a 10-inch cake and delivers it to the restaurant a few blocks from her home. In the future Karri says she would love to open a baking supply boutique. That idea came about during covid after having a difficult time getting ingredients in the stores and not feeling confident of the quality of items from Amazon. She explains her dream boutique space would be a place for people to shop for all of their baking supplies from the fresh ingredients, the sugars, the flour, and the harder-to-find sprinkle stations and patterns. Everything needed for a party and baking all in one place including a library of cookbooks for shoppers to look through and purchase. There would be a variety of unique pans and cake stands as well as evening workshops on baking and cake decorating. Her goal would be to offer a fun place for friends and families to experience the same joy she has experienced over the years creating and baking her own recipes. For now, Karri prefers to keep baking as a hobby offering her cakes to the local restaurant, family members, and a few friends. She is selective with who she bakes for because she doesn’t want the pressure of delivering baked goods regularly. She has some new seasonal recipes she is excited to try out soon. “This winter when citrus from Florida is ripe I want to create something with dark chocolate, wine, and blood oranges. I’ve been wanting to make this wine, citrus, and chocolate recipe for a while,” Karri says. In my artist interview podcast with Karri, she shares her thoughts on creativity and offers advice to other hobby bakers. You can also see more cake decorating photos from our shoot at Sheri Oneal Photography. You can find more about Karri on Instagram. Want to be a part of this creative tribe? Sign up for the Learn and Create newsletter! There is much more on the way!! Do you know someone who would make for an interesting interview? Please feel free to reach out via email and social media! I’m always looking to connect.

Aussie Troy Kemp Begins New Solo Career In Nashville

Thu, 09 Sep 2021 00:25:48 +0200

Nashville’s newest Australian transplant is paving the way for his new solo career in the US despite the crazy journey it took to get here! Troy Kemp has been one of Australia’s most well-known talents for more than a decade. He was part of the McAlister Kemp duo with Drew McAlister, the Tailgate Drive duo, with Damien Baguley, and worked with Australian country artist Jayne Denham on the duet Hung Up On You. His impressive list of accolades includes multiple CMC #1 Singles, 3 People’s Choice Awards, a Frank Ifield International Spur Award, a Golden Guitar, and 3 CMC Awards. Troy Kemp was born in Kempsey, a small country town on the east coast of Australia. His mom was a nurse and played piano at home. His father was a physiotherapist, played guitar, and had Troy surfing by the age of ten. Music was a big part of his childhood, his parents loved ABBA, the BeeGees and often had others over to entertain while singing and playing music in their home. At the age of six, Troy’s grandmother bought him a cassette by Kiss called Dynasty, he admits that the sounds of the rock guitars in their music made such an impression that he knew he wanted to be a musician. In the years that followed Troy grew his guitar skills and began writing his own rock music. “I remember my dad playing Black in Black by ACDC when that album came out, the sound of those rock guitars was a big influence on the music I wanted to play.” As a self-taught singer and songwriter Troy put a band together with some of the guys in high school. The rock band was called White Light but would later be changed to FOXX. They learned Australian cover songs from groups like INXS, Midnight Oil, and The Angels, eventually playing top 40 pop-rock music at venues around town. While Troy appreciated the traditional country music sound coming out of Australia from artists like John Williamson and Slim Dusty, at the time Rock was his primary focus. After graduating from high school, Troy moved to Sydney. His interest in music continued to shift toward commercial rock bands like Bon Jovi, and before long he was growing his hair out to build his own look. He started a heavy metal band called Court Jester and they played head-banging music at local venues wearing leather jackets, tassels, and jeans tucked into their western boots. In early 2000, Troy moved to Toronto, Canada with a one-year holiday working visa. He started doing music with different musicians and teamed up with composer, singer, and songwriter Kent Rock. They started an acoustic rock duo called Kemp Rock, playing in venues around town. Troy slowly started transitioning into Country when he met a girl named Sarah, who was into musical theater. He started writing music that was more country-folk-oriented, but when they parted ways he moved back to Australia. His fans back home really liked his new singing style, commenting on how much they loved his voice so he decided to pursue Country music. Troy explains, “people were saying to me, Troy, when you’re not screaming and trying to sound like a heavy metal rock star, you actually sound good so I began turning my attention to country music.” In 2007 Troy visited Nashville for the very first time. He recorded a 6-7 song EP with Australian producer Mark Moffet and took it back to Australia to release it to the public. The music ended up on Australian country music television and he was asked to be a part of the “Aussies Walk The Line” tour, a tribute to Johnny Cash and The Highwaymen show. In 2010 he and Drew McAlister, one of the guys in the group, started co-writing songs in their spare time. “One of the group members came in one day and said, you guys sound really good together, why don’t you start your own country duo like Brooks and Dunn? We thought it was a stupid idea. We had no interest at the time but he kept bringing it up and eventually we caved. That decision led to our opening up for Adam Brand, which then led to touring for the next 12 months,” Troy explains. Adam helped Troy and Drew get a record deal through ABC Records, six years later, they had won a Golden Guitar Award and three CMC Awards. The duo was opening up for country stars like Alan Jackson and Big & Rich to huge audiences on their Australian tours. During that time they would travel back and forth to Nashville to write and record songs. After years of meeting and working with talented musicians in Nashville Troy says he knew he wanted to live in Music City and in 2015 he decided he was ready to take a leap of faith. Unfortunately, Drew McAlister wasn’t willing to relocate his family so he and Troy parted ways. As Troy began putting together his plan to come to the US he was offered a solo record deal that was too good to pass up. That project locked him into staying in Australia for an additional two years promoting his album and touring. In that time he gained several number ones from the album, was named The Planet Country Radio Awards “Male Artist” and “Australian Artist of the Year” and was then “Fan Voted” as one of the 5 finalists for “Male Artist of The Year” at the 2017 CMC Awards alongside Lee Kernaghan, Troy Cassar-Daley, Adam Brand and Travis Collins In 2017 Troy and his wife Aleesha, began making their plans to move to Music City, they sold their home in Newcastle, Australia as well as all of their belongings. They started the application process to get their green cards that would normally take nine months. Two and a half years and twenty thousand dollars later due to government shutdowns and other obstacles, they finally got approval to move to America on March 3 of 2020. On that day in Nashville, a terrible tornado caused much of the city to shut down. While that created concern they still decided to book their flights but a week before they were to leave all flights were canceled due to COVID-19. With only three months to leave before losing their application, they then had to deal with additional paperwork in order to get the Department of Foreign Affairs to grant them the clearance to leave during a pandemic. On May 7th of 2020, Troy and Aleesha flew thirty-one hours across the world in face masks with three layovers on empty planes and airports before arriving in Nashville, Tennessee with only a few suitcases worth of belongings. “It was the strangest experience of my life, arriving in Nashville at 11 o’clock at night in a pitch-black airport with no people, walking through the corridors hoping that our bags were going to be at the baggage claim,” Troy says. Eight months later, they were still trying to get work due to the effects of COVID so they had to find ways to generate some income. Troy began offering live-streamed shows on Facebook for tips and his hairdresser wife Aleesha gave haircuts to the people living in their building in order to pay their rent. “We had a few really tough days, and some sad days but we survived. I’m now getting gigs and my wife is working with a salon so we made it. We’re going to survive and things are starting to feel good. I’m really proud because we hung on and I’m excited to be in Nashville getting to do what I want to do,” Troy admits. Troy says he writes five songs a week and loves the creative energy he feels from being in Nashville. He plays 4-6 weekly gigs around town in restaurants and at well-known downtown Honky Tonks. While he still has a standing publishing deal with an Australian company his hope is to get both a publishing and artist deal in Nashville. He co-writes with people he meets around town usually through Zoom and also with neighbors in his building. When he writes solo his work is more personal and structured, he explains, “It’s always the music first, I start with some chords and try to formulate a verse, chorus, second verse, chorus, and maybe a solo or a bridge. Once I like what I have I do a quick acoustic guitar demo singing into my phone voice memo app. I take that idea later into Logic, add some drums, a quick bass line, with my midi keyboard and in a couple of hours I can have a rough demo.” Today things are finally opening up and Troy has started to secure some steady work around town playing at various venues. His wife Aleesha is working in a local hair salon and the couple is starting to finally feel settled. They are enjoying their new life together in Nashville and look forward to the future. Troy has a lot of new music he hopes to share soon as he ramps up his solo music career in the US. I learned of Troy through a private music event called Bands In The Barn, which some friends of mine host out in Franklin, Tennessee. Once a month they showcase a local songwriter or band in support of their own music in a beautiful outdoor space that once was an old hay barn. If you missed the backstory you can find it here. I interviewed Troy the week before the live event via Zoom for The Creative Push artist interview series in the video below. Troy’s story will be available as a podcast next week, and there is also a special accompanying bonus podcast showcasing the August 21 live show that you don’t want to miss! You can find more about Troy on his website. As always thank you so much for reading, these podcasts, videos, and articles take so much time for me to create but they are a true labor of love. Your shares, likes, and comments help support, inspire, and guide me forward in this new creative journey. I have no idea where this all is leading me, my hope, for now, is to offer good content and grow this creative community. Want to be a part of this creative tribe? Sign up for the Learn and Create newsletter! There is much more on the way!! Do you know someone who would make for an interesting interview? Please feel free to reach out via email and social media! I’m always looking to connect.

Figurative Sculptor Theresa Dyer

Wed, 25 Aug 2021 17:26:23 +0200

Over the past few years, Designer and Architect Theresa Dyer has slowly started growing her career as a figurative sculptor. While the Nashville creative got a late start you would never know based on her beautiful bronze sculptures that are publicly displayed in several cities across the US. Theresa Dyer was born in Topeka Kansas, but her family moved all over the world due to her father being in the Air Force. As with most kids growing up in a military family, her upbringing offered and unique experiences and creative insight into different cultures at a young age. Her mom was a teacher and Theresa remembers how much she enjoyed helping decorate the bulletin board in her mother’s classroom. She fell in love with her art class, especially with drawing, and carried her sketchpad and pencils with her everywhere she went. Theresa pursued Interior Design in college earning her BFA at the University of North Texas. After college, she got licensed and became an interior designer in the hospitality industry gaining experience working with hotels all over the world. Over the years she worked for architects in California, Denver, and Florida before eventually landing in Nashville. Theresa decided to continue her studies in architecture because of her love for the elements of space and form. She went back to school and earned a BFA in Architecture from the University of Tennessee finishing in Manchester, England. Becoming an architect allowed her to incorporate her love of drawing into 3D rendering, and one-point and two-point perspective sketches for her clients. She says it felt natural because they loved to see things come up from the paper. Currently, she is licensed in several states but maintains her architectural practice in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2013 Theresa signed up for drawing sessions at Alan LeQuires open studio but opted for a sculpture class because the drawings classes were full. That experience opened up an entirely new creative world for her. As she began working with terracotta clay she became bored with the need to continuously use water to keep the clay pliable. She transitioned to oil-based clay because she preferred to work slower, and it didn’t require keeping the clay moist in between sculpting sessions. Theresa admits the oil-based process is more expensive, unlike the terracotta which can be fired in a kiln after the piece is formed. With oil-based clay a mold must be made, then it goes through an extensive lost-wax process, a method of casting with molten metal. Theresa begins her process by sketching out what she wants to create making sure that she always has a sketch pad with her. Her ideas come from the experiences and things around her, and she often enjoys incorporating ancient stories of Greek and Roman mythology into her work. She begins sculpting a figure using terracotta or plasticine clay that is later cast in bronze. Her focus is primarily on portraits and single-figure compositions. She feels that her knowledge of design and architecture carries over into her sculptural work. “I really enjoy figurative sculpture as opposed to abstract because the human body is unbelievably interesting. Finding new ways to express different poses is so fascinating to me. I love the way figures inhabit space yet take on a completely new look from a different angle.” Once the clay art piece has been hand formed, it is sent to a foundry (a sculpture casting service provider) to complete the ancient “lost wax” casting technique. With this unique and expensive method, a mold is made around the sculpture with silicone rubber, and a protective plaster mold is built around that mold to hold it all in place. The mold is then opened to remove the clay and put back together again. Wax is poured into the cavity where the original clay was. There are a series of additional steps done with the casting before the final patina is done. The chemical heat process of the patina offers a myriad of different color choices. At the end of this entire process, the sculpture then needs to be put on a base of marble, granite, stone, or wood so it can be displayed. Because of the complexity and time that it takes with these steps being outsourced to a skillful foundry, the price of a piece of sculpture has to reflect these expenses. In order for an artist to make a profit, it is important to understand the value of their time, something Theresa says she is getting better at doing. Pricing and selling art especially sculpture often have hidden expenses that a buyer may be unaware of, understanding the creative process behind the type of art you plan to purchase will help determine its value. Theresa shares how grateful she is for the inspiration and knowledge she has gained from local sculptors who have helped her advance with her career and work. Sculptors Russ Faxon and Alan Lequire have been her primary mentors in Nashville, helping save time with perfecting her craft on a professional level. She also still enjoys drawing but finds that most of her time is spent working with clay curremtly. Theresa is represented by Gallery 202 in Franklin, Tennessee. Her first large commission came when she won the 2019 Public Monument competition to create a life-sized piece that was placed in front of the City Hall in Little Rock, Arkansas. She signed up with CaFÉ, a regional nonprofit arts service organization where you can research public art calls for work. When researching the call for artist listings she came across the annual art show submission for “Sculpture on the River,” they were accepting 49 artists. Theresa entered her first submission proposal and was surprised when she won. She created two bronze boys for the show that are now publically displayed in front of the Little Rock Arkansas City Hall. As Theresa continues to get commissioned for her work, she says doing life-sized sculpture is the most enjoyable to create. She recently completed a Holocaust bronze sculpture called Children of Shoah Memorial for the Congregation Micah in Brentwood, Tennessee. Another recent piece includes a bronze memorial plaque of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin in the Astronomy Department at Harvard University, Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. As Theresa continues to slowly transition away from architecture with her new career as a sculptor, she admits she misses the design elements of architecture but not dealing with the technical aspects or codes. Her love of creating figurative sculpture is what drives her to be all in with her new endeavor. You can find more about Theresa in The Creative Push podcast! Visit her website or her Instagram page. Be sure to check out some of our other artist’s interviews! Thank you for reading, please share and I hope that you’ll sign up to be a part of the Learn and Create tribe! More is on the way!! Do you know someone who would make for an interesting interview? Please feel free to reach out via email and social media! I’m always looking to connect.

Finding Creative Ideas When You’re Stuck

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 20:14:49 +0200

I have to challenge myself each week with what I can share with others that might add value as a creative. Often when trying to brainstorm ideas I get stuck. In those times of frustration, it feels impossible to create. Creative blocks in developing new ideas affect all artists at some point. Day-to-day stress often results in feeling overwhelmed. Creative brainstorming when you’re stuck sometimes requires a little downtime. Here are six tips that might help in finding creative ideas when you’re stuck! My mind is usually a landfill of thoughts, sometimes keeping me up at night with creative ideas racing through my head in excitement…AKA the hamster running on the wheel! When the ideas stop and I get stuck it leaves me feeling frustrated and overwhelmed. That stress often blocks my ability to move forward because I get caught up in my head. When I get off balance and become stuck I have to find a creative solution that will allow my mind to think freely again. If you have ever struggled with being stuck, here are six things I do that may help, so read on! Creative Brainstorming One of the easiest ways I have found to generate ideas especially when I am stuck is through idea linking and wordplay. It is basically creating a visual diagram, (idea map) of connected ideas through a hierarchy of those connections (mind mapping). I use this method to brainstorm and to get organized. I do this in one of two ways, the first is by hand using paper and pen or a tablet. Starting with a single idea, word, or phrase, I add linked words as they come to mind while trying to make it fun and spontaneous. For example, if the first word is dog, I branch out any word or phrase that comes to mind. Dog > toy, bed, play, etc. I then do the same with each secondary word and repeat the process. TOY > squeaky, bone, rope, and so on. Below I share the process using The Creative Push as an example, going through the exercise of brainstorming ideas for this blog channel. Another way you can do this, especially if your handwriting is terrible like mine, is by using a mind mapping application like Gitmind or Mindomo. It is the same concept as paper and pen except you are typing the ideas out and linking them around each word, theme, or goal using an app. This also allows you to share, save and print out your thoughts. Below I have outlined the many ways you can customize your own mind maps using Mindomo. Relax, Get Outside Or Go Somewhere Getting outside in fresh air, especially in nature is by far the best medicine for most anyone in need of a reboot to clear the mind. Sometimes in order to be creative, you need some downtime to allow your worries, work, or health issues to soften. Slowing down and relaxing can allow creative thoughts the ability to re-surface. Here’s the deal, stress is likely the main cause of a lack of the ability to generate creative ideas. If you have ever had to work on a deadline as a creator, just the stress of having a time limit can inhibit your creative thinking. Give yourself a peaceful break and it may offer you some solace to clear whatever block you may be experiencing. Ride your bike, take a drive in the country, go for a walk, take a bath or lay in a hammock. Do something that allows you the time to slow down and relax. If you go somewhere be sure there are no stressful triggers that might keep you from enjoying your time away. In the summer I make sure to take one day a week off doing something that allows my mind and body to relax, usually, it is on the water, out in nature, or in my backyard. Many people swear that yoga helps, so choose what works best for you. The point is to get away from all of the noise and allow the mind to relax and wander. The fresh air, the smell of flowers, the sound of birds, water, or even the wind rustling through the trees can offer something peaceful to ponder. Take a drive outside of the city or sit by a campfire with friends. Relaxation also includes getting good sleep, a proven need for all of us to be more mentally productive. Explore Something New Changing your mindset and learning or exploring something new is a great way to get creative ideas flowing. The process of trying something new often refreshes our thoughts in a way that inspires ideas that may have been blocked. Our minds enjoy learning and thinking about what inspires us. Take time to research new techniques and look at the work of other artists that you admire. I personally believe when we shut down and can not think clearly, it is a subconscious coping mechanism our body uses to try and keep us calm and safe. Learning something new can spark all kinds of thoughts and allow your mind to open up to new creative ideas! Move Your Body Working out, doing yard work, or taking a walk can help when there is a need to release some energy and rejuvenate blood flow. Anger, frustration, and stress cause us to tense up both physically and mentally. Exercising and moving our bodies can release that pent-up energy allowing us to feel refreshed. A study at the Journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience shows that participants that exercised regurlary seemed to do better on creatiivity tests than those who didn’t. It suggest that “More exercise may enhance convergent thinking, at least in individuals with a higher degree of physical fitness. It would also be important to include other physiological measures such as volumes of oxygen to further investigate the neural mechanism by which exercise may affect creativity.” Find your own way to release some pent-up energy from the stress of life and you may find your thinking pattern changes. That alone might be the key to getting your creative juices flowing! Eat Healthier Foods Diet is something we are constantly reminded of everywhere we go. Because we have different beliefs around food, choosing a diet that fits you personally requires some exploring. Eating healthy requires our own experimentation based on how we actually feel internally. The stress from trying to be vegan when you enjoy meat could mentally counterbalance any benefit of not eating meat. It is well documented that there are mental benefits to eating vegan, vegetarian, organic, low sugar, and low carb. I base my diet on being mindful of the food I put into my body and the relationship of how it makes me feel later. While I enjoy splurging from time to time, I don’t feel as good when I include too much sugar or carbs over a balance of fresh veggies and lean meats. I also find I have more anxiety and inflammation which creates stress. Choosing a healthy diet can make you feel better internally, balance fatigue, and offer the ability to think clearer. Laugh And Do Something Fun My final goto for revitalizing clear thinking when I am stuck as an artist is to laugh and have fun. Laughing is a great way to relax the body and clear your mind from stress. When I experience laughter doing things I enjoy I feel as if I am bulletproof. The endorphins of having fun and laughing simply make the body feel good. Having fun and laughing is a great way to reboot and let go of stress offering some space for revised creative thinking. Being stuck creatively is frustrating but these are things are where I start whenever I am experiencing a block. Most of the time the issue goes away by being patient and being kind to my body. I hope these things help offer something new that you can use the next time you are struggling. Tell me what you do to overcome blocks in creativity when you get stuck, I would love to hear from you! Thank you so much for reading. Be sure to sign up and join this creative tribe! More is on the way!! Do you have something you are struggling with creatively? Are you looking for tips on something specific regarding art and creativity? Reach out via email or social media, I may be able to help and I’m always looking for new connections.