Episodes

  • Laffing Sal Marionette with Alison Cowell

    Laffing Sal Marionette with Alison Cowell
    Mar 19 2024
    Are you old enough to remember Laffing Sal at Playland? In this episode, my guest Alison and I set out to make a marionette based on Laffing Sal, and it was something that neither of us had ever done before. Photos Links mentioned in this episode alisoncowellish Alison's Instagram Josh Bayer website Inking class online with Josh Bayer Musée Mécanique in San Francisco Playland at the Beach Wikipedia page Laffing Sal Wikipedia page The Lonely Goatherd marionette show in The Sound Of Music Altoid boxes into wallets YouTube video Barbapapas YouTube video Boudica Wikipedia page Sculpey Amazon link The Icarus Deception by Seth Godin Jonni Good website Jonni Good YouTube video Many Faces of Laffing Sal website by M. Winslow Playland at the Beach website by M. Winslow Tillie’s Punctured Romance Wikipedia page Pseudobulbar affect Wikipedia page Some of the above links are affiliate links and I may earn a small commission from them Transcript Thomas: Welcome to You And I Make a Thing. Joining us in this episode is the multi-talented Alison Cowell, a passionate urban sketcher, zine maker, and sometimes spooky storyteller. A familiar face at local zine fests, Alice is deeply immersed in the art community, constantly exploring and sharing her passion with others. Alison’s work has graced several local galleries, and her unique art style is a blend of mediums, including ink, watercolor, and colored pencils, each adding a distinct texture and depth to her creations. Alison’s ability to transform ordinary scenes into extraordinary pieces of art is truly remarkable. And you can find her on Instagram at alisoncowellish. Welcome to the podcast, Alison. Alison: Thank you, Tom. Thomas: Alison, before we get started on our You And I Make A Thing quest, I'm curious to know if you are working on a creative project at the moment, or you're looking forward to working on one? Alison: I am. So right now I have a few projects going on. So my main medium is comics and I’m taking an inking class online, with an artist. A comic artist. His name is Josh Bayer. And so I'm doing some projects for that class, but they're also sort of my projects and they're really like short format comics, where when I'm working on comics, it's usually I'm doing a story about something that's, kind of an idea that's really kind of out there and wacky. Thomas: I like that. Alison: And possibly also slightly tragic. One of the more wacky ones is I sort of have this idea about failed businesses, and that's something that amuses me. And one of the ideas I came up with was, what if you didn't have enough gravy in a meal, and do you remember those old Fotomat drive throughs where you could drop off your film? Thomas: I remember. Alison: So what if there was something like that where you could drive up with your plate and get gravy and it was called Gravymat? So I usually do things that are sort of like these ideas that are a little out there with made up characters, you know, just sort of like these wacky little characters that I create, but I'm doing some more personal stories in this class as well. And all this work I'm applying the different techniques that Josh Bayer, this teacher is breaking down for us. Then the other project that I have that is really a little bit of a rabbit hole and you can really kind of spend hours and hours and hours is like, I bought myself a button maker, and I collect paper ephemera, vintage paper, vintage books. If I see people have cleaned out their kitchen and put all of their old weird pamphlets from, you know, different companies and whatnot from the 60s and 70s, the 50s, those are priceless. and I love the way paper ages. Like it has this yellowishness to it. Thomas: Mm hmm. Alison: Really beautiful. It's so hard to buy paper like I've bought paper like that. It's hard to find in a sketchbook. It's usually really expensive. But anyway, so I have been making buttons out of vintage ephemera and weird, like old comics. And I feel bad I'm cutting things up, right? But, in a way, I guess like I'm giving it new life. And I'm trying to think of ways to display buttons, you know, people put them on their backpacks and whatnot, but I'm trying to find different ways to present them as sort of like assemblages, like an assemblage of buttons, like on a tote bag or something. Thomas: Now these buttons, they're the type with the pin on the back? Alison: Correct. Thomas: Okay. Got it. Alison: It's infinitely fun. It's just such instant gratification. I highly recommend a button machine. Thomas: Well, that's great. Wow. You are doing quite a bit then. With the, exploration of doing comics and stories and buttons. That's fabulous. Alison: Never enough time, but always trying to, you know, I need that creative outlet. How about you? What are you working on? Thomas: Well, I, of course, this podcast, I'm having a lot of fun with this podcast. I'm also right now working and learning block printing. Alison: Whoa, that...
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    52 mins
  • Embellished Photography with Carissa and Aaron

    Embellished Photography with Carissa and Aaron
    Feb 18 2024
    In this episode, I've invited my good friend Carissa to take the reins as guest host. She's brought along her friend, Aaron to embark on a fresh creative project, making something that neither of them has made before. Links mentioned in this episode Aaron Chen’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/journomadic/ Carissa Ferdinand’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/3cloudsstudio/ Air and Space Forces Magazine Minot State University Athletics Minot Daily News Carissa's Mad Hatter Carissa’s Cloud Guy Oklahoma City Asian district Textile artist Victoria Villasana Lao Gan Ma chili sauce KattGrass Studios Homestead Center for the Arts Photos Carissa's embellished print, photo by Aaron Chen Aaron's embellished print, photo by Carissa Ferdinand Transcript Carissa: Hi everyone, this is Carissa from Three Cloud Studios, formerly Koi the Creatrix, here with Aaron Chen on You and I Make a Thing Hi, Aaron. How are you? Aaron: Good, good. How are you, Carissa? Carissa: Good. Thank you so much for asking. Aaron is a passionate and accomplished traveler, lifestyle, and commercial content creator. He's known for crafting compelling visual stories that resonate with his audience and best reflect his clients’ values. Some of his work has been featured in publications such as Air and Space Forces Magazine, Minot State University Athletics newsletter, Reveille Music Publishing, and Minot Daily News. Aaron: That's a good intro! Carissa: Yeah. Okay. I wanted to keep it brief. Does that sound okay with you? Aaron: Yeah. That was awesome. Carissa: Thank you! So Aaron, I know that you have been on this bit of cross country photography experience. What have been some of the most memorable stops that you've made along your journey? Aaron: Yeah, thanks for asking that. It's interesting because the cross-country journey kind of ended up when I visited you guys. You guys are at the tip of Florida and that was the end of the journey there. Carissa: Yeah, so you went all the way from North Dakota down to the very end of Florida. Aaron: Yes. So North Dakota is where my journey started. And so same thing kind of as you, you know, North Dakota is kind of like our artistic, big breakthrough era. And I know we supported each other a lot in North Dakota. So I was very excited to go see you in Florida. Carissa: Yeah, in my hometown in like my natural setting here. Aaron: Yeah. Carissa: And Aaron was kind enough, he has done a couple photo shoots for various products that I have created, t-shirts and the like. He also was kind enough to stop by and take photos of my first art exhibit last year. And so I was incredibly grateful. And of course, the photos come out absolutely amazing every single time. Aaron: Oh, thank you. Thank you. Carissa: So any plans moving forward on your adventures? Aaron: Yeah. I have Hawaii coming up pretty soon, and then after that with Japan, and pretty much my plan is to travel all across Asia, capturing stories of people and culture, and then bring them back to the American audience. Carissa: Oh, I'm so excited hearing that. And I think that actually ties into one of the projects that I want to talk about here today. So leading up to this meeting, I've asked you to come with three ideas. I myself have come up with three ideas of projects that we can work on. We come from very different media backgrounds. And so I'm really curious to see where this goes and to see what we can come up with. T The idea is that we find a project that's a little bit anxiety inducing and maybe one that's feasible to accomplish within a month. So, typically what we do is a bit of a back and forth. You share one, I share one idea here. Would you like to start or would you like me to? Aaron: I think you can start. I'm very excited to hear what you come up with. I think you always have amazing ideas and it inspired me to keep spiraling and come up with more ideas. Carissa: Oh, yay! Okay. So as I mentioned, your upcoming journey throughout Asia reminded me of a project idea that I have here when we first started kind of arranging this meeting. It was right after New Year's. And so thinking about some of our past conversations, I thought about how important culture has been to the both of us. And I was interested in doing a project about the Lunar New Year, the Chinese New Year, because outside of calling it the Chinese New Year and knowing the animal associated with my year of birth, I really don't know much about the Lunar New Year. And so I thought it was a great opportunity to learn a bit more and to celebrate something that I know is important to you. Aaron: Yeah. I really appreciate that. That sounds really cool. Okay. Carissa: Well, go ahead. What is one of the ideas that you came up with? Aaron: So pretty much I just wanted to see which direction I wanted to take it in. Like I have kind of the Asian culture direction. Or even like a mental health direction. Or we can do a combination of both. But I really like ...
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    41 mins
  • Tunnel Books with Mel Anie

    Tunnel Books with Mel Anie
    Dec 11 2023
    Have you ever seen a tunnel book? I hadn't either, so in this episode my guest Mel Anie and I set out to create one. Listen in to hear how we did. Links Mentioned How to Make Raspberry Jam by Mel Anie Mel Anie's Instagram: @tumblingfumbling The B0ardside Stoke Fest Laura Quinn Bending the glass with a tea light YouTube by Laura Quinn Making Handmade Books: 100+ Bindings, Structures & Forms by Alisa Golden Some of the above are affiliate links and I may earn a small commission Photos of Tunnel Books Mel's Book Thomas' book Transcript Thomas: My guest today is Melanie. Mel is an artist and author living in the UK. She's active in the mail art community and runs the Society of Letters. Her correspondents are from all over the globe. Mel has also published Five Foot Story House's debut book called How to Make Raspberry Jam, a lyrical journey of anguish and joy. You may reach her on Instagram @tumblingfumbling. Hello, Mel. Welcome to the podcast. Mel: Hi, Thomas. Thank you so much for inviting me. I'm so excited to do this with you. Thomas: Oh, I'm excited too. This is wonderful. Before we get started on our ideas for You and I Make a Thing, I'm curious, do you have a current art project that you're working on or something that you're excited about? Mel: Well, I think at the moment I'm focusing on writing my big piece. That's like the core, most constant aspect of my creative practice. I've been working on something for about two years and now it's starting to take shape, but I have lots of little side projects. which a lot of those are participative. So for example, mail art correspondence in the past has been a big part of that. Yes, like you pointed out, it's mostly international. Whatever my project is, it's usually conversations. So at the moment there's a walking project going on. I do a lot of walking and I've started up a small online salon, but that's a really new thing. We've only done that once. And then sometimes these side projects, they turn into bigger things, more ongoing things. And I'm also joining a poetry writing group this month. But I've never really intentionally written to a form, so I don't think I've actually properly ever written poetry, so that will be a whole challenge for me. So yeah, those are some of the things I'm doing. Thomas: You are busy. Mel: How about you? Thomas: Well, I participate in a local art collective called The B0ardside. And we hold backyard art shows with music and whatnot. But there's gonna be a local community festival here in the neighborhood called Stoke Fest. And The B0ardside are going to have a booth at that festival. And I'm going to be leading some sort of do it yourself activity. Stoke Fest is all about surfing and the ocean and whatnot, so I'm kind of thinking of doing something with surfboards and surfers and like a little kinetic art project or something like that. So, you know, bring a bunch of materials and then invite people to build little kinetic art pieces with me. So that's, that's what I'm focused on right now. That's coming up on November 11th. And… Mel: I wish I was closer. Thomas: …you know, whenever there's a date coming up, it's always sooner than you think it is. Mel: Yes. Thomas: So, I'll be focused on that here pretty quickly. Mel: Yeah, that sounds good. You've sent me some of the B0ardside zines in the past. They're really neat. Thomas: Yeah, I enjoy contributing to them. Thank you for asking. Mel: You're welcome. It's always nice to know what people are doing. Thomas: Mel, I ask you to come up with three ideas of things that you might want to do that you've never done before, and I've done the same. How about we talk about them. Do you want to tell me what one of the things might be? Mel: Okay, yes. So one of the things I was thinking of is making some sort of food art assemblage. So they are maybe something like a croquembouche, which is an assemblage of profiteroles. Thomas: Right, right. Mel: Some kind of assembled piece of decorative confectionary in the sculptural form, or some sort of dish that is given to you between courses, something that entertains and also serves as a conversation piece. Thomas: Wow, I've never even considered making food as art. I mean, people do it all the time, I know that, but I've never thought about doing it myself. That's a wonderful idea, that's so out of left field for me. Mel: Ha Thomas: I'm loving it, it's like, make a croquembouche, and each little thing might be a different color or a different shape or something. Mel: You could do so much. I mean croquembouche has been on my bucket list as such for quite a few years. I don't make food art or anything like that. I'm not a baker. I have made profiteroles many, many, many years ago. But yeah, so that's something that I really like to do. And for me, I thought I would like to be able to finish something in a short time frame. You were talking about a month, and so I was thinking, let's see if I can ...
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    50 mins
  • Mini Zines with Koi The Creatrix

    Mini Zines with Koi The Creatrix
    Nov 27 2023
    In this episode I collaborate with artist Koi The Creatrix to make mini zines. The challenges we faced included our zines going missing in the mail for extended periods of time. Links @koithecreatrix on Instagram Koi’s monthly Postcard Club @katcurio on instagram @brattyxbre on youtube @brattyxbre: Your Zine Sucks (And That's Okay) PythagoraSwitch Hedy Lamarr biography Emilie Wapnick’s TED Talk on multipotentiality B0ardside Art Collective When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chödrön Some of these links are affiliate links and I may earn a small commission from them. Mini Zine: "Who Am I?" Mini Zine: Ren Soul Transcript Thomas: My guest today is Koi the Creatrix. Koi is a mixed media artist who identifies as Japanese American and Queer. In her art, Koi engages in sociopolitical discourse. She enjoys using bright colors and bold patterns, invoking pop art vibes. Her exploration of emotional themes, coupled with her seemingly chaotic displays, offer a deeply personal feel. And her Instagram handle is @koithecreatrix. Welcome to the podcast, Koi. Koi: Hi, thank you so much for having me, Thomas. Thomas: Before we get started, I wanted to ask you, you just finished a solo exhibition. It was at the Taube Museum of Art in Minot, North Dakota, is that right? Koi: The Taube Museum, yeah. Thomas: The Taube Museum, thank you. Tell me how that went and also how you felt about it. Koi: You know, it was absolutely nerve wracking leading up to it as I think all events that I participate in tend to be, a lot of nerves and getting everything prepared and making it a cohesive collection. One challenge I face as a mixed media artist is that pieces may not have like a single theme or even a single medium throughout all of the art. And so it was a challenge to keep some commonality between all of the work. But it went over really well. I heard from the museum director that they received a ton of positive feedback, and the Taube Museum, I have to say, is like my artistic home base. This is the first space that I felt an artistic community and support for my work, and really for the first time, saw myself considered as an artist to someone outside of my family, you know. Thomas: Oh, that's wonderful. Isn't that a wonderful feeling when that happens? Koi: It was fantastic. And so I have very deep ties to the folks there. Thomas: I want to follow up on that. Did you have trouble saying the A word? Meaning artist? Koi: Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely! Oftentimes I don't consider myself an artist, more of a creative. And I really resonate with… I'm racking my brain trying to remember the term, the people who are really into a lot of different activities. I know you identify closely with it as well. Thomas: Multipotentialite. Koi: Yeah. Thomas: Yeah. Koi: I think as a multipotentialite, I can enjoy many different activities and there's never really a sense of sticking with anything for too long or developing what I would consider, perhaps incorrectly, as expertise. And so there is definitely that imposter syndrome leading up to it. And even now, even after the show I'm like, “Was it good? Were they just saying that?” Thomas: Yeah, another term that I like to use for multipotentialite is Renaissance Soul. And it actually was considered a good thing in the Renaissance to have many different interests and try many different things. So in some ways, this idea of niching down or specializing is more of a recent phenomenon in our culture. So I've come to the conclusion that, at least for me, there's nothing wrong with dabbling here and tinkering there and trying this new and trying that new. And in fact, part of the reason that I'm doing this podcast You And With Make A Thing is for that exact reason, I like to try new things. I like to do something that I've never done before because it feeds our curiosity and it feeds learning and it just feels wonderful. Koi: It really does. I love learning new things. At times get frustrated with it. Absolutely, but it is so enjoyable. I tend to not like doing the same thing over and over and really do like some sort of variety. Thomas: Well, I think that's a great segue into jumping right into what we want to do. And I know that I had asked you to come up with three things that you might like to do, and I've also come up with three things. And, I was thinking we could do it one of two ways. We could either bounce back and forth, you say a thing, I say a thing. Or, we could just say the three things, you know, you could say your three things, I could say my three things, and then have a discussion. Do you have a preference? Koi: I think I like the back and forth. Thomas: Let's do the back and forth. Koi: Yeah. Yeah. Thomas: Do you want to start or do you want me to start? Koi: I am happy to go first. Thomas: Okay. Yeah, what do you have? Koi: So the first thing I came up with was a mini zine. And actually this idea comes from another artist who I've been seeing on ...
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    55 mins
  • Self Portraits with Michael Tarnoff

    Self Portraits with Michael Tarnoff
    Sep 13 2023
    In this episode I collaborate with artist Michael Tarnoff to make self-portraits inspired by Chuck Close. Links O'Hanlon Center for the ArtsMichael Tarnoff's InstagramChuck Close WebsiteWikipedia Entry for Chuck CloseProcreate for the iPadInterlude music: https://www.heise.de/select/ct/2017/13/1497796312321798 Michael's Self Portrait Thomas' Self Portrait Original Photos Thomas: My guest today is Michael Tarnoff. Michael is a painter, a mixed media artist, as well as a photographer and all-around creative person. Welcome Michael. Michael: Thank you for having me Thomas. Thomas: Yeah, I'm glad to have you, Michael. I'm curious, before we get started, I'm want to know if there's some creative project that you've been working on or you're planning to work on right now? Michael: Well, you know with COVID, things changed for me artistically as far as access to my painting space and such, and I've been doing more photography and small works. And right now, we're in the mountains in the Utah area and I've been fascinated with ice and snow and cold and what happens with nature with that. So I've been thinking about, in the back of my mind, a series of photographs and just thinking about them as a series of what nature does in the cold. Because I never really lived in the cold and witnessed it. Thomas: Right. Michael: There's just fascinating things like when the fog comes in and then the cold comes in. If there's just the right amount of humidity, ice crystals form everywhere and it looks, it's just, it's magic. So I'm just kind of keeping my eyes open for that and just being witness to the magic that nature creates. Thomas: Well that's great, that sounds like a real process of discovery. Michael: It is, it is. I love that you say that because where I got most of my art learning from, not so much teaching but learning I'll call it, was at O'Hanlan Center for the Arts in Mill Valley. And the founder Ann O'Hanlan, one of my favorite sayings of hers was, “Exploration comes first, discovery perhaps later.” Thomas: Ah. Michael: And it’s just, it's so true when it comes to art and life. So it's really, this really is a process of exploration and discovery, with, I mean the medium is nature and the cold and what, how it's so much different from the temperate Bay Area. Thomas: Right, right. Michael: Yeah. Thomas: And I've been following you on Instagram, and your photographs have been just brilliant. Michael: Thank you. Thomas: For my listeners, I'll put a link to Michael's Instagram in the show notes. Well, exploration I think is a good segue into what we're going to be doing today, which is You And I Make A Thing. And as you know, what my goal here is to come up with something that we can do together, either something that we do in parallel or something that we actually collaborate on. And Michael, prior to our conversation today, I've asked you to come up with three things that you might be interested in doing, and I've done the same. And what I was thinking of is that we'd just bounce back and forth with our ideas and then we'll see if we can coalesce on something that sounds like fun. How about that? Michael: That sounds great. Thomas: Why don't you start with something that's on your list. Michael: Okay. Let me preface it with saying that when you asked me to think of these things, it actually was harder than I thought it was going to be. And I couldn't because I'm just I'm so spontaneous with my art. I actually never think about what I want to do ahead of time and just sort of let the process flow with that in that moment. Thomas: Okay. Michael: I mean, I might know ahead of time I'm going to draw just because of, you know, whatever's happening. Thomas: Right. Michael: So this was, this was very different for me. So the first thing I thought of, and these were all things, at least a couple of 'em were things that I've always thought about, but I have never done. Thomas: Uh huh. Michael: The first one was doing encaustic painting. Which is painting with paint that is mixed with wax and it sort of creates, on like a panel, it creates this dreamy kind of thing. And I've never done it before. I don't know how to do it. and I don't even know if it's practical, but it was the very first thing I thought of because I've always wanted to try it. Thomas: So I do follow a number of artists and I've seen a number of encaustic paintings, and they are sort of dreamy. They're sort of lots of different colors flowing and mixing. And that's what you're talking about, right? Michael: Right. I mean, you can do realistic stuff. I'm not a realistic painter, but one could do that with encaustic painting. But it just sounds like so much fun. I it would be quite an exploration and discovery process. Thomas: So I'm curious, is the wax hot? Michael: Yes. Yes. Thomas: Oh, it's hot. Oh it's hot wax. Okay. Interesting. And then you're mixing maybe like oil paints or something? Michael: Yeah. I think, or acrylic. I don't,...
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    44 mins
  • Ephemeral Art with Tara Bahna-James

    Ephemeral Art with Tara Bahna-James
    Sep 6 2023
    In this episode of You And I Make A Thing, my friend Tara and I decided to go into nature and create ephemeral art, something that both of us had never done before. It was quite an open-ended idea and we both struggled a bit before we found the inspiration to guide us. Join us as we discuss how it all unfolded. Links mentioned in this podcast Tara’s SoundCloud album: My Favorite Things, Sacred and Secular Seasonal Music Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer Issa Rae Teaches Creating Outside the Lines on Masterclass Griffin and Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence by Nick Bantock The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron Some of these links are affiliate links and I may earn a small commission from them. Photos The fallen cypress tree in Golden Gate Park The fallen tree in Westchester NY near the reservoir Transcript Thomas: My guest today is Tara Bahna-James. Hello, Tara. Tara: Hi, Thomas. Thomas: How's it going? Tara: Great. Great. Thanks so much. I'm happy to be here. Thomas: Yeah, I'm happy that you're here. Tara is a playwright, singer, and performer, educator and essayist. She's co-authored six musicals and her shows and songs have been performed at theaters and festivals across the United States. And [00:01:00] about a year ago, Tara released an album on SoundCloud called My Favorite Things, Sacred and Secular Seasonal Music. And I've listened to it and it's wonderful. It's so beautiful. You have a, you have a beautiful voice, Tara. Tara: Thank you. Thomas: Before we get started with You And I Make a Thing, I want to ask you, Tell us about a creative thing that you are making at the moment or something that you're planning to make soon. Tara: So right now, I've been spending a lot of time outdoors recently, in all seasons just because, just before the pandemic began, I moved to sort of a more rural area than I was living before. And so there have been actually surprisingly, lots of opportunities to just sort of get out and hike and, so I've been thinking about trees a lot. So at present, a previous collaborator of mine, Jonathan Portera, who I've, worked with several times on musical season, brilliant composer. He and I have been talking for a long time about beginning a new [00:02:00] work together and we don't know a lot about it, but we know that we're both fascinated with the life cycles of trees and the connections of trees to fungi. Thomas: Mm-hmm. Tara: And so I exactly where that's gonna take us. But I think that's kind the direction that we're going in right now. Thomas: That's great. That's wonderful. I mean, there's, there's a lot there to study and research and talk about and create from. Trees are like us and they're also very different from us in some ways. And, you know, in the sense that their lifespans can be much, much longer than ours. And they have these, beautiful connections. You mentioned fungi and many trees have that symbiotic relationship with fungi. The fungi give them nourishment and the trees give the fungi nourishment in a different way in return. It's very [00:03:00] interesting. Tara: What I'm also, what I'm in particularly fascinated by is that, just like from what I said, from spending time outdoors more often, just the way that wilderness affords you simultaneously a real stillness and also company at the same time. And I'm reading Braiding Sweetgrass right now for the first time and there's this beautiful quote that I just came across. I don't have the book in front of me, so I'm not gonna get it right, I'm sure. But it was something about how the land recognizes you or knows you even when you don't necessarily recognize yourself. And immediately that resonated for me as something that I feel like I experience, even if I'm in a very new place. There's when I'm out hiking, if it's by myself or with dogs, I always, there's just this, this sort of sense of being recognized and not alone in the world. You know, even when in one's solitude. And that's [00:04:00] just, that's something that feels, um, it's funny, I wanna say it feels very songful to me. It feels very musical, but that's not quite what I'm getting at because it's actually the stillness and the quiet of those moments that I so love. But there's, there's something in there I guess, that speaks, that I want to give voice to that experience. So I think that's where that's coming from, that desire to write to that place. Thomas: A little bit of like validation of the self when you're with the trees, Tara: I dunno if it's the self, it's the family, I guess. Right? It's like the, yeah. The connection to all things. The mystic nature that poets love so much. So, yeah. Thomas: Well, wonderful. I'll be looking forward to seeing how that evolves, and I'm sure you'll let me know when you've manifested it. Tara: Yes. Thomas: Well, [00:05:00] Tara, I'm so excited to be doing this episode with you. And specifically the idea of You And I Make A Thing. And I have to admit, I have some ...
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    52 mins
  • Spirit Dolls with Tina Hoff

    Spirit Dolls with Tina Hoff
    Aug 30 2023
    In this episode, I've invited my friend Tina to come up with a theme or project that we could do together. We decided to each make a Spirit Doll for our respective studio spaces. I hope you will enjoy hearing about our project as much as we did doing it. Links mentioned in this podcast Griffin and Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence by Nick Bantock They Might Be Giants Scrap SF Some of these links are affiliate links and I may earn a small commission from them. Photos Tina's spirit doll Cosmos Thomas' spirit doll Perserverance Part 1 Thomas: My guest today is Tina Hoff. Welcome to the podcast, Tina. Tina: Thanks, Thomas. It's good to be here. Thomas: I am happy that you're here. Tina is a creative writer, a poet and a playwright, and she practices art journaling. Tina recently introduced me to the concept of the six-word story. The idea is to find six words that can tell a complete story. It's harder than it sounds, but it's really quite fun. Tina, when I sent you this invitation to You And I Make A Thing you wrote back, "This sounds fun and I'm honored that you would ask. It also terrifies me, which is probably why I should try it." I'm wondering if you could elaborate what you mean by that, what you were feeling when you got the invitation? Tina: Well, I guess I should start off by saying I'm usually terrified by new things. So I'm an introvert and, stepping out of my comfort zone is not easy. But you know, you and I talk regularly, and talk about creativity and share things. And that's easy because it's one-on-one. But I don't really feel comfortable talking about all this as if I'm an artist, talking about my work outside of just close friends. And also I think, even that introduction you gave me, I think, “Am I all those things?” Because I definitely suffer from imposter syndrome, you know? And over the last, oh, however many years, however old my kids are, I haven't done a whole lot of those things. And so, although I really feel like that's who I am deep down, calling me those things is a little bit strange to me. I think also Thomas, knowing you, you've tried so many different things and I am sort of just a writer by nature and that's where I kind of stay. I stay in that lane and it's a very solitary thing. And you sit there and you write something out and then maybe you share it. And even though I've done playwriting with a playwrights group and we did have our scenes performed for an audience at two different festivals that we held, which is fun, but you know, I get actors to do that for me, right? And we talked a little bit afterwards, took audience questions, which was fine. You've tried so many different things. When you talked about us trying to come up with something that we could both try that we hadn't, I thought, wow, I could try almost anything and I haven't done it before. But coming up with something that maybe you have not done, would probably be difficult. Thomas: I think we're gonna come up with something. There are so many things I'd like to try, so, but thank you for saying that. I really appreciate it. You mentioned, imposter syndrome and my gosh, I feel that all the time. And you know, part of doing this You And I Make A Thing and trying something that we've never done before, is really a part of trying to deal with that, right? At least the way I feel is, the more that I try new things, I still bump up against imposter syndrome every single time. But it becomes like a practice, or a dance I should say. So that's really why I'm trying to do this, is to dance well with my imposter, I guess is the way to put it. Tina: Well, I think that's what your invitation felt like to me. And also I think my imposter syndrome comes from a place where it comes from for a lot of people, which is, well, I only do it sporadically in little spurts. You know, it's not a daily practice, it's not a regular thing. I fight with myself about wanting to do it badly and not finding time or being afraid it's not going to be good when I finally sit down because I haven't made it a regular practice. So actually having this event between us happening gives me a reason to do it and a timeframe to do it in. So that's probably good. Thomas: Well, let's jump in and find a thing to make. Tina: All right. Sounds good. Thomas: So Tina and I have not decided on something of ahead of time, right? The point of what we're doing right now is to be in the moment and to improvise an idea. So I've asked Tina to come up with three things that she might like to do, and I also have a list here of three things. So let's jump right in, Tina. Do you want to go first or do you want me to go first? Tina: I'll go first. So again, because I'm a writer and it's just a solitary thing in your head that you put down on paper, I don't tend to do a lot with my hands or rely on my hands to make art. That's kind of why I think I took up art journaling. It's just kind of free up that part of myself and be like...
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    50 mins
  • Introduction to You And I Make A Thing

    Introduction to You And I Make A Thing
    Aug 26 2023

    Hello and welcome to You And I Make A Thing. I'm your host, Thomas Beutel.

    In this first episode, I want to tell you a little bit about why I'm doing this podcast. You might already know me from the Creative Shoofly podcast. And you might be wondering why I’m starting another podcast?

    Well, I've been enjoying making the Creative Shoofly and in particular episodes where I've invited guests to talk about their creative process. I'm also a fan of improv. And I wondered if there was some way to be more improvisational with my guests.

    One day back in 2022, I had a spark of an idea. How about inviting my fellow artists to make something that neither of us have made before? That spark is how You And I Make A Thing was born.

    But it still had to figure some things out. How would we come up with the idea? Would there be prompts? When would we actually make the project? Would the episodes be split up between idea genesis and finishing the project, or would they be combined?

    After mulling over the idea for a few months, I decided to use the following format: I invite my guest, and before recording, I ask them to write down three things that they might want to try making. Things that they've thought about, but have never tried. I also make a list of three things.

    And in the first half of the episode, we compare our lists and see what things are in common. The project could be collaborative, something we work on together. Or it could be something we work on solo, as long as it is something that neither of us have done before.

    Once the project is done, we record the second half of the episode. And we talk about what we made and the struggles we encountered.

    I can't tell you how exciting it was to land on this idea! Now that I've completed a few episodes, how much fun has been so far!

    Each episode is a surprise. I go into each episode, not knowing what project I'll be working on, only that I'll be working on something that I've never done before.

    And for someone like me, who loves to try new things, I get super excited before each episode starts.

    Now my original goal was to be able to finish our projects in a few weeks’ time, so that I could have maybe one episode a month. What I've discovered though, is that many of these projects take many months to complete.

    And that's the main reason the episodes are not split up between idea genesis and project completion. There would simply be too large of a gap between them.

    So for the sake of you, my listeners, you will hear us come up with the idea and then finish the idea in the same episode, regardless of how many months the project takes.

    That also means that episodes will be released sporadically. My plan is to have several projects in the works simultaneously. It puts extra pressure on me, but I would love to be able to publish one episode a month. We'll see if I'm able to manage that.

    In the meantime, I hope you enjoy You And I Make A Thing.

    I will be rebroadcasting a couple of You And I Make A Thing episodes that I had already recorded on the Creative Shoofly. And I also have a brand-new episode coming shortly.

    If you're on Instagram, connect with me @beutelevision. And tell me about your creative endeavors.

    And if you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a review and sharing the podcast with other art enthusiasts. Your support helps me continue to bring these creative explorations to life.

    Thank you for listening. And keep making, keep exploring, and keep surprising yourself.
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    4 mins