I Heard You Can Draw!

E9: Your Talent is a Gift That You Must Use - with Guest Artist Jen Fisher

Jen Fisher is a local artist and art instructor here in Boca Raton.  She joins us to talk about her life as an illustrator working for an interior design firm in NYC, before this was done on computers. Once she was burned out from that stressful work, she created architecture-inspired jewelry, became an art instructor and began painting in an unconventional way! Throughout her life, her surroundings have strongly influenced her process and products. Her daily observational drawings during the Covid quarantine are a part of the William & Mary Libraries Blog, and her work has been featured on the cover of Art and Culture of Palm Beach County in 2018. She has also been featured in Boca Magazine and the Sun Sentinel. Follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jfishdesign/ [https://www.instagram.com/jfishdesign/] Order a copy of her visual diary from 2020: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1093870196/dear-diary-a-pictorial-essay-of-life [https://www.etsy.com/listing/1093870196/dear-diary-a-pictorial-essay-of-life] https://libraries.wm.edu/blog/post/quarantine-through-eyes-artist [https://libraries.wm.edu/blog/post/quarantine-through-eyes-artist] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2238722/support]

E8: Three Exercises to Triple Your Creativity

It happens to all of us every now and then. We get stuck.  But it's all about how to get out of that rut.  In this episode, I talk about three ways to get unstuck: 1. Use a prompt - We read several prompts from the MOMA’s website 2. Movement - Florence Cane 3. Collaborate - play the exquisite corpse drawing game with your family or friends.  All three of these activities will get you started on a new path to finding your creative stride. Sometimes you have to get off of the beaten path and explore some new ways of doing things. What are you going to do today to get unstuck? What new things are you going to try? Let me know!  Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2238722/support]

E7: What do Cartoons have to do with the Renaissance and Boca?

What is a cartoon? Did you know that the word comes from Italian and goes all the way back to the 1500s? In today's episode, we talk about how kids love drawing cartoons, and it's a great form of expression for them. I also reminisce on how the International Museum of Cartoon Art was a place I hung out in when it was in Boca Raton! I even won their cartoon contest! Original Cartoons from the Royal Academy [https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/daniel-maclise-what-is-a-cartoon#:~:text=The%20word%20we%20use%20today,sheet%20of%20paper%20or%20card.] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2238722/support]

E6: How to Be a Full Time Artist: With Artist Kendra Moran

Kendra is a full time artist and founder of Being Sacred Art. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from Southern Illinois University and has been practicing art for over 15 years. Kendra spent four years teaching art in the public school system but always knew deep down she was meant to be a full time maker and creatress.  Being Sacred is her journey in following her true path of divine expression.  Her inquiry in art and life is a continuous quest to live all movements completely in line with her spiritual essence. Art has always been her foundation. Her work explores concepts of spirituality, ceremony, ritual, sublime nature and the divine feminine. She represents in art what feeds her soul. She connects deeply to the land and depicts sacred spaces and practices that honor, heal and allow the soul to grow and glow.  Kendra strives to surround herself with everything handmade and hopes to inspire others to do the same. She believes objects that are created by hand hold power and bring us into presence. You can follow her story on instagram @beingsacredart.  To learn more about Kendra and her artwork, visit:  https://www.beingsacredart.com/ [https://www.beingsacredart.com/] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2238722/support]

E5: Do What You're Called to Do! With author Jennifer Savran Kelly

Today I speak with the author Jennifer Savran Kelly, whose debut novel Endpapers is about an artist named Dawn. Kelly says that this book is a love letter to art!   Kelly fills us in on what it was like writing about a character who is stuck - not only with her art but also in her gender identity. As she figures out her situation in her life, her art is also finally able to be expressed as well. Kelly talks about the art classes that she took during the same time as the book's setting. Listen to learn more about Kelly's advice for anyone pursuing their own art. Visit https://jennifersavrankelly.com/endpapers/ [https://jennifersavrankelly.com/endpapers/] to learn more about Kelly and to purchase Endpapers! About the novel Endpapers: Published by Algonquin Books [https://www.workman.com/products/endpapers/hardback]. Purchase Endpapers here [https://bookshop.org/p/books/endpapers-jennifer-savran-kelly/18417488]. It’s 2003, and artist Dawn Levit is stuck. A bookbinder who works in conservation at the Met, she spends her free time scouting the city’s street art, hoping something might spark inspiration. Instead, everything looks like a dead end. And art isn’t the only thing that feels wrong: wherever she turns, her gender identity clashes with the rest of her life. Her relationship, once anchored by shared queerness, is falling apart as her boyfriend Lukas increasingly seems to be attracted to Dawn only when she’s at her most masculine. Meanwhile at work, Dawn has to present as female, even on the days when that isn’t true. Either way, her difference feels like a liability.   Then, one day at work, Dawn finds something hidden behind the endpaper of an old book: the torn-off cover of a ‘50s lesbian pulp novel, Turn Her About. On the front is a campy illustration of a woman looking into a handheld mirror and seeing a man’s face. And on the back is a love letter.   Dawn latches onto the coincidence, becoming obsessed with tracking down the note’s author. Her fixation only increases when her best friend Jae is injured in a hate crime, for which Dawn feels responsible. As Dawn searches for the letter’s author, she is also looking for herself. She tries to understand how to live in a world that doesn’t see her as she truly is, how to get unstuck in her gender, and how to rediscover her art, and she can’t shake the feeling that the note’s author might be able to help guide her to the answers.  Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2238722/support]