24. The Seeds of Your Creative Business
Show Notes
Big 3 Ideas from this episode:
Thoughts are SEEDS that grow into Feelings, Actions, and Results.
What are your thoughts about your art? Do these thoughts help you make more work? Or keep you from creating?
Art Thoughts, Business Thoughts: Any thoughts you can have about your art, you can ALSO have about your business. You can love your business as much as you love your art by making a decision to cultivate thoughts that help you get there.
Fabio Gomes Trinidad, Hair Street Mural
“Sunflower Seeds,” by Ai WeiWei, Tate Modern, 2011
Other Seeds in Art
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Hello artists!
[00:00:24] As some of you know, I started an MFA program in painting this past fall. Yes, at the age of 58, I packed up my Jeep and road tripped across the country to Illinois to study painting ceramics and as many other areas of studio arts as I can pack into three years. As well as a lot of art history.
So because of this new commitment. I was thinking, how can I keep up my podcast? And so I decided that this would be a perfect time to share one of the ways I plan out my year. And let that guide me.
I've long planned my year ahead, around numbers and the symbolism of each month. So I decided this year to just make one podcast each month. Instead of every week as I did for the first six months of last year.
[00:01:14] So every month I'll share the theme of that month. And how that theme is represented in art. And how we can use it to think about our businesses as well.
[00:01:24] so why talk about seeds in January? First I'll give you the rundown of the whole year and then I'll get into it.
January the first month symbolizes the seed of new beginnings and potential.
The power of the number one represents individuality. Self-belief.. And taking initiative to start moving forward.
[00:01:47] February, the number two represents duality, and balancing of opposites making decisions.
[00:01:55] March the third month. Is three. Embodying creativity born from those decisions. And taking action. That creates a creative fire.
April with the symmetry of the number four signifies order structure and the establishment of foundations and systems.
[00:02:15] May the fifth month brings challenges that require us to roll up our sleeves and complete the necessary work, much like the five digits of the human hand.
June the sixth month represents solstice. The middle of the year, a sense of equilibrium and balance.
July. Number seven is associated with innovation and the exploration of new ideas.
[00:02:44] August the eighth month symbolizes progress and forward movement in our creative journey.
[00:02:50] The ninth month, September represents culmination harvest and the realization of our goals.
[00:02:58] October number [00:03:00] 10 is about attainment completion and the celebration of achievements.
[00:03:04] November, brings a sense of joy and celebration for the progress and growth we've experienced throughout the year.
[00:03:11] And December the 12th month. Represents a time of dreaming reflection and hibernation. As we prepare for a new cycle of creativity and growth.
So back to January. January a seed. A dot. A point.
[Kandinsky said it all begins with a dot. On the page or canvas that.is a seed. But it's not necessarily the place of beginning. Because it may have taken you years to get there. Art school training practice. This dot this seed, this new beginning
[00:03:53] it's a place of continuation because it's part of that causality. And flow of life. Uh, seed a dut. Is where we start paying attention.
[00:04:05] And seeds have mechanisms to sense variations in temperature, light, and moisture, which helped them determine the most favorable times to sprout. Understanding how seeds respond to different seasons can provide valuable insights into plant life cycles. And our own cycles. Seeds are so remarkable because they rely on the changing of seasons for their growth and survival. They have evolved to adapt to different seasons. And utilize. Different cues to know what to do.
They're small, but mighty. Some of them are large, but mighty.. And they contain all the information they need to develop into a fully grown plant.
This reminds me of William Blake, the romantic poet. In his poem Auguries of innocence. Which was never published in his lifetime, by the way. It was published in 18 63, 40 years after he died. The poem itself was a seed, just sitting in his papers, waiting.
[00:05:08] He wrote. To see the world in a grain of sand. And heaven. In a wild flower. Hold infinity in your hand. And eternity in an hour.
[00:05:21] That's about the best description of a seed that I can think of. Blake was an outlier in his era, the age of reason, the 18th century. Or the enlightenment. His kind of enlightenment was his very own and he struggled with it. He struggled to find acceptance. He struggled to work. He struggled with money.
He struggled with his own anger and resentment. But he was also a kind person. And he also had many friends. He had a wonderful relationship with his wife, Katherine. And they work together on his paintings and his [00:06:00] printmaking blake persevered and kept making his unique art, creating mythologies and new worlds. His whole life. Anyone interested in science fiction or mythology or religion should know his work.
[00:06:12] Each one of us. He believed. Has a vibrant world of inspiration and imagination sealed within us. Yearning to crack open the shell of isolation. And connect with others.
[00:06:25] As I scoured the internet for art pieces paintings about seeds.
[00:06:30] I remembered that one of my classmates
[00:06:32] had given a great presentation last semester that moved me deeply. My classmate. Terry is a Chinese artist who has lived on and off in the states for years. He creates assemblage sculptures out of the things that most of us throw away.
[00:06:47] In his presentation, he talked about I way, way.
Uh, Chinese artist activist.
[00:06:52] His installation, sunflower seeds. Was. Displayed in the Tate, modern in London. In 2011.
[00:07:00] It included 100 million. I'm going to repeat that 100 million handmade hand painted. Porcelain. Sunflower seeds.
[00:07:12] Each seed was hand painted.
[00:07:14] With stripes and marks. By one of 1600 artisans.
[00:07:19] The seeds were arranged. In the Tate modern turbine hall. On the floor.
[00:07:25] In a thousand square meter room. And about 10 seater, centimeters deep.
[00:07:29] In the second display, the seeds were arranged as a cone.
[00:07:33] As if they had been poured into a pile like sand in an hourglass.
[00:07:37] The bottom of the pile was about five meters wide.
[00:07:41] All of the artisans that made these tiny seeds. We're in Jingdezhen which is a city in the JIangxi province of China.
[00:07:50] It took them over two years to make all the seeds. And Terry told me that this city was known as the porcelain capital of China because of its history of porcelain production.
[00:08:03] So I way way was really commenting on so many things.
[00:08:07] He was comparing the idea of these artisans making individually these seeds. With the economy of China now, which is all about mass production. He was also commenting on the idea of the seed. As an individual. Each one is different. Each one is hand painted. But also. Part of this pile of this display of 100 million.
[00:08:32] So the seeds represent individuals and they also represent the whole culture.
[00:08:37] Ai WeiWei the sunflower seeds also evoke nostalgia. He had many memories of eating sunflower seeds. As it was a symbol in China. Of the sunflower.
[00:08:47] Looking up to the leader. Mao Zedong. Chairman Mao.
[00:08:50] The sunflowers would turn there heads to the sun.
[00:08:54] And mouse liked this idea that all of his followers would turn their heads towards him. And [00:09:00] he was their sun.
[00:09:01] But of course, this all has the dark side of.
[00:09:04] The loss of individuality in this. Economy of mass production in this growth and also in communism. Which shifted and changed the economy and the culture and the history of China so much.
[00:09:19] Ai WeWei was imprisoned in 2011 for 81 days.
[00:09:23] And he was in a work camp as well with his family when he was a baby. So all of this has so much importance in terms of freedom. The idea of the individual versus the idea of the collective, how both the individual and the collective, the individual and the community are important. But either one, if taken to the extreme can be damaging.
[00:09:49] So Ai WeiWei exhibit of 100 million handmade. Sunflower seeds hand painted by 1600 artisans. Must've been so powerful to see. And it is one of the most unique. Ideas for an art exhibit. Having to do with seeds. Or having to do with anything. That I've ever seen.
[00:10:13] Conceptual art makes us think in new ways.
[00:10:16] And art itself like money. It's just a concept.
[00:10:21] We've decided that money is worth something. We don't have the gold standard anymore. Now we've all decided that paper. And numbers. In our bank accounts. Has value.
[00:10:31] But it's just an idea. It's just a concept that everyone agrees on.
[00:10:36] Art is a concept. Whatever we think is art. Becomes art in the mind of the artist.
[00:10:42] And then that is translated to the viewer.
[00:10:45] Seeds develop a hard shell in the fall. And then often they're eaten by birds and other animals. They're frozen and unfrozen. They're washed by rain.
[00:10:55] They float. They travel thousands of miles sometimes.
[00:10:58] They're buried by squirrels. And through this process, they find new homes and they take their message with them wherever they go. Then when the ground warms up . They create a new version. Of the information that is inside them. They're a little machine starts to click.
[00:11:15] With new vision and new purpose. And they start to grow.
[00:11:19] We need to be alone in our art. We have to let those ideas solidify and deepen. That's why I love a journal practice. I write in my journal almost every day. And so many ideas have come out of my journal. This patch of garden. I put little seeds in there. I write ideas down. Sometimes I write a lot. And then the ideas grow slowly. And eventually. I choose the ones that. Really means something to me and that I think will work.
[00:11:51] And I move forward with those ideas.
[00:11:53] Another reason I'm talking about seeds in the cold of January.
[00:11:57] Is that I've been thinking about creating an [00:12:00] online community for my clients for a while. Because so many artists are seeking community with others. And it's hard because often we work in isolation.
[00:12:08] I know that sometimes I feel like that seed with so much information inside of me, so much inspiration. Like a whole tree inside us. But we're surrounded by this hard shell of isolation and we want to reach out. So I'm creating this online community.
[00:12:23] It's going to be called Art Business Circle. And it's on a platform called MemberUp. Which was created by my financial coach, Amy Sangster. She's an amazing teacher and an amazing woman.
[00:12:36] Is going to be a community where. My clients. artists Can come together. Connect with each other.
[00:12:42] And I can offer trainings and teachings and we can share our art. We'll have special group coaching events.
[00:12:48] First I'm offering this community to my clients who have gone through the metaphor mindset studio. And have had their six sessions of one-on-one coaching.
[00:12:58] And have experienced some of my training and teaching about business and art.
[00:13:02] And they want to continue to go forward with the accountability that coaching offers them.
[00:13:06] So that's my vision.
[00:13:08] I would love other people to help me develop this and create a community. That is helpful to artists who are all working towards similar goals. If you want to deepen your creative practice.
[00:13:20] By understanding yourself better. Understand the underlying thoughts and metaphors that are driving you. I understand. What you really want by listening to yourself more deeply.
[00:13:30] That's what I offer my clients.
[00:13:33] This community will be a place where people can share that together.
[00:13:37] And I need support of other artists as well.
[00:13:40] So, I suppose it's like I'm planting a garden. The idea of the community has been under the ground for a long time. It traveled with me from Washington to Illinois. And now it's ready to get started. Ready to crack that hard shell. And I'm ready to reach out.
[00:13:56] It's very simple.
[00:13:58] The important part. Is that you're taking things step by step. In a focused way not try to do everything all at once and get overwhelmed. I find that this is the biggest problem that all of us artists have.
[00:14:11] We have so many ideas. We want to do everything at once. And then we get overwhelmed by all the technical issues. Learning new things, building new skills. So in this community, I hope to help you overcome some of these obstacles.
[00:14:25] And have fun doing it.
[00:14:26] This is how it works. It's like I'm a little kid in a fog. Walking. Step-by-step.
[00:14:33] Literally baby steps. And then once in a while I have a breakthrough, the fog clears the clouds part, and everything seems easy for awhile.
[00:14:43] But then I have to go back to baby steps because now I want to learn something new. And that becomes more difficult again. So this idea.
[00:14:52] Of going slow. Then having a breakthrough. And going back to slow. And then having a breakthrough, I think is really important. And we [00:15:00] really need support in this process. . I hope this conversation about seeds, about seeding, your business and your art.
[00:15:06] And managing your mind, managing your garden. Letting it grow and knowing that you have all the information, everything you need packed in that brain of yours. And you just need to. Be ready when it's time.
[00:15:19] It's time to grow. It's time to start this new year.
[00:15:22] I want to be there to help you.
[00:15:24] Thank you. And I hope this next month is a fruitful one.
[00:15:29] If you're an artist who wants to
[00:15:32] sell and market your work more effectively, join us in the Metaphor Mindset Studio, an online program for artists who want to love their business as much as they love their art.
[00:15:42] Metaphor Mindset Studio. Think like an artist. Work like a boss.
References:
Fabio Gomes Trindade: https://www.brightvibes.com/brazilian-street-artist-incorporates-nature-as-natural-hair-in-portraits-of-black-women-and-girls/
Highly Recommended:
The video above about Ai WeiWei’s “Sunflower Seeds” is from the YouTube Channel, The Canvas Art History: https://www.youtube.com/@TheCanvasArtHistory
