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Aug. 18, 2024
Beyond the Studio: Finding and Growing Artistic Communities
Making Fun A Habit Series
30 days to add fun to your creative practice. I will be going through Mike Brennan's Make Fun A Habit workbook and help you make fun a habit. I had the pleasure of interviewing Mike on my other podcast Find A Podcast About and talking about his podcast Creative Chats. This workbook leads you through steps to rekindle the fun in your life and get you into a space where you are your most creative. This is a 30-day book and I will tackle each day as if it were a week and provide insights on how to use his ideas in your creative practice. Each chapter is broken up with a short story, questions to ponder, action items, and tips.
The Importance of Community
Having a supportive community is crucial for artistic growth. It provides a space for support, collaboration, and learning. When I first started podcasting in 2006, I was flying solo, but in 2016, I found a community through a local meetup. This opened doors to global conversations and conferences, significantly enhancing my creativity and reach.
Assignment
Questions to Ponder
- Where have you found community in the past, and what did you like or dislike about it?
- As an early poet in Abilene, Texas, I found a welcoming community at a local coffee shop. It was supportive but sometimes felt elitist, which made it less welcoming to newcomers. Reflecting on these experiences helps in shaping better communities today.
- What special memories do you have attached to that community?
- My time at Espresso Europa was marked by memorable events like poetry readings, in-house art displays, and even drag shows. These shared experiences created lasting bonds and special memories, reminding me of the importance of such spaces.
- How can you create new memories with new communities?
- Today, I seek new experiences by attending podcast conferences and events. Simply stepping out of your comfort zone and attending such gatherings can lead to lifelong friendships and collaborations.
Action Items for Building Community
- Join an Art Club or Take a Class Art classes, whether in painting or drawing, can significantly enhance your skills and confidence. Engaging in structured classes, like painting with a guide, offers a less intimidating way to grow as an artist.
- Join a Sports Team or Volunteer Participating in local sports or volunteering for a charity can build connections within your community. These activities not only expose you to potential audience members but also foster a sense of belonging.
- Engage in Political or Religious Activities Whether it's volunteering for a political campaign or attending religious or spiritual gatherings, these activities connect you with like-minded individuals and strengthen community ties.
- Volunteer at a Homeless Shelter or Soup Kitchen Year-round volunteering can be immensely rewarding. It provides a venue for potential collaborations while giving back to the community, enriching your artistic journey.
Tips for Finding Communities
- Reflect on Your Interests and Values Identify what's important to you and seek communities that align with those values, whether it’s volunteering at a library or participating in local activism.
- Talk to Friends and Family You might be surprised by the opportunities within your existing network. Friends or family members may already be part of impactful communities or be willing to help start one.
- Use Online Resources Platforms like Meetup, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok can help you find local and global communities related to your interests.
- Attend Local Events Local events, fairs, festivals, and concerts are great places to meet people and join existing communities. Virtual events can also provide similar opportunities when in-person attendance isn't possible.
- Be Open to New Experiences Sometimes the most rewarding communities come from unexpected places. Be open to new experiences, and you might find lifelong friends and mentors in the most unlikely locations.
Final Thoughts If there isn't a community in your area that meets your needs, consider starting one. Initially, it may be challenging, but flexibility and openness to contributions can foster a thriving community. Remember, creativity often blossoms through collaboration and support from others.
Reach Out To The Podcast
To reach out to me, email timothy@createartpodcast.com I would love to hear about your journey and what you are working on. If you would like to be on the show or have me discuss a topic that is giving you trouble write in and let's start that conversation.
- Email: timothy@createartpodcast.com
- YouTube Channel: Create Art Podcast YT Channel
- IG: @createartpodcast
- Twitter: @createartpod
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Transcript
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Create art podcast commentary, building community.
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Hello friend.
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This is Timothy Kim O'Brien, your head instigator for create art podcast,
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where I use my over 30 years of experience in the arts and education
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world to help you tame your inner critic and create more than you consume.
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So this year I am doing a book called make fun a habit and it's by
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Michael Brennan from the make fun.
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I have it workbook and he also has a podcast called creative chats
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and I actually had the pleasure of interviewing him on my other podcast,
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find a podcast about links will be in the show notes for you on that.
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But basically what the workbook is, it leads you through steps to rekindle the
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fun in your life and get you in a space where you can be your most creative.
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Now it's a 30 day workbook.
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And what I've decided to do this year is to take each day as one episode.
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So I'm going to be going through these for you here and giving
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you my ideas and thoughts on what Mike Brennan is talking about.
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Now, how he Formats the book is each chapter is broken up with
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a short story, questions to ponder, action items, or tips.
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So let's go ahead and start talking about building community.
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Now, back when I first started my artistic journey way back in 1988, I
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wasn't looking to build a community.
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I was just looking to do something.
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And poetry was my first love.
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I was also into a theater.
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With the theater, you have a community already built in, you have your
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actors, your behind the scenes, folks, your designers, your workshop,
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people, director, all that jazz.
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So you already have a community there, but with poetry, it's a little
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bit harder to find that community.
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And at that time, I wasn't going to poetry readings.
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I didn't really know about them.
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I didn't know it was really that much of a thing.
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Yeah, I was a little bit lonely out there doing my own thing, but I have found over
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the years that when you have a community around you, it can really strengthen you.
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And now I do poetry readings every week at my nephew's coffee shop, Original
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Grinds here in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
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And we've developed a community there.
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That we all challenge each other.
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We show up for each other.
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We support each other and that feels really good.
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It feels a lot less lonely than way back in my high school days.
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And it's that commitment to that community that keeps me writing poetry all the time.
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So when that's the importance of having community, it's for support.
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It's for, if you have questions about something that you're doing, if you
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want to learn something new, or you just want people that are weird, like you.
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To listen in to what you're saying, like with podcasting, back when I first
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started in 2006, I was really going solo.
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Didn't know what I was doing.
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But in 2016, I met up with Kyle Bondo at a a local meetup here and found that
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community, and now I'm talking with.
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Folks that are across the world on this podcast, and I'm going to conferences
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and meeting the top names in podcasting.
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So having that community, having somebody you can rely on and ask questions to,
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and somebody that supports you and somebody that you support really turns
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up the creativity for you by, instead of, going up to 10, it goes to an 11.
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So let's go ahead and get started with Mike's questions here first.
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Now, the first question is, where have you found community in the past?
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And what did you like and what did you not like?
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Again, when I was first starting out with poetry, I didn't really have a community.
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And then I found one of all places, Abilene, Texas.
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When I was in the air force, there was a coffee shop there there was
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poetry readings all the time and I really liked it because they welcomed
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me in with open arms and they really supported my early work, which, our
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early stuff isn't always our best stuff.
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Sometimes it is.
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But for me, I was just feeling what was out there and I was just learning what
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was out there and soaking everything up like a sponge and challenging my
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preconceived notions of what art was.
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So that's what I really liked about it.
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What I didn't like about it was the incestuous nature of it and sometimes
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a little bit of elitism, I would say.
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We were the poetry nuts on whatever street it was.
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And sometimes it wasn't as welcoming as it should have been.
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And was I a part of that?
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Sure.
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Yeah.
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Cause you know, I was part of this crew and I wanted to
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protect our turf, quote unquote.
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So that's, something I didn't like about it and I've noticed it in other projects.
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Other communities that have been a part of where, you get your core group
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of people and then somebody new comes in and you look at them a little bit
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weird and go, what are you doing here?
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So I like it for the ambience, for the support that it does provide.
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Sometimes it gets a little elitist and that's what I don't like about it.
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Next question is what special memories do you have attached to that community?
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With Espresso Europa, the coffee shop I was at, some of the most special
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memories I have of it was I had actually busted my wrist and it was in a cast
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for a while and when we cut off the cast, we actually put it up close to
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the ceiling on a little shelf and, I could go walk in there and see my cast
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all the time or the remnants of my cast.
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And I thought that was really cool.
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We also had a in house painter.
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And I bought a few works off of him really really nice guy.
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I doubt that he's alive still, but Roger, wherever you're
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at, I really loved his works.
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He did a Jimi Hendrix, a Friedrich Nietzsche, and this weird painting with
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a bunch of ants and skulls and faces, and I call it the haunted painting, but.
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Yeah I remember those times and I remember, the drag shows that
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we had there and just, staying up late and the community that we
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built in the fun times that we had.
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And for many years I was looking for that.
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I was thinking that kind of coffee shop was all over the place.
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It was in Abilene, Texas.
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Everywhere, right?
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Negative.
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And it took years and years.
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And finally here in Fredericksburg, we have original grinds, which is a
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coffee shop, my nephew runs Ethan.
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And it's really reminding me of those days.
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And so I'm really happy that I'm finding that community once again.
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So the next question is how can we how can you seek to create new memories
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and experiences with new communities?
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And what would that look like?
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The first things first, you got to go out, you got to go out from behind
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your four walls and go and meet people.
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And How I'm creating new memories is I'm attending podcast conferences.
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I'll be in a podcast movement here in mid August.
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I went to another podcast convention in June in North
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Carolina called the empowered.
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Podcast convention.
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So I like going to those communities, those conferences and meeting people.
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I get to meet new people that I would never have met before,
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people that I've met online.
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I get to meet actually in person.
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So that's how I'm creating new memories.
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I'm actually getting out of my house and going to where these people are.
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And that's what we need to do as artists is we need to go to where our audience is.
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And find out what they're interested in and see if we can't fill that need.
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And if we can, great.
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If we can't, then we find different communities to go and peruse.
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But if we're already in a community, we also need to be mindful that we
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need to be very welcoming to people.
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So that way they feel the same things that we do.
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And that's something that we have to pay really close attention to.
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Okay, so let's go ahead to our action items.
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Now, our first action item is to join an art club or take a class.
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Absolutely.
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I've taken painting classes in the past and drawing classes, and they really help.
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One thing that I've been doing lately is this thing called Painting
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Van Gogh, or Painting to Go.
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And It has a video of a artist and they're doing a painting and you just follow
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along with, how they're mixing the colors.
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They usually only use five base colors and it's all acrylic painting and
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different things that you can paint.
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So I've been doing those and I've been really enjoying them.
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Of course.
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Yes, I do like to do a paint by numbers kind of stuff, but having
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somebody there to guide me through it.
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Is.
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It's less scary.
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I feel less like I'm making something as a four year old on
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crack and more like I'm an artist.
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I'm actually coming out with something that is halfway decent.
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So definitely, I highly recommend doing our club or taking the class.
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Another thing you could do is join a sports team or volunteer
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at a local charity that gets you out in the community.
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Maybe you like playing softball or bowling or whatever sport you're into.
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Or maybe you're like, Hey, maybe I'll try pickleball over at the YMCA.
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It gets you your face out there and it gets you meeting with
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people that could possibly be.
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audience members for you being at a local, working at a local charity like
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a boys or girls club kind of thing.
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That way you're giving back to the community that you
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want to have support you.
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So I think the big thing with that is always to be giving and not expecting
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the universe to pay you back, but in the back of your head, Universe usually
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settles up its debt pretty well.
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So keep that in the back of your head, but not at the forefront.
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That's not why we're doing this.
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Third action item is join a political party or volunteer for a campaign.
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Now here in the United States in November of 2024, we're going
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to be electing a president.
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And there's a lot of political stuff going on and doesn't matter
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which here in the United States, there's two major political parties,
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the Republicans and the Democrats.
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Doesn't matter to me, which side you fall under, or if you fall
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completely in a different field.
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Maybe join that political party, maybe campaign or help a campaign out get in
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there with people that are like minded.
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and build a community with them.
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It's just a way for you to do it.
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And maybe it's more of an independent party, or maybe it's a more of a
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school board kind of thing where it's not supposed to be political.
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Give that a shot for yourself just to get your face out there in public.
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Number four is attend a religious service or join a religious organization.
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And for, I know some some of you out there are atheist or agnostic there's always the
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Unitarians that, they believe everything, but take care of your spiritual side,
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maybe it's not like going to a Christian or Jewish or Muslim house of worship.
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Maybe it's just something where you go out in nature and do some, cleaning up
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of the woods or something like that.
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That can be a religious experience for some people.
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So give that a shot for yourself.
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And his last tip is to volunteer at a local soup kitchen or homeless shelter.
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And that can be done year round.
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A lot of people try to do it fit it in the holidays and feel
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good about themselves for that.
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But there's always a need at the soup kitchens and homeless shelters.
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So definitely check that out for yourself.
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Are these people going to be, buying your art?
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Probably not.
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But there's going to be other volunteers there and those are
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possible audience members or possible collaborators with you.
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Or maybe, you volunteer some of your artistic talent towards a soup kitchen
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or a homeless shelter to make it a little bit better for somebody else.
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And it's that whole giving, giving, paying it forward.
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And the universe may, square up its debt to you later on in life.
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You never know, but give it a shot.
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You never know who you're going to run into.
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All right.
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Our next area is tips.
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First step that might gives us is think about your interest in values.
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What's important to you?
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Is it volunteering at, is it literacy?
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So volunteering at a local library?
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Is it taking care of your fellow person?
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Maybe that's volunteering at a homeless shelter or soup kitchen.
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What is your interest and values and really think deep and hard about that.
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What's important to you?
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What's going to make this world a better place for you?
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That should guide you into the community that you join up with.
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Next tip is talk with friends and family.
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You never know within your family circle or friend circle
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who's got something going on.
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So if you can reach out to them and let them know, Hey, listen,
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I'm looking to join up with a community of like minded people.
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Maybe they have already started something up that you didn't know about.
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Then there you go.
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You have somebody there.
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You already know.
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So it's not as scary.
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So you can go ahead and join up with that community.
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Or maybe they're like, you know what, let's create that together.
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Yeah, I believe that way too.
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Third tip is do an online search.
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Now, that's what I did.
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When I did a meetup with Kyle Bondo, I did a search for
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podcasting groups in our area.
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I saw it, I attended and here we are, eight years later and I'm still
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podcasting like a crazy person.
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So use uncle Google, okay.
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Or use meetup Facebook communities, Instagram communities, TikTok
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communities, whatever it is.
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Look for that online and you will find it.
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You will definitely find it no matter where you're at.
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Next tip is attend local events.
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Again, that's all getting out of the four walls that surround you.
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And putting your face out there.
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There's, book fairs, there's festivals, there's concerts, what have you.
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There are events out there that you can attend in person.
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And there's a lot of online events that you can attend online as well.
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So if it's, something that you're interested in, but it's far away and
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they have an online portion to it.
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Attempt the online portion.
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That is very valid and maybe next time you can attend it in person.
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You never know, but give it a shot unless you you need to give it a shot because
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you never know what's going to happen.
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Okay.
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Mike's last tip is to be open to new experiences.
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So again, I go back to my time in the Air Force when I was in Abilene, Texas.
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I was open to that experience of going to that coffee shop, Espresso Europa,
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and meeting some of the people that would be lifelong friends since, 1992
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I've had these friends and that's, 26 years now, 1992, 28, 30 years that
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I've known these people and I can pick up a conversation with them.
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Just we saw each other every week.
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So that wouldn't have happened if I hadn't been open to that experience
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again, with the meetup with Kyle Bondo, I wanted to learn more about podcasting.
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So I had to go out of my house and let me tell you, it was tough because I commute.
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At that time hour and a half each way and then eight hours of work.
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So by the end of the day, by the time that meetup was hitting, I
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was exhausted, but you know what?
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I went anyways and again, made a lifelong friend and a and a mentor in this
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industry and look where it's brought me.
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It's brought me some wonderful things and wonderful experiences
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that wouldn't have happened if I hadn't opened myself up and attended.
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So one thought I'm going to leave with you when we're talking
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about community here is this.
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If there isn't a community already where you're at, go ahead and start it up.
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That way you can, kind of mold it and create it to what you want it to be.
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But then again, remember, you're going to be welcoming other people into this
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community, so be flexible on that.
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Allow there to be some wiggle room in this community that you create.
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Because.
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It'll grow better if you are more flexible that way.
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If you're very rigid and go, Oh, I only want this and this and this and this,
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and you don't let other people contribute to that community, you're missing out.
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So like I say, if there's nothing where you're at, which
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I find doubtful, but it happens.
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A lot of us live in rural communities, so sometimes you have to create it
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yourself and just because you create it does not necessarily mean they will
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come, but it's more likely that they will come if you then if you didn't build
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it, so give that a shot for yourself.
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All right.
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So that is our episode here for today.
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I want to thank you for taking time out of your day and listening and
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for being part of this community.
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I really appreciate it.
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If you want to reach out to me, you can email me, Timothy at createartpodcast.
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com.
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And I want to hear about what's going on with your journey and what you're up to.
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I want to hear about the communities that you're creating in your neck
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of the woods, or if you need ideas.
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On how to curate that community, feel free to reach out to me.
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I'd be happy to have that conversation with you.
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I also wanna let you know about we have another podcast here.
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It's called Find a Podcast About, you can find it at find a podcast
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about.xyz and that's where I review other podcasts and bring back to you
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the ones that I think are binge worthy.
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And a lot of times we have the hosts on the show to interview them
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and find out about their journey.
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Take a listen to that one.
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I'm gonna help you outsmart the algorithm.
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And find your next binge worthy podcast at find a podcast about.
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All right.
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That is all I have here for you today.
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I do want to thank you for listening.
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And I do want to hear about the communities that you're building and.
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Definitely step out from your four walls and take a look around you.
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If you're struggling with finding an audience, they're outside the four walls.
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They're not inside the studio with you.
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They're out there.
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You need to go out there.
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Look for them and talk to them and build a community with them.
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So go out there and tame that inner critic.
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Create more than you consume and go out there, build a community and make some
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art for somebody you love yourself.
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I'll talk to you next time.
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