Derek Rodenbeck is an artist, photographer, travel blogger, entrepreneur, a proud dad of two massive dogs, a current student at the University of Pennsylvania, and an Army veteran.
Currently, he is taking a break from it all, traveling across the United States with his girlfriend and two massive dogs, and that’s where we are catching up with him today.
Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/derekrodenbeck
In this episode, Derek discusses:
-How he struggled in high school and his teachers told him that he wouldn’t amount to anything.
-His epiphany in the Army that he wanted to be an artist.
-The Kubert School and the success that he found in college.
-How he balances his time with all of the many projects he has going on at once.
-How to determine when it is time to abandon a project that isn’t giving you satisfaction anymore or taking you to the place you thought it would.
-Why he took a break after finishing his latest commission.
-What led to his decision to leave on his adventure with his girlfriend.
-One of his worst moments on his adventure, which ended up also being a very positive moment.
-What it costs him to go on this adventure.
-The love that he has for his dogs and the role they play in his journey.
-Riding with the Wolves.
Derek's Final Push will inspire you to find the thing that makes you happy and then do that thing until it doesn’t make you happy anymore.
Quotes:
“I just put everything I had into it. I wanted to prove all those people wrong.”
“You can do a lot of different things, but you really need to focus in on one or two things at a time and then finish them.”
“I think it’s all about realizing when you have to swallow the hard pill and when you have to cough it back up.”
“Find the thing that makes you happy and then do that thing until it doesn’t make you happy anymore.”
“Don’t feel like you’re ever stuck doing something. Because you’re not. You’re never stuck. You can find a way out. You can find a way to break free from the things you’re stuck in.”
“Life changes so fast. You can do a lot in a year.”
Connect with Derek:
Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / YouTube
On the next episode:
Jon deMartin : Website / Instagram
What is the thing that makes you happy? Or used to? Join that discussion at the Facebook group!
Julian Calor is a Dutch wunderkind with talent that exceeds beyond his years. At just 22-years-old, Julian has already set the scene alight with his unique sense of melody and chord progressions that have continued to send his presence surging forward.
Sending his early demos into Revealed Recordings, the sound of Julian has since shot through the stratosphere, his #3 Beatport smash ‘Typhoon’ garnering millions of stream plays online and capturing the attention of those that matter. With Revealed label boss Hardwell being a supporter of his from the start, it seemed only fitting that the World #1 DJ offered him the chance to construct a spellbinding debut album titled ‘Evolve’ that presents itself as a release of eclectic beauty.
Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/juliancalor
In this episode, Julian discusses:
-How he first started to create music.
-How he experimented with sounds until it eventually started to sound like music.
-When he knew it was the right time to send demos out to labels, including Revealed.
-How he doesn’t even like his friends to hear his music until he feels it is ready.
-His evolution from hip-hop to house to the new sound that he has now created.
-How his style is based more upon feeling rather than rhythm, tempo, or beats, and how he wants to maintain that feeling throughout the rest of his career.
-How he creates an interesting sound that he has never heard before and then finds a way to work it into a track.
-His experiment of letting his fans decide which drafts of tracks he would further develop into songs.
-What it is like for him to perform live.
-How he balances his time between all of the many projects he has going on.
-INVOLVE and how it has morphed into a new entity that allows him permission to freely experiment.
-The support that Hardwell and Revealed gives him in pursuing a new style.
-Some of the daily Resistances that he encounters.
-How he motivates himself when he needs it.
Julian's Final Push will inspire you to not focus on the final product, but instead on the process.
Quotes:
“All my life, I wanted to do something creative.”
“It’s all about balance. It’s okay to have a cheat day, but remember to wake up early the next day and do your thing.”
“As a maker of art, you must relax and not think too much about what the output is going to be. When you’re thinking too much about output, it will destroy the creative flow.”
Links mentioned:
Connect with Julian:
Website / Soundcloud / YouTube / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter
On the next episode:
Derek Rodenbeck : Website / Instagram
What music do you listen to while you are doing your creative work? Join that discussion at the Facebook group!
Justin Hopkins is a talented artist from, originally from Mukilteo, Washington. After graduating from high school, Justin was hired by legendary illustrator Charles White III and he also created works for Google, Red Bull, Wired Magazine, Pabst, and ESPN. Now, Justin works almost exclusively with oils and divides his time between New York and California.
Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/justinhopkins
In this episode, Justin discusses:
-The influence that his parents had on him growing up as an artist.
-The difference between having technical skills and being able to say something of substance via your voice.
-How he started to work as an illustrator at the age of 14, and how he grew to hate it.
-His experience as a musician.
-The idea of needing to cleanse your creative palette with different mediums.
-The experimentation that he pursues in his art.
-Aphex Twin and his style of experimentation that allowed people to explore a new type of music that they wouldn’t otherwise.
-How every piece he does is something he hasn’t done before and the end product is either in the trash or on the wall.
-The reason why he leaves out certain elements of his paintings.
-His process for starting a piece.
-The experience of working for Charles White III.
-How to get past the influences of the artists you look up to or have been emulating.
-The idea of becoming a more empathetic and well-rounded human being.
-NOH / WAVE
-How he balances his time and the sacrifices that he has to sometimes make.
-The story of one of his high school art teachers that demoralized him.
Justin's Final Push will inspire you to drive with all your might towards your goals, even if it results in you realizing that your creative efforts were meant elsewhere.
Quotes:
“Being an illustrator is like being in boot camp because you have to be of high quality and you have deadlines.”
“The more abstract thought processes of music is what made me find the creative thing I was looking for, and then from there I rediscovered painting after not doing it for almost ten years.”
“The most interesting thing about painting to me is the fact that you can make up your own rules and there’s an infinite amount of ways to approach a piece.”
“Every piece that I do has some huge level of experimentation where it could completely ruin the piece.”
“Be a well-rounded, observant, curious, empathetic person.”
“If I don’t paint, I become kind of a meaner person.”
“Not everyone can be and should be an artist. It takes a certain kind of psychosis to want to do something like this.”
Links mentioned:
Connect with Justin:
Website / Facebook / Instagram / _Lo Collective
What big risks have you made with your creative endeavor recently? Join that discussion at the Facebook group!
Angela Hoover is a comedian, celebrity impressionist, and a mother of 2. She was a semi-finalist on Season 8 of NBC’s America’s Got Talent. She has guest-starred on the Emmy nominated Hulu series, Casual, been a talking head on TLC and Nickelodeon, improv’d opposite Dana Carvey on TBS’s First Impressions, and is currently a recurring cast member on Disney’s Walk the Prank.
She has also written and performed 2 sold out one-woman shows at the Lex and the Comedy Central Stage at the Hudson in Los Angeles.
Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/angelahoover
In this episode, Angela discusses:
-How from a very young age, she was always interested in other people’s dialects and impersonating them.
-A “lightbulb moment” when her father took her to a musical.
-Working for Jack Hanfield and the impact that that had on her life and goals.
-The story of how she started impersonating Drew Barrymore.
-Her experience on America’s Got Talent.
-Feeling like you “missed the boat” after a long gap in your creative career.
-The notion that acceptance is not resignation.
-Having a positive mindset with the situation you are currently in, while still putting out energy into the direction that you want to go.
-How she likes to announce that she is going to do something before she even knows if she can do it.
-Her 30 days of impressions and the challenges that went into it.
-The idea of reverse engineering the happiness, pride, or fulfillment that you feel at the end of your creative endeavor.
-Her one-woman shows and the creative process behind them.
-The misconception that many creative people have that they are going to immediately come up with gold when they sit down and get to work.
-“Blah blah gold.”
-Some of the resistances she faces when trying to write as well as being a comedian in general.
-Her experience at the Cannes Film Festival and how that motivated her to work harder to be on the other side of the carpet.
-The power in admitting how much you want something, even though it might be painful.
-How it takes more energy to HIDE from your goals than it does to actually put the work in.
Angela's Final Push will inspire you to ask yourself if you are waiting or if you are creating.
Quotes:
“I felt like this sort of blank canvas and I would just take whoever I was with and become that person.”
“I thought I was going to be the short, stubby Julia Roberts.”
“Sometimes you feel like if you don’t know if something is going to work out or not in your career, you give yourself the excuse of why practice this anyway?”
“The more you make peace with it and make the best out of it, then things change.”
“I tend to tell people in public that I’m going to do something before I know if I can do it.”
“To expect that you’re going to sit down and just have sheer brilliance move from your fingertips is just such a horrible expectation to put on yourself when you’re going to create something.”
“It punched me in the gut that I was on the wrong side. It woke me up, because I realized I was pretending that I didn’t want it as badly as I did.”
“Even though it is sometimes a painful thing, admitting how much you want something can give you that initial push and burst of desire that you need to sustain a career that is creative.”
“Practice those things that you want to get good at like your opportunity is coming tomorrow. Because it might.”
“Are you waiting or are you creating?”
Links mentioned:
Angela Hoover audition on America's Got Talent
Kellyanne Conway spoof (Interviewed by Michigan Mom)
Connect with Angela:
Website / YouTube / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter
What are you going to admit that you desperately want out of your creative passion? Join that discussion at the Facebook group!
Catherine Moore is a San Francisco Bay Area based artist. Her work calls the viewer to that marriage of classical and haunting beauty, resembling in subtlety and natural colorings the feeling of another time, when illustration was part information, part poetry.
She has exhibited in galleries across the U.S. and in Germany, Portugal, and Australia, and her work is collected internationally. She is also a member of the Copycat Violence Art Collective, which holds several auctions and group exhibitions throughout the year.
Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/catherinemoore
In this episode, Catherine discusses:
-How she didn’t go to art school until she was 28.
-Her switch from freelance work to showing in galleries and what that transition was like.
-How her original intention was to be a computer animator.
-Some of the more stressful situations she found herself in as a freelance illustrator.
-Her initial struggle with finding her own voice after creating things for other people for so long.
-Her advice to try to not care about what other people think about your art, your style, or your message, and just put it out there in the most unique way possible.
-What it was like to start her creative journey later than most people and her advice for people who might want to start later in life.
-How Vera Wang didn’t make her first dress until she was in her forties.
-Being aware of the amount of doors that are shutting as you try to pursue a particular creative passion, and recognizing whether or not it is time to pivot and try a new path.
-The Copycat Violence Art Collective and what it does.
-What she means by illustration being part information and part poetry.
-How her art teacher told her that she was “never going to be an artist” when she was 14.
-Her advice for people who have had a teacher tell them that they aren’t a good artist.
-Dealing with procrastination.
-How deadlines help to keep her focused on finishing work.
Catherine's Final Push will inspire you to stop waiting for tomorrow. DO IT NOW!
Quotes:
“I never thought that I could make money as an artist. I think that’s a common myth that exists in our society.”
“I’d get so burnt out from doing client work that I didn’t allow myself time to create my own work at all.”
“I got in my own way. I asked, what is it that the audience wants to see? What is it that these gallery patrons would want to see? Instead of making something that I wanted, I was still in that mode of making something that I thought people would want instead of using my own voice.”
“The more you keep going, the more you improve and the better you get. Practice makes proficient.”
“It’s never too late.”
“That opportunity is like an open door that maybe takes you on a path you didn’t think you wanted, but it might lead to something amazing.”
“If you’re trying to go into the art world, you have to have thick skin. You’re going to get criticized.”
Links mentioned:
Copycat Violence Art Collective
Stephanie Law on Your Creative Push
Amanda Stalter on Your Creative Push
Kari-lise Alexander (Overlooked Details: An Artist's Journey)
Connect with Catherine:
Melissa Sue Stanley is a Chicago artist, working in a variety of media to create paintings and soft sculptures. Her work is collected internationally and has been exhibited in galleries across the US.
Max Bare is a Chicago artist and designer. He creates and self-publishes comic series Mystery Afoot, Sour Milk and the upcoming Scally-Ho!
Together Melissa and Max collaborate on fun projects such as handmade zines, murals, and live-painting. Their current project is a comic book series for local brewery, Revolution Brewing. They also manage and host the Chicago Drink & Draw Social Club.
Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/202
In this episode, Melissa & Max discuss:
-How they choose which mediums to work in and how they balance them all at the same time.
-The value in your Patreon patron’s opinions as well as your closest fans.
-Max’s journey and what it took to get him to quit his job and become a full-time freelance artist.
-What led them to create comics for Revolution Brewery.
-Hosting their Drink & Draw group.
-Being on a panel at C2E2.
-Collaborations and the difference between working with other people and working with each other.
-Knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
-Their advice for getting out there and finding people to collaborate with.
-Taking matters into your own hands if there isn’t a local meetup group in order to find people to collaborate with.
-Tackling the feeling of needing permission to do the things that you want to do.
-Being motivated by the fear of having to go back to your old job.
-The realization that you’ll feel better mentally the more time you invest into your creative passion.
-Designing their home to be a work space in which they are always surrounded by their projects, and how that helps them to maintain a creative lifestyle.
-Melissa’s plan to save up money to pursue her passion and the mantra she told herself, “There is no montage.”
-Max’s encouragement to just keep creating, even if what you are creating isn’t good, just keep pushing through those bad drawings.
Quotes from Melissa:
“It’s been really great for me because I’m getting into a world that I’ve always wanted to experience and be a part of, and I have a really great helper getting me get into it.”
“If you’re living somewhere and you can’t find that group of people, then you should really try to start it.”
“The focus of our home is just all work space.”
“There is no montage.”
Quotes from Max:
“I got wrapped up in a lot of these bright lights that were steering me off this path.”
“It was also a really good relationship test, us butting our creative heads.”
“If you want to do that thing, just do it anyway. Just keep doing it and if you’re good enough at it, then eventually someone will pay you.”
“This notion of just do it anyway was the propulsion for me for the past five years.”
“If there’s a certain passion that you want to follow or an idea that you want to put out there, just try to get it out there as soon as you can.”
“You have to live through all of this to get to where you’re going, so you might as well live it.”
Links mentioned:
Your Creative Push Facebook Group
Connect with Melissa:
Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Patreon
Connect with Max:
Website / Instagram / Tumblr / Twitter
On the next episode:
Ann Rea is a San Francisco-based artist and the founder of Artists Who THRIVE. Her artistic talent is praised by her mentor, Wayne Thiebaud, an American art icon.
She has been featured in Fortune, The Wine Enthusiast, and Art Business News magazines, in The San Francisco Chronicle, in the book Career Renegade by Jonathan Fields, and on HGTV, ABC, and The Good Life Project.
She is also a favorite instructor on Creative Live's "Money and Life" channel, broadcasting to over one million students worldwide.
Ann is the creator of "The MAKING Art Making MONEY Semester ®," eight foundational online business and marketing courses. Her students study with fellow artists from around the globe via live video calls within a welcoming and supportive community.
Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/annrea
In this episode, Ann discusses:
-How she became the “artist mentor” accidentally.
-How the press she received brought artists to her, seeking help, and that is what set her on the path to helping them sell their art without feeling like a sell-out.
-Stereotypes like “starving artist” and how they negatively affect the opinion and motivation of artists.
-All of the positive changes that occurred in her art and in herself once she started getting paid for it.
-Knowing exactly how much money you want to make, and by when.
-The importance of writing down your goals and your plan.
-What do you want, precisely? How are you going to get it? And who can help you?
-What an artist’s plan to make money should be comprised of.
-Dr. E’s sagely words that every entrepreneur is an artist and every artist is an entrepreneur.
-How she would rather be pulled toward something than to push herself toward it.
-Knowing the difference between your goal and your overall mission.
-A synchronistic event that she considers to be a “magical intervention” that got her to paint again.
-Her words of encouragement for people who might be suffering from things such as depression, anxiety, or insomnia as a result of not pursuing their creative passions.
-The power of exercise and a healthier diet.
-How if you don’t schedule your creative passion, then there is a significant chance that you won’t get to it.
Ann's Final Push will inspire you to find the thing that PULLS you – what do you stand for and what do you stand against?
Quotes:
“The press is what really brought other artists to me. They were looking for help on how to sell their art without feeling like a sell-out.”
“There are cultural messages about making art and making money. Those messages were distorting the thinking and the confidence of artists unnecessarily. I really wanted to set the record straight.”
“We could probably sit here for a good hour and list all of the negative stereotypes that are thrust upon artists. Unfortunately a lot of artists swallow these stereotypes and then they spread them amongst themselves.”
“A plan to sell art without a plan is a plan to sell no art.”
“Your plan is kind of like a compass more than it is a roadmap. You just want to make sure that you’re pointed in the right direction.”
“Instead of focusing on what’s holding me back or what’s bogging me down, I spend a considerate amount of effort remembering my mission.”
“This is not a dress rehearsal. If you’re not happy, you need to start to bust a move, and move in the right direction.”
Links mentioned:
Connect with Ann:
On the next episode:
Are you scared to create some of the ideas that pop in your head?
Are they too big? Too small? Already been done? Never been done? Don't know how to do it? What will people think of you if you created this scary idea?
In today's episode, Youngman takes a look at the reasons why you never seem to get ideas, why you might be too scared to bring the ideas that you do get into existence, and the five EASY steps to change that pattern.
Get the courage and creative inspiration to finally start creating those scary ideas!
Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/scaryideas
Quotes:
"Ideas are fleeting. They're like dreams -- if you don't have a habit of writing them down, you will totally forget them."
"Ideas come with excitement. You get that idea and sometimes your heart can skip a beat. That excitement can really spur an idea on, kind of like hitting a ball up in the air with a paddle. That idea has a life and a movement to it. So keep hitting that ball and keep it moving before that excitement disappears."
"Let the idea take you for a ride."
"That transition from a thought in your mind to a thought written down on paper is harmless. It is not going to kill you if you write down a stupid idea."
"You never know where those ideas are going to take you. You've just gotta let them take you somewhere."
Links mentioned:
YCP Episode 187 with Tom Harold
YCP Episode 40 with Julie Zantopoulos
YCP Episode 188 with Kelly Killagain
YCP Episode 186 with Andrew T. Kearns
YCP Episode 139 with Lisa Congdon
On the next episode:
Ann Rea : Website / Making Art Making Money
Agnieszka Pilat is an award-winning, Polish-born artist who studied painting and illustration at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, CA. Her works can be found in public and private collections in United States, Poland, Canada and China. She currently lives and maintains a full time studio in San Francisco and is represented by numerous galleries throughout United States.
Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/pilat
In this episode, Agnieszka discusses:
-How The Hills Have Eyes graphic novel played a role in inspiring her to become an artist.
-One of her earliest creative moments in which she drew all over her childhood walls.
-How she doesn’t believe in the words “inspiration” and “talent.”
-Laziness and the difficulty she sometimes has to just start.
-How athletes put their sneakers next to their bed so that they can get right into the flow, and how creative people should do the same.
-The importance of habits and rituals.
-Her fascination with time and how it plays a role in her art.
-The differences between her series Disrupt and Time, Deconstructed.
-How she has committed to painting her cousin as she ages for the rest of her life.
-The metaphor of your day being like a human life – when you wake up you are a baby and when you go to bed you are elderly.
-The importance of finding small amounts of time throughout your busy day and how all of that time adds up to something substantial.
-What Agnieszka’s cousin thinks about being the subject of her long-term paintings.
-Her “number signature” and what it represents.
-A stumbling block that she has encountered when she works for too long on a particular piece, without walking away from it to “heal.”
-The five stages of creativity.
-One of her worst creative moments.
-Her best moment, selling her first big painting.
-Her advice for selling your first piece of art.
-Her formula for balancing her time as an artist.
Agnieszka's Final Push will make you understand that it’s not about thinking, it’s about DOING!
Quotes:
“I’m a very big believer in habits and rituals, so I very consciously designed habits and rituals that will push me towards things that will make me productive during the day.”
“When I start painting, I come very, very prepared, so there is no waste of time.”
“That’s something I need to work on – to be able to walk away and give myself time to heal from this and to be able to look at it with a fresh eye.”
“Those small steps, those small, unordinary things will bring you to a good place.”
“You have to get very comfortable learning how to tell people ‘No.’ -- ‘No, I don’t have time. I’m working. No, I can’t go out.’
Links mentioned:
The Hills Have Eyes Graphic Novel
Connect with Agnieszka:
Website / Facebook / Instagram / Gold Gallery