Inside the Artist's Head: Unraveling the Creative Process

This episode dives into the creative process, uncovering how an artist approaches their work from the initial spark of inspiration to the final execution. We’ll explore the unique routines, rituals, and methodologies that Roston Johnson uses to transform ideas into tangible creations. Through a conversation with Roston, we’ll learn about his mental, emotional, and technical aspects of his creative journey. This episode aims to demystify the often-misunderstood process of creation, revealing the diverse ways artists cultivate inspiration, navigate creative blocks, and bring their visions to life.

Guest: Roston Johnson
             @RostonLikeBoston
Photo Credit: James Erin de Jauregui
                         @dejauregui

J-Squared Atelier, LLC
For the love of art

Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!
Start for FREE

PodMatch
Automatically Matches Ideal Podcast Hosts & Guests For Interviews While Streamlining the Process

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Follow & Subscribe to Lattes & Art
Stay inspired with new episodes every week! Don’t miss out on deep conversations with artists, curators, and creators exploring the vibrant world of contemporary art.

Connect with Us:

J-Squared Aterlier (J2Atelier)
🌐 Website: J2 Atelier
📸 Instagram: @J2Atelier
James William Moore
🌐 Website: James William Moore
📸 Instagram: @the_jwmartist

Leave a Review:
Love what you hear? Help us grow by leaving a review on your favorite podcast platform! Your feedback keeps us inspired. 🎙️☕

Transcript

00;00;08;15 - 00;00;44;27
James
Welcome to another episode of Lattes & Art, presented by J-Squared Atelier, the podcast where we explore the vibrant world of contemporary art and the creative minds behind it. I'm your host, James William Moore, and today we have a fantastic guest joining us, Roston Johnson. Roston is a talented mixed media artist and art instructor with a master of fine Art degree from San Jose State University, and a bachelor's degree in Graphic Communications from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

00;00;44;29 - 00;01;21;02
James
Known for his ability to transform the mundane into thought provoking works, Roston's art is celebrated for its subversive, contradictory, and experimental qualities. His master's thesis, Generous Orthodoxy and Art, not only showcases his influences but also charts the compelling evolution of his work, advocating for moderation in the realm of fine art. Today we're going to delve inside the mind of the artist as we discover Rostand's creative process and how he challenges conventional norms in the art world.

00;01;21;04 - 00;01;46;23
James
Grab your latte, let's get comfortable, and let's dive into this fascinating conversation. Today we're going to be talking with Roston. And he's coming in here because he has this amazing creative process. At least I think he does. And a lot of times we run into where do we find inspiration. Thanks for being with us today, Roston. When you're looking for inspiration, where are you finding it?

00;01;46;25 - 00;02;07;10
Roston
I'm finding inspiration mostly from people. The people in my life, from conversations that I have with other people. Sometimes it's just a simple word or phrase that, you know, leads me to, an image in my head, that I get sort of fixated on. But other times it comes from, you know, songs or song lyrics.

00;02;07;12 - 00;02;22;22
Roston
Music, movies, TV, a YouTube video, anything can sort of trigger that I might be watching something or listening to something, and then that just kind of, you know, I'll just sort of take it from there. My mind kind of wanders.

00;02;22;24 - 00;02;35;14
James
Now you've you've looked at YouTube videos, you've used music, and you have a term that you associate to your practice, which is remix. What does that mean?

00;02;35;14 - 00;02;58;19
Roston
Remix is you're taking elements from that, retaining some of its elements, but you're putting your own kind of personal spin on it and making it your own, usually to subvert it or to make it parody or a satire. You're appropriating that material to be used in some other way, but not like to turn, but not to undermine, you know, something political.

00;02;58;21 - 00;03;08;09
James
Nothing wrong with undermining some point. So when you're talking about this and you use the word appropriation, how are they different?

00;03;08;11 - 00;03;34;12
Roston
Appropriation, I think, is where you are taking that idea that already exists, a Michael Jackson's, bad album. Look, just looking at the album cover, have that in mind with Michael Jackson in the all, you know, leather and stuff. And then Weird Al Yankovic released an album called Even Worse, which is a parody of that album by Michael Jackson, at least in terms of the cover.

00;03;34;12 - 00;04;04;14
Roston
But some of those songs, too, he remixes. So to remix is like the act of changing some of those elements of the original thing. I guess they really are more related than I, than I think they are appropriation and and remix because I have heard them use sort of interchangeably. It seems like appropriation. You're borrowing those elements. Remix maybe could be the broader term to describe appropriation, satire, parody, etc. etc. I think.

00;04;04;16 - 00;04;31;09
James
Is there a possibility like is if we remix something, right. And we know deejays that do this and you know, we all bop to the songs, right? But is this possibly the next iteration of appropriation that kind of moves when we have that sort of inspiration that we're looking at a Warhol or Jeff Koons or something like this and these people appropriate, right.

00;04;31;09 - 00;04;38;10
James
But is it a new term? And it doesn't have the baggage that some find appropriation to have?

00;04;38;10 - 00;05;08;10
Roston
I think it's more like that because for me, I think remix is more of a general, all encompassing term to describe those other things, whereas appropriation seems to have more of a, art vocabulary connotation or art school connotation, just in what I've seen, because Weird Al is also dressing up in the leather that Michael Jackson has, but he's doing it in kind of an ironic and in a subversive kind of way.

00;05;08;12 - 00;05;31;15
Roston
It's it is a tribute in a sort of weird way, because that couldn't have possibly happened without Michael Jackson first producing that album. Bad for Weird Al Yankovic to then borrow that same look, even with like, the curly hair and stuff the leather to make his album even worse, which is worse than bad. So it's got all those different layers to it.

00;05;31;22 - 00;05;33;00
James
Like I appropriate.

00;05;33;04 - 00;05;33;16
Roston
Right.

00;05;33;18 - 00;06;05;24
James
Like I own up to that big time. But I also say that it's campy and kitschy while I'm doing it. And that wouldn't be in like what Weird Al has done in the past. And I think it's interesting because there is a lot of inspiration that we get as artists when we look at other artists. But then there's this idea of, well, you're stealing from them and it's like, no, I, I, I don't feel I am, I feel I've been honoring the original.

00;06;05;26 - 00;06;07;19
James
I'm changing it to be my art.

00;06;07;23 - 00;06;08;16
Roston
Right.

00;06;08;19 - 00;06;23;10
James
So in that vein, your remix, like it plays into that. I think it gives us that chance that, you know, you're, What was the Beatles that you did? The.

00;06;23;14 - 00;06;24;17
Roston
Oh, the white space.

00;06;24;19 - 00;06;51;03
James
The white space. Yeah. And and, you know, you're riffing off of that. You're not ripping that you're riffing. Right. It's that idea that you have in core paraded this. Right. So when you're talking about inspiration and stuff, how much of it ends up being like from your own rituals or routine, like, what is it that you do daily that turns into inspiration?

00;06;51;05 - 00;07;11;01
Roston
Yeah, inspiration can come from a number of those places. I mean, it sounds sort of cliche to say, but but sometimes like a walk or a drive or something like that. I think when there's time to actually process what's been presented to you in daily life, when you have time to ruminate and think about it, then that's one at least.

00;07;11;01 - 00;07;32;04
Roston
I tend to make some of those connections between either seemingly different ideas, or to take that preexisting idea and think about it another way, or to let my mind do with it what it wants to, you know, if I if I find some humorous element in something that already exists or some something contradictory or something kind of absurd about.

00;07;32;04 - 00;07;44;13
James
It, it's one of these things that when, you know, we as artists are looking for stuff and we hit roadblocks, we have those moments that were like, well, shit, I got no idea here.

00;07;44;14 - 00;07;50;14
Roston
Yeah, it's like the first ten minutes of me talking.

00;07;50;16 - 00;07;58;20
James
In reality, are we really blank with the idea at that moment, or are we just taking a pause?

00;07;58;22 - 00;08;19;03
Roston
Yeah, that's that's a good point. I think for me, I do need time to think, and to get kind of, you know, have things sorted out if I feel like I'm, you know, under stress or, you know, I have something else that's been, like nagging away at me, other things going on in my life that does kind of take away from the creative process.

00;08;19;06 - 00;08;37;11
Roston
If I'm already happy and I start doing a painting or something, I don't make me even more happy. But if I'm already kind of like, you know, little, little depressed, a little down, then if I start getting into painting like that, those thoughts will still be on my mind when I'm working. And sometimes that can kind of upset the work.

00;08;37;13 - 00;08;43;26
James
How much of it's mental note taking for you versus us writing this stuff down?

00;08;43;28 - 00;08;48;22
Roston
You mean like like when you're actually, making or what.

00;08;48;25 - 00;09;13;23
James
Ideas or even making? Because there's a process, right? We can talk about that. But with ideas like I'm you know, it's funny, if I went to the exhibit that they had at the SFMoMA about Warhol, and my favorite part of the exhibit wasn't his actual artwork, but the recreation of his workspace that just looked like a jumbled mess.

00;09;13;26 - 00;09;38;27
James
And I felt seen in that moment. It's like, oh, look, it's my studio. But then I started seeing all of these books and notes that he was taking and writing, and I'm looking at what I do, and I don't do that. I actually struggle with that. It's all up in my head. Oh, okay. So when you're dealing with how do you keep track of all the ideas?

00;09;38;27 - 00;09;57;11
Roston
That's. Yeah. Okay. I'm, I'm with you now. Yeah. I actually I have like a little, journal, not a moleskine, but kind of the same idea. It's just lined paper inside a little booklet that wraps up nice. And I can even stick like other little papers and, like, you know, reference things in there if I need to.

00;09;57;12 - 00;10;28;25
Roston
It's just kind of a nice, compact place to keep all that stuff. But then also sometimes I'll if I just have like a piece of scratch paper laying around, I might pick that up and jot something down or make a little doodle my sketchbook too, because sometimes it's not just like drawings and stuff I'm doing. Sometimes I'm just kind of recording my thoughts or writing down those ideas just so I have them somewhere, because I know if I don't write it down or I don't make some kind of, note or example of that idea, I'm going to lose it.

00;10;28;25 - 00;10;48;03
Roston
So I kind of do have to do that. For most things, there's not too many things that I can just like, you know, I hear something or see something. I have the idea. I put the brush to the canvas. That doesn't happen very often for me, but in some cases, you know, I will get an idea.

00;10;48;03 - 00;11;18;16
Roston
I'll make, like, a drawing or maybe a couple of drawings. Maybe, you know, I might edit aspects of whatever it is I'm working on to work out the bugs. And then from there I will say, begin a painting. And then, many instances along the way of making this painting, I will improvise, I won't there's no way for me to, like, stick to the original conception because things do happen.

00;11;18;18 - 00;11;38;13
Roston
I think there are moments when you, while you're working, you kind of get into a trance because it takes a lot of your, your concentration. And there becomes a point when you can kind of see everything all at once, and then you just kind of get into a state where you can just work without thinking consciously about each and every decision.

00;11;38;15 - 00;11;53;16
James
So you have your building blocks? Yes, but they're like Lego. You can unplug it and use it somewhere else or change the color of the block. Right? You're not so locked in to that original idea. It's just the thought, right?

00;11;53;18 - 00;12;19;16
Roston
Right. Because sometimes things do happen that are actually probably more of the time things. Things do turn out better when you're not, like thinking about it. And that kind of, you know, this might be a later topic, but that kind of gets into the idea of feedback from other people, because if you're constantly worried about what you're making while you're making it, it can be really crippling.

00;12;19;20 - 00;12;51;22
James
I was listening to a podcast yesterday and it kind of was going down that, but it was along the lines, just fucking make the work. Don't worry about what everybody else is thinking. Make the work. Yeah, I want to jump back to these ideas. The music, the videos that that remixing. And as you're going through that and as you're finding inspiration from it, how much of it's emotionally driven because we know when we listen to music, it spurs memories, it brings nostalgia.

00;12;51;22 - 00;12;57;10
James
It does those sorts of things. How does that work in your process?

00;12;57;13 - 00;13;30;20
Roston
You know, sometimes I, I guess I'm not like, I don't have the thought that's like, you know, let's listen to this and maybe it'll give me an idea. It's music, I think for me is a little bit more of a constant in my life. It's it's playing most of the time. And it's only at times that I will connect whatever I'm listening to or what I'm seeing, to another experience that I had.

00;13;30;20 - 00;13;51;02
Roston
Usually I'm able to find some connection to, to to personal experience, I guess. But yeah, there are there definitely songs that like I'll listen to and I have a sort of nostalgia for like that earlier time or, it does trigger a memory for me and I'll, I'll tear up, because it will, it will move me in that way.

00;13;51;02 - 00;14;00;09
Roston
Or maybe it's a song that's like, you know, I don't know, some, some harder hitting song. Not not easy listening, you know, not something that you want to like. Wake up.

00;14;00;09 - 00;14;01;16
James
You have no air supply.

00;14;01;16 - 00;14;24;13
Roston
You know, like, like Black Flag or something, you know, like, that's it's it's amazing music, but it's like, not what I want to wake up to every morning, you know? But it does sometimes take songs like that to get into a state where, you know, you feel like there's been a fire lit under your ass or something, and you just have to, like, make or break shit sometimes.

00;14;24;16 - 00;15;07;05
Roston
That, that the white space project that I did, the conception of it was there. The idea was there to to do a remix of the Beatles White Album to create, relief prints, woodblock prints that use the same format. But I remixed it to put my own personal spin that would reflect my attitude towards Brian Doherty's, The White Cube, which is a critique of the sort of institutionalized gallery space as being this like vacuum that's cut off from the rest of the world and culture and doesn't necessarily reflect those things.

00;15;07;05 - 00;15;27;24
Roston
It's kind of this other space that people have to go to in order to see what's in there. But when I was making the actual painting that eventually went into that gallery for that show, White Space, that was more spun, I just thought, I'm going to play around. I'm going to see what I can do in this space.

00;15;27;24 - 00;15;52;12
Roston
Once I've put all of the pieces of cardboard together into an 11 by 11ft space, and my thought was to paint it all white with gesso and then to get out the fucking eight foot long, paint roller and then just, like, start throwing shit everywhere and, you know, spiraling out kind of. And that was all to music.

00;15;52;12 - 00;16;02;10
Roston
I think I was listening to, the Brian Jonestown Massacre album. One of them, and I just kind of put that on a loop and then just went to town.

00;16;02;13 - 00;16;26;19
James
It's funny because I too am musically driven, like, I, when I'm in my studio, when I'm just wandering around the house, there's always music going on, and it's interesting. I'd rather hear music than the spoken word. And so in those moments, right, I'm I'm like you said, there's these memories that these songs generate because I tend to listen to the 80s.

00;16;26;21 - 00;16;53;15
James
And, you know, maybe not the best time in my life, but there's so much that then starts to inspire from that. I want to jump back for just a second, because you were talking about Relief Prince, and there's a process that you did, and I apologize that I'm forgetting what it's called. But where you were putting the papers down on textured objects and rubbing and doing that sort of thing.

00;16;53;15 - 00;16;56;16
James
Can you talk me through that again? Sure.

00;16;56;16 - 00;17;18;04
Roston
That process is called for Toj, which is where you take a, sheet of paper or something similar like that that you can draw on that will capture whatever surface, rays surface that's, underneath it. So say, for example, you have a, sewer drain cover or a manhole cover that has a sort of texture on it.

00;17;18;08 - 00;17;40;06
Roston
You would put a sheet of paper down and then taking dry media, so like charcoal, pencil, colored pencil to you, that kind of thing. And then you just make a rubbing on top of the paper of that texture that's underneath. So it will pick up the raised surface. And all of the white areas are the recessed surface that we can't touch.

00;17;40;06 - 00;17;44;23
James
So what inspired you to go down that path?

00;17;44;25 - 00;18;16;28
Roston
Well, see, it all started back when I was a kid, back in Costa Rica. I took this, study abroad trip with my printmaking instructor, Irene Carvajal from CSU. I got into photography through printmaking, when I went on this study abroad trip with with my professor and and a couple other, grad students. And I saw my buddy Craig Sanborn was doing the same thing on the street in Costa Rica.

00;18;16;28 - 00;18;37;25
Roston
I think we were in San Jose, and which is where we were right near the University of Costa Rica. There were just the there are sewer drain covers everywhere, which is a whole other thing. I mean, they're actually made in the US, they're made in, Wabash and, and then somehow they get back over to Costa Rica and they use that for their, for their water supply.

00;18;37;25 - 00;19;03;19
Roston
So aqueduct us and, I saw Craig doing a rubbing, for the first time, and I was like, wow, that's really cool. I want to give that a try and actually documented that. So, he was he we had gone to an art store in Costa Rica, and he had opened up his. You know, a couple of sheets of paper that he had got there and some pencils.

00;19;03;19 - 00;19;21;21
Roston
And I think, I think in this case he was using charcoal and he just laid a sheet down. And then Ian Fabray was holding, one part of it down because it was a larger sheet just to keep it steady while Craig was making the rubbing so he could get a good pull from it or a good, a good image from it.

00;19;21;21 - 00;19;37;03
Roston
And then Mark was kind of standing by, and I took a photo of that whole scene of that activity. And then I later went on and I made a print and then a painting of that, same instance. So it's like art mimicking life. But, you know, we can live by looking.

00;19;37;05 - 00;19;41;16
James
But it still plays into your, your ideas and your inspirations of remixing.

00;19;41;16 - 00;20;07;21
Roston
Yes, absolutely. And so remix. I guess it's not just that you're taking other people's stuff. You actually remix can apply to your own work too. You can remix your own, art objects, which I, which I do, because sometimes I'm either not satisfied with the first thing I made, or I will have other ideas that make it possible to expand on the first idea.

00;20;07;23 - 00;20;37;03
James
Well, and it's interesting too, because you're in that moment, right? And, and somebody is doing something and you start to experiment and it now morphs into this bigger idea and bigger inspiration that's taking you down another path. Which kind of gets back to this idea, too, that although we have those moments that we don't feel inspired, we still have these paths that we've kind of built for ourselves.

00;20;37;04 - 00;20;53;25
James
You know, when you are in that instance where you saw this all going on and everybody else is doing it, or that sort of thing, what inspires you in that moment to make it your own?

00;20;53;27 - 00;21;28;01
Roston
Well, if if I find some connection with, you know, another experience I had in life or I think in that particular instance I just thought, oh, what a great visual record I could make in my sketchbook that will sort of document my travels here, because after I saw the act and then I gave it a try, the act after performing the act, I, I realized I could, I could just keep adding more of these strategies, these rubbings, to my sketchbook.

00;21;28;01 - 00;21;49;14
Roston
And by the end of the trip, I think I'd like 30 different pages filled with these rubbings that I had made just from all of these different points, of all these different textures that had some connection to an experience that I had when I went to Costa Rica. And then when I came home, I was looking at the sewer drain covers here and, you know, other shit that I wanted to rub.

00;21;49;16 - 00;22;03;02
James
Well, and it's, you know, I remember when you came back from that trip and you were sharing all of that with me, and there was this excitement that you had from this discovery, this sort of inspired play time.

00;22;03;03 - 00;22;20;22
Roston
Yeah, it was definitely a way to a document, a way to document those experiences. So I would say, yeah, a big correlation between doing that act as a way to learn and as a way to kind of preserve that memory in a, in a different kind of way.

00;22;20;25 - 00;22;34;26
James
Earlier you talked about feedback like, you know, when you share your work and you talk about it and, you know, we've we've sat in on critiques together and what inspiration actually comes out of that for you.

00;22;34;28 - 00;22;58;16
Roston
From the actual feedback. Yeah, it it really depends on the context of the work that I was showing who was there during that critique to give the feedback, because it's not always the same people. I mean, I know when you and I have been in critique, it has been a lot of the same voices, probably even more so for you, because you've been in a lot of those photo major only critiques.

00;22;58;16 - 00;23;24;25
Roston
So you're hearing, like, all the same voices, all the time, which is why you had gone into the interdisciplinary critique to get a wider range of voices, a wider range of feedback, rather than hearing the same old thing about your work. So I'm actually more interested in that as well, getting the wider range. You know, I think there are times in a group setting of critique you get a certain kind of feedback when it's one on one.

00;23;24;25 - 00;23;46;22
Roston
I actually appreciate that a little bit more. Those asides that you have with people, like they come to your show, they they look at your work and then kind of off to the side in like one corner of the gallery. They just start kind of talking to you about the work, things that they liked or things they noticed, or, maybe just something as simple as, you know, have you considered this or that, that kind of thing.

00;23;46;22 - 00;23;58;18
Roston
And in some ways, that actually speaks to me more. I'm able to retain that a little bit more. I feel like in the group, bigger, broader critiques, that kind of feedback feels a little bit more general.

00;23;58;24 - 00;24;27;16
James
Well, and you and I had a chance to be in Susan Harding's gallery when she had her portrait show, that she was doing this interdisciplinary photography, drawing, sketching, collaging. And I agree with you. I like when we have that sort of one on one back and forth because you've created something and you want feedback. And in the group setting, sometimes it's everyone kissing your ass.

00;24;27;16 - 00;24;58;03
James
Sometimes it's like, okay, I know this individual and I really don't actually respect what they're saying. And so there are those moments. But when we're in those intimate one on ones or, you know, in that case, that was the three of us that were chatting. There's these amazing conversations that happen, and you can walk away from it and say, okay, I can edit what I did, I can leave it as it is, or I can be inspired by what they've said.

00;24;58;03 - 00;25;03;21
James
And in those instances where you've had that kind of thing, where does that take you?

00;25;03;24 - 00;25;28;10
Roston
I guess it really does depend on on the context. I, I really do think context is a big part of it because you make you would make a different decision based on different feedback with a different person for a different thing. In my in my work is so like, sporadic, you know, I'm kind of, I'm kind of all over the place because I'm interested in a lot of different things.

00;25;28;12 - 00;25;52;21
Roston
There's a lot of contradictions and there's a lot of experimentation and, some subversion. And so the feedback that that I get, you know, I'm not looking to offend anybody. I mean, it's kind of like a prank. You know, a good prank is not something that is offensive. It's something that that everyone can actually laugh from. You know, it's like it suggests, you know, it's a joke.

00;25;52;24 - 00;26;09;00
Roston
I'm not being serious. You know, but if I'm doing something that actually does offend someone, you know, and I'm not okay, I would want to know that, you know, because I'm not trying to dis anybody. I'm not. I'm not.

00;26;09;00 - 00;26;10;17
James
About that. That's my job.

00;26;10;19 - 00;26;14;01
Roston
Yeah.

00;26;14;03 - 00;26;38;13
James
So it's interesting because, you know, we went through grad school together and we sat in on those critiques and we sat in on studio visits and we did that sort of thing. How do you feel for someone who's not in grad school or confined, that sort of feedback to help inspire them?

00;26;38;13 - 00;26;57;09
Roston
Oh, yeah. You know, that's actually kind of an interesting idea, the way that you put that, because at the present time, I'm not really looking for feedback as a means to inspire me. Presently, I have ideas for things that I want to make, and so I want to make those things first before I get any feedback.

00;26;57;12 - 00;27;13;13
James
The the idea of inspiration and how right now, you're not looking for that feedback because you have these ideas, how do you keep on track once you get what keeps you inspired?

00;27;13;16 - 00;27;38;15
Roston
Just continuing to make if it feels like, you know, that's what I want to do at the time, I know that after I had when I had first graduated, I took a long break from any kind of art making. I wasn't drawing, I wasn't painting for at least 8 or 10 weeks after after finishing school, I was mowing lawns and painting houses and painting fences.

00;27;38;15 - 00;28;03;11
Roston
I took off the grad school cap and and put on the Tom Sawyer cap. So that was like I kind of needed that to to detox from all of this, from all of the, the grad school, conversations and critique and study of art. I guess, at the present, I don't feel obligated to make things right now, but I do have ideas for things that I want to make.

00;28;03;11 - 00;28;17;07
Roston
And when I do get those ideas, I do write them down, and I do make drawings and stuff like that, but I, I don't feel the obligation to make it a, a continuous thing, to have it be a continuous.

00;28;17;07 - 00;28;34;06
James
That your process when you were becoming an artist, how has that changed and how has that process changed, how you're inspired to find things to do.

00;28;34;09 - 00;28;36;00
Roston
Before grad school?

00;28;36;03 - 00;28;55;19
James
Yeah, way back, because you were an artist long before grad school. Grad school is just this moment in time. But you clearly I mean, you taught me how to draw, which is like you get sainthood for that. But, you know, we were artists. I've had a camera in my hand since I was four years old. But you had process before that.

00;28;55;20 - 00;29;00;26
James
You had inspirations before that. How has that changed?

00;29;00;28 - 00;29;01;28
Roston
Yeah. Big time.

00;29;01;28 - 00;29;03;18
James
Or has it?

00;29;03;20 - 00;29;32;20
Roston
No, it definitely has. I don't make art the same way now that I did then. I wasn't making art the same way during grad school that I had been making it before. Because before before grad school, before I became a fine art major or I was studying art in school, there was definitely a big span of my life, even when I was in my undergrad studies that I didn't even know.

00;29;32;22 - 00;29;59;24
Roston
I didn't think that that having a career in art would even be possible. But like you, I had early experiences, in drawing, in my case, from like 3 or 4 when I could hold a pencil in my hands. And I just think I just started making little doodles. My parents still have, like, a box somewhere of, like, all the early drawings and things I did, you know, with, like, the big eyes and noses and years and huge head on, a little teeny tiny body, that kind of thing.

00;29;59;26 - 00;30;21;03
Roston
And then from there, you know, I think I had, like, little art activities in school. Like, sometimes there might be, like, a visiting artist and or there'd be like a school assembly and, an artist would visit, and then it would be a kind of, you know, they they do something, and then I do something. They show us an art technique, and then we would try and follow along.

00;30;21;05 - 00;30;53;01
Roston
You know, Calvin and Hobbes was big for my, at my school. Some kid had brought, like, a bunch of those comics to to class one day. And so during the downtimes in class and during recess, myself and some of the other kids would be looking through these books. And there was a point when I switched over to Microsoft Paint as a mode of expression, the early pixel art and I was making these little Penguin comics, you know, kind of based on what I had seen and Calvin and Hobbes.

00;30;53;04 - 00;31;37;06
Roston
And this was like fourth, fifth, sixth grade. So pretty young. But already I was kind of, you know, experimenting, learning and teaching myself these other methods of, of making. And so I didn't put it together then, but I'm putting it together now that those early childhood experiences of making art and then also experimenting with media, I think eventually informed what I'm doing now, not necessarily feeling like I have to stick with drawing or painting, that I can take photos too, or I can use digital processes as a way to mediate what I'm doing, or just to use some of those digital tools to work things out in ways that I might not necessarily be able

00;31;37;06 - 00;32;09;09
Roston
to with pen or pencil, but somehow the editor in chief from the school newspaper got Ahold of what I was doing, and she said that she really liked what I was doing, and she and a few other editors were there. They offered me a job as the staff illustrator, as the staff cartoonist for the school newspaper. And it was at that point that was the first time in my life I had ever been offered a professional opportunity to publish something that would be seen by the public.

00;32;09;09 - 00;32;30;21
Roston
I think that was kind of the first seed that was planted for me. That made it feel like, oh, a career in art is possible. It may not be the life of the rich and famous necessarily, but it is possible to do art in some form for some kind of return.

00;32;30;23 - 00;32;35;20
James
When you were in that role, how did you find inspiration and not get burnt out?

00;32;35;27 - 00;33;02;21
Roston
That was a really good time in my life to just experiment. I felt like they gave me the reins. Jam on them. I was I was paired up with the opinion section of the school newspaper, and so they had free rein to write about whatever they wanted. Either it would be the author or, or it was the editor of the opinion section of who would say such and such as writing an article.

00;33;02;21 - 00;33;37;28
Roston
It's about this. And they just kind of give me a general idea, maybe a topic and like 1 or 2 sentences, but I had never really read those articles. They just kind of told me generally what it was about based on that little scoop, I would have free rein to draw whatever I want to do. So kind of a moral to give that much freedom to, 2021 year old student who was inspired by, like, underground comics and Calvin and Hobbes and peanuts and shit to to then because that was kind of the first sorts of things that I was making.

00;33;37;28 - 00;33;48;19
Roston
I really didn't get into actual painting until later on. I would say drawing and cartooning were or things that I knew before I got into academic art. That gave me my start.

00;33;48;21 - 00;33;53;01
James
A word that you've used several times through this conversation's been experiment.

00;33;53;08 - 00;33;53;25
Roston


00;33;53;28 - 00;34;18;29
James
And I, as someone who has watched you create experiment art is probably the best way to describe what it is that you do. How can you guide someone else in that experimentation? What is it about experimenting is motivational? What is it that gives us those new ideas and inspiration?

00;34;19;01 - 00;34;46;00
Roston
I think to experiment. There's a lot more freedom and experimentation than there is in study. In practice, there comes a point. I think, when you can study and practice for so long, but you're not really opening up yourself to the possibility of new ideas. You're kind of closing yourself off to outside the box ideas because you don't necessarily know what's what's possible.

00;34;46;00 - 00;35;07;09
Roston
I think the way to go beyond what we know is to to reach into territory that's sort of unknown. And no way to get there, I think, is through experimenting with content and form media, etc.. So I use the word experiment and with regard to my practice, because I don't necessarily want to be nailed down by anything, it's cool.

00;35;07;09 - 00;35;28;11
Roston
And people can see common threads in my work. That's, that's fine. I think as far as allowing me to experience as much freedom as possible when I'm making art, I try to avoid coming to conclusions about my work. I guess I have to kind of know a little bit to be able to explain it to other people. Like like, what do you do?

00;35;28;11 - 00;35;51;29
Roston
Oh, you know, just just a little of this or that or some shit. And, but but really, because I have so many interests and because I don't want to do, like, the same old thing over and over in the same way that allows me to, to experiment pretty easily if I'm always switching up the materials or, or the way that I'm making things.

00;35;52;01 - 00;36;18;05
Roston
This was one of the biggest takeaways creatively, I think, that I had in grad school. First, make a painting that in a way that you're you're comfortable with making, in a way that you're used to making. And then the second painting that you do is going to be, complete one, and you want to make a painting in ways and possibly with materials that you're hesitant to or that you're afraid to.

00;36;18;07 - 00;36;46;08
Roston
And it's going to be frustrating at first. Most likely it has the potential to open doors that probably wouldn't have been possible otherwise, because you're kind of forcing yourself to work in ways that are kind of counterintuitive. Maybe they you prefer traditional methods, like I'm going to prep and prime and stretch a canvas. I'm going to use brushes, I'm going to do oil paint, I'm going to make a very traditional, say, landscape painting.

00;36;46;13 - 00;37;06;20
Roston
And then for the 180 for the second painting and you could do a person and, you know, because it's not a landscape, and then you're going to do it all from memory, you're not going to use any kind of reference. And then instead of brushes, you're going to use your hands and your fingers, and instead of oil paint, you're going to use like, I don't know, coffee grounds or something.

00;37;06;22 - 00;37;31;03
Roston
You're making all of these decisions that go counter to what you were told in school is the right way to approach something, because it's going to open you up to new ideas. That was really helpful advice for me at the time, because through those moments of working in ways that I was hesitant to, it actually did open up some doors for me and showed me what was possible.

00;37;31;05 - 00;37;56;15
James
Well, and it it kind of gets back to my motto of the, you know, there are no rules in art, right? School gives a structure usually, and very seldom do they want you outside that structure, because that's uncomfortable for the institution. As we wrap this up today, you know, we've talked about inspiration. We've talked about where you find it in your creative process.

00;37;56;15 - 00;38;06;26
James
What final thoughts can you leave with someone who may be struggling with that is where to look, what to do, what to try.

00;38;06;29 - 00;38;08;02
Roston
For inspiration.

00;38;08;02 - 00;38;14;11
James
For inspiration, for being creative, to get them out of that sort of negative headspace? Maybe.

00;38;14;13 - 00;38;40;00
Roston
Yeah. I mean, there are there are different methods for, for kind of getting out of your head. I mean, sometimes you just have to start making things and not think about it because like I said, if you're if you're thinking about every conscious decision while you're while you're making the work, that can be a hindrance, that can prevent you from the potential and that object.

00;38;40;00 - 00;38;58;07
Roston
And I think it also depends on the person too, you know. But not not all artists work the same. You know, we're shaped by different forces. We're all different people. We all have different tendencies. We come from different walks of life. So the way that I make something is different than the way that you make something or approach something.

00;38;58;07 - 00;39;18;11
Roston
But I would say there are there are methods that you could use that would inspire. There's free association making. There's what's called free association writing, which is where you just put pen to paper and you just start writing shit, not thinking about what you're writing, but just getting something down on paper, sort of like stream of consciousness. You don't.

00;39;18;16 - 00;39;39;13
Roston
You could care less what is actually coming out of the pen. You just want to get something down. It's whatever just happens to be swirling around in your head. You can do the same thing with drawing. Don't even think about what you're drawing. Just put the pencil to paper and just see what comes out so you can do stuff like that which can start a piece, and then kind of see what it turns into.

00;39;39;14 - 00;40;07;04
Roston
I think just being receptive to what's going on in your life, the way that you're feeling others around you, not necessarily through media. I mean, I know we can use those as a way to get inspiration movies, music, books, things like that. I would say just be open to those experiences and really start to look back and listen at the things and the people in your life around you, and then just start making, don't even think about it.

00;40;07;04 - 00;40;13;11
Roston
It's it's easier to make it first and then to think about it later, not the other way around.

00;40;13;15 - 00;40;18;11
James
I think your statement of getting out of your head, yeah, is like that first moment.

00;40;18;13 - 00;40;19;18
Roston
Yeah. Some kind of.

00;40;19;18 - 00;40;30;07
James
Momentum. Yeah. And then I think you gave us all of those things that, that help support us to get out of our head. Right. Just create just right. Just do some.

00;40;30;07 - 00;40;31;06
Roston
Just do something.

00;40;31;06 - 00;40;39;17
James
Just do something. Roston, thank you so much for joining me today and having this conversation on the creative process that you go through. I really appreciate it.

00;40;39;18 - 00;40;42;26
Roston
My, my, my pleasure.

00;40;42;29 - 00;41;12;24
James
Thank you for joining us on this episode of taste and Art presented by J-Squared Atelier. It's been a pleasure speaking with Roston Johnson about his creative journey and the fascinating ideas behind his work. We hope you enjoyed learning more about his artistic process and insights into the world of contemporary art. If you want to see more of Roston's incredible artwork and stay updated on his latest projects, be sure to follow him on Instagram at Roston.

00;41;12;24 - 00;41;26;16
James
Like Boston @RostonLikeBoston. As always, thank you for listening and don't forget to subscribe to Lattes & Art wherever you get your podcasts. Until next time, keep creating, keep inspiring, and keep sipping those lattes.