In My Kitchen with Paula

From Taiwan to Canada: Pete Young's Journey of Creativity and Innovation (Part 2)

• Paula Mohammed • Episode 18

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Ever wondered what it takes to navigate the complexities of identity and culture,  as a young immigrant? 

In this two-part episode, Taiwanese-Canadian artist and educator Pete (Shouh) Young takes us on a journey through his life, sharing how his experience of moving from Taiwan to Vancouver at the age of nine shaped his art, his studies, and his sense of self. From the challenges of adapting to a new language and culture, to the founding of Young Guns Studio to mentor young artists, Pete's story is one of resilience, creativity, and a deep connection to his roots. Pete shares how his parents, a meaningful Chinese name, and food traditions, continue to influence who he is today.

HELPFUL LINKS

  • Get my free Travel Planning Tool
  • Daikon soup (Taiwanese soup from pork bones) 排骨蘿蔔湯 - This recipe provided by Pete, is a close representation of his Grandmother’s recipe. Sadly he does not have his Grandmother’s original recipe. A gentle reminder to capture our family recipes.
  • Get in touch with Pete on Instagram (@_ygstudio) or visit his website:  https://www.ygstudio.ca/ 
  • Pete is generously offering a 30% discount to the Young Guns sketchbook course designed for adults! (As described in this episode)  This 2 week sketchbook course fosters imagination in a freeing, non-judgmental way. You’ll receive one sketchbook prompt each morning, hot out the oven, freshly delivered. Monday to Friday, with easy-to-follow instructions that take just 15-30 minutes. No overwhelming art projects and fancy supplies—just simple ways to fill your creative tank and get back in touch with what lights you up.  

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SAY HELLO

In My Kitchen creates connections one dish at a time, by exploring culture through food. I do this through unique culinary workshops, speaking engagements, and of course, this podcast.

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I am back with part two from Taiwan to Canada, Pete's Journey of Creativity and Innovation. And in this episode, we really dive into innovation and creativity and also Pete's journey from Taiwan to Vancouver, not just as a young immigrant, which we discussed in part one, but also as a young artist and how he then navigates the university system a few years later. And through that process discovers a need that needs to be filled, and that is to help. young artists navigate the university process and develop their portfolios. So what does Pete do? He opens up Young Gun Studios. Through this conversation, Pete shares with us so many great nuggets, lessons, information, different perspectives. I really hope you love it. I sure did. Pete Shouh Young is a Taiwanese Canadian artist and educator who founded Young Gun Studios in 2008 to create the supportive, inspiring environment he wished he'd had as a young artist. A graduate of OCAD's industrial design program, Pete combines his own journey of challenging expectations and embracing creativity with a mission to nurture young talent with agency. Through Young Guns, he has guided students to secure more than 900 acceptance letters and over 8. 5 million in scholarships, fostering a community where mentorship, curiosity, and dreams take root and flourish. In part two, we continue where we left off and dive into Pete's journey as a young immigrant and a young artist from Taiwan to Vancouver.

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

What amazes me when I hear your story, is your parents really, nurtured this innovation and creativity that they saw in you. Did you feel like You had to go to university. Was there a path that you had to follow or did your parents literally lift you up and move you off that path and really supported you in whatever you wanted to do?

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

When I think about how my parents, cultivated creativity and continuously nurtured that in me, I think back to this one episode very vividly. I do art classes, when I was a little kid. And this is back in Taiwan. I remember learning from this art teacher. Mr. Shu, for, for a little bit of time when I was a little kid. And then moving here. My mom was trying to find an art teacher for me it was, this was before email days, obviously. I remember her writing a letter and I asked my mom, I'm like, mom, like, what, who's this letter to? And then she's oh, this is to Mr. Shu is to ask him for advice on how, to find a great art educator. Um, and also advice on how to nurture my creativity. And that is so meaningful to me because looking back, I think the young Pete really understood how seriously my mom took it. terms of, oh, I could go down the academic side. But I could also, go down this other path, that very few Asian kids would go down. Really, like, nurtured that side of my development and she went, full in on it. I remember, know, taking other classes like piano, horseback riding, even. And it wasn't like I took a lot of classes, but I remember the attention and care that she had specifically placed on, art classes. So, we went to, Granville Island and Arts Umbrella when I was, yeah, when I was very little. And I just loved it there because Arts Umbrella, was really, it gave me a lot of space and freedom to draw and express in the way that I wanted to. That's literally the best thing that I could have, of received in terms of art education when I was at that age. One thing led to another, I was in grade 10 and 11 and, you know, art was always my thing, but It took on a bit of a different meaning at that point because on one hand, I realized, oh, okay, art allows me to stand out. It's literally my tool for me to be like really to find my identity, to be this like popular kid because of my artistic talents and skills. But on the other hand, it became, daunting in the sense that, oh, I now have a to make, which is what do I do in university? Grade 10, grade 11, like my parents always ask me, especially my mom, she was asking me, son, what do you want to do, as, as a career? What do you want to study in university? Cause I had good grades, and I could have applied to SFU, UBC, but being the second, my sister was also really talented in arts.

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

Mm

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

My sister's, four years older than me, my parents had, alongside of her, they had left it to go to this, more typical path studied at UBC. When it came to my turn, I told my parents, after doing some thinking, I'm like, Okay, this is pretty easy, uh, in the sense that I know I'm not going to do anything else but something to do with arts. That decision was easy. The part that was the most difficult is didn't have any resources. My, my mom didn't have any resources. It was like, oh, okay, now that my son has decided that he wants to pursue a career in the arts and design, how do we do it?

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

hmm.

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

And we were all super lost. I was asking, my high school art teacher, and he didn't know. He didn't have any resources. I went on the internet back, this was like 2003, right? 2002. So the information is not like what we have now. It's so easy to hunt copious amounts of information nowadays, but the internet isn't what it is nowadays. And so it's still very limited information. I remember, of all the designs, all the arts, I don't know anything about them. I just know that I'm really good at drawing and painting. I was really, really into sneaker culture, uh, basketball. And so one thing led to another. I was like, okay, I was already customizing painting on my own shoes.

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

Oh, wow.

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

That's how I was able to stand out, right? That, other kids like bought their Shoes, their fresh Jordans, Nikes, whereas, my parents, they didn't want me to waste money like that, and they're just like, you can go to Payless Shouhe store and buy a pair of Reeboks and you can do whatever you want with that, right? And your allowance is this. So then I had to paint on the shoes. And my friends really liked it and I thought, oh, okay, I love basketball. I love sneaker culture. I was like, oh, could I do something with that? I was reading this magazine called, by, uh, Slam. It's called Kicks. And so they were interviewing this, sneaker designer. Who's designing a pair of signature shoes for Tracy McGrady. this NBA basketball player. Um, one of my favorite players at the time. And she talked about how, Oh, in order for you to become a shoe designer, footwear designer, you need to have a degree in product design or industrial design. And I went, that's it! You know, that's my calling! That's, that's exactly what I need to do. Knowing nothing about it. Uh, I then, uh, you know, applied to Emily Carr, and also to OCAD. Again, all that process was just very difficult to navigate, because I went and looked up, uh, Industrial Design and what OCAD was saying about Industrial Design, what Emily Carr was saying about Industrial Design, and they were saying something along the lines of, Are you a problem solver? Do you like to solve problems creatively? And I went I guess, I don't know what that means though, right? So it felt very much like I was doing everything in the dark. And when I was applying to these universities, these two schools, I noticed that, oh, you have to produce a portfolio. And I went, what? What's a portfolio? What does that even mean? So then I was really developing, uh, everything in the dark. I learned, I was, learning with this Chinese art teacher, at the time, but he was very, you traditional. He teaches me how to develop my core skills, which is awesome. but he doesn't really know how to, cultivate the more creative side of words. These schools are really looking for. So I think that's also wonderful in a way because he honed my hard skills, but really left everything to me and the creative side of how I want to explore. The storytelling in my portfolio. I didn't know that it was storytelling. I didn't know that it was about narrative, but I just went, well, okay. How do I be creative? Uh, I love basketball. So I literally went and I got some of my old shoes and I got this old basketball. So I went, okay, I need to do a sculptural piece. And so I just like made a literal basketball head out of that. And then I also went, okay, that's cool. Uh, I'm now going to paint that. So I painted, I did another painting that was like, it's comprised of all these like basketball shoes and then again the basketball head on the very back. I submitted my portfolio. I put together my application. It was back then, it was still on paper. You had to also submit photocopies of your sketchbook.

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

Yeah.

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

And submit like a colored photocopy version of the sketchbook, and none of it was digital. It was, it was crazy because I actually submitted, my application to Emily Carr and OCAD. But I was so confident in my abilities that I was like, ah, forget about Emily Carr just submitted one portfolio to OCAD and you know, luckily I, I got in,

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

Now, Pete, for our listeners outside of Canada, can you just, uh, just quickly a couple of sentences about Emily Carr and what OCAD is?

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

Yeah, if you're to apply to art and design schools, uh, in Canada, in the, in the States, there are a lot more options, most of the schools are either on the East Coast or West Coast, and in Canada, there are a number of choices as well, but, the most popular choices being, Emily Carr, um, University of Arts and Design in Vancouver, and on the east coast in Toronto, it would be Ontario College of Art and Design at the time when I went there. Now it's called OCADU, OCAD University. So these are two of the most, like, popular, design schools, art schools that students would attend.

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

Great. Thank you. So you got accepted to OCAD. You did your degree there.

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

Yeah, and, you know, with dreams, like everyone in school. So I was at OCAD in Toronto, and everyone in school, like my peers, the faculty, my professors, they all knew that, oh, there's this kid who wants to go work for Nike in Portland, because that's his dream, and vowed to himself that it doesn't matter if he's working as a custodian there. Whatever that it takes to get his foot in the door. Like whatever project I could do, I somehow dressed it up and made it turn it into something related to sneakers. As I went through the, the years, like first year to second year to third year, I started to learn more and more about, the power of design. And what is, and that was a really massive transition because the biggest difference is I used to think that arts and design, they're one in the same, that if I'm a great artist, I'm a great designer. It's totally different. there's shared commonalities, but the difference is art is really for the self. as an artist, whatever you think, whatever you say, like as long as you hold true to that, okay, valid, right. And it's, it can be so subjective. But on the other side, on the contrary, design is, it has to be objective. Like you're designing to serve others. You're designing for others.

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

I never thought of it that way.

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

So that was my huge wake up call. I was like, Oh, I, just cause I'm a good artist doesn't necessarily mean that I'm a great designer. So as I learned more and more about design, I think it opened up my mindset to understand that, Oh, it's actually very potent, very powerful, and it's wide ranging. You can apply design thinking to a wide array of, industries. It's not just. Drawing shoes anymore. It's not just designing a pair of shoes anymore. There are two things that happened there. One was, I felt like, the, what I had in terms of skill set was not able to get me to, that position to be a a footwear designer for Nike. And I went, yeah, I could work harder to develop those skills in the last year. Or, what if there are other opportunities? Fortuitously, or as fate would have it, my dad, um, so he used to tutor English and he had a student who wanted to apply to OCAD. I then co mentored her. He was like, Hey, do you want to mentor her for a couple of weeks, during, during winter? During your, winter break. So I did that. I mentored her, her name's Fionn, and I helped her get into OCAD because of that mentorship. And I was like, huh, interesting. Like, so, for the first time, it, I, I had a semblance, I had a feeling of what it was like to give back. Because all the way till then, it was like, oh, all about me, all about what I want, what can I get out of this process. But for that first time, I was like, oh, this is cool. Because I had walked through that experience and that journey. I felt like everything that I was doing was mostly in the dark. And I can then take my experience, and what I learned and be able to pass it on to To this person, and I then started to realize, oh, there's something, there's a superpower in me that I have yet to discover until then, which is the superpower of empathy, that I can really place myself into that student's perspective, that, that, you know, Fiona's shoes, and to really understand, oh, there are all these fears that she must have, because I just went through that a couple years ago. So then one thing led to another. I was like, okay, this is that really crossroads, right? Um, I either do this something new that had no idea what it would be Or that I would continue this path of being a sneaker designer So after coaching the student, I didn't think much of it. My dad, um after four or five months He approached me with this idea. He's like son if you really don't have it figured out yet then what are your thoughts on founding your own art school starting shop So in fourth year we had a, a class and it was, I think it's something about like career development. So, I took my dad's idea and, synchronized it with this career development class and was like, oh, okay, cool. What if I did start my own art studio and my own little art program? I called it at the time, it was using my parents company, M Pet and Young, and it says Portfolio Services. I tried to workshop this idea with a couple of faculties, and that's how I began the whole process. The first step was definitely difficult, right? I'm very grateful to my dad. So my dad was the one who helped me set up a Shop. My parents, they found this like little studio space. And my dad told me, he's like, son, I'm going to, help you pay for the first two months of rent. And after that, you're completely on your own. And he also did a second thing. He was the person who helped find the first five or six students of mine. And it was, it ranged from grade three to, grade 12. Put them all together in one class and I'm like, wait, what am I doing? I'm babysitting on one end, but I'm also talking about portfolio on the other. So, um, that's how it started. Um, but

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

Sorry to interrupt, but what year was that that you started at that you launched Young Guns?

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

so I launched Young Guns in 2008.

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

2008. Okay. Wow. Now take us to what Young Guns is today. What does it look like?

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

I think for the first couple of years, it was Finding My Bearings. My goal was in anything and everything I do is like, as long as I put my mind to it, I want to be the best at it. So that's been my goal ever since. I really have this dream of building a program where students can come through. And we're not just helping them develop art skills, but we're really helping them explore through art. Because art can help you, tell so many stories. But in order for you to tell stories, you need to first dig really, really deep. You need to, reflect. You need to also embrace your insecurities and your fears. You can get creative with math, I'm sure. But unlike certain topics, subjects where there's a sort of right or wrong. I think in the arts, there's no right or wrong. And so it's helping students walk through that process to develop skills, but also to develop confidence in understanding who they are and to develop that agency for them to do anything and everything they can to make that idea come to fruition. I think that's the most like important part of the process, which is to see the essence of who you are continuously. like surface and that you can put your hard work out there and it manifests itself as a physical piece and others can start to have a dialogue with you. I think that that journey to help a student go from, I am so lost. I know I love the arts to, oh, I have certain skill sets now and I have a certain creative voice. It just takes this process for me to like bring that out and I can show it to the world. And in seeing them develop their voice and their confidence, um, I think it's the most wonderful thing because I don't look at it as helping them get into the art school only, but I really want to help them find the skills and to find that mission, to find their core why, so that they can go very, very far in life, in this, you know, nurturing and fostering of their creativity. And that's the gift that I want to give to the world because I feel like in many ways, those are the things that I had received, in my life when I was a little kid. Oh, this is magical, like, that you can do all these things with the arts. It's like these animators, Disney animators, they're wizards, right? They can bring something to life that almost feels, when I close my eyes, it's even more fun and even more real than, my experiences. Yeah.

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

It's interesting hearing you talk right now. I was thinking the exact same thing, having heard your story within this, short period of time from start to finish is, as you were talking about what you want to give to your students, helping them identify, right? Be aware of their strengths as such a gift in itself. And then, Helping them explore that and develop it is what your parents did for you. You're following that same roadmap, I'm hearing you talk about art and that's so much like the culinary arts, I find my creativity in cooking and then sharing that food with family and friends brings me so much, joy. Want to come back to a little bit more about food and culture in Taiwan, but I also don't want to lose this train thought I'm on. In terms of innovation, when, we were chatting about this upcoming, podcast episode, you have obviously, spent a lot of time And, Really developing how you want to nurture innovation in your students, in yourself. And I found it really interesting reading about, your perspective on innovation. Can you just talk us through a little bit about innovation? innovation from your perspective and why it's so important and how you see it's changing. I'm going to follow up with another question on that because I'm really curious about, when you were growing up in Taiwan, did you, feel that the culture was innovative at that time? Or do you feel like that spark started when you came To Vancouver.

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

I used to, I used to not think about this so much. I used to not think about like originality, so much, because Back in school, we were taught this, I think it was Pablo Picasso that like, you know, great artists steal, right? And so it's it's okay to steal. There's only one you in the world and you'll always create something a little bit different, a little bit more unique. So I kind of like put that to rest. But again, what we previously touched up on, which is. I think in this world that we're in now, the way that it's shifting in the students that I work with. I'm starting to see that, originality can be something that is faked or fiend. because there's so much information out there, artists are teaching other artists exactly how to do something. where. Students can then, let's say if we're talking about portfolio, could create a body of work that looks very exciting and new, but that actually is not a process that they've gone through themselves. It's not a process of trial and error, that they've come to this result, that they've come to this way of thinking, this way of working. It's actually through copying a set of framework that has already been created.

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

Hmm.

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

I was talking to a colleague of mine and she challenged me. She's like, Pete, sure you guys do wonderful works with the students, but she's she challenges me to be more innovative with my approach to teaching and to thinking about the programs. And I was like, yeah, you are right. I think about, innovation a little bit, but I think about thinking outside the box a lot, right? In a way, they're not really that different. When I talked to a mentor of mine, he gave me, uh, literally like one of the best tips that I've received on innovation or on creativity or on thinking outside the box. He said, in order for you to think outside the box, You need to go back to the first principles and think about how things could be done or should be done instead of how things are currently done. Love that thinking because often, in anything and everything that we do, it's like there's a set way to do things. There's a right way to do things almost, and we become lazy. And now even more so with my understanding of AI so far, with what my students are doing with AI, it's so easy when we begin learning these tools for us to go, Oh, we become very prompt based.

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

Right.

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

We give it a prompt and it does the work for us. In a way it's then, if you don't use it correctly or effectively to really nurture your own thinking, you then become very, very lazy. Right?

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

the processing piece is missing.

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

Exactly. We're not really processing how to do something because AI is like really giving you that answer. I've literally had a student last weekend. We're working on this capstone sneaker design project. And he was asking AI, what do you think are the opportunities? Give me the solutions. And so he's not doing any of that thinking, right? AI's doing all that thinking. So, coming back to what I was saying about, creativity and innovation, I think even more so, that's when students really need to go, well, okay, how do I think outside the box? How do I really be innovative? How do I really be at the forefront of this when everyone else becomes more copy and paste? that I have to really protect my individuality, um, and I also learned this other point that was really, really beneficial, I hope, to the audience too. There's this Japanese designer named Rei Kawakubo, she's this legendary female fashion designer and, she was talking about this idea that I thought was so, so compelling. She said there's The primary source, and then there is a secondary source. In my understanding of it, she's saying the primary source is what you, again, as a human experience directly, and she protects that, protects that fiercely, right, because she's like the secondary source.

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

Sorry, Pete. You mean she protects that in herself? Like that prime, her own primers. I've got it.

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

Exactly. Uh, she protects that fiercely because she's that's the way for her to be original, and for her to understand how she wants to innovate in her ways. Not necessarily going, oh, I want to study other fashion designers and what they're doing. She's going, well, how do I live my story? How do I live my life? How do I be the best fashion designer that I can be? Oh, I'm not just living and eating fashion design. I actually need to experience the world and through the stories, through the conversations, that's where they're going to inspire me with, these ideas that I can then inject into my works. So I think, I think that's where the other point that I learned about innovation, that is so critical, which. is saying that it, it has to come from a place of, to me, of humanity, because that again, going to this conversation about AI is something that I've been really thinking a lot more of. We don't know, none of us, I would say none of us would know where the future is going to take us in terms of AI. But I do know that in everything that AI is, the things that humans are, like the, you know, the humanity aspect, our emotions, and our sentiments, and our, maybe even our, what makes us human is that we're prone to making mistakes. Making mistakes parts is actually totally fascinating because I really don't think AI can make mistakes like that in the way that humans can. Where it's through these mistakes, that's where some of this innovation actually comes from. That's where this like, in the art world, it's called happy accidents. These happy accidents. are amazing because if you develop this mindset where you're always open, right? You're very open minded. That's, you know, a core of what I do with the kids is I want to open up their mindsets, right? To go, to accept that you may have a solution here, but when you're doing an artwork, you probably only know 30 percent there is to know about this particular project, so you have to really embrace the uncertainty of the unknown. And I think that's the, I know your audience is some of, maybe most of them are parents, uh, some of them are parents. And that, like, the, the tip that I have for parents now that I'm a parent too, when I'm thinking about how to raise my kid, is I want to give the kids a lot of room for them to make mistakes. Like with my toddler, if he's making a mistake, quote unquote, then I would go, my first instinct is, oh, I want to help them fix something. I want to help rectify this. But then I go, actually, no, I have to actually hold back and let him continuously do that and figure it out. And I think in cultivating that, it's, it's so important. It's an exercise that I think about. It's a mindset that can be cultivated. In Stanford, D-School, their design school, they have this series of exercises. so it's called Stokes. So it's literally getting you stoked for, the actual activity that you're about to do. Let's say you're designing this new product or whatever. And so the Stokes is a series of exercises. Let's say, one of them is get with a partner. And, you can't look at your sheet of paper. You can only look at your partner and draw. And I think the idea to that is like, you're then trying to, through that process, trying to really unleash, the unbounded creativity or the unbounded quality of Oh, your drawing could be fun and whimsical. It doesn't have to look exactly like the human, like the person that you're drawing. But it's a way for you to really, train your mind to go, Oh, actually having a little bit of folly, a little bit of fun. is really good, and you kind of start to kick that into an overdrive into the next activity. Let's say an exercise that I think would be great for parents to do with their kids, regardless of their age, is to talk about scenarios. For example, what would the world be like if, there were no transportation devices, there are only ladders?

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

Oh, I love that. Yeah.

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

What the world, what would the world be like if there's no gravity? What would the world be like, if It's whatever scenarios that we want to paint, or would you choose like there are these two scenarios? Would you choose this or that? I think painting out these scenarios like for, and to have a discussion, with, with the kids about the possibilities is helping them understand Oh, okay. There's like this muscle that I can exercise. I can think about the unknowns, right? I can think about the possibilities and I can use my imagination to, to do this kind of scenario playing into, paint these scenarios where I don't know the answer, but, that's why I'm training myself to be able to think about these possible, happenings.

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

When Pete and I first met, it was actually at a Young Guns art exhibit it was a friend of my son is a student of yours, and I'd never actually seen anything quite like it. So just, I'll quickly paint the picture, no pun intended, for our listeners. It was outdoors and there was a physical piece. There is a car, and the car had been, used as part of the art. And the car was up against a white brick wall. And then there was projections put onto the car and the wall. And the projections told a story. So you had these three different mediums that all came together that multiple students had worked on that told this story. And I mean, that to me, I was like, Oh, so okay, this is, this is like a way different way of looking at art and design that I'm used to. That, that goes to what you're talking about is exercising this muscle of using creativity in a different way. I think you're, one of my questions was what would your advice be to parents? I think what you're saying is so valuable. I also can't help thinking about in cooking. I come across a lot of people when we do our virtual classes. I always say our, we're not classes, it's more experiences, but people really want the recipe. And often we're cooking with it used to be with our In My Kitchen hosts. Now it might be me sharing my recipes, but people like your mom, Pete, or your grandmother, or your wife, who I bet they're not necessarily following a recipe. This is like a pinch of this, a pinch of that. So it was always challenging because our participants really want the recipe. So we would recipe test, recipe test, recipe test to get the exact measurements. But I always had to say to people, don't worry if Melissa is not, if it's a little bit different than the recipe you're looking at. And then I realized people relied on those recipes so much and I wanted them to throw them away and do exactly what you're saying, learn to cook and make, and I love this terminology, make happy accidents or tasty accidents. It's that same idea of developing this, muscle of creativity or, um, gaining confidence and just, allowing yourself to Make Mistakes. And I'd never looked at AI and innovation in this way until I was chatting to you. And now I'm thinking about it in terms of cooking as well and sharing meals together and how, AI can take that away if we're not, if we're not careful. If the next generation just quickly goes to, using AI versus, strengthening and exercising that creativity muscle of their own. I wanted to ask you, you talked to me briefly about it and I saw it on your website and there's a program or something that you offer with adults and it's the sketchbook prompt. Can you talk a little bit about that? I'm quite interested in understanding it more and the purpose of it.

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

Last year we started, this. where I thought, Hmm, I've amassed, a large copious amount of information or education and our niche just to work with high school students. But, I went, if, if my mission in my life is to bring, light and love to the world, I can be helping more people. And, I started to think about other populations like adults, different age groups, And, my staffs and I, we then went through this process where, I started to field test these ideas. So I was like, okay, then who's our target audience? What are their needs? What are their pain points? We created a whole curriculum, like curriculums, and I realized, oh, this doesn't work because adults are busy. I mean, literally everyone's busy. and so I had to scrap that entire thinking and, I co developed this curriculum with Julian, who's one of my past students. He's an excellent artist in his own right now. We then began developing this framework around this idea of, okay, if All adults are super busy. And what are they missing in their life? I feel like everyone is creative, not I feel like I know everyone's creative. It's just, it depends on how they're defining, how the individuals are defining creativity and how it manifests itself in their lives. So we're like, okay, it's then not these courses for adults. This particular class for adults, it's not really about teaching the adult how to draw a portrait, right? How to improve your hard skills, but it's actually to exercise that creative muscle. And so what we set out to do is to make sure that there are a couple rules that are in check. First, it's not going to take a lot of time. So it'd be like 15 minutes a day, maximum 20 minutes. And second, we need to give them a framework. We need to give them guide rails, right? These guard rails are the things that are going to help them go, Oh, I'm a beginner, I'm a novice, or I haven't touched the arts and two decades, but I'm going to take these guardrails, these instructions, and to then run wild with it within these boundaries, right? The course is designed so it's dripped into, the learner's, inbox every morning. And so the learners, then accessing this portal. And then we will start with sometimes the day we'd like start with a quick video of Julian or I talking about this new topic, or it would just be this, like this PDF that's given this instruction. And, the third rule is we want to make sure that no fancy art lingo and no fancy art supplies are necessary, right? That like everyone can do this. So that's this idea of this course where it's two weeks. why two weeks? Because we want to make sure that, in my experience, so we actually ran these classes, twice, with in person students, in this past summer. So in my experience, I think the hardest thing to do is, they'll have a lot of fun in one class, but then they'll go right back into, their usual pattern, which is not working in their sketchbook, or not having creativity manifesting that in some small way. And so we're like, okay, let's do this over the course of two weeks where you do need to commit to it. 15 minutes a day, it's Monday to Friday and then Monday to Friday. So we're hoping that because of the two weeks we can, start to implement a bit of a ritual and then to a routine and then turning into a habit. Yeah. So that's the idea behind, this, sketchbook, class.

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

It's almost like journaling. I'm somebody who, is not a talented, I know you're not supposed to say you can't draw, but who is somebody who, can't draw. I love the feel of writing. I love the process of, I'm very much a pen to paper person. So get up in the morning, I do my Wordle, check my inbox, and would this be applicable to someone like me who doesn't have. Any background?

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

A hundred percent. It's, Precisely designed for someone like you who doesn't have a background in the arts. We design it in a way where it's like these little stepping stones. the first week it'll be, it will feel like it's a breeze if you commit to it. And then the second week, it starts to increase a little bit in difficulty, but the idea there is over the course of the two weeks, you can then flip back and look back to your sketchbook and the pages and go, Oh, wow, I see this development. And I find that to be like one of the best ways to excite a new learner, which is when they see their progression and when they see evidence of, their learnings. There's this idea that I read in a book once that I found to be phenomenal. This author was talking about, how for children when they first start drawing, the drawings are a gestural sort of thing, right? So that when you first start making marks as a toddler, as a year and a half old, two years old, I think the fascination is, oh, that's evidence that I exist, because of the marks. I think in a, in a compelling way, like what, that's what we're really trying to do with this course, which is, you know, this conversation about AI and about how do we become more human in an increasingly inhuman world? Doing things like, journaling, sketchbooking, that's what it does in kind of circling back to the idea of, You know, nurturing your primary census sources. That's what I would hope to, you know, impart through this course to learners. Yeah.

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

I'll put a link in the Shouhw notes of how people can access it along with the daikon soup. So we can have, I can just see how my habits are going to turn. It's going to be fantastic cooking and drawing and wordle. Before we wrap up, I just want to go back to you. You said it briefly in, when we were chatting, but I just want to end on this. your personal mission, your purpose. You have a sentence that I really love. Do you know what I'm talking about?

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

Yes. My mission in life is to bring light to the world.

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

And on that note, you have brought so much light into my world this morning, would really love to invite you to come to my son's high school and speak to the students. For anyone who has, kids who are interested in design and art in grade sort of 11, 12, is that something that you would do is come and speak to students directly in a school setting?

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

Oh, a hundred percent. I'd love to have that opportunity. Actually tomorrow morning, we're going into West Point Gray

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

Oh yeah.

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

and, we're going to be teaching life drawing to, grade nines all the way to grade twelfths. Uh, so that's, uh,

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

And

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

love to, speak to parents, students, just because when I talk to different art teachers, I think the shared, common pain point is parents, even if they want to support their children in going into the arts, their child to go into the arts. I think the biggest unknown, uncertainty, or maybe the stigma is that they're going to be a starving artist. Right? That's literally the first thing that pops into their head. And rightfully so. If I were a parent that knows nothing about this field, I'd probably think about, oh, there's no money to be made. There's no future to be had. And I really do want to make it my purpose to be able to go into these, environments and to be able to say, hey, that's actually not the case because creative thinking is literally the future. If you don't have creative thinking in you, to me, you will be very, very easily replaced. I can totally speak about, Quieting these voices of the noises of the uncertainties that students, the kids or the parents would have and to say, okay, then how do we cultivate and nurture these tools in the students?

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

creative thinking is, so important in, if you're going to be in business and entrepreneurship, in anything, it's like you said, a muscle to be developed and strengthened as much as we possibly can. If you could just give us a quick rundown on how parents, if they want their children to be, or young adults who want to be a part of Young Guns, how they can, um, And if we want to follow more of your projects and stories, what are your, social media handles and I'll put it all in the Shouhw notes as well.

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

Yeah, that would all be in the Shouhw notes. Our website is, uh, ygstudio. ca. and our Instagram is, oh, underscore ygstudio, And, uh, yeah, just, you can also reach out to us, via email. It's info at ygstudio. ca. Last thing to add to that is,, we are going to start to have more, parent seminars and open houses. and in particular, I think in an, in a citing idea that I've been planning is, an industry social. So I, I don't know exactly where that's going to take us, but I do want younguns to become, this hub, to connect, the industry experts, the artists, the designers, and also, it's, it can be a good opportunity down the line for parents to kind of tap into that as well, to tap into that network. So that's, that's in the works, that's in planning, yes.

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

Pete. I've really, enjoyed this. We sat down and chatted and it was hard to end the conversation because, synergies, but also, you just have such a great energy about you and your students, 900 successful applicants and over Eight million in scholarships. That's quite something. And, I think your parents, I've never met them, but what wonderful people. And it's so neat to see that you're paying it forward and sharing these life lessons.

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

100%. Can we hang out sometime again, please?

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

Let's do it.

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

Or can we, maybe can we cook? Maybe, maybe I can invite you over and, my wife would, like, we can cook together or something.

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

Check with her. I I would love to learn, some Taiwanese recipes.

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

This is, this is fun.

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

Good, I

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

pretty nervous going into it and then I'm like, ah, yes.

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

Thanks, Pete. It's been such a pleasure to chat with you this morning. Okay. I'll chat to you soon.

audioPeteYoung11170806892:

Thank you so much, Paula.

audioPaulaMohammed21170806892:

Thanks.

This conversation with Pete reminded me how much I love chatting to people, not just from other cultures, but also from other generations. Pete's a fair bit younger than I am. And a long time ago, I knew intuitively that it was going to be important throughout my life to have friends who are at least 10 years older. and at least 10 years younger. And you know what? I have. And I know I've benefited from it. I really loved in this episode how Pete brought up the use of AI and how we're going to have to be careful not to become a prompt based society. It reminded me when he talked about, creativity and innovation and making mistakes. I hadn't really thought about it this way before, but yeah, that process of coming up with the idea, it can be painful at times. But that's where the magic is. That's where the innovation is cultivated and grows. That's where we strengthen that creativity muscle. Anyway, I hope this hit home for you as much as it did for me. Uh, it really did get me thinking. I am wanting to continue this conversation and really want to reach out to a couple of close friends of mine who I consider master educators. One's currently a vice principal, with a God, an impressive background of education behind her. And the other one runs a very successful art and French preschool here in Vancouver. I want to reach out to them because I want to find out, are we teaching innovation and creativity and cultivating it in our public school system right now? How is Shannon cultivating this in her French preschool? And as parents. Are they mindful of this and cultivating it in their children who are now about to enter and are in the university stage of life or post secondary? There are so many synergies between creativity and innovation and how we strengthen those muscles through the arts, but also through everyday cooking, through doing different activities, using those muscles. I truly believe that using these, strengths of ours in a different way every day or as much as we can will benefit us in more ways than we can realize. I hope that when you finish listening to this episode, which obviously you have now, you'll feel motivated to, to pick up the phone and call. Well, actually, let's face it, you're probably going to text somebody, uh, but reach out to somebody and continue the conversation. Reach out to me. I'd love to chat to you more about this. I just think there are so many great nuggets in here. And actually, if you have a child or youth. Who's interested in the arts and maybe a career in art and or design, or just design in general. I think you'd do them a huge favor by introducing them to this episode. There's an opportunity through this episode for them to learn a lot about navigating the university process. In these fields. I'll stop talking and, uh, catch you on the next episode of In My Kitchen with Paula. And as always, reach out to me at, in my kitchen.ca or Paula at, in my kitchen.ca Send me a message on Instagram at in my kitchen. Paula, I'd love to hear what you thought of this episode.

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Paula Mohammed

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