The Mama Judy and Jill Podcast

Episode 10: Authentic Art From the Authentic Self

• Jill Gottenstrater and Judy George • Episode 10

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Our conversation this week is about creating authentic art. Authentic art feels genuine in its creation. It reflects your own, personal style. And it provides a small glimpse into your soul!

In our previous talks on the pitfalls of imposter syndrome and comparison, we described how these stifle our creativity. Similarly, they shield us from our authentic self. We need this self, the truest version of ourselves, to be present in the creation of art that can be seen as genuinely meaningful.

Mama Judy advises us to listen to our hearts to gain access to this self. She suggests authenticity is not a product of our thoughts, but of our feelings. We should pay attention to what we love and explore the areas uncovered by that spotlight. If you’re having fun with your artistic endeavors, you’re on the right track!

Click here to check out the show notes page on our website to see the grungy journal Mama Judy referenced AND for a link to the Gelli Plate Printing tutorial.  


If you'd prefer to watch this podcast, you can find us over on our YouTube page (The Mama Judy & Jill Podcast).

We'd LOVE to hear from you! Click here to send us your thoughts and ideas for a future episode.

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Jill:

Well, hi Mama Judy, good to see you.

Mama Judy:

Good to see you as

Jill:

always. And welcome back to our listeners. We're so glad you're here. Um, my name is Jill and Mama Judy, my bonus mom is here with me, and we're so excited to be talking with you this week.

Mama Judy:

Yes, we are. We definitely enjoy this.

Jill:

So, mama Judy, what are you working on artistically this week?

Mama Judy:

You know, I haven't gotten into anything new. I've just kind of been working with what we've talked about before. Have you done anything new this

Jill:

week? Well, I intended to, I, William, my husband and I went to the outer Banks of North Carolina for a week vacation, and so I packed up a bunch of my slow stitching stuff and some threads and all that, and I. Was expecting to be inspired by the Atlantic Ocean and that box just sat there not doing much of anything. A couple times I'd have William pull over and I saw these beautiful, um, types of sea grass and like I got his pocket knife and I clipped some of those and I thought, Ooh, maybe I'll stitch some of those in. And I had these grand ideas. Never did anything the whole week, but that's okay because we had so much fun. But one thing I did do was I stopped at a local thrift shop in one of the little towns we were in. And I thought, I'm gonna go in there and see if there's a cool piece of fabric or some yarn or something. And I bought one little sky. Is that what you say? Sky of yarn? Like a ball of your garden? I think so, yeah. And it was green for 25 cents. And it just, I felt like this kind of looks like some of the green in the, in the little straw grassy things. But anyway, haven't used it. So down the road I'll

Mama Judy:

use it another time. But that's good because that's still part of your creative flow. You're, once you get into a creative flow and you begin something artistic, it's like you can't see the world the same way you did before it. It develops a new way of visually. And auditorily seeing the world, every pattern, everything. Everything you find on the ground, there are several people. I'm not the only one. We walk with our eyes down because, oh my God, we might find something we can use. So yes,

Jill:

that's great. It took the greatest restraint. So over there there are a lot of trees with Spanish moss that hang from either the oaks or the cypress trees. That Spanish moss, I was like, Ooh. Can you imagine that? Stretch across some fabric and maybe lightly couched in. But I've heard, I don't know if this is true, that there's little mites. In the Spanish moss because I think I heard when I, and maybe this is the old wives tale, but if like, if you put it in your hair and pretend like you have this hair, you're gonna get some sort of mites in your hair. So I did not want to take some of that and put it in our car. And the next thing you know, we have

Mama Judy:

mites. Okay, so if, because I love Spanish Moss and I have a whole. Box of it, but what you can do, put it in a plastic bag. Then when you get home, put a little tiny bit of bleach in water and that will then kill anything that happens to be there without, if you don't make the bleach too strong, it won't change the moss, but never, so you're

Jill:

soaking, am I soaking it in the bleach water mixture? Yes. Or just sprinkling a little in the bag. Just soak it in there. Oh, and then, and then put it out. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Well, there you go. You, I hope people are listening to this and this tip may come in handy this week. I pray. It does. If it does, let us know. Yes.

Mama Judy:

That's all good inspiration. That's all we can do is share.

Jill:

Yes. Well, mama Judy, what are we talking about this week

Mama Judy:

Well, you know, we've run this idea in and out of two podcasts, and we've talked about the imposter syndrome that we've talked about. What happens when you compare and how to maybe get away from that. And so if we move away from comparison, it occurred to me that what we're trying to get to is our authentic art. You know, there's all kinds of words. That we might say that some people may interpret differently. So sometimes I feel like I need to clarify a little bit. Um, For example, I use the word tribe, and really what I mean is a community of supporting and like-minded people. So I'm gonna throw out the word authentic self. And what I mean by that is,

Jill:

and do you say authentic self or authentic

Mama Judy:

art? I meant authe. It's authentic art that comes from an authentic self. How about that? Yes. Okay. So really what I'm talking about and what's in my mind is that you do your art, which is authentic to you. Mm-hmm. Last time we talked about comparing our art to other people. That doesn't help us if we allow it to destroy our creativity. So what our whole goal is, and, and I do this in myself and trust me, this is not a one and done. The phrase they use in college basketball. This is an ongoing thing that you just need to be aware of. I still catch myself with going to someone and looking at a similar page they did and liking theirs better than mine. I have to pull myself back. I have to deal with that because I want to produce. What is genuine to me, there's nothing original as far as earth shattering art that hasn't been done some by somebody else. What you are doing is creating an authentic interpretation of that through yourself, and so. While I might go out to other artists and classes to learn techniques, and I might, like we've said before, steal like an artist I might try to copy to learn. Mm-hmm. My goal is that I take all of this stuff and internalize it, put in the time necessary and the focus. That I focus on, is this really me? Is this what I want to create? Have you found a similar journey in your art?

Jill:

Yes, and I, well, I have one question. So basically, is authentic art, is it basically our style? Could you say yes? Is that another

Mama Judy:

way to say it? Yes, your style. That is probably the easier thing for people to understand than authentic your style.

Jill:

But I like that word authentic is yours. Yeah. But authentic makes it more like an internal soul level. So I like authentic art style. I was just wanting to make sure what if I was thinking about the same thing? Yes. And if anyone has seen your Instagram page, And a lot of different artists, you have a style. If you just scroll through your Instagram page, which I will link up in the show notes, you have a style, it's like earthy and, well, I don't know what words, what words would you describe your style as?

Mama Judy:

Grungy? Grungy, uh, you know, earthy. I've had people say the words organic and earthy and grungy, which. I love bright colors. I absolutely love bright colors, and there's an artist I've mentioned before that's all she deals in is painting with oil, painting these beautiful bright colors, but they never show up in my work, that is not what draws me. When I pick up a bottle of ink or whatever, I pick up even a piece of paper that's been. Coffee died or eco died. I want the earth tones, the giness, the rawness, the organic, so we can love other styles, but it isn't what comes through if we pay attention to what we love. And in fact, Jill, I'm thinking back to three of the very first journals I did, and I kept'em because I absolutely love them and I don't keep my journals. Mm-hmm. I always feel like they're made for somebody else. But these are the rawest, most organic, grungy journals I created, and I kept those for myself because they were the closest to truly being everything. That I wanted to create.

Jill:

Ooh, I love that. Well, are you willing to share a picture of those?

Mama Judy:

Yes, I will. I'll get them out from their resting place, their hiding place, and I will send you some pictures that you can include.

Jill:

Okay. I'll put those in the show notes. That's

Mama Judy:

perfect. And they started out, And when I got done with them, it's just like we said in the last podcast, look at something you've done and say, Ooh, do I like it? Mm-hmm. And I loved them. I don't know why I don't have to explain this. That's another thing. Don't explain your art to someone that doesn't understand. Just give them a nice answer. But you don't have to explain yourself, because sometimes, like with what I do, I can't explain to someone why I like rust and why I like dirt and why I like decay and that kind of thing. and it doesn't matter. I just do.

Jill:

And it's what go, comes natural for you too. When you sit down even, uh, wouldn't you agree with this? If you have a, a authentic art style, you sit down to do something, you're trying to, you're thinking, oh, I might do something that's maybe not normally your style, pretty much. It just turns into your style and you're like, well, I didn't stand up. But that's what happens because it feels right at like a soul level

Mama Judy:

It's like you're driving down the road and somebody else is driving and they're going in a direction you don't wanna do, so you grab the wheel and take it in the direction you wanna go. Yes. And, and when that happens, what I noticed in my journey is that, let's say I. Started out trying to mimic, I'm not gonna use the word copy, but mimic somebody's style. Mm-hmm. And I just, I couldn't do it. There was something that wouldn't allow me to not bring in my favorite brown color, not do this. And that's okay because you're developing, you pay attention. You're beginning to understand what your. Creative Muse is trying to tell you, and the Creative Muse is as a, it's universal, but it's also as original as every person out there. Mm-hmm. It's such a vast, creativity is such a vast concept that every person living could do the same art form. We would have as many variations as there are people. The potential is just unlimited out there. So out of all this possibility, you are just trying to find what you love that you can then build on to make it your style and your authentic, genuine expression of art.

Jill:

Yes, and I think, and you started to ask me what my style is, I think. I am still discovering my style. I know the pieces that re that I really love that I create, and it's usually gonna be earthy tones, not grungy like yours, like, and you're more rust and that kinda stuff. I'm more like, I love the soft linen colors. I just like the lighter colors or lighter purples and, um, just, anyway, there, there's some, there's pieces that I create and I'm like, I can't just keep creating the same exact looking thing. I mean, I. But I know there's a style in there. I just haven't figured out what it was, what it is. But I am okay with it. I am exploring this and at some point it will come out. And I had mentioned on our last episode about this little piece that I created a watercolor on paper and then did some stitching. Yes, the colors were more primary colors in general, and while I loved it and it looked happy and stuff, it doesn't feel like that's my style. I still like it, but I definitely, there's something that's, I'm somewhat not disconnected. I don't even know what the word is. I still think it's neat looking and fun and happy looking, but it's definitely not my style.

Mama Judy:

You have used in your description, three of my favorite and I think very important words for everybody. You are discovering, finding your authentic elf. Elf art. If you find an authentic elf, that's even better. Okay, so finding your authentic art mm-hmm. Is a journey of self-discovery. You're finding what you like, you're finding what fits you. You try. How many times have women gone into a dress shop? You're looking for something that feels good when you put it on, and you might try on 30 different pieces until you've put on the one that you go, yes, that's the one. Yes. That's the same thing we're doing in the art process. We can try different techniques, we can try different mediums. It's all available. We're just trying to find that one that when we put it on, there's something in us that says, Ooh, I like this one. You know when you, oh, go ahead, keep going. Well, when you put that dress on, for example, in that analogy, you, my mother let me use, my mother was barely five foot, and she was a woman that was in a profession. Back in the fifties and sixties when there weren't a lot of women that could rise beyond a certain level. And anytime she had to go up against somebody to make a point or whatever, she put on a red dress. Ooh.'cause when she put on a red dress, she could take on the world. So that's that same feeling where you have something that you. It just does so much for you that you can take on the world, if nothing more than taking on the world of your internal dialogue. So that's what authentic art is. We wanna move towards. When you love the linen, colors, and certain threads, doesn't mean that. The other colors won't show up because you're always discovering and experimenting. But slowly but surely, you will build a repertoire, a vocabulary of colors that you love, of stitches, and that's what will eventually become your style, your foundation.

Jill:

Yes, and I think too, another thing is you've been doing art for how many

Mama Judy:

years? Oh God. Well, Steve, When I was in the sixth grade, I was drawing horses and writing children's books or first grade. So for 70 years, yeah, over

Jill:

70 years. You've been an artist in, in of some type? Yes. I would say I'm 52 right now. I kind of only been doing this art type. I've always loved doing craft projects, so I always get into that. But I've not been consistently doing art and really discovering this. For the last year. One year. And so it is, like you said, a journey and it's something that is developing and it, it's a fun process. But it's interesting too though, just if you had your Instagram page, my Instagram page, you can tell I haven't quite landed on anything. Yours is consistently, and while it can be wildly different, everything is so different in your journals are different. You know the things you work on, but it's like, okay, I see. What is resonating with her soul and what you feel confident in? And when you said that about your mom, number one, I love the image of your mom just walking up in that red dress. But I also thought, isn't it funny? When you, same thing with a dress. You go into the shop and you see this dress that you're like, Ugh, it's so beautiful. Or whatever you put it on, it may be the most beautiful dress, but you feel like an imposter in it or, or clunky, or absolutely can't pull it off because it's not meant for you. It could still be something beautiful, but it's maybe not meant for you. So you gotta try on different things and see what works for

Mama Judy:

you. Absolutely. That's what we're doing. We're, instead of dresses, we're just trying on different techniques, different mediums of art to discover the one that fits us, right? That's the genuine, when I talk about authentic art, the way that I am using it is, That's your genuine style. That's you. And it's different from everybody else, even though there are other artists out on Instagram that have styles similar to mine. Mm-hmm. Or we'll have pages in our journals that look very similar. But when you get down to it, There's always a difference and that's okay. I can go out to them, use them as inspiration, maybe even try, try a technique that they mention. Mm-hmm. But when it comes back, I have to put it onto something that I'm happy with and, and when I say happy, it's a feeling of rightness. Yes. I normally don't. Use the word right and wrong. Mm-hmm. Because to me, that's too judgemental. Mm-hmm. And this is not about judging. This is just feeling that this is right. This is me, this is what feels good to me. That's a good indication of your authentic self in the authentic art process in the. Jill process? Yes. In the Genuine Mama Judy process. And if you go to my Instagram page, way back to the beginning where I did start journals, you'll see they were very, very different from what they are now. It's all recorded. My process is all recorded over the last probably eight years with journaling. Right. Wow,

Jill:

that's wonderful. And so one of the things, so I was thinking we could mention a few tips. So if somebody is feeling like, how, how might I discover my authentic art style One thing that we've already kind of been talking about is experimenting, right? Yes. I mean, you've just got to try things to see if, if you've, if you don't try things, you're not gonna figure that out. So you've got to be open to experimentation, practicing. Yeah. Looking for inspiration in that type thing. And one other thing I thought of, and then I'd love to hear if you have any, other tips about that, is another way perhaps that could be a good exercise to discover this. And I think I'm gonna do that this, this weekend, this exercise. Okay. Is to express your emotions or like sit down and maybe write yourself a question and like, how do I feel about this? Or, or you could, um, just sit down and think, how do I feel? but where you sit down. Grab some materials and just allow yourself, center yourself, ground yourself and allow yourself to just intuitively go with it and have a little bit of freedom. And sometimes that's hard for people just to intuitively do something, but just expressing how you feel right then, or you know, whatever that might be and just see what happens. Absolutely. And place to start,

Mama Judy:

it's, it's a great place to start. And one thing that I have blurred. Is one little rule that I always go back to. Always listen to your heart, not your head. Your head. Is filled with that critic that's gonna say, this isn't good enough. But if you can listen to your heart, what, and we always use the word feel because it does have a physical manifestation. When you do something you're pleased with, even Mark making with watercolors. Mm-hmm. It physically manifests in your body. But Just sit there and listen to your heart. Hmm. Does my heart like, does this feel good to my heart? Because there's a reason why there is that adage listen to your gut, because your gut is tied to your heart and that, uh, that's where the authenticity comes from,

Jill:

Okay, so I have a question for you.'cause you've been an artist for many decades now, does your o, obviously things change, but can people expect that they will sort of always have an authentic art style? Or would you say that depending on the person, that could be wildly drastic? Or would you say in general probably it's going to be somewhat similar. Like you said, your style's, grungy, natural, or organic, What do you think about

Mama Judy:

that? I think it's both. I think even people that do wildly different things, number one, if it's an authentic art, no matter what the medium is, it's always gonna feel good to'em. So I could use wild colors and do an abstract painting, and I could do a grungy journal, but within those two, The core thing is it feels good to me. Hmm. It doesn't have to match. When I first started doing my little journals, which were very different, I think I, they're, I called them artist books. They were all bright colors and then over

Jill:

primary bright colors. Bright colors.

Mama Judy:

Very bright colors. Wow. Turquoise and yellow. And you go back and look at'em. And I loved them. They were the beginning. They got me started and then eventually I just kept over time, it just evolved to what now is the way that I do them, This is not about, as we said, you're gonna do one experiment and you're gonna be there. This is an ongoing journey. Mm-hmm. For years and years. A lifetime. Yes. It's a learning process and going back to a phrase we used before, constant never ending improvement. I believe as we, we try to give. Credit to, it belongs to, and I think it was Tony Robbins who was a self-help person, Uhhuh, that came up with that. But another, and I just love this in all of your art journey towards authentic expression, be one grain of sand better every day. Hmm. Now think how small a grain of sand is. You can't even see it without a microscope. Right. But if we can just follow that I'm one grain of sand better than I was yesterday. It'll, it'll all over time make a drastic difference. Number one, you're not an imposter because you're working on your authentic expression. Mm-hmm. And you do not wanna compare yourself to anybody else because that's not going to help you. That's going to stymie you. This is your journey, the individual journey. This is a personal, private journey. You don't even have to share it with family if you don't want to. Listen. I can remember the first time I ever took anything out for people to look at. It was like, oh my God, are they going to like it? It's like that little kid bringing it home. You know? You're, that picture you made in kindergarten that, uh, you thought was a masterpiece and you. You're exposing your vulnerability. Mm-hmm. When you ask somebody else, do you like this? And we can get into how to work on that at some point, but right now we wanna stay away from comparison. You wanna tell yourself you're not an imposter, you do belong, and you wanna listen to your heart. That's not a specific exercise like yours is. So let me be more specific. When you're doing an experiment like you talked about, just sit there. What about this do I like? And so you can keep notes, just like you said, oh I love the way I did X, Y, Z, and write it down. And every time you do that, you're building. A positive list of things that you can always refer back to, both to remind you about the technique, but then when you're feeling less than confident, you can go back and you've written down positive things about your journey, your art that you like, that you can have your own reference list for.

Jill:

It's like a style guide. A style guide. People have brand boards and style guides And so I love that because there are gonna be things you forget, like if I forgot, like I loved. I don't right now, but I might one day. I love the idea of a messy French knot. You've done some messy French knots that you showed me one time. I'm like, oh my gosh, that looks so good. But I just, I'm not doing that yet. But one day I feel like I'm gonna do something with a messy french knot on a stitching project. But, to remember just a few of those things, like what sparks boy in my soul when I do it or see it just to experiment with. But yeah, I love a style guide

Mama Judy:

because I'm gonna go back. Several times to those, um, scenes that we've all heard growing up. Well, there's a reason they've lasted for hundreds of years. A journey begins with one step and your art journey begins with one step and then another step and then another step. So all of this feeds into it, and you can take anything we share and rearrange it. To the way it fits you. And Jill, I know we love to hear from people, but the other thing I'd like to just mention is that if we say something that somebody doesn't understand exactly what we mean by that mm-hmm. Or they need clarification, please let us know because we do throw around phrases that could mean things. Differently to different people. Yes, I'm, I'm particularly bad at that. I got more time on Earth than you do, so I've collected more

Jill:

of them. Yes. That's a great point. So do let us know. Well, I love this conversation. This has been so fun, and I hope. That anyone listening, whether you know your style right now and you are loving your style, yay for you. And then for people that are still exploring like me and just kind of figuring out that style, have fun with it. That's the other thing I would say. Have fun. If you're not having fun, probably not your style. I mean, if you're working, that's probably not your style or it's not a good style to go with if your jaws clenched when you're doing your art or whatever.

Mama Judy:

Not a good style, not that's a good indicator. Ooh, stress. Okay. The other indicator is there's always going to be a little stress from a high learning curve when you're learning something new. That's understandable, but if you get to the point where you hate to sit down and do something, get rid of it. Yes,

Jill:

Amen to that.

Mama Judy:

Because like I mentioned, In the last podcast that I had picked up Jelly Printing. Well, to me Jelly printing was so fun because it was like being that uninhibited child that used to play in finger paints. Hmm. There's no wrong answer, so to speak. Yeah. I just get to do in my finger paints whatever I feel like. So I'm a happy kid. And maybe that is

Jill:

just the thing too, if you're listening the jelly plate. Printing that mama Judy talked about. Um, maybe that's something, someone that's listening to this and like just go Google it or whatever and, Try something like that out.'cause that might end up being your style. Like if you've learned something new, try it out. If it sounds fun, see what you might wanna do. And I think that's an easy entry to barrier. I mean, I know you have to buy the jelly plate. It is. You just have paint, right? That you put on it and then you just put paper. Yes. So it's not, doesn't take all this stuff.

Mama Judy:

No, it's very, very small. So if you don't have a big space, it fits well. You don't, I think the jelly, uh, plates out on Amazon are about$20. You only need one buy, some cheap paints So let's say for less than$30 you can get started, right? Because you can experiment with every kind of paper, just all kinds of things, and. Out on YouTube, bless YouTube. There are all kinds of 10 minute videos that if you watch one or two of them, you can start having fun. So if you want just a fun and easy, inexpensive way to begin a creative activity, I recommend Jelly. Plate printing. Notice I said that slowly. Yes. And Jelly is g e l l i.

Jill:

Great. And again, even if this is something where you might say, like I did before, I did my watercolors last week, that's just, I, I'm just not really into paint or whatever. Just try stuff'cause it's fun to, you might unlock something that you love or just something that's different. But I have another question for you, Judy. Is there a way, let's just say somebody's like, I don't wanna go buy one more supply. Is this possible? Because I'm not, I, I don't, I can kind of see what you're talking about. But could somebody use like that, uh, that poppy stuff that people put in mail, packaging mailers? Is that sort of the same thing? Could you take the bubble wrap, put paint over? Is that, could that be a similar effect or is that different? Completely different than this process?

Mama Judy:

That is completely different, but I use bubble wrap all the time to make the bubble dots on my pages. Okay. But jelly. The jelly plate is jelly, like a, almost like a thick foam rubber, but it's clear. Okay. And you can make designs on it, and you press the paper down and then the paper pulls the paint. Off the plate.

Jill:

Okay. And you are making the designs on the jelly? Mm-hmm. It doesn't come with the designs already on it? No. Oh, okay. Interesting. I'm gonna link up, maybe you could share one video that you would suggest a, a fun little video that I'll include in the show notes for this one. Just if someone's curious, you know, could

Mama Judy:

Yes, absolutely. Because as we said in our intro some time ago, We're just trying to share our experiences, our products, and it is only a beginning. It's just what we've learned.

Jill:

Absolutely. And I wanna end by just saying if you like this podcast, if you like hanging out with me and my mama, Judy, every week, please subscribe to it if you have not already. And we would love it too. If you have other artistic friends or somebody you might think would enjoy listening to this, please share. We would love to get this out to as many people as possible, that it might be fun for them to listen. So we appreciate you listening and we look forward to talking to you next week.

Mama Judy:

We sure do, Jill. All right. Love you Mama, Judy. Bye. Love you, Jill. Bye-bye. Bye everyone.