The Mama Judy and Jill Podcast
Welcome to the place where we, Mama Judy (bonus mom) and Jill (bonus daughter), have conversations all about art and the creative process.
We chat about finding inspiration for artistic expression, conquering the hurdles that hinder creativity, and empowering the creative spirit.
Along the way, we share techniques, tips, and stories from our experiences with fiber arts, mixed media, hand stitching, painting, and MORE!
Our goal is for you, our listener, to walk away inspired to create (whatever creating looks like to you).
Whether a seasoned artist or someone just starting out, we look forward to you tuning into the podcast each week.
Questions or podcast topic suggestions? We'd LOVE to hear from you!
Email us at podcast@jillgottenstater.com
Or send us a direct message on Instagram:
>> Mama Judy Instagram
>>Jill Instagram
The Mama Judy and Jill Podcast
Ep 20: How Emotions Shape Our Creative Journey
Have you ever looked at a piece of art and wondered about the feelings that inspired the artist? Can you imagine how their happiness, sadness, anger, or love influenced every brushstroke and color choice?
We’re going to explore how our emotions have a big impact on our creative output. We’ll share our own experiences and talk about how our inner and outer feelings not only guide our artwork but also affect how people see it. We’ll also ask a tough question: is it ever okay to stop working on a creative project if it’s making us feel bad?
Plus, we’ll explore how art can change us and share some tips on using our emotions to boost our creativity.
This journey has given us a better understanding of how emotions and creativity are connected, and we hope you’ll find it just as enlightening. Tune in and let’s celebrate the emotional side of art together!
Also, we’re celebrating our 20th podcast episode today!
It’s been so much fun and we so appreciate you joining us each week.
Please take a listen today and celebrate with us by sharing our podcast with a friend or two.
We hope you enjoy today’s chat!
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.
Send us a direct message on Instagram:
>> Mama Judy on Instagram
>>Jill on Instagram
Oh good, you made it. We are so glad you're here. Welcome to the Mama Judy and Jill podcast, an intergenerational chat about life, art and the creative process. I'm your host, jill, and joining me is my wonderful co-host and bonus mom, mama Judy. Let's get started. Welcome back, we're so glad you're here. Hey, mama Judy, hey Jill. What a great day this is, isn't it? It is Okay. So this week, mama Judy and I have decided that we're going to be talking about how emotions affect the creative process and what comes out of us creatively. But I want to tell you a story, mama Judy. Okay.
Speaker 1:So last week I decided so I'd been doing my stitching and journaling these little journal books, and I thought, you know, I want to do something creatively, just a little bit different, to mix it up. And so I thought I'm going to write some fiction, some fiction stories. And so I got this pretty little journal that I have and I just thought, okay, what I'm going to write about. And I've heard people say, you know, when you're writing fiction, you need to come up with it like an inciting event, and you know different things, and I was really trying to study how people would write fiction, and so, anyway, so I started writing a story and I didn't really know where it was going, but it was of a young girl and she in the story she walks into the kitchen and her mom's cooking and there's music going on, but her mom was drunk. And then so she starts cooking and she chops up a carrot per her mom's request, and one dropped on the floor and she bent down to grab it and her mom smacked her across the face. Okay so, number one, very dramatic story, and I don't know where that came. But what I wanted to tell you is that here I am writing, hoping to be creative and like, have a fun little outlet.
Speaker 1:Well, I felt completely depressed. I did not want to keep writing. It was really bringing up a lot of emotions in me. Well, so then later that next day, william, my husband and I were walking around the lake and we went past the library and I was telling him I feel like I need to go back and finish that story, but I just don't want to. I'm having all these negative emotions about it.
Speaker 1:And so he pointed in the window of the library and he goes Well, why don't you just write something fun, like something that you might see happen in there. And all of a sudden, the minute he said that, my eyes just lit up and I started seeing like books come to life within the library and I had this idea to write something more fantastical. So I came back home I decided I'm done with that story, I'm done, and I started writing the one about these books coming to life in the library, and it was so much fun and I was able to keep writing. And so, with this being said, I went through this variety of emotions with the first story and then the second one, even getting to that point. And I'm just curious what you think. Number one, I'm curious do you think I should have to or I shouldn't have to? But do you think I should go back and finish the first story, or is it okay to just shut it down, toss it out and move on?
Speaker 2:Okay, so, if I hear you correctly, in that 24 hour period, in this form of art that you hadn't done before, but it is a form of art, it's a creative form. Obviously, you went through a range of emotions that affected that art, how you did that art. So We'll get back to your question about should you finish that, but I want to just say that, in general, it doesn't matter what form of art we are using, what medium we're in, our emotions definitely affect that, and I'm thinking about as you're, I'm listening to you, but I'm also realizing that over the last month, I've heard you know how you read the people you follow. You read their comments on the on Instagram, and I've heard things like I usually do bright colors, but I've been feeling very gloomy recently and so I've gone to the more neutral, gray, dark things, or. Somebody will say normally I use the gray tones, I like the shades of gray and black, but this week I've gone to color.
Speaker 2:Well, I will bet you, at the bottom of all of that is the emotion of the person and if you think about it, emotions are energy and that energy gets transformed into art. It comes out in our art and, in fact, people that look at art, that buy art, that collect art, whatever they do it based on emotion. Haven't you ever heard or done it yourself? I love that painting, oh, that, I just love that. Well, that's an emotional response to what you are seeing. Right, and maybe we need to define, or define that emotions are our body's response to either an internal or external stimulus. So when you see a painting and you love the expression and you say I love that, that's your body's response to the energy of that painting. So, getting back to what you did, and what art, what energy or, excuse me, not energy what emotions do to our art?
Speaker 2:It can influence everything. It can influence the colors that we use. You're happy, so use bright colors. You're in a more gloomy mood, melancholy, for whatever the reason. You might pick up a darker piece of fabric, it will influence. If you're a painter, it will influence the type of brushstrokes Think anger, anger. If you're painting, a big, aggressive brushstrokes, bold, yeah, bold. So it can influence the types of materials. I've even known, I had a friend who, when she painted and she was angry or in a bad mood, she would take things like what is it not? It's a texture like plaster of Paris, anything like that, and she would throw it at the painting. So yes, emotions kind of affect everything in our art. It can even affect whether or not we feel like sitting down and doing our art.
Speaker 1:Right, well, and one thing too, real quick. When you said, you know, van Gogh, starry Night, yes, yes, that when he created that, now he it's a known thing that he really struggled with some mental health issues, and I've heard that he painted that while in a mental asylum, and so, and I know, like if you look at it with the swirling skies and if he was feeling, you know, anxious or whatever, I mean, it's such a beautiful piece, but it's interesting to think about what sort of emotions he was doing when he created that. And the same thing with that famous painting called the Scream. Do you know, not the big mouth, it's the big mouth. Oh, yes, it's like it's called the Scream. It's very famous, I think. It's.
Speaker 1:What's the guy's name? Edward, edward, something, but same. He experienced in his life a lot of anxiety and terror. I don't know what all that was from in his life, the terror, but I've heard that that was sort of like his emotions. That's what he was painting. It was like he was putting that out on the paper or on the canvas.
Speaker 2:And that's exactly what we do. No matter what form of art we are using, we put our emotions into it. So obviously, your emotions are going to affect the outcome. Now we talked about a painter like Van Gogh's brushstrokes. You can see those brushstrokes. I just lost my train of thought trans. So it does affect it. Your emotional will not only affect how you put it down or translate it into your medium, but whether the flow comes easily or is constricted. So that's one way, or multiple ways, that emotions affect our art, and we've already touched on the fact that people buy and respond to art based on their emotions. So if you look at a piece of art and we'll just take painting because it's easy to visualize you've got a painting and there's two sets of emotions that go into that. You've got the emotions that go into it from the painter. You've got the emotions that go out of it to the receiver.
Speaker 2:And you and I can stand by the same painting and not have the same emotional response to it, and I've had that happen. When Jack and I have gone someplace, I will fall in love with something and he'll go not so much. So, again, emotions are definitely a strong part of any creativity, and I love the woman that I saw on Instagram that said oh, I've really been feeling happy this week, I'm gonna use bright colors, right. And so if you run into a situation like you did, I think what I would recommend is go ahead and finish it, see where that goes, because that's an authentic response to whatever you were writing. That came from inside you, that was not somebody else's interpretation, and if we can learn to process those emotions, whatever they are, we will actually wind up with some authentic creations. Now, if you go back to that story, the interesting thing is, emotionally, you're approaching it from a different point of view than you did when you started it. I'm guessing and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm guessing that those emotions caught you off guard.
Speaker 1:Yes, and those emotions because I experienced those emotions, I am not feeling led to go back to that, like it actually causes some anxiety in me. And so then I'm thinking like why did it come even come out? Like you know, when you sit down to create, sometimes it's very intuitive and you're just going. I did not have a plan to create that story. You know, too, that I had an alcoholic mother, so I don't know why I even brought in an alcoholic woman in this story, but it just started flowing out. So the emotions, like I am not feeling, like I want to go back to it, because it was making me feel anxious in a way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, we touched a little bit on art as therapy, and that's not necessarily what this one is about. This is more about general emotions and but when we run up against something like that, you have to honor the fact that there is something inside of you and it could be you personally or you in a general sense that needs to be released. Now, at the time that you were creating, you were creating in words. If you had been painting again I'm falling back on painting you might have taken those emotions and thrown them onto the canvas without even thinking about them. And so when we have emotions like that, again we've got to go back to the fact that emotions are energy.
Speaker 2:I would recommend that people recognize those, observant but not run from them necessarily. Don't try to control them. Do not go back to that story and control the story. I'm not sure if you'll be able to recreate where you were when you were writing that story, but if it comes up again, I highly recommend don't try to control the flow of it, and this is in any form of art. Just be authentic, go let's use the phrase go with the flow.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Even if it's scary. I have read a book by a painter who eventually became an art therapist and his breakthrough was a similar situation, and again I keep talking about painting. But it could be my books, my journal, my artist book pages. Some are happy, some are kind of dark and moody. But what he did is he ran into a situation similar to yours and he didn't understand it. But he kept painting and he didn't. He just whatever his hand did was okay. He didn't analyze it, he didn't try to stop it, he didn't run from the dark place. He said the most amazing thing happened that when he got done he had created what he considered a beautiful piece of art and a new style that he had never attempted before.
Speaker 2:So emotions can also lead us to something that we don't even know is there. So I would recommend that you go back and you work on that story and just pick it up, see what happens. Something may never, ever happen. You may wind up writing the next Harry Potter series. I mean, we don't know, but the whole point is, when emotions come up during our creativity, perhaps the best thing we can do is just observe them, Don't try to control them. Just see if you can go with whatever your body, and when I say body, it's coming from your body, because your body is doing the writing, your body is doing the sculpting or the painting. Just let it come through your body, your hands, whatever you need to make your art.
Speaker 1:Well, and so pay attention. So that's important, like that's right Attention to the emotions when they come up. Here's another thought I was just thinking about. I'm imagining, because I follow a lot of people that do stitching and that kind of thing, you know, in the collage journals. I'm imagining a lot of these people, or any of us, when we also pay attention, that when you're feeling really good or inspired or motivated, pay attention to those emotions too. Like what was it that you were doing at that point? What kind of medium, what time of day? Like pay attention to the emotions that you're having during that, because in some cases you want to replicate that and say I loved, how free I felt and it was because I was doing intuitive art or something like that. So that's important to pay attention to.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. We don't want to pay attention only to the dark side Right, I'm using that Darth Vader dark side. No, we want to pay attention all the time.
Speaker 2:We want to be a conscious artist where we pay attention and, yes, when I well, I'll use this week where I have not had access to all my little wonderful glues and pieces of paper that I can do. I've been working using just sketching materials, although I broke down and had to run out and buy some colored things that I could work with and they're much lighter, they're happier, they're freer.
Speaker 2:And I realize that sometimes, even without recognizing it, we can sometimes let the emotions of things that we love Keep us from being as free as we want to be. So if you're aware of your emotions, you can observe them, you can deal with them, you can follow them. You can go whoa, every time I go get an ice cream cone, I come home and create wonderful art. So you can attach it to something. Maybe that that brings you that emotion that then translates into your art. Or every time I watch the news, my art goes to a dark place. Then maybe you don't want to watch the news as much, right? So all of those things at the basis of our emotions, if we can just observe them, that will help tremendously Well, and this just made me think you had mentioned this on a past podcast episode.
Speaker 1:That we did. But you mentioned too when you're suffering with lupus symptoms, when it's bad, and then you come. So obviously your emotions are crappy, yes, you know, not feeling good, not feeling positive in pain, all that kind of stuff, but then you come and you sit down and that process changes your emotions.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely I have. I have told your dad several times that the journaling, the process, the art, the going from the physical to the ethereal let's just say to that spot where you're just creating has saved me many, many days. And so, yes, I I come. Let's just use that as an example, because pain is not in. Emotions are not always just a reaction to something like the news. There are also a reaction to what's going on in our body. I come from a place of pain. Well, if I go in, as you said, and I have said before, sit down and start with my little pieces of paper and I just give myself over to that process, you're absolutely right my emotions change because somewhere in that process they have gone from focusing on the physical pain to just having it. And when you receive the physical pain and when pain, physical pain anybody out there with any kind of an illness will know when you can receive the physical pain then your whole being lightens up and it's absolutely life saving for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because that's that's physiological as well as emotional.
Speaker 2:Physiological, neurological, emotional, all of it. Now, if I, let's say, I'm not in physical pain, well, let's put it another way. Let's be real. When the pain is low enough that I don't have to focus on it, I might go in. And maybe because I am Borderline empath, I respond to the news so emotionally that I have had to put up barriers that I do not allow myself to Go into it too often because it drags me down the rabbit hole. Well, let's say, I Watch the news and I'm in a dark, dark place, emotionally, as a response To what I've seen and heard. Then, when I sit down, what I have noticed and I thank you for bringing this up because it just occurred to me I do the same thing. So when I'm in that spot and I sit down, I am looking for dark and grungy and black and those colors and sharper images, not soft round things like circles, but, you know, sharp images, because that's an emotional response that I'm trying to process through my art.
Speaker 1:Wow, and just just now you paying attention to that and linking it to the news. Yeah, like, how powerful is that that you know?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know I cannot expose myself to very much news.
Speaker 1:Okay, but tell me so if your emotions you come up. You've watched the news in the sharp, more grungy, darker colors. Are you still enjoying that process, though, or is there a little bit of heaviness when you're doing that, or does it feel almost equally as good as when you're doing your Muted soft rounder edges?
Speaker 2:both. When I sit down in that stage, I am not enjoying it. I am Without, without realizing that what I am doing is processing the emotions that have come up from watching the news. But art is so beautiful, it takes over and pretty soon you're back in that spot, just like with the physical pain. It goes away and all of a sudden you're just loving the flow. You're loving that Grungy, dark feel and you're looking for more of it because you like it. So it starts that I'm not enjoying it. By the time I leave, I'm at a place where, oh, I really like these pages Right. Artist, creative process For everybody that is out there and has a creative vein is an extremely transformative process, mm-hmm. And At the bottom of that transformation good, bad or ugly are our emotions.
Speaker 1:Yes, what would you think about if someone is feeling you know how sometimes we could look at the art that we're creating and start judging it Badly, and you know that's no good, this is whatever. So you're having those emotions now.
Speaker 1:What's like? What if we just push through in that case or go to something that is I don't know? I guess we've kind of talked about this a little bit before. But what do you do when we we're all gonna have that and so that Is an emotion that takes place. So how do we take that and Create, happily, okay so let's say you're creating.
Speaker 2:Let's say I'm in in there Doing my pages or out in the garage doing a painting and I'm not in a happy mood and I'm Frustrating PO'd and all of that, and I look at it and I go, oh, this is the ugliest thing I've ever seen. What I have learned? Do not do anything with it at that time. Walk away from it. Walk away and give yourself a break because, remember, what is controlling you are your emotions and you are responding to what you have created emotionally. Wait until your emotions are in a different spot. Then walk back. Now you don't have all that Negative hard energy. You might look at it and say, oh you know, I really don't like that. I'm just gonna use it and paint over it or redo this page or rip out this stitching or Add more clay to this side of the sculpture. That's fine.
Speaker 1:It's more objective. It's more objective. It is more objective. Is versus critical, hardcore critical.
Speaker 2:Oh, when we are in an emotional state, we are. We're always our own worst critic, but that's when we, in anything, can make some decisions that maybe we would look back on and say, oh, maybe I shouldn't have done that. So what I have learned and what I've heard from many Artists on their Instagram page walk away, I Give space to yourself and that piece of art and come back. Sometimes people have come back and gone whoa, that's wonderful, what was I thinking? Sometimes they've come back and said needs a lot of work, or nope, this isn't working. You don't know. Once you get out, once you allow it breathing room and yourself the freedom to be away from the emotions, you don't know what you're going to think when you walk back to that page, that sculpture, whatever it reminds me of where someone will say hey, you need to go check your attitude.
Speaker 1:Go check your attitude, clean it up, come on back when you're feeling better. It's the same type of thing like go back if you have a negative mindset, you go. Okay, I'm feeling better now, and you come back with new, fresh eyes and everything's a little bit better.
Speaker 2:I love that expression new, fresh eyes, because that's what you've got. They're not clouded by judgment, they're not clouded by your emotions. I love to me what it is in all of this. I'm taking the time out. We tell little kids whose behavior is not what we wanted. You're on time out? Well, give yourself a time out. We're adults but we still need time outs. Yeah, and I did that. I was painting over a painting and I didn't like it. I thought, oh, this is not going anywhere, but I just left it in the garage on the easel. I came back in a few days and when I came back I thought, well, if I did this here. And then I did this here and I went to work. And when I stepped back from that, the painting I had hated had changed, because I wasn't in the same emotional state when I left it.
Speaker 2:And my creativity, my creative mind saw it differently, saw the potential of it.
Speaker 1:Yes, and on the flip side of giving ourselves a time out. This just made me think about. We're kind of talking about take a step back, but also honor yourself by, when you're having emotions, that you're having so much fun, you're just loving it, you're in the zone. Then make time for yourself. Make time for yourself so that you're not just letting these be in the fringe moments of your day, the leftover scraps. Make specific time for yourself to be able to create and have these wonderful emotions around art.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. In fact, I think they're both important the light the dark. We need them both. You don't see the things in the light without some dark. So when you have those happy moments, oh my gosh, relish in them, just enjoy the heck out of them.
Speaker 2:But when you have those times that you're not happy, or things come up or it's not working and you're frustrated, don't run from it and don't honor the fact that there's a purpose for it, because I truly do believe in all of this. There is a purpose in what we do, and I'm going to go back to your story You're writing. It's a new form of creativity. Things come up, things that may be related to what needs to be worked out from your past, and honor the fact that you've now been given a clue. Oh, there's something there maybe I need to pursue or work on, even by itself, and I think that's what art does for us this whole process, because we said again that creativity is that all emotions are energy and that energy resides within our body and a lot of times we don't know how to release it, and art is a great way to release all energies we don't get to. I'd like to live in la la land and only have the happy, cheerful ones. But you got to take it all.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, yeah, good. Well, this was fun. This is really has given me some things to think about, and I hope our listeners have too.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and then I hope our listeners if they have had a similar experience. As we've said before, we absolutely love hearing from you. Yes, whether you agree with us or not doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:Well, this was a fun little chat, mama Judy and this episode that is going to go live this week and actually Mama Judy and I get to see each other in just a few days. So I'm in North Carolina right now. She's spending time in Oregon and I'm going to be flying out there to spend some time with her this week.
Speaker 2:Yes, it'll be wonderful and we will do a two person while we're together.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, we'll see you soon and thank you, listeners. We appreciate you so much. Thank you for reaching out to us. I just heard from a couple other people recently and direct messages, and I just love hearing how people are spending time listening or, you know, giving us ideas or saying oh, you made me think about this thing differently. It's so fun to hear from people, so, anyway, it is yes, thank you. Bye, mama, judy, bye, love you.