Nicholas Wilton Pt. 1: Art as a Way of Knowing Yourself

Taj talks creativity with Nick Wilton, renowned painter and educator.   Topics include breadcrumbs, which are hints and clues to your identity as a creative; questions to ask yourself in getting to know your creative/ authentic self; and how a big setback in Nick's life shaped who he is today as an artist and a teacher. Part 1 of 2.


Nick's website: art2life.com
Nick's upcoming free course (March 2024): artlifefree.com
Taj's website: TajBaker.com

Transcript

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Taj: Welcome to Playful Presence, conversations about creativity, mindfulness, and play. My name is Taj Baker. I'm an artist, meditator, and coach, and I've taught lots of workshops to help people discover their natural creativity. The idea behind this podcast is that you can hear these conversations with working creatives, and get exercises, tools, ideas, new perspectives, and use them.

Almost like a virtual coach. I'm hoping that these conversations are relevant to your challenges in your creativity and in your life in general. I hope that you find some useful tools here. Speaking of which, if you'd like to receive my newsletter and get even more useful resources, you can go to TajBaker.com . 

Today's guest is Nicholas Wilton, a very accomplished painter and teacher, and this is part one of a two part conversation. We talk about breadcrumbs, which are hints and clues to your identity as a creative. We also talk about how a big setback in Nick's life shaped who he is today as an artist and a teacher.

We talk about questions to ask yourself in getting to know your creative self, your authentic self. So, I hope you enjoy part one of my conversation with Nick Wilton. 


Taj: I'm very excited today to have Nicholas Wilton as my guest. Nicholas is an artist, educator, and in addition to gallery exhibitions and the inclusion in numerous private and corporate collections in the U.S. and abroad, your paintings have been used on the covers of the national bestseller, The Four Agreements. As well as Brene Brown's Gift of Imperfection. I also hear there's a U. S. stamp featuring your work. 

Nick: Listen, thanks. Thanks for having me. Yeah, it's kind of funny, right? That a one inch reproduction of your art is the thing that everyone is excited about.

But yeah, stamps was kind of fun. I've done a few of them. 

Taj: Do you feel like you now have the stamp of approval from some power that be?

Nick: Well, you know, it's interesting. Stamps, it turns out, are The whole philatelic world is it's a tough organization to please because everyone has to like a stamp. So I think I'm most proud the fact that that we got approval.

So I guess there's a stamp of approval, but it's kind of like pleasing everybody approval, 

Taj: which means watering down your vision 

Nick: a little bit. I mean, it even goes to the point where. They look at the colors and I did a stamp once I redid the celebration stamp a number of years ago and the colors I chose were really beautiful, quite sophisticated and we had to kind of turn it more into like a birthday party colors because most people.

Prefer that, right? So, yeah,

Taj: that must be hard. Although it's fun to get to see your work circulating around the planet. 

Nick: Yeah. No, that's certainly true.

Taj: So I thought we might start with going back to your origin story. I'm curious whether in your growing up you had creative mentors or whatever. 

Nick: I was really fortunate to have a father that was creative.

He was an artist as a young man, but then he had an advertising agency. And so I was always encouraged to make art. He liked that, but I was especially encouraged to make. Work that was my own, right? Like if I copied a photograph, my dad wouldn't be as excited as if I just made something up and that really planted the seeds for the value of authenticity, which actually is one of the fundamental core ideas and visions of my company art to life.

I help artists discover what ignites them, how they can access their own authenticity and make personal, meaningful work. 

Taj: That's so wonderful that you had that growing up because so many of us were told, whether it's in school or by someone who just didn't know better, you know, if you can't make something that's photorealistic, then you're not a so called artist.

Nick: Yeah. There's a sort of handful of limiting beliefs that I work with people on. That's one of them thinking that art has to look a certain way or that if you don't have any talent and. All these kinds of limiting beliefs that are just not true. They really actually can get in the way of making, making art.

So that one of all I can draw is stick figures and my sister has all the talent and you know, all of that is, those are false. And I know 2000 percent after working with thousands of artists that I like, I've never met a single person who, if they were interested and wanted to make. Powerful, authentic art.

They could it's I don't even believe in talent at this point. All it is, is interest and passion and a connection to your authentic self. Yes. 

Taj: Yeah. For me, I think of art as a way of knowing, and I think so much more than something to put out there or share with people. It's something that helps us to know ourselves better.

Nick: Yeah. It's as my. Therapist Rick Scott says it's an inside job, which, which is really true. And it's wonderful because most of the progress that we can make, we can control, right? It's not really based on who, you know, or being lucky or having a big bank account. It's just about learning what lights you up.

Taj: So you had this really nurturing environment growing up and you studied with Ludwig Shafrath, the. 

Nick: Yeah, I was 14, I think at the time. And I mentioned him because I sort of entered art through craft, through stained glass, but he was one of the first people that kind of encouraged me. I was a very young pupil compared to the professionals in the room that had big careers making commercial.

Stainless windows, but he sort of singled my work out as having value and that it was so different than everyone's. And he was kind of holding it up as an example to these much older designers. And it opened my eyes as to the value of, again, making something that is of you. Something authentic. 

Taj: Yeah. Yeah.

So are there other Milestones that you could share about your journey as a young artist? 

Nick: I think this is how it goes. We make things and we begin and we're not very secure because we're not sure. Art making is. Creating things that we haven't seen before. And, and there's a lot of, we need approval and we want people to like us.

And there's the whole minefield of the vulnerability that it creates. And so for a lot of people, I'm sure, you know, this as well, all the stories that I worked with a lot of artists that they were making art when they were 20 or 15 and some art teacher came along or someone who you cared about and said a thing that.

Knocked you off your momentum. Like you're not very talented or this is not very good. And so I didn't have a lot of that, but I chose a path for me, which was illustration and I was making art for people I didn't really believe. At this point that I could just make art and people would buy it just because I liked making it.

You know, I still had the limiting belief of a starving artist and it took me a long time actually to leave that world and just go completely after what I loved. So, you know, I, and I think that those. Steps, you having a show and having people come or having someone buy your work, probably a big milestone for me was making work that wasn't for anything in particular.

It was just something I fancied making. And then what I saw was that the world said yes. And that was a game changer for me. 

Taj: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And also for me, at least it's the. Internal. Yes. You know, there's the external. Yes. And there's the internal. Yes. And to experience both of those is powerful. 

Nick: Yes. I mean, we're intuition and what our soul is here.

Why are we here? And what are we doing here? And what are we going to make when? The answers aren't always clear, but trusting the feelings of aliveness that you feel when you move towards what brings you alive is, is everything. Those are the breadcrumbs. Those are the clues to the direction you probably want to take.

And it took me a long time to understand that. But once I did. Everything kind of took off and man, I wish I had known this sooner because, you know, this art making thing is incredible journey. And if anyone's interested in doing it, they really should, but there's not a lot of information about how to do it.

Taj: Now we're going to take a short break for me to tell you a little bit about coaching. The people who come to me often want some kind of a change in their life. It might be in their work life, in their creative life, in their relationships, and maybe they have a really clear idea of what they want, or they might not know, but they just know they want to change.

Imagine that there's all these different parts inside you. And it's like these parts are people who are hiking up a mountain and they're tethered together with a rope. The pace of moving toward the top of the mountain, towards your goal, is going to be dictated or decided by The slowest one in that chain, it might be the part of you that's afraid to change or unwilling, or in some way just isn't on board with moving towards your goal.

And in the coaching work that I do with people, we get to know that straggler part. We befriend that part of you. We. Learn about what is it that would help that part feel safe and willing and ready to move towards the goal. At times this might be hard or challenging, but I have learned over time with my own process and with working with clients, it has to be fun, it has to be playful and creative, or else it's not going to happen.

So imagine that you've gone through this process, you've been working with me for a while, and now moving toward your goal feels A lot less effortful. It feels like that straggler part is now on board, and instead of being dead weight pulling backward, it's actually moving forward with you. So if this resonates for you, and you're interested in exploring the idea of coaching using creativity, mindfulness, and play to move forward with your goals, I would like to offer you a free online coaching session.

Go to TajBaker. com And you can book a free session to try out coaching with me and see if we'd be a good fit. Now let's get back to the conversation. The story of Art2Life forming is also the story of overcoming a setback, 

Nick: isn't it? Yeah, another milestone was having a complete train wreck in my life with the recession.

Actually, it was Yeah, about 14 years ago now, you know, when the economy pulled back dramatically and all the advertising budgets were cut. So I, I couldn't make a living anymore. And I had saved up a lot of money through doing illustration. So I could one day do fine art without worrying about means to sell it.

And I lost all that money in a made off type situation. My marriage fell apart. It was. Really, really, I lost confidence entirely and I kind of was brought back to my knees, so to speak. But at the same time, I learned or relearned what was the most meaningful and enduring aspects of my life. And art was the one thing that I didn't lose.

And I've just leaned heavily into that and it brought me back to the surface and art to life was created and it kind of gave me the necessary information and authority to coach artists because I know firsthand what it feels like to. Have no sales and to lose your confidence and I had to work my way back.

And that information is really helpful for people. And I don't know, had I not had a train wreck, if I would have been able to do what I do in terms of working with others and helping people.

Taj: Yeah, it definitely teaches you empathy. I remember once learning this principle where when someone has a setback, there's this opportunity to use the momentum of trying to get back to where you were before the setback to actually go further and end up in a better place than you started out.

Nick: It's hard to imagine, but looking back, I can say the biggest gift that has ever happened in my life was that complete. breakdown of everything. I reordered my life. I got everything. I got everything back times 20, you know, but in a much better way, I'm much more passionate. I'm much more clear. I have much more humility and I have much, much more confidence.

It's an interesting thing to hold both, right? To stand up in front of a room and be confident and tell people something that, you know, is helpful, but to not do it from an egotistical place, because I know exactly what worthlessness feels like. And it's always there. It's always part of who I am, but holding both makes you really effective and helpful.

Taj: Yeah, because you have the empathy from having lived it. I mean, that's something you can't just read about or hear about. I remember being in a workshop about transitions, about painful transitions like what you went through, and this image has always stuck with me of a trapeze artist swinging from one bar to another, and the moment where they've let go of the old, but they haven't grabbed onto the new yet, that can be terrifying, but there's also infinite possibility in that moment of having to let go of the past and just And Not know what's coming next.

Nick: Yes, the soul always pulls you to the unknown, always, and your soul is rooting for you, it wants you to evolve, and letting go of that bar in midair, and the other one hasn't quite arrived yet is, is a necessary kind of transition, and you don't just do it once, you do it multiple times. In many ways, I think art making is, it is a process of becoming yourself, but it's a process that teaches us how, how to let go of that bar.

And, you know, in our lives, we don't. Get a lot of practice at that because we don't want to let go of the steering wheel too often But it's the letting go that creates all the opportunities and possibilities and the wonder it's everything 

Taj: Yeah, it's a sort of a playground for life 

Nick: Yeah, I think the approach that we use is a little different in that, you know, we're talking a lot about this subject and I could sort of summarize it as the come from.

Where are you coming from? How do you want to feel? When do you feel most alive? Connecting to that part of yourself. More than ever before. And, and from there we make art. The art is just an artifact of how you're feeling. We look at the art and say, Oh, I need to change this to make it better. But the fast way to get amazing work is to work on yourself, to work on your orientation, because if you feel more alive.

That comes through the work. People can feel it energetically. 

Taj: You're reminding me of when I was in school. I had this wonderful class where we would meditate for 20 minutes before painting. And it was once a week for four hours for a whole year. And it was just amazing. Sitting together as a group and connecting our energies and practicing mindfulness.

It helped so much to get a lot of the baggage out of the way before picking up a paintbrush. 

Nick: Yeah, no, that's, that's really great. Before we start, we do grounding meditations. And I mean, it's just a few minutes. And something that people remark about the workshops that these little collective experiences we're doing together really make a huge difference.

Taj: I'm imagining someone changing the name of their space where they make art from studio to lab, you know, even play lab. Changing that orientation from, okay, this is where I'm going to make fine art to this is where I'm going to just experiment and play. Yeah, 

Nick: I talk a lot about this. One of the challenges you probably know for a lot of artists is that getting into the studio or, or even Getting going and we procrastinate, but if you reframe art making, it's just this opportunity you have.

If you can clear up a lot of those limiting beliefs that you're absolutely free, you know, it's the only time in your day, even if you only do art for 20 minutes, you have complete freedom to do whatever you want. It's an incredible opportunity. And if we can start shifting how we think about this practice, think of it more like a practice, not so much as a thing that makes something and we judge what we're making so much, but just the feeling of being in it, how great that is and what happens, then we do it more because.

Who wouldn't, you know, it's just amazing to have that freedom. 

Taj: That's wonderful. Yeah. Yeah. Just following your bliss. 

Nick: Yeah. And it is cool that you have something to look at that reminds you of where you went that afternoon. And you can do four or five things and you can look at all of them and say, Oh my God.

That second one, I just love that. Well, why do I like that one? What is that telling me? The art that you make, are they, they're like these little clues as to where to go. When you think of it that way, it kind of takes the pressure off of each artifact, each thing you make. It's just, it's just a practice.

It's an unfolding of who you are. Yeah. It's just such a cool, I just think it's such a great. Uh, process to be involved in, and we get a lot of non artists who come just because they want to feel creative and they want to participate and they want to make things, you know, creativity is. And I know, you know, this is, it's just comes with the operating system.

The fact that people walking around the planet are saying, oh, I'm not creative or I, I couldn't can only draw a stick figure is kind of funny and silly to me because it's like saying, you know, well, I can't really laugh. I mean, everyone else can laugh, but I can't, you know, it's, it is, it's really important to get the word out, you know, to, to remind people that, you know.

Everyone is an artist, right? Absolutely. Everyone is capable of this. 

Taj: Yeah, and I think it would be wonderful to change the language from I can't draw, I can't paint, meaning I can't draw, I can't paint, like I've seen other people do it, to I can only draw and paint exactly the way I do it. And isn't that wonderful?

Yeah. I wanted to ask you about this Thomas Paine quote. It says, That which we may obtain too easily, We esteem too lightly. It is dearness only which gives everything its value. 

Nick: Yeah, I mean, we're doing a kitchen remodel, believe it or not, and, you know, everything that is good takes work. Like, it just takes, kind of, an intention and focus.

It's like, we want things to just, oh my god, look at this amazing opportunity just happened to me. And it's like, Actually, things don't really work out like that. It more often than not, you put effort into something and you care about it and you try and it doesn't work. And then you try and then that art making process of doing something and then adjusting it and then correcting it and then changing it.

And then finally getting it right is so sweet because of all the previous attempts. It's like. I often describe it as, you know, what would be the point of doing perfect swan dives off the low board, right? It's, it's okay. I mean, if we just want to show people we're perfect, but that's actually not that interesting.

I think there's always an edge. I think our soul gives us things that are not impossible, but there's always. An edge that's always it's not just sitting there. We have to we have to kind of voyage a little we got to work at it and go along a ways to figure it out. So I think that's kind of the idea there.

Taj: Yeah, I remember a painting teacher who said if you're feeling frustrated with a piece that means you're not done if you're getting into that point. With a painting where you just want to stop and walk away That's where it's getting juicy because you're actually facing parts of yourself And if you work through that on the canvas, it helps you to grow as a person when you work through that It's not just easy usually 

Nick: Yeah.

Yeah. There's a lot we can do playing with art materials and there's amazing things that can just happen, playful, creative, just letting go. Often you sometimes need to think about, well, how do I take this and do that? You know, something usually will happen where. I call them breakouts where something will happen in the art making process, working on different things where something happens that you don't entirely understand, but you just like it, you know, and if you don't know why you kind of have to go on and figure it out.

You know, it's like, I just know, I just love that. I'm not sure why. And I don't know how to do it again, but what just happened? Like, Oh my God. So that's where the scrutiny comes in. And some of the. Intentions and, and actually kind of some of the work. Yeah. It's, it's increased awareness and, and that comes from paying more attention.

Taj: So that's it for this episode of Playful Presence. Listen to the next episode to hear the rest of my conversation with Nick Wilton. Next time you feel like you've made a mistake in your creative work, try celebrating that you've taken a creative risk because mistakes are part of the process. I'd like to thank my guest, Nick Wilton, as well as Robin Jackson, who wrote and performed the theme music that you hear at the beginning of the show.

Other music credits can be found in the program notes, as well as links for Nick's upcoming free class online, and a link to my website where you can sign up for a free coaching session. Thanks again for listening to Playful Presence.