Creative Crossroads

Creativity, Community, and Crossroads: Season Two is Here

• Catherine Dutton & Ellyn Zinsmeister • Season 2 • Episode 1

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Welcome to Season 2 of Creative Crossroads! In this episode, hosts Ellyn Zinsmeister and Catherine Dutton introduce exciting new changes, including the option to watch on YouTube. They provide a sneak peek into the season's diverse lineup, featuring quilters, visual artists, a Michelin-star chef, and a fiber artist. Ellyn and Catherine also share updates on their personal and creative lives, from quilt entries to participating in Fodder School, and more! Join them as they explore the expansive world of creativity and engage in enriching conversations.


00:00 Welcome to Creative Crossroads Season Two

00:51 Exciting New Guests and Topics

03:05 Meet Your Hosts: Catherine and Ellyn

06:35 Creative Projects and Personal Updates

08:08 Upcoming Events and Opportunities

13:19 Join Our Creative Community

Thanks for joining us at Creative Crossroads! Keep creating and we'll see you again soon!

Ellyn:

Hey everybody, welcome back to Creative Crossroads. We are so happy to be back with you. I'm Ellyn.

Catherine:

And I'm Catherine,

Ellyn:

And something new this season two is that you can watch us on YouTube. So if you're listening as a podcast, you'll still get the whole story. But if you want to, you could jump over to YouTube and tune us in there and follow us and like us and all those things to do, you know what to do. Um, so we thought it would be fun. I guess that's what all the cool kids are doing, Catherine.

Catherine:

I mean, I've heard that we are the cool kids, if we are doing it, of course the cool kids are doing it

Ellyn:

so here we are. Are excited about season two. We, it's

Catherine:

So excited.

Ellyn:

yeah. So tell us a little bit about season two, Catherine.

Catherine:

I am really excited. You last season we really focused on talking to quilters and visual artists, and this season gonna have some quilters, some artists too. But we're gonna go beyond fabric As, as mediums. And so gonna talk to a chef, um, Michelin star chef. We're talk to an amazing fiber artist who does weaving. Um, we have, we have some other quilters on the list, but I that we are going to have some really fun interviews this time around. Again, within the realm of talking about creativity creative process. But think one of neat that we're learning is that that creativity, it's not limited to just visual things that we make, and we're seeing in interviews that we're doing.

Ellyn:

I think it's gonna be really fun and to see how, how our processes overlap.

Catherine:

Mm-hmm.

Ellyn:

different mediums or how they're We're gonna. We're gonna find that We're explore some more. and thrown in between the interviews. We're gonna do some, some days like today where Catherine and I just talk to each other and explore some things personally.

Catherine:

Yeah, and maybe you might even see us make art every now and then.

Ellyn:

wouldn't that be something.

Catherine:

that'd be kind of crazy.

Ellyn:

Hey, we're looking, we're looking at different opportunities, different ways that we can get together and make art together. so, mm-hmm. Take you along on our journey because why,

Catherine:

why not?

Ellyn:

why not? And some of you might be new here and might be going, who are these women? And we typically call ourselves creativity ambassadors. And what the heck are they talking about? Um,

Catherine:

It's a fun term we made up.

Ellyn:

I know it is. Right. And I think, what, maybe we can take a whole nother day to just explore that term

Catherine:

Yeah.

Ellyn:

by that. Um, but for today, I think we probably ought to introduce ourselves again, just briefly so that if people are new, or maybe we didn't go into this enough last season, to let you know a little bit more about who the two of us are. So Catherine, why don't you start.

Catherine:

Well, uh, I'm Catherine Dutton and in my creative life I love for a very long time I was a quilter and I'm, I'm learning to adjust to a new identity as quilting is unfortunate. Not something I can keep doing as much as I used to, but I love to create and I think like I've been creative my whole life, whether it's in writing or in making art or in just. How I teach. Because in my full-time world I'm a professor and I teach human development and family studies and yeah, I think that's, that's good enough about me. How about you, Ellyn? Tell us

Ellyn:

think it's fun how your, how your professional life crosses over into your personal life and your creative life too. Because whenever we get together and start exploring something, it turns into a research project,

Catherine:

Oh, always. Yes. My whole life is a research project.

Ellyn:

I totally blame you, but you've taught me to think that way. I'm starting to think that way too. So it's really fun. Um, yeah. I'm Ellyn Zinsmeister. I have also been a creative. My whole life. I mean, I can't remember not creating, um which I both mostly got from my mom. I think she's a very creative person too. And I'm a quilter, a modern quilter. I love making modern quilts. This is, uh, one of my quilts behind me, one of my recent mates that's Matilda Madley making, and she is the result of an improv quilting challenge that I did. And, uh. That's the kind of stuff I do. Uh, mostly solid fabrics and improv quilting. Uh. Which is really fun for me. I'm very active in the modern Quilt Guild, and I'm also a weaver. Um, I do some basic weaving on a rigid head of loom and an ankle loom, and I have a lot of fun with that. But I, I love exploring all the things too. Like, like Catherine, like the, the paper arts and junk journaling and just all kinds of, all kinds of things. If it's new and exciting, I will try it.

Catherine:

Oh yeah, I wanna experiment with all the

Ellyn:

I know me too.

Catherine:

my niece was over in my craft room. A couple of weeks ago and she was like, aunt Cece,'cause that's what they call me, aunt Cece. Um, I think you have enough in here to start an art store. And I was like, I mean. It's a good start

Ellyn:

and you're, you're great with your nieces and nephews involving them in creative activities. I am lucky to be, I'm a wife and mom to three adult kids. And have a great, fabulous daughter-in-law who brought a bonus granddaughter into our family. And recently I got to call myself grandma because our first grand baby was born. So I've been spending a lot of time with them and, and dabbling in teaching new creative arts to my bonus granddaughter who is almost 11. So it's, it's fun to get the next generation involved.

Catherine:

It's fun to see that you in this new phase of your life where you get to be a grandma and do and just, and I think it's fun that you get to jump in with like an 11-year-old granddaughter because like she can do all the fun things with you and go to a quilt store with you. And she's

Ellyn:

she wants

Catherine:

in fabric, right? Like

Ellyn:

and she wants to. Yeah. Which is great. Yeah, that's been really fun. Um, so that's a lot of what I've been up to. I mean,'cause we kind of took a break. We intended to come back with new episodes sooner, but life as it does, uh, had other plans for us. So we had to Kind of set things aside a little bit. Um. But that's a lot of what I've been up to is family stuff, but I've also

Catherine:

Yeah.

Ellyn:

creating, like Matilda, I made her and I mean I've, I've been doing a lot of creating in the meantime too. What have you been up to, Catherine?

Catherine:

I have been doing all sorts of fun things like in the crafty side. I'm cleaning out my craft room right now and kind of resetting it for my new phase of being creative with more. Mixed media arts and less fiber arts. And then on the work side of things, it's been kind of fun because I got to give a TEDx talk this past spring and there's some fun things that are gonna happen with that this fall. Um, yeah, that's, I think those are the big things that are going on in my life and I'm dating, which is really fun

Ellyn:

It's awesome

Catherine:

I know it's very fun. For those of you who dunno me, this is the first time in my life that I really dated. So it's very fun. Um, so that, honestly, that TA has taken up the vast majority of my time. And, um. Yeah, and we're signed up. You and I are both doing fodder school. We're looking forward to that. you, You've never done, you've, we've done the challenges before, but you've never done actual fodder school

Ellyn:

So maybe you can explain a little more about exactly what Fodder School is and we'll give you guys a link. So if you wanna sign up and play along with us, that'd be great.

Catherine:

Yeah, so it's a, it's a year long. So the Fodder challenge, let's start with that. The Fodder challenge is a month long challenge, um, hosted by, her name is Willa Wanders, or that's her social media name. Um, and every, every few days there's a new class, um, by a different teacher. and then the fodder challenge. Folds into fodder school, which is a year long creative school. And so every month there's a different teacher and for the first two weeks of the month you are learning like a new technique. And then the last two weeks of the month you, there's a project, um, something to, to make with that new technique. And for those of you for whom fodder is a new word.'cause it was for me when I heard of it, fodder is just really like anything that you can use in mixed media design. And so it might be. Paper that you've painted on, it might be. It's a lot of paper that you paint on, honestly. Um, but it could be like trinkets and things like we did shrinky Dinks one, was it last year we did shrinky Dinks. That was so much fun. Like I have played with all sorts of new, I think if you want an opportunity to play with new techniques and different supplies, like it's a really fun. Experience. So, and there's a really vibrant community online who participates. And even if you're not an online participator,'cause I'm not, um. There's just so much pretty inspiration to see. And I think one of the things that they've started doing in recent years,'cause I, I think I've done all of the years of fodder school at this point. Um, but one of the things they do, they've done, started doing recently is like, they'll have like bonus lessons where one teacher will be inspired by another teacher's lesson and then they'll do a spinoff of it. Okay. Of like, we're dying papers using this technique. And they'll be like, Ooh. But also you could use avocados to dye. And so that's what I'm gonna do later today. If I, if I get my work done, I'm gonna try using avocado dye, So I finally collected enough avocado pits to do it. So,

Ellyn:

Well, that sounds

Catherine:

yeah, I know it's supposed to make it purple.

Ellyn:

Okay. I

Catherine:

You would not expect that from avocado,

Ellyn:

I can't wait to see what you come up with. I, Yeah. I've, I've done the challenges the last few years, but I've never been in a position to sign up for the year long class. So this will be a first for me and we're gonna do a lot of it together and that'll be a lot of fun. So.

Catherine:

I'm really looking forward to

Ellyn:

Yeah. Yeah. I'm very excited about that. Um, and that's a great thing that we're looking forward to. I, I'm also working on. Preparing my quilt entries for Quilt Con. Um, Some of you may not be aware of the Modern Quilt Guild International. They have a big convention every year called Quilt Con, and I always enter a bunch of quilts and sometimes when I'm lucky. I get one into the show and that's really fun. Um, in the past three of my quilts have shown and they've all been group quilts, and I am entering more group quilts this year, but I'm also entering two or three individual quilts and I'm really hopeful that maybe, maybe one of those will get to show as well. That would be really fun for me. So.

Catherine:

That'd be really cool.

Ellyn:

of whether I have a quilt in the show or not, I love going, um. that's part of my community. I am part of a improv bee that's very active. If you, uh, were here last year, you might have, uh, might remember our interview with Charles Cameron. He's one of the members of my Be um, and we may interview some more of them this year, and that's just, they inspire me. They really push me, and, and they're. Really fun people. Really fun people. So we always have dinner together, hang out together, you know, and usually, well, every year since we formed, we've had at least one quilt in the show from one

Catherine:

That's amazing. I think that's really cool.

Ellyn:

Often two or three.

Catherine:

Mm-hmm.

Ellyn:

So it's a, it's a great group of creatives.

Catherine:

Absolutely.

Ellyn:

So I'm looking forward to more of that. I don't know. What else do we have coming up? Catherine and I are really noodling about having our own little getaway retreat, just the two of us, um, to make, art.

Catherine:

yeah, we're looking at Airbnbs or something where we can sit down and just have a weekend of nothing but art making.

Ellyn:

Yeah. No family. no tv, no. Well, maybe

Catherine:

I mean, maybe tv, but. We're not caring for anybody else. Yeah.

Ellyn:

And we'll, we'll bring you with us so you can see what

Catherine:

Absolutely. yeah,

Ellyn:

Catherine and I are part of another group that goes on retreats several times a year, so maybe

Catherine:

mm-hmm.

Ellyn:

maybe we'll share some of that with, as we do

Catherine:

Oh, that would be fun. Yeah. Yeah. Our sworn to so great group,

Ellyn:

They're a lot of fun.

Catherine:

they're very fun.

Ellyn:

lot of fun. So that's kind of what's coming up. Um, was there anything else you wanted to share today, Katherine?

Catherine:

Is there anything else I should be sharing that I forgot to share?

Ellyn:

Well, that's totally up to you.

Catherine:

Okay.

Ellyn:

I think when, when everybody,

Catherine:

major.

Ellyn:

When everybody sees your TEDx talk, we'll have a lot to talk about.

Catherine:

Probably gonna be some questions there that come out of that. So yeah,

Ellyn:

That'll

Catherine:

don't know that the, can I share the title of it with them? Is that

Ellyn:

Oh, please do.

Catherine:

Okay, so, so the reason Ellyn is alluding to that is because the title of the talk is the Sex Professor Who'd Never Had Sex. Oh. Um, so we'll just leave it at that and let you guys wait till it comes out

Ellyn:

for now. We'll leave it at that. Yeah. I've got a sneak preview, not of the TEDx talk or TED Talk. I haven't seen that, but, uh, our small group had a, a preview of the TED talk. She, she practiced on us before she refined. it.

Catherine:

Yes, I did.

Ellyn:

Or we refined it. So I'm looking forward to seeing the official version.

Catherine:

Honestly, so am I, because at this point. I don't really remember what I said anymore, so I mean, I know the general gist, but I'll be interested to see it as well, so

Ellyn:

it'll be great. So if there, are, if there are topics you want us to cover,

Catherine:

Mm-hmm.

Ellyn:

of us, uh, you could leave comments, um, on either the podcast or. The YouTube channel. uh, if I don't know if you have thoughts about people that you think it would be interesting for us to talk to, let us know.

Catherine:

Yeah, we would absolutely love if you, if you know somebody or if you are somebody who would be interested in talking about your creative process, talking about your, how you, how you approach things if you, I think it's really fun to hear just the many different ways that people approach. Just the world in general. But creativity is part of that. And there's so many similarities, but also we each have our own unique perspective and our own way of doing things. And we learn so much from hearing how other people think through processes and how they, um, how they approach a blank piece of paper. And whatever that piece of paper becomes, whether it's a song or a poem or a. piece of visual art, like,

Ellyn:

a meal.

Catherine:

really fun. Or a meal.

Ellyn:

And on

Catherine:

yeah, Because it might be a recipe. Is that what, because I don't wanna eat paper.

Ellyn:

No, not, not, we're not gonna eat on the air. No. That would be yucky.

Catherine:

Yeah, let's not do that. Okay.

Ellyn:

But I do want to eat like we always want to eat when we get

Catherine:

Oh, I mean. I mean, that's just like, like just implied. Whenever we make plans, there will be a meal involved. It's just what time of day dictates the No, it doesn't even dictate the type of meal.'cause we often go out for breakfast for lunch, don't we?

Ellyn:

Yeah, And, and the people at our breakfast spot know us and put us in our circle booth and yeah.

Catherine:

It's the Ellyn and Catherine spot. Yep.

Ellyn:

Something you should know about us. There you go. You're welcome. You are welcome. So we look forward to chatting with you more. It's fun to have you see our faces.

Catherine:

Yeah, we're really excited about this new, like having you be, we hope that it having us on YouTube that you'll feel like you can get to know us better and be more more of our community. Part of our community. Yeah,

Ellyn:

tuned. We'll be starting some great interviews very soon, and uh, we'll see you there.

Catherine:

Thanks you guys. Bye

Ellyn:

bye.

People on this episode

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Catherine Dutton

Co-host
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Ellyn Zinsmeister

Co-host