In Episode 18 of the Creative Work Hour Podcast, released on November 18, 2024, hosts and guests delve into often-overlooked questions about creativity. They share insights on motivation, self-discovery, and the therapeutic value of creativity. The episode explores how creativity impacts daily life and features dream collaborations with historical and contemporary figures like Johannes Brahms, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Michelle Obama. Listeners are encouraged to reflect on their own creative questions and reach out with topics they'd like to hear discussed.

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Creative Work Hour Podcast. Today is November the 18th, 2024 and with us we have Gretchen Alessandra, we have Bobby, we have Devin, we have Bailey, Bobby W and Adrienne as well as shadows pub. I'm gonna start us out with a question and what we're doing during the month of November is we're asking a question, giving some answers and it's national podcast post month and this is our entry for that. So what question about creativity do you wish that people would ask more often? What question about creativity do you wish that people would ask more often? 

Alessandra, you have a thought on that?

I do. I love this question. I love it when people say, what motivated you to do that? And I usually respond in laughter, but It came out of a story of when I was in uni, I went to university with a fellow clarinetist from high school. So we were roommates and I had my very first drink while there in my freshman year. Devin was there to see it. It wasn't pretty. So I was wrecked the next morning and she never had a drink at all. And she stood over me, offered me a cold, wet cloth, which I gratefully grabbed and put on my face. And then she said, what motivated you to do this? That's where that question came from. And it's just my favorite question in regards to creativity.

That's a cool story. Gretchen, do you have a forward on that? What question about creativity do you wish that people would ask you more often?

It's kind of a hard 1 to think about. I don't really, I guess I don't really think about what people ask me about creativity. I think motivation is one thing or another. Oftentimes it's what I ask myself about what's the next step on what I'm going to do and I suppose that's the same type of thing. What questions should I ask myself the most? What is the motivating? What do I really want to do? Or sometimes why am I doing this? Is it going to benefit my creativity? Is that my goal right now to increase my creativity? Or can I just accept that it is the way it is right now? It's not right, wrong, good or bad. It just is.

Devin, do you have a thought on that?

I would like people talking about what are the healing uses of creativity? How can creativity be used for self-care and yeah, as a therapeutic outlet? Because I think that's an important aspect of it that can just be totally for our benefit and for other people's benefit. I mean, the beautiful thing about creativity is it can help us and other people if they connect with us and are like, oh, you're struggling with that too, I get that. This was helpful. And I think creativity sometimes gets blown out of proportion and creating a masterpiece of some kind. Here's my great life work. And maybe, hey, I just made a meme today because I felt really down. And here's, here's what I did to make myself feel better until someone says, Oh, you know what, I was having a bad day too. That made me feel better. I wish we were talking more about the simple, helpful uses of creativity in that regard, because it really can, like they say about humor, can do good like a medicine.

Right. Yeah, I can relate to that. When I write a blog post, I somehow convince myself it has to be the most comprehensive blog post, the most authoritative blog post. Nobody can write one better. And so it ends up never getting done because obviously I can't finish it because how can you possibly do that? It's, you know, it doesn't make sense. Bailey, you had your hand raised. What question do you wish people would ask more about creativity?

So I can have 2 answers to this 1 that I kind of like to ask myself, which is what can I learn about myself through creativity? A lot of what I write is me just exploring the world and things around me. So I feel like for me, it's a lot about learning about myself as well. So that's the question I like to ask myself or want to ask myself more. But in general, I want to know where it comes from. I want to know why the brain just naturally is creative. And even like sociologically, like why people value art and creativity. That's something I would just love to know the answer to. If there is an answer, there might not be.

Bobby B

Yeah, like Bailey, there's actually 2 things. And I mean, one is, How do you come to deciding when it's good enough? Because we can sit there and dwell and fine tune forever until it never gets out there. So I mean, That's always a fun one to understand. But the other thing for me is what's been the 1 or 2 things in your life that have framed how you view creativity today? What were those life events? Was there an influencer, you know, an article, an event that really reshaped how you view creativity for yourself?

Bobby Wasserman, do you have a thought on that? What question do you wish people would ask you, Mark, about creativity?

I think what people end up asking is, well, how did you do that? How did what inspire you? What made you think of X or Y or whatever you're doing. And that's only, you know, that's, it's interesting because I don't listen, I don't look for it. It's something that I ask myself, but it's interesting when other people will come up and say, oh, how did, why did you do that? Or how did you do that? So, and I do a little, I have a company and really create a new space. So that's, that's kind of when I'm starting to get those questions.

Adriennen, do you have any thoughts on that?

I really couldn't think of how to frame this, but it's more like what I wish more people would do is identify and change their negative belief that they're not creative. Because I had to do the same thing. I was an engineer, people said I'm not creative, engineers are not creative. We can't write, we can't do any of these things, but what we do is actually creative. How do you get those video games, that's people like me, right? Give us some creative ways. So I think that's the biggest thing is like, people don't even know how to, don't even ask me questions about creativity because they don't think they're creative.

Right so just make the assumption. 

Shadows do you have a thought on that? What question do you wish that people would ask more often about creativity?

Let's see people ask me questions. That'd be any question I can answer in 10 words or less. Questions I'd ask myself would be, why this, why now, and do I want to do anything with it? 

Gretchen: I think one of the things that I get asked is, because of my photography, I get asked, 

What were you looking for? And it's not so much what I'm looking for, it's what I'm allowing myself to see. It's beyond, you know, what we, the convention and like Adrienne said, it's, it's, you know, breaking down that barrier of saying, oh, I'm not creative, creative, when if you break that barrier, and you open that wall, and you take away the labels of what you think creativity is or what you think beauty is or what you think a landscape should be or you think an art piece should be and you actually look around and you discover that's the biggest part of creativity. It's that part of the thing that motivates you to grow and to keep learning and to evolve and to take a next level and a next step. And it's kind of like a life force.

Right.

And that's coming from a teacher, so you can take that to the bank. Onr final one just to end us out here. If you could collaborate, and I'll call on you, if you could collaborate with anyone, alive or historical, who would it be, Alessandra?

Oh, I can't help but think of Johannes Brahms. 

Wow.

And I love him because, you know, like we use Discord to keep up with each other. He was using letters to keep up with his composer friends and musician friends, and they would have meetups just like we do with Creative Work Hour. And he would write to his friend and say, oh, make sure that you pack your B-flat clarinet, because I've written something for B-flat clarinet and I've got the piano part ready and it's a sonata and I'll probably have a third movement of it finished by the time you get here. I'm like, this is a very contemporary conversation. It sounds like stuff that we say to each other. Like, yeah, bring your thing. Bring your liquor stick. I've written up a little thing for you.

Gretchen, if you could collaborate with anyone alive or historical, who would you collaborate 

with? 

It would probably be Georgia O'Keefe because of her connection, not only with photography, but her connection with nature and seeing beyond and abstract that she could do just she just yes plus she was very yeah she just was an amazingly amazing one.

Big fan right, big fun! Devin anyone how I go historical, who would you collaborate with?

Patti Smith, like the godmother of punk and a brilliant poet and a seemingly really decent person would love to hang out and talk creativity with Patty Smith. 

Bailey.

This might be kind of weird for music, but Nikola Tesla. I find him so enigmatic and we don't know much about his inventions, but what little we do, it was brilliant for his time. So I would just love to meet him. And I don't know, he wasn't very mathematical and even liked music. So I would love to compose a piece for him.

He was truly amazing. It's a shame how he met his demise in the end and the whole thing with Edison. 

Bobby Wasserman, who would you choose to collaborate with?

I honestly cannot answer that question. There are so many people. So I need to pass.

I totally get that. Adrienne, how about you?

Well, I'm in awe of a lot of people. I like what people do, but there's not somebody like I would actually want to sit down and talk with, I think about that. But except for like, I am enamored by Michelle Obama. I absolutely love her. Like the way that she comes from a more analytical background, being a lawyer, but she's funny. She knows a lot of things. She knows how to communicate well. See, I think she'd be fun even on shows. She's just so much fun. She knows how to sing in the garage, knows that dance, you know, does all these things. I think it'd be like we'd be besties.

She's truly an amazing person. Yeah. Shadows, who would you collaborate with?

There's a lot, but I think most recently would be Tich Nahant. I find a lot of his stuff keeps coming up as I work through the Daily Echoes as reference material.

I can see that. Bobby B, how about you?

First name that popped into my head was George Takei from Star Trek. He is so wildly diverse in his thoughts and curiosities and interests that it would just be a braingasm to spend time with him.

Yeah, I was thinking to myself as everyone else was answering this question, who would I pick? At first I was, you know, on Bobby's team, like Bobby Wasserman, I don't know, I have no idea. And something inside said Winston Churchill, but I don't know why, I don't know if that's just because I recognize the name. But then as we went on through the shares, I thought of Acker Bilk when Alessandra mentioned the clarinet, Acker Bilk, and she referred to it as the licorice stick. It reminded me of Aqa Bilq. Of course he was very famous for playing stranger on the shore on the clarinet. 

But it's happened again. You've wasted another perfectly few great minutes when you could have been doing something else but you chose to listen to the Creative Work Hour podcast. If you have a question that you would like to hear the team discuss you can send an email createableworkhour.com