Lauren and Rachael answer your questions and make fun chaotic detours along the way!
Lauren and Rachael answer your questions and make fun chaotic detours along the way!
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The transcript for this episode can be found here!
Rachael: Welcome to Chaotic Creatives, a show about embracing the chaos that comes from living a creative life.
Lauren: We're your hosts, two self-proclaimed chaotic creative gals. I'm Lauren Hom, better known as Hom Sweet Hom on the internet. I'm a designer, letterer, muralist and most recently chef.
Rachael: Yay. I think I yay every time. I'm Rachael Renee. I am your internet hype gal. I am here to encourage you to use play as a tool to live a more creative and fulfilling life. And today we are answering your questions.
We asked a few weeks ago for you to submit your questions for us to answer on the pod and you delivered. I have the list of questions sort of in front of me and I'm going to take the lead on asking them, Lauren?
Lauren: Do you want to move stuff on the table?
Rachael: No, it's actually perfect. I have it zoomed in quite a bit for my aged eyes. I'm going to kick us off. I kind of organized them, but I'm sure we'll go off on our own tangents.
Lauren: Cool.
Rachael: Let's get started. The first one, do have any announcements you'd like to make, I guess before?
Lauren: Nope.
Rachael: Great. Same. That's the struggle with recording these a little bit early. We both have things we could announce for today when we're recording, but by the time they listen, it's not applicable anymore.
Lauren: That is true. I guess we could just cut this out if it doesn't end up happening, but I am most likely hosting another mural workshop at the end of July, the last weekend of July, here in Detroit. While I'm still in the studio space, I figured I may as well make the most of it, and I've been craving a lot of in-person gatherings and it's really been scratching my itch of combining teaching creative stuff with hosting. Instead of hosting a dinner party, I'm hosting a workshop.
Rachael: I love that.
Lauren: It does scratch some of that itch of party planning.
Rachael: Absolutely. You saying that you're hosting that reminded me that I do have an announcement, even though I was ready to just roll right by it.
Lauren: I know.
Rachael: It's on the same day. I'm hosting a Play with Clay workshop at the ceramic studio, Still Life Studios, and we can drop the registration for both in the show notes, but I'm really excited to force people to have fun with clay. I love forced fun, and it's going to give people an opportunity to kind of experiment and search for that wonder and curiosity instead of, I need to make a mug. It needs to be functional. I have to sell this. So I'm really excited about that.
Lauren: Yay, two great options of things to do in Detroit the last weekend of July.
Rachael: Absolutely.
Lauren: When it’s hot as balls.
Rachael: Come and visit us.
Okay, let's jump into the questions. The first one, and I'm just going to read these verbatim. I could have done a better job about putting them into Rachael speak, but I'm not going to. "I may have missed it, but I was wondering how long you've both been doing creative work and how old you both are." Oh yeah, I wanted to kick us off with the millennial ankle question. "Lauren is definitely a millennial with millennial ankle. And Rachael's Gen Z?" I think it's funny, when I read this, I texted Lauren right away and I was like, what's millennial ankle?
So, I'll let you start on answering how long you've been doing creative work, how old you are, if you feel like sharing, and we'll go from there.
Lauren: Absolutely. I'm 33 years old.
Rachael: Confirmed millennial! In my head, maybe Kristle has to add this, an air horn. 33 millennial.
Lauren: When I first saw that question, I was like, I guess it means I dress my age? What is it?
Rachael: Yeah. Kristle had to explain it to us.
Lauren: Just the cut, the cut of pants?
Rachael: Discourse of the cut of pants and length of socks.
Lauren: It's funny because I haven't worn socks at all, but the low cut Vans, I understand.
Rachael: Yeah, so maybe they thought there were no show socks under there and you're like, not this gross girl.
Lauren: No, just-
Rachael: Straight feet.
Lauren: ... free balling it.
Rachael: How long have you been doing creative work?
Lauren: I guess through a professional lens, I started doing... I think the first time I ever got paid for creative work was sophomore year of college, but I've been doing this full-time, working self-employed, since 2014, so 10 years self-employed doing freelance design work, but started tinkering around in college in 2010.
Rachael: Awesome. And actually, I guess this may come as a surprise to this listener/watcher, but I'm older than Lauren. I'm 34, also a millennial, and I have a jobby job. I have never been self-employed fully, but I have been always a creative person and I've cycled through various creative iterations of my business. I guess the most official version of that would've been in 2014 for me too. I started my stationary business, which is now no longer a thing, although I am itching to make-
Lauren: Goods.
Rachael: ... products right now. I'm working on that. Had a really fun design working session where people could join and give feedback. It was fun.
Lauren:
Did you get real time feedback?
Rachael: Yeah, it was fun. Only a couple people showed up, which is absolutely fine and more intimate. I shared my merch designs and I'm going to make hats again in a new colorway from one of the same designs as last time and also patches. Because I love patches, that's what I collect when I go on vacation. Also, we had a really nice conversation about Girl Scout patches, how when you do an activity you get a patch. And so as a chaotic creative who has a million interests, what a perfect thing to get the patch that identifies your creative interest at that time.
I'm still working on that, but they offered me feedback on colorways and we had lovely discussion and it was really fun. So yeah, 10 years for me too. It's just had a lot of different iterations.
Lauren: I think most people have been doing creative work for a lot longer than they ever started wanting to get paid for it. It's all setting the stage for future experiments.
Rachael: Absolutely. Yeah, we're just chaotic, creative gals.
Okay, so next question. "What's your definition of chaos?" When we talk about chaotic creative, what does that mean for you?
Lauren: The best, I guess, metaphor I can think of is when your eyes are bigger than your stomach. When you're so hungry and you only have so much room.
Rachael: That's a great analogy.
Lauren: It's like showing up to a buffet hungry.
Rachael: Going to the grocery store hungry.
Lauren: Ooh, rough. Yeah, I think that's my definition of chaos, because before I ever identified as a chaotic creative, I used to say creativity is an all-you-can-eat buffet. Which is true. Anything is possible, I think that's the wonderful thing, but you only have so much space on your plate.
Rachael: That is really such a good analogy because, we're all creative, there's something for everyone, but we only have so much time and capacity to be able to actually [inaudible 00:08:04]
Lauren: Before they kick you out of the buffet.
Rachael: Yeah, yeah.
Lauren: There's a time limit on every buffet.
Rachael: Wow, I haven't been to a buffet in a really long time.
Lauren: Me neither. Should our next, next meetup be at a buffet? No, absolutely not.
Rachael: I am never opposed to that. Are you kidding? Love to eat.
Lauren: There's no Michigan buffet chains?
Rachael: I'm sure there are.
Lauren: We Had Hometown Buffet growing up. I don't know if it's national, but it was in California.
Rachael: Oh, buffet is in the name.
Lauren: Yeah, it was a chain of buffets.
Rachael: This is a lack in my life. We're going to have to remedy this.
I think my definition of chaos is, I don't know that I can top that. That was perfect.
Lauren: You can piggyback on mine.
Rachael: Chef's kiss, if you will.
Lauren: Less labor done. Take it easy.
Rachael: It's team effort. We're co-hosts after all. I think it's just an interest in many, many things. I would say chaos is how I see myself. When I come up with an idea, I buy the materials for it, I start working on it, then I don't have time, and then I lose interest and then I jump back to something else. I think what we talk about in this podcast is wrangling that, finding focus, niching for now, and being able to actually work on things, knowing that the other things will always be there or there are ebbs and flows to our creative interests.
I think when I define myself as a chaotic creative, which I have been in a couple of my bios, like my professional bio lately, it's fun. Rachael's a chaotic creative. I really mean I'm interested in so many things and right now I might want to talk about quilting or ceramics, and next week I might be talking about something completely different. And that's chaos, baby.
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Question number three. "Do you think some of the ideas you've talked about on this season will help you tame or reshape some of the chaos?" Have you felt any insights after some of our conversations?
Lauren: Yes. I just lost my train of thought. So yes, I have felt like these conversations have been creatively therapeutic for me, in a way that you and I are just talking out loud, which is great. And I think a lot of times what doesn't help the creative chaos in the brain is, when you're creating alone and you're just alone with your thoughts and there's a million things ping ponging around in here. To be able to talk it out with someone else is, it alleviates some of that pressure. It helps you actually think through things, because no one does anything alone.
But as someone who's social and somewhat extroverted, I still spend most of my time alone and most of my hobbies, I actually prefer to do alone because I can focus. I'm really good in the weeds and I don't have to worry about how I look or my posture. I'm just like…
Rachael: Yeah, it's funny, I-
Lauren: A gremlin.
Rachael: ... 1000% also a gremlin.
Lauren: And you're literally in your basement.
Rachael: I'm literally in the basement. It's funny because I'm a very aesthetic person. I obviously care about my style and my home and everything, but the basement is the dumping ground for all this stuff. It is just where I throw the boxes and where all the craft supplies live and also where the litter boxes are.
Lauren: Also, so nice and cold down there.
Rachael: I have been, this week, while it's been hot, I'm just like, what can I do in the basement?
Lauren: It's a nice temperature down there.
Rachael: It does feel really good. But I also, it has a drop ceiling, but I had to have some electrical replaced a couple of years ago, and so they just cut a channel in the ceiling. And I also like to record a lot of my creative processes because I want make reels that are, hey, just a reminder, doesn't have to be pretty. But it is so sad when I'm recording something in my basement and there's a carved out ceiling, and I'm usually in mismatched sweatpants. Sometimes I wear, in the winter, I wear my hood and then I put my headphones over my... It's just very not aesthetically pleasing. Yeah, I'm also a gremlin.
Lauren: I do feel like, I don't know if it is tamed any of the chaos, but it has alleviated some of... It's helped to make sense of some of it.
Rachael: Yeah. I used this analogy in a previous episode, but I keep thinking about my creative path as a braid where some of the hair may branch out and try things, but then through conversation with you, through talking ideas out, through trying things, it refines it back into the full path. But it's winding and it has a chance to... For whatever reason, that image always comes into my head when I'm thinking about.
Lauren: That's really beautiful. And the first time we met, you were wearing your little milkmaid braid crown.
Rachael: I can't wait until my hair's long enough to do. It's probably getting close.
Lauren: When you started talking about braids, I was like, oh, I can't relate because I've never braided my hair before.
Rachael: Ever?
Lauren: Ever
Rachael: Have you braided other people's hair? Okay. Do you know how to French braid?
Lauren: No, A lot of the girls would wear French braids in softball because it keeps your hair close to your head, so it's good under a helmet. But no, because I'm so vain about... Ever since I've been little, I like having poofy hair, even though I have a short haircut. Now, I'm just like [inaudible 00:13:59].
Rachael: I love it. That's fascinating to me.
Lauren: It's just a hairstyle that I've never gravitated towards. Maybe because I assumed I wouldn't look good in it, or it just never felt like me. It's just one of those... I don't know. We all have some kind of intuition about... I think it's important to have a willingness to try new things, but there are also some things where we're just like, no.
Rachael: You just already know that it's not for you. Yeah, absolutely. That's funny.
Okay. We knew this was going to happen, but I'm trying to think of what the original question was.
Lauren: Oh, yes.
Rachael: Taming the chaos.
Lauren: These conversations helped you tame any of the chaos?
Rachael: Yeah, I definitely think, maybe not tame, but like you said, maybe prioritize more? Access.
Lauren: Process.
Rachael: Process? Yeah. And thinking about things from a new perspective. You and I both like to work alone in our gremlin states, and I think when I'm noodling on something again and again and again, it's hard to find a solution because you're just...
Lauren: You're stuck in your loop and you need something to break the loop.
Rachael: And it just takes a conversation. And sometimes it's not even the conversation about that thing. I mentioned to Lauren, some things I'm working through right now before we started recording, and we're not going to talk about it on this episode answering questions, but I bet when I go home I'll be like, okay, these are my next steps. So I feel like just talking through the creative process, whether it's about a specific challenge or chaotic craft or not, it still helps to, like you said, process and shift perspective.
I feel like this is a good time for you to share your mulberry story. If you're willing?
Lauren: Yes, absolutely.
Rachael: I feel like I always put you on the spot.
Lauren: No, it's totally fine. Before I share the mulberry story, I was going to say I feel like it's like us offering pseudo therapy to each other, because what therapists have offered me is another perspective, a space to process your thoughts.
Rachael: Which is also what we always do when we go to dinner or hang in our personal lives and why we decided to start the podcast.
Lauren: Absolutely. Okay. Mulberry time.
I know you normally ask this question at the end of the pods, about what are you excited about? What are you working on? This weekend, I finally took myself urban foraging, which for anyone who's not familiar, is looking for edible plants around your city and taking, harvesting them and then cooking with them.
It's something I've been interested in for a long time as a gardener, and now that I don't have an outdoor space here in this apartment, I was like, I need to get outside more. The weather's getting nice. Now it's too hot. I was looking for a group to do it or some kind of class, but I couldn't find one. And so I did a lot of online research on my own, and I've been wanting to do this for six months. I have been waiting for permission through a group or something. And it is in general best to go with someone else for safety, especially if you're going into off the beaten path, especially as a solo woman, that's probably not the best idea, but I'm just going to, it's a state park down by the river or public lots of land.
Rachael: In your neighborhood, that you're familiar with.
Lauren: That I'm familiar with. In the daylight. The thing I've been foraging is mulberries and juneberries because they're easy to spot around the city. I finally was like, I'm going to stop waiting to do this. And I have enough... I've done all the deep Reddit research, read all the guides online, I think have enough of a bearing to give this a try. I'll start with berries. I know the ones that aren't going to kill me. And even then, you're supposed to take a little bite and see what you feel after a couple hours, but I know what a mulberry looks like.
So I started doing it on Saturday, and I think I texted Kristle about it. I was like, "I just found a new hobby and it's something I've been wanting to do for a long time. I finally did it. And whatever the love at first sight version of a hobby is, that's what I feel about this." It is such a nice way to spend time outside and to notice my neighborhood in a completely different light around me.
In one episode, you talked about looking at the colors in the post office or if there's interesting rocks or feathers in your neighborhood. I think through having an interest in foraging and now looking up at trees and plants and seeing like, oh, what's that? Being able to identify things, it's like bird watching, but for plants, where I'm looking at things with a new sense of awe and childlike wonder and it's really sweet and nourishing, and I get to spend time outside.
Rachael: I love that.
Lauren: Now I have a ton of mulberries.
Rachael: I feel like it relates back to the question of, maybe not taming or reshaping the chaos, but giving a fresh perspective. I'm not saying that me talking about finding the colors of the rainbow in the post office is what made you enjoy this new sense of wonder in your neighborhood, but the more that we talk about this, the more I think we have the capacity to notice those things.
Lauren: And I also think those conversations, I don't remember them verbatim, but things get planted in your subconscious and there's little sticky bits that your mind clings onto. And maybe they're just good post-it note reminders in your brain of, Hmm, I should do this. Or if you notice, oftentimes it takes the existence of someone else, a third party perspective, to be, you talk about this a lot, or this is coming up a lot for you, or checking in with you about how projects are going that holds you accountable or reminds you like, oh yeah, I have been saying I've been wanting to do that thing, or I feel this way. And so it is helpful.
Rachael: Yeah, I have a similar sort of experience to that. And I'm sure that on previous episodes I have talked about my repulsion to running.
Lauren: Oh, same.
Rachael: However, the past couple of months I've been thinking about it. And normally that means I'm in a pretty low state, maybe a depressive episode, where I'm like, I need to run to just process my feelings.
Lauren: Because your body, burning off energy and moving your body is a way to process emotion.
Rachael: Absolutely. And an aggressive form of moving your body is running when you're not a runner.
Lauren: Tuckering yourself out, yeah.
Rachael: However, it's been a consistent thought. I should try this, I should try this. One of my friends just did a half marathon.
Lauren: Great.
Rachael: And so I texted her and, truly, I'm not trying to do that. I texted her and same as you, I'm like, “It's nice out. I want to get out of the house.” I very much could stay in my basement forever and work on little projects and clean my house and just be satisfied, but I don't want to do that. I need to see people.
So I texted her and I asked if she did any running programs, and she shared some information with me and I did my first run, and I told her about it, and she was like, "What was your favorite thing that you noticed?" And I was like, oh my God. This is what I tell people to do all the time, to pay attention to the little things, find the cool rocks, whatever. But of course, in the moment in running, I'm like, my body hurts. This is hard. I should be more in shape than. But I actually did notice a couple of things and that made me pay attention to things, I guess, with a little bit more joy on the following runs.
And then I told her about that and how impactful her just asking that simple question was for me. And then I decided to document, because I'm documenter, love to write things down, journaling, photos, videos, all the things. And I'm like, okay, I did one week of this training program, so I did three runs. I want to write down what my favorite little thing was. Also how I'm feeling after the first week. I decided to make them into little mini poems, the things I saw, so it's one or two sentences about each thing.
I just feel like I have never written poetry. I like to read it. I wouldn't consider myself a poet, but I'm taking my own advice of who cares if I'm bad. It's just a nice lyrical way for me to document what I saw in my effort to pay attention in this experience. Like you said, when someone else points it out, she asked a question that I am asking people all the time, pay attention to this. What did you notice? And it was lovely. I think just human interaction and connection helps you pull that creativity or pull that inspiration out of you.
Lauren: Oh yeah, absolutely. One thing that's been interesting about foraging too is, because I'm out in public people ask me what I'm doing and talk to me about it. The flip side, I do want to share this story. I don't know where this is going to fit in, but-
Rachael: That's okay.
Lauren: ... the flip side of that is, this is why I should go with a group, men will approach you. I was telling Kristle the story this morning because... For anyone who's feeling bashful about putting their work out there or sharing what they do, or even just being themselves online, just pitching, whatever it may be, advocating for your art and sharing it with the world. I was picking some juneberries in the park, and a man came up to me and started asking me about it. And then he was like, "Oh, I want to give you my card. And as he reached for it, he was like, "You're not married, are you?" And I was like, oh, no, here we go. And so I was like, just get me out of here. So I was like, "Yeah, I actually am." And hiding my hand to make sure he's not looking for a ring.
And he goes, "Oh, that's too bad." And then he proceeds to go, "Well, in that case I also do plumbing and central air." And started to pitch me on his business and handed me his business card. And I was standing there just like, the audacity of this man. I know so many people who are scared to even be like, "Here's a drawing I made." Or, "I'm available for freelance work." And in a five minute span, this man had the courage to hit on me and pitch his business, all cold. And I was like, artists need more of this energy because we're not doing that.
Rachael: No way.
Lauren: I was just, wow. I was more stunned by the just audacity. He wasn't being super creepy. It was daytime. I was like, just please leave. He left promptly. But I was like, that was impressive.
Rachael: I mean, not to always be talking about The Artist's Way, but Julia Cameron talks about that. She says in the chapter on making it as an artist that it's usually audacity, not talent, that makes someone a successful artist because there are so many successful or talented artists that don't put themselves out there. And it's taking the risk that actually... Maybe someday you will think of that man and call him to clean your pipes. I don't know. That sounded horny. I didn't mean it that way. Okay, let's move on.
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Rachael: Hey pals, we are still getting used to our fancy new mics, which you may have seen. And as we were making adjustments, we took a pause on answering the questions, so we're splitting this into two episodes. This was the first part, and the second part will be out in two weeks.