I'm listening

On a lazy sunday (which seems rare these days) I've been painting the walls in the hall. I decided to finish the nearly empty bucket so I wouldn't be greeted with any more unexpected painting opportunities...

So while I was busy I decided to catch up with some of my favourite podcasts. I don't always have time to listen, but some tasks - like painting the walls, or when I'm knotting or stringing beads - are so inviting to listen to other people tell stories. I kind of miss the days of the radio plays... I remember taping a radio play about Felix Mendelssohn who wrote his first opera as a teenager and my nerdy 14-year old self thought that was so cool...and it prompted me to try some composing as well. I loved discovering composers, artists and other famous dead people and how they were as kids. It was reassuring that they were often just as awkward and weirdly obsessed with music or art or whatever their thing was.

Now I still love to discover how artists live and work or what makes them tick, and if they're alive and well it's a big bonus! Hehe. So I listened to The jealous curator, who has a conversation with a different artist each week. I love how relaxed the conversations are although there's room for the more challenging aspects of creative life (like that pesky inner critic)...but that's often exactly what appeals to me. The artists are usually new to me, mostly American or Canadian but there are some Belgians on there too (not on podcast though). It's great to discover new artists!

There are a couple of other blogs that also feature artists: for Dutch speakers there's the excellent blog of Hilde van Canneyt, Gesprekken met hedendaagse kunstenaars, and I also check Freunde von Freunden. In this international blog a wide range of creative professionals over the world get interviewed and pictures of their home and studio are shown, but I don't always feel a connection with them. I guess it has to do with the more formal style of the interviews, the focus on success and confidence, and the often incredibly gorgeous interiors. I mean, they are fabulous and to some extent inspiring, but the they don't always feel lived in.

This was so different in the On your desk photo series on author and artist Terri Windling's blog, which consisted of just a few personal snapshots of the studio work table or the writing desk of writers and artists who visited her blog, often with glimpses in their book cases or the pinned up inspirations and their feline or canine companions... It felt way more real to me, and intimate. Our (creative) lives aren't polished, nor should they be...

On my desk (or rather next to it), a few months ago:
my thesis assistants Assepoes and Isaura
(and Takkie, my trusty USB dog)