Welcome to Creative Crossroads: Meet Your Hosts Ellyn & Catherine

In this introductory episode of Creative Crossroads, Catherine and Ellyn introduce themselves and their vision for the podcast. They discuss their backgrounds as lifelong creators, their passion for community-building, and their unique perspectives on creativity. The episode lays the foundation for future discussions with talented artists and explores how creativity impacts both the individual and the community. Join Catherine and Ellyn as they invite you into a vibrant community of makers and share insights that will inspire your own creative journey.

00:00 Welcome to Creative Crossroads

00:33 Meet Your Hosts: Catherine and Ellyn

00:43 Ellyn's Creative Journey

01:47 Building Creative Communities

03:17 Catherine's Creative Background

03:39 The Intersection of Creativity and Research

04:39 Vision for the Podcast

06:14 Encouraging Listener Creativity

07:35 Conclusion and Future Episodes

Transcript

Ellyn 0:01

Welcome to Creative Crossroads, your destination for artistic inspiration.

Catherine 0:07

I'm Catherine,

Ellyn 0:08

and I'm Ellyn,

Catherine 0:09

and we are your creativity ambassadors. Are you ready to unlock your artistic potential? Join us as we explore the fascinating world of creativity across all mediums.

Ellyn 0:19

Each week, we'll sit down with talented artists who will share their unique creative processes challenges and triumphs.

Catherine 0:27

Whether you're looking for inspiration, techniques, or simply a community of like minded creators, Creative Crossroads is here for you. Today we thought we'd tell you a little bit about ourselves and our vision for this podcast. So Ellyn, why don't you tell us a little bit about who you are?

Ellyn 0:43

Okay, I think like a lot of people I am a lifelong maker. I always Even as a child loved making things and I grew up in a creative house where making things was always an option. all of my Christmas presents were craft kits and different, trying out different things. As I grew older, I leaned primarily to fiber arts. I love quilting and sewing. I actually started as a garment maker, but I never quite followed the patterns the way they were written. I always added some kind of creative flair. I'm a weaver. I love to weave. That's a newer craft for me, but I enjoy it very much. I really thrive in community. I don't like to be isolated. I do enjoy an occasional day in my studio, but I like to make with others, to create with others. I feed off of my community and I love bringing other creatives together as well. So that's pretty much me.

Catherine 1:43

Why don't you talk a little bit about different ways that you've created community within your creative world?

Ellyn 1:47

Oh, sure, I think I've brought together like people from our Quilt Guild in small group situations, created, You know, different small groups that sew together or do other things together. I've created several bees both traditional bees where people make blocks for each other from traditional patterns and a really fun improv bee where we have folks from all across the nation that sew for each other and interact and we've become really fun. A real community, not just people who sew for each other but people who enjoy each other's company and feed off of each other's creativity, those kinds of things. And I'm always inviting somebody over to make with me in my house.

Catherine 2:34

Yeah. I remember when I first met you, you were doing like Crafty Tuesdays.

Ellyn 2:39

Oh, that's right. Yeah, I'd forgotten about that. Yeah, for a long time, the first Tuesday of every month, I would open up my house to any creatives who wanted to come and do whatever it is that they do. We'd have people around the table sewing. or paper crafting, crocheting all different kinds of things. And it was always fun to see what everybody was doing and to learn from each other and explore creativity together.

Catherine 3:06

That's so cool. You are really good at bringing people together for. creative purposes.

Ellyn 3:10

Thank you. What about you, Catherine What do you bring to the table that's different?

Catherine 3:14

I think like you, I am a lifelong maker and I grew up also in a home where creativity was something that was highly encouraged and I can't imagine my life without that. It's interesting. I meet people who are like, Oh yeah, I'm not creative at all. And that just doesn't resonate with me. Because I think that is such an integral part of my identity. But in addition to being a lifelong creator, I am also a researcher. And my field is human development and family studies. But within that, I look a lot at, like, how creativity impacts how we interact with the people in our lives, right? Like the important people in our lives. So I come at this from a slightly different angle, which is more like that scientific research idea and you're coming at it from such a practical standpoint, which is, I think, compliments each other really nicely.

Ellyn 4:00

Right. I don't have. PhD in family studies,

Catherine 4:05

which you don't need. Absolutely. I generally don't recommend them.

Ellyn 4:11

No, but I come from a lifetime of experiences and my own practical experiences.

Catherine 4:17

Yeah, you do. And I think that like that experience, I don't know. I love talking to you about just the creative process, because you've seen it with so many different people, which is really fun.

Ellyn 4:29

So it'll be fun to explore those things together and share them with other people, our conversations. What do you see us leading into with the podcast? Where do you see us going?

Catherine 4:41

I see that as an opportunity for us to learn about creativity and to explore it Both from what the research says about it, but also how people are actually doing it in real life, right? And so we can look at numbers and existing research, but we can also hear from people about how they articulate their creative process. And then, I don't know, we'll see what comes out of that.

Ellyn 5:03

That's the piece that I'm really excited about is talking to other creatives, getting to know them and their history and how that impacts what they're doing today and their process, how they create.

Catherine 5:16

Yeah, I think that's where we really started with all of this. We were meeting, we were like getting together and making art. We met through Quilt Guild. We were getting together making art, and then we started talking about what is it to be creative? And I think for both of us, we went through this transition of we were mostly quilters. We mostly identified as a quilter, and then we moved into like painting and paper crafting and all these other different ways of being creative. And so we started asking How do other people do this process?

Ellyn 5:43

And having conversations outside of our little creativity days. I love that my calendar always has at least one day out in the future that says art with Catherine.

Catherine 5:53

Yeah, art with Ellyn. Yeah. And I love those days because we make something right. Sometimes we plan it and sometimes we just. Bring our own supplies and figure it out from there.

Ellyn 6:05

So what do you hope? I think, we can bring to the listeners. I'm thinking about how we can spark their creativity, maybe get them thinking in a different way.

Catherine 6:17

Yeah, and I think sometimes just hearing about how other people are approaching something helps you to think about how you can learn a little bit from other people's processes.

Ellyn 6:26

On the other hand, it might also affirm what they're already doing.

Catherine 6:29

This is very true. Yeah, sometimes it's nice to know you're not the only one.

Ellyn 6:34

Sometimes we think, Oh, I'm so weird in the way I do things or odd in the way I approach creativity. But I think what we're going to find, and we'll see, but I think what we're going to find is that people are all over the map with their processes.

Catherine 6:49

I think you're right. And I think what we'll find is that there's a lot of different paths to getting to that creative outlet that people need

Ellyn 6:58

and maybe it'll help some of us Get some of those works in progress out of the closet and up on the design wall and actually turn them into finished Products, I think that would be great.

Catherine 7:09

Some people prioritize finishing things. Some people just focus on process

Ellyn 7:13

And that's a great thing

Catherine 7:16

It really is.

Ellyn 7:17

That's a great thing. So I'm looking forward to getting some new ideas and new thoughts in my brain.

Catherine 7:22

As am I, and I'm excited to meet like the really cool people that we're going to be interviewing.

Ellyn 7:27

Me too. So thanks for joining us at the crossroads. We look forward to spending lots of time with you and

Catherine 7:36

you can find us wherever you get your podcasts and until then

Ellyn 7:40

keep creating

Catherine 7:41

and we'll see you at the crossroads.