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June 1, 2025 16 mins

We're diving into some creative mashup magic today, friends! Timothy Kimo Brien is here to sprinkle a little fun into your artistic habits, inspired by Mike Brennan's workbook, *Make Fun a Habit*. We're tackling Chapter 25, aptly named "Monster Mashup," where we learn that mixing things up can lead to some surprisingly tasty outcomes—yes, even that Elvis burger with peanut butter and bananas! So, whether you're a culinary whiz or just someone who likes to throw random pantry items together, this episode's all about experimenting, blending, and creating something uniquely you. Grab your favorite snacks and get ready to unleash your inner artist—who knows what deliciously weird things you might whip up!

Making Fun A Habit Series

30 days to add fun to your creative practice. I will be going through Mike Brennan's Make Fun A Habit workbook and help you make fun a habit. I had the pleasure of interviewing Mike on my other podcast Find A Podcast About and talking about his podcast Creative Chats. This workbook leads you through steps to rekindle the fun in your life and get you into a space where you are your most creative. This is a 30-day book and I will tackle each day as if it were a week and provide insights on how to use his ideas in your creative practice. Each chapter is broken up with a short story, questions to ponder, action items, and tips.


Assignment

Questions

  1. Where can you identify products or ideas that you encounter everyday that were the results of a mashup?
  2. What two different category or themes do you find interesting? What would happen if you mashed the two up together?

Action Items

  1. Create two columns on a page on the first colum write down the first category and on the second column write a category that you would like to mashup the first category with. Once you write these categories down begin to brainstorm. Once you are done create a third column with the ideas of the mashup from the first two columns

Tips

  1. Look for inspiration in unexpected places
  2. Use visualization techniques
  3. Don't be afraid to fail
  4. Have fun

Takeaways:

  • Using Mike Brennan's workbook, we can transform our creative habits by making fun a daily routine, which is a game-changer.
  • The 'Monster Mashup' concept encourages us to combine unexpected elements in our art, leading to delightful surprises.
  • Exploring our pantries for mashup inspiration can lead to deliciously unique culinary creations and artistic experiences alike.
  • Don't fear failure in your creative endeavors; every experiment brings you closer to discovering what truly works for you!
  • Visualizing your creative projects can help you map out your ideas even before you start gathering materials.
  • Remember, art should be fun! Embrace the ridiculousness and enjoy the process of creation without taking it all too seriously.

Links referenced in this episode:



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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
Create Art Podcast CommentaryMonster Mashup hello friend. This
is Timothy Kimo Brien yourhead instigator for Create Art podcast
where I use my over 30 yearsof experience in the arts and education
world to help you tame yourinner critic and create more than

(00:27):
you consume. So we'recontinuing on with our Make Fun a
Habit series and that comesfrom Mike Brennan's book, Make Fun
a habit. It's a 30 dayworkbook that you can use to put
fun back into your creativehabits. Now I found Mike Brennan

(00:47):
through my other podcast, Finda podcast about which you can find@findapodcastabout
XYZ. And that's where I helpyou find your next binge worthy podcast
and outsmart the algorithm.But let's talk about Mike for a second.
He has a podcast calledCreative Chats and I've been listening
to that for a quite a longtime. And I reviewed his show and

(01:11):
you can find it on my othershow if you would like to check that
out. But he made thisworkbook, it's a 30 day workbook
and it's a real easy read toget through. But what he does is
every chapter is a new day andhe has a different topic that he
is tackling. So that way hecan help you get that fun right back

(01:35):
into your creative habit. Now,how the book is set up as he tells
a little story that's relatedto the topic and then he gives you
questions to think about,action items for you to do, and then
tips. So that's what we'regoing to do here today. We're going
to go through one of thechapters and actually we're going
through chapter number 25,which is called Monster Mashup. Now

(01:59):
the story that he tells aboutthis is a time that he was in Nashville,
Tennessee and he's a reallypicky eater and he talks about this
Elvis burger that he had,which is, you know, your burger and
then your peanut butter andbananas and bacon. And he was really

(02:20):
hesitant because he's a pickyeater and he was really hesitant
to try this burger. Now forme, I don't know if I would try it
or not, but I might give it ashot. My kids like PB and J with
bananas in them, so maybe thiswould be something that I would try.
But when he tried the burgerand remember he's a picky eater,

(02:41):
so he tried the burger and hefound it was delicious, Absolutely
loved it. And, and it's withthings that you wouldn't think normally
go together and we can Seethis in our everyday life, if we
just go to our pantry andthrow two things together, it can
turn out to be the mostwonderful meal that you've ever had.

(03:04):
Think about it. Some of thebest things that you've ever had
in your life. Mac and cheese,for instance. I make what I call,
oh, my God, Mac and cheese.And my kids absolutely love it because
after they eat it, they'relike, oh, my God, this is so good.
And I've given it to otherpeople. But what I do is I take,

(03:24):
you know, macaroni and a bunchof different kinds of cheese, make
kind of a bechamel sauce outof it. But then I also put fried
onions in there as well now.And then I also put in chopped, diced
tomatoes and a couple otherthings, and people just rave over

(03:47):
it. That's a form of art rightthere. The culinary arts. Why do
you think they call them theculinary arts? Because if it doesn't
look good, you're probably notgoing to eat it. So. But sometimes,
you know, the stuff thatdoesn't look good tastes fantastic,
or stuff that doesn't smellthe best absolutely tastes fantastic.
So that's what Mike isencouraging you to do with your art.

(04:11):
Mash two things that don'tlook like or don't sound like they're
going to go together and seewhat comes out of it. So let's start
with the assignment that hehas for us. The first question is,
where can you identifyproducts or ideas that you encounter
every day that were theresults of a mashup? Go right to
your pantry. I'm serious. Stopthe podcast. Go to your pantry, go

(04:36):
to your refrigerator, and puttwo things together and see if it
works out. Now, it may workout great. You may end up with food
poisoning. You know, checkthis stuff in your refrigerator.
Make sure it isn't expired,but just take two things out of the
pantry, out of therefrigerator and put it together
and see, you know, if ittastes really good. I kind of think

(04:59):
back to, you know, when peoplewere, you know, creating these different
recipes. How did they know toput A with B? They didn't. They tried
it. You can do the same thingwith your artistic practice. I've
done it before where I'vetaken a poem and I've put music to

(05:20):
it. You know, people sometimescall that a song. Well, there you
go. You have words and musicput together. Boom, you have a song.
There's other things that youcan do with it. You can put somebody
dancing on a stage and thenput a video on behind it. Boom. You
have an experience rightthere. Who would have thought these

(05:43):
things went together? I don'tknow, but that's the beauty of it.
You give it a try. So the nextquestion that it gives us are, what
two different categories orthemes do you find interesting, and
what would happen if you mashthe two of them up together? So I've
already told you. One of thethings that I've done is I've taken

(06:04):
words and music and put ittogether. And what I did is I took
two separate things thatweren't necessarily written for each
other and put them together,and I got something really cool out
of it. One thing that I trieda long time ago was I took my favorite
poem by T.S. eliot, the HollowMen, and I did some audio soundscaping

(06:30):
with it. So that way, youknow, you would hear one voice reading
one of the stanzas, and thenyou'd hear another voice, a little
bit lower, reading it, butbackwards. And what turned out was
something magnificent. It'sone of the best things that I can
say that I created with an.With a audio soundscape with it.

(06:56):
So that's two things that I'malways working with, is words and
music. You might havesomething else that you're working
with. You know, maybe it ispainting and movement. You know,
you get up and turn on somemusic and cover your hands with paint
and then put it on a canvas,or cover your feet with paint and

(07:18):
put it on a canvas. Whateverit is, give it a shot for yourself.
What's the worst that canhappen? Is somebody going to shoot
you in the head for it? Idoubt it. In this day and age, I
doubt it. But give it a shotfor yourself. What do you got to
lose? I don't think you haveanything to lose at all. You might
come up with something reallyawesome. Collage is a great, great

(07:41):
way to do it. To take twodifferent kinds of magazines with
two different kinds of themes,like maybe a nature magazine and
a interior design magazine.And, you know, cut out different
things from them and put themtogether and see what you got. Okay,
action item is next. And hedoes something a little bit different

(08:03):
here. The action item that hegives us is to create two columns
on the page. The first column,write down the first category, and
on the second column, writedown a category that you'd like to
mash up with the firstcategory. So the example he uses
is Christmas and superheroes.Now, once you write these categories

(08:24):
down, brainstorm with ideas.Don't censor yourself. Just go with
it. Okay? Anything is game.And then Once you're done, you create
that third column with theideas from the mashup from the first
two columns. So your idea isyou have, let's say in the first
column, Christmas superheroes.Next thing you know, you've got a

(08:46):
Christmas tree with a cape andthe stories of the super Christmas
tree. I don't know, give it ashot for yourself. I'd love to see
what you come up with.Alright, so finishing it out is the
tips that he gives us. Andwhat he says is look for inspiration
in unexpected places. Again,go back to your pantry, go back to

(09:08):
your refrigerator and put twothings together and see what happens
with it. Experiment with it.You know, go to the grocery store,
go to the art store or thecraft store, go to two different
aisles, grab two differentthings and see if you can't put them
together and make somethingtotally unique out of that. You know,

(09:28):
make that third thing besomething totally unique. Challenge
yourself that way. If you'relooking for inspiration, there you
go. There's your inspirationright there. The second thing is,
the second tip he uses is usevisualization techniques. So let's
say you can't get to thestore, you can't get to the craft
store and go ahead and pickstuff out of the aisles there. Well,

(09:54):
think about the things thatare in a craft store and just visualize
it in your head to kind ofgive you an idea of where you want
to go with it before you evengo into the store. And then, you
know, my challenge to you isgo in the store and make that thing
happen, but use thosevisualization techniques. You know,

(10:14):
let's say again, you can't goto the store, but you can go online
and print out pictures of whatyou would do and then just mess around
with that picture and see whatcomes of it. So use that visualization
technique. The third tip isdon't be afraid to fail. You're going
to fail. You're going to fail.Depending on what you determine a

(10:37):
failure is. I look at failureas, hey, I experimented with something.
Did I learn something from it?Yeah, this does not go with that.
You know, pickled okra doesnot go with cottage cheese. Not that
I have tried that, but it'skind of difficult to get pickled
okra where I'm at. But maybeit's difficult where you're at too,

(11:00):
but, you know, it's not thatgreat. But maybe pickled okra with
something else, with someother kind of cheese is gonna work
a lot better. Who knows? Giveit a shot for yourself. Let me know
what you think, you know, ifnothing else, write into me and go.
No, Tim, actually, you gottatry the pickled okra with cottage
cheese. It's just an idea thatcame off the top of my head. The

(11:24):
last tip that it gives us isto have fun again. The title of the
book is Make Fun a Habit. Youknow, don't stress it. Have fun with
whatever mashup you're goingto do. And, you know, hey, if it
tastes totally horrible or ifit looks like, you know, a diarrhea

(11:47):
on a canvas, okay, cool. Youknow, now you, you can sell that
and go, hey, it's, you know,title it Diarrhea on a Canvas. There
you go. But just have fun withit. Don't, don't take it so seriously.
Now, some of our art is veryserious. You know, I write really
serious poetry, but sometimesI just have fun. You know, there's

(12:08):
one that I call Deep DishDreaming that is just all about the
virtues of deep dish pizza andimagining deep dish pizza as a woman
and the consumer of the deepdish pizza is her boyfriend. Why
not go for that? You know,have fun with it. Sometimes we got

(12:29):
to be absolutely ridiculousand, you know, put a smile on our
face. And, you know, I alwaystry to read that poem whenever it
gets a little too serious inthe poetry reading. Pull that one
out and, and have a great timewith it. All right, that's what we
have for you here today atCreate Art Podcast. I want you to
feel free to reach out to me.Timothyreateartpodcast.com I'm going

(12:54):
to be doing a whole new seriesafter I get done with Make Fun of
Habit. And I've got a bunch oftopics that I'd like you guys to
chime in on. And, you know,that way we can have conversations.
Won't necessarily be aninterview, but I just want to know
your ideas. So if you'reinterested in that, shoot me an email
and I'll give you the list ofthe topics I'm going to be covering.

(13:15):
It should run for about sixmonths. Also, let me know how the
show is going. I want to knowwhat's going on in your area, what
you're struggling with andwhat you're doing really good with
and stuff that's helping youout. And I want to know if this podcast
is helping you out because Ireally want to make this a five star

(13:35):
podcast for you. That wayyou'll feel confident in sharing
it with friends. And that'sthe best way to grow a podcast in
my estimation. Now, speakingabout growing podcast I mentioned
earlier, I run another onecalled Find a Podcast about. You
can find it at findapodcastabout xyz. And again, that's where
I go and listen to a bunch ofdifferent podcasts and come come

(13:59):
back to you and tell you whichones I think are binge worthy. And
that way you can outsmart thealgorithm. So check that out for
yourself. A few other thingsthat I'm doing is I did start up
my own business. It's calledTKB Podcast Studio. You can go to
tkbpodcaststudio.com andyou're going to see there my portfolio

(14:19):
of all the podcasts that Iwork on and what I can do for you.
So if you've ever thoughtabout starting up a podcast, let
me know. I'm going to be thereto help you from the idea creation
and inception all the way to,you know, publishing that podcast
and making it the best you canpossibly make it. I want to partner
with you on that and I want touse my quiet professionalism to help

(14:43):
you, you know, be heard andlead through all the noise that's
out there.TKBpodcaststudio.com is the place
to go for that. Now, some ofthe guests that I do get on the show,
some of the interviews that Ido come from a service called Pod
Match and I do have, you know,the link in the show, my, my affiliate
link in the show there. Andwhat Pod Match does for me is it

(15:06):
helps me get the best gueststhat are going to do great things
for you, that are going tobring value to you. Now, do I get
a little bit of a commissionfrom them appearing? Yeah, a little
bit. Nothing to write homeabout. But the big thing is that
I only bring in the gueststhat I think are going to benefit
you. Not necessarily benefitthem, although all the guests that

(15:30):
have been on here in the pasthave really benefited from being
on the show. But my main aimis to help you with your creativity.
So check PodMatch out ifyou're a podcaster looking for guests
or if you're a guest lookingfor podcasts. Alright, that's all
I have for you here today. Iwant to thank you so much for listening

(15:52):
to Create Art podcast here.I'm going to let you get on with
your day. I need to get onwith my day. But go out there, tame
your inner critic. Create morethan you consume. Make some art for
somebody you love. Yourself.I'll talk with you again next time.

(16:13):
Sa.
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