June 8, 2025 • 20 mins
Today, we’re diving into the art of tinkering, and trust me, it’s not just for the DIY enthusiasts or that friend who can fix anything with duct tape! We're chatting about how to bring the fun back into our creative lives with insights from Mike Brennan's book, "Make Fun a Habit." I mean, who doesn’t need a little sprinkle of joy while navigating the wild world of creativity? We're sharing stories that’ll make you chuckle, like Mike's childhood escapades with model cars and milk bone sculptures (yes, you heard that right). Plus, we’ll tackle some thought-provoking questions to help you unleash your inner artist, whether it’s watercolor or something a bit more... avant-garde. So grab your favorite snack, kick back, and let’s get ready to make some artistic messes together!
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
- How can you incorporate some of the Savanah bananas creativity into you own life and work?
- Who is your audience or fans?
- What would it look like if you put your fans first?
Action Items
- Make a costume contest
- Have a sing along
- Have a dance party
- Have a talent show
Tips
- Be creative and innovative
- Have fun
- Be interactive
- Don't be afraid to fail
Takeaways:
- In this episode, we dive into the art of tinkering and how it can unleash our inner creativity and help us make fun a habit in our art-making journey.
- Mike Brennan's book is a 30-day workbook designed to inject fun back into your creative process, making art less about perfection and more about joy.
- We discussed how childhood experiences with model cars and sculptures can teach us valuable lessons about experimentation and embracing mistakes in our artistic endeavors.
- The importance of asking questions and learning from others in your creative community is highlighted as a way to overcome challenges and improve your skills.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Create Art Podcasting
- Mike Brennan
- Creative Chats
- Make Fun a Habit
- Find a Podcast
- TKB Podcast Studios
- Bob Ross
- Tia Sunshine
How do I get such great guests?
PodMatch I use Podmatch to get the best...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
Create Art Podcastingcommentary the Art of Tinkering,
part of the Make Fun of Itseries. Hello, friend. This is Timothy
Keem o' Brien, your headinstigator for Create Art podcast
where I bring my over 30 yearsof experience in the arts and education
world to help you tame yourinner critic and create more than
(00:29):
you consume. So we'recontinuing on with our Make Fun of
Habit series. And that's doneby. That's brought to us by Mike
Brennan, who runs the CreativeChats podcast and is the author of
the book Make Fun a Habit.Now, I had the pleasure of talking
with Mike Brennan on my otherpodcast, Find, a podcast about which
(00:51):
you can find@findapodcastabout XYZ. And that's where I go
go out and find podcasts foryou and help you outsmart the algorithm
and find your next bingeworthy podcast. So let's talk a little
bit about this book, Make Funa habit. It's a 30 day workbook that
(01:11):
does just what the titlesuggests and helps you put that fun
back into your creativeprocess. And what I've done is to
take each chapter and make itinto an episode. And, and in each
chapter there's a story thatMike tells. He gives us questions
to think about, tips andaction items, and we'll go over those
(01:35):
for today's episode. Now, thisepisode we're talking about the art
of tinkering. And he startsoff this chapter with a couple of
different stories. The firststory he talks about is his fourth
grade birthday party where hereceived a model car. And he was,
you know, a little bitperplexed at that and discovered
(01:58):
that he had, you know, a lotof stuff to do to get this car put
together. So it was an actualproject for him to do. And I really
related to the story becausewhen I was a kid growing up, we did
model airplanes. You know,first we did the snap tight ones
where you didn't need anyglue. And then we progressed into
(02:21):
the ones where you did needglue for, which were really messy,
but it was a lot of fun for meto do. Then he talks about a project
that he was working on inschool where he did a sculpture,
a skeleton sculpture, out ofmilk bones. And he called it Mike
(02:42):
Bone. And he talks about allthe trials and all the things that
he had to learn in order tomake this sculpture. And it was shown
at the Whitney Museum in honorof Basquiat in New York City. And
all the things that he learnedfrom using milk bones to create a
(03:05):
skeleton sculpture is veryfascinating. I would have never thought
to do that. And he got anickname, Mike Bone, and he uses
that in some of his socialmedia. So that just kind of shows
you that, you know, when weexperiment and when we go out of
our comfort zone and try newthings out and ask those around us,
(03:27):
who may know a little bitbetter than what we do about how
to use these materials andtechniques, how that can lead us
to a great experiment, maybea, I would say, artistic mistake,
a creative mistake, or, youknow, a happy accident, as Bob Ross
(03:47):
likes to say, you know, for usto be open to those kind of things.
So let's dive right into thequestions. And the first one is.
And the questions for this.This chapter in this episode are.
Well, each question hasmultiple layers in it. So first question
(04:07):
is, what do you want to learn?What do you want to know about how
things work and what skills doyou want to develop? So for me, I'm
a big one. And if you'velistened to any of my episodes in
the past, I'd like to learnwatercolor, because every time I
try to do, it turns out into abig, you know, picture of mud. And
(04:28):
I was just actually talking toone of my kiddos today, and they
were talking about Bob Rossand how he makes these great pictures
and how they want to be ableto do that, and all they make is
a big old pile of mud. And Isaid, hey, you know, I BETCHA his
first 200 paintings lookedlike a big pile of mud. And he, you
(04:50):
know, experimented with a lotof things. He learned a few new techniques,
and now we can see therecordings that he's left us, some
great works of art. So that'swhat I'd like to learn is watercolors,
because I know I'm not good atit, and I want to know how it works.
(05:11):
I. When I did theater in. In.In high school and in college, it
kind of took the magic awayfrom me. But now I can go see a show,
which actually I'm going to doafter I get done recording this episode.
We're going to go see a localproduction of To Kill a Mockingbird.
(05:34):
So I know how the lights work.I know, you know, what to look for
in the acting and the costumesand the sound design. So the magic
is a little bit taken awayfrom me, but I know how all those
pieces go together. So for me,the challenge is to see how they're
going to put those piecestogether, and that's where the magic
(05:54):
lies for me. Mike's nextquestion is, what do you have available?
What materials do you haveaccess to, and what tools do you
have and what space do youhave to work in? Well, normally,
I work in my man cave, whichis also my studio, which is also
where I have, you know, my tv,my turntable, all my comic books.
(06:16):
So it's a nice cluttered mess.But what tools do I have? What materials
do I have? I have access toeverything. And in this day and age,
we all have access to justabout everything. And now some of
the stuff may be too expensivefor us, and that's a. Okay. There
are substitutes for that. Sojust kind of look around and see
(06:39):
what you have available foryourself and start working with what
is on hand versus ordering itfrom Amazon or going over to a art
store and trying to findsomething there to be inspired by.
Just look with what you havearound you. I'm looking at what I
have around me. I've gotcotton balls. I've got paintings.
(07:01):
I've got markers and coloredpencils and all that. So obviously,
I can, you know, utilizewhatever is around me. I've got different
keyboards, differentsynthesizers. Obviously, I have my
computer here, so there's alot of things that I can create.
I don't even have to go out ofmy house, or I can go in my backyard
(07:24):
and pick up some sticks, somerocks, growing a garden, you know,
stuff like that. Differentplants you can pull out and do different
things with. So look aroundyour area and see what you have.
The third question is, whatkind of challenges are you looking
for? Do you want to buildsomething simple or complex? Do you
(07:46):
want to solve a specificproblem? And do you want to explore
your creativity? So, yes, yes,yes, and yes and yes. So what challenges
am I looking for? I'm lookingfor a new way to get my ideas, get
the pictures in my head onto acanvas. And that's why I'm interested
(08:08):
in watercolors specifically.And I've talked to watercolor artists.
Tia Sunshine comes to mind,and she was a fabulous person to
talk to, and very encouraging.And I really need to get the watercolor
thing going on, because I toldher I would, and I haven't done it
yet. So that's my challenge. Ineed to just, you know, bite the
(08:31):
bullet and go ahead and do it.I'm not solving a specific problem,
except for I'm not familiarwith the technique and the tools.
And, you know, I'm realistic.I want to do something kind of simple
to start off with, because Ithink with quick wins, quick, small
wins will really encourage meto keep on elevating and evolving
(08:56):
My techniques. So questionnumber four is, how much time do
you have? How much time areyou willing to commit to tinkering?
And that's always interestingbecause I work full time job, I've
got kids, I've got family,I've got responsibilities around
the house. So my time is verylimited and I have to be very cautious
(09:17):
with my time, and I have to bevery selective with my time. So how
much time am I willing tolearn how to do watercolors? Probably
an hour or two a week is all Ican feasibly have time for and still
give my best to everythingelse that's around my world. So that's,
(09:38):
you know, even an hour a weekis enough time to get you start to
tinkering. Then the lastquestion is, what are your goals?
What do you hope to achieve bytinkering? And do you want to learn
something new? And do you wantto create something useful? And do
you want to have fun? Well,yes, I want to have fun. My goal
(09:58):
is to, you know, actually do aseries of paintings probably around
my house, because it's veryeasy to get to. I can just step outside
and there we go. We've gottrees, we've got grass, we've got
bushes, we've got a garden. SoI think, you know, just stepping
outside my house and learninghow to do this and, you know, just
(10:22):
making these watercolors andhanging them up on my wall, I don't
need to sell them, per se. Imean, hey, if you want to pay me
a million dollars for them,I'll take it. But that is my goal
is just to, you know, paintthe house, paint the trees around
the house, paint the garden,paint the yard, see what comes of
(10:43):
it. And then maybe I can learnsome techniques in watercolor so
that I can apply it toacrylic, I can apply it to oil, I
can apply it to my drawings,to my colorings with marker and crayon
and whatnot. And just, youknow, add that little feather into
(11:04):
my cap. All right, we're goingto move into action items. And I
really like this one. So hisaction item is take apart a broken
toy to see how it works. Andyou can get that anywhere you can
go if you don't have a brokentoy in your house. And Lord knows
I've got kids, so I havebroken toys. But if you don't have
that, you can go to a thriftstore, grab a toy off the shelf,
(11:27):
take it apart, see how itworks, then you can always try to
put it back together. See ifyou can, you know, after you take
it apart, you put it backtogether, try to remember how you
took it apart in the firstplace. Maybe you can even fix it
and use that as a gift to akid in your life. And if you can't
(11:47):
put it back together, see ifyou can use the parts to build something
new. And this can be, youknow, a low cost kind of project
that you do for yourself. Buttry it out and see if you can take
apart a toy and turn it intosomething that a kid would enjoy
or something you can put onyour wall or your mantel and go,
(12:08):
yeah, that used to be this andnow it's this. You know, take pictures
of it, you know, before youtake it apart, and then after you
put it back together or madeit into something new. Okay, we're
going to move on to tips here.The first tip is to gather a variety
of materials and experimentand play with them. So again, you
(12:30):
don't have to go to a store,you don't have to go to a thrift
store. Just look around yourhouse to see if you have things there
that you can tinker with andyou can try out and experiment with.
The second tip is set asidetime each day for tinkering. Again,
with all my responsibilities,that can be kind of difficult to
do. Maybe it's 15 minutes aday, maybe it's one hour a week on
(12:54):
a Sunday, or, you know, afterthe kids go to bed. But definitely
set some time aside and tinkerwith that. The third tip is ask questions
and experiment. So you mightbe trying something new, a new technique.
Luckily for me, I have, youknow, I have people around me that
do watercolor so I can askthem questions on, hey, what brushes
(13:16):
should I get? What paintshould I get? You know, what kind
of easel should I get? And isthere a way to, you know, take a
picture of a flower and go, sowhat would be the best way to capture
that flower? You have theavailability to ask those questions.
And you can go through my backcatalog here and find somebody that
(13:39):
deals with watercolors ordeals with painting or deals with
music or whatever it is. Andyou can reach out to them because
I have their contactinformation in the show notes and
ask them questions. They'd behappy to help you out. The fourth
tip is to learn how to use newtools. And whenever you're starting
a new art form or whatnot,there's going to be tools that you're
(14:01):
not familiar with. So, youknow, maybe take time to learn how
to use those tools firstbefore you Go into that project or
just experiment with them. Youknow, grab the new tools and just
play around with it. Have, youknow, no design or intention with
it. Just, hey, I'm going toplay with this brush or I'm going
to play with this paletteknife, or I'm going to play with
(14:24):
this, that or the other thing.Just, you know, grab the tool, play
with it, get it in your hand,get a feel for it, and then, you
know, ask people, hey, how doI use this tool? But play with it
first and then ask thequestion. And the last tip that Mike
gives us is find people whoknow how to do something you're attempting
and ask for their input andadvice. Again, with the watercolors,
(14:47):
I can go right back to TiaSunshine and go, hey, how do I do
this? How do I capture that?Is there a way I can put some shadow
here? Or how much water do Ineed for watercolor? Do I really
need water for watercolor? Idon't know. What kind of paper should
I be using? So we have thoseexperts that are around us and if
(15:10):
you don't know of any that isin your immediate area, again, go
through my back catalog, findsomebody in my back catalog and then
reach out to them, let themknow I sent you, let them know I
gave you permission to do thatbecause they already gave me permission
to do that. But find peoplewho can help you with that. And you
(15:30):
may strike up a brand newfriendship, a new relationship or
a new partnership with thatperson. And who knows, you may be
the next Basquiat, you may bethe next David Bowie, or whatever
you're interested in, whateverart form you're interested in trying
out, give it a shot foryourself. You never know what's going
(15:51):
to happen. I look at my wallshere and I look at different things
that I've tried out. I triedout string painting once, really
loved how it turned out. I'vetried collage. It works for me. You
know, it's a nice challengefor me to put a collage together.
But what are you interested inagain? You can check through my back
(16:15):
catalog for people that havealready done what you're interested
in and definitely reach out tothem. Alright, well, that is the
episode here for today. I wantto thank you for listening and for
taking time out of your day tolisten to me and to listen some of
my ideas. And I hope you havesome ideas after listening to this
episode. And if you do, feelfree to email me timothy@createartpodcast.com
(16:40):
I love to hear what you'reinterested in and if you have any
questions or if you're like,hey Tim, I don't want to go through
all, you know, 300, 400episodes. Can you find somebody that
has done this, let me know.I'll get you that episode, get it
emailed straight to you. Sothat way you can take a listen to
it and then reach out to thatperson and you know, make some wonderful
(17:04):
art. I definitely want to bethe vessel that helps that happen
for you. Now, a couple ofthings before I go. I have started
a new business in 2025. It'scalled TKB Podcast Studios and that's
where I help you start up yourpodcast if that's something that
(17:25):
you're interested in doing.And I help, you know, lead you through
all the noise with quietprofessionalism. You can go to tkbpodcaststudio.com
and take a look at everythingthat I've done in the past and the
services that I provide foryou now. I also run a another podcast
called Find a Podcast about. Imentioned that earlier in the episode
(17:47):
and that's where I help you,you know, find your next binge worthy
podcast now and Smart thealgorithm. You can find that at findapodcast.
About XYZ and lastly, I do runa newsletter. So a lot of times I'll
you know, let you know throughthe newsletter, hey, this episode
is coming out. And then afterthe episode comes out I'll have my
(18:10):
Google Notebook LM AI do adeep dive into the episode. So you
can always get that through mynewsletter. That's at timothy.brian
b r I e n@substack.com.actually there is no sign in there
so you can go totimothy.brian.substack.com and subscribe
(18:36):
to that newsletter. So we'realmost done with Find Make Fun of
Habit. And we're on chapter.This is from chapter 27. There's
30 chapters. So once we aredone with Make Fun of Habit, I am
developing a new series ofconversations with other artists
(18:57):
and we're going to be tacklingdifferent topics, probably two a
month and we'll do a series ofthat for about six months to see
how that goes. And if you'reinterested in doing that in joining
me with that, email me and Iwill send you a list of the topics
that I'm going to be talkingabout. And I'd be happy to have you
(19:19):
on board for that. You don'thave to be an expert at this. You
can have some ideas about itor you can have some questions about
it and we can have you on theshow and do that. So email me timothyreateartpodcast.com
and I'll be happy to send outthat list for you. Okay, that's all
we have here for today. Again,I want to thank you for listening
(19:40):
in. And if you got somethingout of this, make sure you share
it with a friend on whateverapp you're listening to this on.
Or if you're on the website,definitely you can share it from
there. Not a problem. So goout there, tame that inner critic.
Create more than you consume.Find something around the house that
(20:01):
you can tear down and build upagain. I give you permission. Not
a problem. And go out thereand make some art for somebody you
love. Yourself. I'll talk toyou next time.
Create Art Podcastingcommentary the Art of Tinkering,
part of the Make Fun of Itseries. Hello, friend. This is Timothy
Keem o' Brien, your headinstigator for Create Art podcast
where I bring my over 30 yearsof experience in the arts and education
world to help you tame yourinner critic and create more than
(00:29):
you consume. So we'recontinuing on with our Make Fun of
Habit series. And that's doneby. That's brought to us by Mike
Brennan, who runs the CreativeChats podcast and is the author of
the book Make Fun a Habit.Now, I had the pleasure of talking
with Mike Brennan on my otherpodcast, Find, a podcast about which
(00:51):
you can find@findapodcastabout XYZ. And that's where I go
go out and find podcasts foryou and help you outsmart the algorithm
and find your next bingeworthy podcast. So let's talk a little
bit about this book, Make Funa habit. It's a 30 day workbook that
(01:11):
does just what the titlesuggests and helps you put that fun
back into your creativeprocess. And what I've done is to
take each chapter and make itinto an episode. And, and in each
chapter there's a story thatMike tells. He gives us questions
to think about, tips andaction items, and we'll go over those
(01:35):
for today's episode. Now, thisepisode we're talking about the art
of tinkering. And he startsoff this chapter with a couple of
different stories. The firststory he talks about is his fourth
grade birthday party where hereceived a model car. And he was,
you know, a little bitperplexed at that and discovered
(01:58):
that he had, you know, a lotof stuff to do to get this car put
together. So it was an actualproject for him to do. And I really
related to the story becausewhen I was a kid growing up, we did
model airplanes. You know,first we did the snap tight ones
where you didn't need anyglue. And then we progressed into
(02:21):
the ones where you did needglue for, which were really messy,
but it was a lot of fun for meto do. Then he talks about a project
that he was working on inschool where he did a sculpture,
a skeleton sculpture, out ofmilk bones. And he called it Mike
(02:42):
Bone. And he talks about allthe trials and all the things that
he had to learn in order tomake this sculpture. And it was shown
at the Whitney Museum in honorof Basquiat in New York City. And
all the things that he learnedfrom using milk bones to create a
(03:05):
skeleton sculpture is veryfascinating. I would have never thought
to do that. And he got anickname, Mike Bone, and he uses
that in some of his socialmedia. So that just kind of shows
you that, you know, when weexperiment and when we go out of
our comfort zone and try newthings out and ask those around us,
(03:27):
who may know a little bitbetter than what we do about how
to use these materials andtechniques, how that can lead us
to a great experiment, maybea, I would say, artistic mistake,
a creative mistake, or, youknow, a happy accident, as Bob Ross
(03:47):
likes to say, you know, for usto be open to those kind of things.
So let's dive right into thequestions. And the first one is.
And the questions for this.This chapter in this episode are.
Well, each question hasmultiple layers in it. So first question
(04:07):
is, what do you want to learn?What do you want to know about how
things work and what skills doyou want to develop? So for me, I'm
a big one. And if you'velistened to any of my episodes in
the past, I'd like to learnwatercolor, because every time I
try to do, it turns out into abig, you know, picture of mud. And
(04:28):
I was just actually talking toone of my kiddos today, and they
were talking about Bob Rossand how he makes these great pictures
and how they want to be ableto do that, and all they make is
a big old pile of mud. And Isaid, hey, you know, I BETCHA his
first 200 paintings lookedlike a big pile of mud. And he, you
(04:50):
know, experimented with a lotof things. He learned a few new techniques,
and now we can see therecordings that he's left us, some
great works of art. So that'swhat I'd like to learn is watercolors,
because I know I'm not good atit, and I want to know how it works.
(05:11):
I. When I did theater in. In.In high school and in college, it
kind of took the magic awayfrom me. But now I can go see a show,
which actually I'm going to doafter I get done recording this episode.
We're going to go see a localproduction of To Kill a Mockingbird.
(05:34):
So I know how the lights work.I know, you know, what to look for
in the acting and the costumesand the sound design. So the magic
is a little bit taken awayfrom me, but I know how all those
pieces go together. So for me,the challenge is to see how they're
going to put those piecestogether, and that's where the magic
(05:54):
lies for me. Mike's nextquestion is, what do you have available?
What materials do you haveaccess to, and what tools do you
have and what space do youhave to work in? Well, normally,
I work in my man cave, whichis also my studio, which is also
where I have, you know, my tv,my turntable, all my comic books.
(06:16):
So it's a nice cluttered mess.But what tools do I have? What materials
do I have? I have access toeverything. And in this day and age,
we all have access to justabout everything. And now some of
the stuff may be too expensivefor us, and that's a. Okay. There
are substitutes for that. Sojust kind of look around and see
(06:39):
what you have available foryourself and start working with what
is on hand versus ordering itfrom Amazon or going over to a art
store and trying to findsomething there to be inspired by.
Just look with what you havearound you. I'm looking at what I
have around me. I've gotcotton balls. I've got paintings.
(07:01):
I've got markers and coloredpencils and all that. So obviously,
I can, you know, utilizewhatever is around me. I've got different
keyboards, differentsynthesizers. Obviously, I have my
computer here, so there's alot of things that I can create.
I don't even have to go out ofmy house, or I can go in my backyard
(07:24):
and pick up some sticks, somerocks, growing a garden, you know,
stuff like that. Differentplants you can pull out and do different
things with. So look aroundyour area and see what you have.
The third question is, whatkind of challenges are you looking
for? Do you want to buildsomething simple or complex? Do you
(07:46):
want to solve a specificproblem? And do you want to explore
your creativity? So, yes, yes,yes, and yes and yes. So what challenges
am I looking for? I'm lookingfor a new way to get my ideas, get
the pictures in my head onto acanvas. And that's why I'm interested
(08:08):
in watercolors specifically.And I've talked to watercolor artists.
Tia Sunshine comes to mind,and she was a fabulous person to
talk to, and very encouraging.And I really need to get the watercolor
thing going on, because I toldher I would, and I haven't done it
yet. So that's my challenge. Ineed to just, you know, bite the
(08:31):
bullet and go ahead and do it.I'm not solving a specific problem,
except for I'm not familiarwith the technique and the tools.
And, you know, I'm realistic.I want to do something kind of simple
to start off with, because Ithink with quick wins, quick, small
wins will really encourage meto keep on elevating and evolving
(08:56):
My techniques. So questionnumber four is, how much time do
you have? How much time areyou willing to commit to tinkering?
And that's always interestingbecause I work full time job, I've
got kids, I've got family,I've got responsibilities around
the house. So my time is verylimited and I have to be very cautious
(09:17):
with my time, and I have to bevery selective with my time. So how
much time am I willing tolearn how to do watercolors? Probably
an hour or two a week is all Ican feasibly have time for and still
give my best to everythingelse that's around my world. So that's,
(09:38):
you know, even an hour a weekis enough time to get you start to
tinkering. Then the lastquestion is, what are your goals?
What do you hope to achieve bytinkering? And do you want to learn
something new? And do you wantto create something useful? And do
you want to have fun? Well,yes, I want to have fun. My goal
(09:58):
is to, you know, actually do aseries of paintings probably around
my house, because it's veryeasy to get to. I can just step outside
and there we go. We've gottrees, we've got grass, we've got
bushes, we've got a garden. SoI think, you know, just stepping
outside my house and learninghow to do this and, you know, just
(10:22):
making these watercolors andhanging them up on my wall, I don't
need to sell them, per se. Imean, hey, if you want to pay me
a million dollars for them,I'll take it. But that is my goal
is just to, you know, paintthe house, paint the trees around
the house, paint the garden,paint the yard, see what comes of
(10:43):
it. And then maybe I can learnsome techniques in watercolor so
that I can apply it toacrylic, I can apply it to oil, I
can apply it to my drawings,to my colorings with marker and crayon
and whatnot. And just, youknow, add that little feather into
(11:04):
my cap. All right, we're goingto move into action items. And I
really like this one. So hisaction item is take apart a broken
toy to see how it works. Andyou can get that anywhere you can
go if you don't have a brokentoy in your house. And Lord knows
I've got kids, so I havebroken toys. But if you don't have
that, you can go to a thriftstore, grab a toy off the shelf,
(11:27):
take it apart, see how itworks, then you can always try to
put it back together. See ifyou can, you know, after you take
it apart, you put it backtogether, try to remember how you
took it apart in the firstplace. Maybe you can even fix it
and use that as a gift to akid in your life. And if you can't
(11:47):
put it back together, see ifyou can use the parts to build something
new. And this can be, youknow, a low cost kind of project
that you do for yourself. Buttry it out and see if you can take
apart a toy and turn it intosomething that a kid would enjoy
or something you can put onyour wall or your mantel and go,
(12:08):
yeah, that used to be this andnow it's this. You know, take pictures
of it, you know, before youtake it apart, and then after you
put it back together or madeit into something new. Okay, we're
going to move on to tips here.The first tip is to gather a variety
of materials and experimentand play with them. So again, you
(12:30):
don't have to go to a store,you don't have to go to a thrift
store. Just look around yourhouse to see if you have things there
that you can tinker with andyou can try out and experiment with.
The second tip is set asidetime each day for tinkering. Again,
with all my responsibilities,that can be kind of difficult to
do. Maybe it's 15 minutes aday, maybe it's one hour a week on
(12:54):
a Sunday, or, you know, afterthe kids go to bed. But definitely
set some time aside and tinkerwith that. The third tip is ask questions
and experiment. So you mightbe trying something new, a new technique.
Luckily for me, I have, youknow, I have people around me that
do watercolor so I can askthem questions on, hey, what brushes
(13:16):
should I get? What paintshould I get? You know, what kind
of easel should I get? And isthere a way to, you know, take a
picture of a flower and go, sowhat would be the best way to capture
that flower? You have theavailability to ask those questions.
And you can go through my backcatalog here and find somebody that
(13:39):
deals with watercolors ordeals with painting or deals with
music or whatever it is. Andyou can reach out to them because
I have their contactinformation in the show notes and
ask them questions. They'd behappy to help you out. The fourth
tip is to learn how to use newtools. And whenever you're starting
a new art form or whatnot,there's going to be tools that you're
(14:01):
not familiar with. So, youknow, maybe take time to learn how
to use those tools firstbefore you Go into that project or
just experiment with them. Youknow, grab the new tools and just
play around with it. Have, youknow, no design or intention with
it. Just, hey, I'm going toplay with this brush or I'm going
to play with this paletteknife, or I'm going to play with
(14:24):
this, that or the other thing.Just, you know, grab the tool, play
with it, get it in your hand,get a feel for it, and then, you
know, ask people, hey, how doI use this tool? But play with it
first and then ask thequestion. And the last tip that Mike
gives us is find people whoknow how to do something you're attempting
and ask for their input andadvice. Again, with the watercolors,
(14:47):
I can go right back to TiaSunshine and go, hey, how do I do
this? How do I capture that?Is there a way I can put some shadow
here? Or how much water do Ineed for watercolor? Do I really
need water for watercolor? Idon't know. What kind of paper should
I be using? So we have thoseexperts that are around us and if
(15:10):
you don't know of any that isin your immediate area, again, go
through my back catalog, findsomebody in my back catalog and then
reach out to them, let themknow I sent you, let them know I
gave you permission to do thatbecause they already gave me permission
to do that. But find peoplewho can help you with that. And you
(15:30):
may strike up a brand newfriendship, a new relationship or
a new partnership with thatperson. And who knows, you may be
the next Basquiat, you may bethe next David Bowie, or whatever
you're interested in, whateverart form you're interested in trying
out, give it a shot foryourself. You never know what's going
(15:51):
to happen. I look at my wallshere and I look at different things
that I've tried out. I triedout string painting once, really
loved how it turned out. I'vetried collage. It works for me. You
know, it's a nice challengefor me to put a collage together.
But what are you interested inagain? You can check through my back
(16:15):
catalog for people that havealready done what you're interested
in and definitely reach out tothem. Alright, well, that is the
episode here for today. I wantto thank you for listening and for
taking time out of your day tolisten to me and to listen some of
my ideas. And I hope you havesome ideas after listening to this
episode. And if you do, feelfree to email me timothy@createartpodcast.com
(16:40):
I love to hear what you'reinterested in and if you have any
questions or if you're like,hey Tim, I don't want to go through
all, you know, 300, 400episodes. Can you find somebody that
has done this, let me know.I'll get you that episode, get it
emailed straight to you. Sothat way you can take a listen to
it and then reach out to thatperson and you know, make some wonderful
(17:04):
art. I definitely want to bethe vessel that helps that happen
for you. Now, a couple ofthings before I go. I have started
a new business in 2025. It'scalled TKB Podcast Studios and that's
where I help you start up yourpodcast if that's something that
(17:25):
you're interested in doing.And I help, you know, lead you through
all the noise with quietprofessionalism. You can go to tkbpodcaststudio.com
and take a look at everythingthat I've done in the past and the
services that I provide foryou now. I also run a another podcast
called Find a Podcast about. Imentioned that earlier in the episode
(17:47):
and that's where I help you,you know, find your next binge worthy
podcast now and Smart thealgorithm. You can find that at findapodcast.
About XYZ and lastly, I do runa newsletter. So a lot of times I'll
you know, let you know throughthe newsletter, hey, this episode
is coming out. And then afterthe episode comes out I'll have my
(18:10):
Google Notebook LM AI do adeep dive into the episode. So you
can always get that through mynewsletter. That's at timothy.brian
b r I e n@substack.com.actually there is no sign in there
so you can go totimothy.brian.substack.com and subscribe
(18:36):
to that newsletter. So we'realmost done with Find Make Fun of
Habit. And we're on chapter.This is from chapter 27. There's
30 chapters. So once we aredone with Make Fun of Habit, I am
developing a new series ofconversations with other artists
(18:57):
and we're going to be tacklingdifferent topics, probably two a
month and we'll do a series ofthat for about six months to see
how that goes. And if you'reinterested in doing that in joining
me with that, email me and Iwill send you a list of the topics
that I'm going to be talkingabout. And I'd be happy to have you
(19:19):
on board for that. You don'thave to be an expert at this. You
can have some ideas about itor you can have some questions about
it and we can have you on theshow and do that. So email me timothyreateartpodcast.com
and I'll be happy to send outthat list for you. Okay, that's all
we have here for today. Again,I want to thank you for listening
(19:40):
in. And if you got somethingout of this, make sure you share
it with a friend on whateverapp you're listening to this on.
Or if you're on the website,definitely you can share it from
there. Not a problem. So goout there, tame that inner critic.
Create more than you consume.Find something around the house that
(20:01):
you can tear down and build upagain. I give you permission. Not
a problem. And go out thereand make some art for somebody you
love. Yourself. I'll talk toyou next time.
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