Day 13- Sometimes You Gotta Grow Your Garden Before You Paint It

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Welcome to DAY THIRTEEN of our new 30-day COMMUNITY PROJECT where we make something with our hands every day in order to improve our mental health. We all realize that creativity heals...it's time to put that knowledge into action.

I'm going to publish an episode for you to follow along with several days of each week (I'll take breaks on Fridays and weekends in order to give you time to catch up as needed). These episodes will exist here, marked with the days numbered, in order for you to follow along at any speed that you like. Miss a day? Doesn't matter. Just pick up right where you left off and keep making things. These episodes will give us all some accountability, but if you need more, pair up with a partner. It really does help!

Join our creative community by making something today, whether it's for five minutes or several hours—your brain will thank you. Let's do this thing together and turn all of this sh*t into something beautiful!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 0 (00:00):
Things take time.
Did you know that Monet grewhis gardens before he painted
them?
I saw a quote about this manyyears ago by Atticus and then
did a whole deep dive on thehistory of his gardens and his
home in France, and then Iimmediately made plans in my

(00:21):
mind to go visit those gardensthe next time I was able to go
to France.
So apparently Monet had been acollector of Japanese prints and
he had all these prints ofJapanese gardens, a pond full of
floating lilies, a Japanesebridge, and he displayed these
woodblock prints all on thewalls of his home.

(00:43):
These prints became theinspiration for his paintings,
but first they were theinspiration for his gardens that
he grew and the bridge that hebuilt and all of those things
that he ended up painting, whichbecame the famous paintings he
called his actual living gardenhis most beautiful masterpiece.

(01:06):
The fact that he built all ofthis and grew these gardens and
then created those famouspaintings is such an
unbelievable reminder that wecan't always just be churning
stuff out.
Things take time and we tend toundervalue gestation.
The things that take place in awoman's body during the first

(01:28):
trimester of pregnancy isequivalent to climbing Mount
Everest, yet we see nothing onthe surface.
There are some things that youliterally just cannot rush, and
along the lines of yesterday'sepisode, which was about what
seeds do you want to plant,sometimes that's all you've got

(01:50):
is this idea of a seed.
You haven't planted it yet, ithasn't germinated.
You know that you eventuallywant to grow it, but it's going
to take some time, especially ifyou want to do it right.
Sometimes all we can do is getthat soil ready, plant those
seeds and then trust in thetiming of our lives, do

(02:12):
everything that you can toprovide the right environment
for those seeds, but know thatsome seeds they're just not
going to sprout and others willin a way that you couldn't have
ever imagined.
But staying open to thepossibility of it all is the
most important thing Possibilityit can be endless.

(02:34):
I have two quotes that fittogether so perfectly for this
entire idea.
One is actually by Claude Monetand he said I would like to
paint the way a bird sings.
And Maya Angelou says a birddoesn't sing because it has an
answer.
It sings because it has a song.

(02:54):
I relate.
That's the only explanation Ican even come up with for having
this podcast in the first place.
I don't have answers?
I don't know.
I just have a song to sing andthat's all you need.
Now that we're on the topic ofpainters, I'm thinking of one of
the coolest films I've seenthat I've never spoken about.

(03:15):
It's called Big Eyes by TimBurton, and I think it's from
like 2014.
Visually it's super similar toEdward Scissorhands and very Wes
Anderson, although since EdwardScissorhands was made way
before Wes Anderson, I feel likeTim Burton must have been an

(03:37):
influence for him.
I've looked it up and I've beenlike, oh my gosh, is this one
of his influences?
And I cannot find one thing onit.
But anyway, visually it's supercool.
The story's cool.
It's about painting.
Amy Adams is the star.
I watched it on a flight homefrom a very, very cool trip that

(03:58):
I did a few years ago and wasjust blown away by how inspiring
it was for me artistically.
And speaking of travel, today'sproject I am using my Polaroid
printer to make some of oursummer travel photos into
Polaroids.
So many things just look cooleron film and I love the whole

(04:21):
tactile thing that comes withPolaroids, so I'm printing those
out and that is my project forthe day.
I also received all my scansback from when my family and I
went to Europe in June and itwas really exciting.
I got to tell you I don't knowwhat took me so long to start

(04:43):
doing this, but I just love thelook of film.
I love the imperfection, I lovethe waiting for the scans, I
love the wondering if thingsturned out or not.
But most of all I love the noedit, no editing, no stress.
I get my scans.

(05:03):
What comes comes.
What works works, what doesn'tis gone, Done.
The only disappointment I havefrom it is that 90% of my photos
are buildings and monuments andstreets and I really did not
take that many photos withpeople in them which I don't

(05:26):
even know what.
I was thinking.
I was trying not to annoy myfamily.
I stuck to the buildings andthe doorways and stuff like that
, which I love and I'm happy tohave, but could have used a few
more people in my five rolls offilm.
Also, I finished the Women byKristen Hanna and that is a damn

(05:49):
good book.
Holy cow, the Nightingale isstill my number one, but man,
the Women is good.
All right, that's it for todayand until tomorrow, stay curious
.