Episode 15: The Power of Commitment in Your Art Practice: Exploring Dedication, Balance, and Freedom
September 13, 2023 • 27 mins
Mama Judy read something about commitment to art recently that turned the lightbulb up in a way that gave her a renewed desire to be committed to the entire process of a creative journey, NOT just the easy and fun stuff!
So this week we decided to explore some different angles of the word commitment – different ways that we hope might spark you to look at how you view commitment, in the general sense, and how you view your commitment to your art.
We hope you enjoy today’s chat!
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Book: Creativity from the Inside Out by Cathy Wild
Artists on Instagram mentioned in episode:
Shawn Petite
Katie Holmes
If you'd prefer to watch this podcast, you can find us over on our YouTube page (The Mama Judy & Jill Podcast).
We'd LOVE to hear from you! Click here to send us your thoughts and ideas for a future episode.
Send us a direct message on Instagram:
>> Mama Judy on Instagram
>>Jill on Instagram
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jill (00:19):
Well, hi, Mama Judy.
Here we are back for another
Mama Judy (00:22):
episode.
Oh, I'm so excited this week.
Of course, I'm excited everyweek.
So what's
Jill (00:27):
new?
Exactly.
Me too.
Well, before we jump into thetopic, which I know Mama Judy
and I go back and forth texting,calling each other's about
topics we want to discuss andwhatnot.
And this week, Mama Judy.
Has something on her heart thatshe wanted to share.
So tell us what we're going tobe talking about, Mama
Mama Judy (00:46):
G.
Actually, Jill, you're right.
That's a good way to put it onmy heart because I've been
thinking about this in relationto myself.
After I've read a book and thenone of the other artists on
Instagram, who I will identifylater, brought it up and it's on
the subject of commitment.
(01:06):
Not only to our art, but toourselves.
Jill (01:11):
Ooh, okay, this is going to be a great one, and I think
too, and you may already havethis on your mind, but are you
thinking about commitment in away that it's good to have, it's
good to have commitments, andthen sometimes there's goodness
about freedom from commitments.
Is that something that your is?
Could we talk about that?
Mama Judy (01:31):
Yes, we're going to talk about the paradox of
commitment.
Um, and it is a paradox becauseyou need commitment and yet
commitment.
to one thing eliminates otherthings.
So yeah, it's an interestingsubject.
(01:52):
Shall I start?
Jill (01:54):
Yes.
Let's get started.
This is
Mama Judy (01:55):
going to be good.
Okay.
So I've been thinking aboutthis, first of all, like I said,
in relation to myself, I lovewhat I do, but I would like to
learn and grow in my art.
And what I found was I like, Itake the easy way.
And that's kind of a humantrait.
(02:17):
Human animals in our DNA, wewill take the path of least
resistance because human animalsreally don't like hard work.
And that relates to commitmentin the fact that About a year
ago, I said, you know, I'mreally going to learn to draw
and to paint more than what I doin my journals.
(02:38):
What I found, Jill, is, it wasgreat.
I was so enthusiastic about theidea.
And then we got, I got into itand, you know, Everything starts
out with a great idea and a lotof enthusiasm, but then you hit
those bumpy parts, those hardparts, those insecure parts,
(02:59):
those things where you go, Oh,why am I doing that?
And I found, I will confess, Ifound with myself, I backed off
because it was Hard work.
So that's my kind of backgroundon why I've been thinking about
it.
And I came across the quote.
(03:20):
It's not a quote.
I don't want to quote thisartist.
But it's Sean Pettit and shegoes by Art Girl 38.
She is an artist on Instagram.
And she put something out thereon commitment.
That commitment.
is a form of freedom and Ithought, wow, I never thought of
(03:44):
that.
I always saw it as hard work andI have to show up.
We all know you have to committo your art to do daily to get
better.
But her idea was that when youare consistent and persistent
beyond those bumps in the road,then you attain a certain amount
(04:05):
of freedom.
And let's go back to when youstarted stitching and you didn't
know a lot of stitches, youweren't quite sure what you
wanted to do with it.
Would I be correct in sayingthat the more you did it, the
more you showed up consistentlyand persistently and tried new
(04:27):
things, you found the courageand self confidence to try even
more new things?
That is correct.
Would that be, is that correct?
Yes.
So, tell us a little about thatprocess and then I'll go
Jill (04:41):
on.
And so, just the process to,and, Just getting better or the
process to the commitment ofthat, which ended up helping me
to be better in the things thatI wanted to be the process
Mama Judy (04:56):
of commitment.
Jill (04:58):
Okay.
Yes.
So, number one, because we had apodcast, not too long ago about
setting up rituals and routines,and because.
That's just kind of what I do inthe morning.
I set some time aside that forthings that are important to me,
which I think is big aboutcommitment things that are
important to us.
We commit to right.
(05:19):
Whether it is a doctor'sappointment, or it's.
Um, self care day or if it'staking your kid to the park or
your animal to the vet orwhatever that might be.
So this was very important to meto make a commitment for this
because I could sense the joy itwas bringing me and that the
mental well being and all ofthat.
So yes, it was actually setpretty easy for me to make a
(05:43):
commitment to myself because Ialready had morning time carved
out and I knew how important itwas to me.
Mama Judy (05:50):
Okay.
And then in the process oflearning the stitches.
In your creative process.
Tell us a little bit about howthat felt as you learned.
What did that do to yourcommitment to your art?
Jill (06:06):
Okay, it grew my confidence.
Okay.
For sure.
So I just became more confident.
Oh, I can try something likethat I saw over here or I can,
if I saw something that inspiredme I can say well I can try
something like that because I'mtrying different things the more
that I would build on myStitches, the types of stitches,
the different things I wouldmake up or like look in a book
(06:28):
and teach myself how to do itbuilt on there.
And then also I would say, so itbuilt my confidence.
And with that, I began toexperiment on my own with.
By learning things that, oh,here's this, this type of stitch
that had actual names and Icould learn it from someone on
YouTube.
(06:49):
But then I started just freelyexperimenting and that's when it
gets really fun.
Mama Judy (06:55):
That's when the freedom comes.
And so your process really is anexample, I believe, the way that
I interpreted what Shawn wrotein her post.
When we show up consistently, itbuilds confidence.
So, commitment is very importantfor building our confidence, for
(07:16):
learning our techniques, andbeyond that, it gives us freedom
to try new things.
So it's like commitment is thefirst step in that long journey
of becoming more artistic.
Yes.
Jill (07:37):
Wow.
The, way that you just put thepuzzle pieces together makes
sense.
And you said too that sometimesit's easy, it's easier to take
the easy way out.
And maybe that is not sittingdown at our tables or wherever
you do your art or your kitchenor wherever you're doing your
art.
Sometimes it's easy, but if youcan understand what's to come
(07:58):
down the road, that sense offreedom, but I think it's easier
when you get a taste of it,don't you think?
Mama Judy (08:05):
Oh, absolutely.
It's like anything you'relearning, when you get a little
bit of success and you feelgood, you're going to be willing
to take the next step.
And so I think Sean is correctin that.
Persistent commitment is willlead to freedom, freedom to try
(08:29):
new things, freedom of, uh, fearof failure, that type of thing.
So there's a lot of ways thatcommitment is very important to
us.
And it could be in anything, uh,for building.
Our process in life, in art, Sowhen Sean said it that way, it
(08:52):
made me realize a new way tolook at things, to look at the
word commitment, because we alllook at commitment in the same
old standard way.
Oh, you know, I gotta show upand do this today.
But just like you said, Jill,with her explaining it, what I
realized is my commitment is acommitment to the growth of my
(09:17):
art.
Maybe I knew that before.
But the way she said it.
Turned the little light bulb onup in my head, and so now,
Jill (09:28):
I
Mama Judy (09:28):
have a renewed desire to be committed to learning
these things.
That before I would go, ooh,this isn't as fun as sitting
down to my journals, which areso easy to do.
It's committing to the hardwork.
to get beyond the stumbling,knowing that at some point, I
(09:50):
guess what I, what happened withSean's explanation, it went from
an intellectual understanding toan emotional understanding.
An emotional understanding isfar more powerful than
intellectual understanding.
Yes, which The other thing Iwant to just remind people,
(10:14):
because we have such a widevariety of levels and people and
personalities listening to us.
The number one thing I think inany topic we talk about at the
root of this is self awareness.
I became more aware of what Iwas doing with my art through
(10:36):
Sean's statement, the way shesaid it.
And if anything, on anything wetalk about hits a person, That's
a topic they need to pursue.
So self awareness is key.
You can't do anything unless youare really aware of yourself.
Jill (10:56):
Yes.
And okay, so I have a little bitof a flip.
I just want to make a littledistinction about another way to
look at freedom and commitment.
I love how Sean put it.
And with this new perspectivethat you have, but also what
about the idea of.
Allowing yourself as an artistto not being committed to
(11:18):
something, or even maybesomething very specific in your
plans for that day, or, youknow, I am full on stitching and
then not allowing my commitmentto stitching.
Rule out other things becauseI'm so committed to this, I'm
not even giving myself freedomto not be committed that in
order to explore other things Iguess it's just a little bit of
(11:40):
a twist of thinking about itoff.
Mama Judy (11:43):
Great minds think alike because the other thing I
wanted to talk about came from,creativity from the inside out
by Kathy wildness, a book, andwe'll put that in the notes.
Okay.
And in her discussion, shetalked about commitment.
restricts you, which is alsowhat you just said.
(12:08):
So it's kind of a paradox.
It gives us freedom, but itrestricts us.
And what she meant by that isexactly what you said.
If you commit to one specificthing that you're going to do,
you are restricting yourself inthat you're eliminating all
(12:29):
these other possibilities.
Out of all of this, first ofall, um, let me also interject
that when we talk aboutcommitment of any kind, we're
not saying at one time, youalways have to reaffirm your
commitment.
You, it's not a one and done.
(12:49):
Every day you have to reaffirmyour commitment to whatever.
It's two things.
So I found this idea from KathyWilde so interesting because I
hadn't thought about thateither.
It restricts us and it gives usfreedom.
So it just kind of depends,again, on where you are.
(13:13):
If you want to be the best inone particular medium or one
particular expression, Then,yes, you are going to have to
eliminate all those otherpossibilities.
If, however, you want to commityourself to learning in a
(13:37):
particular area, and it can bebroad, it can be, that's why I
love mixed media, I can learn somuch under mixed media, but if I
want to become the best in anyeCommerce form of art, then I
have to give up the othersbecause to become the best or to
(14:00):
become the best you can be,you're going to have to commit
to a narrow, narrow path, butthat doesn't mean we can't
commit to the broad Yeah.
world of learning art.
So commitment is one of thosewonderful words that can just
(14:21):
about be interjected anywhere wewant.
Jill (14:26):
Yes.
And also when you said the thingabout, if you're going to really
focus in and narrow down yourfocus to one area, you can also
say I'm committing 30 days.
To go all in on this, and thenyou can pop out and be more
loosey goosey with yourcommitment to your overall
general broad, you know,discoveries with art in that, in
(14:46):
your process.
Mama Judy (14:48):
That's right.
And we can actually look at theword now that we've explored
some different angles of theword commitment and we recognize
that persistent commitment canlead to the freedom of trying
new things.
We also recognize thatcommitment can give us freedom
but restrict us and we can beokay with living with all those
(15:12):
different paradoxes of thatword.
Another way to look at it is ifwe use the word commitment in
art as a mushroom.
It's the big umbrella in whichall of our activities under the
word commitment to art are fine.
(15:32):
And this is not to say out ofall of this that anything is
right or wrong.
It's just different ways thatmight spark somebody else to
look at how they view commitmentor how they view their
commitment to their art.
Jill (15:51):
Okay.
Mama Judy, can I ask you onequestion first on that one?
Absolutely.
Okay.
Under that umbrella or thatmushroom that you mentioned.
You said that, you know, you'reyou as an artist, you're going
to have things that fall underthat.
Can you give us an example ofwhat that might look like for
you?
what are the various things thatmight fall under that umbrella
or mushroom?
Mama Judy (16:11):
Okay.
So I probably wasn't real clearon that.
I got carried away with myvisualizing this giant mushroom
or this umbrella.
But what I realized for myselfis that commitment, there's
different kinds of commitment.
And my broad commitment is tolearning every single day, I
(16:34):
will learn something artrelated.
Now that might be, in myjournals, a new way to bind
them.
I might focus on learning a newtechnique or a way to draw an
animal.
But all of this...
commitment to these differentthings.
(16:55):
And like you said, I might goalong and say, okay, for the
next 30 days.
Well, let me step up.
I made a pact with myself.
I said, okay, this commitmentthat you've been talking about
and shine away from the hardwork.
Let's reaffirm that commitment.
To your painting and yourdrawing for the next year with
(17:19):
no outcome.
I'm not looking to start gettingrepresented in the gallery.
This is just a commitment that Iwant to pursue.
That's under art, but also I cando that for a little bit during
the day.
And then I can say.
Oh, but I love this new bindingfor my journals, and I can
(17:41):
commit to learning that.
So commitment can not only bethe big, big umbrella that
encompasses anything we doartistically, but it can be the
tiny little restrictive thingsthat we choose at any time to
focus on.
Jill (17:59):
when you said that, I kind of started having a snapshot of
what's under my umbrella or mymushroom.
And even last Friday, I tookmyself on an artist date and I
went down to River Arts Districthere in Asheville.
And I went and walked aroundsome studios and looked at art.
so that's part of the commitmentto myself is to treat myself to,
(18:20):
going down and, and seeing otherartists work and meeting other
artists and being inspired inthat way.
And that's part of my commitmentwithin that, besides the
stitching and all that, I wantthat inspiration and I want that
connection with other artists inthe area as well.
Mama Judy (18:34):
That's great.
And that's exactly it.
You know, I used to look at theword commitment and shy away
from it because I knew anycommitting to anything was hard
work and these two ladies intheir definitions, the way they
explain things have opened upthat word.
I don't feel a negative pullwhen I hear the word commitment.
(18:58):
Now, I view it with excitement.
And the last point I want tomake about commitment that I
hadn't really given thought towas that.
Any of this commitment is arelationship with yourself,
(19:19):
because if you're doingsomething, who are you really
committed to?
Are you committed to somegallery?
Are you committed to theneighbor's opinion?
I don't believe so.
I believe people go into art atany level because it's a
(19:40):
commitment to themselves todevelop a part of themselves
that perhaps they didn't knowabout.
Or if they did, um, you and Iboth know Katie Holmes, who has
been an artist all her life.
Well, that commitment to her artis to herself to develop a way
(20:02):
of living.
And so when I look at commitmentin relation to, Ooh, commitment
is a relationship with myself.
Well, do I value myself?
Jill (20:17):
Do I honor
Mama Judy (20:18):
myself?
And if you say yes, thencommitment becomes something
that you're willing to embrace,whatever level that is that you
want to do it at.
Jill (20:31):
Right.
And when you said about KatieHolmes, the artist, so she does
art for herself, of course, butshe makes money.
I mean, she's a working artist.
And one thing that is like adouble commitment for her is she
has a strong passion forprotecting the earth.
And the animals that live onthis planet.
And so some of her proceeds fromher artwork will go towards
(20:53):
that.
So she's maintaining acommitment to herself as an
artist, as well as to the socialcauses and the environmental
causes that are important toher.
So you can kind of latch up acouple commitments altogether,
which is even better.
The fact that, you know, youhave that passion.
And another thing I wanted tomention is that, isn't it
interesting how we will not showup late for a doctor's
(21:19):
appointment.
Or if we say we're going to be,you know, you go to the dentist
to get your darn tooth pulled,we are going to show up 10
minutes early for that dentistto pull out our tooth or
whatever it might be.
But we don't give ourselves therespect to honor our own
commitments.
Like you said, we need toconsider our own commitments to
ourselves just as important, ifnot more important than a
(21:41):
commitment to a dentist orsomebody else, in our lives.
Mama Judy (21:46):
Absolutely.
I think that's probably, one ofthe most powerful of.
of the different views ofcommitment we've talked about
because we're really doing thisfor ourselves.
And even Katie and hercommitment, which is tremendous,
I've always admired it.
(22:06):
to her art from an early age,even beyond the naysayers,
knowing that this is what shewanted to do and protect the
wilds.
It is a commitment to herselfand the life she wants to lead.
Who does she want to be?
So I think that commitment withourselves is extremely
(22:30):
important.
And I will always.
In the back of my mind that hasbeen planted, even things may
have been resting back there inmy mind, but now they've come to
the forefront where when I sitdown or I say, Oh God, I don't
want to do this today, butthere's really no reason not to
(22:51):
do it.
I'm going to remind myself, heykiddo, this is a commitment to
yourself.
Do you really want to achievethis or do this?
So the three things in summarythat we've talked about, which
is the idea that, consistent,persistent commitment brings a
(23:14):
form of freedom.
The idea that if you're reallycommitted to a narrow path, It
restricts you also, and that anycommitment in art is to
ourselves first and foremost.
Yes.
That's important to every singlelistener out there, regardless
(23:37):
of where we are in our ownjourney or our own process.
Jill (23:43):
Yes, and thank you for summarizing that.
Those are such three importantparts, and there was a quote
that I saw in a book that I havehere at the house by Gretchen
Rubin, who is an author, and shesaid, when we give more to
ourselves, we can ask more fromourselves.
Okay.
When we give more to ourselves,we can ask more from ourselves.
(24:06):
So when we give ourselves acommitment, we can ask more from
ourselves in a good way.
That's a good thing that wenurture ourselves by making a
commitment or choosing torestrict your commitment but
we're actually serving ourselveswell in that way.
And then.
I real quick wanted just tomention something what if
someone is thinking, I have somany commitments, I don't really
(24:28):
have time or space to addanother commitment to my life.
Although they are yearning to dothe art, maybe, or they're not
setting up commitments.
so I have a fun little exercisefor you all to try if you're
finding that it's hard for youto commit because you don't have
the time, Get a pen and paperout, write a list down of your
commitments, whether that's youhave commitments to your family,
(24:49):
to your children, to your dogs,to your cats, whatever that
might be.
So you make a civic commitment.
volunteer work.
Write down all the commitmentsthat you have a job.
You know, that sort of thing.
And then take a look at thatlist.
And number one, is thereanything that you could move
down in the importance list, oroff the list completely, to
allow space for yourself?
And I think you will besurprised, even if it's just for
(25:11):
a, you know, a year period,you're going to say, I'm going
to remove this commitment, ofvolunteering that I've been
doing for 10 years in order toallow myself this time to, work
on my art Or you might have acommitment that you're making.
They isn't really serving youthat well and you can get rid of
it if it's a toxic book club or,you know, whatever.
I don't know.
Exactly.
There are things like that thatyou can get rid of, but it's
(25:32):
just really make a list ofthings and just see where you
could fit it in because I thinkeveryone can fit in at least 10
minutes a day of something thatis going to feed your soul in
this way.
Mama Judy (25:43):
And I agree, Jill.
And I think that's a perfectexample of how we can get over
committed.
And what I would add to yourlist is.
How many of those commitments,and you kind of said it, are for
you or someone else, and thenyou have to look at it and say,
okay, is the commitment to themmore important?
(26:06):
And sometimes it might be.
Or are those, like youmentioned, No, that one's not
important.
Take that time back and give it
Jill (26:15):
to yourself.
Or look at that list.
What can you delegate?
especially as women.
I think that we have a tendencyto take on all the commitments
and think that we need to be incharge of all the details of
everything.
But there is nothing wrong withdelegating something out to
someone else.
if you have that option,
Mama Judy (26:34):
that's an excellent idea.
And I think I am going todelegate my art to Michelangelo.
All that work, it's a good idea.
Jill (26:46):
Yeah, exactly.
Well, this is wonderful.
We appreciate you listenersbeyond more than you even know.
We are so grateful.
Mama Judy and I hope that thisis helpful for you.
I know it is for us just talkingto each other.
We are both learning as we gowith this podcast and we're so
grateful for you listening.
Mama Judy (27:08):
Yes, we are, Jill.
Well said, my
Jill (27:10):
dear.
So until next week, we'll seeyou then.
Mama.
Judy, stay committed.
I will.
Mama Judy (27:17):
Thank you.
Love you.
Love you too.
Bye everyone.
Bye.
Well, hi, Mama Judy.
Here we are back for another
Mama Judy (00:22):
episode.
Oh, I'm so excited this week.
Of course, I'm excited everyweek.
So what's
Jill (00:27):
new?
Exactly.
Me too.
Well, before we jump into thetopic, which I know Mama Judy
and I go back and forth texting,calling each other's about
topics we want to discuss andwhatnot.
And this week, Mama Judy.
Has something on her heart thatshe wanted to share.
So tell us what we're going tobe talking about, Mama
Mama Judy (00:46):
G.
Actually, Jill, you're right.
That's a good way to put it onmy heart because I've been
thinking about this in relationto myself.
After I've read a book and thenone of the other artists on
Instagram, who I will identifylater, brought it up and it's on
the subject of commitment.
(01:06):
Not only to our art, but toourselves.
Jill (01:11):
Ooh, okay, this is going to be a great one, and I think
too, and you may already havethis on your mind, but are you
thinking about commitment in away that it's good to have, it's
good to have commitments, andthen sometimes there's goodness
about freedom from commitments.
Is that something that your is?
Could we talk about that?
Mama Judy (01:31):
Yes, we're going to talk about the paradox of
commitment.
Um, and it is a paradox becauseyou need commitment and yet
commitment.
to one thing eliminates otherthings.
So yeah, it's an interestingsubject.
(01:52):
Shall I start?
Jill (01:54):
Yes.
Let's get started.
This is
Mama Judy (01:55):
going to be good.
Okay.
So I've been thinking aboutthis, first of all, like I said,
in relation to myself, I lovewhat I do, but I would like to
learn and grow in my art.
And what I found was I like, Itake the easy way.
And that's kind of a humantrait.
(02:17):
Human animals in our DNA, wewill take the path of least
resistance because human animalsreally don't like hard work.
And that relates to commitmentin the fact that About a year
ago, I said, you know, I'mreally going to learn to draw
and to paint more than what I doin my journals.
(02:38):
What I found, Jill, is, it wasgreat.
I was so enthusiastic about theidea.
And then we got, I got into itand, you know, Everything starts
out with a great idea and a lotof enthusiasm, but then you hit
those bumpy parts, those hardparts, those insecure parts,
(02:59):
those things where you go, Oh,why am I doing that?
And I found, I will confess, Ifound with myself, I backed off
because it was Hard work.
So that's my kind of backgroundon why I've been thinking about
it.
And I came across the quote.
(03:20):
It's not a quote.
I don't want to quote thisartist.
But it's Sean Pettit and shegoes by Art Girl 38.
She is an artist on Instagram.
And she put something out thereon commitment.
That commitment.
is a form of freedom and Ithought, wow, I never thought of
(03:44):
that.
I always saw it as hard work andI have to show up.
We all know you have to committo your art to do daily to get
better.
But her idea was that when youare consistent and persistent
beyond those bumps in the road,then you attain a certain amount
(04:05):
of freedom.
And let's go back to when youstarted stitching and you didn't
know a lot of stitches, youweren't quite sure what you
wanted to do with it.
Would I be correct in sayingthat the more you did it, the
more you showed up consistentlyand persistently and tried new
(04:27):
things, you found the courageand self confidence to try even
more new things?
That is correct.
Would that be, is that correct?
Yes.
So, tell us a little about thatprocess and then I'll go
Jill (04:41):
on.
And so, just the process to,and, Just getting better or the
process to the commitment ofthat, which ended up helping me
to be better in the things thatI wanted to be the process
Mama Judy (04:56):
of commitment.
Jill (04:58):
Okay.
Yes.
So, number one, because we had apodcast, not too long ago about
setting up rituals and routines,and because.
That's just kind of what I do inthe morning.
I set some time aside that forthings that are important to me,
which I think is big aboutcommitment things that are
important to us.
We commit to right.
(05:19):
Whether it is a doctor'sappointment, or it's.
Um, self care day or if it'staking your kid to the park or
your animal to the vet orwhatever that might be.
So this was very important to meto make a commitment for this
because I could sense the joy itwas bringing me and that the
mental well being and all ofthat.
So yes, it was actually setpretty easy for me to make a
(05:43):
commitment to myself because Ialready had morning time carved
out and I knew how important itwas to me.
Mama Judy (05:50):
Okay.
And then in the process oflearning the stitches.
In your creative process.
Tell us a little bit about howthat felt as you learned.
What did that do to yourcommitment to your art?
Jill (06:06):
Okay, it grew my confidence.
Okay.
For sure.
So I just became more confident.
Oh, I can try something likethat I saw over here or I can,
if I saw something that inspiredme I can say well I can try
something like that because I'mtrying different things the more
that I would build on myStitches, the types of stitches,
the different things I wouldmake up or like look in a book
(06:28):
and teach myself how to do itbuilt on there.
And then also I would say, so itbuilt my confidence.
And with that, I began toexperiment on my own with.
By learning things that, oh,here's this, this type of stitch
that had actual names and Icould learn it from someone on
YouTube.
(06:49):
But then I started just freelyexperimenting and that's when it
gets really fun.
Mama Judy (06:55):
That's when the freedom comes.
And so your process really is anexample, I believe, the way that
I interpreted what Shawn wrotein her post.
When we show up consistently, itbuilds confidence.
So, commitment is very importantfor building our confidence, for
(07:16):
learning our techniques, andbeyond that, it gives us freedom
to try new things.
So it's like commitment is thefirst step in that long journey
of becoming more artistic.
Yes.
Jill (07:37):
Wow.
The, way that you just put thepuzzle pieces together makes
sense.
And you said too that sometimesit's easy, it's easier to take
the easy way out.
And maybe that is not sittingdown at our tables or wherever
you do your art or your kitchenor wherever you're doing your
art.
Sometimes it's easy, but if youcan understand what's to come
(07:58):
down the road, that sense offreedom, but I think it's easier
when you get a taste of it,don't you think?
Mama Judy (08:05):
Oh, absolutely.
It's like anything you'relearning, when you get a little
bit of success and you feelgood, you're going to be willing
to take the next step.
And so I think Sean is correctin that.
Persistent commitment is willlead to freedom, freedom to try
(08:29):
new things, freedom of, uh, fearof failure, that type of thing.
So there's a lot of ways thatcommitment is very important to
us.
And it could be in anything, uh,for building.
Our process in life, in art, Sowhen Sean said it that way, it
(08:52):
made me realize a new way tolook at things, to look at the
word commitment, because we alllook at commitment in the same
old standard way.
Oh, you know, I gotta show upand do this today.
But just like you said, Jill,with her explaining it, what I
realized is my commitment is acommitment to the growth of my
(09:17):
art.
Maybe I knew that before.
But the way she said it.
Turned the little light bulb onup in my head, and so now,
Jill (09:28):
I
Mama Judy (09:28):
have a renewed desire to be committed to learning
these things.
That before I would go, ooh,this isn't as fun as sitting
down to my journals, which areso easy to do.
It's committing to the hardwork.
to get beyond the stumbling,knowing that at some point, I
(09:50):
guess what I, what happened withSean's explanation, it went from
an intellectual understanding toan emotional understanding.
An emotional understanding isfar more powerful than
intellectual understanding.
Yes, which The other thing Iwant to just remind people,
(10:14):
because we have such a widevariety of levels and people and
personalities listening to us.
The number one thing I think inany topic we talk about at the
root of this is self awareness.
I became more aware of what Iwas doing with my art through
(10:36):
Sean's statement, the way shesaid it.
And if anything, on anything wetalk about hits a person, That's
a topic they need to pursue.
So self awareness is key.
You can't do anything unless youare really aware of yourself.
Jill (10:56):
Yes.
And okay, so I have a little bitof a flip.
I just want to make a littledistinction about another way to
look at freedom and commitment.
I love how Sean put it.
And with this new perspectivethat you have, but also what
about the idea of.
Allowing yourself as an artistto not being committed to
(11:18):
something, or even maybesomething very specific in your
plans for that day, or, youknow, I am full on stitching and
then not allowing my commitmentto stitching.
Rule out other things becauseI'm so committed to this, I'm
not even giving myself freedomto not be committed that in
order to explore other things Iguess it's just a little bit of
(11:40):
a twist of thinking about itoff.
Mama Judy (11:43):
Great minds think alike because the other thing I
wanted to talk about came from,creativity from the inside out
by Kathy wildness, a book, andwe'll put that in the notes.
Okay.
And in her discussion, shetalked about commitment.
restricts you, which is alsowhat you just said.
(12:08):
So it's kind of a paradox.
It gives us freedom, but itrestricts us.
And what she meant by that isexactly what you said.
If you commit to one specificthing that you're going to do,
you are restricting yourself inthat you're eliminating all
(12:29):
these other possibilities.
Out of all of this, first ofall, um, let me also interject
that when we talk aboutcommitment of any kind, we're
not saying at one time, youalways have to reaffirm your
commitment.
You, it's not a one and done.
(12:49):
Every day you have to reaffirmyour commitment to whatever.
It's two things.
So I found this idea from KathyWilde so interesting because I
hadn't thought about thateither.
It restricts us and it gives usfreedom.
So it just kind of depends,again, on where you are.
(13:13):
If you want to be the best inone particular medium or one
particular expression, Then,yes, you are going to have to
eliminate all those otherpossibilities.
If, however, you want to commityourself to learning in a
(13:37):
particular area, and it can bebroad, it can be, that's why I
love mixed media, I can learn somuch under mixed media, but if I
want to become the best in anyeCommerce form of art, then I
have to give up the othersbecause to become the best or to
(14:00):
become the best you can be,you're going to have to commit
to a narrow, narrow path, butthat doesn't mean we can't
commit to the broad Yeah.
world of learning art.
So commitment is one of thosewonderful words that can just
(14:21):
about be interjected anywhere wewant.
Jill (14:26):
Yes.
And also when you said the thingabout, if you're going to really
focus in and narrow down yourfocus to one area, you can also
say I'm committing 30 days.
To go all in on this, and thenyou can pop out and be more
loosey goosey with yourcommitment to your overall
general broad, you know,discoveries with art in that, in
(14:46):
your process.
Mama Judy (14:48):
That's right.
And we can actually look at theword now that we've explored
some different angles of theword commitment and we recognize
that persistent commitment canlead to the freedom of trying
new things.
We also recognize thatcommitment can give us freedom
but restrict us and we can beokay with living with all those
(15:12):
different paradoxes of thatword.
Another way to look at it is ifwe use the word commitment in
art as a mushroom.
It's the big umbrella in whichall of our activities under the
word commitment to art are fine.
(15:32):
And this is not to say out ofall of this that anything is
right or wrong.
It's just different ways thatmight spark somebody else to
look at how they view commitmentor how they view their
commitment to their art.
Jill (15:51):
Okay.
Mama Judy, can I ask you onequestion first on that one?
Absolutely.
Okay.
Under that umbrella or thatmushroom that you mentioned.
You said that, you know, you'reyou as an artist, you're going
to have things that fall underthat.
Can you give us an example ofwhat that might look like for
you?
what are the various things thatmight fall under that umbrella
or mushroom?
Mama Judy (16:11):
Okay.
So I probably wasn't real clearon that.
I got carried away with myvisualizing this giant mushroom
or this umbrella.
But what I realized for myselfis that commitment, there's
different kinds of commitment.
And my broad commitment is tolearning every single day, I
(16:34):
will learn something artrelated.
Now that might be, in myjournals, a new way to bind
them.
I might focus on learning a newtechnique or a way to draw an
animal.
But all of this...
commitment to these differentthings.
(16:55):
And like you said, I might goalong and say, okay, for the
next 30 days.
Well, let me step up.
I made a pact with myself.
I said, okay, this commitmentthat you've been talking about
and shine away from the hardwork.
Let's reaffirm that commitment.
To your painting and yourdrawing for the next year with
(17:19):
no outcome.
I'm not looking to start gettingrepresented in the gallery.
This is just a commitment that Iwant to pursue.
That's under art, but also I cando that for a little bit during
the day.
And then I can say.
Oh, but I love this new bindingfor my journals, and I can
(17:41):
commit to learning that.
So commitment can not only bethe big, big umbrella that
encompasses anything we doartistically, but it can be the
tiny little restrictive thingsthat we choose at any time to
focus on.
Jill (17:59):
when you said that, I kind of started having a snapshot of
what's under my umbrella or mymushroom.
And even last Friday, I tookmyself on an artist date and I
went down to River Arts Districthere in Asheville.
And I went and walked aroundsome studios and looked at art.
so that's part of the commitmentto myself is to treat myself to,
(18:20):
going down and, and seeing otherartists work and meeting other
artists and being inspired inthat way.
And that's part of my commitmentwithin that, besides the
stitching and all that, I wantthat inspiration and I want that
connection with other artists inthe area as well.
Mama Judy (18:34):
That's great.
And that's exactly it.
You know, I used to look at theword commitment and shy away
from it because I knew anycommitting to anything was hard
work and these two ladies intheir definitions, the way they
explain things have opened upthat word.
I don't feel a negative pullwhen I hear the word commitment.
(18:58):
Now, I view it with excitement.
And the last point I want tomake about commitment that I
hadn't really given thought towas that.
Any of this commitment is arelationship with yourself,
(19:19):
because if you're doingsomething, who are you really
committed to?
Are you committed to somegallery?
Are you committed to theneighbor's opinion?
I don't believe so.
I believe people go into art atany level because it's a
(19:40):
commitment to themselves todevelop a part of themselves
that perhaps they didn't knowabout.
Or if they did, um, you and Iboth know Katie Holmes, who has
been an artist all her life.
Well, that commitment to her artis to herself to develop a way
(20:02):
of living.
And so when I look at commitmentin relation to, Ooh, commitment
is a relationship with myself.
Well, do I value myself?
Jill (20:17):
Do I honor
Mama Judy (20:18):
myself?
And if you say yes, thencommitment becomes something
that you're willing to embrace,whatever level that is that you
want to do it at.
Jill (20:31):
Right.
And when you said about KatieHolmes, the artist, so she does
art for herself, of course, butshe makes money.
I mean, she's a working artist.
And one thing that is like adouble commitment for her is she
has a strong passion forprotecting the earth.
And the animals that live onthis planet.
And so some of her proceeds fromher artwork will go towards
(20:53):
that.
So she's maintaining acommitment to herself as an
artist, as well as to the socialcauses and the environmental
causes that are important toher.
So you can kind of latch up acouple commitments altogether,
which is even better.
The fact that, you know, youhave that passion.
And another thing I wanted tomention is that, isn't it
interesting how we will not showup late for a doctor's
(21:19):
appointment.
Or if we say we're going to be,you know, you go to the dentist
to get your darn tooth pulled,we are going to show up 10
minutes early for that dentistto pull out our tooth or
whatever it might be.
But we don't give ourselves therespect to honor our own
commitments.
Like you said, we need toconsider our own commitments to
ourselves just as important, ifnot more important than a
(21:41):
commitment to a dentist orsomebody else, in our lives.
Mama Judy (21:46):
Absolutely.
I think that's probably, one ofthe most powerful of.
of the different views ofcommitment we've talked about
because we're really doing thisfor ourselves.
And even Katie and hercommitment, which is tremendous,
I've always admired it.
(22:06):
to her art from an early age,even beyond the naysayers,
knowing that this is what shewanted to do and protect the
wilds.
It is a commitment to herselfand the life she wants to lead.
Who does she want to be?
So I think that commitment withourselves is extremely
(22:30):
important.
And I will always.
In the back of my mind that hasbeen planted, even things may
have been resting back there inmy mind, but now they've come to
the forefront where when I sitdown or I say, Oh God, I don't
want to do this today, butthere's really no reason not to
(22:51):
do it.
I'm going to remind myself, heykiddo, this is a commitment to
yourself.
Do you really want to achievethis or do this?
So the three things in summarythat we've talked about, which
is the idea that, consistent,persistent commitment brings a
(23:14):
form of freedom.
The idea that if you're reallycommitted to a narrow path, It
restricts you also, and that anycommitment in art is to
ourselves first and foremost.
Yes.
That's important to every singlelistener out there, regardless
(23:37):
of where we are in our ownjourney or our own process.
Jill (23:43):
Yes, and thank you for summarizing that.
Those are such three importantparts, and there was a quote
that I saw in a book that I havehere at the house by Gretchen
Rubin, who is an author, and shesaid, when we give more to
ourselves, we can ask more fromourselves.
Okay.
When we give more to ourselves,we can ask more from ourselves.
(24:06):
So when we give ourselves acommitment, we can ask more from
ourselves in a good way.
That's a good thing that wenurture ourselves by making a
commitment or choosing torestrict your commitment but
we're actually serving ourselveswell in that way.
And then.
I real quick wanted just tomention something what if
someone is thinking, I have somany commitments, I don't really
(24:28):
have time or space to addanother commitment to my life.
Although they are yearning to dothe art, maybe, or they're not
setting up commitments.
so I have a fun little exercisefor you all to try if you're
finding that it's hard for youto commit because you don't have
the time, Get a pen and paperout, write a list down of your
commitments, whether that's youhave commitments to your family,
(24:49):
to your children, to your dogs,to your cats, whatever that
might be.
So you make a civic commitment.
volunteer work.
Write down all the commitmentsthat you have a job.
You know, that sort of thing.
And then take a look at thatlist.
And number one, is thereanything that you could move
down in the importance list, oroff the list completely, to
allow space for yourself?
And I think you will besurprised, even if it's just for
(25:11):
a, you know, a year period,you're going to say, I'm going
to remove this commitment, ofvolunteering that I've been
doing for 10 years in order toallow myself this time to, work
on my art Or you might have acommitment that you're making.
They isn't really serving youthat well and you can get rid of
it if it's a toxic book club or,you know, whatever.
I don't know.
Exactly.
There are things like that thatyou can get rid of, but it's
(25:32):
just really make a list ofthings and just see where you
could fit it in because I thinkeveryone can fit in at least 10
minutes a day of something thatis going to feed your soul in
this way.
Mama Judy (25:43):
And I agree, Jill.
And I think that's a perfectexample of how we can get over
committed.
And what I would add to yourlist is.
How many of those commitments,and you kind of said it, are for
you or someone else, and thenyou have to look at it and say,
okay, is the commitment to themmore important?
(26:06):
And sometimes it might be.
Or are those, like youmentioned, No, that one's not
important.
Take that time back and give it
Jill (26:15):
to yourself.
Or look at that list.
What can you delegate?
especially as women.
I think that we have a tendencyto take on all the commitments
and think that we need to be incharge of all the details of
everything.
But there is nothing wrong withdelegating something out to
someone else.
if you have that option,
Mama Judy (26:34):
that's an excellent idea.
And I think I am going todelegate my art to Michelangelo.
All that work, it's a good idea.
Jill (26:46):
Yeah, exactly.
Well, this is wonderful.
We appreciate you listenersbeyond more than you even know.
We are so grateful.
Mama Judy and I hope that thisis helpful for you.
I know it is for us just talkingto each other.
We are both learning as we gowith this podcast and we're so
grateful for you listening.
Mama Judy (27:08):
Yes, we are, Jill.
Well said, my
Jill (27:10):
dear.
So until next week, we'll seeyou then.
Mama.
Judy, stay committed.
I will.
Mama Judy (27:17):
Thank you.
Love you.
Love you too.
Bye everyone.
Bye.
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