Spotlight Interview: Earl Storm/Part 3

Earl Storm, Creativity Coach, Certified Artist’s Way Facilitator, Cartoonist

Earl Storm is a cartoonist and creativity coach in the San Diego area, as well as a certified facilitator for The Artist’s Way workshops.

After a successful graphic arts career, Storm took up cartooning and ultimately created the internet syndicated comic strip, Quack City!, in which he uses a wacky duck as a whimsical vehicle for social and political commentary.

He’s been a passionate teacher of The Artist’s Way since 1995, offering classes and creativity workshops, as well as doing corporate training, and has, as you’ll soon see, some interesting and innovative insights about the creative world. With a New Age approach, he’s definitely a different voice in the wilderness.

To find out more on Mr. Storm, please check out these sites:

http://www.creativity-is.biz/
Click here

http://www.creativityworks.biz/index.html
Click here

Here is the third and final part of my exclusive newsletter interview with Mr. Storm:

Mike: Do you think all people are creative?

Storm: Try this test: Put your thumb on your wrist. Do you feel a pulse? If you do, then you’re inherently creative in my opinion. In fact, I can often prove to people in a matter of seconds that they’re more creative than they think they are. It’s just that some people have shut off their creativity and haven’t developed a relationship with it. Some people are comfortable with creativity; others need encouragement.

Mike: How about people who are too creative, with too many ideas?

Storm: Too many ideas can drive you crazy. You need self-management. No matter how many ideas you have, time is the great equalizer. Force yourself to choose one or two projects you want to do now. If you’re all over the map, that can sometimes be just as bad as not having any ideas at all.

Mike: What’s the hardest thing about creativity?

Storm: Simplicity. That’s where the challenge is.

Mike: What have you discovered about your own creativity?

Storm: That it’s synonymous with my spirituality. Unlike creativity and talent, and creativity and art—these things are deeply connected to each other but are not synonymous.

Mike: What could you tell us about cartooning, and its use of words?

Storm: Cartooning is a much more difficult art form than people realize, especially in its limited use of words. The idea is to use as few words as possible to make your point and be effective. Get in, set it up, say what you want to say, be funny, and get out.

I went through some ugly, wordy phases. When I started cartooning, I didn’t consider myself a writer. But I worked hard at it, studied a lot, and modeled myself after people such as Mike Peters and Gary Larsen.

Mike: Julia Cameron has become something of an icon, or guru, as a writing teacher and author. She’s also become a mysterious figure in recent years. Since you’ve been around her, could you tell us what she’s like in person?

Storm: Well, she’s far from what people imagine her to be. Which is one of the reasons why she’s pulled back and isn’t very accessible to the public anymore. I think she became uncomfortable with being St. Julia. The reality is, she’s a very grounded earth child—and not as angelic as people would think. She’s just real. She likes to defuse that deification immediately, saying when she meets her students, “We’re all artists, we all have passions, we all have talents, we all have blocks. Now let’s get to work.”

Mike: What do you preach to your students?

Storm: That it’s not about fame and fortune. It’s about the relationship between the art and the artist. That’s what I work on, what I teach. That fame and fortune is the cherry on the sundae—the possible byproduct, never the goal.

Mike: Any favorite quotes about creativity?

Storm: Walt Disney’s: “Always remember that this whole thing was started by a mouse.” And Albert Einstein’s: “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

Mike: Any favorite quotes of your own?

Storm: “When the student is ready, a teacher appears.”

Mike: Any last advice?

Storm: Just keep doing it. No matter what happens, no matter what people say to you, keep doing it if it feels right to you. Remember, if you’re an artist, it’s the art that feeds your soul.

Spotlight Interview: Earl Storm/Part 2

Earl Storm, Creativity Coach, Certified Artist’s Way Facilitator, Cartoonist

Earl Storm is a cartoonist and creativity coach in the San Diego area, as well as a certified facilitator for The Artist’s Way workshops.

After a successful graphic arts career, Storm took up cartooning and ultimately created the internet syndicated comic strip, Quack City!, in which he uses a wacky duck as a whimsical vehicle for social and political commentary.

He’s been a passionate teacher of The Artist’s Way since 1995, offering classes and creativity workshops, as well as doing corporate training, and has, as you’ll soon see, some interesting and innovative insights about the creative world. With a New Age approach, he’s definitely a different voice in the wilderness.

To find out more on Mr. Storm, please check out these sites:

http://www.creativity-is.biz/
Click here
http://www.creativityworks.biz/index.html
Click here

Here is the second part of my exclusive newsletter interview with Mr. Storm:

Mike: How would you describe the various stages of the creative process?

Storm: Well, I break it down into the five Cs:

Clarity—To capturing clearly in your mind the intention of your art, either a piece of or the entire vision. If you don’t know what you want to do, you’ll do just that—in abundance. Visualization is a good tool here, not only with your art but also your entire creative life. It’ll help clarify things, sharpen your intention. Write down your goals, both short and long term, and imagine what your life would be like if these dreams actually materialized.

Commitment—You won’t get there with your art unless you’re committed on a total level. You’re either committed or you’re not. There’s no halfway about it. You’ll find a lot of cosmic cooperation when you’re committed. Believe me, you’ll see serendipity and synchronicity kicking in.

Consistency—To stay with the project. All the way through. The ebb and flow. The challenges, the celebrations. The Ying and the Yang. I like to use The Wizard of Oz metaphor. Welcome to the road, Dorothy. The Scarecrow, the Lion, the Tin Man, Dorothy—they didn’t change their mind five or six times. They were clear about what they wanted. Despite all the fear and uncertainty and difficulty, they didn’t turn around and go back. They kept moving forward. The more you stay with your art, especially by practicing it, the more it becomes refined and the deeper your relationship develops with it.

Completion—If you really want to feel like an artist, you need to complete things. That special moment when you call it “done” is such a wonderful feeling. On the other hand, when you don’t complete something, you feel like you failed.

Celebration—This is an often overlooked one. We forget to take the time out to honor ourselves and say thank you for a job well done. Give yourself some rewards after finishing your art, both big and small. Go out and buy that CD you’ve wanted for awhile. Go out and see that movie you’ve wanted to see. Go on that vacation you’ve been thinking about. These little breaks along the way help work against that feeling of being overwhelmed by your art.

Mike: How do you suggest dealing with rejection?

Storm: Well, always keep in mind that we all go through it. It’s frustrating, maddening. But once you suffer any sort of creative wound, you need to pull from it, learn from it, or maybe you feel like rejecting it. No matter what you’re feeling, you need to get right back on the horse and roll all that energy into your art. Of course, this is easy to say, hard to do. That’s why we need support. So you don’t feel so alone. We know we have to keep going. We know that not everything we do will be a masterpiece. Not everything will be published. One of my favorite Julia quotes is: “Create right at the bastards.” Which translates into: If someone really pisses you off, or you feel you’ve been treated unfairly, take all that energy and create right in their direction. Okay, so you didn’t like that, well, here’s some more of it. Throw your art right at ‘em, metaphorically speaking.

Mike: What do you think about the often-heard complaint, “I just haven’t had time to write lately”?

Storm: I say that if you don’t have the time to write, then you don’t have the passion to write. It’s common excuse, but never a good reason. You always find the time to do in life what you really want to do. If you keep having trouble finding the time to write, then maybe you need to examine whether writing is really something you want to do.

Mike: Do you have any pet peeves in the creative world?

Storm: Yes, the whiners and egomaniacs. I don’t have time for either of these types.

Mike: What do you think of support groups among creative people?

Storm: I’m a big believer in it. We need our tribe. We shouldn’t isolate ourselves. That’s the worst thing an artist can do, I feel: to self-isolate. Mutual support, the exchange of ideas and insights, the networking with one another—these are essential.

Also, checking in with other artists occasionally, with a playful sense of accountability, is a good idea. Sometimes, that gets the job done. In other words, I said I was going to do this, I said I was going to finish this, and I did. Or, I didn’t and I need support about looking at what’s getting in the way. A supportive atmosphere can make a huge difference.

Spotlight Interview: Earl Storm/Part 1

Earl Storm, Creativity Coach, Certified Artist’s Way Facilitator, Cartoonist

Earl Storm is a cartoonist and creativity coach in the San Diego area, as well as a certified facilitator for The Artist’s Way workshops.

After a successful graphic arts career, Storm took up cartooning and ultimately created the internet syndicated comic strip, Quack City!, in which he uses a wacky duck as a whimsical vehicle for social and political commentary.

He’s been a passionate teacher of The Artist’s Way since 1995, offering classes and creativity workshops, as well as doing corporate training, and has, as you’ll soon see, some interesting and innovative insights about the creative world. With a New Age approach, he’s definitely a different voice in the wilderness.

To find out more on Mr. Storm, please check out these sites:

http://www.creativity-is.biz/
Click here

http://www.creativityworks.biz/index.html
Click here

Here is the first part of my exclusive newsletter interview with Mr. Storm:

Mike: How would you describe the beginning of your creative career?

Storm: I flew by the seat of my pants. I didn’t have the tools to keep my creativity grounded and focused. I was doing the work. But there was such a tremendous amount of drama and intensity and struggle about it. It got to the point where I was working against the enjoyment of putting the work together.

Mike: How did you move beyond all that counterproductive chaos and confusion?

Storm: For me, the critical pathway was Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, first by reading the book, then by taking the workshops. It made me look at my life overall, not just my art—to look intimately at people, places, and things that support my life, as well as things that do just the opposite. I took a lot of self-inventory. And all this helped me to begin freely creating, helped me discover myself as an artist. This doesn’t happen instantaneously, mind you. It’s an ongoing process that continues to this day.

Mike: So you believe strongly in self-reflection as a tool to unleash one’s creativity?

Storm: Absolutely. It’s a mandatory ingredient. It should be done daily. This is what the “morning pages” (a stream-of-consciousness burst of free writing the first thing in the morning) are all about. It’s there that you can establish a relationship between you and your art, a safe place to be perfectly honest with yourself. That’s the key: to stay true.

You can find out so much by listening to your inner voice and writing down on the page by hand, not a computer, what you hear—the good things, as well as the bad. Whatever flows out of the pen rests on the page. It can be anything. Trust the pen going across the page. No agenda. Without judgment, correction, or editing. The self-criticism. The self-sabotage. The self-annihilation. The patting on the back. Things you’re doing well. Things you’d like to do better.

It allows you to dig deep into the nooks and crannies of your life and see where you’re working for and against yourself. This is a great entry point for a day creating your art. Whatever flows out of that pen will help you move past your creative problems. It clears out the mental clutter and opens pathways for ideas and action

The morning pages are a great place to scream and dream.

Mike: What should we understand about writer’s block?

Storm: First off, remember that all creative blocks are temporary. It’s part of the creative process. It happens sometimes. But it still takes some work to get through them.

People want a silver bullet, a magic formula. But there is no such thing. No one answer. We’re all different and we all need different things to stimulate, to generate our creativity.

You have to find out what tools best support you. And do it consistently, practice it. See what resonates in you, what will keep your art alive and move it forward.

One thing I would suggest, though, is immediately start looking at the world with more of a childlike lightness and playfulness and exploration. Instead of sitting there stewing, working against yourself, try just letting it all go.

If the writing is too difficult at the moment, do something else creative, even if it’s for five minutes. Just to stay connected to that creative part of you. Do something that’s not writing but that reinforces the writing. Just to keep those juices flowing. To keep churning your feelings into creative fuel. That five minutes could make a big difference. Those five minutes could expand your mind incredibly.

You can also work through your block in the morning pages. Ask yourself questions on the page. Why am I blocked? Why is it difficult for me? What can I do to work through this? You’ll be amazed what you come up with.

Mike: Would you recommend simply stepping away from your art and quitting for the day?

Storm: Quit is an extreme word. I’d say, take a day off sometimes. Take the heat off yourself and do something fun, adventurous, unproductive and even uncreative. This will allow you to fill your creative well. To give you the necessary time off to refocus, reframe and revitalize yourself and your creative energies. You can’t live your life constantly telling yourself to do, do, do, and produce, produce, produce. You will soon discover how time outs give you a refreshing perspective to projects at hand.