The Messy Studio with Rebecca Crowell
The podcast at the intersection of art, travel, business, philosophy, and life in general.
Displaying Episode 1 - 10 of 13 in total of The Messy Studio with Rebecca Crowell with the tag “teaching”.
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Episode 218: About Teaching Workshops
August 27th, 2022 | 43 mins 50 secs
art, business, creativity, entrepreneurship, rebecca crowell, teaching, workshops
Last week we talked about workshops from the point of view of artists taking them, what they look for, and how to make choices from the many options available. Today we want to talk about workshops from the perspective of workshop instructors. Many artists who have ideas and experience to share are drawn to workshop teaching. And teaching can be a very rewarding, interesting, and lucrative side job that fits well with an artist’s own studio practice. But it’s also a completely unregulated territory where success depends largely on personal reputation and endorsements, and where sometimes the best laid plans fall apart. What does it take to do well as a workshop instructor? What are some of the rewards of teaching workshops and what are some things to watch out for?
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Episode 217: Navigating Workshop World
August 20th, 2022 | 40 mins 15 secs
art, creativity, education, rebecca crowell, students, teaching, workshops
Workshops serve many purposes for artists, including learning new skills and information, connecting with other artists, and receiving feedback and critique. A workshop with the right instructor at the right time can provide an important breakthrough for your work. But attending a workshop can also be challenging on a personal level, involving travel, a commitment of time and money, and working in a group environment. And not all workshops are well organized or worthwhile. Today we will be talking about workshops from the perspective of artists who have taken them--what was gained, and what difficulties were encountered.
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Episode 197: How Praise Can Paralyze
November 20th, 2021 | 35 mins 17 secs
art, creativity, criticism, mindset, praise, rebecca crowell, teaching
When we think of the kinds of reactions to our work from other people that cause a block in creative flow, most people think first of negativity, indifference, or misunderstanding. All of these can undermine our self-confidence and cause us to feel incompetent, uninteresting, or simply off track. They can lead to anxiety and avoidance behavior towards our work. But what about the opposite—positive remarks of praise and admiration? These can create a blockage of a different kind that may be harder to recognize and acknowledge. Today we talk about the rather odd fact that praise can stall us as much as criticism.
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Episode 194: Our First Year: Reflections on Cold Wax Academy
October 31st, 2021 | 39 mins 46 secs
abstraction, art, book, cold wax academy, creativity, rebecca crowell, teaching, writing
A year ago, Rebecca and her teaching partner and co-author, Jerry McLaughlin embarked on a new project to meet the needs of artists during the time of Covid. With in-person workshops canceled, they turned to online teaching as a way to continue to offer instruction to artists interested in using cold wax medium and oils. Faced with this challenge of offering deep learning in a new format, Rebecca and Jerry developed a structured curriculum of online sessions for a worldwide audience of artists. Cold Wax Academy has evolved to be the leading online resource for mastery of both technical and artistic skills required for painting with cold wax medium.
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Episode 189: Interview with Jim Scherbarth
September 25th, 2021 | 40 mins 39 secs
art, creativity, focus, jim scherbarth, passion, practice, purpose, rebecca crowell, teaching, voice
James Edward Scherbarth was a dear friend, colleague, and teacher, and artist who developed profound and personal ways of working in just a few years following his retirement in his mid-60s. Today we share our interview with Jim near the end of his life in which he discusses his life, work, and teaching philosophy. Jim passed away a few days after this recording, on June 22, 2021. We are very honored to have had this opportunity to hear what he wished to share with our listeners.
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Episode 126: Handling Critique
May 23rd, 2020 | 39 mins 36 secs
art, creativity, critique, rebecca crowell, teaching
It can be very unsettling to put your work in front of someone else for a critique. We may fear harsh, judgmental comments. Yet the value of critique is exactly that, the chance to gain an outside perspective and insight, and very often criticism can be given and received in a supportive way. Today we’ll talk about the positive aspects of critique as well as handling negative criticism with regards to our work.
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Episode 124: Voices Of Experience
May 9th, 2020 | 37 mins 16 secs
art, experience, rebecca crowell, teaching, wisdom
If you have ever had a really good art class, whether, in school or a workshop, you probably retained some real gems of wisdom from the instructor. These may be specific things that were emphasized or their overall teaching philosophy. These positive ideas and words have the power to shape our studio practices for our entire creative lives. We reached out to some art instructors, all friends of the Messy Studio Podcast, to ask them to share their insights and approaches to teaching, as well as how they motivate and inspire students to find their own direction.
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Episode 112: Surrounded By Advice
February 15th, 2020 | 29 mins 28 secs
advice, art, learning, rebecca crowell, teaching
As artists, we all want to grow and improve our own work, and we are often surrounded by the advice and opinions of other people. While some advice is helpful, it can sometimes undermine our unique, personal voice. It can be hard to sort the good advice from the bad. It is also important to realize that our own accepted opinions may need to be challenged in order for our work to advance. Unfortunately there is a lot more bad advice than good advice out there. A mentor of Ross’s once told him “if you follow the advice of 90% of the people you meet, you will end up where 90% of people end up”.
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Episode 110: Balancing Acts
February 8th, 2020 | 27 mins 39 secs
art, balancing acts, rebecca crowell, style, teaching, technique
We often talk about finding balance with aspects of the creative process that seem to be opposites. For example, finding the balance between working intuitively and working with control and intention. The way each of us finds this balance between different approaches helps to develop the unique character of our individual work and process.
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Episode 14: Diving Into Abstraction, Part 2
March 24th, 2018 | 37 mins 32 secs
abstraction, rebecca crowell, teaching
Rebecca and Ross continue their conversation on abstraction, focusing on various approaches and ways of understanding abstract work.