Today I am interviewing my dear friend and host of the awesome Vancouver event series Raincoast Creative Salon, Sandra Harris. Let’s get started!
What is your creative mix? Tell us about all the awesome things that you do.
I write. I blog at Raincoast Cottage about making better makers and living a creative life. I photograph food, still life, and street photography, and I’m learning to shoot portraits. I’m a mom to a yummy seven-year-old girl who amazes AND amuses me each and every day. Partner to the man who still makes me laugh.
And I’ve somehow turned into an event planner with my evening series, Raincoast Creative Salon.
I love jazz, foreign film, Mad Men, Gossip Girl, snow boarding and water skiing. You’ll often find me at my favorite coffee places here in Vancouver.
Lately you’ve been talking about the importance of getting offline and meeting up in person. You’ve even created your own event, Raincoast Creative Salon. Tell us about that. What is your main goal for these events? How do you decide on speakers and topics? What do you want people to take away from them?
My pet project for 2013! It’s an evening salon series that I host in Vancouver, Canada. I host them every 4-6 weeks in a different location and around a different activity. The “official” fancy-schmancy description?
“Small creative gatherings introducing you to cool artists and interesting people in a social and informative setting. Think musical performances, dance, play-readings, magic, lectures – whatever I find that I know will inspire, challenge and entertain.”
It’s creatives (photographers, artists, designers, writers) and people who love the arts getting together for drinks and appetizers, banter and conversation, and a fun, inspiring activity. Simply put, it’s about attracting the people I’d want to hang out with doing the things that I find interesting.
My main goal is to build an offline community of creative go-getters. I have met SO many amazing people online who are supportive and fun and inspiring. Google hangouts and Skype are great, but there’s nothing like meeting people face-to-face. I really believe that despite all the wonderful benefits of social media, we need, especially as creatives, a local community to support and inspire. And that’s also ME doing what I can to inspire others. Being that “general encourager.”
You travel often. How do your travels play into your creativity and creative pursuits?
My first reaction was “hey, I don’t travel THAT often” but then I realized, oops, I do. I’ve always loved to travel and luckily I’m married to someone who loves it too. Some people love clothes and jewelry – me, I love to travel. I even lived in Cape Town for two years.
On the creative side of things I need a regular dose of theater and museums and galleries. When I was a kid in a smallish city on the prairies of Canada I dreamt of living in NYC. I never did get to live there but I travel there a few times a year – once on my own and once with the man and the girl.
I plan out each year taking into account which plays and which museum shows I want to see. Last year the “must sees” were the Cindy Sherman exhibit at MOMA and Philip Seymour Hoffman in Death of a Salesman. This year it is the musical Matilda and the 100th anniversary of the 1913 Armory Show when modern art was introduced to the US.
In between shows I walk and wander and photograph and soak up the energy and atmosphere.
In short, it’s stimulating creatively and gets me out of any ruts.
You take a lot of creative classes and attend conferences. How do you decide which ones to take? What’s next on your creative agenda?
These questions are making me think! How DO I decide? I never went to art or design school so I’m filling in the gaps in my knowledge with what I can find locally or online.
This may sound all plan-y and goal-ish but I do think about where I want to be with my creative work in, say, a year or so. Then I look at that gap (thank you Ira Glass for talking about this!) between what I am able to do NOW and what I want to be able to execute THEN. What skills do I need to work on? How can I make that happen?
Sometimes it’s a new skill like “I want to learn Illustrator” so I sign up for an online four week class with Nicole’s Classes. Sometimes it’s something that catches my eye like the SkillShare map drawing class taught by Anne Ditmeyer of Pret-a-Voyager. And sometimes it’s setting up the discipline of a weekly practice.
The latter is my photography. I find that to really improve any creative skill, you just have to get your hands dirty and practice, practice, practice. I’m in a 52 week long photography group that has weekly shooting assignments plus weekly critiques. It’s been humbling as some in the group are professional photographers! But the discipline of having to produce something weekly has been so effective.
Conferences are pricey so it’s REALLY a cost/benefit decision. Why am I going and what am I going to get out of it? I have gone to Alt Summit in Salt Lake City and Camp Mighty. Both were amazing, inspiring experiences. I even led a table at Alt Summit this past January. I don’t have plans for any more conferences this calendar year as I’m focusing on upping my skills in photography and writing.
You have a lot of things going on in your life. How do you stay focused and make sure that you’re working on things that are really important to you?
And THIS is the $64,000 question. I can be a bit of a magpie – “look at that shiny bit of paper over there! Oh, a piece of string! Tin foil, it’s tin foil!” Add in a bit of impatience and…let’s just say that I HAVE been known to take on too much.
So how do I do it? Or try to do it? Like I mentioned above, I think about where I want to be and what I want to be doing in six months or a year. Or even longer out.
I imagine and journal and dream about what I want my life to look like and how I want to feel. As a creative, as a wife, as a mom, as a friend. I drag out my colored markers and draw pictures and scribble and doodle and write.
And then I make concrete plans to get from here to there.
I also take into account my constraints. The time factor is a big one. For example, I’m no longer 20 and living in a basement suite where I can commit long hours in big gaps of time to creative work. How many of us are REALLY Picasso or Jackson Pollock with a partner to do EVERYTHING else so we can create nonstop? I’ve learned to work in short bursts when I can. And to be patient even when it seems like things are at a standstill and I’m not learning/improving/growing.
When things tempt the magpie in me I think of two quotes. The first quote is by Jordan Ferney of Oh Happy Day:
“The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want in the moment.”
And the second one is the Helsinki Bus Station Theory:
“Stay on the f**ing bus.”
In other words, don’t go flitting around being the jack-of-all-trades and master of none.
There are many more opportunities than I have time or energy to take advantage of, and it KILLS me to say “no” and turn things down, but I do. Or at least I’m saying no more often.
How has blogging and social media impacted your career?
Where do I start? This is going to sound crazy but it’s REALLY changed my life.
My blog started as my personal commitment to FINALLY giving my creative life the respect that it deserves. That has happened but it’s also brought me friends and colleagues and opportunities that I never would have had otherwise.
Before we all were so limited geographically. If you didn’t know anyone who liked “x” you were stuck. Now I can banter with Jacqueline at The Hourglass Files about costume design museum exhibits, debate academia with the community who reads Laura of 11D, and keep up with the world of art and design.
It’s given me the confidence to put myself out there and really be open about who I am and what interests me. I’m getting all Brene Brown Daring Greatly here.
It’s inspired me to improve my writing, my photography, my networking, my marketing, and my design skills. I see what others are doing and creating and figure out how I can do it too.
When I blog and tweet, it’s not to the faceless masses, it’s to people whom I know. And it inspires me to do the very best that I can TODAY to put out something interesting. Tomorrow I’ll do a better job. And the next day after that? Hopefully still better.
Sandra, thank you so much for sharing your story with us! On May 13 Raincoast Creative Salon is featuring architect and TED2013 speaker Michael Green. He wants to build wooden skyscrapers! Get more information about the event and sign up to learn what’s coming up next.
I love Sandra’s ending quote. “Tomorrow I’ll do a better job. And the next day after that? Hopefully still better.”
We’re all improving on the way we communicate and share our stories every time that we write or create art. Practicing gets us closer to where we want to be.
Let me help you figure out the best ways to put yourself out there and explore what makes your business, products, artwork, or services stand out from the rest. Then you can start practicing too!
You can read more Creative Mix interviews here. See you tomorrow! xo