Kyle Hawley: Creativity, Motherhood & Meaningful Work

We talk about how growing up in a multi-generational household has shaped her work . We touch on how she uses printmaking to encourage hands-on learning , and she also shares what she's learned from parenting , building a business and making art all at the same time . Well , I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did . Welcome , Kyle .

You want to give a little intro for the audience .

He's also a novelist and so we do a lot of adaptation projects , and I'm a proud , proud graduate of Texas State University it used to be Southwest Texas State University when I graduated as well as Art Center College of Design in Pasadena .

We had senior showcases and I had colleges from all around the U S come and and I was able to audition for them .

And while I did get scholarships to many of these places , um shot , you'll be shocked to know that theater scholarships are not very big scholarships and so , um , and I was uh , you know , did not have a lot of means and so , you know , price tags really made a difference , um , in what the decisions I was making and , um , one of my um theater teachers knew

that was the , you know , made a big difference for me and she really I believe she might have been a graduate I feel I'm remiss in not knowing a Texas state and and she said it's one of the best programs , whether it's affordable , more affordable or not , whether it's affordable , more affordable or not and she really helped guide me to Southwest Texas State and

Texas State , and she wasn't wrong . The theater program was really unparalleled

, and I'm so happy that that's where I started my career . We are too .

I had , as a child , lived in an abandoned schoolhouse for a short time , which is a , you know , not a particularly common story , but not unlike some people's stories , and it made an impact on me and it was a I wanted to look at kind of the beginning and end of things .

And that carried me into looking at restoration playgrounds , which came to be umWWII , where Europe was recovering and they were trying to build , they were trying to create places of play for children , and so these places really evolved where they would give them a set of tools and a plot of land and really all of the materials to build their own play , and so

there was a lot of thought around being able to rebuild their own world by their own hands .

You know they were trying to really fold into that therapy through play , through the work of the child , and so that's where it started and , and so you know , that's why the work , that the outreach that we do in letterpress play is always about um focusing on the work of the child and giving back to children .

Um , that's why it's very focused on tool using through the presses and and printmaking and I fell in love with printmaking while at Art Center and so I think , like any kind of um concept or idea , you just kind of have to follow um a core question and the answers will come to help you shape it more fully , and that and that's yeah , and for you , what was

that core question ? that core question was what happens when something is ending and , um , and , of course , when something ends , something new begins , and and that was really what I was in pursuit of , that really hot pursuit of that , uh , and , and that was the case .

That was just what they were doing with the restoration playgrounds right , a way of life was ending . They were looking to create new beginnings for children . I had experienced that personally , bringing things to life right , fostering ideas , shepherding ideas into a more fully articulated expression .

success , I feel I mean when I just when I say success , I mean just kind of personal contentment was really grounded in the , the time I spent with my grandparents , and , and of course they're of the greatest generation . You know , my first , my first best friend , I say often , was my great grandmother and she was at least 80 , 80 years , my senior .

Wow , and , and I was really I witnessed was they shared with me , you know , their stories of growing up on the plains of of West Texas and their , their joys and their , their tribulations , and I began to really understand that whatever difficulty I might be facing , there was a solution to be found .

And I think that that was really at the core of these generations that you know were either adult during wartime and depression , or children during that time , which is the two generations I was , you know , being really well held by . And my grandparents were also , you know , civil servants . They were deeply my grandparents .

My great , great grandfather was the county sheriff , my , his son , my grandfather , I mean my , my grandfather was the county commissioner and my grandmother was the election judge . She started the public library . You know , it was just you found , you know , when , faced with a problem , their instinct was not to turn away , but was to dig deeper for us .

And when people , when the people around them , love them back , they're available , you know they're sponges and they're available .

And so I was just , really I was given a lot of love by these people and I was , and I was , and I was able to see that , although they would face difficult things , it didn't , it wasn't dispiriting , I mean it , it wasn't fun , but but they didn't , it did , it wasn't , it didn't , it didn't close doors , it opened doors , and that , I think , was just a

really important way for my brain to be , to grow . You know , in relationship to problem solving .

You know I was , I would , I was able to have an early childhood education . Luckily Montessori , and I think there's a lot , I think Maria Montessori

, she's kind of one of my , she rose . There is a lot about her , her , her doctorate and her , her pedagogy that it can be misinterpreted as anything can be , but at the tenant of it , at the core of it , it is similar to some of the kind of these notions that I'm reflecting about on my grandparents .

It's just like the work of the child is , is play , and and we solve things and and humans want to problem solve , quite naturally , right when given a safe environment with enough tools . And so I tried to do the same for my kids . I tried to provide a safe , loving environment and enough tools to problem solve , you know , and it is at the heart of it .

That's what I'm trying to do , you know .

You know , I'm looking at how , supporting , supporting them and their next plane of of problem solving , Um and , and I think I , what would I ? What I say to them often is you just have to follow what you're most passionate about . Is you just have to follow what you're most passionate about .

Really , at the end of the day , you're going to learn all the reading , writing , arithmetic along the way , but what , what you must choose is something you really fundamentally care about , and in my opinion , you may . You may have a different idea . I don't think it really matters what that thing is . I just it has to be Totally agree .

Yeah , totally agree , and that's why , for me you know my businesses do that they're the things I would do whether they were a business or not , and they allow me to learn all the things that I still continue to learn . I mean , it's like my business was before . It was a business .

It was just my art studio , me and my art studio , and then suddenly you invite people in and then you invite customers in , and then so there's all this whole body of lessons that you learn as an entrepreneur , and then you're a boss , and then you're a boss of many people , and then you kind of have this like You're , you're , you're getting your MBA , just

you know , in in the life , in life and the throes of it , and that's really hard , Judy .

Yes , it is really hard , it's really hard and it takes up a lot of time and um , that part you know just like , but um , because it's in , it's in service to the main meditation of what I'm asking , the question that I'm asking , and the and the and the , the jobs and the creative thinking that I would just want to do .

Anyway , it's like a spoonful of sugar with the other things that , and I think that's just kind of a good recipe for life .

, home life , where it's just your life . And maybe is that the life of an artist , but it's also the life of an entrepreneur or someone who's passionate about what's next . Right , it is .

And while Letterpress Play is purely entrepreneurial and 26 Keys is entrepreneurial , we do have clients Right , and 26 keys is entrepreneurial , we do have clients right and um , and , and I think what the the difference between doing fine art and doing commercial art ?

It is that you are problem solving to someone's request , right , they come to you with a problem and you solve it .

Versus as a fine artist , you are asking your own question and solving it through that exploration , and I would say that both require an equal amount of discipline , because you're not going to solve the problem unless you get in there and do it every day .

I started in theater and then I moved to communications and so , you know , and I ended up kind of having both at the end , and so what I was really pursuing at Texas State was communicating right , right right Through art . Yeah , yes , right Right Through art . Yeah , yes .

And so , you know , as a fine artist , I think a lot about how people receive information , and we receive it through through roads , through symbols , right through through key ideas that we hear or see , and so , because of that , motherhood is a symbol , motherhood is an archetype , and mother is an archetype , and I had a very big , broad understanding of motherhood .

I had a very complicated relationship with my own mother , um , and , and a very uncomplicated relationship with my grandmother and grandmother , my great-grandmothers and my grandmothers , and I think there's a narrative in the world that mothering has to come specifically from the person that's given birth to us , and the truth of the matter is that the mothering can come

from many different places , and that's been my experience . That's my truth , right .

I a lot in my fine artwork , um , and there were many things where , when I started , when I chose to become a mother , um , that was scary for me because my mother was a teenage mother and that was um uncomfortable for her and uncomfortable for me and really shaped her in ways that were , I would say , did not result in her flourishing .

So I was unclear on whether or not I would be have the right tools right , the right instincts . The biggest thing was no-transcript , and so I did a deep dive into motherhood . I put my career on pause completely as far as my external career .

I only worked in my studio in the time that I had and was raising my children when they're younger years , because there was a lot of it turned out , there were a lot of answers and questions that I still had , because I I didn't have , I didn't get them from my own mother and it's , you know , which is the beauty of becoming a mother Like there's a lot

Right , mother Like there's a lot right . So that topic for me , judy , is just deep and rich and wide and will never be on under explored , and I and I feel quite confident that everyone else feels that way too , I totally agree .

the exhibit talk about the pieces that are in there , and what was your technique ?

They were either garments or blankets or hankies , and they were very utilitarian in their use . And I wanted to look at the tools of motherhood and I wanted to like being a mother and being a parent .

Sometimes we comfort and sometimes we clarify right , you're always kind of having to decide which door to walk through in any particular moment , and I really wanted so . So that's what ? So that's what those tools , those are literally the tools that I , that I have used and even continue to use , and that's why they are featured in the work .

They're the cast of characters , let's say .

You know , my grandmother put knitting needles in my hand when I was four and and I , just it was the moment where I realized it , it was it , would it ? Um , I , I realized that I could have a form of self-expression .

It gave me instant autonomy , I was able to create , and so it , just it , it , it fired off so so many different ideas and but I do think , many times as an artist , and early in one's career and not necessarily young some people come to being artists later in life .

I just think , when you come being early in your career , there's a lot of questions and what I'm most interested in as a fine artist is , um is to not present the question , but to present what I perceive as the journey to the answer . So I , you know that that's that's what I'm always , that that's where I am with my artwork is that it ?

And it takes me a while sometimes to create a body of work , because I'm still kind of stuck in the question , and and I don't to me , that's not my job .

My job as as an artist is to have a reflection , so that when I'm reflecting out this , this answer or this pursuit of an answer , that it allows other people , it invites them into that and so that they can join in . And I think that that's what the job of art does .

It allows you to reflect back into yourself and and and there's a catharsis oh , I know what it was it's about , catharsis . I don't present . I don't go to art as as my therapy . I go to it as an , as a to ask questions and to and find answers , and that's what I hope it does for the viewer .

Make a mark with a pencil , make a mark with a house paint . But you have to show up for yourself and do that consistently . And maybe you have the time to do it once a week or three times a week or once a month , but when you show up to do the work , do the work . That's when the inspiration can find a home .

But if you don't give it a place to find a home , it won't .

Ideas take time because , because ideas are not um , ideas are like a , a house that has rooms , and you know , and you , just you gotta , you gotta build it , and and , and you can't build it unless you show up to build it .

really build a brand of 26 Keys . We hadn't taken that approach before in our production company , and so I'm doing very similar work where we're looking at how we're gonna touch the community and be a community builder and connect various different aspects , and then we have a show that has a global launch .

And you know , the great thing about this point for us , Judy , is this is what we were looking to do , this is it , and so we want to do it . As long as anyone will , let us do it .

It really helps more people find the show and , more importantly , hear these powerful stories . And if you know someone with a story of change and creativity or you have one yourself , reach out to me at judyoskam . com . I'd love to hear from you .