The Spark & The Art Creativity Podcast ran for 155 episodes and talked about the creative life: Interviews with writers, musicians, filmmakers and more.
The show is on permanent hiatus but I still talk about creativity obsessively and you can find me at:
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TheSparkAndTheArt.com/35 – When a project is over you have to decide if it’s reached an end or if it’s finished. Is it something you can come back to later if you want or are you just going to wipe your hands and move on.
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/34 – Steve Ogden is a serial creative with a long string of projects behind him: A book of short stories, an animated short, online graphic novel and web comics. All of these while working full time in the games industry at Cyan Interactive on the Myst family of games and currently at Firaxis games, home of the Sid Meirs Civilization series. In today’s chat we talk about the role childhood plays in grown-up creativity and how it influenced Steve's book of short stories. We ...
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/33 – It’s been a few days or a couple weeks and you are moving along on your project like you haven’t done in a while. It feels great. You’re happy and you reach your flow state and time flies by in a blur you pack up for the night and sleep like a baby. Then the next evening with your talent in hand and your face lit up with smiles you head down to do it again. Now for some reason … you got nothing. What do you do?
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/32 – Karyl Gilbertson is a web designer and dad who is creating a video game in his spare time. In today’s interview we talk about his little trick for getting to work on his project even when he doesn’t feel like it and how breaking his project into smaller chunks allowed him to get started without feeling overwhelmed. — Links for today’s episode — @Karyl - https://twitter.com/karyl Arkaia: The Mysterious Island - http://arkaiagame.com/ New Harvest Media - http://newharves...
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/31 – That curiosity that drove you in the beginning can sometimes stop you in your tracks or keep you in a comfortable place once you get to a certain level of skill. What do you do when your blessed unrest is feeling more like a curse?
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/30 – This week’s interview is with Jackie Koehler. Jackie is an animator and she loves what she does. She loves doing it and she loves learning about it. Most recently she just finished as lead animator for the character of La Muerta in film The Book Of Life. While she’s worked on some pretty high profile movies, even being nominated for a very prestigious Annie award as part of the team for The Amazing Spider-Man she doesn’t consider herself having ‘made it’ simply because...
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/29 – You’re at the end of a project. You only have a few little things left to do. But for some reason you can’t get to it. Everything is suddenly more important. You are experiencing the … Fear Of Done. Today’s episode we talk about what could cause the Fear Of Done and a simple tactic that may help you get over your fear.
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/28 – Andrew Ford just finished his latest professional project as a lead animator on the movie The Book Of Life. His path to being an animator on feature films was somewhat winding but always with that final goal in mind. Once he reached that goal he didn’t rest on his accomplishments. Not only does he consider each scene he animates a learning experience he continues to hone his craft by taking animation courses on his own time. Make sure that where you are going isn’t the...
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/27 – Are you still working on that thing? You know that thing you’ve had in your head all this time. That thing that is just about right but just needs a little more work. You know, *that* thing.
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/26 – Jorge Gutierrez is the writer and director of the animated movie The Book Of Life. This movie is just the latest in a long line of animated creations and projects he’s worked on and while he jokes that it may be his last movie I’m certain that this is not the last you will hear of today’s guest Jorge Gutierrez. Jorge Gutierrez - http://www.super-macho.com/ Book Of Life Movie: http://www.bookoflifemovie.com/ Stuart Little - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0164912/ El Tigre ...
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/25 - I’m not saying telling stories isn’t important I’m just saying not everyone is a storyteller.
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/24 – Stefan Sagmeister is basically a design legend. He has a career close to 25 years long and has won Grammy’s for packaging design for the Talking Heads and almost all the prestigious design awards there are. We talk about the importance of money. We talk about the importance of doing personal projects. We talk about ‘celebrity’. We talk about his upcoming film The Happy Film. **Links from today's episode** FITC.ca CampFestival.ca The Happy Film - TheHappyFilm.org Jesssi...
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/23 – If you never make a mistake you never make yourself better. In today’s episode I talk how making mistakes on purpose can help you out. I also ask if I can borrow your time machine.
Today's interview is Luke Black. Luke is a writer/producer working in Toronto, Canada. He has spent a large amount of time pursuing his passion of making films (he estimates about 15 shorts so far). One of his most recent ventures as producer has landed a spot at the Toronto International Film Festival. We talk about how after spending so much time having fun making films with his friends, his desire to more fully understand the film industry has lead to an almost two year focus solely on the bu...
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/21 - How does not making a decision actually equate to making a decision? How can you move forward even if you can’t make up your mind? Today’s podcast contains a quick solution to helping you get past the decision paralysis.
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/20 - Today’s guest is Canadian Writer, Director and producer Mark De Angelis. After Mark spends his day writing for other people’s shows he comes home and works on his own projects. And not just small projects either. Mark has finished two seasons of his web series Bill and Sons Towing. In our chat we talk about the challenges of doing such large projects basically on the side. As well as how he works with others to make his vision come to life. **Links to things mentioned ...
TheSparkAndTheArt/19 - Is it sometimes hard to know why you are creating things? In today’s episode I tell you why making things you enjoy first can be a very helpful mindset for keeping yourself going.
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/18 - This week’s episode is an interview with Thi Vo. Thi is a film maker, actor, graphic designer and Wipeout contestant (he made it across the red balls) We didn’t talk about his Wipeout appearance on the podcast but you can find a link to the episode in the show notes at TheSparkAndTheArt.com/18. He has finished a short film about family violence and is in the process of editing his feature documentary Made In Vietnam. It’s a film that documents Thi's journey to find the...
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/17 - Collaboration is a tricky thing but the more you collaborate the bigger the rewards. In today’s podcast I tell the story of Jason Webley who with the help of a group of his musician friends sold out an 800 seat theatre and raised $11,111 in two hours on Kickstarter. Collaboration is a tricky thing but when it works it’s magic.
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/16 - This week’s interview is with David Andrew Wiebe from DAWCast.com a musician, songwriter, podcaster and music entrepreneurship educator. David grew up in Japan but moved back to Canada for high school where he started playing guitar. Since then he has gone from playing 3 hours a day to just sometimes. Spent 12 years pursuing music as a career only to give it up to pursue more traditional entrepreneurial endeavours. But has recently found that the two paths are combinin...
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/15 - Everyone is creative. That is isn’t a belief I have. That isn’t something I have faith in. That is something I hold as fact with in me. Everyone is creative.
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/14 - Solveig started as a programmer at AT&T moving on to eventually become a Windows product manager at Microsoft and now is a teacher and musician. Known now online for her work in the music marketing circles as well as her music she is currently working on her third album. We talk about rock operas, music as performance art, how music and other creative work is like being in a startup, how writing music and writing software is similar and whether creativity can be ta...
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/13 - What is money for? Should you write ‘make money’ on your list of goals for your creative project? What is my favourite quote on the topic of money and creativity? I’d tell you here but there isn’t enough room. You may as well listen to this week’s episode to learn why Money is a tool. Not a goal.
http://www.TheSparkAndTheArt.com/12 - This week’s interview is with Chris Seth Jackson of [HowToRunABand.com][1] but what we’ll learn is how after about 4 years of providing great content and value to musicians he’s decided to move on to a new venture. We talk about why he’s made that decision as well as many other topics like: - The importance of money. - The importance of multiple streams of income. - Finding the balance between original songs and cover music. - MVPs (minimum Viable Products) ...
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/11 - Having a completed project is all well and good but if you weren’t inspired by the process there is a good chance you won’t continue. In today’s episode we talk through the 3 main points of my family’s creative philosophy based on the two interviews I did with my mom and dad.
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/10 - Songs That Matter is the theme of today’s podcast. Carolyn Harley (my mom) has been writing songs for almost 40 years. In this conversation we talk about what’s kept her writing, why despite having written almost 600 songs she considers herself a ‘Late Bloomer’ and the healing power of music and Songs That Matter.
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/9 - I use checklists to speed up the things that are repetitive and have a lot of steps but when it comes time do actually start creating things do you think I still use them? Find out in this 2 min episode of the podcast.
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/8 - Do you know what you are going to do when you retire? Do you know someone too focused on work and earning to fully enjoy life? Today’s podcast is Joe Harley who at the age of 50 decided to learn how to play bass guitar and nature photography now lives a happy, busy and fulfilling retirement.
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/7 - This is the last episode in the first series where I talked with people I work with. It’s been a lot of fun and in this episode I share some nice comments I’ve received. I haven’t received any bad comments otherwise I probably would have shared those too. I also talk about how I fight with feeling like a show-off. I like doing things like singing and I’m fairly good at it. But when I do it in front of people I can feel like they are thinking “Look at that guy … showing ...
TheSparkAndTheArt.com/6 - John Johnston is an accomplished improvisational actor and business analyst. In this week’s episode we talk about the importance of constraints on the creative process. He tells a lovely story of going to theatre school with Kevin McKidd of Grey’s Anatomy. We also talk about the similarity of building software and putting on a performance. Plus some bonus talk about Harry Potter and I use the word ‘conflated’ when I didn’t mean too.
