We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Talitha Barkow a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Talitha, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.
Creativity is like a plant. You need to nurture it with water (input), sunshine (charge), and good soil (environment) to keep the plant alive and healthy. With consistent care, the plant will survive harsh weather and pests to produce fruit and flowers. Nurturing your creativity requires daily input, charge, and a good environment to endure all manner of difficulties, and in the end, produce something beautiful.
Input. Fill your mind with complex, unique, and challenging art. Read books that will quarrel with the way you see the world. Stare at paintings that don’t make sense at first. Watch movies that you otherwise may have passed up because the first few minutes felt “inaccessible”. Look over your garden fence to see what the artist next door is growing. It’s too easy to get bogged down in the comfort of walking the same beaten path across our own lawns. Get comfortable making new discoveries and you will have more inspiration to draw from.
My input comes from browsing the shelves of the library, picking up books and DVDs sometimes at random, to see what I can discover. Asking for recommendations from people with wildly different taste than myself is a risky business, but the risk pays off when I see a fantastic film I otherwise would never have watched.
Charge. This is the spark you use to move forward. It’s often said that the first step in anything is the hardest, and wow, that’s no different for artists. Most of the time you will have to create your own charge. I don’t like to use the word motivation because it’s overused, misunderstood, and tiresome. Don’t wait until you feel motivated, you’d be waiting forever.
My spark is my daily goal of writing for at least fifteen minutes a day. Fifteen minutes is a manageable amount of time that gets me to sit down and write no matter what is going on. Most days I will exceed that, but I wouldn’t even start if I hadn’t designed my daily schedule to include that fifteen minutes. You have to create a system that charges you and points you towards your goals.
Environment. Virginia Woolf was right, a room of one’s own is essential. Even if it’s not a room, a dedicated space for the work is essential. Noise cancelling headphones, a notebook (no scrolling allowed), and a pen can help you create the space you need in order for you mind to do its creative work. Draw boundaries. Maybe no one else is allowed in your space, maybe it’s a dedicated tech-free zone, whatever it is, it needs to have exact purpose.
I have two notebooks and a certain chair that constitute my creative space. One notebook is for organizing my creative goals and calendar, the other is for writing out all my thoughts and ideas that I will shape into stories.
Being consistent in your creativity takes discipline. The beauty of art comes later. The dull seeds that you plant in the darkness of the earth will one day reach for the blue sky and explode with color. The same is with your creative endeavors. Take in the information you need, put in the work, and make space for it and you’ll have something beautiful to share.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
My professional focus is on making short films and webseries. The worlds I create are just to the left of normal, meaning that each story and character is immediately recognizable to an audience but then gets unexpectedly weird. I mainly write and direct. It’s important to me to write characters and stories where people get to explore the bizarre and uncomfortable ideas in life, like death, while still finding the humor in it.
I am always trying to promote my Youtube Channel because that is where my work is most accessible. I have several projects in the works now that I will be posting soon.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtTWUQtIu_31K1P_XkZu5eg
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Be willing to learn, pay attention to the details, and change your plans.
Being willing to learn at any stage will develop you as an artist. Everything you know, everything you’ve experienced has informed your art. Editing video will change the way you direct a scene. Painting will change the way you stage the action within the frame. Dancing will change the way your characters will communicate. All art informs other art.
The details are the blocks that make up your project. How often have we seen great concepts fall to pieces because the direction, or the writing, or the acting, or the editing, or the scoring, or the this and that, etc. didn’t match the quality of the other pieces? Pay attention to your details as you build and you’ll spend more time enjoying the process and less time trying to fix things when you reach the end.
Plan meticulously. Then throw out the plan. Be prepared. Then ignore your preparation and go with your gut in the moment. When you know what it is you need to do, when you have all of your information ready and prepared, you are no longer bound. Preparation will set you free to explore in the moment during the creative process.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
I am always open to collaboration. I’ve worked as a writer, director, actor, editor, and producer for short films and podcasts. Throughout those experiences, I have learned from the people I’ve collaborated with and brought them on to work on projects of my own.
I’m looking to collaborate with people who are making their own projects and would potentially like to work with me on mine. I’m looking to work with different kinds of artists, mainly actors, directors, cinematographers, and writers.
The personalities I like to work with are outgoing, humble artists who are looking to improve their craft, tell stories they are passionate about, and enjoy the process.
You can connect with my through my IG: https://www.instagram.com/talitha_tv_/
My handle is @talitha_tv_
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talitha_tv_/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtTWUQtIu_31K1P_XkZu5eg
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