We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Heith Banowetz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Heith , we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
Thank you so much for this opportunity to respond to a very integral part of my creative process, resilience.
I discovered my resilience in what i call “walking and the practice the art of noticing/a research project”.
This practice was inspired by a movie I once watched in my late 20’s and at about the time i was transitioning from photography into my journey as a self-taught artist in drawing. The movie was about a girl studying philosophy in college and she admired the way this philosopher she was researching took a walk every evening around the same time every day and this inspired her to do the same in her daily practice- this inspired me.
I began taking nightly walks with no agenda or even a planned route, it was more about getting some fresh air and discipline in the practice, and perhaps, something i did not know would happen, just like in the movie.
As i mentioned early, this I was happening at the time in my life in the beginning phases of shifting my creative projects from photography and into drawing and I just moved to Venice Beach. California from Seattle.
Like most artists, I was working a full-time job. Some days at work could be so emotionally draining and challenging, they would not only affect me in the way i would respond internally, on repeat, and i wasn’t proud of the work that i was doing, however, it afforded me to make art. This would continue after work and would hindered my creativity and productivity. What i slowly discovered about myself while taking my nightly walks was how i began to take notice the way i was reflecting on my days. I would replay moments of my day and how i could of changed the way i responded more patiently,, not take an experience of conversation so personal and most importantly, understand i am not perfect and how its okay to have rough days, separating the past in the present, yet reflecting on the past becoming more self-aware in my future for my mental health and wellness when this is a daily challenge. And it was a daily challenge to protect my inner harmony, for my creativity. My successes was when i would instantly recognize those challenging moments of my day and say “we’ll be taking this on your walk later this evening”” and even making me smile a bit. Also, during this practice of nightly walks, I discovered something about myself- i love drawing and watching myself expand and grow as a artist, and i was fighting to protect that space and learning how to navigate the day to day challenges of a full-time job while being an artist.
Discovering a practice for resilience taking nightly walks, has expanded to how i respond to creative blocks, self motivating purpose as an artist, and my personal life and connections with others.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am a self taught artist working on paper. My materials are colored pencils, graphite and ink.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
As an Artist, balancing time and making space even if its just for 1 hour a day.
Productivity for successful results can bring a lot of pressure, especially like myself who works a full-time job.
I’ve learned in my practice and trust, is that even if you can only allow myself 1 hour a day to my practice, i am 1 hour ahead for the next days session. Every moment is a miracle when creating or even just sitting and looking at art my drawing in developing, helps.
Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
I would switch my time from drawing to writing…
Contact Info:
- Website: https://heith-banowetz.com
- Instagram: @heith.a.b
Image Credits
Heith Banowetz and Yasmeen Fanari
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
