Meet larry moore

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Larry Moore. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Larry, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

To live fulfilling lives, we need three things: a sense of reason or an acceptable model of the world that explains why we are here, a sense of place or the connection to a tribe, ideal, or geographic place that grounds us, and a sense of purpose or the desire to be a part of something bigger to affirm our existence.

We aren’t limited to just one sense of purpose.

As a child, I was, as many are, a compulsive drawer. My mother saw that it was more than a way to pass time and encouraged it by introducing me to all things art. In my third year of college, she insisted I go to Europe on a six-week humanities tour. Seeing the art and architecture I had been sleeping through in art history class made everything clear. I would be a visual artist, but what kind? I chose a career in the communication arts because I loved creative problem-solving even more than painting: graphic design, art direction, and illustration.

The act of creating is always exhilarating, but being sought after to develop concepts for others was intoxicating. I was driven to be the best ‘creative’ I could be. Being creative is way more than just painting or playing an instrument. It is inventive problem-solving, doing the thing that is new, not the thing that’s been done before. It requires equal parts of play, a personal aesthetic, fearlessness, and critical thought.

But all the while, a realization was brewing. I understood how necessary creative and critical thinking skills were to individuals and to society in general, but it wasn’t being taught anywhere. A sense of purpose emerged. Initially, I taught as an adjunct teacher at a local college along with my regular work schedule, developing classes that didn’t exist to teach the things I knew were important, like a class called Creative Thinking. At the time, there was no book or curriculum for this, which required a deep dive into what I inherently knew, and then I had to figure out how to explain it.

The realization that there was something I could do to help people became a powerful motivator.

A sense of purpose can be anything from being a good parent, helping those in need, or wanting to change the world in some seemingly small way for the better. It is a function of Abraham Maslow’s concept of self-actualization, the realization of one’s talent or potential, and can become a fundamental drive, as it did for me. Rather than teaching one small group at a time, in 2015, I decided to write a book about the creative process for artists. Something many artists know surprisingly little about. The result was Fishing for Elephants. Insight and Exercises to Inspire Authentic Creativity, a project that took nearly three years to write and produce on my own.

I wasn’t a writer, I had to figure that out as I went. I didn’t want to regurgitate what others had written, so I started from scratch by creating a word cluster map of what I inherently knew and used in my career, and worked outward. It would have been easy to quit, but the sense that I had to do it kept me moving.

The decision to write the book changed my life completely. It began at the darkest time of my life—a time when I was battling alcoholism and the will to live. It gave me a reason to continue. In AA, a common theme is to find your higher power, and this was mine, this sense of purpose.

I have been a professional artist for over 50 years, leaving the communication arts to focus on my own, and a teacher for 35, and the rewards come in many forms. Money, yes, that’s pretty important. But, making things, creating something new, and holding it in my hands is its own reward. Making art that is important to me rather than a product to sell has been extremely satisfying. It is the validation of self. Being an artist is my purpose, and so is helping people to become more creative and authentic, uphold their individuality, and become positive contributors to the social and cultural fabric.

There is never a day I am not grateful for this path that chose me.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

During Covid, I knew that artists and non-artists alike were panicked. Locked down while life as we knew it came to a screeching halt, but I saw another opportunity. I created a free site on Facebook to teach creativity. The page is called What If University. When we have nothing to do there is a tendency to focus on the bad, but I saw it as a chance for focused training. I posted tutorials on creative processes and issued creative challenges. People from all walks of life participated and were able to use the downtime for good rather than swirling and twirling.

I was fortunate to have a studio to go to every day and focus on a premise I used in my teaching. If there was no one to buy paintings, what would you create? Would you create at all? It was very freeing in a sense. I focused on large works without any influence of what people might think.

Just a few years earlier my work went through a big transition when I started asking myself these questions:
Who are you?
What do you want?
What do you want from your art?

The answers led me to a narrative about man’s relationship with nature and vice versa. Environmental issues have always been important as we are slowly disrupting the balance in nature. I created an ongoing series of paintings that depicted a world where people had left and animals began to retake what was originally theirs. A series simply called, Intrusion.

By placing animals in abandoned human spaces that had no business being there, a narrative was formed. I added a sub-narrative with each painting, some aspect of the human condition. The pieces became autobiographical and allegorical in nature. To date, I’ve created over 200 works, with the goal of not repeating an idea.

At the same time, I focused on a separate line of thought: Abstract art. I realized my roots in design were the perfect platform for non-objective painting. The process of abstract painting forced me to consider how design actually works, which led me to seven principles of design that are in all forms of creative expression.

My teaching shifted from painting in general to painting with intent. I teach these seven principles, which are present in both representational and non-representational art. Because these principles weren’t presented in my first book, I’m writing a second book, which is currently very near completion. Almost all of the writing for the second book is posted to my What If University Facebook page, which is accessible to all.

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?

Non-linear thinking
Never assume the current way of doing anything is THE way. Civilizations are built on invention and innovation. The greatest advances in pretty much everything weren’t just improving what was done but in re-invention. Use analogy; compare the problem to something else, William Shakespeare’s entire library is built on it. “Out, out brief candle, life is but a walking shadow…” And it worked for him.

Commitment
If you start something, see it through. Finish it. Take pride in the act of completion, even if it’s something small and seemingly inconsequential. If you were born in this century, there’s a good chance you had limited exposure to creating and making things or keeping yourself amused without electronics. Build something, write something, throw a pot, stay in a job you don’t like until the task is done. Museums are filled with commitments to self, to an idea that no one knew they needed. Take pride in what you do, even the most menial tasks. It adds up and people will respect you for it.

Delayed gratification
I can say this as a person of age. The state of immediate gratification is empty and without purpose. Think of your actions like small investments into a personal fund, you never know when or how things will pay off. My book was a project that kept expanding but I kept at it because I believed it would pay off in some way, if not monetarily, it would help someone. My next book feels much the same… will I receive financial gain? I don’t know. I just know it’s important enough to finish.

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?

I believe with absolute certainty that the more you know in general, the better you will be at your chosen field. Cross-pollinating ideas make for better ideas. If you study famous ground battles you may find something that can be applied as a football coach. Or learning about tapestry might provide the inspiration for a new way to build a home or create a healing patch for surgeries.

There is a training model known as chunking, or training the parts first rather than the whole. In basketball, these are called drills: dribbling, shooting, passing, running, plays, etc. The same is true for innovation, and the great thinkers of the world know this. They are voracious readers, knowledge sponges. Why? because you don’t find anything new in the same old places.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.larrymoorestudios.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/larry_moore_studios/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1042722288
• Book on Amazon: https://a.co/d/auvpH5h

Image Credits

Larry Moore