We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Steven Wells a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Steven , 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.
Although I recently took a sabbatical from this process, over the last 11 years I daily drew on coffee cups or did some kind of drawing and posted them on social media to be seen by a small but loyal group of followers. Many were coffee related but most had some connection to a quote or thought from recent studies and even some news stories. This daily push to create is hard to step away from, so I end up creating something anyway. It has improved my drawl skills and sharpened my thought process.
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?
Working with students of all ages has kept me on my toes physically and mentally so my artwork can have a mix of youthful playfulness philosophical observations. My view of the present versus eternity also plays strong factor in the hope that tends to arise in my writings and illustrations.
In the same vein, being an educator allows me to be surrounded be inspiration, resources and connections to opportunities to create. I seem to always have personal commissions to work on, have been able to create some mural work in homes and businesses and have been able to been involved with local artist on occasion.
Illustration is my jam and I have been able to create a few children’s books, but look forward to doing more.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
My father was a preacher and my mother was a teacher and I grew up determined not to follow in their shoes. But opportunities arose to “help out” a private Christian school, and I soon fell in love with something I had been avoiding. I even went on to do mission work in Mexico and later became a bilingual minister in an inner city church. To date I continue leading ministries and continue to teach classes at my local church.
My advice to younger world-changers is to not simply pursue your passions, but also be open to the things you never thought you would like to do. You may be surprised at what you learn about yourself and your abilities and how you might impact the lives of others.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
Outside of modeling a healthy marriage and having a heart for others one of the greatest things my parents did was encouraging me to try things, especially the artistic things that were not in their wheel house. What you need to understand is I was adopted at birth and one of the only things they knew about my birth mother was that she had been taking art classes. My parents always reassured me that I was theirs, that they had chosen me, but they seemed to have a deep desire to honor my natural progenitors (and our God) by doing their very best to raise me well. If there were any chance that I had a creative gene, that were sure to make a way for me to tap into it.
Art and Faith have been common threads in the tapestry of my story, and neither is complete without gratitude. It’s so important to realize what i have more than be anxious about what I don’t have …or even what I haven’t done. Gratitude with a healthy hunger can lead to great production. Like I tell my students, ‘Life is your canvas. How you live is your art!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thinkwellsart.com
- Instagram: Thinkwells
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/thinkwellsthoughts
- Linkedin: Steven Wells
- Other: Tik Tok as Thinkwells
Image Credits
Thinkwells Thoughts or Thinkwells Works Confluence Academies
