We recently connected with Tawd Dorenfeld and have shared our conversation below.
Tawd, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
Creativity is such an enjoyable act for me that it keeps itself alive. The world is constantly creating. People are constantly creating. Nature, which we are very much a part of, is constantly creating. Even through destruction, creation is happening. Therefore creativity is something that is so very much a part of existence that it is second nature to me. With that, I enjoy having fun creating new things, imaginative things, bizarre unworldly things, thought-provoking things, and a myriad of creations that make my own existence more enjoyable. Creating things makes my time more enjoyable.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I founded an arts of storytelling program for the neurodiverse community. Our organization mentors and produces artists with neurodiverse challenges in the arts of developing their own Books, Graphic Novels, Movies, Animated Movies, Plays, Musicals, Audios Dramas, and/or Anything you can tell a story through.
We facilitate these artists through zoom across the country allowing them virtual and or in-person access to our Detroit Motion Picture Studio where they use Detroit talent as actors on our Infinity stage for their Live Action Digital productions.
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?
1. Improvisation 2. Compartmentalization 3. Lack of Expectation
Everyone should be better at improvisation because nothing is as it seems and you should be ready to pivot and pivot with ease and without complication. The better you can improvise, the better you will be at problem solving.
Compartmentalization helps keeps everything structured like a building. Things do not fall down if they are put in the correct place.
Lack of expectation goes hand in hand with improvisation. If you have a clear expectation for anything other than science (architecture, medicine, food fall into that as well) then you may very well not meet that expectation and create disappointment in either yourself or your client. Don’t do that to yourself. No need. Do not have a clear solid expectation for your project. Aspire for greatness. Cover all your seams so its pro when its done, but don’t make an expectation of perfection that will not be met because that is not how art works. You will make something wonderful and impactful. That is the goal. Stick with that. Improvise to get there…because something is going to go wonky along the way and mess up perfection and make you have to improvise a little.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
Tink Tank Animate is a creative machine. We make and make and make. That said…we could sure use some serious help Distributing these wonderful books, movies, podcasts, albums, music videos, etc. Would be awesome if we could get some serious Representation for the roster of Tink Tank Writer/Directors who could totally be directing and animating music videos and commercials until the cows come home. This is something that would be truly wonderful for these amazingly, dedicated, and disciplined autistic artists at Tink Tank Animate. If you are that person or Agency, please contact us 🙂
Contact Info:
- Website: www.TinkTankAnimate.com
- Instagram: TinkTankAnimate
- Facebook: TawdbDorenfeld
- Linkedin: TawdDorenfeld
- Youtube: TinkTankAnimate
