We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ash Guzman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ash, so happy to have you with us today. You are such a creative person, but have you ever head any sort of creativity block along the way? If so, can you talk to us about how you overcame or beat it?
Creative blocks look different for everyone and we all have our own unique approach to overcoming them. When I was younger it was easy to let myself feel defeated by a creative block and try to force my way through it. Now I take it as a sign to take a break and put my mind towards other things. I know that if I give my mind a break and redirect my focus, creativity will find its way back. It doesn’t let me know when it’s coming back. Sometimes it’s the next day, sometimes a week, maybe even months. But I trust that it will always come back, and it hasn’t let me down yet. So I read a book, I cook something, I watch some mind-numbing TV, or I play Animal Crossing for hours. Whatever I think my brain needs. And when that creative block is ready to give way, I too will be ready.
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?
I’m not sure how other people learn to paint, but I learned by painting 30ft backdrops and painting wood to look like other wood. I have a BFA in Theatre Design & Technology and worked as a scenic artist before I started my own freelance business. Scenic artists make most of what you see on stage when you’re watching a Broadway show, displays at corporate trade events, and set pieces for large scale concerts. I was used to painting on a large scale and actually preferred it to canvas, so I thought mural painting would be a natural transition given my skill set. After college I tried to find mural opportunities and began teaching myself digital art. Not only would learning digital art be an asset to my mural work, but I was looking to expand my range of abilities and with the rise of popularity of digital art it seemed like a good path to take. I guess I got pretty good at it because I teach it now! In addition to freelancing, I have been teaching art at a school for neuro-diverse youth for the last 3 years.
These days I am focused on my mural work and am also putting together a solo exhibition. For the last couple of years I have been working on making custom hand cut art pieces that I design, cut, and paint. Pop art has been a heavy influence throughout my life and it shows in my work. My subjects, often portraits of plants, animals, or food, are depicted with vibrant colors and subtle traces of glitter (which have been becoming less sublte with every project because I just can’t resist a shiny, sparkly object!)
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?
I’m going to steal this answer from one of my favorite authors, Neil Gaiman. In his commencement speech at the University of the Arts in 2012 he mentions that there are three qualities to becoming a successful freelancer- do good work, be easy to get along with, and deliver the work on time. And according to him, you don’t even need to be all three. If you deliver good work on time, people may tolerate how unpleasant you are to work with (to an extent. Don’t push it on this one). If your work is good and you’re well-liked, people will forgive your lateness. And maybe you’re work isn’t the best in the world, but you got it in early and you were a joy to work with. I think focusing on these three factors can have a major positive impact on your career. I do my best to maintain all three traits when doing a job.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
I almost didn’t graduate college. It was my final year, I was already booking professional theatre and corporate painting jobs and was anxious to get out into the working world. I am famously a bad student and I never enjoyed school, but I’ve always loved working. One night on a phone call with a friend, I expressed my desire to drop out of school, move out of Michigan, and begin my career. While she understood my frustrations, she urged me to finish school and get my degree. She had stated her case and made some very good points, but she had one final request before I made up my mind. She said she was sending me a book called Big Magic and asked me to read it before I made any rash decisions. I am forever grateful to her for that because not only was staying in school the right move, but that book really changed my relationship with art and creativity. The book explores the creative mind from the perspective of the author, Elizabeth Gilbert, who approaches the topic with love, patience, and a healthy amount of whimsy. I would not have used any of those words to decribe my feelings toward my craft at that time. College was a time of constant stress and chaos and while I’m grateful for my education, it did take a lot of the passion out of me. This book helped me gain some of it back.
There are so many lessons in this book that I still carry with me today and will often times share with my students when the opportunity presents itself. One that I find myself repeating the most often to myself and my students is “done is better than good”. Now this doesn’t apply to everything (surgery, for example), but this can be a good rule for those that suffer from perfectionism. In another chapter she discusses her thoughts on managing fear, likening it to a passenger in a car that is allowed to be along for the ride, but isn’t allowed to drive. She accepts the inevitability of being confronted by fear and rather than dismissing it, she brings it along for the ride but not without setting some boundaries. There is a lot of wisdom sprinkled throughout this book and I highly recommend it for anyone with a creative spirit.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ashkaygart.com/
- Instagram: @ash.kay.g
