We were lucky to catch up with Sean Fontenot recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Sean, thank you so much for making time for us today. Let’s jump right into a question so many in our community are looking for answers to – how to overcome creativity blocks, writer’s block, etc. We’d love to hear your thoughts or any advice you might have.
How I overcome a creative block is I enjoy life. I go out and I do things that I enjoy and that I want to do and normally when I do that, ideas come to me. I’ve learned to not try to force things. There have been times where I’d have to stop a project, take a break, maybe play a game, or watch a movie and then I come back more inspired because I see the inspiration of other people’s work. There’s nothing wrong with taking breaks. There’s nothing wrong with taking your time. Everything doesn’t need to be forced, you don’t always have to make something happen right now and right then. I believe in seasons and there are times where you just need to rest, you need to chill and relax. You need to enjoy your family, you need to do what you enjoy doing outside of art, which again, could be going to an amusement park, going on a hike, playing a game, or whatever that is. The big thing for me is like I said before, I don’t force anything. I used to try to force myself to do something, say for like drawing or sketching or practicing, and that kind of made me not want to do it even more. It kind of made me resent it and so I’ve learned to not force it. If I don’t feel like doing something at this specific period and there’s not a deadline, I’ll do something else until I’m in a better mood and I want to do it. I realized the more I tried to force myself, it took all the enjoyment out of it.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I customize shoes primarily, but I do other mediums as well. Anything that can be painted. I also do digital work, but shoes are my meat and potatoes and that’s what I enjoy the most. You know for me I’ve always tried to think outside of the box, though a lot of my shoes are wearable, one of my goals is for people to view it as art and not just shoes. I’d like my art in our galleries and to be displayed. With my specific style, I’m not so much on the custom side, but more towards the artistic side, you know, I kind of versed the two elements of making wearable art and making over the top art as well. I’ve tried to push the limit so much to the point where I’ve created my own story with original characters, and even started working on short story comics. I’ve incorporated those characters into my sneaker designs and then I plan on doing drops with the shoes as well and releasing print comics, maybe merch, and different things like that. I know a lot of times people don’t really understand the difference between an artist or sneaker artist and a customizer. I’ve always used sneaker artist because like I said, my work tends to veer more to the artistic side, the more creative side, the more over the top and pushing the limit to the point where some people may look at the shoe and ask, why did you do that?
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?
The three for me would be patience, creativity, and composition. Patience played a huge part because I feel like a lot of people try to work too fast or they work nonstop. They want everything now and that’s how you get burned out. So, I treat my relationship with art like I do any other relationship. As much as I love my wife, as much as I love to spend time with family, when you are around people all the time, you eventually need to take some personal time to reset. So, whatever that is – hang out with friends, read a book, spend time with yourself and then you’ll miss your partner and your family. The same goes for your craft; you constantly do art every day all day, you tend to get to the point where you’re tired of doing it and you no longer want to do it. Where is if you just take a break, go do something else then want to do art more in my opinion, it’s a balance. Creativity is a huge one for me because I try to be as creative as possible, and I think a lot of people don’t really do that. I feel like most people try to make things that they think will get engagement. They focus on making things they think other people want more than what the artist wants to or is inspired to create because they’re afraid people won’t like it as much. For me, if I want to make something, I make it, people liking it is great, but that’s the afterthought. The focus and fire in me as a designer are to execute and if that’s me doing something like cutting out a piece of shoe or adding metal or cables or antennas to a shoe, then I’m going to do that. If people don’t like it, that’s fine, but it’s helping me be creative and getting my ideas out there. People need to stop worrying about engagement and getting the reactions out of people all the time. Of course, it’s good to do that at times from a business standpoint, but when you do it all the time it could hinder your creativity. Composition is another big one, especially when it comes to shoes. I feel like people try to put too much and one area and it gets too busy things get crammed, and it can feel imbalanced. Working on composition and color theory will help make sure everything looks cohesive and nothing feels out of place. All of it takes time and practice.
All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?
To keep it short: time lol. I have so many ideas I want to bring to life and just not enough time to do them all. Still practicing my patience and focusing on one concept at a time. I have all my big end goals in mind, but gotta get through all the small steps first.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cmefresh.com
- Instagram: @colormefresh
- Facebook: colormefresh
- Twitter: colormefresh
- Youtube: ColorMeFresh
Image Credits
The Sisaundra Show Sneaker Freaker Magazine
