11
Jodie King - The power of honest art
www.redefinepossibility.com
I help women celebrate in that creative process when the whole painting goes to shit. This is where most of us, as painters, as humans, decide we're not artists.
I remember I was teaching a workshop and this woman was maybe early 70s. She had driven hours to come. On the last day, she came to me and she whispered, “I want you to know that I'm not gonna be here this afternoon for the end of the workshop.” And I go, “Well, okay”, but now I'm thinking, did I do something? I said, “Is everything okay?” And she said, “Yes, I've always wanted a tattoo so I'm gonna go and get one before I go home.”
Stop! That's amazing. I mean, wild!
She was so excited about doing this thing that she'd always wanted to do, but because of social constructs that she believed about herself or lived in, she never did it. One of the gifts of being an artist is, if we're doing Honest Art, it's the real gift. It infuses in all other areas of your life.
What would you say to someone who has a sense that there's more for them and is reading right now thinking, “I want to be wild”?
When people say “How did you know to take the leap?” I say, I did it scared.
It's not like all of the sudden you're thinking, “I have all this courage and I'm going forward.” I don't wake up at 3am sweating because of menopause. I wake up because I'm scared to death. Okay, also, menopause, definitely sweating for that. But, here's what I tell people:
At any given day, I just need 1% more courage than I have fear. That's all I need. I need 51% courage, 49% fear, and I just keep going.
Jodie, how important do you think creativity is to us as a society?
I think one of the reasons we are in an epidemic of loneliness is we have become consumers. We've been consuming social media.
We have been consuming other people's content. We've been consuming so many things that it's taking the time from being creative.
Creativity is just expressing ourselves through some form. For women, expressing how we truly feel has not always felt safe. That's why women come to work with me in their 40s or 50s or 60s or 70s. They, for most of their lives, have been told this is not how we express ourselves.
This is not how we dress. This is not how we wear our hair. This is not how we say things. This is not how we have our home. This is not how we raise our kids. This is how we've been told how to express everything.
The women I work with are like, “I'm done.”
Speaking of that, tell us how we work with you. What are all the things we need to know about where Jodie King is?
You can go to my website, JodieKing.com. You could also go to the Honest Art Podcast. You could follow me on Instagram. I host about three workshops a year, usually one in the US, and other places around the globe. I am going back to Italy next year. I also have programs where I mentor artists as well.
And then I paint. It's the greatest joy that I have. So you can see my art. I have a gallery I'm working with. I can't tell you where, but that's coming up in the fall. So go to my website.
Jodie, thank you so much for being here and having this conversation with me. This has been epic!