The Art of Living Creatively:

with Lu Lu and the Duz - S1 Ep 2

Conversations between the bandmates of the ARTs dept.

Lucy Dallman and Billy Van Duzor

L: Welcome back ladies and gentlemen and thank you for joining us today to discuss the art of living creatively.

B: Yes, hello and thank you to our fine sponsor Pfizer, the proud developers  of Viagra.

L: Yuck, that is not going to be one of our sponsors!

B: (laughing) Oh, so sorry.

L: Seriously, Billy V. 

B: Um-hmm.

L: You mentioned on our last broadcast that you purposely “notice.” You live in a world where you notice things. Are there habits that you either consciously or unconsciously do to promote noticing? Let me give you an example.

B: Sure.

L: For me, I have a couple. One is definitely a habit I have deliberately developed. I journal every morning. I have my coffee first thing in the morning while I write long hand in a notebook. I write about whatever comes to mind. I am not writing to produce anything to publish, I’m just free writing. It’s a practice for me to just get all of my busy mind thoughts out and onto paper. I face a window which holds a bird feeder and a view of our backyard. For me this practice is just a way for me to calmly start my day. 

B: Right.

L: The second practice I’ve established is that when I walk alone – I purposely don’t have earphones in. I want the experience of nature to be part of the journey. In both practices I find that unexpected ideas will come to me. Not all the time, but enough of the time that I don’t want the distraction of a podcast or music.

B: Yeah. Before I answer, can I go on one mini-rant?

L: Sure.

B: When you’re in nature walking and the old man on a bike with the speakers blasting loud rock and roll music - that so bugs the shit out of me. It makes me so horribly angry.

L: Yes, that is annoying. 

B: Luckily it goes away, but really, how loud do you have to have the music?

L: Are you viewing your future self and trying to stop yourself?

B: Oh God. (laughing) Maybe.

 Anyway, getting back to the noticing practices. I think all of the things you do and anything that I do come from the same place, the place of being open to finding things. I think so many people aren’t looking for new experiences or noticing little changes in their environment. I am constantly letting my mind be a little bit more sensitive to seeing things that strike me. I think it is so easy to go through the day thinking about what’s coming next or being distracted by whatever is going on. If you can, shift your consciousness to just be open to something that you notice, and then register those differences which pop-up when you least expect it. But if you aren’t ready and open for something new, you will miss out. I think it goes back to the idea that creativity is something which is all around us all the time. Trying to be open to how the creative muses present things to us humans is key.

L: Oh you’re getting a little woo-woo right now. Usually that’s my job in our creative conversations! Can I tell you one of the practices I’ve seen you do that I think keeps you open?

B: Hit me with it.

L: You’ve chosen to take yourself off of all social media.

B: Yeah, that is true. Social media for me is a time suck and a personality manipulator. Part of the reason I got off SM was because I would find myself looking at someone’s life and then compare myself to that unrealistic expectation of what my life should be. Which is such a worthless thing, because it’s such a fake curated version of somebody’s life. It is like the opposite of art. Trying to remove yourself from distractions is a helpful practice in remaining open.

L: Another practice which we both share is that we’re both big readers.

B: That is true. When I am reading I find little snippets of interesting phrases or ideas and I record them by taking a picture with my phone. I’ll often share these with you, and they are a starting point for some of the themes of our songs. I have a whole folder of random book pages. I find myself going back and trying to figure out what was the line I found so interesting. 

L: I often wonder if reading is a part of a creative life.

B: I think for sure that it is. I feel like the prolific readers I know are naturally curious humans.

L: That is an interesting thought. I have to think about that one.

B: I’ve found that some of my favorite song writers and musicians have also been big readers. I don’t know what it is. I do know that reading is an active endeavor. As a reader you seek out information or a topic of interest, and curiosity leads to other discoveries. 

There is a sudden interruption from the main office:

“Boys and girls, due to the weather we will be having indoor recess. Please be respectful of each other and make good choices in your classrooms during the lunch hour.”

B: And this is a wonderful time for a word from our sponsor, “Better Health”

L and B: (both laughing)

L: So, reading. I think that might be an entire podcast episode for us.

B: Not just reading -  being an active reader. Searching and being open to those moments in books that hit you. I do the same thing when I listen to music. If I listen to a song and something punches me, I stop and try to figure out, “What was that?” It’s harder to do with a song. With a song, you have to listen again, not go back and read the passage again. The second time around may not hit you the same way. 

L: Which is also like reading, for me. I always say that the first book that made me love literature was, “To Kill a Mockingbird.” I read it sophomore year of high school in Ms. Scavones’ English class. I was amazed at the writing and the story. Then I read it again as a 40-year-old and discovered all the nuances in the story that my 15-year-old self missed.

B: Right. Figuring out what emotionally affects you and then trying to capture that. I think of that so often and sometimes I will recreate those emotions in my music. Both of those experiences for me are like trying to capture water in your hands. The emotion hits you for a second, and then it’s gone. You go back and try to recreate the emotion and it has all slipped through the cracks. I find this process frustrating and intoxicating at the same time.

L: That is interesting, because you, obviously, come from the music end and I come from the visual/fiber arts area of art. In the visual arts the process is important, but the end product is equally as important. In the visual arts you’re working on a tangible representation of a feeling, mode or theme. So, let’s delve a little bit more into process.

We both have a habit of looking at the world a bit skewed. We’ve talked about all the little bits we collect, but we haven’t talked about actually, physically, how we record those bits. How do you record what you want to keep? And do you find you have to record the snippets in order to retain the idea or theme?

For me, a big part of my recording practice is capturing inspiration on paper. I have bits of paper I grab whatever I can find when something hits me, and I physically have to write the idea, phrase or theme down. I also will record ideas on the voice recorder on my phone. If I don’t write or record what comes to me I won’t remember it. It will be gone. I am afraid that’s my almost 60-year-old brain at work there.

B: No, I don’t think it is age. I experience the same thing. If I don’t record an idea it is gone. I would say 80 percent of the things I’m trying, or auditioning, for a song end up as nothing. However, I think by recording the ideas, even just the act, the ideas are then seeping into my overall creative vocabulary, whether or not I can specifically remember. You think about reading a 400-page book: How many of those words can you recall after finishing the book? Not that many. Even if you can get one little thing from a book or a song, I believe that gets stored away for later. 

When I sit down with a guitar or piano and just start playing, improvising I am trying to create something new. Most of it is just the process for me. A) it is cathartic – it feels so good to me, therapy, almost. And B) something will stick with me or maybe something will lead to a song. I know that it won’t happen if I am not practicing the process of being aware. I imagine it is like journaling for you.

L: That is right. Very rarely do I get any creative inspiration from my daily journaling. But every once in a while, maybe 20 percentof the time, a useful tidbit will present itself during that time.

B: But maybe once in a while an idea will pop-up in one of my improvisational jam sessions which will actually lead to something I will use in a song. Funny that we give about the same odds of it happening. I described it as 80 percent gets thrown away and you said 20 percent of the time something may pop up. Which one of us is half empty and which one half full?

L and B: (both laugh)

L: I like what you said about writing down or recording the inspiration: not only to remember the thought, but also that the physical act of stopping to record the idea is signaling your creative brain to store it away for later.

B: If there’s something that I really like, and it has made it into round two of my brain, I use voice memos on my phone to record, just to save it. But again, sometimes when listening back to it, it loses whatever meaning it had.

L: Yeah, I get that.

B: Which is the frustrating part.

L: Maybe the idea that it’s the action of recording rather than the actual recorded idea that’s important. You’re telling your brain, “This is important!”

B: Oh, yeah. It is like taking notes in a lecture. The physical act of writing is the powerful part. That is what helps you remember the lecture. It is the two-step verification of what you need to remember.

L: This will be a longer conversation for the future, but I want to dive into the discussion of “process vs. product.” I tell the kids who we teach that the process is so much more important than the product. Yet extensively, the product does still matter.

B: This is something you and I have talked a lot about. I personally hold very little value in the product., to the point where I share almost nothing with anyone. That is until I met you and you sort of forced me to share.

L: I KNOW, I am such a bossy pants!

B: Before you and I started collaborating, I got all my satisfaction purely from the process. I still like the discovery, the improvisation and the journey.  If it leads to something, great. I don’t get as much from the product. Actually,  I find, that I get very little satisfaction from a finished product. However, I do appreciate that products exist. I gain quite a bit from other people’s art. So I’m glad that other people’s things are out in the universe. That is definitely an area of contention between you and me.

L: I wouldn’t say contention. It’s a difference in beliefs, yes. I do believe the process is more important than the product for all kinds of reasons. BUT, I strongly believe humans should share their talents, their art, with a wider community than just themselves. By sharing your art you are sharing a bit of yourself. And I believe it is a powerful way to connect with other humans.

B: I do believe that it’s human nature to want to leave a mark in this lifetime. I think we both agree on that. Especially as we inch our way to mortality.

L: You may feel like you are inching at 36, at 59 I feel like I am falling headfirst.

B: I don’t think age has any bearing on mark making. I think most humans ask themselves, “What mark am I going to leave behind?”

L: Or maybe, it is the creative muse at work on us humans all the time. And I will defend my stance on “get your art into the world.” I am continually amazed by the connections I make when I put any art, be it a yarn bomb, an essay, our music out there. Inevitably, I will get a number of unsolicited comments NSD connections that have resonated with people who don’t know me. It is always a surprise to me when this happens.

B: Yeah.

L: There is value in being vulnerable and putting your art babies out into the world for general consumption.

B: I know there is. I value other people’s art so much. So I’m not down playing that at all. I am just saying it is not comfortable for me personally. I don’t know if it comes from pure insecurity, or a fear of my music being criticized. I don’t know.

L: That’s why you have a “bossy pants” partner who makes you place your art into the world. I have never, ever, ever, ever been a perfectionist. So I wonder if that has something to do with me allowing myself to let go of my art?

B: Well, I really haven’t either except for one tiny area of my life.

L: MUSIC?! (spoken in a loud, incredulous tone.)

B: Well, yeah, Okay-I guess music is a big area in my life.

L: Yeah.

B: But again, I don’t like sharing process work with anyone. Umm, I only really like to share something if it is a finished product. And that is a big IF for me to share anything. I know it’s not ideal. Especially in a collaboration. Especially if I have someone in my life who wants to hear work in progress. Still I am hesitant.

L: And that ladies and gentlemen is where we need to stop for today. As our morning kindergarten classes are due in the art and music rooms in about two minutes. 

B: And thank you once again to Pfizer and BetterHealth for their sponsorship of our Podcast: The Art of Living Creatively: with Lu Lu and the Duz. Not only do you serve our community of listeners, but you provide a larger net of fine products and just an overall great business model…

Peals of laughter from both L and B,  with the cacophony of five-year-old voices in the background.