I’m speaking at an artist retreat this weekend, about Process, Inspiration, and Motivation. I’ve been traveling so much I’ve barely had time to practice this presentation and this morning has been spent practicing it aloud and refining it. Here’s an excerpt:

“What motivates you as an artist? It can change throughout your career; it can even change from day to day. I’ve definitely had months where what motivated me was finishing a project, getting money for it, and paying my bills. I reached a point where it was no longer enough to only DO, I needed to understand *why* I do what I do. I’ve found that the bedrock of my motivation is joy — joy in the process, joy in the skill my hands have, joy in creating something new, joy in challenging myself and my medium.
I’m going to close with talking about that final joy: Challenging myself and my medium. After making boots for thirty-six years, after struggling to pay bills and keep the doors open in those early years, after losing a daughter who worked with me in my shop… I realized I had lost the joy. My customers couldn’t see it in my work, but I could, and I wanted it back. I found it again through teaching and mentoring, through music, and through challenging myself. I could have just made the same boots and the same designs over and over, but I didn’t want to do that anymore.”