Taxiing for a creative take-off.
Snyder and the Swedes sounds to me like a Scandinavian rock and roll band. The new ABBA, maybe? It is the original name of a New York Creative agency now called SNYDER, where she now represents Illustrators, Artists and photographers.
Its founder, Kristina Snyder, is the guest on this week’s episode of The Common Creative Podcast. Kristina was a travel writer and photographer, a career that took her on a journey, both physically and creatively, from her native Sweden to New York. In this episode, she shares great insights into her creative journey, as well as those of process, as she successfully navigates the intersection of art and business, particularly in supporting artists at the beginning of their careers.
One piece of advice Kristina gives that stuck out for me is that if you make a mistake, just change it. A simple statement, but strangely not so easy in practice. In a world of increasing political correctness and social media scrutiny, more than ever, we are afraid of making a mistake, especially in public. A big challenge for those who choose to be creative, as trial and error, experimentation and getting stuff wrong is all part and parcel of the creative process.
As children, when we drew or created art, there was no right or wrong for most of us. The masterpiece hanging on the fridge door was what it was. But as we hit puberty, for most of us, things changed. As we become more self-conscious as teenagers, the focus of our process when from pure expression to a need for a more realistic representation in the process of making art. For those who did not have a so-called talent for drawing, the ability to draw what they saw instead of what they felt, resulted in coloured pencils down and hands on heads.
The discussion with Kristina reminds me of one of our most popular episodes, a conversation with seven-year-old Charlie Marker. During the discussion, Charlie asked me about my art, particularly a watercolour I had done of a New York Taxi, which had been sold in my previous exhibition. But we agreed to do each other an image of a Taxi.
Charlie is a bit of a drawing genius, and in that podcast, he gave us three lessons about Creativity.
If you make a mistake, turn it into something else.
If you don’t know what to draw, start.
Just practice if you are an adult and don’t think you can draw.
Oh, from the mouths of babies. Charlie has a remarkable talent, no doubt. But he also has this energy and curiosity that is contagious and inspiring. Who knows if this prodigious talent will survive the rigours of puberty? Maybe his own creative taxi ride will take him to New York, where Kristina will help him navigate his next act. Charlie Marker and the Swede?
Check out both episodes if you have an hour (or half an hour if you listen to podcasts on 2x speed).
The Common Creative Episode 53 — Kristina Snyder
The Common Creative Episode 42 — Charlie Marker
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Storyteller — Speaker Writer Artist + Recovering Architect.
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