Curiosity Drives Me - My Creative Day with Lauren Rudolph

Just a little introduction to my new mini-series where some special guests would talk about their creative experiences sharing what sums up their typical creative day. I have always found it interesting to know how each creative whether it's a fine artist, writer, singer, dancer or anyone remotely involved in any form of art spends their typical creative day. If you are one such person, then you would definitely love this mini-series. 

Without much ado, let me handover it to my first guest of honour - Lauren Rudolph.

Love and Light

Deepa

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Curiosity Drives Me

Last week I was on vacation in Ireland with my family and I have to say it’s a stunning country. While standing at the edge of the sea as the waves crashed and the huge clouds rolled by I thought, I created this moment.  By bringing myself there and creating the conditions to make that happen and making the choices I made, I created that moment. Every day is a creation and every moment.  I had that feeling that the canvas we paint on exists beyond just one space and that the life of an artist is all about creating the life. That being said, I do have my ways of allowing for creative days and this is where they begin…

“Every day is a creation and every moment.”

The alarm chimes and it is 5:30 am. I am a morning person and I have always loved the quiet space it allows me. I have two young children so getting up before they do, feels essential to me.  I start my morning with a mediation, which is typically around 15 minutes long. I find this a wonderful way to enter the day. I am no meditation expert, but it somehow grounds me and brings me a feeling of connection and peace.  My mediation is followed by a morning ritual of picking a card at random from an oracle deck and opening a page at random from a book I love called, “Spiritual RX” by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat. Rituals speak to me and connecting to the unseen all around us is to me a creative act as well.  I exercise three mornings a week and I have to say that for the first time in my life, I truly enjoy it. I feel strong and to me, it is a way to create a body that I feel settled in. I think in the past there was a belief that I held that I can’t be an artist fully and be fully a physical person at the same time. I let that belief go and I know that has to do with allowing myself to expand in ways and not limiting myself. After getting my children ready for school and dropping them off, it is time to create art.

“Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying”

There is another book I love called “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield. This is an incredible book that is very easy to read and it is all about overcoming resistance. He says, “ The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying”. I often don’t feel like sitting down to create honestly, especially when I’m starting something new or finishing something. I have to make the mental commitment and then just sit there and do the work having the faith that whatever is going to emerge is going to emerge. It’s like diving into the deep end of the pool off the high diving board for me. Once I take the leap and get going I feel energized and completely plugged in. My medium of choice at the moment is oil paint. I love it!! I love its possibilities and feel that each and every time I sit down to paint, I’m learning something new. Curiosity drives me. I was never a good student in school, but now every moment is a chance to learn. That is what inspires me the most.

“Curiosity drives me. I was never a good student in school, but now every moment is a chance to learn.”

While creating I love the companionship of some sort of audio. Last year I think I listened to 20 books on Audible (which I highly recommend). Mostly the books I listened to were spiritual in nature mainly connected to Buddhism and self-help/growth. I love that topic and always have. If I get tired of books I listen to podcasts usually based around the same topics. I love podcasts too! One day I may love to have my own. Lately, I have been listening to my favorite radio station that I stream from Martha’s Vineyard, Ma called MVY Radio. It’s listener-sponsored and the music so deeply inspires me! 

I am a portrait artist and my ideas often come from journaling and connecting inward. My desire is to tell stories that reflect my life experience and the stories of people who inspire me. I love to create collages choosing images at random and putting them together to create images that evolve from my intuition. As I grow as an artist I’d love to play with this further and create paintings that are full of depth, life and storytelling.  During the average day, I try to get 5 hours of painting in. If I am not painting during the week I am teaching which is my other love. I find connection through teaching and am very inspired by my students.

As the day winds down and my children come home from school I am then in the role of mother. Balancing these two lives is a creative act as well. There is a fluidity to this sort of existence and some days the two roles spill into each other like today. As I write this, my children are home in the other room and I am in this one. It’s not always ideal and boundaries have to be set but we try to work on mutual respect and the importance of space. As I said earlier, all of these things go into creating life. A creative life is multifaceted and ever-changing and I love it.

“Balancing these two lives is a creative act as well.”

Transcendence - Lauren Rudolph

About the Artist: Lauren Rudolph was born in New Jersey and currently lives in Nyack, NY where she works as a portrait artist and instructor. From a very early age, Lauren was drawn to portraiture. She has always had a fascination with the face and the essence of what it means to be human. Lauren began her college education at the School of Visual Arts in NYC and received her BA in art from the University at Albany.

Early in her creative life, pastels were her medium of choice, but she was deeply inspired by paint which she has explored through both acrylics and oils. She feels that there is a life and an energy in painting that is full of depth and that there is so much to uncover. At 42 years of age, she feels that she is now truly the student she desires to be, always open to learning, growing and allowing the artistic process to lead the way.