32: Creating Your Own Category with the Scrapbook Novels Author, Caroline Preston
Release Date: 02/07/2018
52: Building a Multi-Faceted Creative Career with Pat Wood
A Creative Approach Podcast
Welcome to today's show! We have Patricia Wood, Karen's friend, and teacher, with us today. Pat is a professor of art at American River College, where she is currently teaching printmaking and drawing. She is also the director of the Kaneko Gallery, which is the campus art gallery. Today, Pat tells us about what she's doing at American River College- the fabulous art shows she's put together for the Kaneko Gallery, and the fun projects she's coordinated with her students. She also talks to us about her background and the kind of art that she creates. Listen in today, to hear all about Pat's...
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51: How Your Health Can Impact Your Creativity with David Cornish
A Creative Approach Podcast
Are you bursting with creativity or are you perhaps feeling a little under the weather right now? Have you noticed how much your state of health impacts on your levels of creativity? Today, we're starting season three of the podcast with an interview with Dr. David Cornish. David is Karen's friend and he's the author of two terrific novels, 1918: The Great Pandemic, and 1980: The Emergence of HIV. With the current escalation of viral illnesses in the world, this is a really good time for reading these topical novels, so tune in, to learn more about David Cornish and his...
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50: Creating Art with Deep and Meaningful Connections with Catherine Rains
A Creative Approach Podcast
Would you like to know what inspires an artist to create a meaningful piece of work? Today's guest is Catherine Rains. Catherine is an artist and she is an excellent example of how evolution works in collage, her chosen medium of art. Catherine has had a really intriguing art career. In today's episode, she talks to us about her skills, and about her certification in evaluating personalities. She also explains how she lets her art speak to her over time a period of time as she creates it, and how she brings a deep and meaningful spiritual connection to her pieces. Listen in today, to learn...
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49: Creating Visual Art in Your Local Community with April Bey
A Creative Approach Podcast
Are you dedicated to creating wonderful art? If so you are really in for a treat! Today's guest is April Bey, an exciting visual artist, and teacher. April teaches art at a community college in California. She loves drawing and using her art to explore contemporary themes about current events. In today's episode, April talks to us about her life, her studies, her art, and her career. Tune in now to find out more. April grew up in the Bahamas, and for all her life she's been passionately creating. Art is a very prominent subject in schools in the Bahamas, yet April realized during high school...
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Ep 47: A Creative Approach to Solving Environmental Issues With Molly Morse
A Creative Approach Podcast
She is one of the bright and innovative people who is bringing new technologies to work for a sustainable planet, and I am intrigued to learn more. Join me now in my conversation with Molly Morse, to learn more about her passion for positive-impact plastics, the health of the environment and her creative approach. Dr. Molly Morse is the CEO and co-founder of Mango Materials, a San Francisco Bay Area-based startup company, that uses wastewater treatment plant methane gas to manufacture biodegradable materials. Her vision of the future involves the proliferation of anaerobic digestion so that...
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Ep 46: When the Love of Literature and Scotland Turns into a Podcast with Ginger Wiseman
A Creative Approach Podcast
Ginger Wiseman is one of the co-hosts (with her sister) Summer Reynolds, of The Outlander Podcast. She has a great story of how her love of the books and then the series, and a passion for Scotland, led them to create a podcast for fans. I always have a great deal of fun learning about how my guests found their creative niche. Today is no exception. More in this episode ● We learn about Ginger's story and what got her and her sister, Summer into hosting two podcasts. ● How the two sisters connected over literature through the years and how that strengthened their love of the written...
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Ep 45: A Gifted Geyser of Artistic Expression A Conversation with Jonathan Fong
A Creative Approach Podcast
Today’s podcast has a fascinating guest, Jonathan Fong. From plans for kid’s projects to ideas for sophisticated weddings, Jonathan just shines! Home decorating, crafting, and entertainment are not the only things he knows about, but he also has a unique gift to teach us how to master his creative visions. I love that Jonathan always dresses impeccably and adds unique touches to his ensemble. His approach proves that men’s fashions can be both original and very dapper. In this conversation, you’ll learn more about the innovative Jonathan Fong and his "creative approach." More in this...
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Ep 44: Finding Beauty in the Imperfections with Linda Gelfman
A Creative Approach Podcast
Joining me on the show today is a professor of ceramics at American River College in Sacramento, a founding member of The E Street Gallery and Studios, and one of my favorite art teachers, Linda Gelfman. She has recently been exploring soft-sculpture as well as her ceramic work. She used her textile pieces in a recent show at The Kaneko Gallery at American River College, titled “Cognitive Dissonance.” The show examined the multilayers of life. “Linda’s Lollies¨ the name she’s given her anthropomorphic soft sculptures, have a mixture of cuteness and the bizarre. Her work has focused...
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43: Crafting The Life You Love With Amy Tan
A Creative Approach Podcast
Joining me on the show today is crafter, designer and author, Amy Tangerine. Amy has always had a creative outlook on life. Growing up in Chicago, she wallpapered her walls with pages from fashion magazines. She has recently written a book titled Craft A Life You Love, a book that shows readers how to find their flow, maintain a positive mindset, and cultivate a rich and fulfilling life by focusing on what truly matters. The book was a passion project for Amy that was written to inspire others to live their creative lives. Amy self-published her book, and after it was on...
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42: Feeding Your Creativity with Food and Flavor with Lina Fat
A Creative Approach Podcast
Lina Fat is VP of Culinary Research and Development for Fat Family Restaurant Group, based in Sacramento, CA. Her first dream was to be a pharmacist, which she fulfilled when she earned a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of California-San Francisco in 1964, where she met and married her husband, Kenneth. Her father-in-law, the late Frank Fat, founded the landmark Sacramento restaurant, Frank Fat’s in 1939, where many of the state’s most influential figures have dined for more than 70 years. Lina joined the restaurant business when the second restaurant, China Camp,...
info_outlineHave you ever thought of doing something creative that has never been done before? My guest today, author and archivist Caroline Preston, is the creator of a whole new genre of literature. Her books and stories are exciting and revealing, combining her passions of writing and storytelling in a new and creative way. Ironically, Caroline’s mother kept scrapbooks and made collages, which were a significant part of Caroline’s past. She went on to work as an archivist at a museum in Salem, Massachusetts, before embarking on her writing career.
Her latest book is the second of her “scrapbook novels.” Following the Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt, The War Bride’s Scrapbook, is “a World War II love story, narrated through a new bride’s dazzling array of vintage postcards, newspaper clippings, photographs, and more.” In this novel, “Caroline Preston has once again pulled from her own extraordinary collection of vintage memorabilia, transporting us back to the lively, tumultuous 1940’s and introducing us to an unforgettable, ambitious heroine who must learn to reconcile a wartime marriage with a newfound self-confidence.” I hope you enjoy this conversation with a truly inspirational creative, Caroline Preston.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
- Caroline’s roundabout path to being an author
- How scrapbooks tell the story of World War II
- The uncertainty of people’s lives during the WWII era
- How women accepted their rules but were early codebreakers in emergent feminism, which is a theme in the book
- The advertising messages for women during the era
- The main character in the book, and what she leaves behind
- Understanding what people’s lives were in history and how they influenced those that came after them
- Why people didn’t think their stories were even important
- Piecing together clippings, headlines, manuals, and flyers to tell the story
- Caroline’s new approach: scrapbook novels with real material and artifacts
- What “transformative use” means regarding permissions
- How the “scrapbook novel” idea came to Caroline
- Caroline’s archival work in Salem, MA
- How women’s lives are told in history through letters
- Putting it all together to tell a story
- With new technology, will our stories even be findable and retrievable in the future?
- Making everyday lives seem tangible
- How scrapbooks record momentous events and answer the When? And Why?
- The detachment of today’s society from military life—unlike the WWII era
- Caroline’s thoughts on creativity: “I thought I would just try to do this. I knew if it’s interesting to me, then it will be interesting to others also.”
Resources:
The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh by Linda Colley
Caroline’s books:
The War Bride’s Scrapbook
Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt
Gatsby’s Girl
Lucy Crocker 2.0
Jackie by Josie