S3 E5: Your Creativity is Intuitive

Kick off your new year by trading in fear for creativity and comparison for curiosity. In episode 5 of season 3 of the Fearless Self-Love Podcast, I interview artist, teacher, and creative coach, Jenny Bevill. Jenny’s career and personal life have taught her time and again how healing and essential creativity is, not just for artists, but for everyone. “Everybody wants to be creative,” she says. The problem is, we often feel we’re not good enough or don’t have certain skills. Listen in for tricks to peak your own curiosity and ultimately bolster your own creativity.

 

 

• How fear prevents us from being creative

• Why curiosity is the basis of creativity

• How to use your own personal connection to cultivate creativity

 

Links Mentioned:

Reggio Emilia  https://www.reggioalliance.org/

Kylin O’Brien https://www.kylinobrien.net/

Kylin O’Brien Interview Season 1 Episode 19 https://www.groundedhere.com/season-1

Jamie Wyman https://www.jamiewymanmusic.com/

Jamie Wyman Interview Season 1 Episode 22  https://www.groundedhere.com/season-1

Kiki Smith’s Wolf Girl https://www.artnet.com/auctions/artists/kiki-smith/wolf-girl

Jenny’s Website: https://jennybevillcreative.com/

Show Highlights:

 

01:29 Easeful Living Practice ~ Reggio Emilia’s Emotional Continuum

13:25 Interview with Jenny Bevill begins! Our mutual gut feeling we would be collaborating in some way

19:20 Do we need a specific skill set to reflect our creativity? What about your fear? Is it getting in the way?

28:55 Jenny’s creative process ~ what lights her up

37:16 How Jenny helps people find their creativity

Favorite Quotes:

“When I’m feeling overwhelmed, I need to do something about it.” -- Jenny Bevill

“We can’t try to feel amazing all the time. That’s just not human, and it’s going to take so much energy, and it’s just not possible.” -- Jenny Bevill

“Everybody wants to be creative.” -- Jenny Bevill

“Art is way bigger than ‘can you copy something realistically?’” -- Jenny Bevill

“To live a creative life we must lose our fear of being wrong.” -- Joseph Chilton Pearce

“If you’re fearful you really can’t learn, and you can’t be creative.” -- Jenny Bevill

“If you never fail, you never learn to be resilient.” -- Jenny Bevill

What stops people is they think [creativity] is one thing, and that one thing doesn’t work for them, so then they think they’re not creative.” -- Jenny Bevill

 

Meet Jenny:

Jenny Bevill is passionate about creating shared experiences for children and adults around works of contemporary art. Her workshops help people unlock their own creativity by silencing their fearful inner critic and practicing creative behaviors and cultivating curiosity.

Jenny began collaborating with NYC public school teachers to integrate visual arts into the classroom in 1992. Before joining the Guggenheim Museum’s Learning Through Art program in 2004, she worked with the Brooklyn Museum, Grand Street Settlement, and other cultural organizations, both as an artist and as an educator. She earned her BFA from Parsons School of Design and her MA in Art and Art Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.

She and her teaching partner Ilana Ingber, are in their second year of a mentorship program with Success Academy, the largest charter school network in New York City. Happy HeART Teachers supports teacher wellness and prevents burnout.

Jenny serves the Missoula Art Museum as Educator Coordinator. In this role she collaborates to design interpretive strategy and educational programming around exhibitions.