Day 143: Connie Hozvicka

February 20, 2010 at 12:01 am, Category: Inspiration

“I like the idea that it’s about a journey and having dirty footprints and keeping your feet close to the earth and that, when you are going through this journey in this universe, the one thing you leave behind — or at least I hope to — is my dirty footprints on the ground and sort of a sense of a legacy or a story like that.”

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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Connie, for agreeing to be part of the Project today, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?

Connie Hozvicka: Hi.  My name is Connie Hozvicka, and I am the writer and owner of Dirty Footprints Studio, which is a blog and also a place to come and do art and get inspired, actually.

Toni: Well, thank you.  Well, talking about inspiration, who do you think you inspire, Connie, and how do you do that?

Connie: Well, I am a full-time art teacher, actually, in a kindergarten through eighth grade school, so I spend my days during the day inspiring/motivating young people with art, and I do it by creating a real environment of support.

But the great part of my job is that I work with kids and, for the most part, anything brand new to them is inspiration right away, and I get so much inspiration from them just by seeing them get excited over “Oh, we’re using paint today!  “Oh, we’re using plaster today!”  They get super-excited.  So my job to inspire people on a full-time basis for me is pretty easy.  It’s motivating them that sometimes can be more difficult.

Toni: Now, do you also use that to motivate them to come up with brand new and exciting … is that also what you do with your blog as well?  Does that same message of inspiration follow through with that?

Connie: Yes.  Actually my blog kind of satisfies another need of mine.  Because I work with children all day, and I love it but I still … I long to work with adults and to help adults and inspire adults, and so that sometimes is a little different.  Adults require definitely support and that feeling of safety, but the difference between adults with children is you show them paint and they get nervous.  They get anxiety.  Children right away want to jump into it.  They don’t have all that other stuff built on them yet.  So how I go about it is really being encouraging and giving it a safe place to experiment and to put down their insecurities or anxiety about stuff.

Toni: About stuff and about their own creativity?

Connie: Exactly.  About whatever they bring to the table with them when it comes time to picking up that paintbrush.  So it’s two sides of the coin.  It’s really interesting for me to be in my position and yeah, I think that … I just lost my train of thought here, I’m a little nervous.

Toni: Oh my gosh, not at all.  From a child’s perspective and also from your side gig, which is your Dirty Footprints blog, it sounds as though you’re creating a space at both places for creativity, safety, motivating, and learning.

Connie: Exactly, exactly; and to inspire people to be creative, because I think it’s very important in our lives to be connected to our creativity, no matter what age you are.

Toni: So let me ask you then, how do you then help people to explore their potential with the work that you do?

Connie: I think for example, during the day with little kids, that’s a tricky thing because to fully explore their potential, a lot of them will try to do what’s quickest and what’s fastest.  So I have to stay on them and sometimes it doesn’t make them happy.  But the greatest part about that is if I stay motivated to stay on them, you know, they really, you know, produce something that they’re really proud of.  And you can tell that they really feel they made an achievement because they did push their own selves, which is really kind of cool to see.

When it comes to working with adults, trying to … it’s kind of the same thing.  I feel you have to push adults but do it in a fashion that’s not so intimidating, so slowly introducing something new until they’re ready to take a bigger leap.

Toni: I would imagine though, Connie, that children and adults are very much the same.  The kids that you spoke of as far as helping them through their own potential to reach their potential with creativity, they want to go quick and they want to go fast, and you’re helping them to slow down so they have that sense of achievement and they put 100% to it.

But aren’t you doing that the same way for the adults?  A lot of adults, don’t they want to do something that’s the success … that’s the quickest and the fastest?  And what you’re saying is “Wait a minute, slow down, take the time, be supportive and safe so you have that sense of achievement.”  Aren’t you doing the same thing?

Connie: I guess where I see the difference is a lot of times with adults I find them wanting to get it perfect, and so they drag on some things because they’re so worried about getting it perfect.  And I think sometimes with adults if they let loose and let go of that wanting to be perfect and actually speed it up a little bit and work from their intuition, that it’s in their benefit more than trying … I don’t really see them pushing as fast through it, in my own personal experience.  It’s more that perfection, getting it right, worrying if it’s right, and really trashing it over and over again in their head trying to rework it and rework it.

Toni: That’s fantastic, and I wanted to make sure that we drew that parallel there, because it’s really fascinating the two different hats that you wear working with kids and working with adults, you know, and trying to keep them both motivated and creative.  That’s really fascinating.  Well, let me ask you – what do you need to be inspired?

Connie: For myself to be inspired … I think the things that inspire me most are things that have really great purpose to it.  For example … and I like things that … I’m inspired by things that are kind of large and encompass big things.

So for example, and I’m not trying to butter your biscuits, but the Project that you are doing is extremely inspiring to me because it’s something that takes personal perseverance to keep going and to keep reaching out and it just grows, and I like how when we spoke earlier how you said that, you know, you’re not quite sure where it’s going to go at the end, you know, and to see that … those things inspire me.  People that are able to walk into the unknown, you know?  That’s what inspires me.

Toni: Well, thank you.

Connie: But for me to then work from that, I like to have a support system around.  I think that really helps me then explore that.

Toni: To have your own support system to be able to do that?

Connie: I do; and I have a great support system actually in person, you know?  Like where I live and then also through my blog, I have met wonderful people that live all over the world who I’ve grown really deep friendships with; and a group of bloggers actually that we meet on the phone, you know, twice a month and support each other’s creative endeavors and support each other’s personal and professional life.  So I think that’s extremely important, and not even as a form of support to kind of root you on, but to actually challenge you and to hold you accountable also is something.

Toni: Well let me ask you – can you please, for those that are reading and listening to this interview, where did Dirty Footprints Studio come from?

Connie: Well, Dirty Footprints Studios started about three years ago.  Actually, it really started about four years ago when I moved to Phoenix, Arizona.  I had a ceramic studio in a co-op, which means it’s a large place where all different ceramic artists had … they paid for space.  And at the time, I was doing a body of work and everybody in that space … you had a kind of name for your studio and for your work.  And I constantly go around barefoot, and so a lot of the studio mates … well, one of the studio mates actually said one day that we always know when you’re here, Connie, because we see your dirty footprints on the ground.  And like, I just loved that.  I was like “Ah, Dirty Footprints Studio.”

At the time, you know, you’re working with clay and it’s dirty and all that, but eventually I retired my little ceramic business, and I started writing a blog.  And I wanted to call it Dirty Footprints Studio because I wanted to still keep my art alive and to incorporate my love for yoga.

But even deeper than that, I like the idea that it’s about a journey and having dirty footprints and keeping your feet close to the earth and that, when you are going through this journey in this universe, the one thing you leave behind — or at least I hope to — is my dirty footprints on the ground and sort of a sense of a legacy or a story like that.

Toni: That’s fantastic.  That’s a very inspiring story on how to come up with a name like that and to leave a legacy behind of dirty footprints; gosh, that’s amazing.  I just had this image come to my head of your legacy with the children you work with, but instead of the footprints it’s the handprints and the art and the handprints on canvas or footprints on canvas; that just came to my head.

Connie: Or the handprints on my clothes from all day.  I get them all over me from their hugs and they’re like grabbing you.

Toni: What a legacy you’re creating and mentoring from that perspective.  That’s amazing!  Are there tools and resources that you tend to reach for when you’re at a place maybe where you need to be inspired or you go “Oh jeez, you know, I’ve gotta … I’m looking for a little inspiration here.”  Do you find yourself reaching for the same tools or methodologies?

Connie: Actually, that’s interesting.  It’s a very interesting question to me, because I used to have a certain way of doing it, and as I’ve gotten older I’ve gone away from that.  And what I mean is that when I was younger, a lot of times to gain inspiration I felt that I needed to throw more information my way, go on the internet, go look at books, go to the art museum, take in more and more and more.

And now that I’m getting older — not that I’m old or anything but further in my journey in life — I realize that what helps inspire me is less of taking in more information and more stepping back.  And that sometimes I’m really starting to learn that it’s okay for me to be inspired by just taking a break and having downtime instead of feeling that I constantly need to take in more information.

Sometimes I think that does more damage to me than it is to stop, walk away, take a walk in the park, you know, take a week off and really throw myself into something else – cooking or something I don’t generally do.  I don’t really knit, but every now and then I might knit something just to step away, and that’s where I start to get inspired and ideas start coming to me from when I let my creativity take a break for a while.

Toni: What a great piece of advice for others as well.  What do you need to explore your own potential, Connie?

Connie: That’s a good question.  I think what I need most of the time is a purpose.  I need …  for me to really push myself, I need a purpose.  I need to feel like that I’m doing something for a greater means.

For example, I just this week announced that I will be launching an online workshop class and, for myself, this is something that I’ve wanted to do that people have been asking for.  I taught workshops, and I’ve been teaching for so long, but doing this online just seemed very intimidating for me.

And luckily, I had really great support and people that supported me on this, but having to do it … what really pushed me to my potential is to think that “Wow, I’m creating something that I know will help other people, and I have to put it out there.”  That’s my purpose; like “I have to.”

So I have to meet my potential and push myself, because it’s not even about me anymore, it’s the bigger me, it’s the bigger picture.  So I think that’s what I really crave when it comes to pushing myself to my potential.

Toni: And I’m hearing it was really the discovery of what you had to do to get to what you wanted which was to make a difference with other people and to help them along the way.

Connie: Exactly.  I think that’s what is the most important, especially when you’re a teacher.  Going in as a teacher in no matter what field you are in, including yourself as a coach or … you know, it’s a very selfless act, you know?   You definitely have the purpose to help others.

And I think that when somebody feels that they are a teacher or they have something to teach, they need to push themselves to get to that point where they’re comfortable to then release it to the world, because it’s something that the Universe is kind of asking, you know?  If you have that little itch, it’s the Universe knocking on your door saying “Hey, we need that now.”  So I think my time was now, you know?

Toni: It definitely sounds that way.  It also is very relevant, and it’s been a common theme through some of the interviews on the Get Inspired! Project is that we teach what we need to learn.

Connie: Oh, you’re absolutely right.  Exactly!  And that’s like even with my little kids, you hit it on the mark.  I always … and that’s the way I inspire them, because I teach them things that excite me, and I have to go in and learn more.

We’re doing a big project with my fourth and fifth graders with plaster, and I never really worked in plaster, but I had to do it myself.  I had to get involved with it first before I taught them.  I’m one of those teachers that before we do it, I do it.  I get excited about it, and I bring it to them.  And if it doesn’t excite me, I don’t even bother teaching it because what’s the use?  If I don’t care for it, my students aren’t going to care either.

Toni: Well, Connie, I can tell you that you have been an absolute joy to interview, and I’m so happy that you came onto the Project.  Just what you do for the kids I can only imagine, and then what you do for adults, it sounds so amazing.  We will put a post to your blog and how to get a hold of you at the end of this interview, but thank you for the passion and enthusiasm for what you do and how that came across in this interview today.  Thank you so very much for being part of it.

Connie: Oh, you’re welcome, Toni.  And I would like to also say thank you to you, and thank you for this great Project that you as well are doing.  I think it’s very important, and I really applaud you.  Thank you.

Toni: Thank you, Connie, and hopefully we will connect again soon.

Connie: Absolutely.  Have a good evening.

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For more information about Connie Hozvicka:  www.DirtyFootprints-Studio.com, www.DirtyFootprintsWorkshops.com

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