Day 175: Rebecca Stees

March 24, 2010 at 12:01 am, Category: Inspiration

“I don’t really like to think of my purpose as just doing things for others, because I have burned out on that before, and I found that it didn’t really come from my own happiness.  So I would say now my happiness is really important to me.  And the reason I started my business, Art Yowza, is because I need to make art every day, and I need to be in that creative community …”

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

Rebecca Stees: Yeah, I want to say wow – woo!  I’m Rebecca Stees and my focus is bold, creative fun.  I’m an artist and I’m an entrepreneur, and I have a small business in Alameda, California, that is camp classes and parties for children and adults.

Toni: Well thank you, Rebecca.  When you think about the word inspiration, who do you think you inspire and how do you do that?

Rebecca: Well, I don’t really think about necessarily inspiring others as much as being inspired myself.  I think inspiration is like a feeling or an attitude or an energy, so I’d say I bring energy and focus and creativity, persistence, playfulness, humor, relationships, intuition.

Toni: And you bring those … and when you display all of that, the attitude, the persistence, and the humor, who’s the beneficiary of that?

Rebecca: Well, fortunately in my business, Art Yowza, I’m an art teacher so I have like, you know, classes and camps of really creative kids and adults.  I guess I inspire their parents, too, and I’ve also noticed lately that I inspire a lot of other creative businesspeople who want to know, you know, “How do I get started, and how do I do it?”

Toni: Well, I would imagine now, when you say that you have a camp for creative kids and adults, how do you think you inspire them?  What happens when they’re with you?

Rebecca: I think the first question is like, maybe, how do I attract, you know, creative people? Fortunately, I have like a lot of art shows in town, and people see them.  And it’s really easy to share images and pictures now on, you know, Facebook and the internet, so I seem to like, you know, kind of like already ready for fun when they come.

Toni: Oh, they are ready for you.

Rebecca: Yeah.  So you mean what happens … what happens when they’re here at camp?

Toni: Well, you have … there seems to be a lot of benefit that someone gets from you and being in your camp or being in front of you, so what I’m wondering is, what happens?  Tell me a typical day, you know, when I’m going to walk out of there going “Wow, that was pretty cool!”

Rebecca: Well, I have … okay, so I have like one-hour classes, I have seven-hour classes, and I have a series of classes, like a camp for a week is 35 hours.  So we work with, you know, that timeframe.  So I think really what’s kind of interesting to me since I got to talk about it with another teacher this week is in seven hours we just … each hour like maybe we start with drawing, and then we’re going to have some playtime, and then we might like do a collage and add it to the drawing, and then we play, and we have painting, so there’s like a building of projects over time.

Toni: And they get to see those results by building on top of those projects one after the other.

Rebecca: Oh, yeah; and clearly, everyone gets to see how the kids were inspired, because I exhibit the artwork and the kids get to see what, you know, each other is making, and they’re inspired from each other.  Sometimes I even hear like spontaneous kind of like hum or buzz – that’s happened, oh maybe about, you know, 10 times before, where, you know, kids who didn’t know each other got on the same energy.  Yeah.  It’s fun.  It’s fun.

Toni: It sounds delightful, Rebecca, it really does, as do you.  Now, how do you think you help the kids or the adults at your camp … how do you think you help them explore their potential?

Rebecca: Well, I’m thinking I, uh … [fun sound interjected by Rebecca here ]… I wonder how that’s going to come out in the transcript … ay yi yi yi yi, that’s my creative play on this interview.  So I’d say creative freedom structures is how I help my campers and students.  So, also I help them with creative life design and also teaching them like how to invent a game to play.

So some of it may be that like with kids, they just need to learn … they’re learning actual skills, like cutting and shapes, and they’re learning how to do those things and how to improvise their own artwork.  But sometimes for adults, I notice that they come in and they want to do something that they already know they’ve been successful at.

And then I see, you know, it’s really not quite ugly enough, so it makes me think they are not trying anything new yet.  Then there’s always like a part where the adults say well, you know, they’ve got to go and they’re just … they want to like … they promise me they’re going to finish it at home, and I’m like “No way.  You can be here like, you know, you can finish this up, and even if it like looks weird or bad or ugly to you, you know, surprise yourself.”

Toni: You’re pushing them.  You’re pushing that creativity for them to get out of that comfort zone.

Rebecca: Yeah.  Really, it’s like, yeah.  Really, they’re so happy when they do.

Toni: Yeah, absolutely.

Rebecca: Uh-huh.

Toni: So what inspires you, Rebecca?

Rebecca: What inspires me?  Well, so many things.  Conversations like this, a chance to like reshape my story or think about, you know, what my purpose and gifts and talents are and how I can like reframe them and build creative community.  That’s really inspiring to me.

Toni: And when you are looking for inspiration, where do you tend to find it?

Rebecca: Naps.

Toni: Naps.

Rebecca: Yeah.

Toni: Yours, or the ones that are in your camp?

Rebecca: No … hey, that could be good, but usually like I need to take a nap to find some inspiration, because you know, sometimes I’ll just be tired and, you know, inspiration tends to come to me easily.  So I figure if I’m kind of having a break in the flow of inspiration, it just means I’m exhausted, I need to take a nap.  And then also, you know, wisdom comes to me in dreams and symbols, so that’s always fun to play with, too.

Toni: When you are coming up with the creativity that you need to stay inspired and so forth, are there sources that you reach for, are there tools or resources that you tend to go to on a consistent basis?

Rebecca: Oh, yeah.  Well, the consistent basis is I love to blog, and I have six blogs.

Toni: Wow.

Rebecca: Which is … so I have like different categories.  I have one that’s called Bold Creative Fun and it’s about children’s illustration, or actually things that I think the kids are going to find amusing.  And I have one about exploring teenage art, so they would be like conversation starters.  I have one that’s just like about beautiful interiors, so I think about like, you know, how I want to shape my home.  And my favorite one right now is Creative Biz Wow, because it was just a big challenge for me to become a small business owner, and I’m really inspired thinking about marketing and community and that is really inspiring for me, so I love to blog about that.

Toni: So, Rebecca, when you … you just are full of life and personality, and your purpose seems to be wrapped around either igniting that creativity spark in others, which is around the camp that you have and keeping it fun and creative, whether it’s for kids or adults; have you always known that that was going to be your purpose, or is it just a piece of it?

Rebecca: Well, I don’t really like to think of my purpose as just doing things for others, because I have burned out on that before, and I found that it didn’t really come from my own happiness.  So I would say now my happiness is really important to me.  And the reason I started my business, Art Yowza, is because I need to make art every day, and I need to be in that creative community, and I guess I needed to build it for it to like be there for me.

Toni: That’s a very, very cool thing that you just said, that a lot of people are going to listen to this and go “Wow, okay.”  I want to make sure I get this right.  You basically came to realize that your purpose isn’t just doing for others like you had spoken about, but you need to feed your soul by being creative every day, and so feeding your soul comes from feeding other people’s creative souls; that’s kind of what I heard you say.

Rebecca: Yeah.  I’m not thinking about like I’m helping children make art, I’m thinking “Wow, these really creative artists, young artists, are coming today and we’re going to problem-solve this … how to make a funky squirrel.  I cannot wait to see what they make.  I just can’t wait to see the color combinations.  Maybe someone’s going to use some of this collage material, or actually I’ll open it up to them and say ‘Do you want to make funky squirrels today, or rock star chickens?’”  You know, yeah, it’s about feeding my creativity, but also, you know, it’s a fun environment to be in.

Toni: Yeah, that’s what it sounds like.  That is very cool.  So what do you have to do then to explore your own potential?

Rebecca: Well, I’ve been thinking about this a lot.  My business is seven years old, and I’ve been thinking about making like new partnerships and doing new collaborations and creative projects.  And sometimes just doing a creative project comes from, you know, being more visible, or trying like the beginning kernel of the creative project to like attract the right partner.  So I think exploring my potential, I need to have more conversations and make new friendships and make sure that it’s fun, and also give myself some structure to do it in.

Toni: So that it’s not all over the place and pretty focused.

Rebecca: Yeah.

Toni: Gosh, I can tell you, Rebecca, that just what you do for creating this creative environment for adults and kids and how that helps them to explore their potential, but gosh, what you need for that inspiration and what you’ve given as far as what your purpose is — and how that’s flipped from doing for others to doing it for yourself first, and how others benefit from that — that is pretty cool stuff, and we thank you very, very much, Rebecca, for being part of this Project today.

Rebecca: Thank you.  I love it.  I’m a big fan, and I’m going to listen to all your interviews to come.

Toni: Well, thank you!  Take care, Rebecca.

Rebecca: Thank you.

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For more information about Rebecca Stees:  www.artyowza.com, fun@artyowza.com

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