Lindsay Stripling: I think it is, you touched on it, which is like, it is a really nice reminder. And I think of this with like swimming or running or going to the gym, that it is an act of showing up either you do it or you don't do it. And if you don't do it, you're not going to do it. It’s not showing up only when you feel like it or showing up only when it feels good. It's just, it's just showing up period. Lindsay Jean Thomson: Hey, and welcome to #The100DayProject Podcast. I'm your host, Lindsay Jean Thomson. If you're new to the community, welcome. Here's the idea: every year we pick a start date. You pick a creative project and beginning on the start date, you do your project every day for a hundred days and document it online. You can find out more at the100dayproject.org. That's the 1 0 0 day project.org. While you're there, sign up for our newsletter to learn more about the next round of the project. My guest today is Lindsay Stripling, an artist and illustrator based in San Francisco. Her work explores themes of nature, community, psychology, and more.In her words, she likes to keep it playful. Lindsay is also a teacher and in addition to her own workshop offerings, which I have taken and can wholeheartedly recommend, is an adjunct professor of illustration at California College of the Arts. Hey, Linds, welcome to #The100DayProject Podcast. Lindsay Stripling: What's up, Linds? Good to see you. Thanks for having me. Lindsay Jean Thomson: It's so nice to have you here. We first met a couple years ago when I took your Yellow Brick Road class/workshop/event, and I enjoyed it so much. And so you were one of the first people I thought of when I was thinking about the podcast. Lindsay Stripling: That's such a fun class. I feel like I've met so many of my current like peers and friends and people who I enjoy being around because of that class, which is a benefit and a bonus that I did not anticipate. So I'm glad you took it and glad you liked it and not surprised that you're an incredibly creative and wonderful person. Lindsay Jean Thomson: Well, thank you. It really was so lovely to participate in and I made a bunch of friends through the class too. So it's nice to participate in other containers. There are so many different creative communities online and that's great. Really one of the best parts about the internet, in my personal opinion. Lindsay Stripling: I agree. I think what's cool about the 100 Day Project and kind of the way that you're tackling what you do is like this really approachable, like, way to get back into being creative. And I think that when I first started participating in the internet in like a creative focused way, like as an artist, which is probably like 2011 or 12, I couldn't have anticipated that there'd be so many different entry points for like discussions around creativity. And it's really cool to see, and it's a big community, but it's also like such a small world. Lindsay Jean Thomson: It really is. There's so many kind of overlapping circles. I was at a Substack event a couple of weeks ago and someone said, “Oh, you do the a hundred day project podcast.” You have to, the podcast, there was not a podcast at this point. “You do the hundred day project. You have to meet Anne. Anne works with Wendy Mac.” And I was like, cool. I've never met Wendy Mac, but I of course know who Wendy Mac is. And I think the great thing about the internet is nobody is really more than a degree or two away, but once you start to do things, you meet other people who do things, and it's really kind of magical. Lindsay Stripling: Yeah, and I think too it's an attitude thing, like, when you do things and you share them, and you meet other people who do things. You could easily be like closed off to it when you have like this feeling or approach to it all being kind of a competition or that there's not enough room for everyone or feeling like when you approach it with insecurity, which I'm sure I did when I was younger, but I've definitely encountered people who are like that. I've been that way. And it's once you open it up and you're like, “Oh, everyone is like, So exciting and doing cool things and they don't have to be my things, but I can be excited for other people and that these things exist.” The world becomes like so much more connected. Lindsay Jean Thomson: Yeah, connected and expansive and fun and playful. Let's talk about playful. You That's like part of the tagline of your newsletter. I think it's keeping it human, but the gist of it is around keeping it playful, which is of course, part of art, part of everything. How do you keep it playful? Lindsay Stripling: I mean, definitely I feel like play and experimentation is super important to my practice. And I would say my practice is making art and doing illustration, but it's also teaching. It's also just being present in the world around me. And it's all kind of a part of that. And I find that my best, as a creative and my best as a teacher and my best as a partner when I find a way to infuse curiosity and fun into whatever I'm doing, even if it's problem solving, even if it's, you know, finding a way to, you know, pay rent during an extremely hard time, like all of the things, if I can channel some way of like being creative into it or being open to an idea I haven't thought of before it always works. It makes me a better version of myself. So I try to hold on to that, which is hard because I'm a very, I feel like it is actually the antithesis of what I naturally tend to do, which is be really rigid about everything. So it's like seeking that intentionally. Lindsay Jean Thomson: That's so interesting. Interesting, because I, I obviously don't know you well, but rigid is not a word that I would come to mind when I think about you, you're so warm and you know, you're so generous and your class was so fun and authentic and honest. But yeah, a lot of us are trying to create the thing that we, maybe a countermeasure to some of our, our more challenging impulses. Lindsay Stripling: Maybe, you know, maybe I've been doing it for long enough that it is a part of how I am now, but definitely, you know, when I first studied art long ago, I studied like hyper realism and it was all about correctness. I would do these really large, larger than me self-portraits, hyper realistic drawings that were really fun. And I learned a lot about how to draw, but everything was really tight and it did feel like an extension of my need to kind of control everything. And so I started painting with watercolor in like 2014, almost as a rebellion against it, like a means of pushing against that part of myself and allowing myself to make ugly things. Like I made a lot of paintings that I love now, but we're like very uncomfortable because they were ugly and weird and not planned and strange. And I feel like that's what that stemmed from. And that's where that came from. Lindsay Jean Thomson: I think that's such a good question to think about. So this is coming out in advance of the 100 day project as people are thinking about what they want to do for their project. And, you know, a lot of times people feel pulled to do the thing that they've always done or the thing that they're good at. But I think that's a really important question to ask. Like, do I like the way this makes me feel? Is this bringing out the thing in me that I want or need or who I want to be, because I can also be pretty rigid. And I have to be, I have to be careful about like the practices that I undertake, you know. Like I bought one of the smartwatches and I can be so compulsive. I'm like 10, 000 steps? Let's do 20, you know, like get that notification. And I ended up just giving it to a friend because I was like, I don't need more of this. Lindsay Stripling: Yeah. Like the, mine is currently living in a kitchen drawer, uncharged, not available to me for those very reasons. And I do think that that part of myself is also, and this is probably true for you, like is why I have the ability to do so many different things. Like that part of myself is like the one that wakes up in the to go to the gym every morning is the one that makes sure I like walk the dogs every afternoon, even when I don't want to, or when it's raining or the one that schedules classes when I'm tired or make sure to go the extra mile. That's like a good part of myself, but it's not how I want to feel when I'm painting. And I think that question of how does this feel in your body is a really good one. It's one I prompt students with a lot, which is like, is it sustainable for me to show up to do this creative thing that I love, if it makes me feel really tense and nervous and afraid to make something like, I won't show up if I feel that way anymore, you know, like I, I can't like, I cannot. Lindsay Jean Thomson: Yeah. I mean, I think you're right. And it's important that this is not a bad aspect. It's just the thing that I don't want to exclusively feed. Right. And. I want to feed the thing that feels good and the the structural part of myself is what enables all of these other things to happen in part. Lindsay Stripling: I think also just acknowledging that when I mentioned moving away from being super hyper realistic or controlled with my painting and then getting into watercolor and doing these, I was doing these like weird landscapes. scenes that were semi narrative, but also just very strange and intuitive. It was severely uncomfortable, you know, but I did it anyway. So like just recognizing that play is also hard. It's not always that we're seeking to only do the things that come easily, but actually to intentionally maybe do the things that don't can feel hard, but it's hard in a different way. Lindsay Jean Thomson: I think this like, um, dealing with contrasts or seeming opposites is such an interesting part of being human of any kind of creative practice. Like one of the people I was interviewing was talking about, you know, if you want to commit to a project, start by making it smaller. And then she was talking about, but like when you approach something, make it bigger. And it's like, both of those things can be true. And can you hold space for “oh, something is hard, but it's also valuable.” Can you hold space for all of these seemingly conflicting things being true at the same time? Lindsay Stripling: I think we talk about this in Yellow Brick Road and you and I've had conversations about this. It's also like retraining our intuition for these things, right? Like the thing that I tend to do naturally is not necessarily the thing that I'm seeking or the thing that I want. And so I think, like you said, holding these things at the same time, holding several kind of like seemingly opposing forces at once. And like recognizing when I'm being called to do one for X, Y, or Z reason, or when I feel like maybe I want to go in this direction, is that actually the information that I'm like seeking? Or is it because I'm uncomfortable? Or is it because that feels easier? Those are kind of the questions that no one else can answer for us. And that we're like kind of exploring when we do this stuff. Lindsay Jean Thomson: You know, one of the things that people who are doing the project asked me a lot is, can I do X, you know, can I paint Y thing? Can I knit every day? And yes, you can. But what I want you to do is ask yourself, is this what I want to do, you know, because who am I? I'm just some person from the internet. Maybe we'll get to be friends. That would be great, but I'm not the thing that is asking to be expressed. I am not the thing that you're seeking, you know? So how do you get into that kind of like internal place? Lindsay Stripling: Yeah, I mean, I do a lot of journaling and a lot of writing because it helps me to see lists. And also when I feel conflicted about the thing that I'm doing, or maybe I'm in the like messy middle part of a project and I hate it, which is just the natural evolution of working on things. There's always a longer period of disliking something before you like it again. And in those moments, it can be easy to kind to self destruct, like choose things that are actually not in line with the intentions that I went into the project for, or with the ability to kind of like dismiss the things that I'm like working towards. So having lists and having things written down somewhere that I can return to is always really helpful because I can kind of remind myself of those things. And I also cannot be trusted to remember those things in those moments. Those are things that I know about myself. So that helps a ton. And the thing I always tell my students, like when they do that with me too, like I just, I had a really interesting fall semester where I taught a class I've never taught before, which is a fashion illustration. And I took over a syllabus from another teacher and then kind of tweaked it to make it my own. But a lot of the projects were, you know, maybe not like completely outside my comfort zone, but definitely a little bit outside my comfort zone. And I was challenging them to like, you know, I'm trying to think of a good example.Like we did a costume design for Halloween, so they could design a costume, it could be for themselves. It could be for like a famous person and it could be for whatever. And I had a student ask if they could do video for it. And I was like, it was a fashion illustration, like drawing class. But I also was like, yeah, why not? Like, what would that look like? Right?I don't have the capability of understanding what that is because I don't work in video, but I also students – and maybe I wish when I was a student that I had more freedom to kind of figure out what drawing in a video medium means, right? Like I can try new things. When we break outside the mold of the structure that we've created for ourselves and they ended up making a really cool project. And it would be easy to be like, “oh, none of this meets the brief,” but it did. And then it evolved into like even cooler projects down the line. And I'm excited to see what else they come up with. I think those are the types of things that like when we're teaching or when a student or someone who's doing the 100 day project asks you if someone can do something, it's like, yeah, like, I don't know what that looks like or even what you're picturing, right? So just do it and see what it becomes. And it's usually the best answer. Lindsay Jean Thomson: I love that you encourage them to pursue that because I think a lot of us have had teachers who tried to keep us in some kind of box or who were really prescriptive and I think oftentimes it comes from a place of like wanting to teach a specific skill set or that type of thing and caring about whatever it is that that thing is, but, you know, how many of us have internalized a message that, well, that, that isn't what the thing? Sometimes following a brief, like if you have a client, but if you're doing something for yourself and there's no brief, you do whatever you want. Lindsay Stripling: Yeah. Or like, um, I don't know, like, like I think about especially like younger, younger generations are new artists, right? Like people are coming up with new ideas and new art. Like there's so many things that we don't know what they can become. Like, I am a firm believer that every idea already kind of exists, but it also can kind of come forward in totally new ways now. And I don't want to presume to know what those things are. Like the only way we can find them is through trying to make them and probably missing the mark and finding something unexpected. It's really cool. Like when I was a student, everything that was abstract is really hard for me to understand. I have a really hard time with that, that's like why I like to work visually because I can see things and I can problem solve the things that I can see. So like, why would I presume that like another student doesn't have like a different way of thinking of things, right? ike we all have totally like unique ways of viewing the world. And so, the hope is that we encourage like more people to kind of come up with new ways of engaging with it through their art. So why would I try to squash that, you know? And, and I think why should we squash it for ourselves, right? Like if you have a cool, interesting idea, I think, writing it down on a piece of paper, if you're like me, and then giving yourself the space to try it. And then maybe look at that piece of paper midway through or at the end and be like, “Oh, yeah, I forgot. I attended this thing and this other thing came about. Like, what does that mean to me? Do I like it? Do I not like it? What is, what is this telling me?” Lindsay Jean Thomson: Yeah, it's really a process. It's not something you can prescript. Lindsay Stripling: Yeah, like there's no way of knowing where it's going to go. Like how many times have you made something and you're like, okay, like I'm going to like do X, Y, and Z with this pink and this purple, this is what's going to come out of it. And then just been like, okay, that looks nothing like what I had planned, but I kind of like this, you know? Lindsay Jean Thomson: Well, I don't plan at all when I paint because I don't know how. And so actually the joy of painting for me is that I don't think. Lindsay Stripling: The unexpected part. Lindsay Jean Thomson: Yeah. That's, that's where the fun stuff is. Lindsay Stripling: I love that. Then it becomes like meditative for you. Yeah. Lindsay Jean Thomson: Yeah. I mean, I'm more present doing that than just about anything. Lindsay Stripling: Yeah. It's, a really nice way to kind of settle into not thinking like it makes me think of when I swim, it's the same thing. There's no distractions and I'm just like present with my body and art. It's the same way. It's like when you let yourself get to that place, like for me, I do have to plan quite a bit, but the reason I plan is so that I can get to that place of not thinking. If I don't plan, I am thinking the whole time about what I don't know, I'm like, I don't know where this is going. This is crazy. You know, this is not meeting my expectations or is this working is, but if I have sketches and color box and I have an understanding of what it is, then I can kind of like, let all that go and, and just be present with making. Lindsay Jean Thomson: I think too, there's something you touched on when you talked about swimming, which is that It's not like that we're turning off all thinking as in knowing – it's it's like turning off that analytical mind that critical mind, which is just so often going and tapping into your kind of bodily wisdom and you know, you get into a pool and you know how to swim. Like there's so many different things that go into the mechanics of that. And of course there's ways to do it more efficiently, Lindsay Stripling: Right. Lindsay Jean Thomson: But unless you're trying to win a race, it's maybe not that relevant in the moment. Lindsay Stripling: A hundred percent. Yeah. I think you're right. Like when you're making work, like when I'm at my best, when I'm zoning out and making work, I'm thinking more about like, “Oh, this yellow looks really nice. Or, you know, what if I mix this with this or, you know, overlay this color, what about this texture?” And it's way more intuitive than like, a feeling. There's definitely knowledge there that we build over time that you can pull from intuitively, but it's definitely more of an intuition. Lindsay Jean Thomson: And what does it feel like when you feel that feeling? Lindsay Stripling: It's really calm. Like I always, when I do get a chance and it's not always because I do a lot of client work or work for other people, that's not necessarily for me. And there is a piece of that there, but it's not quite the same, but when I do get a chance to do more personal work, like this year, I did a lot of large oil paintings, which I had not done oils in a really long time. And I just felt a lot of calmness when I got to work on them. I set up a severely imperfect space for myself downstairs in our like dusty little sunroom. And just was like, yeah, I'm going to use this weird side table. Like it was the least photogenic space I've ever had for, well, not ever, but definitely not like, uh, Instagram worthy in any way. But it was perfect. It was exactly what I needed it to be. It was exactly the space that I needed. The paintings I could make, I could make there. The light was exactly what I needed it to be. And afterwards I would feel so much more grounded in what I want and who I am and what I'm excited about. Whereas sometimes when I'm only doing work for clients, I can leave those projects feeling less grounded in what I'm curious about because I'm so focused on other people's problems that I'm solving or just like more of a grind in a different way. So it's really important. And I, I definitely feel like that feeling of doing personal work is so special. Lindsay Jean Thomson: You've also been writing more. Lindsay Stripling: I have, I have been writing more. Yeah. Lindsay Jean Thomson: I enjoy your newsletter so much. Lindsay Stripling: Thank you. Yeah. I, I love writing the newsletters and I do feel like, I think I started Substack two years ago and definitely my writing has evolved and gotten better, which I didn't anticipate. You hope that happens, but it was surprising to me to read a couple of my early posts recently and be like, “Oh yeah, like the ideas are still mine, but like, you know, I've gotten better at figuring out how to like express myself in this like different art form.” Um, writing does not necessarily come naturally, but yeah, it's fun. Lindsay Jean Thomson: I don't know who writing comes naturally to. I think most writers will say they work hard at it. But like, what a gift to yourself to give yourself that time. And a gift to all of us that we get to read it. Lindsay Stripling: Yeah. Well, and I think, I think it is, you touched on it, it is a really nice reminder. And I think of this with like swimming or running or going to the gym, that it is an act of showing up, either you do it or you don't do it. And if you don't do it, you're not going to do it, you know? Like, it's not showing up only when you feel like it or showing up only when it feels good. It's just showing up period. Lindsay Jean Thomson: What do you think helps you be skilled at showing up? Lindsay Stripling: I definitely am pretty structured about my time. My dog Trudy would tell you that I'm really structured with my time. It's actually something that I'm trying to get a little bit better at being more loose about so not necessarily hitting the ground running as soon as I wake up like I'm trying really hard to give myself a little more time to move slowly in the mornings. I don't have children. I just have Trudy and a couple other animals. So I can move slower in the morning. And so I'm trying to give myself that space so I can do more journaling and writing early on, which feels quieter. But yeah, I think it's like just prioritizing it in the sense of giving myself four hours to do this thing or it’s prioritizing it saying it's 20 minutes every day before I go for a walk, like I really love like a habit bundle, which sounds so annoying and very millennial, but I like being like, okay, I do this before I do this, or I do this with this. So maybe it's like drinking coffee and doing 20 minutes of writing, or maybe it's like going for a walk. And then when I get home, I do X, Y, or Z activity. One of my other habit bundles I started a year ago that is not about writing but is a fun one and also just can show you how basic it can be, which is anytime I watch basketball, I run for the first half of basketball and then I can walk during the times when they're doing free throws or it's a commercial break, which sounds insane, but it is really fun and a nice way to be like, I do this thing and I do this other thing that is hard for me, but makes it easier if I do it with this. Lindsay Jean Thomson: I love that. That's so fun. And I think a lot of it is just once you have the kind of framework is, is it frees you up from the decision making? Do I feel like running? Do I, right? It's just sort of like, okay, well, when this is happening, I'm doing this. It really, it's funny how we have to sort of fool our brains sometimes into doing what we want to do. Lindsay Stripling: Yeah, definitely. Especially because everything is so distracting nowadays, and I'm sure 20 years ago everyone was saying the exact same thing. Everything is only ever getting more distracting. It's always been distracting and you'll always find reasons to be distracted, but we do carry like tiny TVs around in our hands now. So you have more of an excuse not to do the things that you really want to do, because you forgot you wanted to do them. So that's what's so cool about the a hundred day project, I think, or projects like this is. I think setting yourself up for it so that you can show up for it sustainably, like we talk about that with Yellow Brick Road. We talk about that in all of my classes, like what is sustainable? Like it's not about I'm doing this for, you know, 10 hours or I have to do this perfectly. It's about what do I have capacity for even in my busiest days and how can I show up even on those days? So I think when people build their framework for projects. Probably considering that, right, like I maybe have five minutes after dinner to like sit down and swatch some paint or, or do something simple. I think when you think about time in that way versus like 3pm or in really rigid terms, it makes it easier to kind of find space for things. Lindsay Jean Thomson: Yeah, I absolutely agree. And I find that. Even when I say I only have five minutes, if I just sit down to do the five minutes, the five minutes turns out, oh, I actually had 30. Turns out I've lost track of time at all. Lindsay Stripling: Turns out my anxiety was the one telling me I only have five minutes. Lindsay Jean Thomson: It's time for you to go to bed, anxiety. Okay, Linds – last question. What's next for you? Where can the good people of the hundred day project community find you? Lindsay Stripling: I mean, you can always find me on Instagram, but I'm there a lot less these days. I'm @lindsayvictorialee and then I'm on Substack. My Substack is called Earthling. And I think I've gotten into the habit of doing twice a month. That's what feels sustainable for me currently. Lindsay Jean Thomson: I love the name too, by the way. Lindsay Stripling: Yeah, I feel like I've talked about this a few times, but just the idea that I'm an artist, but I'm also a human. And then I'm, I just wrote a post recently, I'm turning 40. I have a chin whisker that keeps coming back. You know, my hair is turning gray. I'm definitely feeling all the hormone fluctuation. So I write about everything from work that I do share behind the scenes on projects. Sometimes I do a Q&A with people who read my Su stack and I'll do kind of like “Ask Alice” type thing or “Ask Abby.” I can't remember what that column was. And then I'll share, you know, share about my, my boobs or whatever I feel like writing about because I'm a human being and that's a part of me. Lindsay Jean Thomson: That's right. We've got a bodies. We've got, we've got brains to do funny things. Yeah. Are you going to be teaching Yellow Brick Road again? I highly recommend it, it was a wonderful experience. Lindsay Stripling: Thank you. Yeah. I'm actually in the process of utilizing an online platform so it can be streamlined. I took a writing class by my friend Nina and she used a platform and I've always been pretty staunchly against a self-run online class only because I have a hard time following them, but I actually followed her class really well, and I feel like I've taught Yellow Brick Road so many times now – it's been going for like four years – that I could do it in a way that would actually honor the class. So i'm working on that and i'll be releasing it soon. The way I'll do it is release it so that we then meet as a group like halfway and then at the end so maybe for like a Q&A rather than a guided class, which is what Nina did and I loved it. I felt like it was so helpful. So I told her right away. I was like, I will be implementing some of this. Her class is “Slow Novel Lab.” So if anyone wants to take Nina's class, do it. She's incredible. Yeah. So I'll have Yellow Brick Road night class in January. And I also have another class that's like a painting and writing weekend intensive workshop. That'll be coming up where we do a lot of like journaling and writing. Free writing and then pulling from the descriptors we write about to draw and paint things. Lindsay Jean Thomson: Well, that all sounds so wonderful and I'll be sure to share with the community again. I so enjoyed that experience. I met really wonderful people and it's nice to join somebody else's container. Lindsay Stripling: It is. It's so nice. I mean, I mentioned Nina's class. I'm definitely going to be doing a guest host for the hundred day project, try to join in on that. But it is really nice to see how other people create frameworks for creativity. Lindsay Jean Thomson: It's liberating to not have to be the one creating it sometimes. Just even the commitment of signing up I think is like a way of helping yourself show up. Yes. Lindsay Stripling: Yeah. Just being like, “Oh, I can kind of like let someone else tell me what to try for a second and just see how that feels.” Lindsay Jean Thomson: Yeah. Sometimes the response to how it feels is so informative. Lindsay Stripling: Yeah, definitely. Yeah. This class broke my brain a little bit. It was really cool. Lindsay Jean Thomson: Well, I will check that out as well. And thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate you. Thanks for having me. It's always fun to chat with you. Thanks, Linds. Connect with Lindsay @lindsayvictorialee on Instagram or lindsaystripling.com. And my guest next week is Olivia Lin. Here's a look. Olivia Lin: I've made lifelong friends through the hashtag. It's just so cool to see our journeys, you know, and kind of doing it together in a way. And that's kind of how I feel about the community. We're all rooting for each other. We're all doing it together. It's so inspiring to see what everyone does, because everyone's also so different and unique. But I feel like I've made so many friends through that.