the Empathy List #142: And now for something completely different... (Um, we made a podcast)
Listen to the trailer of "KNOCK AT THE SKY: A Creative Journey" for a glimpse into one artist couple's creative collaboration.
Hello friend, Liz here.
In this time of tremendous cultural upheaval, I keep asking myself, what good is art? What is it for? Would our time be better spent in the halls of government than in libraries and galleries?
Perhaps.
But I believe art is the emotional engine that changes minds and hearts. Art teaches empathy and broadens our thinking. Art allows us to see beyond our small squares of existence, providing a broader vision of the human experience.
In other words, do we need art now? Hell yeah!!!
In fact, I do not think we can make it through the next four years without good art. Art will buoy us, will encourage us toward protest and action, and will cultivate intention and thoughtfulness within us even when the political cycles only threaten to inspire rage and doom.
We especially need anti-authoritarian, inclusive, arms-wide open religious art, my friends! This counter narrative about Jesus that I hope to convey in my writing is the way I plan to fight Christian fascism.
With all this in mind, I want to announce something that I and Jeremy (my husband and artistic collaborator) have made for you:
we made a podcast,
a companion podcast for the Knock at the Sky book,
a podcast that documents the creative and collaborative journey of making Knock at the Sky,
and a podcast that we built around the creative process itself, from idea to craft/practice to revision to release.
Our podcast is called “Knock at the Sky: A Creative Journey,” and it’s hosted by myself and the artist behind the illustrations in the book (Jeremy Grant).
We’re bringing you into our living room to hear two married artist collaborators talk about making art in their respective mediums.
It probably doesn’t surprise you to hear that Jeremy and I think and talk about art-making constantly. That’s a by-product of having two married, collaborating, working artists building a life together. And, as I’ve written before, Jeremy is the reason I kept creating, even despite failure and disappointment and despair and rejection with earlier (never published) book projects.
Even if you’re not interested in my book, I believe you’ll be inspired by these guided conversations about creativity that you can apply to your medium, crafting, cooking, art-making, or everyday living.
I also think we’re pretty charming and occasionally funny, so my hunch is that it’ll be nice to listen to us banter. ;-)
Bonus: we’ll also be discussing the fine art collages in the book, one at a time, acting as your own personal docents. Jeremy is remarkably articulate about his artistic process, which is why I wanted you to hear from him directly.
Also, this art-talk will make sense of the art for readers who want to start Knock at the Sky book clubs. We know that not everyone trusts their own eyes to interpret art. So, we wanted to give you a leg up. (More on book clubs coming soon, btw…)
If you find the artistic process as fascinating as I do, I think you’ll really enjoy this behind-the-scenes podcast from us where we map the creative process from idea to practice to revision to release.
You can listen to the trailer here, or you can listen in your favorite podcast app1 (where you can also follow and review it, duh.)
Thanks for reading and/or listening, my friends.
Warmly, Liz Charlotte Grant
Knock at the Sky: A Creative Journey (Trailer)
You can subscribe here— Apple Podcasts / iHeart Radio / Spotify / Amazon Music and Audible / Stitcher— plus probably a few other podcast players that I do not know about. ;-)
I love this! What a great idea. I can’t wait to listen!
Sounds fascinating. Will definitely be listening!