Let's show our diversity

Alison Garwood-Jones September 21, 2017

In today’s Willful episode, photographer Connie Tsang discusses:
• How her mother’s advice to “Mo-mah-fahn” (don’t bring attention to yourself) shaped her eye
• Taking spontaneous road trips to (in this case) Nashville to follow locals with her camera
• Freelance tips for staying focused

Connie Tsang (@ConnieMTsang) is a Toronto-based artist and documentary photographer whose alternately quirky and deeply nostalgic take on life that has landed her photos in galleries in Toronto, Vancouver and New York, as well as books like, Sweet & Sour: Life in Chinese Family Restaurants and Neil Pasricha’s The Book of (Even More) Awesome. You can see her work at connietsangphotos.com.

Willful is the web series that tracks how artists and creative entrepreneurs work, thrive and survive. We used to interview one artist a week, then post five three-minute snack films from that interview on YouTube every day. Then we got realistic. Now we publish a new episode "every sometimes," to borrow Tim Urban's digital strategy for his wonderful blog, Wait But Why.

Finally, thank you so much, Mr. Greg Garson, for hosting us at your house of deliciousness, The Merchant Taps & Tavern (181 University at Adelaide). Our viewers may not know this, but the Merchant Tavern is the only independent restaurant in its section of the Financial District, Toronto. The District is a sea of corporate concepts with menus and venues that feel pretty canned by comparison. You can be sure that someone in Calgary and Vancouver is having your entrée today, but no one else in Canada is having Greg's Egglplant Stack with their Old Tomorrow Beer or their Steam Whistle Pilsner. Stop by and Greg will pull out a chair for you and snap open your linen serviette.

#DocumentaryPhotography #photography #Toronto #The6ix #TIFF #Urban #Cityscapes #TorontoArt #TorontoArtists #TorontoEvents #TorontoEventsPhotographer #ConnieInvadesTheWorld #ExploreTheWorld #Diversity

Growing up artsy in an Asian household

Alison Garwood-Jones September 20, 2017

This week on Willful, photographer Connie Tsang talks about:
• Growing up artsy in an Asian household
• The roots of her documenting, starting with her teen obsession with typing out Casey Kasem’s Top 40 countdown from the radio
• Creatives who make from scratch vs. those who document. Can they both be artists?
Connie Tsang (@ConnieMTsang) is a Toronto-based artist and documentary photographer whose alternately quirky and deeply nostalgic take on life that has landed her photos in galleries in Toronto, Vancouver and New York, as well as books like, Sweet & Sour: Life in Chinese Family Restaurants and Neil Pasricha’s The Book of (Even More) Awesome. You can see her work at connietsangphotos.com.

Huge thanks to The Merchant Taps & Tavern and Mr. Greg Garson for hosting our series.

#DocumentaryPhotography #photography #Toronto #The6ix #TIFF #Urban #Cityscapes #TorontoArt #TorontoArtists #TorontoEvents #TorontoEventsPhotographer #ConnieInvadesTheWorld #ExploreTheWorld

Why artists should ditch their smart phones

Alison Garwood-Jones August 17, 2017

Today on Willful, Toronto portrait artist Malinda Prud'homme shares:
• Her best advice for young artists
• Her thoughts on a beauty industry that profits from women’s low self-esteem
• Ditching her smart phone to increase her productivity

Prud’homme is a mixed media artist who believes in a broader definition of female beauty, regardless of age, size, ethnicity, or personal style. Check out her work at Malinda Prud'homme Art and malindaprudhomme.com

Jumpstart your day and get inspired by all of our Willful guests at WillfulProject.com. You'll make our day if you follow us here on Facebook.

Our heartfelt thanks to Greg Garson for offering us our stage at The Merchant Taps & Tavern (181 University Ave. at Adelaide). If you drop by, Greg will hand-deliver to you his famous meat loaf. The guy does everything!

#Beauty #PortraitPainting #diversity #The6ix
#WomenAndBeauty #RealBeauty #HyperRealism #SelfEsteem

Magazine editor turned landscape designer

Alison Garwood-Jones March 21, 2017

In honour of #Spring, Willful presents Nicolette Linton. Nikki is a former book and magazine editor turned landscape designer who traded in ridiculous amounts of swag for hauling 40-pound bags of topsoil. In ep. 1, she talks about:
• Studying to be a landscape designer after years of poring over copy.
• Becoming a mother — “it’s a different way of being” — and looking for a career to match that new reality.
• Being an antisocial extrovert.

Explore Nikki's gardens at www.green-bean.ca

Willful is the web series that tracks how artists and creative entrepreneurs work, thrive and survive. We interview one artist a week, then post two 5-minute snack films from that interview on YouTube each week.

Follow us here or on our YouTube Channel and website, WillfulProject.com, for our entire archive of inspiring interviews.

Thank you, Greg Garson and The Merchant Taps & Tavern for offering us SUCH a fantastic stage!

Nick Babatsikos hits the Canadian stage

Alison Garwood-Jones March 16, 2017

After making a splash in his first episode of Willful, actor Nick Babatsikos is back to talk about:
• The Second City Toronto Conservatory Program (“the best year of my life”)
• His first equity show after paying his dues as “coffee guy #2.”
• Writing characters from real life and getting them on stage
• Who he is is all he has to offer ("Here I am, soup to nuts")

Follow us here or on our YouTube Channel and website, WillfulProject.com, for our entire archive of inspiring interviews.

Thank you, Greg Garson and The Merchant Taps & Tavern for offering us SUCH a fantastic stage!

#PerformingArts #Acting #Singing #Theatre #Musicals #Writing #BodyImage #BodyDysmorphia #SelfAcceptance #Greece #CenterStage #SecondCity #CanadianTheatre #Actor #Freelancer #MooseOnTheLoose
(cc. Ashley Botting)

Managing self-doubt

Alison Garwood-Jones March 3, 2017

In Ep. 5, our last day with Mark Challen (*sniff*), Mark talks about:
• Rejecting academia and the fashion and design worlds in favour of work with more meaning and context
• Free time, the highs and lows of creative thinking, and managing self-doubt
• Restricting consumption of negative media (to protect your creativity)

Mark Challen is an illustrator, art and culture historian, and the creator and host of The Stylecooler Podcast on iTunes. Also look for his soon-to-be-launched website, StyleCooler.com.

Willful is the web series that tracks how artists and creative entrepreneurs work, thrive and survive. We interview one artist a week, then post five three-minute snack films from that interview on YouTube every day.

Thank you, Greg Garson and The Merchant Taps & Tavern. We see you buzzing around in the background!

#Drawing #Prismacolor #Art #Culture #History #Style #PopCulture #DesignHistory#StyleCooler#ArtistProject #Nostalgia #MustSeeTV #HouseAndHome #BarbraStreisand @amyrrosen @Rosensbuns #SelfDoubt #Negativity #Freelancer #Startup

The art of surprise

Alison Garwood-Jones March 1, 2017

Up your Willfulness this week with Mark Challen. Mark is an illustrator, art and culture historian, and the creator and host of The Stylecooler Podcast on iTunes.. Also look for his soon-to-be-launched website, StyleCooler.com. In Ep. 3, Mark talks about:

• Surprising people and using their reaction as fuel

• His influences: The New Yorker, The New York Times, Jeopardy and Sesame Street

• Launching the Style Cooler Podcast (with Suzanne Dimma), and using his background as a spinning instructor to shape the episodes

Thank you, Greg Garson, for your hospitality at The Merchant Taps & Tavern.

#Drawing #Prismacolor #Art #Culture #History #Style #PopCulture #DesignHistory #StyleCooler #ArtistProject #Nostalgia #MustSeeTV #HouseAndHome #Podcasting #Wikipedia

Leaving your job ... now what?

Alison Garwood-Jones February 28, 2017

• How the world reveals itself to you after leaving your job
• Combatting feeling adrift by creating one thing day
• How creative ideas at birth are rarely perfect elevator pitches
• Creating Stylecooler.com, the Wikipedia of style (“Imagine if Wikipedia was fun!”)

Thank you, Greg Garson, for your hospitality at The Merchant Taps & Tavern.

I want to start my own company

Alison Garwood-Jones February 27, 2017

Mark Challen gets Willful this week. Mark is an illustrator, art and culture historian, and the creator and host of The Stylecooler Podcast on iTunes. Also look for his soon-to-be-launched website, StyleCooler.com. In Ep. 1, Mark talks about:
• His 18-year run at House and Home Media
• Answering the call that said, Own your own company
• Creating a new avenue to express our intense nostalgia for design history and pop culture

Thank you, Greg Garson, for your hospitality at The Merchant Taps & Tavern.

Interactive opera

Alison Garwood-Jones February 23, 2017

In episode 4, Rachel Krehm and Aria Umezawa talk about:
• Opera Cheats: deconstructing opera plots in 3-minute YouTube videos
• Operas that bring in the dancers, pull gags, get laughs, and cast audience members
• What to do when your measure of success is blown out of the water

Rachel and Aria are the founders and directors of Opera5, an independent opera company in Toronto that’s hooking a new generation with its immersive live productions and YouTube high jinks.

Thank you, Greg Garson, for your hospitality at The Merchant Taps & Tavern.

Emo confessions

Alison Garwood-Jones February 21, 2017

In episode 2 of Willful, Opera 5s Rachel Krehm and Aria Umezawa talk about:
• Growing up immersed in the arts
• Opera bragging rights in grade school
• Feeding their teenage souls with Stevie Nicks ballads, Emo confessions, and harpsichord scales

Rachel and Aria are the founders and directors of Opera5, an independent opera company in Toronto that’s hooking a new generation with its immersive live productions and YouTube high jinks.

Thank you, Greg Garson, for your hospitality at The Merchant Taps & Tavern.

Working her circular saw

Alison Garwood-Jones February 9, 2017

Today on Willful, artist Heather Kocsis (@HKocsis) describes:
• If being a woman who works with blades, rip fences and sawdust ejection chutes still cocks a few eyebrows.
• Pricing her work, and why putting a value on her art gets easier with experience.
• Seeing yourself as a business person.

Learn more about Heather’s study of architecture and the effects of time at HeatherKocsis.com. Her multidimensional wood assemblages are in public, private and corporate collections across North America, including the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto and The City Reliquary in Brooklyn, New York.

Follow us on our YouTube Channel and Facebook Page, or here on our website WillfulProject.com for our entire archive of inspiring interviews.

Thank you to Greg Garson and The Merchant Taps & Tavern for your tremendous hospitality!

Photo credit: StanSwitalski.com

Establishing good client relations

Alison Garwood-Jones February 8, 2017

Today on Willful, artist Heather Kocsis describes:

• How her work invites viewers to be present with their emotions.
• How everything goes away, but art has a permanence.
• Tips on developing good client relations.

Learn more about Heather’s study of architecture and the effects of time at HeatherKocsis.com. Her multidimensional pieces are in public, private and corporate collections across North America, including the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto and The City Reliquary in Brooklyn, New York.

Follow us on our YouTube Channel and Facebook Page, or here on our website WillfulProject.com for our entire archive of inspiring interviews.

Thank you to Greg Garson and The Merchant Taps & Tavern for your tremendous hospitality!

Hunting for inspiration

Alison Garwood-Jones February 7, 2017

Today on Willful, artist Heather Kocsis describes how tearing down a historical building scatters its stories. Kocsis makes wood assemblages of old buildings and back alleys that make us rethink our past and present. In Video 2, Heather describes:

• Hunting for inspiration in the urban landscapes of New York and Chicago.
• Deciding on a composition and building it, using layers of wood like a paintbrush.
• How buildings change our sense of community and our sense of self.

Follow us on our YouTube Channel and Facebook Page, or here on our website WillfulProject.com for our entire archive of inspiring interviews.

#CreativeEntrepreneur #Interview #Willful #Mentors #Inspiration #Motivation #ArtMaking #Innovation #Leadership #FindItLiveIt #LeadFromWithin #SmallBusiness #Solopreneur #Interview #Freelancer #Painter #Sculptor #Architecture #ArchitecturalHistory #UrbanActivism, #JaneJacobs

Thank you to Greg Garson and The Merchant Taps & Tavern for your tremendous hospitality!

The Jane Jacobs Effect

Alison Garwood-Jones February 6, 2017

Today on Willful, we sat down with artist Heather Kocsis (@HKocsis) whose wood assemblages of old buildings and back alleys make us rethink our past and present. In Video 1, Heather describes:

• Going from painting and printmaking to ripping apart pieces of wood.

• The role Jane Jacobs’ urban activism has played in her art practice.

• The joys of living with no rules.

Follow us on our YouTube Channel and Facebook Page, or here on our website WillfulProject.com for our entire archive of inspiring interviews.

Thank you to Greg Garson and The Merchant Taps & Tavern for your tremendous hospitality!

When to ignore your client

Alison Garwood-Jones January 27, 2017

Today on Willful, Ricardo McRae explains why he and his partner, Gloria Roheim McRae, won’t let their clients lead a project. “We don’t do mock-ups for feedback, we don’t do surveys, and we don’t do rounds of changes. We have conversations.” He also describes:
• Promising clients things you have no idea how to deliver (to create pressure and force growth).
• Blending project management, business, and art.
• Knowing when to listen to your client, and when to ignore them.

McRae is a painter, TEDx speaker, and vision activator for Wedge15, the branding agency he co-founded with Gloria Roheim McRae. He is also the founder of Black In Canada the host of TheFramingPodcast.com.

Thanks, Greg Garson, for inviting us into your beautiful restaurant, The Merchant Taps & Tavern, and for also always believing in delivering the best you've got.

When to listen to your parents

Alison Garwood-Jones January 24, 2017

Today on Willful, Ricardo McRae describes:

• Turning down a placement in business school … for art school.
• When to listen to your parents’ advice, and when to say, “I got this!’
• Combining practical and analytical skills with emotional intelligence.

McRae is a painter, TEDx speaker, and vision activator for Wedge15, the branding agency he co-founded with Gloria Roheim McRae. He is also the founder of Black In Canada and the host of TheFramingPodcast.com.

Thanks, Greg Garson, for inviting us into your beautiful restaurant, The Merchant Taps & Tavern.

The starving artist scenario

Alison Garwood-Jones January 23, 2017

Today on Willful, Ricardo McRae (@RicardoMcRae) describes:

• Growing up in Trinidad, a hotbed of colour and creativity.
• How fear of being a starving artist pushed him into the tech sector.
• What racism feels like: “It’s like facing waves in the ocean. You can’t win against the ocean, you have to ride the waves.”

McRae is a painter, TEDx speaker, and vision activator for Wedge15, the branding agency he co-founded with Gloria Roheim McRae. He is also the founder of Black In Canada, and host of TheFramingPodcast.com.

Thank you, Greg Garson and the staff at The Merchant Tavern for your hospitality!

Taking control of your digital marketing

Alison Garwood-Jones January 21, 2017

Her years spent working on digital strategy for the CBC has made mystery writer, Angela Misri, a crackerjack digital marketer. In Ep. 6 of Willful, Misri shares tips on:

• How you can take control of your digital marketing.
• Showing what you want to be known for.
• Researching plot details on the internet

Angela Misri (@karmicangel) is a Toronto-based journalist and former CBC’er, now a co-host of the podcast, Ada’s Sisters (with Eden Spodek), and the author of A Portia Adams Adventure Series.

Thank you, Greg Garson and the staff at the beautiful The Merchant Taps & Tavern for your generous hospitality. #CraftBeer