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Design notes from our March speakers, Nikkita Oliver and Faisal Provincial.

Handwritten notes created by the amazing Larissa McCartney.

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Nikkita is the executive director of Creative Justice, an arts-based healing engaged space for youth and young adults impacted by the school-to-prison pipeline and other harmful systems and institutions. They are also an adjunct professor in the Seattle University School of Law,and a community advisor for House Our Neighbors, an organization working on social housing in Seattle. Nikkita has opened for Cornel West and Chuck D of Public Enemy, featured on the Breakfast Club, KUOW's The Week in Review, Cut Stories, and performed on The Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert. Nikkita's writing has been published in the South Seattle Emerald, Yes! Magazine, Crosscut, the Establishment, Last Real Indians, The Seattle Weekly, and The Stranger. Nikkita organizes with No New Youth Jail, Decriminalize Seattle, Covid-19 Mutual Aid - Seattle, and the Seattle Peoples Party.

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Join us on February 23rd for an exclusive CreativeMornings event featuring the incredibly talented Shana Yellow Calf, an enrolled member of the Northern Arapaho in Wyoming. Shana has been producing captivating art in various mediums since the 1990s, blending her rich plains heritage (Arapaho/Shoshone), her mother’s Chippewa/Metis ancestry, and a Pacific Northwest Coastal influence from the Puget Sound area of Washington where she grew up.

Her artwork, known for its vibrant colors, narrates stories of life events and tales passed down to her, merging traditional dance forms with contemporary expressions. Shana's dedication to her craft has earned her recognition in the Indianz magazine and exhibits across prestigious galleries, including the Soil Gallery in Seattle and the Washington State History Museum.

Currently, Shana is channeling her creative prowess into a children’s book based on her celebrated piece ‘Frybread Trails’ and the Frybread Gang. This event promises an intimate glimpse into Shana’s creative process, her cultural heritage, and the stories that have shaped her art.

Tickets are going fast, so make sure to join the waitlist here: https://creativemornings.com/talks/shana-yellow-calf. If you have secured a ticket but find you cannot attend, please release your ticket to allow another creative soul the opportunity to experience Shana's inspiring journey.

Don't miss this chance to connect with the creative community and dive deep into the world of a remarkable Native American artist. See you there!

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Creative Works Conference is an incredible gathering, bringing together leading creatives across various disciplines. This year, attendees can look forward to speakers like Paula Scher, Jessica Hische, Taamrat Amaize, Jeremy Cowart, Gemma O'Brien, and many more who are top leaders in their fields. The conference also features a Pop-Up Market on April 26 & 27 at the Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center, inviting designers, makers, and brands from all over the country. Don't miss this opportunity to connect and be inspired. For more details, check their website at Creative Works.

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Our theme for February is NATIVE. It was chosen by our Honolulu chapter and illustrated by Jack Soren.

Where you are from shapes who you are. Where you call home influences your worldview. Understanding the traditions of your ancestors can help answer the question, “where do I belong?” Your connections to a place and the past should rightfully be a source of great pride. 

The unique customs, art, and languages of native cultures make the tapestry of human civilization more vibrant. Yet many indigenous communities have faced marginalization, land dispossession, and cultural erasure. How much have we lost and what can be preserved? 

By respecting and celebrating the traditions and achievements of native people everywhere, we can discover a deeper sense of connection and unity. What does our history have to teach us? What can we learn from each other?

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We're looking for sponsors who share our passion for creativity and community. This is a unique opportunity to support local talent, engage with an audience of creative professionals, and make a positive impact.

Interested in sponsoring our upcoming events? Let’s collaborate to create something amazing! Contact us at seattle@creativemornings.com.

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🌟 Exciting News, Seattle Creatives! 🌟

After a brief hiatus, CreativeMornings Seattle is back and buzzing with fresh energy! As we reboot, we’re on the lookout for passionate volunteers to join our team and help us create inspiring, free monthly events for our creative community.

We're seeking enthusiastic individuals for the following roles:

Sponsorship Coordinators: Help us connect with local businesses and organizations passionate about supporting the creative pulse of Seattle.

Video Editing Wizards: Capture the magic of our events and share inspiring talks with a broader audience.

Social Media Strategists: Craft engaging content and strategies to amplify our reach and engagement across various platforms.

Whether you're a networking guru, a video editing aficionado, or a social media maven, your skills can help shape the future of CreativeMornings Seattle.

Interested? Drop us a message at Seattle@creativemornings.com and join our creative celebration!

Let's make Seattle mornings a little more creative. ☕️🎨

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We're thrilled to announce our #CMmovement speaker, Bernadette Berger is a born storyteller, an experience weaver, a maker of magic. She is an airplane nerd and a former professional dancer/choreographer. At the University of Washington she teaches Experience Design in the Masters of Human Computer Interaction and Design program. After running an R+D Incubator, designing airplanes, building eComm websites and experimenting with new VR audio experiences she has embarked on her first career sabbatical to fully experience life at a different pace.

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April ’s Theme is Movement.

The body in motion is a thing of beauty. Our cells shake kinetic energy through the finely articulated instruments of muscle, ligament, and bone. We blink, we pulse, we dance. Some even pull off feats of human athleticism and daring, from which we can hardly look away.

Movement is a universal state of being. Even at rest, the matter we’re composed of is in motion — subatomic particles whir about at dizzying speeds, to create the sense of solidity. The things that appear still — the earth beneath us, the trunk of a tree above us, is but a trick of the eye. They move slowly but at a staggering scale.

When we move together, we can build social and collective movements. Like a murmuration of swallows, we can form sweeping visions of a world never seen before. Our collective energy directed like a mighty river flowing downstream, taking unexpected and winding turns to carve mountains.

Our Wellington chapter chose this month’s exploration of Movement, Hannah Webster illustrated the theme, and Mailchimp is presenting the theme.  

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All in a Day’s Work

Our friends at @mailchimp in collaboration with @itsnicethat present, All in a Day’s Work, an animated series of comedy shorts revealing the ups, downs and sometimes-painful truths of life as an entrepreneur or small business owner. You don't need to be a business owner to understand the shame that comes with creative block, or being bored with your craft, or the utter humiliation of getting a less-than-perfect rating. Enjoy all 12 episodes here: https://mailchimp.com/presents/series/all-in-a-days-work/

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We're thrilled to announce our new monthly breakfast sponsor, Chewy.com

At Chewy, they call it "Chewtopia", an environment that empowers team members to think big, built for those who thrive on delivering results, and full of opportunities to seek the extraordinary and become your best, no matter your role or location. Not only are they providing delicious breakfast for our events, but they also have open opportunities in Product Management and Product Design fields. We can't wait to share more about the amazing team and culture at Chewy with our community. Stay tuned for updates and ways to connect with the team at Chewy! 

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January’s Theme is Sanctuary

Our January theme is Sanctuary, chosen by our Sheffield chapter, illustrated by Lisa Maltby, and presented by Mailchimp.

You can stop running now, you are safe here. A sanctuary offers protection to those who are vulnerable: those who are fleeing violence, those who have been cast off and told there is no place for them there, even animals whose habitats have disappeared. Here is a place where you can finally lay your head down and rest.

The original meaning of sanctuary was a sacred place, containing a holy relic or person. A sanctuary recognizes that each of us, no matter where we have came from or what we’ve done, and our needs — for a full belly, for a roof, for safety, to be free from worry — are inviolable and whole.

Where is it that you find refuge? What happens to your body when you cross its threshold? And most importantly, how can you hold the door open for others?

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Speaker Q&A — Ben Katt

Q&A with December’s speaker, Ben Katt, who will be speaking on the topic SILENCE.

We all are creatives. Describe what you do, make or create in one sentence. As a meditation teacher, transformational coach, and designer and facilitator of creative community mindfulness experiences, I help people reconnect to their humanity and move towards wholeness so that they can grow their impact in their work and the world.

What are the top creative challenges that you face in your day-to-day? Describing what I do in one sentence, quieting the part of me that chases after perfectionism, and distracting myself with the details of a project because it gives me a sense of progress when I really should be immersing myself in the slower, more nebulous aspects of designing, writing, creating, etc.

When you get stuck creatively, what is the first thing you do to get unstuck? I go for a walk or run through the woods, usually Carkeek Park.

How do you define creativity and apply it in your career? Creativity is where calling intersects with context; where our unique passions, perspectives, and gifts meet the particular hopes or needs of our time and place, cultural moment, and community. In my career, I’m always trying to pay attention to what is stirring inside me and how I might express that in a way that brings about goodness and growth in the world around me.

What’s the one creative advice or tip you wish you’d known as a young person? That, as Walt Whitman once said, “I contain multitudes.”

What are you reading these days? Joseph Campbell’s The Power of Myth and The Hero with a Thousand Faces; Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holiday.

If you had fifteen extra minutes each day, what would you do with them? I’d spend 5 more minutes one-on-one with each of my 3 children, listening to whatever they want to talk about (not including excessively-detailed recaps of a movie or show they’ve recently watched).

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Speaker Q&A — Brendan Shanley

Q&A with November’s speaker, Brendan Shanley, who will be speaking on the topic LOST.

We all are creatives. Describe what you do, make or create in one sentence. I create honest and memorable visual experiences for people. 

What are the top creative challenges that you face in your day-to-day? For me the greatest challenges are also the most exciting parts of what I do creatively. The constant learning about different people, products, services and industries. Mentally switching back and forth from working in healthcare, tourism, cannabis, hospitality, etc. can also be challenging. I’m very thankful for the opportunity (and challenge) to work with and learn from experts in these fields.

When you get stuck creatively, what is the first thing you do to get unstuck? Hard stop. When I’m not feeling a project and it’s not feeling me, then it’s time to throw on some headphones and take a walk. Being creative isn’t as cut and dry as something like sales or math. Sometimes you have to remove yourself from a familiar environment to allow your imagination to flow more freely. I also try to travel as much as possible. As creatives, we initially draw upon our own unique experiences in what we make. The more places we've been and experiences we've had, the more variety we have influencing our work. Where do you find your best creative inspiration? Inspiration is always around us. The trick is to keep yourself open to it. It’s so easy these days to get hyper-focused on our own agendas, but when we slow down and really try to experience things that are around us and see those things through the eyes of the people we’re with, that’s when the learning and inspiration reveals itself. To create something that communicates and connects with others we have work to understand others first. Then combine our personal style to make something truly original. 

What music are you listening to these days? The answer to this question changes hourly. Personally, I’m more of an album kind of guy. I spend hours curating and listening to my records. And with vinyl it’s fairly counterintuitive to play just a song or two by an artist before moving on to the next. I start a lot of my days by picking a few albums to play selecting different artists and genres to compliment the mood and energy I’m feeling or trying to communicate through my work. Some albums that are in frequent rotation lately include: Beck - Morning Phase, Zero 7 - Simple Things, Gorillaz - Demon Days, Grimes - Art Angles, Brokeback - Illinois River Valley Blues, Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto, Billie Eilish, Radiohead, Washed Out, Cut Copy.. this list I could continue for days really. I encourage people to continually discover new music andsupport their local record stores. 

What object would you put in a time capsule that best represents who you are today? I am having the hardest time trying to pick just one object for this. If I could choose only one it would be my Shwood sunglasses. My eyes are very sensitive to light and it’s a rare occasion to catch me outside my home without these wooden frames. Amber-tinted polarized lenses make the world a happier place even on those brighter gray Seattle days. If these glasses could tell you all the things they’ve seen and places they’ve been it would be quite the collection of stories. 

Where was the last place you travelled? I get out of town for work and otherwise quite often. Usually you can find me hanging out in Anchorage, AK. I met my best friend and business partner who is based there through the AIGA national leadership community. It’s become like a second home at this point. I’ve considered the idea of relocating there in the past, but Seattle has a strong hold on me for the time being.

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Speaker Q&A — Esther Loopstra

Q&A with October’s speaker, Esther Loopstra, who will be speaking on the topic FLOW.

We all are creatives. Describe what you do, make or create in one sentence. I make art, illustration and workshops for the creatively curious.

What are the top creative challenges that you face in your day-to-day? The top creative challenges for me have been around what to prioritize and what to let go of. I’ve always had so many interests that discovering what I need to say no to and what I need to focus on has been a lifelong lesson.

When you get stuck creatively, what is the first thing you do to get unstuck? Take a break, give myself more time, meditate, draw or paint, work on something else. I will try anything that helps me to get out of the intensity of the focused / closed mind where I am trying to make something happen and into flow / open mind where the solution naturally comes to me.

How do you define creativity and apply it in your career? I like Steve Jobs’ definition “Creativity is just connecting things”. Exploration is one of my top values, so if I follow my intuitive “what if” questions, it usually leads to great connections and creations.

Where do you find your best creative inspiration? Science, nature, the unknown, other artists and thinkers.

What’s the one creative advice or tip you wish you’d known as a young person? Don’t make the logical choice - make the meaningful one.

What are you reading these days? The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van der Kolk. 

What fact about you would surprise people? I’m an introvert.

What's the most recent thing you learned (big or small)? Our gut and heart talk to our brain through neurons!

What myths about creativity would you like to set straight? Creativity is not a talent, everyone has it. It’s not about art but about how you bring your own unique awareness and synthesis to any process you are involved in.

Where was the last place you travelled? SE Asia this summer.

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Speaker Q&A—Susanna Ryan

Q&A with September’s speaker, Susanna Ryan, who will be speaking on the topic MUSE.

How do you define creativity? How do you apply that in your work? When I think specifically about creativity in regards to making comics, I see creativity as problem solving. It takes a certain skill set and amount of creative thinking to effectively solve the constant conundrum of how to convey big ideas in small spaces.  

Where do you find your best creative inspiration? Usually about five miles in to a ten mile walk! In general, though, slowing down and tuning in to the environment that surrounds me never fails to inspire me, in life and in art.  

Who from Seattle would you like to hear speak at CreativeMornings? Seattle has an interesting, vibrant, diverse indie comics community and I would love to hear some voices from that world share more about their work and creative process.

How would you describe what you do in a single sentence to a stranger?I walk around Seattle and make comics about it.

What was the best advice you were ever given?It came straight from my mom: PICK YOUR BATTLES! In life, work, family, relationships, or whatever, figure out ahead of time what is negotiable and what isn't. Stick by and thoughtfully defend the non-negotiable, and be willing to collaborate and be flexible on everything else. It will change your life!

If you could interview anyone living or dead, but not a celebrity, who would it be and why? As someone who loves zeroing in on mundane, overlooked things, I would really love to spend an afternoon with someone from the Seattle Department of Transportation sign shop, which makes all the street signs in the city. I have so many street sign questions and so few answers!

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Speaker Q&A—Jim Haven

Q&A with June speaker—Jim Haven—who will be speaking on the topic WONDER.

1. How do you define creativity and apply it in your career? I think creativity is simply problem solving. However, the more unexpected or unique solutions are, the more overtly creative.  When I experience something truly creative it sort of makes my brain smile as it recognizes a clever solution. I find creativity to be intellectual and emotional at the same time.  

Pretty much everything I get involved with requires some form of creativity. I know that sounds a bit general but it’s been the center of my career.  I will say that more often than not it involves writing. For example, I’m often working in design yet I can’t physically design anything outside of my head with anything more than words. 

2. Where do you find your best creative inspiration? The best inspiration for creativity is in mistakes or misinterpretations. In some ways I think that is what our brains are doing when we are being creative. Just making weird mistakes and free associations. But you have to get out in the world to feed your misinterpretations. Walking down the street, wondering about history or why something is the way it is. You have to be curious and observant. The more you do this the better you’ll be at inspiring your own randomness on cue. It’s this imbalance that puts things in motion because humans like to solve things in logical ways. I saw Frank De Ruwe of Natwerk in Amsterdam describe his work and this process with a remarkably refreshing illustration. According to Frank it’s when you have something “normal” and something “not” and you add them together to create something “not normal.”

3. What’s the one creative advice or tip you wish you’d known as a young person? Work hard and then relax.  It’s hard to solve a problem directly, you need a little indirect thinking. Go do something else that’s productive or anything that changes your focus. The moment you stop flexing your brain is when an idea will come. 

4. Who would you like to hear speak at CreativeMornings? At this very moment, Olafur Elliasion or Mark Ryden. They are both remarkable and ground breaking artists but entirely different in terms of style. Mark Ryden is essentially the father of Pop Surrealism. (A term coined right here in Seattle at Roq La Rue by Kirsten Anderson.) He has ridiculous craft and an insanely vivid mind that’s a joy to explore through his work. Olafur Elliason is a huge thinker that combines technology, architecture and the understanding of light to make stunningly ambitious experiences and strong personal statements. There is a distinctly clean Nordic sensibility to it as well. Tomorrow I might have a different answer. I just enjoy their thinking. As artists they communicate with voices I admire.  

5. What's the most recent thing you learned (big or small)? I just learned this tonight having a conversation with a couple ex pats here in Seattle. There used to be an ATM in Hoxton Square in East London called the Cockney Cash Point and I you could choose Cockney Rhyming Slang as a language. For example it asked you to enter your “Huckleberry Finn” which is your pin to get your “Bangers ‘n Mash” which is cash. 

6. What are you proudest of in your life? My friendships. 

7. What music are you listening to these days? I’m going back three steps before I go forward in terms of my old to new music ratio. There is so much to explore. I enjoy weird, obscure and unusual collaborations or experiments of the 60s and 70s. Guys like Lee Hazlewood will start you on a journey that is lot of fun. He’s like a weird cowboy songwriter from Oklahoma who moved to Sweden for a while and made some charmingly absurd music that gets stuck in your brain.  

I am just as interested in the context as I am the music.   For example, 1970’s Italian musician Adriano Celentano composed a song that is complete gibberish but made to sound like English songs did to native Italians speakers. It’s called Prisencolinensinainciusol. It also happens to be super catchy. Actually, better just watch it, here. The irony is I don’t really listen to lyrics, mostly just the sounds and rhythms.