Episode 15: Karen Sandstrom on creating every day
You can make art. Every. Single. Day. Artist Karen Sandstrom shares how she keeps the anxiety of creating away by drawing and by sharing her work with the world every day. By day, Karen is director of communications for the Cleveland Institute of Art. By moonlight, she’s an illustrator.
She is currently working on a book “Hope Notices” and shares her #tinymorningsketch every day on social media where you can meet an elephant picking sparkleberries, a banjo playing bear and a dog named Henry who is the BFF to a little girl named Hope.
Karen calls the excitement of creating a “high wire act” she doesn’t want to miss.
My takeaways:
“The only way to keep that wolf away from your door is to write. Just do it.”
Get up early. “Whatever it is, the thing you love to do, if you can get up early and get it done, the rest of the day will feel better and more complete and you will be a more whole person because you’ve taken care of the thing you most love to do.”
“Pay attention to the thing that calls you, the thing that gets you out of bed in the morning. Follow that path.”
Her brother’s death at a young age reminds her every day that we are all mortal, to get busy living and creating. “We don’t have endless time on the planet. It’s just very important to use the time you have in an intentional way, whatever it is that’s giving you joy.”
Official Bio: Karen Sandstrom is director of communications at the Cleveland Institute of Art and an illustrator of books:.
A lifelong Clevelander, I have been writing and drawing for about as long as I've been looking at Lake Erie.
I’m communications director for the Cleveland Institute of Art, as well as a freelance writer and illustrator.
I have been a full-time writer and editor for several Ohio newspapers, most notably the Plain Dealer in Cleveland, where my positions included book review editor, features editor, and feature writer. I have also published work in the Washington Post and Art & Antiques.
My illustrations have been published by Boyd Mills Press (an imprint of Highlights), the Plain Dealer, Crain's Cleveland Business, Edible Cleveland and Ohio Authority.
I have a BFA in illustration from the Cleveland Institute of Art and a bachelor of science degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University.
Website and Links:
#tinymorningsketch Just type that in Instagram and see Karen’s magic