The Art of Living Creatively: A Conversation with Magnus
Creativity thrives in uncertainty, and for artist Magnus, that uncertainty is part of the magic. In this episode, we explore his journey as an artist, thinker, and wanderer—someone who has fully embraced the unpredictability of a creative life.
Magnus shares how his early experiences shaped his artistic sensibilities and why he chooses to live without a backup plan, fully committing to his craft. We discuss the challenges of navigating societal expectations, the psychological weight of being an artist, and the power of spontaneity in both life and art.
The conversation takes a fascinating turn as Magnus reflects on his travels to India, where encounters with local artists and vibrant cultures expanded his perspective on creativity and self-expression. His insights serve as both an invitation and a challenge—to step outside of comfort zones, embrace the unknown, and allow art to be a guiding force.
This episode is a deep dive into the beauty and chaos of a life dedicated to art, reminding us that true creative freedom comes from leaning into the journey, wherever it may lead.
Mentioned in this episode:
Behind the Glass
Behind the Glass, hosted by Richard B Colón and Quajay Donnell, is a monthly talk with the current month’s BTG Roster. Artists are interviewed about their submissions and we dive deep into their process, inspiration and thought process centralized around their artwork in the Behind the Glass Gallery located in the heart of Downtown Rochester NY. https://behind-the-glass-gallery.captivate.fm/
Joe Bean Roasters
Joe Bean Coffee - Coffee that lifts everyone. https://shop.joebeanroasters.com
Lunchador Podcast Network
Lunchador Podcast Network is a network of podcasts originating in Rochester, NY. Our goal is bringing creative people together to be a positive force in the arts community. The shows that make up Lunchador are owned by the creators and cover a wide range of topics and backgrounds. http://lunchador.org/
Transcript
Welcome back to behind the Studio Door.
Speaker A:I'm your host, Molly Darling, with my co host and partner, Christian Rivera.
Speaker B:I don't even have a bit this time.
Speaker B:I'm just excited to be a part of this episode because.
Speaker B:Well, you'll find out in a second.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And we've also got Chris Lindstrom here to my left.
Speaker C:I'm excited to be here.
Speaker C:It is cold, but bright and sunny.
Speaker C:And, man, nice to feel positive about things today.
Speaker B:That is your Stromy weather report.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:And we got Magnus on the show today.
Speaker A:What's up, Magnus?
Speaker D:Hello.
Speaker D:Hello.
Speaker B:Happy to be here as a man with a mind.
Speaker D:Yeah, I do have a mind.
Speaker D:Big head of me.
Speaker B:Lots of things on your mind.
Speaker B:Yeah, I'm pretty excited because you're just kind of.
Speaker B:I mean, in my mind, you're the guy that's just like the artist in Rochester.
Speaker D:Oh, my God.
Speaker B:That's the way I think about it.
Speaker D:I'm honored and taken aback.
Speaker B:That's what I honestly like.
Speaker B:I see you.
Speaker B:I see you everywhere.
Speaker B:You're kind of like living the artist life.
Speaker B:If there's a theme that started to emerge in my mind of what we could talk about, it's like you living a creative life, frankly.
Speaker B:Like, you're just on your toes and you're ready to go.
Speaker B:We called you in last minute to be like, hey, we've got a slot open.
Speaker B:You ready?
Speaker B:And you're like, yeah, I'm ready.
Speaker D:Life is chaos, life short.
Speaker D:That's the thing.
Speaker D:It's really.
Speaker D:I'm living.
Speaker D:I'm living a life of whatever my passions are.
Speaker D:And luckily, I enjoy art.
Speaker D:So I tell people sometimes, like, I'm not a artist that can schmooze.
Speaker D:I'm kind of a schmoozy guy that can make art.
Speaker D:So sometime that's really.
Speaker D:I.
Speaker D:I like, like networking.
Speaker D:I like people.
Speaker D:I love the whole world itself.
Speaker D:And I just find myself currently now, really captivated.
Speaker D:I'm a visual person.
Speaker D:I love visual stuff.
Speaker D:So I've been refining my skill sets and making more of a visual statement in the world.
Speaker B:But do you feel like this has always been who you are, or did you.
Speaker B:Did you like.
Speaker D:No.
Speaker D:If you want.
Speaker D:My resume is as tall as I am, so I.
Speaker D:I've done.
Speaker D:I.
Speaker D:I really used to go, like, I originally going for, like, archaeology and early science.
Speaker D:I like the history of man and stuff that way.
Speaker D:I really kind of curious on that.
Speaker D:My father used to do.
Speaker D:We're in this western New York region.
Speaker D:He used to teach on the study of western, like, the Native Americans of Western New York.
Speaker D:He has a huge collection of artifacts he found over the years just being a farmer and stuff.
Speaker D:And he actually would go around to schools and historical societies.
Speaker D:So I grew up with a.
Speaker D:My father and a lot of his friends were very big into, like, archeology and, like, other cultures.
Speaker D:My dad's very big into thinking about, like, other.
Speaker D:He's worldly and a person who doesn't travel the world enough.
Speaker D:Like, I wish he traveled more, but.
Speaker D:So I was doing that.
Speaker D:I went into.
Speaker D:I did graphic design for a while.
Speaker D:I was in.
Speaker D:Did marine biology.
Speaker D:I'm a.
Speaker D:I'm a science nut.
Speaker D:I love science.
Speaker D:So I was in, like, Egypt for a little while in the Red Sea, scuba diving.
Speaker D:I was.
Speaker D:I used to write articles for.
Speaker D:My focus was on the care of animals that are coming in from the field from, like, wild stock.
Speaker D:So I was writing articles on how the pet trade was affecting wild stocks of animals, which was just pretty much you just write down and be like, it's horrible because it is destroying everything.
Speaker D:So, yes, I was in the Red Sea for a little while, a little while there, working with some researchers and stuff.
Speaker D:And I tried to do as many things as I could.
Speaker D:I've done, you know, all sorts of random stuff.
Speaker B:Yeah, just no filter to, like, stop yourself from doing stuff.
Speaker D:No.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:I think it's really how I roll that way.
Speaker D:Like, right now, I'm currently with my design studio.
Speaker D:I don't have a plan B.
Speaker D:I tell people this.
Speaker D:I try not to not have a plan B because my.
Speaker D:My brain will put part of Plan B into my energy now.
Speaker D:And I'd rather be living in what I'm working on right now.
Speaker D:I will push as hard as I can and what I'm working on right now to make the most of what I'm working on right now.
Speaker D:And if I worry about a plan B or I think about a Plan B or other trajectories, I mean, I always have, like, contingency plans sort of back my brain.
Speaker D:But I don't put a full plan B in together.
Speaker D:I just put everything I can into making this happening.
Speaker D:The next 10 steps forward of this happening here.
Speaker B:So do you feel like this is.
Speaker B:These are life philosophies that you've just discovered and that you abide by for yourself?
Speaker B:Or do you feel like others could benefit from some of these, like, ways of thinking as.
Speaker D:I mean, I think I.
Speaker D:I don't give myself.
Speaker D:I try not to put any sort of huge credit on me.
Speaker D:I think I've Been luckily surrounded by amazing people in my life that have just absorbed either their philosophies or just picked up what they were doing in their life.
Speaker D:That seemed to have translates into a better life too.
Speaker D:Like when I first moved to Rochester, I mean I grew up just south of Rochester.
Speaker D:I grew up in the this region.
Speaker D:Like I was the last telephone telephone pole of Rochester.
Speaker D:I say it's just.
Speaker D:It was the literally the next house past my family farm was a long distance phone call back when that was a thing from the south up.
Speaker D:So we were the last literally telephone pole of Rochester.
Speaker D:So like when we had the ice storm back in the 90s, there we were without power for like two and a half, three weeks or something else.
Speaker D:That's how long it took us to get down that way.
Speaker D:But so I grew up down there.
Speaker D:So I.
Speaker D:When I moved to the city, the woman I worked for a design studio right downtown, Nancy.
Speaker D:And she was like my other mom.
Speaker D:She was like a really good mentor and she.
Speaker D:I adopted a lot of her techniques for how to live properly.
Speaker D:There was like so I have the studios right downtown off of North Washington over near like the art store.
Speaker D:That way is before there's all the buildings.
Speaker D:There was actually a bunch of actually before the parking lots actually was more big factory buildings there.
Speaker D:But she was a person that the work life balance was important to her.
Speaker D:We would work like mad for three to four months and then it would be two months of nothing.
Speaker D:Like literally we book it being like I'll you in June, I don't want to see you before then.
Speaker D:Go find something awesome to fill your time with.
Speaker D:So I grew up with a woman and I was worked with her for 10, 15 years give or take.
Speaker D:We're doing like graphic design, doing print material and but the thing was that she really was like there'd be certain days in the summer we get a phone call.
Speaker D:She's like, yeah, it's a nice last day before fall.
Speaker D:I'm not coming in to see a Monday.
Speaker D:And that's how it was.
Speaker D:Like I much rather be enjoying my life and we'll work.
Speaker D:We like we would stay overnight to get deadlines.
Speaker D:It wasn't like it was like a lackadaisical place.
Speaker D:It was booked and scheduled well.
Speaker D:So she would quite literally have a like that we'd have a month or two off one of my bonuses.
Speaker D:I did this mad dash get some projects together and she surprised me back in 99 with a Woodstock tickets.
Speaker D:So she was like here's some, here's some tents.
Speaker D:You have everything you have.
Speaker D:You have two weeks off.
Speaker D:Don't get arrested.
Speaker D:That was her thing to me.
Speaker D:And, and, and she's like, listen, I don't want the tents back either.
Speaker D:He's like, if something happens, these are old tents.
Speaker D:Whatever happens, here's some tickets.
Speaker D:I just want to see you back in a week and a half.
Speaker D:And her nephew was traveling from Hawaii, which is like, they're like family to me.
Speaker D:Like, Kai and them were like my other cousins, you know, cousins.
Speaker D:This is, I'm part of her family.
Speaker D:Like, she passed away recently.
Speaker D:It was very, very heart wrenching thing.
Speaker D:And.
Speaker D:But they, I had to be there for the family.
Speaker D:They're like, no, you clearly are coming.
Speaker D:We hung out with the family and.
Speaker D:But yeah, so Kai and I literally just hopped in a car, went to, to the Woodstock.
Speaker D:Because she actually went to the Woodstock.
Speaker D:She went to original Woodstock.
Speaker D:She's like, it made a difference to me.
Speaker D:She like, tell the story about.
Speaker D:She was like back of u Haul truck and rode up to Woodstock with a bunch of people.
Speaker D:And she's like, it made a difference to me.
Speaker D:You should do this too.
Speaker D:So she really took me under her wing.
Speaker A:It's like really amazing, like, spontaneous personal development stuff.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah, here's a tent.
Speaker A:You're going to Woodstock.
Speaker A:I don't want to see you in two weeks.
Speaker D:She was chaos.
Speaker D:In a fun way, she was amazing.
Speaker D:I'm a different person because of having her in my life.
Speaker D:Like, I'm the black sheep of my family.
Speaker D:Nothing against my family, I love my family.
Speaker D:But they're like, where do you come from?
Speaker A:There's always got to be one.
Speaker D:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker B:Well, there's a certain adaptability and trust that comes with all of that, like, developing.
Speaker B:I, I've, I've kind of done this too, but not, not to such an extreme in terms of those stories, but like, really trying to ask myself all the time, like, could I.
Speaker B:Could I sleep on the floor if I needed to?
Speaker B:Could I sleep in this place if I needed to?
Speaker B:Could I just travel and go if someone said like, hey, you can go to this place, but you have to leave right now, like, would I be willing to do that?
Speaker D:Well, you guys have a lot.
Speaker D:I mean, I have a lot more freedoms that I always say this.
Speaker D:I have, I don't have any kids right now of my own.
Speaker D:I've helped raise plenty of kids.
Speaker D:I dated people and I've, I have like, on Father's Day, I get holiday, I get Father's Day cards from people that are not my kids.
Speaker D:I Should always say this, but right now, after the last breakup and stuff, I am officially kid free.
Speaker D:And I don't have a dog of my own either.
Speaker D:So there's not a lot of things.
Speaker D:So having those things definitely allow me some freedoms and I'm truly appreciative of it.
Speaker D:And don't be wrong, I love kids.
Speaker D:I wish I had children of my own just for.
Speaker D:That's a whole other story unto itself.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker D:But I really am free enough that I.
Speaker D:Over the past five, 10 years, I've been downsizing.
Speaker D:Like I sold my house, I put the money when I sold my house into working for myself.
Speaker D:I'm down to just like, you know, even where I am now, I just rent a room from a friend of mine because he needed a place, he needed someone to be there because he was traveling a bunch and he's got an awesome collection of art and stuff.
Speaker D:So my.
Speaker D:Like the.
Speaker D:What I have like my money out versus money in my expenses here.
Speaker D:The those things, like having children is a huge concern.
Speaker D:I mean I did.
Speaker D:I've raised a whole bunch of different kids that are not my own, so of all different age brackets too.
Speaker B:Concern is the right word.
Speaker A:It is a huge concern.
Speaker A:It's a huge cost.
Speaker A:It's great.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:But it's its own creative project and we have two of them.
Speaker B:It's a lifestyle unto itself for sure.
Speaker D:But the thing is, once you guys, you guys are still living now and though at some point the kids will move on and then it's like the empty nest when people say that sort of thing.
Speaker D:If you live your life now accordingly, I think moving forward, plan for the time where your future you will.
Speaker D:Thank you.
Speaker D:So start laying down foundation.
Speaker D:When I, when I left my sold my house, I think I did probably a year and a half, two years of planning what I can do for my future by okay, if I have like five grand, what can I do if I pay?
Speaker D:And I think of it this way, when I, when I left and sold the house, I'm like, okay, I'm going to be paying myself five grand to cover my bills for this much.
Speaker D:I'm hiring me to have my own design studio.
Speaker D:What money goes out.
Speaker D:So I ran it like I have.
Speaker D:When I do my work, I have business Magnus.
Speaker D:I have boss Magnus.
Speaker D:I call manager Magnus.
Speaker D:And then I have.
Speaker D:There is design.
Speaker D:Like I break myself in these little sort of avatars of my own head.
Speaker B:Like, you're on GRPG team, dude.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:Because every once in a while and trust me, the manager Magnus.
Speaker D:Oh my that.
Speaker D:That guy's a dick, you know, so.
Speaker D:Because he's the every voice of every manager I've ever had.
Speaker D:And he yells like, I will yell at me like, I pick up a book.
Speaker D:And if I see errors.
Speaker D:I've had some really harsh.
Speaker D:I worked at agencies for a while, and there are some managers that they will never give you back something with no mark on it, and they will do it.
Speaker D:And the worst thing is one of them I had.
Speaker D:If I did a regular design and they couldn't find something, there'll be this little minimal stuff.
Speaker D:And then they would attack me.
Speaker D:Like, they would.
Speaker D:They had to say something negative.
Speaker D:That's really.
Speaker D:Don't do agencies.
Speaker D:It was such a unhealthy, vile place that they were.
Speaker D:Everyone was mad at someone else and it just was.
Speaker D:Anger was always going down.
Speaker D:And I'm not.
Speaker D:I'm not wired that way.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker B:They have to justify their own existence.
Speaker D:Exactly.
Speaker D:And justifying your existence versus being like, hey, this is great design.
Speaker D:Like, you could have praised me.
Speaker D:It got better.
Speaker D:Now you're being.
Speaker D:You have to be this.
Speaker D:You know, so.
Speaker D:And I think something else.
Speaker D:I think there were.
Speaker D:There's probably some problems happening above my pay grade, which I.
Speaker D:And I probably would have cared if they weren't a bitch to me.
Speaker D:So.
Speaker A:And now, like, all of the problems are all within your pay grade and your own.
Speaker D:Oh, God, yeah.
Speaker D:Now I have everything to do.
Speaker D:Oh, yeah.
Speaker D:I wish.
Speaker D:I'm trying to diversify that, too.
Speaker D:I'm trying to actually hire someone so I don't reinvent the wheel.
Speaker D:Like, when I do my company, I have a.
Speaker D:I have a tax guy because I have physical anxiety that I didn't file my taxes out.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:I'm going to be like a month later like, oh, my God, did I file that right?
Speaker D:Did I sign the right paperwork?
Speaker D:Because I haven't.
Speaker D:I do the dumbest things every time, being like, why'd you sign there?
Speaker D:The wrong date?
Speaker D:Or something stupid.
Speaker D:Now I just sign off that and I feel good.
Speaker D:I pay someone.
Speaker D:I love helping other people who are good at what they do.
Speaker D:So I'm trying to find, like, marketing people.
Speaker D:I try to do a small little project.
Speaker D:So I wish I had enough money to hire a person straight on and do it.
Speaker D:If I had mad money, I would actually hire my.
Speaker D:One of my old assistants I worked for.
Speaker D:She worked in Agency Life.
Speaker D:And I would love to bring Kate in.
Speaker D:Kate was a woman that was like.
Speaker D:She worked in a couple of companies.
Speaker D:The one company I worked at, she was my assistant.
Speaker D:And she knew how to do it right.
Speaker D:As if I had the money.
Speaker D:I'd just been like, you come here.
Speaker D:I would love to arm it, but unfortunately, until then, it's always like, hey, can I pay you for a few weeks of your time?
Speaker D:I want try to pay as much as I could.
Speaker D:We'll see.
Speaker D:So I'm trying to spread myself.
Speaker D:Instead of me piling it up, I'm trying to put talented people in this places so I can put my energy into where my skill sets at.
Speaker A:So, yeah, because what if you could.
Speaker A:I mean, because I know when you're an artist and you're working for yourself, there's all these hats like you mentioned that you have to take on.
Speaker A:If you could hire out those other things, what would you want to spend your days?
Speaker A:Just, like, mostly focusing on.
Speaker D:I think I really have fun.
Speaker D:I do enjoy the creation process.
Speaker D:It's that spark of creativity is what I really drive for.
Speaker D:And I've really been having a lot of good time and positive, like filling those cups of working with people, doing collaborative work, finding ways of working on projects that are larger than myself.
Speaker D:So right now I feel like myself, I'm hustling for doing my own work and selling my own work and trying to do some little client jobs here and there.
Speaker D:What I could do if I had someone working for me doing these other things as well, I'd be putting my energy into finding larger, big projects where I can help build and create and do stuff.
Speaker D:Like, I mean, one thing I would love to do is some of those big immersive things.
Speaker D:Like right now, I think because the world's such a scary, annoyed and anxious place.
Speaker D:I think my goal now is to make large things to take people out of the stressful world.
Speaker D:So I think if I had my.
Speaker D:My druthers right now, what I think I could do, would I love to build one of those huge, like say, meow wolf sort of thing, Something that's just like, I'm walking in.
Speaker D:Where the heck am I?
Speaker D:Amazing.
Speaker D:I wanted someone to kind of lose themselves in a thing larger than themselves.
Speaker D:That'd be.
Speaker D:If I had to do one thing right now, it'd be something fun, like some sort of massive.
Speaker D:Like there's a one in Utah.
Speaker D:What Alien worlds, I think it's called.
Speaker D:It's a huge, like just walk into a cave and there's like giant mushrooms.
Speaker D:And it's supposed to be like, you're an explorer on another world, right?
Speaker A:Those big immersive experience.
Speaker D:Yeah, big immersive.
Speaker D:Because I think.
Speaker D:And that's what I, the more I've been working, the larger my pieces have become.
Speaker D:And the reason I like that is, I mean it's fun to look at a small thing and find these little, you know, neat little zones to kind of look at a piece of art on a wall three couple of inches wide.
Speaker D:But there's something special in the brain when you go larger than yourself.
Speaker D:We have to like pan around.
Speaker D:You have to paint the picture in your head of what you're staring at.
Speaker D:At least I do.
Speaker D:I see a lot of people and something larger themselves.
Speaker D:You are a different component of the art itself.
Speaker D:Like, so just a big, like a big mural or something else is fun to watch and look around it.
Speaker D:But being fully immersed, where you walk in and close the door and you are 3D surrounded by something is a way that if I can connect with a person that way and have them fully be like immersed in a concept or an idea and watching them interact with it is one of my favorite things.
Speaker B:I think you're talking too, to this inseparable idea between awe and fear and this relationship to, you know, there's a lot of fear based thinking today, but like if you get yourself into an immersive situation where you're feeling small, like you're feeling a part of something, you're a piece of the puzzle.
Speaker B:There's like a cosmic connection to that in some way that is hard for a lot of us to do as a switch flip in our brain within, you know, the perceived chaos of the world versus like being literally in an immersive situation where you can't help but awe at what you're experiencing.
Speaker B:Giant mushrooms and interesting colors and, and you know, this, this speckled cave or sky or whatever, it's just like there's this smallness that, that, that erupts this inner humility that I think is, is like essential to, to, to creating amazing art.
Speaker B:To be able to accept and experience our, the best of our humanity.
Speaker D:And I think also allowing yourself to go to something where you know, like, okay, for this next hour I don't have to worry about it.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:As a lot of people, when they get lost in video games or a book, something else, there is, you know, chance to kind of take yourself away from it.
Speaker D:And that's why it's kind of nice to have like I've gone to a handful of places.
Speaker D:Like if you ever get a chance to go to St.
Speaker D:Louis, if you've ever been to St.
Speaker D:Louis, there is the City Museum, that's there.
Speaker B:I haven't been that.
Speaker D:Oh my God.
Speaker D:If you get a chance to go, it is.
Speaker D:I don't know.
Speaker D:You couldn't do it now.
Speaker D:Like, they made it back in the 60s before lawyers really understood how to really mess people up.
Speaker D:But it's this crazy building that just has the most convoluted flow of builds and structures in those caves.
Speaker D:And it's one of those things that literally, I don't know if you people do drugs or not, but get a little weed in you probably just to get yourself or maybe have a couple drinks to go in.
Speaker D:Because it was so overwhelmingly like, I was like, am I actually in a cave now?
Speaker D:Did we go?
Speaker D:Like, I was lost for a second.
Speaker D:And to allow myself to be like fully taking out of this universe, it was as close as I've experience of, like, I enjoy VR headsets where you can really pull yourself out that way.
Speaker D:It's same thing where I suddenly found my.
Speaker D:My body, my mind and everything else just lost into a notice of like a void.
Speaker D:And I realized at that point in time, I'm here.
Speaker D:I don't have to worry about the outside world.
Speaker D:And I think maybe I'm helping people.
Speaker D:Some escapism, I realize.
Speaker D:But if I could do a controlled, awesome escapism.
Speaker D:And then afterwards, like, good luck on the rest.
Speaker D:Come on back.
Speaker D:We need it, you know.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's escapism, but it also, like you were gonna say Christian is immersion.
Speaker A:Like, it's a way that for me, experiencing art that really takes myself out of that kind of like smaller neurotic headspace and really gets me into a full body experience is then I can take that into my day to day where I can remember like, oh, yeah, that that really changed my perspective on something or that really like, that had an impact on me.
Speaker A:And I'm actually like.
Speaker A:Might be a hard pivot.
Speaker A:But I'm curious about what the immersion in India recently was like for you.
Speaker D:Oh, man.
Speaker A:I think you just went to India, right?
Speaker D:Yeah, I was in Mumbai for about 10, 11 days, give or take.
Speaker D:Wasn't too long, actually.
Speaker D:I had a chance to stay longer.
Speaker D:And once I was there about three days in, I'm like, I should have taken the more time.
Speaker D:It was an amazing time.
Speaker D:Just stayed in Mumbai.
Speaker D:The guy I traveled with, a friend of mine and he.
Speaker D:He was there because he had helped.
Speaker D:Long story relatively short, during the pandemic, the first wave that hit India, someone he knew him and both his parents went, unfortunately were in like urgent care hospital.
Speaker D:And now being in Mumbai, realizing how it is a Populated city.
Speaker D:It was this running joke that you could walk across of the markets.
Speaker D:You can walk across there without putting your feet down because there's so many people squishing you that you're just moving in mass.
Speaker D:Yeah, true.
Speaker D:Totally is true.
Speaker D:So he when during that first pandemic my buddy Mike lent a hand get some cash and helped connected to a person so they can get his mom and dad out of the hospital.
Speaker D:Saved the mom.
Speaker D:Unfortunately the dad passed before that can all happen.
Speaker D:And the his son his.
Speaker D:The friend Sunny, which is an amazing guy we met there.
Speaker D:He got better as well.
Speaker D:But he was like listen, if told Mike it's like if you ever come through India, we want to thank you.
Speaker D:My mom wants to make you dinner.
Speaker D:We.
Speaker D:We truly you saved her life.
Speaker D:We can't thank you enough.
Speaker D:So he.
Speaker D:This is.
Speaker D:He has.
Speaker D:Mike is a son.
Speaker D:Son's old enough now.
Speaker D:He's like you know what?
Speaker D:I can actually travel without leaving my wife to dealing with a little kid.
Speaker D:I'm going to get back.
Speaker D:And he knew I loved India and I always wanted to go.
Speaker D:I want to experience non westernized.
Speaker D:I love culture.
Speaker D:I love meeting people that aren't from my background.
Speaker D:And I have so many other like desires to just to experience humanity at all.
Speaker D:All stages, all different types, all different.
Speaker D:Everything you can think of.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker D:So he's like listen, I don't want to travel alone.
Speaker D:Do you want to join me?
Speaker D:And so like yeah, sure.
Speaker D:And then I didn't hear from him for a while.
Speaker D:And then so mid December the day after I bought like Christmas presents for everyone.
Speaker D:I was like I spent some money.
Speaker D:Okay.
Speaker D:Like we're going to India.
Speaker D:I'm like okay, okay, I guess we're going to go.
Speaker D:So it was like a two or.
Speaker A:Three in your head was like all right.
Speaker D:Oh my God.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:Oh my God.
Speaker D:It was anxiety.
Speaker D:You could see because actually side note, money is my worst anxiety.
Speaker D:Anxiety, the non tangible concept of money my brain because I want to help everyone out.
Speaker D:I was like I'll get on your hand.
Speaker D:The concept of making money and asking for money and billing.
Speaker D:It's my worst thing ever.
Speaker D:So yeah.
Speaker D:So India I'm going for.
Speaker D:And it's just like so I'm stressed out.
Speaker D:Luckily I ended up having.
Speaker D:I helped like Sean Dunwyn.
Speaker D:I helped with some mural work with him.
Speaker D:So right before I left I had a like when I get out of fire under me I am really good.
Speaker D:Like the you know I can focus in.
Speaker D:So I tackled it get pretty good.
Speaker D:So I get there deadline yeah, deadlines, man.
Speaker D:That's me.
Speaker D:If you give me a vagueness, nothing great, but deadline I can, you know.
Speaker D:So we get there and I had spent a bunch of time before going to India.
Speaker D:I connect with the.
Speaker D:With Roko here and got contact with like Indian artists to see and people had done stuff with Rokor, other ones.
Speaker D:So I asked around and at the end of it, I should have just put my time into figuring out more cool things to do because every other artist I try to do, they're all like, oh, sorry, whatever.
Speaker D:So I get there and inadvertently the time I'm there is this thing called the Caligoda Art Festival, which is the largest multicultural art festival in Asia.
Speaker D:So I ended up landing and at first I'm like, I thought I was like, oh, it's a little art festival.
Speaker D:It's this little street from here to across the road.
Speaker D:And you're like, no, I get there, I'm talking to someone.
Speaker D:She's like, no, it's a nine day festival, you know, where there's a.
Speaker D:There's concerts, there's movie stuff happening, there's film things here, there's performances, there is artists from all over Asia lining the streets here.
Speaker D:And it's cool.
Speaker D:There's designed it that there's, you know, the name of the place, name of the person, name of thing, and also the region they're from.
Speaker D:So I look over, I'm like, oh, this is like northern India.
Speaker D:This is, you know, whatever central Indian places from all around all Asia was going there.
Speaker D:And so I'm a giant white guy compared to like, I'm a big dude in here in general.
Speaker D:But I was easily a head and shoulders over the crowd in most places.
Speaker A:When you have the big beard too.
Speaker D:Oh my God, dude.
Speaker D:And this is the funniest thing I got called.
Speaker D:And this is.
Speaker D:People yelled it randomly, but I kept being called John Cena.
Speaker D:I was like, yes, because I'm a big white guy.
Speaker D:I'm like, I'm huge compared.
Speaker D:Like, I am.
Speaker B:Don't you have a button for that Stroman?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Where's the John Cena button?
Speaker C:I used it on the Mind of Magnus episode where we talked about India for a full hour.
Speaker C:So thinking of go listen to the episode.
Speaker C:That was really fun.
Speaker C:I got a chance to talk to Magnus about the whole thing because it's.
Speaker C:It is a fascinating.
Speaker C:Just a fascinating journey.
Speaker D:Yeah, yeah, it was fully immersive.
Speaker D:I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Speaker D:Populated city, every place is painted.
Speaker D:Which is neat to say because it's such a.
Speaker D:It's rainy.
Speaker D:It's like, there's monsoons.
Speaker D:So if things aren't painted, things get moldy quick.
Speaker D:So it's a weird culture where everything is beautiful, yet it's constantly being swallowed by the jungles.
Speaker D:And it's only, like 10ft above sea level.
Speaker D:I feel like maybe 30ft at best.
Speaker D:But it was remarkable.
Speaker D:Culture's great arts.
Speaker D:Like, I went to all these different art galleries, art shows, made friends with everyone.
Speaker D:And I again, like, I'm just a.
Speaker D:And I was a novelty there.
Speaker D:I'm on a thousand phones.
Speaker D:Everyone's like, picture.
Speaker D:I'm like, yeah, sure, take a picture of me, actually.
Speaker A:So are you Buddha?
Speaker D:Actually, the Ganesha reference is more anything else, because also I built like.
Speaker D:But yeah.
Speaker D:So Ganesha, the elephant one.
Speaker D:I have a shaved head.
Speaker D:They can't figure out because everyone there is a faith based.
Speaker D:There's like 99% of everyone has some sort of faith.
Speaker D:So.
Speaker D:And you're all wear.
Speaker D:People wear what their faith is, like, their outfits, the saris, their whatever.
Speaker D:And so they look at me and they're trying to figure me out.
Speaker D:I'm like, good luck, dude.
Speaker D:I don't figure this out myself, so.
Speaker D:But I have this beard that's normally, like, braided down, so.
Speaker D:And I like Ganesha.
Speaker D:So I went to the temples and stuff that way, and.
Speaker D:And they couldn't figure me out.
Speaker D:They thought somehow was like a monk for Ganesha.
Speaker D:Like, this is what white people do for Ganesha.
Speaker D:I don't built like him and the big belly.
Speaker D:So I have, like a God like physique, which I like to say now.
Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker D:But yeah.
Speaker D:So they kept figuring out if I have something sort of along the lines of Ganesha or that way.
Speaker D:And it was really neat.
Speaker D:I mean, I went to zillion temples.
Speaker D:I got blessed by a whole different group.
Speaker D:So I'm like, doesn't hurt.
Speaker D:Take anything I can take to help on this planet.
Speaker D:Sure.
Speaker D:I'm not religious person, so I'll take any sort of help if I can get.
Speaker A:So you're like, all the blessings.
Speaker D:All the blessings.
Speaker D:But I went around.
Speaker D:Art was phenomenal.
Speaker D:I went to a couple of art stores as much as I could, because I try to find unique art supplies when I'm traveling to play around with too.
Speaker D:Wasn't as much as I'd hoped.
Speaker D:A lot of stuff because it's been very Westernized already.
Speaker D:Like, everything there was written in, you know, this amazing, like, Hindi or some, like, Indian language.
Speaker D:And then underneath is just English.
Speaker D:So Everything was an English subtitle.
Speaker A:You're like, oh, this is an amazing, like, Indian art store.
Speaker A:And you go in and you're like, oh, Blick.
Speaker D:Yeah, yeah, everything there.
Speaker D:I was like, oh, staedler, Netflix.
Speaker B:But in person.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Speaking of, you know, things you can buy and stuff, we're going to take a quick ad break.
Speaker A:We'll be right back.
Speaker C:Nice pivot.
Speaker A:I try.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker D:Good.
Speaker A:So if y'all who are listening are interested in more of that story that Magnus was just talking about with his travels to India, you can listen to the the Mind of Magnus episode that he and Stromi just did recently.
Speaker A:And there's a lot more in there.
Speaker A:I think Christian had another question or idea that you wanted to bring up.
Speaker B:It's like something I've been tagging for what feels like 40 years.
Speaker B:We've covered a lot of ground, which is great.
Speaker B:There's so much to talk about.
Speaker B:You sort of briefly glossed over this, this notion of not having a backup plan.
Speaker B:And like, was there an impetus to that?
Speaker B:Was there a moment where you were like, I'm going all in.
Speaker B:And how often are you feeling like you're needing to renew that in order to not lose this iteration of Magnus, if that makes sense.
Speaker D:I think it does.
Speaker D:I may have to ask for the question again as I ramble on here.
Speaker D:I think that I really do revisit that thought.
Speaker D:Usually when I got to pay my rent, usually around the time that the first part of the month, money's real.
Speaker D:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker D:Studio rent comes in.
Speaker D:So I do think about that every once in a while.
Speaker D:And every once I will say that every once in a while I have, like, tried to take like, you know, follow that thread out.
Speaker D:For instance, a couple, maybe a couple years ago, I was like, shy rent for like 100 bucks.
Speaker D:And here's something that people may not know that certain, like a tool and die company, they'll actually will pay you your pay a day's rate, like 100 bucks to test out if you want to work there for a day.
Speaker D:So you'll come in for your time, you can hang out all day there and they pay you your time for like 100 bucks.
Speaker D:So I was like, you know what?
Speaker D:I've done tool and die.
Speaker D:I've always done my jobs.
Speaker D:I used to do a lot of part time jobs as well.
Speaker D:So my main things going on and I've always had some sort of other thing happening.
Speaker D:Now just all my life is all other things in one big group.
Speaker D:But so I went and I went For a day to a tool and die company.
Speaker D:They're really nice.
Speaker D:They're very nice people.
Speaker D:Everyone was great there.
Speaker D:And they're like, oh, you want to work?
Speaker D:And end of the day, I'm like, no.
Speaker D:I remind myself why I don't want to be here.
Speaker D:Thanks for 100 bucks.
Speaker D:But it reminded me.
Speaker D:So a lot of times when I have those thoughts about maybe not having a plan B or going back to work for someone else, I take and think about when I worked for them.
Speaker D:Like, I have all those.
Speaker D:The days when I was really mad at my.
Speaker D:The manager or something going on there.
Speaker D:I harness those days and use those for the fuel to keep pushing forward.
Speaker D:So those, like the logs, I throw in the steam engine and keep pushing and keep going.
Speaker D:It never really locked in because I think I'm always still nervous because I'm always.
Speaker D:I still try to do a contingency plans.
Speaker D:I'm always like, reason I'm good at guessing movie plots is because I watch it.
Speaker D:My brain just like every page of choose your own adventure just opens up.
Speaker D:And I guess, like, follow those threads out that way.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:So I'm constantly doing that.
Speaker C:It's so funny.
Speaker C:I'm the complete opposite, watching movies.
Speaker D:Oh, really?
Speaker C:I'm so like, immediately like, oh, this is what's going on right now.
Speaker C:And then at the end, like, Carrie or someone like you will be like, oh, yeah.
Speaker C:Remember that theme?
Speaker C:This was definitely tying into this, this, and this.
Speaker C:I'm like, I really enjoyed watching the movie.
Speaker C:Then I'll read something after and I'll contextualize it.
Speaker C:But it's so funny that you're on the fly, contextualizing the whole.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:And it's not an active thought.
Speaker D:Ask my girlfriend.
Speaker D:She will tell you every time.
Speaker D:I'd be like, you know, it'd be this way.
Speaker D:And my brain's just spinning up.
Speaker D:Like I come from.
Speaker D:My mom is a very, very lovely woman, but she has a bit of a paranoid brain in her body.
Speaker D:And I realize that too.
Speaker D:I'm from her as well.
Speaker D:And a person who's intelligent with a paranoid brain is running through all contingencies at all levels.
Speaker D:It's what the focus you put on is what makes it good or bad.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker D:So I try to focus on what's happening now.
Speaker D:And I try to plan for, like, okay, five years.
Speaker D:What I kind of everywhere.
Speaker D:I'll think about it.
Speaker D:Like I said, I'll be working myself for five years.
Speaker D:Do I.
Speaker D:What should I be doing to do this?
Speaker D:So every once in a while, I'll do these like long kind of spin out and then kind of run backwards to where I am now to kind of put myself in my own timeline and what to be doing.
Speaker D:I think a lot of the not having a plan B is more from listening to workers and other people who are other people working for themselves now.
Speaker D:Excuse me, listening to them.
Speaker D:There's actually a really great podcast I listen to.
Speaker D:It's called Comics Lab and it is a.
Speaker D:It's a.
Speaker D:It's a.
Speaker D:It's a whole podcast about web comics and artists making a living from web comics.
Speaker A:That's awesome.
Speaker D:And the.
Speaker D:I mean I know the guys who do it.
Speaker D:I've been friends with them forever.
Speaker D:But the reason I listen to it is because the marketing brain in me appreciates how can an artist make money where every day your deliverable's for free.
Speaker D:Every day they give away their webcomic.
Speaker D:So how do you make a living when you.
Speaker D:You don't pay for that.
Speaker D:The whole goal is to put it out there.
Speaker D:There may be some little paywalls here and there, but the business model by design is here's a free thing.
Speaker D:I need to make a money off of it.
Speaker D:So my brain I was trying to listen to other creatives in the field who are making a living at it and one of them, Dave Kellett he's.
Speaker D:I've known him for 25, 30 years now.
Speaker D:I was fortunate enough to hang out with him.
Speaker D:I went to art res art residency in Alaska a couple years ago and I chatted with him and got to finally like you sit and talk and stuff.
Speaker D:But he is another one he's like.
Speaker D:And I probably picked it up from him about like don't have a plan B.
Speaker D:He because he realized he was wasting energy on a plan B or every once in a while we tough of being getting stressed on the moment instead of working through the stressful thing right now you start wistfully like well I can just leave.
Speaker D:I'm gonna put my energy into this thing over here.
Speaker D:And then you're such a disservice tactic so.
Speaker D:And I don't want to offer myself avoidance tactics.
Speaker D:I know myself every once in a while I'm being like, you know, I'd rather scroll Instagram right now.
Speaker D:I have a comfy chair.
Speaker D:I don't have to be stressed right now.
Speaker D:No I'm put my focus in what kind of matters that way.
Speaker D:But I know that kind of hope answers on that question.
Speaker B:I think so I mean it kind of trailed into another question I was going to ask that you sort of answered, but I kind of want to ask it anyway just to see what happens, because you started to trail.
Speaker B:We've had a brief conversation a very, very long time ago online, I think it was like when.
Speaker B:When it was Twitter, good old days, where you mentioned.
Speaker B:We, like, briefly.
Speaker B:Personality stuff.
Speaker B:And you basically talked about.
Speaker B:You just mentioned this idea of, like, basically possibility forecasting.
Speaker B:And there's a very specific personality angle to that.
Speaker D:Okay.
Speaker B:Sort of this introvert, what's called introverted intuition.
Speaker B:Not to get into the technical weeds, but it's this idea of, like, in your mind, you're forecasting all of these different possibilities.
Speaker B:You're seeing all the different forks in the road, whether that's in your personal life or watching movies or something like that.
Speaker B:And then you kind of pick a road and you go.
Speaker B:Or see where they converge, and you kind of go that way.
Speaker B:So the question ultimately leads to.
Speaker B:Forgive my framing of this, but, like, what is Quiet Magnus like?
Speaker B:Because you're very chatty.
Speaker B:You talk very fast.
Speaker D:I do.
Speaker B:But what is Quiet Magnus like?
Speaker B:Because I know he exists.
Speaker D:Quiet Magnus is me in my studio.
Speaker D:Like, people don't realize I'm by myself.
Speaker D:People see me.
Speaker D:You're seeing me at the point.
Speaker D:I've been by myself in a studio for 10 to 12 hours, and I don't listen.
Speaker D:I'm not a music listener, which a lot of people.
Speaker A:That's where all the chattiness comes out.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:Just explodes.
Speaker D:And I was quiet when I was growing up.
Speaker D:I actually was very silent because I talk fast.
Speaker D:I got made fun of for talking when I was a kid, so I didn't talk until I got to college.
Speaker D:And I'm making up for lost time now.
Speaker D:I tell people, but quiet me, I mean, I'm like.
Speaker D:I'm excitable now because I like talking to people.
Speaker D:Everything else, end of the day, you'll get me kind of a quiet me.
Speaker D:And Quiet Magnus is very much in his head.
Speaker D:I, like, listen to facts, and I'm piecing together stuff, the processes happening in the back of my head.
Speaker D:I enjoy to give it a chance to do things.
Speaker D:Like, I'll sit and draw in quiet.
Speaker D:Sometimes I just have headphones on with nothing happening or maybe some white noise, something else to really give my brain a chance to just do those background processes.
Speaker D:And that one, it's amazing because every once in a while, I'll be sitting there, and this voice in the back of my head's like, hey, this thing.
Speaker D:Oh, we've been thinking about this entire time.
Speaker D:So I have a giant whiteboard at my studio.
Speaker D:I've posted notes and I'm constantly, when something hits me, I'm writing stuff down.
Speaker D:So I guess I'm still kind of being kind of chatty in a sort of text based way in that thing.
Speaker D:Suddenly I blurt out stuff in my own head.
Speaker D:But the quiet me is like, I actually enjoy myself in quiet Me.
Speaker D:I try to put myself in settings where I have to be quiet to allow my body to be because my body is frantic.
Speaker D:I don't know what's.
Speaker D:My brain's a little frazzled.
Speaker D:It's always been frazzled.
Speaker D:So like, that's why every once in a while I go to the movies to sit in the theater where it's dark, where I have to be like, I sit there, I have a hoodie, I pull a hoodie over and it kind of pumps like a blanket over me.
Speaker D:So I have to like, okay, I'm here now.
Speaker D:I have to be quiet, let my brain rest and just enjoy.
Speaker D:And sometimes in the studio, it's.
Speaker D:I'm sitting a drawing table, headphones on and quiet me.
Speaker D:A lot of times is in the night when everyone else has run out of steam and gone to bed.
Speaker D:I am like, I left my studio not last night, night before four in the morning, I was working on some stuff.
Speaker D:I had to get some projects out the door and I, I outlast everyone.
Speaker D:What?
Speaker D:Someone once told me I was working at a design studio.
Speaker D:Like, oh, don't worry about it.
Speaker D:Magnus, he just outlasted everyone.
Speaker D:And he was trying to say that it was like, because I work super late and then everyone comes in the morning and tackle stuff.
Speaker D:But my quiet time is once everyone's gone to bed, I feel like my brain doesn't like, I feel like I connect to people sometimes.
Speaker D:Like there's a network happening.
Speaker D:So when everyone else is asleep, finally my brain can focus on it and be quiet and go through whatever steps it needs to do.
Speaker D:So my night me is kind of quiet as well.
Speaker D:So.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker C:It's so funny because we're.
Speaker C:We're so wildly opposite of each other, but also so similar to each other.
Speaker D:We have a fun Venn diagram.
Speaker C:Which is the reason why I love spending time with you so much is because we are.
Speaker C:I'm the same way.
Speaker C:Like, my brain's always churning, but it's analytical versus it really is.
Speaker D:It's impressive for my brain, which is not analytical.
Speaker C:Like when I'm watching something, I'm either thinking about, wow, I'm really impressed with the technical acumen of them doing this thing.
Speaker C:I'm like, oh, they really pulled that off.
Speaker C:Well, that was really smart writing.
Speaker C:I don't think about the path.
Speaker C:I think about, oh, that writer was doing something special.
Speaker C:And when you're talking about that, that quiet time, it's hard for me to turn off the analysis.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Because it's, it can be cyclical analysis as well.
Speaker C:And I'm kind of wondering.
Speaker C:So, like we're talking about the quiet and the.
Speaker C:I'm thinking about those constraints, right?
Speaker C:Because you're constraining yourself to become quiet.
Speaker C:You've put on headphones.
Speaker C:What are some of the other constraint tools you use to let yourself be creative?
Speaker D:This is one of the weirdest ones.
Speaker D:And I can't figure a way of describing it without seeming like I have to like seat belt myself down.
Speaker D:But sitting in the chair, don't get up.
Speaker D:Sit for a second.
Speaker D:Just like.
Speaker D:So sometimes I do now is I go for a long walk first.
Speaker D:So my body's a bit tired.
Speaker D:Not that I'm exhausted, but I just get some of the nervous energy out of me.
Speaker D:I'm.
Speaker D:You see how I have an energy that pours out?
Speaker D:Reason I talk fast.
Speaker D:Reason my brain processes fast.
Speaker C:Get itchy.
Speaker D:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:I have a friend who's very similar.
Speaker B:She says, like, she calls it a gremlin.
Speaker B:Like there's a little gremlin inside that just needs to go for a walk.
Speaker B:You need to eat it.
Speaker D:I, I break it up as I think.
Speaker D:Sometimes it's my brain and then my body, my physicality, my.
Speaker D:The, the meat machine needs to go out for a walk for a bit.
Speaker D:Like, it's just like the, the brain inside my body realizes like, oh, we're powering a, A, you know, homo sapien.
Speaker D:That is from like, you know, we, we are like a, like a Savannah based creature that would walk for miles, hunt something down.
Speaker D:I can't sit, realize like, my dog's the same way.
Speaker D:Like, the girlfriend has dogs.
Speaker D:Like every once in a while I'll just take them for a walk and then you can enjoy the evening together better because their body just needed to get out.
Speaker D:So a lot of things I do is like, I love being downtown.
Speaker D:My studio is right downtown.
Speaker D:And now they open the bridge back up at the falls.
Speaker D:I can do my little bit of a lap again.
Speaker D:I can actually walk right around.
Speaker D:There's a green space and I'm a.
Speaker D:I pace actually.
Speaker D:I'm a person.
Speaker D:I don't sit down a whole lot, but to Working.
Speaker D:One of my tricks to keep myself going is to sit down.
Speaker D:And one day I was just needing some stuff done.
Speaker D:I put stuff on my lap.
Speaker D:So if I had to stand up, I had to like, oh, no, I need to, like, I almost want to seat belt myself in.
Speaker D:That's the thing I want to do one of these times.
Speaker D:But I don't want to go that far into it because then I feel like I.
Speaker D:What's wrong with you, buddy?
Speaker A:I'm like, I'm curious because I'm similar and I know we've had conversations about like, having.
Speaker A:Needing to do something with your hands.
Speaker A:Like, I know you mentioned to me the other day that there's a studio in your building that they make these little like fairy doors and you sometimes go over and just make them so you clear your head.
Speaker A:Does it feel like.
Speaker A:So for me, when I'm making art, that's the only time that I'm really Zen or if I'm moving, if I have to be kind of like moving for my brain to be quiet.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:Mobile meditation, I call it.
Speaker D:That's why I tell people like me I'm not good at meditating.
Speaker D:People like, oh, sit in this spot for a while and do it.
Speaker D:I'm like, no, if you want to walk with me, I will hit a perfect meditative point on the two mile in the woods.
Speaker D:And it's not that the woods are setting me in the thing, it's the mobile.
Speaker D:It's my body's experiencing things.
Speaker D:I'm taking myself for a walk, you know, So I very much.
Speaker D:I think I have that because I have.
Speaker D:I have a little bit of a neurological stuff.
Speaker D:I kind of shake every once in a while.
Speaker D:There's been some things.
Speaker D:So I think my body is just.
Speaker D:The wiring is kind of wonky.
Speaker D:So it's just if I need to walk, I need to walk, I need to get out.
Speaker D:And like, I'm not like a gym person, clearly, if you know.
Speaker D:But it is a, like an active part of me is nice.
Speaker D:Like, I'm constantly puttering and doing stuff.
Speaker D:I also have like five things going at once.
Speaker D:So when I take a break from my project, I walk over and do another project I'm working on and then I do another one and then I circle back around.
Speaker D:So unfortunately, I personally can do, like, I have 10 hours in this one drawing right now.
Speaker D:Like, I have 10 hours.
Speaker D:It's been three, three days of it, because there was 10 hours, but there's also eight hours there, four hours of this project.
Speaker A:I call it Crop rotation.
Speaker A:I'm just like, oh, okay, I gotta, I've like done some drawing for a little while and now I gotta paint something or write or do something.
Speaker D:But like you said, the fairy doors, bluechookian, they have.
Speaker D:I think it's the fairy doors on Instagram.
Speaker D:They do small, little, awesome little designs.
Speaker D:And I've been helping them out because they were getting so busy that they were getting frazzled.
Speaker D:And I hate seeing another artist frazzled.
Speaker D:It's one of the things that drives me nuts, I feel when someone's like in their own studio and they can't function.
Speaker D:So I'm like, I'll lend a hand.
Speaker D:So I helped them redesign the studio and clean stuff up, and then I started doing some help here and there.
Speaker D:So every once in a while let's go over and be like, I can't do this right now.
Speaker D:So I walk over, clock in, do some sanding and some painting and there's like, see ya.
Speaker D:And they're like, thanks.
Speaker D:You know, it's just literally.
Speaker D:And for me, that's great because I'm not beholden to someone for a set time.
Speaker D:I don't like Tuesday, between 10 and 4, you got to be here.
Speaker D:I'm like, oh, Tuesday, I'll show up and I'll work until I get done.
Speaker D:And they're always super happy.
Speaker D:I mean, I'm a worker, so I don't like, I tell, I tell them how much I'm worked that day now, how many hours I've been there.
Speaker D:Like I put about three hours in a work.
Speaker D:I may have been there five hours because I was goofing around talking, but my brain goes, I know how much I've worked there.
Speaker D:So I bill them for how much time I know I've punched in and punched out, for lack of a better term.
Speaker B:So it's interesting that you, you seem to have this balance worked out perhaps just over time and life experience of like, you know, it's easy for people to get swept up by the external world and just go and react to things and tinker and just swept away by the next thing.
Speaker B:And then there's the other side of just being knowing yourself and self examining.
Speaker B:And it feels like you've, you've spent some time self examining.
Speaker D:I have.
Speaker B:Answering these questions.
Speaker D:Yeah, I try.
Speaker D:I.
Speaker D:The.
Speaker D:I need to know a lot about myself if I understand the machine I'm in.
Speaker D:And it's one of those things that maybe it's a bit of because it was made fun of early on.
Speaker D:Then I realized I used to do a lot of self deprecating humor and that's an awareness of yourself.
Speaker D:And I'm like, okay, I'm aware of myself.
Speaker D:But if I, if I know more about the machine I'm in, if I know more about the car I'm driving, I drive a car better.
Speaker D:So if I know more about the machine I'm in this meat machine that I'll be able to utilize it better.
Speaker D:So I did take a lot of time introspective working myself because I want to be the best version of myself.
Speaker D:And I see sometimes I watch people doing stupid things and I go back, I'm like, if I've ever done that, I don't want to be that person.
Speaker D:So a lot of times I use other people as examples of what not to be.
Speaker D:And I try to lead a better life that way.
Speaker D:But one other thing I found myself is.
Speaker D:This is actually really weird.
Speaker D:It was not a healthy relationship.
Speaker D:But I dated a girl for a while that her whole studies was.
Speaker D:She was a master's study in building personality tests.
Speaker D:So I was her like her college like, like lab rat for lack, you know, it really was that it was, it's funny now in retrospect, but going back, being like I was being tested so inadvertently I had a lot of.
Speaker A:Got to explore a lot of stuff.
Speaker D:Yeah, got to explore that stuff.
Speaker D:I always test and it was really funny because she would share my results with the teacher.
Speaker D:And then the teacher was like, oh, my teacher has some questions for you.
Speaker D:I was like, what, what?
Speaker C:How many of the tests did you break?
Speaker D:No.
Speaker D:Oh, I had a couple.
Speaker D:I love breaking tests, don't get me wrong.
Speaker D:That's why I love beta testing software for the same reason.
Speaker C:I knew you would have broken that test like a bunch of times.
Speaker D:One of them, she was like, I had like a night like a, like a self identification.
Speaker D:And she goes, I had like a 94%.
Speaker D:And she's like, that's like being self aware.
Speaker D:And she's like, you don't get 94% of self aware.
Speaker D:This is supposed to be within a range of 75, you don't pass it like 100.
Speaker A:So she's supposed to know.
Speaker D:Yeah, supposed to know something.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:And she's like.
Speaker D:And so the teacher's like, here's these follow up questions.
Speaker D:And it was like, and I've talked to him like, so did everyone else get followed?
Speaker D:Like, no, this is for you, this is from the class.
Speaker D:I was like, what the hell?
Speaker D:Jesus Christ.
Speaker D:You know.
Speaker D:So I had to go back through and, yeah, and I think.
Speaker D:I mean, I'm fortunate enough to have been around a lot of people that allowed me to talk to, you know, talk through thoughts.
Speaker D:I've learned mental health is a huge factor in my brain.
Speaker D:I think that having a good mental health professional over the years and having people that taught me the proper words to use to get feelings out and also how to interact better has allowed me to learn the communication skills for others as well as internalizing those questions.
Speaker D:And, like, a lot of stuff I like learning later on how certain, like, emotions react.
Speaker D:Like, if you're angry, anger is a secondary emotion.
Speaker D:Here's an example.
Speaker D:So anger is a secondary emotion, and you're not mad, but you're mad at something.
Speaker D:So what is the something?
Speaker D:So I try to go back to what causes these things are happening in my life.
Speaker D:So a lot of times it's like.
Speaker D:Like rolling backwards from a thought process.
Speaker D:Like, you know, like I said, I work for five years.
Speaker D:I plan to be here.
Speaker D:Was this, well, if I'm mad right now, roll back in time.
Speaker D:Why am I mad?
Speaker D:What's upsetting me?
Speaker D:What's my trigger?
Speaker D:How can I not have a trigger?
Speaker D:Try to be better.
Speaker D:Try to work on boundaries.
Speaker D:So I do a lot of introspection because I.
Speaker D:I am not a religious person.
Speaker D:And so I put all my stock in that.
Speaker D:I know what's happening right now.
Speaker D:I'm fully aware that there is this little creature named Magnus that is living at this time now.
Speaker D:There's everything happening.
Speaker D:And I have a limited time in this life to put as much as I can in this spot.
Speaker D:I used to tell people there's a rock somewhere on the planet right now that at some point will have my name on it and two dates and a dash between it.
Speaker D:So when I meet with that rock, I want to make sure that dash has the most amount of shit between those two dates.
Speaker D:So.
Speaker A:Fuck, yeah.
Speaker B:Love that.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:It makes me think of the fact that.
Speaker A:I mean, I've said it before, but it's like the most important work that the artist can do is the inner work, and you're doing that.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:Yeah, I really appreciate that we've been able to have this impromptu conversation today and just, like, really get into it.
Speaker A:And I'm wondering, to kind of cap off this particular conversation in Episode, what if you could give other artists who are in.
Speaker A:In a similar spot, like maybe in Rochester, or just maybe wanting to have more of a lifestyle like you have sort of built where you're following your passions?
Speaker A:What kind of advice would you give.
Speaker D:Them first advice is debt is truly a shackle to you.
Speaker D:Debt is.
Speaker D:Like I said, the worry of money is an intangibility that pulls and it drains the energy and creativity fast.
Speaker D:So if you can pare your life down, get rid of the extra bullshit.
Speaker D:Like realize you may not need Netflix this month if you can save $12.
Speaker D:You know, if you, if you cut off your subscriptions and suddenly save a hundred dollars, that is your cell phone bill.
Speaker D:And then you don't worry about your cell phone bill.
Speaker D:Like pare down that way.
Speaker D:So like when I left I, I switched over like Mint Mobile, which was a cheaper one that had a great option.
Speaker D:And I like those little things.
Speaker D:I made a lot of changes so I didn't have those looming debts where I have to be this, I need to hit these marks, I need to make $20,000 because I need to pay these five people or you know, banks or whatever it is.
Speaker D:So step number one, pare yourself down so you, you don't have these added burdens because there's going to be plenty of burdens working for yourself.
Speaker D:Stupid shit taxes, figuring stuff out, trying to figure out.
Speaker D:And the next thing is to learn if be very self aware if you know if you can be okay with not knowing where your next paycheck is.
Speaker D:That's one of the things that some people get start working.
Speaker D:They've only worked for other people where every Thursday there's a paycheck coming in.
Speaker D:So whatever happened, I can schedule accordingly.
Speaker D:I'm like, can you live a life where you will not know your next paycheck will be coming either for years or like some project I'm working for six months, I get paid the first part of it and then in six months time I need to have thing done by then.
Speaker D:And that's when the check comes in.
Speaker D:And if I'm late, if I don't get it done, the check is waiting for me to get done.
Speaker D:So paring down understanding how you, how you are with bills, debts and that sort of thing is a huge stuff.
Speaker D:But also being very like this is where honesty of yourself comes in.
Speaker D:Like how much does it really cost you to live?
Speaker D:How much do you think you can feasibly sell stuff?
Speaker D:Like I have friends of mine that been do amazing art, they do great prints and they're like, yeah, I work for myself.
Speaker D:And they were sitting there talking to me one day and I was like, okay, and I'll gladly talk with you, I'll bounce these ideas back and forth.
Speaker D:I'm like, how much did you make doing your like the one shirt art show?
Speaker D:Like, I make a couple hundred bucks.
Speaker D:I'm like, and how much does it cost for your home to run?
Speaker D:Well, $2,000.
Speaker D:I'm like, well, that means you need to do 20 shows a month to do this.
Speaker D:Is there 20 shows to do?
Speaker D:Can you feasibly.
Speaker D:And they're like, oh, I guess.
Speaker D:I mean, it's nice to think about doing it, but and, or sometimes do it part time, like, you know, cut back.
Speaker D:But my real thought is try to figure out how to downsize.
Speaker D:Downsize yourself.
Speaker D:Plan for like six months if you can.
Speaker D:Make, if you can have enough money or feel confident for six months.
Speaker D:Six months.
Speaker D:Time is a different brain.
Speaker D:You've lived long enough that you have new patterns, new something else this way.
Speaker D:So if you throw yourself in, plan for these six month plans and do that.
Speaker D:So if you can't do five years, try to do the short little cycles.
Speaker D:But getting rid of those leeching like fears by like cutting back on bills, pay your credit card if you can pay some bills down first and then you don't worry about that, that as well.
Speaker D:That's a huge thing.
Speaker D:I feel like heck.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I feel immensely satisfied.
Speaker B:This is great.
Speaker A:Yay.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Thanks for being the pinch hitter guy.
Speaker D:Oh, God, gladly.
Speaker D:I'll come back again.
Speaker D:This has been a long time coming.
Speaker D:We've been trying to do this for a bit.
Speaker A:So yeah, we're gonna do more for sure.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:But I'm gonna have you guys on.
Speaker B:My show, so yeah, yes, yes, absolutely.
Speaker B:We will do that.
Speaker B:So thank you very much.
Speaker A:Appreciate it.
Speaker B:This has been a presentation of the Lunchadore Podcast network.
Speaker C:Rochester.
Speaker C:When someone asks you if you're a God, you say yes.
