This is Part Two of this week’s workshop. Whether or not you are an artist there are many lessons for you to learn here today. In this section, some of the lessons you will learn from Patty Zuver are:
- Success isn’t about money, it’s about happiness, passion, love and things like that.
- Take time to laugh and don’t take yourself too seriously.
- Be happy and grateful for what you have.
- Appreciate the people in your life.
- Love the people around you.
Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.
Patty Zuver: I hate to say that I’m primarily a mother of three, but that’s what I am these days. I’m also an artist and a teacher. I teach art and English as a Second Language (ESL). I like art, movies and I like to travel.
Avil Beckford: How do you integrate your personal and professional life?
Patty Zuver: Not very well. I think like everyone, at this stage of my life, I’m 47 years old, with three kids and three jobs – I teach, I’m the Children’s Church Co-ordinator and I try to do my own art work. Something always falls through the cracks. I have piles of laundry, I have a messy house, and things like that. It’s always a constant struggle to find that balance. I don’t know if I have been good at it, though some weeks are better than others. Some weeks I think I’m so together and the following week things fall apart.
Avil Beckford: What’s a major regret that you’ve had in life?
Patty Zuver: Regret is such a funny thing because as I was saying a couple of questions ago, I think any mistake that might have been made or be seen as regrets are all a part of the past that has gotten me here, which is a pretty good place so I don’t know if I could look back and think of any glaring regrets.
Avil Beckford: What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?
Patty Zuver:
- Not to take things so seriously, but to take your work seriously
- Do not let other things influence you. Don’t take events too seriously, and take things in stride
- Be happy for what you have
- Try not to take people for granted
- Love the people around you. That old cliché “People on their death beds never say, ‘Oh I wished I had become the President, instead of Vice President’ they always wished they spent more time eating dinner with their family, or playing a board game with their kids or things like that.”
Avil Beckford: When you have some down time, how do you spend it?
Patty Zuver: I like to go to movies and I really like to read. I read a ton so I would probably read.
Avil Beckford: What process do you use to generate great ideas?
Patty Zuver: Reading, looking at books about artists, reading about artists’ lives and looking at images that other artists have made. Going to see other art forms like films, or dance or music, music is a huge inspiration.
Avil Beckford: What’s your favourite quotation and why?
Patty Zuver: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure” by Marianne Williamson. A friend sent this to me at least ten years ago and I put it up in every studio space I have, even if it’s studio space that I rent for a couple of weeks.
Avil Beckford: How do you define success?
Patty Zuver: I don’t define success financially. I think success is doing what makes you happy, and so that may be working at Starbucks if you love working there and are the best barista in town. If you can go to bed happy every night with what you have done during the day, that’s success.
Avil Beckford: This is a related question, in your opinion, what’s the formula for success?
Patty Zuver: Follow your passions, follow your dreams. Someone can make $1 million dollars doing a crappy job and they are the ones who die of a heart attack when they are 60.
Avil Beckford: What are the steps you took to succeed in your field?
Patty Zuver: I don’t know if I have succeeded in my field (she laughs). I think it’s sticking to it, even if I have made only a total of $5 off my art my total life (she laughs again). There are certain points in my life when I thought, “Oh this is stupid, why do I even spend time or money on this.” But it is a love and a passion so I stick with it even if it wasn’t met with great success and glowing reviews, or fame or whatever those traditional markers of success are. I have three kids, and I do whatever bits I can, and I have had to have other jobs to support myself financially. But wherever I have been, I have always had a little corner where I could make art. Right now I’m working out of my basement, and sometimes it’s been a corner of the kitchen, but there has always been a space in my living space to make art.
Avil Beckford: What advice do you have for someone just starting out in your field?
Patty Zuver: Have confidence in yourself and follow what you know is right in your heart and gut, and don’t just follow trends or what others want you to do.
Avil Beckford: If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?
Patty Zuver:
- Georgia O’Keefe
- John Coltrane
- Andrea Zittel
- Sally Mann
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
I would ask all of them about their creative process. How do you create a piece of music like John Coltrane used to do? What went through his brain when he played the saxophone? How did Georgia O’Keefe see things the way she did?
Avil Beckford: Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?
Patty Zuver: I think it is difficult to narrow it down to one book. I am a voracious reader. I love to read so I think there would be different books at different times of my life. On a list of those books I would put Catcher in the Rye or Franny and Zooey by J D Salinger. These two Salinger books are the first semi-adult books I read at an age where they spoke to me, and I thought, “Oh wow, this is kind of interesting.” Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude and In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje also influenced me.
Avil Beckford: I didn’t “get” In the Skin of a Lion
Patty Zuver: Oh it’s fantastic, you didn’t get it? It’s very disjointed and almost like a painting, like a work of art. It sort of paints a picture and you have to look at it and interpret it. I know what you mean though, it’s not linear, it’s not here is the beginning of the story, the middle of the story, and I think you have to read it two or three times to get the whole thing.
Avil Beckford: If you were stranded on a deserted island, what are five books that you would like to have with you and why? Summarize the book in two sentences.
Patty Zuver:
- Franny and Zooey
- One Hundred Years of Solitude
- In The Skin of a Lion
- Jane Eyre
- Some sort of art book
Avil Beckford: What one music CD and movie would you like to have with you (on the deserted island) and why?
Patty Zuver: If I had one CD ever that I had to listen to for the next 20 years – that’s another thing it has to be something that stands up –it would have to be John Coltrane’s Around Midnight. It's very hard to narrow it down to one movie. I think if it was only one, it would have to be something very visual like a Peter Greenaway film: The Draughtman's Contract or Drowning by Numbers or a movie like Koyaanisqatsi or Raise the Red Lantern. All of these movies are very, very visual so I think I could see them all over and over. I guess if I had to choose one, it might be Raise the Red Lantern because it also deals with China…
If you cannot view the YouTube video of Around Midnight with Miles Davis & John Coltrane click here
Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?
Patty Zuver: I think creativity excites me, and that could be from a really good teacher, a really great piece of music, to people coming up with really interesting ideas, and having conversations with people about interesting ideas.
Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?
Patty Zuver: Definitely music and reading!
Avil Beckford: If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for? Or, if I gave you a magic wand, what would you use it for?
Patty Zuver: I would wish for more time. I don’t know how, but five more hours in a day, and just in my day. No one else’s day, the whole world would stop for three or four hours and it would be just for me.
Avil Beckford: Complete the following, I am happy when…..
Patty Zuver: Things are running smoothly in my household because that frees me up to do what I want to do.
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