Interview Tuesday: Scrapability

Greetings Creative Bloggers!  I am Angie Pedersen, and I'll be your host for April's Interview Tuesdays.

Today's interview is with Michelle Thompson, a Kiwi blogger living in the UK, who writes about digital/scrapbooking and altered arts at Scrapability.  She won the Best of British Scrapbooking contest in 2004, has written for various magazines and created artwork for design teams.

1.What's your day job?

Software Test Manager, Overall Stressor, Domestic Miscreant, Wife, and of course - Very Proud Mother. Most of those are my night job too - you choose which ones, because I'm darned if I can tell the difference at 3am in the morning, when I can't sleep because I'm thinking about one of them.

2. How do you define creativity?  What does it look like in your life?

Hmm, let's see. When I forget creativity I forget what it's about. Those are the times when I'm losing sleep because of a problem (heck, several problems) at work, or am worried about something, or sick, or depressed, or just reacting to hormones, or am in pain.  And everything looks a little bleak. Then something will happen - I will pick up a colouring pencil of my daughter's, or I will sit at my computer and actually force myself to get some tasks done (I'm a digital scrapper) such as creating that long-forgotten layout, or writing that blog piece I've been wanting to do. And ping! I'm creative - and hey - the world doesn't look so bad anymore. And maybe there's more to it, than worrying about a work problem over and over again. That's what creativity looks like to me - understanding and a little peace with myself. Creativity is forgetting the world, and living in the present. It's the only way I can focus for the very-now.

3. What allows you to be most creative?

Actually - scrappers will kill me, but I admit to enjoying blogging even more. People may not enjoy those blogs as much as I do, but really - writing finds me at my most creative. It's interesting, however - people feel they can criticise me much more for vouching an opinion on a personal blog, whereas the world of scrapbookers don't feel they have the same ability to pull apart a scrapbook layout shared on that blog. Why is that interesting - because for me, we're talking about the exact same people. Why do people think writing is more subject to constructive criticism than a scrapbook layout? Both are still personal.

4. When did you start blogging?  What prompted you to start?

I had to look back - my blog shows me blogging from December 2003, over three years. However, when I first started, it was long before then - but I haven't transferred over all those earlier attempts. I started because of a few reasons - the main one being I like writing, and here was a new-fangled way to do it and combine it with another of my interests - computers and the internet (it's my profession). And I chose to do it on a subject I loved, and wanted to explore and talk about.

5. Do you consider yourself an artist? Why/in what way or why not?

I used to have a debate with myself over this term. Others still do - which is why I tend not to use it for myself. I prefer to use the term "crafter" but in reality - I do think that writers, designers, scrapbookers, paper-crafters, multi-media workers, even those people who create music using digital synthesisers in their basement or garage - all of us are artists in spirit and mind. There does seem to be a big artist renaissance lately - lots of retreats, communities, events to share all sorts of artistry. Much of it also concerns the spirit, and the subject of creativity. The term creativity is a huge money-spinner for many outlets - look at all those bookshelves out there. Being an artist at the moment is an "in-thing" to be.

6. You create so many varied types of things, from digital to altered projects. How do you choose which medium to work with?  Do different subjects require different mediums?

I'm mostly digital at the moment - it's a time thing. But I'm looking forward to a time in the near future when I will have more time to start playing with altered projects again - I have lots of boxes and things to decorate. So in choice of mediums I think a lot has to do with  your personal circumstances. I started resorting to digital when my baby daughter started getting old enough to want to join in with Mummy when she was scrapping, or creating something altered. It wasn't fair on her that I spent all those precious weekend hours hidden away in the scrapping studio, and I was impatient with how she wanted to play with everything. Digital gave me the means to do my scrapping, and still spend time with the family, if even on the couch watching a Disney DVD on a rainy winter's day. Since then, she's grown up knowing Mummy is still interuptable when sitting at the computer, and I've grown up in my own acceptance of this format, knowing that there is no mess to clean up, and attending to my family's needs is a simple matter of pressing that save button. I am also currently stretched daily with a large demand of my time (and thought) from my workplace, so a medium which allows me to scrap late at night, on my bed, using a laptop - is therefore tops for me. If I'm not too tired.

7. Who/what are your major influences and inspirations in your artwork?

Nature - always an inspirational influence. I can't wait until summer dawns, to allow me to sit outside on my favourite bench, and simply soak in the buzzing insects sweeping around me. Then, my most calmest side of me takes place, and I've found the best layouts too.  I like some of the post-modernist artists in particular (Piet Mondrian, for instance), and some of the freestyler scrapbookers especially in the digital world are great influencers to free up and quicken my own layouts (however I always draw a line when I see a layout which I don't think is balanced). I'm also influenced by some lovely graphical adverts I see on UK television recently. I like to collect graphic design books, in anticipation of having some time to play around with some of the formats within. Comics, fun, humour, the absolute absurdities of life - all are major influences on my own work including my blogging opinions.

8. Who/what are your major influences and inspirations in your blogging?

I realise there are a lot of very famous blogs out there, ones which have political or even business agendas within them. I don't read any of them.  I do read blogs from scrapbookers -  digital designers often give out coupon codes or even freebies to their blog readers, and  other scrappers provide layout shares which help me think about  designs I may like to do in the future. What I do find myself avoiding is going to celebrity blogs and reading these avidly. I guess I really don't think hanging with the big-wig scrapping celebs really does me any good, and I guess I'm egotistical enough that I don't like blending in with 100 other people saying the same thing.

I think, from an inspirational viewpoint, it's Web 2.0 type businesses out there which make me want to be part of the web. Not the social networking bookmarking sites - but those like 7Signals or Squarespace (my blogging service provider) or Terapad.com which is a good one for a free blogspace. Kaboodle is another good one - these businesses are showing me the clean and simple approach to web development, delivery to a good audience, finding what people want and need, and their basic concepts allow me to recognise what I want to be able to offer in my own personal blog.

9. How many blogs are in your blog reader?  What blogs are your "must-read's"?

300+, perhaps 500 - I'm not telling. I don't actually read them all that much anymore - but I do have a reasonably large blog  list of scrapping bloggers which I need to maintain, and  my Bloglines list is therefore quite large. But the must-reads out of there are more  personal - I have must reads on friend's blogs, and some must-reads on the latest gadgets and web developments - my most favourite must-read has got to be Lifehacker. Scrapbooking news blogs obviously also get my okay - such as Angie's.

10. How does blogging reflect (and/or feed) your creativity?

My blog is about scrapbooking, so it shows everyone not only my thoughts on creativity, but the results of my own creative endevours. I share my layouts on the blog, and currently don't put these up on scrapbooking galleries. I think it's fairer to put them out there on the blog, than in a gallery where I can't reciprocate comments etc, or spend more time on forums etc. This is because my current workplace doesn't allow me to browse to these types of communities over the internet - so instead I just share them on the blog.

The writing side of things does influence vastly my creativity. The blog has opened up a world of virtual friendships, and relationships, and because it gets a reasonable readership, marketers sometimes offer me free books etc to review. Those books are normally centred on creativity - so I get those to read and comment on for the readers.

But blogging also can stiffle my actual ability to create actual things. It's not like I'm writing a book which will eventually one day (if very lucky) be published and therefore finished. Recently, because of time problems I've not paid as much attention to the blog as I should be - and consequently lost a bit of readership. The world is passing me by because I've not written the many blogs I'm known for, or not commented on something which has happened in the industry. When I feel pressured to write a blog article just for the sake of retaining the blog itself, then you will find me suffering also with a loss of layout creations. Although I spend as much time crafting the blog articles (sometimes hours of thinking to try to put something down correctly) as a scrapbook layout, this attention to the blog constrains my ability to actually get some scrapbooking done. And if I don't scrap, then the contrariness to this is that people may well question what right I have to talk about scrapbooking - if I don't do it.

There's a cost in blogging also - just like with actual crafting. More readership means more bandwidth issues - and I've constantly struggled with this one.Thankfully my blog service has just recently doubled it's bandwidth limits, allowing me to continue for a bit longer, and this is good - because I love doing it, and want to do more of it. But sometimes you do feel obligated to provide your loyal readership (even if it is just one or two friends and relatives) with blog content. You see that struggle constantly on other scrapblogs, where lots of blog authors start apologising for not attending their blogs more often. Ironically, we don't apologise for not attending our other creative mediums - the altered arts or scrapbook layouts which accompany our blogs.

Another irony I've noticed - because I spend so much time detailing things within a blog entry, painstakingly looking at words used, and the ideas and concepts I am trying to discover within myself also. By the time I go to actually create a scrapbook layout I normally can't be bothered with copious journaling. Yes, I know that we all should be journaling much more, for the sake of the future generations trying to work out what the layout is showing them - but I seriously can't be bothered. I stick to the dates, and a title if you're lucky. See, I told you I'm a writer at heart, and blogging is actually my better creative outlet.

Comments

[Terri Conrad]

Hey there Angie,

WONDERFUL inteview - this needs to be a regular feature for you on one of your blogs. I've got all kinds of new & interesting people and places to visit now. My first stop will be down under to visit Michele. OMG, I didn't even know blogs existed until just this past year, Michele. You must have it wired (ha, pun not intended!).

And Melba, as always I love your blog!

Terri Conrad

[Samm]

Great interview, very interesting!!! : )

Samm
x

[Juliana]

Great interview! I really like reading Michelle's blog.

[Katie the Scrapbook Lady]

Great interview! I love to read Michelle's blog also :)

[Melba]

Very interesting interview Angie and Michelle!

Michelle I enjoyed your Easter layout of your daughter last year and the lay out you made to look like comics...very cool!

The links were awesome too!

Thanks for the interview!
XO,
Melba