Category: News

Keynote Speech with Live Drawing for Medium

Finding who you are as a creative person — be it writer, visual artist, musician, is a life-long endeavor. If you really want to find your voice, you have to listen to yourself first and foremost. And be patient with yourself!

Last weekend, I was invited to speak at Medium Day and here is the recording. During the half hour, I talked about finding your voice and all the vicissitudes of that — both joy and pain. I drew for the camera as I talked.

Why is it we love to look at art, or listen to music or laugh at a cartoon? I think it’s the celebration of the human spirit that is at the core. We are all creative beings, some of us just express it differently than others. I believe doctors, lawyers, cooks, teachers, social workers, store clerks are all creative in their unique way. It’s all about that relatedness.

I sort of remember when I first saw a line drawing. I was drawing as a really young child, but when I discovered that there were others who did it too in books and newspapers, I was transfixed. I am not alone! Every line drawing I saw from then on was “mine,” meaning I felt it was done for me. I felt connected to that artist.

During my session, the Q&A function was not showing up on my screen, glitches happen! But there were many questions, and Medium sent them to me. I will try to answer some here in this post and more in a subsequent post.

Q: How do you get your ideas?

A: It’s a matter of sitting at your desk and drawing what comes into your mind. I look at the news and culture stories to spark my brain, particularly for topical things….what people are doing in this world! And I write it down, next to the doodles. And then sit with them all, and try to put things together.

Q: How was your mentality in the first few years of submitting to The New Yorker?

A: At first, I was full of hope and excitement. Once I sold one, I felt encouraged, almost like an intern. Then, the sales were really slow, and that was hard. I had a job, which was good to pay the rent. But it was hard to keep my focus and understand how to keep going forward. I almost quit. But happy I didn’t! It helps to confide in a trusted fellow creator, which is what I did. He helped me stay encouraged.

Q: How do you listen to yourself? Can you elaborate?

A: I guess what I mean is to be still and listen to where your mind goes, That’s for the creative part of finding what interests you, what words and ideas and concepts your mind gravitates to. Then it’s also about understanding why you are doing what you are doing.

Q: How do you balnace the political and partisan divide and keep your ideas more central to the issue at hand?

A: It’s tough. First of all, I try to take attacking out of the picture, although I have done my share of attacking politicians. But it’s a matter of reading a lot of news and trying to find the essence of what its about. For example, what is the partisan stuff all about? Why are we like this? Where does it come from? It’s stepping back and looking at the big picture and not get caught up in my personal tastes or dislikes.

Q: How do you silence the negative thoughts in creative work?

A: I once heard from a writer (wish I could recall the name of who it was) that you have to acknowledge those thoughts. Accept that they will be there, it’s normal. Then tell the thoughts to sit over in the corner and not bother you! Just keep doing, keep creating. Or, acknowledge them and take the afternoon off and do something else for a while. You will come back refreshed.

Q: What did you wear to the Oscars?

A: ha! I wore a black dress, of course! They require the press to wear black tie as well, and we are instructed to wear black or navy (no bright scarlet dresses!) so as not to overshadow the talent.

I will answer more of the questions in a subsequent post.

Here is a video Medium did about me, it was so fun.

https://noteworthy.medium.com/liza-donnelly-c848c1d06ac4

 

Yo-Yo Ma and Me

Recently, I was given the privilege to be onstage and draw and improvise with master cellist Yo-Yo Ma. It was an incredible honor.

I drew, he played. I watched him, and the audience; he watched me and my drawing as it appeared onscreen. It was a multiple collaboration. I responded to what he was playing, he responded to what I was drawing. In between the playing and drawing, we discussed many things, moderated by Stage Director Guy Ben-Aharon.

Some drawings were of the audience, some of Yo-Yo, and one was pure imagination in response to his playing.

Two arts interacting.

A beautiful stage. Our conversations were moderated by Director Guy Ben-Aharon, on the right
Me “directing” Yo-Yo

 

I drew the audience as we began. Everyone takes a marble and puts it in a jar as it is passed around. Even Yo-Yo and I did the same.
Yo-Yo turned to face me and played one of my favorite songs, the Bach Cello Suite No. 1 . He played directly to me as I drew him.

 

This was pure imagination, a drawing in response to “angry” music.
A drawing of Yo-Yo playing an “angry” composition

 

The final collaboration was about hope. Yo-Yo played a medley of songs of hope, I drew the audience. Why the audience? Because it was a diverse gathering, with people of all ages, races, colors and different communities. The Jar, where this was held, strives to bring together such gatherings through an intentional Convener Model. It’s a wonderful non-profit that you can read about, here. It was founded by stage director, Guy Ben-Aharon, who also beautifully moderated the evening.

The evening really felt like a community.

I learned so much. We talked and created about passion, fear, hate, anger, hope, laughter, joy. Art is about connection. The two of us connected as we created, but we also connected with those observing.

Art is interactive.

I hope we touched others. Through our expression, I believe we were able to provide a bridge between us all in our shared humanity.


After the event, we did a shoot in front of a large drawing I did earlier. These photos were taken by the amazing photographer and my friend, Eric Korenman

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With Guy Ben-Aharon

 

We had so many great converstations throughout the night.
by Eric Korenman

 

 

Additional photos by Anna Olivella.

 

Democracy In Tennessee Has Gone Missing

The Tennesse House of Representatives voted to expel two Democratic members yesterday, after they were vocal on the House floor, protesting in favor of gun control. There were actually three Democratic Representatives who protested, but the one representative who is White did not receive enough votes to be expelled. The two young Black men did. The three protestors, now being called the Tennessee Three, are Justin Pearson, Justin Jones, and Gloria Johnson.

“What is happening here today is a farce of democracy,” Jones said at the beginning of his 20-minute defense. “What is happening here today is a situation in which the jury has already publicly announced the verdict. What we see today is just a spectacle. What we see today is a lynch mob assembled to not lynch me, but our democratic process.”

He continued, “We called for a ban on assault weapons, you responded with an assault on democracy.”

I hope the two expelled members run again. This is outrageous.

 

Trump Not In Control

I am watching the coverage of the indictment of Trump, and live-drew the above from a CNN feed. In my drawing above, he’s leaving the room where he learned of all the 34 felony counts against him, heading to the courtoom where he will plead. It was immediately noticable to me that the man in front of him as the group walked through this door, did not hold the door for him. The door fell against his body and he had to push it open. It was very symbolic to me. Trump is in custody and is not in control of everyone around him.

He looked sullen, sad, little, very angry.

If there were more I could live-draw, I would, but I don’t like to draw from others’ photographs.

From my newsletter, Seeing Things:

Ever since Trump was running for office in 2016, I drew him as I do above, in short pants. I always thought he was like a schoolyard bully, persistently pushing people around, manipulating the truth, humiliating and belittling others to get his way.

I drew him on Lady Justice’s scale because, frankly, I could not think of any other way to depict this moment. It’s historic, and while I have ridiculed Trump in drawings before, I did not see a need to do that now (except maybe slightly, in the way I drew him). Nor could I figure out how to encapsulate all the nuance of emotions, anger, and fear of this moment in a pen line.

We don’t know what will happen.

I see the indictment of Trump as democracy in action. He is not above anyone. I suppose it is a test in that never before in the history of our Republic has a former President been charged with a crime.

Trying to understand it all, I think it boils down to this: in 2016, did the Trump campaign (via his “fixer” Michael Cohen) pay Stormy Daniels hush money to:

1. protect his family (as his lawyers claim), or

2. protect his candidacy for President.

Whether hush money can be counted as a campaign donation is not settled law. And we don’t know specifically what all the many counts are against him.

This weekend will be interesting. Before his arraignment on Tuesday, Trump will try to rally his base with a lot of lies and threats, attacks and accusations. Republicans will have to take sides. Democrats will have to be cautious.

And we wait.

Is it ironic that Lady Justice is a lady, and this indictment, in part, has to do with Trump’s interactions with a lady?