Because of Course We Did
Join Birdie & Ben, two artists from Appalachia, as they talk about life as artists in modern day, mental health, and recovering from religious and homeschool trauma.
Spend some time with them as they discuss the intricacies of the artist's life, their growth in their individual pursuits, and let them encourage you to grow in your own artistic journey.
Because of Course We Did
EP3 - On Nature
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In this episode we delve into the nature and how it inspires us. We discuss how nature influences our art, how we find inspiration in the woods, and explore the importance of mindfulness and presence when engaging with nature. So get into the weeds with us about the role of nature in our creative pursuits.
From our little corner of Appalachia to wherever you're listening, thanks for hanging with us.
However you're feeling right now, we hope you leave a little more encouraged to create. If this episode resonated with you, sharing it with someone who needs it means more than you know.
New episodes every other Thursday. You can follow the show, browse past episodes, and find more information at becauseofcoursewedid.buzzsprout.com.
Be kind to yourself, and keep making art.
- Birdie & Ben
Our art:
Birdie: thedawnbird.com
Ben: dwellertor.com
Hello everyone, I'm Ben.
SPEAKER_01And I'm Bertie.
SPEAKER_00And welcome to Because of Course We Did, where we discuss life as a modern artist, the way people react to us and the things that we do, and occasionally talk about recovering from religious trauma or mental health journeys and all sorts in between.
SPEAKER_01Today we're going to be getting into the weeds about nature and how it's an inspiration for both of our work.
SPEAKER_00How is it an inspiration to your work?
SPEAKER_01Well, we went on a walk yesterday.
SPEAKER_00I like going on walks.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I don't know. Where do we start? Um I was thinking about you recording nature things to inspire you.
SPEAKER_00I do like to do that. I have a Zoom H2N. Uh thinking about upgrading. I might actually like I got this little podcast recorder. Could use both of these microphones for capturing some sick sounds out in the world. So I might do that. But yeah, I'd just kind of stick it out there in the world, and then we go on a walk. And then whenever we come back, I've got some sick nature tones.
SPEAKER_01And how do you want to use those? Are you going to like mix them into your songs or is it just to inspire you or uh both of those things?
SPEAKER_00I I do want to mix them into songs. Um, there's some work that I really like that has that, and I just think it's neat to include some bird sounds and wind noises and whatever else you can have. It if you have something related to the lyric material, it can really bring someone there, which is really cool. Um, but there's also some sound design stuff that's really cool. You can turn sounds like bird sounds or whatever else into instruments or feed them into instruments. So you can make a whole load of things. And I just listen to it while writing because it locks out the world and puts me somewhere somewhere that I want to be.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Always want to be in the woods.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah in the woods. I'm surprised we're not in the woods right now. We should be. It's a little chilly today, though. It is a little chilly today.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I feel like all my work is inspired by nature.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah. There's you know, you you go on about that, but I love the designs that you have for your uh for the prints and the embroidery. Why don't you expound on that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I make various kinds of bags, purses, and zipper bags, and I make lino cut prints and everything, and they all have nature themes. I feel like nature is the most beautiful thing that the world is, and putting it into nature, like putting your work and mixing it with nature, like it's a beautiful collaboration.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. That and you are nature, like you're a part of nature, so it's it's cool to bring who you are to your art.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um, yeah, and I I write sometimes, and that's all nature focused. I I don't really know what what is better inspiration than nature, honestly. Like, I mean, I've never been one for like political poetry or like I don't know, like art that has like a a meaning for now, you know. It lacks I mean, there is definitely space for that sort of thing, but it lasts lacks a timelessness that I think a lot of um art that we think is that we call important, um, it encapsulates nature, including human beings. Like I like if it's too much, I mean it sounds like I'm saying that like art that isn't nature is bad, it's not, it's fairy of its time.
SPEAKER_00We really like you know a lot of that stuff, but it's not normally what we end up producing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I I feel like it's an important thing that if you don't feel inspired by it, then you shouldn't try to force it. And it's like things like current trends and political place of the world or um just opinions that are current don't inspire me. And if like but it does some people, and I feel like that's great because you need both, but like they say more about the time you're living in and nature. I feel like talking about nature and connecting nature to your work, it connects through time.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. I um I would agree with that, and some examples of that would be uh Robert Frost's The Road Less Traveled. Like that's very just bumper sticker. Yeah, people love that and always have.
SPEAKER_01Well, people will always relate to nature, whereas like things that come and go of current times, they can say a lot and be very important for the time that you're living in, but they they don't last. And I don't know, I've always had this kind of feeling of legacy being important, even though it's a strange concept because I have no children and I don't like connect to my ancestry very deeply, like I do, but I also don't because I don't have like I didn't grow up with grandparents, I didn't grow up connect like feeling like strong identity of my people or anything. Right. But the idea of leaving a legacy of something beautiful has always been really important to me. Like when I was uh a kid, I used to think about that a lot about like writing, because I've been writing since I was a little kid. Horrible stuff, but you know, it's there. Um and I used to have this very morbid fantasy about people finding my work long after I'm dead and people being inspired by it.
SPEAKER_00And I think a lot of people can relate to that to be like, you know, they achieve this great work, and you know, they go down in history as one of the greats for that. And you know, I think I think a lot of people feel that way. Especially artists.
SPEAKER_01As I've gotten older, though, I'd like to be, if at all possible, recognized for my work within my lifetime. Yeah, maybe not morbid ass little kid.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, maybe not, you know, to the level of Van Gogh. Like, I don't want anything to do with how Van Gogh's life went, like his, you know, no one cared about him while he was alive, and then you know, starred him afterwards. Like that doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01Also, his greatest works that everyone loves the most are nature inspired.
SPEAKER_00That's a great point.
SPEAKER_01It's his own point of view of nature. Like, they're definitely a lot of them, they're not true to life, like always, especially his most famous of story.
SPEAKER_00Now he's definitely not true to life, but it's no, but it's yeah, it's inspired by nature, and that's yeah, that's the heart of the issue right now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I feel like I get most of my inspiration whenever for writing, especially. Like obviously, um the drawings, the carvings, the stitching I do even uh are nature inspired, but I get most of my inspiration for things that I would write when I'm out in nature. Like it's just the most inspiring place, and it feels the most real of reality, I suppose. Like, I don't know, there's so much of the world that's so manufactured and human, and like not that humans aren't nature, but we're kind of obsessed in a way with like creating something that battles nature, I guess. I don't know that counteracts nature, like we're so obsessed with that, even though we are nature. Um, but it just it feels the most real and connecting to all of nature, like actually being in nature because like you being part of it and it being part of you. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00I don't know really where I'm going with that. Just get out in nature and you'll most likely be inspired. Go look at some beautiful leaves and some adorable little birds, like pursuit of being quiet.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Like, not that nature is quiet, it's not quiet at all. But it's not like the consuming noise of life that has been common for a very long time. Like, we think about modern life and everything all the time, but like the world has always been loud and people have always had opinions, and there's always been some version for a long time at least, there's been some versions of machinery or people working or whatever. But it's like taking yourself out of the constant stream of stimulus of life and being in nature and respecting nature while you're in it and like actually letting your brain go quiet. I feel like it ends up saying more than you it is allowed during your normal everyday when you're dealing with tasks and you're thinking about what you need to do and there's stuff.
SPEAKER_00It's an escape from it. Like if you're if you go out into nature, you're not trying to accomplish anything. And I think that's one of the many reasons why it's important to do so.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and especially whenever you don't have any self-service.
SPEAKER_00That that helps as well.
SPEAKER_01I I have I have many times just turned my phone on airplane mode when I'm out on the west like, do not text me. There is no room for that here.
SPEAKER_00It it it is necessary to have that kind of peace.
SPEAKER_01But I love having my phone so I can take photos, really shitty photos, because that's all the phone camera can do. But having photos of the things, it's like it's almost I find the photo taking in nature a very odd thing. I mean, I find it odd for humans in general that we have this overwhelming need to capture things. But I understand it too, because like you see this beautiful thing, and you want to you don't want to leave it, but you also need to move on. And so it's like if you take a photo of it, it's like it you can release yourself in the moment. But there's always that difficulty of whether or not you've um been present, been present, yeah. Like this is like insane to me. Like people who are like videoing concerts or you know, only looking at everything through their screen instead of actually being present. But being present is also it's a big part of being in nature, is being present. Because if you're not present, then you might as well not gone in at all. But yeah, I do think it helps me to forces me to be more present if I can actually get out and be in nature for a while. Like I feel like I almost feel like physically ill if it's been too long.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah, I always feel so rejuvenated as soon as we get there. Like canopy overhead, birds singing, uh, dirt or gravel under my feet. I'm just I'm a happy camper. Like that cortisol just drops. Like, I'm not thinking about house projects, I'm not thinking about work projects. It's just like, wow, this is this is nice. I just I really want to be here.
SPEAKER_01It's good to want to be here.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and if there's anywhere you're like, I want to be here, you should hold on to that. Because it's few and far between. But you're right, you should uh if you can, you know, try to try to take some photos so that you have the memories, but also uh bring bring a journal or you know, use your the notes app on your phone. That's what I do. But like I feel like whenever my mind is released, um I get I leave space for ideas to come.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like I uh we were walking yesterday and I I was like, oh, you know, that's an idea, and I I wrote it down, and I just almost never do that. Um I like I'm purposefully sitting down to write to have ideas, but like just walking in the woods, I had one. I don't know if it's a good one or not, but we'll find out then you know, poking at it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I have found like for years I've done it where I've like taken photos of things when I've been out on a walk or something, and that photo can inspire me later on something. It's like bring you back. It can yeah, it can bring you back to that moment and how it felt without like having to be like, I have to come up with great ideas right now while I'm out here on this walk or I'm sitting out by this creek. And I feel like there can be some pressure sometimes to feel like I need to have inspiration now. I've been trying recently when I've gone on walks to not try to think of anything, like purposefully, don't try to force myself to come up with good ideas. Like just try to note all of the things. Note the sounds, the smells, the textures of everything that's happening, the way my body feels, doing all the what is it called? The sensory writing, but not writing. Being mindful, really being really mindful of everything around me. So when I do go to write that I really kind of have a cache of of feelings and stuff for your sense-bound writing. Yeah, and which uh everything we've read means that it makes you a better writer to really put a lot of sense of the place and into what you're writing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um yeah, I really like that about having the photo, uh, because it can bring you back to a memory, and you can use that as a jumping a jumping off point for whatever it is you're writing about for your sense bound writing. So you can be like d for the object slash destination writing, you can look at that photo and like you've like, here's some stuff I can describe it now. And um, if I have characters, it'll be pretty easy to place them there or whatever it is. If it's a a memory, you could overlay that.
SPEAKER_01What is the name of the book that we're doing currently? We're doing a workbook on learning how to better I think it's writing songs, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00But songwriting without boundaries from Pat Paterson. That man's a genius. Um but I uh if you if you're gonna read it, I would suggest reading uh writing better lyrics first, because there's just so much good stuff in there, but it'll give you kind of the concepts about everything that you need to know for writing stuff. But uh Yeah, this is just like exercises for you know getting getting your uh getting the road under your feet because that's what I struggled with. I was like, oh man, I can't get started because I have ridiculously high expectations for myself, but I also uh I want to do something incredibly great, you know, to get started. It's like if you just do exercises, you can be okay with not being great. Yeah, it's like it's not supposed to be great, it's just to be so.
SPEAKER_01That's a hard lesson to learn though, and like being okay that this is kind of shitty.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you need to give yourself permission to make shit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean that's what like a lot of the people who teach creativity try to teach you is that you have to be okay with being bad. Like you need to fail and fail quickly, you need to make shitty art, you need to do feel like things.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, a lot of times they just kind of give you those platitudes and don't really expect it to be a good thing. I need a real direction for that. And so I feel like this has been really eye-opening for me is like, oh, this is what they meant by that. I didn't know because I've not done it before.
SPEAKER_01There's a lot of gaps in education generally, and always, but yeah, it's about songwriting, but I've been doing it even though I've not really have any interest in writing songs, but I do want to write better poems. I have a sub I have a sub stack.
SPEAKER_00And she she's talking about writing better, but she's very talented. I think but it is helping your confidence.
SPEAKER_01You can judge for yourself.
SPEAKER_00If I can figure out how to get uh links and descriptions, I'll put it in there.
SPEAKER_01I've been doing this and I haven't been writing a lot for it recently. I guess I've just been like I got a little bit choked up and I wasn't really sure what I was what I'm doing. And so I've been trying to do this for a while to kind of just focus on doing this and kind of seeing where I end up with my inspiration with it all.
SPEAKER_00You've you've been doing uh phenomenally. Like the the book suggests you do it with other people. Um so it's been good to kind of just uh we'll do we'll read the examples in the book and then write our own, and then we'll pass each other's devices to each other and then uh read through them. And it's it's so cool to see how you interpreted the prompt.
SPEAKER_01Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's been really cool reading yours because like you don't you've never really shared that much of your writing with me in general. So it's been really cool to like see your perspective. I feel like it's an interesting way to get to know someone better as well.
SPEAKER_00I think he mentions that at some point, and I was like, oh yeah, I didn't think about it that way. That is really cool.
SPEAKER_01Like kind of seeing how you perceive the world in general and the way that you would react or how you are reacting to all the different stimulus around you. And it's interesting showing like how different we interpret the things or how similarly we interpret the things.
SPEAKER_00I've I've been enjoying both the the similarity and the contrast there. It's been really cool.
SPEAKER_01Like our styles are very different, but sometimes but like I feel like I guess it makes sense like we're friends, like that we enjoy things similarly, like the way we view things, like a pond or like a bird. How like how we would describe it would be similarly a lot of the time as things we both enjoy, but like little differences are interesting. But I found that like also interesting, like when we're it's interesting to go into the woods and nature and whatever on your own, but it's also interesting to do it with someone else and seeing what it is that they find interesting. Because I find often like we gravitate towards slightly different things, like even if it's the same thing, it's a different thing aspect of it. Yeah, a different different aspect of that same thing, which is interesting. And um, it's just more obvious when you're writing about it. Well, I I guess like the nature thing, because nature is something that we have always connected on. It's one of the first things we did together was go hiking.
SPEAKER_00She was like, Hey, I heard you go hiking. Take me, take me, and and then the rest was history. I did, yeah, it was wonderful.
SPEAKER_01You were you were very concerned that I wouldn't be able to handle it, but I did. I'm tough. You are tough and beautiful. Eight miles all the way up to Springer Mountain on the Appalachian Trail.
SPEAKER_00You gotta go back.
SPEAKER_01It's been a while since we've done Springer Mountain.
SPEAKER_00I want to do the whole AT.
SPEAKER_01The whole AT. The whole AT.
SPEAKER_00That's a lot of AT, man. Yeah, it will most likely be section hikes because I have other ambitions that weigh more.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you kind of have to abandon your entire life for um like nearly a year to do that. I feel like it's a very specific time in your life that is capable to do the whole AT. I, in theory, would love to do it as well, but it's also it's a lot. And if you have any responsibilities whatsoever, that's it's challenging. Yeah. But I feel like it would be a very interesting, I think it would he would fuel your writing. Like eventually, like that's such a very intense experience. Fibing my writing, bro. I'm fibing my songs to be out there like in the elements almost exclusively for nearly a year.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I need that.
SPEAKER_01Hopefully, we will be able to sort it out at some point.
SPEAKER_00Maybe I should start a GoFundMe.
SPEAKER_01Maybe. Fund my trip down up and down the Appalachian Trail. Up and down. Up and down. Do it both ways. But yeah, I mean, I suppose there's not a lot. I mean, there's less to say than I suppose I thought there was about nature and art.
SPEAKER_00I I think that was a good amount. There is it's just freaking beautiful, man. It is beautiful. I just kind of like it. I like it. I like it a lot. I like what it does to me.
SPEAKER_01It makes me happy. Except for ticks. Except for ticks. Fuck ticks.
SPEAKER_00Fuck ticks.
SPEAKER_01Damn. Damn. If I could eradicate one creature from this planet, it would be ticks. It would be ticks and and Donald Trump.
SPEAKER_00Fuck Donald Trump, am I right?
SPEAKER_01Donald Trump, am I right? Yeah. Probably a few others, but not but in reality, ticks. Ticks just need to die. Yep. They make everything so much worse. It don't need to be that way. I don't want to do tick checks. It's the worst part of the day. That's one of the worst parts about having moved a little bit more north, which I was not expecting to deal with ticks as much. Like, yeah, we have ticks in the deeper south, but not like this. Not like this. I have found three ticks in the past two days. Not thrilled. I don't care for that. That's the worst part. That's the worst part of nature is bloodsucking, infectious insects.
SPEAKER_00Lovely. You have great trees. Trees are great. Don't let the the ticks hold you back, though. You can just take them off.
SPEAKER_01Don't let the little bastards grind you down.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, don't let them. Yes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no. It is totally like it's it's totally worth it to put up with the difficulties, which is kind of an analogy for life. Like there's a lot of difficulties in life, but there is a lot of things that make living worth it. Even though there are shitty bits that make life really crap and you wish that they didn't exist. There's a lot of things that make life good.
SPEAKER_00That's true. And nature is one of those.
SPEAKER_01Nature is one of those.
SPEAKER_00So go get out in it. Yeah. Meet you out there. And and bring a sketchbook.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I want to do that.
SPEAKER_00Let's do that.
SPEAKER_01Let's do that. Well, do you have anything else to say about nature right now?
SPEAKER_00I have a lot to say about nature, but I don't think you don't think he has time. He? The podcast is a boy. Oh, I didn't know that. Uh Mazeldov.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And that's all the time we have today, folks.
SPEAKER_00Uh thank thanks for joining.
