The Power of Nostalgia: Sparking Inspiration from the Past

As I unravel the treasures I've found in a recent thrift shopping spree, you'll discover the magic of vintage and analog items and hear how they inspire creativity, in me! These physical objects can spark a flurry of creativity even in our digital world.  The next generation might find their muse in the most unexpected places, like we did, but we need to plan to leave something behind in this digital age.

The past has a way of sneaking into the present. Experience the joy of nostalgia and memory preservation through tangible items. Take a journey through the pages of old books, reel into the world of classic movies, and look through the corridors of vintage art. You'll hear the story of how an old afghan can transform into a cozy jacket, proving that the old can be made new again.

Stay safe, stay curious, and stay inspired!

The doodle today is Batman at a renaissance fair! LOL

Kiki Mundo- Artist

UPPERCASE Magazine

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

Hi, welcome back to Brutally Made. Yay, it's Friday. It is also another week closer to Christmas, so very excited. Not quite the weather that's very seasonal around here, but let's see what our doodle will be today. Get us started when it draws. Says Batman going to the Renaissance Fair. I really struggled with them last week. If you didn't see her, she was not the greatest, but I will attend Batman. Oh my gosh, the Renaissance Fair.

Speaker 1: 0:59

I was at a Renaissance Fair, worked as a winch at a tent years and years and years ago. I think my oldest daughter was 84. I sewed fabric hats and sold them with a home jewelry and things over. It was actually over at Clay's Park. The guy that played like Moses in the Tank of Amidst I think he was there as the king kicking everything off and it was like a big deal. Gosh, it's just been forever ago. I don't even remember their actors name, but it was fun and got to attend that. I remember also going to that restaurant that they have the jousting and stuff like that, that Renaissance experience. I think it was a Bartle Beach or something like that. That was fun. I didn't think they had utensils. She had to drink the soup out of their heavy, pure bowl and eat with your hands. It was an experience, but yeah, those were my Renaissance experiences. It's probably going to look a little bit like those first-hand accounts that I've had.

Speaker 1: 2:17

Oh boy, I have just some thoughts around vintage and just the analog curiosities that inspire you. I went with a friend last weekend and we went thrift shopping and it was such a great time. We had a blast. I think we spent nine hours. By the time we went to brunch shopping, ended up having to go to dinner because we had chopped all day and went to multiple places throughout our community. It was just a blast, but it just got me thinking about what inspires you and what's left behind that you can look at and gather your thoughts around or be inspired by color or pattern and I am one to love to draw digitally because it's so convenient. But what's going to be left, like 20 years from now, because there aren't like tons of magazines in New Yorker and everything is in the cloud and everything is digital what's going to be left to inspire these next generations and so they can refer to our work and say this was, you know, in the 2000 and 10s and 20s and 30s and 40s, you know, if everything is digital, is it going to be accessible to everyone? You know what's the future going to hold for being able to be inspired by things. And I say that because I ran across so many gosh, so many things that reminded me of my childhood and reminded me of like we had that.

Speaker 1: 4:09

When I was little I got this really cool battery operated. I had a pond and everybody skates on it, but it was magnets and I remember having this when we were little and it was a big deal. I loved it. Every year that we set it up and the thing is like almost complete and it was like bright reds and greens and blues and just the pond top had yellowed over the years. I didn't care, I bought it. It was like seven bucks at Goodwill and I was so excited and it worked. My husband and I had to take it apart a little bit and there was like fake snow that was stuck in the motor and we cleaned that out and he got the motor to work again and put four C batteries in it and boom, it works. And I was just thrilled.

Speaker 1: 4:57

And we went to the bin store, which is the Goodwill outlet here, and literally there are just carts and carts and carts just full of everything that was donated and you buy it per the weight. You know you will your cart up onto the floor scale and they weigh it like glasses one price and clothes and everything else is another price. I had this penguin in my cart and it looked like it was covered in ice. It was the plastic little bits and it was electric, so I had to take that out. It was priced on a different scale and I had no idea if it would work or not. I got it home, plugged it in, it lit up, it worked and everything was there. The little wings were on it and it's like 18 inches tall. I was like, oh my gosh, this works. It's so cool and it was vintage.

Speaker 1: 5:53

And in that whole cart of stuff that I got I got this beautiful book that had never been opened and it was how to do Chinese brush lettering and I'm sure the paint I mean nothing has been opened. Everything is there. The inkwell is there, all the paints are there. There is a wolf hair brush in there and I was just floored. This has never been touched. It was from the 90s and the brushes are in perfect. Everything is in perfect condition. I got to see what this other hair is because my husband was just like cracking up. He was like this doesn't have a wolf hair brush Goat, the other brush is a goat hair brush and I'm very excited to practice with this because I want to work on different lettering but I could do it with like an analog touch. It's a real lettering kit and it's beautiful and there's instructions on how to do the lettering and I just was just floored that the whole thing was complete and that was in the bins. I grabbed that.

Speaker 1: 7:15

I also found a complete set of these cards and the artist I never heard of her. It's called the Kiki Collection and they were all drawings of different women, like in friendship. They're hugging one another arms around another birds and it's in Spanish and I looked her up and her name is Kiki and she still has art online and it is gorgeous and they were just so vibrant and beautiful and colorful and I'll share some pictures of them in the show notes and I put them on my Instagram, I believe, so you can take a look at that. There was a complete set and it was just in those bins and I grabbed the whole box and they're beautiful. But then the magazines like my latest uppercase magazine came in, which is just phenomenal, one of my favorites. And if you have a favorite creative magazine that you love getting, let me know what it is, because in 2024, I want to subscribe to a couple more because they're just so inspiring. And, like the uppercase magazine, I got to renew my subscription because it is over and I got my notice with the magazine. But the scent of it, the inks and the paper it just takes me back to the wood floor library that I grew up going to and the smell of those books. It just reminds me of that so much.

Speaker 1: 9:04

And there's this beautiful color theory card inside that she had placed in there for us to use to put together, curate our own color, and I don't even want to paint on it. I know it's not supposed to be precious, but I just want to make copies of it so I can keep them and say, ok, this is my color theory for this year and maybe I'll do it again next year, but it's just beautifully curated and the whole issue is about color and it's just so many different ways that you celebrate color. There's inspiration with fiber art. There's inspiration with paint. There's inspiration with different types of fiber art. So it's not just fabric, there's weavings in there, there's yarns in there and it's just fabulous. And it's just taking me back to that question at the beginning of this is what are we going to do if everything is digital and we have nothing that we can just hold onto and keep and refer to and look back on? And we're looking at it through a glass lens on our phone or computer and I just there's something to be said of having that book in hand, that magazine in hand, that product in your hand, and painting with a real brush, a real goat hair brush, a real wolf hair brush, and going back old school. And I see so many artists and people doing that and I know that there's a big shift in how people are going completely online and their brick and mortar are closing restaurants. I mean, it's just such a chaotic scene with how people are showing up to support businesses, even small businesses, but there still is a need to have something physical to attend and I saw how evident that was.

Speaker 1: 11:05

Over the weekend I also had a market that I was part of. I got to paint faces on the kids, and some adults too, and it was so much fun and it's a curated art market in our area and it was the Christmas market and it was huge. It was at our cultural art center and it was two buildings and over 120 or 130 vendors and it was from 9am until 4pm and it was packed the whole time. I was swamped the entire time and I loved every moment of it. I loved being able to talk to people and interact with people. There were people that were online meeting on me. I tried to paint fast, but you know, have something cute for the kids and my friends came by and I was so swamped I could hardly like talk to anybody, but it was so much fun. I love the chaos of that. I love people being so joyous to support small businesses and finding unique things as gifts and really putting thought into finding something for someone. There was so much variety and it was just so much fun. I just art brings me so so much joy and I get so much joy supporting other artists.

Speaker 1: 12:35

I'm excited to see, like some new murals coming up in our community Things that, yeah, I submitted for I didn't get. I don't care, they're going on the wall, somebody else is gonna get celebrated and I cannot wait to show up for that. I can't wait to promote it and share it and tell people to go see it. And it's more color in the world, it's more art in the world. It's people doing what they love, and if you can just support that, that's huge, but also leaving something behind that inspires somebody else, and we have to do that. So I think that's why it's so important, if you do create things digitally, that you find ways to put that design and those ideas on things that are cards or products or something that you can physically hold and enjoy. We all love having curated social media accounts and things like that, but you can't share those. I mean share them and enjoy them, to fully enjoy them. I hope that makes sense. Yes, I love going through those things, but I want to own something that someone has made. I want to get to see it and enjoy it. And I'm not talking about, like fast fashion or things that aren't, you know, meaningful. You know we all make junk too. We all make things that are just like out there, but I think that it's so really important to have that physical presence and pieces of art and share those things.

Speaker 1: 14:24

I was talking to another artist friend of mine. I bought a piece that he does rest hint, and it was a watercolor of an oil rig that are out in the fields here and my daughter loves my oldest daughter loves those things and they just immediately made me think of her. And he had a watercolor drawing but and I bought it at one of those curated arches I saw him there and his home was on the home tour for the decorated Christmas homes for our library system and I was helping a friend at hers and I didn't get to go see all the other homes but I knew his was there so I told him I'm like, oh, I missed your house. I'm really sorry. I really wanted to see it. I heard it was gorgeous, you had silver and gold theme. And we were laughing.

Speaker 1: 15:14

I said, and I still haven't sent that picture to my daughter because I love it so much. I'm enjoying it right now. And he goes. I loved painting that picture. He goes, I painted that years ago. He goes, you're the only person that has bought that print. And I was like that's what? And he said, yeah, he goes. No one else has ever bought that print, you're the only one. And I couldn't believe it because it's beautiful and I was like I love that print, I want to go buy some more. I'll buy myself one the next time I see him and I'll send the other two Riley. But I was just floored by that. It was something that he was drawn to and enjoyed painting it and for him to share that with me and let me know that.

Speaker 1: 15:58

I was just like, but I can't believe that I will put a link in my shout-outs to his work, because he does have an online shop and he's a beautiful artist and I think he and his partner's home was the second or third most beautiful garden in this contest that, like better homes and gardens voted on, like the whole nation voted on and theirs got second or third. I'll have to. I'll link that whole story in my shout-outs too. That's right down the street, I mean, that's right here in Cain and it was just like unbelievable, unbelievable. The multifaceted artist with the gardens and the tomfils and he outs with it and just it's incredible and I love again hearing this story.

Speaker 1: 16:49

I still can't believe I'm the one who has that print. He may have forgotten his old one. I just it's too pretty. I can't believe nobody else got it, so I just I really saw so many things when I was out and about rich shopping and it just was like, man, what's the nostalgia gonna be in 10, 20, 30 years? What's it gonna be for other people? Oh, I love someone says Instagram and I've followed them for years and I remember saying that, and let me see if I can find it again. That doesn't count. You know, someone's got this gorgeous home that they've shared their pictures and that was it. There's nothing left that I can open up, hang up, place, pass down, because it was just digital.

Speaker 1: 17:44

We can't leave that legacy. We have to continue to create nostalgia. I don't want that to go away. I really want there still to be things that we love and hang on to and share in their physical, things that we can hold and the scent brings back that memory and I'm inspired by it. So just keep that in mind and share with me. What inspires you? What's things from the past that you see and it's just like is it a golden book or is it? If it's a movie, don't we go out and try to find that movie? So we have it, so it's not just something in our memory but something we can enjoy over and over again.

Speaker 1: 18:36

So I'm all for having a fun social media presence, but I think we also need to have some physical things that represent us and not create nostalgia, especially for the next generation, and that make it accessible so many people can enjoy it. Those are my thoughts, based around some experiences I've had lately, because I really just had a blast going out and about and getting just this warm, fuzzy feeling. Maybe it's the holidays, maybe. If only one thinks that you know you have a different thought on it, let me know. I'm all for taking something old and making something new from it so you enjoy it.

Speaker 1: 19:22

I did buy this really cool afghan that I am taking sweater. I will share that. I love the colors on it and it was like super cheap it was like $10 and I've washed it and dried it and I'm going to make a jacket out of it because I will wear that and enjoy it and I love that I can include the beautiful knit. These were all granny squares, beautiful afghan, so this one's got a really cool edge on it, great for the edges of the jacket and the sleeves, and I will share pictures when I'm done. And yeah, it's just something that I like to do. So thanks so much for joining me. I hope that gets your ideas thinking of like how you can meet that legacy and create that nostalgia.

Speaker 1: 20:13

This poor little Batman, this little horse, sorry, sorry to do the disservice to horse lovers everywhere. Kari, if you're listening, I'm really sorry You're in your US forces and I really don't know how to draw them that well, but this was a doodle. Oh, my goodness, look at the stuff. Yeah, look at me. All right, I have a wonderful, wonderful weekend. I'm excited. My brother and sister-in-law and niece are going to be here and we're going to this huge Christmas event and I love when our family comes to visit, so I'm really looking forward to the weekend. I hope you are too. Stay safe and remember that you are prudently made. I will talk to you next time. Have a great weekend. Bye.