Honoring Artists: Ethical Sharing in Creative Communities

Ever wondered how artists can honor each other's work while still sharing techniques with new audiences? Dive deep into the transformative power of ethical collaboration as we explore what happens when creators support each other with integrity and purpose.

Through my recent partnerships with artists like Natasha Smart and Ali Kay, I've witnessed firsthand how respectful collaboration creates ripple effects throughout the creative community. When Natasha graciously allowed me to teach her wet felting techniques in my U.S. studio, every student received her book and joined her private Facebook group—ensuring her work reached new admirers while maintaining her connection to the process. Similarly, Ali’s Fresh Paint approach has empowered countless beginners to discover their artistic voice, inspiring me to develop simplified techniques that make painting accessible to younger students without expensive materials.

These partnerships reveal an often-overlooked truth: ethical collaboration strengthens the entire creative ecosystem. By recommending original artists' preferred suppliers, maintaining memberships in their groups, and properly crediting their influence, we support multiple small businesses while honoring creative origins. The real magic happens when someone learns something they never thought possible—watching that transformation is why I'm planning a multi-day creative retreat next year in Ohio, bringing together diverse artists to share their unique perspectives in person. Whether you're into wet felting, fiber arts, painting, or sculpture, there's something incredibly powerful about learning directly from passionate creators who want to see you succeed.

Ready to explore collaboration in your own creative practice? Reach out to artists you admire, maintain transparency about your intentions, and find ways to ensure they're properly compensated for their knowledge. Follow along on social media or visit Brewtifully.com to see our upcoming classes, including more wet felting in October and our new after-school programs. Whatever your creative journey, remember that meaningful partnerships can open doors you never imagined possible!

Chapters

• 0:06 Welcome to Brutally Made
• 0:25 Collaborating with Natasha Smart
• 1:47 Allie Kay's Fresh Paint approach
• 4:13 Supporting artists while sharing
• 6:18 Creative retreat dreams
• 8:22 Upcoming classes and final thoughts

Transcript

Speaker 0: 0:06

Hello everyone, welcome back to Brutally Made. I am in the studio here and another part of my mural in the celebration room you can see behind me, and just wanted to say hello and talk a little bit about collaborating. I love working with other artists and just finished up a series of lessons based on Natasha Smart her beautiful, wet felting on a ball class and when I saw the book was available and she's in the UK, I reached out to her to ask if I could, you know, share her work, get a book for every student work with the suppliers that she uses to offer these in the studio here in the United States, and she said yes. She said to add all of the students into the private group that she has on Facebook, and so I really want to thank her for allowing me to collaborate that way. Part of that lesson is you get a copy of her book. I always want to make sure that that, going back to her, because she was so gracious enough to allow us to do that here and practice that beautiful method, and I just love how artists open up their heart and let other people work along with them in ways that makes what they do accessible and sharing. Another person, allie Kay, who I've done lessons with remotely. Everything's been online. She has her Fresh Paint group and she is very open to hey, I'm going to show you how to do this and you can, you know, paint it in your your way, following my directions. Show you how to do this and you can paint it in your way, following my directions. If you sell it, you sell it. Another approach to the art world that is unexpected and that opened the door for a lot of people sharing their paintings for the first time and they're always talking about that in the private group how it just broadened their horizon and they're entering contests or they're entering galleries with their work based on her style.

Speaker 0: 2:35

And I've developed a real quick little painting technique based on what I've learned from her, allowing any age to paint very loosely and freely. We don't do any paint mixing. That's a science that may be a little intimidating to a younger crowd. So I keep it with even craft paints. We don't even use the really nice expensive acrylics. So a different spin on it totally, but still using those broad strokes, layers, lots of complementary colors and having fun and bringing that back into kind of like your art practice, and so just keeping that open mind if you are sharing something that you're doing and try your method and share it where they live. Consider that because it is. It's just like life-changing to someone when they learn something that they didn't think that they could do. And I think that it's wonderful to have that open, the openness and the willingness to to do that. And so I'm in Allie's Fresh Paint. You know I support her by being part of that group, so I think that that is something really important to me when I continue to. You know I don't really paint any of the projects that she shares, but I still am part of the group and Natasha's work I you work.

Speaker 0: 4:15

Like I said, I purchased her books. I really wish I could get them signed. I know I could order them. I don't even know if I'd be able to get them from the UK now with everything going on, but yeah, it'd be really great if they were signed. But I'm not, I'm just getting them direct to get them into the student's hands. And then Living Felt is the supplier she suggested to use here in the States and so bought all kinds of supplies from them and supporting their company by sharing that work as well.

Speaker 0: 4:48

So it really has a trickle down effect to other small businesses and I think that that's really important to keep in mind how that community can broaden just by one person's willingness to share what they do and allowing someone to you know, continue sharing that kind of in a way that honors what they do and still supports them as well. You know, this is not at all like wanting to tell you that you see something that you like and you're just going to do it on your own and not, you know, compensate that original artist. Don't do that. That's not what I'm saying at all. You know. I'm wanting to make it very clear that you know you include, you get permission, they know that you're doing those things you share. Transparency is very important, so but yeah, consider that If there is someone that you admire, someone that's doing something that you would love to contact them about, opening the door to doing that practice where you're at, because maybe they're not local reach out and ask and if it works out to where it is that you're teaching that method or maybe you're crediting them, I would love to arrange some sort of creative retreat and having all of these different wonderful artists here teaching them in person.

Speaker 0: 6:16

That's a dream of mine and the next year a goal of mine is to hold a multi-day event to have people come in and showcase what they do and people attend and there's beautiful places around here to stay and just make it a big creative event here in my community. I think that that's really important and I hope to do that soon. It's a beautiful destination. There's a lot that we can offer here in Ohio and I want to showcase it for sure. So I just wanted to talk a little bit about the collaboration and check out my social media posts, where we made our wet felting bowls and vases, and we do have another class in October and people are getting excited. So, and I can't wait to do more felting, I have some other projects that we're going to do, and then we have a fiber arts guild and they're working on a painting with fiber class that I think will be fun.

Speaker 0: 7:19

And again, in this studio we do all kinds of things, from painting to fiber arts, to trying different sculpting and more. So it's very it's full of exploration. That's important to me. It's not just one thing, it's all kinds of things. So people, can you know, enjoy being creative in multiple ways and there are a lot of beautiful people out there in the world that do a lot of great things and include them in your plans, make them part of your curriculum, reach out to them, tell them you admire them, tell them that you, you know, would love their assistance, support. How can you make sure that they're um equally compensated and uh honored with uh notification that you, you're using their methods or or however you need to to word it, but it's, you know, it's something to help that community and that networking grow.

Speaker 0: 8:19

So I hope you have a beautiful Friday and I cannot believe we're heading into a new season here soon and a new month. Oh my gosh, it is coming fast. So this year is flying by, flying by, but take care, and I will talk to you again and I can't wait to see what you do. If you're having some unique classes, let me know. Um. I share what we do all the time on my social medias and on Brutiflycom. I always have my calendar up there. You can always see what we're doing. School's starting, so I have private art lessons, I have homeschooling lessons, we have after-school programs. It's my first year doing things like that and I'm very excited about them. So take care, have fun. Stay brutally made because you are here's a moment to be free. Thanks for listening. Talk to you later. Bye.