Mind Over Medium
A Podcast for artists who want to make money doing what they love. Each week you will learn how to attract your ideal commissions, approach galleries for representation, have a great online launch of your work and how to do it all with less overwhelm and confusion. You will hear from amazing artists who will share how they have built their successful creative businesses. My hope is to create a space where artists and the creative curious can learn about one of the most important tools creative entrepreneurs need in their tool box, their mindset.
Mind Over Medium
Artistic Success through Gel Printing and Quilting with Drew Steinbrecher
Ever wondered how to transition from a graphic designer to a full-time artist? This week on "Mind Over Medium," I am thrilled to announce that our podcast is moving to Substack! This platform, with its community-building potential, is the perfect new home for us. To mark the occasion, I have an enriching conversation with Drew Steinbrecher, a celebrated artist known for his work in gel printing, collage, and quilting. Drew opens up about his transition from graphic design to art, sharing the experiences and mistakes that shaped his unique style and drove his success.
Our discussion dives into Drew's thought processes behind his artistic choices, including why he chose fiber as his primary medium and the thematic connections in his "Urban Fabric" quilt series. We underscore the importance of writing to add depth to one's work and reflect on the persistence required to shift from a graphic design career to a full-time art practice. Drew’s journey is a testament to the entrepreneurial spirit needed to find success in a creative field, making this episode an essential listen for aspiring artists.
We also spotlight the exciting world of organizing online artist summits, inspired by my experience at Kelly Conrad's event. The Collage Maker Summit and the Gel Printer Summit have been remarkable successes, and we discuss the logistics and benefits of such events. Hear about our upcoming plans, including a free event for beginner gel plate users, and gain insights into balancing creativity and entrepreneurship. Whether you're an artist looking to turn your passion into a business or someone seeking inspiration, this episode is packed with valuable advice and personal anecdotes. Don't miss it!
Connect with Drew Here and on Instagram
Connect with Lea Ann Here and on Instagram
All right, I've got some news folks. I am moving my content over to Substack. I don't know if you hang out there much. I've been hanging out there for a while, honestly, kind of lurking, seeing what it was about, seeing what the vibe was like, and I've decided I like it a lot and I hope you will too. It's a great place for us to connect and create community and there'll be a lot more details to come about how to connect with me there and maybe what you can find on some stack that resonates for you. But yeah, I just wanted to put that bug in your ear to let you know to be looking out for my content to be over there on sub stack. Of course, the podcast and everything will be on all the regular podcast players, but it's new home will be over there. So if you have any questions, just let me know.
Lea Ann:Welcome to Mind Over Medium, a podcast for artists who want to make money doing what they love. When you tune in each week, you will learn how to attract your ideal commissions approach galleries for representation, have a great online launch of your work and how to do it all with less overwhelm and confusion. You will have the opportunity to hear from amazing artists who will share how they have built their successful creative businesses. My hope is to create a space where artists and the creative curious can gather to learn about one of the most important tools creative entrepreneurs need in their toolbox their mindset. Thanks so much for tuning in to Mind Over Medium podcast. Let's get started.
Lea Ann:Hello, I'm so happy you're with me today because I've got a great guest. Today's guest is Drew Steinbrecher. If you know anything about the gel printing world, you probably know who this guy is because he has made quite a name for himself between his gel printer summit and then also his collage maker summit and so many other things. He's an amazing quilter, really talented guest, great insight. He really takes you back to how he got started, which I always think is very exciting and interesting. So, yeah, I hope you enjoy it. Hello, I'm excited for today's chat with Drew Steinbrecher. First, let me say thank you for joining me and I'd love for you to take a minute to introduce yourself Like who are you? What do you do?
Drew:Let people know what you're about introduce yourself Like who are you, what do you do? Let people know what you're about. Yeah, hi, I'm like you said, I'm Drew. Thank you for inviting me. So I am a full-time artist and I live in Cincinnati, ohio. The longest time I was a graphic designer and I transitioned over to a full-time artist and now I work in fiber printmaking, collage, and I guess you could say I'm a content creator as well, because I also have my own online classes and events.
Lea Ann:That's amazing. Yeah, you have such a distinct style. I'm sure people tell you this a lot, but when I see your work I'm like oh, there's true. Yeah, it's really great. I love how graphic it is.
Drew:Yeah, I guess that's. You know. Like I said, I have a degree in graphic design, so you know that I think has a role in my art. I don't know, I've always been influenced by more bold art, abstract art, you know. So it makes it, it finds its way into my, my own art.
Lea Ann:Yeah, yeah, that's great. Well, you've been given a heads up that I ask everybody this one question if you can describe a time in your life when you felt the most creative?
Drew:Oh, that's. That's. It's interesting. I probably would say now. Interesting, I probably would say now. I think a lot of things have led to this point and I think my creativity is a result of all my previous experiences. You know, and I don't think I would, I don't think I would be at this point without all the experiences, mistakes. You know everything prior to this. So I think you know like at some point in your life you're too naive, or you don't have as many as much experience, or you have more to learn. You know like I think all those things add up to for me at least being more creative later in life.
Lea Ann:Yeah, I agree. It's almost like you have to take all of that and put it in the big mixing bowl and stir it up and see what comes out.
Drew:Yeah, I mean you also don't know what you like early on, right Like you're trying this and that, and then eventually I think you get to the point where you just say, screw it, I like what I like, and that's what I'm going to do.
Lea Ann:Yeah, absolutely. But I agree with you when you say it does come with trial and error.
Drew:Yes, absolutely.
Lea Ann:Being willing to make a lot of mistakes.
Drew:Yeah, and learn from the mistakes.
Lea Ann:Yes, yeah. Well, thank you for that. That was great. I love your quilting work. And what was the progression? Did the quilting come first? I mean, I know the graphic design did I assume? I don't know that, but I assume that. So can you take me through just from then to now, like kind of progression?
Drew:Yeah, so you know I was when I was a kid. Probably a lot of people related to this. You take art classes and for some reason they like your. Your definition of art is that you can draw or paint and that's it Like there's. There's apparently no other options for being an artist, according to your high school art teacher or whoever.
Lea Ann:Yes.
Drew:And so I was not those things. I still don't think I can draw that well or paint, but I had a really good eye for composition and design. So that's why I did graphic design. I really wanted to do fashion design, but someone dissuaded me from doing that. So I picked, picked a graphic design, and along the way there I was having I. So I worked as a graphic design.
Drew:I was as a professional graphic designer for, oh, I don't know, 25 or 15 years or so, um, and along the way there I was having anxiety problems and someone suggested I learn how to knit. And so this was the time it was probably around 2000 when there was that whole craft kind of Renaissance, and like knitting became popular and all that. Um, and so I found a book. It was called stitch and bitch, and I love that and it kind of it kind of like presented knitting as this cool thing, right, and so I was like, oh, this looks neat, maybe I'll try that. You know, someone suggested I do it to control my anxiety, and so I totally dove head first into it. Um, I still do knit a little bit, just not as much.
Drew:You know you can only have so many hand knit sweaters before you're like I don't need another one. Yeah, so along the line there, that was about the time that blogs became popular, and so I was looking online at knitting blogs and somehow came across modern quilts.
Lea Ann:Okay.
Drew:And modern quilts are different from traditional quilts in that they have a more modern sensibility or aesthetic, I guess you could say, sometimes they're more maybe minimal, you know, and kind of like.
Drew:The bold graphic quality of them really appealed to me. There's also kind of like a, like a I don't know if you would call it a subset but like a another style of quilt, quilting along modern quilting, that's art quilts, and they, um, exactly what they sound like they're more. It's essentially just um, a piece of fiber art that you would hang on the wall. They're not really functional, they don't function as a quilt, but they're a quilt in the sense that there's like a back, like a top, a middle layer, like a batting, and then a back and they're stitched through. So that's the actual quilting part of it. So technically they're considered quilts, but you would hang them on the wall like pieces of art and they can be like complex piecing or surface design. People do all kinds of painting or dyeing or whatever. And that is really what caught my eye.
Drew:And for the longest time I wanted to make a quilt and I was like no, I don't know. I don't know how to do it. They look hard, I don't know how to do it. I'm not sure I could figure it out. And one night I just said to myself you either need to do this or you need to stop telling yourself you're going to do it. So I had a sewing. I had like a $99 sewing machines and I got out the scraps of fabrics fabric I had and just started sewing and making a quilt. And this was about the time of that. Flickr was around, this was like before Instagram and so I was posting on Flickr and everyone was like freaking out about the quilts, like, wow, I can't believe these are quilts, these are so amazing. And that gave me the push I needed to start exploring this kind of artistic side other than the graphic design.
Lea Ann:Yeah.
Drew:So I like the knitting, I dove headfirst into it and really started getting a lot of traction with the quilts I was making and what I was sharing online. Um, I, I went to quilting classes. Um, there's a well-known art filter named Nancy Crow and she has these classes. She has a in her hall, not in her home, but like on her property. She has these teaching facilities in near Columbus, ohio, and she teaches these classes in the spring and the fall and they're really notoriously hard to get into. But I tried the first time. I tried to get into one. I got into one.
Lea Ann:That's great.
Drew:So I went to my first one and learn how to do all the things that I had wanted, always wanted to do with quilting. And so I was doing all these quilts. And, as you can imagine, it takes a long time to make a quilt can take months, sometime sometimes and I wanted a faster way to work so I started collaging. So I started collaging as a way because, because quilting, because, um, with art quilts, you um assemble them on a wall, right, you don't? You don't assemble them flat on a table. So, um, it's in a way, it's kind of like you're collaging with fabric in a way.
Drew:I guess so collaging made sense to me. Um, and then along, somewhere in there, I found gel plates. You know everyone was using them online and I was like, oh, that's cool, you know, I know I'll try it. I ordered one and again, I just kind of went headfirst into it, and that was when I started using a gel plate to make my collage papers is when everything just gelled together, yeah, and everything started looking very similar. I guess you could say I found my voice maybe in that process and I think that's what people respond to. Is that thread through the gold work, the monoprinting and the collage work?
Lea Ann:It's extremely cohesive.
Drew:Yeah, and I think the other thing I learned with quilting was a lot of the artists were working in series which I didn't really know before then or never, something that I realized artists did. And I think, in a way, that's kind of what I do. I'm just kind of working on one big series. You know, I could easily change my the look of what I'm doing tomorrow, but why would I? Why don't, why wouldn't I just explore down this path?
Lea Ann:I've gone so yeah, that's so interesting and what stood out to me as you were speaking and I made a couple notes it's you listen to your intuition. You followed some breadcrumbs, you tried things to see what would work and what wouldn't, and then you shared your work.
Drew:I mean, I know that's kind of a distilled version, but it's like.
Lea Ann:I feel like we get hung up as creatives in some of these steps.
Drew:Yeah, I mean, I guess sometimes I wonder if I should have just stopped at quilts and focused on that. You know what I mean. But I think artists, I think, are notoriously bored, right.
Drew:I think we get bored so quick so I think it just keeps things fresh. Like I'm already thinking, like, of another series of quilts, like you know, going back to quilts. But I don't think I'm gonna go back to what I was doing 10 years ago with quilts you know what I mean. Like it's gonna be an evolution of where I am now.
Lea Ann:Yeah, yeah, that's so fascinating I went to. Just a little side note I went to a great exhibition in Atlanta, probably last fall, of a quilt it was more the art quilts I think her name's Coulter, do you know? She's from out of Mississippi, anyway, I'm not sure yeah not any. It was amazing. The work was stunning and amazing and just what a creative use of fabric and, like you said, it is almost like a collage.
Drew:Yeah, I mean, you know the way I was doing it. I was actually piecing it as opposed to like applique. But I mean every you know every approach is fine. When it comes to art, well, you can do I mean people literally paint on a whole piece of cloth and then stitch over it. You know, it's like you can do whatever you want to do with it. So that's, I think, what attracted me to the art quilts. I do sometimes have a. I do sometimes think like, why am I making? Why am I using fiber as my medium? You know, and I I haven't found a answer to that yet, but I don't know. I don't know that that's important.
Lea Ann:But Like, might you change it? Like? When you think about that, what do you feel like the alternative would be?
Drew:I don't know, maybe I guess every artist who's not a painter maybe has to come has to answer that question for themselves. Um, because you know, somebody could easily say well, why didn't you just paint that or what you know? So I think, um, I don't think that's an answer. That's a question that I've answered myself.
Drew:yet yeah, yeah you know, like why make a quilt that you would put on the wall as opposed to on a bed, you know. So the one way I've answered that a little bit recently is by naming the pieces or like having a um, a meaning behind the piece that would make sense for why it was made out of fabric. So my most recent series of quilts is called Urban Fabric. So I think that's kind of a way for me to rationalize making a quilt, I guess.
Lea Ann:I think it's fascinating. Your work is really, really stunning and, like I said, oh sure, yeah, and there is such a through line from all your mediums, so I think what you're doing is working. Not that you asked my baby, maybe I shouldn't worry about it. Overthink I think that's what we, though it's fun to overthink it Like what if I tried this and why am I doing that?
Drew:I, I, um, I do sometimes think I need to write more about my work, and maybe that would add more, a little bit more meaning to it behind it.
Lea Ann:Yeah. Yeah, there's always so many things we can be doing. It's yeah, I think about that too more writing. Um, I resist it, though, for some reason. So how long did it take you to phase out your graphic design career to be full-time doing what you're doing now? What was that transition like?
Drew:well, I started this online class, but my first online class was in September of 2021. And it's probably only been in the last two years that I've been able to make a living from that part of my business.
Lea Ann:Yeah, so you know, 24 years, 25 years, yeah, yeah, I mean yeah, and I think that's important for people to know honestly, like because we don't really talk about that that much, not for any reason other than it's just our life and this is what we're doing. And, um, I think sometimes when people get into this creative space, they think it's like a hard stop on one thing and then we're diving in the deep end on another thing. And it's really almost never that way, not in my experience from people I've talked to or for myself.
Drew:And you know I was trying a lot of trying to be an entrepreneur in so many different ways up until now, like as a side business, and nothing really stuck until I launched that first class and I was suddenly like this, could, this, could be something like I'm going to take this and run with it?
Lea Ann:Yeah, I mean, don't they say like entrepreneurs generally have, how many failed attempts before the one thing? I don't know what the number is, but I think that's very common as well, and I don't know if failed is the right word, but attempts, I think, is the right word. Yeah, tell me about your online summits. I know that's a big part of what you do and what you offer. How did you come up with this? Like if you can just give me the story I'm fascinated by this.
Drew:Well, I was well. If you go back to right before that first class I made, which was a gel printing class, jelly plate printing class, I was in a summit that, kelly, when Conrad had made or was running, I guess you could hosting made or was running, I guess you could hosting Um, and that was my first time teaching on video, and I had thought about doing that. And she was like I think you'll be fine, I think you'll be great. Just, you know, be a part of my summit and I think you'll you'll, you'll do wonderfully, um. And I was like, okay, fine, I think this is the push I need to finally do this. And so I did it.
Drew:I was able to do it, and then I launched that first class and then I came back to her and said, okay, how do I scale the like? What do I do now? Like, do I do this again? Do I launch it again? What do I do? And she helped me navigate that and along the way I realized I really like, I really like organizing people and I want to stay out of the spotlight. I want someone else to have the spotlight and I want to be behind the scenes, like organizing everything. These are my marionette strings. I love it, and so I tried it.
Lea Ann:So you're the puppet master.
Drew:Yeah, kind of that sounds a little bit more dubious. But it does, yes.
Drew:So I thought, well, maybe I could do a summit like what she did. And I started with collage first, because at that point I wanted to transition my business into more collage than I did gel printing, um. And so, um, I was like I'm just, I'm gonna do the collage summit collage maker summit is what I called it and um it was. I did the first one and it was a big success, um, and I realized you know what I like doing this more than I like creating my own content. So I'm just going to organize other people and you know, and have their content be the summit. And then I did the gel printer summit, and that was an even bigger success, um, and so I just, um, I don't know, I think I don't think a lot of people would enjoy the process of putting together a summit, but I, I do. It feels, um, uh, effortless for me.
Lea Ann:That's amazing. I asked this cause I. I had never been involved in anything like that until just recently and had no idea what was involved from the person organizing it, and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is a ton of work on the back end. So I mean, I think it's great that you found something that you feel passionate about and it's easy for you to do, because it's no joke.
Drew:Yeah, no, I don't it's. It's so interesting. Everyone says you do a lot of work for this. I don't feel like it is you know, which I guess is a signal that I'm doing something right? Yeah, for sure, you know so, and I you know. So many people are already asking me about the next ones, and are you doing this again? And what about next year? And so for me, I think I stumbled into this business model. That is a really good one, right? Because they're already asking for next year's.
Lea Ann:Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah so it was great fun to be a part of and just exposes you to people that I probably never would be. And yeah, and just to get to teach just a little snippet of what you do is so gratifying, because I'm usually in my studio by myself, you know, and being able to verbalize what you're doing and really be succinct about it is a great tool for me to have as well. So different than teaching in person and all that. So it's it's great fun for the artist as well.
Drew:Yeah, and I think people really enjoy learning from a variety of artists right Like a variety of techniques or you know thoughts about how that person makes their art right, like that's what people want to know. They want to know how that person does that one thing.
Lea Ann:Right, absolutely, yeah, that's, that's great, and so do you do it. Do you do? You do each one one time a year.
Drew:Yeah, so we do the collage maker summits in the winter, usually in March, and then the gel printer summit is um in the fall, so that one's actually coming up. It will be. It will open in the middle of September, and then the actual event is early October.
Drew:Oh nice that's exciting this year I'm going to have a free event before, so, um, it's going to be targeted um to beginner gel plate users. Um, and about five or six of the artists are going to have short videos um explaining more beginner techniques or gel plate users. Um, and then right after that, the summit will open.
Lea Ann:That's so exciting. I think we're in a mastermind together and I think at one point I feel like I'm the only person on earth that one doesn't know how to use a Jell-O plate. Really, and the couple of times I've tried it I was like this is not for me. I think everybody else loves it. I feel like I'm missing out and I do have this desire to use it and incorporate what I create in my larger work. I mean that and it's like not a fully formed idea yet, but it's like kind of percolating back there. So I think I'm probably one of your target customers.
Drew:A lot of people. Um, you can use it as a means to an end, just to make monoprints, but I think most people are using it to create. I don't know, what you want to call it other than just collage, father or their other work. So for mixed media, for collage, we have someone in the gel printer summit. This is a little sneak peek. Who's going to do printing on t-shirts?
Lea Ann:Oh cool.
Drew:So it's a pretty versatile tool.
Lea Ann:Yeah, yeah, I just have to get my system down, I think, and yeah, that's on my to-do list.
Drew:Just to figure that out. You can do the free event and learn yes, yes, for sure.
Lea Ann:That's great. What do you think it is about the gel plate that attracts people so much? It seems to be extraordinarily popular. Is that just my opinion?
Drew:or do you think that's true? It's constantly growing. I think the one thing that people really enjoy about it is I don't know if you want to say the serendipity of it or the you know, every print's different and, yes, sometimes it doesn't work, but then a lot of times it does and it's really amazing and you don't know how you achieve that or how it worked or what happened, but it's the most amazing print that you've ever seen. I think it's also has a lot of different techniques you can use with it. You can get a lot of different effects by using different tools, like one, for example.
Drew:One of my favorite things is to use acrylic paint markers. You know, like people might know, posca pens, for example, and I found some that are very like, really wide, that make these really big, bold marks on them. And again, yeah, I could take the marker and just draw right on the paper, but by putting it on the gel plate and making that monoprint, it creates some uncertainty and you don't quite know what's going to happen, but it's something that you couldn't replicate in any other way.
Lea Ann:Absolutely. And you know, from my perspective, like having that print, I can manipulate it so much more easily than the mark on the canvas, and that is that's very attractive, like I can kind of try it out and see where it's going to go. You know, not that you can't cover over a brush stroke, but it and I I love how collage gives work such texture.
Drew:Yes, yeah, and I I know a lot, of, a lot of people like using their gel printed papers on canvases.
Lea Ann:Yeah, it's amazing. Printed papers on canvases yeah, it's amazing. I stopped my scroll on Instagram Every time you have one of those big fat markers and I get real, I'm real happy about it and I'm like, oh my gosh, that looks amazing. It's so satisfying to watch you do that.
Drew:Yeah, um, I, I don't know. I saw someone using one years ago in a gel plate and they were just adding a little fine little details to it and I was like, oh, I wonder, I wonder what I could find, I wonder what kind of markers are out there. And then I just started researching it and the the graffiti artists like using those really wide markers that you can like tag something really fast, right? So that's where they're from. You know, you just got to make sure it's acrylic paint, that's it.
Lea Ann:For sure. Yeah, definitely. Yes, make sure it's acrylic. Yeah, how did your mindset have to shift to go from being, I assume, maybe a W2 type employee or a freelance employee with your graphic design to being like, okay, I'm all in on this art thing? What did you have to contend with up here in your brain?
Drew:Do you mean just making art in general or the art business?
Lea Ann:The business part, like your mindset around business and this being a business.
Drew:When? Well, for two reasons. One was when I started making a significant amount of money. I really had to. I had to get everything in order from a legal standpoint right, so I had to get an accountant and all that kind of stuff. And then, two, when I realized I could grow the business, I really had to start thinking about marketing and, you know, like growing my email list and that kind of like how do I scale? Kind of like, how do I scale? Yeah, basically so it. It was that first class that I launched in september 21. That was the. That was the point where I was like, okay, I gotta get serious about that. Like like this, this could just be a one-off thing where I just got lucky and the class did well and that's that no well, but I saw a lot of potential in it. So that's when I was like, okay, I gotta, I gotta educate myself about business. And then I gotta, you know, find an accountant and make the business an LLC and go full force into it did you ever have self-doubt?
Drew:no, I don't. I I have self-doubt about smaller things like, for example, this free event I'm doing before the gel printer summit. Like I don't know how that's gonna go, I don't know if it's gonna be, I don't know if it's gonna pull people away from paying for this summit, so I don't know if it's a smart business decision, yeah. So I have a little self-doubt about that. Sure, I don't have any self-doubt about whether the business will, whether I'll go out of business or anything like that.
Lea Ann:Yeah, that's great, that's really good. Do you, how do you support your creativity? What does that look like for you? I know some people journal, some people meditate, some people well, you like to hike, I know that so how do you?
Drew:support your creativity photographs of either like urban landscapes or like mountain landscapes, just kind of landscapes in general, and I think in a way I'm just documenting what I see. I don't think I'm, I don't think I like taking photos because I consider myself a photographer. I think I'm actually taking them to to kind of like um co collect in a way. Yeah, and I think that kind of fuels my creativity. I'm also very good at just taking time off.
Lea Ann:That's great.
Drew:You know and not thinking about it.
Lea Ann:That's amazing. I need help with that. I really do. Do your photographs ever make it into your work on some level?
Drew:Yes.
Lea Ann:How does that work?
Drew:I usually print them out and I monoprint over top of them.
Lea Ann:Oh, okay.
Drew:Cool, nice, a lot of my more recent quilt work is actually digitally printed. Oh, cool. And it uses a lot of my photography. My work is inspired by urban environments and so a lot of that. You know like a gritty, like a wall with gritty, torn posters, or you know things like that I, I, I think that adds to my voice a lot. You know like when you can use your own source material, I guess.
Lea Ann:Yeah.
Drew:That's why I started using a gel plate in the first place, because I wanted to create my own collage fodder, yeah, and when I did that, that, like I said earlier, that's kind of when everything started looking like me. So I learned. I kind of learned from that lesson and I use a lot of my own mediums.
Lea Ann:I guess you could say I do that too with collage. And going back a little bit in our conversation it sounds like you kind of didn't stumble into collage, but it felt like, oh, let's see where this might take me. And that's kind of what happened to me as well. I'm primarily a painter, but then I was waiting for a bunch of things to dry, getting ready for some show, and I had all these little bits and scraps for something. I'm like you know, I'm just going to like see what happens, and I immediately fell in love with it. And I like saving, like old canvases, I mean, all the things that you save when you have any interest in collage is kind of crazy.
Drew:Yeah.
Lea Ann:Do you just have back, you know, buckets and bins of papers and things?
Drew:I don't have a lot. Oh, that's good, are you? Do you also post the videos of your podcast, or just the audio?
Lea Ann:Yeah, no, I'll do both.
Drew:Here, I'll just turn my laptop around.
Lea Ann:Oh yeah, I wanna see.
Drew:You can see all the paper I have on the wall.
Lea Ann:Oh, that's awesome how you do that like that.
Drew:That's posters I pulled off of the walls in New York City. Oh, that's awesome how you do that like that. That's posters I pulled off of the wall, of the walls in New York city.
Lea Ann:Oh, that's right.
Drew:I just pull everything off. And then I there are layers and layers, right, cause they just keep posting on top of each other and you can set, you can soak them in water and separate them, and they use like a wheat glue and it just comes right off after you soak it. I didn't know that, yeah. So, um, and that makes its way into my work as well, because, again, I like urban environments, so that just adds to it, right?
Lea Ann:So yeah, well, and it helps you remember too. That's what I love about using something from travel or right you travel, or nostalgic. Were you raised in an urban environment? Where do you feel like this came from?
Drew:No, I don't know. This is another thing. I don't. I have no idea where this comes from. I do know that I like, like I like things to be organized, but within that organization, within those within that it, it can be chaotic.
Drew:So it's like controlled chaos yeah like, like, if you were to like come into my studio, it looks organized. But if you maybe were to open a drawer up, there's just stuff thrown in there but it's, it's chaos, but it's contained. Yes, and I think that's kind of cities are like that in a way, right, like they're um, on the surface they look very controlled, regulated. There's obviously a lot of chaos. There's a lot of stuff going on there, right. There's something also like about the grunginess or the grittiness, um, and I don't know why. I don't, I'm not, I don't know, I haven't been able to to analyze why those things are. On the opposite side of that, I love being in the mountains, so I don't know, I'm not sure why the two opposite ends of the spectrum there, but I'm not sure why the two opposite ends of the spectrum there, but it's almost like you need one as a palate cleanser to be able to then really appreciate the other one.
Drew:You know, and back and forth like too much of a good thing.
Lea Ann:Maybe it makes sense to me.
Drew:I was raised in a small Ohio town and there was corn and soybean fields around our house. So, that's Me too.
Lea Ann:Only Illinois, yeah Corn, for as far as I could see the beans, depending on what the season was.
Drew:Right, yeah, they changed it every other year.
Lea Ann:Yes, exactly yeah. I always liked it when it was corn because it was like I had a giant fence around our house. People couldn't see.
Drew:I still can't. It's still hard for me to eat some corn on the cob, because when you have it fresh growing up, you can't.
Lea Ann:It's so true yeah. I would literally just walk out to a Because my dad would plant some sweet corn. You know, I mean, that's not anyway, we're not going to get into a whole farming discussion. But I agree, yes, yes, I am the same way. But when you do get a really good piece of good sweet corn, you're like oh yes, this is so good.
Drew:Absolutely. I mean, it makes a huge difference when it was picked and all that.
Lea Ann:Yeah, yes, I agree, that's great. Do you take time to celebrate your wins, and if so, what does that look like?
Drew:I do. It's usually I buy something for myself, and it's usually something clothing related.
Lea Ann:Nice, yeah, that's awesome. Do you have favorite brands? Nice, yeah, that's awesome. Do you have?
Drew:favorite brands? I do Probably none that anyone would know. Probably the biggest one would be Marimekko. Uh-huh, nice, yeah, I also like shoes Me too. There's a shoe brand I love called Sidewalk. Oh, I don't know this it's spelled C-Y-D-W-O-Q.
Lea Ann:Oh, maybe I do know this. Is it leather and it's kind of distressed? Yes, yes, I know what you're talking about.
Drew:Yeah, and those shoes fit me really well and I love those shoes. So I have four pairs, five pairs.
Lea Ann:Yeah, I have a terrible shoe problem.
Drew:Yeah, I mean, like I said earlier, I really wanted to do fashion and someone dissuaded me, telling me like well, you'll just, you'll work for Sears or something, you'll work for JC Penney, you won't. You know like you think you'll go to New York and work for some famous person, but you're, you're not going to do that. Some famous person, but you're, you're not going to do that.
Lea Ann:So, and I was kind of like yeah, he's probably right. Isn't it funny how, especially when you're young and you, of course you know, soak up what people are telling you that you think no more than you, but maybe they don't. I mean, they're just basing that on their own fears and we put that on young people and that's. That's too bad. But I think you're probably exactly where you're meant to be.
Drew:Yeah, I don't have any regrets about that. I mean, I think, ultimately, what it was is I just wanted to learn how to sew. I wanted to learn how to make my own clothing. That's probably in the end. That's what really what it was.
Lea Ann:Have you ever thought about doing those quilted jackets that are so cool? I've seen them.
Drew:Yeah, I haven't done anything. There's, um, I do have a pattern for a pair of pants up on my wall right now that I'm going to make here soon. So, um, yeah, so, but I haven't no, I haven't made anything super complex or anything.
Lea Ann:Yeah, Did you? You taught yourself to sew.
Drew:My mom taught me to sew, um, but I got to the point where, um, at one point, she had a new sewing machine and I had to teach her how to use it. Um, but, but no, I don't think that I was like like a sewer yeah you know what I mean. I just knew how to do basic, yeah, things, and that's that's what I mean, you don't? You know you need to know how to sew a straight line to quilt, that's you know yeah, so that's all I can sew is a straight line.
Lea Ann:That's not all that straight.
Drew:Yeah, well, sometimes in quilting.
Lea Ann:That can be to your advantage because people like kind of wonky, so you celebrate your wins by getting a new pair of shoes or a fun piece of clothing. I think that's a great way. So it's nice that you acknowledge, because a lot of people I talk to I ask this question quite a bit because it's fascinating. A lot of people just move on to the next thing and don't take time to pause and notice and celebrate. I mean whatever that means. You know it doesn't have to be anything other than like I did a good job, but I think it's important that we do that.
Drew:I'm a goal setter.
Lea Ann:Oh, say more about that.
Drew:So I, like you know, like I have financial goals I want to reach, or I have, um, you know, with the class I have an enrollment goal that I want to reach, you know. So, um, I, I I'm not upset if I don't reach those goals, but, um, when I do reach those goals, it's I I'm not always buying myself something, but it's it's always nice to kind of pat yourself on the back Right.
Lea Ann:Yeah.
Drew:Yeah.
Lea Ann:Yeah, so when you don't reach the goal, that you don't really sweat it, or how does that look for you?
Drew:If I'm close to the goal, then I'm like, you know, shoot for the stars, land on the moon, kind of a thing. If I'm way off, then I can. That it's I said. That's probably when I would have the self-doubt, you know, like, what happened, or why, what didn't I do? Some you know like, did I do something wrong? Or? And I go through, um, I go through stages where I'll be really sad about it. Then I'll start to like, like, try to understand what went wrong, and then I get to the point where I'm like, well, okay, fine, I'll show them next time, I'll, I'll figure this out and it will be even better. Yeah, I'm kind of that kind of a person.
Lea Ann:Yeah, yeah. It serves you well, especially in being an entrepreneur.
Drew:Yeah. I mean. I think the other thing is with being goal oriented I'm self-driven, I guess, which you need to be right, like if you're a solopreneur, you got to do the thing, you got to show up and do the thing. I. I'm learning, like I have a lot of things I want to do, but I'm also learning to say you know what, it's okay if you don't do all the things, yeah, or if someone else does that thing that you don't want to do.
Lea Ann:Absolutely. That's a hard one, though, especially when you're just getting started, because it's almost like fear of missing out, like or maybe that was the thing. So I know, when I first started out, I was like let me try all the things a little bit too much. Did that happen to you?
Drew:Yes, For two reasons. I would like being in control of everything, good or bad. And then, um two, it was just a financial thing early on, right, Like I didn't have money in the business, and now I'm to the point where I can't hire someone to do that thing and I can. I'm learning to be like you know what you do. You do Pinterest. I'm going to hire you to do the Pinterest thing and I'm not going to worry too much about it. It's going to be okay. It's fine.
Lea Ann:Yeah, but I think it's important to least have a basic understanding of how it works.
Drew:So Right, yes.
Lea Ann:Yeah, just know what's going on.
Drew:The next thing I got to do is find a VA you know, to help me with my launches. Yeah, I just don't know how it works. You know, like I got to figure out yeah, don't know how it works. You know, like I got to figure out, like, how do they check the emails and what's that look like, and what do they have access to and not have?
Lea Ann:access to? And yeah, yeah, do you ever have creative blocks?
Drew:I don't think I have creative blocks. I think sometimes I will work in my sketchbook book or something and it just is not good and I, just I, I I sometimes think, well, what happened? Or did I go too far with that, or why did you know? Like that's pretty ugly. But I just go on. Yeah, I just turn the page and move on.
Lea Ann:Yeah, that's the beauty of the sketchbook, for sure.
Drew:I think sometimes I can be lazy. I don't know if that's a form of a creative block or not, but I'm just not interested.
Lea Ann:Yeah, yeah, I mean because it does become. I mean it's your job and so your creative time is also your work time. So it does sometimes feel like okay, I got to do that thing. I can feel like okay, I got to do that thing.
Drew:It can feel like work. Yeah, yeah, I think it's. I think in our case it's a little different, though, because in a way, we're like creating content based on our art, but we can also do art separately, yes, so the art that's separate almost feels like it's still the hobby and it's still the thing that you want to do or escape to to or take your mind off of things, as opposed to something like I don't know. Let's say, you make knitting your business. Then you could get really sick of knitting.
Lea Ann:Yes, that's true.
Drew:You know, yeah. So I think in our case we can kind of a little bit separate it, which I think is beneficial.
Lea Ann:Yeah, I agree. I definitely agree. You have a lot of pieces to your business. How do you structure your time?
Drew:I'm not sure I do Okay, because sometimes I'm working all day.
Lea Ann:Yeah.
Drew:And it's something I've recognized and I'm trying to be better about it. When I was in Colorado over the last six weeks, I had let myself kind of have a vacation and not be in such a rush to do everything you know, or, or, or, I guess, or, I guess. Have like a normal work day is maybe what I'm saying and to be like you know what I'm going to stop and I'm going to go out and walk for an hour you know, or whatever, which I wouldn't normally do when I'm home.
Drew:Yeah, so just trying to get better about that. You know, laptop shut until Monday, kind of a thing, and not letting myself, not letting myself work through the weekend, but there's a lot of things I could be doing. I could be doing YouTube, I could be doing all the things, but at some point you know like you just have to put your foot down, I guess.
Lea Ann:Yeah and realize kind of what your capacity is for all of that, because you don't want to burn out or lose your desire to keep going with it.
Drew:Right and I, like I've said earlier, I want to try to keep going with this as far as I can.
Lea Ann:Yeah, I think that's a good goal for sure.
Drew:I know like I'll be 50 in October, so I have another. What 10, 15 years?
Lea Ann:Yeah, that's great. Yeah, it's like very exciting. Well, this has been such a treat to chat with you and get to know you a little bit better, and you've shared so many great thoughts and words with us. Where can people find you?
Drew:You can find me online at drewsteinbrechercom. I have all my work there, info about my online classes. There you can sign up for my newsletter, my email list.
Lea Ann:You can also find me on Pinterest at Drew Steinbrecher, and hopefully, like I said said, on youtube soon yeah, that's exciting and we uh, we need to look out for that free jelly uh plate printing special thing you have coming out I lost all my words yeah, so right right now, um as we're recording this, the working title is Gel Printer Summit Base Camp. Oh, love it.
Drew:Yeah, so that's going to be the free event. Hopefully that will start in probably early September. Okay, cool, and then enrollment will open for Gel Printer Summit and then the actual summit is in early October.
Lea Ann:That's great. Well, I'll look forward to it and I will link to all of your places in the show notes, but this has been a real treat. I really appreciate you spending time with me.
Drew:Yeah, thank you so much.
Lea Ann:Thank you. Thank you so much for listening to Mind Over Medium podcast today. If you found the episode inspiring, please share it with a friend or post it on social media and tag me on Instagram at Leanne Slotkin, or head to my website, wwwleanneslotkincom. To book a discovery call to find out more about working with me one-on-one. You can also head to my website to get a great tool I've created for you to use when planning your own online launch of your artwork. It's an exercise I've taken many of my coaching clients through and it's been very helpful. It's my way of saying thank you and keep creating.