Welcome to my new podcast Creative Momentum with Meg Dunley.
I’m thrilled to release this first season of the podcast, The Chateau Season. Each episode features a creative I interviewed during our shared time at the Chateau d'Orquevaux residency in France – writers, filmmakers, visual artists, verbatim storytellers and more. Each episode gives you insight into the creative mind, taking you behind the studio doors to hear about process, routine, inspiration and wisdom. These episodes are pocket sized to encourage you on your creative pathway.
I struggled to decide the order of the twenty-plus interviews, so I have landed on alphabetical, which means Episode 1 is with Amy Ann Goelz.
Amy Ann Goelz is from Brooklyn, New York. She is an artist, filmmaker and photographer and her current main focus is oil painting, especially portraiture, blending realism and surrealism.
I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed talking with Amy about her creative process and routine, what inspires her and what wisdom she would share with other creatives.
Interview transcript
MD: Hi Amy.
AAG: Hi.
MD: Can you introduce yourself and where you're from?
AAG: Hello, my name is Amy Ann Goelz, and I am from California originally, but I live in Brooklyn, New York currently.
MD: Excellent. Yeah. And can you tell me what your creative discipline or disciplines are, what you do creatively?
AAG: Yes. Well, I, paint is one of the things that I do. I primarily work in oil and I do a lot of portraiture, somewhere between surrealism and realism, somewhere in there. And I'm also a filmmaker and a photographer, but currently in on the painting.
MD: Nice.
AAG: Yeah.
MD: Can you tell me a little bit about your creative process? I'm privileged to be sitting, standing, in your studio right now and I can see some of your process, but can you tell me about your process, where your ideas come from and how they come to what they be?
AAG: Yeah, yeah. I think originally I got most of my source material and reference images from Pinterest actually. And I did a lot of photos of random people from the mid 20th century in the mid 20th century. And I was just really interested in these people whose photos I came across, but nobody knew their names. They're just sort of forgotten people whose image ended up on a website like Pinterest. So I started doing that and then it slowly has become more surreal with time and I think those elements are a little more from the depths of my mind. Yeah. And my dad also worked in an industry that was very character driven or his job, it was very character driven stuff. So I think I'm just going back to that a bit.
MD: Yeah, I love that. Who or where or what is your creative inspiration?
AAG: Well, I guess my dad, I feel like I already spoke to that a bit. But yeah, he's very, I guess my dad because he really promotes very out of the box thinking and kind of surreal, strange things. So I think it started there. And then as far as my current work, I would just say people, maybe people on the fringes. I've kind of gotten into this sort of circus-y series, so people who are kind of forgotten on the side, but still have a lot to say. They just don't really have the ability to say it, I guess is what I would say to that.
MD: And your creative routine, do you have a routine that you followed for your creativity? And can you tell me a bit about that?
AAG: Yeah, it is gotten a lot easier the more I've worked. I think before I was not forcing myself, but kind of forcing myself to paint to do work. But in the last two years I'd say it's just become kind of a necessity and not even something that I think about as much. I guess my work and my life are merging in a different way than before. So yeah. What was the question? About your routine? Yeah, the routine when you go back home. Yeah. So generally I'm a night painter for the most part, unless it's the weekend, but I'll work and relax for a little bit and then generally start painting later in the evening and then go late and, and then on the weekends I'll try to do full days painting. And then also just when I feel like it, it's not super regimented, which I would like for it to be more regimented. But yeah.
MD: If you were to meet someone who is just beginning in their creativity, what pearl or pearls of wisdom would you want to give them?
AAG: Do the work, put in the hours. That's the thing I always return to with what I've achieved, which isn't, I mean, I'm not saying it's much, but I am so blown away by just simply the time I've put in. I haven't been in school, I haven't had any teachers, I haven't had peer resources, which has been hard, but the 10,000 hours thing is so real and it's so satisfying to see just simply what putting time into your craft can do. Yeah.
MD: Excellent. Thank you. Anything else you want to share with other people who are creating in whatever they doing?
AAG: Make what you like. Make what you like. Don't make anything for other people because ultimately it doesn't bring anything to the world in the same way that your voice will do.
MD: Thank you so much, Amy.
AAG: Like and subscribe.
Interested in Amy’s work? You can find on Instagram: @amyann69 / @amygoelzphoto or email her amyanngoelz@gmail.com
If you liked this episode, please let me know in the comments and like, follow, share and subscribe!
x M
