David:

[0:00] Today it's my pleasure to have with me Karen DeLoach. She's an artist, art mentor, speaker, actor, author, filmmaker, creativity specialist. She teaches art in college. She's known in textbooks, and she has a program called Art as Self Therapy Wellness through Creativity. Karen, welcome to Redeeming Business Today.

Karen:

[0:19] Thank you so much. I appreciate you having me.

David:

[0:22] Yeah, nice to have you. Karen, what is one way you believe that about. honor God in our business today that others may not know about?

Karen:

[0:30] Well, I think, you know, he called us to be salt and light. And if we're not salt and we're not light, then we're really not representing him as we should. And that should be evident in every decision we make and every way we choose to run our business and our life. And even just a smile sometimes can radiate the love of God. So it doesn't have to be religious. It can be acting out our faith in the marketplace, which it should.

David:

[0:57] Yeah, very good. Yes. I like that answer. So I'd like you to take a few minutes to tell us about your art journey and how you got started and where you are today.

Karen:

[1:07] Well, thank you for that. Yeah, I've been a lifelong artist and performer. I come from it, honestly. My father was an Irish storyteller. He got to do vaudeville when he was a youth. And in his later life, I got to teach him painting and drawing. And he did some beautiful paintings that are still very, very, very precious to our family. So it was always in my life especially the storytelling part you know and I didn't even go to film school till I was in my 50s but I focused on the fine arts but you know as you look at what did you love when you were little when I was in kindergarten I would actually do plays in the recess I would make the monkey bar be like a spaceship because they were going to space when I was a child and it was exciting and there were monsters coming from other planets and people needed to be rescued. So, I would direct these plays. Sometimes my classmates would cooperate and sometimes they wouldn't.

Karen:

[2:06] And I don't know if you remember way back to the telethons that Jerry Lewis would do called For Jerry's Kids. And these were fundraisers on TV for children suffering from muscular dystrophy. And he would pass out these little play kits and you would, you'd be able to sell tickets and do plays in the backyard and then send your donations or whatever you collected to Jerry's kids. And I'm telling you, I took that so seriously. We made modern versions of, of cartoons or, you know, fairy tales, Disney, Disney cartoons, and we would act them out, modernize them and act them out. Every penny I made went to Jerry's kids and, even though I didn't study film, I did study theater in college and art and went there with an ability to draw from very good instruction. But I wasn't a very good painter.

Karen:

[3:02] My painting was my major, and I couldn't paint. They hated my paintings. My teachers told me that the only thing I had going for me was energy, that I didn't have any talent, that I was a three-dimensional artist. And so, unfortunately, I believed them. And for about 20 years, I was not able to finish a single painting. I went to graduate school in sculpture and ceramics, which I still love and I still do. But once I got married, started having children, I just wanted to paint them. I love portraiture and landscapes. I was traveling, loving the landscapes. And as a result, I was frustrated because in my mind was all those negative words that I had heard about my painting. They were the experts, right? They should know. And I tried and tried and had all these unfinished canvases until I got a mentor who actually taught me how to paint. I didn't want to do abstract expressionism. I wanted my paintings to look like what they were supposed to look like. I wanted to do impressionism and have the beauty of people and scenery.

Karen:

[4:09] So he taught me, which made me a better painter, but also made me a better teacher. I learned the value of having the skills and learning the techniques required. And then I also realized that words matter. You know, that old saying, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Big fat lie, right? Big fat lie. Words matter, especially to our sensitive right brain, which is our creative center. It's very sensitive. It remembers those things. And then what I call left brain bully says, you know, you're just proving them right. You can't do it. And I hear people all the time tell me these kinds of stories. And it just breaks my heart to hear it because it's so not true. And I found that out. And so, I make it my point in my life to teach the techniques that will help them gain the skills they need to do the work they want to do. So I've never stopped trying and I never stopped. Well, we call ourselves practicing artists because you're always practicing, right? You're always trying to be better and better at what you do. I still do sculpture. I've also kept my hand. My minor was theater, been able to keep that up. And then, like I said, went to film school in my 50s and have been teaching filmmaking and doing movies ever since. So creativity is in my blood and it's in my lifestyle.

David:

[5:27] Very good. Sounds neat. Yes. I can relate to that as far as my experiences in art was just kind of like, it's just one of those classes you had to take in grade school and junior high. And I didn't really like it because I couldn't do it. And I never got that love. But recently I got into doing Zentangles, which are just drawings. And my wife has got into painting. And I found out there's all kinds of different kinds of paint, from acrylic to oil to pencils, colors, whatever. There's tons of different things.

David:

[6:01] But that's another subject. Art therapy. Explain to me, what is art therapy?

Karen:

[6:07] Well, it's actually its own major. It's its own field, which I'm not technically an art therapist. I just started finding healing happening through art. And not only for myself, I married a musician, our children, our sons are musicians. I had some experiences with students that sent me on my journey to learn more about the restorative power of art. In one case, this young man, we were homeschooling. I was the homeschool art teacher. They'd come to my studio. And this particular young man was very depressed. He had ADHD and dyslexia, was failing. He was in depression. His mother just couldn't help him. She was very diligent about finding all the ways to reach them, and they just weren't working. And he just believed he was stupid.

Karen:

[6:57] And I just said, well, you know, come learn to draw, learn to paint, learn to sculpt. Well, he took to it like a duck to water. Next thing you know, he's out of depression. His natural, dry sense of humor was coming out. And I started entering my students' work in a youth art competition. They started winning ribbons and awards. Well, this changed his life. He got the confidence that he had been lacking, you know, believing that he did have worth enabled him to kind of take care of doing the work that it took to overcome these challenges he had. And he was able to graduate from high school. Now, it's not the end of his story. That's good news, wonderful news. But then he had a brain infection, which caused a stroke that paralyzed him on the right side. So here he was coming off a high, won literally best in show in a huge youth art competition. And next thing you know, he can't walk, talk. He can't move his right side, his hands curling up into a ball. Well, for four months, they had him in the hospital doing all sorts of therapies for him. But when he left, he still couldn't talk. He was dragging the right side of his body with a walker.

Karen:

[8:09] And his mom brought him right back to my studio. I said, well, you know, your left hand works. Let's see what happens. I didn't have any understanding of left brain, right brain, neural connections at that time. But I watched David struggling at first, but very quickly mastering the same techniques he had mastered right-handed. He was now doing left-handed. He could now draw, write, paint. Sculpture was still a little difficult because the right hand wasn't cooperating very well. But in a short amount of time, it was evident that he could do anything that he put his mind to. Next thing you know, I get a call from his neurosurgeon. He's like, what are you doing with David? I've never called anybody's art teacher before. And I said, I don't know. I'm just teaching him art. He said, well, don't stop because he is getting stronger with his weak hand than I am. And I'm a neurosurgeon. And he's also getting healing on the right side of his body.

Karen:

[9:05] And sure enough, next thing you know, he's able to talk. Now, he damaged part of his brain, but I didn't understand about the neuroplasticity of the brain, how when one part is damaged, another part can overcompensate, which is exactly what was happening. He had already been building left brain, right brain connections because he had been painting and drawing and sculpting, and now they just came in handy for him. He was able to do that work, start talking, communicating, and walking. Now, they had to replace his skull with plastic. I mean, this is severe injury. And art brought healing to his life. And even, I mean, his family's convinced, but so is his neurosurgeon. So I started studying what is going on. You know, what is this doing?

Karen:

[9:50] And, you know, understanding about right brain, left brain. You know, we live in a culture that really develops the left brain skills. You know, logic and order and all the details and memorization and orderliness and timeliness, which are all wonderful skills, but they tend to trivialize or even ignore the

Karen:

[10:09] right brain skills, which aren't on your SATs for college or for work. They're not really very testable in some sense. But what I've learned in my studies is that they say 98% of 5- and 6-year-olds are creative geniuses, but only 2% of adults. So what happens, you know, in that time period? And I think a large part of it is we just don't have the opportunity to develop that part of our brain like we do our left brain. And yet it's still there. And in my age, you know, I'm in my 70s, a lot of people are concerned about their mental acuity, their sharpness, not having brain fog or brain fatigue and the disability that stress causes. Well, lo and behold, doing arts helps heal and restore that part of our brain's emotions. It releases serotonin, the happiness chemical.

David:

[11:08] So the left brain is the logical side, the logical and facts, and the right brain is more creative. When they work together, you're saying you get better ideas.

Karen:

[11:16] Yes. It's not even, it's both. I mean, just when you pick up a utensil to write or to draw, you're using your left brain. So when you're using your left brain and you're looking at something in your drawing, you're actually incorporating left brain, right brain. That doesn't just happen with art. It happens with music. You're using your hands, playing instruments. You're using your voice when you sing, dancing. It happens when you garden and you're working, organizing the plants, however you're going to put them in your garden. You're utilizing left and right brain when you're cooking using recipes you're using left brain right brain it's not hard to do I’ve got a free three-part series i recorded three little podcasts that are explaining in more detail about different ways to be creative because I know most people don't identify as artists or musicians but that doesn't mean you don't have this incredible creative half of your brain that you can put to work and, you know, feel more joy.

Karen:

[12:21] Albert Einstein, considered one of the greatest creative geniuses of the 20th century, said that creativity is intelligence having fun. So there's a fun factor that I think that we tend to lose, you know, and all of us, as we do business, as we work hard, we can get very focused on, you know, all the responsibilities of life. But I don't know if you have children, but when you have children, you kind of get a chance to remember what it was like to play in the playground, throw a ball to catch, to, to enjoy running around and having fun.

Karen:

[12:56] And it's good for us. It's good for us as adults to remember how to enjoy life.

David:

[13:01] So how does this art therapy help business owners do better or come up with better solutions at their work?

Karen:

[13:08] Well, this, that's such a good question. You know, as I, as I was describing, just even, you know, singing in the shower comes up with new ideas and, you know, new connections. Sometimes, you know, in every business, there's creativity. I mean, David, just being a podcaster, you're utilizing left brain, right brain, because you have to do all the left brain things with getting guests and having the technology all in order and the sound and the visual and, and the timeliness and the orderliness, but you're also creating content that's never been here before. It's brand new content. So you are literally, every time you do this, operating with your left brain, right brain. It actually is being our most brilliant selves when we do this. So there's many, many ways. So as business, as you're writing, maybe you have to write emails every day as part of your business to market your business. Besides chat GPT, you can find solutions or your writer and you're looking for names of chapters. I know even for me, I literally was looking for a title and I felt like I got inspired by Holy Spirit, art as self-therapy, wellness through creativity came from Him, directly from Him. And so there's that being purposefully aware of being in the moment. It's something as simple as that. Excellence is what we strive for, not perfection. You know, we know the one who is perfect.

Karen:

[14:33] And yes, we are pursuing His perfection, but we don't despair in the journey. We have His grace to carry us through daily, and it needs to be more joy. Because you asked that question at the beginning, as believers, how do we represent our faith in the marketplace? And part of it is being people of joy. If they see us burdened by the trials of our lives, we all have them, but they don't see the joy of our salvation, then they're going to wonder about our faith. They're not going to be drawn to it if we're not walking to joy. What do you need to do to find that joy in your life again?

David:

[15:18] Yes. So you've talked about a lot of things here, a lot of things, a lot of general things. If you narrow it all down, what is one activity or one thing our audience could do today to start on that road to using their left brain and the right brain to be more creative for work or pleasure or life in general?

Karen:

[15:38] Yeah. And I think, you know, a couple of things is having grace for yourself. If you're going to try something that you've always wanted to try and it's new and you're not great at it at first is really create a safe space, a no criticism zone, you know, which criticism, guess what side of the brain criticism comes from, you know, it's a left brain thing. Left probably. It's a left brain thing, right? We don't want to ignore our left brain, but we really want to let the right brain, which is very sensitive, have freedom. Just like you do when you do those Zen doodles. That's the glory of those is just really letting the right brain be free to develop. You will find the joy because serotonin gets relieved. You know, even just looking at beauty can do it. So you don't feel like you have time or energy to do creative acts.

Karen:

[16:24] Just looking at beauty will do it.

David:

[16:26] So where can my audience find out more about you if they wanted to learn more and do more things connect with you.

Karen:

[16:33] Thank you for asking that. www.getcreativewithkaren.com. You can register for that three-part podcast I was telling you about that talks more about, has a whole list of ideas for creativity, and it's free. KarenDelogeArt.com. So you can ask me questions, email me through there. Connect. Let's do it.

David:

[16:55] Okay. Sounds good. Well, Karen, thank you very much for your knowledge, expertise, and encouragement on this. Solomon said that he who walks with wise men will be wise. And today you spent some time with Karen and David to be wise. And so I encourage you to put this stuff into action and put your right brain with your left brain and use it to redeem your business, redeem your time, run your business to the glory of God. And remember that time has limits. You can't do everything. So choose wisely.