How Drawing Outside the Lines Keeps Opening Doors | Anne Shutan | TEDxYouth@Vail

[Music] it is said that when one door closes another one opens i'm here to tell you that ain't necessarily so we've all been on the wrong side of closed doors and when we're on that side we're not seen and we're not heard and we start to question why did the door close in the first place maybe the way we've been doing things wasn't the right way or was it i'm an artist i have a relationship with wood and for the past 38 years i've not only opened doors that have been traditionally shut on me but i literally make doors with my bare hands i've learned there isn't a right or a wrong way to open these doors that the only limits are the ones we've learned to impose on ourselves i've figured out a thing or two about these humbling blocks that have shown up along the way and these practices have made me a successful artist in a traditionally male profession listen up there i was four years old on my den floor coloring wildly in my coloring book i loved coloring wildly i couldn't imagine anything more thrilling than going wild in my coloring book right i mean what fun in the midst of my excitement my brother peter says you're not supposed to draw outside the lines annie now i say then mom annie's coloring outside the lines aren't you supposed to color inside the lines my mom walks over and looks says well honey that is what they're there for no way door closed i was already learning that following the rules was a really smart thing to do and my mom meant everything to me so from then on i did my darndest to stay inside the lines great way to get approval it seemed my wild coloring days were over for now but it wasn't until after college that i started working with my hands i was headed to cornell for graduate school but i needed a job before i left i was meeting women in the trades electricians carpenters i was inspired and woodworking seemed like a really cool thing to try out and a live medium work with my hands and my body and my mind and be with people while doing it but most of the woodworking shops in colorado springs shooed me away they didn't want an inexperienced girl in the way i persisted finally the last workshop i went to and a bit fed up i might add i said to the manager look this is a deal i'm a woman i'm totally inexperienced and i really want to learn this stuff yay or nay and he said we want you here persistence pays off people on the initial tour in that shop before i even touched a piece of wood i watched folks using their hands and their minds and as the smells penetrated my whole being i was struck with this knowing and i listened thank god i listened because in that striking moment i knew i was gonna become a woodworker i was gonna go beyond this company and this was my life's journey how did i know i don't know but i trusted that feeling and because i trusted it doors started flying open dear cornell not coming thanks i loved learning the techniques of furniture making the fundamentals of woodworking it's actually vital to learn these rules you really don't want to lose a hand i became a good furniture maker but i wanted more it didn't seem to be quite enough making sure everything was exactly 90 degree angles for god's sakes so i was promoting my furniture to an interior designer in pasadena who suggested that i meet john de suart i had heard of him and i knew just meeting him would change my life the next day i met jan this 77 year old dutch master woodworker yon took me under his wing for the last two years of his life he had a stroke so i was primarily his hands on day one he said to me i have finally met someone i can share my secrets with before i go um he also told me on that first day i will teach you to use the band saw like a pencil the band saw is the one tool in the workshop that allows me to make curves in the wood wow i actually learned to turn wood inside out and to this day i draw better with a bandsaw than i do a pencil i'm now a bandsaw aficionado so jana and i would be sitting out on his porch talking about life and love and woodworking and all of a sudden he'd head into the shop and i'd ask what are we gonna do oh he looked so disappointed he said oh annie if i knew i'd quit so i followed him to the bandsaw he put a cigar in his mouth and his glasses on he turns on the bandsaw he starts cutting something wild in the middle of the cut he turns off the bandsaw puts his glasses up takes his cigar out and says annie if ever you have a choice of going with the mystery or the obvious go with the mistity puts a cigar back in his mouth and his glasses back on and finishes the cut there were dozens of these drop the mic moments with yon pearls creating art has informed me about trust and letting go my first commission sculptural table was a great and gorgeous piece i created from one piece of wood the movement in this piece even amazed me after i delivered it to my client in new york i broke down what if i can't make another one like my one novel was this just a fluke so i decided to go back to my shop in la and sit with a piece of wood like i did that first one i sat with this chunk of wood for days of a sudden i knew exactly what to do i learned that when i get myself out of the way and listen to the wood boom i'm presented with a curve a line a movement how does this happen i trusted the wood i listened i make wood look fluid like a flowing river i love making such a hard medium look like water creating this effect has become my signature as an artist i do know my way around a shop quite well yet with every project i undertake i still choose the mystery over the obvious and every project begs me to draw outside the lines it's more exciting anyway i've learned to expose the soul of the tree and oftentimes when i make a mistake i'm pretty clear now it was supposed to happen mistakes are the road to magic every piece i make is unique no copies people ask me if i'm sad when i sell them when i miss them turns out after that first scary letting go experience i love passing them on each letting go opens a new door when people ask me how long does it take you to make that piece my answer is my whole life every piece is infused with my life's experiences all of it how could it not be my creative approach has always been to trust the process to listen to the wood and to slow down though there still are obstacles and challenges that show up it is so satisfying to push through them and see what's on the other side and that's what i call opening doors let's keep opening doors thank you you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 2,981

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Architecture, Art, Design, English, Life Development, TEDxTalks

Id: Rko6p8AHg3s

Length: 10min 12sec (612 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 26 2021