My Story

The Joyful Creative

Who is this Deborah O'Toole anyway??

In this episode, I introduce myself, talk about my creative background and how I’ve come to where I am now.

In short, I'm a former full time Army vocalist who has always loved visual arts, I’m on a daily creative streak and I’m passionate about spreading the good word about creativity for well being. Oh, and I adore my labradoodle and morning coffee!

Listen in for the long story…

SHOW NOTES:

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Order my colouring book - https://www.deborahotooleartist.com/

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TRANSCRIPT:

Well hi there and welcome back to the joyful creative. I'm Deborah O'Toole. And today I thought I should probably introduce myself and explain my background and how I've come to doing what I'm doing now in this whole creativity space. I might just jump straight in.

I have been a vocalist for my whole adult life.... early in my career, I performed in bands. Did some TVs some recording sessions. So music theatre, which was very exciting. And then in 2002, I joined the Australian army band as a full-time vocalist. Had a fantastic 21 year career. Traveled some very interesting places, had some amazing experiences there. And early this year, 2024, I have transferred to part-time, just in search of a bit more freedom and a scope to do these creative ideas that I have had for a long time.

So I'm very grateful for my army career and yeah, I'm still performing with the band part time. So I still have a connection there. ... so for my whole adult life, as well as being a performing artist, I've also practiced visual art. And I got a diploma of art - studio textiles and design from RMIT in 2011. And then for the next 11 years or so I was practicing textile art, doing a lot of stuff with quilting and but more sort of experimental stuff. Not the quilts with triangles and squares that you might think of when you think about quilting.

I'm really was just layering up fabrics and adding a lot of embellishments, sequins and beads. Really loved doing all of that. And then I just got to a point when I really wanted to explore other mediums. The laborious nature of the textile art was bogging me down I'd have to say. Yeah, I just wanted to have the antidote to that very slow art and do something that was a little bit more immediate. ...... I had a bit of a break from it. I picked up my sketchbook and fine liner pen. And I just started doodling, which is a thing I'd always done. And the doodling was really therapeutic actually. And another thing is that I do a lot of travel, have done with my work and also, personally, we love to get around camping and whatnot. And obviously when you're on the road, it's very hard to take the whole textiles studio with you.

So that I could still do something creative, I would bring at the very least a sketchbook and a fine liner pen and sometimes a bunch of coloured pencils. So I could use some colour as well. And I just really got into these little sketches. Yeah. They became a bit of an obsession. Then I got myself an iPad and started doing the doodles digitally in the procreate app. And then that actually led to me creating a bunch of illustrations that I've now published into a colouring book, which is available. I'll put the details in the show notes. Yeah. So that was an interesting project as well, just to go through the whole logistics of publishing a colouring book. So I got that out this year.

So around the same time I was doing these digital doodles, I started a daily creativity streak. That started last September 2023. And I planned to do it for a month, doing something creative every day for a month. And then at the end of the month, I just kept going and I'm still on it now. Yeah, the streak has really changed my life because (it sounds really dramatic doesn't it?) It's really changed my practice, let’s put it that way. Because before I started the streak, I would always wait until I had time to be creative. I would have a project I wanted to do and I would say, okay, I'll do it tonight after work.

And then I would get home from work and then there'd be some life thing that would happen or I'd just be too frickin tired, to be honest. And then I think I'll wait till the weekend and then I'll be fresh. But then of course, on the weekends, there's other life things that have to happen. And. Let's face it. Sometimes you just actually want to do weekend do things when the sun's out and, there’s country drives to do and people to go out with and whatnot. Then yeah, the creativity would get pushed to the side, even on the weekends when I thought I had time.

So doing the daily streak, what it's done is made it so that it's at the forefront of my mind. And I just do the bare minimum. I make my bare minimum five minutes. So if I really can't do any more than that. I do five minutes and then I can say I've done it. And it just keeps me connected. It keeps me connected to my practice as an artist. And of course other than that, I have experienced all the benefits that I explained in episode one about the powers of creativity and regular creativity. And now, yeah, the daily thing, there's so much less pressure. I think before hand I would have a project or a body of work or a piece I wanted to create and I would think about it. And I would want to do that whenever I had time. And now that I just do it every day, it doesn't matter what I do. It doesn't matter what I do every day, I could just be playing around.

And I think that playful nature of my art practice was really missing beforehand. So that's one of the reasons why the streak is great. I have to be honest and say that I've made a lot of art that isn't going anywhere. It's just, it's just a whole lot of samples. But it may lead to something. In the future, but anyway, that's that's the thing for future Deb to worry about. So yeah.

So now that I've experienced this benefit of doing it regular, I'm saying daily, but not everybody's going to be on board with the daily thing, but I'm going to say regular creative practice. I'm just really passionate about spreading the word.

And I've just developed a mindful creativity workshop. It's still in its infancy, but so far I've had some great results and really great feedback from participants who don't see themselves as being creative. And the point of the workshops is not for people to learn any type of artistic technique. So it's not an art class. It's not it's not art therapy. But people do definitely feel the benefits of just dropping in and just sitting quietly with a pen and paper. Or with some ink and paper. And just doing something that's very simple that becomes very mindful. Yep. So I'm really looking forward to exploring where I can go with that. Yeah. And so that has led me to create this podcast so I can reach more people with this message and offer support and practical tips to help people to manage regular creative practice within their busy lives. Because. I've been there.

I know that people will say, Hey, I've got little kids that I don't have one moment of time to myself, let alone five minutes to do creativity. And. Yep. I've been there. I know how it feels. It's not just people with kids, it's people with, Parents that they're caring for, or just full-time jobs that leave them brain dead at the end of the day. Yeah, they are real things.

And I think I have some pretty cool ideas and tips to help people get around that. And I'm just here for empowerment. I'm a real enabler. And I am going to say, if you think you don't have time you do have time and please take the time to do it for yourself.

So that's really the journey.

A few more fun facts about me if you're interested… I'm married to Tooley we live with our very adored labradoodle Roxie dog. We've got three adult children between us and I've got a granddaughter so I'm a Nana. And they all live in Melbourne. So Tooley and I are empty-nesters now. We currently live in Brisbane, Australia. But because we're still subject to Army postings we will be moving on from here within months and yeah. Who knows where we'll be at the time of your listening to this. It could be anywhere. What else? I recently qualified as a yoga teacher and I meditate regularly. I did have a little bit of a break from it recently, and gosh, I feel it. Yeah, my meditation pillow was calling me recently. So I need to meditate. The other thing I need is a good strong coffee in the morning so I can function. I don't drink coffee all day, it’s just really a morning thing. But yeah, it's essential.

I love singing music, theatre songs. And I love listening to disco music when I'm pottering around the house and doing housework and whatnot. Yeah, disco seventies authentic, please. What else? At the time of recording, I'm 53 years old and yeah, I'm really excited to be moving into my, somebody called it an Encore career as a freelance creative. Still not sure where this is taking me, but anyway I'm going with the flow.

So here I am. What else? I love colour and I love playing with colour combinations and I love sparkles. I'm a bit crazy for a middle-aged lady loving so much colour, especially pink and sparkles. But that's why you'll see a lot of metallic and glitter in my work.

Yeah, that's just about it. If there's anything else about me that you're curious to know, send me a message on social media. I’ll put those links in the show notes and yeah, I'll get back to you. So that's about it for today. I hope you've enjoyed that. Thanks for listening. And I do hope you join me in the next episode.

Bye. For now.