Trenton ReynoldsThis is Room in the Trees, a podcast about living a creative life. Room in the Trees is hosted by Sabrina Ward-Harrison and me, Trent Reynolds.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonShow notes including pictures, links, video, and more for every episode can be found at roominthetrees.com.
Trenton ReynoldsIf you like this podcast, please consider showing your support. You can become a subscribing patron at patreon.com/room.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonAnd now here's this week's episode.
Trenton ReynoldsHave you gone on the lake yet at all?
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI did do my first dip a couple days ago. Just an evening. Nice. Jump off the dock. Totally takes me back to being in Canada. Little, just like, oh, those were the summers.
Trenton ReynoldsIt's still got to be pretty cold though, right? Or is it?
Sabrina Ward HarrisonIt wasn't too bad.
No?
Sabrina Ward HarrisonIt was not too bad. There's lots of people swimming.
Yeah.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonLots of people out in the water.
Goodness.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonThere's green algae that blossoms that you have to really wash yourself off afterwards. It can kill dogs.
Trenton ReynoldsIt can kill dogs? Really?
Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsBecause they'll lick it?
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI don't know. It's something that can really, really damage your skin.
Oh my goodness. I know.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI guess it gets worse at night because I always say, "Oh, nighttime swimming is the best way to go."
Trenton ReynoldsLittle did I know danger awaits. That's right. Have you ever had a chocolate scare? Because dogs can die from chocolate. That's the only other thing I...
No. Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsWhat about you? We don't have a dog.
I've had a-
Sabrina Ward HarrisonWhen you said chocolate scare, I thought I was thinking of humans and like, I've had a few chocolate scares, personal chocolate scares.
Trenton ReynoldsWe've had lots of chocolate. And then this chocolate frosting on top that kind of works itself in around the corners of the cake in the pan. Kind of absorbs into that first layer of the cake. Oh, it is so good. So that's not exactly the same kind of chocolate scare that we were talking about with dogs. When it's there, it must be. It is so good. It doesn't feel like summer to me yet. I... You know, that's one of the things about California, though, is that you don't see a dramatic weather change to kind of initiate or to open the season. So it's got to kind of come in other ways. But I think we need a good beach day before it starts to feel like summer.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonAre the beaches open?
Trenton ReynoldsYes, they are. Okay. I mean, it's so crazy with the demonstrations and everything going on. You know, it just feels like there are these two competing imperatives of, you know, public demonstration and the underlying fear of COVID, right? Like this is still a problem. Anyway, it's kind of hard to know where the public is at because there's definitely a lot more activity outside. And there's generally kind of a growing feeling of people are done being inside.
Right.
Trenton ReynoldsSo yeah, so we've gone to-- Laura's taken the kids down to the beach a few times, and we've gone. And really, I think there's probably pretty minimal danger in being at the beach, being windy as it is, and people kind of naturally distance. It's not like you are setting up your space two feet away from somebody else.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonAnd there's a huge, huge spacious beach and he's just like, it's a little tiny towel. That's a funny guy. That is a funny guy. Yeah, that's a funny guy. So what have the, what have the approaches been like? It's, it's been, curious what's been happening over in your California. Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsWell, it's all around. There was a few days there where it was especially bad. There were protests obviously in Santa Monica that got pretty heated. Then the next day there were protests up on Wilshire and Barrington at the federal building up there, which is maybe five or six blocks away from where we're at. So we heard lots of cop cars and fire engines and helicopters racing back and forth. And so it felt very present and felt very real. And then just, you know, watching the news coverage of it.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonWhere was it primarily in Southern California?
Trenton ReynoldsIt was all over the place. It was pretty spread out. There were definitely... Black Lives Matter was organizing protests, and I believe there are some other groups as well that were organizing official protests. So those were probably the biggest ones, but it just felt generally like there was a lot of unrest. You know, like, I don't know. It didn't feel like it was just one place dominantly. It felt like it was very much all over the place.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonIt feels so... Everything just felt very global, like... Yep. Huge protests in Italy and... Oh, man.
Just...
Trenton ReynoldsIt's just all these things are really amping up and amplifying each other, right? Yeah. There's just... Definitely an underlying feeling of instability and unsafety and kind of underlying anger that people are at home and not able to work and not able to provide for them and not able to get outside, not able to connect with their neighbors and their community. I think it's just all very... just bubbling up all together. It's hard to differentiate, you know, what's what, where the emotion is coming from. Because I feel like it's coming from a lot of different areas.
So...
Sabrina Ward HarrisonAnd you're wrapping up school.
Yep.
Trenton ReynoldsYeah. So, amidst all of this is trying to wrap up school and these kids are, a lot of them live right in the middle of where these protests are going on. So there's a lot of communication coming in from school administration saying, like some of these kids' homes are in the middle of protest areas, be careful, or give them a little bit of extra space. There's just a lot of... talk and like an awareness of all this upheaval. And of course, a lot of the kids are, are still kind of getting over or coping with being at home and, you know, dealing with COVID separation. And so, yeah, so there's, that's still going on. I think, I think graduation, graduation, ceremonies went, already happened, and those were like drive-by type of, like they had parades. I don't know exactly how it went down because I didn't participate, but parents and kids, they actually had robes and stuff, but then they were in cars and they'd go through the roundabout of... you know dropping where they usually drop their kids off at school there was a kind of a balloons and you know celebratory stuff uh all set up and like the administration went around to each of the individual graduates homes and dropped off a care kit and you know kind of And teachers and advisors wrote letters to the graduates, you know. So they did, I don't know, they did some pretty great things just to try to make it as special and memorable an occasion as possible. But I am done. That's kind of the...
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYeah. Bye.
Trenton ReynoldsOkay, bye.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonOkay, bye. Thanks. Bye, I'm out. Thank you.
Trenton ReynoldsSo they sent out a school-wide email. The administration sent out a school-wide thank you to those that will be leaving. Our community and they, you know, they listed off a couple of people in particular that have been, you know, around for 12 years or whatever. And then they just kind of had a general list of everybody else that was leaving. Guess who wasn't anywhere on that email? Are you serious? Oh my God. I am not – I honestly – well, honestly, I didn't even read the email. So that's probably – I would have not even noticed that my name was not included on that had not my – my supervisor emailed me like immediately saying, I'm so sorry you weren't mentioned in that email. Which was super flattering. And that meant more to me than being, you know, mentioned as one of a list of people in an email, that she would, you know, see that and feel bad that it wasn't recognized. Yeah.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonAnyway, it just felt somehow appropriate, you know?
Right. I'm out. Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsDon't miss me. I will not miss you. I think it was a peaceful departure, and I am not disappointed to have not caused any stir on my way out. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsI'm really, really I'm just grateful that it ended as amicably as it did. I felt really good about where I left relationships with coworkers that had previously been very, you know, problematic relationships in some cases. I think we ended at really good, strong, peaceful place. Thank you, and I hope to the deepest parts of my soul that I will never return to teaching high school and middle school. I love those kids, and I think by the end of my third year, I was kind of getting the hang of being a high school teacher. I don't think I was a very good high school teacher by the end of three years, but I was – I was better. I left not being completely bad, which is what I would have left being had I left after the first or second year. Third year, I was kind of getting the hang of it.
Yeah.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonWhat is the hang of it, would you say? What's the hang of it? What secret sauce does a person need to have?
Trenton ReynoldsIt is, well, it's just a completely different kind of teaching, right? It's just like, I don't know. Teaching different subject matter obviously is a different kind of, requires different kinds of teaching. And so that was part of the equation because I was teaching photography and video, which is not something I'd taught before formally like that. But teaching high school and then this year middle school, it's the pacing, it's the kind of humor that can help ease tensions or quiet down.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonCan you show us some of that humor?
Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsWell, like at high school, what plays really well is when you, like, you know, one of my kids said one time that, I don't know, something where you're kind of playing calling a guy out for for liking a girl that's in the class like oh you like so and so and then the whole class goes yeah those kind of that kind of humor goes over really well and kind of uh eases tension when there's one kid that's kind of acting up or being you know distracted yeah and it can kind of especially with high school boys can kind of help quiet them down or kind of shut them down
Sabrina Ward Harrisonyeah yeah that's good
Trenton Reynoldsso it's like stuff like that and that's not like that was happening all the time but there's you know a bunch of little examples like that that you just kind of have to acclimatized to you know it just takes time to feel like or like in middle school if somebody you know if one kid is asking questions not because he wants the answer but because he just wants attention and wants to disrupt you know just knowing how to deal with that this is like all the classroom management stuff is what So one of the phrases that I started using that was given to me by another teacher was, why don't you hold on to that question? Why don't you hold on to that question? That's a great question. Why don't you hold on to it for now and we'll...
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYeah, I'll circle back.
Trenton ReynoldsYeah, it's like stuff like that. There's kind of an equivalence in corporate speak of like, let's park that for now. Yeah. Anyway, I love the kids, and I guess I was relieved by the end of my time there to feel like a genuine – I didn't dread going in every day. That was a sign to me that I had overcome some of the difficulty. Yeah. I think it's just I was never able to and I doubted that I would be able to get to the parts of teaching and learning and connecting with students that I really am filled by. Yeah. I don't know if that's possible in middle school and high school for me.
And now you know that.
Trenton ReynoldsAnd now I know. And it was a good experience. It was hard. And I'm not glad I had it. I'm not glad I had it. But having gone through it, I will be glad for the parts of it that stretched me and forced me to learn and grow.
Yeah. Yeah.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonGoodbye. And that parlays into what year?
Trenton ReynoldsYes. So, what I, let me tell you what I'm excited about.
Yes.
Trenton ReynoldsAnd as we talked about last week, this is, you know, it's one of those things that, I'm going to be jumping around a little bit here. Did I ever tell you about that time before Laura and I got married? I was trying to figure out how on earth we were going to be able to live in L.A. because I was teaching part-time at Santa Monica College, which wasn't a lot of money. And rents are really high. Cost of living is really high. I didn't know how we were going to live in L.A. And she was going to be moving down to... very soon. We had looked at apartments, we found one, but it was more expensive than we could really afford. Anyway, I had been trying to find jobs for being an apartment manager. And we found one building. I applied to 81 different jobs Wow. Yeah, to be an apartment manager because you can be an apartment manager, get free rent, and it's fairly minimal. It's not a bad amount of work typically. So finally, my 81st application. Wow. Wow. I decided to go in and actually just in person rather than just doing email and virtual application. I decided to go in and talk to the person. And I went over and looked at the place where the building was to kind of get a feel for the area of town. And I saw the apartment that we'd be living in and managing. And I just got this sinking feeling like I wanted it so bad. Yeah. because it solves so many problems and makes so much possible that would be very difficult if we had to pay rent. And that's kind of what I feel like right now. There's this sinking feeling like I want this to work so bad. And there's so much about it that is so exciting to me and so hopeful and expansive. Like so much becomes possible because of it or if it works. That is like, it's like just this gut-wrenching feeling of like, I don't want it to fail, you know, or I don't want it to not be this, this wonderful thing that I want it to be. Anyway, so this is, I didn't need to bring that up again, but it's still kind of the reality of, of, you know, this moment for me. But I am, I have come up, I'm, I'm. Working on a course. It's coming very soon. I'm nearly, nearly ready to open up the gates to let people in.
That's so exciting.
Trenton ReynoldsIt is exciting.
Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsIt's a course that I'm calling Raw Materials. Yes. And it's going to be five weeks and I'm just going to be going in and... digging into some of the ways that I approach use of artistic creative materials to create. I don't know. This has been pretty vague about things. I will get more information out soon, but it's a course that I have – poured a lot of myself into rather than trying to make it something that's palatable to a typical like college type of setting which i'm used to i created the course that i was most interested in uh in teaching and i yes i'm excited about it
Sabrina Ward Harrisonso more to come more details yeah yeah do you know when it will open or when it will be will
Trenton Reynoldswe be teaching it live uh there will be a live component to it i'm kind of vacillating right now and that's something that uh i was going to talk to you about um the kind of uh There are advantages to pre-recording demonstration. Obviously, if there are parts where something needs to dry or something takes a long time that isn't very instructive, you can speed a video up or skip ahead to when something's dry. So there are advantages of doing pre-recorded stuff. But then I also just feel like it can be more compelling in... I don't know, there's kind of a reality that comes from doing stuff real time too. So I think my suspicion is that it'll be a combination of both of those things. That there will be live meetings, there will be a private Facebook group where we can grow more of a community and people can participate in more of a general conversation there.
Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsBut I think there will inevitably have to be some pre-recorded. uh, content as well.
Yeah. Oh my gosh.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonThat is so exciting. I'm thrilled for you and I'm, I hope I can take the class too.
Trenton ReynoldsAbsolutely. Absolutely. Uh, so yes, uh, I guess the, that is my formal announcement to the world. Uh, all those of you that are listening out in the podcast, I would love, love, love for you to be part of that, uh, part of the class, part of the conversation.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonHow can they get in touch with you and how will we get information?
Trenton ReynoldsI will. I'm not quite ready. I've been working on website stuff and kind of – want to be sure that all things are in a row so I can be orderly about collecting.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonBut if they follow you on Instagram or on Facebook, but follow you on Instagram, you'll be able to... Yep.
Trenton ReynoldsYep, for sure. So yes, I am definitely most active, though I'm not really super active on very many social media outlets, but Instagram is the place to follow me, which is... Trent Reynolds Art. T-R-E-N-T-R-E-Y-N-O-L-D-S-A-R-T. Trent Reynolds Art.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonAnd I'm sure you'll be able to do some little Instagram Live things about it.
Yep.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonIt's exciting. Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsSo last Thursday, I was my... I finally finished all the comments and grades for middle school and high school. And then Friday was Liv's birthday. So today really is kind of the first, like 100% of my attention is on... on this and getting it going. Soon, very, very soon. I have all the pieces together. I just need to make sure that everything is watertight and ready to launch it.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonWell, I wrapped up the break. The break two. It was great. That's right. Yeah, it ended about a week or so ago. So excited to just see this tribe go through and just so proud of everybody and they're deep in it. And really, it was just fun to kind of learn the first time through and apply myself. things to even have more streamlined and roadmaps and all these supplemental materials and the portal is completely full of chock full of stuff and demos and have different people from last year doing demos for this year's group and that's awesome really felt great and Megan and I had to do it all remotely But it was just a wonderful, wonderful group of people and so glad I did it. So I think I'm going to offer it again in the fall. I just love teaching it.
Trenton ReynoldsSo that felt fabulous. So just kind of logistically as a teacher, I'm curious to hear... How, if you can put to words, what are the kinds of refinements that you made from one to the next? Did you feel like, was there a consistent kind of refinement that you made or something that stood out or surprised you in terms of what... I don't know if that's really...
Sabrina Ward HarrisonSome around, like, just seeing where there are different, we could add different extra elements, like marketing, there's a whole deep dive extra bonus about marketing, but this amazing marketing guru, Heather Campbell, who's great, was just all about social media marketing, there was a lot of, like, more Photoshop tutorials about... with line art and more an InDesign tutorial and another one that's about crafting your story with another with a great writing coach and Shaboyan and just like supplemental and there's one about copyright with a lawyer that was we had last year but put in again And then, yeah, just like kind of anywhere we saw that people couldn't get a little bit more support, we just had things for them.
Trenton ReynoldsYeah, I think one of the... wonderful things about teaching at the high school these past few years. I had three sections of the same class. So I would teach something the first class and then I would be able to see where, what fell down, what didn't kind of hit right or what they were struggling with and then refine it. I had two more, two more iterations that I could kind of do. It gave me a very quick, a way to start making comparisons of what was working, what wasn't working. I think that's one of the values of teaching the way that you are is that being able to iterate each time and learn from the previous time and see, like that just seems like such a valuable thing. And then also to be able to go in and retroactively, or in the future, add to the content with these supplemental things. Yes. It's such a powerful thing. So the people that previously took Liberate, do they have access now to those bonus? They do? Yeah.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonWe're going to have an alumni group, which they'll be a part of. Everyone will stay in the alumni circle. Facebook group.
Trenton ReynoldsThat excites me to think of just the potential of being able to supplement, to add to each time you do it.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYep. The idea never to put it all together the first – try to think you've got it all nailed down the first time.
Right. Yeah.
Sabrina Ward Harrisonbecause you just want to, you learn so much from your students as you go.
Right. Yeah.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonSo I loved it. I loved it. And I'm actually working on beginning to create a, some kind of membership. I think there's so many people that are in the healing arts and doing art therapy and using my work for, I've heard, just as common that people that take my courses are in the healing arts professions. So I'm thinking about doing something, creating something for therapists, art therapists to use, because I hear often that they use my books in their practice. So I thought about really honing in on something for them.
Trenton ReynoldsI'm so curious how these next few years are going to pan out, though, because Just with being at home and distance education, I think people are just kind of, they must be starting to wake up to the fact that you can do a lot of this stuff at home without needing to pay all the money, without needing to go through all the hassle, without needing to go through the fear of kids learning things that you don't want them to learn or being bullied or, you know, on and on and on. Yep.
Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsAnd just, you know, individuals waking up to the fact that there's just such a tremendous amount of really high quality material online and opportunities to connect, you know, that are not as good as being in person, but pretty close and some in some ways superior.
Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsFeeling kind of like jittery energy, like the hands up a little bit.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYeah. Well, you're ready to get going. There's nothing holding you back.
Yeah. It's exciting.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonIt is exciting. Forward movement. It's just, yeah, there's that feeling. that adrenaline of of just like game game time you know yep
game on
Trenton Reynoldsit's exciting I was over at the studio this morning kind of cleaning up last week I while I was wrapping up at the high school I was also working on this project of making a big craft table to go on her back balcony for the kids anyway I made it I made a big mess I'll send you I'll have to send you a picture because they turned out pretty good I made a big one and a small one but I was cleaning up the studio this morning I had a bunch of sawdust everywhere and whatever and it just I was so excited to spend just to be the thought of spending more time in the studio making work and also getting to teach from there was just Yes. So invigorating. Yes, yes. Being able to teach studio art again is so appealing to me.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonVery excited. So there'll be something you make that's a freebie that will get people – you know, do that kind of a lead magnet?
Trenton ReynoldsYes. So I still, I need to make an outline of all the bits of content that need to come out and the pre-pre and the pre- and I haven't done that yet. That was today's, gonna be today's focus. But yes, all of the above. That is the focus of this week is to get all that done and hopefully posted.
Yeah.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonWell, I am so proud of you, Trent. I'm really excited and proud of you. This is the road to freedom and it's just great. It's great. I'm excited about it.
Trenton ReynoldsWell, you've been very patient with me and also just a great support. I feel like I've been able to pursue this in large part because of what I've seen you able to accomplish in the past year. Yeah.
Yeah.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonAnd I'd love to do something where I can help promote it, obviously, through my email list.
Trenton ReynoldsI will let you know as soon as I've got something.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI want to start painting. I'm staring at a whole bunch of paint. I finally ordered a bunch of paint.
Okay.
Sabrina Ward Harrisonand I want to make it a little easel and do some painting.
Trenton ReynoldsWell, you're going to take a class. What kind of painting are you going to do?
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI want to do some still life. I don't know. What? What? Kind of abstract. Well, there's all these beautiful peonies blooming here in Madison right now, and I thought it would be beautiful to paint. Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsStill life, really?
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI don't know. That is fantastic. In my own way, in my own way.
Sure.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonJust something. I got to navigate how to make this front room over the lake somehow into a studio space. It has all my living room stuff in it now, but it's just calling for... paint being flung around, but I also should do it. I could do it outside too. Wow. My body's needing to make some work for sure.
Trenton ReynoldsThat's awesome. That's great to hear.
Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsIt is like that. It's like this building appetite, right? You're just like, there's a discontentment or a hunger for, it's like, gotta, gotta do something.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYeah. Gotta go big. Um, This is the first time I'm going to paint without just using house paints primarily.
Trenton ReynoldsWhat are you going to use? Oh, this is so exciting. This is right up my alley. What are you going to use?
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI ordered 12 colors of acrylic paint, the tops of them. And then I got a set of golden... flow acrylics, fluid acrylics.
Okay.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonIt's a big step for me to buy those.
Trenton ReynoldsYes. That's exciting. It's exciting.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI know. And I got some acrylic medium.
Okay.
Trenton Reynoldsit's just funny and did you get brushes and no no brushes all right who needs brushes
Sabrina Ward Harrisonand i got hands i got hands i got two canvases awesome it's funny I know. I'm going to do it though. I'm just staring at them going, let's go girls. Yes, I'm going to do it this week. Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsThat's awesome. One of the bits of content that I was going to use was creating surfaces to paint on using muslin and plywood. Yeah. Oh, cool. It's a really cheap or inexpensive, I shouldn't say cheap, inexpensive way. And it's a really fantastic surface. If you like the give of canvas, it's not for you because it's obviously you're working on a board. But it's really super stable. It's really high quality canvas. And it's easy to do. That's a great thing. And it kind of leads into the first part of my class, which is talking about different kinds of supports or substrates.
Okay.
Trenton ReynoldsYes, indeed. This was good. I'm excited. Stay tuned. Lots more to come.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonGo forth, young man.
Trenton ReynoldsI will. That I will.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonSoul be filled. Play some Tom Petty. Rock it out. It's exciting. I'm so excited about it. Okay, friend. Great to talk. I'm excited to keep me posted. I will. Post those questions in the Facebook group, seriously, and get the feedback. I'm going to do that. I'm curious what people say. All right. Later.
Trenton ReynoldsThanks for listening. We'll be back next week.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonPlease help us grow our audience by rating us or writing a review on iTunes. To do that, you can use the link roominthetrees.com forward slash iTunes.
Trenton Reynoldsyou can follow us on instagram at sabrina ward harrison and at Trent Reynolds Art.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonAnd check out the show notes at roominthetrees.com where you can also get in touch if you have any ideas you'd like to share.
Trenton ReynoldsRate us on iTunes and share Room in the Trees with a friend.
With a friend.
Trenton ReynoldsWith a friend. ♪