playing around with Rachael Renae
Just in time for Spring, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Rachael Renae to talk about play, creativity, and the importance of prioritizing joyful moments to yourself. This was an insightful conversation that had me eager to jump back into writing and reflect on the things that bring me fulfillment that I don’t do often enough. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I do! - Elaine
Elaine: So we first met back in probably 2019 when you were doing Hazel & Dolly. If you can put yourself back in time when you were doing that, what comes to mind in terms of where you were mentally with what you were doing and where you wanted to go?
Rachael: I love putting myself back in that mindset because I had just switched jobs in my same industry doing engineering. I switched jobs because I was feeling very dissatisfied, not unhappy, but not completely fulfilled, and got this new job and it's where I'm still at and I'm happy there because it offers more flexibility. I think at that time I was feeling like something was missing from my life and that–what I know now and can articulate is that–that was an act of creative practice. I remember taking a letterpress printing workshop and I felt like the solution to that dissatisfaction was, “oh, I need to grow as a creative small business and then make that my career.” And so I was working toward that at that time and I wasn't doing terrible. You know, we met because my cards were being sold in the store. But I realized now that me doing the creative practice as a small business was still kind of sucking the fun out of it. So to answer your question, I think in that mindset, I was really pursuing creativity as an alternative career.
E: Do you find yourself now in the position that you're in with multiple creative hobbies that pressure or even the thought of, “maybe I do pursue this as another small business endeavor?”
R: It’s interesting because when I was reaching the end of the stationery business, I had shifted a lot of things. I started [the business] doing letterpress printing and it was all black and white, very simple, bold. And then as I started exploring my personal style and exploring with more color and realizing how important color was to me–which is obvious now–I switched from letterpress printing to flat printing which improved my practices for me because I didn't have to do the production on my own. Then I started exploring by taking a ceramics class and I was trying to figure out: what is the umbrella of my small business? How can I sell these ceramics under this umbrella of my small business? But it took all the fun out of it. And I stopped doing ceramics and started experimenting with style as a creative outlet only. And the reason why I'm here today, in the space that I'm in creatively, is that I set these creative prompts for myself to just get dressed every day. This was during COVID work from home times. Because there was no opportunity for profit from that it was just like I'm doing this to play. I was able to tap into that creativity again and realize that I'm actually not lit up by the stationery business anymore. It wasn't like a light bulb moment, but over the course of several months, I was like this isn't fun. I feel pressured to create and produce more products.
E: I think once you're an entrepreneur you're an entrepreneur for life. No matter what, if you have that energy, and you have understanding about yourself, you’re going to have a certain mindset like “… but could I…?”
R: I agree with you. I think that having the entrepreneurial spirit, there are things that I create for myself that I ask myself, “what if other people would like this?” I could just sell it and have that cover the cost of my supplies. Sometimes I do feel that with making ceramics I make so much more than I need, but it's the process that I enjoy. So I'm trying really hard to keep the mindset of, I am making for me.
E: Was there anything that you had to overcome in order to really focus on and showcase your personal style as a part of your creative process?
R: Absolutely. I remember sitting on New Year's Eve 2020 or 2021 and being sad. I had this vision of myself on New Year's Eve, watching a fun movie and making a cool project. Instead I was alone and I was sad and I had no creative energy and I'm like, I need to tap into my creativity. And so I made some silly prompts, like wear monochrome, wear an all thrifted outfit. I made the challenge a month long to get through the winter blues and to have fun and get dressed and not wear sweatpants every day. It was just for me, but then it really took off on the internet and I was able to connect with people who were excited by what I was doing. I don't know a lot of people that share my same sense of style, so by connecting with other people online, I was like, “Oh, this feels like I'm tapping into a new community that feels really energizing.” So I always say I accidentally became a style influencer because I wasn't intending to ever reach out to brands and want to make money doing that. I just wanted to experiment with my style and so much of my style is vintage or secondhand. So it was also an opportunity to talk about sustainability and consumerism and how you can still want new clothes for yourself without buying all of the new fast fashion. I care about that a lot, so it was this convergence of creativity and topics I cared about and something that came very naturally to me.
E: Yeah, I have to ask though, you work remote, right?
R: Yes. Okay. [Laughs] Wait, first ask your question.
E: There are times where I watch your video and I'm like, Okay, did she just get up one day and felt really inspired to map out the next five days of outfits? Because no way could I get up and do this every day. Sweatpants are too comfortable. I mean, who cares either way, I think the goal itself is inspirational. It really matters how you present yourself to the world. And if you're at home most of the time then that is a natural extension for you to do that virtually.
R: At the beginning I was really going all out. Full accessories. A lot of times I would keep the outfit on, but I am a cozy gal. And so there were definitely plenty of days where I was like, Okay, I did this. I did this for the Internet to fulfill my promise to myself of putting together an outfit because it was really the act of putting it together. That was the creative practice. I think it has improved my confidence to find my style. I created a style course because so many people ask questions like “Where did you get that?” “What about this?” “How do I dress like you without feeling self conscious?” and I'm like, It's not about dressing like me. It's how you reflect on your own life and figure out what is the best for you. We all have an expression where we feel the best but if we don't take time to reflect we don’t know why. Am I feeling drained because of the activity or because I decided to wear a tulle skirt to this thing and I'm uncomfortable? So I built this course to help people understand their own personal style. And I want to be an inspiration showing once you find your style and you experiment and you play, you can feel better and build more confidence. But to answer your question, I definitely changed back into sweatpants a lot.
E: What did the leap from style to more broadly play feel like for you and how is it going now?
R: I think I got to a point with sharing style stuff online and understanding that this is a way to express myself creatively and authentically. So much of my personal growth has happened while I've been exploring my personal style. I feel like I'm living a very big, rich, fulfilling life now and I wouldn't have been able to do that without finding my style and exploring other creative practices. So when I was reflecting with that sort of entrepreneurial hat on, I asked myself what value am I providing? If it's just inspiration with an outfit, that's okay. But I feel that I have more to give as far as value. So I started thinking about talking about things with different perspective shifts.
E: When I consider your work, you’re definitely a resource. And it’s great to hear how thoughtful you are about creating boundaries for yourself.
R: I'm trying to understand the balance of it all. Yeah, and it is quite discouraging to me when you know, I do all this work to talk about how style or what creative activities mean to me, and then, someone's like, Where'd you get that coat? The internet is a great tool and it is what we make of it. It’s important to me to approach situations with curiosity because I think it allows for more compassion and self-reflection. So it’s one of the things I’m navigating to try to be a resource for improving your life, not just a place to get links to buy things.
E: So are there any creative endeavors that you keep to yourself that you don't share with your audience?
R: I don't think so. I move things around a lot in my house and I share some of that, or my collections of things. Those types of snippets aren’t monetized so I’ll share a little snippet here and there. I'm really good now about understanding which things I don't want to sell. So none of my sewing projects I sell and I am even really quite resistant to doing projects for friends unless it's a gift. So if someone is like can you make me this? I'm like, I can. I don't know if I want to because that's not the joyful part of it, the joyful part is me just exploring on my own. It's why I like quilting so much because a lot of it is ad lib and I'm just having a good time in the basement exploring.
E: You often refer to The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. Could you distill the most important message for you from that book?
R: Yeah - It’s play, obviously. I think one of the first weeks she has you make a list of things you'd like to do. And then look at that list and write down how long it's been since you've done that thing. And that just blew my mind because there's so many things that I liked to do as a kid that I haven't done for years for no other reason than I haven't prioritized it. And maybe I don't think I'm good at it. And that has been a huge mindset shift for me since doing the Artist’s Way. You don't have to be good at it. You can just do the thing because you enjoy the process. And by not monetizing the product, it doesn't matter if you're bad at it or even if you don't finish the project or the thing. That specific task of making a list of things that you like to do and then adding more things and more things and then asking yourself - why are you doing those things? So once I started to do that, it really shifted my perspective. And now prioritizing play is my whole thing.
E: I noticed that you've been doing the playlist online and for visual people having something to physically check off makes it a little bit easier to track and prioritize. I was really inspired by the idea of the Artist’s Dates but felt they were really hard to commit to.
R: Yeah, and when you don't do that you're like another week's gone by and I haven’t gone on my artist date. It feels like there's a lot of pressure. But I think that intentionality is important in a creative practice. I use the physical playlists to remind myself to incorporate play every day.
E: The one thing that I really liked Rick Rubin mention [in The Creative Act] was that the creative process is all we have control over, that the outcome is out of our control. So, if I'm writing a book, all I have control of is writing the book. The idea is not, “how is the audience going to respond to this?” Write the book to the best of my ability, that’s it. And then whatever happens after that is -
R: Totally, yes. I love that it really takes the pressure off. Sorry to interrupt you. I think that this is something that right now in society is so fascinating, because we monetize everything, and we're so conditioned by capitalism to monetize and be productive and we feel guilty doing something if it's not productive. And that's terrible.
If we can think about how a kid plays, you can ask any kid and they're like, yeah, I'm an artist. I'm creative. I can sing. Picture it, I am at a backyard barbecue and somebody's seven-year-old is like pay attention to me and they’re performing some play. They're playing every part because it's just them. They're singing and they're dancing and the plot makes no sense and they're having the best time. And at no point is that kid like, well, I can't play every part because that doesn't make sense. Or I'm bad at singing, I can't perform this. They're just having fun. We lose that. All of a sudden, we have to make money at this or it's not valid, or I can only do this after I get all of my responsibilities done and all of the other people in my life are taken care of. And my whole thing is - No, you have to prioritize it for your own life, for your own fulfillment.
E: There are various ways of looking at play and something that has come into my sphere a lot in the last couple of years is the idea of levity. Coming at things with that attitude of like, what is going to make me feel lighter and happier and more present? I love to people watch, it brings me a lot of joy, and it doesn’t require much effort on my part.
R: Thank you for the levity comment because I’m always trying to synthesize my approach to life down to, is this energizing me or is it depleting me? There’s a book I’m reading where the author talks about that effort of noticing the small joys and how it truly rewires your brain to notice things like, oh, this apple is so crunchy or this feels so good to have this cat on my lap. If we can take a second to sit with those little joys, it rewires our brain, to keep noticing them more often. And I think that that is a shift to prioritizing play, you know because finding these little joys in life makes it more fulfilling.
E: At Detroit Rose we talk about ritual in a way that is that exact idea - celebrating these tiny, joyful moments and building them into our day to day. We understand ritual as multifaceted - you don’t have to set aside hours in your day to practice, but it could be as small as turning the tea kettle on and noticing the excitement you feel for a warm cup of tea or coffee. When you hear the word ritual, what does that mean to you? Do you have any that are outside of the creative process that maybe help to get you into that space?
R: Yeah, for sure. I love that you differentiated between the different facets of ritual because I think for so long in my life, I was very anti religion. I didn't even want to say source or universe or anything like that. I read Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, and she talks about that. And now I'm like, okay it can be whatever you need it to be and whatever you want it to be - we are all connected. So had I heard the word ritual 10 years ago, I would have been like, yeah, no, I don't go to church. And now it’s: Yes, I have so many. I have an altar that serves as a reminder of what I’m focusing on right now. I like physical representations of things that I want to focus on and want to intentionally bring into my life. I have rocks and feathers and shells to connect me more to nature. I have dice and funny things to remind me to play. I have little collections all over my home that are my way of documenting my life.
But as far as daily rituals I do have a morning ritual and when I don't do it, I feel quite disorganized or agitated throughout the day. I like to wake up early. I feed the cats –obviously they demand that right away. I clean the kitchen while the kettle is boiling. I make pour over coffee every morning and then I sit in this chair and I do my morning pages from The Artist’s Way and then I like to read some sort of something. If I have a calm mindset then I read nonfiction, sometimes if I'm having an agitated or stressed morning, I read some fiction.
E: I love that you talk about The Artist’s Way so much because I feel like The Creative Act is so similar but Julia needs her flowers. That being said, The Creative Act is more fresh in my mind and one of the things Rick Rubin talks about is this idea that ideas float around amongst all of us. One may pop into your head and you have a responsibility to create it. If you don’t, eventually it leaves and will go to someone else who may end up creating it. There’s also this famous quote, “good artists copy, great artists steal.” What do you think about these two ideas within the context of each other, especially in our age of social media where it’s really easy to consume other people’s work?
R: I’ve had my own experience with that, when I was doing stationery, and stickers started to become popular. I remember thinking, sticker sheets should happen. And I drew a bunch of them and it just wasn’t happening. It just didn't inspire me. So I let that go and then the next year there was a stationery company that made a sticker sheet and I realized I waited too long. And of course, I was jealous. I think that collectively we have an abundance of creativity. By playing and reflecting on what's fulfilling us, we're just getting closer and closer to that innate state of being in creative flow. So it makes sense to me that that happens.
I don't know if you feel this way in the Spring, but I sort of get pummeled with ideas and feel quite overwhelmed with what ones do I pick and actually implement? So right now, I will be launching a podcast with my friend where we talk about this and creativity and just like encouraging people on both sides of the spectrum, people who are working as artists professionally and people who are just trying to live a more creative life for personal fulfillment. And then I'm launching a creative workshop called “Prioritize Play”. And trying to overcome impostor syndrome. I'm not “qualified” to say that I can help you with this, but I do think that I have really synthesized actionable steps like prioritizing play, making these silly playlists, incorporating these silly things. And reflecting on them. I think I've come up with some thoughtful approaches to building it into your busy life.
Check out Rachael’s website where you can find and sign up for all the fun and insightful workshops she has to offer, including her style course and Prioritize Play Workshop. Her podcast, Chaotic Creatives will be airing soon anywhere you listen, stay tuned for announcements on her IG @rachaelrenae.