(Video) Shantell Martin: PSFK Conference New York 2010

At our recent New York conference, Creator, Illustrator & VJ Shantell Martin encouraged us to “rediscover our creative seed” in a rousing talk about creativity, passion, and connectivity.

Watch the video of her presentation below:

Some highlights:

“Finding your creative seed: it’s your love, it’s your hobby.”

Shantell emphasized the importance of reconnecting with our essential joys and creative impetuses – her’s is drawing, so she draws whenever she can, wherever: clothes, faces, with projectors, on building walls.

“It’s about looking inside – not just outside – for inspiration. Feel the truth in your body, not your head. ”

Shantell acknowledged that external stimuli – city life, art, music – are all great places to find inspiration. But we must also remember to check-in with our own internal thoughts, bodies, impulses and visceral sensations to rediscover the inspirations native to ourselves.

“Take yourself out of your own body.. [but] look through your own eyes… Where do you connect?”

An important question for any creator. Shantell reminded us that ‘we’re all artists inside’ – despite our day-to-day jobs, responsibilities and stresses. We must “take the time out” and make the effort to look for that creative seed that is within each of us, and to remember how to “feel what a yes is and what a no is.”

Shantell Martin