In this episode of Willful, award-winning documentary filmmaker, Maureen Judge, tells me how she got her start in film.
Maureen heads up the production company, Makin’ Movies, and creates documentaries that take you inside people’s lives.
Highlights in this interview include:
• Why Maureen chose documentaries over other forms of filmmaking.
• Her first camera.
• How photo albums, sewing, and studying philosophy all worked together to shape Maureen’s vision as a documentarian.
Willful is the web series I’ve created with Yann Yap. It tracks how artists and creative entrepreneurs work, thrive and survive. We interview one artist a week, then post five three-minute snack films from that interview on YouTube every day.
Follow us here and on our YouTube channel for more inspiring interviews.
Andrew is one of dozens of creative entrepreneurs and artists I’ll be interviewing in Willful, a new web series I co-created with my friend, Yann Yap, a producer, photographer and videographer currently working at TFO.
A selfie of the creators, Yann Yap and Alison Garwood-Jones
Willful tracks how creative entrepreneurs work, thrive and survive, and today is the series launch!
I’ll be interviewing one artist a week, then posting five three-minute snack films from that interview on YouTube every day.
As freelancers, Yann and I are always looking for good stuff to jump start our day, whether it’s an inspiring story, advice on process, how to pivot or transfer your skills as jobs change, and tips on the economics of being (and staying) creative. I know tons of people who geek out on that stuff. So, this is for you!
In each episode, you’ll meet women and men who are:
• Gutsy and joyfully oblivious to “You can’t do that” and “Who do you think you are?” (it’s a Canadian thing)
• Determined to make things, then put them out into the world.
Genie award-winning documentary filmmaker, Maureen Judge (above), is someone I admire because she has chosen a career that matches her determination to stay curious and interested in life. Her latest doc is called, My Millennial Life. Maureen is our first guest this week.
• Innovators and disruptors whose focus and positivity has elevated them above the snark of flabby, anonymous commenters.
Painter turned “vision activator,” Ricardo McRae (above), has many insightful things to say about dancing with fear. And I’m not talking the kind of fear spread by crooked politicians, but private fears that stop us from speaking out or crafting original solutions to problems. In addition to his work with brands, Ricardo is the founder of Black in Canada, an organization that seeks to shift the popular narrative of Black achievement in this country, and around the world.
There’s a current of willfulness running through every creative person I’ve ever met — a certain scrappiness and determination. “Willful” is something you have to be if you want to make a real difference in the world. Hence, the name for the series.
Ladies and gents, the trailer to Willful:
If you like what we’re doing, please share using the appropriate buttons down below.
To be a part of “Willful”
If you are creative and have a “Willful” story worth sharing on camera, contact us at willfulproject@gmail.com, or on Twitter @WillfulProject.
Mrs. H.T. Miller, widow: iron-gray clipped hair (lightly waved). No makeup. Smokes occasionally. Eats peppermints. Keeps them in the right pocket of her full-length beaver coat. #CapoteCharacters, 1945.
The only thing I remember about colour mixing from grade school is: red + blue = purple.
I’m guessing you also discovered that the result was an ugly, muddy maroon, not the Tyrian purple worn by Roman emperors. For that, according to Aristotle, I’d have to source some crushed shellfish. I only had a Prang 12-colour paint set. But it came with a pre-mixed violet, so I used that.
Coming in a close second was: blue + yellow = green.
From that I got a pukey bog green, not the mesmerising emerald green I insisted on seeing. Nor was it the radioactive sap green I thrill to every time I order the seaweed salad at my favourite sushi joint. These experiments were deflating.
I spent the rest of grade school and high school avoiding colour mixing and using hues straight from the pan or tube — everything from bright magentas and peacock blues to flesh tones and black. I also mixed in a lot of white which, of course, obliterates the special veiled magic of watercolour painting.
I’d say my early work showed promise, but with no concept of colour mixing or glazing, and an over-dependence on white, my paintings were flat and lifeless.
Now that my love affair with art is back on, my curiosity with colour mixing is insatiable. My art table is plastered with colour swatches. Running out of mixing wells, I’ve turned to dinner plates to accommodate all of my experiments. As the holidays approach, I’ll be finding a new spot for my tree because my art table isn’t going anywhere.
What I’m learning is that some colours really do have to be purchased because they are made from rare and expensive pigments sourced from nature. But things like black and flesh tones are better and more alive when you create them from scratch using the three primaries: red, yellow and blue. You just have to play with proportions. Use lots of ultramarine blue and you’ll get black. Use more red and yellow and you’ll get peach. To make it paler, don’t add white, add water.
The rows of tube paints that my parents furnished me with in the 1980s and nineties are long gone. Today, I’m learning what it means to work with the absolute basics. Finding out that there are infinite possibilities when you pare right down is heartening.
Alison has been blogging since 2009, and drawing for much longer. Society Pages looks at how technology challenges and shapes human nature and creativity, among other things. It isn't always pretty.
A selfie of the creators, Yann Yap and Alison Garwood-Jones
