Tom Froese

We’re excited to invite Leo Sammarelli as our speaker for November. Join us.

Leo Sammarelli is 27 years old and suffered a spinal cord injury in March 2017 that has left him paralyzed. Being wheelchair bound hasn’t stopped him doing the things he loves and pushing the limits in a way no one thought possible. This includes wheelbarrow walking up the Grouse Grind and completing the Grandfondo on a hand-cycle. Leo is an adaptive athlete of many disciplines as well as a boxing coach. He is also a mentor and an aspiring Paralympian, involved in the community as a director of B.C boxing and teaches at Spinal Cord Injury B.C, as well as participating in SCI studies. His passion for boxing led him to create West Coast Wheelchair Adaptive Boxing and work with others around the globe. Their goal is to put adaptive boxing on the world map and have it recognized as a sport in the Paralympics.

Q&A

How do you define creativity and apply it in your life and career?
Creativity for me is finding a different way then the “usual” to adapt in any circumstance or obstacle to accomplish anything you put your mind to. Living with a Spinal Cord Injury and wheelchair bound I must be creative in a non accessible world.

Where do you find your best creative inspiration or energy?
I usually find them in solitary and extreme environments or watching someone try to achieve a certain goal or movement. I teach people with many different kinds of adaptive needs/abilities and most of the time I have to find ways of achieving the movement and think outside of the box.

What’s one piece of creative advice or a tip you wish you’d known as a young person?
Anything is possible in your life when you believe, don’t be afraid of failure, it’s part of the process which causes creativity to thrive.

Who (living or dead) would you most enjoy hearing speak at CreativeMornings?
Viktor Frankle: Was an Austran Neurologist Phychiatrist, Philosopher, author and Holocaust survivor:
“Everything can be taken from man but one thing:
To choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way”

What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?
Many to pick from but the most recent one is doing the Grouse Grind (Grouse Mountain) in the (wheelbarrow position). 2830 steps 6hours later.

How would you describe what you do in a single sentence to a stranger?
It’s all about attitude, no excuses.

If you could do anything now, what would you do?
I would like to fight in a 12 round boxing match in Madison Square Garden.

Where was the last place you travelled?
Cambodia in 2018, After being discharged from rehab, a good friend invited me on a mission to take medical supplies to hospitals and visit an orphanage. I learned first hand what suffering is the experiences humbled me.

For October’s theme ‘design’ we are pleased to present design researcher, strategist, facilitator, and educator Casey Hrynkow.

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For 35 years, Casey co-owned and ran one of Canada’s most respected design firms. As her own work matured and changed over time she began to use design research and design thinking as a primary skill. Today she, along with other valued colleagues, facilitates conversations about wicked problems, to tap into the wisdom of regular folks and make them champions of their ideas. She has worked extensively with First Nations in British Columbia, as well as cities and universities across Western Canada.

Q&A

How do you define creativity and apply it in your life and career?

Oh! Big question! Creativity is a gift we all have that has to be nurtured and fostered from the time we are children. It is the Swiss Army knife for problem solving in every field of study from math to science to sculpture and cooking…I have taught “thinking creatively” to children and adults to help them solve problems. Creativity is the ability to see problems from every angle, every facet, so that we can approach them in new ways. Many adults have muted their creativity and I help them “wake it up”, so that they surprise themselves with the ideas they can generate.

Where do you find your best creative inspiration or energy?

I am most creative when I’m not trying to be creative. Out for walks, in the shower, at the grocery store….Letting my mind NOT think about a problem allows my creativity to bring a new perspective to it. I remember as a student, staring at design magazines. They did inspire me, but more for style than for substance. It’s that substance that gets me jazzed up. A couple of things.

What’s one piece of creative advice or a tip you wish you’d known as a young person?

I don’t know…I don’t think you can “jump the queue” to get to somewhere that only living will teach you about. So, perhaps patience is the best advice I can give. Keep your eyes and ears open. Touch things. Feel the wind on your face. Eat mindfully. Life will teach you the way, if you let it.

Who (living or dead) would you most enjoy hearing speak at CreativeMornings?

I think I’d love to hear Michael Mabry. He came to Vancouver many years ago and I loved his rambling thinking on the minutia of a day and how it inspires his design work.

What’s your one guilty creative indulgence?

Conferences. I love them. Not just creative conferences, but conferences on the issues I care about. You get hundreds (sometimes thousands) of people together to think about, talk about, even dance and sing about things and you come away filled with so much creative energy.

What are you reading these days?

I just read Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. It explains so much about the way we see each other and why, and I think everyone should read it.

What fact about you would surprise people?

I played ringette (on ice) for four years as an adult. That could also qualify for “What’s the craziest thing you ever did”!

What myths about creativity would you like to set straight?

UGH! People think creativity is “airy fairy” indulgent fluff. In fact, nothing we rely on today would exist without creativity.

If you could do anything now, what would you do?

I’ve always said I’d like to come back as an industrial designer. In point of fact, it would probably have led me to the very same place I am today, but I would love to be able to make smart, beautiful three-dimensional things!

🎵 We’re excited to also feature multi-instrumentalist musician Alex Maher who will fuse electronic pop, jazz, funk and soul in a live performance.🎶

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Join us. We’re excited to invite Debra Sparrow as our next speaker on our virtual stage.

Debra Sparrow is a jewellery designer, artist, weaver, and knowledge keeper from the Musqueam First Nation

Sparrow’s work can be seen in various museums and institutions. She designed the logo for the Canadian Men’s Hockey Team for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver, B.C. She also continues to work on pieces close to her heart at her home in Musqueam. It is Debra’s hope to educate others about the beauty and integrity of her people’s history through her art. Debra is an acclaimed weaver who has been weaving for twenty years and is deeply involved with the revival of Musqueam weaving. Her Musqueam blankets are displayed at the Vancouver Airport, and at UBC.

🎵 This month’s live musical guest is the Chinese-Francophone duo Qiu Xia He and Andre Thibault, known as Silk Road Music🎶

For over 20 years, Silk Road Music has been smashing stereotypes about Chinese music and taking Chinese instruments in new artistic directions. Its pioneering musical fusions have merged Chinese folk and classical music with Brazilian, jazz, Celtic, Spanish, Arabic, Aboriginal and blues music. Founded by Qiu Xia He (pr. Chu-sha Her), a one-time music teacher and touring musician in her native Shaanxi, China, the ensemble has earned a Juno nomination, two West Coast Music Awards, and two Canadian Folk Music Award nominations. For this ensemble, she is partnering with her partner in life, guitarist Andre Thibault.

Anyone else watch Charlie Chaplin’s “The Kid” after yesterday’s compelling talk by Charlie Demers?
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Awesome portrait of tomorrow’s speaker Charlie Demers by 2nd year Capilano University student Natasha Lee. @spring_day6

Still time to register online (link in profile)

#cmvan #cmrelease #creativity #vancouver (at Vancouver, British Columbia)
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Come join us August 6th for our next exciting speaker Charlie Demers.

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Charlie Demers is a Juno-nominated stand-up comedian, BC Book Prize-nominated author, & co-star of two Emmy-winning Netflix animated series, Beat Bugs and The Last Kids on Earth.

Born and raised in Vancouver, Demers is a regular performer on CBC Radio One’s The Debaters, and co-host of Citytv’s comedic panel show The Citynews List in Vancouver. In 2005, he was the judges’ choice for Vancouver’s funniest new comic; since then he has been featured on national radio, in print, as well as in festivals and live venues across Canada and the Pacific Northwest and with Paul Bae as the sketch duo “Bucket”–the act Robin Williams called “the future of comedy.” In 2018 his album ‘Fatherland” was nominated for a Juno Comedy Award. This was the first time in 34 years Juno had announced comedy nominations. Charlie Demers has published numerous books, including The Prescription Errors, Vancouver Special, The Horrors, Property Values, and Primary Obsessions.

🎵 This month’s live musical guest is soul, funk and rock n’ roll singer-songwriter Kuba Oms.🎶

Kuba Oms is one of those rare artists whose voice touches you deep in your soul. Kuba commands the stage with the same ease and compelling aura that mark the global superstars of today and yesterday. His debut solo album, “How Much Time”, could be likened to a cross between David Gray, Ben Harper and Al Green. And his followup album, “ADHD”, spawned two top 20 pop radio hits in Canada with My Love and Electrolove and has over 10 million streams on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube. He is releasing a new single in the autumn of 2021. He picked up a Latin Grammy for his duet with Alex Cuba on the album, Healer.Get your ticket

Why not explore public art this weekend via one of 40 creative biking and walking tours?

Register now for BIKEnnake/WALKennale using promo code CREATIVE2021 at https://www.vbbike.ca (at Vancouver, British Columbia)
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Join us for next months speaker as we’re thrilled to invite Chris Corrigan to our virtual stage.

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Chris Corrigan is a principal partner of Harvest Moon Consultants, specializing in participatory process, international facilitation, and strategic thinking in support of organizations and communities tackling complex challenges.

Corrigan’s formal bio includes info about decades of experience working with governments, not for profits, indigenous communities, and social enterprises, creative dialogue-based tools and processes informed by complexity theory to help leaders and teams make decisions in uncertain contexts.

But mostly Chris Corrigan is just a person who would like to share a pesto recipe with you:

Take a bunch of basil, destem it, place it into a mortar with a few pinches of coarse salt and a couple of peeled garlic cloves and begin grinding it into a paste.

When the leaves are all broken down, add some pine nuts and gently pour in a really good olive oil until the paste has the consistency you’re looking for.

Add a pinch of chilli flakes for a subtle feeling of heat.

That’s the secret. Purists will object, but I’m telling you, give it a try.

How do you define creativity and apply it in your life and career?

Making things I guess. It’s certainly what I have done from a very small age, made drawings, and songs and poems and games and all kinds of things. These days I make conversations and community and I try to make a difference by doing things that have never been done before. It is all creative.

Where do you find your best creative inspiration or energy?

In a few places: the early morning, or being with others. I am an improviser at heart and so I work with offers all around me and when I am creating with others I feel like I’m always at my best.

What’s one piece of creative advice or a tip you wish you’d known as a young person?

Pay more attention to what you have just done. Try to remember the feelings of sweetness and despair instead of just moving on to the next thing. There are so many experiences I’ve forgotten about because they seemed so fleeting at the time, and now I wish I could remember who was there with me and what we actually did.

Who (living or dead) would you most enjoy hearing speak at CreativeMornings? 

Have you ever had any children speak? Would you dare turn the mic over to a 12 year old child? A twelve year old girl ready to kick ass and take names would be an amazing thing to see.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?

Quit a full time government job with a baby at home to become a consultant.

What did you learn from your most memorable creative failure?

Usually no one gets hurt.What are you reading these days? Shifu, You’ll Do Anything for a Laugh by Mo Yan, What The Mystics Know by Richard Rohr, Trickster Drift, Eden Robinson

What fact about you would surprise people?

I am a practicing contemplative Christian.

How does your life and career compare to what you envisioned for your future when you were a sixth grader?

At no point did I ever play on the blue line for the Toronto Maple Leafs, so nothing has really worked out. I also didn’t start a band with Brian May and Freddy Mercury.

How would you describe what you do in a single sentence to a stranger?

I help people work together to figure out what to do when they are stuck so that we can make the world a more just place.

What’s the most recent thing you learned (big or small)?

How to move between an Eb melodic minor and an Bb major scale in the same position so as to find some compact soloing lines on A Child is Born.

If you could open a door and go anywhere where would that be?

Right now, it would probably be to the Grey Bruce Highlands in southern Ontario to visit my family.

What keeps you awake at night?

Barred owls on the hunt beneath a full moon and a Pineapple Express lashing the front of my house.

What myths about creativity would you like to set straight?

There are no myths about creativity. It’s all true. Even the myths. Especially the myths.

Who has been the biggest influence on your life? What lessons did that person teach you?

My partner Caitlin. She continually teaches me how to not lose my shit and succumb to anxiety and fear. And every day she reminds me that I am loved.

What are you proudest of in your life?

My two kids, who are young adults now and making their way in a weird world. They love each other and my heart bursts through my chest every time I think about them.

If you could do anything now, what would you do?

End patriarchy, capitalism, and settler-colonialism and watch SOOOO many of my friends fulfill their potential and make the world a better place.

Where was the last place you travelled?

Last air travel was in February 2020 and was a three point tour to Ontario, Columbus Ohio, and Minneapolis, to teach the Art of Hosting and complexity skills to doctors in Ohio and social change activists in the Twin Cities. And to drink whisky with my dad for his birthday.

What music are you listening to these days?*

Lots of jazz standards played on guitar and especially diving into the work of Reg Schwager.

What was the best surprise you’ve experienced so far in life?

Realizing in an instant that I am unconditionally loved.

Where is your favourite place to escape?

There are a few places on Bowen Island, where I live, that are absolutely precious to me.

What was the best advice you were ever given?

If you talk to people about what they know about, they will always tell you the truth. I heard that from Utah Phillips at the Vancouver Folk Festival in 1997 and it fundamentally changed my facilitation practice.

What books made a difference in your life and why?

Not just books? There are many creative artifacts that have been influential in my life. The Tao te Ching was super influential. A painting by Carl Beam called “Columbus Chronicles”, John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme,” Irish whistle player Mary Bergin’s album “Feadóga Stain,” the midfield prowess of Glenn Hoddle, Nathanial Mackey’s Bedouhin Hornbook. The Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision Making by Sam Kaner. News of the World by Queen. Between the Breaks by Stan Rogers. Leadership and the New Science by Meg Wheatley. The Rez Sisters by Thomson Highway. The Sacrifice by Andrei Tarkovsky. Tsawalk by Umeek. The tifo and creative support of the Vancouver Southsiders and the Swanguardians. Listening for the Heartbeat of God by J. Phillip Newell, Anam Cara by John O'Donohue, Loving What Is by Byron Katie, the leadership artistry of Khelsilem. Each of these, among many others, have ushered my over various thresholds in my life. They are all creative works, some are creative re-imaginings of spirituality, process work, and ways of living.

What practises, rituals, or habits contribute to your creative work?

It’s a combination of the openness and rest that is offered by my meditation practice and the rigour of playing scales on the guitar or forcing myself to write despite my mind’s resistance to being “productive” when I’m feeling dry.

When you get stuck creatively, what is the first thing you do to get unstuck?

Go for a walk.

If you had fifteen extra minutes each day, what would you do with them?

Lie on my back, close my eyes and listen to three pieces of very good music.

What has been one of your biggest Aha! moments in life?

The first time I witnessed a meeting held in Open Space, with 400 people in a room in Whistler in 1995. It completely transformed my facilitation and leadership practice, knowing that a group of people can self-organize action around issues that they care about. I’ve never looked back.

What object would you put in a time capsule that best represents who you are today?

My music library.

What is the one movie or book every creative must see/read? 

You should read a book or seek out the traditional teachings of your place, of where you live, of the traditional territory you inhabit. Those aren’t always written down, but I feel that it is so important to know your place because if you create things that run counter to the place you are living you can perpetuate patterns of harm. Understand who you are, where you are and why you are there.

🎵 This month’s live musical guest is jazz & R&B guitarist, bandleader, and teacher (Teun Schut)[https://www.teunschut.ca].🎶

Originally from Holland, Schut has been playing guitar for five decades, studying and playing jazz, blues, and rock in bands and ensembles. Having toured around the world, Tuen settled in Bowen Island, where he continues to teach, play, and perform.

You don’t want to miss this!
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Looking to get noticed, new talent, or collaboration opportunities? Have you signed up for the CreativeMornings global directory yet? https://creativemornings.com/join
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We’re excited to explore the theme of Matriarchy with our next speaker, Zoë Pawlak.

Contemporary artist and industrial designer Zoë Pawlak is known for her evocative and intuitive command of colour, material, and composition.

‘A mother and leader, Zoë guides with confidence and humility, with a commitment to expand what’s possible — for her clients, ourselves and those who intersect with her vision. Raising two kids and creating a successful studio practice as an entrepreneur at the age of 24, her deep faith and spirituality have been essential touchstones, helping her weather the inevitable ups and downs as an artist. In 2018, Zoë recognized her unhealthy relationship with alcohol and found sobriety.

How do you define creativity and apply it in your life and career?
When you monetize how you’re creative, it shifts your relationship to art making. Why you create changes everything about what you make and who you make it for. My business is largely based on customer love and excellent service. To reconcile this with a creative life, is quite the feat.

Where do you find your best creative inspiration or energy?
I listen to a lot of music. I love exercise, it keeps the blood flowing.

What’s one piece of creative advice or a tip you wish you’d known as a young person?
Save money. And keep asking for help. I had a LOT of good mentors along the way.

Who (living or dead) would you most enjoy hearing speak at CreativeMornings?
Tom Waits. Wait, would that be interesting? Hard to tell.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?
Cliff jumping in the Philippines.

What’s your one guilty creative indulgence?
I’m currently writing a pilot and have NO idea what I’m doing and it’s an indulgent blast.

What are you reading these days?
Dare to Lead and Pleasure Activism (both SO good).

What fact about you would surprise people?
I think people assume I’m brave. I am scared all the time.

How would you describe what you do in a single sentence to a stranger?
I’m an industrial designer and painter, making custom, original artwork for private clients and interior designers.

What’s the most recent thing you learned (big or small)?
Easy does it.

If you could open a door and go anywhere where would that be?
Chile back to my family there.

What keeps you awake at night?
My cat.

What myths about creativity would you like to set straight?
You have to work for it. Good work ethics promotes good work. This is not a cruise. Also, I love this talk.

Who has been the biggest influence on your life? What lessons did that person teach you?
I look to many strong, female, creatives who have paved the way: Missy Elliott, Anne Lamott, M.I.A., Erykah Badu. To thine own self be true and that this is not only creative work, but that there’s power in the paving of a creative career.

What are you proudest of in your life?
My kids being kind and the young people who have worked with me claim they learned something.

Where was the last place you travelled?
New York three days before shut down.

What was the best surprise you’ve experienced so far in life?
Sobriety, I never thought that would happen to me.

Where is your favourite place to escape?
My studio or Naramata.

What was the best advice you were ever given?
Listen to your life.

What books made a difference in your life and why?
The Untethered Soul, again and again and again. Too many to count. Winners Take All, Just Kids…the list is endless. Being a READER has made the biggest difference in my life.

What practises, rituals, or habits contribute to your creative work?
A strong, consistent-but-fluid morning routine and constant snacks.

When you get stuck creatively, what is the first thing you do to get unstuck?
Call someone funny.

If you had fifteen extra minutes each day, what would you do with them?
We have the same amount of hours in a day as Beyoncé.

What has been one of your biggest Aha! moments in life?
Knowing that I am unconditionally LOVED by God/Universe/Love etc.

What is the one question we haven’t asked that you want to answer? Are you afraid of dying? Working on it.

🎶 This month we are excited to be joined by Rap & Soul singer Missy D.🎵

Missy D is a bilingual female emcee who was born and raised around the motherland and represents a blend of African cultures in her life-force and in her music which is a blend of Hip-hop and R&B she calls Rap & Soul.

You don’t want to miss this!