Tom Froese

June's global theme is 'CURATE', and we are lucky to be joined by illustrator, teacher, and author Tom Froese.

Froese is known for lively maps and bright, printmaking-inspired textures, and the award-winning work he's created for clients including Airbnb, Yahoo!, GQ France, The Wall Street Journal, and Canadian Tire. As a Skillshare Top Teacher, Tom has helped more than 120,000 students build creative confidence through concept-driven classes, and he hosts the podcast Thoughts on Illustration. He’s also the author of Drawing Is Important, a practical guide to building a daily drawing habit. For CURATE, Tom brings a maker’s perspective on how artists choose what to pay attention to, shape raw ideas into clear visual stories, and design a practice that filters the noise into work with intention.

How do you define creativity and apply it in your life and career?
Creativity how we solve problems in spite of challenges and constraints. This is basically what it means to have a job in any discipline or industry. As an illustrator, it just means that the problems I solve are visual, and my tools are art supplies.

Where do you find your best creative inspiration or energy?
In consistent practice.

What's one piece of creative advice or tip you wish you'd known as a young person?
If you’re a beginner and worried you don’t know what you’re doing — don’t expect so much of yourself. Don’t be upset with yourself. If you really want to be good, learn how to do it, and practice, practice, practice.

Who (living or dead) would you most enjoy hearing speak at CreativeMornings?
Paul Rand or Ben Shahn.

What practices, rituals, or habits contribute to your creative work?
Having a daily drawing practice (so on the nose) and teaching!

When you get stuck creatively, what is the first thing you do to get unstuck?
I spin my tires most when I’ve lost touch with the point of what I’m doing, or when I’m unaware of how stuck I actually am. As soon as I realize either of these things, I step back and write until I’ve figured out what my sticking point is. Then I can move in and troubleshoot the issue properly.

What myths about creativity would you like to set straight?
First, I think myths have a bad name. I feel like we could use more creative myths in our life (in one sense)! But seriously, I wish people would stop calling illustration “drawing”. Illustration is more than drawing, it’s an entire artistic discipline that just happens to include a lot of it.

🎵 Our live musical performance will feature Michaela Slinger, a Vancouver-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist known for her warm, genre-blending sound🎶

Drawing from pop, folk, and soul influences, her music pairs candid storytelling with rich, textured production, exploring themes of growth, vulnerability, and self-discovery. With a growing national profile and a reputation for heartfelt live performances, Michaela brings both intimacy and quiet power to the stage.