Uytae Lee

For July's global theme of 'treasure' we are honoured to host videographer, storyteller, urban planner and musician, Uytae Lee.

Uytae Lee is the founder of ‘About Here’, a YouTube channel and creative studio dedicated to helping people understand their cities better. In addition to the channel, Uytae produces the CBC series ‘Stories About Here’.

Every month we like to ask our speakers a handful of probing questions to give us a deeper glimpse into their life and relationship with creativity:

How do you define creativity and apply it in your life and career?
For me, creativity is about organizing. Combining and rearranging ideas, words, paint, or whatever really into something that’s meaningful to you. In my work, this idea has given me the reassurance that I rarely (if ever) need to come up with something from scratch - I just don’t think the creative process works that way. I research, paraphrase, synthesize, reflect, and (more than anything) take inspiration from others to put something together that feels compelling for me.
Where do you find your best creative inspiration or energy?
I find much of my creative inspiration from talking to people. There’s something about a live, unscripted conversation where you let your ideas collide freely that helps me get out of my head.

What’s one piece of creative advice or a tip you wish you’d known as a young person?
The creative process requires breaks. Your creativity often works behind the scenes, when you’re taking a walk, distracted, or even sleeping. When you’re feeling overwhelmed or stuck on a project, try stepping away from it for a day or two. When you come back to it, you’ll almost certainly find that your thoughts have refined and organized themselves into something much more coherent and easy to understand. I think it works this way because your memory is very selective for the things that feel most important to you. When you step away from a project, you’re letting your brain subconsciously throw out what didn’t really matter and hold on to what was most important. I wish I knew this when I was younger because it probably would have saved me from dozens of wildly unproductive all-nighters spent trying to hammer out a script while overwhelmed and sleep-deprived.

Who (living or dead) would you most enjoy hearing speak at CreativeMornings?
Tony and Taylor from Every Frame a Painting

What fact about you would surprise people?
I was part of a ukulele group for several years.

What are you reading these days?
Order without design by Alain Bertaut

What’s your one guilty creative indulgence?
Cooking videos, they’re so relaxing!