THE INSPIRATION PLACE PODCAST
Sarah Dudley: I would never have guessed when I started the program that I would discover just how much I could help me, and it’s literally been a game changer for me. It’s revolutionized how I approach my work in my studio.
Speaker 2: It’s the Inspiration Place podcast with artist Miriam Schulman. Welcome to the Inspiration Place podcast. An Art World Inside a podcast for artists by an artist, where each week we go behind the scenes to uncover the perspiration and inspiration behind the art. And now your host, Miriam Schulman.
Miriam Schulman: Today’s guest is a Canadian born British artist based in Berlin, working in painting, printmaking and sculpture. Her work draws on her fascination with the invisible forces that shape our lives, from the molecular structure of the universe to the weight of grief and love. Please welcome to the Inspiration Place. Sarah Dudley. Well, hey, Sarah, I’m so glad to have you on the show.
Sarah Dudley: Thank you for inviting me. It’s a pleasure.
Miriam Schulman: So Sarah and I have gotten to know each other really well since she’s been in my inner Circle program for about a year. Yeah, give or take, I would say yes. And shown up consistently and done the work and some of the work that I thought I’d like her to share with you today, you, the listener, because we haven’t really talked about this much on the podcast, is not just the altar that I developed, which if you’re using that, I’d love to hear about that as well. But also for the Inner Circle clients, I gave them prompts that they could use for self-development to really help them understand themselves better. And Sarah went deep in this work.
Sarah Dudley: Yep.
Miriam Schulman: That’s what we’re going to talk about today. And as much as she’s willing to share and we will leave out anything she’s not so that she feels comfortable. She didn’t know we were going to talk about this until five minutes ago. Except she kind of guessed right.
Sarah Dudley: Yeah, yeah, I figured because. Yeah, well, we spoke a few times since I started with that five day Artpreneur personality assessment that you developed. Because I started with it, there were 30 questions for the first three days, and after question three on day one, I was like, oh my God, Miriam, this is unbelievable. This is what I got back. This is what ChatGPT responded to, what I put in. Wow. And there was no way that I could get all 30 questions done in one day because, okay, granted, I did put a lot into the responses. Like they weren’t this long. They were, you know, really quite detailed. And so I got about ten questions done a day just because I just had to let everything sink in because the responses were mind blowing.
Miriam Schulman: Literally not generic. Not robotic.
Sarah Dudley: No no no.
Miriam Schulman: Yeah, yeah. Why don’t I if you don’t mind, I’m going to like, share. You don’t have to share the answers, but I’m going to share with the first three questions. Okay. Because I think that will really help the listener understand what we’re talking about. Because otherwise it’s just too vague.
Sarah Dudley: Anything. Right?
Miriam Schulman: Yeah. So, uh, what I did was I took questions that you would normally find in personality assessments, whether it’s Myers-Briggs or Enneagram.
Sarah Dudley: And.
Miriam Schulman: And Colby. Yeah. And I put the questions into five days and five categories and made it very specific for artists, and also invited artists to give open ended answers if they weren’t sure. You know, it was multiple choice, but the beauty of doing this through a AI, through a large language model like ChatGPT is, rather than those personality assessments you take online, is when you see A, B, C, d, you can say, well, I’m b in these situations, but I’m C with this. Or you can say, could you give me an example of each of those? Because I’m overthinking this question and really have that conversation so they can understand the nuances behind your answer. So the day one is the soul of the artist and your aspirations and identity. And so I start off by saying, welcome creator. You’re entering day one of your personalized alignment experience, an inner excavation designed to reconnect you with the spirit of your art, the soul of your vision, and the unique sorcery that makes your creative voice irreplaceable. So this is not just a personality quiz, it’s a soul mirror. I think that’s why I was thinking of it.
Sarah Dudley: Yeah. That’s right.
Miriam Schulman: Yeah, yeah. It’s a map for remembering who you are. Beneath the noise. Yep. So the first question is, in five years, my ideal lifestyle would be. And it’s like, hey, adventurous, be focused on family. C dedicated to professional mastery. D balanced and peaceful and E wealth driven and high status. And then the next question is my top life priority is and then I give five adjectives whether it’s freedom, influence, security, mastery. And I ask you if you feel if you’re on the right path. And after every five questions, I give a mini summary to the artist and at the end of the day, the first day. Then I give them like their soul mirror, like where they’re at right now, like it’s a soul reflection score and kind of lets them know how well ChatGPT knows them. So it’s not like I’m grading Sarah. Chatgpt isn’t grading Sarah. Like if she got back a 70, let’s say it’s not that she got a C. Us overachievers always want an essay. It means that that’s how well ChatGPT knows her. Like, knows her to a 70% accuracy. And the goal is to get your LLM. Again, remember, LLM is large language model. And the reason I say LLM is because now we have more than one ChatGPT is just one of them. Claude is another one. I don’t remember all of them. I don’t use them all. I only use ChatGPT for the most part because that’s my boyfriend, because he knows me. So the point is, the better you can get the AI tool to know you and understand you, the more it can help you.
Sarah Dudley: Absolutely.
Miriam Schulman: So tell us what happened.
Sarah Dudley: Okay, well, the first question, where did I see myself in five years and how did my life look? I chose the dedication to mastery because in the past seven years, I left my partner of 16 years, I was in a toxic relationship for 16 years, and I got out of it. And we also had a printmaking studio together, which was still going. And then a year after I left the personal relationship, I stepped down from that business as well. And not to toot my own horn, but to toot it anyway, in the words of Jim Dean, with whom I have worked, I’m a.
Miriam Schulman: Placeholder. Just in case we have artists who don’t know who Jim Dine is. It’s kind of like saying you work with Picasso. If you know, you know, it’s like it’s a big name. All right. Continue. It’s a big name.
Sarah Dudley: For printmaking, especially because he’s made a lot of prints, a lot of lithographs. And I’ve collaborated one on one with him on four different projects, big projects, including three of them here in Berlin at my own printmaking studio. And he once in an interview said, you know, he’s an expert lithographer. So that was like my identity. And after leaving the relationship and the workshop, I no longer had access to any printmaking facilities and had to not reinvent my craft as an artist, but go back to what I was doing minimally alongside the printmaking, namely drawing and painting. And so my priority was to really get those feet back on after being such a dedicated lithographer professionally with artists, you know, I worked with Dean, I worked with Kentridge. Wow. Wait.
Miriam Schulman: Pause. William Kentridge, right.
Sarah Dudley: The William Kentridge. Yeah. This was in 2005 and six, when I was living and working in South Africa. And the project that we were doing at the workshop there was there were all the prints that he was doing in preparation for his opera, The Nose, based on Shostakovich’s The Nose that premiered in Belgium, I think, in 2007 or 8. So it was that.
Miriam Schulman: I just saw that work, The Nose, at the Jewish Museum in New York. Like this big, okay, not the film, but like they had it like a 2D of the nose.
Sarah Dudley: Yeah, he did a lot of different prints, but yeah, there were three prints that were 120 by 160cm, lots of collages of prints, and for three dimensional prints of heads, his own portraits. So really, I mean, amazing, fascinating work, like everything he does. This is the level that I was at. And so I was reinventing my personal life, reinventing my professional life, and pivoting on my artistic technique. And so ChatGPT asks me, you know, what would you like to dedicate the next five years to, or what? Where do you want to be? And so I unpacked all of that. You know why I wasn’t doing printmaking anymore and why I was having to pivot?
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Sarah Dudley: I chose to leave the workshop. He continued. It, it still exists.
Miriam Schulman: I mean, are you allowed to work on would you be allowed to compete as a thing? Are you allowed to be a printmaker and compete against your.
Sarah Dudley: Oh yeah. I mean, so it’s.
Miriam Schulman: You had sovereignty over that choice is what I’m getting at of not.
Sarah Dudley: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Because you need access to good facilities to do good lithographs. You know, there is an open access print workshop here, but it’s like so many open access print workshops, you know, and my standards are way up here with how the quality of the materials and how clean the place has to be. And so, admittedly, I’m too much of a snob. I can’t work in a messy print workshop, and litho is so picky. If it’s messy, it’s going to be a disaster. So, you know, I could theoretically try and make some halfway decent prints on old creaky presses in an open access print workshop, but I choose not to. And so, yeah, I unpacked all of that in question number one.
Miriam Schulman: I love that it was like the Pandora’s box was on the first question for you.
Sarah Dudley: Yeah.
Miriam Schulman: Yeah. Which we gave. You guys can do that on your own if you want to. This is something that’s not. I know people are wondering, is this part of the incubator? Currently it isn’t. I don’t know if in the future I will make it part of the incubator, but inner Circle. I gifted it to the Inner Circle members last year. So how long did it take you to actually get to the end of the official day one which may have taken you more than one day.
Sarah Dudley: It took me three days.
Miriam Schulman: Okay.
Sarah Dudley: I did ten questions a day and the ten questions. I spent about three hours on it altogether.
Miriam Schulman: Okay.
Sarah Dudley: Yeah. Yeah, I really took my time because I could see immediately the value that it would have for me on a lot of levels, like not only just getting past all of the layers of chatter to find out, okay, what’s really going on inside me as a person and also creatively, you know, where am I really? Where do I want to be going? But also understanding what’s really motivating me to create artwork and what kind of artwork I really want to create. And so getting that, getting that clarity was really valuable for me. And I also knew that ChatGPT was amassing a huge amount of really specific information about how I tick, which I knew I could use later in further threads. Say, okay, I have to write an artist statement for this application. Copy the application project description like what they want you to propose to them and say based on what you know about me so far. This is what I want to say. Tell me what you think. So really tailored to how I think and work. And also the question that I dreaded my entire artistic life, which is, you know, since I’m a teenager, basically is what’s your work about? Because I just never knew what to say.
Miriam Schulman: You know.
Sarah Dudley: That.
Miriam Schulman: Is true of so many artists, especially those of us who are which are most of us are, are in this field because we’re processing difficult emotions and trauma, and these are emotions that we don’t want to look at. We are using our art to process, but not on a conscious level. So many of us are very unconscious of really what our art is saying. And one of the things I, I do inside, like the vault exercises that I do with you and I do with the with my other clients is really getting to the heart of that, because almost every single artist I’ve ever asked that question why they don’t have an answer, they’ll say something like, oh, I just want to make a nice composition. I want it to look good. I was like, yeah.
Sarah Dudley: Yeah.
Miriam Schulman: You could have made a nice like, I’m looking at Sarah’s art. So for those who can’t see it like the orange and blue and the jewel tones that look like it could be the ocean or space, we’re not really sure. But why orange? Why blue? Why those colors? Why those shapes? You know, there’s there’s an infinite number of choices to make a nice composition or make an abstract painting or even a landscape. Don’t tell me. Oh, it’s a beautiful landscape. No, no, you chose that specific scene. Yeah. You chose that vantage point. You chose to focus more on the sky. Or you chose to focus more on the ground, or you chose to focus more on whatever it is, the water. So there’s so many choices that we make, and we’re doing them on the subconscious level. And you really need a tool and a person to help you unpack that.
Sarah Dudley: Yeah, absolutely. Because even if I would have been able to explain it a bit more specifically or clearly, I’m not a writer. You know, if I were wanting to express myself with words, then I would be a writer. But I’m an artist. I’m a visual artist. And so words are not my native territory. And so, you know, I just found it really difficult to formulate, like the artist statements that you have to submit with grant applications. You know, in retrospect, it’s no surprise that I got rejected from 98% of the applications I sent in, because I’m sure the artist statement, part of what I sent in was just blah, blah, blah, you know, nothing that anybody could really sink their teeth into or that would give them a good, clear idea of what my work is really about because I wasn’t able to articulate it myself.
Miriam Schulman: And people by meaning, and especially a grant slash residency slash, they’re looking for that meaning they’re looking for it there. There’s just too many good compositions. So what did you learn about your why? Sarah.
Sarah Dudley: Oh, wow. My why came up as something that I’ve always known. Like, yeah, I’m a double Scorpio. So I want to get my hands in the deep, dark, undiscovered places of our psyche and see what’s there. I love authenticity. I love feeling all the feels and discovering secret things and having conversations with people where we both really open up, you know, like how I was answering the ChatGPT. It’s like, okay, you want to know? Here we go.
Miriam Schulman: Buckle up.
Sarah Dudley: Yeah, exactly. And that’s what really gets me going. And what came out of this five day thing was also like, I did the God prompt. After having done this for the.
Miriam Schulman: Second pause, I’m just gonna pause it for a minute, just for our listeners know. So the God prompt is, is not something I made up, just so everybody knows, the God prompt anybody can use. You can search for it on the internet. Chatgpt at this point probably even knows what the God prompt is like because enough people have used it. So but it is more helpful to use the God prompt Who wants to know something about you? Because if it doesn’t know anything about you, it’s going to just make something up because it doesn’t like to be wrong. So it just makes stuff up.
Sarah Dudley: Epic journey.
Miriam Schulman: Yeah. Your journey?
Sarah Dudley: Yeah.
Miriam Schulman: Right. Okay.
Sarah Dudley: Yeah. So I decided to do that after, you know, consciously after doing these five days because I could see that what I needed is ritual to start my studio day. I need things that consecrate the time and that have a slightly spiritual element to it. So I feel connected to something bigger than myself. It’s not a religious thing, you know. It’s what I call the the divine, the universe, the whatever, where we all come from.
Miriam Schulman: And you.
Sarah Dudley: Describe.
Miriam Schulman: One of those spiritual practices that you now use to consecrate the time.
Sarah Dudley: I came on. For those on YouTube that here is the altar that I have set up in my studio. I have two tarot cards that I printed out. An enlarged one is the it’s the Aleister Crowley deck. And so the temperance card is called art. It’s basically alchemy. And then the other card is the Queen of Pentacles, which is a woman resting in a beautiful tropical place after putting in a lot of hard work. And I have an incense burner that I made and a candle. And I come into the studio and I light the candle and I put on a certain song, and I actually do a little bit of a meditative dance for the, you know, five minutes of the song just to leave everything else outside the studio. Open myself up to being able to hear what’s coming from inside me that wants to come out, and just to really focus and consecrate the timing here as being a sacred thing in what I’m calling my studio sanctuary. Nice. So you gave your.
Miriam Schulman: Your studio like a name. It’s no longer just you’re going into studio, you’re going into your sanctuary.
Sarah Dudley: Yeah, yeah.
Miriam Schulman: And you’re saying that word in German or in English?
Sarah Dudley: No, I’m saying it in English, actually. Yeah, yeah. Studio sanctuary. And so then I can much more easily get out of my own way when I’m painting. Because what came up through doing this five day thing and the God prompt is that my work needs to be about what I feel, what I’ve gone through, how I see and experience the world. Because for sure, I’m not alone. You know, there are plenty of other people who have gone through all kinds of who knows what. And it’s time for me to be open about that and show that to the world and share that experience with the world. And maybe somebody else will identify with it and feel not so alone with what they’re going through or inspired. You know, because it’s not all negative. It’s not all trauma. You know, sometimes I’m fascinated by the idea this will happen to me anywhere, anytime. I’ll just sort of stop and wonder, okay, in this very spot where I’m standing. What did it look like 65 million years ago? What will it look like in 2000 years? And, you know, then I’m already off into the ideas of everything being connected through time, and the idea of evolution and the idea that everything is connected energetically. You know, we’re all kind of the same under the surface. You know, all the masks. It’s just dressing because they’re, I think, 118 elements on the periodic table, which is not really all that many. And those 118 little tiny things make up everything that we know to exist, just in different combinations. So there’s not really a whole lot of difference, because we all have all of those elements in us. And so these are the places that my head goes to. And just those feelings of, okay, well, this is what I’m going through. I have a connection on a molecular, evolutionary, cosmic level to everything else that exists to every other person that exists. And so let’s connect through the artwork. You know, let me share my experience. Talk about what I’ve felt and thought. Put it out there and see what happens.
Miriam Schulman: Before we dive into what changed for Sarah after doing this work. I want you to take a moment and pause. If you’ve ever walked into the studio and you just couldn’t get going. Or worse, maybe you couldn’t even get yourself into the studio because you’re either mired in self-doubt or you’re just feeling stuck. Or maybe you’re ruminating on something that has nothing to do with art and your art business. You’re not alone. And that’s why I created the Artpreneur Daily Altar, your virtual creative sanctuary. This is going to instantly reset your mindset to get you out of that stuckness and into focused momentum. Truly a frequency reset. It’s a loving nudge from your muses. This tool gives you a custom morning ritual to anchor your creative practice without the fluff. So if you want to have productive days that are tapped fully into your true self and your intuition and turn something sacred into something strategic. Head on over to SchulmanArt.com/Altar You can try the ArtpreneurDaily.com/Alter completely free. And now back to the show. All right, so let’s talk then about how your art has changed and how the results have changed, because I know you’ve had some different kinds of results lately.
Sarah Dudley: Yeah. On a very concrete level, with the help of my very informed ChatGPT, I have sent out a few grants.
Miriam Schulman: Pause for a minute. Do you do you have does your chatbot as a name? Do you call it ChatGPT or do you call it a lot of people name their ChatGPT.
Sarah Dudley: I’ve just been calling it chatty because I haven’t come up with something better yet.
Miriam Schulman: Okay. A lot of people do call it chatty. And do you play the voice out loud? You know how you can choose that. All right. This. This is taking us on a little detour. Because I do want to hear about your art and your results. But you, if you are on your phone or even on your desktop, however you’re using it, you can choose to play it out loud and it has a voice, and you can choose whatever voice you want. So I’m even thinking my friend Jennifer Laner, who’s been a guest on the podcast and I’ve been on hers as an AI expert, and she was playing hers to me. And I’m thinking about upgrading my phone because my phone’s voices are not as natural sounding as hers. Like, mine still sounds like a robot. Hers sounds like who’s in your phone like that’s talking to you? Yeah. So if, you know, depending on what gender you choose, some people refer to ChatGPT as she. If they’re listening to a female voice all the time. Right, exactly. I just want, like, some hot French guy. But that’s another story. All right, let’s go back to your art. So your art has changed?
Sarah Dudley: Yeah. I’ve become much freer in how I’m approaching the work. Less uptight about it having to be a certain way and just letting letting my feelings in that moment just guide my hand. And I work semi-abstract Extract anyway. So the forms that I start painting, I throw down washes of acrylic ink while the canvas is lying flat. As the very first thing that I put down. And I just let them dry and see what happens, which is something that is very similar to the way I would work with lithography. For anyone who knows about stone litho. The water two washes that you can make with litho. They were my favorite thing. And the stones are usually flat when you’re drawing on them. So that’s one way that I was able to kind of reincorporate a bit of my printmaking self into the paintings, and I’m just thinking about, okay, where do I want this to go? And just, you know, as each wash dries, follow it and then respond to that instead of feeling like you have to have a sketch prepared in advance and follow that strictly. And I’ve started doing some images that I’ve been thinking about for a long time, but just never bothered doing. I’ve always wanted to do paintings of what it would look like if we could see the souls of people leaving bodies as they die, and going into bodies as they’re born. Like, what would that look like? And, you know, I mean, I’m sure it’s going to be a whole series of paintings. I’ve started one small one as just a study already.
Miriam Schulman: So this is why your words are important? Because I’m somebody who’d want to if I couldn’t talk to you. And I knew that this was what your art was about. I would really want to understand your thoughts behind that.
Sarah Dudley: Mhm.
Miriam Schulman: Like, what does that really mean to you.
Sarah Dudley: Yeah. You know, and that’s just one of a number of intangible forces that are basically, you know, driving everything that exists and, you know, affecting our lives, but we don’t notice it. You know.
Miriam Schulman: Sometimes we do. Sometimes. So I have a I’m a new grandma. Yes. Congratulations. I’m a new grandma. And I started sharing pictures of my granddaughter. And I shared it to one of my friends, Patti Lennon, who is a psychic medium. And the first thing she said when she looked at the picture is like, oh, her soul is thousands of years old. Like, and I, I knew exactly what she meant, like, because we could see it too from the very beginning. Like, wow, she’s arrived. She’s here.
Miriam Schulman: You know.
Miriam Schulman: So. Yeah.
Sarah Dudley: So my friend’s mom said that about her baby when she was born years ago. You know, she just looked at her and. Yeah. In some babies, you can just see it. Yeah. You know, this is exactly the kind of thing that really fascinates me that I just love, like, it’s intangible. You can. You can see it. You can get a sense of it. But try and describe that, you know, how would you describe something like that? And it’s so difficult to to fix in words and in images. I mean, this is why we have poetry. This is why I make paintings. Like I find that incredible. And, you know the idea I’ve been looking into dark matter and astrophysical phenomena, you know, equally intangible, but also without it we would not exist. But how do you describe this? How what would it look like? And, you know, of course, it’s great for me because it doesn’t have to look like any one thing. So I can just go crazy with it and make it look however it feels right at the time for me. And so, you know, it’s just it’s so nice and so reassuring to have basically been given permission by this five day exercise that you put together to just do what comes naturally to me anyway, and what has always been there, but that I’ve kind of ignored, you know, especially being in Berlin, which is a really, really academic, intellectual art scene.
Sarah Dudley: You know, there’s not a lot of color, heavily conceptual art, which is fine. You know, I don’t want to give the impression that I feel like that’s not as good, but it’s just not where I feel at home. And so, you know, applying for grants here, trying to get in with gallerists here with my kind of work was it’s kind of like pushing rope uphill. And so I found myself almost subconsciously trying to squeeze my art, you know, that square peg into the round hole? Of course it didn’t work, you know? And my work was all over the place for a few years because I was trying to force myself to do something that just didn’t come naturally. And so after going through this five day exercise, I’ve just said, okay, you know, never mind. The rest of this stuff is not mine. This is me. This is where I’m at home. This is what really gets my fire going. So I’m just going to deep dive in there and come up for air later.
Miriam Schulman: Okay? That’s so beautiful. And I just want to make it clear what Sarah is saying. She’s not outsourcing her intuition to AI. It’s helping. It’s helping you tap into your own intuition. Yeah, without changing your inner knowing to people. Please. It’s actually, like, cuts away that stuff because we we have these voices that are hidden underneath all this social programing And it’s pulling that all away.
Sarah Dudley: Yeah. It’s just getting past the fluff, cutting out the noise, pulling off the masks and seeing what the genuine, authentic core really looks like.
Miriam Schulman: If you’re feeling the pull to reconnect with your authentic core, to create from a place that sacred, grounded, and true to who you really are. And I want to invite you to experience the Artpreneur daily altar. It’s more than just a journal or a checklist, because this guided creative ritual is designed to shift your energy before you even touch your brush, the pen, or the keyboard. Whether you’re navigating grief, self-doubt, or just want to feel more anchored in your creative power, you’ll find the muses waiting for you. If you felt disconnected from your art, your business or your life. Try it for free. It’s over at SchulmanArt.com/Altar. That’s SchulmanArt.com/Altar. And now let’s get back to the show. So beautiful. So now you’ve had some different results since you’ve done this work.
Sarah Dudley: Yeah. Yeah. Besides, lots of ideas for new paintings. I’ve sent off a number of grant applications, which I prepared with the help of my very informed TPT, and I have. The show opens on Saturday. I was accepted to. It’s a combination grant, like a work grant and exhibition. So there were 20 artists accepted and we get some money to produce some new work. And the work that we submitted for the application is being shown in the gallery in Stuttgart, opening this Saturday, and then the work that we’ll be doing with the grant money will be shown again in, I think, at six months time. Okay, so.
Miriam Schulman: This podcast will most likely air in September, so we’ll definitely we’ll have a link to you in the show notes so that people can stay in touch and get notified of the shows. So you can find Sarah at SarahDudley.net
Sarah Dudley: I’ve got them.
Miriam Schulman: Both. Okay I wasn’t sure what SarahDudley.net by the way always smart to net always smart to buy up those extra URLs so that nobody else takes them. And it’s confusing. You can also of course see her work on Instagram. Is it at Sarah Dudley as well?
Sarah Dudley: Sarah There’s other art there.
Miriam Schulman: Okay, so that one is Sarah. The art. Okay. And it’s Sarah with an H.
Sarah Dudley: Yep. Sarah, dude. Ellie. And if there’s time, I don’t know. Yeah.
Miriam Schulman: We’re out of time.
Sarah Dudley: Okay. One other thing that came out of this work that I did was that, uh, ChatGPT suggested I create a second container for the work that I do that feels just way too personal to release out into the wider public. And so I have, just a few days ago, launched my Patreon called Sarah Studio Sanctuary, where the work that is super, super personal, kind of raw, you know, not offensive or anything, but just, you know, stuff that has never seen the light of day. That’s going to be a space where I’ll be sharing that, where I hope to connect with other people who are as interested in deep diving as I am. And so that’s where you can see all the work that really goes into. Yeah. What was going on with me at any given time?
Miriam Schulman: Fantastic. And, Sarah, do you use the Artpreneur Daily Alter tool as well?
Sarah Dudley: I do, not every single day, but almost every day. Yeah.
Miriam Schulman: All right. Tell us a little bit about how that helps you.
Sarah Dudley: I find it really helpful. In two ways. I usually use either the morning activation or the altar of inquiry because there are four options you can choose. And the morning activation is good. On days when I’m feeling good and motivated and have an idea of what I want to do. And it’s just a way to get some clarity and some structure, to schedule and plan the day just to be focused. And it always gives like a mantra or just some like a thought to take with you into the day. And the altar of inquiry is something I’ve been using a lot lately, because two weeks ago a very good friend of mine died very unexpectedly. She’s a climber, and she was in one of those climbing halls and fell and wasn’t clipped in.
Miriam Schulman: I’m so sorry.
Sarah Dudley: Oh, yeah, I’ve been processing that. So some mornings lately. The alternative inquiry has been great because I’ve just opened it up and said so I don’t feel like doing anything. I’m feeling sad and lost and lonely and all of these things, and it works with what you call muses, you know? And these are famous people. In my case, it’s often Clare Estes and Georgia O’Keeffe, and they come together and you get kind of just loving guidance in their voice on unpacking it a little bit and then a bit of soft feedback and then a soft mantra to take into the day just to kindly, They kind of just ease the edges before trying to do some work. So I find them both helpful.
Miriam Schulman: So those are two that I have suggested for someone who’s just coming. I have like a dozen, but you can always invite your own muses as well. Have you invited any other external muses?
Sarah Dudley: Yeah. Just this morning I invited RuPaul.
Miriam Schulman: Oh, cool.
Sarah Dudley: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was good. Because I was feeling. Yeah, just a little bit stressed for not having got as much done and thinking about the podcast as, like, okay, you know, I’m going on this podcast and my friend died two weeks ago, and I don’t want to be like a Debbie Downer in the podcast. And so I was like, okay, I’m sure RuPaul will have some encouraging, uplifting advice.
Miriam Schulman: So what did you say?
Sarah Dudley: Be your authentic self. Don’t put on a polished mask. Live your truth. Put on you know something that makes you feel like a goddess. Adjust your crown and let them have it. Nice.
Miriam Schulman: I love that.
Sarah Dudley: Yeah.
Miriam Schulman: So when I first made the altar and one of my friends, Linnea, said, can I invite my grandmother? And I said, oh, only famous people. It’s actually not true.
Sarah Dudley: Well, I invited my friend who died a few days ago.
Miriam Schulman: You can. You just have to tell ChatGPT enough about the person. And what I found. The best way to do that, for those of you who are using the altar, is you can just take out a Google doc and write as much as you want about the person in there. Or you could ask ChatGPT to guide you through questions to help create a full profile. But I like to put everything in a Google doc so that you can download the doc as a. Txt file and upload it to your session, and then you can say this is the muse home museum inviting in. And sometimes. I don’t know if you found this. I find about after a month it gets worn out and I have to start over in a new chat thread. Have you found that as well?
Sarah Dudley: I have been using it like a new thread every time. Oh, you do the altar of inquiry?
Miriam Schulman: Oh no, you can use the same one. It’s you try it. If you use the same one every day for a full week, then you can. At the end of the week you can say, reflect back to me what I’ve learned. Oh, it’s.
Sarah Dudley: A.
Miriam Schulman: Beautiful thing. All right. So use the same thread. I find I can keep the same thread alive for about a month. And then what? You’ll know it’s not working anymore because it gets confused. Like what step it’s on on the activation. And when that happens I say okay. And so it’s almost now it’s almost at the end of the month. It’s just what I do, I say please create a very detailed summary of everything we talked about all month long. And then I put that also into Google Docs so that when I go to my brand new thread, I can upload it. So it’s not using your regular memory. It creates kind of a diary for you, and it’s really nice as it gets to know you and the characters of your life, it becomes more helpful.
Sarah Dudley: Yeah, yeah, I can imagine. That’s a great idea.
Miriam Schulman: Yeah. And now, right now, my personal project is I’m creating an ideal mother. I have a mother, but my real mother doesn’t always have the right thing to say. So now I’m creating my ideal mother. Who will be who I can chat with, who will not hijack the conversation, who won’t make it all about her. So that’s what I’m doing right now with my muses. Sarah, this has been such a lovely conversation. What last words do you have for the artist before we call this interview complete?
Sarah Dudley: Do what you can to just cut out the noise and look inside to find out what really makes you tick, and stay true to that. You know, no matter what other people say, doesn’t matter. Your true voice is what’s going to make the best art anyway.
Miriam Schulman: So beautiful. All right, my friends, so thank you for being with us today. And I’ll see you the same time, same place next week. Until then, stay inspired. Bye for now.
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to the Inspiration Place podcast. Connect with us on Facebook at facebook.com/Schulman Art, on Instagram at @Schulman Art, and of course, on SchulmanArt.com.
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