S1E2: Beulah van Rensburg and Ziggy Attias
Welcome to my Creative Momentum with Meg Dunley podcast.Season 1: The Chateau SeasonThis first season of the podcast, The Chateau Season features creatives I interviewed during my writing residency the Chateau d'Orquevaux Artist and Writers Residency in France. The episodes feature writers, filmmakers, visual artists, verbatim storytellers and more. Each episode gives you insight into the creative mind, taking you behind the studio doors to hear about process, routine, inspiration and wisdom. These episodes are pocket sized to encourage you on your creative pathway.Episode 2: Beulah van Rensburg and Ziggy AttiasJoin Chateau d’Orquevaux Artist and Writer's Residency Co-Founders and Directors Beulah van Rensburg and Ziggy Attias as they unveil the philosophy behind their residency in France and talk about their creative practice and routines. This intimate conversation explores how they've transformed a chateau in the French countryside into a nurturing creative environment while balancing their own artistic practices and vision. This episode is a little longer as they had some great things to talk about. I hope you enjoy a slice of the real life at the Chateau – a lawn mower … a bit of wind blowing. Beulah van Rensburg is originally from Australia and now lives in Orquevaux, France. She’s the Co-founder and Co-director of Chateau d’Orquevaux Artist and Writer's Residency, painter and multidisciplinary artistZiggy Attias is from the United States and now lives in Orquevaux, France. He is also Co-founder and Co-director of Chateau d’Orquevaux Artist and Writer's Residency and is a multidisciplinary creative with a background in sculpture, writing, and filmmaking.Interview transcriptMD: Hello, Beulah and Ziggy, do you want to just begin by introducing yourself and telling us where you're from?BVR: I'm Beulah van Rensburg and I'm from originally from Australia.ZA: And I'm Ziggy Attias and I'm from the United States.MD: Excellent, excellent. And can you, Beulah, can you tell me what your creative discipline is?BVR: I'm a painter originally, but I do multidisciplinary workMD: Beautiful.ZA: And I would say I've done many things and I think I just see myself now as a creative person who just tackles everything from a creative standpoint. And probably also, it would be good to say here that you are the people who you are, the directors, the everything of Chateau d'Orquevaux.BVR: Yeah. So we're the co-founders and co-directorsZA: Chateau d'Orqevaux Artist and Writer's Residency in France,MD: In France, in Orquevaux. And that's also part of your creativity is what we have here at this residency.ZA: Well, I would say that the way we look at this is from an artist standpoint, so that we make it for artists, but we're artists ourselves. So the way we tackle every problem or every new idea that relates to place is we come from it from an artist place. Beulah still has a studio. We're creating a studio for her because we keep giving up studios to artists that come here. But her next studio is going to be just her studio. And for me, I've had studios in the past, but the way I see it now is that this whole property is my studio. And I think my work will be shown best here.MD: Excellent.BVR: And I think the way that we run the residency and the work that we're doing now here is really, it's such an important part of our life and giving a voice to artists. And I know we said this in the residency, but being able to give the space and the time for people to have studio spaces and the way that we come at organising the residency and approaching the residency from an artistic point of view as being artists. So knowing all of those little things and the studio space and the quiet time and being able to give people an opportunity to just get out of their normal everyday life and have a routine that they don't have to necessarily do anything apart from make work and have that time as a really important part of the residency.MD: Excellent. I want to ask you both, and you can answer individually or together about your creative process. Maybe you as an artist and you as a,ZA: It's the same for me. It's still, you want to go first.BVR: So for me, it's really about things that come towards me and it's really about the everyday life, like what interacts with me. And I get ideas from basically emotional and relationship kind of things that happen around me and how I react to them and how I can interpret them within my work.ZA: Do you edit this a bit too, or do you just do it liveMD: Maybe.BVR: And then I think mine always comes from drawing and then the way it comes out is however it's best translated into if it's film or if it's drawing or if it's sculpture or if it's painting, it kind of comes out that way. So it just depends on the idea that comes out from there. It's always sketching first.ZA: So for me, I think I've always had, and I still have about a hundred ideas a day, so I've always like, what do you think about this? What do you think about that? And when I had a studio, it was confined to doing the work and trying to find my voice that way. This place showed me about seven or eight years ago, it showed I realised that I can't be in a studio anymore just working on my thing. I feel like if there's such a thing as a legacy or whatever my legacy would be, I'm more useful working on the property and creating the residency with Beulah, because it gives more people, hopefully it encourages to give more people a way to express their voice. And I feel that my strength and Beulah's at her studio, our strength is that our voice can be better heard from all the artists that come here. So if they have a place that they feel good, it's different than just working in the studio. Still has a need to be in the studio, which is great, but my disciplines aren't painting. I've done sculpture, I write, I've done filmmaking, I've done different things, but I feel...BVR: But as we––ZA: Sorry, it's what you feel your mind with. So for me, it happens to be this. Now I've done many different things and this just happens to be one of the things that I'm doing. And this one, I wake up and I go to sleep thinking about this. So I want to express my voice through that.BVR: And as we're doing it, I think the result that's coming out of it is just so much that you want to do more and more. You want to put more and more into it to make it better for everybody who comes here and to try and give more opportunities for more artists and more writers. And you're constantly creating within that environment and then you see the result of it. And it's always rewarding. And I dunno, it is such a rewarding thing.BVR: And there's something about it also, which is a love hate relationship for me or for us, which in a way, we definitely see it as an art form, but there's an element to it that's invisible because it doesn't hang in a gallery or there's no show for it or anything. So the whole thing is what we're creating. So whenever there was nothing in the Chateau when we came here, so every painting that an artist does that has anything in it that relates to the Chateau, Beulah and I found that in a flea market or something like that, we have a connection even though nobody knows that really, but every chair, every lamp, every tapestry, everything that's in a painting goes into the world. And we literally picked that out and placed it there. So that's one example. The property is the same because every artist that comes here only knows what they see the day they arrive. They don't know that we were hustling just before this residency to try to get that bear in the water. So it looks like that. And then you come and you just take a picture of a bear in the water that must've been there forever. We try to find things that have been around forever and place them in a setting that makes the other people that come to see it, part of their creative process. And that gives us voice.BVR: It certainly feels as a resident here at the moment that it feels curated and beautifully done. So it definitely has the artist's eye, in everything that you have here.MD: Who or what or where do you get your creative inspiration from?BVR: Not sleep.ZA: I think we definitely get it from each other because we definitely bounce ideas off each other all the time and...BVR: I think also too from people, from artists coming and going and then just continuously relooking at what we are doing all the time. There's so many people, there's a lot of creative people coming in and out and then we're constantly talking about things and how things work. I thinkZA: To the smallest detail,BVR: Just even, I mean just today's completely changed how we did it last residency and all of that is just to try and create a little bit more peace and balance so people are feeling more relaxed and a little bit more calm. And I don't know if it'll work, let's––ZA: But it's always about creativity. It's always about the artist. We don't see it as a place for a vacation or any of those type of things. It's always about creating an environment for creativity. So it's always coming from that. That's always the core of what we're trying to do.MD: Thank you. And do you have, I mean, obviously running this place you have routine, otherwise it just wouldn't happen the way it does. But thinking to your creative routine, maybe you can speak to this, say with your art, your painting, do you have a routine that you follow? And if so, could you talk about that?BVR: I'm very much about time and what needs to be done, which is also organisation. Organisation. And I think an artistic practice does revolve around time. I know that there seems to be chaos within artists' practice, but I think if you are going to have success within your practiCe, you need some kind of timetable that you would have an organisational situation. So for me, when I'm going to my studio, I get up early, I work until I have to go to work around eight thirty, so it's five to eight thirty, then I work and then I try and get back into the studio at night time if I have the time. But then everything's laid out in a specific way. I have work over here if I'm painting. I've always had my paints here, it's always laid out, my palettes in the same, it's a little OCD, but I think in that way you're always working in the same way. And I think it's the same with here. We might be adjusting things along the way, but that's the only way things really work is organisational. And looking forward, what are those steps to get to a certain place? You can't jump in and think I'm going to be a famous artist and be successful overnight. There has to be steps to get there, to be realistic, I think.ZA: And for me, I feel like…BVR: Even, sorry, even just to finish a painting, I'm an oil painter, so if you want to finish a painting within a certain amount of time, you need to have eight paintings going. Otherwise they don't dry. You turn one painting into mud. So you need to have enough paintings going at the same time. So you can go from here to here to here and go back to it. Otherwise you're going to ruin them.MD: I think that's actually a good analogy with writing as well. Yeah,BVR: Right. Yeah.MD: Otherwise it can turn to mud.BVR: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.ZA: With writing?MD: Yeah, absolutely. It's good to have more projects on so you can let things rest a bit.ZA: I mean, I usually I write one thing at a time, but I guess I let the piece work and I keep rereading it and rereading it and moving things around. But as far as what we were talking about, I think I'm a procrastinator for sure. I'm lazy, but I'm a really hard worker. You wouldn't know that I'm lazy, but maybe that's why I'm a hard worker. I see myself as lazy and I'm always waiting for inspiration and all those things together of being a procrastinator, being lazy, being a hard worker, waiting for inspiration is what creates what I do. And then when I'm waiting for inspiration, I think I'm nothing. So then you wait for like, oh my God, I have no more ideas. I'm done. And then you have an idea. And thenBVR: That idea has to happen immediately, which is how things tend to work here is like, will all of these laurels be moved to this place? And you're like, oh, possibly. And then that happens in the afternoon. You're like, oh, today, right? All righty.ZA: I'm not afraid to…MD: To stay the flow.ZA: Yeah, sometimes you put a lot of effort into something, but you got to look at it and be like, that should have been two feet over. And even though it was a big job and the bushes have been growing for three years, you're like, we're moving them two feet overBVR: Today.ZA: And you have to be okay. BVR: And you can't be precious.ZA: Loose enough to be able to, you feel like you're creating something forever, which is with any artwork. And if you need to go back, the artwork doesn't care. The thing doesn't care how much effort you put into it because some people could put a little bit of effort into something and it's genius. And then other people put a lot of effort into something and it's nothing. And every recipe works, it doesn't work. So you have to know where your voice in that decision. And if it needs to be changed, it needs to be changed. Can you live with that being there forever? And if the answer is no, it means you got to find a way to move it. Yeah,MD: I love that.ZA: And that's with anything.MD: Final question is about, I know you do deal with a lot of people who are early on in their creative careers, but if you were to pass on some pearls of wisdom, what would they be? People who are at that really early stage.ZA: Pass on some what?MD: Pearls of wisdomBVR: Don't be scared. Don't think that you are...it's never too late. You are always moving. You're always getting somewhere. Keep doing it. Just keep doing it. And don't think that you are. Don't aim at something to be famous or to be this successful artist or for the fame and fortune. Just keep going and doing the thing because doing the thing will get you there more so than aiming towards something up here. And just don't be scared of it. I think there's a lot of thing, there's something to be said about being afraid[a car rolls up and idles behind]ZA: Is that a problem?MD: I don't know. It might be…ZA: Remy, we're doing an interview. Turn that thing off. What? Turn off the car. Hi girl. Yeah. You making noise? Let's go out. Go. That could stay in. That's reality right there. [the ride-mower drives by]ZA: Oh wait, now it looks like a f**king party now. Oh, lawnmower.MD: That's hilarious. BVR: Back to serenityMD: Back to serenity. This is all part of it. This is all part of running an amazing creative business is there's business as well. So just in case we didn't get thatZA: We do, I like the answer that…BVR: Just not to be afraid. I think there's a lot to be said that people back off from what they're doing because they're scared of it and I think if you just go into something and forget about that, just go into it. What is there to be afraid of? You are either going to succeed or not, but how do you know and when do you know that you haven't succeeded? Just keep doing the thing. Forget about all of the fame and the fortune. Just do the thing that you love. If you're doing the thing that you love with all of your might, you're going to get there and then well, you are there. That's you. You're going to do it. Forget about everybody telling you you can't do it. It's only for other people, blah, blah, blah. Just do the thing that's in your head and you'll get there. But it takes hard work and do the hard work.MD: I love that. I love that. Ziggy?ZA: I would say it's difficult. I struggle with this myself, is there's no point to compare yourself to anybody else or what they're doing. That's their journey. And it just doesn't matter really because you can only do what you can do. You can't live somebody else's life. So I would say you try to not worry about anybody else, but still be inspired by the world in different ways. But every day you have to do something you have to do. And it shouldn't even be. Obviously if you could do more, it's great, but every day you got to do something that you are a little bit more ahead than you were yesterday. Every day you got to do something. There's no, in a way, there's no days off. Even if you're really thinking about something,BVR: Make a decision.ZA: You got to make a decision. You have to do something and you have to not worry about what other people are doing. There's always going to be somebody that's better than you and somebody that's worse than you. So it just doesn't matter. What are you doing? Just do the work.MD: Thank you. Is there anything else that you would want to share with the creatives other than come to your residency? Apply now?ZA: Apply now. Link in the notes [below]. The applications are open. I don't really know. I just hope we wish you the best and we are here when you're ready.MD: Yeah. Love that. Thank you so much, Ziggy and Beulah at Chateau d'Orquevaux.Find Beulah and Ziggy You can find Beulah and Ziggy on Instagram or on the Chateau Orquevaux webist. * https://www.instagram.com/beulahvanrensburg* https://www.instagram.com/ziggyattias_art* https://www.instagram.com/studio_chateau_orquevaux/* https://www.instagram.com/chateau_orquevaux/Applications for artist and writers residencies at Chateau d’Orquevaux are open all the time, so if this caught your interest in a writing and/or artist residency, apply now. If you liked this episode, please let me know in the comments and like, follow, share and subscribe!x M Get full access to Musings with Meg Dunley, Creativity Coach at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe
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