Years ago, as Danielle Krysa was about to graduate from art school at the University of Victoria, an instructor told her never to paint again.
“That just caused a huge block, because I believed it,” she says.
She worked instead in graphic design, moving first to Toronto and then Vancouver, and avoided making art for 15 years.
Then, 12 years ago, she launched a blog called The Jealous Curator, featuring a different artist each day. She chose them because they were creating things she wished she had made.
“I desperately wanted to make again, but I was just so jealous of everyone that was making and showing," she says. "I started with the blog trying to turn my jealousy into something positive because the negativity was too much.”
Recent images on Danielle Krysa’s Instagram feed @thejealouscurator.
The concept and her choices, often bright and cheerful, but also quirky and eclectic, as well as the blog's upbeat tone, attracted attention.
Krysa, now based in her hometown of Summerland in the British Columbia Interior, has more than 221,000 Instagram followers around the world. She also creates podcasts, which she says have been downloaded some 2.5 million times.
Increasingly fascinated by creativity – and how to stay creative – she did more research and began publishing books for adults.
Creative Block: Get Unstuck and Discover New Ideas features advice from 50 successful artists. Your Inner Critic is a Big Jerk: And Other Truths About Being Creative is billed as “duct tape for the mouth of every artist’s inner critic.”
Danielle Krysa
When Krysa went to readings to promote her books, she heard story upon story from people who had been steered away from art as children.
“So many people believe it can never be a real thing because they were told that when they were kids by the important people in their lives,” she says.
It eventually prompted her to write – and illustrate – her first book for children, a picture book for preschoolers. How to Spot an Artist: This Might Get Messy, was released recently by Prestel, an international arts publisher.
Loaded with colour and whimsy, it leads children on a fanciful search that teaches them about artists, shattering some myths along the way.
A page from Danielle Krysa’s book, How to Spot an Artist.
“Artists can often be found turning ordinary stuff – like feathers, rocks, noodles, string, buttons, egg cartons, leaves, and even old socks – into art,” Krysa writes.
“Keep an eye out for piles of scrap paper, like crumpled-up grocery lists, take-out menus, envelopes, and math homework. Artists gather old paper like squirrels gather nuts. For real, they draw on anything.”
Danielle Krysa reads How to Spot an Artist online for Books Are Magic, a bookstore in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Krysa also introduces a character known as the art bully – a big black ink stain – who says things like: “You can’t do this.” Or: “What a mess.” Or even: “Just quit.”
What to do? Make stuff!
“Every time an artist keeps making, whether it’s a mess or a masterpiece, another rude art bully gets erased,” she writes.
The book includes a long list of creative jobs that artists can do. It may go over the head of a four-year-old, but will, perhaps, encourage parents to let youngsters follow their creative spark.
Krysa says she is taking her own advice and is back making art, mostly collages, but sometimes dipping into paint.
Her parting words for stifled creatives, young and old?
“Just be creative, no matter what anyone else says. You don’t need to have gone to art school. You don’t need the best material. All of us are born creative. So be creative.” ■
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