#cmnsh

March ’s Theme is Corruption.

Corruption can start innocently, like favoring someone you know over someone you don’t. Or recalling a gift they once sent, and repay them with a project for that sweetness. Corruption is a spectrum, rewarding social connections and financial advantages over the rules of fair play. It exists in every society and every institution. 

Some people survive through corruption, the labyrinthine bureaucracies where they live making it literally impossible otherwise. But while they survive, others perish. Rising plumes of toxic chemicals, collapsing buildings not constructed to code, we owe the calamities all around us to those who cared more about profit than people and gain over the greater good. 

Today we want to thank one of our favorite sponsors for bringing not only ice cream to some of our past events — including our recent birthday bash and “Ink” talk with Bryce McCloud — but also smiles and a bit of morning morale that gives coffee a run for it’s money! If you don’t know about Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream you’ve more than likely been stuck in a joyless, ice cream rut, which we cannot in good conscience condone here at CreativeMornings Nashville. If you do know Jeni’s, we’re about to blow your mind with what they’re doing next!

Jeni’s is on a mission to create better ice cream that cuts no corners and takes no shortcuts. 

They use no flavorings, chemical dyes, or off-the-shelf ice cream mixes. The milk comes from happy cows and all ingredients are blended, baked, peeled, chopped, skinned, pulverized, and blowtorched themselves. (Yes, blowtorched).

As if that isn’t enough, Jeni’s is about to outdo themselves with the release of a new project in which the question, “When you see a color, what do you think you will taste?” is posed and expressed through a new range of flavors. 

The Color Collection, coming out Friday, April 3, will feature six new flavors of ice cream and frozen yogurt, each named for an actual paint color. 

Want to see the new flavors? Visit Jeni’s to learn more! And make sure to stop by one of Jeni’s Nashville locations this Friday to get your own taste of color.

Every month, CMNSH depends on our volunteer community to help us bring you an awesome event. We love our volunteers and are beginning a new series of spotlights to show them off!

Angela Gasparetti has been an active presence in our volunteer force for several months now, and CMNSH's Stephen Jones had a few questions for her.

CMNSH: So how long have you been working/living in Nashville and what type of work are you focusing on at the moment?

AG:  I'm a freelance graphic designer and newly-minted Nashvillian. I moved here (escaped) from Washington, D.C. a year and a half ago. It was one of those crazy, spur of the moment, "take this job and shove it" decisions, but it turned out to be one of the best I've ever made. As for work, I specialize in infographics and visual storytelling. I love the challenge of taking complex content and making it not only easier to understand but engaging and fun.

CMNSH: So the last week has been bitterly cold, (how convenient with our current theme Climate!) how did you spend your days indoors? How did it vary from your regular schedule?

AG: My schedule last week was basically staring out the window, compulsively checking Nashville Severe Weather for updates, laughing at Nashville Severe Weather's updates, and watching every single terrible horror movie on Netflix. Fortunately, that is NOT my normal schedule, because I got absolutely nothing done. 

CMNSH: How did you find out about Creative Mornings Nashville and which of the events is your favorite so far?

AG: I actually work at the Skillery with Kristen. I remember seeing her put together the Socktober sock monster and thinking this had to be a pretty cool group (which it is!). I think I might have somewhat bullied my way into getting involved, starting with the sock monster, but I'm so glad I did. As for my favorite event, it's probably a tie between Brad Montague (Chance) and Tyler Hildebrand (Ugly). They were both so funny, and while Brad's talk made me want to change my whole attitude and become a more positive person, Tyler's made me want to go break windows and make something crazy. I mean that in a good way.

CMNSH: CM Nashville is coming up on it’s year anniversary! How has the creative scene in Nashville changed in the last year and what do you plan to accomplish in the year ahead?

AG: I don't think I've lived here long enough to really judge that, but I can tell you how it's different from Washington, D.C. People here seem to have a visceral kind of passion for creativity of all kinds. Everyone I talk to seems to be excited about something: what they are creating, what other people are creating, everything really. D.C. has a much more solemn, corporate vibe to it. I didn't realize how stifling that environment was (personally) until I moved here and suddenly felt so much more creative freedom. It was also so much harder to connect with other creatives in D.C., and while I met many designers, photographers, and web developers, I never met any painters, sculptors, or builders. I find it a lot more inspiring and fulfilling to meet people who do things completely different from what I know. I think that's my favorite thing about Creative Mornings, as well. 

As for what I plan to accomplish, I'd like to do a better job of marketing myself this year, as well as managing my business more effectively. Working freelance is new to me, and it took me a while just to figure out a lot of fundamentals like how to work efficiently on my own, or even what sort of work I wanted to take. Now I need to do a better job of putting myself out there and growing.

CMNSH: If you could choose one person to speak this year at an event who would it be and why?

AG: I'd love to hear a musician speak! I don't have a particular person in mind but I'm a big music lover. Both my parents were in fairly successful bands when they were younger and growing up with those stories, I've always found that world fascinating and different. And, different is what makes me rethink how I see and do things. I think we all benefit from shaking things up now and then.

You can also find Angela on Twitter @bagandbroad and Instagram @bagandbroad

The theme for our opening event in 2015 was UGLY, and painter/ filmmaker Tyler Hildebrand was there to talk about where, how, and why it resides in art and life. As creatives, it is often our job to orchestrate clean, polished, and pretty design for our clients, but as Tyler pointed out, Ugly is often the decomposing matter and chaos than enables that work to bloom. And sometimes, as Tyler reminded us, it isn't--sometimes, it's just real.

We got to announce some exciting news- local caffeine and dining cornerstone Frothy Monkey is partnering up with us for 2015! Coffee fanatics within the community applaud / cry / faint! If you made it to this event, you also got a taste of what their (incredible!) bakery can do- biscuits and jam! Tomato and elderberry jam! We

We also had a great new introductory game- one minute portraits of a stranger which we wadded up and threw across the room!

We also had a little surprise for our community members who made it that morning- PRINTS! Grand Palace printed silkscreen posters based on one of Hildebrand's paintings, and they are SO GOOD, Y'ALL. If you missed out on this print, or any other we have done, don't worry- just pick one up at our merch table at the next event!

Also, many special thanks to the following partners for helping us bring CMNSH to life.

Lunar Lincoln

Jive! Printworks

Meet Tyler Hildebrand, CMNSH's first fine artist lecturer.

CMNSH: I've found in my own work that I've had to excavate back down to "ugly," after absorbing so many images from art history and school. There's a rawness and immediacy that ugliness can convey sort of effortlessly, but it feels like artists and designers alike are steered away from embracing it and swept toward refinement instead. Have you always worked with ugliness, or did you have to (re)discover it?

TH: I worked as an illustrator for several years painting cute things for magazines, and did a lot of commission work of lovely city scenes. I really came to a breaking point, I knew that I had to move on and do work that I wanted to do, whether I would make money at it or not. When I started scavenging the rough Memphis landscape for trash and debris to create a giant man-eating clown sculpture, I knew I was on the right track.

CMNSH: It seems like you favor the oscillation between ugliness and beauty over a more polarized view of those ideas as a dichotomy. Is there an idea that encompasses both for you?

TH: I made a film called Wallace; much of it was based off a real Memphis musician Wally Ford. There is not a whole lot that is pretty about Wallace as a man, his situation, his actions, his fate. But there is a tenderness and a strange wisdom there, and humor. These are often things that emerge out of mistakes and tragedies.

CMNSH: "Ugly" seems to be a sort of vehicle or catalyst of progress in the creative arts- Stravinsky's Rites of Spring in music, for example- what do you think gives Ugliness that power?

TH: There is a reality in ugliness that exists, no pretension. There is also a curiosity. The ugly, rough, grotesque, is always more interesting to me than something elegant and tasteful, whether it be conceptually or formally. It’s not like that for everyone, but it is for me, always. Refinement bores me to death.

CMNSH: When was the first time you were drawn to something ugly?

TH: I grew up in the suburbs of Cincinnati. My father was a veteran Cincinnati cop and my mother was crime news reporter.  I heard stories about shootouts and fights and murders, I always wanted to know more. I wanted the details and what these people looked like. I would ask my parents to drive me through the bad neighborhoods; I got to see hookers and drug dealers. At a young age I understood there was something outside of my cushy home, it intrigued me.  

Meet the great guys behind Grand Palace, one of our greatest community supporters from the very start of CreativeMornings Nashville.

Why we develop, design, and create LunarLincoln was founded in 2013 by Vanderbilt graduates Jonathan Wiley and Jennifer Bennett. With backgrounds in mobile development and graphic design - LunarLincoln was an obvious extension of our combined powers. And with our powers combined we are….captain planet! Just kidding, we are a team that can build anything we imagine. No bosses. No four-hour conference calls. No limits to creativity. First thing we built? A solution to the ugly iPhone 5c cases (which was a hot topic at that time - and a kind of lightbulb idea for us). We built CaseCollage in two weeks. We learned a ton about initial planning, iterating while you work, and the importance of user testing. We learned about the frustrating app store rejection process and how to market an app to the right people. We learned how to celebrate when we were featured on TechCrunch, Gizmodo, and Engadget and when we received over 100,000 views on our Youtube video. We also learned that an app made for a tiiiiny percentage of iPhone users does not make you billionaires overnight. Try hundred-aires. We loved the whole process. Currently, we love bringing our expertise and industry knowledge to others who have this same passion. We work with clients ranging from small start-ups to large corporations - locally and nationally. We are continually amazed by their interesting ideas and challenging needs. Just like Lincoln and those early space pioneers - everyday we are striving to build a new future. What’s up with the name? We combined a bit of each of us into the name. Wiley has always been fascinated with space and rockets and Jennifer with history. A respect and admiration for both the past and future exists within our company. Lincoln dared to think of a radically different future for our nation, and NASA carried this future even further sending us to the moon. Why not apply these creative thinkers to our own creative endeavor. (Plus imagining alternate futures where Lincoln was not assassinated but escaped to the moon to set up his idealistic space commune is also pretty fun. Sitting there in his moonbase log cabin, looking down on us, we always ask ourselves - WWLD - What would Lincoln do?)