Luxurious Amounts of Time: Shannon Borg on Creativity & Confidence

In this episode of Lattes & Art, host James William Moore sits down with artist, writer, and certified life coach Shannon Borg for a powerful conversation about imposter syndrome, artistic identity, and the transformative act of reinventing yourself at any age. Drawing from her own journey—returning to art school at 50, navigating vulnerability, and embracing the “essence, evolution, and edge” of the creative voice—Shannon unpacks why artists struggle with self-doubt and how we can shift our relationship with time, confidence, and our inner critic.

Together, James and Shannon explore the mental habits that hold creatives back, the cultural forces that shape imposter syndrome, and the practical tools artists can use to step into their full creative power. Shannon also shares insights from her free class and deep-dive course on imposter syndrome, offering a roadmap for anyone ready to move past fear and into authentic expression.

If you’ve ever questioned your artistic worth, rushed through your process, or felt like a “pretender” in your own creative life, this episode is for you.

Ready to quiet the doubt and reconnect with your creative confidence?

Shannon is offering Lattes & Art listeners a free introductory session on imposter syndrome—designed to help you understand where your self-doubt comes from, how it affects your art, and what small shifts can completely transform your creative life.

This session is packed with practical tools, research-backed insights, and Shannon’s signature warmth and clarity. Whether you’re feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or simply curious about the deeper patterns shaping your art practice, this is the perfect place to begin.

✨ Sign up on Shannon’s website and start reclaiming your artistic voice today.

https://www.shannonborg.com/impostor-signup

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Transcript

00;00;01;01 - 00;00;33;10
James
Welcome back to Lattes & Art, presented by J-Squared Atelier. This is where creativity is brewed Bold and the conversations go deep. I'm your host, James William Moore, and today we're taking a look at the topic that every artist wrestles with, whether we've talked about it or not. My guest is the brilliant and Shannon Borg, artist, writer, certified Life Coach and a powerful guide for creatives learning to navigate the messy, magnificent world of artistic identity.

00;00;33;11 - 00;00;35;14
James
Shannon's journey is extraordinary.

00;00;35;14 - 00;00;35;22
Shannon
From.

00;00;35;22 - 00;01;07;08
James
A life in writing to reinventing herself at 50, to embracing art school with curiosity, courage and a whole new relationship with time and the creative mind. Today, we'll explore imposter syndrome, embracing your artistic voice, how our past shapes our work, and how shifting our mindset. Yes, even around time, can alter our creative lives. Shannon brings humor, research, lived experience, and practical wisdom.

00;01;07;10 - 00;01;20;08
James
And I cannot wait for you to hear this conversation. So grab your latte, settle in, and let's get inspired.

00;01;20;10 - 00;01;36;21
James
Shannon, I really want to thank you for joining me today. This is great. I've been looking forward to this conversation. You have this amazing background. And so everyone kind of has a basis of who you are. Could you kind of introduce yourself for us please?

00;01;36;23 - 00;02;09;08
Shannon
Sure. And when you say first, thanks for having me. And second of all, when you say amazing background, you just me. I went in so many circuitous directions with my life and ended up here. Right? So yeah, I will I will give you the short version. I grew up in Spokane, Washington. Very Mormon family from Utah, you know, and so very kind of strict family, but also very, very interested in the arts, very, you know, very interested in reading.

00;02;09;08 - 00;02;28;29
Shannon
And so I was always sort of like trying to look out there and see what's going on in the world, which I did. And so by the time I was 17, I wanted to sort of, you know, go to college and see the world and then go to England. And I worked in a pub right after college. Then I moved to San Francisco, and I've moved all over.

00;02;28;29 - 00;02;47;07
Shannon
I actually have a book that's not published yet called 26 kitchens. And it's all the kitchens or all the homes that I lived in. And that was a really fun thing to do, because it gives you this idea of like, wow, all of the places you've been that has sort of have sort of nourished you and brought you on this path.

00;02;47;10 - 00;03;10;16
Shannon
And I was a writer for many years. I have a PhD in English and an MFA in poetry. Then I wrote for Seattle Magazine and other magazines. I wrote for the web, you know, when that was big, writing about writing reviews for Amazon on kitchen products, they would, like send a box to my doorstep, and I would type up the review of the image of the, you know, product.

00;03;10;18 - 00;03;38;29
Shannon
And then next week I would get another one and they would pay me for that before blogging and before, you know, before customer reviews. It's crazy. So I was a writer for a long time, did a lot of freelancing and different things, but really always wanted to be a visual artist. And finally, after, you know, many other roads went, ended up in the San Juan Islands and in Washington state and started making art very sort of slowly.

00;03;39;02 - 00;04;03;14
Shannon
I live near an oyster farm, and I would draw the oysters, and I loved oysters because I had lived in Seattle and, you know, the wine and food business. And so that was kind of part of my world. And I collected them and started drawing them because I was so vulnerable about my drawing and my art. I really didn't start doing this seriously until I was 50.

00;04;03;16 - 00;04;35;21
Shannon
You know, I taken painting classes here and there, but really kind of thrown away everything I made because I felt so vulnerable about what I made and my mark making, and I was no good and all that kind of stuff. Right. So then I got to the point where I really wanted to learn. And so I went to back to art school at Gage Academy in Seattle for two years, and then ended up getting certified as a life coach, starting coaching artists and then going back for an MFA in painting.

00;04;35;21 - 00;04;44;11
Shannon
So that's kind of the short version. And now I'm in Southern Illinois at the MFA, and then I'll go home to the island in June.

00;04;44;14 - 00;05;10;18
James
Wow. Reinventing yourself at 50. That's you know, I was late to school. I never did college. Like, you know, you talked about how you saw this world that was out there, and school was an avenue to get you moving to it. That wasn't my story, but I'm one of them that I finally got around to doing college in my mid to late 40s.

00;05;10;23 - 00;05;11;21
Shannon
And I love that.

00;05;11;24 - 00;05;27;19
James
You know, here I am with my BFA and my MFA late in life. And, you know, that brings me to a question about that. What surprised you most about returning to school later in life?

00;05;27;21 - 00;05;49;13
Shannon
Well, when I was young, I was a mess in my head. In my life. I was full of anxiety. I was full of life, wondering what people thought of me and like my relationships. And, you know, just as we are, I don't know, it's it's like 22 and all of that and coming back to school, it's still there, right?

00;05;49;13 - 00;06;12;00
Shannon
It's still there. Those voices in your head and all of that. But what I realized I found is that I could I had learned some tools to manage it better, and so when those kind of things started to happen and I can sort of have a little distance on it, as I think as an older person, to have this say, you know, sort of a distance and say, oh, look at me.

00;06;12;02 - 00;06;43;27
Shannon
See how upset I'm getting about this or that. Calm down. You know, so there's that one thing like just being able to manage my mind a little better as an older person. And two, I just, I love being around energy and young people and seeing what they're doing instead of looking at them and saying, well, when I was a kid, I just hate that, you know, I want to like, understand what is jazzing them up, you know, what is like lighting their fire, what is exciting for them.

00;06;44;01 - 00;06;55;17
Shannon
And they have a different world to live in than we did. Ours was hard in different ways. Absolutely. And the world now is difficult. It always is both hard and fun.

00;06;55;19 - 00;07;17;02
James
But how that opens up our minds, right? Like we are exposed to these individuals who have a different background than us, have a different upbringing than us, and we can look back on it and reminisce. But it doesn't stop us from learning about our world, does it?

00;07;17;04 - 00;07;46;09
Shannon
Yeah. And just seeing how the things that started in the you know, that's how I live our history. And you do too. Yes. That's that's why I love it. Because you can look back and say, okay, what what is happening right now has a trail that you can follow back and see those connections in the artists that lived in the 80s, 70s, 60s, 50s, 1918 hundred and 1615 hundred.

00;07;46;11 - 00;08;14;24
Shannon
Like right now I'm reading about Hermeticism and Renaissance magic. And I'm like, you know, this was the beginning of the hippie movement, right? Right. Or tipis and or rather, the hippie movement. And then all of the things that's happening now, like sacred geometry and all that, had its beginnings in ancient cultures and in Islam and in the rennet, which then was sort of rediscovered in the classical period through the Renaissance.

00;08;14;26 - 00;08;24;15
Shannon
And then they wrote about it and they, you know, so it's sort of really this fascinating way to to learn about your own moment when you look back at history.

00;08;24;17 - 00;08;40;00
James
Well, and it just substantiates this whole idea that history repeats itself and artists are in that moment, speaking to that moment when we create, no matter what era we happen to be in.

00;08;40;02 - 00;08;52;18
Shannon
Yeah. And I do think it's really important for so many artists are, you know, political and activists, and that's wonderful. They're living in their moment like it's the zeitgeist, right. The time ghost.

00;08;52;21 - 00;08;53;11
James
Yes.

00;08;53;11 - 00;09;00;17
Shannon
You know, and so you're in the time, you're in your own time and you're just like living in that in that era. Right?

00;09;00;19 - 00;09;01;08
James
Yeah.

00;09;01;14 - 00;09;24;15
Shannon
And that's important. And then some artists kind of have a, a view of like bigger or the universe or something. That's so I love the idea of, like, talking about your moment as an artist and having your specific experience, but also talking about the universal and the larger picture at the same time, which is such a weird I call this scale switching.

00;09;24;18 - 00;09;25;19
James
Okay.

00;09;25;22 - 00;09;47;01
Shannon
And it just like one of these words that I use in my own private vocabulary with myself, the idea of like, you're focusing on specific specificity and then suddenly you can go to the universal in the cosmos. And this is one thing that may separate us from animals. I don't know, maybe birds can do this too, right? Maybe this is something they share.

00;09;47;01 - 00;10;00;03
Shannon
I don't know, because I'm not a bird usually, but you know what I mean. It's like, I think humans can go back and forth from the tiny to the grand that quickly, and that's just such a pleasure as an artist.

00;10;00;06 - 00;10;05;23
James
And through that, though, doesn't it bring in to this idea of imposter syndrome?

00;10;05;26 - 00;10;07;07
Shannon
I think so.

00;10;07;10 - 00;10;22;13
James
We get these moments where we don't trust you. You talked about how you threw your early art away like, oh no, this isn't this hasn't been trained. Artists really need to embrace that imposter syndrome, don't they?

00;10;22;16 - 00;10;43;04
Shannon
Well, yeah, for sure. And I did a podcast and I kind of like, thought about this idea of the artistic voice as having kind of three parts. So the first part I think of, you know, when we're kids and just what marks our bodies make, like our crayons and, you know, our first marks on the canvas. And I call that the essence.

00;10;43;04 - 00;11;05;29
Shannon
Right? So your voice has the essence of who you are. And then the evolution is when you learn how to draw, right? You have teachers, you have mentors, you copy things you, you know, copying comics when you were a kid, you know, learning all of that learning and that evolution of your skills and your mastery is, is there in in that and that sort of like is different.

00;11;06;01 - 00;11;27;15
Shannon
Your essence kind of shifts into this evolution stage. But I really also see it as then having this edge stage when you kind of mature and you can look back on both and you kind of kind of go back to your essence and embrace that instead of pushing it away. Right? Because I hate the marks. I wanted to learn to draw like everybody else.

00;11;27;18 - 00;12;01;01
Shannon
But then when I realized like, oh, okay, this edges is where I'm pushing things, where I'm kind of taking my own voice and learning, and then putting in some into some new direction and new things, and that's the edge. But the idea of imposter syndrome is basically the concept is, is the thought. It's a thought. It's a it's a mental state of thinking that other people don't think that you're as capable they perceive you to be.

00;12;01;03 - 00;12;29;07
Shannon
Right. So I'm one of my main points is that in this imposter syndrome embrace imposter syndrome class is that all of those thoughts are just swirling around in your head and they're just thoughts. That's just the first part of it. But the idea of embracing it is like embracing the shadow with your. When we're doing our union work, the shadow is what we have to address and face and and love and be aware of.

00;12;29;07 - 00;12;48;11
Shannon
And so all of those voices, the imposters like, oh, can I do this? Can I be an artist? Right. Like it's a mask we put on, like we're faking it. That's exactly what we should do. We should fake it. We should put the mask on. We should look at that mask and say, how can I juice this mask up?

00;12;48;14 - 00;13;14;03
James
So does that mask sort of like, become as we were as a child, where we would pretend who we were, of course. And we believed it wholeheartedly as a child. Yeah. And and then, you know, we start to get older and we start to question ourselves because the reality in our head isn't always the reality. That's outside of our head.

00;13;14;05 - 00;13;44;07
Shannon
Right. And I see those two parts. It's like there's the imposter syndrome that comes from, you know, our own thoughts and our own self and our own, you know, growth as a human being, but also the parts that come from society, family, birth order, gender, you know, economic situation, education, all the culture, all of those things. So there's kind of a two part influence on on our impostor syndrome.

00;13;44;07 - 00;13;56;09
Shannon
And I like to break those down really clearly. And you know, how people kind of write out like all of these influences and these different voices to look at them and become aware of them?

00;13;56;11 - 00;14;09;25
James
Obviously, the imposter syndrome is misconceptions that we have of ourselves. What's the most common one that you see in the world of art? For misconception?

00;14;09;27 - 00;14;33;09
Shannon
Hey. Wow. Well, there are so many. And you know, I talk about cognitive biases, right? We have these biases in these different ways that are these little tricks that our brain is always playing on us. They they you can call them cognitive biases, thought errors or other names for them. But say one is curse of knowledge. Okay.

00;14;33;09 - 00;15;03;24
Shannon
One got a cognitive bias that says, I know this so well, I know these things so well. Like, doesn't everybody know this? You know? So this is why teachers, you know, don't share their most basic knowledge with people sometimes because they think that a everybody knows it. You know, everybody's done this. And and so the curse of knowledge is, is the more you know, the less you think you have to share about that knowledge.

00;15;03;27 - 00;15;21;22
Shannon
So as we learn, we go through that evolution stage of like knowing how to draw, learning how, you know, and even that knowledge of a kid as a kid, like the kid knows so much, right? We know how to draw. We have those those marks we think we have to know if we take all these classes, how it's all there.

00;15;21;22 - 00;15;42;01
Shannon
And so once you get to the edge, you realize it and you go, oh, see that edge? Like or that essence of me? That's the most important part, you know, that's where my knowledge is. That's kind of the curse of knowledge. And what happens when people get out into the world there? I don't know, because everyone says, well, you know, you look at the internet and you're trying to do what everybody else does.

00;15;42;01 - 00;16;00;17
Shannon
I don't know if everybody's doing that. I don't know, because I don't. I'm not in their brains, but you do see trends. And what you see is I think people trying to learn from each other, that person did this and it quote unquote worked. So I'm going to try it. So I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

00;16;00;20 - 00;16;37;03
Shannon
But I do hope that what people do is then take what they learn and go back to those earliest marks and the earliest way of thinking and trusting themselves and trusting their own process. And I think that's one big part of this that is part of imposter syndrome is really, yes, learning what you can learn from other people, but also then at the end of that hero's journey, knowing that you're coming back to yourself in that essence of yourself, which is the real truth of who you are as a human being, and what you want to share with the world.

00;16;37;03 - 00;16;44;05
Shannon
And what you want to make is valid, important, and someone else out there will love it no matter what it is.

00;16;44;07 - 00;17;11;20
James
It's interesting how you laid this out, because it sounds very similar to what I do in my classroom. I right now we are at the final project and it's about narrative telling a story. And in this moment in class, I'm trying to guide them to what inspires you, who inspires you? And coupled with that, I'm teaching them about appropriation.

00;17;11;22 - 00;17;12;19
Shannon
Right?

00;17;12;21 - 00;17;37;02
James
Because many times when we look at someone who we are inspired by or want to mimic or any of those kinds of things as humans, it can feel like we're an imposter. Yes, because it's not ours. And this is why I wrap the appropriation into this, because it's about, yes, this idea might be somebody else's, but how did I make it my own?

00;17;37;04 - 00;17;52;05
Shannon
Yeah. Oh, I love that. I love that you're talking about appropriation because it's such a huge issue in the world. Always, forever in history, but also right now and also because of the internet and everything. I heard your podcast with Brown is her last name.

00;17;52;12 - 00;17;57;23
James
Oh, Aneka Brown, any controller? Oh, Motorola appropriation? Yes.

00;17;57;27 - 00;18;25;28
Shannon
That was so good. So I hope everybody goes back and listens to that episode. But I loved how she talked about it and this idea of, yes, we all have our voices, but also there's an honoring and a learning from others and a communication and a connection. So when you're, you know, maybe if you're doing something that really does pull in a totally different cultures, ideas or images or something, reach out to someone in that community.

00;18;26;02 - 00;18;27;23
James
Yes.

00;18;27;25 - 00;18;52;18
Shannon
To to talk to them because you'll learn something. And it's not like you're asking for permission. You know, in a sense, we as artists, we always pull all sorts of influences, but it's fancier. Like, can I, can I learn from you about what this idea or this concept means to you? Here's what it means to me, and let's see if we can find ways to have a conversation around it.

00;18;52;23 - 00;19;18;12
James
Aneka and I have been friends for a number of years, and she really is my go to when I'm wondering if I'm crossing a line about culture or stepping into an area that's not appropriate for me, for who I am and what my background is. But she has helped me learn the appreciation and how that becomes a spark of creativity.

00;19;18;14 - 00;19;25;18
James
And don't be afraid of that. And that could also be an imposter sort of feeling too.

00;19;25;20 - 00;19;45;03
Shannon
Yeah. Well, and also, you know, I mean, like a man writing in a woman's voice or a woman's writing in a man's voice, a white person writing in a black person's voice, etc. I think as artists, we should try to do those things right. We should attempt to put ourselves in someone else's shoes and understand what it's like from their point of view.

00;19;45;05 - 00;20;15;10
Shannon
And so there's both, you know, all sides of this conversation to bring to each other and to learn and ask questions and like, okay, Aneka, you know, and James, what if you two were to take your masks off? Black woman, white man, you know, and then switch them, like, let's write in each other's voices and see if we can learn what's up here and what's in here and what we go through and how we can understand each other better, and maybe other people in it at the same.

00;20;15;11 - 00;20;24;11
James
Yeah, it's it's a great thing. It really is a great thing when we allow ourselves that moment with other people.

00;20;24;13 - 00;20;53;02
Shannon
Yeah. So true. Well, just one other thing about that. Like right now, there was this great show at the met, I think, or MoMA, I can't remember. And it was it was a digital show of these Native American artists, and they created a situation where they would project the Native American, a contemporary person in regalia on to a classic painting.

00;20;53;05 - 00;21;36;20
Shannon
And then it was on the internet. And I will give you the link to the artists. And it was sort of like this great bombing of, you know, of, like bringing this, this Native American art into classical American landscape and things. And so the, the it was to bring up how the Native Americans had to obviously put up with tragedy and terror and terrible things in history and also are still suffering from these things and at the same time reinventing themselves to create this incredible new future looking art, future facing art, and realizing there are teachers, right?

00;21;36;21 - 00;21;57;00
Shannon
And so to be open to learning from each other. And, you know, I want to learn about that Native American wave's ways. At the same time, I don't want to open that door unless they're willing to teach me. You know what I mean? My best friend growing up is half ajiboye and half white. So? So she has her family over here.

00;21;57;00 - 00;22;21;11
Shannon
That is horsemen and rice racers and, you know, beater and beating and all of this, like her dad made drums and, you know, all these things. And then her mom side, who was, you know, classic like white woman America, you know, and from Scotland. And Amy's right in the middle and she's right in the middle. Right. And so she I always like, love to look at her family and how they deal with all this stuff.

00;22;21;11 - 00;22;24;23
Shannon
It's hilarious, you know, at the same time and fun and beautiful.

00;22;25;01 - 00;22;35;03
James
But it is about having these communications, having these conversations and being open to others, which that's a whole nother episode, right?

00;22;35;05 - 00;22;36;22
Shannon
I know we're going down, rabbit.

00;22;36;24 - 00;22;58;28
James
Oh my gosh. You know what, Shannon? I want to kind of shift to this idea of time and structure and the artist's life. And you have a phrase, change your relationship with time that I find to be hugely powerful. What does that mean to the average artist?

00;22;59;00 - 00;23;22;16
Shannon
Okay, well, yes, this is been huge in my life. I am very goal oriented and all my friends have always said that. It's like, oh, you do so many things. You set goals. And I've always had. I mean, when I was a kid, New Year's Eve, my birthday. Right. And we've talked about this. I used to set ten goals every New Year's Eve in ten areas, so I would have like this obscene, absurd, like 100 goals every year.

00;23;22;18 - 00;23;48;24
Shannon
And some would be small, some would be big. But I love time scheduling and I've always done that. But then also, I'd always kind of like so rushed and urgent and like, oh, I should be doing this, I should be doing that. When am I going to get some time just to myself? All of those thoughts. And I realized as I was learning to be a life coach, I was doing thought work, which is a whole other rabbit hole, but this is part of it.

00;23;49;01 - 00;24;15;16
Shannon
That really looking at my thoughts and really realizing that I could manage my mind around anything in my life and time, was a big one. And so I realized that if I could manage the thoughts that I had about time, I could change my life. So every reason like just transform this concept of time in my life. And so this is one of the scale switching things.

00;24;15;19 - 00;24;20;22
Shannon
You know, we think about minutes and what am I going to do next and how long what am I late. You know, and all of these.

00;24;20;22 - 00;24;22;18
James
Things always checking our watch.

00;24;22;20 - 00;24;46;27
Shannon
Always like focusing on time all the time, all the time and then pulling back and saying, wait a second, how long is a million years, a lifetime, 60 years, 80 years, 100 years, millions of years, billions of years. How long is it taken for, you know, this rock to roll up onto the shore, right? And here I am, tossing it all the way back into the water.

00;24;46;29 - 00;25;24;19
Shannon
Yeah, right. So, so this idea of managing your mind and understanding what time is and managing your mind around your concept of time and creating intentionally creating thoughts around what you want time to feel like for you. Because sometimes I want to feel the urgency. Here's an example. And you're a writer, so you'll get this I'm writing a book and my writing partner, my friend Kevin, was we talk to each other every week and he'll read me poems, and I'm reading him my chapters of my book.

00;25;24;25 - 00;25;43;21
Shannon
So in this 16 week process, up to my MFA show, I just threw in there, I'm going to write a chapter of my book every week. I love to be under that pressure. I set timers, I do the Pomodoro method. It doesn't matter how many words I write, I'm just going to write whatever into writing for that week and I'm going to read it to them.

00;25;43;23 - 00;26;12;11
Shannon
But I found out this I read this, this little part of a chapter about me going to Scotland to visit my birthplaces of my great great grandparents, and I wrote this little scene about me walking into a pub and feeling like I was an American in American Werewolf England, watching the way I laugh. And I walk into the pub and I see all these cute Scottish soccer players playing pool and all their girlfriends are along the side.

00;26;12;11 - 00;26;39;18
Shannon
And I just, like, break that down and end up realizing like, okay, she's the the top wolf here. She like, go meet her first. Tell you, one of the boys is single, you know, and I wrote that it was fun and funny and I tried to put details in. And then I read it to Kevin and I realized, like, what I do when I'm on a timer and when I'm an urgency is I lay down the basic story.

00;26;39;18 - 00;27;04;10
Shannon
I lay down that I'm on the timer. I'm going to just lay it down and set it, set it out, and then I can shift my view on time itself. And I can say I have luxurious amounts of time, and I'm going to spend time in the pub looking at the details, telling you this, what color this stripe on their jerseys were telling you that one of the boys was so beautiful.

00;27;04;10 - 00;27;25;28
Shannon
He had this red hair and this Roman nose, and that she and I ordered half pints because that's what girls do. And we clinked our pints when she told me which ones were we're single. Right. So it's like this. The details and the slow reveal of the story all comes from my outlook and my thoughts about time.

00;27;25;28 - 00;27;34;19
James
Well, and this turns into the shift as artists, for us to get away from feeling like we don't have enough time, isn't it?

00;27;34;20 - 00;27;42;26
Shannon
Yes, exactly. And one of my other thoughts, you can borrow this and I borrowed it from one of my coaches, is I have luxurious amounts of time.

00;27;43;00 - 00;27;44;08
James
I love that.

00;27;44;11 - 00;28;06;08
Shannon
Right. And sometimes I just have to remind myself when I feel that anxiety rising or when I'm like, oh, you know, what do I have to do? I can just say, breathe and just say I have luxurious amounts of time that feels better. Then I go into the studio, I take my time. I look at the color of the paint, I mix my colors, I clean my studio.

00;28;06;10 - 00;28;25;08
Shannon
I think I sit and write in my journal, and then I paint. And when I paint, I take it slow. I don't have to rush. Sometimes I then say, you know what, I want to have some energy right now. So I'm going to set a timer and paint for ten minutes and make some cool marks in a, you know, a different time zone.

00;28;25;10 - 00;28;26;05
James


00;28;26;08 - 00;28;30;29
Shannon
Yes. But I have a luxurious amount of time to do that with photographers.

00;28;30;29 - 00;28;43;07
James
We are so quick with digital and it speeds us up. And when I run into someone like that, that is like, I have no time, I have no time. I said, go back to film.

00;28;43;09 - 00;28;44;08
Shannon


00;28;44;16 - 00;29;12;08
James
Because it puts you in that moment and you have to see everything instead of fixing it in post. Right. You capture a thousand images and now you're rifling through a thousand images later when think about if you just put film in that camera and you slowed down and instead of a thousand images, you've got ten. It's that's luxurious for me.

00;29;12;08 - 00;29;35;10
Shannon
That's the main point to this, though. I think, is we can choose. It's not a circumstance in the world that time goes so fast and that we're behind under the gun, and that we don't have enough time. That's not true. That's just a thought that we have and that our society has. Okay. So we have a choice to decide.

00;29;35;10 - 00;29;56;07
Shannon
Right now I want to fuel time is slow and right now I want to feel time is fast and exciting. And I there's an interesting phenomenon. They say when you're younger and you don't have a lot of stimulus, time goes, feels slower. Just think of lying on the grass. If you ever had this opportunity as a kid and looking at an ant or blade of grass.

00;29;56;09 - 00;30;24;11
Shannon
So like time went so slowly because our brain wasn't full of, of so much. And now because we know more at 60 it's like oh my gosh, five years just went by like that. So we have a choice on how we feel about time and how it's a tool. Time is a tool. The past is a tool to help us remember to create our identities, to have beautiful sort of a life in the past, in our imagination.

00;30;24;11 - 00;30;39;06
Shannon
So the past is is memory and imagination. The future is imagination. And that's a tool as well to help us hope, to help us make plans. I think that good mental health is two things a creative outlet and a plan.

00;30;39;06 - 00;30;40;00
James
Wow.

00;30;40;03 - 00;30;46;19
Shannon
That's what time does. It's we use the tools of the past and the future to create this stuff I love.

00;30;46;19 - 00;31;09;18
James
It's almost as if you've said me queues to parts of questions that I have. Because if we can control these things right, this impostor syndrome like can get our head in the right space and if we can then play with time. Yeah, that helps us find our voice and identity as an artist, doesn't it?

00;31;09;25 - 00;31;14;19
Shannon
I love that well, tell me, tell me about yourself. I'm sure you have an example of this.

00;31;14;27 - 00;31;46;10
James
Well, I have had the bizarre resume, you know, similar to you, right? I've been all over the place, but now here I am. I'm in my late 50s, and I'm an artist. And that is an identity that I recognized that I have had my entire life. And now that I can embrace that, I'm feeling that the voice that has been there from my moments in time of creation come through.

00;31;46;12 - 00;32;00;04
James
And so now here I am able to feel confidence in what it is I'm doing, creating and who I am. Yeah. And it's been.

00;32;00;08 - 00;32;01;10
Shannon
On it, you know.

00;32;01;10 - 00;32;08;08
James
Well, and it's been an amazing journey. And, you know, I think back, shoot, I should have done this 30 years ago.

00;32;08;10 - 00;32;29;00
Shannon
I, this is the thing all of those hard times that we go through, all the just, oh my gosh, agony. I call it the wisdom of the abyss. Everything we go through as we're going around our hero's journey over and over, we have to have. And like, that's what really makes us us and makes us better.

00;32;29;04 - 00;32;48;19
Shannon
So all of those hard times, all of the times when I threw my paintings away, Monet did the same thing. He would stand on the riverbank and paint, and he said, color is my agony and my pleasure or something like that. And he would paint, and then he would just like, throw a canvas into the river. And his assistant would have to like fish it out because he was so frustrated.

00;32;48;21 - 00;33;01;04
Shannon
But it's just you keep failing forward, then thinking about it differently. And as you get older you go, oh, that's right, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. Every moment was perfect right now.

00;33;01;04 - 00;33;16;07
James
Perfection is something I think many of us struggle with, and when we realize that we don't have to be perfect, is when that identity and that voice really comes out.

00;33;16;09 - 00;33;17;14
Shannon
So. Right?

00;33;17;14 - 00;33;28;05
James
Yes, exactly. Shannon, as we start to wrap up this session together, I have to say I have so enjoyed this. This has been exciting for me to hear your thoughts on these things.

00;33;28;05 - 00;33;30;11
Shannon
And you too. I just love this conversation.

00;33;30;11 - 00;33;47;22
James
If someone is feeling stuck, like right now in one of the topics the time, the imposter syndrome, what's a tiny small step they can consider doing to maybe move them past that?

00;33;47;28 - 00;34;16;28
Shannon
I. I love acronyms, so I'm always making them up. And one of my favorite ones recently is is math mat h8. Okay, okay, do the math. And NATO h h means my ability to handle honesty m a t h h my ability to handle honesty. And this works for me in so many ways when I write down my thoughts.

00;34;16;28 - 00;34;35;19
Shannon
So we call it a thought download. And every morning you know it's morning pages, right from the artist's Way or whatever. And this thought download is part of this idea of my ability to handle honesty. Do the math with your thoughts, write down your thoughts and see what's actually in there. The sentences that are actually in your brain.

00;34;35;20 - 00;34;51;09
Shannon
Only then can you really understand what's going on for you, because a lot of times they're just working in the background, you know, it's like, oh, you're not good enough, or why are you doing this? Why are you even trying to do this? You're going to be great at this. Oh, you're not you know, you wish you could do this.

00;34;51;11 - 00;34;56;12
Shannon
It's going to be so hard. I think I'm not going to do that because I'd rather watch Black List again. They're ten.

00;34;56;14 - 00;34;59;23
James
She's all.

00;34;59;26 - 00;35;18;10
Shannon
You know, I mean, of course, at night like I'm done at 6:00. So yes, I'm in the middle of black list. But when I am working, I get up early. Maybe it's an age thing, but I get up at like 6:00 and I sit and write in my journal and I do a thought download, and it's so helpful.

00;35;18;13 - 00;35;22;00
Shannon
It just helps me look at what's in my brain. And I think that's the first step.

00;35;22;03 - 00;35;44;18
James
Shannon offers a masterclass in a lot of what we have talked about today. So if you're an artist or a creative who feels like you're being held back by imposter syndrome, this class really is a turning point. It's a deep dive into the number one issue that quietly shapes and often limits who we are in our creative lives per class.

00;35;44;18 - 00;36;12;28
James
It's grounded in proven research and powerful thought work methodology. As you've heard, this class impacts the history and psychology of imposter syndrome, why it shows up for artists and how it impacts your confidence, your voice, and your willingness to be seen. So if this is where you're at, please, please, please check out the show notes. There are links there that will get you to Shannon's website where you can sign up for this session.

00;36;12;29 - 00;36;17;23
Shannon
Shannon's all much, I appreciate that. And you know that class on my home page is free.

00;36;17;23 - 00;36;19;05
James
I love a bargain.

00;36;19;07 - 00;36;42;22
Shannon
And then I've created kind of a deep dive class is is is a paid class. And that's the deep dive class. But you get the free class, I go through just a couple of the first points and really kind of get you centered and figured out where you are within this idea of imposter syndrome. Then you can go further if you want to take the full class, of course, with a discount from that, I'm taking that free class.

00;36;42;22 - 00;36;45;15
Shannon
So it's fun. I'm learning how to do this stuff.

00;36;45;17 - 00;36;54;06
James
Shannon, thank you so much for your time today. This is really been powerful. I appreciate it and your your wisdom that you brought. Thank you.

00;36;54;13 - 00;37;02;22
Shannon
Things I just love what you do. I love your podcast and I'm so glad we met at the same time. So connect to God.

00;37;02;25 - 00;37;08;24
James
And I'm looking forward to following your pathway as you leave your MFA program. Oh my gosh.

00;37;08;26 - 00;37;27;11
Shannon
Thank you. Oh, just one other thing on my home page. You can sign up for my newsletter. And I'm doing a blog every week on this process. So 16 weeks of creating an MFA show that week, one is week zero is called week zero. And then week one. That's all the further I've gotten so far.

00;37;27;14 - 00;37;30;08
James
I am definitely going to go get signed up for that. I can't wait.

00;37;30;15 - 00;37;32;25
Shannon
Awesome. Thank you so much. Dance.

00;37;32;26 - 00;38;03;20
James
Thank you Shannon. What an incredible conversation with Shannon Borg for insights on imposter syndrome, the artist inner voice and redefining our relationship for time are the kind of ideas that stay with you long after the episode ends. If you connected with Shannon's message, be sure to check out the show notes for links to her free introductory class on Imposter syndrome, plus the full deep dive course for those ready to go for more.

00;38;03;23 - 00;38;28;27
James
And while you're there, you can sign up for her weekly blog chronicling her MFA show. Trust me, it's a journey worth following. Thank you for spending your time with us today and check out our new podcast, Art Happens The Divine Mess of Art history, where we explore the masterpieces and the beautiful messages behind the art world. Trust me, this isn't your grandma's art history class.

00;38;29;00 - 00;38;44;25
James
And of course, make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode of Lattes & Artt. This has been Lattes & Art sponsored by J-Squared Atelier and I'm James William Moore. Stay inspired, keep creating and I'll see you next time.