Illustration courtesy of Christine Burney.
“The work of writing, like all artistic creation, is part technique, part inspiration, all magic. Something happens when words brush up against one another, cascading down the page through the riffling of sentences and paragraphs. The words do something; they turn into a story.” — The Bee and The Acorn
When I went to listen to the Co-founder and President of Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) Paula Wallace speak about her new autobiography, The Bee and The Acorn, it felt like any other day in a long week of deadlines, projects and SCAD Days among other things. That was until I sat down and began to listen. I had been a little late, but made it in time to get a second row seat in the overflow room. As a young man introduced her, I wondered how she might talk about her subject: invention. Would she share her creative process, talk about her secrets to success or perhaps just tell us about her book and where we could buy it? I guess she hinted at some of these things, but when she began to speak something different happened. Magic, perhaps? It was as if Mary Poppins was taking us through how to clean up our room with a song. She hummed about how to be brave and adventurous, which always leads to invention. She sang the story and wisdom of her life, the “love letter” to SCAD and her family, with light illustrations behind her to lead the way. As I sat watching, I was in awe at this person standing in front of me. Enchanted, really. What she shared was magical.
“Invention,” she began, “The best ideas are inside; they only need to be found,” Wallace concurred. Here are a few of her shared findings.
1. Improvise
“The rule of improvisation is ‘yes, and,'” she declared. “You must first agree and then add something of your own.” This is also the making of a great story.
Her story began like this, “Once upon a time, there was an elementary school teacher from Atlanta, who got a big idea and decided, ‘Let’s start a college of art in a town we’ve never lived in.’ Luckily, she was born with an adventurous family, who replied, “yes, with their whole hearts and leapt into the unknown, saying yes to the risk of a big dream. Yes, we can buy the Old Armory building! Yes, and we can build a library upstairs in the open area. Yes, and we can draw a mural on the ground …”
“The foundation of SCAD is truly the yes, and spirit.” We take what is at hand and we add our heart and soul to make something that comes from inside. Tracing the origins of SCAD and what seemed to be just an old building (the Old Armory building in Savannah) and some old books (did you know 10,000 law books were the first installment in the library of SCAD?) in an old city, we find what turned out to be treasure.
2. Treasure your independence
Having no money to purchase things with, when they wanted to create a library for their school, Paula Wallace and her ex-husband Richard G. Rown along with parent co-founders Paul and May Poetter had to go around and ask. It’s only after you put your whole heart into your work that you begin to reap the good fruit. After calling around asking for old or missent books, they finally hit their breakthrough with a donation from a law school in New York. Afterwards, thousands more books came in from all over the country. All this from sharing their story and asking.
Paula Wallace’s memoir The Bee and the Acorn. Image courtesy of www.assouline.com.
3. Embrace being an outsider
Sometimes it pays not to be the expert. Wallace recounts the liberation that can come with a little ignorance. I mean, isn’t it unusal to have an art school with “career” in the mission statement (SCAD exists to prepare talented students for professional careers, emphasizing learning through individual attention in a positively oriented university environment?) Your first library is full of law books? Art plus sports? No Greek life or football? What kind of southern college is this anyway? You only go to school for four days a week? And who do you think you are being an elementary school teacher and mother, and starting an art college? How dare you have the audacity to think you could dream so big? Perhaps it was simply the yes that she had hidden within herself and her rock of a family.
4. To invent your future, look to your history.
As an elementary school teacher, Paula learned the diplomacy, patience and even had innovative goals in teaching her students; all pillars of SCAD education.
5. Cherish those around you.
Don’t be afraid to collaborate, listen, share and adapt. These are the lessons of healthy relationships including family. These are the people who add grace to our lives; with their input and ideas, our dreams grow into maturity. So, take advantage of the wealth of people around you.
The story woven here was not simply a letter from the president, but rather the proclamation that this same woman, who so many years ago took a leap and started a dream, is doing the same thing again today in believing she has something to write. Her bravery and boldness is what she imparts to us. She declares over us, practically singing, “In the spirit of Yes, And, take a melody, say yes, and create something entirely new.” And, on that note, write your own story with love. That’s a good word. May you follow it.