Bob Paltrow, Creative Coach

I’m Bob Paltrow, a multimedia artist, designer, musician, music producer, songwriting instructor, sculptor, painter, illustrator, author, video artist, webmaster, humorist, creative coach, and marketing consultant living in the very creative town of Bellingham Washington. I have operated Bob Paltrow Design, a full-service creative agency, serving hundreds of clients’ creative needs—for a vast array of businesses—since 1994.

I graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences degree with an emphasis in graphic design and illustration from the University of Arizona.

I’m also a professional musician. I’ve performed piano, organ, guitar, and vocals for over 45 years, solo and with 20+ bands in a variety of genres including blues, ragtime, rock, funk, hip hop, middle-eastern (belly dance troupe), reggae, and folk. I’ve written over 300 songs, self-produced about 150, and recorded with various artists over my career. I had 8 years of formal training in classical and jazz piano and one year as a piano performance music major at the University of Arizona, before switching to the Arts College.

I also teach songwriting, most recently at Bellinghome School of Music in Bellingham WA.

I’ve worked for publications; on festival and events committees; political campaigns; ad agencies; a very successful independent New Age music label – before and since I started my own creative agency.

I’ve received about 10 awards over the years for my design and illustration work—including a Silver Microphone by the City of Bellingham for a radio spot I created and produced for Whatcom Transportation Authority in the late 1990s in Bellingham.

While pursuing my Bachelor of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arizona, I received honorable recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts for a poster I designed promoting what turned out to be a very controversial art show featuring works by ten activist artists.

I”ve designed several album covers and book covers that have been recognized with industry design awards including the last 3 years, for New Age independent music label Soundings of the Planet.

I like trying new things. I’ve dabbled to varying degrees in theatre and film, improv comedy, and small parts in dance productions. And I love it all! The common thread connecting and driving all my creative pursuits is creativity.

Background

• I received a Bachelor of Arts & Sciences from the University of Arizona (Tucson) in 1990; my major was Studio Art—Graphic Design & Illustration. During my senior year, I had the opportunity to study with renowned sculptor Luis Jimenez. That same year, I received an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, for my poster design announcing what turned out to be a very controversial NEA sponsored touring art exhibition featuring the works of 10 prominent activist artists.
• My minor in college was in Art History, and my particular era and genres of interest were the Surrealist and Dada movements of the early 20th Century, which both delved into methodologies for creativity. Some of my favorite artists from this era include Salvadore Dali, René Magritte, Ives Tanguy, Frida Kahlo, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, André Breton, and Man Ray. Surrealism was influenced by the burgeoning science of psychology, borrowing from Freud’s work in dream analysis and seeking to bridge the subconscious and reality. Conversely, the Dadaists explored aspects of randomness and breaking the rules of convention. I found studying the tenets and artists of both movements had a lot to offer in terms of sowing the seeds for creativity so new ideas can flourish. Studying the lives of artists, writers, musicians and creatives that you admire—and understanding the motivations and processes they used and developed—is a great way to expand your creative tool chest. Do what they did.
• I became lead designer for award-winning independent New Age music label Soundings of the Planet in 1992, creating dozens of album covers for artists Dean and Dudley Evenson. It was there that I was able to cultivate a signature photo-surreal illustrative style. It turns out my background and interests in Surrealism and Dadaism—the two schools of thought that defined the early 20th-century surrealist movement—were perfectly suited for the New Age genre, where dreamscapes and visionary imagery are the norms.
• I’ve operated Bob Paltrow Design since 1994, working with hundreds of clients over the years with design, marketing, production.
• I have an extensive background in music, particularly the piano. I studied privately for 7 years, and in my freshman year of college, I was a music major in piano performance at the University of Arizona. I decided that was not the route I wanted to take in life at the time and took about a four-year break to work in the construction trades, before going back to college and getting my Bachelor’s degree in Studio art.
• I’ve been a singer-songwriter for over 4 decades. I’ve written over 300 songs and self-produced about 150 songs.
• I’ve played in about 20 different bands in many different genres including folk, rock, blues, ragtime, soul, reggae, hip hop, African and Middle-Eastern.
• When there’s no pandemic, I perform as solo singer/songwriter Boom Coffin
• My current band project is as keyboardist/percussionist/background vocalist for the soul/R&B 8-piece band Soul Track Mind out of Bellingham WA
• I teach songwriting, most recently at Bellinghome School of Music
• In 2017, I wrote and produced a musical score for an independent short film “SNAP!” directed and produced in Bellingham by Zachary Brown of Conflux Studios. I’d like to do more musical scoring.
  
• I’m working on my first book, a futuristic sci-fi novel “The Last Forest.”

Examples of my work in video, music production, illustration, authoring, and design.

SNAP! is a short experimental film directed, filmed and produced by Zachary Brown in Bellingham Washington. Music score by Bob Paltrow Music. SNAP! asks the question, do you have what it takes?

The Sources of Creativity

I’ve always been interested in creativity, I realized very early on that a good idea was exciting. Not just for me, but for people around me. If I drew a really cool spaceship, my friends would say “coooool!!” and maybe they would be excited to draw an even cooler spaceship or alien—or we’d decide to go play astronauts out in the yard because we were so excited about the fantasy that we made real on paper.

When I was in 4th grade, there was an opportunity to get extra credit for each famous person from history you drew. I think her thought was, kids could draw 1 or 2 extra people and get an A. I drew about 20, some ridiculous amount. The kids in the class were blown away, everybody knew who I was after that. I was ‘the kid who could draw.’

That summer, like most kids who have a life, I didn’t do any drawing. As it got closer to the first day of school, I started thinking about what the year would be like, and of course, how I would fit in socially. I realized I hadn’t drawn anything all summer, and I thought to myself “what if I can’t draw anymore?” I became paralyzed by that thought. I didn’t even try to draw anything to see whether or not it was true. I “didn’t have any ideas.”

I had this apprehension, and self-doubt, and feelings of being incapable. It went on for days, it might have been weeks, although everything is so long and dramatic when you’re 10 years old. I didn’t do anything about it. Until school started, and we had an assignment that required a drawing, and I had no problem with it. And after that, I was fine. I started drawing again.

Working cover design for my book-in-progress “The Last Forest,” a futuristic sci-fi adventure tale. You can read a preview on my blog.

“Hello, Do You Deliver?” – Original music video tribute to the wonderful array of locally owned restaurants & cafés in my hometown of Fairhaven (Bellingham) WA. Music and video by Bob Paltrow Design

Work It

Its like going to the gym: anytime you go, you feel better about yourself no matter what is going on in your life, you’ve made a decision today to be good to yourself. And that’s all we ever have is today, so might as well take advantage of life and be creative now.

The fulfillment you get from actualizing your creativity carries over into every other aspect of your life, because if you’re feeling fulfilled; you have a sense of authenticity and purpose; you’re happier, make better decisions, are less stressed about the challenges of the mundane, because your lust for life’s fulfillment is being realized.

I’ve done all these things because I had the time; I made the time. I have aptitude in some disciplines that I cultivated through desire, necessity and curiousity. I have sought and found fulfillment in being creative for many reasons. For a feeling of accomplishment; a way to express feelings; a way to relax and just ‘be’ with yourself; to truly be and express yourself as you are is a very fulfilling component of art. The art of living.

We all do a lot of ‘things’ in our lives. Careers; relationships; raising families; rituals; triumphs and heartache; hobbies; sports. All those ‘things’ require a great deal of creativity to keep them existent; surviving; thriving; solving the problems; circumventing the apparent dead ends. The very essence of life is creativity endlessly unfolding.

Roadblocks

I became aware of several blocks during my first protracted creative anxiety attack:

• Procrastination: the more I delayed doing anything, the worse my feelings of inadequacy
• Accountability: I didn’t take any initiative, I waited until I had no choice (class assignment) to deal with it
• Self-judgment and self-doubt: I’m no good. I won’t be able to do it. Which extended to my social life, because I wrapped so much of my self-worth into what people thought of me, instead of what I need to do to fulfill myself.
• Prioritizing other things. Which, we all do, and we often have to, because time is finite and there are a lot of things to take care of in this life. Making the time—making space and place—to be creative is essential. Sometimes, it’s all you can do to squeeze in that creative time. Sometimes, it just takes prioritizing it.

Bringing Out The Best in Each Other

I get excited about people’s creativity, and I like seeing new ideas all the time.

I have this knack for seeing the best and the potential in people, and I love and appreciate and respect any type of creativity; hence, all the arts that I dabble in.

I like hearing about people’s ideas and where they are taking their art or craft or expression.

We all invariably get stuck, blocked, stale, or unsure creatively. Could be in the moment, or it could be for days, months, or years.

Poster art for the 50th Anniversary Anacortes Arts Festival by Bob Paltrow Design

Creativity, Talent and Ideas

Creativity is about good ideas. A good idea can be something funny, or poignant, or silly, or dreamy, or practical. Creativity is about having and expressing or visualizing ideas.

Creativity is not talent. They are interrelated, but two separate things. A talent is a tool you can use creatively to present your great idea in the best way possible. Ideas supersede talent. We are all equally capable of coming up with good ideas. The truth is, you can always find somebody with the talent to make your idea look or sound or read or convey the idea better. The person who gets the most credit for a blockbuster movie is the director or producer, and they get all the talent they need to express their vision – their idea – the best way possible. I know, because I’m an artist for hire.

Ideas drive everything, and what we can do together is find the methods to cultivate creativity and actualize your ideas and creative expression. And that can be different for each person. For one person, It might be accountability; for another, it’s finding the tools to cultivate new ideas; finding new expressions; reviving old ones, or accountability and structure to finish what you’ve started

Some people refrain from acting on their creative impulses because they feel they’re “not talented enough” or “not good enough.” It’s a common mistake that people make in limiting themselves—I know because I experience it all the time. It drives me personally to be more creative so I can prove to myself that my fears and limitations are false. It’s a constant process of freeing myself from feeling powerless or limited in my life.

Please enjoy this video where I discuss my process, illustration and ideation.

Bob Paltrow performing with Ebb, Slack and Flood from Anacortes WA, on Guemes Island WA.

“Lotus Position” – photo-illustration/book cover for author Dudley Evenson of Soundings of the Planet

“Bubble Machine” – Bob Paltrow performing with Bailey Ann Martinet, aka Ruby Flambé, at Sh’Bang: A Festival of Ideas, in Alger WA.