We were lucky to catch up with Geoff Mitchell recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Geoff , thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
Although my first love in art was painting and it remains the core of what I do as an artist, I’ve taken many diversions over the years from it to explore different ways of being creative. From filmmaking, puppetry, miniature dioramas and props for parade floats, some of these projects have been extraordinarily meaningful to me.
One recent project I’d like to talk about here is “Strange Secrets of Starlight Park”, an audio drama created in the style of the Golden Age of radio. The show was created together in partnership with the team at Museum of Make Believe, a new creative venue I helped found in Laguna Beach, California, which will be opening this autumn. Our mysterious radio adventure follows the story of a young boy named Evander after he runs away from home into the deep dark forest. He finds himself in the most delightfully peculiar place, an abandoned amusement park filled with a magical cast of characters … it’s an enchanted realm that is actually quite in danger, and having come to love the place for all its eccentricity, the boy sets out on a mission to save it.
We began recording episode one of this show in the summer of ’22 at the studio of the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton. The 38-minute episode is now released on all of the major podcast platforms and on the Museum of Make Believe’s website. For me personally, I was responsible for the direction, production, editing, and creating the music score. I’ve been a musician since very early in my life and I’ve explored soundtrack design for my art exhibits, but nothing compares to the excitement of creating the score for our radio drama. It was a great challenge, technically and artistically – and I am grateful for the opportunity to learn that way.
The second half of our feature length show begins recording this fall. I hope your readers will go out and enjoy episode one of our show, “Strange Secrets of Starlight Park”. They can listen here: https://www.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
The path my life took to become an artist is likely not all that uncommon. I grew up loving to draw and I took up music in my teen years, playing in bands and writing music through my college life where I discovered my love of painting. I went to graduate school, because I thought it was the right thing to do, and I think it was, although my reasoning for it was different than most students there with me. It seemed at the time fellow artists commonly sought out graduate degrees as a path to becoming professors of art themselves. I was personally not interested in teaching and intended to make my career strictly in the creation of the art. So, I spent my time in graduate school looking, listening and developing my craft in painting before setting off into the commercial gallery world afterwards.
To continue this story, I need to divert for a moment and mention a point that will help me go on. From early in my life as a kid, I was always interested in a production, a show – I don’t see myself as an entertainer of course, but more of a craftsperson. However, I was always fascinated by Disney Parks and that kind of magic and illusion of presenting a feeling, a pronounced mood in an environment – something that really took me away into a faraway place. This point came up often for me in higher education and it took the form of a debate over whether art is predominantly “visual or conceptual”? Is it intended to be “entertainment” or is it to “teach and deliver a particular message”? Today, I would say that the best work often does all of these things. But at the time I was struggling with what was most important, and for me – then and now – I lean into the “visual entertainment” side of things as my preference.
So, as I went along in my career, I began to notice that in museums and cultural centers, I was finding much more freedom to explore and create exhibits that included aspects purely for visual and entertainment delight, regardless of the salability of the work. I found love in creating my own soundtracks to lead the mood of exhibits, large props, dramatic lighting, and live events brought into the exhibits for ongoing entertainment. Encouraged by the public response to this direction, and of course, the overwhelming feeling that this is who I’ve always been, I first had the inclination to simply focus more on exhibiting in museums and cultural centers and less in the commercial gallery world. However, in the summer of 2018, during a particular exhibit I had at Muzeo Museum and Cultural Center in Anaheim, a group of artists I was working with there really were key to my journey and events that led to the idea of forming Museum of Make Believe in 2019. We officially launched in 2020 with both virtual and live events over the next three years. Now our first tangible place to welcome guests into our space will open in Laguna Beach this fall. Much more can be learned about this exciting adventure on our website at museumofmakebelieve.org!
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I remember one instance in college, I worked in the art supply store at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design where I was in school, and a coworker asked me something along the lines of “what is it you hope to achieve with your art?” and I answered “I’d like to make the kind of art that everyone likes” – to which my coworker gave me the look of “Oh, you poor kid”. I’m sure your readers are getting a good laugh from the thought, as we all know, that is extraordinarily rare – if it has ever really happened at all – and I have to doubt that it has. So clearly, I was setting myself up for some hard lessons and thoughts to unlearn. I was, perhaps, even setting up a scenario for a fatal wound to my confidence if I couldn’t rethink this goal. And that’s not a bad thing, I don’t think, if it’s survived, because I think it’s true that what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.
I’m not sure at what point it happened, but it was as if one day I woke up and began seeking out the people that didn’t like some project I was working on so that I could find out why. I started to see a pathway to the idea of the “one mind” and began to have the thought that “aren’t the friends and people we meet really an extension of us?” and if I encounter someone who has an idea that I find worth hearing, isn’t that mine to hear for a good reason? I started to see that as a kind of secret source of gold. It doesn’t mean always accepting ideas and criticism to the point of changing things – but rather my story here is to illustrate my path from the wish to make art that everyone likes – to learning that didn’t happen – and so what can I learn from the ones who don’t? I found I can learn a lot.
Sometimes I find this to be a controversial topic when it comes to art. Of course, people often know art to be the singular vision of one – and I am very much an individualist, completely in favor of non-conformity and the idea that each of us should chart our own unique course. I believe individualism is absolutely necessary, and at the same time I feel there really is a oneness and that the people around each of us – with the good or bad news – are all there for a reason.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
There are so many things, of course, but I would say the largest overriding aspect would likely be the mystery – not always knowing what comes next. Being an artist, likely just as in many other pursuits, is filled with dichotomies, and this was another thing I struggled with early on. Artists are often taught that they need to know the “why” of their work, the meaning behind it … and to be able to convey this clearly in an artist statement. I’ve been more on the side of mystery. I tend to enjoy – in mine and others’ work – much more elusiveness that leaves great fragments of the story to the imaginations of people.
Today, I have a greater understanding about the value of both approaches and yet I think the more we learn and know about what we’re doing – the further along we are on the path to ending one thing and beginning another – because at least for me personally – at the point when I can explain some creative pursuit quite clearly in words, I may be very close to finished with it and need to seek out a new mystery to pursue.
I find that it’s what is not known – and what can be felt but not explained – to be the most rewarding aspect of making art.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://geoffmitchellstudio.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geoff.mitchell.studio/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/geoffmitchellstudio
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@geoffmitchellstudio
- Other: Visit Museum of Make Believe at : https://www.museumofmakebelieve.org/ Listen to “Strange Secrets of Starlight Park” here : https://www.museumofmakebelieve.org/starlightparkradio