Interview with Marney Makridakis

In September, 2002, I had the idea to start a magazine for artists and writers. That's where it began.

We have expanded our team so that we now have 10 wonderful people working with us. We've topped over 1,000 products sold on the site. The line of eProducts I've created are expanding and are joyfully profitable, and what's even more rewarding is that Artella is now selling products created by those who have learned about the process of creating eProducts from my "Create Your Own YOUniversity" e-course and other products....Traffic continues to grow. We've been winning awards (including two years on Writer's Digest's 100 Best Web Sites for Writers List), been featured in books, and I've been publishing articles in leading magazines. I'm also writing a book about starting creative businesses.

I'm enlivened and excited by the opportunity, daily, to create my own set of rules and conditions through which I can create and live...I've gotten to a point in my life where I feel confident doing so...I don't feel hindered by rules of culture.

I hit the point of rock bottom in my own life. I'm Bi-Polar...{found out} about 10 years ago - after not being diagnosed for many years.

When {I was} at rock bottom I wanted everything to be over. There was so much pain that I wanted to die. I saw how dark things could get...

When I worked through that, I wanted to get better...I worked through such darkness and depression; such turmoil...and then saw that I could tap into that ability - creating my own reality - that I could create using powers of good.

...not fitting in through childhood and adolescence. I was a great student, but socially pretty awful. I didn't fit in until high school, when I went to a performing arts high school.

I was always fiercely creative.

The hardest was pre-Artella - pre being comfortable creating my own reality. {Especially} when people would ask: "What do you do?"

My last "real" job before Artella I worked for the educational department of a professional symphony orchestra...lots of social events. I never felt more Square-Peg in my life.

I was exploring my artistic side, doing craft fairs, designing and selling greeting cards - finding "my wings". As I would talk about those things with people I felt judgement - about who I was - not good enough - not appropriate.

For a couple years I felt like the best I could do was try to conform. I wanted to live - to not be Square-Peg - to be boring, straight-laced, where I "belonged". This was after I worked through my mental illness.

Then my husband came to the rescue. He said: "That's not you - there are ways to take all of that for good" - and I kept what was good and pure about my creativity.

It was scary - the power of coming into Square-Pegness...what I had allowed in treatment and recovery was to get shy and quiet. I had real self-esteem issues and was heavily medicated.

It took a long time...to not throw away the baby with the bathwater. I found I could be more confident - could be me and safe - being me didn't have to be being "sick".

Now I feel lucky. I don't have to interface with the round-hole world, but there were plenty of times.

Now I have an elevator speech that sounds somewhat "mainstream".

If you don't have the confidence to create your own rules you can feel - I have felt - the scrutiny of other people in social situations.

Now I surround myself with people who affirm Square-Pegness. The internet is great for that - Square-Peg people are just a moment away. That means I don't have to...have my Square-Pegness crushed.

Inventiveness - thinking things people wouldn't ordinarily think. This goes back to seeing myself as a Square-Peg. I create my own rules - I've done it in business over and over.

Alot of business decisions {I've made are} not linear - more often intuitive. The whole decision and business plan of the company can be related to a dream I had. This related to my strategy: go from the heart - gut.

It's a different approach, and has very little to do with outside in the round-hole world - like business trajectories, etc. I do not follow any business book.

When I want to do something I am tireless in figuring out a way to do it.

Even as a kid I had tremendous follow-through. Before Kindergarten, when I first wanted to write stories,(my mom had taught me to write and sound out words) I couldn't mechanically keep up with the writing...I was sad and crying.

...my Dad had the idea that I could type the letters and brought home a typewriter from the university.

I learned to type and sat there as a 4-5-6 year old girl for hours. There are boxes and boxes of these {stories}. My Mom can read them - they are in "Marney language"... no punctuation - no spaces between words - one word after another.

I saw the evidence of all of this recently at my parents' home - boxes of records -

In my childhood...for 2 years - maybe 3rd or 4th grade...I "ran" a boarding school - the Alphon Moyar Boarding School - {did} all administration for it.

...{there still are} medical, emotional - hundreds of health records of girls...

{There were} applications - entrance exams - which I took for each girl... When making them I had to make them be too hard for me...I took tests for 100's of kids, then would go back and grade them.

I knew what each kid looked like, who their siblings were...{made} lesson plans for all classes, {planned} field trips... would go through magazines...cut out pictures - make spreads - books of decorating for parlors, drawing rooms and dorm rooms.

I sent for pamphlets from American Airlines - and had {pretend, but set up from actual airline information} reservations for trips home at holidays and summer...

...a friend who did this with me for awhile, but she burned out.

My favorite “Square-Peg” book that is new on the shelves is The Creative License, by Danny Gregory. It gives you permission and superlative tools for being creative and out of the ordinary in such a comprehensive way. I just got to interview him for the upcoming issue of e-Artella. He’s fantastic.

I guess I have to say that Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman is my #1 favorite book. It’s a series of little stories that are fictionalized versions of Einstein’s theories of time, and they are just so beautiful.

It’s probably no surprise that my very favorite genre is books that combine words and art in utterly fascinating ways, so I love books by Nick Bantock, Barbara Hodgson, G. Garfield Crimmins, Danny Gregory.

So many non-fiction books have been important to me. If I had to name one book that has influenced me the most as a Square-Peg, I’d say it would be Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I got to attend a workshop of hers a few months ago (I landed there by pure synchronicity, actually, but I was obviously meant to be there) and it was so meaningful to connect with her in person.