079 - Why Making Beautiful Things Takes Courage with Michele Quigley

Michele Quigley makes the costume by hand, builds the set, lights it, and then photographs it. The result looks like an oil painting that has been hanging somewhere for two hundred years. Michele is an international award winning portrait and fine art photographer, a historical costumer, a speaker and an educator, based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Her big project is the 1790s Series, a fine art series celebrating the elegance and diversity of women's dress in the 1790s, built as a tribute to the portraitists of the era. She does not put the awards on her homepage. She puts four words there instead: BEAUTY WILL SAVE THE WORLD. We get into what that actually means to her, because she means it. She has written that for the painters working through plague and war and upheaval, beauty was not their escape from history, it was their answer to it. She has also gone and found the strongest objection to her own philosophy, that much of the historical beauty she loves was paid for by exploitation, and worked out what she thinks about it. She describes what she does now as a democratization: giving an ordinary woman the same reverential gaze that used to be reserved for the wealthy, and watching her recognize herself. We also get into the slow studio, and what it costs to work at the pace of 1790 in an economy that pays for volume. Why the 1790s and not any other decade. What a painter knew about a face that cameras don’t. Doing eighteenth century work in the year the country turns 250. Building a second life after leaving an entire first one behind. And the turn she is making right now, away from client work and toward teaching, with the YouTube channel. FIND MICHELE Website: https://michelequigley.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michelequigley/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MicheleQ/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MicheleQuigley Generator Live is a show for working creatives who are building something and want to talk about what that actually looks like. No highlight reel. No tactics dressed up as wisdom. Just honest conversation about the doubt, the financial reality, the isolation, and the question every creative eventually asks themselves: is this worth it? Some weeks we talk about the business side of creative work. Some weeks I just think out loud about whatever is on my mind, and you get to be there for it. Come hang in the chat. This is a conversation, not a broadcast. Connect with Generator Website: https://generatorpodcast.com Instagram / YouTube / Podcast: @generatorpodcast Speak Less, Get More - My book on interview skills for podcast hosts, built around the PODS Framework. Ebook: https://www.amazon.com/Speak-Less-Get-More-Conversations-ebook/dp/B0GX3CLQX5/ Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Speak-Less-Get-More-Conversations/dp/B0GY2P2GRT/ Hardcover: https://www.amazon.com/Speak-Less-Get-More-Conversations/dp/B0GY2Z8GPL/ Getting Good at Claude - My setup system that gets Claude working the way you work, so it sounds like you and saves you hours. Get it here: https://payhip.com/b/syOPk Tools I Use and Recommend Ecamm - What I use to live stream, record my video, and conduct interviews (Mac only) https://www.ecamm.com/mac/ecammlive/?fp\_ref=generator Captivate.fm - The software I use to publish every audio episode and distribute it everywhere https://www.captivate.fm/signup?ref=yjuymdqo 17Hats - Get 50% off your first year of the best CRM for entrepreneurs https://referrals.17hats.com/card/stonetree BorisFX CrumplePop - Clean up audio faster than ever before https://borisfx.com/?a\_aid=68bb347aa27d1 Cloudways - Solid, affordable hosting for my WordPress websites https://vrlps.co/f83e6os/cp Pixieset - Get $20 off my favorite way to show clients their galleries https://pixieset.com/ref/djDARTY4pa WisprFlow - My typing gets slow, so being able to dictate anything in any app makes life a lot easier https://wisprflow.ai/r?MATT1716 Fourthwall - A great selection of drop-shipped branded products https://link.fourthwall.com/join/generator HARDWARE My Entire Studio Setup - This is an ongoing list of all the equipment I use in my home studio https://www.amazon.com/shop/stonetreecreative/list/UI27EORM80W1?ref\_=cm\_sw\_r\_cp\_ud\_aipsflist\_91ERYXJ9ZAQ1E4C0Q1VT Some links above are affiliate links that may pay me a commission at no cost to you. I only recommend things I actually use.