Episodes

Melissa Helene Mason is obsessed with details. She is a full-time scratchboard artist creating black and white, photo-realistic scratchboard wildlife portraits influenced by wild and endangered species from across the world. Melissa is also the founder of Color-Coded Creatives, where she empowers a…

Caroline Storie, lover of polka dots and stripes, is a Brit living the Canadian life on Vancouver Island. Caroline makes stitched pictures using textiles and collage, adding phrases and words to create playful and relatable art works. During our conversation Caroline shares her obsession with havin…

Rachel Ho is an extroverted ceramist from Northern Ireland living in England who has learned to embrace the solitary life of an artist. Her projects explore aspects of the human condition, particularly, grief, loss, healing and renewal. All of her pieces have a sense of mystery and beauty to them. …

Sandi Hester is a painter who shares her unapologetic, creative, messy wholehearted life on her YouTube channel, Bits of An Artist’s Life. During our conversation, Sandi got me fired up about creativity, talking back to that destructive self-talk, and making friends with this hot mess of a fantasti…

Jo Payne lives on the North Devon coast in the UK surrounded by spectacular beaches, huge skies, and glorious coastal scenery. She is deeply moved by the coastal landscape, the effects from the rhythm of the sea and tides, and the differences in light from the constantly changing skies above. Jo sh…

Sue Asbury grew up in Liverpool and now lives at the edge of the Peak District. Abstract works are built up over many layers and often incorporate collaged elements, while figurative works include local landscapes, with an interest in the everyday and the passing of time. Music and journeys play a …

Suzy Sharpe’s practice includes painting, drawing, printmaking and sculpture of landscape, wildlife, and animals with a contemporary twist. She lives in rural west Cornwall, UK, where a variety of non human animals, including livestock, pets and wildlife punctuate her days and inspire her work. Suz…

Emma Freeman works in many mediums including fibers, textiles, collage, book making, cyanotype, and drawing. Her art practice is experimental, playful and tactile. Emma is a highly sensitive person who feels deeply connected to animals, nature, textures and colors. During our conversation, Emma sha…

Molly Meng is a force for good - she’s an artist, teacher, collector, and storyteller. Molly is heavily influenced by a scrap of paper, a single word, ​opera, rap, theremins, the thick cotton of an old book page, random sentences, and an overheard statement. Molly exudes optimism and curiosity, and…

Julie VonDerVellen is a Professor of design at Carroll College and paper artist who designs and creates paper clothes, shoes, timepieces, school supplies and 2D weavings from 1/8” strips of mulberry paper. Julie talks about the similarities between cooking shows and a studio practice and how they b…

Documentary filmmaker Laj Waghray’s keen observation and deep listening skills are evident in her films. She produced and directed Sleepovers, and On Hands, is currently working on Searching for Sparrows and just released the short film, Together Alone. During our conversation we discuss Post-it n…

How do you keep showing up when your insecurities live large? Krissy Stewart forces herself to go to the studio and just sketch or paint and not worry about the results.Get inspired by our conversation as Krissy talks about saying yes, freedom and constraints, cowboy boots, glass tables, and the ma…

Stephanie Huellmann, a self-taught artist from Germany, takes natural materials and found objects and sews them on by hand for her assemblage and mixed media works. Stephanie shares how she gets unstuck, her deep connection to the environment, and how she engages so deeply and finds that flow state…

Tracey Downing is a painter, printmaker, mixed media artist, art psychotherapist and poet. Tracey’s work is mostly abstract, informed by observation, thought, memory, found and ready-made objects. Tracey tells us about her vibrant artist communities, taking chances, and her passion for cold water s…

How do you get past the self-doubt and remain passionate and engaged? Get ready to be uplifted as Carrie talks about her passion for family, friends, food and travel. Her soul is in her house: her studio, her girls, the kitchen, art, and books. Her full life – which doesn’t come without sacrifice, …

Linda Marcus is a multidisciplinary artist embracing the traditional focus on fluidity and tactility using less traditional materials in her work. This back-and-forth between new and old, expected and unexpected, results in a distinct body of work that is distinctly fiber-based. We talk about curio…

Vicky Lentz is a contemporary mixed-media visual artist from the northwest region of New Brunswick, whose home and studio are located in a secluded maple forest. Her daily life unfolds in a direct interaction with the living environment. Vicky shares her thoughts on different types of walks, the p…

Natalie Ergas is the creator, sole ceowoman, artist, and educator of Native Essence Art. She creates portrait collages that represent fragmented memories, experiences and places that capture the essence of a persons or pet. During our conversation we talk about collecting, curating, thrifting, lang…

Aaron Boyd has illustrated over 40 children’s books working mostly in old school watercolor. Aaron talks about the challenge of maintaining internal honesty and says that so often our fear pushes us away from our internal voice and toward security and that his greatest successes in life have been w…

Nick Petrie spends his time crafting great sentences for his Peter Ash crime fiction series. His first novel, The Drifter, was nominated for six awards. Nick talks about those pesky internal voices, the rules he sets, and the tricks he employs to keep showing up to do the work.

Jennifer Pazienza is an oil painter living in New Brunswick Canada who uses landscape imagery to explore personal myths and histories, to heal the physic havoc wrought by childhood loss and to celebrate the life she now has. Jenn talks about the poetics of place, the fluidity of time, trampolines a…

Megan Woodard Johnson builds up dense layers of different materials, including acrylic paint, oil pastels, graphite, charcoal, vintage papers, colored papers, and whatever else is within reach. Megan explores memories and personal histories and transforms these experiences into the hidden layers o…

Abigail Bowen is an artist living in Brighton, UK who paints at ‘The Edge of The Rainbow’. The term comes from Donna Tartt’s novel, The Goldfinch as she describes a space that sits just beyond reality, where all beauty, magic and art exists. Our conversation covers loss, road races, and dogs, and …

Jes Zange is inspired by colors and textures found in nature and uses yarn to create unique textured fiber paintings. She lets the days energy and emotions guide her work, and chooses materials based on her mood. The results are awe-inspiring! We talk about kindness, living slowly and simply, and …