Creative Genius

There are so many things to love about Emily Jeffords, not least of which is how she tried to start off this episode by asking me the questions. I loved it.  Emily is one of the most gently confident people I have ever met. She's poised, thoughtful &  generous. And her clarity - Emily is SO clear.  Throughout the episode, she gives us examples of how clarity has been one of the most important elem...

Anxiety and stress had taken over her life. At the urging of her therapist, Author Sheila Darcey turned to creativity as a way to express trapped emotions her therapist believed were at the root of her anxiety. Through daily practice of sketching, she was able to gain significant insights into the inner workings of her own subconscious and unconscious mind and ultimately free herself from the “out...

Artist and Moon Cycle Coach Beth Suter shares with us how reconnecting with creativity and working with Moon Cycles have been instrumental for her in healing the depression and anxiety she has lived with since college. This conversation underlines just how badly things can go when we cut ourselves off from creativity, and how we can find our way back to ourselves.  She shares with us how she guide...

In this episode, we discuss the importance of playfulness, discernment & collaboration inside creativity, how we are all worthy of blooming creatively, and why we do not need to fear collaboration when it comes to creativity.  Artist and two-time author Jules Ostara grew up on what she calls a “hippie farm in West Virginia” and still ended up becoming a (self-proclaimed) “recovering valedictorian”...

This episode feels important with a capital I. I sit down with Sarah Dalesandro, an artist who has been painting for over 20 years with a background in graphic design and art therapy. And it is the art therapy that I really wanted to dig into with her in this episode.  I'd heard about art therapy over the years, I had even gone to a few sessions myself, but I hadn’t understood the mechanism of it,...

In this episode we sit down with California artist Andrea Garvey. A beautiful, joyful, effervescent soul who’s positivity is not only contagious, but is completely infused in every single piece of her heart-stoppingly beautiful work. Hers is the kind of art that makes your soul smile.  In this episode she shares the incredible story of the painting that came to her in a life-changing dream, after...

“If you don’t believe in yourself, prove yourself wrong”  - Pamela Bates After 23 years of her creativity getting lost in client expectations working in PR and doing too much to take care of others and not enough to take care of herself in her personal life, Pamela found herself utterly burned out. That is when her sister took her on a restorative weekend trip to Boston where the two of them visit...

“Accept and love yourself, it’s the start of everything good”    Jane believes that “One way or another, every single decision we make has the opportunity to be driven by the creative impulse” and she reminds us that we all came into this life with curiosity and creativity and if we feel we have lost connection with it, we can certainly find it again. Her work with her Creative Strength Training B...

"When we feel creative, we feel in charge of our lives.”    At 22, Jane found herself in tears in the shower of her college dorm of divinity school, unfulfilled and unhappy feeling that she had to pursue other people's vision for her life. This was the beginning of her starting to realize that she could choose her own life  Looking inwards we can find what we really want and art can help us be bra...

“Being good at creating art is not your gift, your LOVE of creating is.”    When Wendy McWilliams was 49 years old, she felt like she needed a hobby. What started as a search for a simple past-time hobby, quickly evolved into her life’s passion - a thriving art career her work sought after for private collections around the globe. After working through 22 different jobs including for Calvin Klein...

“If more folks recognized their creativity, no matter how small they think it is, it will bring more happiness to them.” -Betty Franks At 50, Betty Franks made a bold transition from a lifelong career in customer service management, to becoming an internationally celebrated abstract artist whose work can be found in private collections all over the world. And it all started with a wish and an inte...

“The rational mind is the home of bad painting.” Anong Beam is an accomplished artist and founder of Beam Paints, truly gorgeous handmade watercolours. Her father, Carl Beam, one of her great teachers, is an award-winning artist and the first Indigenous artist to have their work purchased by the National Gallery of Canada as Contemporary Art. Anong’s work has been featured in multiple solo exhibit...

In the first episode of Creative Genius, we sit down with Amanda Evanston to hear about her own journey of cultivating creativity. She recently launched Insider’s Studio, an online community where she teaches art classes, gives weekly talks, and stewards a supportive, nurturing community focused on painting and creativity.  Seriously pursuing your creative passion is a big move. Often our biggest...

Coming Soon: Creative Genius - A podcast about finding & embracing true creativity through the magic of listening to your own heart Kate Shepherd: website | instagram | facebook