The Creative Pulse podcast

Summer is officially here once again! As is tradition at this time of year, host Angela de Burger has something to ask you - yes you! - it’s a classic Creative Pulse podcast question: What is your tip for starting up, or keeping up, the creative energy in your life? To share a tip, you can send a message or tag @creativepulsepodcast on Instagram  or, record a short voicemail from your phone or com...

Sarah Head is a professional silhouette artist, cutting one-of-a-kind silhouette portraits freehand using nothing more than scissors and paper. She’s self-trained and has been creating these incredibly detailed profile portraits for over 25 years. Sarah is often handcutting portraits at live events, getting all of the details just right and then handing the special keepsake to the person. She shar...

Lesley Luce is a collage artist whose large-scale circular works are created from thousands of hand-placed paper fragments arranged in precise concentric circle compositions. She wants people to be captivated by her art from afar and intrigued up close, rewarding those who are curious. Lesley says she’s a late-blooming artist and her artistic practice reflects a perspective shaped by time, lived e...

Katie Gates is a fibre artist who made a creative playground for herself by establishing Oddkin Studio where she creates delightfully odd, handmade scrap monsters from repurposed textiles. Inspired by the constraints of scavenged materials, resourcefulness and a love for the slightly strange, Katie creates each piece thoughtfully by hand, intuitively allowing the materials to guide the direction o...

Eline De Groot-Hoskens and Domien De Groot are a married creative team and the founders of Audio Epics, an award-winning production company that creates dramatized audiobooks. They not only develop the storylines and write all the words, they also manage the creation of all the aspects of the audio books, including voicing characters and incorporating beautifully composed original music and a rich...

Crystal Larocque is a visual and textile artist who never shies away from exploring new ways to express her creativity. She rediscovered a childhood passion for sewing and embroidery in her 30s and that reconnection to sewing has grown into a deeper exploration of textiles, materials and storytelling. At the core, her work is about making something meaningful, keeping craftsmanship alive, and crea...

Jessie James is the founder, maker and designer of Studio Tuft, where she hand tufts rugs. Taking cues from mid-century design, she designs free-form, colourful patterns that become three-dimensional, functional pieces of textile art. Jessie uses specially chosen yarn for each of her pieces, rescuing deadstock to ensure it won’t be wasted. Each of her rugs is handmade and hand finished, resulting...

Heidi Pitre is an illustrator and painter who says she’s here to tell you a story, but only part of it. She likes to leave a viewer hanging at the precise moment something extraordinary is about to happen so they can complete the story with their own ideas. Heidi grew up in New Orleans and says her paintings examine the South and its people in all their peculiar wonder. Heidi’s series, A Permanent...

Adam McNamara is a self-taught wood sculptor who's known for his innovative approach to wood carving, drawing inspiration from the natural world and modern design elements. He is able to create realistic detail in his pieces, accurately reflecting local ecosystems and the hidden treasures found within them. Adam was inspired to explore wood carving only a few years ago, when a neighbour gifte...

Adelynn Torchia creates hand-drawn stop motion animations that surprise and delight, not only because of how fantastic they are, but because of how she makes them. She has developed her own method for using a single page to draw, erase and re-draw the many, many stages of movement required to make an entertaining stop motion animation. In addition to making her own artworks, she’s also an art teac...

Beck Rivera makes folded book art, folding paper in such a precise way that an image emerges from within a book’s pages. Each book is hand made and completely unique. He’s created books that showcase images such as the Mona Lisa, William Shakespeare, a night sky over mountains, a bee, a whale, a tennis racquet and ball, chess pieces, a sailboat, and more. He also makes custom designs, patterns, tu...

Hannah Austin is a kinusaiga and fabric collage embroidery artist who specializes in landscapes. She finds inspiration in nature and she stitches to feel a connection with her ancestors and her community. Hannah developed her skills in hand sewing and embroidery through her grandmother, who was an avid maker herself. Kinusaiga is a Japanese art form, founded and created by Setsu Maeno, that uses p...

Hello friends! I’m your host Angela de Burger, and today I want to take the opportunity to look back on a great year of creativity-filled conversations as well as look forward to a new year of creative exploration. I also want to ask you the question I pose to guests on every episode: What are your tips for starting up, or keeping up, the creative energy in your life? To share a tip, you can: reco...

Lara Kluczynski is a self-taught multimedia artist who hand sculpts whimsical, wearable hats and headpieces that blend fashion and sculpture. She combines decorative frieze-style elements with fantastical animals, balancing tradition and kitsch in her creations. Lara explores innovative materials and techniques in her pieces, probing the boundaries between different art forms. Her style is theatri...

Amanda Witucki is living her dream after finding artistic inspiration through the medium of paper, making origami-based paper sculptures. She uses origami folding techniques and specially chosen thick paper to create paper “paintings”, experiential works and site-specific art installations. In her artworks, Amanda combines precision and repetition with whimsy and colour. She’s also the creative mi...

Laura June Ness is a Canadian dancer, actor, aerialist and singer who decided to make a big leap and chase her dream of performing in a West End show in London. And she made her dream come true! Laura is now a cast member of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and recently made her debut performance in London’s West End. She’s sharing this creative adventure with her growing social media community,...

Nadja Nikko is a prop maker who dreamed of making props for the film industry and she’s made her dream come true! After being inspired by the prop makers from the Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones and Harry Potter series, she’s now making props for lots of productions, including Hollywood films. Nadja regularly shares behind-the-scenes insights into the world of prop making, techniques and materi...

Kelly Lyles infuses creativity into every part of her life. She’s designed five art cars, organizes an annual art car festival and is a fine art painter specializing in portraits. Kelly is also an artistic community builder, attending openings and events most days of the week and supporting her wide network of creative friends in every way possible. Her art cars are vividly decorated and have crea...

Rachael Harms Mahlandt is passionate about creating Sidewalk Joy - adding bright spots of whimsy to her city through creative art installations. Sidewalk Joy spots are free, curated public galleries, exchanges and displays, often installed in front yards, along a sidewalk fence, or on the side of a building. Her first project was creating a dinosaur-themed diorama (a ‘Dinorama’), which then led to...

John Avilla joined his family’s band at only 8 years of age and the experience ignited a lifelong passion for music. Building on his expertise in branding and marketing for global companies, he is now a co-founder of Sound Union, a first-of-its-kind social club and creative studio in Redwood City, California. The space welcomes people who make music a central part of their lives—not necessarily as...

David Gilliver is multi-talented, sharing his creativity as a light painter and miniature artist. His works are both entertaining and thought-provoking in both their composition and subject matter. To create light paintings, he uses long-exposure photography techniques under the darkness of night. And his ‘Little People’ and ‘Toys’ macro photography series depict captivating scenes using miniature...

Hello friends! I’m your host Angela de Burger, and incredibly, once again summer is here, which means that instead of welcoming a guest on this episode, it’s time for me to pose a classic Creative Pulse question to you: What are your tips for starting up, or keeping up, the creative energy in your life? To share a tip, you can: - record a short voicemail from your phone or computer at speakpipe.co...

Tri Le is a pen and ink artist who weaves imagination into his art, creating light within an illogical world. His work often leans toward surrealism, intertwining both traditional and contemporary elements. Tri’s pieces often explore the perpetual conflict between opposing forces: love and hatred, pleasure and displeasure, past and present. He seeks to capture the tension and harmony between these...

Kasia Muzyka is an intuitive artist and seeker of the sacred threads that weave life’s visible and invisible dimensions. She paints with coffee, wine and natural pigments to make the unseen visible and says her works are portals - expressions of remembrance, healing and communion with the heart. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally and her most recent exhibition, in New York,...

Alexandria Masse works with textiles and fibres to construct wearable art and soft sculptures. She is fascinated by how a material can be manipulated and uses sewing, knitting and crochet to make both functional and fine art creations. Alexandria’s works have been shown in two solo exhibitions as well as many group exhibitions all over Canada as well as in the United States, Portugal and Iceland,...