Vulnerability in life and art

Jenn Seniuk works as an art therapist in Calgary, Alberta. We talked not just about art therapy - working with a professionally trained therapist to use art as another language for accessing and processing our feelings and sensations - but also 'art as therapy,' which is about engaging in the process of making art for creative self-expression, in the in-between spaces, and calming the nervous syst...

Clementine Morrigan is a writer and literary punk who has published six books and made 1000s of zines by hand over the last 25 years. Clementine explores complex and challenging human experiences - including incest and other forms of trauma, polyamory, and queer sexuality - with passion and integrity, as a responsibility and a calling. We talked about the constructed nature of confessional writing...

Urban artist Fluke got his start with graffiti sketchbook sessions, sitting around a picnic table in the park, a community of kids drawing essais together. He has moved on to creating and leading the production of art murals in Canada, the US, France, Hong Kong, and New Zealand. Fluke talks about the challenge of toning down his work and communicating core ideas more simply, what it means to him t...

Jaime Hjelm is a custom automotive expert and shop boss in the Netflix reality series TexMex Motors. She is also co-owner, with her sister, of Wicked Wrench, a car shop just outside Chicago. Jaime is a highly accomplished professional in a heavily male-dominated industry who knows car restoration is an art and she approaches it that way. Check out season 2 of TexMex Motors to watch how she designs...

Molly Roškar works with a constellation of objects, materials, and processes, from restoring heirloom cabinets to making natural dyes to whittling spoons, knives, and creatures, all within a core theme of tradition, sustainability, and great curiosity and care. Because I can get obsessed with details, we got into a bit of a conversation about shellac, which I now know is bug-processed resin. It ha...

Gabrielle Rae Travis, literary artist and editor-in-chief of the zine whet , talks about the power of community, camaraderie, and connection and the role played by vulnerability and uncomfortable conversations. I relate in many ways to what Gabrielle talks about, including the appreciation and joy of helping to foster the work - learning from wonderful artists who share their insights with us. As...

I had the opportunity to speak with Emma Krebs via an introduction through a friend (thanks Joy!). Emma is a freelance expert in producing content in the creator economy, including podcasts and youtube videos, and she is curious and open to learning not just from what comes her way but what she goes after. Originally inspired by the concept of minimalism, she has been traveling the world gaining i...

In spite of the fact that I took notes in preparation for this episode, there's more rambling than usual. All I can say in advance is that these are my reflections on having done 99 episodes to date, and planning for many more to come.  

Singer/songwriter (and spin instructor) Morgan Weinmeister and I talked about the kinds of music she likes to write and perform, her focus on lyrics, the nature of vulnerability, and the power of specificity to convey the deeper feelings, as people 'may not connect with the lyric, but they connect with what they know that lyric feels like.' And most importantly, that we should never feel like we n...

From sharing her experiences of academic mobbing to the ways in which she tries to create vulnerable (rather than safe) spaces for learning, professor of instructional design and technology Caroline Crawford is direct, engaged, and fully committed to the ongoing development and success of her student learners. To learn more about Caroline and her academic work, you can check out her faculty page o...

I had the pleasure of speaking with Craig Harrison - former British Army soldier, author, and Maverick Survival School course leader - not being quite sure how his story fit with the other conversations I've had over the past 3 and a half years. And he was a perfect fit. How he spoke about his life with PTSD, the importance of communicating and connecting with others, and the restorative power of...

Jason 'Blackbird' Selman is a spoken word artist, poet, and trumpet player. In this conversation, Jason shares his insights into the freedom of poetry, Carribean community and cultures, and what it means to be a good man out in the world. Who am I, where do I come from, what does that mean, can I afford to be vulnerable... We can return to these questions, over and over, throughout our lives and e...

Two aspects of this conversation with dramaturg Aki Matsushita stood out to me most. One was learning what the expansive field of dramaturgy is all about. As Aki says, it's an art practice that doesn't necessarily show itself to people outside the development process. The practitioners themselves don't even agree on how to pronounce it. My biggest takeaway was that the dramaturg can help answer th...

This is an episode about what it means to know your thread, if it's important to know what your thread is, and the relationships between who you are and what you do.

This is my conversation with David Gordon - artist, landscape designer, and owner of Bird Dog Arts Gallery in California's San Joaquin Valley. I probably should have edited out even more of our conversation about growing up in the 80s but David is sharp and insightful; I couldn't help it. Listen for David's insights into vulnerability, both for artists and also for people who buy art, people who t...

'Failure is a lesson...I won't take one failure as a complete failure.' That adaptability and openness to learning stood out to me during my conversation with Anna Wojcik, a fitness entrepreneur in continual development, always finding new ways to challenge herself and her clients (including me). She warns against remaining comfortable with what we know, encouraging us instead to break out of the...

Claire Hankey first began making collages as a young child. Today, inspired by her father's brushes and paints, she creates fragile, dreamy pieces, in veils of mixed media. Her work reflects early childhood memories - her family home and garden, her glamorous grandmother Evelyne. Reflections on the past also inspired her podcast series Where the Art Began . A poignant moment for me is when Claire...

This is an episode about feedback, reacting, and learning from what we hear from others.

As you listen to my conversation with gardener Andi Strachan, see if you can look under the covers at what a garden - as art, creation, growth, and development - might mean to you. Where do you see yourself and your work within this ongoing process of dynamic and ongoing setbacks and bursts; natural individual beauties that develop over hours, days, and years; design through light and colour; shar...

This episode, my conversation with collage artist Duane Toops, got me thinking. I got caught up in multiple dichotomoies - art versus craft, intuition versus analysis, conduit versus creator. And then, as Duane says, there's the quiet space between things, the unseen. Dichotomies set up false choices. What are you noticing? What's coming up for you, 'when this piece touches this piece?' You can le...

I enjoyed a quickening conversation with poet Rachel McCrum about interpreting the crafts of writing and painting, poetry as a space of ambiguity and uncertainty, and burnout. She shares this beautiful line from Inua Ellams - 'poetry is the cheapest way to be free.' And the podcast she references is The Blindboy Podcast by Limerick-born musician and author David Chambers, also known as Blindboy Bo...

Nola McConnan is unapologetically herself in the best ways, determined, self-reliant, and charmingly fierce. She has supported herself as an artist throughout her career, with mentorship and support, despite failing grade 13 French, and she turned a rec room into a room of her own. Please take note - when she talks about Sheilah, that is one of her older sisters. And due to timing, I wasn't able t...

This is an admittedly odd little episode about tribes, belonging, support, feedback, inspiration, and propaganda.

It was fun (and somewhat nerve-wracking) to speak with my drawing teacher Corina Kennedy about making art, being a magpie, taking risks, and the story behind a lovely piece of hers called Work Force/Wind Force. She reminds us of the importance of remembering what it's like to be a beginner and taking the chance to learn something new, allowing our work and ourselves to be seen.

I enjoyed a lovely conversation with Stefan Lorenzutti, poet and co-publisher who runs Bored Wolves with his wife Joanna. He shares stories about becoming a poet, inspired by Frederick the Mouse, sharing his work with friends after hours spent at the copy shop, moving to Poland and feeling isolated and alone until creating the growing community of poets, artists, and artist-poets whose work is now...