Everyday Creative People

“Being stuck is an important part of the creative process – every great creative advance has been preceded by being stuck. And it’s staying with that, and then suddenly you see it differently. You discover that… there are different forces at play here than what I thought, and there are different barriers, and some of the […]

This week I got to interview a dear friend and a true renaissance soul, Kristin Richardson Jordan, about her work as a social justice poet and in particular her most recent book of poetry, Water and Light: Choose Love Now. Kristin is a book printing poet, writer, teaching artist, whose work is driven by an […]

Kofi Oduro is a creative coder, creative engineer, thinker, poet, and performer living in Montreal, Quebec (my new hometown!). In this week’s episode, we take a dive into computer science and finding creative fulfillment when you’re also a math geek. Kofi fills me in on the intersections of live coding, video, AI, spoken word poetry, […]

Ben Falcon paints custom bicycles, motorcycles, and more. Having felt constrained by the opportunities available to him as an architecture student, Ben sought out something that would enable him to do more hands-on work. He found it in custom painting. In this week’s episode, Ben and I discuss how he stumbled upon this niche career, […]

This week I caught up with Vessna Scheff, an emotive, abstract painter and musician living in Philadelphia. Vessna has the attitude of a perpetual student, and has jumped into her creative pursuits more than once with little to no formal training! In this episode, Vessna shares her incredible journey to becoming a working artist, and […]

This week I chatted with artist, educator, consultant and coach Stephanie Simpson about the interplay between stress and creativity, and how to nourish and draw on the power of our full human selves. Drawing on her background in movement, meditation, and psychology, Stephanie guides people to achieve their greatest potential by nurturing the connection between […]

“Leaning into a beginners mindset is really helpful for me. I have some [internal] stories that I need to be great at everything, and a lot of times that keeps me from leaning into creativity where I can just be curious about what I’m capable of. Not only in seeing what that first version is […]

Heather Kirtland and Marissa Huber are two artists and mothers, who happen to be the dynamic duo behind the Instagram community Carve Out Time for Art and blog by the same name (COTFA for short). The goal of COTFA is to cultivate a positive and nurturing community for creatives who want to find time to […]

“I never thought of myself as being creative. But at a certain point I needed to tell stories out loud on stage. And part of that was because some of the social justice work I was doing, I felt people needed to change something more than their logic about things. You know, racism is illogical, […]

“I’ve worked with kids all my life, but when I became a mother myself, I realized how babies, that’s the first thing they do before they even talk, you know, they just play and tinker. And that’s how they understand the world and how they learn. And then as, we grow older, play is our […]

Steve Lucin is a creative entrepreneur who helps passionate visionaries bring in more cash to their businesses through creativity. Lucin pulls his technical design, motion graphics, and entrepreneurial skills from running his own entertainment and nightlife creative business, Halucinated Design, Inc. He was the VRFX supervisor at Michael Bay’s 451 Media, where he oversaw the […]

Katie Visco, who has been called a “bubbly and offbeat running, biking, soup-making, people-loving, community-building exclamation mark,” loves peoples’ stories, healthy and delicious food, traveling, and human-powered adventures. In 2009, promoting the importance of a bold and passion-driven life, Katie ran solo across America, from Boston to San Diego, and became the 2nd youngest and 13th […]

“I believe that as we’re being creative, sometimes we really have to practice creativity, as opposed to wait for creativity. And I found that that’s such a powerful practice for me when I’m working with young people, because part of my job is to hear terrible things all the time. And to make those things […]

“Creativity goes hand in hand with emotional intelligence. The more self aware we are, the more we practice self awareness and empathy and all these things, the more we’re able to be resilient, the more we’re able to unleash that creativity inside of us. A lot of times in our workshops, we get people that say, oh, […]

At long last, Everyday Creative People has returned for a second season! Here’s my brief introduction to set the stage for what’s to come. Stay tuned for the first interview, coming next Monday!

“I literally spend hours just staring at my glasswork or my worktable, and think: ‘Ok I’m gonna give it up.’ And then my husband always says, ‘Just go down there and work, go and try this, get in there and immerse yourself.’ You know, I struggle all the time. That’s part of it: it’s pain […]

“The more that I show up for myself and therefore am able to show up for others, it just, gets me into my purpose, and why I’m here. I think that when we do that, we’re able to feel more joy, and when we feel more joy, we’re able to reap the benefits of that […]

Alexandra Zsigmond spent 7 years doing art direction for the New York Times’ Opinion section before deciding to refocus her energy on personal creative pursuits. In this week’s conversation we chat about her “dream job” as an Art Director and her current process of creative recovery. Alexandra is an award-winning art director and visual thinker […]

“I am of an immigrant family. So this is what we were taught: ‘This is, you know, America is the land of opportunity, and this is what you must do in order to become successful.’ So, if this is what has been taught to each one of us, then me pursuing art was something very […]

“The idea that the arts need to be something separate from your socially engaged life, or your community-based life, its really been created by institutions and it isn’t true. Every community… has been using the arts and creativity to thrive, since forever.” Rebecca Kelly-Golfman is a facilitator, entrepreneur, theatre artist, and activist. She has spent […]