The Creative Push

Welcome back listeners, today on The Creative Push I have an exciting and unique episode in store. This Portu-Spain travel adventure series features 12 days of exploration through southern Spain and Portugal. In this series, I share my experience as I immerse myself in the rich culture, delicious food, amazing architecture, and interesting history as I explore beautiful towns and cities along the way.

In this episode, I visit the charming town of Valdepenas for a wine tasting and tour at the 200-year-old La Bodega Las Estrellas Winery. Then we have lunch at the downtown square called Plaza de España. Then it's off to the breathtaking city of Cordoba where we experience the history of the Mosque-Cathedral La Mezquita.

Later after a tour of the city and a wonderful dinner, we enjoy a wonderful light show at the enchanting Alcazar Palace of the Christian Kings.

From exploring an organic winery to immersing in the architectural wonders of La Mezquita, get ready to be transported to these fascinating destinations filled with history, beauty, and creative inspiration.

Sit back, relax, and join us as I unveil my incredible travel encounters and the creative endeavors they sparked. Let's dive into this captivating episode of The Creative Push!

TIMESTAMPS:

Welcome to The Creative Push podcast! This is my Portu-Spain travel adventure series featuring 12 days of exploration through southern Spain and Portugal. In this series, I share my experience as I immerse myself in the rich culture, delicious food, amazing architecture, and interesting history as I explore beautiful towns and cities along the way.

In this episode join me as I share my experiences, insights, and intrigue from the bustling streets of Madrid to the stunning Prado Art Museum and a taste of traditional Spanish cuisine at the oldest restaurant in the world. This episode is packed with adventure and artistic exploration. So sit back, relax, and let's dive into the first two days of my journey through this Portu-Spain adventure on traveling from Nashville, Tennessee to Madrid for days 1-2.

[00:00:22] Incredible travel experience sparks creative endeavors.

[00:04:12] Madrid: rich history, vibrant culture, renowned art.

[00:06:23] Limited time exploring the old city, Plaza Mayor.

[00:10:02] Dessert overload in Madrid, first travel day.

There is more on The Creative Push!

Welcome back to The Creative Push podcast! In today's episode, we dive into the world of musician Kurt Stevens. Kurt is a talented artist with a deep-rooted passion for music and a unique perspective on creativity.

Join us as we explore Kurt's journey, from his humble beginnings to his dreams of creating music that resonates with others. We'll discover how his love for music was sparked by a life-changing moment and how he channels his emotions into his songwriting.

Get ready to be inspired by Kurt's dedication to his craft and his unwavering pursuit of happiness through music. So grab your headphones and let's dive into the captivating world of Kurt Stevens on The Creative Push podcast!

[00:02:37] Florida State 2012-2016, successful band, career opportunity, moved

[00:05:39] Artists struggle with balancing social media promotion.

[00:08:55] Notebook of ideas, creative process, songwriting.

[00:11:05] Creative expression is personal and unique.

[00:14:49] Singer's emotional experience inspires a lifelong music career.

[00:21:12] Music, water, family, Florida. Connecting with people.

[00:23:50] Find what you love; creativity is competitive.

There is more on The Creative Push!

In this podcast, LEGO Master, Kerry Woo takes us through his creative life in music marketing, design, and photography. Kerry shares his life and work as he grows his love of LEGO. He offers insight into his craft sharing his influences, path, and experiences along the way. He offers information on how he was able to transition his creative talent into a LEGO career and what it has been like to be on LEGO Master's and to compete on the Fox LEGO Master's tv show. 

Watch the interview of Kerry here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6I3FBTr7Vo

You can read the blog here:

https://learnandcreate.com/lego-master-kerry-woo

You can see more of Kerry’s work here:

In this podcast Letterpress printer Nan Flynn shares her life and work as she grows her love of printing. She takes us through the process of using her 100-year-old printing press to create beautiful cards and other printed pieces.

Nan offers how she creates her art pieces, the valuable workshops she took, and her mentors who helped her along the way. She offers advice and tips to other artists interested in this old-school printing process.

Podcast Trailer

Welcome to The Creative Push, here artists, and makers of all kinds share tips, advice, knowledge, and inspiration that you can learn from each month! I am your host Sheri Oneal, founder of the Learn and Create platform helping creatives further their education in creativity, art, and business.

As a photographer and artist myself, I started this artist’s interview series to help motivate, inspire, and educate others. With each episode artists, photographers, musicians, writers, and other inspired experts share their personal stories. They talk about their struggles and technique and offer business advice to others searching for inspiration.

On this episode of The Creative Push, I dive into the topic of self-confidence and its importance for success as a freelancer. I discuss how having a positive attitude towards oneself and one's abilities can lead to greater happiness than external factors. I provide ideas on developing self-compassion, positive self-talk, and confidence as a way to succeed in business as a creative. The conversation touches on the negative effects of social media, how childhood experiences can affect our confidence, and the importance of treating oneself well. I share ten things you can do right now to help grow your confidence in how you talk to yourself.  Join me as I explore the fascinating topic of self-confidence and how it impacts our lives.

Show Note Timestamps:

[00:00:45] The text is about struggling with self-confidence, specifically in regard to being a perfectionist and comparing oneself to others. It emphasizes the importance of self-confidence for success in freelance work and offers tips for improving it based on the author's personal experience.

[00:01:37] The author struggled with bullies but learned to act tough. They struggle with personal self-confidence, especially in new areas like Vlogging and podcasting. Their confidence is based on their looks, sounds, and clothes, but they know that others are likely dealing with their own self-confidence issues.

[00:02:52] Confidence is crucial for success and happiness as it allows one to have a positive attitude towards oneself, leading to greater satisfaction in all aspects of life.

[00:04:06] Developing a positive mindset is essential and is developed in early childhood. However, one can change their negative confidence by feeding and nurturing a positive mindset over time with self-talk.

[00:05:10] Overcome negative self-talk and filter it out to stay on course, as it can derail you. Everyone struggles with it to some extent, but some people are better at dealing with it because of their experiences or upbringing. Enjoy the creative push podcast.

[00:06:00] Artist interviews need support. Self-compassion is important for personal and business success. Don't compare yourself to others.

[00:07:10] Stop comparing yourself to others and believe in your uniqueness to grow self-confidence. Don't compare yourself to the perfect moments of others on social media.

[00:07:56] Replace negative self-talk with positive words and bring humor into thinking. Laugh at oneself and take action with positive words.

[00:08:47] Change your negative story to boost confidence, be kinder to yourself, and surround yourself with positive people.

[00:11:01] Self-confidence enables focusing on strengths, accepting mistakes and discomfort, increasing resilience, motivation, authenticity, seeing value and worth, standing up for oneself, asking for fair compensation, speaking clearly and honestly with clients, and achieving personal growth.

Master printmaker Terrell Thornhill is an artist in Nashville doing what he loves. In this artist interview podcast for The Creative Puch, he shares his path from painter to a printmaker. He offers information on how he learned old-school methods of screen printing from the early 1900s combined with his painting techniques to craft beautiful prints on handmade paper. He talks about his 40-year path as a self-taught screen printer perfecting his unique style.  

Terrell discusses the difficult times he had along the way and why creativity is so important to him today. He shares the importance of social media as an artist, and how grateful he is to have a gallery representing him as an artist.  Terrell talks about his childhood, his early music career, and the reason he rejected a record deal, left the music industry, and decided to become a visual artist. He explains how he made his way to Nashville and why art is so important to him.

Terrell shares advice with other artists and showcases his own wisdom and the importance of making mistakes as an artist.  This intimate podcast interview showcases his career and his work over the years.  

Up-and-coming musician and songwriter Rafe Carlson shares his experience as an artist in this interview with The Creative Push (the Blog, Vlog, and Podcast from my learning platform Learn & Create).  He talks about growing up with a musical family and how that helped shape his musical path. He explains how he decided to focus on music as his primary career and what he did to market himself. 

Rafe explains his process of creating his music, his style of music, and his path to follow his passion despite the struggles he has faced.  He discusses how he combines his funky style of playing guitar with lyrics creating a melody first with his writing technique. 

Rafe explains the challenges he is facing today with marketing his music and building a social media presence.  He offers advice to others just starting and offers insight into his current Nashville project. He tells us what he sees in his future with his newest work as an artist. He performs his new song "Ride With Me" which he played at a recent private performance at "Bands At The Barn" in Nashville, Tennessee."  

Laurie Soileau is an artist, a life coach, and and author. In this artist interview, she shares her love of gardening, baking, art, and calligraphy. She discusses her life journey with art and her ability to use art to help her customers as a life coach. She talks about how her ability to live artfully is a direct result of the difficulties she has endured with ADHD.

In this interview, Laurie expresses her love of language, and communication and how she learned to do calligraphy from an early age. She offers some tips on her technique and her desire to help others. Her love of gardening and baking is also discussed and how those things keep her grounded. She tells how she deals with getting stuck when creating art and what inspires her as a creative. She offers a few tips on calligraphy and her aspirations with a book project she wrote called Your Life Creed.

Laurie shares her belief in the importance of being out in nature, getting quiet, and journaling her thoughts. That practice helps her with her art and with those she coaches in her practice. She addresses her struggle with ADHD and how that has made it difficult for her to communicate with others throughout her life. She offers how that intersected with art and her love of different forms of language such as vocabulary, music, words, dance, and self-expression. She shares how creativity has become a positive result of that experience and today is part of her own therapy.

Metal sculptor Valentine Adams talks about how he became an artist later in life due to PTSD. He shares how he started bending metal as a way to help with his PTSD after retiring from the military. In this interview, he explains his need to let go of the things he had to deal with after being at war and how that began his new career as a metal sculptor. His work is made by using old salvaged metal from junkyards, roadside dumps, scrap heaps, and other resources. Val explains how he repurposes metal into beautiful pieces of art.  

Val offers insight into how his work offers something new, shiny, and functional to the world and why that process brings him so much joy. He explains his process of combining braided and intertwined metal techniques to create texture in his work. He expresses how the isolation of his childhood growing up in rural Connecticut helped him to grow his imagination. That also plays into his success today as an artist.  

Val offers advice to other artists and shares what he believes is important to sustain a life as a creative in today's world. In this interview, his compassion and desire to give back comes through in how he lives his life as an artist.  

Michael Allison shares his journey as an artist in this interview with The Creative push. He talks about how the experiences of his childhood shaped his love of art and helped give him the tools to create his work. How he fell in love with glass and focused on that as his primary art of choice. Michael explains his process and the artist who inspired his work and passion to learn despite the struggles that come with becoming a successful artist. He shares the difficulties and the cost that is involved with working with glass and what inspires him to want to create beautiful work to share with others.

As one of the few glassblowers in the area, he explains the expenses of blowing glass and the physical struggles you have to face with making glass art. He offers how he markets his work, what he teaches in his classes, and where you can see his work in person. Also the difficulty of finding assistants and supplies. Michael shares his workflow and what he sees in his future with his work as an artist.

He is an artist who combines his experiences of working with metals, and wood and combining the elements of glass to create beautiful colorful works of art, Michael explains the challenges he faces along the way. He offers insight into his connection with water and how that carries over into his art. His positive attitude is showcased as he explains how much he loves teaching others how to blow glass in his studio located in Joelton, Tennessee.

In this podcast, I talk with Nashville watercolor artist Phil Ponder. His painted historical buildings, homes, mansions, schools, churches, lighthouses, and other public places have preserved historic architecture throughout the US as well as internationally. With more than 700 paintings under his belt despite becoming an artist after retirement, Phil has built a name for himself in Nashville over the years to the locals. 

Born in Florida, Phil shares what it was like growing up in the small town of Ocala. He talks about the artistic influence his mother Onie gave him and how she lived to be one of the oldest women in the world at 112 years old. He shares his career path and how a chance meeting at a frame shop changed the course of his career as an artist after retirement. He discusses his technique, his newest projects and offers advice to other artists starting out.

Phil also shares how successful his retail sales have been by selling prints, puzzles, and his newly released book. He also talks about his commissioned work.

In this artist interview podcast I talk with master woodcarver, painter, bronze artist and creator of authentic Pacific Northwest Indian masks Ken Means. Ken has been creating art for 60 years and is best known for his beautiful highly detailed carousel animals. In our interview he shares growing up in Los Angeles, California, his love of going to the carousel at Lincoln Park and the struggles he faced trying to make a living as an artist early in his career. 

Ken talks about how he worked at a billboard company painting signs which later led him paint backdrops and sets in Hollywood. He shares how he was able to begin teaching art at some of LA's best art colleges despite not having gone to college. Ken offers insight into how he taught himself how to draw, paint, and carve wood over the years and how those things eventually led to his opening up his own private wood carving school. 

As a master carver he tells the story of what sparked his life long journey to create his very own hand-crafted animal carousel. With only a few animals left, Ken talks about his plans to share his more than a decade long work with the public and what is next.  

If you would like to know more about Ken you can visit his website  

In this podcast, custom Harley builder John Archer of Dos Hombres Cycle shares his story of how he started building custom bikes and his love of motorcycles. He discusses his process of building bikes from scratch and explains what he has learned over the years as a motorcycle aficionado.

John talks about how his company started, his 30 years in business, the bikes he has built, and what he is working on now. He talks about his path of creativity, his motivation, and the inspiration that has led him to become the successful bike builder he is today. He also offers advice to paint and design elements for Harley’s custom builds.

John also showcases his personal projects custom building Hot Rods and where he wants to take his work in the future.

In this podcast, I share 6 goals to a better creative new year. As we ring in another new year many people tend to set goals or resolutions for their lives in hopes of improving areas they want to work on. I go through 6 of my favorite goals that always help me start off the new year with excitement and inspiration. As a freelance creative artist, I believe it is important to create structure in both my personal and business life to stay on track, find balance, grow and find joy in my life. I break down each of the 6 goals with both personal and business examples to help you plan out your own for the new year. The six goals I cover include finding fun, learning something new, improving health, spending & saving money, giving back, and networking.

If you are looking for a little boost of inspiration to get you on the right track creatively for the new year this podcast might help you to discover something new about yourself and what you can do to start off the year right. Take a listen and share with me what your goals are with each of these topics! If you are looking for more to inspire you I would love for you to check out some of my other creative sites below. 

In this podcast, I talk with data business consultant James Suh the man behind the brand new international food pop-up Taco Diplomacy. His love of simple flavors combined with his Korean heritage inspired him to share his recipes with others. Here James shares how the COVID lockdown gave him time to rethink how he was spending his time and what brought him happiness. He shares how his hobby baker wife, Karri Suh inspired this new food venture where they are joining their love of food into a possible restaurant venture.

In this podcast episode on The Creative Push, Australian pop artist and songwriter Carl Wockner shares his journey with his music, how he started using looping to be able to perform as a one-man show and what lies ahead in his future. He offers insight in this intimate and candid interview on how he writes his music and what inspires him as an artist. He shares the path to Nashville and his goals for growing his career performing house parties and private events. He offers how he uses complex live looping gear to create the sound illusion of an entire band performance. He offers insight into his desires as a songwriter, a musician, a husband, and a father. He offers insight as to how the Pandemic shifted his thinking and how his plans to grow his future.

Be sure to also listen to the BONUS podcast, where Carl plays a live show using his looping pedal set up performing a solo show of his own music in Nashville at the private monthly event, Bands In The Barn. You can read more about Carl in a recent article on The Creative Push, watch the video interview on YouTube. Enjoy, share, like, follow and leave us a comment!

In this BONUS podcast, Australian musician, looper, and singer-songwriter Carl Wockner plays in Nashville at a private monthly event called Bands In The Barn. Hosted by David Billings and Susan Whitaker, the event showcases talented local Nashville singer-songwriters and allows them to share their own music with a large private crowd at the barn. This event started in early 2021 and is intended to honor these very talented artists in support of their own music rather than the covers so many of them have to play around town to make a living.

This live podcast is the Bonus material from Carl Wockner's artist interview episode on The Creative Push. It opens with David Billings explaining how he decided to use an old hay barn to support local musicians and then lets Carl take over the stage performing original songs for over an hour. Carl moved to Nashville in 2016 with his wife and two kids to grow his musical career. He is an Australian artist with accolades that include Top Honors at the 2015 International Acoustic Music Awards for the release of his album Crayon Days as well as Best Soloist by Scope Magazine. His first two singles gained national radio play on the Billboard Charts both in the US and in the UK. I 2016, Better received a nomination for Best Adult Contemporary Album in the Independent Music Awards. He recently was awarded Musician Of The Year 20/21 for the QLD Prestige awards.

In this podcast, Buddy Jackson shares his journey from working in a printing company to becoming one of the top designers in Nashville winning 2 Grammys for Recording Package Design. He shares how he dropped out of college, moved to Nashville, worked his way up as a graphic artist, and eventually started his own company as a designer in the music industry.

He discusses why he left the commercial design industry to pursue a new career as a fine art sculptor and painter and the hurdles he faced in the process. He offers insight into his creative style and beliefs of what creativity means to him as well as how he keeps from getting stuck and the technical aspects of his craft.

In this podcast, I talk with hobby baker Karri Suh. She is passionate about creating beautiful cakes and bringing people together socially through the joy of food. I discovered her ad on Nextdoor, a neighborhood discover app, looking for cake tasters in the area. Having a weakness for sweets there was no way I could pass up free cake! I was intrigued by her peach basil recipe and found her story of baking unique. Here she shares her journey of baking and how she grows her unique recipe flavors around seasonal fruits. 

Karri offers insight on how she collects feedback from cake tasters to improve her recipes and her decorating skills. She shares advice with other bakers and offers insight into how she grows her craft. She talked about her love of infusing seasonal fruits into her recipes and the challenges of working with Italian buttercream icing for decoration. Her original and appetizing style of baking comes through in this intimate interview.

In this podcast episode on The Creative Push, Country artist and songwriter Troy Kemp shares his life journey with music, the difficulty it took to finally get to Nashville, and what’s next! He shares his experience of playing in one of Australia’s top Country duos McAlister Kemp, winning three CMC Awards, a Golden Guitar Award, and the success of the duo had while touring around Australia with Country artists like Big & Rich and Alan Jackson. He offers insight into his solo career in Australia and offers inspiration for other creatives searching their own musical path. He talks about how he and his wife Aleesha struggled to finally make it to Nashville during a Pandemic explaining what his plans are for the future.

In this BONUS podcast, Australian country artist Troy Kemp plays in Nashville at a private monthly event called Bands In The Barn. Hosted by David Billings and Susan Whitaker, the event showcases talented local Nashville singer-songwriters and allows them to share their own music with a large private crowd at the barn. This event started in early 2021 and is intended to honor these very talented artists in support of their own music rather than the covers so many of them have to play around town to make a living.

This live podcast is the Bonus material from Troy Kemp's artist interview episode on The Creative Push. It opens with David Billings explaining how he learned of Troy's music and troy goes on to perform over an hour of great original material. Troy is an established Australian artist with accolades that include multiple CMC #1 Singles, 3 People’s Choice Awards, a Frank Ifield International Spur Award, a Golden Guitar, and 3 CMC Awards. He was part of one of Australia’s top award-winning Country duos McAlister Kemp touring around Australia with Country artists like Alan Jackson and Big & Rich.

In this podcast, Theresa Dyer shares her life and work as she transitioned from Interior Designer to Architect to Figurative Sculptor. She takes us through the process of creating a clay sculpture and the foundry process of casting the piece into bronze.

Theresa offers how she creates her art pieces and the mentors who helped her along the way. She offers tips to other artists and how she was able to get her work out in public spaces with only eight years of experience.

Australian singer, songwriter, and performer Katrina Burgoyne has a dream of becoming the first Australian artist to make an impact in the American music scene since Olivia Newton-John. Her songwriting skills as a country music artist have led to four top 10 singles in Australia and she has a  number one song called "Tennessee" on the CMT Australia playlist.

In this Podcast, Katrina shares her journey from Australia to Nashville as a singer, songwriter, and performer. She candidly talks about her creative process, struggling with depression, and finding love while balancing her career. She explains her process of self-marketing as an independent artist, where she finds motivation, and how COVID-19 affected her work. 

Her intimate artist interview showcases her beautiful sense of humor and passion for doing what she loves. Her honesty is refreshing as she explains the struggles and lifestyle as an independent artist in the music industry.

In this podcast, singer, songwriter Jeremy Lister shares his career path and the struggles he has gone through as a singer, songwriter, and performer. He explains growing up in a religious family, following his dream in the music industry, going on the road with a TV show, and struggling with substance abuse. He offers insight into how he does his craft of writing music, where he finds creativity, and what motivates him. Jeremy also sings “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” later in the interview.

In this podcast, contemporary painter Trevor Mikula shares his career path and the struggles he has gone through as an artist. He explains growing up in a religious family and finding his way to where he is today. He offers insight into how he uses vibrant colors, a palette knife, and simple subject matter, to make his fun conversational, and whimsical art. He talks about the importance of infusing his personality into his work with the desire of making people smile, what inspires him and what success looks like for him as an artist in Provincetown, Massachusetts, the oldest art colony in the country.

This week my guest on The Creative Push  Podcast series is marketing strategist, lifestyle blogger, and yoga teacher Georgia Cross. 

Georgia offers tips and insight into marketing strategy while outlining some key things independent artists, creatives, and businesses can focus on to be more successful in their own marketing. She touches on the topics of social media marketing, blogging, branding, analytics, strategy. She explains the best content to use and the importance of having a strategy with your brand.

She also shares how growing up in foster homes helped her in her career development and how yoga changed her life through COVID by allowing her to find peace and become grounded.

In this Podcast, abstract mixed media Artist Katrina Revenaugh shares how she combines photography with her digital collage process and other traditional painting techniques to create her work. Her process is transferred onto wood, metal, or canvas using layers upon layers of painting and printing techniques.

Using her own photos of graffiti, she alters them digitally and prints them onto a film substrate with a pigment-based printer to begin the process. She discusses the challenges her technique often takes on that have taken years to perfect.

In this intimate interview, Katrina shares her path as an artist, how she travels to find the best graffiti, and the steps she uses to grow her ideas using pigment and paint. She discusses the value of being a part of a community of artists in Kansas City and how that has helped her to grow her presence to help sell her work.

Katrina also offers advice to other artists and shares how Covid changed her work with her new series that includes botanicals called “Let Democracy Bloom.”

In this podcast, Christa Schoenbrodt shares her path to success as a designer and graphic artist in Nashville, Tennessee. She explains her process of creating lettering and design work for her customers. She talks about her work from brand development to website design, book cover creation, and product packaging and how she stays motivated with her craft. Christa talks about her newest project with fabric design and how she is learning block printing with textile master artist Jeanne Brady. She shares her mentorship opportunity that she applied for and was accepted to participate through the Tennessee Craft Master Artists (MAAP) Apprenticeship Program.  

Christa offers listeners advice hoping to help fellow artists who are struggling. She shares how she stays motivated and what she does when she gets stuck with her creativity.  Christa also shares how COVID-19 affected her business in 2020 and some of the things she was able to do to stay on track with work and creativity.  

In this podcast, John Petrey shares his life and work as a dress sculptor and visual artist. He takes us through the process of his garment-themed art sharing how he fuses symbolism of his childhood memories of the ’50s and ’60s with everyday materials. He talks about his path from growing up in Southern California as an adopted only child to his commercial photography work in Orlando, Florida.

John discusses moving to Chatanooga, Tennessee, and the 4000 square foot studio he built in order to grow his career creating his artwork. This candid interview brings light to how his dress series came to be, how he creates his whimsical vintage complex art pieces, and where he plans to take the next series. He offers advice to other artists, explains how to determine the value of your work and how that equates to pricing.

John shares his technique of using Bondo filler, resin, fiberglass, and steel to construct a base structure and how he shapes repurposed materials like tin, poker chips, bottle tops, playing cards, rulers, and license plates to complete his metal dress sculptures.

In this episode of “The Creative Push,” producer, songwriter, and bassist Kamaal Malak shares his life journey and road to success. As a bassist for the Grammy Award-winning band Arrested Development on their world tour, Kamaal talks about his early roots in Philly to LA's Hip Hop scene where he did work with Paramount Studios. From there he talks about how he followed his heart to Atlanta where he landed the gig with Arrested Development and how that catapulted his career while on tour with Peter Gabriel.

Kamaal explains how his need to collaborate with other songwriters led him to Nashville, how he started his company and where he is today.

Kamaal discusses what creativity means to him, how he stayed motivated, and what inspires him to learn. As a fashionable musician, he offers how his style originated and where his cool hat collection comes from. As the owner of KM Entertainment, Kamaal has an impressive background and clientele.

Dave Isaacs shares his story spanning more than 30 years as a musician, artist, author, and teacher in the music business. He shares with The Creative Push the road to success as a creative in the music business. He explains what motivated him to start his growing Nashville Guitar Guru business offering private and group lessons, workshops, and speaking engagements. He talks about how today he is helping people learn the skills and confidence it takes to play music better and to follow their dreams around music.

In this artist interview, Pulitzer nominated award-winning photographer John Partipilo, shares stories from his career as a photojournalist.  Known for capturing striking and heartfelt visions of people in struggling times, John talks about his amazing journey covering assignments such as the war in Iraq, the Covid-19 Pandemic, Presidential photos, and Black Lives Matter rallies.

John explains how he developed a love of photography at an early age, his mentors, and how he finds motivation to shoot new imagery every single day. He offers insight into what creativity means to him personally and what motivates him as an artist.

In this podcast, visual artist Randy L. Purcell shares his unique encaustic process of transferring ink onto beeswax. He explains the difficulty of preparing the honey and what he has learned over the years perfecting his medium.

Over the past decade, Randy explains how he had gradually perfected his own technique and style with this special medium. He talks about his path into art, his motivation, and the inspiration that has led him to become the successful artist he is today. He also offers advice to other artists and shares how he markets his work online.