Extraordinary Creatives

You know that strange moment when you walk back into your office or studio after something big has happened……and it feels unfamiliar. The light’s the same. The table’s where you left it.  Your brushes are exactly as you abandoned them. But you’re not.

That’s the bit no one prepares you for. I was speaking to an artist recently who had just come back from caring for a parent after a sudden bereavement. She said, “I’m desperate to get back into my practice. I need it. But I can’t seem to think."

That sentence, that tension, stayed with me – I need it, but I can´t.

Because when life throws something heavy at you - death, illness, divorce, redundancy, even something that looks positive but is destabilising -  your system shifts. You go into care mode. Logistics mode. Survival mode. 

You become vigilant. You are tracking hospital updates. Or legal emails. Or financial spreadsheets. Or your child’s temperature at 3am.

Vigilance is not the same state as creativity. Creativity asks you to soften. To wander. To sit with uncertainty without solving it.

After shock, your body doesn´t want to wander. It wants to secure. And then we stand in the studio and say to ourselves, “Right. Back to it. Let’s make something extraordinary.” – no wonder it doesn´t work.

I explore why flow disappears after life shocks, what your nervous system is actually doing, and how to return to your work without bullying yourself.

KEY TAKEAWAYS


After a death, redundancy, illness, divorce, or any major life shift, creativity doesn’t just snap back into place. You don't restart at full speed. You idle the engine. 


Often, what we call lack of focus is actually grief that hasn't fully moved through. Grief doesn't always look like crying. Sometimes it looks like distraction, fog, a strange flatness.


Creativity is a downstream of regulation. If the river is in flood, you don't shout at it. You wait for the waters to settle -You're not behind. You're rebuilding rhythm. Rhythm is different from output. Rhythm is showing up in small, contained ways, until your body trusts the space again. 

BEST MOMENTS

“You can't out discipline a dysregulated body. You can't bully yourself back into flow. Flow requires safety, not perfection, not control, but safety.”

“When athletes recover from injury, they don't return by running a marathon, they rebuild muscle memory. Creative practice is no different.”

“Returning after shock is one thing - creating after you've changed is another.”

HOST BIO

With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals.

**

Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today!

https://cerihand.com/membership/

**

Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course

Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today.

https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/

**

Book a Discovery Call Today

To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at [email protected]

**

Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity

Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative.

This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Today’s guest has shaped the creative lives of millions.

Julia Cameron has been called “The Queen of Change” by The New York Times, and whether you’ve done Morning Pages for decades or only heard of The Artist’s Way in passing, you’ve felt her influence ripple through contemporary culture.

What struck me most in this conversation was her devotion to simplicity and trying.

Her tools are not complicated. They are repetitive. Ordinary. Almost deceptively so. Three pages. A walk. A date with yourself. And yet — they ask for something many creatives resist: discipline without drama. Practice without novelty. Showing up without fireworks.

We like complexity. We like newness. We like to overthink. Julia invites us back to something far braver - consistency.

We talk about trusting internal wisdom, or what she describes as seeking guidance both inwardly and outwardly. We explore the stream of consciousness as something different from a diary, different from a sketchbook — a way of accessing the subcutaneous layers of knowing that we’ve often been trained to ignore.

Decades on, she is still delighted. Still open. Still curious. Still learning from the community her work has helped to grow. She does not cling to authorship as ownership. She sees herself as a vehicle. The work belongs to the people who practise it.

There is something quietly radical about that.

This conversation is an invitation to return to the basics. To stop waiting for the breakthrough and instead build the ritual. To trust that the simplest tools, repeated, can change a life.

KEY TAKEAWAYS


Morning pages, walks, and artist dates aren’t self-help chores; they’re how you quietly outlast trends, algorithms, and your own boredom. Those simple tools become radically effective, especially when you are using them decades in.


Julia Cameron doesn’t banish her critic. She calls him Nigel. Thanks him. And keeps creating anyway. Trust your inner wisdom, even when it´s messy.


If you’ve been waiting for a breakthrough, maybe the breakthrough is repetition.

BEST MOMENTS

“I think procrastination is actually fear in a fancy dress.”

“A believing mirror is somebody who reflects back to your strength and your promise.”

“Fear can be present, and we continue. Criticism can speak, and we continue. Doubt can whisper, and we continue. Not because we’ve eliminated those voices. But because we’ve built a practice strong enough to hold them.”

EPISODE RESOURCES

https://juliacameronlive.com

HOST BIO

With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals.

**

Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today!

https://cerihand.com/membership/

**

Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course

Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today.

https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/

****

Book a Discovery Call Today

To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at [email protected]

This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

You don’t get a medal for exhausting yourself in the name of community.

A brilliant artist in my world recently asked a question that so many of you will recognise. Let’s call them Kenny.

Kenny runs socially engaged projects. They work with communities over weeks, sometimes months. Workshops turn into conversations. Conversations turn into drawings. Drawings become objects. Objects evolve into sound pieces. Eventually, it all lands as an installation with sculpture and layered audio. It is rich. It is generous. It is complex. 

And the budget never quite matches the reality.

Kenny finds themselves topping up production costs. Paying for extra studio time. Covering additional fabrication. Giving more hours than were funded. Holding the emotional labour that was never costed.

They asked me, should I scale up to bigger institutions with bigger budgets, or should I reduce what I deliver?

If this sounds familiar, you are not alone.

Here is what is really happening. 

If you’ve ever felt stretched thin by a commission that looked generous on paper but drained you in reality, this one will land. 

I break down how to design modular versions of your practice, how to cost invisible labour properly, and how to stop reflex over-delivering just to secure the opportunity.

KEY TAKEAWAYS


Many artists, especially socially engaged artists, end up producing three projects under one fee - Community workshops. Research and relationship-building. Drawings, objects, sound, sculpture. Installation. Coordination. Care – And when the budget only stretches for one strand of that work, they quietly top it up themselves. - More hours. More energy.


Design the project to fit the budget, not the other way round. Always pay yourself properly, and if the full ecosystem of your practice costs more than the fee use one of the 3 options Ceri shares to bring balance back and avoid burnout.


Designing modular versions of your practice means you stop pouring the whole symphony into every commission and instead offer clear tiers that match the budget, so the work stays true without draining you.

BEST MOMENTS

“When you consistently top up a commission with your own time and money, you are not being noble. You are subsidising someone else’s remit with your personal capacity.”

“What you can't do is quietly over deliver and hope someone notices.”

“Open your last project, calculate how many unpaid hours you gave, multiply that by your day rate, look at the number, then ask yourself, would I agree to that again knowingly?”

HOST BIO

With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals.

**

Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today!

https://cerihand.com/membership/

**

Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course

Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today.

https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/

**

Book a Discovery Call Today

To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at [email protected]

This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

In today’s episode of Extraordinary Creatives, I’m joined by Jenn Ellis, founder of APSARA Studio and a curator whose work moves between institutions, vineyards, churches, theatres, and digital space with remarkable fluidity.

Jenn grew up in a family of theoretical particle physicists, studied law, and then pivoted into art history. That background shows. Her approach to art feels investigative, architectural, and deeply relational. She thinks about time not as something measured by clocks, but as something lived, layered, and tested.

In this conversation, we talk about long-term commitment to artists, the power of positive disagreement inside collaboration, and why site matters as much as concept. We explore Terra, her exhibition across UNESCO heritage vineyards in Burgundy. We unpack AORA, the digital sensory world she built during lockdown. And we speak candidly about contracts, rate cards, negotiation, ego, Instagram performance, and what it really means to care for artists inside complex systems.

Jenn is rigorous, warm, and clear-eyed. She understands budgets as well as beauty. She believes in boundaries. And she asks one of the most important questions a creative can ask: how is this bigger than you?

If you are building a practice that needs both imagination and structure, I hope this episode will land with you.

KEY TAKEAWAYS


To curate is to care - sometimes care means challenging, tweaking. Testing. Pushing for something stronger. The absence of disagreement doesn’t mean the work is good. It might mean no one felt safe enough to question it.


In a culture that rewards visibility over substance, the real work is shifting our focus from credit to contribution. When we stop performing for the headline and start caring about what’s genuinely built between people, the work gets deeper and is far more likely to outlive the moment.

BEST MOMENTS

“You might like the work, but if it's not a personality match, then it's going to be a very long upward hill…. Ask, can I make it sing? And can I make it sing with you?”

“Long standing relationships often have healthy friction. Action where two people are trying to get to the best outcome.”

“Professionalism is not the enemy of creativity. Contracts protect care. Rate cards protect energy. Boundaries protect longevity. These are not cold tools. They are scaffolding.”

EPISODE RESOURCES

https://apsarastudio.co.uk

https://www.instagram.com/jenncellis

https://www.instagram.com/apsara.studio

HOST BIO

With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals.

**

Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today!

https://cerihand.com/membership/

**

Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course

Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today.

https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/

**

Book a Discovery Call Today

To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at [email protected]

This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Do you ever ask yourself, why do I keep inventing massive projects when all I really want to do is make my own art? Why do I keep building infrastructures for other people when what I actually crave is to be in the studio, in rehearsal, on a stage? And why, at the end of these enormous, impressive undertakings, do I feel quietly resentful?

If this lands in your chest, stay with Ceri and learn how to avoid this trap

KEY TAKEAWAYS


Impressive collaborative projects can be draining. Yet they feel far safer than standing there with one vulnerable artwork and saying, “This is enough.” - Empire projects offer access, validation, funding, titles - a sense of being legit.


When you're the organ grinder, the monkey, the organ and the music, something shifts. You stop making decisions based on creativity. You start making decisions consciously or unconsciously based on compliance.


It’s not that big structures are bad - some people are meant to build institutions. If you are not one of them, ask - If there were no funders, partners, or applause, what would I still make and what would I stop building altogether? – then, create the pieces you really want to make.

BEST MOMENTS

“Maybe the next bold move is not another empire. Maybe it's a small, precise, unapologetic piece of work, one performance, one painting, one body of work, one show. No Empire required.”

“If you grew up believing art alone couldn't sustain you, building an infrastructure can feel like the sensible compromise.”

“Collaboration can be electric. Working with people at your level or beyond, can sharpen you, stretch you make you braver.”

“There's a difference between building something because it genuinely expands you and building something because you're trying to fill a gap.”

PODCAST HOST BIO

With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals.

****

Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today!

https://cerihand.com/membership/

****

Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course

Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today.

https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/

****

Book a Discovery Call Today

To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at [email protected]

****

Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity

Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative.

This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/