Extraordinary Creatives

Have you ever left an event and thought: "My God, those people are dull." "People were so rude." "No one made me feel welcome." "Blimey, I’m not doing that again." And by the time you get home, it’s not just the event. It’s confirmation - "The art world isn’t for me." But if that’s the story you keep leaving with… it’s worth asking what’s really going on – After all, not everyone in that room can be an arsehole. What you think you’re reading in a room is often not the room at all. Your brain is wired to detect threat. Not physical threat. Social threat. A look. A short answer. A pause. And your brain fills in the gaps: “They’re not interested.” “I’ve said the wrong thing.” “I don’t belong here.” So, you withdraw. You close down. You leave early. And just like that… you’ve created the very experience you were trying to avoid and stop attending events – and miss out on all that they offer. That’s the loop. This week - I’m giving you a simple way to interrupt that negative loop. KEY TAKEAWAYS Your negative read of a room (e.g., “everyone is rude,” “this world isn’t for me”) is often not an accurate reflection of what is going on. Your brain isn’t passively reading reality; it’s predicting based on past experiences and filling in gaps. What you feel in a moment is a mix of what’s happening now and what your brain expects to happen. Asking “What else could this mean?” gives you a more open, less fear-driven interpretation. Ceri’s KIND process is a simple, four-step way to interrupt the automatic “they don’t like me/I don’t belong” story. It helps you stay open, calm your body, and take one small extra action so you can create new, more accurate experiences instead of confirming old fears. BEST MOMENTS “What you feel in a moment isn't just what's happening now, it's what your brain expects is happening. So instead of asking, what did that mean? Try what else could this mean?” “Honestly, in a room full of creative people, it simply cannot be true that every single one is an asshole, it just can't. – So, if that's the story you're walking in with, it's worth asking, Is this the room, or is this my lens?” “She wasn't being excluded. She was reacting to a micro moment of uncertainty as if it were rejection.” 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 hello@cerihand.com **** 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/

What can an ink drawing and one line of text really do? In the hands of Guy Richards Smit, it can hold horror and humour in the same breath. It can slice through politics while pretending to be an amuse-bouche between heavier courses. It can make you laugh, wince, and then realise you’ve been implicated. Born and raised in New York City, Guy is a painter, performer, musician, video artist and, more recently, a New Yorker cartoonist. But that barely scratches the surface. As you’ll hear, he’s always been fascinated by the vehicles that carry culture, whether pop songs, sitcoms, or the single-panel gag cartoon. From poring over old New Yorker anthologies in his grandparents’ dark apartment as a child, to submitting ten cartoons a week with no acknowledgement for over a year before finally getting one accepted, his journey has been about curiosity and commitment. We talk about what he learned from making protest banners at the age of 16 with Keith Haring, about the discipline of making work at speed and trusting that ideas will catch up with action. We explore the economics of cartooning, and how Guy has built a living not from the commission alone but from understanding how to connect with and cultivate collectors. We dive into what it means to stick your neck out politically at a time of deep division. And into his alter egos, those exquisitely awkward, ego-pricking characters that taught him what satire costs and what it can reveal. Above all, this is a conversation about quality and fear. About not hiding behind perfectionism. About being willing to wade knee deep through the messy, human, slightly off-key parts of your practice, because that is often where the gold lives. If you’ve ever wondered whether one small, strange idea is worth it, this episode is for you. KEY TAKEAWAYS You don’t think your small, “too obvious” ideas count. Guy shows us they’re often the ones that travel furthest. Guy sent ten cartoons a week into silence. The breakthrough wasn’t a lightning bolt; it was repetition. Instead of clinging to one identity, Guy keeps asking, “What’s the right container for this idea, right now?” BEST MOMENTS “Sometimes your thoughts, while they bore you, are more surprising to other people.” “Produce. Back your hunches. Don’t wait for the perfect idea to drop from the sky. Make ten things. Make a hundred. Let the work shape you as you shape it.” EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.instagram.com/guy_richards_smit 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 hello@cerihand.com This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Welcome to the 200th episode of Extraordinary Creatives: two hundred conversations with artists, thinkers, makers and cultural leaders about the strange, beautiful, often messy reality of building a creative life. And I couldn’t imagine a better guest to mark this moment than the brilliant John Lloyd CBE. One of the great creative architects behind some of the most loved comedy formats of the past fifty years. He began at the BBC in the 1970s and helped create programmes that have become cultural landmarks: The News Quiz, Not the Nine O’Clock News, Blackadder, Spitting Image, and the long-running curiosity engine that is QI. Along the way he co-wrote the original Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio series with Douglas Adams, directed the iconic Genesis “Land of Confusion” video, and has won more BAFTAs than almost anyone alive. But what struck me most, isn’t just the scale of his career, it’s the way he thinks about creativity itself. John talks openly about the difficult things that shaped him and the strange truth that some of the most uncomfortable moments in life later reveal themselves as gifts. He reminds us that every creative life includes adversity, and that the ability to transform those experiences into fuel - into insight, humour, empathy or invention – is what stops artists giving up. John is a powerful reminder that great ideas take time. Some of his shows took years to get made. Whether you’re a writer, artist, musician - or simply someone trying to make meaningful work - there is wisdom in this conversation. KEY TAKEAWAYS When we stay with an idea long enough - clearing away the sand, listening more deeply than we speak - what looks ordinary begins to reveal its own quiet, astonishing shape. There are two selves. There's the little yaky person in your head - then there's the true self, which only arrives when you're in the zone, when you're in the state of flow. The heartbreaks, the projects that fall apart - those “disasters” become compost, feeding the work we were actually meant to make. BEST MOMENTS “Creativity is like archaeology. You shovel mountains of sand… and eventually you uncover the sphinx.” “Ideas appear. The difference with creative people is they notice them.” “Deep listening means you're paying attention with not just your ears, with your whole body.” EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.instagram.com/johnlloydqi https://www.qi.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 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 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 hello@cerihand.com ** 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/

In this episode I’m joined by the extraordinary Wet Mess - performer, shapeshifter, and maker of work that sits right on the ecstatic fault line between desire, politics, embodiment, confusion, and joy. We centre the conversation around their solo show Testo that’s been touring over the past year. It’s a work born from a live, personal question: whether or not to take testosterone, and what that decision means socially, physically, psychologically. We talk about how you can stretch a reveal across an hour. How pacing and punctuation shape tension. How repetition changes meaning depending on the intention you bring to it. How the same action can land differently in different cities and how trans experience is heard through different filters. We dig into training - how Wet Mess conditions both body and mind to hold euphoria, anger, and absurdity without collapsing under it. How they choreograph points of view. How entertainment spaces have taught them things the art world did not. And how stepping into cabaret felt, at one point, like a liberation and even a rejection of fine art’s constraints. There are real insights here about what performance can hold that white cube spaces sometimes struggle to contain. About how spectacle and seriousness are not opposites. About what you learn by attending to the same process over and over again until it deepens. And alongside the artistic revelations, we also speak candidly about touring, sustainability, hiring a producer, stacking the finances so the work can travel, and how to prepare and decompress when your body is the medium. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! KEY TAKEAWAYS Spectacle isn’t a distraction from seriousness; it’s one of the few containers big enough to hold euphoria, rage, and politics at the same time. When your body is the medium, sustainability isn’t a luxury add‑on. Training and decompression are part of the choreography, or the work doesn’t last. Testo doesn’t resolve whether to take testosterone; it lets us sit inside the risk, desire, and possibility of not yet knowing. BEST MOMENTS “A lot of the process of performing is caring so much about what the audience receive, and then also letting go of that, because you can never fully control it.” “I got really interested in what it means to reveal, how you can stretch that out over an hour-long show taking off layers of costume, of self, and kind of getting deeper and showing different layers of oneself or possibilities.” RESOURCES https://wetmesswetmess.com/ https://www.instagram.com/wet_mess 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 hello@cerihand.com 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 hello@cerihand.com 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 hello@cerihand.com This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Before we begin, a gentle note: in this episode we speak about death, grief, psychosis and depression. If you’re feeling tender, you might want to pause and come back when the time feels right. It will be worth it. Today, I am joined by the extraordinary artist Eddie Peake. Eddie builds exhibitions the way some artists use paint. Space, for him, is a material. He constructs environments that place you inside the liminal fourth wall, that charged threshold between viewer and viewed, between participation and observation, between ecstasy and horror. In his shows, the audience becomes a protagonist. We talk about masculinity stretched to breaking point, about desire and shame, about the theatre of intimacy and the politics shaping our cultural moment. Eddie pushes back on what the art world calls authenticity, questioning whether expression itself has become a learned, conservative language dressed up as radical. In an age of populist politics and market-ready aesthetics, he asks what it really means to resist. If you’re an artist wrestling with identity, politics, envy, burnout, or the fear that your work is either too much or not enough, this conversation will resonate. I hope it moves you as much as it moved me. KEY TAKEAWAYS · The fourth wall isn’t just a boundary; it’s a live material. Treating space as something you can sculpt, like Eddie does, lets the viewer become a character inside the work, not a distant observer. · Fluorescent colour can carry psychic weight. What looks euphoric on the surface can also signal overload, instability, and states of mind that don’t sit neatly in polite language. BEST MOMENTS “This is your reminder that creative life is not linear. There are seasons of immersion and seasons of withdrawal” “I really believe it's important to take Our time and not to feel a sort of outside pressure to be moving at 7000 million miles per hour at all times.” RESOURCES https://www.instagram.com/eddie_peake 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 hello@cerihand.com This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Today I’m in conversation with the extraordinary Sarah Boris, an artist who treats symbols like building blocks and colour like architecture. Her practice moves between sculpture, drawing, printmaking, painting, and bookmaking, yet everything she makes feels connected by a rigorous, playful logic. You migaht know her Fragile UK Flag, a reimagined Union Jack made from delicate tape and paper, exhibited at the Design Museum in London and now held in major public collections including the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France A national emblem made vulnerable. A bold gesture made breakable. But this conversation is less about icons and more about expansion. We dive into her modular works, a vast body of over one hundred drawings that evolved into nesting sculptures, furniture modules, and her largest sculpture to date. We talk about scale not as ego, but as curiosity. And then there is Time for Peace, a conceptual clock that quietly marks the peace symbol four times a day. No grand spectacle. Just a subtle interruption in the rhythm of time. This episode is about systems and softness. About building something precise without losing play. About committing to a visual language so fully that it begins to grow its own architecture. KEY TAKEAWAYS Nothing is fixed. Elements can shift, nest, expand, contract. A drawing can become a sculpture. A book can become a building. A word can hold two languages at once. Let your smaller works teach you how to build bigger ones. Let your practice evolve in modules rather than leaps. If you’ve been sitting on an idea that feels too playful, too colourful, too structural, or too ambitious - test it, stack it, and see what it becomes. There is quiet power in artists championing one another. If someone can’t find you, they can’t commission you. If they can’t commission you, they can’t support your ideas. BEST MOMENTS “Being in a different place, with different light, different language, different constraints, can unlock entirely new bodies of work - a reminder that context is not a backdrop. It’s a collaborator.” “If I hadn't had the website, this beautiful story wouldn't have happened.” “She handles cultural signs with care, but she isn’t afraid to rework them.” “I was self-sabotaging in so many areas.” EPISODE RESOURCES https://sarahboris.com https://www.instagram.com/sarahboris_ldn 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 hello@cerihand.com **** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative.

In today’s episode of the Extraordinary Creatives podcast, I’m joined by the inspiring Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, whose work sits at the intersection of art, ecology, and emerging technologies. Daisy’s work explores the politics, value systems, and assumptions that shape how humans relate to the natural world. Her projects range from algorithmically designed gardens created for pollinators, to resurrecting the smell of extinct flowers, and translating living systems into materials such as tapestry and bronze. In our conversation, Daisy shares how working closely with scientists and researchers has refined her relationship to failure. What might be a dead end in scientific research can become, for her, the starting point for an artwork that asks better questions. We dig into Pollinator Pathmaker, shaped by insect vision rather than human taste, and her new public sculpture commission, The Length of a Moment, where the invisible movement of moths becomes permanent form. This episode is an invitation to think differently about how we apply our creativity, who we learn from, and the kinds of worlds our work helps to shape. I am certain you’ll be inspired, so please let me know if anything touches you. KEY TAKEAWAYS Making ambitious work is never just about ideas. It’s about labour, time, care, and responsibility. About how teams are treated, how boundaries are held, and how ethics show up not as statements, but as daily decisions. When you approach a project as a collaborator who is willing to learn how an organization works, you create the psychological safety needed to pull off truly ambitious, experimental work. Hold the line on your professional boundaries. Clarity is kindness, it’s not about being "difficult" - it's being precise. BEST MOMENTS “The flower looks red to us, but a bee can’t see red. They can see ultraviolet. So suddenly you realise that the way we think the world looks isn’t how it looks at all.” “Her methodologies show us what becomes possible when artists invite in knowledge from academics, technologists, children, and global perspective.” EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.daisyginsberg.com https://www.instagram.com/daisyginsberg https://pollinator.art 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 hello@cerihand.com ** 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 is Rob Lowe, also known as Supermundane, an artist, illustrator, writer, and public speaker whose work uses geometric shapes, colour, pattern, and words to create playful, philosophical, and deeply generous work. With a background in graphic design and over 30 years working across the creative world, Rob has moved fluidly between indie magazine design, publishing, murals, community-led projects, and major global commissions, including designing the influential magazines Anorak and Fire & Knives and creating the visual identity for the Champions League London Final. Whether he’s working at the scale of a print, a rug, a classroom, or city walls, his focus is the same: making work that feels rooted in shared human experience. He’s also the author of Lost Ordinary Magic, a book of “simple things in a complicated world,” which feels like a neat distillation of his wider practice. In this conversation, we talk about how to make accessible work without flattening it, how projects grow through trust rather than ego, and what it really takes to build a sustainable creative career that protects both your voice and your energy. KEY TAKEAWAYS Caring about the people, the context and the conditions of the work isn’t extra; it’s the strategy that makes the work deeper, more trusted, and more sustainable. Big commissions don’t require a different version of you. They require the same thinking, just at a different volume. Scale doesn’t have to mean compromise. You don’t have to contort yourself to be legible. You don’t have to overproduce to be relevant. You don’t have to disappear inside other people’s frameworks to make meaningful work. BEST MOMENTS “You can work at the scale of a kid with scissors and glue, and also the scale of a city, and still be doing the same work, just with different volume.” “I work hard, but I don't like stress … I work within what I'm good at, so I'm always working with my strengths, rather than trying to force myself to do something that I think I should be.” “There is obviously a recognisable style, but it's more about how I work and how I think and… I have a certain way of looking and seeing the world.” EPISODE RESOURCES www.supermundane.com www.instagram.com/supermundane 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 hello@cerihand.com **** 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/

What if artists aren’t here to fix the world, but to reveal what’s really going on inside it. In this episode of Extraordinary Creatives, I’m joined by Filipa Ramos, a curator, writer, and educator whose work reframes art not as commentary on ecology, but as an ecological practice in itself. Filipa is Artistic Director of LOOP Festival Barcelona, Lecturer at the Academy of Art and Design in Basel, and the author of The Artist as Ecologist, Contemporary Art, and the Environment. In this conversation, Filipa shares vivid examples of inspiring artists and artworks that help us think differently about our relationship with animals and nature. We talk about why artists are often better at raising problems than offering fixes. Why responsibility can immobilise creativity. How beauty, affect, and emotion still matter. And how working relationally, slowly, and collaboratively can be a powerful alternative to extractive, spectacle-driven models of success. This conversation is for artists who feel the weight of responsibility and expectation. For anyone worried their work isn’t doing enough - for those searching for ways to make art that is rigorous, ethical, and deeply alive. KEY TAKEAWAYS Art does not need to rush toward answers. Your work does not need to explain itself in a single sentence to be valid; it’s allowed to be complex, relational, and full of questions that unfold over time. Ecology isn’t a theme you illustrate; it’s a way of relating – letting the places you move through, and the animals and people you share them with, reshape what you notice and how you see it. The promise of big institutions can be hollow. Often, real agency comes through the platforms you build with others, not the ones that “choose” you. BEST MOMENTS “Artists are not here to provide solutions, but to complicate the story. To expose fragility. To create space for shared sensing, shared listening, shared not knowing.” “That’s why art is so important. It’s not trying to remediate. It’s not trying to provide a simple answer. It’s attempting to find alternatives.” “The most meaningful, long-lasting work often happens outside the biggest institutions, through collaboration, care, and time.” EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.instagram.com/filipaaaaaaaaaaa https://loop-barcelona.com https://www.fhnw.ch/de/personen/filipa-ramos 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 hello@cerihand.com ** 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 episode brings together two extraordinary creatives whose work has helped shape contemporary culture through a shared commitment to curiosity, counterculture, and championing unique voices. Ceri is joined by sisters Francesca Gavin and Seana Gavin, each working across different mediums but united by a belief in following instinct and staying close to what feels urgent and alive. Francesca is one of the most influential figures shaping how contemporary art is written about and presented today. She is Director of Visual Arts at Murmur, Editor-in-Chief of EPOCH, and a regular contributor to publications including the Financial Times. Her curatorial work spans major international contexts, from co-curating Manifesta 11 in Zurich to exhibitions at institutions such as Somerset House and the Palais de Tokyo. She is the author of eleven books on art and visual culture and has hosted Rough Version on NTS Radio for the past nine years, exploring the intersections of art and music. Seana is a London-based artist working primarily in collage, creating dreamlike worlds from vintage photographic material where past and future collide. Her work has been exhibited internationally, from Somerset House and the Serralves Foundation to the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm, with solo shows in Paris and London. Alongside this, her work features in major publications, brand collaborations, and collections including Soho House worldwide. Her photography monograph Spiralled, published by IDEA Books, is now in its fourth edition. In this conversation, they talk about creative longevity, instinct, and how to build a practice that remains porous, rigorous, and true over time. KEY TAKEAWAYS Creative longevity isn’t about having a perfect plan. It’s about staying close to what you’re genuinely curious about, paying attention to what keeps returning in your life, and trusting those repetitions enough to follow them. Work becomes more resilient when different strands feed one another - writing into curating, music into thinking, collage into archives, archives back into books and shows. BEST MOMENTS “For me, personally, originality is that unique point of view or something fresh that they're saying - there's often a spirit in there that you can sense in the way something's been made.” ““It’s very intuitive. It’s almost like I’m going into a meditative state… I gather up lots of material that might fit in with that imaginary world… and then something starts to happen.” RESOURCES https://www.presentfuture.be https://www.francescagavin.com https://www.instagram.com/seanagavin https://murmur.earth 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 and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals - https://cerihand.com/membership/ ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course 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. 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 hello@cerihand.com

Today, I am joined by Marcel Baettig, artist, cultural leader, and founder and CEO of Bow Arts, one of London’s most influential arts and education charities. Over three decades, Marcel has quietly built a values-led social enterprise that provides affordable studios and housing for artists, reaches tens of thousands of young people, and continually reinvests in local communities. This conversation isn’t just about scale or success. It´s about precarity, why artists need infrastructure as much as inspiration, and how Marcel’s own experience of working as an artist shaped Bow Arts. We explore leadership without ego, the long game of cultural change, and why we need to stop treating artists as an afterthought in regeneration. This episode is for anyone who’s ever felt the system is stacked against them - and wondered what it looks like to build a different one. KEY TAKEAWAYS We need to stop accepting scarcity as inevitable, to question who systems are really designed for - building a better art world is not a theoretical exercise. It’s a daily practice. Sustainable creative lives are built through shared responsibility and leaders who remember what it feels like to be at the kitchen table wondering how the rent will get paid and still choosing to make the work. If we want artists to survive, we must design practical, long-term infrastructure - affordable space, stable income pathways, and owned assets, not just offer prestige moments or short-term opportunities. BEST MOMENTS “Artists thrive when they are trusted, resourced, and rooted in their communities.” “Artists don’t just need opportunities. They need conditions. Time. Space. Stability and a sense their contribution to society is not decorative, but essential.” THE GUEST Marcel Baettig is the Founder and CEO of Bow Arts, a pioneering London charity providing affordable, sustainable spaces for artists to live and work while contributing to their local communities. Originally trained as an artist, he founded Bow Arts in 1994, and it now supports over 1,100 artists across London, runs a major learning programme that reaches tens of thousands of young people, and reinvests significant funds into local cultural life. He is also a founding director of the National Federation of Artist Studio Providers and has advised bodies including the Mayor of London, Arts Council England, and DCMS on creative workspace and cultural regeneration. https://www.linkedin.com/company/1639152 https://www.facebook.com/bowarts/?locale=en_GB https://bowarts.org/ 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 hello@cerihand.com