Creativity Found: finding creativity later in life
Conversations with people who FOUND – or re-found – their CREATIVITY as adults. We explore my guests' childhood experiences of the arts, discuss how they came to the artistic practices they now love and that benefit their whole lives, and consider the barriers to creativity that they experienced between the two. My guests are proponents of visual, written and performing arts, with similarities and wild differences in their experiences. We discuss what it is that people value and gain from their new-found artistic experiences, and how their creative lives enrich their practical, necessary, everyday lives.
Fish Lee – from Smurfette to Life in the Blocks
How to ease the symptoms of Tourette’s Syndrome and start drawing again, without spilling ink all over the carpet!
Guest Fish Lee tells me about how his local TV weatherman played a key part in his getting to the bottom of a mystery illness that had plagued him physically, emotionally and behaviourally since he was a child, and how that diagnosis helped him to start drawing again, without spilling the ink.
Fish's Tourette’s Syndrome was not diagnosed until he was in his thirties, after many years of being told he had been faking symptoms for atten...
Piano à Deux – music, marriage and modern technology
Facing fears and taking risks
Robert and Linda are classical pianists who have found a unique way to combine their music with comedy, stories, and improvisations.
But the shows they devised had never been done before, and were very different to what was expected of concert pianists. So, as classical musicians, Linda and Robert were unsure of how their ideas would be received. The first time they tried out a new idea in front of an audience – including their mentor – they were nervous and afraid. It was not easy for either of them to bite the bullet and...
Piano à Deux - Mistresses to Manhattan
Playing piano together (one piano, four hands) was an experimental idea for married couple Linda and Robert, one that taught them a lot about themselves and each other, which you can find out all about in the next, more usual episode of the podcast.
In the meantime, enjoy their beautiful playing in this extract from their show called From Mistresses to Manhattan, whether you are listening while throwing pots in your studio in Canada, as Deborah Hughes Gahr likes to do, enjoying some alone time in the kitchen or forest, as Oxfordshire interior decorator Claire of Appleby...
Natalie Smart – pro-active with patterns
Maybe it's not the right time, but never say never.
Natalie Smart loved working with textiles as a youngster, from hand knitting to making her own clothes. Unfortunately, Textiles as an A-Level subject was discontinued at her school just as she was about to join the sixth form.
Natalie was quite academic, so she had other choices.
Faced with the decision of whether or not to take out a loan to go to university, Natalie decided against it, and instead found a job in pensions. Knitting and making clothes were now hobbies enjoyed whenever she could...
Claude Larson – problem solving in science and art
The science teacher who chose to break free from practicality, utility and patterns in textiles and paint.
This week’s podcast guest, Claude Larson, has been sewing for years, while also teaching science classes to middle-school age teenagers in the US.
A few years ago, Claude decided to throw out the patterns and instructions in favour of a new era of experimentation.
She stopped making practical, utilitarian items for the home and family, and began making art quilts.
She studied value, taking fabrics from light to dark and playing with them to see what they cou...
