October 30, 2025 • 48 mins
This week, Jamie reconnects with artist and creator Graham Cullis, who returns to the podcast after four years for an open and inspiring chat about art, meditation, and the life-changing path he’s been on since they last spoke.
They chat about:
✨ Graham’s Splat & Splash Tour, travelling around the UK’s beaches and bringing people together through art and community for mental health.
🎨 Spending the day with artist Sophie Tea and what he learned from her approach to art and business.
🖌️ His time in Bali, his move back to the UK, and how painting continues to shape his life.
📱 How he’s used social media to grow as an artist and build a genuine creative community online.
🧘♂️ The role of mindfulness and meditation and how it’s changed his life.
🌍 Building supportive spaces like The New York Dippers Club and Youth Art Connect.
💙 And why art can be one of the most powerful tools for healing and human connection.
A heartfelt, uplifting episode full of inspiration, honesty and creative energy perfect for anyone working in (or dreaming of working in) the creative industries.
🎨 Check out Graham’s work and get involved in his next art event:
📞 Join the Splat & Splash Tour or find out more about his art & meditation workshops: WhatsApp Graham +44 7799 850146
🎥 Watch Graham’s Reel: Instagram Reel
🥚 An “eggsample” of his TikTok show vids: TikTok Video 🎧
Book Recommendation: Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself on Audible
🌍 Stay Connected with Just Get A Real Job
🔗 Website: linktr.ee/Justgetarealjobpodcast
💙 Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/justgetarealjob
📸 Instagram: instagram.com/justgetarealjob
🎬 TikTok: tiktok.com/@justgetarealjob
🐦 X (Twitter): twitter.com/justgetarealjob
🎧 Spotify: Just Get A Real Job on Spotify
🍏 Apple Podcasts: Just Get A Real Job on Apple Podcasts
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
There he is. Hello and welcome back to
another episode of Just Get RealJob with your host, me, Jim
McKinley. It is a joy to welcome back on
Graham Cullis, who we've had on the podcast a few times, but
it's been 4 years since the last10 months, so a lot of catching
up to the Graham. How are you, Sir?
It's been a while. Yeah, yeah, it's been a while,
hasn't it? And yeah, it's, it's been a
(00:22):
journey for sure, like the last few years.
And there's lots, like you said,there's lots to catch up on.
I can't wait to hear about all your news as well.
Yeah, well, I'm loving you. I love the backdrop.
You've got good on there. Very, very artistic.
The base age. A backdrop and it's painted by a
guy called Sam the Poet. I'm in my friend, my new friend
Sophie's house, who I met at ourmarket the other day.
(00:42):
And she invited me to do some van life experience where we
went to the beach in Wales wherethere was some pumping surf.
We had a fire, a sunset. And then she said you can record
the podcast here in my son's room.
So I set up here. It's beautiful and I've got a
couple of my paintings from the tour there that I could show for
you. We'll talk about that later,
though. Yeah, well, I've also, I've got
some of your karma cards and painting vintage to hand some
(01:07):
from different points I suppose.A good place to start.
Graham, Let's recap who you are for listeners because, you know,
four years a long time. I think we've got quite a lot of
new listeners since then. People have dropped in and out.
Who is Graham Cullis? Tell us.
Graham Cullis is an artist of all different kinds of mediums.
You can't sit still on one medium and just chops and
changes. But is loving his creative life.
(01:30):
Yeah. So I guess to recap very quickly
and you can go back to the otherepisode that I'm on and hear the
whole life story. But I discovered I could paint
in 2020 and it changed my life. I realised how much it helped my
mental health. And then that sent me on my icky
guy, my purpose, my reason. And I, over the last five years,
(01:51):
since 2020, I've been using my art to give back, to help people
discover the same mental health benefits.
And not only just art, other kinds of holistic things as well
that I like to do, like sea swimming, meditation and all
kinds of goodness. I try and advocate for that and
help people discover things for themselves.
So yeah, I'm a philanthropist asan art and an artist.
(02:13):
Get Do you reference the episodeyou've been on before?
I think the first episode you'vedone was really, really early in
our journey as a podcast. I think it was at the 13th
episode. I listened back to that like a
while ago and I was like, Oh my gosh.
Because like, I, I was so excited and full of beans and
I've had a chamomile tea today. So I, yeah, if you do go back to
(02:35):
that one, I yeah, I feel like, yeah, I was very hyper.
I was going to say as well, if entices the listeners to go
check that I used to do poetry at the start of this podcast.
Many, many we're talking 2020 horrific in hindsight and do not
do poetry anymore. So there you go that you want to
go back and list episode 13 a long time ago and it's not it's.
(02:55):
Not it's not horrific. It wasn't horrific.
It's beautiful prose. It's a young Jamie, a young.
And then I think we had you last.
It was, it must have been like episode 58.
And then we've done nearly, you know, 180 episodes.
So it is mad. So and we you.
Came to mind as well. Yeah, we and I.
Covered your intro as a as a gayscar version with brass
(03:16):
instruments. We'd said goodbye to our intro
now as well since then, so the lots of yeah.
That intro is not Do you mean sothat the listeners didn't get to
hear that beautiful Jingle before we started talking?
Probably not, no, I mean we sortof we something still we
instrumental from time to time, but you know, it's this video
agent and now it's all changed. It's all changed.
So the OG fans, they they shouldknow, but Graham how I we're
(03:39):
also recording this right. I'm usually have a plan of
questions. I haven't prepared much today.
I'm just, this is just a we're just shit talking.
This is a phone call, as blind boy would say.
No, there definitely is, but let's recap that.
What have you? What have you been doing for the
last four years you were in Bali, been doing, you fight,
connect, you've been with lots of great content from the beach,
(03:59):
with failure, celebrities, different people.
What's been going on? Yes.
So I've just been, you know, just saying yes to opportunities
and just going along on my merryway and just trying to help a
lot of people, like I said, would discover things within the
mental health space. Yeah, I set up a couple of sea
swimming groups, one in New York, which I think I might have
talked about this in the last podcast episode, got in the New
(04:20):
York Times, the New York DippersClub.
I started my charity or CIC Youth Art Connect, which helps
people with basically we give therapeutic art sessions for
either free or very cheap to young, young children and
adults. And we're actually going through
a bit of a revamp on that soon because we, it's called Youth
(04:41):
Art Connect. But we're, we're hoping we're
looking like we might take the youth out and call it maybe this
is very exclusive by the way, and we haven't, I haven't even
like confirmed this as the directors.
So I'm so sorry it doesn't happen.
But your art connection, we're going to roll out as that so it
can be a bit more inclusive and we can give this opportunity to
(05:01):
all ages. So yeah.
And that's something that like I've kind of been a silent
director, been living in Bali and starting up many different
things and doing many things over there.
But I've come back to the UK nowto take that a bit more
seriously because we almost closed our doors this year.
But I'll talk about that in a second and what I'm about to do
to to rectify that. But yeah, in Bali I've done all
(05:23):
done all sorts of things. I've set up a studio for art for
creatives. I got into meditation, which it
really changed my life, fully changed my life.
Like I can't articulate how muchlike it's benefited me and
someone that who with with ADHD,as an ADHD person, I didn't
think it was accessible to me. But actually after delving into
(05:46):
Joe Dispenza after an episode ofDiary of the CEO and going down
a rabbit hole and doing the workand doing one of his books, it
completely changed my life. So much so that now my podcast
is Meditate with Graham Cullis and I record guided meditations
with my crispy chocolatey voice.And it's almost like I'm back in
a band again. I'm doing music again and I'm
(06:08):
producing these things for people to listen to and for
people to help. But one thing that I got out of
it is it's almost like the science of prayer.
And I since since discovering this, I've been asking whatever
is out there, God, the deity, divine quantum physics to help
my mindset, bring me abundance. And it's just been flipping
(06:30):
amazing. I could tell you some really
interesting stories about that. But but yeah, so yeah, in Bali,
I also threw one of these prayers.
I guess I got quite, I got to a point of my art career where I'm
sure a lot of artists here can resonate with this, that yes,
art is therapeutic and it's great for your mental health.
But once it starts isolating youand you're doing it as a job and
(06:52):
you're doing and you're in your bedroom because you can't afford
a studio and you're painting every day and you're not seeing
the outside world. And then you're then in your
bedroom doing all the marketing,doing your podcasts, doing your
social media. I started to realise I'd spent a
lot of time by myself and it started to affect my mental
health. Luckily, I had the foresight to
see that I could observe that. And then just at this same time
(07:14):
as when I started going through my meditation journey, I was
like, what can I do to change this?
And I thought, I need to paint with people.
I need to like, connect again. And it was just like, it was
like a, like a light bulb moment.
I tried to look for property in Bali where I could, for I'd
start something called the KarmaArt Club.
It came into my mind and I was like, I want to have this space
(07:36):
where people could, we could allrent it, I could manage it.
And then it'll be cheap for us to all be in the same room.
But then we can also bounce off each other and collaborate and
just have this like really nice creative environment.
And then I realised it was too expensive to do that.
So I can the idea, but I'd put it out there, you know, and then
just crazy circumstances one after the other, like just it
(07:59):
just, it came to me one day after some loads of massive
crazy turn of events. Just to shorten it up a bit,
someone told me to speak to their friend, said they had an
intuition to tell me. So they don't know why I'm
telling you this, but my friend has this workspace that they
want to put artists in one of this like rundown room.
And I'm like, what? The Karma Rock club?
(08:19):
So I messaged him, Elan and Harry, big shout out to you and
bar and I told him the concept and they're like, here's the
keys. And I'm like, yeah, OK, right.
So how much is it going to cost?And you know, well, I like no,
no, don't worry about the money.We just want the community here.
We'll talk about money later. And yes, so literally like I
just moved into my own huge studio space.
(08:40):
They put air con in for me, theyput Wi-Fi in there, put running
water, they put lights in there.I got a lock that I could use it
for 24 hours of the day. And then so it began.
More people I got managed to connect with different artists.
And now, and now I'm not even there and I'm managing the space
and I've got, and I know that I've got 8 artists over there in
Bali that have had that same problem as me.
(09:01):
And now they're all connecting with each other and they're
painting together. And it's just so nice to know
that that little is there and ifI ever go back to Bali, I can
just fit straight in again. So that's that's one of the one
of the projects which has been been a long way.
Yeah, you do seem very chill. You some very relaxed and very.
Well I've had a caramel tea because I knew the last episode
(09:24):
I had probably had a coffee so Ithought I would.
I do talk a lot anyway as. There's a lot of some back from
that Instagram and from what you've been up to, and I want to
talk to you about it. Quite love it.
But something I'm interested in,you've talked about the
isolation of being an artist. I think currently the moment,
especially in the UK, where mostof our listeners live in our
based, no matter what their creative outlet is, whether they
(09:46):
do what I do in their podcast that are they working TV or the
you know, that a painter, they're an artist, whatever it
may be, a does feel like quite an isolating time because things
just feel very difficult at the moment.
It's difficult to make a living.There's a cost of living crisis.
The opportunities maybe don't feel as good as they maybe where
in the past. From a social mobility point of
view, it can feel a bit negativeand a bit overwhelming.
(10:06):
It's nice to hear you talking about community and how that can
help, but also like discovering something like meditation that
maybe people listen to us that abit.
Like, it's a bit. It's a bit.
Yeah. We were.
That's the word I was looking for.
Yeah. I mean, I'm quite an anxious
person. Sometimes I try.
I'm one of those people that is open to meditation but never
makes the bloody time to do it and is always doing all the
(10:29):
things you talked about, promoting stuff, thinking about
numbers, all the stuff that's really not actually the
important stuff in life. Often I find myself drawn to or
getting caught. And how could someone like
myself is maybe less? I don't know.
I think I am open minded to meditation, but maybe he's a bit
of an outsider. How could they get into
meditation? Or how could meditation help
(10:49):
them? Read the book, or rather listen
to the book. It's inaudible, Breaking the
Habit of being Yourself by Doctor Joe Dispenza.
Go through that book and do the work along the way and it will
open your eyes up to realise that there's actually a science
behind prayer. That's the, that's the main
thing that I got out of it. It is praying.
I, I was brought up in a Christian family and I'm so
(11:10):
grateful for that and the moralsI've learned and the teachings
I've learned and it's been, you know, as maybe the man I am
today. And I came away from that,
became more agnostic as a teenager, didn't know who I was
praying to anymore and didn't really like follow the whole
religious aspect of it. But then when I read that book,
I was like, holy shit, that's what I was doing the whole time
(11:31):
when I was a kid. And I was praying for a bike,
like, and it came true, but you know, like I missed that.
I missed doing that. But I didn't know who I was
praying to. And then now, like reading Joe
Dispenza's work, work with loadsof studies and like, I can't
articulate it as well as he does, but just trust me on this
one. Have a look.
If you're open, open to it, havea look at that book, Break in
(11:53):
the Habit of Being Yourself. Write that down right now,
listeners and. Link it below as well so if you
want to click the link and find it.
And then then go and do you do the meditations?
One problem that with the guidedmeditations for me though is
that it took me age because whenyou get to the point in the book
where you start doing the meditations, that eases you in
really gently. You do like two different types
(12:13):
of meditations. Eventually you're doing like
about an hour every day, which seems crazy to some people, but
like literally it starts off with like a 20 minute induction
and then you do another one. When you find when you want to
go and search for this for the guided meditations to listen to
to the script, you can either just read the script and do it
yourself, which is not as I don't know, I think it's as
helpful, but I couldn't find anymeditations that I like to
(12:36):
listen to. I didn't like the voice of the
person that was doing the meditation or there was someone
that had a really good voice, but they did it above this
kitchen, an industrial kitchen with pots and pans being hit.
And I'm like, what are you doing?
What are you thinking? So I thought, I'm sure that's
some because I've been, I was talking about my whole journey
on my podcast because as you know, my podcast's a monologue
(12:57):
podcast talk about, I just talk about my life and what I've
learnt from it and the mental health struggles and being an
artist. And so I was also telling, I was
also telling my listeners about my journey with this book and
doing the work and what let me just step back a little bit.
The reason I started doing the work was because of this whole
loneliness thing I started, you know, I felt isolated, I felt
(13:17):
lonely. I felt like because I had a new
newly into the full time art world that I changed from
different lifestyles to another.So that's where the isolation
came. I wasn't interested in going to
the pub anymore and meeting people like that old drinking.
I was more interested in my creativity, but it was very
isolating and, and then I knew Ineeded to fix myself.
(13:38):
So this book, doing this book breaking the habit of being
yourself just really helped me along the way.
But anyway, right, so, so I, I, I thought there's going to be
other people that have this problem about not trying to not
be able to find a meditation to listen to.
So I recorded my own and then I tacked it onto the, I'm not sure
if this is allowed, sorry, Doctor Joe Dispenza, but I
(14:00):
tacked it onto the end of my podcast and said that if as a
resource, here it is for you. I've recorded it to the sound of
rainfall or Thunder and lightning and just really chill.
And because a lot of my listeners TuneIn, because they
like listening to my voice. Some of the people say they like
listening to their ukulele musicand they fall asleep to my
podcast, which is fine. But then, but yeah, so then I
(14:21):
thought I'd put that on as a resource for the people that
were going to listen to me and do the book and do the work.
So they had it and I said that Iwould send them.
And it still stands now. If anyone wants to e-mail me,
hello@grahamcallas.com, I'll send you the MP Freeze so you
can have them. But yeah, those, those
particular episodes, if I look on my stats started cranking and
listens. I don't think it must been an
(14:42):
SEO algorithm thing because obviously I put the Joe Dispenza
episode meditation from breakingwhatever, you know, And then
literally I look to the back end, there's hundreds of people
in the States listening to thoseparticular episodes.
And I was like, there's something in this, you know, so
and and like, it's given me joy.I really enjoyed recording them
and when I when I write the scripts and I put them together
(15:05):
and I put the music together andthe sound effects, the rain, the
find the royalty free music, it's sort of unlocked another
path of creativity for me. But yeah, it's a long winded
answer. It's a that, but yeah, basically
it's going to be good for your brain.
If you, if you can, if you can manage even just 5 minutes a
day, it's going to be good for your brain.
It's going to be make your brainhealthier.
(15:27):
Yeah. For sure, Graham, when I talked
to you about, I mean, you mentioned them at the start,
some of your other projects, butand you talked about rebranding.
You've our connect, but you're also doing a tour of the UK at
the moment and you're Van, aren't you?
You're sort of travelling around, showing up to people's
towns and villages and helping them.
Yeah, be more mindful. Get connected.
(15:48):
All right, I am it's called the Splat and splash tour of the UK.
And yeah, it's, it's, it's been a it's been a wild journey.
So you can Bali, I was obviouslyI've always been trying to make
it as an artist and in the world.
And, and I found that like in Bali, I couldn't really like
(16:09):
make that happen as easily. And I mean, it's Bali's not my
home turf and legally and I can't really be an artist out
there and earn a living. I can just there's only a
tourist over there, you know. So even with like, you know, if
I was to manage that studio and start making money out of it,
that's I was not allowed to do that unless I have, you know,
(16:30):
certain visas. And so I was just doing that.
I'm just doing that volunteeringvoluntary.
I was just doing that voluntary,just like I wanted a space to
create, but I couldn't actually earn from it.
So I thought I probably need to get back to the UK and try and I
make some waves with my art on my home turf.
(16:51):
And that was kind of like sealedin my mind after I met one of my
inspirations actually. And this happened, I believe
free meditation as well. And I've talked about this on my
podcast as well. But for your listeners, I don't
know if you saw when I was of knocking about a bit with that
artist called Sophie T Yeah, youknow, you know her.
(17:16):
Have you seen her just? On the reels, just on the reels
you've posted and stuff. Yeah, OK, right.
So Sophie T is an artist who's like absolutely crushing it
right now. And she's been really, she's
really inspired me and like the way she does her social media to
also like 'cause she helps all these charity shops.
So she basically goes into a charity shop, picks an item,
(17:38):
paints it and then comes back and then raffles it off to
whoever shows up. And it's a, it's a really, it's
a really genius, engaging way toinvolve the public, get herself
her name out there and also do some really good stuff for
charity. And it's just really taken off
of her. I mean, before that I think like
she, what really kicked off of her was this send nudes campaign
(18:02):
where she was painting, paintingwomen and giving them like an
experience of like just basically helping them through
like body image and just like offering to paint people naked
to give them like a nice sort ofliberating experience.
And that really kicked off for her the send nudes campaign.
She basically just put a messageout there and said, send me
nudes and shed like thousands ofpeople just go into her inbox
(18:25):
and then base then basically filled up like the London
Palladium with a catwalk show. And yeah, just, it just really
kicked off for her. Like then I I've sort of been
following that journey and then I saw the charity shop thing and
I was like, that's really cleverwith the social media thing.
And social media is like, as we all know, it's a pain in our
bums to try and you know, and, and as an artists and a
(18:48):
creative, like it's, it's kind of the way to market yourself
now. Like, you know, if you want to
get yourself out there and your name out there, you need to, you
need to really invest in your social media and the time that
you spend on it, which is, it can be annoying, but I actually
really enjoy it. But like, see, I, I did one of
my praise to the universe when Iwas like in Bali, because I, I
was just like, I was like, I think it was like, I want the
(19:10):
universe to slap me around the face to show him on the right
path. And that was when I was before I
was about to come home to do my Christmas and taxes thing that I
like to say when I come home. I, I come home from Bali every
November to see the family do Christmas and do my taxes.
Then I go back again. And then I, yeah.
And then I thought, do you know what?
I after I'd done this, these meditations on like trying to
(19:34):
get an answer to say that I'm onthe right path.
I thought, I'm going to message Sophie to see if she wants to be
on my podcast and and she replied she had like 6K
followers on there. I didn't think it.
I just thought it'd go straight into a spam.
She sent me a message saying a message Alex Sophie t.com, we
can talk about this. I'm like, yes, there's a sign
message Alex. Alex was like, I love the
(19:56):
concept and what you want to talk about.
I basically wanted to basically talk about not about her back
story and how she became a successful artist, but how what
she's doing to impact the community with her social media.
And they said they loved the idea and they said they'll
pencil me in for the new year and I'm like happy days.
I might even be able to go and do it face to face because.
I'm going to be back in the UK and yeah, so that was the sign
that I was looking for. But then I also needed to put my
(20:19):
my, my room up for rent and I needed and obviously it's one of
my way. I don't be paying rent.
So I, I put it up for sublet fortwo months and this girl
responded to my ad, came into the room and was like, wow, I
love your art. I used to sell art in London.
I'm like, oh, OK, cool. She's yeah.
Do you know Sophie T? I'm like, what?
This is like couple of days later, you know, and I'm like,
(20:39):
yeah, I literally just finished a, a conversation thread on
e-mail with her manager to get her on my podcast.
She's like, no way. She's my best friend for all the
people that could have like cometo my bedroom to look at my art
and want to rent my my space. And then I was like, and then
she said, you should write this on your vision board.
(21:00):
And I sort of did look, look at my whiteboard.
And I've got Sophie T follow up in the new year.
She takes a photo of it, sends it to Sophie, sends a voice note
that for me to to to Sophie to introduce myself.
I don't think Sophie even heard that because she doesn't listen
to voice notes I heard later on.Anyway.
I yeah, I so I did. That was just like another thing
that blew my mind. I was like, my gosh, you know,
(21:21):
like, yeah, definitely on the right path.
So day, day or two later, I get a message from this lady.
And Hannah, if you're listening,big shout out to you.
She said, well, she didn't end up taking my room, but she said
two things. Grandma, take the room and
you'll never guess what. But Sophie lands in Bali on
Monday. I'm like, what?
And then I and then she's yeah, I need to add you into a
(21:43):
WhatsApp chat with her, with myself and Alex.
So you she can either paint in your studio or you can organise
some art supplies for her. And I'm like, yes, OK.
I was like, OK, great. So from like a few days ago of
praying to the universe with my meditation and just putting it
out there asking if Sophie wantsto be on my podcast.
I'm about to meet her in real person like the following
(22:05):
weekend. And yeah, she came to Bali and
one thing led to another that I ended up actually doing one of
her. I produced one of her charity
shop Bali edition. She wanted her to go and do a
charity shop in Bali. So I've found the only charity
shop that was in Ubud and then like ended up taking like going
like I was, I was only supposed to like go to part of the day
(22:28):
where, well, I, I organised all that, but I was, and she has to
go and paint somewhere. So I found my friend's art
school that she's she could paint, she'd go and get the
object and go and paint it therebefore she goes back to raffle
it off. But then Alex messaged me.
He said, oh, by the way, bad news.
I'm I've got barley belly. So you're gonna have to take
Sophie for the whole day. And like what?
(22:50):
So like the first time I met her, I literally walked into
this villa that I'd been told where the location was.
She walks out, her hair's all a mess.
She looks like a rock star. And then we go off and I get to
see the whole behind the scenes of her process.
And we had a camera girl come along, and I just got to see how
she did everything of her socialmedia and how she filmed it and
how she performed or whatever. And then that night, I was
(23:12):
having pizza. Just me and Sophie went for
pizza together at an Italian restaurant.
And it was just like one of those moments where I had got to
basically almost have like a little mentorship session with
someone that's been that's really successful.
And that when one thing she saidto me was like, yeah, every
artist needs to invest in their social media.
She says, obviously, yeah, I'm in a privileged position where I
(23:33):
can afford it, but like every, well, every business needs to to
invest in a social media. And that just really stuck with
me. So when I came back from my
Christmas and taxes, I didn't even follow up for a podcast
after that because I got a soundbite and I put it on my podcast
anyway. But I thought whatever, like
that's just enough for me, you know?
And yeah. And then I I thought, what can I
(23:53):
do that's gonna I can do that's kind of similar in a way.
It's like an episode all kind ofsocial media vlog, I guess like
a like episode 123 like she doesof her charity shops.
But like is isn't like, you know, ripping off her idea.
But it's a similar kind of process where I, I tell my
followers I'm going to be at this location at this time, come
(24:15):
find me at the beach. So yeah, basically the Splat and
Splash came into my mindset and I started developing that idea
and then I, yeah, exec started executing it in September this
year. The whole concept of the Splat
and Splash that I came up with is that I want to advocate for
each of the pillars of mental health.
(24:36):
I like to talk about so that seaswimming.
I love doing ocean dips. I think the cold water immersion
is amazing for your mental health.
I love meditation now, so I'm adding meditation into that.
Also dancing. I've got into ecstatic dance
over the last couple of years where you just go to like a
sober rave where there's no alcohol involved.
You just literally dancing like a lunatic to whatever D JS
(24:58):
playing. And it's just you're just having
an amazing connection. And it's almost like in a
setting of like, kind of like a yoga kind of setting where it's
all meditative, it's uplifting, and then it brings you down
again. And then you'll have this
journey together. So I thought I would love to, to
execute something like that on the beach for people.
And, and then at the same time, I get everyone, I'm creating a
(25:20):
body of artwork. So I, I invite the community to
splat the background of a canvas.
So if like your YouTube watcherscan see behind me, all of the
backgrounds are created on thesetwo pieces.
So the people that can't aren't watching.
What I do is I get the background, like I put a canvas
out, I get them, I give them a load of splat bottles, and the
(25:41):
guidance is they're not allowed to paint it with brushes.
No way. I made that mistake on the first
one. But basically I just give them
splat bottles and I said just gofor it.
Just get all that energy out on the background.
So I get these amazing, beautiful kind of, Yeah, it'd be
good for. Me say again that.
'D be good for. Me as someone that can't paint
whatsoever, Well, yeah. It's like it's just so inclusive
(26:04):
and like I get the whole like, yeah, I just get like an
amazing, amazing canvas to work on.
And then I respond to it with something to do with that area.
So behind me I have Land's End is the first one was the Land's
End lobster. I didn't really have that much
inspiration about what I was going to paint for the first
one, but I wanted the 1st letterof the name of the of the of the
place Land's End Lobster. But then St.
(26:26):
Ives the second the second episode, someone told me, my
friend Nigel told me about this seal called wings that lives in
the harbour. That's where I did the the
episode. But yeah, so the seal, the St.
Ives seal called Wings, I painted it.
I painted the seal with Angel wings.
And there's an Arabi Frisbee as a Halo because the story goes
(26:46):
that one day Wings got her head stuck in an Arabi Frisbee and
the fisherman had to corner her to pull it off.
So I thought, there we go. And then I sell each of those
pieces of a charity for for you for Connect, and I'm selling
them for 1000 lbs each. I've already sold a couple
someones, even bought 1 before it's even being created.
And that means after doing 30 venues.
(27:09):
Oh yeah, I missed this bit out. I'm travelling the whole of the
UK doing this. So I'm doing a beach every five
days, what I was doing every five days or four days.
But I realised when I got to Portishead last week, I, I
almost burnt out because you have to run an event, do the
social media, do the painting within four days of leaving the
(27:31):
last place. And then also like talking to
the press, talking to. I've got 19 WhatsApp chats
running regionally. So I'm, I'm basically talking to
like different towns around the country to tell them I'm coming
and building that community there as well, which also is a
funnel for me as an artist as well.
So I've, I'm building my fans offline as well as on social
(27:53):
media as well. And yeah, so after we do the,
the dance and splat the canvas, we do the spectacle part, which
is the scroll stopper where you know, and you've got 3 seconds
of someone's attention on socialmedia where I get, I normally
what happens is I get covered inpaint, but I can't do that at
the beach. So people throw ketchup,
(28:14):
mayonnaise and mustard at me andit's just like a, it's a, it's
just for belly laughs. It's performance art.
And I look great afterwards. No one wants to give me a hug
afterwards, though. And then we go for a swim in the
ocean together and I connect with a social, I'm sorry.
Then I connect with a a swimmingclub in each area and get their
community there. So the heart of the campaign is
(28:36):
called Standing Against Loneliness.
And what I'm trying to do is through these videos and my
outreach on, on WhatsApp and, and through Facebook groups, I'm
trying to reach people that might be struggling, that are
lonely in the area to come down to the beach, discover community
like the sea swimmers to make new friends, new loving
connections, and also try a bunch of activities that are
(28:58):
good for your mental health. And then, you know, it helps me
raise awareness and money for the CIC for UFR connect.
Also, I'm raising awareness for local charities in each town
that I go to. So every town I go to, I'll find
a local mental health charity that's doing amazing things in
the area and I'll champion them on the day.
I'll collaborate with them on the posts and also just give
(29:20):
them a narrative on the day and everyone that comes to get.
But did I mention it was all thesilent disco headsets as well?
I know I, I kind of budget this up a little bit, right?
Let me explain to you exactly how it works.
So you find, find out where I am, you come to the beach.
I've got 100 disco headsets. I run a meditation.
I play one of my podcast meditations.
(29:41):
So I give everyone that experience.
Then it flows into ecstatic dance.
I lead everyone on a journey. I I play like meditative tracks
to like slightly cool sort of dance.
He tracks to full on bangers, like sing along stuff like Abber
and stuff like that just to get everyone laughing and crying and
hugging. And then I bring it down again.
(30:02):
We all have this amazing experience.
It's just and and people, peopleare really touched by it.
It's really nice. But yeah, in that one event I
can help champion the charities locally, champion my own
organisation, Youth Art Connect,and it also gives me a bit of
exposure as well because people start starting to follow me
(30:22):
around the country, They're finding out where I'm going to
be next. So it's like, you know, like hi,
I'm in Weston Super Mare and this is what we got up to today.
And watch out Cardiff, I'm coming for you next.
Well, Porter said was next afterthat, but yeah, so I'm now in
here in in Wales and it's been so beautiful.
The journey has been incredible as well.
(30:43):
I've just been meeting all theseamazing people, seeing all these
beautiful places and making lotsof amazing connections.
And yeah, like I'm and I'm I'm doing it in a in a Ford Transit
van. It's just I'm full van lifing it
right now, which is it's just like a dream come true.
It's so nice become. A proper, proper artist since we
(31:04):
last spoke before you meditationthe van, you know, I bet you got
to feel like. Yeah, that's it, you know.
And you're and you're. Yeah.
And you're going to be in Scotland as well, which is
exciting. I bet you're excited.
I can't wait for Scotland. So Air Beach is where I go 1st
and then I do a mad like 8 hour dash.
(31:27):
I think it's a really long driveup to the top.
I'm going to go, I'm going to, to Ferzo first because I've
chosen some places where I can surf as well.
Today I had some really nice waves here in Wales and yeah,
Furzo is like a very famous surfbreak where there's like I think
the O'Neill do the Cold War classic there.
(31:47):
So I chose that soul selfishly and so I could, I could get some
good surfing. But then I hit John O'Groats so
I can claim the Land's End John O'Groats thing.
And then obviously I want to, I want to, I hit Inverness and
then while I'm going past it, I thought I've got to go to Loch
Ness, I've got to do it, you know.
And then, then after that I'll be in Edinburgh.
(32:08):
And I don't know if you're whereyou are right now.
Where are you guys? It's going now mate.
So, you know, probably Air's theclosest, but you have to give me
a secret warning if you want me to come.
Well, do you know what? Actually, like I was doing, like
I said, I was doing these every four days.
It's actually you, you actually could be able to predict it now.
So if you look at my social media and you see where I'm
(32:29):
going to be, I'm doing it weeklyand it's going to be on a
Saturday every time. Because I realised when I got to
Portishead I'd done 6 events straight up, back-to-back, four
or five days in between and I nearly burnt out.
So when I got here to Wales, I was like, oh, I need to rest, I
need to, I need to restock. I was back behind on a lot of
the painting as well. I still am a bit, but I just
(32:51):
needed to stop for a bit. So I gave myself a week and a
half to recalibrate. And, and then because I
realised, you know, like I'm doing all this from mental
health, but at the expense of myown.
And ironically, you know, I've put myself in a really lonely
position. It's called standing against
loneliness. And I'm in a van by myself and
I'm literally running an event every.
(33:12):
I was running an event every four days, which meant I
couldn't even connect with the communities I was I was
visiting. I was just busy trying to get
the content done and promoting it and making it all work.
But now like I've chilled and I'm like, I'm going to give
myself an extra 3 days in between, which means I can be me
again. I can do my painting like
without any stress, without having to force it.
(33:34):
I can also connect with the sea swimming group.
So I've been like hanging out with this group called the Dawn
Stalkers here in Cardiff, PenarfBeach.
And it's just been, it's been really nice to actually get to
know the community before I run the event.
So it's going to be every Saturday.
So it'll be a Saturday. So when you see that I'm in, I
think it's Blackpool is the, theweek before a beach?
(33:56):
Then it'll give you, it'll give you a bit of chance or
Liverpool, you'll, you'll know you'll have two weeks before,
but I hope you can come. I I will.
Do my best to come to one of them.
I'll look at what's easiest to get to because I don't drive.
So we'll wait and see. You talked about the social
media stuff there and obviously we'll link all the your stuff
below. So if you want to find out more
(34:18):
about, you know, what you've been up to, whether that's on
Instagram or whatever you're, you're making content.
But what sort of do you have anytips for anyone, anything you've
learned that doesn't work? Anything you'd find that works
well? Because I think a lot of people
that are asked maybe are a bit scared of social media because
like, well, I do my painting, but that's a whole different
ballpark. OK, right.
So I would say like, I still have no idea what works, but
(34:42):
I've and and they do say, you know, I think consistency is
key. And also like what I would just
say is just make. You hear people say this all the
time, but it's so true. Just make something that you
enjoy making rather than like don't make.
But then again, like, I don't know, like you got to feed the
algorithm sometimes. So I've also been doing this
(35:05):
weird thing where I do like these because I'm in a van.
I'm doing these like workouts with like outdoor showers and
they seem to be doing really well.
So on TikTok, like my last videothat I made for for this project
for the Porter's head was such abeautiful, heartfelt video.
It's almost like a documentary as so much love gone into it.
I make it really emotive and beautiful and nice music that
(35:27):
I've licenced and I really take care of the edit and it's and I
think like this is the worst one.
It's done and it's it's like on a couple 100 views.
But then I do like a video of menext to an illegal fly tipping
area showering my testicles. Not actually my testicles aren't
out by the way. I'm just like I do where it's
called washing the bits and I'm like just washing, like having a
(35:48):
shower and you've got to wash the bits first and then your
face. And it's like it's, it's a
little bit weird and like I don't know if this should go in.
Nah, fuck it, put it in. But yeah.
And that's got like 30,000 views.
And I'm like, what is going on? Like why do people like all this
rubbish? But you know, it then brought me
like I scrolled. Pasta on your Instagram the
other day and they are weirdly quite like watchable.
(36:10):
I don't know why. So it is a weird thing the
algorithm you've been watching me.
Shower did come up and I was. Like what was great making and
then it's like, why is this likepeople?
And I was like, Oh my God, people are really engaging with
this. And I was trying to think why I
know. It's because it's because I'm
washing my bits before my face first.
Basically what happened was I was, I did this outdoor shower
(36:31):
thing. I thought, yeah, I'll just get
my Decathlon pump shower and I was outside in Thornton Sands.
I think that could be right, but.
Though I think it's, I think it's, I think it's probably the
what I felt was interesting was the novelty.
I was like, oh, he's in a van and he's got this like weird
shower thing. That was more what I was
interesting, obviously, but I dothink I know, no.
Tony Not yet, but what it was I was responding.
(36:52):
The reason I've made the video is a bit more grotesque is
because I was responding to someone in the comments because
I literally was showering. I didn't even think about it.
I was showering my armpits like that with the soap, you know,
And then I went straight to my face and then someone put one
pits to face diabolical. And I was like, oh, don't give
me ideas. So now I'm like, yeah, wash the
bits, wash the bits and then your face like that.
(37:16):
And literally like it causes so many people to comment on the
and pushes the algorithm. I guess something about but then
I put something about my splat and splash mental health project
that's helping lots of people and people having amazing
experience and no one gives a shit.
But The thing is like, I don't know, I'm at the beginning of
this journey, so who knows? Watch this space.
I'm just going to keep going relentlessly.
(37:38):
And to be honest, like I've cometo realise that I just love
making them now and I'm not I don't really care if people
watching them or not because what the magic is happening is
in the act of doing it. And I'm connecting with all
these people and the people thatare coming to the beach are
telling me and the message me after saying, Hey, Graham, I was
(37:58):
in such a bad place and you're you're.
Event you're gathering. Really uplifted me.
I've had a couple of moments where people have opened up to
me and told me some really sort of deep dark secrets that's
really been they've been battling with and it's just this
moment for them just really gavethem space and help them see
(38:20):
some hope and some light. So for me that's worth anything,
you know, and I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoying making, I'm
enjoying the journey. It's a lot of work, but like
it's an art project which is going to probably take until
March because I because now I told you I've extended the time
to of doing it weekly rather than every four days.
(38:41):
I was due to finish it in January, but it's probably not
going to finish till March now. We still get home.
Whatever, we still get home in time for your taxes and all
that, no? I'll be doing that on the road.
So Christmas, it looks like I might be in South End.
So if there's any families in South End listening to this
South End, I need AI, need a spot for Christmas.
(39:01):
But I also think what I might dois I'm going to do a Christmas
special wherever I am going pastit might not be on a Saturday,
it might be a different day, butit's Christmas Day, everyone's
off work. So I'm going to do a Christmas
special. I'm going to be, I'm going to
find a beach somewhere. It's probably going to be in
South End and I'm going to invite anyone to come along.
I'm going to put on a spread. I'm going to bring the community
(39:23):
together and just anyone that's like that's alone at Christmas
can come down and we can have like an amazing afternoon on the
beach, whatever the weather. I'll even like, I don't know
what I'll do. I'm just going to I'm going to
figure out a way that even if it's raining, we got some cover
and we can go somewhere. I've got, I've got a while to
figure that out, but yeah, so I'll be doing my taxes in
(39:46):
Southend probably. Well, it's been amazing.
To your jet man, fair play to even sometimes as Craig's we can
get frustrated from like 200 people to watch the video or
something, but it's about the connections and the impact
you're having in real life when you're with these people and.
You know, I people are coming and that's the main thing and
it's like, you know, the community stuff's as important.
We've been speaking for nearly now, so I'm going to start to
(40:07):
write things. We've got a couple of questions
for you. Something we started asking I
guess recently is about bad advice because this industry is
full of bad advice And as an artist, what's the worst advice
you've received? Or what's a bit of bad advice
that you hear too often? Do you know what?
Like I want to answer this but Idon't.
I really respect the person thatgave me the advice so I won't
(40:32):
say it in a way. OK like it.
It was heartfelt and for like good meaning, but it was to do
with and if you are listening and if you do know who you are,
I love you and I respect you so much and I love all of the
advice you've given me. But this one, I think, in
hindsight, was something that I probably shouldn't have listened
(40:55):
to and I should have gone with my intuition.
But it was to do when with my subscription service that, well,
you know, Patreon, I was advisedto put my prices up like for the
karma cards. And it, it kind of backfired on
me because like it wasn't, I waspretty much told to double them
(41:15):
and like I doubled the prices and I didn't grow from that
point. And I lost a lot of people that
are interested in maybe joining signing up.
So yeah, I would say like that was probably something you need
to think or think about. If you're doing something that
you want to build a community tosupport you monthly on a
subscription, you just need to be really careful with that
(41:38):
because you know you want you want things to be accessible.
Does that make sense? No, I think.
A difficult one because you needto make a living as an artist
and you have to, especially as inflation and things are
happening. But the same thing required
because if you nudge people too much, then you yeah, it's like
like I gave some away again. I use them as birthday cards or
(41:59):
whatever. I give them to this not for.
Birthdays, Jamie. It's not for birthdays.
It's for out of the blue random random acts of kindness.
You can buy a birthday card, nice cards, the gift.
People their night and then it comes with the extra message as
well. But you're right, I should maybe
just give them gift them to people, but they come in handy
and some of them up and stuff. But are you still doing the
(42:21):
karma card stuff? Do you?
Is that still active? It's no, not, not, not this is
not it's not really anymore. So what I because I could see
like I'm I when I the way I do my Patreon now for people to
support, to sponsor me monthly. I just want people to come on
board for my message. The fact that I'm doing some,
(42:42):
I'm doing so much good into the world because it did become
quite a task to give out physical things to people.
And when you're a one man band, you know, and you're trying to
do wear all the hats and do everything else, it came an
extra thing that was really kindof it was kind of taxing for the
people that like yourself, that have been like loyal, like
Patreon supporters, Like I've still got a list of those people
(43:05):
that are from the beginning. And you guys get a print, a
couple of prints. I think I did last time in the
post. Did you receive it?
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I, I, I'm still like
giving that to the people that came up from the beginning.
But from now on, basically this I've, I've got no price on my
Patreon and I just let people just support me for what
(43:26):
whatever they want. It could be a pound, you know,
if they're, if they're getting value out of the podcast and the
meditations that I make and the stuff that I do in the mental
health space, I feel that I should be enough for people to
pledge me. And actually people are, people
are starting to join again with that, you know, which is nice.
And yeah, but saying that I willlike to bring something back
(43:47):
like that in the future. Like, I don't know where it is,
but right now, like I just, I'vegot so much going on.
I, I couldn't even possibly think about that.
But I'm making money by selling my prints wherever I go.
I normally rock up at like a boot sale or a market.
Actually, the other morning in Cardiff I went out for a night
out of my friends to catch up and I and you know the beauty of
(44:10):
fan life, I parked right in the city centre next to the stadium
across the river. And then I heard all this
commotion as I woke up. I was like, right, I've got till
10:00 to sober up. That's when the ticket guy
comes. Then I opened up the door like
that and the commotion was all these tents were being put up
and it was a market and I spoke to the market guy.
I was like, dude, do you mind ifI just paint here and put my
(44:30):
prints to help for my 'cause he's like, yeah, go on.
Then he turned a blind eye to all the insurances and I made
that £130 and it was, it was so good.
And I've got a bit to talk to somany people about the project.
So yeah, I've been like, I've been really enjoying the art
markets and boot sales lately. Yeah, well.
(44:51):
Before I ask him my last question, you can support
Graham's patron or anything he'sdoing as well.
We've also just for just got real job just launched the buy
me a coffee page as well, because I think a lot of the
time people don't, you know, necessarily can't afford to
subscribe to patron because theycan't afford to pay monthly.
But even if you want to make a one off in donation to us, if
it's a pound, if it's a fiver, anything all helps go back into
(45:11):
making the show the best it can be.
But Graham, last question for you.
Obviously, we haven't spoken properly on this podcast for
four years, but what's the biggest lesson you've learned in
the last four years since we last spoke?
That's a big question. Isn't it biggest lesson?
I think the biggest lesson in the last four years I've learned
is to reevaluate all the relationships I've had with
(45:32):
different people. I spoke about this on another
podcast recently to do with neurodivergence, you know, like
autism, ADHD, and the way that we all are wired up differently.
And I've, I've, I've been like looking back at my, my
friendships or relationships that have not gone the way that
(45:53):
they should have. And I now can like, look back at
them with compassion and to realise that actually, like,
there's probably more to what wesee and that person might just
be wired up differently. And I love them still.
You know, that's something that I've, I've learned, you know,
I've learned that, you know, to,to basically just look at people
(46:15):
in in a completely different waynow.
And if if yeah, does that make sense?
Almost. Learning to forgive, but also
just yeah. And.
Stuff going on and it's not always personal.
Exactly, Yeah. That's that's something if you
can take a bit of time to just yeah, to learn about yourself
(46:37):
first and what makes you operatein this world can also really
help you understand other people.
So do the work when you do the work on yourself will help you
help you doing the work on compassion for others.
And another big lesson is with all of the shit that's going on
in this world, is just all I want to do is be the kindest
(47:01):
person I can be to the next person.
And that's as much as I can do. That's as much as I think we
should do. You know, don't let all of the
stuff in the world, like, affectyou.
I know it's hard to say that. I don't know.
It's quite deep, isn't it? Yeah, but a nice.
Place then, yeah. Graham, thank you.
Very much for coming back on theshow.
(47:22):
It's lovely to reconnect. And, you know, one of my
favourite things we're doing this podcast is we collect all
this stuff over the years and you meet people and I mean,
like, get this art, whether it'sfrom you or, you know, meet
other people have had on and I've got T-shirts from their
bands or whatever, all that stuff.
It's so nice to have, like, collect, you know, mark your
life for that. So pleasure to reconnect and
(47:43):
good luck with the rest of your tour.
And I hope your taxes are not too bad on the road.
Yeah. That'd be all right.
I've got a whole load of receipts and a zip lock bag
which I'll need to go through. Pleasure to speak to you.
Mate. Legend.
There he is. Hello and welcome back to
another episode of Just Get RealJob with your host, me, Jim
McKinley. It is a joy to welcome back on
Graham Cullis, who we've had on the podcast a few times, but
it's been 4 years since the last10 months, so a lot of catching
up to the Graham. How are you, Sir?
It's been a while. Yeah, yeah, it's been a while,
hasn't it? And yeah, it's, it's been a
(00:22):
journey for sure, like the last few years.
And there's lots, like you said,there's lots to catch up on.
I can't wait to hear about all your news as well.
Yeah, well, I'm loving you. I love the backdrop.
You've got good on there. Very, very artistic.
The base age. A backdrop and it's painted by a
guy called Sam the Poet. I'm in my friend, my new friend
Sophie's house, who I met at ourmarket the other day.
(00:42):
And she invited me to do some van life experience where we
went to the beach in Wales wherethere was some pumping surf.
We had a fire, a sunset. And then she said you can record
the podcast here in my son's room.
So I set up here. It's beautiful and I've got a
couple of my paintings from the tour there that I could show for
you. We'll talk about that later,
though. Yeah, well, I've also, I've got
some of your karma cards and painting vintage to hand some
(01:07):
from different points I suppose.A good place to start.
Graham, Let's recap who you are for listeners because, you know,
four years a long time. I think we've got quite a lot of
new listeners since then. People have dropped in and out.
Who is Graham Cullis? Tell us.
Graham Cullis is an artist of all different kinds of mediums.
You can't sit still on one medium and just chops and
changes. But is loving his creative life.
(01:30):
Yeah. So I guess to recap very quickly
and you can go back to the otherepisode that I'm on and hear the
whole life story. But I discovered I could paint
in 2020 and it changed my life. I realised how much it helped my
mental health. And then that sent me on my icky
guy, my purpose, my reason. And I, over the last five years,
(01:51):
since 2020, I've been using my art to give back, to help people
discover the same mental health benefits.
And not only just art, other kinds of holistic things as well
that I like to do, like sea swimming, meditation and all
kinds of goodness. I try and advocate for that and
help people discover things for themselves.
So yeah, I'm a philanthropist asan art and an artist.
(02:13):
Get Do you reference the episodeyou've been on before?
I think the first episode you'vedone was really, really early in
our journey as a podcast. I think it was at the 13th
episode. I listened back to that like a
while ago and I was like, Oh my gosh.
Because like, I, I was so excited and full of beans and
I've had a chamomile tea today. So I, yeah, if you do go back to
(02:35):
that one, I yeah, I feel like, yeah, I was very hyper.
I was going to say as well, if entices the listeners to go
check that I used to do poetry at the start of this podcast.
Many, many we're talking 2020 horrific in hindsight and do not
do poetry anymore. So there you go that you want to
go back and list episode 13 a long time ago and it's not it's.
(02:55):
Not it's not horrific. It wasn't horrific.
It's beautiful prose. It's a young Jamie, a young.
And then I think we had you last.
It was, it must have been like episode 58.
And then we've done nearly, you know, 180 episodes.
So it is mad. So and we you.
Came to mind as well. Yeah, we and I.
Covered your intro as a as a gayscar version with brass
(03:16):
instruments. We'd said goodbye to our intro
now as well since then, so the lots of yeah.
That intro is not Do you mean sothat the listeners didn't get to
hear that beautiful Jingle before we started talking?
Probably not, no, I mean we sortof we something still we
instrumental from time to time, but you know, it's this video
agent and now it's all changed. It's all changed.
So the OG fans, they they shouldknow, but Graham how I we're
(03:39):
also recording this right. I'm usually have a plan of
questions. I haven't prepared much today.
I'm just, this is just a we're just shit talking.
This is a phone call, as blind boy would say.
No, there definitely is, but let's recap that.
What have you? What have you been doing for the
last four years you were in Bali, been doing, you fight,
connect, you've been with lots of great content from the beach,
(03:59):
with failure, celebrities, different people.
What's been going on? Yes.
So I've just been, you know, just saying yes to opportunities
and just going along on my merryway and just trying to help a
lot of people, like I said, would discover things within the
mental health space. Yeah, I set up a couple of sea
swimming groups, one in New York, which I think I might have
talked about this in the last podcast episode, got in the New
(04:20):
York Times, the New York DippersClub.
I started my charity or CIC Youth Art Connect, which helps
people with basically we give therapeutic art sessions for
either free or very cheap to young, young children and
adults. And we're actually going through
a bit of a revamp on that soon because we, it's called Youth
(04:41):
Art Connect. But we're, we're hoping we're
looking like we might take the youth out and call it maybe this
is very exclusive by the way, and we haven't, I haven't even
like confirmed this as the directors.
So I'm so sorry it doesn't happen.
But your art connection, we're going to roll out as that so it
can be a bit more inclusive and we can give this opportunity to
(05:01):
all ages. So yeah.
And that's something that like I've kind of been a silent
director, been living in Bali and starting up many different
things and doing many things over there.
But I've come back to the UK nowto take that a bit more
seriously because we almost closed our doors this year.
But I'll talk about that in a second and what I'm about to do
to to rectify that. But yeah, in Bali I've done all
(05:23):
done all sorts of things. I've set up a studio for art for
creatives. I got into meditation, which it
really changed my life, fully changed my life.
Like I can't articulate how muchlike it's benefited me and
someone that who with with ADHD,as an ADHD person, I didn't
think it was accessible to me. But actually after delving into
(05:46):
Joe Dispenza after an episode ofDiary of the CEO and going down
a rabbit hole and doing the workand doing one of his books, it
completely changed my life. So much so that now my podcast
is Meditate with Graham Cullis and I record guided meditations
with my crispy chocolatey voice.And it's almost like I'm back in
a band again. I'm doing music again and I'm
(06:08):
producing these things for people to listen to and for
people to help. But one thing that I got out of
it is it's almost like the science of prayer.
And I since since discovering this, I've been asking whatever
is out there, God, the deity, divine quantum physics to help
my mindset, bring me abundance. And it's just been flipping
(06:30):
amazing. I could tell you some really
interesting stories about that. But but yeah, so yeah, in Bali,
I also threw one of these prayers.
I guess I got quite, I got to a point of my art career where I'm
sure a lot of artists here can resonate with this, that yes,
art is therapeutic and it's great for your mental health.
But once it starts isolating youand you're doing it as a job and
(06:52):
you're doing and you're in your bedroom because you can't afford
a studio and you're painting every day and you're not seeing
the outside world. And then you're then in your
bedroom doing all the marketing,doing your podcasts, doing your
social media. I started to realise I'd spent a
lot of time by myself and it started to affect my mental
health. Luckily, I had the foresight to
see that I could observe that. And then just at this same time
(07:14):
as when I started going through my meditation journey, I was
like, what can I do to change this?
And I thought, I need to paint with people.
I need to like, connect again. And it was just like, it was
like a, like a light bulb moment.
I tried to look for property in Bali where I could, for I'd
start something called the KarmaArt Club.
It came into my mind and I was like, I want to have this space
(07:36):
where people could, we could allrent it, I could manage it.
And then it'll be cheap for us to all be in the same room.
But then we can also bounce off each other and collaborate and
just have this like really nice creative environment.
And then I realised it was too expensive to do that.
So I can the idea, but I'd put it out there, you know, and then
just crazy circumstances one after the other, like just it
(07:59):
just, it came to me one day after some loads of massive
crazy turn of events. Just to shorten it up a bit,
someone told me to speak to their friend, said they had an
intuition to tell me. So they don't know why I'm
telling you this, but my friend has this workspace that they
want to put artists in one of this like rundown room.
And I'm like, what? The Karma Rock club?
(08:19):
So I messaged him, Elan and Harry, big shout out to you and
bar and I told him the concept and they're like, here's the
keys. And I'm like, yeah, OK, right.
So how much is it going to cost?And you know, well, I like no,
no, don't worry about the money.We just want the community here.
We'll talk about money later. And yes, so literally like I
just moved into my own huge studio space.
(08:40):
They put air con in for me, theyput Wi-Fi in there, put running
water, they put lights in there.I got a lock that I could use it
for 24 hours of the day. And then so it began.
More people I got managed to connect with different artists.
And now, and now I'm not even there and I'm managing the space
and I've got, and I know that I've got 8 artists over there in
Bali that have had that same problem as me.
(09:01):
And now they're all connecting with each other and they're
painting together. And it's just so nice to know
that that little is there and ifI ever go back to Bali, I can
just fit straight in again. So that's that's one of the one
of the projects which has been been a long way.
Yeah, you do seem very chill. You some very relaxed and very.
Well I've had a caramel tea because I knew the last episode
(09:24):
I had probably had a coffee so Ithought I would.
I do talk a lot anyway as. There's a lot of some back from
that Instagram and from what you've been up to, and I want to
talk to you about it. Quite love it.
But something I'm interested in,you've talked about the
isolation of being an artist. I think currently the moment,
especially in the UK, where mostof our listeners live in our
based, no matter what their creative outlet is, whether they
(09:46):
do what I do in their podcast that are they working TV or the
you know, that a painter, they're an artist, whatever it
may be, a does feel like quite an isolating time because things
just feel very difficult at the moment.
It's difficult to make a living.There's a cost of living crisis.
The opportunities maybe don't feel as good as they maybe where
in the past. From a social mobility point of
view, it can feel a bit negativeand a bit overwhelming.
(10:06):
It's nice to hear you talking about community and how that can
help, but also like discovering something like meditation that
maybe people listen to us that abit.
Like, it's a bit. It's a bit.
Yeah. We were.
That's the word I was looking for.
Yeah. I mean, I'm quite an anxious
person. Sometimes I try.
I'm one of those people that is open to meditation but never
makes the bloody time to do it and is always doing all the
(10:29):
things you talked about, promoting stuff, thinking about
numbers, all the stuff that's really not actually the
important stuff in life. Often I find myself drawn to or
getting caught. And how could someone like
myself is maybe less? I don't know.
I think I am open minded to meditation, but maybe he's a bit
of an outsider. How could they get into
meditation? Or how could meditation help
(10:49):
them? Read the book, or rather listen
to the book. It's inaudible, Breaking the
Habit of being Yourself by Doctor Joe Dispenza.
Go through that book and do the work along the way and it will
open your eyes up to realise that there's actually a science
behind prayer. That's the, that's the main
thing that I got out of it. It is praying.
I, I was brought up in a Christian family and I'm so
(11:10):
grateful for that and the moralsI've learned and the teachings
I've learned and it's been, you know, as maybe the man I am
today. And I came away from that,
became more agnostic as a teenager, didn't know who I was
praying to anymore and didn't really like follow the whole
religious aspect of it. But then when I read that book,
I was like, holy shit, that's what I was doing the whole time
(11:31):
when I was a kid. And I was praying for a bike,
like, and it came true, but you know, like I missed that.
I missed doing that. But I didn't know who I was
praying to. And then now, like reading Joe
Dispenza's work, work with loadsof studies and like, I can't
articulate it as well as he does, but just trust me on this
one. Have a look.
If you're open, open to it, havea look at that book, Break in
(11:53):
the Habit of Being Yourself. Write that down right now,
listeners and. Link it below as well so if you
want to click the link and find it.
And then then go and do you do the meditations?
One problem that with the guidedmeditations for me though is
that it took me age because whenyou get to the point in the book
where you start doing the meditations, that eases you in
really gently. You do like two different types
(12:13):
of meditations. Eventually you're doing like
about an hour every day, which seems crazy to some people, but
like literally it starts off with like a 20 minute induction
and then you do another one. When you find when you want to
go and search for this for the guided meditations to listen to
to the script, you can either just read the script and do it
yourself, which is not as I don't know, I think it's as
helpful, but I couldn't find anymeditations that I like to
(12:36):
listen to. I didn't like the voice of the
person that was doing the meditation or there was someone
that had a really good voice, but they did it above this
kitchen, an industrial kitchen with pots and pans being hit.
And I'm like, what are you doing?
What are you thinking? So I thought, I'm sure that's
some because I've been, I was talking about my whole journey
on my podcast because as you know, my podcast's a monologue
(12:57):
podcast talk about, I just talk about my life and what I've
learnt from it and the mental health struggles and being an
artist. And so I was also telling, I was
also telling my listeners about my journey with this book and
doing the work and what let me just step back a little bit.
The reason I started doing the work was because of this whole
loneliness thing I started, you know, I felt isolated, I felt
(13:17):
lonely. I felt like because I had a new
newly into the full time art world that I changed from
different lifestyles to another.So that's where the isolation
came. I wasn't interested in going to
the pub anymore and meeting people like that old drinking.
I was more interested in my creativity, but it was very
isolating and, and then I knew Ineeded to fix myself.
(13:38):
So this book, doing this book breaking the habit of being
yourself just really helped me along the way.
But anyway, right, so, so I, I, I thought there's going to be
other people that have this problem about not trying to not
be able to find a meditation to listen to.
So I recorded my own and then I tacked it onto the, I'm not sure
if this is allowed, sorry, Doctor Joe Dispenza, but I
(14:00):
tacked it onto the end of my podcast and said that if as a
resource, here it is for you. I've recorded it to the sound of
rainfall or Thunder and lightning and just really chill.
And because a lot of my listeners TuneIn, because they
like listening to my voice. Some of the people say they like
listening to their ukulele musicand they fall asleep to my
podcast, which is fine. But then, but yeah, so then I
(14:21):
thought I'd put that on as a resource for the people that
were going to listen to me and do the book and do the work.
So they had it and I said that Iwould send them.
And it still stands now. If anyone wants to e-mail me,
hello@grahamcallas.com, I'll send you the MP Freeze so you
can have them. But yeah, those, those
particular episodes, if I look on my stats started cranking and
listens. I don't think it must been an
(14:42):
SEO algorithm thing because obviously I put the Joe Dispenza
episode meditation from breakingwhatever, you know, And then
literally I look to the back end, there's hundreds of people
in the States listening to thoseparticular episodes.
And I was like, there's something in this, you know, so
and and like, it's given me joy.I really enjoyed recording them
and when I when I write the scripts and I put them together
(15:05):
and I put the music together andthe sound effects, the rain, the
find the royalty free music, it's sort of unlocked another
path of creativity for me. But yeah, it's a long winded
answer. It's a that, but yeah, basically
it's going to be good for your brain.
If you, if you can, if you can manage even just 5 minutes a
day, it's going to be good for your brain.
It's going to be make your brainhealthier.
(15:27):
Yeah. For sure, Graham, when I talked
to you about, I mean, you mentioned them at the start,
some of your other projects, butand you talked about rebranding.
You've our connect, but you're also doing a tour of the UK at
the moment and you're Van, aren't you?
You're sort of travelling around, showing up to people's
towns and villages and helping them.
Yeah, be more mindful. Get connected.
(15:48):
All right, I am it's called the Splat and splash tour of the UK.
And yeah, it's, it's, it's been a it's been a wild journey.
So you can Bali, I was obviouslyI've always been trying to make
it as an artist and in the world.
And, and I found that like in Bali, I couldn't really like
(16:09):
make that happen as easily. And I mean, it's Bali's not my
home turf and legally and I can't really be an artist out
there and earn a living. I can just there's only a
tourist over there, you know. So even with like, you know, if
I was to manage that studio and start making money out of it,
that's I was not allowed to do that unless I have, you know,
(16:30):
certain visas. And so I was just doing that.
I'm just doing that volunteeringvoluntary.
I was just doing that voluntary,just like I wanted a space to
create, but I couldn't actually earn from it.
So I thought I probably need to get back to the UK and try and I
make some waves with my art on my home turf.
(16:51):
And that was kind of like sealedin my mind after I met one of my
inspirations actually. And this happened, I believe
free meditation as well. And I've talked about this on my
podcast as well. But for your listeners, I don't
know if you saw when I was of knocking about a bit with that
artist called Sophie T Yeah, youknow, you know her.
(17:16):
Have you seen her just? On the reels, just on the reels
you've posted and stuff. Yeah, OK, right.
So Sophie T is an artist who's like absolutely crushing it
right now. And she's been really, she's
really inspired me and like the way she does her social media to
also like 'cause she helps all these charity shops.
So she basically goes into a charity shop, picks an item,
(17:38):
paints it and then comes back and then raffles it off to
whoever shows up. And it's a, it's a really, it's
a really genius, engaging way toinvolve the public, get herself
her name out there and also do some really good stuff for
charity. And it's just really taken off
of her. I mean, before that I think like
she, what really kicked off of her was this send nudes campaign
(18:02):
where she was painting, paintingwomen and giving them like an
experience of like just basically helping them through
like body image and just like offering to paint people naked
to give them like a nice sort ofliberating experience.
And that really kicked off for her the send nudes campaign.
She basically just put a messageout there and said, send me
nudes and shed like thousands ofpeople just go into her inbox
(18:25):
and then base then basically filled up like the London
Palladium with a catwalk show. And yeah, just, it just really
kicked off for her. Like then I I've sort of been
following that journey and then I saw the charity shop thing and
I was like, that's really cleverwith the social media thing.
And social media is like, as we all know, it's a pain in our
bums to try and you know, and, and as an artists and a
(18:48):
creative, like it's, it's kind of the way to market yourself
now. Like, you know, if you want to
get yourself out there and your name out there, you need to, you
need to really invest in your social media and the time that
you spend on it, which is, it can be annoying, but I actually
really enjoy it. But like, see, I, I did one of
my praise to the universe when Iwas like in Bali, because I, I
was just like, I was like, I think it was like, I want the
(19:10):
universe to slap me around the face to show him on the right
path. And that was when I was before I
was about to come home to do my Christmas and taxes thing that I
like to say when I come home. I, I come home from Bali every
November to see the family do Christmas and do my taxes.
Then I go back again. And then I, yeah.
And then I thought, do you know what?
I after I'd done this, these meditations on like trying to
(19:34):
get an answer to say that I'm onthe right path.
I thought, I'm going to message Sophie to see if she wants to be
on my podcast and and she replied she had like 6K
followers on there. I didn't think it.
I just thought it'd go straight into a spam.
She sent me a message saying a message Alex Sophie t.com, we
can talk about this. I'm like, yes, there's a sign
message Alex. Alex was like, I love the
(19:56):
concept and what you want to talk about.
I basically wanted to basically talk about not about her back
story and how she became a successful artist, but how what
she's doing to impact the community with her social media.
And they said they loved the idea and they said they'll
pencil me in for the new year and I'm like happy days.
I might even be able to go and do it face to face because.
I'm going to be back in the UK and yeah, so that was the sign
that I was looking for. But then I also needed to put my
(20:19):
my, my room up for rent and I needed and obviously it's one of
my way. I don't be paying rent.
So I, I put it up for sublet fortwo months and this girl
responded to my ad, came into the room and was like, wow, I
love your art. I used to sell art in London.
I'm like, oh, OK, cool. She's yeah.
Do you know Sophie T? I'm like, what?
This is like couple of days later, you know, and I'm like,
(20:39):
yeah, I literally just finished a, a conversation thread on
e-mail with her manager to get her on my podcast.
She's like, no way. She's my best friend for all the
people that could have like cometo my bedroom to look at my art
and want to rent my my space. And then I was like, and then
she said, you should write this on your vision board.
(21:00):
And I sort of did look, look at my whiteboard.
And I've got Sophie T follow up in the new year.
She takes a photo of it, sends it to Sophie, sends a voice note
that for me to to to Sophie to introduce myself.
I don't think Sophie even heard that because she doesn't listen
to voice notes I heard later on.Anyway.
I yeah, I so I did. That was just like another thing
that blew my mind. I was like, my gosh, you know,
(21:21):
like, yeah, definitely on the right path.
So day, day or two later, I get a message from this lady.
And Hannah, if you're listening,big shout out to you.
She said, well, she didn't end up taking my room, but she said
two things. Grandma, take the room and
you'll never guess what. But Sophie lands in Bali on
Monday. I'm like, what?
And then I and then she's yeah, I need to add you into a
(21:43):
WhatsApp chat with her, with myself and Alex.
So you she can either paint in your studio or you can organise
some art supplies for her. And I'm like, yes, OK.
I was like, OK, great. So from like a few days ago of
praying to the universe with my meditation and just putting it
out there asking if Sophie wantsto be on my podcast.
I'm about to meet her in real person like the following
(22:05):
weekend. And yeah, she came to Bali and
one thing led to another that I ended up actually doing one of
her. I produced one of her charity
shop Bali edition. She wanted her to go and do a
charity shop in Bali. So I've found the only charity
shop that was in Ubud and then like ended up taking like going
like I was, I was only supposed to like go to part of the day
(22:28):
where, well, I, I organised all that, but I was, and she has to
go and paint somewhere. So I found my friend's art
school that she's she could paint, she'd go and get the
object and go and paint it therebefore she goes back to raffle
it off. But then Alex messaged me.
He said, oh, by the way, bad news.
I'm I've got barley belly. So you're gonna have to take
Sophie for the whole day. And like what?
(22:50):
So like the first time I met her, I literally walked into
this villa that I'd been told where the location was.
She walks out, her hair's all a mess.
She looks like a rock star. And then we go off and I get to
see the whole behind the scenes of her process.
And we had a camera girl come along, and I just got to see how
she did everything of her socialmedia and how she filmed it and
how she performed or whatever. And then that night, I was
(23:12):
having pizza. Just me and Sophie went for
pizza together at an Italian restaurant.
And it was just like one of those moments where I had got to
basically almost have like a little mentorship session with
someone that's been that's really successful.
And that when one thing she saidto me was like, yeah, every
artist needs to invest in their social media.
She says, obviously, yeah, I'm in a privileged position where I
(23:33):
can afford it, but like every, well, every business needs to to
invest in a social media. And that just really stuck with
me. So when I came back from my
Christmas and taxes, I didn't even follow up for a podcast
after that because I got a soundbite and I put it on my podcast
anyway. But I thought whatever, like
that's just enough for me, you know?
And yeah. And then I I thought, what can I
(23:53):
do that's gonna I can do that's kind of similar in a way.
It's like an episode all kind ofsocial media vlog, I guess like
a like episode 123 like she doesof her charity shops.
But like is isn't like, you know, ripping off her idea.
But it's a similar kind of process where I, I tell my
followers I'm going to be at this location at this time, come
(24:15):
find me at the beach. So yeah, basically the Splat and
Splash came into my mindset and I started developing that idea
and then I, yeah, exec started executing it in September this
year. The whole concept of the Splat
and Splash that I came up with is that I want to advocate for
each of the pillars of mental health.
(24:36):
I like to talk about so that seaswimming.
I love doing ocean dips. I think the cold water immersion
is amazing for your mental health.
I love meditation now, so I'm adding meditation into that.
Also dancing. I've got into ecstatic dance
over the last couple of years where you just go to like a
sober rave where there's no alcohol involved.
You just literally dancing like a lunatic to whatever D JS
(24:58):
playing. And it's just you're just having
an amazing connection. And it's almost like in a
setting of like, kind of like a yoga kind of setting where it's
all meditative, it's uplifting, and then it brings you down
again. And then you'll have this
journey together. So I thought I would love to, to
execute something like that on the beach for people.
And, and then at the same time, I get everyone, I'm creating a
(25:20):
body of artwork. So I, I invite the community to
splat the background of a canvas.
So if like your YouTube watcherscan see behind me, all of the
backgrounds are created on thesetwo pieces.
So the people that can't aren't watching.
What I do is I get the background, like I put a canvas
out, I get them, I give them a load of splat bottles, and the
(25:41):
guidance is they're not allowed to paint it with brushes.
No way. I made that mistake on the first
one. But basically I just give them
splat bottles and I said just gofor it.
Just get all that energy out on the background.
So I get these amazing, beautiful kind of, Yeah, it'd be
good for. Me say again that.
'D be good for. Me as someone that can't paint
whatsoever, Well, yeah. It's like it's just so inclusive
(26:04):
and like I get the whole like, yeah, I just get like an
amazing, amazing canvas to work on.
And then I respond to it with something to do with that area.
So behind me I have Land's End is the first one was the Land's
End lobster. I didn't really have that much
inspiration about what I was going to paint for the first
one, but I wanted the 1st letterof the name of the of the of the
place Land's End Lobster. But then St.
(26:26):
Ives the second the second episode, someone told me, my
friend Nigel told me about this seal called wings that lives in
the harbour. That's where I did the the
episode. But yeah, so the seal, the St.
Ives seal called Wings, I painted it.
I painted the seal with Angel wings.
And there's an Arabi Frisbee as a Halo because the story goes
(26:46):
that one day Wings got her head stuck in an Arabi Frisbee and
the fisherman had to corner her to pull it off.
So I thought, there we go. And then I sell each of those
pieces of a charity for for you for Connect, and I'm selling
them for 1000 lbs each. I've already sold a couple
someones, even bought 1 before it's even being created.
And that means after doing 30 venues.
(27:09):
Oh yeah, I missed this bit out. I'm travelling the whole of the
UK doing this. So I'm doing a beach every five
days, what I was doing every five days or four days.
But I realised when I got to Portishead last week, I, I
almost burnt out because you have to run an event, do the
social media, do the painting within four days of leaving the
(27:31):
last place. And then also like talking to
the press, talking to. I've got 19 WhatsApp chats
running regionally. So I'm, I'm basically talking to
like different towns around the country to tell them I'm coming
and building that community there as well, which also is a
funnel for me as an artist as well.
So I've, I'm building my fans offline as well as on social
(27:53):
media as well. And yeah, so after we do the,
the dance and splat the canvas, we do the spectacle part, which
is the scroll stopper where you know, and you've got 3 seconds
of someone's attention on socialmedia where I get, I normally
what happens is I get covered inpaint, but I can't do that at
the beach. So people throw ketchup,
(28:14):
mayonnaise and mustard at me andit's just like a, it's a, it's
just for belly laughs. It's performance art.
And I look great afterwards. No one wants to give me a hug
afterwards, though. And then we go for a swim in the
ocean together and I connect with a social, I'm sorry.
Then I connect with a a swimmingclub in each area and get their
community there. So the heart of the campaign is
(28:36):
called Standing Against Loneliness.
And what I'm trying to do is through these videos and my
outreach on, on WhatsApp and, and through Facebook groups, I'm
trying to reach people that might be struggling, that are
lonely in the area to come down to the beach, discover community
like the sea swimmers to make new friends, new loving
connections, and also try a bunch of activities that are
(28:58):
good for your mental health. And then, you know, it helps me
raise awareness and money for the CIC for UFR connect.
Also, I'm raising awareness for local charities in each town
that I go to. So every town I go to, I'll find
a local mental health charity that's doing amazing things in
the area and I'll champion them on the day.
I'll collaborate with them on the posts and also just give
(29:20):
them a narrative on the day and everyone that comes to get.
But did I mention it was all thesilent disco headsets as well?
I know I, I kind of budget this up a little bit, right?
Let me explain to you exactly how it works.
So you find, find out where I am, you come to the beach.
I've got 100 disco headsets. I run a meditation.
I play one of my podcast meditations.
(29:41):
So I give everyone that experience.
Then it flows into ecstatic dance.
I lead everyone on a journey. I I play like meditative tracks
to like slightly cool sort of dance.
He tracks to full on bangers, like sing along stuff like Abber
and stuff like that just to get everyone laughing and crying and
hugging. And then I bring it down again.
(30:02):
We all have this amazing experience.
It's just and and people, peopleare really touched by it.
It's really nice. But yeah, in that one event I
can help champion the charities locally, champion my own
organisation, Youth Art Connect,and it also gives me a bit of
exposure as well because people start starting to follow me
(30:22):
around the country, They're finding out where I'm going to
be next. So it's like, you know, like hi,
I'm in Weston Super Mare and this is what we got up to today.
And watch out Cardiff, I'm coming for you next.
Well, Porter said was next afterthat, but yeah, so I'm now in
here in in Wales and it's been so beautiful.
The journey has been incredible as well.
(30:43):
I've just been meeting all theseamazing people, seeing all these
beautiful places and making lotsof amazing connections.
And yeah, like I'm and I'm I'm doing it in a in a Ford Transit
van. It's just I'm full van lifing it
right now, which is it's just like a dream come true.
It's so nice become. A proper, proper artist since we
(31:04):
last spoke before you meditationthe van, you know, I bet you got
to feel like. Yeah, that's it, you know.
And you're and you're. Yeah.
And you're going to be in Scotland as well, which is
exciting. I bet you're excited.
I can't wait for Scotland. So Air Beach is where I go 1st
and then I do a mad like 8 hour dash.
(31:27):
I think it's a really long driveup to the top.
I'm going to go, I'm going to, to Ferzo first because I've
chosen some places where I can surf as well.
Today I had some really nice waves here in Wales and yeah,
Furzo is like a very famous surfbreak where there's like I think
the O'Neill do the Cold War classic there.
(31:47):
So I chose that soul selfishly and so I could, I could get some
good surfing. But then I hit John O'Groats so
I can claim the Land's End John O'Groats thing.
And then obviously I want to, I want to, I hit Inverness and
then while I'm going past it, I thought I've got to go to Loch
Ness, I've got to do it, you know.
And then, then after that I'll be in Edinburgh.
(32:08):
And I don't know if you're whereyou are right now.
Where are you guys? It's going now mate.
So, you know, probably Air's theclosest, but you have to give me
a secret warning if you want me to come.
Well, do you know what? Actually, like I was doing, like
I said, I was doing these every four days.
It's actually you, you actually could be able to predict it now.
So if you look at my social media and you see where I'm
(32:29):
going to be, I'm doing it weeklyand it's going to be on a
Saturday every time. Because I realised when I got to
Portishead I'd done 6 events straight up, back-to-back, four
or five days in between and I nearly burnt out.
So when I got here to Wales, I was like, oh, I need to rest, I
need to, I need to restock. I was back behind on a lot of
the painting as well. I still am a bit, but I just
(32:51):
needed to stop for a bit. So I gave myself a week and a
half to recalibrate. And, and then because I
realised, you know, like I'm doing all this from mental
health, but at the expense of myown.
And ironically, you know, I've put myself in a really lonely
position. It's called standing against
loneliness. And I'm in a van by myself and
I'm literally running an event every.
(33:12):
I was running an event every four days, which meant I
couldn't even connect with the communities I was I was
visiting. I was just busy trying to get
the content done and promoting it and making it all work.
But now like I've chilled and I'm like, I'm going to give
myself an extra 3 days in between, which means I can be me
again. I can do my painting like
without any stress, without having to force it.
(33:34):
I can also connect with the sea swimming group.
So I've been like hanging out with this group called the Dawn
Stalkers here in Cardiff, PenarfBeach.
And it's just been, it's been really nice to actually get to
know the community before I run the event.
So it's going to be every Saturday.
So it'll be a Saturday. So when you see that I'm in, I
think it's Blackpool is the, theweek before a beach?
(33:56):
Then it'll give you, it'll give you a bit of chance or
Liverpool, you'll, you'll know you'll have two weeks before,
but I hope you can come. I I will.
Do my best to come to one of them.
I'll look at what's easiest to get to because I don't drive.
So we'll wait and see. You talked about the social
media stuff there and obviously we'll link all the your stuff
below. So if you want to find out more
(34:18):
about, you know, what you've been up to, whether that's on
Instagram or whatever you're, you're making content.
But what sort of do you have anytips for anyone, anything you've
learned that doesn't work? Anything you'd find that works
well? Because I think a lot of people
that are asked maybe are a bit scared of social media because
like, well, I do my painting, but that's a whole different
ballpark. OK, right.
So I would say like, I still have no idea what works, but
(34:42):
I've and and they do say, you know, I think consistency is
key. And also like what I would just
say is just make. You hear people say this all the
time, but it's so true. Just make something that you
enjoy making rather than like don't make.
But then again, like, I don't know, like you got to feed the
algorithm sometimes. So I've also been doing this
(35:05):
weird thing where I do like these because I'm in a van.
I'm doing these like workouts with like outdoor showers and
they seem to be doing really well.
So on TikTok, like my last videothat I made for for this project
for the Porter's head was such abeautiful, heartfelt video.
It's almost like a documentary as so much love gone into it.
I make it really emotive and beautiful and nice music that
(35:27):
I've licenced and I really take care of the edit and it's and I
think like this is the worst one.
It's done and it's it's like on a couple 100 views.
But then I do like a video of menext to an illegal fly tipping
area showering my testicles. Not actually my testicles aren't
out by the way. I'm just like I do where it's
called washing the bits and I'm like just washing, like having a
(35:48):
shower and you've got to wash the bits first and then your
face. And it's like it's, it's a
little bit weird and like I don't know if this should go in.
Nah, fuck it, put it in. But yeah.
And that's got like 30,000 views.
And I'm like, what is going on? Like why do people like all this
rubbish? But you know, it then brought me
like I scrolled. Pasta on your Instagram the
other day and they are weirdly quite like watchable.
(36:10):
I don't know why. So it is a weird thing the
algorithm you've been watching me.
Shower did come up and I was. Like what was great making and
then it's like, why is this likepeople?
And I was like, Oh my God, people are really engaging with
this. And I was trying to think why I
know. It's because it's because I'm
washing my bits before my face first.
Basically what happened was I was, I did this outdoor shower
(36:31):
thing. I thought, yeah, I'll just get
my Decathlon pump shower and I was outside in Thornton Sands.
I think that could be right, but.
Though I think it's, I think it's, I think it's probably the
what I felt was interesting was the novelty.
I was like, oh, he's in a van and he's got this like weird
shower thing. That was more what I was
interesting, obviously, but I dothink I know, no.
Tony Not yet, but what it was I was responding.
(36:52):
The reason I've made the video is a bit more grotesque is
because I was responding to someone in the comments because
I literally was showering. I didn't even think about it.
I was showering my armpits like that with the soap, you know,
And then I went straight to my face and then someone put one
pits to face diabolical. And I was like, oh, don't give
me ideas. So now I'm like, yeah, wash the
bits, wash the bits and then your face like that.
(37:16):
And literally like it causes so many people to comment on the
and pushes the algorithm. I guess something about but then
I put something about my splat and splash mental health project
that's helping lots of people and people having amazing
experience and no one gives a shit.
But The thing is like, I don't know, I'm at the beginning of
this journey, so who knows? Watch this space.
I'm just going to keep going relentlessly.
(37:38):
And to be honest, like I've cometo realise that I just love
making them now and I'm not I don't really care if people
watching them or not because what the magic is happening is
in the act of doing it. And I'm connecting with all
these people and the people thatare coming to the beach are
telling me and the message me after saying, Hey, Graham, I was
(37:58):
in such a bad place and you're you're.
Event you're gathering. Really uplifted me.
I've had a couple of moments where people have opened up to
me and told me some really sort of deep dark secrets that's
really been they've been battling with and it's just this
moment for them just really gavethem space and help them see
(38:20):
some hope and some light. So for me that's worth anything,
you know, and I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoying making, I'm
enjoying the journey. It's a lot of work, but like
it's an art project which is going to probably take until
March because I because now I told you I've extended the time
to of doing it weekly rather than every four days.
(38:41):
I was due to finish it in January, but it's probably not
going to finish till March now. We still get home.
Whatever, we still get home in time for your taxes and all
that, no? I'll be doing that on the road.
So Christmas, it looks like I might be in South End.
So if there's any families in South End listening to this
South End, I need AI, need a spot for Christmas.
(39:01):
But I also think what I might dois I'm going to do a Christmas
special wherever I am going pastit might not be on a Saturday,
it might be a different day, butit's Christmas Day, everyone's
off work. So I'm going to do a Christmas
special. I'm going to be, I'm going to
find a beach somewhere. It's probably going to be in
South End and I'm going to invite anyone to come along.
I'm going to put on a spread. I'm going to bring the community
(39:23):
together and just anyone that's like that's alone at Christmas
can come down and we can have like an amazing afternoon on the
beach, whatever the weather. I'll even like, I don't know
what I'll do. I'm just going to I'm going to
figure out a way that even if it's raining, we got some cover
and we can go somewhere. I've got, I've got a while to
figure that out, but yeah, so I'll be doing my taxes in
(39:46):
Southend probably. Well, it's been amazing.
To your jet man, fair play to even sometimes as Craig's we can
get frustrated from like 200 people to watch the video or
something, but it's about the connections and the impact
you're having in real life when you're with these people and.
You know, I people are coming and that's the main thing and
it's like, you know, the community stuff's as important.
We've been speaking for nearly now, so I'm going to start to
(40:07):
write things. We've got a couple of questions
for you. Something we started asking I
guess recently is about bad advice because this industry is
full of bad advice And as an artist, what's the worst advice
you've received? Or what's a bit of bad advice
that you hear too often? Do you know what?
Like I want to answer this but Idon't.
I really respect the person thatgave me the advice so I won't
(40:32):
say it in a way. OK like it.
It was heartfelt and for like good meaning, but it was to do
with and if you are listening and if you do know who you are,
I love you and I respect you so much and I love all of the
advice you've given me. But this one, I think, in
hindsight, was something that I probably shouldn't have listened
(40:55):
to and I should have gone with my intuition.
But it was to do when with my subscription service that, well,
you know, Patreon, I was advisedto put my prices up like for the
karma cards. And it, it kind of backfired on
me because like it wasn't, I waspretty much told to double them
(41:15):
and like I doubled the prices and I didn't grow from that
point. And I lost a lot of people that
are interested in maybe joining signing up.
So yeah, I would say like that was probably something you need
to think or think about. If you're doing something that
you want to build a community tosupport you monthly on a
subscription, you just need to be really careful with that
(41:38):
because you know you want you want things to be accessible.
Does that make sense? No, I think.
A difficult one because you needto make a living as an artist
and you have to, especially as inflation and things are
happening. But the same thing required
because if you nudge people too much, then you yeah, it's like
like I gave some away again. I use them as birthday cards or
(41:59):
whatever. I give them to this not for.
Birthdays, Jamie. It's not for birthdays.
It's for out of the blue random random acts of kindness.
You can buy a birthday card, nice cards, the gift.
People their night and then it comes with the extra message as
well. But you're right, I should maybe
just give them gift them to people, but they come in handy
and some of them up and stuff. But are you still doing the
(42:21):
karma card stuff? Do you?
Is that still active? It's no, not, not, not this is
not it's not really anymore. So what I because I could see
like I'm I when I the way I do my Patreon now for people to
support, to sponsor me monthly. I just want people to come on
board for my message. The fact that I'm doing some,
(42:42):
I'm doing so much good into the world because it did become
quite a task to give out physical things to people.
And when you're a one man band, you know, and you're trying to
do wear all the hats and do everything else, it came an
extra thing that was really kindof it was kind of taxing for the
people that like yourself, that have been like loyal, like
Patreon supporters, Like I've still got a list of those people
(43:05):
that are from the beginning. And you guys get a print, a
couple of prints. I think I did last time in the
post. Did you receive it?
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I, I, I'm still like
giving that to the people that came up from the beginning.
But from now on, basically this I've, I've got no price on my
Patreon and I just let people just support me for what
(43:26):
whatever they want. It could be a pound, you know,
if they're, if they're getting value out of the podcast and the
meditations that I make and the stuff that I do in the mental
health space, I feel that I should be enough for people to
pledge me. And actually people are, people
are starting to join again with that, you know, which is nice.
And yeah, but saying that I willlike to bring something back
(43:47):
like that in the future. Like, I don't know where it is,
but right now, like I just, I'vegot so much going on.
I, I couldn't even possibly think about that.
But I'm making money by selling my prints wherever I go.
I normally rock up at like a boot sale or a market.
Actually, the other morning in Cardiff I went out for a night
out of my friends to catch up and I and you know the beauty of
(44:10):
fan life, I parked right in the city centre next to the stadium
across the river. And then I heard all this
commotion as I woke up. I was like, right, I've got till
10:00 to sober up. That's when the ticket guy
comes. Then I opened up the door like
that and the commotion was all these tents were being put up
and it was a market and I spoke to the market guy.
I was like, dude, do you mind ifI just paint here and put my
(44:30):
prints to help for my 'cause he's like, yeah, go on.
Then he turned a blind eye to all the insurances and I made
that £130 and it was, it was so good.
And I've got a bit to talk to somany people about the project.
So yeah, I've been like, I've been really enjoying the art
markets and boot sales lately. Yeah, well.
(44:51):
Before I ask him my last question, you can support
Graham's patron or anything he'sdoing as well.
We've also just for just got real job just launched the buy
me a coffee page as well, because I think a lot of the
time people don't, you know, necessarily can't afford to
subscribe to patron because theycan't afford to pay monthly.
But even if you want to make a one off in donation to us, if
it's a pound, if it's a fiver, anything all helps go back into
(45:11):
making the show the best it can be.
But Graham, last question for you.
Obviously, we haven't spoken properly on this podcast for
four years, but what's the biggest lesson you've learned in
the last four years since we last spoke?
That's a big question. Isn't it biggest lesson?
I think the biggest lesson in the last four years I've learned
is to reevaluate all the relationships I've had with
(45:32):
different people. I spoke about this on another
podcast recently to do with neurodivergence, you know, like
autism, ADHD, and the way that we all are wired up differently.
And I've, I've, I've been like looking back at my, my
friendships or relationships that have not gone the way that
(45:53):
they should have. And I now can like, look back at
them with compassion and to realise that actually, like,
there's probably more to what wesee and that person might just
be wired up differently. And I love them still.
You know, that's something that I've, I've learned, you know,
I've learned that, you know, to,to basically just look at people
(46:15):
in in a completely different waynow.
And if if yeah, does that make sense?
Almost. Learning to forgive, but also
just yeah. And.
Stuff going on and it's not always personal.
Exactly, Yeah. That's that's something if you
can take a bit of time to just yeah, to learn about yourself
(46:37):
first and what makes you operatein this world can also really
help you understand other people.
So do the work when you do the work on yourself will help you
help you doing the work on compassion for others.
And another big lesson is with all of the shit that's going on
in this world, is just all I want to do is be the kindest
(47:01):
person I can be to the next person.
And that's as much as I can do. That's as much as I think we
should do. You know, don't let all of the
stuff in the world, like, affectyou.
I know it's hard to say that. I don't know.
It's quite deep, isn't it? Yeah, but a nice.
Place then, yeah. Graham, thank you.
Very much for coming back on theshow.
(47:22):
It's lovely to reconnect. And, you know, one of my
favourite things we're doing this podcast is we collect all
this stuff over the years and you meet people and I mean,
like, get this art, whether it'sfrom you or, you know, meet
other people have had on and I've got T-shirts from their
bands or whatever, all that stuff.
It's so nice to have, like, collect, you know, mark your
life for that. So pleasure to reconnect and
(47:43):
good luck with the rest of your tour.
And I hope your taxes are not too bad on the road.
Yeah. That'd be all right.
I've got a whole load of receipts and a zip lock bag
which I'll need to go through. Pleasure to speak to you.
Mate. Legend.
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