The Ugly Podcast

In this episode, I'm joined by Brigitte, a systems and self-care witch for neurodivergent creatives, to chat about how structure and process don't have to mean limitations on your creativity and can instead be "enabling constraints" to move you forward into creativity. We chat about Brigitte's path from not seeing herself as an artist to eventually seeing the real picture of becoming and inhabiting the life of an artist instead of ...

In this episode, I'm joined by Ania Pilch (she/her) to discuss her journey toward a creative life through her platform, Not the Creative Kind. Ania grew up believing she wasn't a creative person; if art doesn't seem to come naturally to us, sometimes it's just easier to not go there, allowing stasis and status quo to run the show. There came a point when Ania realized she wanted to change up her lifestyle, and when she pictured her...

In this episode, I'm joined by Jade Monroe (she/her), a community builder and musical artist, for a special conversation about how creativity can be an avenue to a higher purpose. Today, we chat about how we can all find courage to act through fear by developing trusting connection with ourselves rather than chasing after the shiny things and flashy attention we're taught to want when thinking about putting our art out into the wor...

Note: The last 10 minutes or so got completely messed up somehow, aaaaaand I cannot fix. I'm so sorry! I hope you enjoy it anyway :) 

In this delightfully imperfect and serendipitous episode, I'm joined by Alyssa Ryann (she/they), local Tacoma artist with a passion for making art more accessible to the general public. We met at a holiday artist market and I was immediately drawn to her apparently limitless styles. Today, we end...

In this episode, I chat with Meagan Mahaffy, founder of ArtGurl and fellow bad artist. We've both caught the ugly art bug, and yes, it is contagious because people like us have made it our mission to spread it as far and wide as possible. At different points in our lives, we both experienced the deep pit of despair of realizing that the life we chose wasn't the life we wanted, leaving us with a giant question of what on earth we we...

Join me and Andrea [on-dray-uh] Reeves (she/her), the neurodivergent mind behind Type C Creative, as we discuss the ways self-help isn't so helpful. How do we get out of that external feedback loop of trying to constantly improve ourselves and instead find a place of radical self-acceptance with our art and ourselves. We discuss finding systems and routines that work for you without attributing a story that you're failing or being ...

Today I'm joined by Kyra Sutherland (they/them), joy and confidence coach for autistic and ADHD folks, to discuss how neurodivergence impacts creativity and how practicing imperfection can help us expand how we view creativity and how we view ourselves.

As a kid, Kyra was a creative writer until puberty took hold and the comparison monster made creating too scary. As an adult, they have redefined creativity and how they express it t...

In this episode, I'm joined by Tacoma artist Jamie Fiano (she/her). Jamie and I discuss how creativity is more than putting color to a page; it's how we live and how we interact with each other. And in that interaction, we open ourselves up to new ways of being. Creation can be a path to freeing ourselves from old trains of thought that no longer serve us; it can give us a safe place to practice embracing the void and imagining new...

In this episode, I talk with local Tacoma-area artist, Skye. Skye and I met the way most artists do...by overhearing the other talking about art and staring like a weirdo until it's too awkward to NOT introduce yourself and ask about their art...that's how it's done, right? Well, I'm glad I was weird because now I have this episode and a friend to show for it.

Sky shares about how these past few years motivated her to set aside dist...

In this episode of The Ugly Podcast, I speak with Dani Abernathy (she/they), an Enneagram teacher and Author Accelerator book coach, and we reflect on how our creativity got lost in the shuffle of adulthood, stifled by self-judgment and the pressures of fitting into religious norms. We discuss how stepping away from religion and being honest about who we really are—especially when it comes to gender and sexuality—opened up space to...

In today's episode, I talk with Sarah Henn Hayward about her experience writing Giving Up God, a memoir about leaving religion. We talk about how she didn't feel very creative before writing her memoir, but the process of writing it awoke her creativity and led her to continue writing children's books and fiction.

Long story short, if you say yes to your ideas and get started, you might find that you have way more up in your brain t...

Heather Buchanan is back! In this episode, we talk about Heather's new book, Blame the Stars, based on her totally accurate and divinely channeled IG page Horror Scoops, and the intense process she went through to bring this incredibly goofy book to her readers. We discuss working with the inner critic and being willing to draw the goofy things that pop into your brain--like beans!--and saying yes even when your inner critic is tel...

In this episode, I'm joined by Kaighla Rises, Pushcart Prize Nominee and award-winning author of Evryn, The Light, to talk about returning home to ourselves through creativity. 

There is no one path to healing, but connecting with creativity, getting help for mental health, listening to our inner child, and leaving harmful religious structures and relationships have all brought Kaighla and I closer to ourselves. Get to know Kai...

My guest this week is Toni Nagy, stand-up comedian, content creator and interpretative dancer extraordinaire. Toni shares her unexpected path to accepting the “ugly” in her life and how this led her to embrace her own style of dancing, the importance of finding that deeper motivation to be creative, and embracing cringey feelings as fertile ground for transformation. We also chat about one of my favorite topics–art as a tool for li...

Today’s guest, April Fitzpatrick (she/her), aka “The Pineapple Lady,” is an art therapist whose work centers art as a process that allows people, particularly those who’ve experienced racial trauma, to reclaim agency over their personal narratives.

April and I talk about the impressive symbolism of the pineapple for both the therapy process and the human development process, and a broad overview of what happens from a neuroscience p...

In this episode, I talk with fellow editor and book coach, Sabrina Estudillo Butler, about standing in our values and saying the quiet part loud. We discuss how it feels in our bodies when we step out of our comfort zones and speak up about injustice and the inner criticism that inevitably pops up when we are new or feel like an imposter. We touch on the issues in publishing as a white, cis, straight, able-body-centered industry, a...

Today’s episode is all about the importance of queering up the creativity process and I am lucky enough to be joined by M Eifler (they/them), a San Francisco-based artist who uses art and technology to explore disability as a hotbed of innovation.

M and I talk about the way their disability has helped them evolve their creative approaches, including their #ArtSchoolFromBed series, the importance of starting where their body is rath...

In this episode, I chat with Switzerland-based writer and fellow healing perfectionist Jo Bahdo about their recent season of writing project, defining what perfection even is, taking steps to heal distrust in ourselves after we haven’t shown up consistently for our craft, and the value in having a “no such thing as mistakes” mindset when it comes to practicing our art.

Jo Bahdo (they/them) is a writer, an avid reader, and a regular...

The Ugly Podcast is back from hiatus, and I couldn’t think of a better person for this episode than Emerson Lee, my creative partner and former co-host. Emerson and I both share big life events we’re currently grieving, how making art and having an expansive mindset is helping us process our grief, how weird time is, and the joy in allowing ourselves to explore what we want in this moment, no matter how messy or nonsensical it seem...