Selling Out! - Ep 7: Mincing, Manifesting & The Brighton Box | Dan Taffs & Melanie Blackwell / Selling Out!

Selling Out! is the podcast for LGBTQIA+ founders, leaders and creatives. Real conversations about building a life and a career on your own terms — straight jackets not included. 🏳️‍🌈Episode 7 is an artist special, and it's an absolute joy from start to finish — paint, prosecco-adjacent chaos, and two creatives who've turned their queerness into the engine of their work rather than something to edit out.Dan Taffs (he/him, G) started out mincing meat at a Blackpool butcher's, trained in travel and tourism, and discovered his creative streak sketching buildings on key camp holidays in France. After years in hospitality, cocktail bars, and dental nursing, he's now an established artist with the Brighton Box gallery, known for bold queer typography pieces — including a best-seller that simply says "I fucking love you." His art exists for the people who, like him once, had no one else to tell them they were loved.Melanie Blackwell (she/her, L/G) trained at Byam Shaw and Central Saint Martins, lived in her studio to make it through art school, and put painting on hold for fifteen years to build a life with her wife — working everything from running a pub to qualifying as an LGBT domestic violence advisor along the way. After losing her grandmother, she returned to the easel, found her place in Brighton's open studios scene, and is now showing large-scale seascapes and skyscapes at the Brighton Box, with a solo exhibition already under her belt and a wild-swimming habit (Channel relay included) fuelling the work.Two artists who found their way back to the canvas through grief, graft, and a community that, in true Brighton fashion, simply would not let them stay hidden.This episode covers imposter syndrome, the business of art versus the romance of it, finding your tribe through open houses and creative meet-ups, and why queerness so often shows up as a refusal to accept the rules you were handed. It also features a genuinely lovely riff on art as therapy, and one of the show's better closing mantras yet."If you can set your mind to it, your heart will follow."🎙️ Sponsored by Legends Brighton — legendsresortbrighton.com — and Mortgage Medics — mortgage-medics.comVideo & Audio by Always Cinematic — AlwaysCinematic.comPowered by GoSucceed®Keywords / Tags:LGBTQIA+, queer business, art, painting, Brighton, Brighton Box, creative industries, imposter syndrome, wild swimming, grief, community, DEI, identity, podcast, Selling Out, GoSucceedSeason: 1 | Episode: 7Selling Out! is the podcast for LGBTQIA+ founders, leaders and creatives. Real conversations about building a business your way, hosted by Gary Salters and Jonny Monroe.New episodes drop on the first and third Friday of every month. Follow us and never miss a story.Selling Out! is the podcast for LGBTQIA+ founders, leaders and creatives. Real conversations about building a business your way, hosted by Gary Salters and Jonny Monroe.New episodes drop on the first and third Friday of every month. Follow us and never miss a story. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.