Creative Momentum with Meg

Season 2: The Home SeasonThe second season of Creative Momentum with Meg, The Home Season, features interviews with Australian writers and artists where I explore how and why people do their creative work.Episode 9: Emma Hardy, AuthorEmma Hardy is a writer who works across fiction and non-fiction. Her debut book Periodic B***h is a literary memoir of menstruation, madness, and monsters. It is a hybrid non-fiction work that weaves her own experience of PMDD during Melbourne’s lockdowns with archival research and a sweeping look at how women’s illnesses have been treated throughout history. It is also, as the title suggests, not shy about being angry.In this conversation, Emma and I cover a lot of ground. We talk about improv and how it helps or hinders writing, what it means to craft a curated version of yourself in memoir, and Jane Alison’s book on story structure that made everything click. We talk about body doubling, dead cow narrators, and why workshop can sometimes edit out the good bits. And we talk about Melbourne as home for Emma and her writing.Connect with Emma HardyInstagram WebsiteBuy Periodic B***h bookEmma’s Substack ‘Hot Mess’See Emma at Melbourne Writers FestivalJoin Emma at her book launch at Readings on 14 May 2026Find all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes and interviewsA special thanks to Yvonne Morton for the music accompanying this episode. You can find Yvonne on Bandcamp and Instagram. Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Season 2: The Home SeasonThe second season of Creative Momentum with Meg, The Home Season, features interviews with Australian writers and artists where I explore how and why people do their creative work.Episode 8: Toni JordanToni Jordan is the author of several much-loved novels including Addition, Tenderfoot, and The Fragments, and was my first writing teacher at RMIT. In this conversation, Toni is as funny, sharp and generous as you would hope.Toni is a devoted pantser who runs her writing life with military precision. Word counts on whiteboards. Breakfasts and lunches made on Sunday night. A strict desk-by-11 rule. And a story about sitting at her desk until 4 in the morning to prove to her unconscious mind that she meant business, which she only had to do once.She talks about matching what she reads to the tense and point of view of what she is writing, why writer’s block is often just losing the rhythm of a sentence, and the two books she recommends every writer keep on their desk. One you think is a masterpiece. One you think is terrible. And somewhere in between those two is you.Her advice for anyone at an early stage or a wobbly moment is simple and beautiful: fall in love with the process. The rest takes care of itself.Connect with Toni JordanInstagram WebsiteFind all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes and interviewsA special thanks to Yvonne Morton for the music accompanying this episode. You can find Yvonne on Bandcamp and Instagram. Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Season 2: The Home SeasonThe second season of Creative Momentum with Meg, The Home Season, features interviews with Australian writers and artists where I explore how and why people do their creative work. Episode 7: Stacey McCall, PainterStacey McCall studied gold and silversmithing at RMIT, raised five daughters, and somewhere in between all of that, discovered that the things sitting around her house were the most meaningful subject matter she could paint.These days she works full-time from a tiny studio in her backyard, shows regularly with Boom Gallery in Geelong and Michael Reid Galleries, and is about to head to London and Berlin, where she has an exhibition opening.In this conversation, Stacey talks about the rituals that get her into flow each morning, the bridge painting that connects one body of work to the next, and what four weeks in a Montmartre Airbnb with a fellow painter gave her that a regular studio day simply cannot. She talks about knitting as thinking time, afternoon naps as creative problem solving, and why she always goes back to the sketchbook when confidence runs low.And she shares something that will resonate with anyone whose creative life has had to wait: she didn’t really start until her youngest started school. And then she found her thing.Connect with Stacey McCallInstagramWebsiteThe Bridge Letters: letters between artists Stacey and Elizabeth BarnettGalleries & exhibitionsMichael Reid Berlin exhibition (14 May to 6 June 2026)Boom Gallery in GeelongMichael Reid MurrurundiLinks to things mentioned in the interviewFitzroy PaintingAmber CreswellStill Life bookFind all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes and interviewsA special thanks to Yvonne Morton for the music accompanying this episode. You can find Yvonne on Bandcamp and Instagram. Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Season 2: The Home SeasonWelcome to the second season of Creative Momentum with Meg. This season is features interviews with Australian writers and artists where Meg Dunley talks to them about their processes, routines, inspiration and more to explore how and why people do their creative work.Episode 6: Alice Garner and Dave Bowers, a creative coupleAlice Garner and Dave Bowers have been together since 1987 and have been making things, separately and together, for just about as long. Dave is a painter, illustrator, musician, songwriter, gardener and cook. Alice is a musician, actor, oral historian, audio editor and has discovered that a loop pedal is basically heaven. They play in a band Sunshine Tip with a couple of friends.In our conversation, Dave and Alice share what it looks like to live a fully creative life as a couple: how they carve out time, how they let go of precious bits that don’t work, and why they have never really had a territorial battle over who gets to take up creative space.They agree on the best piece of advice they can offer anyone trying to make things: get out there and be part of the community you want to belong to. The rest will follow.Connect with Alice & DaveDave Bowers:InstagramWebsite (for his art)Sunshine Tip band:BandcampWebsiteInstagramEmailFind all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes and interviewsA special thanks to Yvonne Morton for the music accompanying this episode. You can find Yvonne on Bandcamp and Instagram. Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Season 2: The Home SeasonWelcome to the second season of Creative Momentum with Meg. This season is features interviews with Australian writers and artists where Meg Dunley talks to them about their processes, routines, inspiration and more to explore how and why people do their creative work.Episode 5: Melissa Manning, AuthorMelissa Manning has been writing for close to 18 years, and her practice looks nothing like it did when she started. These days she is up before dawn, moving her body before she sits down at the desk, keeping her brain free of noise until she opens the laptop and sees what comes.Her debut short story collection Smokehouse won the 2022 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award. Her novel Frogsong, published by UQP, launches in April. And she still has a folder on her laptop called S**t Poetry.In this conversation, Melissa talks about writing from a spark rather than an idea, why she never plans her work, and what happens to the words on the page when she tries. She talks about the studio she has filled with twigs and leaves and art and a wearable minotaur’s head her daughter made for a university theatre production. She talks about the questions her fiction keeps returning to: who are we, how do we become the people we become, and is any of that fixed?She also shares something that will resonate with anyone who has been waiting for the right idea before they start. She waited until she was 40. And then she realised it was never about the idea.Connect with Melissa Manning- Publisher’s author page- Instagram- Books: Frogsong (2026), Smokehouse (2022)Find all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes and interviewsA special thanks to Yvonne Morton for the music accompanying this episode. You can find Yvonne on Bandcamp and Instagram.Episode 5: Melissa Manning, Author Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Season 2: The Home SeasonWelcome to the second season of Creative Momentum with Meg. This season is features interviews with Australian writers and artists where I talk to them about their processes, routines, inspiration and more to explore how and why people do their creative work. Episode 4: Amanda Hewitt, Debut AuthorWhat does it look like to write a debut novel while working three days a week, raising three boys and fitting in words wherever you can snatch them? On the lounge, in the kitchen, on post-it notes stuck to the back of your phone?This week’s get is Amanda Hewitt. Amanda is an Australian romance author whose debut novel The Last Resort, an over-40s romance with baggage, was released in February this year. In this conversation, Amanda shares what it means to be a pantser, why her best writing happens between 5 and 7 in the morning with just her and the dog and how a holiday in Fiji reminded her that love stories are absolutely everywhere if you know how to look.She talks about the book that started as a spy drama and became a romance, the magpie out the back that sings for its food, and why writing in the chaos of family life isn’t a workaround. It’s just how it works.And her piece of wisdom for anyone sitting on a notebook full of ideas? Stop taking the ideas down. Start writing the book. Because unless you have something tangible, you don’t really have anything at all.Connect with Amanda HewittWebsiteInstagramFacebookBook The Last ResortFind all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes and interviewsA special thanks to Yvonne Morton for the music accompanying this episode. You can find Yvonne on Bandcamp and Instagram. Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Season 2: The Home SeasonWelcome to the second season of Creative Momentum with Meg. This season is features interviews with Australian writers and artists where I talk to them about their processes, routines, inspiration and more to explore how and why people do their creative work.Episode 3: Sally Darlison, Multidisciplinary ArtistWhat does it really mean to treat art-making like a job? How do you balance the spreadsheets and applications with the actual making? And what happens when you finally make the leap from teaching to pursuing your art full time?Sally Darlison is a multidisciplinary artist who shows up to her studio every day, working in collage, fabric, machine embroidery, and print to explore connection to place. In this conversation, my sister Sally shares what changed when she left her teaching career, why she loves maps (hint: it involves childhood bushwalking trips and beautiful patterns), and how her series on food and hospitality connects to the welcoming table we grew up with.She reveals the question her art tries to answer, why looking carefully is what being an artist is all about, and her essential wisdom for anyone frozen by their ideas: just start, it doesn’t have to be perfect, and if it doesn’t work, the bin is okay too.Whether you’re considering leaving your day job for creativity, struggling with where to begin, or curious about how artists work towards collections, this conversation offers grounded insights into making art part of real life – spreadsheets and all.Connect with Sally DarlisonWebsiteInstagramShopClasses & ShowsLinksFind all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes and interviewsA special thanks to Yvonne Morton for the music accompanying this episode. You can find Yvonne on Bandcamp and Instagram. Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Season 2: The Home SeasonWelcome to the second season of Creative Momentum with Meg. This season is features interviews with Australian writers and artists where I talk to them about their processes, routines, inspiration and more. I will be talking with established authors, artists, debut writers and people who create for themselves to explore how and why people do their creative work.Episode 2: Claire Mosley, ArtistClaire Mosley is an artist living along the Merri Creek in Melbourne, working primarily in watercolour to illustrate the Australian plants and animals she loves. In this conversation, Claire shares how creativity became her way of understanding the world, though it took a while to realise that’s who she is.Discover what Claire does when she has space and time on holidays – what this reveals about her creative priorities might surprise you. She walks us through her process from deep Google dives for birds (try drawing a platypus from real life!) to painting wattle from actual sprigs brought by friends after surgery, and why working on A1 sheets allows for the kind of detail photographs can’t teach.Claire traces her creative inspiration from childhood walks with her 93-year-old grandfather to the crafty women of Kensington who were always sewing, knitting, or op-shopping, revealing how these layers built her current watercolour practice.Her biggest pearl of wisdom? Two quick exercises you can do right now to silence that critical voice that says I can’t draw, including one that guarantees you’ll draw something wonky, and why that’s exactly the point. Claire’s philosophy is simple: keep it light, paint what excites you, and remember it’s a process, not perfection.She also shares what home means for her creativity – the tangled eucalyptus and tea tree of the Merri Creek, the scent of lemon-scented gum after rain, and why she’s comfortable sitting near ant nests. Whether you’re stuck with your creativity or intimidated by a blank page, Claire’s generous insights will inspire you to pick up a pencil – maybe even with your non-dominant hand.Musings with Meg is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Connect with Claire Mosley* Website* Instagram* ShopFind the show notes on megdunley.substack.com/ Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Season 2: The Home SeasonWelcome to the second season of Creative Momentum with Meg. This season is features interviews with Australian writers and artists where I talk to them about their processes, routines, inspiration and more. I will be talking with established authors, artists, debut writers and people who create for themselves to explore how and why people do their creative work.Episode 1: Helen Garner, AuthorI’m kicking off this season with an interview with Helen Garner. Helen Garner is one of Australia’s most celebrated writers, known for her court reporting books like This House of Grief and The Spare Room, and her groundbreaking debut novel Monkey Grip. In this frank conversation, Helen talks about her writing process, sitting in courtrooms paying witness to people’s worst days to the terror of facing page one of every new book. She shares why she has stopped attending court trials after years of the work she loved, what’s missing in writing education today, what judges taught her about fear and writing, and her definition of a short story that’s simple and profound.Whether you’re a writer struggling with fear, wondering about routine and discipline, or simply curious about one of Australia’s finest literary minds, this conversation offers rare insights into the craft and courage required to write.Find more in the show notesA special thanks to Yvonne Morton for the music accompanying this episode. You can find Yvonne on Bandcamp and Instagram. Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Season 1: The Chateau SeasonEpisode 24: Teylor B Bonner, EntrepreneurIn this final episode of The Chateau Season, I interview Teylor Bonner, a photographer and filmmaker from Houston, Texas, who works across multiple creative mediums including clay sculpting, painting, writing, and jewellery making. Teylor’s approach to creativity is deeply connected to her human design as a manifesting generator – following bursts of energy and inspiration rather than forcing herself into rigid structures. While she wishes her process were more structured, she’s learned that following her energy and mood leads to better results. In filmmaking, she might start with storyboards and scripts but often abandons them mid-project, feeding lines to actors in the moment when it feels right, trusting her intuition over prescribed structures.Her creative routine centres on mindfulness: starting mornings with meditation, stretching, water or tea, and trying to journal consistently. She creates specific playlists and ensures she has a good breakfast with hydrating foods because once she’s zoned in, she’ll work for hours without eating, sometimes looking up to find a whole other day has passed. This deep flow state requires the self-care foundation she builds each morning.Teylor’s inspiration comes primarily from love-based connections – interactions with family, friends, and the warm feelings that come from connecting with people. Even negative interactions influence her work, but her core inspiration is rooted in love. She’s particularly inspired by artists focused on authenticity over following established rules. In the film world, she’s encountered people who insist documentaries must be lit a certain way or follow specific guidelines, but she questions why artists should keep following the same rules when art is meant to be freedom. Being around artists at the residency who create for themselves and do what they want has been deeply inspiring – it’s about taking off the limitations.Her wisdom for beginning creatives acknowledges that art is a vulnerable process and can be scary, but she reminds herself that people will judge regardless, you can never make everybody happy, and not everyone will like your art. Because art is subjective, the most important thing is creating for yourself, for your purpose, and from your core – blocking out what people tell you art should be. Art is whatever you make it to be, a way to express yourself. Her final advice is to take a risk on yourself, believe in yourself because if you don’t believe in yourself no one else will, and give yourself the opportunity to shine and to be seen.Connect with Teylor B Bonner* Instagram: rennobproductions* Shop: ofthesunapothecary.etsy.com* Website: rennobproductions.com* Email: [email protected] Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Season 1: The Chateau SeasonEpisode 23: Tatyana Anderson, Couturier & Textile ArtistIn this episode, I interview Tatyana Anderson, a textile artist and third generation couturier from Melbourne. Tatyana’s work spans bespoke couture fashion, realistic silk flowers, beading, embroidery, and pattern-making. What stands out most about her approach is her philosophy of listening to materials – she starts with fabric rather than ideas because she knows immediately what a fabric wants to become. She shares a memorable story about a fabric that insisted on being a corset when she wanted it to be a dress, and after three months of resistance, it became a corset, teaching her that sometimes it’s better not to argue with your materials because they’ll get their own way anyway.This relationship with materials extends to her silk flower work, where she creates realistic blooms by starting with actual flowers, photographing them extensively to understand their structure, colour, depth and variations, observing how even within one species like camellias there’s enormous diversity.Tatyana doesn’t follow a fixed creative routine, instead fitting her work around life using whiteboards to plan one to two months ahead for orders and runway deadlines, and inspiration boards where she posts sketches so her team can see where they’re heading. Her challenge isn’t finding inspiration – ideas strike constantly from fabrics, nature, flowers, and runway details – but rather deciding whether she has time to implement them or should pass them to someone else. She’s generous with ideas, finding other creatives to give them to when they don’t suit her style or timeframe. She draws inspiration from unexpected places, like transforming a detail from an Armani couture skirt into her own ‘Uncle Armani skirt’ with completely different construction.The heart of Tatyana’s wisdom comes from her second attempt at running a business. She emphasises finding your crowd and supporters, not wasting energy on people who don’t understand or support your creativity because they’ll never change. Most importantly, she stresses writing down why you’re doing your creative work – because on those inevitable days when you look at your work and think it’s terrible and you’re not good enough, you can pull out that piece of paper and remember your purpose. Whether you’re creating to sell thousands, to be a small boutique, or simply to make beauty, once you connect to your why, everything else becomes easier. This why grounds you when you’re uncertain about new collections or directions, helping you navigate the difficult creative days that happen to all of us.Connect with Tatyana AndersonInstagramWebsite Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Season 1: The Chateau SeasonEpisode 22: Steve Capone, Writer and PublisherIn this episode, I interview Steve Capone, a writer and publisher from Utah in the United States who lives near the Rocky Mountains. Steve has been teaching for 18 years but has been writing his whole life, getting serious about fiction writing about a dozen years ago after leaving graduate school where he spent seven years studying political philosophy and ethics. He writes primarily horror with a social commentary bent – sardonic, Kafkaesque stories that explore how systems (government, HOAs, social expectations) fail to meet the needs of common people. He started Whisper House Press 18 months ago with a mission focused on transparency, elevating voices that might not otherwise be heard, and revealing mundane but upsetting aspects of society. At the time of the interview, which was in August 2025, Steve had just released his first anthology and was launching a second in October, had signed his first three novella authors (including an Australian writer from outside Sydney, Jordan King-Lacroix), and publishes monthly short stories of 200-1,000 words. He recently won an award for a sarcastic letter to the editor about book banning in Utah and had a screenplay he developed at the Chateau selected in two film festivals. While at the residency, Steve began exploring visual art for the first time with encouragement from visual artists there, discovering it puts him in flow states – though he struggles to make time for it at home since most of his creative time goes to reading books and watching films for review, or reading generally. He consumes about 120 books a year (40-50 with his eyes, 60-80 audiobooks), constantly thinking about stories and structure. His creative process is mechanistic – identifying setting, conflict, and character, thinking through three-act or five-act structure, building scenes, considering character arcs – treating writing as craft with room for the muse showing up in the choices he makes. Steve works in flow states, listening to ambient or Math Rock (instrumental music too complicated to follow so his brain doesn’t track it), visualising the story unspooling in his brain and recording what he sees by typing it out. He needs dedicated writing spaces (basement office, coffee shops, libraries) where writing is the only purpose, working minimum two hours but ideally five to seven hours without pause – every Sunday spending six to eight hours at a coffee house, plus getting up at 5.30-6.00am on weekdays to work at Starbucks before teaching. His advice centres on having many tools in your tool belt and not being wedded to just one or two – different projects need different approaches, and if something isn’t working, try a tool you haven’t used yet. He recommends craft books including Chuck Wendig’s Gentle Advice for Writers, Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, Stephen King’s On Writing, Jane Allison’s Meander Spiral and Explode (about nonlinear plots), and Jeff Vandermeer’s Wonderbook. He emphasises that in small press publishing, making yourself easy to work with – being pleasant, communicative, doing what you say you’ll do – is a superpower that gets you invited back, since the same person is often opening emails every time you submit.Connect with Steve CaponeSteve’s publishing house Whisper House PressOther links: https://linktr.ee/stevecaponejr Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Season 1: The Chateau SeasonEpisode 21: Sam Moe, Visual Artist and WriterIn this episode, I interview Sam Moe, a visual artist and writer from Massachusetts who now lives in Huntsville, Alabama. Sam creates illustrations, paintings, and writes novels using a method called ‘braiding’ – something she was already doing intuitively before discovering the name for it. After reading The Man Who Could Move Clouds by Ingrid Rojas-Gonzalez about an indigenous Colombian basket weaver who wove her memoir together like weaving a basket, Sam realised ‘I do that but I don’t know what to call it’.She takes three or more stories and alternates them like braids in hair. In her paintings this appears as three separate columns representing three stories, or alternating colour schemes every few centimetres; in her writing, she braids memory, trauma, visual imagery, and research. Her work draws heavily on gastronomy research and represents herself through hands and body, often with metaphorical elements like faces containing animals inside them.Sam does extensive self-archival work, having kept 91 journals since age 12. She finds inspiration watching films about survivors of sexual violence and horror, and reading contemporary speculative memoir – a genre where people tell survivor stories visually or textually without using precise language. Key influences include Shea Hui Choa’s The Story Game, an experimental memoir written like a detective story interrogating how she got PTSD. Sam has a book called Cicatrizing the Daughters that’s recently been published and three more books planned for 2026.Her creative routine is remarkably disciplined – she writes and makes art every single day, though art is more triggering so she does less of it. At residencies she writes around 10,000 words daily; at school she completes three poems or one short story or essay in one sitting (3,000-4,000 words), collecting and editing these for submission to literary magazines that eventually become books. On weekends she writes around 8,000 words, needing to complete entire pieces or she gets nervous.She has a ritual of transporting all her materials – about 30 books – to whatever space she’s working in, setting everything up, then cleaning it all away so nobody touches it, which she attributes to not being able to make art safely growing up. These materials also serve as touchstones, objects that call forth theory and scholarly connections. Her advice to beginning creatives is to do whatever they want and write recklessly without anyone telling them what to do. She wrote 10 chaotic, messy novels before entering an MFA programme, which she found stifling and intense, stopping her writing for about 10 years.Sam emphasises writing for yourself rather than for the market or trends, noting that literary agents want work that’s uniquely you and different, and that prizes like the Man Booker celebrate extreme uniqueness – so being yourself is actually what’s applauded, even though the literary community can feel intense.Connect with Sam MoeInstagramSam’s latest book: Cicatrizing The Daughters Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Season 1: The Chateau SeasonEpisode 20: Naomi Elizabeth Montoya, multidisciplinary artist, and Su Hudson, FilmmakerIn this episode, I interview the collaborative duo from Albuquerque, New Mexico Naomi Elizabeth Montoya, multimedia artist, and filmmaker Su Hudson. They have been creating site-specific dance films together for the past 20 years.Naomi started with painting and visual art in her youth, began dance in middle school, and has taught for 27 years – two decades of which have been at a performing arts school teaching contemporary dance. She's also performed with an Afro-Cuban, Afro-Brazilian dance company.Su is a filmmaker with over 35 years in the film industry. Their collaborative work takes dancers off the stage and into other locations – diverse landscapes like the white sands of New Mexico (crystal gypsum sands) or domestic spaces like kitchens – creating films that they often bring back to stage for multimedia performances combining film with live dance or installations. Their creative process is location-driven and spontaneous – they might plan extensively but don't really know what will happen until they arrive at a location, as conditions like wind, sand texture, or spatial constraints change how movement unfolds. They're primarily inspired by landscape and space, exploring how diverse New Mexican environments fuel creation, but also work extensively in domestic spaces to explore the female experience – particularly kitchens as the heart of homes where secrets, gossip, and life's stories unfold. Naomi's individual process involves journaling, improvisational movement, and letting ideas sit before developing them, sometimes keeping ideas on the shelf for months or years before completing them. Su handles technical aspects like lighting and equipment.They work around grants with parameters, fitting creative work around daily tasks and paid employment. Their advice to beginning creatives emphasises finding your community of supportive people when family support isn't available, not taking no for an answer, doing what you love so everything falls into place, learning your tools and equipment, applying for grants, doing the work repeatedly until you create something you like, and viewing every experience – even rejections – as learning opportunities. Naomi particularly stresses that creative work feeds the soul and brings happiness even without financial wealth, and that if work feels fun, it's probably what you should do.Connect with Naomi Elizabeth MontoyaInstagramBio Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Season 1: The Chateau SeasonEpisode 19: Michael Manning, Visual ArtistIn this episode, I interview Michael Manning, a collage artist from Boston, Massachusetts, also known as Westwood. Michael has been doing collage art since he was about 14 years old and took it professional right out of college in 2013. His creative work focuses on piecing together elements of modern-day identity, exploring the things that people collect and finding serendipity in those moments – always focused on cooperation, collage, collections, and fascinated with words. Michael’s creative process is built around asking questions – he believes it’s all about collection and asking good questions, trusting that if you ask the right questions, you’ll very naturally find the answers. He loves questions and diversity in his work. His specific process involves finding an image first, often getting a commission to recreate a photograph, which he projects onto a canvas and then works almost like a paint-by-numbers approach. He rifles through magazines and materials that people discard, looking for pieces of paper and colours – going through systematically to find specific colours like blues or greens, then skin tones, building up his palette. He describes finding the colours he needs and then trying to find corresponding textures and contexts that match, creating collections of imagery that he can draw from for his collage work. His process combines traditional artistic techniques with found materials, creating new compositions that explore modern identity through collected fragments.Connect with Michael ManningInstagramWebsite Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Season 1: The Chateau SeasonEpisode 18: Mary PowellIn this episode, I interview Mary Powell, a multi-disciplinary artist from California who describes herself as someone who can get her hands on pretty much anything and everything – a jack-of-all-trades, master of as many trades as possible. Mary has technical training in oil painting, sculpture, and drawing, and over time has explored stained glass, mixed media printmaking, and photography. She’s tried pretty much any medium that’s out there, at least once or wants to add it to her list. Her creative process is spontaneous and messy – she explains that it’s not the same every time and she doesn’t have a defined approach, but it’s pretty much different almost every single time. She starts with both enthusiasm and a very long time commitment, describing herself as a very messy person who definitely is not tidy with her creative process. She does the thing, gets everything she needs, and lays it all out, acknowledging there’s a lot of inspiration everywhere – from different places, different projects, and pictures she’s found. Mary explains that she knows where everything is and exactly what she needs next, and gravitates towards whatever interests her in the moment. She gets obsessed with something for a while, and it’s whatever she’s drawn to at that time – whether that’s the subject matter or the materials themselves. She just kind of gets into that headspace and allows her curiosity and immediate interests to guide her creative exploration across multiple disciplines and media.Connect with Mary PowellInstagram Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Season 1: The Chateau SeasonEpisode 17: Maddie Kimber, Children's book illustratorIn this episode, I interview Maddy, a 25-year-old children's book illustrator, graphic designer, and screen printer from Illinois who now lives in Savannah, Georgia. Maddy's work focuses on telling stories to kids in a respectful and creatively fulfilling manner – avoiding the tendency to just use bright colours and crazy visuals to grab children's attention, instead focusing on more mundane but impactful stories using animal characters. Her creative process is deeply informed by her own childhood experiences with undiagnosed ADHD, thinking about the difficult feelings and big issues she struggled to navigate as a kid without the nuance of adulthood. She works extensively with animal characters to create allegory that's both fun and engaging for children without scaring or boring them, believing that kids don't like being told how to do things but respond to stories that invoke imagination. Her process involves lots of sitting, doodling, figuring out what fits the story, doing colour studies, and thinking about how colour engages different moods – using saturated colours because she feels things deeply, but not to dictate how viewers should feel. Maddy's creative inspirations include her mum, a therapist who has a gift for making people feel seen and heard; Winnie the Pooh and A.A. Milne; Calvin and Hobbes and Bill Watterson; and Louis Wain, known for painting anthropomorphic cats with gouache and his mastery of colour and brushstrokes. She emphasises remaining curious as central to her creative routine, spending lots of time with her sketchbook to practice skills and explore outside her comfort zone – especially important since client work requires more cautious steps, while personal art and sketchbook work allows experimental exploration. She's particularly interested in drawing anthropomorphic animals living human routines, carrying over human elements into animals. Her advice to beginning creatives is to make bad art – with the understanding that no art is ever bad if it's bringing you closer to your vision – and to think of art like singing in the car: something you do not because you need an endpoint but because it's natural to humans to have fun and express themselves creatively. She encourages people to keep making art while honing technical skills, taking the steps that feel right for them rather than the ones that will turn them into someone else.Connect with Maddie KimberWebsiteInstagramTattle tails Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Season 1: The Chateau SeasonEpisode 16: Laura Wagner, WriterIn this episode, I interview Laura Wagner, a writer from New York who was born in Brooklyn, raised on Long Island, and has been a Manhattan resident for the past 30-plus years. Laura explains that she doesn’t have a specific discipline – instead, inspiration hits her sometimes in the middle of the night or while walking down the busy city streets, where she might see a word that becomes her creative spark. She expresses her creativity through writing, and shares an example of how hearing a word several years ago led her to create a story about springtime in New York. The word referenced Lady Bird Johnson, who was married to Lyndon Johnson and created a beautification programme across America, and from that single word, Laura created what she describes as one of her more flowery yet descriptive stories. She explains what she loves most about writing – that it gives her so many opportunities to express herself quietly, without interruption, without phones beeping – just allowing her thoughts to flow onto the page, piece by piece, until the work reveals itself. Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Season 1: The Chateau SeasonEpisode 15: Kent Curtis-Weakley, In this episode, I interview Kent Curtis-Weakley, an artist and designer originally from a small farming town in central Illinois who has been living in New York City for almost 16 years, working in Chelsea, Manhattan. KC, as he is known, works primarily in graphite and charcoal, with some work in sepia or walnut ink, and is practising silverpoint – a centuries-old technique that predates graphite. He describes drawing as a meditation for him and shares his discovery from figure drawing sessions that he can draw with great focus for about 20 minutes before needing to change focus – a rhythm he’s built his entire practice around, allowing him to draw all day in 20-minute segments with breaks in between. KC traces his creative inspiration back to his grandmother, Grandma Weakley, remembering sitting at her kitchen table when he was five years old, drawing and colouring together while looking out the windows at their farm – and how he thinks about her every time he draws now. As an interior designer, he’s always looking and noticing details – how chairs sit in rooms, where light switches are placed, how lighting affects mood. He began focusing on figure studies about 10 years ago after graduate school, wanting to work with curves rather than the straight lines of interior design, learning to pull figures and faces off flat paper and make them come alive. His work has evolved significantly during the residency, taking a huge leap beyond his expectations. Kent maintains a disciplined routine, rising before dawn at 5.30 or 6 o’clock and drawing from 7am until after dusk. His advice centres on not listening to naysayers – including his father who suggested business management or accounting instead of art school – and knowing yourself well enough to understand what you’re cut out for. He emphasises following your heart, not giving up, and doing it for the passion rather than the money, because if you’re not passionate about what you’re doing every day, it’s a recipe for failure and disaster.Connect with Kent Curtis-WeakleyInstagramWebsite Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Season 1: The Chateau SeasonEpisode 14: Katherine Greer, Visual artist, Singer-SongwriterIn this episode, I interview Katherine Greer, known as Katie, a visual artist from the Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara County, California. Katie works across multiple mediums including oil painting, charcoal, soft and oil pastels, and pencil work, and she also writes songs and stories.Her driving purpose for creating art is to give viewers the feeling of love – she wants people to see and feel loved through her work, or to have an attachment to a piece that brings back good memories. She describes her creative process as very sporadic, with ideas coming to her unexpectedly – sometimes in dreams, sometimes on walks in nature, sometimes just spontaneously deciding to paint someone like her friend Neda. Katie opens up about the challenges of maintaining a creative practice while raising children and how she’s had to put her creativity on the back burner because her life isn’t currently an art-giving lifestyle. She explains that her ideal routine involves being alone with her thoughts in a quieter space, settling into the right mental state, because creativity has to come organically – you can’t force it when you’re too overwhelmed, depressed, or not mentally there.Her inspiration comes from life itself, from everyone she’s met, from music (like when she drew Paul Simon because she couldn’t attend his concert), and from missing home. Katie offers beautiful advice about listening to yourself and never giving up on your creative calling, even when others question you or when you hate what you’re creating. She describes every piece as being like a relationship – sometimes loving it, sometimes wanting to tear it up, but knowing there will always be light at the end where you and the piece agree with each other.Connect with Katherine Greer* Instagram* Email Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Season 1: The Chateau SeasonEpisode 13: Kate Bang, Visual artistIn this episode, I interview Kate Bang, a visual artist and acrylic painter originally from South Korea who emigrated to Canada at age eight. Kate describes her creative process, which involves creating visual collages on the computer using photographic references in Photoshop, constructing the pictorial space she needs before translating it into paint.She’s drawn to surrealist artists like Giorgio de Chirico, though she finds her own work tends to stay more in the realm of realism even as she dabbles with pushing further into surrealism. Kate’s work explores themes of cultural hybridity, and she shares insights about one of her striking pieces featuring a Korean market scene with fish, Korean melons, and a dress she owns, representing the layers of her identity – the Canadian exterior and the Korean background that’s never forgotten.She maintains an incredibly disciplined practice, painting almost every day and filling her time with art-making. Kate opens up about how taking breaks actually creates anxiety for her because of the feeling of not getting enough work done, though being at the residency has given her space to rest with friends.She experiences frequent moments of creative uncertainty, working through them by sitting with her sketchbook and thinking about elements that work with her theme. Her advice for beginning creatives is straightforward and encouraging: …trust the process, practice constantly, and remember it’s never too late to start.Connect with Kate Bang* Instagram* TikTok* YouTube* Email* WebsiteInterviewMD: Hi Kate. Can you just start by telling me your name and where you come from?KB: My name is Kate Bang and I come from Canada. I was born in South Korea and I immigrated when I was eight.MD: And what is your creative discipline?KB: It’s visual arts. I’m mainly an acrylic painter. I have made other kinds of work but my main focus and love is painting.MD: Can you tell me a little bit about your creative process?KB: So what I do is usually I create like a visual collage on the computer, Photoshop. However, even with, I’ve done it with magazines but at the moment I usually use mostly photographic reference and collage them together and I create the pictorial space I need from that, those images.MD: What is your, who or what is your creative inspiration?KB: So I like to follow a lot of surrealist artists. I don’t have the guts to get to that point. Sometimes I dabble further and I would like to continue being more surrealist but for some reason my artworks continue to be more, kind of staying in the realism realm.MD: Is there anyone or any kind of thing that you are drawn to for your creativity, for your art?KB: Ah, uh, Giorgio the, oh my gosh, Giorgio, oh my gosh I’m blanking on the last name. Let me just, if I type Giorgio.MD: While you’re doing that, can you just tell me a bit about the beautiful piece of art behind you?KB: Oh yeah, this piece is a Korean market. I have fish in the foreground, Korean melons in the background. This is a dress that I own and in living in Canada wearing jean is kind of like a regular Canadian wear and I wanted to kind of showcase like even though like this is the outer shell of myself there is this like whole background of me and it’s not forgotten.MD: I love that. Such a striking piece of art.KB: Uh, well, Giorgio Di Circo.MD: Excellent, thank you. Tell me about your creative routine. Like how, do you have a routine? Do you paint every day?KB: I paint almost every day. Usually back at home I wake up, paint, paint, paint, paint, paint, go to sleep.MD: All day every day?KB: Well, unless I have other work to do, but my time is filled with painting.MD: Do you keep it to Monday to Friday?KB: No, like every day.MD: Every day. That’s amazing. And do you find that you need to have rests in between the time that you’re painting?KB: Oh yeah, I have tried to rest but I think it stresses me out. Like I’m not getting enough work done. So that kind of anxiety pushes me to continue making work when I feel like I need a well-rested day. So thankfully this space kind of gives me those moments for friends to be like, come, hang out. I’m like, okay, fine.MD: Do you ever have moments where you’re like, I’m not really sure what I’m going to paint next?KB: Oh, all the time.MD: And how do you get through those?KB: I sit in front of my sketchbook and wait and think about elements and what does those elements work with my theme, which is I make works of cultural hybridity and that is a theme that I’ve been working with for the past forever. And yeah, that’s kind of my process.MD: I love that. Can you tell me, if you were to meet someone who’s just at the beginning of their creative journey, just dipping their toe in, what piece of wisdom would you want to, or pieces of wisdom would you want to share with them?KB: Trust the process. Practice, practice, practice. It’s never too late.MD: Beautiful. I love that.Connect with Kate Bang* Instagram* TikTok* YouTube* Email* WebsiteLiked this episode?Like, comment, follow, share & subscribeHelp this podcast by reviewing and rating it on Apple Podcastx MegNeed more time for your writing?Check out some of my upcoming events.* 2026 Writing retreats Retreat booking links will be sent to everyone who’s filled out the EOI form next week. If you want in (there’s only 7 spots for each retreat), get on the list.* Need some writing momentum?Writing Momentum is my weekly live and recorded writing and accountability group. We meet Wednesday mornings 7-8 am (AEDT, GMt+11). I use poetry and prompts to guide your 40-minute writing time before accountability check-ins. If you’d like to join, send me an email or check out my Writing Momentum page.Like what you read and want to tip? Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, I interview Jon Emm, a writer from the United States currently living in Chicago who has been writing short stories for years and has recently transitioned to screenwriting, including screenplays and TV pilots. Jon describes his creative process as being ‘all over the place’ – sometimes starting with an idea he wants to explore, sometimes with a perspective or characters he can think of, or relationships that intrigue him. He shares insights from his current screenplay project about a relationship between two men, explaining how he’s discovered that the two main characters are actually different aspects of himself – an unlikely pairing that represents his internal contradictions. I was fortunate to be at a reading during our residency and it is rollicky fun.Throughout our conversation, Jon talks about about the challenges of the creative journey, including dealing with constant rejection, self-doubt and the overwhelming desire to quit when things get difficult. He emphasises the importance of persistence – that you have to keep going even when you’re rejected, even when you doubt yourself. His advice centres on just starting, accepting the messy nature of creativity, being persistent despite setbacks, and recognising that the characters and stories we create often reflect different parts of ourselves.I shared Esther’s Bath’ the Writers’ Salon at Chateau d’Orquevaux (the room in the image) with Jon and it was a pleasure to work alongside him over the three-week residency. He was there with his partner Diane Rakocy, who I interviewed in an earlier episode. Together they created a beautiful picture book True Colors. I hope you enjoy this episode.Connect with Jon EmmInstagramSubstack Buy his picture book True Colors created together with his partner Diane Rakocy Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, I interview Georgia King and Mark Storen, the performance-making duo behind Whiskey and Boots from Perth, Western Australia.They discuss how they’ve evolved from traditional theatre backgrounds into creating unique community-based verbatim performance work that combines storytelling, music, and interactive elements. Their process involves spending three weeks in a community interviewing locals, editing those stories, collaborating with musicians to create original scores, and then performing these stories back to the community using headphone verbatim technology – what’s been called ‘slow touring’ in Australia.In this interview Georgia and Mark share insights into their creative process as both artistic and life partners, including how they navigate boundaries between work and personal life, their different approaches to creativity (Georgia’s structured planning versus Mark’s need for inspiration and marination), and the flexibility required when working with community members on their schedules.They emphasise their commitment to making theatre accessible to everyone, particularly those who might feel unwelcome in traditional performance spaces, and how their work has reinvigorated them as artists. Their key wisdom centres on embracing risk-taking, not being afraid to make ugly things, staying curious throughout your creative life, avoiding comparison, and remembering that you can create whatever version of a creative life works for you.It was a joy to interview them. I hope you enjoy this episode and don’t forget to show the love by liking, following and subscribing to the podcast on your favourite podcasting app and connecting with Whiskey & Boots.Connect with Georgia and Mark* Instagram* Facebook* Website* EmailLiked this episode?Like, comment, follow, share & subscribeInterview transcriptMD: Hello. Georgia and Mark. I just want you to start by just introducing yourselves and where you’re from.MS: Yeah, sure. So I’m Mark Storen. I’m from Perth, Western Australia and I’m one half of Whiskey and Boots.GK: And I’m the other half and my name’s Georgia King, also from Perth.MD: Excellent, excellent. Can you tell me, collectively and maybe individually as well, what your creative discipline, interest is?GK: Performance, primarily. We started in traditional theatre and then have kind of morphed over the past eight years into more community-based, verbatim performance, storytelling with music, I would say, with some interactive again, as you know, Meg, it’s a little bit hard to describe in a succinct way that explains what it is. But the crux of our practice, traditional theatre background, but now it’s in this more kind of storytelling performance, community-based.MS: Yeah, I guess we’ve taken our skills as performers, performance makers, teachers, musicians and kind of merged them together to create something that is kind of like a hybrid of all those things. And I think what we’ve done is we’ve come up with a unique performance experience where we go into a community for three weeks and we interview people and then we use headphone verbatim, music and storytelling to kind of like provide a mirror to that place or that community. So we kind of become conduits for the stories and hopefully what it does is it creates discussion, empathy, spotlights our commonalities and it’s kind of a deeper way of working.There’s a term that’s been coined in Australia called slow touring. So it’s like a much …it’s a much deeper engagement with people and place as opposed to what Georgia was talking about where we used to be just theatre makers or actors for hire and we’d go in and we’d do a show and then we’d bump out and then we’d go to the next town and do a show. So this has been a much more rewarding experience.MD: I love it and I have got to experience some of it and it’s a lot of fun and also quite emotional listening back to people’s stories. Can you please tell me a little bit about your creative process? And I’m assuming that you both play different roles within what you create. So, maybe collectively and also individually.GK: Yeah. I reckon it starts with an idea and it’s usually who normally comes up with it.MS: Well I think mostly you’ve [Georgia] come up with the ideas and then just recently I’ve probably come up with some ideas as well but really the ideas would have come very much from you [Georgia].GK: So I’ll have an idea about like a community or a thing, you know like stories about mums, stories about death, young people or home and then I’ll come to Mark. It’s really convenient that we share a life as well because I’ll just go for a walk and have an idea and start thinking about it and come to Mark and go, what do you reckon about this idea? And then we could just like jam it out. It could be this and what about that? And then start kind of brainstorming the potential of that idea and then what do you think happens. Then it’s about trying to find the community.MS: Well I think like it’s kind of finding the community. Yeah, finding the place that particular idea might be open to kind of trying it out, interrogating the idea a bit more.GK: So a key part of it is because it’s so much about community, the community has to be on board. So it’s finding the key stakeholders within a community who are like – we’re not about convincing people to do it – it’s like are you into this? Because it’s really, you have to be wanting to do this. And so once we’ve found the community and the people in the community find the people.MS: Yeah, but I would sort of before that well, slightly adjacent to that, what I think our process is, we didn’t really know what it was. We didn’t know what we were doing when we started. We had all these collective skills but we kind of just tried it out and then we went, oh that kind of works, that kind of resonates, that resonates around this idea that Georgia has come up with. And we kind of started to put it all together that way and then over the time, the trial and error.GK: Which is probably the same for all of us.MS: Yeah, over the different iterations we’ve created like a document.GK: A model.MS: Like a model and saying, okay these things really work well. We know these kind of are working for us. This thing not so much. Or we discovered this other little component. So it’s always evolving, I think, our process and our kind of idea about making.GK :But the crux of it is the idea. The questions. What we’re going to interrogate about the theme. And the place. Find the people. Interview. We sit down and interview the people for as long as that is. Edit the story down. Send it to them. Make sure they’re cool. And then bring it to the musicians. So another part of our process that we haven’t explored as much here is music. So we’d send the audio or present the audio to the musicians. They’ll come up with the original music that goes with each speaker. Each participant. And then we sort of put it all together.MS: Yeah, so it’s kind of like each response informs another response essentially. So it’s kind of like a tiered approach. And it’s, I think our process is nimble, flexible, open.GK: It’s responsive.MS: Yeah. And responsive. MD: So I think about all that when we think about routine a lot of people think to be creative you have to have certain routines where you get up at 5am and you do this until this time and then this and this and this and this and then you sleep and then you… I’m curious about what your creative routine is. Also knowing that you share a life together outside of your work and I guess my question goes that extra for you as a couple. Like how do you also separate your life from the work?GK: Yeah.MD: So create … What’s your creative routine and how do you create those boundaries around that for yourselves?GK: Yeah, I think the boundaries is a really important part for us because it would be tempting to just talk about the work all the time. So we sort of have a rule of not talking about it until after breakfast. Or and then…but we break that all the time. But it’s good to have it there because if one of us is just like, hey we haven’t had breakfast. Come on. So we can check each other for that. And then sometimes if there’s a lot backing up we’ll schedule a meeting. Like at 10 o’clock on Tuesday, 10am on Tuesday let’s sit down and talk about and we’ll put together an agenda and talk about so that it’s not like at dinner time or other life times.MS: Yeah, I think we kind of, we try and have a structure. We try and keep to that because and we have this kind of check in, Hey my bucket’s full. So where’s your bucket at? Is it low, halfway or full? If it’s full we know that we need to give each other a bit of space. I think we have different approaches to processing.For Georgia, Georgia likes quite a lot of structure and a plan. For me I’m a little bit looser. So like when inspiration strikes that’s when I’ll capitalise on it or I’ll kind of want to work the most. But I’ve got to find that inspiration and sometimes for me that is like I have to go out into the place, look around, maybe do those things like just sit and have a coffee and sit amongst the place and then go oh yeah that thing, that idea Georgia had I reckon it might work this way and then I can come back to Georgia or the group and say yeah I’ve thought this, what do you reckon? Because our brains kind of work differently.GK: It’s a challenge. It’s a good thing that we’re quite different because if we’re both the same it wouldn’t be as interesting probably, but it’s a challenge in terms of the collaboration because I want to move. I want to move now. Let’s do this. Here’s the idea, let’s go for it.I need to let it marinate and be inspired and let it permeate. And the other challenge that’s probably the other one, because our work is collaborative with the community as well, they’re not going to be on the same schedule necessarily that we’re on. So we just have to kind of wait until they’re ready to share or have a story or what have you and then they have to be fitted into the routine.MS: 100%. So I think that’s why I sort of say our process is nimble, flexible and open. It has to be. We can be rigorous where we can be or scheduled where we can be but we have to be, yeah we’re on someone else’s time often and that and that’s been a real learning for us I think.GK: Because they’re not creative people either. They’re farmers or they work at the Bottle O.MS: They run the pub or whatever it might be.GK: So you have to fit into their schedule and they don’t know what we’re doing.MS: But that’s been really rewarding, don’t you think? Because I think that elicits something else and some of those informal exchanges are where you really get the deepest kind of connection, like a really amazing story because you’re in an informal kind of setting. It’s not sort of formalised so much and I think that is another part of our process.We’re very interested in creating access for people who don’t otherwise feel welcome in theatre spaces or performance spaces because our background is that. It seemed unattainable to us and then when we were in those spaces we sometimes felt like uncomfortable so it’s about comfort.GK: We think theatre and art should be for everyone and when it feels a bit gatekeeper-y sometimes and we want to try and dismantle that as much as two little artists can do. Just make it as accessible as possible for bogans who live in the outer suburbs or in the country.MD: I love that. So do you try to keep your work to a Monday to Friday nine to five or is it just literally you have to look at each week or each day and take it as it comes?GK: A little bit of both. We do try and keep it Monday to Friday but on tour it will start off with having Sundays off. So on tour it’s much more intense because you’re just doing a whole show in three weeks from beginning with nothing and then the performance.So six days a week is fine but no Sundays. If that’s the only day someone can do an interview, if that’s the only day the photography or the media wants to do an interview on Sunday, that rule starts again.MS: Yeah, or it’s the only day we can set up the venue because we’re often in different spaces. So we do try to keep a bit of structure but there’s flexibility.GK: Where there has to be. If that’s the day it has to be, it has to be that day. Very much from the old school, we just make it happen because we produce the shows as well. We don’t have an external producer. We’re the producers and the actors and the writers and the community engagement team. So it’s a little bit that sense of you just do what you have to do to get it made.MS: Yeah, that’s true actually. When I do think about that side of things, we are working on two things at once. So we’re working on the creative but we are producing it and we’re also working on the next show in terms of all the administration.I think that’s similar for a lot of artists because…GK: you’re your own managerMS: …you’re your own manager or you don’t necessarily have the funds or the resources to employ people to do that for you. We’re lucky in the sense that we do have a marketing person so we can handle some of that. But yeah, I think you have to, we’re kind of working all the time trying to keep some kind of time off but it’s very hard.It is very hard.GK: But when it’s down, when we’re not on tour or when we, I mean we do have some nice weeks where we’ve got space and time.MS: And that’s what’s been so great about this place is that it gives you the space to kind of really think about an idea, explore the idea. There’s an intensity to it but it’s like everything else is taken care of and that has been really nice I think. Because in a way, that sort of being here has taken me back to the beginning of our process when it really was you [Georgia], me and two friends just kind of making it up and it was just very, very spacious because there wasn’t a lot of...GK: We took longer too also because it’s one of these funny things where in the beginning you’re just doing it with the smell of an oily rag and you’re just figuring it out and you haven’t got funding and you’re not accountable to anyone but no one’s getting paid properly. But you also can kind of do what you want a little bit more and you can be a little bit more like, what’s the word, be a bit more of a cowboy about it. Because you’re not answerable to anyone because you haven’t gone through the proper channels.Now that the bigger you get, the more success you get, you have to be accountable for all of the pennies that you spent and all that so you have to be a bit more structured.MS: There’s a bit more rigour around the structure whereas at the beginning of the process or discovering what the work was, yeah, we did have a lot of space which was really nice I think and we’d all come into it from a place where we’d been working in a lot of that rigorous framework and we were searching for something that was a bit looser. I wasn’t even performing in the first iteration so I was just playing banging on the guitar. It was all Georgia because I was like, I’ve had enough of speaking words out of my mouth. I just wanted to turn into the corner and play guitar. And I literally did that, I don’t think I even looked at the audience. I was just down and there were two other musos and we were just three friends.GK: And then you got jealous of me performing.MS: It sort of reinvigorated us. So the process I think did actually reinvigorate us as artists and kind of changed the path we were on as artists which has been really nice. So now I wouldn’t even consider myself an actor, I’m just kind of like an artist who makes work using many different forms.GK: It feels like, I often feel like I’m not quite anything. I’m a little bit of a producer, a little bit of an actor. I don’t even know if what we do is acting. People put you in that category but it doesn’t feel the same. Am I a performer? Do we make performance art? Not really. We’re a bit of a kind of master of none I think.MD: I’d definitely put you on the performance. Tell me, if you were to meet someone at the very early time of them choosing to live a more creative life in whatever form, what wisdom would you want to impart?GK: Just take risks. I think risk taking is really important for creative people and I feel quite strongly that we live in a society education system everything that makes people risk averse. People want to be good straight away, people don’t want to get messy and make ugly things.I think it’s really important. I wish we could dismantle that and people could just throw s**t up and who cares if it’s bad to begin with. Or it continues to be, it doesn’t actually matter.Be riskier everyone. That would be what I would say. People at the end of their careers as well.I think there’s pressure once you’ve got to a certain level that you have to, the pressure is to be good all the time. And then I think you’re too careful and too safe.MS: Yeah, I would say in a similar way to Georgia don’t be afraid to make an ugly beautiful because I think in the ugly there’s beauty and it’s more authentic in a way. You’re finding, you’re leaning into something that’s not considered the correct version. I also think just don’t be afraid to make it up as you go along because you can create the life you want in whatever career and that in itself is creative.There’s many different paths, you don’t have to follow one. If you want it, you’ll find a way through it and don’t be discouraged by everyone saying you need to do this, this, this and this to have a good and full and measured life. It can be whatever version that works for you, I think. The version that works for you is the right one.GK: Comparison is the death of creativity. Don’t compare yourself, just do your own thing. And just be messy.MD: I love that. Any other pearls? Do you have anything else?MS: No judgement, just curiosity.GK: Yeah, stay curious, that’s good.MD: My favourite words.GK: I mean it’s important for creatives, just be curious. And you can see with people here, older people who are still curious, that’s why they’re still vital. When you lose the curiosity and adventurous spirit and that’s part of the risk taking, it just fizzles.MS: Yeah, absolutely.Connect with Georgia and Mark* Instagram* Facebook* Website* EmailLiked this episode?Like, comment, follow, share & subscribex Meg Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, I interview Genevieve, a writer from Houston, Texas, who has recently lived in Spain teaching English and, at the time of the interview which was conducted while we were at our writing residency in France, was preparing to move back to Portland while balancing her creative work with a new full-time job.Genevieve discusses how her story ideas come from other creative sources like music, movies, books, and art – particularly from her favorite band Lord Huron and the artists she follows on social media. She describes her process of letting ideas build in her mind before writing them down, and her journey from being a write-when-inspiration-strikes person to trying to develop a more consistent routine, especially after drafting her novel. She emphasises the importance of persisting through early creative frustrations when your work doesn’t match your vision, creating what you’re genuinely passionate about rather than for others, and staying open to finding inspiration everywhere – from museums and conversations to books and the world around you.I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I loved getting to know Genevieve at the Chateau d’Orquevaux and hearing her insights about the creative journey.Connect with Genevieve* Instagram* EmailLiked this episode?Like, comment, follow, share & subscribex Meg Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 9: Gayatri, ArtistGayatri is a mixed-media painter. She’s originally from India and now lives in Burnaby in Canada where she creates vibrant paintings that are inspired by nature and animals and birds. She comes from a family of artists and she found her deepest connection to art after losing her dad in 2020.She says that he was her greatest teacher and inspiration. Since then art has become her way of processing everything in life, whether that’s joy or sadness or needing to let go. During our conversation she shares her belief of the importance of discipline for artists and her unique approach to overcoming creative blocks through cleaning and clearing space and wisdom that she’s gained about staying true to your own creative vision rather than chasing what sells.Connect with Gayatri* Instagram* Website* EmailInterview transcriptMD: let’s start by you just introducing yourself, your name, where you come from and what your creative discipline is.Gayatri: I’m Gayatri and I’m originally from India but I’m based in Burnaby, Canada right now.MD: What do you do creatively, like what is the thing that you’re most drawn to you and what are the other things that you do creatively?Gayatri: So I mostly paint and I like to paint in mixed media. I use a lot of different materials in my process. I like to explore different art materials, so I try to bring in a lot of different variety of materials and I explore them if I find something new.MD: So you like different kind of paints and pencils and pens. Tell us a little bit about your creative process.Gayatri: Okay, so it really depends on how I start my painting. So sometimes it’s from an idea. If I’m traveling or if I see a bird, I paint a lot of animals and birds and so I sometimes get inspirations from the nature.But it also depends on, sometimes it’s just what I see and I want to try it out. So that’s it. So I start with an idea, maybe sometimes I sketch, sometimes I don’t.I start with the background, just play around with colours. And then I try to bring in the elements that I see from that background.MD: What or who inspires your creativity?Gayatri: Okay, that’s a difficult one. Because I’ve always been in art. My parents, both parents artists. And my biggest inspiration I would say is them. And my dad was, and is, me, my mom and my sister. He’s an inspiration for all three of us.So that art comes from him so much. We’ve learned so much from him. So he’s like our teacher from the start for art and I think he’s my biggest inspiration. I’ve learned a lot from him. And whenever I create, I feel as if I’m connecting to him somehow.MD: Is he still around?Gayatri: No, we lost him in 2020. So I think from that time, I mean I was involved from the beginning and he used to tell me like, Gayatri you should sketch every day and stuff like that and I didn’t listen to him. But from 2020 is when I started connecting to art more, like really more. So it’s something I go to for everything. Whether it is for a good thing, like when I’m happy, when I’m sad, when I need something to let go of or anything. And that’s art for me.MD: Yeah, so it sounds like your art becomes a way of you processing life.Gayatri: Yes.MD: Tell me about your creative routine. Do you have a routine that you follow?Gayatri: I do. I really believe that an artist needs discipline. Because if you want to create and if you want it to work, you should have some discipline. So for me, it is getting things out of the way first.Something like when I’m at home, I have the routine of cooking, I have to go out, do some stuff. I try to do that as soon as possible. And then once that’s done, when all the chores and stuff are done, I know I have a good time to now just create.MD: I’m just curious, thinking about that, do you experience times of creative blocks where you don’t know what you’re doing at the moment?Gayatri: Yes.MD: And how do you deal with that?Gayatri: My biggest go-to when I cannot really think of is cleaning. Cleaning my art space, like putting everything away, putting the canvases back on its places, cleaning up colours, palettes, everything. And when I have a clean, clear space, I somehow feel that my brain gets that space too.MD: Because it’s all clear, the canvas is clear. It’s so interesting because I have a similar thing. If I’m feeling blocked, I have to do a big cleanup.And in doing that, I think it does create space.Gayatri: Yes, it does. And it creates that physical space but also that mental space.MD: Exactly. If you were to have a conversation with someone who is just at the start of their creative journey, whatever creativity that is, what piece of wisdom would you want to give them?Gayatri: I just would say don’t give up. Believe in yourself and just keep doing what you really want to do. Not just because that is what is going to sell or that is what is going to be good for others. Do what you really feel like doing because that is going to connect to others.MD: What a beautiful piece of wisdom. Thank you so much.Gayatri: Thank you.MD: I’m loving these. These are obviously inspired from Troyes.Gayatri: Yes, these are from Troyes. And this is my studio which I’m taking with me.MD: Oh, it is. It’s here.Gayatri: Yes, this is my studio and this is yours. So we’re in there.MD: I love that. So you’re going to take that one home?Gayatri: Yes, I’m going to take this one home.MD: And I can see Troyes in there.Gayatri: It’s still a work in progressMD: Yes, it’s got the little shapes of the building and the curved road and all the ruelles, the tiny pathways.Gayatri: Thank you.Liked this episode?Like, comment, follow, share & subscribe Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Season 1: The Chateau SeasonThis season of the podcast, The Chateau Season, features creatives Meg Dunley interviewed while at a writing residency the Chateau d’Orquevaux Artist and Writers Residency in France. The episodes feature writers, filmmakers, visual artists, verbatim storytellers and more. Each episode gives you insight into the creative mind, taking you behind the studio doors to hear about process, routine, inspiration and wisdom. These pocket-sized episodes are to encourage you on your creative pathway.Multidisciplinary artist Forrest on balancing play with discipline, embracing the beginner's mindset, and valuing imagination as the source of creativity.Connect with Forrest, Multidisciplinary Artist* Instagram* Substack – cntodyssey  Show website: https://megdunley.substack.com/ Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to my podcast Creative Momentum with Meg Dunley where I interview creatives about their process, routines and inspiration.Season 1: The Chateau SeasonThis first season of the podcast, The Chateau Season features creatives I interviewed during my writing residency the Chateau d’Orquevaux Artist and Writers Residency in France. The episodes feature writers, filmmakers, visual artists, verbatim storytellers and more. Each episode gives you insight into the creative mind, taking you behind the studio doors to hear about process, routine, inspiration and wisdom. These pocket-sized episodes are to encourage you on your creative pathway.Episode 7: Emily Collins, Writer This episode features fiction writer Emily Collins, a Houston native currently based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.Emily writes across multiple genres, short stories, novels, essays and poetry, though fiction is her true love. She is currently working on revising her first novel and her story collection that’s a finalist in a contest in America, and under serious consideration at various outlets. During our conversation, Emily shares how she evolved from only writing when inspired, to maintaining a disciplined practice of writing six days a week while juggling a nine-to-five job.She opens up in the interview about what she looks for in literature, that magical intersection where the unusual meets the universal, and why clarity is that superpower that every writer should chase. I really hope you enjoy this episode. I loved having my chat with her and it was really great to meet her at the residency. In the background of the recording you can see the beautiful artwork of Sam Moe.Interview transcriptMD: Hi Emily. Do you just want to introduce yourself, your name and where you’re from?EC: My name is Emily Collins. I’m from Houston, Texas originally, but I live with my partner in Santa Fe, New Mexico.MD: Excellent. And can you tell me a little bit about what your creative discipline or disciplines are?EC: I would just say all writing, mostly fiction. I write short stories and I just finished a novel draft, but I also write essays too and articles, book reviews, and sometimes poetry as well.I think I would mostly categorise myself as a fiction writer, but I certainly explore all genres too, just kind of whatever it is I have to say sometimes takes a unique approach or discipline. So yeah, certainly I’d say just writing in all caps with fiction as a preference. MD: What is your creative process?EC: Yeah, it’s definitely changed over the years. I used to only write when I felt a surge of inspiration and I always love when that happens, but the older I got the more mundane my life got. So I sort of had to cultivate inspiration, which I do six days a week. I write every day, usually Monday through Saturday. I try to do at least 1,000 words a day. Sometimes that’ll increase if I’m more in the flow of a project. At this residency it’s been a lot different where I’ve been writing more in the afternoon and late into the night, but whenever I’m in my work mode because I work a nine to five job, it’s typically in the mornings. Yeah, and I think it’s overall a good practice even when I don’t want to, I still show up and do it. Yeah, that’s pretty much how I got my first book finished.MD: Yeah, and you’ve got something coming in?EC: Hopefully. I had a story collection that was a finalist in a contest and is under serious consideration at other outlets, so hopefully that comes through but I did finish a novel draft and will be revising and querying in the next several months.MD: Excellent, excellent. Who or what gives you your creative inspiration?EC: Probably a lot. I think the who definitely just writers. I just grew up, like a lot of writers, I grew up being a voracious reader and sort of read everything that I could get my hands on.Now I find that…I think my taste has changed just a little bit. I really I have this nervous system I think that’s wired for novelty and I really look for that in syntax and voice and I really love when the unusual meets the universal and I think writers are able to do that whether they’re writing classic realism or speculative horror. I really, I kind of love all of it and I’m really interested in the stories that only that person could tell at the right time and you can’t measure that, you can’t predict that but I think those kind of little miracles find their ways into the world and that’s really what I love to read.I love everything from Tolstoy to this memoirist named Lydia Yukonovich. I think there’s just strangeness in what they do and what they observe but it’s also just incredibly important and really kind of touches on something buried in my heart and I’m just so grateful for that. Definitely nature and travel too, I always get more ideas just from being in the outside world away from technology and disconnecting. I love being in nature with people and also by myself I used to do long distance backpacking and I really miss it, I don’t get to do that as much with my corporate job but it is something that I think probably helped me write a book, it is just being on those adventures and being tested in that way.MD: I love that, I really love that. I think you’ve already spoken about your creative regime, is there anything else that you would want to add in about what makes a good creative regime for you?EC: I think just kind of in general I don’t think there’s a set formula or word count, I kind of wish there were because then I think everybody would do it and everybody would be writing great books but I do think persistence is key and I think persistence looks different based on each person and their own life and their own demands and everything that they’re juggling but I think whether persistence is writing once a week or once a month or every day I do think that is critical because I do, I have noticed even when I feel like I’m in this creative slump, there is this increased fidelity that comes between you showing up for your work, you tend to trust the work a little more and more importantly it feels like the work kind of trusts you back and gives you more than you would have imagined had you spent all your time avoiding the work, which is natural to the creative process too because nobody wants to sit down and write, just the thought of that I find terrible but once when I jump in, everything’s fine and I don’t want to leave.So yeah, I think just whatever persistence looks like to someone’s life, they should do that, give themselves permission and fight for it.MD: What is the piece of wisdom, the pearl or pearls that you would give to someone who is in the early stages of their writing or creativity?EC: I love this question mostly because I always feel like I’m in the early stages because I’m always starting something new and I’ve talked to other writers about this and they say it never gets any less scary, like every time you start a new book, even if you’ve written ten, you’re like how am I going to do this because every piece of project is really humbling but I would say just spend time by yourself discovering who you are getting lots of worldly experiences, like if you can travel or if you can do the things that you’ve always wanted to do, go for it and learn about yourself and just spend time alone writing or creating whatever it is that you do to kind of discover your voice and also your obsessions. I think writers especially will be writing about the same things over and over again but in different ways, that is a good thing people might tell you it isn’t but I wholeheartedly disagree and yeah, I think one piece of advice that I always return to is just you can do whatever you want as long as you’re clear and I think it’s something that sounds so simple but it’s also incredibly difficult because clarity is really the thing that writers are after with every single draft so I would say do whatever you want, be experimental but find those trusted readers or friends to kind of give you feedback on your work and to let you know where certain areas are not clear or what can be developed further. I think that’s a very different kind of reader than someone saying none of this is working, I want the plot to be different or I think this should be a poem or whatever, just find those people who really support and understand what you’re trying to say and kind of help you get there and you’ll get there too, you do learn to become your own editor after a while but yeah, I think clarity is a superpower and it’s also a gift to the world too because ultimately you are giving a gift to somebody who really needs it and yeah, I think that’s just something I try to chase in my daily life every day and always try to cultivate.MD: I love that, thank you so much.EC: Thank you! This is such a great series, I’m excited to see everybody’s.Connect with the writerEmily Collins, Writer* Website* Instagram* SubstackArtwork behind Emily in the interview: Sam MoeCatch up on past episodesRead full storyUpcoming events* Retreat with Meg October 2025Five days of writing bliss in Kinglake, Victoria – more info* Retreat with Meg November 2025Four days of writing bliss in Kinglake, Victoria – more info Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to my podcast Creative Momentum with Meg Dunley where I interview creatives about their process, routines and inspiration.Season 1: The Chateau SeasonThis first season of the podcast, The Chateau Season features creatives I interviewed during my writing residency the Chateau d’Orquevaux Artist and Writers Residency in France. The episodes feature writers, filmmakers, visual artists, verbatim storytellers and more. Each episode gives you insight into the creative mind, taking you behind the studio doors to hear about process, routine, inspiration and wisdom. These pocket-sized episodes are to encourage you on your creative pathway.Episode 6: Diane Rakocy, Intuitive Artist and PainterIn this episode, I speak with Diane Rakocy. She’s an intuitive artist and painter from Chicago. I met Diane at Chateau d’Orquevaux in July 2025. She has great philosophy about art mirroring life. I think you’ll enjoy this episode.Diane works from her home studio and she’s developed a fascinating technique where she paints the negative space around subjects, like flowers, rather than painting the subject itself. And she just lets the light emerge by painting the darks around it. I love how intentional she is in her approach with her energy.She starts each painting by writing words on the canvas that represent the energy that she wants to bring through in the painting, whether it’s for herself or for a client commissioning it. Her process is so organic and beautiful and intuitive and it creates beautiful messy under layers that are just what makes her work so beautiful. I hope you enjoy this interview.Interview transcriptMD: Hey, hi Diane. I want you to start just by introducing yourself with your name and where you’re from.DR: I’m Diane Rakocy from Chicago in the USA.MD: Tell me about what your creative discipline is or disciplines. What are the kind of things that you do creatively?DR: You mean besides painting or just painting? I love to cook but I have a studio in my home and I’m pretty disciplined about painting I’d say three or four times a week. But I also love anything creative. I love cooking. That’s a big big part of my life, food. I don’t know, just give me any creative project. I feel like that’s true for most artists.MD: Talk to me about your creative process. What does it start with? How do you grow it?DR: Well, this is probably a good example because I’m at different stages in all these paintings but I generally start with words on the canvas and that’s like represents what kind of energy I want to bring through either in a painting or in space. If someone asks me to do a painting, I ask them what kind of energy they want to bring in their space and I just so believe it. I usually meditate on that word or words and actually literally write them on the canvas and then I just start by making marks like that one over there that I just throw paint on, make different marks using different colours, different styles and then I step back and kind of see what’s there and for me I’m really inspired by nature so I a lot of times start with flowers or something.I also, you know, I mean I’ve been known to find elephants and birds and everything else but I guess my process is more about painting the negative space around to bring the flower to the surface as opposed to painting the flower. Which I can see. Yeah, so what you do is paint the darks, right, and then the light comes out.Yeah, I see and I really like it because I like seeing all the underpainting underneath it and I think that’s what gives it depth and I really love the idea of art and life and how they correspond and so I see that all the time in my work and it’s like you start with a blank canvas, you don’t know where you’re going, you just try different things. Some things work, some things don’t, some things are a mess, some things are beautiful but it’s like that process of bringing it all together and finding something beautiful in it and which is also why I like the negative space because you’re not, you know, it’s like you have to really look and bring all that out and it’s all that messy under layers that I think is what makes it beautiful, you know, I think that’s the best part. I leave it, I use transparent paint so you can still see the underpaintings just like I think in life if we cover everything up we’re not so interesting for what we want.MD: Great analogy.DR: So yeah, that’s kind of my process.MD: Yeah, tell me, you touched on this just a moment ago about your routine, so tell me about what your creative routine is.DR: You mean like my daily routine?MD: Like how do you do it?DR: So I don’t do it every day but I try to, I’m trying to be more disciplined about it. I’ve been known to, you know, clean my kitchen when I have something that important to do. I have historically been a procrastinator but I’m really trying to be disciplined and sort of block time now and I’m best in the mornings so I get up, if I, it’s a good day for me if I get up, have my tea, do my meditation and paint like till midday and then do something, go for a swim or whatever but I just, I don’t really have a set schedule I have to say because sometimes I like to get up and go swimming in the morning and then I come back and do my work but I’m in a group right now that’s it’s the art of business and part of that group is painting every day or really getting this and it’s really been great for me because I feel like when you paint every day or the more you do it, the better you get just like anything and, you know, I think I’m, you know, there and then suddenly I learn something new and just informs your paintings. So, I guess in answer to your question, I don’t really have a set schedule, I mean, that I could advertise that I stick with very closely or it changes every week.Usually what happens is I start at Sunday night, I look at my week and I’m going to paint on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and get these other things done here and there but week by week it changes, yeah.MD: Excellent and if you were to have a conversation with someone who is early on in their creative journey, what piece of wisdom would you want to give to them?DR: Well, I said the best piece of wisdom I got was take as many teachers as you can and you eventually find your own style because I think often what happens is you take a class, you paint like the teacher and then, you know, but then you take another class and somebody paints really differently. I think that’s a really important part and I also think what I’ve learned is that feeling of painting within. I started out by painting photographs and was very, staying within the lines and I was really good at it, rendering a photograph exactly the way it was but when I, my painting switched when I learned to within, like from within, like without looking at something else, just you, like I think oftentimes I get stuck on a painting but there’s always one next step, okay, I’ll just do, I’ll just make purple dots on this until I can figure out what’s next. It’s just like that following that, listening to your gut, following the one next step to end up with something but I, yeah, I think a lot of times people stop too early and I think, yeah, that listening to my intuition is huge.MD: Yeah, yeah. Well, thank you so much, and yeah. Yeah, that’s right. Is there anything else that you want to share with creatives in the world?DR: No, I’d just say, I mean, I like, I believe everyone is creative and I think it is just, it just moves your life forward in such a beautiful way no matter what kind of creativity you do, no matter what it is, but yeah, I think it accesses that part of your brain that we just all need to do, so. And I love that you’ve touched on, you know, even cooking.MD: I know, yeah. You know, creativity comes in so many different forms.DR: Yeah.MD: Not just the most beautiful paintings. DR: Yeah, I guess I’m a, I journal too, I guess that’s a form of creativity. MD: Absolutely. DR: Yeah.MD: Thank you.DR: You’re welcome.I really hope you enjoyed that interview. I love Diane’s energy and her wisdom, and you know, there was something that she said about how, you know, learn from many teachers and by doing so you learn your own style rather than just getting stuck on copying one teacher’s style or method, and her insight about how there’s always one next step when you’re painting or writing, even if it’s just some purple dots, or, you know, for writing it might be, you know, just creating a richer layer. Her analogy between art and life is beautiful and powerful, and, you know, from not knowing where we’re going, trying different things, some working, some not, and just finding beauty in bringing it all together, and, you know, covering up everything to make it all the same just makes it less interesting, and so that’s partly why she uses that transparent paint, just to let those under layers shine through. I think there’s a great metaphor in there about creative courage with just trying not to stay within the lines, but to see what else can happen and to trust your intuition and listen to your inner voice rather than just copying what you see outside yourself. I wonder what you could take from that this week about your intuition for your own creativity.Could you listen to your intuition a little bit more and see what that is trying to tell you?Please do like, subscribe, follow, and share this so that more people can see Diane’s beautiful work and more creatives can learn from the other creatives that I’m interviewing in this podcast. Connect with the artistDiane Rakocy, Painter* Home town: Chicago, US* Website: https://dianerakocy.com/* Socials: Instagram, Facebook* Watch her process Catch up on past episodesUpcoming events* Write That Book Before I Die7 October – Free writing masterclass for anyone who has struggled to get their writing projects finished (with a few bonuses for participants). Book here* Writing retreat information session6 October – a writing retreat info session for those who’d like to learn more about what makes my retreats something that people keep returning to. I’d love you to join if you’re curious (bonus discounts for turning up to the event ☺️).* Retreat with Meg October 2025Five days of writing bliss in Kinglake, Victoria – more info* Retreat with Meg November 2025Four days of writing bliss in Kinglake, Victoria – more info Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to my podcast Creative Momentum with Meg Dunley where I interview creatives about their process, routines and inspiration.Season 1: The Chateau SeasonThis first season of the podcast, The Chateau Season features creatives I interviewed during my writing residency the Chateau d’Orquevaux Artist and Writers Residency in France. The episodes feature writers, filmmakers, visual artists, verbatim storytellers and more. Each episode gives you insight into the creative mind, taking you behind the studio doors to hear about process, routine, inspiration and wisdom. These pocket-sized episodes are to encourage you on your creative pathway.Episode 5: Coral Noel YangCoral Noel Yang is a Taiwanese-born abstract landscape painter, now based in Auckland, New Zealand. What I find fascinating about Coral’s work is how she bridges Eastern and Western artistic traditions. She grew up watching her mother create traditional Asian water ink paintings, and found her own voice through the Western technique of pouring liquid paint onto raw canvas, inspired by American expressionist Helen Frankenthaler. Coral approaches her art deadlines by creating collections and setting goals, three months and beyond. By doing this, it helps her to complete her projects. Her process is deeply connected to nature and travel, and she photographs landscapes then translates them into these incredible abstract works using transparent layers of acrylic and mixed media. What really struck me, though, in our conversation was her approach to goal setting as a creative, and it aligned with my thinking about coaching and goal setting for creatives. She uses a beautiful metaphor of creativity being like rain that needs riverbanks to flow properly. Have a listen to find out more.Interview TranscriptMD: Hi, Carol.CNY: Hello, Meg.MD: Let’s just start by introducing yourself and where you’re from.CNY: Yes, I’m Coral Noel Yang, and I was born in Taiwan, but now I live in Auckland, New Zealand.MD: Excellent, excellent. Can you tell me what your creative discipline is?CNY: Yes, I’m an abstract, semi-abstract landscape painter using acrylic and mixed media, sometimes oil or soft pastel. And my practice is I pour liquid paint onto raw canvas and then make lots of transparent layers and build them up. And I feel like raw canvas is kind of like our skin, you know, like soak the sun and the rain and allow emotion to be really resonating and then feel like a garment you can wrap around yourself.MD: I love that. I was actually going to ask you about your creative process. Do you want to tell me a little bit more about that? Like I’m looking at your table here and you’ve got drawings, little drawings, you’ve got small pastels. Yes. Tell me how you kind of come into each of your works of art.CNY: Yes. So currently I work mostly in response to nature and my stories and travels. And so, I love to take a lot of photos and bring them back to studios and I will sketch them first with pencil and looking for the abstract shapes, the organic forms of the terrain, you know, the rolling hills or the reflection in the water. And then I will create my colour palettes for each piece of work.Sometimes it’s more like true to nature. Sometimes it’s more fanciful, more surreal kind of colour palettes. So, I like to do small colour sketches first to figure out the values. And then once I feel I’m ready, I will get onto the bigger canvas.MD: Beautiful, beautiful. I’m going to show some photos as well of the work that you’ve done because it is absolutely stunning and amazing colours in it. Tell me a little bit about your routine for your creativity.CNY: Yes. I kind of keep a routine that will keep my physical body and my emotional space really uplifted. So, I like to wake up and do journaling and then yoga, stretching, sometimes a nature walk. And then I will, you know, have my, you know, a bountiful breakfast with lots of proteins and fruits and then get to my studio.And I try to get to the studio, do the creative work before I get to my admin and business side. So usually it’s in the morning, I will go to the studio and I start working on pieces.MD: Who or what is your creative inspiration?CNY: I would say, you know, of course, artists, you know, like a master or masters in the history, especially the Renaissance, like da Vinci, Michelangelo, because they really resonated with human stories. And also, my mom. My mom is a very established and incredible Asian water ink tradition artist.So, I grew up with her and seeing how she does, you know, huge paintings on rice paper. But I realised I cannot do it on rice paper because I’m too messy. So later on, I got connected with Helen Frankenthaler, an American expressionist artist in the 20th century.And she did this like oil pouring on raw canvas. That’s when I discovered I can use this Western medium, very robust practice, but convey my ancient roots and aesthetics and sensibility.MD: I love that.CNY: The melding of it all.MD: If you were to meet someone who was just at the beginning of their creative journey, what pearls or wisdom would you want to share with them?CNY: Well, I think, Meg, you know as much as I do. I think the number one thing is allow yourself to play. To be the little kid, you know. Yeah, I have to remind myself again and again. I started painting like full time because I lost my brother. And so afterwards, I just didn’t, I didn’t have the drive to, you know, to do the filmmaking of that kind of high-pressure work.And I discovered if I just carry a little watercolour sketch and go to the nature, you know, seaside or riverside, I can just do a little sketch. I just feel so connected with my own heart and my happy place. So, I feel like being able to find something that you can feel your heart come alive. And then you can feel that little kid in you have that safety or freedom to express, you know, yourself. That’s the most important thing, I think. Yeah, it’s to create that safe, nurturing environment within yourself.But also, you know, it’s like, you know, come here to the residency. I met you guys. I met you, Meg, and all the other artists. And then you have created space for me. I feel like you helped me. I can process my emotions and feel free, you know, and be inspired, but also feel really supported, like being seen and affirmed. And I think we need people like that.MD: So having, I guess, like a community of other creative people who understand.CNY: Yeah, and also look for coaches, mentors. Yeah. I have done that again and again. Yeah, I know. It’s just, it will help you to, you know, take the bounds and leaps. Yeah. And find your voice and create that space. And it just shortens your journey because they have the tools, wisdom, and insight. Because a lot of times it’s our mindset, right? And it’s all similar. It may, you know, sound, surface differently, but pretty much, you know, quite universal. Yeah.MD: So, play, community, and coaching?CNY: Yes.MD: I love that. Is there anything else that you would want to share about creativity?CNY: Yeah. I do think it’s very good to have a goal. Yeah. To set up creative milestones. It doesn’t have to be big, but I think it’s really great to have dreams and aspirations. And I feel like to have a three-month milestone, I say, this is what I’m going to set out to do.Even though I might not achieve it, but it becomes like a container for our creativity. This is what I heard once, you know, our creativity is like the rain coming down from the sky. But if you don’t have the riverbank to contain that water, it sort of just spurs out, you know. But then if you have that riverbank to hold that, it will flow. You will see that. And I think we need that affirmation ourselves. Yeah.MD: How do you set goals for yourself as a creator?CNY: Yeah. Because I’m a painter, so I like to create in collections. And I find a theme that really, really, like, I felt really resonated with the theme of the story. So, I will say, you know, in three months, you know, within this three-month time, I’m going to create a collection. And then usually I will have an exhibition or group shows or a large art fair that I set myself a goal to attend, you know. And yeah, sometimes you don’t get it. But I think that progression really, really will create that momentum. So, I like to give myself those goals.MD: Yes.CNY: Thank you.MD: Thank you for sharing.CNY: Thank you for the opportunity to chat.MD: Thank you. I hope you enjoyed that interview with Coral. I loved her insights about creativity, needing structure to flourish. That image that she created of the creativity being like the rain from the sky that needs riverbanks to contain it so that it can flow really resonates. It’s such a beautiful, poetic way to think about why we need goals and deadlines as artists, not as constraints but as containers to help our creativity move forwards. Her approach of working in collections with three-month milestones, always aiming for exhibitions and shows creates that momentum that she talks about.And I was moved by her reminder to allow yourself to play. Play is really important to me. To be like a little kid, especially knowing that her full-time painting journey began after losing her brother, which is where she discovered that simple watercolour sketches in nature could reconnect with the joy in her own heart.That combination of play, community, coaching and purposeful goal setting. That’s a framework that any of us as creatives can learn from. Coral Noel Yang, Visual ArtistYou can find Coral and more of her work here:* Email: [email protected]* Youtube: @coralnoelyangart* Facebook: @coralnoelyangart* Website: coralnoelyangart.com/* Instagram @coralnoelyangart You can find out more about Helen Frankenthaler, the artist who inspired Coral hereIf you liked this episode, please do like, comment, share and subscribe. It helps artists to get more well-known and helps others to be able to find ways to connect into their own creativity.x M Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to my podcast Creative Momentum with Meg Dunley where I interview creatives about their process, routines and inspiration.Season 1: The Chateau SeasonThis first season of the podcast, The Chateau Season features creatives I interviewed during my writing residency the Chateau d'Orquevaux Artist and Writers Residency in France. The episodes feature writers, filmmakers, visual artists, verbatim storytellers and more. Each episode gives you insight into the creative mind, taking you behind the studio doors to hear about process, routine, inspiration and wisdom. These pocket-sized episodes are to encourage you on your creative pathway.Episode 4: Colleen Flynn, journalist and writerColleen Flynn lives in upstate New York in America. She is a creative fiction writer and journalist. I hope you enjoy this short episode where Colleen shares a little about her creative process and routine and about the vulnerability of sharing writing with others.Interview transcriptMD: Hi, Colleen.CF: Hello.MD: Thank you for agreeing to have a chat with me about your creative process and creativity. Can you just start by telling me your name and where you're from?CF: Yeah, I'm Colleen Flynn. I'm from New York, upstate, so very countryside, not the city. Kind of like this?No, not quite as beautiful, not luxurious. Apple farms. Oh, yeah.Yeah, I love it.MD: Can you please tell me what you do creatively? What's your discipline?CF: I like to write. I was a reporter before coming here, so I would do news articles.And I sew occasionally. I'm not very good at it, but I'm learning.MD: I love that. You sew too?CF: Yeah.MD: And I love that kind of thinking, like, you know, I'm not good at it, but I'm learning.CF: Yeah, I like to tailor my clothes.MD: That's a lot of fun. Tell me, what is your creative process?CF: I don't know if I have a set process. When I was reporting, I would obviously do research on what I'm writing about, try to learn as much as I can, and kind of write down bullet points. So if I'm talking to someone and kind of get frustrated or like lost in my mind, I'll look at that and kind of ground myself and like bring me back to what I've been researching.And I feel like that's helped a lot. I don't know. I feel like I write down a few of my ideas before fully typing out what I want to say.MD: Yeah, yeah. Where or who is your, where do you get your inspiration from, your creative inspiration? Or who do you get your creative inspiration from?CF: I feel like my emotions a lot. I am in therapy. So a lot of my creative process came from my therapy homework, where she would tell me to write before I go to bed or like if I get too emotional one day to paint out my feelings.And I feel like that has helped me kind of be grounded in how I'm feeling and be enjoying what I'm writing at the same time.MD: I love that. Yeah. And, you know, tapping into those feelings. And do you feel what effect do you feel like that has on your writing?CF: Um, I feel like I personally love when people talk about issues that are going on in their life because I love when it's normalised, like people aren't glamorous, like their life isn't perfect. And I like learning about that because I think other people are perfect, but they're not. So I guess like, to me, I want to show that like life isn't great all the time.MD: Yeah, I love that. Tell me, do you have a routine for your writing?CF: I feel like no, I write down what comes in my mind and then I think I'll go back and change a lot of what I wrote before. And I think that's really it for my process. I'll try to get feedback from people, but that's usually like a close knit group of people that I know and trust.So it's hard being here and being like, oh, please read this. Like, tell me, tell me what's wrong because it's a little scary not knowing everyone, but it's something I'm trying to learn.MD: If you were to have a chat with someone who was just like beginning their writing or some other kind of creative pursuit, what piece of wisdom would you want to pass on to them?CF: I guess like keep trying. I think writing a different style for me is so intimidating. But it was scary when I first started my reporting job.But as time went on and like as I wrote more of that style, it got easier and I learned a lot through that. So I think trying to write stories and chapters now here, it's very intimidating and it's my first time writing that way. So it's really scary.But I know with time I'll get better and I'll grow. So I think just keep writing, keep trying, keep learning.MD: Anything else that you want to share with them? You mentioned something about having a close group of people that you can share your writing with. Do you think that's something that is beneficial as a writer?CF: Yeah, at least for me, I feel like it's such a personal thing where it's hard to open up that way. I feel so exposed when people are reading my work, especially if I'm sitting in the same room. It's hard for me to like sit down and watch someone read and critique what I'm doing, even though that's how you grow and learn.But it just feels very vulnerable. So being in that space with someone you know and trust is definitely helpful for me.MD: How long before you shared any of your writing with anyone else?CF: I've never sent out any of my work to any of my friends yet. Every time I've written a news article or a news piece or a freelance project, my friends would be like, send me something you would want us to read. And I'm like, okay.And then I never do. So it's kind of like, if they want to go out and find my work, they could. And then they would probably tell me about it.But I don't know, I haven't really shared any of my pieces yet. Maybe my mom, she's read something.MD: I think for writers it can feel incredibly vulnerable because so much of us is in our own writing. I'm sure it is with art as well, but I know writing more than I know art. Thank you for your little pieces of wisdom and sharing about your creative process and your routine.Colleen Flynn, Writer + JournalistYou can connect to Colleen here:* Email: [email protected]* Website: cflynn235.wixsite.com/colleenflynnportfoli * Instagram: @colleen.flynnnIf you liked this episode, please let me know in the comments and like, follow, share and subscribe!x M Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Season 1: The Chateau SeasonThis first season of the Creative Momentum with Meg podcast, The Chateau Season features creatives I interviewed during my writing residency at Chateau d'Orquevaux Artist and Writers Residency. The episodes feature writers, filmmakers, visual artists, verbatim storytellers and more. Each episode gives you insight into the creative mind, taking you behind the studio doors to hear about process, routine, inspiration and wisdom. These pocket-sized episodes are to encourage you on your creative pathway.Episode 3: Caroline BeuleyCaroline Beuley is a writer of flash and short fiction, essays and has a hugely popular Substack Fairy Tales by Caroline. In this episode, Caroline shares her creative process and routine (she packs a lot into her days!) and offers invaluable wisdom for writers and creatives at any stage of their journey.What’s the secret to never running out of ideas? Caroline reveals her approach and why getting the right idea is actually the hardest part. She opens up about her militant writing schedule, the specific times of day she protects for her best work, and why Saturdays are sacred no-writing days.Discover who Caroline’s creative heroes are – from the writer whose award is her ultimate dream to the pioneering feminist who stayed in the back of her mind for years until drawing her into fairy tale retellings. She also shares which contemporary short story writers remind her that you really can try anything if you tell it the right way.After six years of writing seriously and daily, why does Caroline still consider herself at the beginning? She shares the surprising timeline multiple instructors have told her about truly giving writing a fair shot, and reveals the one thing she actually misses about being a complete beginner.But perhaps most valuable is what Caroline learned after finishing her first novel in isolation – a realisation that changed everything about how she approaches her craft. Despite the romantic image of the solitary writer at their desk, she discovered where real improvement actually comes from, and it might surprise you.Whether you’re just starting your creative journey or years into it, Caroline’s insights about dramatic improvement, handling frustration, and building community will resonate deeply.Connect with Caroline Beuley* Fairy Tales by Caroline* Website* InstagramFind the show notes here Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to my Creative Momentum with Meg Dunley podcast.Season 1: The Chateau SeasonThis first season of the podcast, The Chateau Season features creatives I interviewed during my writing residency the Chateau d'Orquevaux Artist and Writers Residency in France. The episodes feature writers, filmmakers, visual artists, verbatim storytellers and more. Each episode gives you insight into the creative mind, taking you behind the studio doors to hear about process, routine, inspiration and wisdom. These episodes are pocket sized to encourage you on your creative pathway.Episode 2: Beulah van Rensburg and Ziggy AttiasJoin Chateau d’Orquevaux Artist and Writer's Residency Co-Founders and Directors Beulah van Rensburg and Ziggy Attias as they unveil the philosophy behind their residency in France and talk about their creative practice and routines. This intimate conversation explores how they've transformed a chateau in the French countryside into a nurturing creative environment while balancing their own artistic practices and vision. This episode is a little longer as they had some great things to talk about. I hope you enjoy a slice of the real life at the Chateau – a lawn mower … a bit of wind blowing. Beulah van Rensburg is originally from Australia and now lives in Orquevaux, France. She’s the Co-founder and Co-director of Chateau d’Orquevaux Artist and Writer's Residency, painter and multidisciplinary artistZiggy Attias is from the United States and now lives in Orquevaux, France. He is also Co-founder and Co-director of Chateau d’Orquevaux Artist and Writer's Residency and is a multidisciplinary creative with a background in sculpture, writing, and filmmaking.Interview transcriptMD: Hello, Beulah and Ziggy, do you want to just begin by introducing yourself and telling us where you're from?BVR: I'm Beulah van Rensburg and I'm from originally from Australia.ZA: And I'm Ziggy Attias and I'm from the United States.MD: Excellent, excellent. And can you, Beulah, can you tell me what your creative discipline is?BVR: I'm a painter originally, but I do multidisciplinary workMD: Beautiful.ZA: And I would say I've done many things and I think I just see myself now as a creative person who just tackles everything from a creative standpoint. And probably also, it would be good to say here that you are the people who you are, the directors, the everything of Chateau d'Orquevaux.BVR: Yeah. So we're the co-founders and co-directorsZA: Chateau d'Orqevaux Artist and Writer's Residency in France,MD: In France, in Orquevaux. And that's also part of your creativity is what we have here at this residency.ZA: Well, I would say that the way we look at this is from an artist standpoint, so that we make it for artists, but we're artists ourselves. So the way we tackle every problem or every new idea that relates to place is we come from it from an artist place. Beulah still has a studio. We're creating a studio for her because we keep giving up studios to artists that come here. But her next studio is going to be just her studio. And for me, I've had studios in the past, but the way I see it now is that this whole property is my studio. And I think my work will be shown best here.MD: Excellent.BVR: And I think the way that we run the residency and the work that we're doing now here is really, it's such an important part of our life and giving a voice to artists. And I know we said this in the residency, but being able to give the space and the time for people to have studio spaces and the way that we come at organising the residency and approaching the residency from an artistic point of view as being artists. So knowing all of those little things and the studio space and the quiet time and being able to give people an opportunity to just get out of their normal everyday life and have a routine that they don't have to necessarily do anything apart from make work and have that time as a really important part of the residency.MD: Excellent. I want to ask you both, and you can answer individually or together about your creative process. Maybe you as an artist and you as a,ZA: It's the same for me. It's still, you want to go first.BVR: So for me, it's really about things that come towards me and it's really about the everyday life, like what interacts with me. And I get ideas from basically emotional and relationship kind of things that happen around me and how I react to them and how I can interpret them within my work.ZA: Do you edit this a bit too, or do you just do it liveMD: Maybe.BVR: And then I think mine always comes from drawing and then the way it comes out is however it's best translated into if it's film or if it's drawing or if it's sculpture or if it's painting, it kind of comes out that way. So it just depends on the idea that comes out from there. It's always sketching first.ZA: So for me, I think I've always had, and I still have about a hundred ideas a day, so I've always like, what do you think about this? What do you think about that? And when I had a studio, it was confined to doing the work and trying to find my voice that way. This place showed me about seven or eight years ago, it showed I realised that I can't be in a studio anymore just working on my thing. I feel like if there's such a thing as a legacy or whatever my legacy would be, I'm more useful working on the property and creating the residency with Beulah, because it gives more people, hopefully it encourages to give more people a way to express their voice. And I feel that my strength and Beulah's at her studio, our strength is that our voice can be better heard from all the artists that come here. So if they have a place that they feel good, it's different than just working in the studio. Still has a need to be in the studio, which is great, but my disciplines aren't painting. I've done sculpture, I write, I've done filmmaking, I've done different things, but I feel...BVR: But as we––ZA: Sorry, it's what you feel your mind with. So for me, it happens to be this. Now I've done many different things and this just happens to be one of the things that I'm doing. And this one, I wake up and I go to sleep thinking about this. So I want to express my voice through that.BVR: And as we're doing it, I think the result that's coming out of it is just so much that you want to do more and more. You want to put more and more into it to make it better for everybody who comes here and to try and give more opportunities for more artists and more writers. And you're constantly creating within that environment and then you see the result of it. And it's always rewarding. And I dunno, it is such a rewarding thing.BVR: And there's something about it also, which is a love hate relationship for me or for us, which in a way, we definitely see it as an art form, but there's an element to it that's invisible because it doesn't hang in a gallery or there's no show for it or anything. So the whole thing is what we're creating. So whenever there was nothing in the Chateau when we came here, so every painting that an artist does that has anything in it that relates to the Chateau, Beulah and I found that in a flea market or something like that, we have a connection even though nobody knows that really, but every chair, every lamp, every tapestry, everything that's in a painting goes into the world. And we literally picked that out and placed it there. So that's one example. The property is the same because every artist that comes here only knows what they see the day they arrive. They don't know that we were hustling just before this residency to try to get that bear in the water. So it looks like that. And then you come and you just take a picture of a bear in the water that must've been there forever. We try to find things that have been around forever and place them in a setting that makes the other people that come to see it, part of their creative process. And that gives us voice.BVR: It certainly feels as a resident here at the moment that it feels curated and beautifully done. So it definitely has the artist's eye, in everything that you have here.MD: Who or what or where do you get your creative inspiration from?BVR: Not sleep.ZA: I think we definitely get it from each other because we definitely bounce ideas off each other all the time and...BVR: I think also too from people, from artists coming and going and then just continuously relooking at what we are doing all the time. There's so many people, there's a lot of creative people coming in and out and then we're constantly talking about things and how things work. I thinkZA: To the smallest detail,BVR: Just even, I mean just today's completely changed how we did it last residency and all of that is just to try and create a little bit more peace and balance so people are feeling more relaxed and a little bit more calm. And I don't know if it'll work, let's––ZA: But it's always about creativity. It's always about the artist. We don't see it as a place for a vacation or any of those type of things. It's always about creating an environment for creativity. So it's always coming from that. That's always the core of what we're trying to do.MD: Thank you. And do you have, I mean, obviously running this place you have routine, otherwise it just wouldn't happen the way it does. But thinking to your creative routine, maybe you can speak to this, say with your art, your painting, do you have a routine that you follow? And if so, could you talk about that?BVR: I'm very much about time and what needs to be done, which is also organisation. Organisation. And I think an artistic practice does revolve around time. I know that there seems to be chaos within artists' practice, but I think if you are going to have success within your practiCe, you need some kind of timetable that you would have an organisational situation. So for me, when I'm going to my studio, I get up early, I work until I have to go to work around eight thirty, so it's five to eight thirty, then I work and then I try and get back into the studio at night time if I have the time. But then everything's laid out in a specific way. I have work over here if I'm painting. I've always had my paints here, it's always laid out, my palettes in the same, it's a little OCD, but I think in that way you're always working in the same way. And I think it's the same with here. We might be adjusting things along the way, but that's the only way things really work is organisational. And looking forward, what are those steps to get to a certain place? You can't jump in and think I'm going to be a famous artist and be successful overnight. There has to be steps to get there, to be realistic, I think.ZA: And for me, I feel like…BVR: Even, sorry, even just to finish a painting, I'm an oil painter, so if you want to finish a painting within a certain amount of time, you need to have eight paintings going. Otherwise they don't dry. You turn one painting into mud. So you need to have enough paintings going at the same time. So you can go from here to here to here and go back to it. Otherwise you're going to ruin them.MD: I think that's actually a good analogy with writing as well. Yeah,BVR: Right. Yeah.MD: Otherwise it can turn to mud.BVR: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.ZA: With writing?MD: Yeah, absolutely. It's good to have more projects on so you can let things rest a bit.ZA: I mean, I usually I write one thing at a time, but I guess I let the piece work and I keep rereading it and rereading it and moving things around. But as far as what we were talking about, I think I'm a procrastinator for sure. I'm lazy, but I'm a really hard worker. You wouldn't know that I'm lazy, but maybe that's why I'm a hard worker. I see myself as lazy and I'm always waiting for inspiration and all those things together of being a procrastinator, being lazy, being a hard worker, waiting for inspiration is what creates what I do. And then when I'm waiting for inspiration, I think I'm nothing. So then you wait for like, oh my God, I have no more ideas. I'm done. And then you have an idea. And thenBVR: That idea has to happen immediately, which is how things tend to work here is like, will all of these laurels be moved to this place? And you're like, oh, possibly. And then that happens in the afternoon. You're like, oh, today, right? All righty.ZA: I'm not afraid to…MD: To stay the flow.ZA: Yeah, sometimes you put a lot of effort into something, but you got to look at it and be like, that should have been two feet over. And even though it was a big job and the bushes have been growing for three years, you're like, we're moving them two feet overBVR: Today.ZA: And you have to be okay. BVR: And you can't be precious.ZA: Loose enough to be able to, you feel like you're creating something forever, which is with any artwork. And if you need to go back, the artwork doesn't care. The thing doesn't care how much effort you put into it because some people could put a little bit of effort into something and it's genius. And then other people put a lot of effort into something and it's nothing. And every recipe works, it doesn't work. So you have to know where your voice in that decision. And if it needs to be changed, it needs to be changed. Can you live with that being there forever? And if the answer is no, it means you got to find a way to move it. Yeah,MD: I love that.ZA: And that's with anything.MD: Final question is about, I know you do deal with a lot of people who are early on in their creative careers, but if you were to pass on some pearls of wisdom, what would they be? People who are at that really early stage.ZA: Pass on some what?MD: Pearls of wisdomBVR: Don't be scared. Don't think that you are...it's never too late. You are always moving. You're always getting somewhere. Keep doing it. Just keep doing it. And don't think that you are. Don't aim at something to be famous or to be this successful artist or for the fame and fortune. Just keep going and doing the thing because doing the thing will get you there more so than aiming towards something up here. And just don't be scared of it. I think there's a lot of thing, there's something to be said about being afraid[a car rolls up and idles behind]ZA: Is that a problem?MD: I don't know. It might be…ZA: Remy, we're doing an interview. Turn that thing off. What? Turn off the car. Hi girl. Yeah. You making noise? Let's go out. Go. That could stay in. That's reality right there. [the ride-mower drives by]ZA: Oh wait, now it looks like a f**king party now. Oh, lawnmower.MD: That's hilarious. BVR: Back to serenityMD: Back to serenity. This is all part of it. This is all part of running an amazing creative business is there's business as well. So just in case we didn't get thatZA: We do, I like the answer that…BVR: Just not to be afraid. I think there's a lot to be said that people back off from what they're doing because they're scared of it and I think if you just go into something and forget about that, just go into it. What is there to be afraid of? You are either going to succeed or not, but how do you know and when do you know that you haven't succeeded? Just keep doing the thing. Forget about all of the fame and the fortune. Just do the thing that you love. If you're doing the thing that you love with all of your might, you're going to get there and then well, you are there. That's you. You're going to do it. Forget about everybody telling you you can't do it. It's only for other people, blah, blah, blah. Just do the thing that's in your head and you'll get there. But it takes hard work and do the hard work.MD: I love that. I love that. Ziggy?ZA: I would say it's difficult. I struggle with this myself, is there's no point to compare yourself to anybody else or what they're doing. That's their journey. And it just doesn't matter really because you can only do what you can do. You can't live somebody else's life. So I would say you try to not worry about anybody else, but still be inspired by the world in different ways. But every day you have to do something you have to do. And it shouldn't even be. Obviously if you could do more, it's great, but every day you got to do something that you are a little bit more ahead than you were yesterday. Every day you got to do something. There's no, in a way, there's no days off. Even if you're really thinking about something,BVR: Make a decision.ZA: You got to make a decision. You have to do something and you have to not worry about what other people are doing. There's always going to be somebody that's better than you and somebody that's worse than you. So it just doesn't matter. What are you doing? Just do the work.MD: Thank you. Is there anything else that you would want to share with the creatives other than come to your residency? Apply now?ZA: Apply now. Link in the notes [below]. The applications are open. I don't really know. I just hope we wish you the best and we are here when you're ready.MD: Yeah. Love that. Thank you so much, Ziggy and Beulah at Chateau d'Orquevaux.Find Beulah and Ziggy You can find Beulah and Ziggy on Instagram or on the Chateau Orquevaux webist. * https://www.instagram.com/beulahvanrensburg* https://www.instagram.com/ziggyattias_art* https://www.instagram.com/studio_chateau_orquevaux/* https://www.instagram.com/chateau_orquevaux/Applications for artist and writers residencies at Chateau d’Orquevaux are open all the time, so if this caught your interest in a writing and/or artist residency, apply now. If you liked this episode, please let me know in the comments and like, follow, share and subscribe!x M Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to my new podcast Creative Momentum with Meg Dunley.I’m thrilled to release this first season of the podcast, The Chateau Season. Each episode features a creative I interviewed during our shared time at the Chateau d'Orquevaux residency in France – writers, filmmakers, visual artists, verbatim storytellers and more. Each episode gives you insight into the creative mind, taking you behind the studio doors to hear about process, routine, inspiration and wisdom. These episodes are pocket sized to encourage you on your creative pathway. I struggled to decide the order of the twenty-plus interviews, so I have landed on alphabetical, which means Episode 1 is with Amy Ann Goelz. Amy Ann Goelz is from Brooklyn, New York. She is an artist, filmmaker and photographer and her current main focus is oil painting, especially portraiture, blending realism and surrealism. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed talking with Amy about her creative process and routine, what inspires her and what wisdom she would share with other creatives. Interview transcriptMD: Hi Amy.AAG: Hi.MD: Can you introduce yourself and where you're from?AAG: Hello, my name is Amy Ann Goelz, and I am from California originally, but I live in Brooklyn, New York currently.MD: Excellent. Yeah. And can you tell me what your creative discipline or disciplines are, what you do creatively?AAG: Yes. Well, I, paint is one of the things that I do. I primarily work in oil and I do a lot of portraiture, somewhere between surrealism and realism, somewhere in there. And I'm also a filmmaker and a photographer, but currently in on the painting.MD: Nice.AAG: Yeah.MD: Can you tell me a little bit about your creative process? I'm privileged to be sitting, standing, in your studio right now and I can see some of your process, but can you tell me about your process, where your ideas come from and how they come to what they be?AAG: Yeah, yeah. I think originally I got most of my source material and reference images from Pinterest actually. And I did a lot of photos of random people from the mid 20th century in the mid 20th century. And I was just really interested in these people whose photos I came across, but nobody knew their names. They're just sort of forgotten people whose image ended up on a website like Pinterest. So I started doing that and then it slowly has become more surreal with time and I think those elements are a little more from the depths of my mind. Yeah. And my dad also worked in an industry that was very character driven or his job, it was very character driven stuff. So I think I'm just going back to that a bit.MD: Yeah, I love that. Who or where or what is your creative inspiration?AAG: Well, I guess my dad, I feel like I already spoke to that a bit. But yeah, he's very, I guess my dad because he really promotes very out of the box thinking and kind of surreal, strange things. So I think it started there. And then as far as my current work, I would just say people, maybe people on the fringes. I've kind of gotten into this sort of circus-y series, so people who are kind of forgotten on the side, but still have a lot to say. They just don't really have the ability to say it, I guess is what I would say to that.MD: And your creative routine, do you have a routine that you followed for your creativity? And can you tell me a bit about that?AAG: Yeah, it is gotten a lot easier the more I've worked. I think before I was not forcing myself, but kind of forcing myself to paint to do work. But in the last two years I'd say it's just become kind of a necessity and not even something that I think about as much. I guess my work and my life are merging in a different way than before. So yeah. What was the question? About your routine? Yeah, the routine when you go back home. Yeah. So generally I'm a night painter for the most part, unless it's the weekend, but I'll work and relax for a little bit and then generally start painting later in the evening and then go late and, and then on the weekends I'll try to do full days painting. And then also just when I feel like it, it's not super regimented, which I would like for it to be more regimented. But yeah.MD: If you were to meet someone who is just beginning in their creativity, what pearl or pearls of wisdom would you want to give them?AAG: Do the work, put in the hours. That's the thing I always return to with what I've achieved, which isn't, I mean, I'm not saying it's much, but I am so blown away by just simply the time I've put in. I haven't been in school, I haven't had any teachers, I haven't had peer resources, which has been hard, but the 10,000 hours thing is so real and it's so satisfying to see just simply what putting time into your craft can do. Yeah.MD: Excellent. Thank you. Anything else you want to share with other people who are creating in whatever they doing?AAG: Make what you like. Make what you like. Don't make anything for other people because ultimately it doesn't bring anything to the world in the same way that your voice will do.MD: Thank you so much, Amy.AAG: Like and subscribe.Interested in Amy’s work? You can find on Instagram: @amyann69 / @amygoelzphoto or email her [email protected] you liked this episode, please let me know in the comments and like, follow, share and subscribe!x M Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe