creative self-love club

So you are an artist with liberatory-values for the collective of humanity, and internally, lately, you've been feeling stuck in your own personal creative growth and direction. This episode is for YOU!

See, attitudes of oppression — extraction! coercion! control! cruelty, etc. etc — don’t just exist “out there” in the world. 

They snake their way into the way we think and relate to ourselves which most often comes out in our most vulnerable moments -- namely in how we approach our creativity and art.

Today's episode walks you through THREE prompts for sussing out where your own personal values and ideals can actively enrich and inform the actions you need to take (or stop taking!!) so that your art and creativity can better THRIVE.

In this way, your creative work and growth becomes an internal training ground for the external work we have to do together to create a more just and liberating world.

If you're not already, follow along with me on socials via TikTok, where I'm @creativeselfloveclub or on Instagram, @ashleytrabue -- I'd love to hear your follow-up questions, thoughts and what you got out of this episode!!

Today's episode is for you if you have a specific creative project, practice or goal that you’ve otherwise been avoiding.

When things are feeling heavy or hard, that usually indicates that we are working against ourselves in some way, and some shifts in perspective and expectations are needed before we can proceed. 

Grab your journals for this one!

I’m guiding us through three questions to help discern if and how you’re working against yourself and ways to readjust your expectations, so you can align not only with your creative work again but with the joy and flow you wanna experience in its process!

Questions we’re exploring: 

1. Am I working WITH or AGAINST myself and the ways in which my brain/body naturally work? Am I making my natural ways of being wrong, and if so, how can I readjust my expectations to better honor myself as I am in this season of life?
   
2. What’s my deeper ‘why’ behind this goal? Is it kind and useful? Or does it need some adjusting?
   
3. Am I being discerning and selective about the amount of difficulty I’m taking on? In other words, am I trying to do too many hard things all at once? And if so, how can I make this process easier on myself?

To follow along with ashley's art and coaching online, you can connect with them at @ashleytrabue on Instagram and @creativeselfloveclub on TikTok .

Or if you'd like to work with ashley 1:1 or by joining a small group-coaching cohort, reach out to them hello [at] ashleytrabue [dot] com

**Regrettably, I recorded this episode while out on a walk on a windy day, so a couple times throughout, the audio quality is poorer than usual.

I considered recording this ep again, but my “why” behind doing these at all is to simply build up the skill of showing up here consistently and embracing the process, even if its chaotic and messy.

If you’re an audio snob, this is not the show for you.**

In this episode, I talk about continuing to share and market older art and how I recently realized I have some resistance around this!

I wanna focus on the NEW things I’m making, and yet, I do myself (and my ppl!) a disservice when I ghost on older artworks that haven’t yet found homes.

So to help myself move over this growth-edge, I’ve given myself a challenge to market my older works each week!

If you wanna market art (old or new!) this is an episode for you.

Links:

Connect with ashley on TikTok or Instagram 

Apply to be a part of my artist cohort & mastermind program 

Join me for a live-taught SELL YOUR ART! class & community challenge

Back and ready to chat after a week away!

In this episode, I share what I’m working on in my creative practice as well as in my creative business.

I share why I don’t think creative doubt is a problem, where it's been showing up for me lately, how raising your prices impacts both community as well as your self-worth, and a practice for working with doubt as a portal to great self-acceptance, compassion and growth.

Resources & Links:

• Mariah Oller — a link to Mariah’s art & tarot practice! 

• Follow me @ashleytrabue on Instagram to see the portrait develop.

• Shadows (working title) — here’s a trailer I made about the new abstract painting series I’m working on inspired by my studio’s drop cloths
• ⁠Article on the Hungry Ghost syndrome ⁠

• Check out Professor Stephen’s work here on Tiktok! 

• And register for SELL YOUR ART! our workshop & 10 day challenge,

Connect with ashley & the Creative Self-Love Club online: 

• Instagram
• Tiktok 

In this episode I talk about: 

• My love for “walk & talks” as a tool for navigating the early stages & messy middle of creative processes
• How our inner “good girls” tend to get in the way of our creative process and the importance of meeting them with love but not letting them lead
• Why we need to un-shame and embrace the parts of ourselves that our inner “good girl” fears are “bad”
• What I’m planning to teach next in my artist mastermind
• The power of messy, imperfect action as a creative SKILL
• Dormancy/rest as an essential part of the creative process 
• A question to ask yourself to see where you’re leading with your inner “good girl”

If you want more support working on your art & creative goals, apply to our bad girl art club for weekly creative community, coaching, artist body-doubling time and more.

Click here to learn more & get your application in!

And as always, connect with my online @creativeselfloveclub on both Instagram and Tiktok.
Tag me in any stories or posts this or other episodes inspire and I’ll reshare to my stories to get more eyes on your account! 

Or ya know... shitty podcasts episodes :)

In this episode (which I gleefully record from a scaling-hot, bath with rose salts in the middle of a Monday) I make a case that the fastest way to make great art is by allowing yourself the freedom to make shitty art!

“But ashley! I love only ever making very high quality things! I'm happy with how often I create and the work I produce — I could never!” 

FABULOUS! If it's working for you - - keep it up. This episode probably isn’t for you.

But.

If you’re someone who wants…

• to create more often 
• to feel enjoy more of what you make
• for working on your art to feel exciting and not just like a chore
• to hear less inner-critic and more of your inner-voice and artist
• to be prolific in what you make!

Then the shitty art challenge is for you! You can download a free guide to it by clicking here.

And as always, tag me @creativeselfloveclub in any posts about the #shittyartchallenge, or if you want some help thinking through a way to make it applicable for your specific project or creative goal!

You've got big creative goals and dreams and KNOW your work matters, and/also shit is not okay in a lot of areas of the country/world right now.

In this episode, I share my personal practice called "the pause," which helps me manage overthinking, cultivate presence, and help me stay in-process with my feelings, so I can also stay in-process with my art!

Then, I guide you through making a menu of "micro moves" on the art project you're wanting to pursue next, so even if you don't have a lot of time or focus to give your work, you can always find a few moments to knock-out the very next step.

Big goals get accomplished bit by bit!

Tag me on social media ⁠@⁠⁠creativeselfloveclub⁠ to show me what your project's brain dump looks like and to share what you’re adding to your micro moves menu!!

I’ll reshare and follow, so we can become art friends. 

Show Notes:

1:18 — if you were raised in a household with an unpredictable parent, this admnstration likely feels triggering

2:11 — I introduce "The Pause," an emotional hygiene tool for artists

6:43 — links to some of the research I mention around emotional self-acceptance + + +

9:56 — the connection between experiencing our emotions and experiencing our art/ideas

11:28 — an exercise for breaking down your big art project into a menu of micro moves

18:34 — what I want for US ALL this year

Ways to work together: 

1. Book a call to explore working together 1:1 
2. Or click here to learn more & apply to join our 2026 artist mastermind!

**Heated Rivalry spoiler warning!! Skip to 5:46 to avoid episode 5 spoilers**

Join ashley for a catch-up-with-an-old-friend-style podcast ep where we discuss:

• the joy of Heated Rivalry & the power of seeing ourselves in others (a la Heated Rivalry)
• jealousy as creatively instructive 
• the creative process of writing my first full-length, non-fiction book!
• the difference in creating from a sense of creative self-love (rather than creative self-loathing!)
• and some journal prompts for sussing out where your priorities lie in the new year!

4:53 — I wrote about a few of the artists that inspire instructive jealousy in me in this Substack post (a place where I rarely post anymore!)

5:46 —last mention of HR spoiler content

5:55 —The Jealous Curator, aka Danielle Krysa, on Instagram

6:41 — I announce my newest project - -my hardest one yet!

8:33 —what my book is about

11:14 — a specific example of creative self-loathing vs creative self-love in action

16:33 —journal prompts for you and the new year

Join us for a Fiction Book Club episode because books are more fun with friends!

In part one of this experimental-to-us episode format, I chat with my spouse, writer Trey Adams, as we chat through the first half of the book North Woods by Daniel Mason.

This episode covers everything up to "Case Notes of Robert S.," and thus does contain spoilers through that point!!

If you've already read the book, go ahead and tune in, and if not, lucky you!! Run to your local library or favorite book store, and check it out before giving this ep a listen.

North Woods wrecked me in the best of ways, and gave me lots and lots to think and feel about. Listening back to this episode, I thought of a dozen different things that I wish we had brought up or spent more time talking through.

As you listen, you'll have to comment and let us know what we left out that you loved, hated, or wondered about, and more generally I'm curious to know if you'd be interested in more episodes like this in the future.

Enjoy!

Like many folks, I learned early on in life that feeling my feelings was inconvenient for those around me, and built up a practice of denying, ignoring and actively resisting my honest emotions and experience.

In today’s first episode back after a long break, we chat about why radical self-acceptance is not only important for our mental health but also for growing in self-intimacy, love and creativity.