Makers & Mystics

Contemplation is the inhale, and creativity is the exhale. Author and spiritual director Kayla Craig shares how we can make space for both.

Her devotional, Our Daily Breath, guides readers through contemplative prayer practices designed to renew creative energy in a loud, distracted world. 

Stephen Roach and Kayla explore why cynicism comes so easily, and how stillness opens the door to compassion, nuance, and hope. Kayla shares the research behind mindful breathing and why it matters for artists, musicians, and makers. 

KEY TOPICS COVERED

• Creativity begins with attention, and contemplative prayer trains you to notice what is already sacred in ordinary life.
• Why being nourished from the inside out gives you something to offer when the world's pain shows up.
• Creating from abundance, not scarcity, gives your work more weight, so caring for your soul becomes part of your craft.

ABOUT KAYLA CRAIG
 Kayla Craig is an author and spiritual director who writes prayers and devotions for people living full, noisy lives. She studied contemplative spiritual formation and spiritual direction at Columbia, where her instructor trained under Thomas Keating. Her new book, Our Daily Breath, gathers 365 prayers and practices and draws on more than 400 citations from contemplatives, poets, and artists. She is a mother of four who knows quiet is aspirational, which shapes how practical and accessible her approach to prayer is.

RESOURCES & LINKS
 Our Daily Breath Devotional: 365 Prayers and Practices That Whisper Peace in a Shouting World by Kayla Craig — the devotional discussed in this episode
 Thomas Merton — monk and poet quoted in Kayla's devotion on stillness
 Thomas Keating — contemplative teacher who shaped Kayla's spiritual formation
 Breath by James Nestor — journalist's exploration of breathing, including the rosary study
 Centering prayer, welcoming prayer, and breath prayer — contemplative practices Kayla recommends

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What if memories were real entities that inhabit places, and what if music could give those places a voice?

In this episode of Makers & Mystics, Stephen Roach sits down with composer Michael Anderson to explore the strange and beautiful relationship between memory, time, place, music, and faith.

Michael's latest work, Hallov, is a 24-piece musical journey through birth, pain, joy, death, and what might come after. Described by Michael as “a movie score without the movie,” the album follows a protagonist through a series of imagined spaces while a mysterious “Spirit of Time” moves alongside him.

For Michael, those spaces are more than settings. They are repositories of memory. An old church, a car ride, a hallway, a family dinner- places can hold the people we loved, the moments we experienced, and even the versions of ourselves we have left behind.

Together, Stephen and Michael explore how music can give those memories a voice and how recurring melodies can function almost like memories themselves, returning throughout the album in different forms as the story unfolds.

The conversation moves from Michael's childhood fascination with spaces to the autobiographical memories woven throughout Hallov, including a Wednesday night dinner with his grandparents, leaving Florida for a new chapter of life, and the haunting experience of imagining one's own death.

Along the way, they explore the spiritual questions underneath the music: What happens to our memories when we enter eternity? Does the hope of new creation mean that our painful experiences are erased, or might they somehow be gathered into wholeness? And what might it mean to believe that even our tears and suffering have a place in the story God is making new?

At the heart of the conversation is a deeper question: What if memory is not simply something we carry from the past, but a place where we encounter the mystery of who we have been, who we are becoming, and who we might be in eternity?

For artists, Michael offers another important invitation: to resist the temptation to stop creating because someone else has created something greater. The joy of art isn't found in being the best. Sometimes the most important thing we can do is simply finish the work we've begun—and celebrate that it exists.

Michael Anderson is a composer who blends classical music with jazz, pop, electronics, and soundscapes. He is drawn to memorable melodies and heartfelt narratives, using music as a way to explore story, memory, and human experience. His latest project, Hallov, brings together his love of cinematic music and storytelling in an immersive 24-piece exploration of time, memory, faith, death, and hope.

Connect with Michael on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/musicbymichaelanderson/

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What happens when the art form you once loved becomes a way of proving your worth?

For oboist, educator, and author Merideth Estevez, classical music began as a source of joy and wonder. As a child, it was even a language through which she experienced God. But somewhere along the way, the pursuit of excellence became entangled with perfectionism, achievement, and the need to prove herself.

In her book Art Is How God Loves Us, Merideth invites us to reconsider what art actually is. Rather than seeing art as something reserved for the technically gifted, she describes it as “atoms responding to transcendence”—our participation in the creative abundance already at work in the world.

In this conversation, we talk about the difference between perfectionism and excellence, what an oboe reed can teach us about faith, why imperfection can be a sign of life, and how technical training can become a vocabulary rather than a prison. We explore the relationship between tradition and innovation, the ways art can become a spiritual gateway, and what it might mean to encounter God through a symphony, a painting, a river, or even the ordinary creative choices of everyday life.

Ultimately, Merideth offers an invitation to see ourselves differently: not as people who have to earn our worth through what we create, but as people made in the image of an Artist—and therefore already invited to create.

Merideth Estevez is an oboist, educator, author, and coach whose work explores the intersection of creativity, faith, and wellbeing. She is the author of Art Is How God Loves Us and The Artist's Joy.

In this episode:

• Redefining art as “atoms responding to transcendence”
• The difference between perfectionism and excellence
• Tradition, innovation, and learning the rules so we can break them
• Art as a spiritual gateway
• Finding God in unexpected works of art
• Why you don't have to consider yourself an artist to create

Learn more about Merideth Estevez and her work at artistsforjoy.org.

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We live in a world of fast content, instant communication, next-day shipping, and things designed to be quickly replaced. But what happens when an artist chooses to work against the grain of social norms? 

Jake Weidmann is one of only nine Master Penmen in the world, but his work extends far beyond calligraphy. A multidisciplinary artist working in drawing, oil painting, sculpture, wood carving, and bronze, Jake has devoted himself to the long process of mastering his craft.

In this conversation, Jake shares what he calls “The Art of Slow” and why the slow, contemplative devotion to excellence might be a way of resisting disposability and recovering a long, even eternal view of our calling as makers.

Jake shares about his new book, The Heart of The Maker, and the creative process from practice and inspiration to failure, perseverance, repentance, and finishing well. 

This is a conversation about craft, patience, tradition, creativity, and the things we choose to make that might outlast us.

Jake Weidmann is a multidisciplinary artist and one of the world's nine living Master Penmen. His work explores calligraphy, drawing, painting, sculpture, wood carving, and the relationship between creativity, faith, and tradition. 

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How do the images we see shape the way we understand ourselves and one another?

In this episode of Makers & Mystics, Stephen Roach sits down with art historian and author Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt to explore her new book, Look Like a Lady: Five Visual Tropes of Womanhood and How to See Ourselves Differently.

Drawing from centuries of art history, Elissa identifies five recurring ways women have been depicted and understood: Venus, Vessel, Maiden, Mother, and Monster. These aren't simply artistic categories. They are stories that can quietly shape our expectations about beauty, femininity, motherhood, sexuality, agency, and even holiness.

Together, Stephen and Elissa explore how these visual tropes have influenced both popular culture and Christian imagination and consider the alternative stories that can help us see women as whole, particular, embodied people rather than objects, symbols, or stereotypes.

The conversation moves from ancient Greek sculpture and Renaissance paintings to Victorian photography, contemporary beauty culture, purity culture, and the ways women are represented within the church.

Along the way, Elissa introduces five counter-stories:

• Witnessing instead of objectifying
• Being instead of becoming an empty vessel for someone else's meaning
• Moving instead of remaining passive or contained
• Cultivating instead of being reduced to motherhood
• Partnering instead of viewing men and women as threats or opposites

At the heart of the conversation is a deeper question: What might it look like to recover a vision of womanhood rooted not in cultural expectations, but in the particularity, dignity, agency, and belovedness of each person created in the image of God?

For artists, this conversation offers an invitation to consider how the images we create participate in forming the imagination of the people who encounter them.

And for all of us, it raises an important possibility: perhaps freedom doesn't come from simply rejecting old stories, but from learning to recognize them—and telling truer ones.

Elissa Weichbrodt is an art historian, educator, and author. Her new book, Look Like a Lady: Five Visual Tropes of Womanhood and How to See Ourselves Differently, examines the ways visual culture has shaped our understanding of womanhood and offers a more expansive, hopeful vision.

Connect with Elissa on Instagram: http://instagram.com/elissabrodt
Get the book: https://bakerbookhouse.com/products/9781587436925_look-like-a-lady

Listen to our previous conversation with Elissa: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s11-e07-redeeming-vision-with-dr-elissa-yukiko-weichbrodt/id1090123738?i=1000605110237

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What does it mean to glorify God through art?

For many artists, the desire to glorify God can become an expectation that their work should communicate an explicitly religious message. But what happens when that expectation begins to constrict the artist? What if our attempts to make art that clearly communicates faith actually prevent the art from becoming genuinely transformative?

In this solo meditation, Stephen Roach explores the relationship between Christian faith, artistic freedom, and the glory of God. Drawing on the work of Hans Rookmaaker and Flannery O'Connor, as well as the strange prophetic performances of Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, Stephen asks whether art needs to be explicitly religious in order to be spiritually meaningful.

Stephen revisits the story of Paolo Veronese and his controversial painting of The Last Supper, which brought him before the Catholic Inquisition in 1573. The story raises an important question for artists and faith communities alike: what happens when our desire to protect familiar expressions of faith leaves no room for artistic imagination?

Perhaps glorifying God through art doesn't always mean making art that is easily recognizable as Christian. Perhaps sometimes it means following our creative curiosity into places that are unfamiliar, challenging, ambiguous, or even strange.

In a world where familiar religious imagery can become wallpaper, what might happen if we made room for art that surprises us again?

In this episode:

• Rethinking what it means to "glorify God" through art
• Why treating art as a "tool" for evangelism can strip it of its power
• The shocking performance art of Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Jeremiah
• Paolo Veronese's controversial Last Supper
• How religious conformity can restrict artistic creativity
• Why faith communities need to cultivate curiosity rather than judgment
• The danger of familiar truths becoming spiritually dull

ABOUT THE HOST

Stephen Roach is the host of Makers and Mystics, a podcast exploring the intersection of creativity, faith, and the human experience. He is an artist, curator, poet, and musician. He is currently writing How to See Invisible Things, a book exploring the future of art and faith. Stephen has spent over a decade advocating for creativity as a spiritual discipline and calling.

RESOURCES AND LINKS

Art Needs No Justification by Hans Rookmaaker — the book referenced for its argument that art has intrinsic value apart from evangelistic use
Five Creativity Killers and How to Avoid Them by Stephen Roach — Stephen's booklet where he first wrote about Paolo Veronese's trial

Disclaimer:
This episode is a case for unconventional art, but I want to be clear that it is not a disparagement of sacred art: work created specifically for devotional or liturgical environments and practices. My critique of “easy art” is not meant to diminish the beauty or value of sacred art.

—Stephen Roach

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Every great artist from Caravaggio to Frida Kahlo has fought the same invisible war, and Stephen Roach makes the case that it is not a coincidence.

In this solo reflection, Stephen traces a decade-long question that has haunted him: why does creative expression seem to attract so much internal and external opposition? Drawing on scripture, church history, and the lives of artists who battled addiction, trauma, and mental illness, he builds a case for why creativity and faith are so deeply intertwined, and why that connection makes artists a centerpiece in a spiritual battle.

He highlights an uncanny parallel between the King of Tyre in Ezekiel 28 and the artisans in Exodus, then lands in the present moment, asking what it means to keep making human art in an age of artificial intelligence. Listeners will walk away with a framework for understanding creative resistance and a renewed sense of why their work matters.

KEY TOPICS COVERED
• Why creativity is rooted in the image of God
• The historical pattern of struggle among great artists, from addiction to mental illness
• The church's complicated relationship with the arts
• What the rise of AI means for the future of human creativity
• Why art may be the last human frontier in an automated world

ABOUT THE HOST
Stephen Roach is the host of Makers and Mystics, a podcast exploring the intersection of creativity, faith, and the human experience. He is an artist, curator, poet, and musician. He is currently writing How to See Invisible Things, a book exploring the inner life of art and faith. Stephen has spent over a decade advocating for creativity as a spiritual discipline.

RESOURCES AND LINKS
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield - referenced for its concept of Resistance and creative struggle

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Artist Profile Series 40

Who was Evelyn Underhill, and why does her work continue to shape the modern contemplative movement more than a century later?

In this Artist Profile episode of Makers & Mystics, Stephen Roach explores the life of Evelyn Underhill, writer, spiritual director, retreat leader, and one of the most influential voices on Christian mysticism in the twentieth century.

Although she is often remembered for her landmark book Mysticism, Underhill's own spiritual journey was anything but straightforward. From youthful encounters with transcendent beauty to explorations of the occult, philosophy, and Roman Catholicism, her search eventually led her into the Anglican tradition, where she discovered that mystical experience finds its deepest fulfillment not in extraordinary visions but in the ordinary rhythms of worship, sacrament, and life with Christ.

In an age captivated by spirituality yet often disconnected from historic faith, Evelyn Underhill's life reminds us that the deepest longing of the human heart is not simply for transcendent experiences, but for communion with the living God.

In This Episode

•  The surprising spiritual journey that shaped Evelyn Underhill's life 
•  How Mysticism became one of the defining books on Christian contemplation 
•  Why Underhill believed mystical experience should be part of ordinary Christian life 
•  Her friendship with Baron Friedrich von Hügel and its profound influence 
•  The relationship between artists, beauty, and the contemplative life 
•  Why her final book, Worship, marked the culmination of her life's work 
•  What her story offers Christians, artists, and seekers today 

Notable Quotes

Books Mentioned

• Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Man's Spiritual Consciousness — Evelyn Underhill 
• Practical Mysticism — Evelyn Underhill 
• Worship — Evelyn Underhill 
• Confessions — Augustine of Hippo 
• Dark Night of the Soul — St. John of the Cross 

People Mentioned

•  Baron Friedrich von Hügel 
•  T. S. Eliot 
•  Julian of Norwich 
•  St. John of the Cross 
•  William Blake 
•  Augustine of Hippo 

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If this episode encouraged you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who longs to recover beauty, wonder, and the contemplative life.

To support the ongoing work of Makers & Mystics and gain access to bonus content, join our Patreon community.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/makersandmystics

Website: https://www.makersandmystics.com

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What if art isn't simply something we admire, but something that asks something of us?

In this episode, Stephen Roach sits down with acclaimed printmaker, educator, and storyteller Steve Prince for a conversation about the vocation of the artist. Drawing from history, faith, family, and lived experience, Steve shares how his work seeks to preserve memory, confront injustice, and create spaces where genuine transformation can begin.

From the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement to the power of oral storytelling, from New Orleans kitchen tables to ambitious community art projects, Steve reveals why he believes artists are called to help us "remember to remember" and to imagine a more hopeful future together.

Together they explore:

• Why artists are called to be truth-tellers
• How history shapes both our imagination and our responsibility
• The role of beauty in confronting difficult realities
• Why storytelling is essential to healing divided communities
• Steve's Kitchen Table project and its vision for reconciliation
• Creating art that challenges, invites, and transforms
• Faith, social justice, and the spiritual calling of creative work
• Helping the next generation of artists embrace both courage and adaptability

Whether you're an artist, educator, historian, or simply someone longing for deeper conversations in a fractured world, this episode offers a vision of art as an act of hospitality, remembrance, and hope.

Quote from the Episode

Resources Mentioned

• Steve Prince's Kitchen Table community art project
• Trinity City graphic novel initiative
• Howard Thurman
• Martin Luther
• Medgar Evers
• Emmett Till
• Rosa Parks
• Martin Luther King Jr.

If this episode encouraged you, please consider sharing it with a friend, leaving a review, or supporting the work of Makers & Mystics through Patreon.

Produced by Stephen Roach.

Music by Some Were at Sea.

Keep Creating. The World Needs Your Art. 

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Can beauty change a person? A community? A culture? 

Sacred artist Kate Capato believes it can.

In this bonus episode of Makers & Mystics, Stephen Roach sits down with Kate to explore why authentic beauty has the power to heal, awaken wonder, and draw people into the presence of God. Together they discuss the modern crisis of beauty, the vocation of the artist, and how sacred art becomes an invitation into deeper communion with Christ.

Kate shares why she and her family travel the country as "missionaries of beauty," bringing paintings and music into communities where beauty becomes a catalyst for transformation.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why beauty is essential 
• The difference between beauty and prettiness
• Why modern culture is experiencing a crisis of beauty
• The spiritual practice of creating sacred art
• Practical ways anyone can cultivate beauty in everyday life

About Kate Capato

Kate Capato is a sacred artist and founder of Visual Grace. Through commissioned paintings, exhibitions, and speaking events, she helps people encounter the beauty of God through visual art. Together with her husband, she travels throughout the United States sharing sacred art and music as "missionaries of beauty."

Learn more: https://visualgrace.org

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