Teresa Au chats with artist Shantell Martin about how not fitting in–growing up in London, going to art school, and living in Japan–forced her to really know herself and launched her creative career. Shantell’s trademark continuous line art represents her quest to understand what makes us each unique, and to find ways for us to connect to one another. Her thoughtful and confident reflections, her spirit of sharing, and her sense of adventure will inspire you in your creative journey.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• How Shantell’s upbringing in working-class London shaped her identity
• Why saying Yes to Yes and No to No is harder than it sounds
• Shantell’s roundabout journey to art school and how it opened up her world
• Why Japan felt more liberating to Shantell than London ever did
• Shantell’s coming out story
• The importance of being uncomfortable if you want to be creative
• How Shantell came to live in New York
• Reflections on big breaks vs. a slowly building career
• Creating community amongst artists
• Why LINES and PATHS are so important to Shantell
• Mentors and mentoring
• Shantell’s What’s the Point? Podcast
• The connections between creativity and mental health

Shantell Martin is a public speaker, intuitive philosopher, cultural facilitator, curator, choreographer, songwriter, performer, and more. From fashion and celebrity collaborations to adjunct professor positions at MIT Media Lab, NYU Tisch ITP, Columbia University’s Brown Institute, and choreographing a ballet at the Boston Ballet, Shantell’s LINE constantly evolves.Creating new connections between fine art, education, design, philosophy, and technology, Shantell explores themes such as intersectionality, identity, and play. 

Download Shantell’s font, Shantell Sans and make something creative. Check out Shantell’s What’s the Point? podcast to hear her interviews with Los Angeles-based artists.

Teresa Au (@tautastic) is an executive for community engagement at Adobe, where she focuses on empowering creatives and students via workshops, panels, and podcasts. On creating In the Making, Teresa says “I knew I wanted to amplify the incredible personal stories of the talented and unique humans I’ve been meeting online and at our Create Now events across the world.”

Learn more about this podcast, and find transcripts and links, at adobe.ly/inthemaking. In the Making is brought you by Adobe Express and Adobe Creative Cloud. 

Past episodes of Wireframe can still be found in the show archive within this feed, or online on Behance. 

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Adobe Creative Cloud provides apps, web services, and resources for all your creative projects — photography, graphic design, video editing, UX design, drawing and painting, social media, and more. 

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