Hello Creative Friends,

This episode is about the creative power of energy. A philosophical foundation of my work and business is that energy is profoundly artistic. We are making things all the time, even simply standing in a room! I wanted to share a story about a teacher that first taught me how energy is even... a thing. It's certainly hard to talk about with words. I hope that the story in this episode can get a part of the truths around the experience... at least as I see it.

This is a tremendously transformative time we are in. What we are making and putting out there is traveling farther, and impacting stronger than every before. I think an awareness of energy's existence as a creative tool, is incredibly helpful before we begin the very important work that lies ahead. 

I love you. Thank you for being here,

Becca

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

Welcome to Secret Sauce, a podcast about the secret ingredients in life and work, hosted by Becca Borrelli. Secret Sauce explores artistry as a helpful framework for inspiring meaning and understanding in our everyday lives. 

ABOUT BECCA

Becca is an illustrator-educator and part founder of Austin-based female maker collective: Lemon House. She spends most of her time designing adult coloring books, interactive murals, and speaking to organizations about mindfulness, meditation and the benefits of art-making. Clients include Visa, Dell Children’s Hospital, Austin Independent School District, University Hospital- Cleveland, the Austin Downtown Alliance and the Anti-Defamation League. 

Becca is most inspired by the invisible connections between all things. Her work aims to be a playful, bright, and hopeful interpretation of the world's whimsical and magical sides. She has fallen in love with her hometown in Austin, where she spends free time exploring nature and hunting for breakfast tacos with her husband and their super-pups Layla and Rose. 

Website: beccajborrelli.com

Instagram: @beccaborrelliart

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

Welcome to Secret Sauce, a podcast about the secret ingredients in life and work, hosted by Becca Borrelli. Secret Sauce explores artistry as a helpful framework for inspiring meaning and understanding in our everyday lives. 

ABOUT BECCA

Becca is an illustrator-educator and part founder of Austin-based female maker collective: Lemon House. She spends most of her time designing adult coloring books, interactive murals, and speaking to organizations about mindfulness, meditation and the benefits of art-making. Clients include Visa, Dell Children’s Hospital, Austin Independent School District, University Hospital- Cleveland, the Austin Downtown Alliance and the Anti-Defamation League. 

Becca is most inspired by the invisible connections between all things. Her work aims to be a playful, bright, and hopeful interpretation of the world's whimsical and magical sides. She has fallen in love with her hometown in Austin, where she spends free time exploring nature and hunting for breakfast tacos with her husband and their super-pups Layla and Rose. 

Website: beccajborrelli.com

Instagram: @beccaborrelliart

Hello Creative Friends,

This episode is for the graduate kiddos.

You Have One Job... and it's do figure out what you truly want, and do it. Simple. Not Easy (in the slightest). 

Doing what your soul truly wants is the greatest gift you can give to the world. Far more damage is done to the planet and others by those living quiet, lives of desperation trying to live in a way they "believe they should live." 

Interestingly though, we're usually taught the virtues of sacrificing what we deeply want for others. In this episode I tell some stories about the contrast I experienced living in both ways. This is for the graduates, but also for me. I still need these stories even now, and I hope it serves you in personal ways as well.

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

Welcome to Secret Sauce, a podcast about the secret ingredients in life and work, hosted by Becca Borrelli. Secret Sauce explores artistry as a helpful framework for inspiring meaning and understanding in our everyday lives. 

ABOUT BECCA

Becca is an illustrator-educator and part founder of Austin-based female maker collective: Lemon House. She spends most of her time designing adult coloring books, interactive murals, and speaking to organizations about mindfulness, meditation and the benefits of art-making. Clients include Visa, Dell Children’s Hospital, Austin Independent School District, University Hospital- Cleveland, the Austin Downtown Alliance and the Anti-Defamation League. 

Becca is most inspired by the invisible connections between all things. Her work aims to be a playful, bright, and hopeful interpretation of the world's whimsical and magical sides. She has fallen in love with her hometown in Austin, where she spends free time exploring nature and hunting for breakfast tacos with her husband and their super-pups Layla and Rose. 

Website: beccajborrelli.com

Instagram: @beccaborrelliart

Hello Creative Friends,

It's fair to say that in this time, we are understanding and re-defining the word "essential" in new ways. Especially during times of collective distress, it's easy to feel like making or creating is not only unhelpful, but selfish. How DO artists matter? What do they offer? Would the world miss them if they were gone?

If we imagine a world without art, I think we can collectively agree that feels immediately and viscerally awful. But why? That's harder to articulate. In this episode I tell the story of how an art lesson with 7 year olds, taught me a unique way that artists are in fact, VERY ESSENTIAL. 

Artists are deeply needed right now, but the ways they're needed are very different than other essential workers. Understanding the ways we serve people beyond making things is a great first step in moving forward authentically and our own special offerings. AKA Secret Sauce.

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

Welcome to Secret Sauce, a podcast about the secret ingredients in life and work, hosted by Becca Borrelli. Secret Sauce explores artistry as a helpful framework for inspiring meaning and understanding in our everyday lives. 

ABOUT BECCA

Becca is an illustrator-educator and part founder of Austin-based female maker collective: Lemon House. She spends most of her time designing adult coloring books, interactive murals, and speaking to organizations about mindfulness, meditation and the benefits of art-making. Clients include Visa, Dell Children’s Hospital, Austin Independent School District, University Hospital- Cleveland, the Austin Downtown Alliance and the Anti-Defamation League. 

Becca is most inspired by the invisible connections between all things. Her work aims to be a playful, bright, and hopeful interpretation of the world's whimsical and magical sides. She has fallen in love with her hometown in Austin, where she spends free time exploring nature and hunting for breakfast tacos with her husband and their super-pups Layla and Rose. 

Website: beccajborrelli.com

Instagram: @beccaborrelliart

Hello Creative Friends,

Last week I spoke about being invited to let go ideas of "being right" when we make things. If we're not here to be "right," a continuation of that is this episode: "We're here to make magic." Magic is an elusive thing isn't it? The word conjures up many ideas, and also very few of those ideas are "grasp-able." Maybe we think of Harry Potter or fantasy movies, but how does magic apply in the "real world." For that matter: "What is the real world anyway?" 

In this episode I reflect on a time that I brushed up against an experience that defied all of my previous earthly understandings. I share how that experience changed and re-shaped the way I view my work and myself as an artist, and how reconnecting with your own ideas around magic might serve you as well.

Sources referenced in this episode:

Soul Tarot School

Haven Meditation

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

Welcome to Secret Sauce, a podcast about the secret ingredients in life and work, hosted by Becca Borrelli. Secret Sauce explores artistry as a helpful framework for inspiring meaning and understanding in our everyday lives. 

ABOUT BECCA

Becca is an illustrator-educator and part founder of Austin-based female maker collective: Lemon House. She spends most of her time designing adult coloring books, interactive murals, and speaking to organizations about mindfulness, meditation and the benefits of art-making. Clients include Visa, Dell Children’s Hospital, Austin Independent School District, University Hospital- Cleveland, the Austin Downtown Alliance and the Anti-Defamation League. 

Becca is most inspired by the invisible connections between all things. Her work aims to be a playful, bright, and hopeful interpretation of the world's whimsical and magical sides. She has fallen in love with her hometown in Austin, where she spends free time exploring nature and hunting for breakfast tacos with her husband and their super-pups Layla and Rose. 

Website: beccajborrelli.com

Instagram: @beccaborrelliart

Hello Creative Friends,

How are you all doing during this time? Last week, I found myself reflecting on a larger narrative for what the heck artists are doing here. Yes, we make beautiful things. Yes we feel under the surface of the world to make those things. Yes, we're here to serve others as "soul workers." But's what's the larger point of all that in a world that really seems all about dominating things, making money and surviving? 

Full disclosure, sometimes the stories on this podcast were storied that I need(ed) in the past. Sometimes the stories are ones I need, present tense. This is one of those latter stories, so it's "soupier" and more in the works than past episodes. All said, I'm feeling really called to share it right now.

In this episode I reflect on "being right" when we make things. I stir together stories about a Dave Chappelle quote, chimpanzee documentary, and making small art biz decisions in a time of uncertainty. I have no idea what's going on, but sometimes I imagine that there are stories that might help me navigate that space. I hope they might help you in some way as well. Take what resonates with you, and leave the rest. 

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

Welcome to Secret Sauce, a podcast about the secret ingredients in life and work, hosted by Becca Borrelli. Secret Sauce explores artistry as a helpful framework for inspiring meaning and understanding in our everyday lives. 

ABOUT BECCA

Becca is an illustrator-educator and part founder of Austin-based female maker collective: Lemon House. She spends most of her time designing adult coloring books, interactive murals, and speaking to organizations about mindfulness, meditation and the benefits of art-making. Clients include Visa, Dell Children’s Hospital, Austin Independent School District, University Hospital- Cleveland, the Austin Downtown Alliance and the Anti-Defamation League. 

Becca is most inspired by the invisible connections between all things. Her work aims to be a playful, bright, and hopeful interpretation of the world's whimsical and magical sides. She has fallen in love with her hometown in Austin, where she spends free time exploring nature and hunting for breakfast tacos with her husband and their super-pups Layla and Rose. 

Website: beccajborrelli.com

Instagram: @beccaborrelliart

Hello Creative Friends,

In the third and final part of the "We're Artists We're Sensitive as F***" series, I talk about the nature of work, and how sensitivity changes the experience we have with it.

What are the assumptions and misconceptions of how we view work? Do we view "making a living" as our most important contribution? Why have we collectively created a world where most of us feel we must do work that we don't want to do? What do we believe about people who are not productive in the material world? What do those people believe about themselves? And moreover, how do these things play out in a time when work as usual has been severely interrupted?

In this episode I tell the story of when business as usual in my personal and professional life experienced a massive breakdown, and how it gave way for more sustainable stories around my own contributions to the world. Can we tell new stories about work that are more sustainable? 

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

Welcome to Secret Sauce, a podcast about the secret ingredients in life and work, hosted by Becca Borrelli. Secret Sauce explores artistry as a helpful framework for inspiring meaning and understanding in our everyday lives. 

ABOUT BECCA

Becca is an illustrator-educator and part founder of Austin-based female maker collective: Lemon House. She spends most of her time designing adult coloring books, interactive murals, and speaking to organizations about mindfulness, meditation and the benefits of art-making. Clients include Visa, Dell Children’s Hospital, Austin Independent School District, University Hospital- Cleveland, the Austin Downtown Alliance and the Anti-Defamation League. 

Becca is most inspired by the invisible connections between all things. Her work aims to be a playful, bright, and hopeful interpretation of the world's whimsical and magical sides. She has fallen in love with her hometown in Austin, where she spends free time exploring nature and hunting for breakfast tacos with her husband and their super-pups Layla and Rose. 

Website: beccajborrelli.com

Instagram: @beccaborrelliart

Hello Creative Friends,

This is audio from my conversation last week with host of Austin's pre-eminent Art podcast: Austin Art Talk. I have been a fan of Scott David Gordon and his thought-provoking art interviews since nearly the podcast's inception. He's incredibly easy to talk to, and in this episode we dive into why artists are sensitive. I also share some stories I've never shared publicly before... yep, he's a great interviewer like that. If you like our conversation, check out more of his interviews here, and consider supporting him on Patreon. 

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

Welcome to Secret Sauce, a podcast about the secret ingredients in life and work, hosted by Becca Borrelli. Secret Sauce explores artistry as a helpful framework for inspiring meaning and understanding in our everyday lives. 

ABOUT BECCA

Becca is an illustrator-educator and part founder of Austin-based female maker collective: Lemon House. She spends most of her time designing adult coloring books, interactive murals, and speaking to organizations about mindfulness, meditation and the benefits of art-making. Clients include Visa, Dell Children’s Hospital, Austin Independent School District, University Hospital- Cleveland, the Austin Downtown Alliance and the Anti-Defamation League. 

Becca is most inspired by the invisible connections between all things. Her work aims to be a playful, bright, and hopeful interpretation of the world's whimsical and magical sides. She has fallen in love with her hometown in Austin, where she spends free time exploring nature and hunting for breakfast tacos with her husband and their super-pups Layla and Rose. 

Website: beccajborrelli.com

Instagram: @beccaborrelliart

Hello Creative Friends,

Why are Artists Sensitive? What if it's for a very good reason? In Part 2 of 3 in the We're Artists We're SAF Series, we expand upon the work Artists are actually doing. I use a sports hero from my hometown of Cleveland- LeBron James- as a metaphor for how an Artists work is deeply misunderstood, and how that misunderstanding can paralyze creatively powerful people. How can a renewed understanding of what's happening under the surface when we make things, give us courage to make the things we most truly desire?

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

Welcome to Secret Sauce, a podcast about the secret ingredients in life and work, hosted by Becca Borrelli. Secret Sauce explores artistry as a helpful framework for inspiring meaning and understanding in our everyday lives. 

ABOUT BECCA

Becca is an illustrator-educator and part founder of Austin-based female maker collective: Lemon House. She spends most of her time designing adult coloring books, interactive murals, and speaking to organizations about mindfulness, meditation and the benefits of art-making. Clients include Visa, Dell Children’s Hospital, Austin Independent School District, University Hospital- Cleveland, the Austin Downtown Alliance and the Anti-Defamation League. 

Becca is most inspired by the invisible connections between all things. Her work aims to be a playful, bright, and hopeful interpretation of the world's whimsical and magical sides. She has fallen in love with her hometown in Austin, where she spends free time exploring nature and hunting for breakfast tacos with her husband and their super-pups Layla and Rose. 

Website: beccajborrelli.com

Instagram: @beccaborrelliart