Sequential Artists Workshop

For this, our last episode of the Winter 2025/26 season, we have a special one for you.

I decided to share some ramblings at the start of this one, about how practice becomes skill, and skills become automatic. In this world, our burdens are enormous, and we need to find balance between effort and ease — all while living with integrity. Listen to the first 20 minutes of this episode to hear how I explain the connection between practice and skill, ease and integrity.

The second half of today’s episode is a BONUS INTERVIEW with none other than Aaron Comeau, the composer of our theme music for this season: Magic Hours, from his album Fully Unformed.

On the surface it seems like music and comics are very different art forms, and very different practices…but they might have more in common, and more to offer each other, than you think.

F**k AI-generated art! Every season we’re gonna meet the humans behind the theme music that carries the season, and learn more about how each artist creates.

Listen to the whole first season, WINTER 2025/26 with new ears after this episode. Spark new creative channels for yourself, make new connections across artistic media and genres. We make great things together!

A new season of Drawing Health starts next Sunday: Spring 2026!

Youtube link:

Episode Links

Main St. Music Library website: mainstmusiclibrary.com

Main St. Music Library Bandcamp:

https://acomeau.bandcamp.com/

Aaron’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aaroncomeau/

Music acknowledgement

Our theme music is Magic Hours by Aaron Comeau made for the Main St. Music Library. The Main St. Music Library hosts instrumental music created with simple parameters, with scores and instructions for listeners to recreate the music themselves . Musicians, artists, & listeners are encouraged to borrow freely from the library and return the materials in a different form than they found them. Find out more at mainstmusiclibrary.com.

Disclaimer

This podcast is for information and exploration purposes only and is never intended as medical advice. Every viewer and listener is encouraged to seek medical attention at their own discretion. This podcast and the guided practices are tools for listeners to support their whole health, and should be used with care.

#drawinghealth #thememusic #fuckaimusic #supportartists #creativehealth

Get cozy. Lie down. 

Softness is all around us, and still hard to find if we’re locked into tension. When I taught this practice, it was because I needed it desperately - and if you watch the video, you’ll see my curling up on the floor to lie down while I guide you through.

We start with softness, and grow into acceptance, permission, and getting out of our own way. If you need to notice the softness today, this practice is for you. 

Get cozy, get your drawing materials, and sink in.

=

If you want to practice in sync with others, join my live Drawing Health class every Saturday on Zoom. Sign up at sequentialartistsworkshop.org or drawinghealth.com.

Our theme music is Magic Hours by Aaron Comeau made for the Main St. Music Library. The Main St. Music Library hosts instrumental music created with simple parameters, with scores and instructions for listeners to recreate the music themselves . Musicians, artists, & listeners are encouraged to borrow freely from the library and return the materials in a different form than they found them. Find out more at mainstmusiclibrary.com.

Disclaimer

This podcast is for information and exploration purposes only and is never intended as medical advice. Every viewer and listener is encouraged to seek medical attention at their own discretion. This podcast and the guided practices are tools for listeners to support their whole health, and should be used with care.

This episode brings you the one and only Kriota Willberg!

Kriota’s career has been constructed of her own passions, no matter how different they may be - and as a result, she has a completely unique position as a bridge between the medical and comics communities.

Our wide-ranging topics include the emotional significance of memoirs, trends in health awareness, the importance of bridging art and medicine, anatomical exploration in understanding the body, paving a new path for others to learn from, and so much more.

Kriota offers instructions to explore your forearm and all it can do, so listen to the end and feel along with us to learn more about anatomy through experience!

=

Episode Links & Resources

Kriota’s zines for sale through Birdcage Bottom Books: https://www.birdcagebottombooks.com/collections/artist-willberg-kriota

Kriota’s blogspot:

https://kriotawelt.blogspot.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/

kriotawilberg

=

Watch on Youtube:

About the podcast

Drawing Health is a podcast about the intersection of comics and health, also called Graphic Medicine. Through community interviews and guided audio practices, we explore the worlds within ourselves and without, nurturing your creative practice, inspiration, and personal health journey. Health and creativity are not at odds, they are two expressions of you.

About the Sequential Artists Workshop (SAW)

The Sequential Artists Workshop is a grassroots, non-profit comics school and creative community. At SAW, we teach people how to tell stories and make comics in Gainesville, Florida, USA, and around the world via our online courses and resources. Go to www.sequentialartistsworkshop.org or www.drawinghealth.com to join our community of learners and artists today!

Disclaimer

This podcast is for information and exploration purposes only and is never intended as medical advice. Every viewer and listener is encouraged to seek medical attention at their own discretion. This podcast and the guided practices are tools for listeners to support their whole health, and should be used with care.

This one’s gonna hurt.

And that’s okay, pain is part of life. We all feel it, so let’s give it the grace of our attention.

You may have heard the phrase, “sore spot” or “trigger point” in reference to both metaphorical pain, and physical pain. Does your pain belong to a spot? Is that spot a circle, or more angular, or square? Does it have a third dimension? Is one sore spot connected to another?

Pain is the impossible, words never touch what we feel, not really. By approaching pain in a new language of shape, colour, texture, dimensions, there is room for something new: curiosity. Instead of fixating on solution to the pain, or avoiding it altogether, we make a third option by offering our attention without a goal.

Just to notice it with our drawing eye.

=Watch on YouTube:

=

If you want to practice in sync with others, join my live Drawing Health class every Saturday on Zoom. Sign up at sequentialartistsworkshop.org or drawinghealth.com.

Our theme music is Magic Hours by Aaron Comeau made for the Main St. Music Library. The Main St. Music Library hosts instrumental music created with simple parameters, with scores and instructions for listeners to recreate the music themselves . Musicians, artists, & listeners are encouraged to borrow freely from the library and return the materials in a different form than they found them. Find out more at mainstmusiclibrary.com.

Disclaimer

This podcast is for information and exploration purposes only and is never intended as medical advice. Every viewer and listener is encouraged to seek medical attention at their own discretion. This podcast and the guided practices are tools for listeners to support their whole health, and should be used with care.

This episode’s guest is Zareen Choudhury!

Zareen is relatively new to the comics scene, but her clear ambitions and community-building projects are a beacon for artists living with chronic health and disability experiences. As a person with chronic pain and disabilities myself, I was so excited to connect with Zareen, and you’ll hear me reaching with my words toward things I haven’t yet imagined, because our shared experiences allow me to try. 

We talk about challenges of balancing work and health while navigating chronic illness, Zareen's journey from a STEM-focused education into comics, her love of New Yorker cartoons, the shift from humor to narrative storytelling, the importance of community care, mutual aid in the context of chronic illness, and more!

Zareen was one of my first interviews, and I got so carried away with our conversation I forgot to ask her for an exercise you, the listener, could try. You can always play with what makes you curious!

=

Episode Links & Resources

Zareen’s instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catch.some.zees

Zareen’s website: https://www.zareenchoudhury.com/

Crucial Comix: https://www.crucialcomix.com/product/chronic-illness-comics-club/

How To Touch Grass Anthology: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/powerandmagic/how-to-touch-grass/posts

=

About the podcast

Drawing Health is a podcast about the intersection of comics and health, also called Graphic Medicine. Through community interviews and guided audio practices, we explore the worlds within ourselves and without, nurturing your creative practice, inspiration, and personal health journey. Health and creativity are not at odds, they are two expressions of you. 

About the Sequential Artists Workshop (SAW)

The Sequential Artists Workshop is a grassroots, non-profit comics school and creative community. At SAW, we teach people how to tell stories and make comics in Gainesville, Florida, USA, and around the world via our online courses and resources. Go to www.sequentialartistsworkshop.org or www.drawinghealth.com to join our community of learners and artists today!

Disclaimer

This podcast is for information and exploration purposes only and is never intended as medical advice. Every viewer and listener is encouraged to seek medical attention at their own discretion. This podcast and the guided practices are tools for listeners to support their whole health, and should be used with care.

I’d been told I need unwinding for my drawing parts, after years of habits and strain have wound me tight. What it means may be different for each of us, and this practice is a method to find out for yourself. Unwinding, for a long and happy life in drawing ✨

Drawing Health is a weekly class to connect with your body and creativity at the same time. We draw, we talk, we move, we notice. This practice was recorded from a class, and you can join that class every week on Saturday mornings. Sign up at www.drawinghealth.com.

=

Our theme music is Magic Hours by Aaron Comeau made for the Main St. Music Library. The Main St. Music Library hosts instrumental music created with simple parameters, with scores and instructions for listeners to recreate the music themselves. Musicians, artists, & listeners are encouraged to borrow freely from the library and return the materials in a different form than they found them. Find out more at mainstmusiclibrary.com.

Disclaimer

This podcast is for information and exploration purposes only and is never intended as medical advice. Every viewer and listener is encouraged to seek medical attention at their own discretion. This podcast and the guided practices are tools for listeners to support their whole health, and should be used with care.

Where do you start, making graphic medicine about your health experiences?

You start with yourself! Your own feelings, your own symptoms, your own language of comics. It can be daunting to do it with your mind, which is why I made this practice, for you to be guided without thinking too hard.

Start with the body. Start by listening. Start with this episode, and discover the language you’ve already got, waiting to emerge visually.

=

Our theme music is Magic Hours by Aaron Comeau made for the Main St. Music Library. The Main St. Music Library hosts instrumental music created with simple parameters, with scores and instructions for listeners to recreate the music themselves. Musicians, artists, & listeners are encouraged to borrow freely from the library and return the materials in a different form than they found them. Find out more at mainstmusiclibrary.com.

Disclaimer

This podcast is for information and exploration purposes only and is never intended as medical advice. Every viewer and listener is encouraged to seek medical attention at their own discretion. This podcast and the guided practices are tools for listeners to support their whole health, and should be used with care.

Maureen’s latest book, Sleepless Planet, weaves an ecology of sleep through gorgeous comics imagery, filled with personal stories and loads of research. If you want to know the animal of your sleep, buy the book!

Today’s show features Maureen Burdock!

Maureen holds a doctorate in Cultural Studies, and now teaches and creates Graphic Medicine comics. Her memoir, Queen of Snails, is incredibly lush and deep — and now she’s got a new book, Sleepless Planet, that weaves a well-informed, personally-driven sleep ecology. It’s practical, informative, beautiful, and very, very needed.

We talk about Maureen’s new book, the health term “exposome,” colonial-capitalist inventions of health and disease, perimenopause mistakes, neglected powers of breathing, birthing, sleeping, and MORE.

Maureen gives us a lovely exercise to try for nighttime anxiety, so you can put this episode to use right away! Just listen to the end of the interview and you’ll have a new practice to help you sleep better.

=

Episode Links & Resources

Maureen’s website: www.maureenburdock.com

Sleepless Planet: https://www.graphicmundi.org/books/978-1-63779-093-9.html

Maureen Burdock’s Graphic Medicine Deep Dive course: https://www.sequentialartistsworkshop.org/graphic-medicine-deep-dive-with-maureen-burdock

Graphic Memoir & Medicine Working Group: https://www.sequentialartistsworkshop.org/memoir-medicine-group

=

Youtube link:

About the podcast

Drawing Health is a podcast about the intersection of comics and health, also called Graphic Medicine. Through community interviews and guided audio practices, we explore the worlds within ourselves and without, nurturing your creative practice, inspiration, and personal health journey. Health and creativity are not at odds, they are two expressions of you.

About the Sequential Artists Workshop (SAW)

The Sequential Artists Workshop is a grassroots, non-profit comics school and creative community. At SAW, we teach people how to tell stories and make comics in Gainesville, Florida, USA, and around the world via our online courses and resources. Go to www.sequentialartistsworkshop.org or www.drawinghealth.com to join our community of learners and artists today!

Want to learn more about Graphic Medicine?

DOWNLOAD your FREE Graphic Medicine Starter Pack HERE!!

Disclaimer

This podcast is for information and exploration purposes only and is never intended as medical advice. Every viewer and listener is encouraged to seek medical attention at their own discretion. This podcast and the guided practices are tools for listeners to support their whole health, and should be used with care.

What movements do you do every day? What shapes and motions do you NEVER make? What about when you're drawing?

This practice is a gentle space to observe your movement habits in drawing, to not judge them, and to play with other possibilities of motion and feeling.This practice aims to teach your brain that moving, and drawing, can be safe from tension and pain.Let me know how it feels by leaving a review - I read them all, and I'd love to hear your experience!=Our theme music is Magic Hours by Aaron Comeau made for the Main St. Music Library. The Main St. Music Library hosts instrumental music created with simple parameters, with scores and instructions for listeners to recreate the music themselves . Musicians, artists, & listeners are encouraged to borrow freely from the library and return the materials in a different form than they found them. Find out more at mainstmusiclibrary.com.DisclaimerThis podcast is for information and exploration purposes only and is never intended as medical advice. Every viewer and listener is encouraged to seek medical attention at their own discretion. This podcast and the guided practices are tools for listeners to support their whole health, and should be used with care.

When you are interested in mental health and your own well-being, if you keep following that theme, sooner or later you’re going to get radicalized.

This episode’s guest is YUMI SAKUGAWA!

Yumi is a comics artist, meditator, creativity leader, and lovely human being. On my first ever podcast interview, she kept asking ME questions! Such is her curiosity and supportive nature.

Our conversation roams between our (villain) origin stories, meditation, activism, personal and collective healing, and the many forms of creativity that happen in every day life.

In each episode, I ask our guest if they have an offering for the listener, something to try themselves to explore and experience. Listen to the end to hear Yumi’s offering!

Youtube link:

=

Episode Links & Resources:

Yumi’s Website:

https://www.yumisakugawa.com

Yumi’s Instagram: https://instagram.com/yumisakugawa

Yumi’s new COSMIC AFFIRMATIONS deck! https://www.yumisakugawa.com/cosmic-comfort

=

About the podcast

Drawing Health is a podcast about the intersection of comics and health, also called Graphic Medicine. Through community interviews and guided audio practices, we explore the worlds within ourselves and without, nurturing your creative practice, inspiration, and personal health journey. Health and creativity are not at odds, they are two expressions of you.

About the Sequential Artists Workshop (SAW)

The Sequential Artists Workshop is a grassroots, non-profit comics school and creative community. At SAW, we teach people how to tell stories and make comics in Gainesville, Florida, USA, and around the world via our online courses and resources. Go to www.sequentialartistsworkshop.org or www.drawinghealth.com to join our community of learners and artists today!

Disclaimer

This podcast is for information and exploration purposes only and is never intended as medical advice. Every viewer and listener is encouraged to seek medical attention at their own discretion. This podcast and the guided practices are tools for listeners to support their whole health, and should be used with care.