The Creative Collective

Being a beginner sounds fun until you are staring at a blank page, comparing yourself to a version of you from ten years ago, or thinking, “I do not have time for this.”

In this episode, Allie and Emily talk about what it really feels like to begin. Sometimes that means trying something completely new, like learning mahjong. Sometimes it means returning to an old creative practice and discovering that it somehow feels familiar and brand new at the same time.

They share their recent experiments with cyanotypes, the joy of learning in community, the projects they find easiest and hardest to start, and the very different ways physical setup and mental pressure can keep us from making anything at all. Emily shares why a portable art bag makes creating easier, while Allie explains why she sometimes removes scissors, brushes, and other tools that invite perfectionism.

They also talk about the connection between perfectionism and procrastination, why five creative minutes still count, and why the imperfect first attempt is not a failure. It is evidence that you showed up.

Also discussed:

• Beginner’s mind and the possibilities we lose as we become more experienced
• Comparing your current creativity to your past work
• Why adults have such a hard time being bad at things
• Bedazzled mahjong racks, naturally
• The embroidery projects waiting patiently in both of their homes
• Why creating privately can help quiet your inner critic
• Matching your creative ambition to your actual energy level

Your challenge this week is simple: try one small creative thing you have never done before, or return to something you miss. Let it be imperfect. Let it be small. Let it be a beginning.

Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠ or visit our ⁠website⁠ to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply ⁠here.⁠

You can find Allie on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠, and you can find Emily on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠ to learn more about all they do and stay connected

You can find Austin on ⁠Instagram⁠ for all of your podcasting and musical needs

If you enjoyed this episode, follow along and share it with someone who could use a little more creativity in their life.

And this is your reminder that you don't have to be an artist to benefit from creativity. You're welcome, as you are, in this creative community.

The fastest way to turn a room of strangers into a room full of friends isn't a good icebreaker question — it's giving them something to make, share, and taste.

In this episode of The Creative Collective, our art therapy podcast and creativity podcast, we sit down with Kiki Canuto, the chef and founder behind Getaway Plate — a traveling culinary studio that thoughtfully builds creative community. She moves from city to city, working with local artists, designers, and organizers, and builds each event around whatever's local and in season.

In this episode, they discuss:

• The tortilla-making party that reminded Kiki what she's actually building toward, and why it was never really about the tortillas
• How a chance conversation about cider at a Christmas market turned into a full dinner collaboration on the Danish island of Bornholm
• How a food-waste collaboration with a textile artist turned an avocado pit into naturally-dyed fabric
• Kiki's still-forming dream of a multi-disciplinary day retreat that brings movement, art, and food into the same space
• The cookbook that changed how Kiki thinks about following a recipe
• What Kiki learned about herself during a period of saying yes to everything, and why she now commits fully or not at all

Resources & Links:

• Kiki Canuto - Getaway Plate
• Kiki's Instagram - @getaway_plate
• Emma Collins, Textile Artist hosting workshops
• Two Dozen Eggs by: Hugh Corcoron

Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠ or visit our ⁠website⁠ to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply ⁠here.⁠

You can find Allie on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠, and you can find Emily on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠ to learn more about all they do and stay connected

You can find Austin on ⁠Instagram⁠ for all of your podcasting and musical needs

If you enjoyed this episode, follow along and share it with someone who could use a little more creativity in their life.

And this is your reminder that you don't have to be an artist to benefit from creativity. You're welcome, as you are, in this creative community.

What if the creative friendships that actually last aren't built on grand gestures, but instead, on your average Wednesday afternoon standing-date?

In this episode of The Creative Collective, our art therapy podcast and creativity podcast, Emily and Allie talk about creative friendships — the specific kind of connection that forms when you make things alongside someone else. They get into why shared vulnerability speeds up closeness, why a weekly standing plan might be the most useful friendship tool either of them has ever used, and what actually happens when creative jealousy shows up between friends.

In this episode, they discuss:

• Why making something together, even something as small as doodling side by side, builds connection faster than most shared activities
• "Activity day" — the weekly standing plan that supports repetition mattering more than any single big event
• What genuine creative support actually looks like beyond liking a post, and the story that reminded us why it matters
• How to handle creative jealousy without turning it into shame, and the difference between being inspired by someone and imitating them
• Why competition and creative friendship can coexist, and what keeps that dynamic healthy
• This week's challenge: make one specific plan, with one specific person, instead of a vague "we should do something sometime"

Resources & Links:

• Ohuhu Alcohol Markers
• Famesick: A Memoir by Lena Dunham
• Allie's Time Magazine feature
• Texture Hunting Supplies - Emily
• Texture Hunting Supplies - Allie

Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠ or visit our ⁠website⁠ to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply ⁠here.⁠

You can find Allie on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠, and you can find Emily on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠ to learn more about all they do and stay connected

You can find Austin on ⁠Instagram⁠ for all of your podcasting and musical needs

If you enjoyed this episode, follow along and share it with someone who could use a little more creativity in their life.

And this is your reminder that you don't have to be an artist to benefit from creativity. You're welcome, as you are, in this creative community.

What happens when the career you were promised doesn't show up as promised — and you have to build one from scratch?

In this episode of The Creative Collective, our art therapy podcast and creativity podcast, we talk with Cheryl Walpole Tiku, a licensed art therapist who started her career in product development at Ralph Lauren before training at Pratt Institute and spending nearly two decades across hospitals and private practice in New York. She's now the editor and co-author of a new book that says something most people in helping professions feel but rarely admit out loud — that following your calling can make life harder, not easier.

In this episode, we discuss:

• What Cheryl noticed inside a fast-moving, image-driven fashion job that eventually pushed her to walk away from it
• The disorienting creative block she hit early in her art therapy training — and how she found her way back
• Why she and a grad-school friend built an entire international art therapy program in Namibia, because the one they wanted didn't exist yet
• Why she believes you don't have to sell — or even finish — what you make for it to count
• The creative groups she's started for women entrepreneurs and founders, and what she's noticed about high achievers and creative access
• How a vintage etiquette book became one of her go-to creative practices, and why "keep your dignity" is the only line she left visible

Resources & Links:

• Cheryl Walpole Tiku — Instagram @the_line_between_studio, thelinebetweenconsulting.com
• The Business of Art Therapy (Routledge) — out now
• Chery's Substack: The Line Between Studio

Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠ or visit our ⁠website⁠ to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply ⁠here.⁠

You can find Allie on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠, and you can find Emily on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠ to learn more about all they do and stay connected

You can find Austin on ⁠Instagram⁠ for all of your podcasting and musical needs

If you enjoyed this episode, follow along and share it with someone who could use a little more creativity in their life.

And this is your reminder that you don't have to be an artist to benefit from creativity. You're welcome, as you are, in this creative community.

What if coming back to creativity didn't have to look like a commitment — what if it could look like one small, imperfect thing you did on a Tuesday afternoon and never showed anyone?

In this Creative Check-In episode of The Creative Collective Podcast, Emily and Allie get into the real reasons people drift away from creativity — and more importantly, what it actually looks like to find your way back.

Whether you've been away from a creative practice for a few weeks or a few years, or you're considering starting something for the very first time, this one is for you.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why people stop being creative — and why that's not a character flaw
• The case for starting small and why "tiny" is actually the most sustainable entry point
• Emily's tufting class story: what happens when you try something you've never done before and genuinely have no idea what you're doing
• How changing your environment (a cafe, a museum, a walk around the block) can take the pressure off in a way that staring at a blank page never will
• The art of noticing — and how a color walk can snap your brain out of autopilot
• The creativity menu: a practical tool for getting started when your brain is tired and the options feel overwhelming
• What both hosts currently have on their own creativity menus, organized by five minutes, twenty minutes, and an afternoon

Resources & Links:

• Mermaid Books Lino Cut Workshop in Connecticut hosted by: Rachel
• Tufting Class led by: Tufted Love at the amazing community space Absalon in Copenhagen

Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠ or visit our ⁠website⁠ to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply ⁠here.⁠

You can find Allie on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠, and you can find Emily on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠ to learn more about all they do and stay connected

You can find Austin on ⁠Instagram⁠ for all of your podcasting and musical needs

If you enjoyed this episode, follow along and share it with someone who could use a little more creativity in their life.

And this is your reminder that you don't have to be an artist to benefit from creativity. You're welcome, as you are, in this creative community.

What if the secret to a creative life isn't waiting until you're ready — it's deciding that ready is overrated?

In this episode of The Creative Collective Podcast, Emily and Allie sit down with Gabrielle Siegel — founder of The Aura Creative design agency, writer published in Teen Vogue and beyond, fiddle player, and competitive Irish dancer who walked into her first class in her twenties with zero training and quietly decided she was going to make it to the top anyway. Gabrielle writes a Substack called Everything Hurts about what it actually takes to pursue the things that matter to you, and in this conversation she gets into the decade of creative risk-taking that shaped that philosophy — from a secret goal she told almost no one about, to why she still can't hit "post" without fighting the voice that tells her no one wants to see it.

In this episode, they discuss:

• How tagging along to her younger sister's very first Irish dance class led to a decade-long competitive pursuit she never planned for
• The secret goal she set for herself and kept quiet for years — and what she learned when she didn't reach it
• A childhood memory involving a zip line and a ten-minute standoff with fear that became her go-to method for pushing past creative paralysis
• Why self-promotion feels "cringy" even when the work is something she's proud of, and the mindset shift that gets her to hit post anyway
• The real cost of not pursuing the thing — and why the pain of not trying is so much harder to live with than the pain of trying and falling short
• Why having no end goal for her fiddle playing might be exactly the point

Resources & Links:

• The Aura Creative
• Gabrielle on Instagram
• Everything Hurts — Gabrielle's Substack

Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠ or visit our ⁠website⁠ to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply ⁠here.⁠

You can find Allie on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠, and you can find Emily on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠ to learn more about all they do and stay connected

You can find Austin on ⁠Instagram⁠ for all of your podcasting and musical needs

If you enjoyed this episode, follow along and share it with someone who could use a little more creativity in their life.

And this is your reminder that you don't have to be an artist to benefit from creativity. You're welcome, as you are, in this creative community.

What if the most restorative thing you can do while traveling isn't simply relaxing, but making something — surrounded by people, in creative community, seeing the world (and yourself) a little differently than when you arrived?

In this Creative Check-In episode of The Creative Collective Podcast, Emily and Allie recap their recent trip to Folegandros, Greece — a Creative Club retreat Emily co-hosts, and the first one Allie has attended. Morning swims, linoleum stamp carving, watercolor doodles made with actual ocean water, and a group printmaking poster that everyone got to take a piece of home — this episode is part travelogue, part reflection on why retreats like this are having a real moment right now.

In this episode, they discuss:

• What it's like to experience a creative retreat for the first time as a guest instead of a host
• Why the loosest, least scheduled parts of the day ended up being the most restorative
• The group printmaking project that felt reminiscent of a high school yearbook (mermaid cats included)
• Why creative retreats are becoming the new version of the girls' trip — and why phone-free, analog experiences are popping up all over the place
• What it means to let yourself be positively creatively influenced by the people around you
• A challenge for anyone who can't book a flight to Greece this week, but still wants a piece of what this trip gave them

Resources & Links:

• Jennifer Chiles - Creative Club retreat co-host
• SPINA - Our dream getaway spot in Folegandros, Greece
• Monica McNeeley - Allie's travel buddy and fellow therapist
• Paige Bradford - watercolor meditation and Hooray Art Studio owner
• Sakura Koi travel watercolor set - our favorite for art on the go!
• Speedball linoleum starter kit for printmaking

Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠ or visit our ⁠website⁠ to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply ⁠here.⁠

You can find Allie on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠, and you can find Emily on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠ to learn more about all they do and stay connected

You can find Austin on ⁠Instagram⁠ for all of your podcasting and musical needs

If you enjoyed this episode, follow along and share it with someone who could use a little more creativity in their life.

And this is your reminder that you don't have to be an artist to benefit from creativity. You're welcome, as you are, in this creative community.

What if the thing standing between you and a creative life isn't talent — it's the belief that you need it?

In this episode of The Creative Collective Podcast, Emily and Allie sit down with Meagan Mahaffy, founder of Art Gurl — a global creative wellness community that has reached people in over twenty countries and is built on one foundational belief: that creativity is not a skill reserved for artists. It's a practice that belongs to everyone.

Meagan's path to building Art Gurl is not a straight line (and we think a lot of you creatives out there might relate). What brought her back to her aligned creative path was the pandemic, a pile of yarn, some weird polymer clay figurines — and the realization that making things with her hands was doing something for her anxiety that yoga and meditation weren't.

In this episode, they discuss:

• How Meagan went from being told she'd never make it as an artist to building one of the most expansive creative wellness communities in the world
• What "making bad art" actually means — and why removing the pressure to produce something good is the thing that makes creativity accessible
• The difference between going to a paint and sip class and actually expressing yourself — and why that distinction matters more than it sounds
• What Meagan has witnessed happen between strangers in her workshops, and why in-person creative community does something that Zoom never quite can
• The five-minute daily doodle — what it is, why it works, and how consistency in creative practice starts to shift your sense of identity over time
• How Art Gurl's global community directory is trying to solve the problem of creative isolation — and why more people than you'd think could be hosting their own craft meetups

Resources & Links:

• Art Gurl
• Art Gurl Community Directory
• Art Gurl on Instagram (@artgurl__)
• Caran d'Ache Neocolor II Water-Soluble Pastels — Meagan and Emily's shared desert island supply

Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠ or visit our ⁠website⁠ to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply ⁠here.⁠

Make sure to connect with Meagan on her Instagram or her website, and if you're local to NYC make sure to attend her incredible community events!

You can find Allie on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠, and you can find Emily on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠ to learn more about all they do and stay connected

You can find Austin on ⁠Instagram⁠ for all of your podcasting and musical needs

If you enjoyed this episode, follow along and share it with someone who could use a little more creativity in their life.

And this is your reminder that you don't have to be an artist to benefit from creativity. You're welcome, as you are, in this creative community.

Are you craving creative community — but not quite sure where to find it, how to build it, or why it feels harder to hold onto as an adult?

In this Creative Check-In episode of The Creative Collective Podcast, Emily and Allie get into one of the topics closest to both of their hearts: creative community. What it actually looks like, why so many people are craving it right now, and what gets in the way of (finding or building) the kind of community that actually fits.

They draw on their own experiences hosting creative events, art groups, and community spaces to talk about what happens when people create together, and why it goes so much deeper than just making something in the same room.

In this episode, they discuss:

• Why loneliness is part of what's underneath why people show up to creative events, and what one study says about feelings of lonliness
• The difference between creative communities built around learning a skill and ones built around connection — and why that distinction changes everything
• What it means to not just receive from your community, but to give back to it — and why most people skip that part
• How to figure out what you actually want from creative community (not what you think you should want)
• What to do when you've drifted from your creative community — and why reaching back out is almost always simpler than your brain tells you it will be
• Why you don't need credentials, training, or a polished event to start something — and what it looks like to begin small

Resources & Links:

• American Psychological Association (APA) — Stress in America 2025 survey
• Metalsmith jewelry workshop in Connecticut
• Alma for Therapists
• Jane for Therapists
• Gluten Tag - gluten free treats in Copenhagen

Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠ or visit our ⁠website⁠ to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply ⁠here.⁠

You can find Allie on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠, and you can find Emily on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠ to learn more about all they do and stay connected

You can find Austin on ⁠Instagram⁠ for all of your podcasting and musical needs

If you enjoyed this episode, follow along and share it with someone who could use a little more creativity in their life.

And this is your reminder that you don't have to be an artist to benefit from creativity. You're welcome, as you are, in this creative community.

What if the path to your creative life was never supposed to be a straight line?

In this episode of The Creative Collective Podcast, Allie interviews co-host Emily Sharp — licensed art therapist, author, retreat host, and someone who has built an entire life and career around making things in unexpected places. You've already heard Emily on the show. This episode is where you find out how she got here.

Her path to art therapy was anything but direct — and that's exactly what makes it worth hearing. From an unexpected creative pivot in high school to a gap year that changed everything, Emily traces the long, winding road that led her to the work she was always meant to do.

In this episode, they discuss:

• The high school accident that turned Emily into an artist — and why she's never looked back
• What it looked like to design her own education around the materials she loved most
• The gap year conversation that changed her career trajectory entirely
• How burnout led to a reset, and what it actually took to start over
• What portable creative practice looks like in daily life — and why making art while traveling is less about documentation and more about attention

Resources & Links:

• The Guided Art Therapy Card Deck
• Caran d'Ache Neocolor II
• Gelli Arts gel printing plate

Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠ or visit our ⁠website⁠ to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply ⁠here.⁠

You can find Allie on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠, and you can find Emily on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠ to learn more about all they do and stay connected

You can find Austin on ⁠Instagram⁠ for all of your podcasting and musical needs

If you enjoyed this episode, follow along and share it with someone who could use a little more creativity in their life.

And this is your reminder that you don't have to be an artist to benefi