The Friendly Unknown – Details, episodes & analysis

In today’s episode, I speak with the wonderful Katie Benn. Katie is a multidisciplinary artist from San Francisco currently living in southern Oregon. She’s inspired by all things magical and mysterious, dreamy, silly, and absurd. She explores themes relating to the human condition and her inner world. She is a painter, muralist, illustrator, textile designer, and creator of zines and various art products. She has worked with clients including Google, Facebook, WeWork, Masterclass and much more.

In addition to her creative work, Katie is also a practicing evidential medium. She has been connecting with spirit since childhood and has strengthened her connection through years of private study, training with renowned psychic mediums in the US and UK, and offering in-person and online readings to her extended community. Katie’s mediumship is known to be down to earth, compassionate, healing, and heart-focused as she works to connect people with their loved ones that have passed on.

 

I've been wanting to talk to Katie for years because I love her work and am so interested in the way she explores her world and puts it into her art, so I'm very excited to bring you our conversation today.

You can follow Katie on Instagram here or online at www.katiebenn.com

In this episode, Pace and I discuss limiting beliefs, what they are, how they show up in our lives as blocks, and how we can work with them to open up our lives so that we can get unstuck and move forward into more of who we are and what we want in life.

In this episode, I chat with illustrator and human being extraordinaire, Jim Stoten. Jim’s work is a kaleidoscopic adventure, full of vivid color, imagination and playfulness, all while maintaining a beautiful depth to it. Jim and I explore the topic of time in this episode. How Jim spends his time, How he perceives time, what advice he would give his past self, and what advice his future self would give him today. I feel like I caught Jim at just the right time for this conversation, he’s just celebrated his fortieth birthday and is both looking ahead to the next decade and reflecting on the past one as well. This one’s less about the business of being a creative professional and more about all the other important aspects; an artist's state of mind, hopes and dreams, perceptions of self, struggles and inspirations. I’m really grateful to Jim for being so open with his thoughts and feelings in this one. Jim always carries a sketchbook with him and he habitually draws his way through the world. To take a peek inside these famed sketchbooks, He actually has a new book available now that’s filled with pages from them called Skotchbook, as well as a magnificent new zine called “The Mind wanders, the Eye follows”, both out now with Unseen Sketchbooks. Jim’s also a talented musician. He has a new album out now called “Lights” with dirty melody records. In true Jim fashion, it’s amazing. Definitely give it a listen. And while you’re at it, check out his new music video for the single “over the mountain”.

In this episode, I chat with the amazing Dutch illustrator and designer Seb Agresti. Seb just returned from a transformative experience at an artist residency in Japan. As you’ll hear in the episode, he decided to embark on that journey as a way to step away from his client work and focus on creating personal work again. The residency and what he learned in the process allowed him to recalibrate his life and gain new perspectives on his career after years of intense client work. Seb and I discuss what’s inspiring him right now, what he learned from his time in Japan, finding balance and setting boundaries with client work, burnout, book recommendations, what the future holds for him, and much more. Seb is quite thoughtful and introspective and it was a pleasure to be able to speak with him at this unique time in his life. He was sort of in between worlds when we spoke, and I’m thankful he was so candid about his experience. I think many of us can relate to the feeling of needing a change of pace or wanting to reconnect with ourselves. I’m excited to see how he embarks on this next chapter of his journey.

In this episode, I’m chatting with illustrator, designer, art director and all around amazing human being, Chrissie Abbott. Chrissie is one of my favorite creatives and a huge inspiration to me, so I was super excited to be able to speak with her and peer into her world a little bit. We talk about Chrissie’s creative journey to where she is now, our mutual love for personal growth and New Age inspiration, how making personal work helps evolve her client work, how she struggled with money when she was starting out as a freelancer (which is a struggle most of us can relate to I’m sure), how she recently created posters for likes of Courtney Barnett and Tame Impala, and much more. We also dive into the topic of gratitude, a concept Chrissie was introduced to at an early age by her mom, and a tool she has used throughout her journey to keep things in perspective. I’ve personally been struggling with gratitude recently, so it was really nice to hear Chrissie’s thoughts on this topic. It’s a challenging time for all of us in one way or another, so I’m hoping this episode will leave you feeling a bit better about things.

Today I’m chatting with Tokyo based creative, Lindsay Arakawa. Lindsay possesses that magical combination of creativity and strategic thinking. She’s part freelance social media strategist and part creator of dreamy images that combine hand drawn messages and illustrations over her film photographs. We discuss the serendipitous way she came to find her creative style, how she uses social media to experiment and help push her work forward, how she recently took the leap to move from New York City where she oversaw Instagram strategy and creative at Refinery29, to Tokyo where she’s embarked on a freelance career. Lindsay also generously shares how she finds clients, how she built confidence in herself and her work, and the challenges that have come along with moving to Japan. Lindsay has a really wonderful energy about her and I left this conversation feeling revitalized. I was inspired by the playful lens she views her creativity through. She doesn’t overthink things, and she creates work that’s a kind of snapshot of who she is in that moment. Coming from a chronic overthinker, it was refreshing to hear her process! I’m excited to share this one with you and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

In this episode, I chat with neon artist, designer, and my good friend, Brooke Barttelbort. Brooke bends glass into all kinds of amazing shapes, and uses her pieces to help inspire others. She’s also a super talented graphic designer and glass blower. Brooke has been through a lot in recent years. At the age of thirty she went through treatment for breast cancer, ultimately having to have a double mastectomy. Following that, her mom had a major stroke. Brooke decided to move from San Francisco to LA to be closer to her family, and in that transition, she reconnected with her love of neon, and ultimately herself in the process. She now uses neon as a way to work through her grief and help heal herself as well as others. As she puts it best, she’s creating light in the darkness. Her story is truly one of strength and inspiration. The amount of work it takes to learn neon is immense, and what she can do with her craft is truly inspiring. Both in her abilities and her message. A message the world really needs to receive right now.

In this episode, I chat with Melbourne-based creative Beci Orpin. Beci’s one of my favorite creatives, her work is so positive and always makes me smile. Everything she touches turns to cute, it seems. Her creativity takes many forms, some of which are illustration, design, children’s books, murals, branding, crafts, clothing, painting, puzzles, packaging and more. Beci was such a joy to talk to, so generous and humble for someone who has such an incredible career spanning 24 years! In our chat we look back on her career, where it started, where it is today, and what she’s learned about herself along the way. She offers great advice and inspiration for how to build and navigate a creative career. And stay tuned to the end of the episode where she answers a couple questions I received from listeners.

In this episode, I chat with illustrator and cartoonist, Leon Edler. Leon’s bright and cleverly simple hand drawn illustrations are a delight to look at. It’s no wonder he’s worked with a host of impressive clients such as The New Yorker, The New York Times, CNN, Warby Parker, The Guardian, Vanity Fair, and more. Leon is really funny, insightful and generous with his story. We discuss how a creative career is a process, and you just have to take it step by step. How we were both pretty miserable at the beginning of our careers because we based our self-worth on getting commissions, and how we both wish we had relaxed and enjoyed the process more. Leon also gives some excellent advice on what to do if you’re feeling like your career is taking a while to get started and you’re not sure what to do in the mean time. Leon is also a co-founder of Room Fifty, the amazing art print site that curates artwork from today’s top illustrators. Some of my favorite artists have work on there, so if you’re in the market for beautiful artwork to hang in your home or gift to a friend, definitely check out roomfifty.com.

In this episode I chat with New York based illustrator, Amber Vittoria. Amber’s colorful and abstract depictions of the female form aim to dismantle societal stereotypes that are placed upon women. She has worked with clients such as Gucci, The New York Times, Adidas, Facebook, Warby Parker, K-Swiss, Snapchat and the list goes on. She also creates a lot of personal work, and that allows her to not only express herself, but to also keep pushing her ideas and craft forward. Amber generously shares how she’s managed to accrue such an impressive list of clients, and she goes into detail about her process for reaching out to brands for collaborations. It was super refreshing to hear how proactive Amber is in reaching out to clients to create opportunities. I think it’s easy to assume that most of her clients come knocking on her door, but as she explains, it’s actually kind of the opposite.  Amber has a great head for business and I’m really excited to share this episode because she’s so open with her trade secrets. I was really inspired by our chat and I know you will be too.