S15 E15: Resistance and Flow (Season Finale)

In this season finale, Stephen Roach closes out our exploration of creative flow with a rich conversation with several artists from the Makers & Mystics Patreon community. Joining the discussion are artist and educator Angela Houk, writer and branding expert Steve Brock, and poet and visual artist Corey Frey.

Together, the crew explores the interplay between resistance and flow—how creative blocks, limitations, and even frustrations can actually become the conditions that allow new work to emerge and personal character to develop. As Wendell Berry reminds us, “the impeded stream is the one that sings.”

This episode examines:

Why resistance can be a gift in the creative process.
How Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of flow connects to happiness and fulfillment.
The balance between focus and receptivity in both art and relationships.
How preparation, practice, and openness set the stage for flow.
The “radical middle” where challenge and skill converge
Connecting the experience of flow to the Holy Spirit

This is a thoughtful, inspiring conversation on navigating resistance, finding flow, and staying open to the creativity that emerges when we least expect it.

Connect with the guests:

Angela Houk

Steve Brock

Corey Frey

finding flow, flow, Round Table, RoundtableStephen RoachSeptember 23, 2025flow, Finding flow, creative collective, roundtable

S15 E14: Sound Symbols: Foley Art in Film with Ronnie Van Der Veer

Behind the curtain of cinema lies a hidden language, spoken not in words, but in sound.

In this episode of Makers and Mystics, Stephen Roach interviews Foley artist Ronnie Van Der Veer, exploring the intricate world of sound design in film. Ronnie shares his journey into Foley art, the importance of creating realistic sound effects, and the techniques he employs to enhance the cinematic experience. The conversation explores the creative process behind sound symbolism, and practical advice for aspiring Foley artists. Through case studies of films like 'The Occupant' and 'The Forgotten Battle,' listeners gain insight into the art of sound and its profound impact on storytelling.

About the guest: Ronnie van der Veer is an award winning foley artist from the Netherlands. From his studio just outside Amsterdam he has worked on movies like The Lobster by Yorgos Lanthimos, Girl by Lukas Dhont, war movie The Forgotten Battle and various Netflix, Disney and Amazon Originals. Ronnie uses his background as a drummer in his work as a foley artist.

See more of Ronnie's work:

www.foleytales.com

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/foley.tales/

Films referenced in this episode:

The Forgotten Battle: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10521092/?ref_=nm_knf_t_2

The Occupant: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7230422/?ref_=nm_flmg_job_1_cdt_t_6

Connect with Makers and Mystics:

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/makersandmystics

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/makersandmystics

S15 E13: Confessional Transcendence with Poet and Actor Amy Leigh Wicks

Amy Leigh Wicks is a poet, actress, and educator from New York City. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand and an MFA from The New School in New York. She recently served as Dean of Performing Arts at Bethel Conservatory of the Arts and is the author of The Dangerous Country of Love and Marriage (Auckland University Press, 2019) and Orange Juice and Rooftops (Eloquent Books, 2009).

In this episode, Stephen Roach talks with Amy about the intersection of presence, performance, and poetic confession. Their conversation explores the emotional depth of character work, the daily rhythms that sustain creativity, and the subtle terrain where vulnerability gives way to transcendence.

At the heart of the conversation, Amy unpacks the idea of confessional transcendence—the mysterious way raw honesty in art can lead beyond self-expression into something sacred and universal. Through personal stories and reflections, she explores how poetry and acting together deepen her awareness of beauty, pain, and the human condition. The episode culminates in a moving reading of her poetry that embodies the very themes explored.

Resources:

Get Amy's Book: The Dangerous Country of Love and Marriage

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flow, finding flowStephen RoachAugust 4, 2025Finding flow, flow, Transcendence

S15 E12: The Ghost Life with author Prasanta Verma

As artists, we live our lives between worlds, the one in which we imagine and the one in which we must survive. But what do we do when the life we imagine and the life we live are incongruent? Often our lives look much different on paper than they do in our dreams.

Joining us for this conversation is author, speaker, and public health professional Prasanta Verma. Prasanta's first book, Beyond Ethnic Loneliness, was released in April 2024 and is a 2024 INDIES Foreword Book of the Year Finalist. Prasanta is a graduate of the Kenyon Writers Workshop, a Write On Door County Writing Residency, and one of her essays won Honorable Mention in the WI Writers Jade Ring Essay Contest in 2023. Prasanta writes to help us feel seen and find a sense of belonging, and wants to help us envision a society where we are healthier and more connected. She is both an academic and creative, and is currently working on her doctorate in public health.

In this episode, Prasanta shares about the concept of the ghost life and how art bridges the gap between our lived experiences and our aspirations. She shares insights on the importance of community, the difference between solitude and isolation, and the need for radical acceptance to keep creative flow through life's unexpected turns.

Resources:

Join the Makers and Mystics Creative Collective

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Prasanta's Substack

Send us a text

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authors, Author, flow, finding flowStephen RoachAugust 4, 2025the ghost life, presanta verma, flow, finding flow

S15 E11: Urgency and Intimacy with Julian Davis Reid

“How do we hold both urgency and intimacy in our creative practices? How can an artist become a vessel of divine presence — not only in churches, but on club stages, in studios, and in everyday life?”

In today’s episode, I’m joined by jazz and gospel pianist Julian Davis Reid — a Chicago-based artist-theologian whose work sits at the crossroads of sound, spirit, and scholarship. Julian is a founding member of the jazz-electronic fusion group The JuJu Exchange and the creator of Notes of Rest, a ministry that invites the weary into the rest of God practiced in the Bible and Black music.

In our conversation, Julian and I talk about finding flow as a spiritual discipline, the tension between performance and presence, and what it means to make art that is both urgent and intimate.

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finding flow, flow, black artists, jazzStephen RoachJuly 15, 2025Finding Flow, Julian Davis, Jazz

S15 E09: Ecstatic States and the Artistic Impulse P2

In this concluding segment of our Artist Roundtable, Stephen Roach, Corey Frey, and Donna Matthews continue their conversation on ecstatic experiences, flow states, and the artist’s impulse through a Christian lens. This episode explores ecstatic states in both Pentecostal and Orthodox traditions, highlighting the shared hunger for transcendent encounter across streams of faith. The discussion also hits on the need for a deeper theological framework around flow states, offering both spiritual and practical insights for artists navigating these immersive creative moments.

About The Guests:

Donna Matthews is a musician and creative artist. In the 1990’s she played lead guitar in Elastica and lo-fi, DIY band Klang, and in subsequent years devised and facilitated creative workshops for people in recovery from addiction. She is currently in her final year of a practice-based PhD in Music at the University of Glasgow. Interested in issues such as poetic intuition, inspiration, and gift, her work explores how the intuitive state might be conveyed through aesthetic form, while also exploring improvisation as a means of 'undoing form' to experience the inspired state.

Corey Frey is a visual artist, poet, and musician. He and his wife, Christy, are the founders of The Well Collaborative, a community in Frederick, Maryland, dedicated to wonder, hospitality, and creativity. Corey works as the Exhibitions Manager at The Delaplaine Arts Center in Frederick’s downtown area. He is also the co-host of the Makers and Mystics podcast’s creative collective book clubs.

Stephen Roach is the host of the Makers and Mystics Podcast and the founder of The Breath and The Clay creative arts organization. He is a published author, keynote speaker, and multi-instrumentalist with a background in ethnomusicology and film composition. He has penned five volumes of poetry, a practical guide for artists titled Five Creativity Killers and How To Avoid Them, and his most recent book, Naming The Animals: An Invitation To Creativity, published by Square Halo Books. Stephen lives in North Carolina with his wife, Sarah, and children Evangelyn Belle and Isaac Brighton. His next book, published by Zondervan Reflective, is scheduled for release in October 2026.

Resources:

The Gifted State: Previous episode with Donna Matthews

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As an independent creator, your generosity enables us to continue our work! Thank you!!

flow, finding flowStephen RoachJuly 1, 2025Finding flow

S15 E07: Recasting The Familiar with Faith Bryant

Overfamiliarization can blind us from recognizing the beauty and power of certain truths. When we think we have heard the story before or believe we already know what a particular truth has to offer, we lose the curiosity that opens us to deeper revelation. The work of the artist is to disrupt that familiarity, make the known strange again, and the familiar unfamiliar again, so that we see the world anew.

My guest today is New York-based visual artist Faith Bryant. Faith's original style of oil painting recasts the gospel story through the lens of surrealism and deep color theory. Her work explores the complexities of Christian faith, personal identity, and the journey of healing. Through her layered compositions and hidden imagery, Faith invites viewers to take a second look at the truths we thought we understood.

Connect with Faith on Instagram @edenesq_

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visual art, finding flowStephen RoachJune 10, 2025findingflow, finding flow

S15 E06: Sacred Impressions with Visual Artist Elizabeth Bowman

Elizabeth Bowman is a self-taught impressionist painter based in Charlotte, NC. Her work is steeped in imaginative renderings of biblical stories and visual meditations on the life of faith.

In this conversation, Elizabeth shares how motherhood and prayerfulness give shape to her art, the importance of rest and reflection, and how she finds creative flow amidst the demands of everyday life.

http://www.patreon.com/makersandmystics

Music By: Some Were At Sea

finding flow, visual artStephen RoachJune 3, 2025Finding flow, visual artist, visual art, impressionism

S15 E05: A Resonance Across The Ages with Barbara Hannigan

Barbara Hannigan is a world-renowned conductor, soprano, and performer whose work pushes the boundaries of classical and contemporary music. Known for her fearless interpretations and deeply expressive performances, Barbara has built a career that defies convention and celebrates the transformative power of sound.

In this episode, Barbara and I discuss her recent album Electric Fields, which offers modern arrangements of centuries-old vocal music. At the heart of the album are the compositions of Hildegard of Bingen — a 12th-century mystic, composer, and visionary whose sacred works still resonate with profound clarity today.

In keeping with the season theme, we explore Barbara’s experience of finding flow in those transcendent, improvisational moments when the music seems to move through her rather than from her — and how this state of creative surrender shapes both her artistry and her life.

Mentioned in this episode:

Electric Fields by Barbara Hannigan
Artist profile: Hildegard of Bingen

Connect with Barbara Hannigan:
https://www.barbarahannigan.com/home|

https://www.instagram.com/hannigan.barbara

https://outhere-music.com/en/albums/electric-fields

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flow, finding flow, conductor, sopranoStephen RoachMay 27, 2025finding flow, Barbara Hannigan, opera, Soprano

S15 E04: Imitate The Ocean

In this episode, Stephen Roach explores creative flow as a generative, life-giving way of being. He highlights the need for trust in the process and the vulnerability that comes with sharing one's art. Stephen encourages listeners to embrace rhythms of rest and rebirth and imitate the ocean.

Join the Makers and Mystics Creative Collective

Support the podcast with a one-time donation.

Learn More about DITA 2025 with Rowan Williams, Malcolm Guite, and others.

Faith and Art, finding flow, flowStephen RoachMay 20, 2025Finding flow, Stephen Roach

S15E03: The Discipline of Inspiration

I would imagine most of us think of inspiration as a sudden flash of insight that hits us out of nowhere and compels us create. It’s not something we control. The wind blows where it wishes and we don’t know where it comes from or where it goes.

But what if inspiration were a discipline?

Brooklyn-based author and artist Carey Wallace has written an incredible book titled, The Discipline of Inspiration. Here, she addresses this question and shines a new light on how we think about our relationship to the things that move us.

Poet and songwriter Patti Smith writes that "This book articulates... the beautiful compexity of what drives us to create and what we encounter when we do."

In keeping with our season theme of finding flow, consider how nurturing our inspirations prepare us for those beautiful moments of creative transport. We’ll be talking more about this in the Makers and Mystics creative collective.

Music by: Some Were At Sea

Faith and Art, finding flow, flow, InspirationStephen RoachMay 6, 2025finding flow, inspiration

S15E01: Tuning The Room with Stephen Roach

Welcome to Season 15 of Makers & Mystics. In this opening episode, host Stephen Roach invites listeners into the unfolding journey of Finding Flow—not just as a creative high, but as a sacred rhythm and intentional spiritual practice.

Anchored in a story from his experience as a touring musician, Stephen shares how he developed a pre-show ritual: using a sustained drone and improvised melody to “tune the room”—to draw the audience (and himself) into a space of collective attentiveness. It became more than a musical practice; it became a way of entering flow, of opening space for something beyond performance to emerge.

In this episode, Stephen explores:

What it means to prepare a space for creativity
How flow requires attentiveness and surrender
The parallels between creative flow and spiritual presence
Why the environment we create—internally and externally—matters to our art

Whether you’re a musician, painter, poet, or simply someone longing to move through the world with greater presence, this episode will help you begin to tune your own room—and step into your creative flow.

Featured Music: Songs of Water

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finding flow, flow, Faith and ArtStephen RoachApril 22, 2025finding flow, Stephen Roach

Finding Flow | An Introduction to Season 15

Have you experienced those moments when the grind gives way to an effortless grace? When a poem or painting tells you what it wants to become, or when a melody sings itself into being?

This state of creative flow is one that artists and athletes, saints and mystics alike, each aspire to attain. It is a state where time bends low and reveals a slice of eternity. When our minds are absorbed, the world around us dissolves. Five minutes becomes five hours. Attentiveness and reverie are caught in a kiss that transcends technical ability and becomes magic.

In flow, we become the act we give our hands to accomplish. The painter becomes the painting. The dancer becomes the dance.

We enter into something greater than ourselves, a move of the Spirit that is ever in flux and available to us all.

This season on Makers and Mystics, we’re going to explore how to find flow,

Not just as a creative high—

But as a practice.

A rhythm.

A spiritual discipline

And a way of life.

We’re going to talk about what keeps us from entering it, and why it matters—not just for our art, but for our own development and well-being.

You’ll hear from painters, poets, musicians, and makers of all kinds - each sharing stories of what enables them to find flow and the challenges that have kept them from it.

You’ll hear from theologians and thinkers who see creativity as a sacred conversation.

We’re going to talk about the discipline behind flow, the resistance that rises against it, and the mysterious grace that shows up when we least expect it.

So if you’ve struggled to find flow —

Or if you’ve ever wondered how to maintain your creative inspiration —

Or if you’re simply longing to move through the world more awake and more alive…

This season is for you.

finding flowStephen RoachApril 17, 2025findingflow, flow, flow state, finding flow