Jeremy Cowart is an award-winning photographer, artist, and entrepreneur whose mission in life is to "explore the intersection of creativity and empathy." He was named the “Most Influential Photographer on the Internet” by Huffington Post, Forbes and Yahoo in 2014. Jeremy has published four books including his latest release titled I’m possible: Jumping into fear and discovering a life of purpose.
His latest endeavor is The Purpose Hotel, a planned global for-profit hotel chain designed to fuel the work of not-for-profit organizations. He’s also the founder of a global photography movement, called Help-Portrait, which connects photographers, hairstylists and makeup artists all around the world with people in need to take their picture, print their picture and then deliver it—free of charge.
In this episode, Stephen Roach talks with Jeremy about his work as a photographer and visual artist and how empathy and hope inform the art he makes.
Patrons of the podcast can enjoy an additional interview segment with Jeremy on his advice to artists seeking to turn their work into a full time vocation. You can find this segment and the ticket link to The Breath and The Clay in the show notes of this episode.
Rebekah Lyons is a national speaker and bestselling author of You Are Free: Be Who You Already Are and Freefall to Fly: A Breathtaking Journey Toward a Life of Meaning. Rebekah has been described as an old soul with a contemporary, honest voice, revealing her own battles to overcome anxiety and depression— Her work has been featured on Good Morning America, CNN, Huffington Post, Publisher’s Weekly, and more.
In this episode, Stephen talks with Rebekah about her latest book titled, Rhythms of Renewal: Trading Stress and Anxiety for a Life of Peace and Purpose. Through transparent personal stories and in-depth research, Rhythms of Renewal invites the reader to establish daily habits of creating and sustaining emotional, relational and spiritual health. Rhythms of Renewal offers four mindful rhythms of rest, restore, connect and create.
Many artists and creatives wrestle with stress and anxiety in their personal lives and in the creative processes. The wisdom Rebekah lives on the pages of her book offers not only a sense of hope but a practical pathway to get there.
Andrew Petersonis an award-winning singer-songwriter and author. The second book in his Wingfeather Saga, North! Or Be Eaten won the Christy Award for Young Adult Fiction, and the fourth, The Warden and the Wolf King won World Magazine’s Children’s Book of the Year in 2015.
In 2008, Andrew founded a creative arts community called The Rabbit Room, which led to a yearly conference, countless concerts and symposiums, and Rabbit Room Press, which has published thirty books to date.
In this episode, Stephen sits down with Andrew to talk about his latest book, Adorning The Dark which is a collection of personal stories from his journey through the intersections of songwriting, storytelling, and vocation, along with offering a nuts-and-bolts exploration of the great mystery of creativity.
The artist known as Propaganda, is a Los Angeles based poet, political activist, academic & emcee. His body of work challenges listeners with difficult and sometimes controversial topics such as systemic injustice and racism. With musical roots ranging from aggressive battle raps to smooth introspective rhythms, Propaganda’s music crosses cultural spectrums while his deep lyrical prowess appeals to both the heart and intellect alike.
In this episode, Stephen talks with Propaganda about the motivations behind his poetry, music and social conscience.
Flannery O’ Connor was a Southern, fiction writer and essayist born March 25th 1925 in Savannah, Georgia. She was a devout Roman Catholic with a penchant for satire, dark humor and wild, religious imagination. Today, O’Connor is considered to be one of America’s greatest fiction writers and an apologist for the Catholic faith.
Her stories are far from what you might imagine coming from a Southern Christian writer in the 1950’s. They are full of shocking scenes of violence, depravity and shady, sometimes comic Christian characters such as a bible salesman who steals a prosthetic leg or a pseudo-prophet who steals mummified dwarfs. Her character’s twisted views of reality warps the basic tenets of the faith they profess. Their situations often end in bloodshed.
Lewis Hyde is a scholar, essayist, translator, cultural critic and writer whose scholarly work focuses on the nature of imagination, creativity, and property. His book, THE GIFT: Creativity and the Artist in the modern world is now considered a classic. Written over twenty-five years ago, this book is even more necessary today than when it first appeared. The Gift brilliantly orchestrates a defense of the value of creativity and of its importance in a culture increasingly governed by money and overrun with commodities.
In this episode, Stephen talks with Lewis Hyde about his books The Gift, Trickster Makes This World and how the artist makes his way through today’s world.
Nadine Ellsworth-Moran is the winner of our first annual Bright Wings poetry contest. Nadine is a Georgia resident where she works in full-time ministry while pursuing her love of writing. Her essays and poems have appeared in Interpretation, The Presbyterian Outlook, Structo, Kakalak, and Saint Katherine Review, among others.
In this episode, Stephen is joined by contest panel judge and poet, Amy Orazio and features a reading of Nadine’s winning poem by the author.
Topics in this episode include resilience, tenacity and constructive ways of handling rejections.
Makoto Fujimura is a leading contemporary artist, author and speaker whose process-driven, refractive “slow art” has been described by David Brooks of the New York Times as “a small rebellion against the quickening of time.”
In a culture driven by speed and instant gratification, the idea of slow art runs counter to our normal modes of living.
Mako’s approach to art challenges our relationship to time and invites us into a more reflective approach to life, creating and viewing art.
In this episode Stephen speaks with Mako as he worked in his Princeton New Jersey studio. The two discuss his process of art-making, culture care and the importance of slowing down not only in art but in our relationships and in life.
Music for this episode is provided by jazz artist, Alfred Sergel four with compositions from his latest release, Sleepless Journey.
Patrons access additional interview segments with Mako on the importance of mentoring emerging artists, beauty, a glimpse into his daily practices and advice for artists of faith working in the world of art.
Teresa of Avila was a Spanish, Carmelite nun born on March 28th, 1515. She was an avid writer, social reformer and mystic known for her wit, charm and intense spiritual ecstasies. In this Artist Profile, Stephen Roach offers a glimpse into the life of this eccentric and accessible mystic whose life remains applicable for us today.
Lauren Midgley is a conceptual fine art photographer based in Oklahoma. Her photography stretches beyond the historical use of the camera and invites the viewer into a world of surrealism and visual storytelling. In a world saturated with digital imagery, Lauren employs illustrative, advanced digital manipulation to paint virtual narratives that speak to the heart of our collective human experience.
In this episode, Stephen and Lauren discuss her aims and motivations as an artist as well as the inception behind several specific portraits. To make it easier to you to follow along (with the visual nature of our discussion), we have posted the images mentioned in this episode on Instagram @makersandmystics.
Pop Artist and cultural icon, Andy Warhol started his career as a commercial artist working as a successful illustrator for magazines and advertising agencies but eventually made the leap to become an independent, exhibiting artist in New York City. Andy’s unique style of portraying screen-printed images of his lifelong obsession with celebrities and mundane objects propelled him into the spotlight as a leading voice of the Pop-Art movement.
What isn’t widely recognized about Andy’s life was his secretive devotion to the Catholic faith. Underneath his silver wigs and flamboyant costumes was a man who regularly attended mass, served at a homeless shelter and financed his nephew’s study for the priesthood. How these two irreconcilable personas found home in this one man’s life is a question both interested religious figures and art critics alike have been asking.
In this Artist Profile, Stephen takes a brief look into the religious life of this enigmatic and complex artist’s hidden life.
In this opening episode, Stephen talks with singer-songwriter Josh Garrels about his latest release, Chrysaline. The two discuss the personally transformative experiences that informed the making of these songs and how collaboration and environment impacted Josh’s creative process. Josh shares openly about his experience of personal frustration that led him to place his music on the altar.
*Be sure to listen to the end as Josh addresses the latest trend of what feels like a mass exodus from the faith by so many people in our generation.
“This may be one of the more timely and important conversations we have had on the podcast. I look forward to discussing this further with our creative collective over the next few weeks.” – Stephen
Hello beautiful friends! Season Six is about to kick off this week! We just finished edits for the opening episode. You are going to love it!
Before we launch this first episode, I wanted to let you know about a few things coming down the pike.
First, we are hosting several Makers & Mystics live events in select cities across the U.S. We will be in Phoenix, Denver, New York City, Frederick, Maryland and Durham, NC. Tickets for these events can be found here.
***Denver and Phoenix events have calls for artists to submit works for our gallery.
We will be adding excerpts from these live events to our roster of episodes. So cool! We just hosted a live recording in Charlottesville with The Farmhouse Community on "Art As Healing." It was an incredible time. Can't wait to share the audio!
The winners of our first annual Bright Wings poetry contest are listed here. The Grand Prize winner will be featured on the podcast coming up in Season Six to share her poem!
News for the 2020 Breath & Clay event will be coming very soon as well!
HINT: We are going to have some special ticket offers to our patrons only before the tickets go live.
Our Book Club will resume this fall as well. Details to come on that.
What an incredible summer it has been! I've enjoyed getting to know many of you and interacting with you. I look forward to continuing to build our creative community.
This LIVE Season Finale episode features the perspectives of diverse voices you’ve heard on the podcast; Amena Brown, Josh Garrels, Vesper Stamper, Cole NeSmith and CJ Casciotta. In today’s panel discussion, these five discuss the tension between the soul and the business of creativity.
In the realm of art-making, there can seem to be a tension between our desire to create authentic works, works which remain true to the artist’s creative vision, while at the same time creating works which are either commercially viable or which resonate with the communities where we have influence.
John O’ Donohue was a modern-day mystic, philosopher, theologian and poet. He spent his life along the West Coast of Ireland where the solitude and beauty of the land shaped him as an artist and thinker.
Jason Burkey is a professional actor who has appeared on television shows such as The Walking Dead, Nashville, Being Mary Jane, The Resident and a score of other well-known programs. His movie credits include a lead role in the 2012 surprise hit, October Baby as well as Lady and The Tramp, I Can Only Imagine, Bigger and The Art of Self-Defense.
Jason is also a founder of "Act For A Change," which is a local theatre non- profit that gathers Atlanta actors, writers and directors to perform one-act plays for local charities.
In this episode, Stephen talks with Jason about what motivates him as an actor and what it means to live truthfully in an imaginative setting.
Gerard Manley Hopkins was a Jesuit priest and English poet born July 28,1844. He is considered to be one of the greatest poets of the Victorian era although during his lifetime, his poetry was never published. His approach to poetry was deeply enmeshed with his intimate and mystical spirituality. For Hopkins, who was an avid lover of nature, poetry was a means of accessing the Divine and of discovering God within nature.
CHARLIE PEACOCK is a Nashville-based, 4x Grammy Award-winning, composer, record producer and recording artist. His production credits include Chris Cornell, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Americana successes such as The Lone Bellow, Holly Williams and The Civil Wars.
Charlie is considered one of Nashville's most prolific cultural influencers and has dedicated himself to championing the independent music scene which he has served for over 40 years.
James Hampton was an African American visionary and found object artist who built a 180 piece throne in preparation for the second coming of Christ and wrote and accompanying manuscript in untranslatable language.
Lanecia Rouse Tinsley is an abstract artist based in Houston, TX. Her portfolio also includes a range of work in photography, painting, teaching, writing, and speaking.
Lanecia creates out of a desire to make the invisible landscapes within and the human condition known; using texture, form + color to speak to life upon various surfaces in ways words cannot.
In addition to her art, Lanecia works with projectCURATE as Co-Spiritual Director and Consultant for the Arts; and is Co-founder/Co-Creative Director of ImagiNoir Group, an international alliance and think-tank of black activists, artists, writers, scholars and educators.
Lanecia is a graduate of Duke University Divinity School (MDiv) and a graduate of Wofford College with a BA in Sociology.
In this episode, Stephen talks with Lanecia about her creative process and about art as healing and as a means of expressing the full range of our human experience.
***Patrons on the podcast can enjoy an additional interview with Lanecia about her inspiration in James Baldwin as well as a downloadable PDF of Baldwin’s essay on The Creative Process.
This episode is sponsored by: DITA 10 Duke Initiative in the Arts. Join Lanecia, Makers and Mystics podcast, Chris Wiman and many others at this event.
Lilias Trotter was a British artist, writer and visionary. It has been said that through Lilias’s contact with art critic and social philosopher, John Ruskin, she had the opportunity to become one of England’s greatest and most famous artists of her day. Yet, for her own convictions, Lilias turned away from this opportunity and followed a path that assured her of obscurity and promised no certain success.
Lilias lived forty years of her life among the Arabic people of North Africa and built significant friendships with Sufi mystics of the Sahara desert.
Sleeping At Last is the moniker of Chicago-based singer-songwriter, producer and composer, Ryan O’Neal. Ryan’s music has been featured on popular television shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Criminal Minds and The Vampire Diaries and has appeared in Films such as The Fault In Our Stars and The Twilight Saga.
Ryan has collaborated with numerous noteworthy songwriters such as Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins, Jon Foreman of Switchfoot, Sarah Brightman, and many others.
In this episode, Stephen talks with Ryan about his music composition, his Enneagram songs, and what motivates his creativity.
**This episode is brought to you by Sarah Duet –artist, communicator, & Enneagram teacher. Sarah works with groups and individuals to help foster creativity, connection, and community. To learn more about her new workshop, Enneagram Creativity: The 9 Types of Making, visit sarahduet.com/enneagramcreativity
Meister Eckhart was a late 13th and early 14th century philosopher, theologian and mystic born in central Germany. In 1326, he was accused of 150 accounts of heresy and went on to be tried before the Catholic Inquisition. Today, however, Meister Eckhart’s writings have influenced artists and spiritual seekers from most every tradition and walk of life.
Alastair Humphreys has been on expeditions all around the world, traveling through over 80 countries by bicycle, boat and on foot. He was named as one of National Geographic’s Adventurers of the year for 2012.
He has walked across southern India, rowed across the Atlantic Ocean, run six marathons through the Sahara desert and participated in an expedition in the Arctic, close to the magnetic North Pole.
More recently, Alastair followed in the footsteps of one of his own heroes, an Englishman named Laurie Lee who walked across Spain in 1935 earning money for food by playing his violin in bars and plazas.
In this episode, Stephen talks with Alastair about his adventures, his fears and motivations behind his lifestyle of risk and his latest book My Midsummer Morning.
