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Welcome to the Creative Nowhere Land Podcast. 

On this episode, we are joined by self-portrait artist and my mate Claire Riley.

As a teenager, Claire was diagnosed with M.E and later with bipolar disorder. Claire joins us to talk about her new body of work, 'Do I make you feel uncomfortable?'  Where she's exploring her own mental illness through self-portraiture. 

The project is, in her words, honest, brutal, surprising and maybe a little bit ugly, but it's also very real. And to me, it's incredibly brave. It's a project that Claire hopes can open up more conversations about mental health and hopefully help other people who may be going through something similar.

We discuss Claire's whole creative journey and all of the parts that have led her to now, within this new body of work, not only find what she's supposed to be doing with her creativity, but also find herself. 

In addition to being a practicing artist, Claire is also a marketing manager for an art gallery. Claire gets to spend her days talking about and being surrounded by art and artists, but not only that, she gets to be behind the scenes of a gallery and understand how it all works, which gives her a very unique perspective. And as a result, Claire has learned some great lessons that she kindly shares with us. 

Most important of which being, 'Don't let anyone tell you that your work isn't good enough if you believe in what you're doing, you've already won!'

The masks are off with this one, and there is definitely no sugarcoating it! 

We discussed some topics that may be uncomfortable for some people, including mental illness, medication and suicide, but that's the whole point. We have to be able to have these open and honest conversations, and that's the reason why I've got Claire on the podcast. 

You can check out the links to Claire's social media and see the project below:

Hope you enjoy this episode of The Creative Nowhere Land Podcast.

CLAIRE RILEY INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/clairerileyfineart/

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