Where the Paint Flows, the Heart Heals with Rachel Coleman

Guest: Rachel Coleman of Shy Fox Studio

In this episode of The Artist Is In, fluid artist Rachel Coleman shares how a return to creativity helped her heal after trauma—and how letting go of control became the most powerful part of her practice.

We talk about growing up in her mother’s ceramic shop, the moment she rediscovered painting, and why fluid art felt like the only medium that could hold her emotions. Rachel opens up about how her work is shaped by nature, geodes, and the messy beauty of surrendering to the process.

This is a conversation about trust, transformation, and finding freedom through flow.

Instagram: @shyfoxstudio822
Website: Shy Fox Studio

Transcript

00:00:00 SPEAKER_00
All right, so this is going to record, and we'll start with the intro, and then we'll go into the questions, okay? All right, here we go. We'll see what happens. Welcome to The Artist is In, the podcast where we dive deep into the creative minds of artists across all walks of life. I'm your host, Kat Collins, and today I'm thrilled to welcome Rachel Coleman of Shy Fox Studio. Rachel is a fluid artist based in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Her journey into painting began not in a traditional art school, but through healing. After experiencing trauma, Rachel returned to creativity as a form of therapy, and in doing so, rediscovered a deep connection to color, movement, and nature. Her work is vibrant, organic, and deeply intuitive.

00:00:52 SPEAKER_00
often echoing natural formations like geodes and landscapes shaped by time and pressure. In this episode, we'll talk about how art can be both a release and a refuge, how letting go of control can lead to unexpected beauty, and what it means to come out of the dark with gratitude and a baby pool. Rachel, thank you so much for being here. Can you take us back to that moment? In 2017, when art re -entered your life? Sure.

00:01:26 SPEAKER_00
It's funny because I wouldn't consider it as re -entering. I grew up in my mom's ceramic shop and I painted in her shop. But to me at the time, that wasn't art. That was kind of a job. So I guess I didn't really look at it as being creative, unfortunately. Now, of course, looking back at it as an adult, I can see there was a creative process. But in 2017, when I picked up paintbrushes and I was just painting a little home decoration that I got from Michael's, I lost all sense of time, stress, anxiety, and the trauma that I was personally dealing with at the time. I was locked in and I forgot everything around me. That's beautiful. Yeah. So the question that I have next, which... maybe is a little bit different. What was it like returning to creativity after so many years away from it, but yet you're saying you were still in the creative process, just maybe in a different way? Yeah, I didn't know. It's so funny because even growing up, I played the violin for years. I sang, I acted, I danced for years, and then I became a hairstylist in my past life. And in my mind, none of that was me being an artist or really being creative. And maybe for me, it was just a matter of finding the correct outlet for it, finding where it needed to be placed. And fluid art is where now. And now I look back and say, oh, I was in the arts my whole life and I didn't know, you know, but yeah. I completely understand that. How did growing up in your mom's ceramic shop influence your early views on art and creativity? Again, I think because it was my mom's shop, it was her business. Therefore, it wasn't a creative space. It was a work. It was a job. I mostly cleaned greenware and glazed big things. But even back then, I could see, you know, I was very attracted to the colors. You know, she would let me paint some ceramics and I still have my original Care Bear and that thing's got a million colors on it. So it influenced you in a different way in the sense you weren't necessarily creating art, but you were learning about it. Yeah, I was learning some techniques she had back then. I think Mako paints are still around, but Mako paint classes and she. would have these people come in, representatives, and do some classes. And that was really cool. But again, at that time, it wasn't, it was everybody did the same snow scene. Everybody did the same design. So it wasn't like, hey, you're going to grab whatever colors you want and you're just going to go nuts, you know? Which is completely different from what you do now. Totally different. Which is fluid art. It's such a unique and expressive form. What drew you specifically to this medium? So I thought if I'm going to get into art, and for me, getting into it was a way of healing and quieting my mind from some past experiences, if I was going to get into that, I couldn't grab a pencil or a paintbrush and paint an animal, per se. So I saw these YouTube videos of this fluid art where they're just layering colors in a cup that are about the consistency of Elmer's glue. And then they pour it on a canvas and then they move the canvas all around. And you just watch these colors swirling around. And it was so mesmerizing to me. And it seemed at the time like something I could handle. Because if I knew if I started out with trying to paint, like, say, a giraffe or something, that I might quit before I really get to the good stuff because I put myself in a situation where I set myself up to fail. I couldn't start with something that way. That makes sense. No, it makes perfect sense, which actually is great leading into the next question that says, you know, you're talking about how fluid art helped you letting go of control, which is a theme we're doing for this season. How is that showing up in your life and your process? So I'm quite a tightly wound person. I like structure and all that good stuff. Whether I have to get up tomorrow morning at 4 .30, my alarm will be set for 4 .30. I like the structure. But sometimes that can hurt me, and in the past it has. So becoming a fluid artist, I can mix up these colors and I can say what I want the piece to look like. the technique that I want to use. But in the end, really, it's kind of, I guess I'm like an artist in reverse where the image comes out to me first, and then I'll play it up rather than I'm going to go in and paint something specific. So I've really been taught to let go by fluid art. So it has helped me in my life. Yes, I will set the alarm at 430 in the morning, even though I don't have to do it. But just in getting more relaxed, I am an anxious person. So if my husband says, okay, we're going to go here, I will say, okay, well, how far away is it? How should I dress? What time are we coming back? When are we going to be there? So that has really subsided and has helped me just kind of... Calm down and go with the flow a little bit more. I will always ask, when am I going to get home? But it has helped. It has definitely helped. Fantastic. So can you walk us through a typical day in the studio for you? Okay. Well, as soon as I get the dog down and play with her a little bit, I will come in here. And I'm not used to the structure of being in a studio. I I'm kind of I get a color stuck in my head and I need to go and mix that color up and get ready and go. But now that we do have a dog, I need to kind of schedule that a little bit more. So now I will kind of plan out color palette, play around and mix those colors up for my play date with myself on the day that I can come in and the colors are ready and I'm ready to go. Just throw paint. canvas so i'll probably make like our start at least three pieces two three pieces maybe twice a week and then i will look at all my dry pieces which actually now i'm trying not to keep them in the studio because i get a little overwhelmed at how many there are And there's pieces that sit here for months that I look at that I'm like, I don't know what to do with you. So I need to like just put you away and get you out of sight for now because I'm being hyper focused and I'm not focusing on, you know, what I want to be doing. So so then I will spend a few hours, you know, cutting in negative space to my pieces, changing shapes, turning the canvases around and, you know, see just kind of what speaks to me and what what images pop out that I can elaborate on. So that's beautiful. I can relate to that. I usually take several, you know, weeks to do pieces. And then I usually have five or six laying around that I'm working on in process. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what kind of techniques or tools do you love to work with? I know I mentioned a baby pool. Yeah. Think about fluid art. Like, I mean, you can just walk around your house and say, well, can I do it with this? Can I do it with that? And the answer might be yes. There's a dust pan technique where you pour it into a dust pan and then pour it on your canvas. That's really cool. Still working on mastering that one. And now I have all different sizes of dust pans. I didn't even know you could get them like only three inches wide. I don't know what you're dusting. Yeah, that's a little small.

00:09:55 SPEAKER_00
Right now, so I have the kiddie pool and my spinner, which is kind of like a cake spinner, but made for fluid artists. Shout out to Jessica Winterstrom from California that invented this big spinner for us fluid artists. You can get up to a 36 by 36 painting on there. So you can pour onto it and spin it and let it fly off. But when you do, obviously, you know, it's going to make a mess. So I finally went ahead and bought a kiddie pool a few weeks ago. And I have been having a blast with that thing. Not having to worry about where the paint is going is great. And right now, my latest tool that I just got a few days ago, we just started using, I think it's a bladder. It's the squeezy thing, like the end of a blood pressure cuff. And it has a tube, so it shoots air. It's like a computer cleaner. Okay. That, you know, when the canvas is real wet, the colors are on there, I squeeze it and they just kind of explode the color and splatter all over the place. Very cool. You could use so many things to create art. A colander. You can use a colander to make floral prints. Yeah, it's crazy. That's very cool. Very cool. So going on to your inspiration behind what you do, you've mentioned nature, biology, and geodes as inspirations. So what is it about those forms that speak to you? The geodes, I quite simply like shiny things. I've seen, I grew up with my mom. She had a ceramic shop and then she became a jeweler later on, kept keeping the ceramic shop. And she would take me to these trade shows, all completely weird and crystals there. And I just, I was so mesmerized by them. I love that I can take paint and it sounds so simple, but I can take paint and I can create a rock formation with paint. And that's just such a fascinating idea to me. And then the elements of nature, I apparently, when I started out, it seemed like blue was very safe. It was a very safe color for me to use. I felt like whatever technique, if it got messed up, at least it was pretty and blue. So I water, a lot of fluid art creates like water looking things and fire. I love that I can, another tool that I use is a hairdryer and I blow the colors around with a hairdryer and I will do fire colors. Right now I'm actually working on a phoenix type. type piece. Yeah. And the biology is that just kind of came about with a chemical that I use in the fluid art that I smear on top of the acrylic. It's an oil base and it repels and creates these crazy cells. And then when I expand it using the cake spinner, it can get some crazy like formations that look like something you'd be looking at under a microscope or an odd. body shape or something like that. So yeah, it's really fun. It is. It sounds like it. So how does this aspect of your art and these inspirations reflect your internal landscape or emotional journey for you?

00:13:35 SPEAKER_00
Whoa. Can you repeat the question? Sure. So how does your art reflect your internal landscape or emotional journey? Okay. So the great deep question,

00:13:50 SPEAKER_00
deep question, deep, deep question. Prying a little bit further into it.

00:13:57 SPEAKER_00
So it has, art has changed.

00:14:03 SPEAKER_00
It's just changed me so, so much in so many ways. I gotta, sorry, I'm having a, I'm going blank. That's quite okay. No worries. Because it is, art has helped me. Talking to people, going out and socializing. Like I said before, like, letting go. Like, it has truly, I see the world differently now. I saw color before, but this is like... it's like i don't just see red orange yellow green blue there's a million colors in between that and i can actually see it and i can i can go out so my husband and i we were just in jamaica on vacation and we sat down at the dinner table and they put my fork and spoon down and in the spoon was a reflection of the palm tree above my head and so i i took i was like i have to take a picture so i took this picture of this palm tree image in a spoon. I wouldn't be able to see or appreciate that if I wasn't involved in art. It's just the way I look at the whole world and I have such gratitude for that because I have a path that's pretty dark and to come into the light and see these colors and just shape and appreciate what other people do. You can see a piece of art, but man, you don't know what somebody did to get there to get that piece out. And every single piece that we see is not like the others. You will see other fluid artists and it'll look a bit like mine, but nobody can create the exact same thing. You know, it's just so beautiful. Absolutely. After the question, I'm not sure. Yeah, no, it does. It does. You know, it's... touching a part of you that you haven't had before and expanding your vision and your internal emotions and allowing you a place to put that yeah it's a full appreciation for life it really is like i i i was given a gift and i don't mean the talent of being able to be an artist like i'm just a life gift that i'm very very grateful for do you see your art evolving in new directions right now

00:16:35 SPEAKER_00
Yes. I have a tough time personally kind of experimenting and playing and I have a fear of messing up, which I'm actually, I'm working through now so that I can evolve because I want to evolve. I'm seeing a direction that I might want to go. But I have noticed in being a full -time artist the last year and a half or so that that may change next week. That happens a lot. And then a week later, I never think of that route again. And, you know, it's just a constant evolving. And again, I'm so grateful for that. You know, I want to see where this goes. Like yesterday, I did this really big piece. I'm staring at it now while it's drying. And it's beautiful in these soft grays and pinks and like a gold. And then I also did this crazy neon pink, yellow, and electric blue piece all in the same day. So that evolved within like three hours of each other. Right, right. Yeah, yeah. But also it goes with the fact that your mood changes throughout the day too as you're creating. And if you're capturing certain aspects of that, it's natural that your paintings would flow with that. Yeah, yeah. No, I can. Yeah.

00:18:01 SPEAKER_00
And so I mentioned, you know, the theme for this season is letting go, which I know we've talked about before. What does that phrase mean to you emotionally or creatively?

00:18:16 SPEAKER_00
It's scary for me to even say the word out loud, the word fearless. That is a very heavy word for me because I think. I'm learning even now that with my past and kind of how dark it was that the fear has been protecting me. And in the past it has worked. And now I'm safe with art. It's getting me choked up. And now I'm safe with it. And so it's okay. It's okay to let go and to just okay. What if I throw paint there? What will happen? And it's okay. Worried about wasting money in paint. But that's the stuff that is going to break me through to really get me to another level, I think, with my art. So I've been practicing it in baby steps because that's just how I need to do that. But like I said, becoming an artist has just helped me let go. Overall, I'm settling in with who I am. I'm being more honest with people in life. I feel I'm creating boundaries that need to be created and not being afraid of, you know, if somebody doesn't like my boundary. Like, it's really, it's kind of all -encompassing. It is. It is. Being an artist means being vulnerable. Yeah. Which is very scary. Right. Yeah.

00:19:52 SPEAKER_00
Very. How has your relationship with art changed since you first began using it as a healing tool, but also as a full -time artist? So when I first started, I'm not sure if all artists go through this or not. I would wake up at 4 .30 in the morning. I would come downstairs and I would do acrylic floors on like five to seven pieces. And I'd wake my husband up at 7 a .m. and be like, go look at what I did. I was absolutely obsessed. I would go to bed thinking, like, I can't wait to wake up. And, you know, I was obsessed with this raisin color at the time. And I mean, like, 20 peaches with this raisin color. You know, like, and it was just. So there was such an obsession. I spoke to another artist, another fluid artist that's been doing this for years. I got some kind of coaching with her on Zoom and she said, you're in the honeymoon phase and that will calm down. And I was like, I said, I need this to calm down because I'm, I really, I'm not sleeping because I just, I want to do this 24 hours a day. It did calm down. And I still get my, my hyped up moments where I'm cranking out a few pieces, but also the evolution of the work. It used to be that. I pour it in a cup, pour it on a canvas, manipulate it, and sit it down. And whatever it came out to be is what it came out to be. And that was it. Now, I will do that. I will manipulate it more while it's still wet, wait for it to dry, and then go back and then say, where do we want this to go with this piece? So I'm putting a lot more time and effort into creating. better composition richer colors and you know something that's just more pleasing to the eye or weird to the eye you know yeah no i love that do you still find it healing for you absolutely this is this is truly i am somebody who's been in therapy for years and years and years i'm very open about that i'm okay admitting that and this has helped me so so much Just as much, if not more, than being in therapy for years. I can't envision a world where I wouldn't do this now.

00:22:19 SPEAKER_00
I have a background in art therapy, and I truly believe art is healing. It works in tandem with talk therapy or other forms of therapy. It's amazing what it can do for you. I love that. What surprised you most about yourself on this journey?

00:22:42 SPEAKER_00
Quite frankly, I'm a hustler and I didn't know.

00:22:48 SPEAKER_00
We got to do what we got to do.

00:22:52 SPEAKER_00
It's so funny. And this is another thing art has given me. It has given me this voice where now I can go to a gallery or a show and talk to people. talk about this vulnerable piece and why they need it you know yes so it has really yeah it's it's given me this voice that's fantastic it forces you out of your comfort zone to some degree when somebody would be interested in a piece and look at it before I would freeze up and I probably look like a deer in headlights because I didn't know what to say now instead of thinking about it as i'm selling this piece it's hey let's geek out on this process and i'll tell you what we did and you know and if the piece is meant for them then it's meant for them but absolutely i've just i've been learning so much about myself that i'm it's weird to say but i'm gonna say like i'm starting to really like who i am no that's not weird at all i love that he's six years old you know hey you can get it when you get it You know? Yeah. I am apparently a hard worker. I just needed to find the right outlet. Mm -hmm. Yeah. That's awesome. You're finding where you're meant to be and who you're meant to be. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Have you found community through art? And if so, how has that impacted your life?

00:24:28 SPEAKER_00
okay so as simply as i can say it i have found my tribe yes that can sound corny or whatever i don't give a shit i'm sorry i i found i found my people like i can i've learned and this is the art community that has taught me this like i can go into a gallery and be like hey i'm really uncomfortable to be here how are you and they're saying hey so am i and shall we talk about like it I have met these people and I personally have not had, I can count on one hand how many negative experiences since I've become an artist around 2017 or so that I've had negative experiences with. Like these people, they want to lift you up. They want you to succeed. They are open to giving suggestion. Like I have gotten so much help from the art community and I've been a part of many other communities in my lifetime. But none like this. The people I'm meeting, we just want each other to succeed. And I'm feeling the same way about them. That's why I started the Artist Support Group. Tell me a little bit more about the Artist Support Group. What was behind that and what does it do for people? So I am in recovery. I'm sober, just under 12 years now. And I used to be part of... AA, I would go to meetings. And so I have stepped away from the traditional way.

00:26:00 SPEAKER_00
away from the traditional way. We all need to find our own kind of journey and how we want our sobriety to look as sober people. So for me, it was tapping into the art community. And the way I make amends today and the way I give back is by starting this artist support group. And it's just, I get a group of people of us together and we talk about whatever, like if you want to know where to get a tent or business cards or what shows to apply to, or if you want to talk about imposter syndrome or you want to bring in a piece and judge the heck out of it, you know, it's always open to whatever people want to discuss. And I did this to give back, but it has given me, oh my God, so, so much more. we've started this group chat and i believe there's 34 women in it wow yeah and and we all just kind of network we follow each other like each other on instagram and uplift each other if somebody has a show going on we will promote that and now i started i just had my first one the other day i started artist support group play dates where i've been so stuck in my own stuff that i needed to get out of it so i invited a group of girls over and we all did junk journals you know and and we're all artists but we all just sat there and giggled and try something new and god i never thought i'd be this girly girl but it's happened never me i was you know my friends in high school were all the the guys and you know yeah me but like

00:27:35 SPEAKER_00
me i was you know my friends in high school were all the the guys and you know yeah me but like Again, the community, if they weren't so great, I wouldn't feel such a need to give back in some way. Sure. Community matters immensely as artists because what we do most of the time is by ourselves. Absolutely. It would be a very, very lonely process. Yeah.

00:28:00 SPEAKER_01
It would

00:28:05 SPEAKER_00
Yeah, absolutely. So what advice would you give to someone who's hesitant to try making art, especially if they don't think of themselves as an artist? okay you don't have to think of yourself as an artist that's fine just go to a hobby shop say hey maybe you know look at what's there's so many different avenues to go with it think about what it is you might like to try and just try it and not not for it's a you know my situation i paint a nutcracker for michael's and two years later i'm putting my full -time job That's not the typical story here. Just pick something up and play with it. If not, not for a career, but just to quiet your mind. It is amazing how just shutting that down and all of a sudden, I'll step away from a canvas thinking, oh man, I haven't thought about anything for hours. What a great relief. And then you might make something beautiful out of it. So just try something. You never know what's going to be that thing that either turns into a career or that thing that just quiets your mind and helps you with stress, you know? Yeah, absolutely. So what's lighting you up creatively right now? This air compressor thing. I'm really, I'm seeing that I want to kind of get more flattery and messy with my work. So that's, yeah.

00:29:43 SPEAKER_00
Throwing that thing around and watching the pink bladder, and that's definitely getting me excited. I will never look at getting a blood pressure done the same.

00:29:58 SPEAKER_00
I said, what's that thing? I don't know what it is. She said, it's called a bladder. I'm like, no, it's not. Yeah, it is. That's funny. Okay, so, yeah. And finally, what does it mean to you to be an artist today? Ah, freedom. Freedom.

00:30:18 SPEAKER_00
You know, we are not here for a long time. This is a very brief blip in the grand scheme of things. So finding what I love to do has just absolutely meant the world to me. And it has affected me in a positive way. I've helped affect other people in a positive way. My home life is amazing.

00:30:45 SPEAKER_00
I feel such a sense of freedom. Not even because I get to do this as a full -time job. If I still worked in a corporate situation, I'd still feel that I have this sense of freedom because I get to be able to do something really cool. That's awesome. Yeah. I love that word, freedom. Yeah. It does. Thank you, Rachel. What you've shared today has been amazing. I've enjoyed every minute of this with you. Good.

00:31:17 SPEAKER_00
I never know. I'm not one to articulate this at all. You did a fantastic job. A lot. But sometimes getting those words out can be a little tricky. And I think that's why we're artists a lot of times. Art is the words we can't say. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, thank you for being here. And Rachel's story is such a powerful reminder that art doesn't just live in galleries. It lives in our healing, our process, and our courage to show up again and again. You can find Rachel's work at ShyFox Studio, www .ShyFoxStudio .com, and at ShyFox Studio on Instagram. I highly recommend giving her art a look. It's vibrant, emotional. and rooted in nature's quiet strength. If you enjoyed this conversation, don't forget to subscribe, share with your fellow creatives, and leave a review. Until next time, keep creating, and remember the artist is always in.