Curated Muse
Behind every creative work lies a purpose. Behind every great collection, a story.
From Hyperlux Magazine comes The Curated Muse Podcast—where we share intimate conversations with artists, collectors, and experts in art, design, and curation. Together, we explore the deep connections we form with objects—why we collect, what we create, and how these pieces shape our lives.
Through honest, thoughtful dialogue, we uncover the emotional ties to art and design, the history behind cherished items, and the magic of intentional living. This is The Curated Life—a celebration of inspiration, purposeful collecting, and meaningful creation.
Curated Muse
Permission to Evolve: Why Artists Should Keep Changing
Show Notes:
In this episode, I want to talk to you about identity as an artist. When we look at ourselves as a human being, our identity plays a very large role in our lives. We may be identified by many things. We may be an artist. We may be a writer. We may be a mother, a daughter, a sister, a son, a grandpa, a grandma. You can be identified by anything. your role in your family. You could be identified by your job. You can be identified by your passions. There are so many ways that we can identify as a person. But one thing that's really challenging for artists is finding their own identity as an artist. And what's even more challenging is if you do find a sense of identity when that identity shifts or that identity changes. And that can be really challenging. when you're trying new things or you've moved past something you've always done into something else and it becomes weird and uncomfortable. But the thing I want to tell people is you're never going to get to a place as an artist or a person that is ever 100% secure with your identity. You're never going to say, I am this and it is unwavering because our identity is a constant shifting landscape based on our relationships, based on our working environment, based on our health, based on our Anything and everything you can even think of, the variables for how things impact us and how we identify from the morning we get up until we go to bed at night is always changing. Because we are ever-changing beings. And I think artists get stuck into this idea that they're going to find an identity. They're going to find this persona, this thing that identifies them as who they are, and they're going to be able to say that in one sentence. I am this. This is my work. This is who I am. And as a creative, it is unrealistic to think we're ever going to get to the top of the mountain where we know who we are through and through. As we age, as human beings, from being a little tiny child to being a teenager to moving into your 20s and 30s to moving into your 50s, even age, just age alone is going to impact how you view yourself as a creative person and how you are going to work and do your work And why you're inspired to do your work. What is your inspiration for your work? What is your work trying to say? And I think once artists and creatives stop trying to find that one thing, trying to just find that gold nugget, that's it. And they realize that there's no gold nugget. There's no top of the mountain. There's no... end of the rainbow. You're not going to go at some point and find some coin thing filled with stuff, pot of gold at the coin thing. The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. You're not going to find that. You may have moments where you do feel very secure in your identity. You may have moments where it feels like perhaps you've hit that precipice of this feels right to me. But you are always going to revisit a downslide, a shift, a change. And the downsides don't have to be negative. When I say that it sounds a little negative, like, oh, you're at the top and you're going to slide down. It's really just like this roller coaster, this movement. As artists, we move, we contract, and we expand, and it's dynamic. We are dynamic beings. And it's kind of like the dishes. This is the metaphor. that I always think about. And I remember hearing this one day and really it hit me. You'll have dishes in the sink and you'll get them done. And then there'll be dishes in the sink tomorrow and you'll get them done. Same with the laundry. The laundry is always going to be there. You're never going to have an end to the laundry. You might have five minutes of the laundry putting away and then all of a sudden your significant other has thrown a towel on the floor in the bedroom and now there's laundry again. And that's the way I look at the creative process is there's never gonna be an ending to it. You're never gonna get a little crown and sit in your castle and go, this is it, this is amazing. You are going to be going through the ups and the downs and the identity shifts. every bit of the way. The weather can impact it. You could go for a walk and that may impact how you're feeling about yourself. There are so many variables and I want artists that are sitting there stressing out about their identity or not being able to find exactly what it is or feeling that they're just uncomfortable and dissatisfied to remember that dissatisfaction is normal. And will continue you moving in a direction that's only going to get you closer to those feel-good moments more often. But you're also going to have those dips. You're also going to have an ebb and flow. You are a dynamic being. And being a creative person is very personal. Making work is personal, even if no one sees it. If you put it out in the public, that's also even harder. You're always going to be ebbing and flowing and changing and you have to do yourself a favor and give yourself a break. Go through the process like you go through the process of life. You wake up every day in life and you go through the process of life. There are ups and there are downs and you never just win life. It's not a video game. You just don't win and it's over. You just move on to the next chapter. And that's the same with creativity. Some days it's going to be really tough. Other days you're going to feel like wins. Some days you just don't even know. Like I can't even describe it. I don't know if it's a win. I don't know if I lost. I don't know anything. I'm just confused. And you just move through that process without judgment. So I just wanted to do a quick episode on identity, partially because I think it's something that comes up in my head a lot, comes up in my artistic partner's head a lot, and it is a good conversation to have with others and yourself.