The Art of Becoming with Artist Erin Rothstein

Building a creative life requires more than talent. It asks for self trust, discipline, resilience, and the willingness to keep becoming.

In this episode of The Limitless Life Podcast, I’m joined by hyperrealist artist Erin Rothstein for a conversation about creativity, identity, entrepreneurship, and the evolution that happens when you fully commit to your work. Erin shares what it’s taken to build a successful art career, develop her unique artistic voice, and navigate the mindset shifts that come with creating a life rooted in authenticity.

We also explore the emotional and personal side of becoming. From discipline and creative process to identity shifts and self trust, this conversation is a reminder that the work we create is often deeply connected to who we are becoming in the process.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• How Erin built a successful career as a professional hyperrealist artist
• The mindset shifts that support creativity, entrepreneurship, and personal growth
• Why discipline and consistency matter in building a creative business
• The difference between creating for validation versus authenticity
• How personal evolution and self trust shape the art of becoming

Connect with Erin:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erinrothstein
• Website: https://erinrothstein.com

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Okay, so for everybody listening to the podcast, I have to tell you how this conversation came to be. Because it's actually the perfect setup for everything we're going to be talking about today. I heard my guest Erin on the Iconic podcast. And then I got to meet her in real life at the iconic table event that we both attended a little while ago. And honestly, she's one of those people that you meet and you just know there is something worth going so much deeper. So here we are. My guest today is Erin Rothstein. She is a Canadian artist born in Montreal. She's based in Toronto now. And what she creates is genuinely unlike anything I've ever seen. She paints food and fashion and it's this hyper-realistic style that is so precise, so detailed, that your brain almost can't comprehend that it's a painting. And the subjects that she chooses, sneakers, pastries, everyday things like toast. But there's something underneath that I think goes way beyond just her technique. And her work has been featured in places like Architectural Digest, The National Post, Toronto Life. People like Google have pieces in their collections from her, McGill University. But when you talk to her, what really strikes you isn't just those accolades, it's how clearly she knows who she is and what she does and why she does it. And that is why we are here today, to talk about all of that, not just the art. We're gonna talk about the life, who she's becoming, what she's building, and what actually means something to her and what it takes to stay true to all of this. So, Erin, welcome to the Limitless Life Podcast. I'm so glad that we ended up here.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

That was like the nicest intro. Like, go on.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

It's all true though. It's one of the reasons I was like, I need to talk to her. Like I'm like tearing up.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

That was so nice. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

It's all true. And I love by the way that I'm talking about your art and you have a latest piece behind you, which we're gonna talk about. But let's start at the beginning. I want to know how did this all start for you? Like being an accomplished artist is one thing, but you've built a business around this and you've built your life around this. So bring us back to the beginning.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

I think the beginning was the very beginning, really. I don't really remember not wanting to draw and paint. It was always a space for me that was very authentic where all of my parts could just relax, relax into who they always were meant to be. Like my brain and my soul and everything just could come together in this soulful kind of act. That's what it was for me. It was really a haven where I could just be. It was also something that ran in my family. And so I was made aware that this was something that I could really pursue. And my family gave me the tools and the skills and helped me to pursue it. That's where it started from a very true place.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Was there a moment for you where you're like, okay, I'm gonna do this as a career, or were you gonna be something else at any point in your life?

SPEAKER_01 3:28

I always knew I would be an artist, but I thought maybe also a doctor, but I should never be a doctor. My parents are doctors, my siblings are doctors. I always saw it as a possible path that could lead to something huge. Like I never doubted it. I always saw it as something that felt aligned and felt like wide open space for me.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

I love that because as little kids we tend to have these big massive dreams, and then we kind of get talked out of them sometimes. You know what else I find interesting here though? There's a lot, actually. So your parents and your siblings are doctors. But the fact that your parents are actually also into art, and so they were able to help guide you with that is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

It's also interesting though, because being a doctor is very strategic and very precise, and that's what you're doing just in a completely different way.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Yes, I'm an art doctor.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

You are actually.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

I've never really considered that before. That's hilarious. But it's true. I specifically was thinking of psychiatry. I'm fascinated by the mind and the human processing. My fear of blood and a couple other things kind of stand in my way there. But I think, yes, it's not that different. There's a common thread running through most jobs, if you really think about it. I think a lot of stereotypically uncreative jobs are actually quite creative. Depends how you are approaching your purpose and the work that you do. Even in art, people picture this whimsical lifestyle where I'm sort of painting cupcakes all day and wearing a beret and eating a bag. Sometimes I haven't busted out my beret in a while, but I think it's very strategic. It takes a lot of discipline and a lot of stability and a lot of boring moments that wouldn't be fun to watch on camera. It can be slow. It can be uneventful. It's a day-in, day-out job sometimes. That doesn't cancel out the passion that comes with it. I think it just helps to sustain it.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

That leads us right into what you've built because I heard you speaking on another podcast about building what you've called the art machine. And I think it's a really powerful way to put that. So I want to get into what that looked like for you. What did building the business side require of you that you probably didn't learn in art school and it probably didn't prepare you for what you built?

SPEAKER_01 6:19

I sure didn't. Although I took business courses on the side, I took astrophysics on the side. I tried to balance art with the most oppositional classes I could find just to stimulate that part of my brain. I think they're all very much intertwined in the end when you approach it as a career. But just like any degree, law school or whatever, you learn what you learn in school. And then once you go into the world, you're like, what? We didn't cover any of this. And that's how life is, right? There's theory, and then you have to live it. I learned a lot on the fly. I knew what I wanted to build. A lot of it too was like, what's the quote? Walk the way and the way appears. I have visions of things that I see, and then there are a lot of slow, boring, methodical steps in between, and I don't always know what those are. So it's like you have this vision and you have your self, and it's your job to get there and to figure shit out along the way. It was a lot of trial and error, honestly. If you could see the gong show behind the pristine website and Instagram profile, you would pee. It was funny. It's funny to me now what I had to go through. I think I'm someone who's completely willing to be embarrassed and to fail up and make as many mistakes as are needed in pursuit of that dream.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

What are some of the challenges you ran into when you were building that?

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Oh, the challenges, so many. Just getting into galleries alone and testing that out and being rejected over and over and coming up against, and this was in my teenage years, coming up against galleries that told me you'll never do this, or that physically like laughed in my face, or whatever, because I was a young person, because I was a woman, because, because, because those were some of my first challenges. I don't want to say obstacles. I don't really believe that those are obstacles, but they help to build resilience for sure. A lot of tears shed, a lot of pouting, you know, whining, complaining sort of moments, but then you pick yourself up and you just keep at it. I think anything worth building looks really messy and delusional at the beginning. And if you are finding yourself in that mess, then you're probably in the middle of something really awesome. I just kept going. I think then when I built the art machine, designing a website and figuring out how to do that and who to hire and hiring a team, oh, hiring a team, that really pressed me to my limits. Figuring out boundaries, figuring out who your people are, what kind of operation you want to build, how they're really relating to each other, how you're managing them, and then figuring out how to do what you set out to do in the first place once you've built this big thing, because at a certain point I was like, okay, well, now I'm just a manager of people, but I'm really an artist that wants to paint. So it doesn't have to be one or the other, but how do I make it so that these things don't compete but really line up to support me? And how do I maintain who I really am underneath all this? It's a lot.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

You know, I feel like this goes back to the whole school thing and life in general and business in general. I don't feel like we ever really learn how to run a business until we're in the business.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

It's like, oh, I'm gonna work for myself and I'm gonna create something really awesome. But nobody's taught us about tax structures and business structures and team structures, and it's kind of like, oh, okay, trial and error, trial and error. But I also love when you talk about how there were so many rejections in the beginning, because I think you had also said, too, you had like over a hundred rejections or something like that. Oh, thousands, I'm sure. If you think about it, it really only took that one person or that one gallery saying yes to you. Imagine if five places said yes, that would have been crazy. How would you have even done that?

SPEAKER_01 11:07

Right. This is divine timing, I think. You need to be built up to a certain level so that you can handle the success too. Like if you just set out to do what you're gonna do and then everyone said yes to you, you might not have the internal architecture to handle it. And you have to have a certain amount of resilience. Who are you gonna be when someone says no? Who are you gonna be when someone says yes? Like, how are you gonna hold yourself in those moments?

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Oh we just said right there, who are you gonna be when somebody says yes? Who are you gonna be when somebody says no? And it's true, you do need the internal stuff, and that's the work that I do, right? I'm in the subconscious realms. If we don't have that subconscious architecture, structure, foundation, we can have all the dreams we want, but our nervous system is gonna go, whoa, I don't think so. We're not quite ready for that. But even just the identity piece there, who are you going to be? And that is one of the biggest questions that, especially purpose-driven women who are doing this legacy work, who are you gonna be? Who are you gonna be when shit gets hard? Who are you gonna be when it feels awesome? Oh, I love that. Was there an identity shift that you had to build on your way to doing all of this? So many.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

I have done so many shifts in identity. I think I constantly am, I still am. I hope I always will be. I don't think it's something that you do and then it's done.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

Same.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Unless you're dead, you know, like it's not like, oh, okay, I leveled up and I'm here. I hope to be constantly evolving. And I think that's a realization I'm coming to now a little bit, because I think if you are treating this super ambitiously in like a goal-oriented sense, as I have in the past, and as I'm sure I always will, because I have that wiring inside me. Once you reach whatever goal you have, then you're constantly trying to maintain it. You're trying to keep yourself in one place, you're kind of stifling your creative juices, your life force. There's such a more expansive way to come at this. Doesn't mean that you can't have goals. Like, I love a goal, believe me. But I think the goals are not the goal. They're kind of like fun things along the way, and that's how I'm starting to look at them now. So it's funny, like, I'm telling people a little bit about this part of my journey, and they're like, oh my god, are you not gonna paint anymore? Are you not gonna run your business? No, of course I am. I'm just getting bigger. I'm not treating every drop and every painting and every accolade as the big goal or the main event. The main event is my creative drive, which is always changing. And what used to be my main goal, those things, this painting behind me, whatever it is that you see on Instagram, these are just fun things along the way that can change at any time.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

Oh, goals is fun things along the way. Yes. I love that. I want to actually talk about that painting. First thing, you all, and you're gonna have all the information where to find Erin, but you have to go look at her stuff on our website and on Instagram because it's unreal. Second, because you just did this painting. I've been watching you on Instagram paint this painting. So from where the inspiration came from, and then putting the basic stuff down, and then walking us through the things and like the way you zoom in to the tiniest details and the lines and the char and the way the light hits it and the flame. I'm watching you build and build layer on layer on layer, and I'm like, this is insane. I'm watching you transfer all the stuff onto the canvas. How do you think what you're doing there carries over into how you move through life, like looking at the details of life? Do you think you notice things that most of us just walk past?

SPEAKER_01 15:31

This painting is so personal for me. I feel like it's my comeback painting. Not that I've gone anywhere, but I'm approaching 40 and I'm evolving in a little bit of a different direction. I feel like this painting is sort of like lighting the way. How does it mirror how I approach life? Well, I had a revelation a couple months ago about finding my light, what that meant for me. Something about digging really deep inside myself to find that thing I really am that propels me forward. Not the thing you say you are, the thing you really, really are. Sometimes you're like, I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do that, and this is what I'm all about. And here's a thousand words. Just like, okay, but what do you really? It's like the no bullshit. Your money where your mouth is. Stop whining, stop complaining, stop talking, and dig deep and find yourself and move with it. You know, finding that light, but also like turning it on from the inside. I hadn't planned to paint this piece, and it's funny that this is the piece that feels like my comeback piece and an ode to that moment. I was actually at the gym laughing and talking with a bunch of friends, and I just had this moment, they can all attest to it. And I was like, I should paint a match. It was just this moment. They're like, sorry, what? I think we were talking about like hair products, and I was like, wait, I need to paint a match. They're used to me now, but they're like, oh, okay. But it was just this aha moment, and I thought of it the same way I thought of the toast aesthetically and creatively. I wasn't doing all that meaning making, and I wasn't even tying it back to that find your light moment. So it's just funny that this all came together. And then I really put my heart and soul into this painting in a way that I haven't I put my heart and soul into my work 100%. This one just is so personal to me. I've been doing commissions for a long time, and this painting is mine. I really let people in. And for me, that's part of my artistic responsibility is to connect with other people on a soul level. And there's a sort of leadership that comes with my art that is important for me. And I was like, you know what? It's time to use your voice and let people into your studio and let people into your process in a really truly vulnerable way. That's what this painting has been. It's not finished, but the amount of engagement that I've gotten from those shares is it's so moving for me. And it's not about selling anything. And I have no doubt that this will sell well, but to me, that has to be an afterthought. The selling has to be, or not an afterthought, but it has to be a byproduct of something much, much deeper. I think for a while the selling became sort of the main event, which is super fun, and the passion was always, always there. But this painting represents a return to that undertone of authenticity. And it seems to be reaching people on that level, which is lovely.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

And it's interesting because what I'm hearing is that the work and the life, they're really inseparable for you. Like they're all one and the same in like this really beautiful kind of way. It's funny that you're like, I was at the gym, and I was like, I should paint a mat. Because I was gonna ask you, where do you get the inspiration? Are you painted smurfs? Like, do these ideas just drop in your head?

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Do you see something? They do just drop in my head. Honestly, it can't come from like forced thought. They usually drop in when I'm relaxed and having fun. And isn't that true of life? Like anything you're trying to force, you just become like a meme of an artist when you're forcing anything, really. So I think my best ideas do just drop in, usually when I'm very relaxed and in my element. A lot of what I paint too, what I've painted historically, those things have come from commissions because I have had a very long wait list for custom work. And I love those too, because they sort of open things up to the community and it becomes cultural and communal. It's not just my process, it's the process of all of my followers and friends and people who want to work with me. I get to engage with their ideas and what drops in for them when they're in a state of relaxation, and then we get to engage and connect together, which is so important for me. So, like the smurf wasn't initially my idea. It was the idea of someone else. They came to me and asked me to paint a smurf. I was like, hmm, no, like it's not gonna translate. But they were really, really determined. And I was like, okay, well, I really like your energy and I like where you're coming from. So let's work together. What if we do like a vintage figurine of a smurf? Because that's more where I can thrive. And I'll never do anything that's not gonna be amazing. It's so important to me that we're truly working together to bring something to life. So the smurf and like so many other paintings that you see are the product of that collaborative spirit, but they drop in in those random, relaxed moments, and it doesn't look like anything beyond like, oh my god, I should do this.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

I love this. You're very intuitively led with what you're going to create. I also loved the smurfs because I'm in my 50s, so like I had those figurines as a little kid. So when I saw those, I was like, Smurf figurines. I had the whole village and the little like mushroom houses.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

Well, they're so nostalgic, right? And that's the idea. I love that they get people on that level.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

Yeah, and I love also that your work really is about giving people almost like this visceral reaction to things. So when your work hits somebody on that gut level, that nostalgia, the recognition. Definition, is that something you're consciously trying to create, or does it just happen?

SPEAKER_01 22:07

Both. If it happens too consciously, then it becomes control. And if I'm just waiting for it to happen, then it becomes utter surrender, which is great, except you're maybe then not shaping it into a sustainable career. So I think it has to be a little bit of both. So I put it in the agency category, agency or collaboration, somewhere in between total control and total surrender. I let it drop in and I let it be organic, but I also am building a brand. I have built a brand. I need to keep it recognizable. I need to be business-minded. When people are looking for me, they need to know where to find me. So I have to keep that in mind. But I do try and like stay a little bit loose about it.

SPEAKER_00 23:03

I love this. We talk about trusting your gut, and that sounds very easy when we say it out loud. But it's like what you're saying, you're putting a whole body of work out into the world, a whole brand out into the world. And so you do still have to remain true to you, but also true to the brand. Because energetically, our brands and us are two separate things. Oh, I love this. So when you look at where you are now versus where you started, do you feel like you've arrived as the artist and the person and the businesswoman that you set out to become?

SPEAKER_01 23:40

Yes, I do feel that way. I've been thinking so much about arrival. I used to think of arrival in a goal-oriented way, where there was somewhere to arrive and I was trying to get there. On that model, yes, I feel very pleased with myself and I feel like I did get there. Although if I was gonna stay on that model, I think I'd never feel satisfied because if you're thinking of it as a goal-oriented process, there's always somewhere else to be. There's always somewhere bigger and better and different. Oh, I've done this, but I haven't done it in Europe. You know, like now I'm thinking of arrival more as something that I always had inside me. I think we're always in a state of arrival. When you think about it like that, I think you can build something much more expansive and purposeful and slow and stable as opposed to something that exudes urgency and maybe mania, which are fun, but they are limited. That's where burnout happens. Sometimes the difference is almost imperceptible. Sometimes it's completely imperceptible, and I don't think anyone can really see that I'm going through this shift, except on some level they can, because why am I getting hundreds of messages about this match? Energetically, the difference is felt. So, yes, I feel like I've arrived, but I think I'm changing the definition of what that means for myself.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

Yes. Okay, I want to go a little bit deeper here. So has there been something along the way that you've actually had to release, like a belief or an identity or a version of yourself to get where you are right now?

SPEAKER_01 25:44

Yeah. So many versions, and I meet them almost every day. I'm finding that this work doesn't end. I think that if you want to be someone who is growing and evolving, you have to be willing to meet all these past versions of yourself. I used to think that they were something to fight with or to let go of. Like, oh, how do I just release this dumb part of myself that keeps doing this? We all have those moments all the time. I think now I'm learning that the key is inviting them to stay, like really embracing them and thanking them and being like, wow, thank you. You really served me for a long time. And now I kind of want to go somewhere else, shining a light, you know, the match, the light, like just shining a light right on those parts, right on those past versions, and being like, Yeah, I see you. Get out here. Like you're welcome, you know, and you can hang out while I do something different. So not forcing old versions out, but this is expansion, inviting them to stay and hang out while some bigger, deeper, more evolved, more ancient part of you leads the way and you make space for everything that used to be there before. I'm working on it. It's not just a journey.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

It honestly is a journey. It takes time to move through different identities and go into different expansion phases. And I loved the match because I'm going through an expansion right now. And when I saw that, I was like, yeah, it's time to light shit up. Let's go. Right. That's what it did to me. So what are you expanding into? What are you creating now? What are you excited about that maybe is not a brush on a canvas?

SPEAKER_01 27:43

So much, actually, I feel like I just came online in a new way. I had to go dark a little bit. You know, I didn't post for a couple months. Like I needed to be very slow and intentional with myself to let it drop in and to face whatever I need to face inside myself when I go through these transitions. But I think on the outside it's gonna look very similar. But it just goes to show there's so much work under the surface when you're building something, and then people show up and they're like, Oh my god, you're so lucky. It's like, well, yeah. And I've been like suffering and good suffering, you know, but going through these like layers of evolution inside myself to come up with this stuff. It's like an iceberg. There's a lot underneath. So what am I excited about? I mean, I'm really excited about this painting. I was like, oh my god, I'm almost done. Oh no, because I've been really enjoying it. But then I was like, wait, no, I can make a whole bunch of matches, they're all different. You gotta be careful because I don't want to like commit myself to this, and then that becomes my new identity. Like, I'll only do that in so far as it keeps the spark alive, you know, pun intended. But I've written a book about this, about the creative process and how to become unfuckwithable. It's funny. I wanted to have it picked up, and I went through that whole process, and I think I just needed to, but I reached a point where one of those awesome epic breakdowns where I was like, wait, what am I doing? This needs to be self-published. Like, that's what I do. I don't ask permission. I mean, I think it's great to ask permission, but I think I'm done waiting. There's something I want to do. I think I always kind of knew, like, the way I need to put this out has to be entirely self-led. I needed that fire under my ass to be like, okay, like I did the thing. It's not working. And I think the reason why it's not working is because I am swimming upstream. This isn't my way. The book is called Watch Me. So it has that kind of spirit within it. It's about that kind of like when someone says something's impossible, you say watch me and you go get it. I loved every minute of writing this book, and I love every minute of getting it published because I don't know this industry, and I love that. I love going in completely green and getting really fucking humble and just being like, that's right. I don't know anything about any of this. Watch me figure it out from scratch because I'm taking in no ego. I'm coming in with sheer enthusiasm and nothing else, really. I mean, I think I have a great book. So that's gonna come out in the fall.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

That's gonna be awesome.

SPEAKER_01 30:46

I think so. I'm working on like a press tour, which I just want to like reach as many people as possible, connect with as many people as possible on this message and have meaningful conversations. And I want to move people. That lights me up. I just had an idea for a second book the other day, also at the gym.

SPEAKER_00 31:10

That's where I get some of my best ideas is when I'm training.

SPEAKER_01 31:13

Oh my god, like so much comes out at the gym. I work out with friends, it's a really nice environment, and I think you know, you're moving your body and you're feeling powerful. And I've had some of my best moments there. So hopefully working on this second book while the first one takes shape and a new series of paintings that are more soul-led people are gonna have to watch because I truly, you know, should be watching. I'm figuring it out as I go. I would like to start a I don't know if you can call it a podcast, but this is what I've been doing with the painting. Like almost solo episodes like Bob Ross, where I'm just talking my way through the painting process. Do it! It got a good response and it was fun.

SPEAKER_00 32:04

If you did that, you'd be so great at that. Because just watching that, the match take shape, it reminded me of the Bob Ross of, hey, we're just gonna put a little bit of this here, we're gonna do some little clouds. That was you. You're like, and then I'm gonna go in and I'm just gonna do it. And I was like, it sounds ridiculous, but I was like, glued to my phone.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

That response makes me so happy. When you feel that way, when you get that spring in your step, your energy ignites. That's the plan. You don't always know where you're going, but you have the direction. I know there's something in that. And Bob Ross really came through for me. I was a really quiet kid that just needed to be with a calm, steady presence. He really was that for me. And I think you can reach people without even knowing it, and I love to pay it forward.

SPEAKER_00 32:59

I grew up watching him because we only had like three channels. He was on one of the channels, and I always loved art. But for me, my generation, it was very like, well, starving artists, you can't make money being an artist. So I went into advertising, which is still art, but it was just the Bob Ross thing. I loved watching him.

unknown 33:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:21

Hey, you're just gonna make a little mountain, and then I was convinced I could paint like him, and then I would try to do it, and it never quite worked like that.

SPEAKER_01 33:28

I know. Same. He has his own style, but it wasn't even about that.

SPEAKER_00 33:34

It was just It was his energy and his presence, and that's the same with you. I always say energy speaks before your mouth opens. It's like your energy's speaking before the brush is even doing what it's doing. And then they come together. Because when you watch it, it's very, very cool to watch.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 33:56

Speaking of all this stuff and building things and all the things. If somebody's listening right now and they're in that place of building something, and maybe they're not sure if it's working, or maybe they're not sure if it's even the right thing, what do you want them to take from your story?

SPEAKER_01 34:15

I really think that there's no endpoint to any of this. I'm not gonna call up this quote properly, but someone just said it to me. It's like if you feel like you're falling, well, the good news is there's no ground. I wish I had quote. But there's no ground, there's no end point. So I think when you feel like it's not working, then you're probably in the messy middle. I give myself this pep talk many times a day. And I think when you practice this way of living, you freak out less and you're like, oh, here I am again in the messy middle. Like it just transforms into something else. It becomes a portal, a doorway into the dream. When you feel like it's not working, I would just remind yourself there is no end point, there is no failure point. Fail up, use it to get where you're going, fail again, and then fail again, and then make a celebration of it. Ultimately, you're gonna get where you're going if you treat life this way. Remind yourself of the messy middle, remind yourself that everything is a process. And if you keep going and if you believe in yourself, oh, that sounds so tacky, but it's so true. I don't think anything can prevent us from where we want to go. I really live that way, and I've lived it. Every single painting that I make functions like that. Like it's obviously there are the big life lessons, but on a more microcosmic scale, I think every painting has the same arc as any life problem. It's like the beginning of the painting is like, wow, I should do this. Great. Like how easy it is to get an idea, but it feels like the main event. It's so exciting. Oh my God, I'm gonna do this. Then you start doing it and it's kind of intoxicating, and you're like, wow, I'm doing it. This is great. Then you hit some roadblocks and you hit your own limits and you find your own limiting beliefs and the unconscious things running in the background, and you hit all these parts and you're like, oh, maybe I shouldn't. Like you come up with all these stories, you put story around it when really you're just moving through energy. And I think if you just keep moving through the energy and keep accepting all of these roadblocks, which is really just challenging energy. If you just allow it and accept it and invite it to hang out, you'll move through the messy middle. That part of every painting that's like, oh, this is bad and I can't do it. I'm sort of in that now with this piece. It's like, oh, like the final layers are hard. It's a reckoning with what I've made. It's like, okay, well, this looks good, but what happens when I really zoom in? This needs to be completely painted over. That work is hard work. It's very slow. I often don't film it. It's boring, it's challenging, it doesn't look like anything when you're in it. That's the messy middle. And then at the end, it does look like something if you keep going. So I would say take your fear and move anyway.

SPEAKER_00 37:45

Yes. I'm gonna be linking everything up. I'm gonna have your website, I'm gonna have your Instagram. Seriously, people, you need to go look at her work. You're gonna understand everything we've just talked about the second you see her work. I have one last question for you, and it's something I ask everybody. What does living a limitless life mean for you?

SPEAKER_01 38:05

Living a limitless life, I think I'm living it. I think it means going inward, digging deep, finding your truth and aligning with it, and charging forward with that watch me attitude. I think that's limitless. Once you're aligned and once you're moving from truth, every single challenging energy that comes into your way, you can just take it with you, or you can set the boundary, or you'll know what to do with it. To me, that's limitless.

SPEAKER_00 38:48

Love it. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to hang out with me here. I really appreciate it. I love having these conversations with powerful women who are doing amazing things and creating amazing things. We definitely will be watching you. So thank you again for spending time with us.

SPEAKER_01 39:08

Thank you so much.