A Life Creative Podcast

Frances Palmer's path to creating her own pottery studio and cultivating a fabulous flower garden comes down to focus and dedication.  She put the time in to learn and develop her craft with an eye toward building a sustainable business where her work is not just a collection of beautiful objects but also usable in everyday life.
Show host Melanio Gomez was made aware of her work years ago when Martha Stewart suggested using some of her pottery in a story being developed for the magazine.  
She's published two books that take us into her world: Life in the Studio and Life with Flowers both of which we spoke about with book editor Ellen Morrissey in episode 49 (Ellen worked with Frances on both books).  It's an honor to have Frances on A Life Creative this week!

What does it take to turn an author's vision into a bestselling book? Book editor Ellen Morrissey has done it more than ten times over. After 16 years at Martha Stewart Living — where she shepherded dozens of books to publication, with more than 10 landing on the New York Times bestseller list — Ellen has built a thriving post-Martha career helping authors of illustrated lifestyle books realize their creative visions. 
Her collaborators include ceramicist Frances Palmer, writer Matt Hranek, and baker Kristina Cho. And in a full-circle moment, Ellen stepped into the author's chair herself with I Want to Eat Cookies, a collection of more than 90 cookie recipes. In this episode, she traces the path that led her into book editing and shares what that creative life looks like today—and somehow, she has time to craft fantastical cakes whose inspiration often comes from the minds of 4-year-olds.  Think ‘zombie unicorn’ for example.
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A divorce and the pandemic aren't the events most people credit for their creative breakthrough — but for collage artist James Gallagher, they were turning points.
In this episode of A Life Creative, host Melañio Gomez sits down with James — introduced through James' wife, prop stylist Pam Morris — to trace a winding path to full-time artistry. James spent years inside and outside the medium of collage, pulled in and out by professional, economic, and life events, before a period of real soul-searching turned art into something closer to therapy. That self-reflection showed up in the work, and it's what finally connected him to the wider collage community.
Today James is known as a curator, collaborator, portraitist, and educator — hosting live collage events that help non-artists find something unexpected with cutting tools and a stack of paper.
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David Weeks is a Rhode Island School of Design graduate who is recognized for his iconic lighting designs crafted in his Brooklyn studio.  Post college he made his way to New York City and did what many artists do: freelance and say 'yes' to just about everything.  He eventually landed a position in the studio of acclaimed jewelry designer Ted Muehling who modeled a standard of excellence and beauty echoed in David's work to this day.
Show-host Melañio Gomez became aware of David's work years ago and happily acquired a bespoke lamp from one of the many maker fairs at which David would create lamps from spare parts on the spot.  Fast forward to now and we're delighted to catch up and hear more about this Athens, GA (home of the B-52's!)  native.
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Followers of A Life Creative podcast may recall that host Melañio Gomez lived in Brussels, Belgium for 10 years.  During that time he met today's guest—Clinton Stringer—who is an accomplished contemporary dancer, having danced for 8 years with Rosas, a dance company founded in the 1980's by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker.
Clinton now works as a rehearsal director with Rosas and is often called into action to teach other dance companies how to perform the pieces created by Rosas.  In a parallel track, he trained as a graphic designer and set up his own design studio.  He models how to perform well in two wildly different creative pursuits.
We're happy to welcome Clinton on today's episode of A Life Creative.  See more about Clinton and A Life Creative at the following links:
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