The Exuberant Artist Podcast

Today I wanted to share some thoughts about fears, looping thoughts and limiting beliefs I'm facing right now about my art and what I feel inspired to try right now. Old stories are coming up in me that I'm facing with compassion and gentle curiosity and I'm noticing that a lot of healing is continuing to happen within me from when I experienced psychosis and mania for the first time in my life earlier this year. I am using art and therapy to help me through it all and am finding new insights, hopes and possibilities within me as I do. I share a quote from a great book by Rick Rubin called The Creative Act: A Way of Being that I love that reads:"Oscar Wilde said that some things are too important to be taken seriously. Art is one of those things. Setting the bar low, especially to get started, frees you to play, explore, and test without attachment to results.This is not just a path to more supportive thoughts. Active play and experimentation until we're happily surprised is how the best work reveals itself."I love that quote so much!I hope you enjoy listening and would love to hear if anything resonates with you. I'm Emma Freeman, a mixed media artist, writer and teaching artist living in Wisconsin. I'm a Highly Sensitive Person and sober too. I love making art every day and find it to be so healing, fun, exciting, beautiful, mysterious and wonderfully meaningful. I love textiles, book making, slow stitching by hand, painting, drawing, working in sketchbooks and art journals, writing poetry and journaling, story sharing and story listening, building community around art making and authentic expression and sharing what I love through projects like this podcast. I love mindful art making practices that create peace, joy and meaning in my life. You can learn more about me and my work on my website: www.emmafreemanart.com.Follow me on Instagram @emmafreemanartist.Check out my YouTube channel!

Welcome to The Exuberant Artist Podcast with Emma Freeman! Today I am sharing some reflections on the meaning of objects in my life, when objects feel sacred to me, feeling the soul of the person who made an object and using that moment as an opportunity for research, discovery and soulful connection across the world, the power of language to describe objects and my love of the word "artifact" at the moment along with "art object" and how "product" feels empty and doesn't embody the depth of soul that goes into creating art objects or artifacts to me. This is all as I am exploring new ways to share my artwork through selling online and designing new tangible things to connect with people. I mention Mexican Talavera hand painted blue and white pottery and mudcloth from Mali in Africa, who art objects that I absolutely love. Thank you for listening and I would love to hear any reflections that this stirs up in you. Feel free to reach out through my website, www.emmafreemanart.com. See the soulful art objects/artifacts I make here: www.emmafreemanart.comExplore my art classes and retreats: www.emmafreemanart.com/classesConnect with me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/emmafreemanartistSee my YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/@emmafreemanartistEmma Freeman is a mixed media artist, creative writer, and expressive arts teacher based in Wisconsin. She loves textiles with embedded human stories woven within them, slow stitching, expressive painting, intuitive collage, art journaling, writing poetry and journaling daily and having meaningful conversations with people (the art of conversation). She loves expressing herself through the creative languages of color, texture, pattern, word play and book making. She explores themes of human presence, the healing powers of touch, community, and contemplative care for ourselves and others through art making. Emma is a Highly Sensitive Person and sober.

Hello and welcome to this new chapter of my podcast, now called, The Exuberant Artist Podcast! I'm Emma Freeman, a mixed media artist, creative writer and expressive arts teacher in Wisconsin. After quite a bit of time away and a lot of reflection, I am inspired to reimagine this podcast project of mine! I'll be sharing stories from my art studio about my vibrant and eclectic practice, what I'm working on and why, what is inspiring me and I'll also be having meaningful and exciting conversations with other artists who are living and creating fully and exuberantly!In this episode, I mention:Sarah Campbell and Susan Collier's wonderful, exuberant art exhibit at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London, UK that I saw in June 2026Sarah Campbell's fantastic books, Hand Painted Textiles: A Practice Guide to the Art of Painting on Fabric and Paint! Pattern! Print! The Textiles of Susan Collier and Sarah CampbellThe Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and her artist date assignment that I'm doing but calling it Creative Field Trips and am LOVING it! A book I'm loving gathering textile inspiration from called, African Textiles: Color and Creativity Across a Continent by John GillowThese inexpensive sketchbooks I'm using and loving using for my journaling and sketch booking practices. My name is Emma Freeman and I'm your joyful host! I'm a contemplative and exuberant mixed media artist, creative writer and expressive arts teacher living in a small town in Wisconsin. In my art and teaching practice, I explore themes of global connection through art making, the emotional power of color and pattern, memory and nostalgia, heartfelt stories about life and how art is expressed naturally through living fully and the incredibly rich meaning I get from language and playing with words. I am also fascinated by how art making has become a practice of contemplative care for myself and for my students when we are in community together. I work with found textiles I gather from around the world, fibers with rich human stories of touch and care, altered books made from thrifted vintage books that I upcycle, gouache paints, collage, hand painted textiles I am experimenting with making and more. I make fabric meditation books, hand stitched peaceful prayer flags, joyful art journals, contemplation cloths, poetry and wearable art pieces. I am also a Highly Sensitive Person and sober. You can learn more about me and see my art and classes here: www.emmafreemanart.com!Follow me, Emma Freeman on Instagram: www.instagram.com/emmafreemanartistCheck out my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@emmafreemanartistSign up for my art newsletter: https://www.emmafreemanart.com/letters-of-love