Secret Sauce

Hello Creative Friends,

When you exist inside an artwork, for better or worse, everything that gets added to that work gets compared to the original work as a reference point. If you're happily painting a pink canvas for 30 years, and then suddenly decide it's more in alignment for you to change it to blue, those first strokes of blue will look "wrong." They won't "fit." They might look "disordered." Even if those strokes are heading in the direction you want to go.

In this episode I expound upon this metaphor as a way to reflect on our approach to disorders in society. Specifically in regards to my own diagnosis in 2007 of ADHD. Over the years, I began to revise my relationship with that label, and how knowledge of artistry related to those narratives. While not everyone listening to this episode has ADHD, we are increasingly living on a planet where everyone is experiencing being "disordered." In this episode I explore that story. Is that the most supportive way of explaining the challenges people feel with living and creating this earth artwork together? Is there possibly a more aligned way?

Love,

Becca

LINKS: Website: http://beccajborrelli.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/secretsaucepodcast/

Email: [email protected]

ABOUT BECCA

Becca is an illustrator-educator in Austin, Texas. She spends most of her time designing adult coloring books, interactive murals, and speaking to organizations about mindfulness, meditation and the benefits of art-making. Clients include Visa, Dell Children’s Hospital, Austin Independent School District, University Hospital- Cleveland, the Austin Downtown Alliance and the Anti-Defamation League. Becca is most inspired by the invisible connections between all things. Her work aims to be a playful, bright, and hopeful interpretation of the world's whimsical and magical sides. She has fallen in love with her hometown in Austin, where she spends free time exploring nature and hunting for breakfast tacos with her husband, son, and their super-pups Layla and Rose.

Hello Creative Friends,

The crux of this podcast, my art, my business (and heck, my life) is making in tandem with something that is bigger. I first posted about this in 2022, and it was the most listened to episode of that year. I have talked about this on and off since, entirely in a positive way. In this episode I want to talk about the challenges that arise when you begin to prioritize creating in this way. We all are living in a world that still creates using external metrics. When you begin making art with something bigger, rather than making with the market or economy, with what your colleagues, friends, or family think, or with what institutions teach, you will (for better or worse) look "crazy" to them.

In this episode I share a few ways I've navigated this, and continue to try to remain true to something bigger in the face of confusion from others. While I do believe this process is never-ending, I hope this episode helps you keep from doing the most insidious thing of all when making with something bigger: gaslighting and doubting yourself.

Love,

Becca

LINKS: Website: http://beccajborrelli.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/secretsaucepodcast/

Email: [email protected]

Links from episode:

https://alyssamalehorn.com

https://www.tarotforthewildsoul.com

https://drjoedispenza.com

ABOUT BECCA

Becca is an illustrator-educator in Austin, Texas. She spends most of her time designing adult coloring books, interactive murals, and speaking to organizations about mindfulness, meditation and the benefits of art-making. Clients include Visa, Dell Children’s Hospital, Austin Independent School District, University Hospital- Cleveland, the Austin Downtown Alliance and the Anti-Defamation League. Becca is most inspired by the invisible connections between all things. Her work aims to be a playful, bright, and hopeful interpretation of the world's whimsical and magical sides. She has fallen in love with her hometown in Austin, where she spends free time exploring nature and hunting for breakfast tacos with her husband, son, and their super-pups Layla and Rose.

Hello Creative Friends,

This podcast is about the "soup" of our world. The stuff between the stuff. So it's no surprise that episodes like to delve into the vague, mysterious and abstract. However we live on a planet that also has stuff. Sometimes as artists it can feel seductive to condemn that stuff outright. In today's episode I recorded about one of the earthly things i used to outright condemn... My Day Job.

In the episode I reference work from artist Sean McCabe, who has also removed his work entirely from the internet for now. Here's a link to one of his last items: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgn7sr4PNrg.

McCabe taught years ago via his YouTube channel about treating the day job as the most powerful ally an artist has. To me, this was almost blasphemous. The day job felt like something one day I wanted to damn. How could it possibly be my friend? I listened to his advice however, and it became one of the strongest roots of my business. In the absence of being able to access his wisdom online right now, I am sharing it with you.

Love,

Becca

LINKS: Website: http://beccajborrelli.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/secretsaucepodcast/

Email: [email protected]

ABOUT BECCA

Becca is an illustrator-educator in Austin, Texas. She spends most of her time designing adult coloring books, interactive murals, and speaking to organizations about mindfulness, meditation and the benefits of art-making. Clients include Visa, Dell Children’s Hospital, Austin Independent School District, University Hospital- Cleveland, the Austin Downtown Alliance and the Anti-Defamation League. Becca is most inspired by the invisible connections between all things. Her work aims to be a playful, bright, and hopeful interpretation of the world's whimsical and magical sides. She has fallen in love with her hometown in Austin, where she spends free time exploring nature and hunting for breakfast tacos with her husband, son, and their super-pups Layla and Rose.

Hello Creative Friends,

This episode is a follow up to last week's Art as a Threshold, however as always it's also a standalone episode. In this episode I talk about one of the fundamental aspects of my work as an artist... My Art Kid. Not my human kid. Not an imaginary friend. The part of me that is a kid. The part that never leaves. The part that caretakes one of the most precious things I have as an artist... the gateway to 'something bigger.' She is the part of me that knows exactly what I'm here to do, and exactly how I want to do it. She is also the part of me that I told buzz off as a teenager, desperately trying to fit into the "responsible adult world." I think most of us dump on our Art Kids a lot as we grow older.

Most of the struggles we have making things are rooted in a fractured relationship with our Kid. In this episode we talk about who an Art Kid is, what it's like to commune with them, what it's like not to commune with them, and why you Kid is one of the most threatening things to the toxic status quo in your life, as well as the world.

Love,

Becca

LINKS: Website: http://beccajborrelli.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/secretsaucepodcast/

Email: [email protected]

ABOUT BECCA

Becca is an illustrator-educator in Austin, Texas. She spends most of her time designing adult coloring books, interactive murals, and speaking to organizations about mindfulness, meditation and the benefits of art-making. Clients include Visa, Dell Children’s Hospital, Austin Independent School District, University Hospital- Cleveland, the Austin Downtown Alliance and the Anti-Defamation League. Becca is most inspired by the invisible connections between all things. Her work aims to be a playful, bright, and hopeful interpretation of the world's whimsical and magical sides. She has fallen in love with her hometown in Austin, where she spends free time exploring nature and hunting for breakfast tacos with her husband, son, and their super-pups Layla and Rose.

Hello Creative Friends,

Happy New Year! As we cross the threshold from 2023 to 2024, I want to talk about another threshold we encounter… our art. This aspect of artistry is so rarely talked about, and even more seldomly acknowledged, that I wanted to begin The Secret Sauce year 2024 delving into it.

Sources from the episode:

YOUR ELUSIVE CREATIVE GENIUS

https://youtu.be/86x-u-tz0MA?si=PoW6N87czV2xIF2j

BIG MAGIC: https://www.amazon.com/Big-Magic-Elizabeth-Gilbert-audiobook/dp/B00U08ECQA/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?adgrpid=64516392708&hvadid=617073578152&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=9028310&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=1639435996263030543&hvtargid=kwd-299658545899&hydadcr=21128_13393252&keywords=big+magic&qid=1704838673&sr=8-1

Love,

Becca

Referenced in this episode:

Creator of Princess Mononoke:

Hello Creative Friends,

This episode is, in some ways, piggy backing off "Art Will Save Us" posted a few weeks back. But in other ways, it's a standalone episode. Creating is often a largely solitary act. Even those of us who create in groups, like perhaps a choir or theater, have a very solitary experience that can make us wonder: Does this even matter? Like, does my ability to paint a bowl of apples function in any larger system? Does it do anything outside of making a wall more colorful?

In some ways, a bowl of apples might just be about apples. It might be purchased by a restaurant, and people will regard it simply as a a painting of food. But there are many times where the things we make go out into the world and enter the Secret Sauce. The Soup. And the soup is doing its own thing. And in those moments our work is part of something else. As we enter 2024, can our awareness of the Soup... even if it's amorphous and mysterious... help us feel less alone and more meaningful in the ways we make things.

Love,

Becca

Referenced in this episode:

Creator of Princess Mononoke: Hayao Miyazaki

LINKS: Website: http://beccajborrelli.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/secretsaucepodcast/

Email: [email protected]

ABOUT BECCA

Becca is an illustrator-educator in Austin, Texas. She spends most of her time designing adult coloring books, interactive murals, and speaking to organizations about mindfulness, meditation and the benefits of art-making. Clients include Visa, Dell Children’s Hospital, Austin Independent School District, University Hospital- Cleveland, the Austin Downtown Alliance and the Anti-Defamation League. Becca is most inspired by the invisible connections between all things. Her work aims to be a playful, bright, and hopeful interpretation of the world's whimsical and magical sides. She has fallen in love with her hometown in Austin, where she spends free time exploring nature and hunting for breakfast tacos with her husband, son, and their super-pups Layla and Rose.

Hello Creative Friends,

This episode was recorded on July 4th, 2023. I LOVE this episode. It's one of my favorite recordings on this podcast. I also included an introduction explaining why I tabled it for 5 months.

I can't speak for everyone listening to this, but I know a fair number of us feel decidedly unfree in many aspects of our lives. We also live in a culture that for better or worse, equates "freedom" with "lack of limits." It can leave many of us, especially artists with profound limitations on their work and lives, wondering why they should even bother taking creative risks, making wild new things, or stepping into artistic arenas at all.

In this episode I unpack a new narrative in my own life and work around what it means to be free... even when we're buried under limitations. Obviously the words 'freedom' and 'limitation' will conjure up very different stories and experiences for each person listening. Can our greatest limitations be an inroad to our greatest freedom? Can we consider this idea without bypassing how truly unfair and toxic limitations can be? Can we embrace a new story that helps us create wildly expansive outcomes, without gaslighting ourselves into toxic positivity? If you've pondered these questions: I think the Art Freedom Paradox might have some nuggets just for you.

Love,

Becca

Referenced in this episode:

Jan Heaton: http://janheaton.com/

LINKS: Website: http://beccajborrelli.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/secretsaucepodcast/

Email: [email protected]

ABOUT BECCA

Becca is an illustrator-educator in Austin, Texas. She spends most of her time designing adult coloring books, interactive murals, and speaking to organizations about mindfulness, meditation and the benefits of art-making. Clients include Visa, Dell Children’s Hospital, Austin Independent School District, University Hospital- Cleveland, the Austin Downtown Alliance and the Anti-Defamation League. Becca is most inspired by the invisible connections between all things. Her work aims to be a playful, bright, and hopeful interpretation of the world's whimsical and magical sides. She has fallen in love with her hometown in Austin, where she spends free time exploring nature and hunting for breakfast tacos with her husband, son, and their super-pups Layla and Rose.

Hello Creative Friends,

This episode is a nod to a holiday episode I did in 2020 around the Christian Christmas Story. That said, this episode has something for EVERYONE. Especially folks who aren't Christian, don't recognize Christmas, or have been wounded by religion.

Are there ways the Christmas Story might be expansive enough to include ideas about making and birthing ANYTHING to save us... not just a human baby? This episode was intentionally recorded to piggy back on the last episode: Art Will Save Us. The Christmas Story says a human baby will come save us. That very well may be true. This episode isn't an argument for or against the Christmas Story. Far from it. Instead I'm wondering if there's an expansion to the Christmas Story that includes more than a teenage girl in a stable. What if there's a story that includes you and me?

LINKS: Website: http://beccajborrelli.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/secretsaucepodcast/

Email: [email protected]

ABOUT BECCA

Becca is an illustrator-educator in Austin, Texas. She spends most of her time designing adult coloring books, interactive murals, and speaking to organizations about mindfulness, meditation and the benefits of art-making. Clients include Visa, Dell Children’s Hospital, Austin Independent School District, University Hospital- Cleveland, the Austin Downtown Alliance and the Anti-Defamation League. Becca is most inspired by the invisible connections between all things. Her work aims to be a playful, bright, and hopeful interpretation of the world's whimsical and magical sides. She has fallen in love with her hometown in Austin, where she spends free time exploring nature and hunting for breakfast tacos with her husband, son, and their super-pups Layla and Rose.

Hello Creative Friends,

This episode is a call. The culture has narrowly defined artistry in the past, and has limited the ways we engage with making things. It has become downright brazen to suggest that art can save us. But is it? This idea has certainly has been trumpeted from artists across space and time. But like many beautiful ideas, the practical implications get "lost in the sauce." For example: How does art save? Often it feels like a nice platitude, but in the face of really tough stuff, also a little like frosting. Can art truly heal humanity? If you've found yourself contemplating even a morsel of this idea, this episode is for you.

LINKS: Website: http://beccajborrelli.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/secretsaucepodcast/

Email: [email protected]

ABOUT BECCA

Becca is an illustrator-educator in Austin, Texas. She spends most of her time designing adult coloring books, interactive murals, and speaking to organizations about mindfulness, meditation and the benefits of art-making. Clients include Visa, Dell Children’s Hospital, Austin Independent School District, University Hospital- Cleveland, the Austin Downtown Alliance and the Anti-Defamation League. Becca is most inspired by the invisible connections between all things. Her work aims to be a playful, bright, and hopeful interpretation of the world's whimsical and magical sides. She has fallen in love with her hometown in Austin, where she spends free time exploring nature and hunting for breakfast tacos with her husband, son, and their super-pups Layla and Rose.

Hello Creative Friends!

This episode is about creative wounding... something we ALL know about. Why is art uniquely lovely and painful at the same time? How has the culture narrowly defined artistry in the past, and how has that limited the ways we engage with medicinal qualities of making things? Have you found yourself so drawn to making certain things, and simultaneously certain you have no business doing those thing? Can this kind of wounding have an artistic purpose in and of itself? This episode is for you. 

From the episode:

Jan Heaton: http://janheaton.com/

Music at the end: https://open.spotify.com/track/4YeKAwFn69ehnciOfi7Sbf

LINKS: Website: http://beccajborrelli.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/secretsaucepodcast/

Email: [email protected]

 

ABOUT BECCA

Becca is an illustrator-educator and part founder of Austin-based female maker collective: Lemon House. She spends most of her time designing adult coloring books, interactive murals, and speaking to organizations about mindfulness, meditation and the benefits of art-making. Clients include Visa, Dell Children’s Hospital, Austin Independent School District, University Hospital- Cleveland, the Austin Downtown Alliance and the Anti-Defamation League.    Becca is most inspired by the invisible connections between all things. Her work aims to be a playful, bright, and hopeful interpretation of the world's whimsical and magical sides. She has fallen in love with her hometown in Austin, where she spends free time exploring nature and hunting for breakfast tacos with her husband, son, and their super-pups Layla and Rose.