The Creative Collective

Allie Joy and Emily Sharp
  • 3.7 (6)
  • Visual Arts
  • Weekly

The Creative Collective Podcast is an inviting space where we explore how creativity can weave its way into everyday life and help us feel more connected to ourselves and others. Hosted by licensed art therapists Allie Joy and Emily Sharp, it’s rooted in one simple belief: you don’t have to be an artist to benefit from creativity. You just need a little curiosity and a willingness to begin. Each week, we share honest conversations and practical tools to support a creative life that feels sustainable, accessible, and truly yours. Welcome to your creative community.

  1. 16h ago

    The Hobby Graveyard: All the Hobbies We Swore We'd Finish

    Allie has been knitting the same scarf for three winters, and Emily has a cabinet full of watercolor tubes she’s sure will turn her into a watercolor artist any day now. In this episode, we go through our hobby graveyards: the half-finished projects, the supplies we can’t get rid of, and the things we bought in a burst of excitement and used about three times. We also talk about why stopping a hobby comes with so much guilt, why the supply you finally donate is always the one you want the next week, and what to actually do with all the stuff once you’ve moved on. In this episode, we discuss: What’s haunting each of us right now, including a macrame wall hanging that’s been almost finished for yearsWhy “should” shows up so much when we talk about finishing thingsIs a hobby you loved for six months and then dropped really a failure?Why we both stopped forcing ourselves to finish books we don’t likeThe kid logic of wanting a toy back the second someone else has itSupply swaps, creative reuse stores, Buy Nothing groups, and other ways to try something new without buying everything first Tell us what’s in your hobby graveyard. We want to see your stashes! Resources & Links Frame It Easy - custom and premade frames Watercolor Artist from Allie's wedding, Mo MyraItaly Cooking Class at Ebbio Studio GhilbiEmily's favorite watercolor tubes she barely usesAllie's favorite acrylic paints gathering dust Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠ or visit our ⁠website⁠ to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply ⁠here.⁠ You can find Allie on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠, and you can find Emily on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠ to learn more about all they do and stay connected You can find Austin on ⁠Instagram⁠ for all of your podcasting and musical needs If you enjoyed this episode, follow along and share it with someone who could use a little more creativity in their life. And this is your reminder that you don't have to be an artist to benefit from creativity. You're welcome, as you are, in this creative community.

  2. Oct 26

    Can Creativity Be a Clinical Intervention? Let's Talk Tango with Dr. Ashley Hawke

    Ashley Hawke has a PhD in integrative physiology and works at Yale on a study where breast cancer survivors learn Argentine tango. She's also been weaving on and off since a second-grade art project involving straws and yarn, and is the first person to tell you that creativity and science can go hand in hand. She shares about starting over in a new place, making new friends, and how you should always say yes to the bedazzling event where you don't know anyone. In this episode, we discuss: The most exciting parts of the creative research Ashely does, and what makes her tear up just talking aboutStraw bookmarks, a wood-burning Etsy shop, and a weaving collection based on Fran Fine's outfitsInviting someone she'd met once on a three-hour drive to a craft market, and how that worked outWhy going to craft events alone is easier than it sounds when everyone's busy with their hands Resources & Links Dr. Ashley Hawke - @hawkedesignshop Adapted Argentine Dance Therapy Study - Ohio State and Yale Parkinson's Tango research study by Holmes and Hackney Mermaid Books - book + art meetups in Connecticut Allie's ADHD awareness month posts Paint daubers - for all your preschool art needs Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠ or visit our ⁠website⁠ to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply ⁠here.⁠ You can find Allie on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠, and you can find Emily on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠ to learn more about all they do and stay connected You can find Austin on ⁠Instagram⁠ for all of your podcasting and musical needs If you enjoyed this episode, follow along and share it with someone who could use a little more creativity in their life. And this is your reminder that you don't have to be an artist to benefit from creativity. You're welcome, as you are, in this creative community.

  3. Oct 19

    ADHD, Hobby Hopping, and the Project That’s 90% Done

    Allie is getting ready for an ADHD creators summit at Paris Hilton’s house, and she’s pretty sure the road there started with bedazzling. That felt like the right way to open an episode about ADHD and hobby hopping: the rush of a brand-new craft, the supplies you bought and never opened, and the project that’s been 90% done for longer than either of us wants to admit. Emily is deep in her own rabbit hole, researching every workshop she could possibly take in Tokyo. We spend a lot of this conversation on why newness is so hard to resist, and why the last 10% of a project can feel impossible even when you really do want to finish it. We also talk about how quickly “I just tried this” turns into “should I be selling these?” And Emily makes the case for judging a hobby by what you got out of it instead of how long you stuck with it. In this episode, we talk about: How Allie got from bedazzling to Paris Hilton’s house, and the Tokyo workshops Emily can’t choose between because, as usual, she wants to do it all Why being a beginner is so appealing to an ADHD brain, and why something as repetitive as bedazzling can still hold attention for hoursAllie knitting through every single grad school class, and whether a lot more people listen better with something in their hands than we assumeWhat to do with a project stuck at 90%Why an ADHD brain would rather start a business than fold laundry, and Allie’s cost-versus-worth question for hobbies that will never make moneyHobby hopping without buying everything first: craft supply libraries, creative reuse stores, and texting your friends before you order the supplies Resources & Links Brooklyn Public Library’s Craft Supply LibraryIndependent Review - ADHD study Forbes Article about the Rise of ADHD and AutismOfficial Hobby Hoe Club - Instagram for serial hobby hoppers Our episode: Can We Please Stop Monetizing Every Hobby?Scraplanta - Art and Craft reuse store in Atlanta Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠ or visit our ⁠website⁠ to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply ⁠here.⁠ You can find Allie on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠, and you can find Emily on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠ to learn more about all they do and stay connected You can find Austin on ⁠Instagram⁠ for all of your podcasting and musical needs If you enjoyed this episode, follow along and share it with someone who could use a little more creativity in their life. And this is your reminder that you don't have to be an artist to benefit from creativity. You're welcome, as you are, in this creative community.

  4. Oct 12

    What I Wish I'd Known When I Stopped Making Art with Jennifer Chiles

    For about ten years, Jen barely made art. She was training to become a PA, starting a career in pediatric cardiac surgery, and raising small kids, and in her head, making art meant a big acrylic painting and enough time to finish it. Looking back, she wishes someone had told her she could just carry a little watercolor sketchbook around in her tote bag. Jennifer Chiles is a painter, ceramicist, and art educator who has taught kids and adults for years, and she co-founded Creative Club Retreats with Emily. She talks about how her art came back when she took a break from medicine and moved to Denmark, how she lost the playfulness somewhere between art school grades and commission work, and what it looks like now to keep both careers going at once. In this episode, they discuss: Why Jen is the person at work who gets asked to draw the medical diagram for a familyHow art school grades and commission work made her a perfectionist, and how a much more casual sketchbook habit changed thatPainting flowers with her dad as a kid, and how he kept nudging her to make thingsWhat her creative week looks like now, from sketching with her son at the bagel place to sketchbooks that never quite make it onto the wallsWhy adults come to an art table with more hesitation than kids, and why people talk more easily when they're making something side by sideAnd the sketchbook argument continues: first page, or wherever it opens Resources & Links Jennifer Chiles: jenniferchilesart.com and Instagram: @jenniferchiles.artCreative Club Retreats 2027 Life of Color - Allie's new project! Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠ or visit our ⁠website⁠ to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply ⁠here.⁠ You can find Allie on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠, and you can find Emily on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠ to learn more about all they do and stay connected You can find Austin on ⁠Instagram⁠ for all of your podcasting and musical needs If you enjoyed this episode, follow along and share it with someone who could use a little more creativity in their life. And this is your reminder that you don't have to be an artist to benefit from creativity. You're welcome, as you are, in this creative community.

  5. Oct 5

    Creative Nostalgia - Shrinky Dinks, Gak, and the Art Briefcase Where Nothing Worked

    In this episode we chat about creative nostalgia - the craft supplies we wish we still had, the ones we still use, and those that can stay in the past. We go back to what we made as kids: giant poster-board birthday cards, clothes for American Girl dolls, slip-cast ceramic swans, and a whole bedroom wall of magazine collage. Beyond the fun creative supplies, we talk about why time felt so different back then, and how to pick a thread back up now without recreating your entire 1998 bedroom. Join us for a trip down memory lane. In this episode, they discuss: The giant homemade cards and that specific crayon smell Allie's grandmother's friends, who never once said "we can't make that"Which American Girl dolls we had Crayon bins, Play-Doh, scented markers, and Lisa Frank Brooklyn Public Library's new Craft Supply LibraryWhy everyone should use their stickers today Resources & Links The Everyday Millennial Oracle by Elizabeth SuPipsticksBrooklyn Public Library Craft Supply LibraryKlutz activity booksShrinky Dinks Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠ or visit our ⁠website⁠ to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply ⁠here.⁠ You can find Allie on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠, and you can find Emily on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠ to learn more about all they do and stay connected You can find Austin on ⁠Instagram⁠ for all of your podcasting and musical needs If you enjoyed this episode, follow along and share it with someone who could use a little more creativity in their life. And this is your reminder that you don't have to be an artist to benefit from creativity. You're welcome, as you are, in this creative community.

  6. Sep 28

    What If Creativity Looked Like a Garden? with Dominique Begnaud

    What if the most creative thing you did this year was grow something? Dominique Begnaud is an art therapist in St. Louis who works with art, play, and gardening — and it's the gardening that we couldn't stop thinking about. She runs art and garden groups in community nonprofits and schools, and her practice is built on a simple idea: that tending something is a creative act. In this conversation she gets specific about what making art with plants actually looks like and how this changes with the seasons. She talks about what happens when a client who struggles to stay present tries hammering flowers. And she tells us about building gardens where ever she can find space and how this changes therapy spaces and communities. This is an art therapy podcast built around creative community, and Dominique's work is a reminder that community doesn't require a beautiful space. Sometimes it just requires a pot, a few seeds, and the patience to wait six weeks for something to happen. In this episode, they discuss: How flower pounding actually works, and what a hammer does for someone who has trouble staying in the presentThe difference between saying gardening is your therapy and practicing gardening therapy, and why Dominique is careful about that lineThe surprising places gardens can grow Why she tells clients they can just try something once, with no commitment to ever doing it againThe one plant she thinks everyone should try growing, which is beautiful, edible, and works for both pressing and pounding Resources & Links Dominique Begnaud — therapy website and instagramBowood Farms, St. LouisMissouri Botanical Garden Episode about letting yourself be bad at something Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠ or visit our ⁠website⁠ to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply ⁠here.⁠ You can find Allie on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠, and you can find Emily on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠ to learn more about all they do and stay connected You can find Austin on ⁠Instagram⁠ for all of your podcasting and musical needs If you enjoyed this episode, follow along and share it with someone who could use a little more creativity in their life. And this is your reminder that you don't have to be an artist to benefit from creativity. You're welcome, as you are, in this creative community.

  7. Sep 21

    Everything You’ve Always Wanted to Ask an Art Therapist

    Here's the listener requested episode where we chat about all your Art Therapy FAQs! Emily and Allie answer the questions they get asked at parties, on airplanes, in comment sections, and occasionally by other mental health professionals who should probably know better. They cover what art therapy actually is, what it takes to become an art therapist in the US, and what those two letters after our names really mean. We cover some funny stories and the times we recommend lying about your job, as well as the times when you should shout it proudly. We laugh about the art therapy myths circulating online right now and what might have a bit of truth to it. Whether you're considering the field, already in it, or just curious what happens in that room - this art therapy podcast is for you. In this episode, they discuss: Why Allie stopped ignoring one particular comment section, and what it says about how misunderstood this profession still is inside the mental health fieldThe actual path to becoming an art therapist in the US — the master's degree, the supervised hours, the board exam in a real testing center, and the difference between ATR and ATR-BCWhether you need to be good at art to become an art therapist, and why a trained painter sometimes has the hardest time in an art therapy sessionThe enormous range of places this work happens Why both of them have considered lying about their jobs to strangers, and what changed their minds Resources & Links Art Therapy Credentials Board (ATCB) American Art Therapy Association (AATA) Life of Color - Allie's mandala design Gel Printing Summit - Emily's online workshop Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠ or visit our ⁠website⁠ to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply ⁠here.⁠ You can find Allie on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠, and you can find Emily on ⁠Instagram⁠ or her ⁠website⁠ to learn more about all they do and stay connected You can find Austin on ⁠Instagram⁠ for all of your podcasting and musical needs If you enjoyed this episode, follow along and share it with someone who could use a little more creativity in their life. And this is your reminder that you don't have to be an artist to benefit from creativity. You're welcome, as you are, in this creative community.

  8. Sep 14

    Did Adulthood Make Us Less Creative? with Rukmini Poddar

    Rukmini Poddar didn't initially set out to teach anyone about drawing their emotions. In 2015, burnt out at the end of a graphic design degree and convinced she was the least consistent person alive, she started The 100 Day Project with no plan beyond touching the page every day. Ten years later she's the author of Draw Your Feelings, she leads workshops for individuals, schools, retreats and corporate teams, and she's built a global creative community out of people who mostly don't call themselves artists. In this episode, Rukmini takes us back to the twenty-three-year-old who had nothing to lose and posted her drawings to a few hundred followers, which later turned into a really inspiring creative community. She also walks us through what she actually teaches: how to get acquainted with the texture of a feeling before you try to draw it, why abstract beats representational every time, and why she thinks the art you make alone is only half of the work. This conversation was a perfect fit for this creativity podcast. In this episode, they discuss: The 100 Day Project that changed the direction of her life — and why she credits it for who it proved she could be, not for anything she actually madeObscure Emotions, the 2016 series of small pink figures that gave her language for feelings she couldn't name, and the comments from strangers that turned a private habit into something biggerHer ten-second timeline exercise and what people end up telling a total stranger afterwardWhat she says to the person who tells her "I can't draw," plus her case that honest art matters more than beautiful artLife-size self-portraits, a redwood forest, and the first retreat she ran before she felt anywhere near ready Resources & Links Draw Your Feelings: A Creative Journal to Help Connect with Your Emotions through Art by Rukmini Poddar (Penguin/Ebury)Rukmini on Instagram: @rockinruksidearruksi.comThe 100 Day Project (#The100DayProject)

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Ratings & Reviews

3.7
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

The Creative Collective Podcast is an inviting space where we explore how creativity can weave its way into everyday life and help us feel more connected to ourselves and others. Hosted by licensed art therapists Allie Joy and Emily Sharp, it’s rooted in one simple belief: you don’t have to be an artist to benefit from creativity. You just need a little curiosity and a willingness to begin. Each week, we share honest conversations and practical tools to support a creative life that feels sustainable, accessible, and truly yours. Welcome to your creative community.

Information

  • Creator
    Allie Joy and Emily Sharp
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    26
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Allie Joy and Emily Sharp
  • Show Website
    The Creative Collective

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