A Life Creative Podcast

Melanio Gomez
  • 5.0 (49)
  • Arts

This is a weekly show where listeners learn how creators navigate their careers in the arts, and find  community with like-minded people who face similar challenges and joys while pursuing their passions.  We'll be talking with photographers, artists, interior stylists and designers, food stylists, crafters, creative content creators, writers, publishers, marketers, and so many more.  If you're interested in a career in the arts or any creative field, or you just want to know how creators are inspired and execute on their ideas you'll want to catch this show, and if you're looking for a creator community you've found your people here.

  1. Nov 3

    Episode 62 | The Garden Path with Author & Editor Stephen Orr

    Imagine being asked to freshen up the rooftop garden of House & Garden magazine’s editor-in-chief, Dominique Browning, for a photo shoot. For this episode’s guest — author and editor Stephen Orr — that one encounter led to a job as the magazine’s garden editor. Stephen tells the story of his upbringing in West Texas, where his parents sparked an early appreciation for nature and plants. He shares how the foundation of skills and experiences he set in motion in early adulthood ultimately landed him a dream job in New York City magazine publishing. But as always on A Life Creative, the path had plenty of twists, turns, and grunt work — all in service of building a creative life. Along the way, he worked for acclaimed publications including Condé Nast Traveler, House & Garden, Domino, and Martha Stewart Living (planting 10,000 daffodil bulbs alongside Martha!), and spent many years as editor-in-chief of Better Homes & Gardens. He's authored four books, his latest The Gardener’s Mindset: Connecting with Nature Through Plants published in 2026, is a collection of essays in which he considers the important role of nature, plants and gardens in our lives. And his three favorite gardens in the United States? You’ll have to listen to find out.    This episode is supported by Aura House, cold-air diffused home fragrances.  Visit them and use creative10 for 10% off your purchase. For more on Stephen please visit: www.alifecreativepod.com alifecreative.Substack.com @alifecreative on Instagram alifecreative on YouTube

  2. Oct 20

    Episode 61 | Making Moments Matter with Celebration Expert Darcy Miller

    How does an art history major and auto-didact maker become one of the country’s most sought-after “celebration experts” — and one of Martha Stewart’s creative right hands for more than 25 years? Darcy Miller joins us to tell the story. From her very first job — hired by legendary creative director Gael Towey in the scrappy, pre-magazine, roll-up-your-sleeves days at Martha Stewart — to becoming Editorial Director of Martha Stewart Weddings, Darcy spent decades crafting the beautiful stories you’ve seen on the magazine’s pages, working alongside the photographers, art directors, and prop stylists host Melañio Gomez knows firsthand. Then she struck out on her own. Her brand, Darcy Miller Designs, helps people turn even the smallest occasions into something unforgettable — and her book, Celebrate Everything, illustrated entirely by her own hand and filled with mementos straight from the heart, shows exactly how. Her philosophy? Almost anything can be a moment worth remembering. This episode is supported by Aura House, cold-air diffused home fragrances.  Visit them and use creative10 for 10% off your purchase. For more on Darcy please visit: www.alifecreativepod.com alifecreative.Substack.com @alifecreative on Instagram alifecreative on YouTube

  3. Oct 6

    Episode 60 | Once Upon a Voice with Singer & Actress Liz Callaway

    Liz Callaway is an Emmy Award winning, Grammy and Tony nominated singer and actress with a long resume in performing arts. Her Broadway debut happened in her early 20's with the first run of Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along.  She went on to perform in Cats, Baby, and Miss Saigon on Broadway and has recorded (and self-produced!) numerous albums in various music genres.  She has a longtime friendship with composer Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Pippen, Godspell among many others) and her latest album is a tribute to his work:  The Wizard and I: Liz Callaway Sings Stephen Schwartz. Liz is also known for her performances as the singing voice behind a number of animated feature film characters, mostly famously as Anastasia singing the Oscar nominated song Journey to the Past.  She also performs with her sister Ann Hampton Callaway and shares some hilarious stories from their time as twenty-somethings getting their start in New York City. A Life Creative's show producer, Chris Kangas met Liz while seated next to her on a flight to San Francisco and she graciously agreed to come on the show and share her wonderful story. This episode is supported by Aura House, cold-air diffused home fragrances.  Visit them and use creative10 for 10% off your purchase. For more on Liz please visit: www.alifecreativepod.com alifecreative.Substack.com @alifecreative on Instagram alifecreative on YouTube

  4. Sep 22

    Episode 59 | Style and Substance with Interiors Stylist Martin Bourne

    Prop stylist, gardener, ceramicist, textile designer — these are just some of the many hats Martin Bourne wears in his creative life. In this episode he shares the story of his upbringing in bucolic Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom, how he complemented a natural talent for design with various academic pursuits, and how he stumbled into his first styling jobs — not yet knowing that "prop stylist" was even a career. Before leaving the UK for New York City, Martin worked for Elle Decor and was recruited to produce interior design stories for Tyler Brûlé's influential new magazine Wallpaper*. A friend in New York eventually convinced him to visit, and he soon found himself picking up freelance styling work. He's been in the U.S. for more than 20 years now, with a home in upstate New York where he pursues his other great passion: gardening. During the COVID era, the pressure to reinvent was felt across the creative community — how to keep making work under the constraints of home confinement became the central challenge. For Martin, this led to a collaboration with photographer (and upstate neighbor) Patricia Heal.  Together they experimented with creating still life images, even producing stories shot inside a chicken coop. That inventive spirit carried forward into something unexpected: the backdrops and vessels he created have since evolved into textile and ceramic product lines. It's a life lived in perpetual creative motion — experimenting, collaborating, and making beautiful things almost as a byproduct of simply following curiosity wherever it leads.  This episode is supported by Aura House, cold-air diffused home fragrances.  Visit them and use creative10 for 10% off your purchase. For more on Martin please visit: www.alifecreativepod.com alifecreative.Substack.com @alifecreative on Instagram alifecreative on YouTube

  5. Sep 8

    Episode 58 | The Art of the Desktop with Allison Williams, Co-Founder of Wms&Co

    In the small world of the New York City creator community show host Melanio Gomez worked at Martha Stewart Living with the sister-in-law of this week’s guest, Allison Williams. Allison is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) who went on to build successful creative businesses.  Initially she worked for several years as a graphic designer for Carbone Smolan design firm.  She left to do freelance design work landing clients like Takashimaya under the corporate name ‘Design MW’ which she co-founded with her former husband JP Williams. Eventually, she and JP co-founded WMS&Co. an online retailer of artfully curated home office products.  She recounts how it all started, the lessons she learned along the way, and how she manages art and commerce successfully. This episode is supported by Aura House, cold-air diffused home fragrances.  Visit them and use creative10 for 10% off your purchase. For more on Allison please visit: www.alifecreativepod.com alifecreative.Substack.com @alifecreative on Instagram alifecreative on YouTube

  6. Jul 28

    Episode 57 | Cutting Brushstrokes with Collage Artist Cheryl Molnar

    Cheryl Molnar is a New York-based artist whose intricately layered collages — composed of paint-stained paper, photographs, and architectural drawings mounted on natural birch panels — reconstruct familiar landscapes into evocative, utopian worlds. Her work examines the tension between the natural environment and human development, exploring themes of memory, social class, and the places we return to only to find them changed. Cheryl and host Melanio Gomez crossed paths early in their careers at Martha Stewart Living, Cheryl's first job after graduating from RISD. She has since earned an MFA from Pratt Institute and held residencies at Smack Mellon in Brooklyn and the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (EFA) in New York City, where she maintains a studio today. Her work has been exhibited across the country, including at the University of Arizona and the Islip Art Museum, and she has completed public art commissions for the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (a permanent ceramic tile installation at PS19Q in Queens) and for Los Angeles County. She also curates exhibitions through her curatorial project, Cheryl Molnar Projects. A few months ago, Melanio reconnected with Cheryl at C24 Gallery in New York City — which represents her — on the occasion of her solo exhibition The Overview. There Cheryl gave a talk about her work and inspirations, offering a window into the reconstructed landscapes and layered memories at the heart of her practice. On today's episode Cheryl shares the path that led her from making Barbie doll clothes as a child to being a full-time artist with an incredible body of work.  This episode is supported by Aura House, cold-air diffused home fragrances.  Visit them and use creative10 for 10% off your purchase. For more on Cheryl please visit: www.alifecreativepod.com alifecreative.Substack.com @alifecreative on Instagram alifecreative on YouTube

  7. Jul 14

    Episode 56 | Fashioning Food with Designer and Cookbook Author Peter Som

    Peter Som joins host Melanio Gomez to share the story of how he became a New York City-based fashion designer. After early stints at Calvin Klein and Michael Kors, he pursued his dream of creating his own label — spending nearly 15 years producing collections shown on Fashion Week runways, sold at Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus, and worn by Michelle Obama, Beyoncé, Scarlett Johansson, and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Over those years he cultivated a second passion: cooking. Rooted in childhood hours spent in the kitchen with his mother and grandmother, cooking was never just about getting food on the table — it was a way of sustaining meaning, connection, and heritage in everyday life. He has written food stories for Saveur, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, and other publications, and in 2025 authored his first cookbook, Family Style (Harvest/HarperCollins). The recipes were inspired in part by a remarkable discovery made in his grandmother's apartment after she passed away. This episode is supported by Aura House, cold-air diffused home fragrances.  Visit them and use creative10 for 10% off your purchase. For more about Peter and links to his work: www.alifecreativepod.com alifecreative.Substack.com @alifecreative on Instagram alifecreative on YouTube

  8. Jun 23

    Episode 55 | The Architecture of Meaning with Ray Booth, Partner and Designer at McAlpine

    Ray Booth grew up in Huntsville, Alabama, studied architecture at Auburn, and today divides his time between Nashville, New York City, and Provincetown, Massachusetts — a life as layered as the interiors he creates. Ray's path to becoming a partner at McAlpine, the celebrated architecture and interiors firm founded by Bobby McAlpine, wasn't a straight line. After interning with the firm in college, he headed to New York to work in the studio of legendary designer John Saladino. He also spent time as a model with Click Model Management — a chapter that funded extended travel through Europe and deepened his eye for history, craft, and beauty. McAlpine eventually drew him back with an offer to build out the firm's interiors practice, and Ray has been shaping some of America's most thoughtful homes ever since. He's published two books: Evocative Interiors (2018) and The Expressive Home (2025). In this conversation, Ray shares a design philosophy rooted not in aesthetics but in emotion — he sees homes as emotional vessels, containers for the full breadth of human experience. Beauty, he'll tell you, is the byproduct of creating a soulful home. Host Melañio Gomez has known Ray since the early '90s, when both were just beginning their careers and adult lives. This episode is supported by Aura House, cold-air diffused home fragrances.  Visit them and use creative10 for 10% off your purchase. For more about Ray and links to his work: www.alifecreativepod.com alifecreative.Substack.com @alifecreative on Instagram alifecreative on YouTube

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5
out of 5
49 Ratings

About

This is a weekly show where listeners learn how creators navigate their careers in the arts, and find  community with like-minded people who face similar challenges and joys while pursuing their passions.  We'll be talking with photographers, artists, interior stylists and designers, food stylists, crafters, creative content creators, writers, publishers, marketers, and so many more.  If you're interested in a career in the arts or any creative field, or you just want to know how creators are inspired and execute on their ideas you'll want to catch this show, and if you're looking for a creator community you've found your people here.

Information

  • Creator
    Melanio Gomez
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    62
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 A Life Creative Podcast
  • Show Website
    A Life Creative Podcast

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