Art therapy and mental health for creators. Alex Loveless explores the healing power of creativity, interviews artists about recovery from burnout, anxiety, depression and trauma, and provides practical strategies for using art as therapy. Featuring talks on neurodiversity (autism, ADHD), art practice, mental wellness and creative wellbeing.
Alex Loveless
Alex talks about the role of stories in how humans perceive the world and the role that art plays within this. He explains, using stories, how an artist encodes their story into every artwork, often in a non-linear fashion. Alex also talks about how autistic people feel compelled to tell their stories as a way of empathising with other people.
Alex gets mental and physical in the bumper first episode on his series that seeks to illuminate the biological and psychological causes of mental illness and the reasons why art can help treat and prevent it. In this episode he discusses the causes of the epidemic of mental illness we see in society at the moment, offers some insight onto the mechanisms leading to this, and discusses how various treatments help us.
Alex reflects on how, during these turbulent times, art is more important than ever to help us cope, express our views, connect with society, and ultimately help us maintain our mental wellness and that of those around us.
Alex explains how problem solving is central to the practise of creativity via mathematical proofs and magicians in this long awaited second part of the How to be Creative series.
Alex gets all meta and talks about his latest episode, ChatGPT and the challenges and delights of podcasting, all recorded (badly) while he walks through some woodland!
Alex explains the concept of voice in creativity, how to find your artistic voice and why it’s so important
Alex talks candidly about his recent resurgence of mental illness, what happened to cause it, and how he intends to fight back with the help of, you guessed it, art!
Alex kicks off a new series of a yet unknown number of episodes on creativity. He explores the nature of creativity using examples from the world of jazz, introducing the core concepts that will be covered in upcoming episodes.