the creative genius podcast

Amira Rahim, a successful commercial abstract artist who founded Better Than Art School™, shares her journey of finding her creative voice and creating a successful art business around it. Growing up in Newark, New Jersey, where other legendary talents like Queen Latifah and Lauryn Hill also grew up, Amira felt the pressure to live up to the place's artistic standards. She overcame the two things that were stopping her from finding her voice, which she shares with us inside the episode, along with the methodical method she developed for finding one's creative voice. 

So many valuable insights inside this episode, for artists struggling to find their creative voice and build on it. 

This episode is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to be an abstract artist but has struggled with finding their voice. Amira seems to have truly cracked the formula for finding your voice, and inside this episode, she gives you the week-long assignment she gives to all her students who are ready to find their voice.

IN THIS EPISODE

Living up to the pressures of creativity

Amira's method for finding her voice as an artist (that she teaches inside Better Than Art School ™) 

The biggest challenge she thinks we are all facing as artists is the act of creating.

Amira gives us an assignment that will help anyone feeling stuck and not able to find their creative voice, and she says all it takes is a week.

Practical pointers for artists struggling with composition and finding their color palette

Why finding your style is so vital - valuable insights and practical things you can do inside a week that can catapult you forward in finding your voice, especially as an abstract painter.

What is behind our reluctance to let our paintings go, the ones we really love, and the journey to selling your work consistently as an artist.

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Toni Nagy is a massively creative and incredibly intelligent, articulate content creator, stand up comedian, and writer. You have probably already seen one of her videos cross your social media feed - she interpretive dances her feelings, thoughts, and philosophies. She is also a filmmaker and the founder of CaveLight Productions. Her work is quasi–radical, somewhat-existential, and mostly funny.

At the beginning of this episode, I share some thoughts on the importance of stewarding our dreams vs. sitting back and "going with the flow" or waiting for them to happen on their own time, how being overly flowy with our dreams can actually be a way of staying small and that maybe we have to take a more active role in making our dreams come true.

Our guest in this episode, Toni Nagy caught my eye with her captivating interpretive dances which involve unique movements and spoken word work meshed together, in her dances she's expressing thoughts, working out how she's feeling about stuff, she's talking about philosophy. It's a little bit of activism even maybe.  

When we get to the part of the conversation where Tony starts to talk about shadow. I was nodding so hard. I thought my earphones were gonna fall off. I love what she says about shadow. You know, there's so much talk about how to recognize and ignore the , negative limiting beliefs that are holding us back.

And listen out for the part about negative self talk! She has a really interesting hot take on that and how there can actually be wisdom in some of it!
 

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT

-The magic and power of consistently showing up for yourself

-Rituals for showing up for yourself and excavating more of your true creativity

-Capitalism's impact on creativity

-Why we work so hard to shove down one of the best parts of being human

-The pressure of being beautiful or creating something beautiful and how it impacts our sense of self worth

VISIT the Episode Page for more