🎙️ The Art of Expression
💫In this gentle, wisdom-rich conversation, I enjoy elevenses with artist and creative wellbeing guide Georgie St Clair.
It was a total delight to go a-rummaging through Georgie’s world and studio for half an hour. ✨
Georgie writes and speaks so beautifully about how art, rest, and slow living aren’t just self-care — they’re a quiet rebellion against hustle culture, and a tender return to the truth of who we really are.
✨From burnout and digital fatigue to neuroaesthetics (no, I didn’t know either) and sketchbooks, Georgie shares her story of rediscovery. Of how redundancy became a doorway into deeper presence, why pen is her tool of choice, and what happens when we give ourselves permission to be creative, messy, and joyfully unproductive.💫
✨ This episode is for anyone who’s:
🧑🏽🎨Ever believed they need big qualifications to call themselves an artist.
🌻For anyone craving a softer, more mindful way of creating a life that feels true.
🪄And for anyone secretly yearning to stop performing and start creating — not for likes or outcomes, but for the freedom of creating.
Show Notes + Timestamps
00:03:00 – From Burnout to Brushstrokes
Georgie shares how burnout from content creation and Instagram perfectionism led her to a total digital detox and a return to pen-and-paper drawing.
00:5:00 - Redundancy, mindfulness training, and her reconnection to art through slowness and analog expression marked the start of a new chapter.
00:08:40 – Productivity, Redefined
We dive into Georgie’s background in productivity coaching and her evolving relationship with the word “productive.” Spoiler: she hates it.
00:10:10 – Falling Into the Substack Trap
Georgie opens up about the pressure to “succeed” on Substack, and how easy it is to internalise advice that pulls you out of your own centre.
00:12:00 – The Be More, Do Less Philosophy
Doing less doesn’t mean doing nothing — it means doing what matters, what brings joy, and what aligns with your why.
00:16:40 – Substack, Play & the Cost of Optimising Art
Georgie reflects on creative wellbeing in digital spaces, and how we sometimes sabotage freedom by turning everything into strategy.
00:18:30 – What’s Georgie’s Why?
00:25:00 - How Georgie navigates resistance, the perfectionist voice, and why creating in tiny steps (even for 2 minutes) is powerful medicine.
00:26:20 – What Is Neuroaesthetics?
00:28:10 – Art Galleries, Phones & the Photo Impairment Effect
We discuss how consuming art slowly and intentionally (instead of through a phone screen) enhances wellbeing — and the surprising research behind it.
00:33:30 – One Final Permission Slip
Georgie offers a gorgeous closing message: take one minute. Just one. And see where that creative impulse leads you…
Quotable Georgie moments:
“We’re all artists. And we’re all allowed to find the right music to dance to.”
“Productivity is making space for nothing.”
“Creativity isn't a luxury, it's an absolute necessity, it's a part of nourishment for life.”
🎧 Connect With Georgie
Georgie’s exquisite Substack: Be More, Do Less
Peruse Georgies’s beautiful IG
Connect on Linkedin
Mentions:
Book: Your Brain on Art by Susan Magsamen & Ivy Ross (on neuroaesthetics)
Artist mentioned: Danny Gregory. Heartily recommend any of Danny’s books.
Our conversation brought to mind a study in the New York times I read some years ago about the mental health benefits of sitting with just one painting in a gallery. I couldn’t find the NYT article but I did find this: Case for spending one hour with a painting.
Big Love,
Suzy🪄✨
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