Extraordinary Creatives

Before we begin, a gentle note: in this episode we speak about death, grief, psychosis and depression. If you’re feeling tender, you might want to pause and come back when the time feels right. It will be worth it.
Today, I am joined by the extraordinary artist Eddie Peake.

Eddie builds exhibitions the way some artists use paint. Space, for him, is a material. He constructs environments that place you inside the liminal fourth wall, that charged threshold between viewer and viewed, between participation and observation, between ecstasy and horror. In his shows, the audience becomes a protagonist.

We talk about masculinity stretched to breaking point, about desire and shame, about the theatre of intimacy and the politics shaping our cultural moment. Eddie pushes back on what the art world calls authenticity, questioning whether expression itself has become a learned, conservative language dressed up as radical. In an age of populist politics and market-ready aesthetics, he asks what it really means to resist.

If you’re an artist wrestling with identity, politics, envy, burnout, or the fear that your work is either too much or not enough, this conversation will resonate.

I hope it moves you as much as it moved me.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

 

·      The fourth wall isn’t just a boundary; it’s a live material. Treating space as something you can sculpt, like Eddie does, lets the viewer become a character inside the work, not a distant observer.

·      Fluorescent colour can carry psychic weight. What looks euphoric on the surface can also signal overload, instability, and states of mind that don’t sit neatly in polite language.

 

BEST MOMENTS

 

“This is your reminder that creative life is not linear. There are seasons of immersion and seasons of withdrawal”

“I really believe it's important to take Our time and not to feel a sort of outside pressure to be moving at 7000 million miles per hour at all times.”

 

RESOURCES

https://www.instagram.com/eddie_peake

 

HOST BIO

With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals.

 

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Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today!

https://cerihand.com/membership/

 

**

 

Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course

Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today.

https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/

 

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Book a Discovery Call Today

To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at [email protected]

This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

When your brain says - I don’t know who would buy this, I don’t know where to find them. I don’t know how this would ever work, it is lying to you.

What if “I don’t know how” isn’t a fact. What if its anxiety dressed up as logic. What if your brain is quietly converting uncertainty into impossibility. 

Once that story settles, you stop try. You don´t need to test formats. You don´t need to ask different questions. You don´t need to risk being wrong. If this sounds familiar, you are not alone. 

In this episode, I unpack why “I don’t know how” is rarely a business verdict and more often a nervous system response.

If your practice feels “hard to sell,” this one’s for you.

KEY TAKEAWAYS


“I don´t know how” is not a verdict, it's a skill gap. There are countless things you once didn't know how to do, invoice, negotiate, install, work, apply for funding, price confidently.


Your brain doesn't predict your competence. It predicts your danger. Anxiety confuses unfamiliar with unsafe.


Turn “I don’t know how” into a research brief. Instead of spiralling, ask: What exactly do I not know? Is it pricing? Editioning? Finding aligned collectors? Be precise, then fill those gaps - Ceri shares exactly how.


Accept that certainty is a fantasy. No artist has a guaranteed buyer before they begin. They build belief alongside action.

BEST MOMENTS

“When your brain says, I don't know, it's often trying to protect you from visibility, rejection, or financial disappointment. It's not offering a business forecast.”

“Instead of asking, how might this translate for me? Your mind asks, how can I prove this does not apply to me? - That’s anxiety trying to maintain control.”

“Study their CVs. Look at collections listed, public and private. Screenshot it. Create a folder called Proof. You are not allowed to catastrophise without data.”

“Test one price point. Anxiety hates experiments because experiments create reality.”

PODCAST HOST BIO

With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals.

****

Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today!

https://cerihand.com/membership/

****

Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course

Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today.

https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/

****

Book a Discovery Call Today

To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at [email protected]

****

Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity

Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative.

This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Today I’m in conversation with the extraordinary Sarah Boris, an artist who treats symbols like building blocks and colour like architecture.

Her practice moves between sculpture, drawing, printmaking, painting, and bookmaking, yet everything she makes feels connected by a rigorous, playful logic. You migaht know her Fragile UK Flag, a reimagined Union Jack made from delicate tape and paper, exhibited at the Design Museum in London and now held in major public collections including the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France

A national emblem made vulnerable. A bold gesture made breakable.

But this conversation is less about icons and more about expansion. We dive into her modular works, a vast body of over one hundred drawings that evolved into nesting sculptures, furniture modules, and her largest sculpture to date. We talk about scale not as ego, but as curiosity.  And then there is Time for Peace, a conceptual clock that quietly marks the peace symbol four times a day. No grand spectacle. Just a subtle interruption in the rhythm of time.

This episode is about systems and softness. About building something precise without losing play. About committing to a visual language so fully that it begins to grow its own architecture.

KEY TAKEAWAYS


Nothing is fixed. Elements can shift, nest, expand, contract. A drawing can become a sculpture. A book can become a building. A word can hold two languages at once.


Let your smaller works teach you how to build bigger ones. Let your practice evolve in modules rather than leaps. If you’ve been sitting on an idea that feels too playful, too colourful, too structural, or too ambitious - test it, stack it, and see what it becomes.


There is quiet power in artists championing one another.


If someone can’t find you, they can’t commission you. If they can’t commission you, they can’t support your ideas.

BEST MOMENTS

“Being in a different place, with different light, different language, different constraints, can unlock entirely new bodies of work - a reminder that context is not a backdrop. It’s a collaborator.”

“If I hadn't had the website, this beautiful story wouldn't have happened.”

“She handles cultural signs with care, but she isn’t afraid to rework them.”

“I was self-sabotaging in so many areas.”

EPISODE RESOURCES

https://sarahboris.com

https://www.instagram.com/sarahboris_ldn

PODCAST HOST BIO

With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals.

****

Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today!

https://cerihand.com/membership/

****

Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course

Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today.

https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/

****

Book a Discovery Call Today

To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at [email protected]

****

Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity

Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative.

If you’ve listened to the last couple of shorty episodes, you’ll know we’ve been talking about structure. What should be on your website. What can go. And how clarity does far more work than cleverness. 

So today, I want to talk about what often happens next. Once your website is clear, calm, and coherent, something interesting starts to happen. Sales begin to trickle in. Enquiries land in your inbox. Commissioners get in touch. Brands reach out. Often quietly, often weeks or months after someone first visited your site.

Your website is always working in the background, even when you don´t think anything is happening.

KEY TAKEAWAYS


Curators, collectors, commissioners, art advisors. They don't always announce themselves when they're browsing, but they browse repeatedly, and your website is where momentum turns into confidence


Most people don't land on your website necessarily ready to buy. They arrive curious. Your website's job at that moment is not to persuade it's to reduce friction, clear work, clear information, clear invitations enable people to find out more.


When a public art commissioner lands on your site, they’re not just thinking “Is this interesting?”—they’re scanning for proof you can deliver at scale: images that show your work in the world, a handful of clearly documented projects, and obvious next steps to contact you.


Available works pages often outperform full e commerce shops. They feel human. They feel conversational. They invite inquiry rather than demanding commitment.

BEST MOMENTS

“Your website is not just selling artwork, it's selling readiness, readiness to be commissioned, readiness to work at scale, readiness to collaborate with brands or institutions.”

“If someone has to hunt for how to engage you, they often won't, not because they're not interested, but because friction kills intent.”

“If you are open to collaborations, say so.”

EPISODE RESOURCES

1st episode of the Artist´s website series - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/why-artist-websites-still-matter-and-how-to-make/id1709105337?i=1000751657709

Lakwena episode - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/in-between-worlds-lakwena-maciver-s-journey-through/id1709105337?i=1000739050767

Marianna Simnett episode - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/embracing-the-unconventional-marianna-simnett-on/id1709105337?i=1000658388496

HOST BIO

With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals.

****

Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today!

https://cerihand.com/membership/

****

Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course

Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today.

https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/

****

Book a Discovery Call Today

To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at [email protected]

****

Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity

Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative.

In today’s episode of the Extraordinary Creatives podcast, I’m joined by the inspiring Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, whose work sits at the intersection of art, ecology, and emerging technologies.

Daisy’s work explores the politics, value systems, and assumptions that shape how humans relate to the natural world. Her projects range from algorithmically designed gardens created for pollinators, to resurrecting the smell of extinct flowers, and translating living systems into materials such as tapestry and bronze.

In our conversation, Daisy shares how working closely with scientists and researchers has refined her relationship to failure. What might be a dead end in scientific research can become, for her, the starting point for an artwork that asks better questions. We dig into Pollinator Pathmaker, shaped by insect vision rather than human taste, and her new public sculpture commission, The Length of a Moment, where the invisible movement of moths becomes permanent form.

This episode is an invitation to think differently about how we apply our creativity, who we learn from, and the kinds of worlds our work helps to shape. I am certain you’ll be inspired, so please let me know if anything touches you.

KEY TAKEAWAYS


Making ambitious work is never just about ideas. It’s about labour, time, care, and responsibility. About how teams are treated, how boundaries are held, and how ethics show up not as statements, but as daily decisions.


When you approach a project as a collaborator who is willing to learn how an organization works, you create the psychological safety needed to pull off truly ambitious, experimental work.


Hold the line on your professional boundaries. Clarity is kindness, it’s not about being "difficult" - it's being precise.

BEST MOMENTS

“The flower looks red to us, but a bee can’t see red. They can see ultraviolet. So suddenly you realise that the way we think the world looks isn’t how it looks at all.”

“Her methodologies show us what becomes possible when artists invite in knowledge from academics, technologists, children, and global perspective.”

EPISODE RESOURCES

https://www.daisyginsberg.com

https://www.instagram.com/daisyginsberg

https://pollinator.art

HOST BIO

With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals.

**

Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today!

https://cerihand.com/membership/

**

Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course

Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today.

https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/

**

Book a Discovery Call Today

To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at [email protected]

**

Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity

Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative.

This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/