Extraordinary Creatives

Today’s guest is an extraordinary artist whose work feels deeply lived rather than simply made.

Alexis Soul-Gray is a British painter exploring memory, loss, and maternal lineage through richly layered works that move between abstraction and figuration. Based in Devon, her paintings feel both intimate and expansive.

A graduate of the Royal College of Art and Central Saint Martins, Alexis has exhibited internationally, received two Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grants, and won The Delphian Open in 2021. Alongside her studio practice, she also curates’ exhibitions, including Declarative Language, a group show bringing together women artists whose practices have been shaped by caregiving within neurodivergent families.

We talk about art school, grief, motherhood, caregiving, advocacy, and the challenge of continuing to make work that stays true to lived experience rather than outside expectation. Exploring the realities of artistic identity alongside financial pressure, loss, and resilience.

What unfolds is an honest and deeply human conversation about endurance, creativity, and what it takes to keep going when life refuses to move in a straight line.

KEY TAKEAWAYS


When you’ve carried grief and caring responsibilities for years, the work you make in the margins is not “less than” - it’s work that has learned to hold chaos, fatigue, school refusal, and hospital letters in the same frame as colour, gesture, and form.


You don’t need a clean, linear career to be an artist; you need a stubborn thread. The years of bad jobs, failed applications, family rupture, and self-doubt don’t sit outside the practice - they deepen it.


The culture will always reward tidy, repeatable pictures, but painting is something else: a willingness not to know the outcome in advance, to refuse being a production line for your own style, to risk disappointing people who only came for the last hit. 

BEST MOMENTS

“I just couldn't really see that my practice would ever become a full-time pursuit for me. It was very much the kitchen table … snatched moments.”

“A creative life is not built in perfect conditions, it's built in real ones… sometimes the most important thing is not how quickly you move forward, but that you keep returning to the work.”

“There is no neat formula here. No single turning point where everything suddenly resolves. Instead, what we hear is a gradual return.”

EPISODE RESOURCES

https://www.instagram.com/Alexis_soul_gray

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: 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

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/

This episode is part of a nine-part series on commissions. How to prepare for them, respond to them, deliver them, and, crucially, how to stop them burning you out. If you haven't followed the podcast yet, hit follow so you don't miss an episode.

Today, episode two of nine. The five mistakes I see every artist make when pricing commissions. I see them every single week. In coaching conversations. In the Mastermind Circle. In private messages from artists I have never met who have found my work.

Different artist. Different medium. Different decade of experience. Same five mistakes. Every time.

If you listened to episode one, you'll remember I opened with a story about a textile artist, mid-career, who sent me a costing for a corporate commission and told me he was embarrassed. Today we are opening up his costing. Not literally his numbers, but the five mistakes inside it. Because every one of them will be familiar to you.

KEY TAKEAWAYS


Quote in the currency your costs are in; otherwise, you're letting the currency markets quietly price your work for you. If the market shifts in the time it takes you to create the commission, you can easily lose 5 to 15% of your fee.


Your client sees the finished piece, but you lived a “three-month shadow life” around making it; your fee has to reflect the shadow life, not just the visible outcome.


Day rates anchor your income to availability; move to project fees so you’re pricing the value of a lifetime of practice, not slices of your calendar.   


Treat bespoke and repeatable work as two different commissions with two different pricing logics and stop trying to negotiate all of that over email.

BEST MOMENTS

“When artists and creative practitioners move from day rates to project fees or to flat fees based on the scope of the commission, two things happen, the fee goes up and the quality of the relationship improves.”

“Every commission disaster I've ever coached on can be traced back to a decision made over email.”

“A good commission process protects three things. Your time. Your practice. Your sanity.”

Don't forget, you can get a text version of today's episode plus new practical guidance every week if you subscribe to my Beat The Block newsletter – Access it here - https://cerihand.com/subscribe/

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’s guest is someone who quite literally shapes how stories feel.

Tiffany Anders is a music supervisor working across film, television, and advertising, and if you’ve ever been completely pulled into a scene emotionally, there’s a good chance someone like Tiffany helped build that experience.

Her work spans everything from the Sundance-winning indie film Like Crazy to major series like Reservation Dogs and Netflix’s BEEF. What’s remarkable is how seamlessly she moves between those worlds, bringing the same instinct, care, and emotional precision whether she’s working with a tiny music budget or a global production.

But what makes Tiffany especially compelling is how she got here. Growing up in Los Angeles around filmmakers and musicians, she absorbed how music and images work together to tell a story. That deep sense of listening still defines the way she approaches her work today.

We talk about how a project unfolds from script to screen, how she figures out what a scene needs emotionally, and how she balances instinct with the realities of budget, time, and negotiation.

We also get into collaboration, creative identity, and the invisible decisions that shape the emotional experience of film and television. And there are some brilliant stories along the way, from discovering music as a kid and playing in bands to her recent work on The Lowdown.

If you’ve ever wondered how music really works in storytelling, or how to build a creative life that can hold both art and complexity, this is a great one.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Your early environment matters, but it’s not about having perfect conditions. In Tiffany’s case, it was chaotic, it was under-resourced, it required her to grow up quickly. But what she did was translate that into skills.
It’s not about imposing taste or showing off knowledge. It’s about understanding the world of the work deeply enough that the right choice becomes obvious. And that comes from years of paying attention. From being curious

BEST MOMENTS

“You needed those role models … to be able to go, okay, this is feasible for me, I can do this.”

“In a world where it’s easy to skim, shortcut, and replicate, Tiffany has built her career on going deeper. Listening properly. Understanding the backstory.”

“Creativity isn’t just about what you make. It’s about how you think, how you connect, and how you move through complexity.”

EPISODE RESOURCES

https://www.instagram.com/jumblequeen

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/

This episode is part of a nine-part series on commissions. How to prepare for them, respond to them, deliver them, and, crucially, how to stop them burning you out. If you haven't followed the podcast yet, hit follow so you don't miss an episode.

Today, episode one of nine. The mindset. Because nothing in the practical work across the next eight episodes actually holds if the mindset is not in the right place.

Let me start with a story.

KEY TAKEAWAYS


Before you draft a single document, you have to get honest about what you actually want, not what feels polite, not what you think people can afford, not what your imagined client might say yes to, what sustains your practice and keeps Your work alive.


You're not responding to briefs, you're filtering them, shaping them, and sometimes quietly refusing them. A commission inquiry is not an instruction, it’s a proposition. Your job is not to say “yes” by default, it’s to decide: Do I want to make this? Can I make it well, profitably, and without wrecking my sanity?


Audit your last two years of commissions: Which ones drained you? Which ones energised you? - notice the patterns. These will inform how you set up your commission process in future.

BEST MOMENTS

“When you define your process, your time and the kind of commissions that genuinely excite you, something changes. You stop bending yourself to every vague inquiry.”

“The hunger for work that feels human, specific, and emotionally resonant is only going to grow the work you make, the way you make it, the meaning you bring to it, that's becoming rarer - not less valuable - more valuable.”

“You're not responding to briefs, you're filtering them, shaping them, and sometimes quietly refusing them.”

"Your role is not to shrink in anticipation of rejection. Your role is to articulate clearly what you offer, how you work, and what it costs."

EPISODE RESOURCES

Julia Cameron episode - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/inside-the-artists-way-simple-tools-that-sustain/id1709105337?i=1000759449006

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/

What does it take to lead an institution in a way that people don’t just visit—but feel they belong to?

Today, I’m in conversation with the extraordinary Joe Hill—Director and Chief Executive of Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and formerly the force behind Towner Eastbourne’s transformation into one of the UK’s most dynamic cultural spaces. From winning Art Fund Museum of the Year to hosting the Turner Prize, Joe has built a reputation for shaping institutions that don’t just show art, but root it deeply in place, people, and possibility.

But this conversation goes far beyond titles and accolades.

We talk about what it really means to create cultural spaces that people care about—so much so that they protect them, claim them, and see themselves inside them. Joe shares stories of artists whose simplest ideas became the most powerful, why overcomplicating can kill a commission, and how trust—real trust in artists—is still one of the most radical acts an institution can make.

We also get into leadership. The kind that isn’t about control, but about creating the conditions for others to think, take risks, and occasionally fail. Because without that space, nothing new can actually happen.

This is a conversation about stewardship, risk, generosity—and what it means to build an art world that people don’t feel excluded from, but part of. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

When an institution truly belongs to its place, it stops feeling like a white monolith you “visit” and becomes a living landmark people claim, protect and point to as their own.

The most powerful work often starts from disarming simplicity and deep trust: a crayon sketch on a façade, an artist given space to think, a curator whose first job is to nurture the project out of the person and to be generous to both artist and audience.

For the sector to stay alive, we need time and permission to think, to experiment sometimes get it wrong. Without that protected space for risk, we don’t just lose ambitious projects - we lose the possibility of anything genuinely new.

BEST MOMENTS

“If you get an artwork really right, and people feel ownership of it… nobody’s touched it… they protect it.”

“We have to create some breathing room to fail, because then we can innovate, we can test things, and not everything’s at stake.”

“The deeper invitation here - stop overcomplicating what needs to be clear.”

EPISODE RESOURCES

https://www.instagram.com/joe_hill_joe/

https://ysp.org.uk

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]

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