Put Down Your Phone: The Struggle Between Creativity and Digital Distraction

Armchair Treasure Hunts: From Masquerade to the Forrest Fenn Fallout

Can a book change your life - or cost it? In this episode of Pain In The Arts, we explore the obsessive world of armchair treasure hunt books. It started with Kit Williams’s Masquerade, an illustrated book that hid a real gold hare in England and sparked a public frenzy. We trace the line from that creative invitation to the chaos that followed: Byron Preiss's twelve buried casks, France's golden owl, and the infamous Forrest Fenn chest - a million-dollar cache in the Rockies that drew 350,000 searchers and cost five lives. Discover what happens when art becomes a real-world obsession, plus a look into personal creative quests, from airport runway lamps to a Tarago campervan fit-out. Pain In The Arts is a Creative Life Chronicles production. Enjoyed this episode? Please share with a friend! Support the show, access exclusive content, or explore our free tier on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/painintheartslife [https://www.patreon.com/cw/painintheartslife] For more from Creative Life Chronicles (website coming soon!) and the Pain In The Arts podcast, visit our website: http://www.paininthearts.life [http://www.paininthearts.life] Recorded and produced at Morning Phase Recording Room. Original theme music by Lyndon Wesley: http://www.lyndonwesley.com [http://www.lyndonwesley.com] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Sacred Space: Why You Must Guard Your Creative Process

A recent studio session ended on a flat note - not because anything went wrong, exactly, but because unfinished songs met outside ears too soon. From that, Lyndon unpacks an idea he's been sitting with for years: the studio as a sacred space - a safe environment where artists can experiment, make mistakes, and collaborate freely, without the burden of premature feedback. Breallyn brings her own version of the same instinct from writing and theater. It's a conversation about creative process, the vocabulary gap between insiders and outsiders, and knowing when to finally open the door. Pain In The Arts is a Creative Life Chronicles production. Enjoyed this episode? Please share with a friend! Support the show, access exclusive content, or explore our free tier on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/painintheartslife [https://www.patreon.com/cw/painintheartslife] For more from Creative Life Chronicles (website coming soon!) and the Pain In The Arts podcast, visit our website: http://www.paininthearts.life [http://www.paininthearts.life] Recorded and produced at Morning Phase Recording Room. Original theme music by Lyndon Wesley: http://www.lyndonwesley.com [http://www.lyndonwesley.com] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

[RE-RELEASE] Brett Wood: From Session Guitarist to Solo Artist

This episode was originally released on November 25, 2025, and we're re-releasing it today due to an outbreak of flu rampaging our home — hope you enjoy the chat with Brett! Lyndon and Breallyn chat with Brett Wood, one of Australia's finest blues guitarists and long-time collaborator with Pete Murray. Brett shares his remarkable journey from a passionate young guitarist who wrote fan letters to Tommy Emmanuel, to becoming a respected session and touring musician, and now launching his solo career as a singer-songwriter. The conversation explores Brett's nearly two-decade partnership with Pete Murray—including his contributions to the acclaimed Blue Sky Blue album—his fourteen years with Melbourne rock band Electric Mary, and the inspiration behind his debut single "Real Piece of Work." Brett shares candid insights about working with legendary drummer Chris Layton and the vulnerability of releasing his own material after years as a supporting musician. An engaging, deeply musical conversation about artistry, mentorship and life in the Australian music scene. Connect with Brett Wood Website: www.brettwood.com [https://open.acast.com/networks/66bc15d494a112c8bb4fb979/shows/66bc1a4d8681753490f376cc/episodes/www.brettwood.com] Social Media: @brettwoodmusic (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok) Pain In The Arts is a Creative Life Chronicles production. Enjoyed this episode? Please share with a friend! Support the show, access exclusive content, or explore our free tier on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/painintheartslife [https://www.patreon.com/cw/painintheartslife] For more from Creative Life Chronicles (website coming soon!) and the Pain In The Arts podcast, visit our website: http://www.paininthearts.life [http://www.paininthearts.life] Recorded and produced at Morning Phase Recording Room. Original theme music by Lyndon Wesley: http://www.lyndonwesley.com [http://www.lyndonwesley.com] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Politics of Art and Craft: Who Gets to Be Called an Artist?

Who gets to be called an artist? Turns out the reason you've always thought of quilts as 'just craft' and oil paintings as 'real art' has less to do with skill, and more to do with who was allowed to hold a brush. This week, Breallyn unpacks the gender and race politics behind art history — what gets called Art with a capital A, and what gets called 'a nice hobby' and why women artists so rarely made it into the first category. Along the way: Persian rug weavers who sing the pattern into existence, the Black American women who stitched Underground Railroad escape routes into quilts and hung them in plain sight, and what it means that those codes were invisible to the very people trying to stop them. Also: a birthday getaway that turned out to be the coldest day of the year in rural Victoria, Australia, a magnificent antique emporium that's sadly been closed for a decade, and the quiet return of a sound around the house that Breallyn had noticed was gone. Pain In The Arts is a Creative Life Chronicles production. Enjoyed this episode? Please share with a friend! Support the show, access exclusive content, or explore our free tier on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/painintheartslife [https://www.patreon.com/cw/painintheartslife] For more from Creative Life Chronicles (website coming soon!) and the Pain In The Arts podcast, visit our website: http://www.paininthearts.life [http://www.paininthearts.life] Recorded and produced at Morning Phase Recording Room. Original theme music by Lyndon Wesley: http://www.lyndonwesley.com [http://www.lyndonwesley.com] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Gretta Ziller: Americana, Autonomy, and a Dog Named Eleanor Rigby

Gretta Ziller grew up on a farm in regional Victoria playing violin at three, bagpipes at boarding school, and singing opera at Melbourne Uni — before her sister put on a Garth Brooks album and changed everything. Now she's an Americana artist doing it entirely on her own terms. In this episode, Gretta breaks down what Americana actually is, why she'd rather sell you a $2 download than earn .003 cents on a Spotify stream, and what it took to co-write a song a week for an entire year. Oh, and there's a new Chihuahua named Eleanor Rigby. Visit Gretta Ziller online [https://grettaziller.com/] Pain In The Arts is a Creative Life Chronicles production. Enjoyed this episode? Please share with a friend! Support the show, access exclusive content, or explore our free tier on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/painintheartslife [https://www.patreon.com/cw/painintheartslife] For more from Creative Life Chronicles (website coming soon!) and the Pain In The Arts podcast, visit our website: http://www.paininthearts.life [http://www.paininthearts.life] Recorded and produced at Morning Phase Recording Room. Original theme music by Lyndon Wesley: http://www.lyndonwesley.com [http://www.lyndonwesley.com] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.