'If you keep showing up, you can't NOT get better' - an interview with Sandi Hester

The Good Ship Illustration

We've decided to play around a bit and do some INTERVIEWS. Ooooh.

First up is artist and YouTuber Sandi Hester, who recently moved from the US into a 100-year-old fixer-upper house in the UK.

Katie (gently) grills Sandi about what it’s been like moving country and keeping her creative practice alive through chaos, health challenges, and renovation dust.

Sandi shares how painting has become her lifeline, why perfectionism is joy’s worst enemy, and how she’s learned to quiet the “blobbity blob” of negative self-talk that plagues so many creatives.

Nice.

💬 In this episode, we talk about:

• The big move from America to England
• How painting became Sandi’s release and restful place during years of illness
• Building the “muscles of creativity” to keep making art no matter what’s going on
• The “blobbity blob” of self-talk and why you can’t judge your art in the moment
• Going back to her older, more figurative painting style after moving to the UK
• Running a YouTube channel as a full-time job and how it replaced the gallery route
• Why being messy and human built more trust with her audience than a polished version ever could
• The unseen workload behind one 20-minute YouTube video (and why she can’t start a Patreon!)
• How perfectionism stops us from creating and why “the best you can do today” is always enough
• Why creatives should enjoy the journey instead of chasing the destination
• Learning to separate your self-worth from likes, follows, and algorithm robots 🤖
• Her advice to artists: stop stressing, stop comparing, and just enjoy the paint sliding across the page

🕰️ Episode Timestamps

00:00 – Introducing Sandi Hester and her big move
02:00 – Creating through renovation chaos and hard seasons
05:00 – The “blobbity blob” of mental chatter
07:00 – Letting go of perfection and learning to just play
09:00 – Returning to figurative painting (and why everyone thinks England “transformed” her work)
10:00 – Choosing YouTube over galleries and showing real life online
12:00 – Filming through health struggles and letting people see the messy truth
15:00 – The hidden full-time workload behind one short video
17:00 – Lowering the bar so you can actually make things
19:00 – Teaching thought process over technique
21:00 – How the YouTube algorithm punishes missed uploads (“Feed the beast!”)
24:00 – Doing good work without being salesy
27:00 – Staying the course even when you feel like bubblegum under a chair
29:00 – Why the journey is the fun part
33:00 – Re-training your inner critic
35:00 – Final encouragements and gratitude

🌈 Links mentioned

• Bits of an Artist’s Life – Sandi’s YouTube Channel
• sandihester.com
• @sandihesterart on Instagram
• Bits of an Artist’s Life on Substack

Byeeee for now!
x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania) 🚢🎨

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