Opportunities for Creative Collaboration with Create Me Free: Interviews, Guest Posts, and More

Want to collaborate in the niche of where art meets mental health (both terms defined loosely)? Read on! Plus learn more about me and what I'm most interested in studying in 2024.

I believe in community building. I believe that when I amplify the voices of other creatives, it’s better for all of us. I believe in abundance, not in scarcity, when it comes to opportunities for artists and writers, which means I believe in collaboration not competition. And to that end, I offer lots of opportunities for collaboration here at Create Me Free.

This is me, December 2023. Thought you might want a face to go with the name for who you would be collaborating with! Scroll down to the heading “you interview me” for some more stuff about who I am.

Opportunities in Brief

Scroll down for the complete details and further down for particular topics of interest in 2024:

• You complete an interview and I feature it here (these can be answered in words or in original images).

• You write a guest post and I feature it here.

• You interview me (in any format - I prefer email but will have phone or video calls as well)

• I write a guest post for you (and cross post it and share across social media, etc)

• We work on a piece together in some way and we both share it with our readers

• Some other form of creative collaboration that I haven’t thought of yet but you have an idea!!

Please note: I am a working writer who is also a full-time graduate student in my forties and I live with recurring depression that sometimes pauses my productivity so if you don’t get an immediate response, there’s probably a very good reason. For quickest collaborations: the interview forms submitted through Google (links below) typically get the fastest response.

Photo by Sijmen van Hooff on Unsplash

Basic Topic: Where Art Meets Mental Health

This will be helpful if you’re pitching me something, but know that I’m pretty flexible and you can always ask if something will work …

The Niche

Here at Create Me Free, I am building an online library and connected community researching and writing about the complex relationship between art and mental health. While I celebrate art as therapy and the creativity’s benefits, I really dig into the under-discussed shadow side of how our mental health symptoms can impact our creative process, content, productivity, medium choice, identity and business. 

But What Is Art and Mental Health?

(When I use the term “mental health” I sometimes mean things with a diagnosis and symptoms but more often I just mean something akin to “how the challenges of life are affecting our thoughts and experiences.” And that, in turn, affects our creativity, which just means what we do to express ourselves as humans.  And so, I believe that all of us are artists and all face mental health challenges to varying degrees.)

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Details About Opportunities

Here is some more information for you about the different options for collaboration with Create Me Free this year:

You complete an interview and I feature it here

(these can be answered in words or in original images)

I would love to learn more about how creativity and mental health intersect in your world. The best place to start is by answering one of my Google Forms - there’s one for people who prefer to answer in words and one for people who prefer to answer in original images. You are free to answer in either or both.

You can see all interviews here. You can explore what visual interviews look like here.

I write these up in the order in which they are received. I’ll send you a draft for review and we can make changes if something doesn’t feel right. Then I’ll let you know the publication date and it will be published here.

You can answer a visual interview here or answer in words here.

You write a guest post and I feature it here.

I accept guest posts on topics that relate to how creativity and mental health intersect. I especially love personal stories told in the first person but I’m open to all different types of guest posts, including creative ideas like poetry. Generally, for non-poetry pieces, I prefer pieces over 100 words.

You can either send me a complete article (and then publish it elsewhere if for some reason I can’t accept it) or you can send me a pitch letting me know what you’d like to work on. See further below for topic ideas of particular interest. Email to Kathryn.vercillo over on gmail.

You interview me (in any format - I prefer email but will have phone or video calls as well)

I am happy to answer interviews about pretty much anything. I have worked as a writer for over twenty years, I’m the author of ten books (some I am so proud of and some not so much), I live with double depression, I have an advanced degree in Psychological Studies and am getting a second one in Visual and Critical Studies, I am an artist who primarily works in crochet but sometimes in collage, eons ago I tried to start a zine celebrating the writings and art of inmates but I was only 20 years old so after a few issues it faded away, eons ago I worked in child welfare and was a foster mom, today I have two rescue dogs from the Korean dog meat trade that I spend basically all my time and writing on, I’m from Arizona but moved to San Francisco in 2006 for no other reason than that I feel like it’s my soulmate place … I’m happy to answer questions about any of this and more. Interested? Email me at Kathryn.vercillo over on gmail.

I write a guest post for you (and cross post it and share across social media, etc)

Obviously, my niche is in writing at the intersection of art and mental health but I’m pretty widely read and do write across a range of topics (see above for a little more about me) so if you have an idea let’s discuss. Interested? Email me at Kathryn.vercillo over on gmail.

We work on a piece together in some way and we both share it with our readers

As long as my part can relate to the niche of art and mental health as described above, I’m really open to ideas here. Email me at Kathryn.vercillo over on gmail.

Some other form of creative collaboration that I haven’t thought of yet but you have an idea!!

Some of the most interesting things I’ve done were things I didn’t think of myself so if you have an idea and want to propose it, email me at Kathryn.vercillo over on gmail.

Photo by Yaopey Yong on Unsplash

Topic Ideas of Particular Interest

I am absolutely open to collaborating around a broad spectrum of ideas that relate to the intersection of art/creativity/writing/self-expression and mental health/wellness/psychology/therapy/life balance etc. That said, here are some things that are of particular interest to me to get your thoughts churning:

• Where creativity meets neurodiversity

• When/how mental health symptoms harm people

• Relationship of mental health and physical health as it relates to creativity

• How you’ve expressed your health story through your art, especially in images

• People’s journeys to understanding themselves and how creativity played a role

• Stories of your creative monsters and and heroes (who encouraged you, who didn’t believe in you, what was the result, where are you with it now)

• The business of art - money, work, networking, etc - and how that intersects with mental health

• Creative process: your behind-the-scenes as it relates to mental health (messy or neat studios, creativity rituals, focus or multi-tasking, etc.)

• A look at one specific piece of art or writing that you’ve created with new commentary about its relationship to mental health

• What does hoarding mean for artists? (What’s a stash, what’s a problem?)

• Experiences of people with hallucinations/delusions/psychosis as they relate to art

• Experiences of people with bipolar mania as it relates to art

• Experiences of people with OCD as it relates to art

Again, I’m really open to different topics but these are what I’m currently especially interested in.

Don’t be too intimidated to reach out and try to connect. There really is no wrong way to do any of this. I love collaborating and forming creative relationships and I’m very open. You don’t need to phrase things perfectly or be any certain way for this to be a mutually beautiful thing.

Please note: I am a working writer who is also a full-time graduate student in my forties and I live with recurring depression that sometimes pauses my productivity so if you don’t get an immediate response, there’s probably a very good reason. For quickest collaborations: the interview forms submitted through Google (links above) typically get the fastest response.