START HERE: where art meets psychology and creativity can thrive

We are not all "tortured geniuses" and art isn't always therapy but there is so much richness and connection and magic in the in between. Come learn what Create Me Free is all about.

This is what Create Me Free is about. Shorter summary here.

Welcome to Create Me Free where I share all of my deep research into and musings about the complex relationship between art and psychology. I am working to break down the binary tropes that exist of the “tortured genius” who “suffers for their art” and the idea that art is alwys therapeutic and instead navigate the grey area (or rainbow spectrum) between those two sometimes-truths.

While I honor art as therapy and the benefits of creativity, I also look at the times when creativity exacerbates mental health symptoms. Specifically, I really dig into the ways that our mental health symptoms can impact our creative process, content, productivity, medium choice, self-perception, and businesses/finances.

Hi, this is me, age 44 in 2024, the writer behind the words

Create Me Free is also the home of THREADSTACK, a directory and community of people who love yarn, thread, fabric, and fiber.

This is who you really support when you support my work. I’m always trying to get back to the essence of this little me of forty-ish years ago. I mean, doesn’t she look like she knows some stuff?!?!

What It Means When You Pay to Support This Work

I believe in moving away from a model where artists and writers are paid per item that they produce. It’s a system that has created unsustainable machine-like productivity requirements for creatives who often need time, space, energy to dream and daydream and soak in inspiration and let ideas marinate and revise work. I want to change this.

And I work towards that change in a deep way, through this work and research, through support of programs like basic income for artists and healthcare for creatives. And I hope it changes on a deep systemic level. But it’s also important to consider what we can do right now. Where we put our money reflects our values and priorities. What you’re buying when you commit to an annual subscription to Create Me Free is not a “product” … it’s a contribution to something you value.

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I understand that money is tight for most readers. I also need everyone to contribute something in order to keep this work going. That’s why I offer a SLIDING SCALE PAY WHAT YOU CAN OPTION.

Pick what’s right for you and sign up today:

• 24% off in ‘24 - The 2024 discount rate on an annual subscription

• Flexible Discount - 10% off either monthly or annual subscriptions

• Grateful for the Gift - 75% off one year

• Gotta Pay the Rent Soon Discount - 50% off one year

• Barely Getting By Discount - $10 flat rate for one year

• Lucky 13 Discount - 13% off forever

ARTISTIC TITHING: I practice artistic tithing, meaning that I give a minimum of 10% of all earned income each year directly back to other artists, writers, makers, performers, creators. It’s usually more than 10% but that’s the minimum no matter what else is going on in my life because I believe deeply in this.

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That’s me, human not machine

Why I Do This Work

There has long been widespread agreement among artists, culture makers, psychologists and other professionals that there is a relationship between art and mental health. Despite this, the way that this relationship has been studied is both limited and limiting. Art therapy programs look almost solely at how art can provide catharsis, emphasizing the benefits of art without considering a more nuanced shadow side to the relationship. Art and culture, on the other hand, magnify a perceived negative relationship best exemplified by the tired trope of the “mad genius” or “crazy artist.” Having spent nearly two decades researching this relationship, I find that the truth is much more complex; art can be highly therapeutic for many people but the symptoms of mental health conditions often negatively impact the creative process, medium, content, productivity, identity and business of artists. And yet, most persist in their creativity in spite of this. 

If we can dig deeper into understanding this shadow side of the relationship between art and mental health, without hyperbolizing it into some story about “well artists are crazy,” then we can perhaps figure out common problems in the relationship and therefore identify solutions. This has the potential to improve holistic wellness (mental, physical, financial, relational) for artists working across diverse mediums.

My research explores this complex relationship in varied ways: through lived experience as a full-time writer/artist living with double depression (persistent depressive disorder and recurring bouts of major depressive episodes), through interviews with contemporary artists across different genres including a new approachwhere interview responses can be provided in images or sound art to account for neurodiversity in the responses, and through a review of the history of art and psychology to explore instances where this topic has arisen in the past but not been fully evaluated in this specific way.

WHO IS KATHRYN VERCILLO?

• Writer-artist-researcher (human being) working from lived experience.

• Expert in crochet-as-therapy. Author of Crochet Saved My Life, Hook to Heal.

• I’ve also authored a bunch of other books, some I’m proud of and some less so.

• I also speaking on panels, write grants, lead creativity workshops, and more.

• In the past I’ve done social work, teaching, trophy-building, photography, worked at anime conventions, did the coffeehouse thing and basically lived a life.

• I live in San Francisco, which I deeply love, and have two dogs and two siblings, all of which I also deeply love.

Learn more about me here. And here. And here.

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Slow the Email Train, Quiet the Noise

I publish a lot here on Substack. But I don’t want to overwhelm anyone. We all have different needs and boundaries around what we can take in, what notifications we want, etc. So I offer ways to opt in and out of different types of writing here. You can even choose to receive just a once-monthly digest.

I don’t expect anyone to read everything I write. I believe that my job is to write authentically and that it will find the people it’s meant to find in the time it’s meant to find them. You may find this helpful:

Mental Health Reasons I May Not Read Your Writing ... and Please Write It Anyway