Shownotes
Gemma O'Brien is a lettering artist, a fine artist, a muralist, and most recently a student of neuroaesthetics. She's painted a billboard in Times Square, had work acquired by a museum, and she has a public Strava profile on her website, because running is as much a part of her as the lettering is. I'd been trying to get her on the show for a long time, and the hardest part was knowing where to start.
So we talked about how someone ends up doing this many things at once, and why she has no intention of narrowing it down. The line that stayed with me: after ticking off every career goal she'd ever dreamed of, she went back to university because she'd grown "almost bored of myself."
In this episode:
- Her intuitive path from law to lettering to neuroscience
- Why she has Strava on her website, and runs to galleries
- The 2008 video she uploaded by accident that launched her career
- Going back to school after a Times Square billboard and a museum acquisition
- Getting bored of herself, and wanting to feel fresh on stage again
- Where her love of lettering really came from
- Refusing to pick one thing, and making peace with the boring parts
- Still feeling imposter syndrome, and forgetting her own achievements
- The one word she'd keep if she had to destroy everything else
Find Gemma here:
Find me here:
This week's Friday bonus: Gemma and I go deeper into burnout and the flow state, the hidden cost of doing this much, and what it takes to protect your focus. It goes to newsletter subscribers first, a week before it's public. Subscribe at https://captn.myflodesk.com/newsletter.
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If you liked this episode, listen to: Jessica Hische (S02/E21) — another lettering artist on building a creative life on her own terms, and why imposter syndrome never fully goes away.
