In this inspiring episode of We Are Made to Make, I sit down with artist, dancer, educator, architect, musician, and creative explorer Nants Foley for a rich conversation about what it truly means to live a creative life. From studying architecture and teaching in collaborative art spaces to running a rural school of husbandry and embracing collage as a current artistic passion, Nants shares how creativity has been the connecting thread through every chapter of her journey.
Together, they explore the power of community in the creative process, the importance of curiosity and intentional living, and why artistry isn’t reserved for a select few — it’s something deeply human. Nants reflects on the lessons she’s learned through music, farming, teaching, and visual art, offering wisdom on reinvention, self-discovery, and finding beauty in everyday moments.
This heartfelt episode is a reminder that creativity can take countless forms and that making something meaningful often begins with simply paying attention to the world around you.
TAKEAWAYS
- Creativity is a common thread in life.
- Supportive environments foster artistic growth.
- Art done in groups builds community.
- Everyone is artistic in their own way.
- Architecture teaches problem-seeking skills.
- Transitioning careers can lead to new opportunities.
- Art can be a form of self-discovery.
- Intentionality is key in creative pursuits.
- Look for small moments of beauty in life.
- Creativity can manifest in various forms.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction to Creativity and Artful Living
03:10 The Common Thread of Creativity
05:53 The Journey of Teaching and Community Building
09:09 The Nature of Creativity: Born or Made?
12:01 Architectural Education and Its Impact
15:07 Exploring Musical Talents and Instruments
20:11 Life on the Farm: Quicksilver School of Husbandry
27:03 Transitioning from Rural Life to Urban Living
32:53 Artistic Exploration and Collage Work
38:56 Encouraging Creativity in Others
44:59 Conclusion and Future Aspirations
ABOUT NANTS
Nants Foley is a lifelong creative whose journey has woven together art, architecture, music, dance, farming, and community. A California native now based in Denver, she began her creative career teaching needle arts at a local recreation center — an early sign of the many artistic paths she would explore throughout her life.
Nants studied Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley, earned a Master of Architecture from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and later completed an MBA from the University of San Francisco. Alongside her academic and professional pursuits, the arts have always remained central to her life. She plays the piano, guitar, and harp, and began studying ballet as a child before teaching dance to adults for 15 years.
For two decades, Nants owned and operated Quicksilver Farm and School of Husbandry, where she raised heirloom crops and rare animals while fostering a deeper connection between creativity, sustainability, and the natural world.
Today, living in Denver, she focuses on creating art and giving back to the cultural community through volunteer work at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and the Denver Botanic Gardens. Her life’s work reflects an enduring belief that creativity is not confined to one discipline, but is a way of living fully, curiously, and in harmony with the world around us.
Connect with Nants:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nantsfoley
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/4nants/
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Check out the Books that Impacted Nants:
Note: as an Amazon Associate, I may earn from qualified purchases:
Thomas Moore: Care of the Soul
Julia Cameron: The Artist’s Way
Viktor Frankl: Man’s Search for Meaning
Viktor Frankl: Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything
TRANSCRIPT
Shannon Grissom (00:00)
Welcome to Made to Make. Here we talk about creativity, the challenges that come with it, and why we keep showing up anyway. Because hey, we are all made to make.
Welcome to the We Are Made to Make podcast. I’m your host, Shannon Grissom. From architecture and ballet to heirloom, farming, and the arts, today’s guest has spent a lifetime creating beauty in many forms. Join me as I talk with Nants Foley about creativity, reinvention, and living a deeply artful life. Welcome, Nants
Nants Foley (00:40)
Whoa, hello, Shanna. It’s so good to see you.
Shannon Grissom (00:43)
It’s good to see you. I’ve gotta tell everybody that I’ve created with Nants in many ways over the years, from her farm to painting, to collaborating with music and art together. So you know she is a creative powerhouse and I’m thrilled that she’s here today. So you’ve lived so many creative lives, from architect to musician, ballet, fine arts.
What’s the common thread?
Nants Foley (01:16)
The common thread may be that I have undiagnosed ADD. I am interested in everything and I like to study something and then squirrel. And then I like to study something, and then squirrel. and so my life was not ever planned out. It was just unfolded in front of me. And it has only been as I’ve
Shannon Grissom (01:21)
I
Nants Foley (01:44)
moved into my crone era of my life that I see how every piece wove into the fabric to make who I am today. And I’ve used all the things that I’ve learned. and I just kind of wonder if I had learned different things, if I would have done the same thing, probably. I think that’s the essence of who I am rather than what happened to me. So my my parents were both very
Interested in the arts and my my father painted and played the piano. My mother did all sorts of arts and she was just very creative. But they because of that, and because I was fortunate, there were piano lessons, there were art lessons, there were dance lessons, there were all sorts of raw materials around the house to do.
various art things and and that was really a a gift in my life. So from the very beginning I could see that the people that surrounded me and loved me really treasured art and thought it was important. and I meet lots of people who don’t feel that way. They they just feel like, you know, sure, if I go see if I see a ballet, that’s fine. But you know, if I never see one, that’s fine too.
But to me it’s it’s integral to who I am.
So I think that was the common threat.
Shannon Grissom (03:17)
That’s amazing. It’s so you’re so lucky to have had that support growing up. Absolutely. So I’m thinking about your first job teaching ne even your first job was creative. So
Nants Foley (03:28)
Talk
about that. Well, I had I was in high school and I had a boyfriend who was an artist and he was teaching lost wax jewelry making at the recreation center in San Mateo and they were looking for someone to teach needle arts and my mom had taught me embroidery, cross stitch
you name it from a very early age and and Rick’s grandmother had taught me tatting and I knew how to knit and crochet. And so they hired me. And and it was really it was really fun. But I thought all jobs were gonna be fun for the rest of my life and I found out different
But we just got a group together and they all brought the projects they were working on and I helped them and occasionally my skill in a certain area was not great and one of them would help the other one. So I learned early on that that art done in groups is is often a wonderful thing and it’s a very it it builds community very easily.
Shannon Grissom (04:47)
Yes.
Nants Foley (04:49)
And that’s important
to me as well.
Shannon Grissom (04:51)
So do you think creativity is something that we’re born with?
Nants Foley (04:55)
absolutely. No, I
think I think we’re all creative. I in fact I have I’m always telling people that they’re creative because so many people were told as children that they weren’t creative. If they didn’t the thing is if you couldn’t draw, you know, life like figures, then you were told you weren’t artistic. I my my early art training
I mean luckily I had my my family and that was the real s but in school. My early schooling in art was nuns coming in with done projects and putting them on the front board and all of us copying those. And to me that is not creative. That is not what art is. But it they give us a grade and if it looked like their picture, then we got A’s. And if it didn’t
We didn’t get good grades. Just something wrong about art education that way. So I I think a lot of people are told that they are not artistic early on. And that that colors the way you look at yourself forever. But everybody everybody is artistic. And if if you find if you have a color you love, that’s artistic. If you
do something that that makes your heart sing. That’s artistic. That’s the creativity and the joy in life. And so whatever you like doing or you like seeing or you like being, just do more of that. And I know it’s sometimes easier said than done, but I noticed that a lot of women my age are suddenly getting
Shannon Grissom (06:39)
Yes.
Nants Foley (06:51)
into creative activities. And some people say, well, it’s because I have time now. But I think it’s actually because as we get older, we care less and less what other people think of us. And when I was younger, I I would never have called myself an artist because I would have thought that was presumptuous and I I felt
Like other people had to call me an artist and I I would just be myself. But now I realize that we all are artists and we we deserve the title and stand up and say I’m an artist
Shannon Grissom (07:33)
So y you know, you you you went to Berkeley. W what led you to design as a as a maiden?
Nants Foley (07:40)
Bad, bad, really
bad reasons. The first thing was the first thing is I had great handwriting. And you need good writing when you’re an architect. You did then. That was the pre-CAD days. the other thing was I was great at geometry. I hated all other math subjects, but geometry I was really good at. little did I know that
I would have to take a year of calculus in order to take a year of structural engineering. And if I’d known that, I might have made another choice. But the the main reason was I had older sisters that one was in medical school and one was in law school. So those two professions were taken. And it was my mom who said, Well, why don’t you become an architect? And I didn’t even, I didn’t even like think, what do I want to do?
What do I, you know, and I just said, okay. And as it turns out, an education in architecture I think is just a fabulous, fabulous education. Because number one, it teaches you to see your world through artistic eyes. You know, you’re always assessing everything. But the main thing is it’s
It’s not about problem solving, it’s about problem seeking. You can’t have a good architectural solution to an issue until you really understand what the problem is. So it teaches you to dive into what you’re discovering and and really look at what is the main cause of conflict here, and then you find the solution.
And that helps in every aspect of your life. So I I would highly recommend architectural degrees for for everyone in the world.
Shannon Grissom (09:48)
Well and then you went on and got your MBA, which is totally unusual for a a creative person. So how has that woven into everything that you do?
Nants Foley (09:58)
Well, what
happened was I did not find architecture as a career to be much fun. When you’re in school, it’s all about design and the history and beautiful things and you know, Morris wallpaper and Eames chairs, you know. And when you are in the field it’s how many light switches are we gonna need for this high rise?
Forty-seven story tower. What is the most powerful flush toilet for this, you know, application? I mean, it’s just and then it’s all it was way more political than I thought it would be. It’s dealing with planning commissions and I think I was really naive about you don’t get to just create what’s beautiful, you have to live within time and money parameters.
So it just wasn’t for me. So I went back to school thinking, well, you know what? I’ve always liked marketing. I I could do marketing for for architects. And so I got my MBA, which was a a fun thing to do, another squirrel. And I I met a lot of really wonderful people. Some of them are still friends. And
And but as soon as I got my degree, I realized, wait a minute, I’m limiting myself by thinking that I’m going to have to do this for architecture. I can do this for something else. And so I I switched careers at that time and left architecture and went into a startup company that did medical patient account management. And I grew I grew a
business that’s had ninety people when I got there to three years later nine hundred clients. And but then I I got married and had a baby, which is what they always say you’re gonna do and I thought I would do that. but that’s exactly what happened. And I’m my husband moved to take for a you know a a career move and I went with him and I ended up in a small rural town in a small rural community.
Shannon Grissom (12:01)
Wow.
Nants Foley (12:24)
in California on the central coast. And so there I was with so many skills and so many talents and just no place to go with them. So I looked around and I thought, let’s see, business and architecture, how could I make money here in this community? And I ended up becoming a real estate agent and then a real estate broker and
And that’s how I that was my main moneymaker career. But meanwhile I had to do things for my soul. So I we got a farm and we we started raising rare and endangered animals and b doing heirloom crops and that was that was fun. And we didn’t even get to the ballet. Okay, and then the other thing was I taught ballet, and that was because
When I grew up in San Mateo, there just happened to be a fabulous ballerina from Russia who who ended up living there and she started a studio. And we had world class training at that place. So I really I I trained to a professional level, but I went to Berkeley instead because I didn’t I thought I needed to get on with my life.
I’d known how long life really was, I probably would have danced professionally a few years before I did that, but I didn’t. so anyway, when I ended up in in this little town and I had a child, a daughter, I wanted her to get ballet training. So I hooked up with the local ballet school and the teacher immediately realized that I could dance, you know.
rings around her and she she wanted me to to teach there and I didn’t but later on I I realized that if I wanted the girls in our community to have quality dance, it was you know, I I I just happened to have this weird, bizarre s squirrel skill. And so there I was squirreling again.
Shannon Grissom (14:46)
Wow. No, speaking of squirrel, let’s let’s segue into your fabulous music talents. You know, you’ve got guitar, harp, piano. Is there one that feeds your soul more or do they do it all differently?
Nants Foley (15:09)
a piano was handed to me by my family. There was no choice in that. And
Then when I went to college, I wanted to be cool, so of course it would be guitar. But I never I I never really connected that well with a guitar because I had a steel string and it just tore at my fingers. So when I was in my early 40s, my mom sent me a check for my birthday one year.
And there wasn’t anything that I was, you know, lusting after, no piece of jewelry, no sweater, that we didn’t have a bill that was desperate to pay. And so I thought, hm, I think I’d like to take a harp lesson. And honestly, I do not know where that came from. So I found a woman in Carmel and I went I called her up and she said, I’m not taking new students and I said, Well, could we talk just for a few minutes and then
Perhaps you could point me in the right direction. And so by the time we talked for an hour, she said, I c I can teach you. so I went over to Carmel, and she was this little tiny person, and she was so adorable. She lived in one of those kind of like fairy cottages in Carmel. And I went in and and she had about ten harps lined up there. These were all folk harps. And
She sat me down at one and I played, and then she said, Well, this is great. And she said, Here, just take that one home. So she was gonna, you know, I was gonna wrench it from her. Well, it’s funny because she knew nothing about me. She didn’t even ask my address. She didn’t check anything, and I just left with the harp. So about halfway through the week, I
Shannon Grissom (16:53)
Well
Nants Foley (17:12)
I called her up and I said, You know, this this harp is not sounding very good. And she goes, Well, you need to tune it. And I said, Well, how do I do that? And she goes, Well, with a harp key. And I’m like, No, with your harpkey. And I’m like, I don’t have a harp key. And she goes, You don’t have a harp key?
Shannon Grissom (17:35)
Si, si was
Nants Foley (17:37)
eighty-five
and she had never lived in a house without a harp key. So she I think she just you know they rained harpkeys into your house or something. So anyway, I I got a harp key and I learned how to tune it and after I had rented it for about six months for my birthday, my husband bought me my own harp. And so I returned that one and and since then I’ve
Shannon Grissom (17:41)
wow.
Nants Foley (18:06)
Been playing the harp. The harp is a very difficult instrument to play. you hold your hands out in front of you, and then you have to be able to see your music, and if you’re playing with other people, you have to be able to see the conductor. So I think that’s the instrument of my soul. I went on to buy an orchestral harp, which has a petals and allows you to use.
more complex music than a folk harp does. and there have been times when I have put the harp aside and I haven’t played much in the last six years. I keep saying I’m going to but I haven’t. when my mom died I was unable to play the harp because what would happen is I would get into my music and it would take me deep into my soul and then it
Just I I just couldn’t do it. So I’m hoping to get back to my harp soon. but I’ve been saying that for six years since I moved here. But I will. I will one of these.
Shannon Grissom (19:18)
Calling, calling, calling. And now for a wee break. Is made to make podcasts brightening your day like finding unexpected money in your coat pocket? Then help keep the episodes coming. Head on over to wearemade to make.com. There you can share the show, contribute financially, or simply help spread the word. Every bit of support keeps these conversations going and your inspiration flowing.
That’s wearmade to make dot com. Now let’s get back to the show. So I was thinking about Quicksilver School of Husbandry. You did that for over 20 years. Can you talk about how I you started to touch on it a little bit earlier about how that got started, but you had the animals, I know I learned to make cheese with you over there.
helped you harvest lavender one year. and you’re apricot. So tell me about that experience. It was it’s so rich.
Nants Foley (20:19)
Okay, so that was prompted. The Tim’s best friend from high from college died at the age of fifty. He was at the gym with his ten-year-old son and he had a heart attack. There were doctors there, they couldn’t save him. The irony of it was he was in great shape, last person in the world that you would ever think would die young. His parents lived
well into their nineties and so genetically there wasn’t anything there and he and he took good care of himself. So that was a huge wake-up call for Tim. And he had always wanted, don’t ask me why, a Lipizon horse. The Lipizons are the white horses from the Spanish riding school in Vienna.
Shannon Grissom (21:10)
Yeah.
Nants Foley (21:19)
And the thing about them is they are are very smart and they’re also very brave. And so they can be taught things. All those they’re called the dancing stallions, and all those moves that they do are moves that lipisons do in the wild. All horses do in the wild, actually. But lipisons are one of the few horses that can be taught that. They were originally used as war horses because unlike
Arabs when they’re startled they they run away. The the lipisons would plant and that was a better thing for a war. I don’t know if it was better for the lippizons, but you know it’s it’s good for war. so he knew someone that raised them, so he he bought a lipazan and we boarded it. Well, a little while later, didn’t ask me, he had it bred
And then it had a baby. And so then we had two Lipazans So we were boarding two horses. So being a real estate person and being an MBA person, I said, hmm. Two boarding fees added on to the mortgage we’re paying now equals the mortgage of a of a ranch. So we bought a ranch.
it’s only five acres, but and I d I actually did the math wrong because when you have a repair in your home, you know, it’s it’s x x amount of hundreds to repair it. When you repair something on your ranch, it’s x amount of thousands or x amount of ten thousands. But anyway, there we were. Moved out to the ranch. My mother had just died and
The first money from her estate that I got was just a bizarre life insurance policy that she had. So it wasn’t a whole lot of money, but it was too much money to just, you know, let it drift away. So I had an apricot orchard put in. And we chose the apricots because the Blenheim apricots wore the traditional crop in that.
in San Benito County, but they were all being pulled out so that houses could go in. So we were going against the tide. And since then it’s kind of shifted around and that blends are very popular again. But we enjoyed that crop a lot. I I learned from all the old ranchers how to take care of it, how to graft, how to prune. And but we didn’t do it as
a moneymaker. So it was a hobby crop, but we had a hundred trees. And so every year we would have people come over and pick the fruit and we have a big party and we would have everybody make jam and pies and you name it. And it was just a fun thing to do. and from that we explored other opportunities. I I learned how to do
giant heirloom tomatoes. I’d have these big cages up eight feet tall with all these delicious tomatoes and we had basils and we had lavender. Then we started to add other animals and we had where actually they were endangered at the time, Navajo churro sheep. And we worked with
the Navajo Chiro Association and we created breeding pairs with other people interested in saving these sheep. And by the time we were done, they had gone from endangered to rare. So I felt really good about that. But the those sheep were the ones that that the Navajos use or the Dine as they prefer to be called, used for their rugs. and so I learned how to
shear and clean the wool and card it and spin it and I had a little spinning wheel and started doing a lot of work with with the wool.
It was just it was just fun, another thing to learn. we also had miniature Sardinian donkeys and we had potbellied pigs and Tim’s favorite Tennessee fainting goats because his father had been from Tennessee and had been in charge of the getting the Tennessee fainting goats home from market and the problem with that is if you yell at them, they faint.
Literally. They it’s a myotonic reaction and they just
Shannon Grissom (26:32)
Yeah.
Nants Foley (26:34)
And
they just stay there for a while and then they can get up. So we we learned about so many different types of animals and enjoyed that. We had so many people out to our place because Tim was the superintendent of schools. We had s school groups coming all the time. And then we got in touch with a lot of elder housing situations and the people would come out and they would just love being in our place because they weren’t allowed to have pets. We had
Lots of dogs and kitties and we had chickens and they just came out and enjoyed them. So we we really enjoyed having that. I would occasionally do like one year I made bird saver wreaths from the just to you put out for the birds and you put the wool on them so they have stuff for their nests, and you take the fruits and you dehydrate them and put on there so they have food for the winter. It was just really really fun to do that. So we did one.
Shannon Grissom (27:33)
Amazing experience that whole that whole period of your life.
Nants Foley (27:37)
It was. It was a lot of work though. Yeah.
Shannon Grissom (27:40)
But it seems like but and all the work though fed something creative. So it’s just amazing how that all is just woven together. So how did you go from rural small town to high rise in Denver?
Nants Foley (27:46)
absolutely.
Yes.
That
was me. Okay, so Tim was getting older and the things that he did for pleasure suddenly became chores and hard work. And he was less and less able to keep up. And that meant we had to hire more help. And that meant I had to keep working.
And I suddenly went, hmm, no, hmm, I think I’m done here. So we started a five year plan. I started a five year plan. I did talk to Tim about it, but and this is the first time that I used manifesting and I actually did it. And that’s why I know it works. Okay, so here’s what happened. It was 2015.
And I said, okay, we need to get out of here. We can’t be on the on here as we get older. It’s not sustainable for us. It it doesn’t beat our soul like it used to. And so I was never the country girl, I was always the city girl. So I said to Tim, I would like to go to an urban setting. Here’s what I want. I want to go to a city that’s
That’s fairly affordable and has a vibrant arts community. And he said, okay. So the first thing I did was I changed all my computer passwords to PIC, that’s my my dog’s name is Picasso. PIC in CO in 2020. Don’t worry, they’re all changed now, so don’t try to knack in. and
Shannon Grissom (29:49)
Wow.
Nants Foley (29:57)
That was that was the first thing. And then I started doing three things every day that would lead me to being in that position in 2020. And I I often wonder if I had said in 2019, if it would have happened in 2019, or whether I just kind of knew would take five years. Anyway, so like at the beginning it was things like we looked at cities all over the US and we had certain criteria.
Tim didn’t want bugs, I didn’t want this, da da da da. And and we ended up in Denver because A, it is a fabulous place. and but the main reason was Tim’s favorite brother had lived here, and we’d been out many times to visit him, and we love his wife, Pat, and he died, and we won came to Denver to be her family.
And it turned out to be a good thing because a two couple of years after we moved here, her only sibling died. So we are her family and she’s our family. And we love that. so I started looking at all the, you know, I I’d be on all the real estate websites and and I found this place that sounded fabulous. And it marked off all my boxes.
And so I knew that I could be happy there because I was an architect and also a real estate agent. I felt like I could translate a listing and really understand what it might be like. So so I liked this one building. So Tim flew out to see Pat and to look at the building. And they both gave it two thumbs up. And I was looking at a certain floor plan facing the city and
And they they thought they were great. There were three of them on the market at the time. So we started getting our place really ready, and we put it on the market and it it amazingly sold immediately. And so we went to make an offer, and the three places I had been looking at were gone. So there wasn’t one that was thirteen hundred square feet, two bedrooms. So I had to go up many stories in the our building and
And down some square feet. And so for 1100 square feet, we look out over the west to the over the Rockies. And little did I know how wonderful that would be. But sight unseen, we made an offer, it was accepted, and we moved to Denver. Wow. Yeah. it as you will remember 2020 was that there was something called what was it? COVID. Yeah.
So it was a very interesting time to be moving cross country, but we bravely went through it and were really glad. getting off the farm was very interesting. We had s we had a four bedroom house with a three car garage that a car wouldn’t fit in. Oops. a green house, a five style barn with a tack room and a hay storage.
We had to get rid of so much stuff. And I learned a lot about myself, and that is that I don’t need things.
I didn’t have the time, the resources, the energy to try and sell things or even to get them to, you know, sometimes you say, I bet so and so would like this. I’ll get it over to them. No, we just I I did the same way I would every day on Facebook I would put a picture of something and I’d say, this is this is free. Come if you can come pick it up today.
Private message me, I’ll give you my address. And we got rid of most of the things that way. But it it was it was quite the freeing, freeing thing. Tim was responsible for rehoming the animals. I did everything else. The the funniest thing though, we had a blue and gold macaw that we loved, but we didn’t think it would be right to bring him with us because he squawked.
really loudly every afternoon at four o’clock. So we rehomed him and when we arrived here, it turned out the people who live above us were in the we’re in the penultimate floor, so the ones at the top floor had a blue and gold maca macaw.
Does he squaw? Yeah, it squawks. It actually has died since then, but
But it it taught me that all those things you think are really important to you, they’re not. And sometimes you have to let go of the things you love in order to allow the universe to bring you the things that you will love just as much differently. So the the biggest thrill about my where I live now, I love the ballet. I love to go to the ballet.
When I lived in Hollister, I used to drive to San Francisco, which was 90 minutes away, watch a show, and drive back. Here, I walk out my door, I go half a block away, there’s the opera house, and I go there. By the time the ballet’s done, I come home, I get in my bed, I can look out my window and see the cars leaving the parking garage, having gone to the performance.
Shannon Grissom (35:46)
Mm.
Nants Foley (35:58)
So I I feel really smart when I when it happens.
Shannon Grissom (36:02)
Well and your art studio is pretty close to your house too, is
Nants Foley (36:04)
Isn’t
it? Yes, it is. It is a block away.
Shannon Grissom (36:08)
I am loving the collage work that you’re doing right now. Fabulous pieces. How did you get started in that medium?
Nants Foley (36:15)
Well actually what happened is I fell in love with jelly printing. Do you do you do that at I don’t know. my gosh. Okay, you you get these pads and they’re jelly and you put paint on them and then you put marks on that and then you do put piece of paper over it, pull it up, and you have a mono print. And they are truly just it’s so much fun.
Shannon Grissom (36:21)
Know what that is.
Nants Foley (36:44)
And it’s quick. So it’s not like you can get a beautiful piece of art in five seconds. Of course, you can get a dog too. But so anyway, I’m doing this and I’m just having a great time. All of a sudden I’ve got piles and piles of paper. And I’m going, dear, dear, what what shall I do with these? I don’t want to just recycle them. So I started doing collage. And collage is just so much I
Okay. I I do acrylic painting. I my brushwork is not great. So with collage you cut it out and so you have beautiful brushwork. Yes. I love it. But it is really fun and I would I would recommend you you play with it sometime. In fact I recommend you come visit me and we’ll do it here. That’s like a
Shannon Grissom (37:39)
That sounds good.
So now you’re you’re heavily involved in the visual arts as well. And I know that you you’ve got a time share in Puerto Vallarta and you take your artist friends there. So talk about
Nants Foley (37:56)
Well,
The I I always wanted to go on those art retreats that everybody has, right? But they’re like $8,000, you know? And not that I’m saying that it’s not worth it. I I don’t know, I haven’t gone. But I just can’t afford that. So it suddenly occurred to me, Tim, and I have a timeshare and we have two weeks, and we never use the second week. We only use the first week. And I thought, well.
Maybe I should use the second week and go with some girlfriends and and so we I just got a group that were all artistic. We all bring down like the face masks and the hand masks and the foot masks and the place where we go has twenty five dollar massages on the beach. Once you walk out of the resort, of course. So it’s just a wonderful relaxing place and
Shannon Grissom (38:48)
Wow.
Nants Foley (38:58)
I have I bring my art stuff everywhere, so I always have that. But the last times I’ve asked the other women to bring an art project that they could show and share with everybody. And so we do art every day, we do we work out, we stretch, we try and have really healthy meals. of course then there’s the wine and the
margaritas, but that’s a whole other story.
Shannon Grissom (39:29)
Wow. It sounds wonderful. So what would you say to someone who doesn’t think they’re creative? Because I I believe that we all are too. what would you say to somebody or how would you encourage them to to start something?
Nants Foley (39:47)
So it is a it is a mindset. One of the most interesting books I ever read was suggested to me by my one of my therapists. Notice I say one of my therapists, that’s a whole other story, but we won’t go there. and it was called it is called The Care of the Soul by Thomas More. And not Thomas More like Thomas More the
the guy from the England in the Henry VIII time. But the the concept that he introduced me to was the house poem. Now don’t just let your house fall around you. Figure out look at a corner. Make it a poem. Make it a poem that will resonate in your life.
And you just keep doing that until your whole house is a house poem. And that was like such such a eye-opener for me. I’m not sure exactly why, but I realized that I could create beauty in any setting. of course, everyone should read Viktor Frankel’s book because that is just amazing.
The other one that really helped me was Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. She presents this whole program. It was it was based for on people with writer’s block, but it works for any kind of any kind of life. And she teaches you how to pull that creativity out of you. So she has you write first thing in the morning, and she has you take yourself on a date every week and
Shannon Grissom (41:20)
Yeah.
Nants Foley (41:44)
Diff you just walk through these different programs and someone had said to me
Told me about the book and said, This book changed my life. And I thought, yeah, right. But I went and I looked on Amazon and I saw, read the reviews, and it was like, this book changed my life. This book changed my life. This book changed my life. This book is total crap. This book changed my life. So I realized there were two types of people. But if you get it, you get it. And and it did change my life. And I went back on Amazon and I wrote, This book changed my life.
And it was funny because I’d never written a review on Amazon before about health health. And so
The other thing is that I I’ve had been lucky enough to have mentors in my life. And they’re you never know where they’re gonna be. one of the strongest, most wonderful mentors in my life was a woman named Dorothy McNett. And she owned a cooking store in Hollister. and it was a fabulous, fabulous place, but she taught me how to cook, but
How to appreciate food, how to plate it, how to feel good about the dishes that I used, how to make she even she doesn’t know this, she’s she’s past now, but I used to hate to unload the dishwasher, and I thought to myself, I have to find a way to make that a more pleasant job. And then I realized I could just pick up
each item out of my dishwasher, I remember this I inherited from my mother, this I bought from Dorothy. We had peach pie on this on Tim’s birthday. You know, I mean and so everything became a a work a piece of art in my life. I’ve always looked for who I’m learning from, what I’m learning, how that can make my life
more beautiful. And if you look for it, you find it. So I always say look for the miracles and look for the glimmers. The glimmers are just the little things that make your heart soar when you’re least expecting it. And you, Shannon, have been a glimmer in my life. I took I took oil painting from Shannon. Fun times and I have lots of Shannon’s w work in my house.
Shannon Grissom (43:57)
Hmm.
Yes.
Well thank you, Nants.
Nants Foley (44:25)
I love that too.
Shannon Grissom (44:27)
Thank you. Well, y you know, you’re you’re just so inspiring and and I hope people can see, especially the ones that don’t think they’re they’re creative, there are so everything we are creating our lives. And so and and the choices we make and so i I think it’s just a matter of choice.
Nants Foley (44:28)
Uh-huh.
Yes. Intention.
Shannon Grissom (44:53)
Choose to believe that you are and and and create what you want.
Nants Foley (44:59)
Right. And it’s hard to get started with that. what I find helps me is to set intentions and then I create little rituals around those. Like before I paint, I light a candle. I’m I’m a big one believing to smudge sage. Now, do I believe that sage is magical and that it’s gonna take bad stuff away? I don’t. What I believe is when I do that.
I’m I’m introducing a scent that I love and I’m telling the universe I’m open for good things to happen. Mm and that’s when they come to you. So it I’m I’m pretty witchy, but it’s not that I think the the little rituals or the incantations do anything. It’s all about intention and letting the universe know what you want. And you can call that God, you can call that whatever you want, but for me it’s just the universe.
Shannon Grissom (45:51)
Yeah.
So where can people find out more about you?
Nants Foley (46:05)
Okay. So I have a I have a blank website. I got as far as find the domain name, which is going to be coming soon, probably s within the next six months, but that’s Nance.art. But I’m on Facebook and I I’m at I’m just Nants Foley and I live in Denver.
Shannon Grissom (46:10)
Ha ha ha.
Nants Foley (46:33)
And I’m always open to talk to people who want to talk about art. So I have a a large network of people who are artists that I keep in touch with and I love that. That’s it’s wonderful. But so I’m always open to hearing what people are doing and seeing what people are doing and I’d love to hear from anyone.
Shannon Grissom (46:53)
Great. Well thank you for being here. You’ve been incredibly inspiring.
Nants Foley (46:58)
You’re you’re inspiring too, Shannon. I’m so glad to be your friend.
Shannon Grissom (47:02)
Aw, thanks. Okay, guys, that’s a wrap. Please be sure to like, subscribe, and share so that I can bring more inspiring episodes to you. We’ll see you next time.