WHY I STARTED CREATESCENE

Being an artist is hard.

Not the creating part — that’s the joy, the escape, the thing that makes all the struggle worth it. The hard part is everything around it. Trying to find opportunities. Fighting algorithms that seem designed to bury you. Searching for collaborators who actually get you. Feeling like you’re shouting into the void, hoping someone out there is listening.

And then there’s the loneliness. If you’re a creative, you know what I mean. We’re wired differently. While most people want to go out, switch off, and live “normal” lives, we’d rather stay in the studio, chase an idea into the early hours, tear it apart, and start again. That’s our normal. Add in struggles with mental health or social anxiety, and suddenly even making friends can feel impossible.

That’s why I built CreateScene.

I wanted the thing I wish I had when I was younger — before the galleries, before the career, back when I was just an outsider with big ideas and nowhere to take them. I dreamed of a place where I could find my people. A place where opportunities weren’t about luck, but about being seen. A place where I didn’t have to explain myself to feel understood.

Truth is, I still want that now. I still want to meet new collaborators, find new friends who get it. But CreateScene isn’t just about me. It’s about the next generation of creatives who right now might be sitting there wondering if there’s even a future in this.

There’s a sketch by Leonardo da Vinci that I always come back to — a dragon locked in battle with a lion. To me, that’s the creative struggle in one image: one foot in fantasy, one in reality, constantly fighting for control. CreateScene is my way of helping people stand in both worlds. To embrace the fantasy, but also find the real opportunities, the real friendships, the real support that keeps you going.

I’m in a lucky position now. I get to create full-time. Art paid my bills and gave me a platform. But I’ve always felt like I owed something back to art — because, honestly, it saved my life. Through my nonprofit, Art Is The Cure, I saw how creativity can pull people back from the edge, give them hope, and help them heal. CreateScene is an extension of that — my way of paying that debt forward by building a platform that makes people feel less alone and more connected.

I think a lot about legacy. One of my biggest inspirations is Jamie Oliver. He could have just stayed in the kitchen, but instead he stepped out and changed how people thought about food. He transformed school dinners, helped people leaving prison start new lives, and brought food culture into homes in a way no chef had before. He had a bigger purpose than just cooking — and because of that, he changed the system around it.

That’s what I want to do with CreateScene.

I don’t want it to be “just another platform.” I want it to be a movement. I want it to change how people see creativity — not as a luxury or a side hobby, but as an industry, a lifeline, a cultural engine that shapes everything around us. I want to give people a future in being creative. I want them to feel inspired, supported, and excited about what’s possible.

For me, CreateScene isn’t just a project. It’s a legacy. A way to leave the creative world in a better place than I found it.

And I believe it has the power to change the world. Sign up for a free profile and join the CreateScene community.