The Creative Mother Podcast

This weeks episode is with Naomi Azoulay a Tāmaki Makaurau–based artist whose work explores the emotional landscapes of resilience, transformation, and social change. 
Working in portraiture across collage and painting, she portrays women with strength, agency, and defiance, celebrating feminine rage as a catalyst for social change.
With a background in visual arts and community engagement, her practice connects personal experience with broader questions of representation and inclusivity. 
Through vibrant colour, layered textures, and emotionally charged imagery, Azoulay invites viewers to pause and reflect on their own emotions.
Her work has been exhibited nationally, and she continues to develop projects that foster dialogue and solidarity across diverse communities.
https://www.naomiazoulay.com/
https://www.instagram.com/naomi_azoulay_collage
https://www.instagram.com/naomi_azoulay_art

Links mentioned:
Nap Ministry
Lissy & Rudi
Kehinde Wiley

About your host:
Kate Hursthouse is a practising artist and trainee Creative Arts Therapist with over a decade of creative and community experience. She combines her background in design, illustration, and arts education with a growing therapeutic practice centred on inclusion, emotional wellbeing, and creative expression. Guided by empathy and curiosity, Kate supports individuals and groups to explore identity, connection, and growth through the transformative process of art-making.
She started this podcast to try and answer the question: how do we continue to be creative and produce creative work, while raising children? Her goal is to create a little corner of the internet where creative mothers share their stories and gain a feeling of community, understanding and inspiration.
https://www.katehursthouse.com/
https://www.instagram.com/katehursthouse/
https://www.instagram.com/creativemotherpodcast/

A huge thanks to Auckland Council Creative Communities Scheme for supporting this season of the podcast.

This weeks episode is with Dina Jezdic, an art critic, curator, and decolonial scholar with a doctorate focused on decoloniality of museums and contemporary Indigenous practice. She has extensive experience in creative mentoring, delivering tailored programs for groups and individual practitioners across fine art and design.
Dina is a frequent contributor to Art News (NZ), Art New Zealand, The Big Idea, Artlink (AUS), Art Collector (AUS), and Sculpture Magazine (US).
https://www.instagram.com/ms.interpretedd/
Links from this episode:
Dina's doctoral thesis: Decolonial Museum Practice Through Performance Art and Activation: A Collective Autoethnography :  https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/items/28129a8c-f767-4dca-96cc-5e4bf540b129 
https://www.artlink.com.au/issues/4530/the-mother-issue/
Sarah Hughes
Sefton Rani
Mother Mother Collective

About your host:
Kate Hursthouse is a practising artist and trainee Creative Arts Therapist with over a decade of creative and community experience. She combines her background in design, illustration, and arts education with a growing therapeutic practice centred on inclusion, emotional wellbeing, and creative expression. Guided by empathy and curiosity, Kate supports individuals and groups to explore identity, connection, and growth through the transformative process of art-making.
She started this podcast to try and answer the question: how do we continue to be creative and produce creative work, while raising children? Her goal is to create a little corner of the internet where creative mothers share their stories and gain a feeling of community, understanding and inspiration.
https://www.katehursthouse.com/
https://www.instagram.com/katehursthouse/
https://www.instagram.com/creativemotherpodcast/

A huge thanks to Auckland Council Creative Communities Scheme for supporting this season of the podcast.

Agate Rubene is the artist and illustrator behind Restless & Infectious. Originally from Latvia, she is now based in Auckland, New Zealand.

With a background in fashion and graphic design, Agate began her creative journey through fashion illustration—a foundation that continues to shape her distinctive style. Her work focuses on people and their actions, capturing emotion and celebrating life’s pleasures with a light-hearted tone.

She uses bright colour palettes, fluid shapes, and vibrant characters to craft alternative realities inspired by daily experiences, mood, and the aesthetic of pop culture.

Agate creates bold, expressive paintings, custom commissions, and commercial illustrations that bring stories to life. She has collaborated with brands such as Dipsea, The Beauty Book, and Urbanaut, and her work has found homes with collectors worldwide—reflecting its universal appeal.
https://restlessinfectious.com/
https://www.instagram.com/restless_infectious/
https://www.facebook.com/RestlessInfectious

About your host:
Kate Hursthouse is a practising artist and trainee Creative Arts Therapist with over a decade of creative and community experience. She combines her background in design, illustration, and arts education with a growing therapeutic practice centred on inclusion, emotional wellbeing, and creative expression. Guided by empathy and curiosity, Kate supports individuals and groups to explore identity, connection, and growth through the transformative process of art-making.
She started this podcast to try and answer the question: how do we continue to be creative and produce creative work, while raising children? Her goal is to create a little corner of the internet where creative mothers share their stories and gain a feeling of community, understanding and inspiration.
https://www.katehursthouse.com/
https://www.instagram.com/katehursthouse/
https://www.instagram.com/creativemotherpodcast/

A huge thanks to Auckland Council Creative Communities Scheme for supporting this season of the podcast.

Abbie McCall (Ngāti Apa) is a mother of three and a proud Māori creative whose life has always been steeped in the arts. Born into a whānau of musicians, visual artists, and makers, creativity has been her constant — a natural rhythm that’s guided her through every chapter.

A true jack of all trades, Abbie spent her life joyfully moving between creative worlds — until 2022, when everything stopped. A breast cancer diagnosis brought transformation in every sense of the word. Through the challenge came a deep rebuilding, and it was art-making that became her compass — a way to recalibrate, to find meaning, and to return home to herself.

A chance encounter at a writing workshop introduced her to the world of Creative Arts Therapy, sparking a brave return to academia with renewed purpose. What followed was not traditional study, but a deep dive into identity, healing, and curiosity — a process of carving out, and peeling back. 

Now completing her Master’s in Creative Arts Therapy (Clinical), Abbie brings the healing power of art into schools, kaupapa Māori spaces, and acute care settings. Her mahi is grounded in aroha, wairua, and connection — meeting people where they are, and using creativity as a bridge back to wholeness.

For Abbie, being creative isn’t a verb — it’s an innate devotion. A way of being.
Links mentioned in the podcast:
https://www.instagram.com/abbie.toi.ora.therapy/
https://www.wharehaututu.nz/creativearttherapy
https://www.dancetherapy.co.nz/
https://huiacomehome.co.nz/
Notes on Womanhood - https://sarahjanebarnett.net/

About your host:
Kate Hursthouse is a practising artist and trainee Creative Arts Therapist with over a decade of creative and community experience. She combines her background in design, illustration, and arts education with a growing therapeutic practice centred on inclusion, emotional wellbeing, and creative expression. Guided by empathy and curiosity, Kate supports individuals and groups to explore identity, connection, and growth through the transformative process of art-making.
She started this podcast to try and answer the question: how do we continue to be creative and produce creative work, while raising children? Her goal is to create a little corner of the internet where creative mothers share their stories and gain a feeling of community, understanding and inspiration.
https://www.katehursthouse.com/
https://www.instagram.com/katehursthouse/
https://www.instagram.com/creativemotherpodcast/

A huge thanks to Auckland Council Creative Communities Scheme for supporting this season of the podcast.

Welcome back to Season 3 of the Creative Mother Podcast. A huge thanks to Auckland Council Creative Communities Scheme for supporting this season of the podcast.
Today host Kate Hursthouse talks about her struggles with chronic illness and the impact that has had on her creativity and sense of identity. She also discusses her journey towards becoming a Creative Arts Therapist.
Kate Hursthouse is an artist, creative business owner, trainee Creative Arts Therapist and a single mother to one awesome kid. With over a decade of creative and community experience she combines her background in design, illustration, and arts education with a growing therapeutic practice centred on inclusion, emotional wellbeing, and creative expression. Guided by empathy and curiosity, Kate supports individuals and groups to explore identity, connection, and growth through the transformative process of art-making.
She started this podcast to try and answer the question: how do we continue to be creative and produce creative work, while raising children? Her goal is to create a little corner of the internet where creative mothers share their stories and gain a feeling of community, understanding and inspiration.

www.katehursthouse.com
@katehursthouse
@creativemotherpodcast