Creative Guts

For this week's bonus episode, Creative Guts is pleased to share this episode of Off the Wall with Matt and Amy from the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts in Rochester, New Hampshire. Off The Wall is a semi-regular series where Matt and Amy chat with a wide variety of visual artists, digging into the nuts and bolts of their creative process to reveal more about the layers of meaning, emotion, and intent behind their work.

In this episode, you’ll hear Denise Manseau discuss "Making Way", an exhibition on view in the Carnegie Gallery until September 4, 2026. The Carnegie Gallery is located in the Rochester Public Library, 65 South Main Street, Rochester, NH 03867. Visit rochestermfa.org to learn more.

Denise Manseau creates paintings that are inventions in response to place—inner landscapes that transform the visible world into tangible form. Her work emerges through a process of discovery, where observation and memory converge to shape environments that feel both familiar and imagined.

Manseau holds a BFA from the University of Massachusetts Lowell and an MFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She has attended the Haystack Mountain School of Craft in Maine as an Open Studio Resident and was a resident artist at the Vermont Studio Center. Paintings developed during her residency in Monasterace, Italy were included in a traveling exhibition at the Monasterace Museo and at Hillyer Art Space for International Artists in Washington, DC.

Learn more about this exhibit at https://www.rochestermfa.org/denise-manseau/.
View her work at www.denisemanseau.com and follow on Instagram at www.instagram.com/ddmanseau/

Any views or opinions expressed by the RMFA hosts or guests do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Creative Guts.

Creative Guts is thrilled to introduce Jonathan Martinez as our Social Media Intern for this month!

Jonathan is a social, funny, and creative person, who loves photography, music, and people. Recently, he has worked alongside his school’s baseball team as the team photographer to create graphics for gamedays, as well as wins. He seeks to bring his creativity to Creative Guts for all to enjoy his creative lens, while also exploring and highlighting the creativity of others throughout New Hampshire.

Welcome aboard, Jonathan! 🎉

Our hearts are still full from our live podcast panel discussion on Women in the Arts from this past Saturday, which was produced by Creative Guts and the New Hampshire Art Association (NHAA).

Surrounded by powerful works in the Sue Werner Thoresen exhibition at the NHAA, panelists Maria Oakley, Catherine Graffam, and Lori Moretti, along with moderator Becky Barsi, got vulnerable. They discussed inspiration, process, visibility, challenge, community, and what needs to change to make the art world more equitable for women and gender-diverse people.

Thank you to our panelists for their openness, and to the folks who attended this engaging event. 💙

The podcast recording of this discussion will be released in late June. Be sure not to miss it by subscribing to Creative Guts wherever you get your podcasts!

NH Gives returns June 9–10! Mark your calendar and get ready to support the causes you care about most (like Creative Guts! 🎙💙🎧).

Join us for a live podcast recording tomorrow! 🎙🎧

Creative Guts is hosting a live panel discussion at the New Hampshire Art Association (NHAA) with three amazing panelists, Maria Oakley, Lori Moretti, and Catherine Graffam, for a discussion on women in the arts.

Featured in this post is the work of panelist Lori Moretti, a Boston-based figurative painter whose work examines the psychological and relational tensions shaping contemporary life. View more of her work at www.morettipaintings.com.

EVENT DETAILS:

📆 Saturday, May 16th | 2:00pm
📍 Robert Lincoln Levy Gallery | 136 State St, Portsmouth NH
🎟 Tickets required | $20 for NHAA members, $25 for non-members
Seating is limited so reserve your tickets now:

https://www.nhartassociation.org/events/creative-guts-live-panel-podcast-at-nhaa

Join us for a live podcast recording tomorrow! 🎙🎧

Creative Guts is hosting a live panel discussion at the New Hampshire Art Association (NHAA) nhartassociation with three amazing panelists, Maria Oakley, Lori Moretti, and Catherine Graffam, for a discussion on women in the arts.

Featured in this post is the work of Maria Oakley, a painter and sculptor based in Chester, NH. Maria is also an arts educator and the 2026 NH Art Educator of the year. Find more of her work at www.mariaoakley.com.

EVENT DETAILS:

📆 Saturday, May 16th | 2:00pm
📍 Robert Lincoln Levy Gallery | 136 State St, Portsmouth NH
🎟 Tickets required | $20 for NHAA members, $25 for non-members
Seating is limited so reserve your tickets now:

https://www.nhartassociation.org/events/creative-guts-live-panel-podcast-at-nhaa

Join us for a live podcast recording tomorrow! 🎙🎧

Creative Guts is hosting a live panel discussion at the New Hampshire Art Association (NHAA) with three amazing panelists, Maria Oakley, Lori Moretti, and Catherine Graffam, for a discussion on women in the arts.

Featured in this post is the work of panelist Catherine (Cat) Graffam, a painter, game developer, and content creator from Maine. Check out more of her work at www.catherinegraffam.com.

EVENT DETAILS:

📆 Saturday, May 16th | 2:00pm
📍 Robert Lincoln Levy Gallery | 136 State St, Portsmouth NH
🎟 Tickets required | $20 for NHAA members, $25 for non-members
Seating is limited so reserve your tickets now:

https://www.nhartassociation.org/events/creative-guts-live-panel-podcast-at-nhaa

In today's episode of Creative Guts, co-hosts Becky Barsi and Joe Acone sit down with Ashley Normal, a New England-based artist, educator, and community builder whose work explores the strange, fragile, and absurd edges of everyday life. Through drawing, painting, mixed media, and altered materials, she examines themes like mental health, womanhood, gender, memory, and social taboos.

🎧 To learn more about Ashley Normal’s work, check out her website at www.ashleynormal.com or follow on IG at www.instagram.com/ashley_normal.

If you love listening, consider making a donation to Creative Guts! Our budget is tiny, so donations of any size make a big difference. Learn more about us and make a tax-deductible donation at www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com.

Thank you to Kennebunk Savings Bank for being an official sponsor of the podcast!

Thank you to our friends at Art Up Front Street Studios and Gallery in Exeter, NH and the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts in Rochester, NH for their support of the show!

Any views or opinions expressed by our hosts or guests do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Creative Guts.

Creative Guts Chair and co-host Laura Harper Lake enjoyed an invigorating day at the 2026 NH Nonprofit Conference & Expo, hosted by NH Center for Nonprofits. 👏

It was great to see so many amazing nonprofits at this event, including the fine folks from Mosaic Art Collective!

The deadline for poetry for our Spring 2026 Zine has been extended to Sunday, May 31st!

Calling all poets: We’re seeking poems that upend the solitary and thrive on connection with other writers, works of art, and community. We will consider all explorations of collaboration and are especially interested in poems written by collaborative pairs, ekphrastic poems, erasure poems, and poems that reach outside of themselves into the collective.

The Creative Guts team aims to stimulate and inspire creativity, by telling the stories of those who are brave enough to put themselves out there. This zine is another format where creatives can share with the world what they make. A physical edition of the zine will be sent to each participating contributor and available for purchase for non-contributors, while digital editions of the zine will be available for free for all on our website.

ELIGIBILITY: Creatives 18 years and older, from any country, are welcome to apply.

FEE: Submission is $15 for up to five pages of poetry. As a nonprofit organization, Creative Guts relies on these modest fees to cover production costs and sustain opportunities like this for our creative community. If this fee is a barrier, please email [email protected] to request a submission waiver.

SUBMISSION: Please upload a single text document of poetry (up to five (5) pages of poetry, no more than one (1) poem per page).

Visit www.CreativeGuts.org/zine to submit!

QUESTIONS? Email [email protected].

In just over a week, Creative Guts will be hosting a live podcast at the New Hampshire Art Association (NHAA) with three amazing panelists: Maria Oakley, Lori Moretti, and Catherine Graffam! Co-host Becky Barsi will be moderating a discussion on women in the arts, with Co-host Laura Harper Lake recording in the background. 🎙🎧

📆 Saturday, May 16th | 2:00pm
📍 Robert Lincoln Levy Gallery | 136 State St, Portsmouth NH
🎟 Tickets required | $20 for NHAA members, $25 for non-members

Seating is limited so reserve your tickets now:
https://www.nhartassociation.org/events/creative-guts-live-panel-podcast-at-nhaa

Join us for an important discussion, learn about these three artists, and see how a podcast is recorded!