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Living By Making

Mia-Nelle Drøschler

Living by Making is a personal essay podcast about building a life through art.
Artist and writer Mia-Nelle Drøschler reflects on creativity, work, money, recovery, nature and the search for a meaningful life. Through intimate essays and conversations from her studio in the Danish countryside, she explores what it means to keep making—even when the path is uncertain.

Support: https://www.patreon.com/cw/MiaNelle
Instagram: @mianelle_studio
Web: www.mianelle.dk/living-by-making

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17 episodes
fortnightly
Avg 29 min
English

Episodes 17

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#17
August 13 · 47 min
A Woman Called B
In this episode of Living by Making, I tell the story of a woman called B. B is an artist. She lives in Denmark. She makes things, worries about money, searches for meaning, and tries to understand what it means to build a life around making. But this time, I wanted to tell the story differently. By stepping outside myself and writing in the third person, B became both me and someone I could observe from a distance. This is a story about art, identity, ambition, money, and the strange space between the life we imagine for ourselves and the life we are actually living. Support: https://www.patreon.com/cw/MiaNelle Follow: https://www.instagram.com/mianelle_studio/ Contact: https://www.mianelle.dk/
#16
July 30 · 33 min
Inherited Stories About Money
For years, I believed my fear around money came from being an artist. But what if the story began much earlier? In this episode, I reflect on ambition, art, class, family, and the beliefs we inherit without choosing them. Moving between my studio, memories of my parents, and the Danish countryside where I now live, I explore how my father's relationship with work and money quietly became my own—and what it might mean to finally let it go. This is an essay about creativity, inheritance, and the possibility of finding a different way to live. Living by Making is a podcast about building a life through art—not as a fantasy, but as a lived, ongoing practice. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mianelle_studio/ Web: https://www.mianelle.dk/
#15
June 28 · 52 min
The Artist Who Looked Away
For eleven years, six months and twenty days, I have counted time differently. In this episode I reflect on addiction, ambition, shame and the strange contradictions of building an artistic life. From AA meetings in Denmark to an artist residency in Berlin, from quietly observing a famous writer in my favourite café to confronting my own fear of being seen, this is an essay about longing—for recognition, belonging, and the courage to show up as oneself. Along the way, I explore how perfectionism, social anxiety and the fantasy of becoming "someone" can keep us hidden, even while we desperately want to be found. Part memoir, part meditation on art and recovery, this episode asks whether success begins not with trying harder—but with trying softer. Web: www.mianelle.dk Instagram: mianelle_studio
#14
June 11 · 34 min
Congratulations! My big solo show in 2018 and I wanted to get drunk.
In 2018, I was given the opportunity to create a monumental wall painting as part of a solo exhibition in a large gallery built around an empty swimming pool. For two days, I painted obsessively — covering more than eighty square metres of wall with flowers, animals, and colour. The exhibition became one of the biggest artistic opportunities of my career. Yet, alone in a borrowed apartment the night before the opening, another story unfolded. More than a year sober, I suddenly found myself on my way to buy a bottle of wine. A story about making art, staying sober, and learning that every day counts. Receive letters with draiwings by signing up here: www.mianelle.dk and follow me on my Instagram: mianelle_studio
#13
May 28 · 31 min
The Vertical Lines - From Local Market to Museum Show
In this episode of Living by Making, I share the story of spending four days alone at a local market in Denmark, trying to sell my art from a small tent between crystal sellers, ceramic vulvas, and a tanning salon. What begins as a practical attempt to earn money slowly turns into a reflection on class, visibility, the art world, survival, and what it feels like to create while living with a nervous system in constant alarm. This episode moves between humour, exhaustion, social anxiety, art, and the strange reality of trying to build a life through making. It is also an episode about the body — and the small sensory rituals that sometimes help us stay present when everything inside us wants to flee. From local market to museum show. Instagram: mianelle_studio Web: www.mianelle.dk Email: studio@mianelle.dk
#12
May 4 · 36 min
How I Ended Up Working with Murderers
I share fragments from my life: living on almost nothing, standing in a supermarket unable to choose, and working for years inside a prison with men convicted of severe crimes — where something unexpected began to unfold. This is an episode about vulnerability, dignity, and the invisible structures shaping an artist’s life. And maybe also a question: What is art worth — and to whom? — You are not alone. I see you. 🌿 Website: www.mianelle.dk  🌿 Instagram: mianelle_studio  🌿 Support my PodCast and work: patreon/mianelle
#11
April 28 · 15 min
Who Gets to Belong in the Art World?
This week, I received a working grant from the Danish Arts Foundation — after fifteen years of rejection. In this episode, I reflect on what it means to finally be “recognised” as an artist. On the idea of the elite — and the quiet feeling of still being outside of it. On the realities of working conditions in the art world, money, and the body under pressure. This is a personal essay about value, survival, and the moment something shifts — not in the system, but inside. Instagram : @mianelle_studio Web: www.mianelle.dk
#10
April 13 · 24 min
Will the Past Catch Up With Me Soon
This episode moves between past and present, between memory and the act of making. It is about drawing, painting, and trying to hold on to something that keeps slipping away. About childhood, repetition, and the body remembering before the mind does. A reflection on what it means to make something good— and what it costs to keep trying. Follow my instagram: @mianelle_studio or visit my website www.mianelle.dk
#9
April 7 · 33 min
What is the role of the artist today?
A poetic reflection on the role of the artist in a capitalist world. Between money, meaning, and a night walk in the forest, I explore what it means to create—and belong—today. Website: www.mianelle.dk Instgram: mianelle_studio
#8
March 30 · 28 min
Working Class Artist
From preparing breakfast for Airbnb guests at my farmhouse in Denmark to thinking about class, grants, day jobs, art school debt, and what it means to make art while carrying a working-class history in the body, this is an episode about survival, shame, labour, and the strange intimacy of trying to build a life through creative work. Instagram: @mianelle_studio Web: www.mianelle.dk Email: studio@mianelle.com
#7
March 22 · 24 min
Can You Stay True and Still Make a Living?
What happens when your integrity and your survival pull in different directions? In this episode, I reflect on the tension between staying true to your artistic voice and trying to make a living within a system that often asks for something else. From my farmhouse in Denmark, I move between the soil, the studio, and the gallery world — through experiences with commercial galleries, years of holding on to my own way of working, and the quiet question that keeps returning: Can you build a life as an artist without compromising what matters most? This is an episode about money, shame, freedom, and the cost of staying true. www.mianelle.dk
#6
March 15 · 21 min
Is It Worth Continuing to Make Art When I Cannot Pay My Rent?
What does it mean to continue making art when it does not pay the rent? In this episode, I reflect on the quiet panic that can live alongside a creative life — the tension between devotion to the work and the very practical question of survival. From my farmhouse studio in Denmark, I speak about money, doubt, class, and the strange persistence that keeps many artists working even when the numbers do not add up. This is an episode about staying with the work when the world asks for something more practical.
#5
March 8 · 28 min
Addiction, getting sober and making art.
In this episode of Living by Making, I reflect on the years when alcohol quietly became a way of coping with anxiety, pressure, and doubt. Through memories of early sobriety, AA meetings, and a strange encounter with a Catholic priest who believed a demon lived inside me, I explore what it meant to face addiction while trying to build a life as an artist. It is a story about survival, art, and the moment when choosing to live becomes possible again.
#4
February 27 · 25 min
Four years after my graduation and homeless
I had 3.5 pounds. No address. And I was told to go back where I came from. This episode moves from chronic pain and no income in the countryside to my return from Glasgow in 2013, being labelled “IMMIGRANT” in my own country, nearly losing my body to illness, and the collapse of my first solo show. It’s about poverty inside the art world. About welfare systems that don’t catch you. About drinking too much. About mothers, rollercoasters, and radishes. And about how strength is arranged — weakest first. If this episode speaks to you, you’re welcome to join my monthly letter for artists and makers. Each month I share reflections on painting, artistic courage, creative structure and the inner life of making. You’ll also receive early access to new works and invitations to mentorship and masterclasses. Join here: STAY CONNECTED
#3
February 20 · 21 min
Panic Attacks and Solo Shows
What happens after your first solo show fails? In this episode, I share the two years I spent in Glasgow — navigating money, mental health, ambition, and survival — and what they taught me about living by making without a safety net. If this episode speaks to you, you’re welcome to join my monthly letter for artists and makers. Each month I share reflections on painting, artistic courage, creative structure and the inner life of making. You’ll also receive early access to new works and invitations to mentorship and masterclasses. Join here: STAY CONNECTED
#2
February 12 · 18 min
I thought I was the next Tracy Emin
My first solo show in London in 2010 — and I didn’t have the money for it. If this episode speaks to you, you’re welcome to join my monthly letter for artists and makers. Each month I share reflections on painting, artistic courage, creative structure and the inner life of making. You’ll also receive early access to new works and invitations to mentorship and masterclasses. Join here: STAY CONNECTED
#1
February 4 · 18 min
Money as a Constant Background Noise
Meet me at my Degree Show in Fine Art (2010). This episode begins there — at the moment where money, hope, ambition, and fear quietly start to hum in the background of an artist’s life. If this episode speaks to you, you’re welcome to join my monthly letter for artists and makers. Each month I share reflections on painting, artistic courage, creative structure and the inner life of making. You’ll also receive early access to new works and invitations to mentorship and masterclasses. Join here: STAY CONNECTED

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