We recently connected with Grace Amulet Evans and have shared our conversation below.
Grace, we are so happy that our community is going to have a chance to learn more about you, your story and hopefully even take in some of the lessons you’ve learned along the way. Let’s start with self-care – what do you do for self-care and has it had any impact on your effectiveness?
Self-care can mean so many things, but for me, the most impactful form of self-care has always been creativity, especially working on creative projects with friends. My favorite childhood memories are of giddily working on movie scripts with friends (always about secret agents or the hardcore hardships of life as early settlers, haha) and getting out the family ’90s video camera to piece together little movies. My parents are creative; my mom is a great seamstress and engineer, skilled at constructing any kind of visual prop, and my dad plays guitar and is great at inspiring group activities and encouraging any kind of project with enthusiasm. We had costume bins full of bits and pieces, handmade Halloween leftovers, masks, and wigs, so there was always a rich environment for my friends and me to let our imaginations run wild.
Carrying that into my life now, I’m lucky enough to still have many close friends from childhood, and I’ve made connections as an adult with incredible creative spirits.
Creativity still holds that spark of unbridled, childlike excitement that breaks through so much of the calcification of work, trauma, and the mental strain of living in the world. It’s healing, refreshing, and for me, it always feels like breaking through a shell, allowing me to reemerge into life as myself—more in touch with nature, with others, and with the beauty that’s always present but easy to miss in times of stress.
As an adult, my earliest memories of this are from after a big loss. My best friend and I stayed up all night making snacks, teaching ourselves to sew fun outfits, and writing lyrics. Around that time, another friend was working on a photography project where she would photograph us subjects with long exposures, painting our bodies and throwing paint on a huge canvas. These kinds of creative outlets with the women I loved most were so impactful and healing. They really instilled in me the power of creativity as a form of self-care.
I was fortunate to continue these kinds of projects throughout my twenties, working with photographers Shasta McBride and Rebecca Culbreth, who are amazing at creating fantastical natural environments. Many of these photoshoots were underwater or surrounded by hundreds of flowers, and they helped me reconnect with the softness and beauty of being a woman, especially during times when I was struggling with that.
Later, I worked a lot with Ruy Carpenter, who embodies the spirit of childlike excitement in his work. He works with multiple exposures, so we would go to thrift stores, stock up on fabrics, textures, and patterns, and play with creating visual layers. We had so much fun, always powered by late-night, extra-strong hot cacao. These times were incredibly fulfilling, healing, and definitive of self-care, which, the more I think about it, might be synonymous with play!
Self-care can be small too, but being able to have periods of creativity that are so rebalancing has really helped me tune in to my body’s needs. It’s made me more sensitive to when I need to step back from work and engage in some form of self-care, whether that’s taking a bath, going for a walk, painting, or taking a yoga class. One of my favorite forms of self-care is occasionally falling into a fanfiction-reading rabbit hole, which gives me the same excitement and playfulness of participating in a live creative community (TikTok has made these communities blow up in such a fun way!).
Stepping back from work to play, in whatever way works for you, is the best kind of self-care.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I make music, under the artist name Grace Amulet, and I also work in nonprofit and teach Inferno Hot Pilates. As an artist, I’ve found the combination of these things really works for me, and has made me happier than I was when I was doing art full time. The financial security and structure of working helps keep me grounded, and teaching pilates keeps me energized and healthy, and is a really fun, crazy way to connect with people.
Artistically, I always write on the piano, and used to write in a singer-songwriter style, before I started recording projects with Kerry Fogarty of Parson Jones, and with Love Conquered Records. I love recording, and always came at it more like painting, creating a world of sound for the story of the song to live in.
These days, I’ve been really enjoying getting back into simple songs, voice and piano, writing melodies that just feel good to sing, and keeping everything really simple. I think it’s that thing of, the more you learn about your craft, the more you are able to utilize simplicity effectively. And the more you appreciate the power of simplicity.
I’m currently working on some simple songs that I plan to release in the next few months, and it feels really good to get back my my roots a in that way.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I think the three most important qualities on my creative journey have been, persistence, lack of shame, and knowing that practice pays off. I think the creative journey is often the urge to make something that expresses a feeling or speaks to people, that makes people feel something — but when your skill level doesn’t match the power of that urge, it can be incredibly frustrating.
When I was little, I was encouraged to be creative, and had piano lessons. These lessons really instilled the power of practice in me. I remember the feeling of being a kid and struggling to make my fingers play a piece correctly. It would seem impossible, until suddenly, usually after walking away from it for a few hours or a day, I could suddenly DO it and it felt like MAGIC.
It really helps that creative frustration, to know that practice does pay off, that the hours of struggle will lead to something fruitful.
I think persistence and lack of shame are all in the same vein; you have to just keep pushing through the times when you are not very good. I always loved digging into the back-catalog of demos of my favorite artists, and really loved hearing the early, unpolished, technically not so good work. You can map out how creative sparks are present in early work, and with persistence, practice, and time, technical skill eventually catches up.
Hearing those types of demos helped me not have shame with the things I released, especially in the beginning. I always knew that I had the fire to keep going, and trusted I would get better, and that helped me break the ice and put things out when I was starting out, that expressed what I wanted to express, and were creative leaps, but which weren’t very good. You can’t have shame in art! It’s always a little thrill to put out something that I’m a little bit embarrassed of, or that feels a little cringe, or a little too vulnerable. Being an artist lets you push that boundary with a bit of a mask on, and it’s really cathartic and fun.
Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?
My friends, family, community and creative relationships have been the most helpful in helping me overcome challenges and build essential skills.
Having supportive people in your life is so important. I feel like I’ve always had people who cheer me on, and encourage me through the good and the bad. I also have always had a lot of friends who are 10-15 years older than me, and that really helped me grow and learn, especially in my twenties.
In my late twenties, I lived in a house with other artists, who were all a little bit older than me, and I learned so much from them. Just hearing my older female friends express their feelings, or talk about love, relationships, art, spirituality, and the world, really informed my own abilities to detangle my thoughts and feelings.
I’ve learned a lot about resilience, freedom, and play from friends like these, and they’ve always been there, physically, or leading by example, to help me through challenges.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.graceamulet.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/graceamulet/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClg7Ud_rzSENfyqkRRuTyEA
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/graceamulet
Image Credits
Title Image by Ruy Carpenter
Image 1 (underwater) and 2 (prism) by Shasta McBride
Images 3 and 4 by Rebecca Culbreth
Images 5-8 by Ruy Carpenter
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
