The One With Andrea Clare

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:00:32]:
Hey. Hello. Hello. Welcome back. Thank you for joining me. Good to have you with us once again. Hopefully, you’re gonna enjoy this episode. Remember, give us a like, comment, share, subscribe.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:00:43]:
It all helps to spread the word. My guest this week my guest this week is a lady called Andrea, and Andrea is the menopause artist who, after an horrendous perimenopause experience, became an expert in all things menopause. She now helps women to understand and navigate the menopause through the healing power of art. She does this on her 8 week online menopause art program, and she also paints personalised pet portraits. Anna has doodled and sketched all of her life, but she’s 20 years in the corporate world in noncreative careers. 2 years ago, she discovered her true artistic talent as well as realising that she was ADHD, like many creatives are. She has also written a chapter for the book Beyond the Ordinary, Discover the Power of Creative and Neurodiverse Women, and that was published in October of 2024. Andrea is a 59 year old postmenopausal mum to 3 humans and 3 dogs, and she lives just outside Glasgow, in Scotland.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:01:51]:
That’s my guest today, Andrea. Let’s bring her in. Hello, Andrea. How are you doing?

Andrea Clare [00:01:57]:
Hello. I’m very good. Thank you, Keith.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:02:01]:
Brilliant. Thanks thanks for coming along. Thanks for taking some time out to join me today. Okay. We’ve heard your bio, but who is Andrea? Who is the lady behind it all?

Andrea Clare [00:02:14]:
Okay. So where do I begin? As you can hear from my accent, I’m not originally from Scotland. I came up to Scotland 35 years ago, so I’ve spent all my adult life working in Scotland. I’m very much one who likes to take the the path less traveled. Although having said that, I kind of had a very, traditional start to life in terms of education. I went away after school, got a degree, got a postgraduate qualification as a further education teacher, And then I came up to Scotland and started my career in IT training. And as my bio said, I spent, most of my career doing that. I, have always been sporty, although I’ve not been quite so sporty recently due to an injury, but, I do enjoy running.

Andrea Clare [00:03:23]:
I’ve come to, long distance running later in life. I’m mum to 3 children who we adopted when I was 42, so I was quite late to motherhood. And I’m now a single mom of of 3 with my 3 dogs as well. I’ve always been creative. Thanks to my mum. She taught me all the traditional crafts when I was young, including knitting, dressmaking, baking, and I used to love drawing. And I’ve kind of doodled on and off throughout life. I’ve done quite a few pencil sketches over the years, some, photographs, but I never really thought I was any good at art.

Andrea Clare [00:04:24]:
I thought, well, you know, that’s not that’s not proper art, which is ironic because when I paint portraits, I paint for photographs. So, I’ve owned a traditional business. I had a a cafe and catering business. I’ve been through the trauma of bankruptcy. I’ve experienced, my mom and my aunt are going through dementia. So it’s it’s been an an interesting journey. I’ve always considered myself a little bit different. And 2 years ago, I realised that I’m neurodiverse, and I have ADHD.

Andrea Clare [00:05:02]:
And that’s ex that’s explained a lot for me. And, yeah. So and at the same time as that, I realised that the thing that I really want to do when I grow up, because it’s taken me a while to figure that out, is I want to set I want to be an artist. I want to be a professional artist, which I am now. And, I as as it said in my bio, I use that to help, other women. So, yeah, that’s really a bit of of background information about me. I love colour. I’m, very colourful in my wardrobe normally.

Andrea Clare [00:05:42]:
And, yeah, I just and I love being out in the in the great outdoors. I love, walking my dogs on the beach.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:05:53]:
Lovely. Lovely. Nice. That’s that’s a really a nice, a nice rounded rounded overview of, of who you are. Thank you for sharing that. So the three things that that that jump out, there, which we’re gonna focus on through through this, through this episode or find out more. The first thing is, when you said you you discovered your ADHD, how how did that come about? Because I know, there are many people out there who discover at some point that they have, some form of neurodiversity. Often they are increasingly these data can be detected when people are younger, but there’s a lot of people who’ve grown up with it but without it being detected.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:06:40]:
What kind of clued you into, the fact that, oh, maybe there’s something here. What what what happened?

Andrea Clare [00:06:49]:
So, my daughter was, diagnosed with autism and ADHD and attempted when she was 14. So that kind of opened my eyes to, neurodiversions, and the fact that it’s, you know, it’s a wide very wide spectrum of, it’s not just naughty and loud boys. For instance, that’s what the situation we thought was. I worked briefly for the National Autistic Society, and then, a friend said to me that she thought she was neurodiverse or that she had ADHD. And I I truly believe that people come into your life for a reason. And it was actually during lockdown that, there was a lady on Facebook. She promoted, a free 5 day training in, ADHD. And I thought, well, I’m gonna I’m gonna give that a go.

Andrea Clare [00:07:56]:
And that was just, you know, life changing. I thought Mhmm. This is you know, everything that she was mentioning, I was thinking, oh my goodness. That is me. And it explained so many of the challenges that I’d had when I was particularly when I was younger when I was at school in terms of, friendships. And as I say, I’ve always had this feeling that I’m different in some way. It hasn’t held me back in any way. But, yeah, it just it it all slotted into place for me.

Andrea Clare [00:08:30]:
And I’m not I’m I’m I don’t need a formal diagnosis. I don’t need to be medicated. It’s just it’s just explained so much for me, and it’s also I didn’t appreciate that I suffer from anxiety or I have done. And it’s actually that has calmed me. So that’s kinda how it all came about. And, yeah, it says it has changed my life. It’s really helped me.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:09:01]:
Yeah. It’s a a phrase that you used earlier on, which I think sums sums up many people’s experiences. That explains a lot. It it really does, doesn’t it, when we look look back over it. Oh, okay. Now I see what’s going on there. And as you say, you’re you’re not in a position where you need support. That said, at least knowing, oh, ADHD.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:09:23]:
Okay. That explains it. That explains the way I act. Right. And I can deal with it accordingly. There’s there’s there’s something comforting in just just knowing, isn’t there? Definitely. And

Andrea Clare [00:09:34]:
that’s the same, you know, with my daughter because she was the same, the fact that she knew, and it explained lots for her. And it also helped me as a mom to understand her. Yeah. I I consider it my superpower.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:09:49]:
Yeah. Oh, nice. Nice. Now you you were I mean, you you had your great long career in, noncreative, noncreative side of industries, and then you, I guess, rediscovered your your your passion for for for art, and you use that, through your your experiences with perimenopause. Use all that to help, other women going through menopause. Which came first, the art or the the menopause side of side of it?

Andrea Clare [00:10:23]:
That’s a really interesting question. I mean, I actually, delved into art and painting back in 2014 when I had my cafe, and my local town, Hamilton, was having a a public art show. We were having, full size Clydesdale horses. Oh. And, I thought, oh, I’ll submit a a design. I had no great confidence that I would be selected, but I was. And I had no idea what sort of paints to use. I was a complete novice.

Andrea Clare [00:11:03]:
So, I did the horse and it was it was an amazing experience, but I still had I didn’t feel I was any good at art. And, I was probably at that point starting, the perimenopause. So I did that, and then I all this creativity gushed out of me, and I created quite a number of canvases, which actually, were hung in the the nursing home where my mum, was living. And then, I’ve since done a couple more art shows, but, again, I just wasn’t I I wasn’t convinced that I was any good. And

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:11:43]:
Yeah.

Andrea Clare [00:11:44]:
You know, they kind of existed in isolation. So I was sort of doing on the odd, painting for people. I hadn’t, at that point, started to do pet portraits. So, I had again, it’s amazing. These things all seem to happen in in lockdown, but I was still having a really difficult time, during lockdown. I’d been to the doctor, previously because I was having really I had really low moods, and I was actually, know, having suicidal thoughts, which I’m quite open about, because I know I’m not alone in that. Yeah. Yeah.

Andrea Clare [00:12:28]:
And I was I went to the doctor, and I was just told, oh, you’ve got depression. But during lockdown, I was still not right. I thought I my memory was shocking. I was having brain fog, and I thought, oh, I’ve got early onset dementia because my mum and my auntie, my grandma had it. And, I mean, I’m not a hypochondriac, but, like a lot of women, I was trying to explain why I was the way I was.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:12:55]:
Sure. Sure. Yeah.

Andrea Clare [00:12:56]:
I was having these incredible mood swings, and I thought, oh my goodness. I think I’m, like, bipolar. I just I had no idea. But then the turning point was a documentary by Devina McCall. And I watched that and it just all fell into place. I thought, oh my goodness. I’ve been perimenopausal. And nobody has you know, the doctor didn’t mention.

Andrea Clare [00:13:25]:
And at that point, we weren’t merely talking about the menopause the way that we are now. So, I actually started to think at that point, I need to talk I need to tell other people about this so that I can help other women. And this was when sort of TikTok was taken off. And I thought I could go on to TikTok and talk about it. And then I thought, oh, nobody will want to listen to me. How wrong I was because now loads of people are talking about it on TikTok. So I knew at that point that I had to share this this knowledge that I gained and share my experience so that I could help other people. And then I again, towards the end of lockdown, somebody was doing a, class on Instagram on how to paint a flower using watercolours, and I’d never used watercolours before.

Andrea Clare [00:14:19]:
But I had a wee palette that was my mom’s, and I thought, I’m gonna give it a go. And I was actually quite good at it. And then, somebody on a Facebook group was asking she had a dog that was very poorly, and she was asking for somebody to take its, photograph and also to do a spa day for it. And I was just inspired to paint this dog. And I gave the as a gift to the lady, and we became friends. And then I just put a post saying, would anybody else like their pet pay Patron? They say the the rest is history. Yeah. I started my business which is called Sasha and Friends because the name of the dog that I first painted was called Sasha.

Andrea Clare [00:15:09]:
Oh, that’s a trend. So I then thought well, I I really want to follow my passion for art. Mhmm. But I was realistic in my expectations because it is really good to it’s really hard to make your fortune as an artist.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:15:28]:
Yes.

Andrea Clare [00:15:29]:
So I thought, well, how and then I also wanted to, empower women with information about the menopause so that if they went to their GP, they would be better informed or if they wanted to look at other, you know, options that could help them. So I thought, well, why don’t I combine the 2? And that’s that’s how it came about. So it’s been an it’s been an interesting journey. It’s kind of not been a planned journey, but it was a it was a it was a journey that was meant to happen. So, yeah, that’s that’s how I got to create my, program, menopause art.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:16:14]:
Got it. Got it. Yeah. As you say, a a really interesting journey. Not I guess not one anybody could ever have have planned sat there. You know what? This is how I’m this is how things are gonna map out. But that said, everything that you went through, you’ve then built upon and taken all your experiences from all of it to build what you do now.

Andrea Clare [00:16:33]:
Yes. Yeah.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:16:34]:
So how how do how do you help, menopausal women, with art? And is is it, is it just women going through menopause, or is it perimenopausal? Is it postmenopausal? What’s what’s what’s the best sort

Andrea Clare [00:16:48]:
of help? I suppose the most the most common phrase for, the majority of women is perimenopause. And, I mean, 25% of women are very lucky that they experience very few menopause symptoms. 25% have very severe symptoms, which I think I fell within that 25%. And then you’ve got the 50% in the middle where it’s not, you know, they’re having some degree of struggle, but not as bad as the the amount Yeah. Yeah. Top 25%. And perimenopause is really the time when, you know, lots of changes are occurring in a in a woman’s, body which leads to physical and emotional changes. But having said that, you know, I’m postmenopausal and, you know, women like me can still benefit from taking time out for themselves, and get creative.

Andrea Clare [00:17:48]:
So the program is structured so that women learn about the menopause, and they’re I actually have some exercises where they’re doing something creative in order to do that. So for instance, I have, an exercise called colour the menopause where we use a mandala and, women can either create color the menopause as a whole, and express their feelings using colour, or they can pick individual symptoms and, colour those. So for instance, a cooler that I would associate, like, with brain fog, for instance, I would use grey for that.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:18:32]:
Yes. So

Andrea Clare [00:18:32]:
that’s, you know, how we use a degree of creativity in understanding the menopause. But then the other thing that we do each week, we have an online art tutorial where we create there’s 2 pieces of art that we create, as part of the program, and I I go through that step by step. And then we also learn about art as well. So it’s not high brow stuff. It’s, you know, it’s just nice to know stuff about some of the, you know, what motivates people to paint in a particular way, understanding how we feel about our why we feel the way we do about certain pieces of art. We look at mixing colors, which is great fun, and we also look at we we learn about mandalas and the history of mandalas and using them for meditation. So, yeah, it’s quite, it’s quite a varied program, but it’s, you know, it’s multifaceted in that I want people to be empowered with information. I want them to take time out for themselves because women aren’t very good at doing that because we’re so busy with everything else.

Andrea Clare [00:19:51]:
Yeah. I also want to introduce them to to art so that, you know, if they find it something that they’re also really interested in, they can take it forward after they’ve completed the program.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:20:07]:
Gotcha. Yeah. I I like the sound of that. I I I see how the way you’ve structured it. I can see how that can can really help.

Andrea Clare [00:20:16]:
Yeah. Yeah. And I know you asked me, is it just for menopausal women? Because it’s actually something that I could, use with people to help them understand neurodivergence. I’ve also been asked to help men understand the menopause because Mhmm. You know, you can have a partner that’s going through it. You can have

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:20:40]:
a sister

Andrea Clare [00:20:41]:
that’s going through it, a mother that’s going through it. So I can actually use the exercises to help in other situations because you’re using art as almost like journaling, rather than using colour.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:21:02]:
Makes a lot of sense. Yeah. I can see how that will activate the different areas of the brain and and and all help makes it. Yeah. I love that. I love that. Just before before we wrap things up, I know you’ve you have, you’ve written a chapter for, for Beyond the Ordinary. Tell tell us a little bit about oh, gosh.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:21:24]:
Tell us a little bit about that. What’s your chapter about? What’s the book?

Andrea Clare [00:21:31]:
Okay. So, the book is about the link between creativity and neurodiversity. And it’s been coauthored by myself. And the main author is a lady called Mandy Nicholson, who is the creative genius, and she helps creative women like me to build our businesses. But, myself and, hers of other creative women have each written a chapter. And it’s all about understanding, neurodiversity and creativity, and we’ve all got powerful stories to tell.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:22:23]:
Oh, yes.

Andrea Clare [00:22:24]:
So I’ve always felt that I had a book in me. I know other people say that, but from a very young young age, I thought, I know I’m gonna write a book at some point in life. I wasn’t the best at English, but I’ve always felt I’ve got a story to tell. Mhmm. So this is me sort of dipping my toe in the water. And, yeah, I loved I loved writing my chapter. It just it just a bit like my art when I first started painting. It just flowed out of me.

Andrea Clare [00:22:57]:
And it’s me talking about my creative journey from not being allowed to do art at school to getting to the point I’m at now. So yeah. It was it’s, it’s gonna be a really amazing read. It’s gonna be very, very it’s gonna be a a great read for people who are exploring their own neurodiversity or exploring their own creativity. But even for people who are on it, I just think it’s gonna be really enjoyable because there’s gonna be so many interesting stories in it.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:23:40]:
And who who doesn’t love a good especially when they’re their true story is about, people’s eyes or what they’ve what they’ve done. So

Andrea Clare [00:23:47]:
Definitely. I’m I’m excited to read all the other ladies’ stories.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:23:53]:
I can imagine. Has it has it triggered in within you the desire to write your own full book, or do you feel this this is it for for now?

Andrea Clare [00:24:02]:
Oh, no. I’ve already started writing a book. I’ve started before before I I did the chapter, but the thing for me, this is something that, happens when you’ve got ADHD. All these these ideas and creative thoughts pinging around in your head.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:24:23]:
Yep. And

Andrea Clare [00:24:24]:
they they call it, shiny object syndrome where you can get even easily distracted. So I’m trying to focus myself on my my program. And, but, yeah, my book will get written. I’ve I’ve already got the site, so I’m planning to call it musings of a menopausal mama because, yeah, I want things to say, which I’ve and I want to incorporate some of my art into it. And also, I’ve written poems over the years as well. So Yeah.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:25:00]:
I love it. And you can’t beat a good bit of alliteration as well. Let’s face it. Oh,

Andrea Clare [00:25:04]:
I love alliteration.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:25:07]:
Me too. It’s it’s it’s wonderful. I do love your alliteration. A great time, unfortunately, is as it always does, it’s marching on a pace. Thank you so much for sharing what you shared with it. I’ve I’ve learned a few things here as well, and I’m sure, our listeners and viewers will have too. Some of them will want to find out or maybe even get in touch. What’s the best way for them to do that?

Andrea Clare [00:25:34]:
Well, I’m all over Facebook as Andrea Clare, but the best way is to go on to my website, which is andriaclareart.uk.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:25:47]:
Andriaclareart.uk. Fantastic. And as as you mentioned, you are all over Facebook, and you’ve got stuff on Amazon as well. You’ve very kindly give furnish me, a selection of links. All of those links will be in the show notes for this episode. As always, go to keysblakevenoble.com/show. Look for the one with Andrea Clare. You’ll find all the links to everything you could you could possibly want with regard to Andrea.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:26:15]:
Or just go directly to andreaclareart.uk. Andrea, thank you so much for spending some time with us. Best of luck with the book, both with the that you’ve coauthored and with new musings of a menopausal mama. Let me know when that’s out. We’ll maybe have a chat about that at some point. You never know. But, yeah, thank you. Thank you, dear dear listener.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:26:41]:
Thank you for for taking some time out of your data to catch this episode. Remember, go check Andrea out, Andrea Claire Art dot UK. And as always, please do remember to give us a like, comment, share, subscribe, give us a review on your favourite platform. It all helps to spread the word. That’s it for now. I am gonna leave you with Andrea’s favourite quote. There is no such word as can’t.