Creative Pep Talk, Episode 520: "Does Creating Feel Hollow Right Now? How to Unlock New Fire"

Host: Andy J. Pizza
Date: September 3, 2025

Episode Overview

In this moving solo episode, Andy J. Pizza grapples with a feeling many creatives experience—art-making feels hollow or pointless during tough, chaotic times. Andy uses witty storytelling and heartfelt confessions to explore why art sometimes loses its spark and how, paradoxically, embracing its "emptiness" can become a superpower. With personal stories, memorable analogies (Bosco sticks!), and actionable advice, this episode guides listeners to rekindle creative passion when inspiration runs dry.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Hollow Feeling in Art During Tough Times

• Andy opens up about losing his creative spark amid world crises and chaos, questioning the importance of creativity when contrasted with "very real problems and crises." (00:05)
• He notes a common experience among creatives: "There are times when things get really tough, that making art can feel like such a luxury. It can feel like the first thing that needs to be cut from your life." (00:34)
• Key Insight: Despite the urge to abandon art in challenging times, these are often when art becomes most vital both personally and culturally.

2. Reframing ‘Hollowness’: The Bosco Stick Analogy

• Andy shares a cringe-worthy, formative high school memory involving a new friend ("Chris") and a strange lunch ritual: hollow breadsticks (Bosco sticks) stuffed and dunked with cheese. (06:22)
• The "hollow" Bosco stick becomes a metaphor: "The vessel, the hollow, can be the most incredible thing. It can be the thing that allows you to hold the cheese, and not just hold the cheese, but dunk it into more cheese." (12:30)
  • Quote: "Art is hollow, but that hollow things are essential. Two things can be true at the same time." (15:05)
• Key Insight: Art, like the Bosco stick—despite seeming empty—becomes meaningful when it holds the richness of life (the cheese). Hollowness isn’t deficiency—it’s a vessel for presence and experience.

3. Unlocking the Creative Spark: Object Permanence and Remembering Joy

• Andy’s Neurodivergence (object permanence) leads to forgetting what brings him joy or creative fire. He reminds listeners to intentionally recall past moments when art felt transcendent. (03:23-05:49)
  • Movie memories: Eternal Sunshine, Spirited Away, The Little Prince
  • Creative "on fire" moments: design magazines, after-class strategy sessions, and sharing creative goals with friends.
  • Quote: "That feeling when you're like, oh my gosh, all I want to do is play in this zone because it's rich... it feels, dare I say, transcendent." (04:45)

4. Talking About Art vs. Making Art

• Andy recounts being told by Chris, "Dude, quit talking about it and just do it," after hyping up the track team. (09:28)
• Reflection: Talking about creative goals can feel good, but action is essential. Yet, discussing ideas, strategies, and intentions can build excitement and coherence if paired with doing.
  • Quote: "If you're not using talk to just say what you're gonna do, but you're talking about what you've done or your strategy, it can be so additive. It can be the cohesion that brings a team together." (11:22)

5. Actionable Takeaway: 'Hold the Cheese' Creative Practice (20:45)

• Andy introduces this week’s Creative Call to Adventure (CTA): Hold the Cheese—an exercise to reconnect with creativity and presence.
  • Step 1: Use your art to capture a simple moment. Don’t try to make it profound—just record or describe something as it is.
  • Step 2: Later, reflect: What did you feel in that moment? Why did it stick with you? Add your own "cheese" (perspective/emotion) to go deeper.
  • Quote: "Take a random moment from your memory or a random moment in your everyday life and just describe it; just capture it. Don't add commentary. Don't try to make it something more initially... Then, step back and say, how could I add a little extra sauce to this bad baby?" (29:27)
• Benefits:
  • This taps art’s power as a presence tool, helps you savor life more fully, and can be the antidote to dissociation or distraction—especially for creatives with ADHD.

Memorable Metaphors and Notable Moments

• Bosco Stick = The Hollow Nature of Art:
  • "Art equals Bosco stick. And as empty as those words may be... my hope is that those words stick with you when you are feeling like, is this just meaningless? ...Hollow things are essential." (14:08)
• Afterlife Thought Experiment:
  • Andy imagines a scenario where, in the afterlife, you only relive the moments you gave your full attention—noting with some anxiety how many might have gone to scrolling on your phone instead of savoring life’s richness. (27:30)
  • Quote: "Art is the opposite of that for me. Because when art is at its best, when it's... a vessel... that's when I was savoring things." (31:37)

Practical Tips & Creative Inspiration

• Find Your Spark Again:
  • Listen to others geek out about your craft (podcasts, conversations, parasocial relationships).
  • Capture moments, even trivial ones, as an artistic exercise—then layer in meaning after reflecting.
• Reframe Mundanity:
  • Let art be the container that gives "empty" moments shape and allows you to fill them with meaning.

Key Quotes with Timestamps

• “There are times when things get really tough, that making art can feel like such a luxury. It can feel like the first thing that needs to be cut from your life.” — Andy J. Pizza (00:34)
• "If art in that form isn't transcendent, what is? Okay, like, that's…about as good as we've got as humans. So that's the thing that's at stake. That's what we're talking about." (05:37)
• "The vessel, the hollow, can be the most incredible thing. It can be the thing that allows you to hold the cheese, and not just hold the cheese, but dunk it into more cheese." (12:31)
• "Art is hollow, but that hollow things are essential. Two things can be true at the same time. And that if we didn't have hollow things, we wouldn't be able to drink water. We wouldn't be able to be alive. And the same goes for if we didn't have art." (15:05)
• "Sometimes it's as simple as tapping into talk.... That, for me, can snap me out of that rigid, lifeless, moving through life in such a way where it's just about a to-do list and can help me remember, oh, it's not about just making money. It's not just about getting the oil changed…" (22:08)
• "Take a random moment from your memory or a random moment in your everyday life and just describe it; just capture it. Don't add commentary... Then, step back and say, how could I add a little extra sauce to this bad baby?" (29:27)
• "When art is at its best…that's when I was savoring things. I was savoring how magnificently unique and varied the universe is." (32:05)

Important Timestamps

• 00:00–05:49: The struggle to find creative spark & remembering the feeling
• 06:22–14:08: High school story, Bosco stick metaphor, and embracing hollowness
• 15:05–19:45: Why “hollow” is essential; art as a vessel for presence
• 20:45–29:27: Practical steps—Hold the Cheese CTA, presence through creative practice
• 27:30–32:05: The "afterlife" thought experiment; art as savored attention

Tone & Language

Andy’s tone throughout is warm, humorous, self-deprecating, and encouraging, with a touch of poetic reflection and relatable vulnerability. His language blends vivid storytelling, quirky metaphors, and actionable insight.

Final Thought

This episode is a permission slip to embrace the emptiness of creative acts—not as a flaw, but as their genius. Next time you feel your creativity is hollow, remember Andy’s words: that's what allows you to hold (and dunk into) the cheese of life.