Ep 102: Painting Nature’s Invisible Worlds with Sarah Kraning

Episode summary

Come explore a world of music, art, and environmental hope with Sarah Kraning. Sarah is a painter with synesthesia whose work bridges contemporary art and music cultures. In her ongoing project with global wildlife nonprofit Re:wild, she's fusing the colors, rhythms, and movements of nature with the emotional palette of popular music. In our conversation, we get into:

• Painting wildlife soundscapes during the 2024 Texas eclipse, and what it sounded like when it got real dark (04:05)

• Why making the invisible visible is at the heart of her conservation work (10:55)

• The challenge of measuring cultural shifts (instead of just counting eyeballs) (21:32)

• How letting yourself be authentically you (even without formal art training!) can lead to your most impactful work (24:37)

Connect with Sarah Kraning

• Website: sarahkraning.com

• Instagram and TikTok: @sarahkraning

Takeaways and try-its from this episode

• Go ahead, make a weird mashup of the things you love. Sarah has a neuroscience background, not formal art training. Her most impactful work started happening when she brought together her passions for wildlife conservation, music, amd painting with her synesthesia. 

• When imposter syndrome hits, ask "what would I create if I was alone in my room, just enjoying the process?" You’ll be more authentic, which means you’ll probably do a better job (and you’ll certainly have more fun!)

• Rethink what success looks like for impact work. Don’t let the algorithms and platforms make you believe that follower counts are the end-all-be-all. Shifting hearts and minds and culture is what actually matters.

Resources and fun stuff related to this episode

• Re:wild:  Global wildlife conservation nonprofit Sarah partners with on Invisible Worlds

• Speaking of Psychology podcast episode: Tasty words, colorful sounds: How people with synesthesia experience the world, with Julia Simner, PhD

• An interview on How to Save the Planet with Matt Fitzgerlad, an architect of MrBeast’s Team Trees campaign

• Sarah's art + wildlife prints: 100% of proceeds support Invisible Worlds and Re:wild's conservation work

• “Fish make music! It Could it be the key to healing degraded coral reefs?” Listen to the recording at this link to hear marine life howling at the moon!

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