In this episode of Process Over Product, artists Trevor Wade Thomas and Kelsey Kopp take a practical look at artist block—what it is, when it shows up, and how it operates inside a real studio practice.

They define artist block as a break in momentum rather than a lack of ideas, and talk through the specific moments it tends to appear: before work begins, in the middle of making, and after a piece is finished. The conversation examines how fear, decision pressure, and uncertainty often disguise themselves as hesitation or avoidance.

Trevor and Kelsey share the concrete methods they use to work through block at each stage—how they lower stakes to begin, regain footing when stuck mid-process, and re-engage when momentum fades. This episode reframes artist block not as something to eliminate, but as a recurring part of making that artists can learn to recognize and navigate.

Kelsey Kopp is a landscape painter whose work is rooted in observation, repetition, and sustained engagement with place. Her practice emphasizes process as a way of understanding time, light, and perception rather than arriving at a fixed image.

Find Kelsey on instagram @kelsey_kopp_art

Trevor Wade Thomas is a painter and educator working primarily from observation. His practice centers on drawing, material process, and the relationship between labor, memory, and making. He is the founder of Oil and Earth Studio YouTube Channel, where he explores craft, teaching, and long-form artistic inquiry.

You can find Trevor online at www.trevorwadethomas.com , on YouTube at www.youtube.com/oilandearthstudio , or on Instagram @twtfineart

In this episode of Process Over Product, artists Trevor Wade Thomas and Kelsey Kopp talk through what it really means to get artwork out of the studio and into the world.

The conversation moves between internal and external realities of making: why showing work can feel vulnerable or complicated, who we are actually showing our work to, and how sharing work with other artists differs from sharing it with the broader public.

They explore practical questions artists often struggle to answer—when work is ready to be shown, how to think about different platforms and spaces for sharing work, and why circulation is not about self-promotion but about letting work enter dialogue, relationship, and culture.

Rather than treating visibility as a marketing problem, this episode frames showing work as a necessary extension of the making process—how work completes itself through witness once it leaves the studio.

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Kelsey Kopp is a landscape painter whose work is rooted in observation, repetition, and sustained engagement with place. Her practice emphasizes process as a way of understanding time, light, and perception rather than arriving at a fixed image.

Find Kelsey on instagram @kelsey_kopp_art

Trevor Wade Thomas is a painter and educator working primarily from observation. His practice centers on drawing, material process, and the relationship between labor, memory, and making. He is the founder of Oil and Earth Studio YouTube Channel, where he explores craft, teaching, and long-form artistic inquiry.

You can find Trevor online at www.trevorwadethomas.com , on YouTube at www.youtube.com/oilandearthstudio , or on Instagram @twtfineart

In this episode of Process Over Product, artists Trevor Wade Thomas and Kelsey Kopp focus on the actual, tangible actions that make up their studio practices.

They talk about what “process” really looks like while making work — not as a fixed formula, but as a living rhythm shaped through repetition, reflection, and experience. The conversation explores whether process is something artists find or something they slowly build over time, and what those differences reveal about temperament, materials, and ways of thinking.

Trevor and Kelsey walk through their current painting processes step by step, sharing how they begin, how they make decisions, how they recover when things drift, and what their process ultimately means to the character and direction of their work.

This episode is an invitation to notice your own rhythms, habits, and ways of working — and to consider how your process quietly shapes what your work becomes.

Kelsey Kopp is a landscape painter whose work is rooted in observation, repetition, and sustained engagement with place. Her practice emphasizes process as a way of understanding time, light, and perception rather than arriving at a fixed image.

Find Kelsey on instagram @kelsey_kopp_art

Trevor Wade Thomas is a painter and educator working primarily from observation. His practice centers on drawing, material process, and the relationship between labor, memory, and making. He is the founder of Oil and Earth Studio YouTube Channel, where he explores craft, teaching, and long-form artistic inquiry.

You can find Trevor online at www.trevorwadethomas.com , on YouTube at www.youtube.com/oilandearthstudio , or on Instagram @twtfineart