Nicole Slater: Learning To Put Yourself First

In this episode of The Art of Living, Tessa sits down with Nicole Slater. Artist, mum, wife of NRL legend Billy Slater, and the kind of woman who will sand back an entire kitchen bench on impulse just because she needed to create something. The two have known each other for years, their lives woven together through football, family, and a shared sense that there is always more to a woman than what's visible from the outside.

Nicole opens up about a life lived in colour, from a dyslexic kid in Cairns who found her safe space in creating, to a young woman who packed her brushes and drove to Sunday markets at 17, willing her art career into existence before anyone else believed in it. She talks about following Billy to Melbourne, and the quiet years of setting her own ambitions aside while building a family and a life around someone else's extraordinary career. And then... COVID, a farm, a five-metre piece of linen, and the discovery that everything she'd been drawing toward her whole life was horses.

This episode is about what it means to hold onto yourself through the seasons that aren't yours yet. About the flow state that only comes with space, the version of yourself you have to grieve to move forward, and what happens when you finally get your turn.

LINKS:
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Email the show: theartoflivingwrld@gmail.com

CREDITS:
Host: Tessa James
Guest: Nicole Slater
Executive Producer: Hannah Bowman