Testimonials

  • “Absolutely met my expectations! Inspiring talk and good timing.”

  • “I loved that it was more philosophical.”

  • “Thank you so much for bringing Felicia to the library. One of the best presenters the library has hosted recently”

  • “I didn’t know what to expect going into this program, since I haven’t attended anything quite like it before, but I was VERY happy with the result. Thank you so much for putting this on!”

  • “Thank you so much for hosting this wonderful event.”

  • “I was so pleased with this event — it was my favorite program I attended during Small Business Week.”

  • “I was pleasantly surprised by the comfortable, conversational vibe. Wonderful event!”

  • “Thank you for the opportunity to meet Felicia Forte.”

  • “It worked really well having this as more of a conversation. I loved that we put our creative questions and concerns into a gold box.”

    -Attendees of a Live Creative Coaching Workshop with the SF Public Library, 2026

“I learned some new things I hadn't been taught before. Many thanks.” Norman Bonney, California, USA 2025 (Live Class/Workshop)

“Practical series in figurative and still life. Great experience - small class setting; some demo, lots of painting. Mixed level. Challenging and open at the same time. Class size was small. This is a series that you get what you put into it. Felicia is direct and generous at the same time. I’ll do it again, for sure.” Jon Schleuning, Berkeley, California 2025 (Live Class/Workshop)

“Felicia Forte is an incredible coach and mentor—insightful, generous, and deeply intuitive. Our conversations help me reconnect with play, presence, and curiosity. She listens with such kindness and intelligence, offering an honest, understanding, and beautifully authentic presence!” Stephanie Weirathmueller, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada 2025 (Coaching Series)

“During our coaching session, Felicia was insightful, touching on all my concerns relative to infusing art with the complexity and feels of the modern world while holding space for my own needs. And Creativity Club is consistently relevant, with a variety of conversations and insight specific to making art that honors ourselves. Together these two experiences are arming me with approaches that will keep my art exciting and moving forward.” Kimberly Santini, Michigan, USA 2025 (Single Session Coaching, Creativity Club)



“Taking the in person creativity workshop with Felicia was a rich and wonderful experience. I appreciated the confident guidance to think about things in a way that served my own curiosity and process in painting. As a result of this workshop, I feel equipped to ask myself more effective questions and to observe more clearly what I want to create. I hope to be able to work with Felicia again in the future!” Angelique Poisson, Georgia, USA 2024, 2025 (Live Class/Workshop, Single Session Coaching)


“Felicia’s guidance has been both inspiring and transformative. She leads by example, showing how facing our own truths and challenges can make our creative work stronger. She’s focused, honest, and truly cares about helping me find practices that bring out my most authentic and creative self. Felicia shares her own experiences with vulnerability—the struggles she’s faced and how they’ve helped her grow as an artist—which makes her advice feel real and relatable.She’s also built an amazing community through her Creativity Club on Patreon. I look forward to our every-other-week morning meetups, where I get to connect with other creatives. It’s a safe space where we can openly talk about our challenges, support each other, and celebrate our progress. Working with Felicia has helped me push my creative boundaries and feel more connected to my art. Felicia Forte is truly a force in the art world I am grateful to have worked with her for many years and to have been continuously inspired by her growth and success!” Debra Shapiro, San Francisco, CA 2025 (In Person Mentoring, Creativity Club, Coaching Series, Tarot Reading, Single Session Coaching)


“Working with Felicia is both invigorating and grounding. She is a great listener and is also so generous with her ideas and experience.
Although she has a very warm presence, she is also not afraid to ask hard questions or poke at barriers I have put in front of myself. Meeting with her for a coaching series around creating a body of work has been a catalyst for making work which is more focused and personal, helping me begin the process with intentional direction and setting me up with some helpful structure to get started. I definitely recommend this coaching series and will be back for more!!” Nicole Williford, Portland, OR USA 2025 (Coaching Series)


“My coaching session with Felicia was just what I needed to get me out of my head and back into my art practice. Felicia was: reassuring yet challenging, tremendously insightful, deeply sympathetic, and, ultimately, a strong motivating force.” Jeffrey Schlotter, Raleigh NC USA 2025 (Single Session Coaching)

"…Creativity Club is consistently relevant, with a variety of conversations and insight specific to making art that honors ourselves. Together these two experiences are arming me with approaches that will keep my art exciting and moving forward.” Kimberly Santini, Michigan, USA 2025 (Single Session Coaching, Creativity Club)


“I have admired Felicia Forte for many years and have been doing some creative coaching with her to prep for a new body of work. Felicia has been a great listener, collaborator, and teacher. She has helped me synthesize ideas, recognize things that need to be poked and considered differently, and has brought such a calm but playful energy to the process.10/10!!!” Nicole Williford, Portland, OR USA 2024 (Coaching Series)


“Perhaps what I’m most grateful for in my brief time with Felicia, is the feeling of mutual respect. I rarely will pay for any sort of artistic coaching because there are so many coaches/teachers that do it to satisfy their own ego. I didn’t feel that way with Felicia. I felt like she genuinely just wanted to connect and better understand my goals. My session gave me perspective, hope and inspiration.” Grant Saunders, Nashville, TN USA 2024 (Single Session Coaching)


“The group is such a goldmine for the other side of art that I feel is so rarely talked about, the ideas and fears of the person creating it. It has already made such a deep impact, even though I’ve only attended one and missed a couple! (Life gets in the way.) The feelings, thoughts and the vulnerability shared from the group is such an incredible asset to creatives because it shows us, we’re not alone in some of our thinking, emotions and fears. You have a special talent for isolating someone’s deeper rooted issue/s and suggesting tactics and methods to improve a thought process/way of thinking or limited belief. Remarkable ability, truly!” John Sullivan, USA, 2024 (Creativity Club)


“You’re doing magnificently. I’m in constant awe of how you hold your course, ask yourself the right questions, sit with your discomfort, continue to trust humanity, and still be there for others. To be frank, i’ve learned a lot in the group from you on kindness, humor, and listening as well as being truthful and tolerant. i hope everyone sees how much is being shared.” Robyn West, USA,2024 (Creativity Club)


“I just have this lovely feeling like everything is just fine, and it's all coming together, and it's all just exactly where and what it is supposed to be. It's actually even quite wonderful. And I can relax sometimes, too, you know. Even right now, on the couch. Just sit here, and know it's all here and I just don't need to worry so much. The best feeling, and this conversation with you just settled me in it so comfortably. It's really just what I needed - I didn't even know how far away I had gone from it. So thank you. I'm glad to be connected to you.” Sharon McGauley, Maine, USA 2024 (Single Session Coaching)


“I am still chewing over our coaching session. You helped my brain work and pointed me toward new questions that I am noodling on. It’s exciting! And the best bit is that I keep thinking “Well, Felicia might not like that answer” and then “But she would support me not caring about her not liking my answer.” Whoop!” Laura V. Santa Cruz CA, USA, 2024 (Single Session Coaching)


“Signing up for Felicia's coaching series was everything I hoped for. She kept me accountable to my goals, and brought a softness and care with her critiques and questions. I feel like together we were able to carve a path forward through the brambles of my next project, and she was very quick to shine a light on areas where I shy away or project insecurities. I also really appreciated that even when I was not able to progress on something we had planned to talk about at the next session, we were able to pivot and address other areas of my creative practise.” Bronwyn Schuster, Canada, 2024, (Coaching Series)


“It was incredibly refreshing to hear Felicia talk about moving through difficult times as an artist. It’s a very special experience to have your insecurities carefully inspected and challenged in a way that leaves you feeling encouraged to grow and move on. Felicia was honest about what’s necessary in order for me to develop as an artist, and she provided wisdom and practical steps towards doing this that were tailored to what I want out of my practise and how I currently feel. I especially loved the insight into the way she applies astrology to creativity. If you’re feeling a bit lost or stuck in a loop, Felicia will help you navigate the chaos of your mind to find strength and clarity!” Michael Boyd, Brighton, England, 2024, (Single Session Coaching)


“Talking about the coaching, here is a small update on our session: The last month and a half have been very wonderful and transformative! I have drawn so incredibly much from our conversation! I could write a whole essay on that! For the sake of brevity, I'll include only three aspects:
First and foremost, I have started drawing and painting for my own enjoyment / exploration again. This alone means so, so much to me. Secondly, I feel much less pressured to define myself or the work that I am working on - and feel much more open hearted in getting excited about so many things. Things I had previously forgotten that I already knew excited me and might be directions to explore have come back up and new things that resonate with me have shown up. I feel like my life has become even more nuanced and deeper and more exciting!
Thirdly, I have started a new smallish illustration job. At first I didn't really think too much about creating works from within myself for this project (designing and illustrating a mascot for a website). But I have actually come up with many more ideas and images than I had expected (that is without much reference-driven research). And I am really, really happy with the first sketches and the process itself. I have managed maybe for the first time to try out concepts and ideas that I found fun and felt right for the brief, without feeling the need to including concepts or versions of sketches that I imagined would make the client happier and myself unhappier to work on. And since I had a first presentation with the clients today, I was very surprised that they were actually very happy with the concepts I come up with as well! In fact, I think I haven't actually managed to positively surprise a client like this before. Now, I know this project is in its very beginning and much can still happen to make either me or the client not be as happy as we are right now, but I am still so elated with how the project is going right now. I know before our call I wouldn't have felt able to only go for the sketches and concepts that I would like to explore and that I found right for the brief to work on even in this experimental stage of the project. I would have included stuff that I would have thought was „cooler“ or more expected but that would have made the project much less rewarding to work on for myself and possibly also worse as a result.” Julia Bonge, Germany 2023 (Single Session Coaching)


“Over the years I have enjoyed and appreciated every workshop I ever attended, and learned something from all of them.  In my practice, spending time painting and drawing often becomes trying to replicate what I had learned by referring to old notes and trying to emulate the beauty and skills of wonderful artists and teachers.  But over time I also felt like I was copying, and something was missing.  I somehow knew that an essential part of me was not being integrated into my art.  So when I got an email from Felicia, my first and favorite drawing and painting teacher, I signed up for coaching sessions, and I can describe them as transformative.  The conversations with Felicia have run deep, and over the six months I have been with her I feel an unwinding and expansion and the beginnings of moving into my own style, voice and visibility.  Her questions, comments and advice have been the springboard to changing my internal voice, naming and understanding emotions,  and have helped me in incalculable ways to move forward on my journey as an artist.” Betsy Rix, Kings Mountain, CA 2023 (Coaching Series and Single Session Coaching)


“These talks with you have been such a huge help, and more than that—I feel like you’ve put a solid foundation of support, confidence, and knowledge under my feet.” Janice Chuang, San Francisco , CA USA 2023 (Coaching Series & Single Session Coaching)


"I like her and her perspective - it's unique and non-conformist and genuine and honest and thoughtful - where other people tend to give feedback based on what they think other people will think which is not really helpful. She's also really intuitive and connected spiritually in a magical way. I feel like she knows me without really knowing me - I felt this way in our first session and this has made me really trust her and her wisdom. She's strategic and super-creative. She's also really experienced in the painting world and what's been done and not done before - and what seems truly unique. She has this strange combination of optimism, pessimism, pragmatism, exploration, acceptance, cynicism, and DGAF mentality. I’m not just using big words here to use them, it’s honestly a really unique perspective that resonates with me deep down. She seems to have such clarity despite the pulls in different directions. If I no longer had access, what would I do? I'd hang a big note on my wall that says: WWFD? and include some big quotes or questions that she's helped me to ask or acknowledge when deciding what to do next.”  Sarah C. Raleigh, NC 2023 (Multi Session Coaching & Alumni Circle)


“While I know there will be more coming my way in the several weeks to come, my first impression of working with you has been a bit mind-blowing. It’s all very simple, but it’s a new and fresh way of thinking about my work, and also, thinking about myself. I really like that there are no definitive right or wrong answers — there’s only what feels right or wrong to me. That is really freeing - like SOOOO freeing. I feel like I’ve been given the permission to unapologetically do the things that I want to do and say no to the things that I don’t want to do — and, that setting that boundary is furthering me to my individuality, to knowing who I am as both an artist and person. I’ve always felt like I need to conform my art to what’s expected, not just of me, but what’s expected in society. Through therapy, I’ve already begun learning how to unapologetically be myself in my non-painting-life and now, with this coaching, I’m learning ways to bring this into my painting practice. I’m very inspired and intrigued about what’s next, but also, have no idea what will come! I think it will only be a good and worthwhile journey. Thank you, Felicia.” Sarah Calandro, Austin, TX 2022 (Coaching Series)


“My creativity coaching experience with Felicia Forte was helpful and thought-provoking to say the least. Felicia’s wisdom is deep and she has walked the walk with her own spirituality to learn more about herself and her art. Being able to spend one-on-one time with her while she thoughtfully and generously shared her insights into my work was transformational. The session led me to seek reasons for beliefs and actions that inspire me or hold me back .. Creativity Coaching with Felicia is one of the best decisions and acts of self-love I have offered myself. I have taken classes from Felicia for over a decade and have collected her amazingly gorgeous paintings. I deeply respect her skill and her sincere approach to her life and work. Felicia’s coaching gets my highest recommendation to every artist who wants to raise the level their authentic work and gain self-knowledge in the process!” D. Shapiro San Francisco , CA 2022 (Single Session Coaching)


“I had a coaching session with Felicia, last week, and came away with some suggested artists to research and a framework for approaching new bodies of work. She sensed my unnecessary urgency about getting to somewhere, and provided some tips for observing subjects and capturing ideas. Felicia's advice was just the right thing for this directionless phase I seem to be in. Would love to return for a check-in some time. Thanks Felicia!” Aprill Allen, Melbourne, Australia 2022 (Single Session Coaching)


“Words cannot describe how awesome my experience with Felicia Forte was, she is a terrific coach! I learned a lot during my Multi-Session Coaching, especially about how to develop my own body of work. Her exercises were effective and a good way to grow as an artist not only in terms of technical stuff to improve my craft, but to learn how to listen to my images and get along with the process, my own process. Each session felt almost like talking to the magician card, she really knows how to connect the world of ideas and the material world. Felicia is also really generous about her knowledge and very open-minded about the artistic process. I'm so grateful because after my sessions it's been easier to cope with the overwhelming task that being an artist is. I hope to be back soon!” Juan Astudillo, Columbia 2022 (Coaching Series)


“I was so excited to have an opportunity to work with Felicia - I first saw her on an Art Chat and immediately felt like so much of what she said resonated with me. I opted for a Single Session Coaching because I felt at a crossroads in my creative journey. (Although I wish I did tarot as well - would be fascinating, I think.) Her suggestions were SO helpful and I look forward to trying them. Felicia is clearly a very intuitive and wise person - completely open, non-judgmental, kind and empathic. She is so very easy to talk to! For me, the session meant more to me than what I was expecting and I wouldn’t hesitate to do again. From the bottom of my heart, I am so very grateful.” Trish Jemison, Palo Alto, CA 2022 (Single Session Coaching)


“I really enjoyed the coaching session with Felicia! Talking with her was a creative breath of fresh air, and we came up with several actions I could take to connect more with my intuition and grow my art practice. It was also helpful to get her perspective on practical matters in the art world, including the pros and cons of working with galleries.” -Christina Kent, San Francisco, CA, USA 2022 (Single Session Coaching)


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