Authentic Obsessions (Margret Petrie)

Takeaways

1. Use your artwork to quietly talk about things that are important to you.

2. If you’ve never made paper I highly recommend. It’s like magic.

3. ATCs (artist trading cards) are great because: 1) it’s a great way to get unstuck, 2) it’s not a big commitment, and 3) there is no monetary incentive.

4. Take the time to find out what other people think and feel about things. Don’t just keep scrolling.

5. If I agree to do something, I'm not going to do it half assed I'm going to do it whole assed.

6. Being reliable, responsible, and a nice person to be around and matters just as much as the art.

Mentioned in this episode

Follow Mel Kolstad on Instagram

Mel Kolstad’s website

Mel Kostad’s TedX talk - Channeling Your Inner Kid for Your Career

ATCs for All Artist Trading Cards

Themla Sadoff Center for the Arts

The Exquisite Uterus Project

Arnold Grummer’s

United States Postal Service Ruth Asawa stamps

Takeaways

1. It all starts with being curious about the world.

2. You can have multiple careers across different industries – all you need to do is take a chance on yourself.

3. It’s worth peeling back the layers when you meet someone. There is something wonderful to behold when you take the time to look a little closer.

4. Embracing failure means you are learning.

5. The person that's holding you back is the person in the mirror. You need to be kind to yourself and allow yourself to have failures and missteps and learn from them and laugh at yourself and move through it. You will be more resilient and better off for it.

6. The beauty of art is that it can allow an artist to take something that would be controversial or difficult to think about and put it in such a way that everyone can consume and think about it.

Mentioned

Follow Linda on Instagram

Linda Marcus Art

In Conversation: A WMQFA Zoom Panel Discussion with Linda Marcus, Heidi Parkes, and Nirmal Raja

Saint Kate the Arts Hotel

Sheila Hicks

Anni Albers

Mentioned

Follow Amy Maricle on Instagram

Join Amy’s Creative Self Care facebook group, Mindful Art

Check out Amy’s website, Mindful Art Studio

Follow Amy on Pinterest

Amy’s YouTube channel

Whiteness at Work with the Adaway group

SARK

Fogbow

Takeaways

1. Tuning in to the body is such a wonderful way of arriving in the moment and art is a tremendous opportunity to arrive in the moment using our senses.
2. The more you focus on the process, the more the product improves. And the more you get into the richness of your own work you judge yourself less and have more fun.
3. Allow yourself time to indulge your curiosities.
4. Pause and look deeply at nature as you’re walking.

Takeaways

1. Everything around you is touched by an artist. Artists are the ones who tell our story.

2. Self expressions is the key to storytelling. It’s about hearing everyone's individual stories and finding out what we have in common through those unique stories.

3. My community is a constellation, not a congregation.

4. Strive for fewer better things.

5. Talent is a real slippery term and it’s just not enough because art making takes a ton of perseverance and loads of patience.

6. It’s really about resilience, creative problem solving, being able to argue a point, to look at something from a different point of view, to take negative criticism, and to give challenging criticism.

Mentioned in this episode

Follow Laurie Pearsall on Instagram

Laurie Pearsall’s website

Joanne is an artist and photographer whose work is “based in semi-abstraction, purposefully balanced between representational and the imagined. in my role as an artist, these two elements have become an integral part of my motivation to create, with the ‘doing’ often as important as the outcome. I firmly believe that natural curiosity and creative pursuits are essential to healthy living, regardless of age or education.” Jo shares her experiences and how they impact her daily life and her long term connections. Her obsession with fragility and delicacy is linked to her fascination with awe and transience, resiliency, and mortality. 

Takeaways

1. If you really listen to people, you hear more. If you really look, you see more. If you care, you get more.
2. A piece is finished when it stops talking to me.
3. Resilience is tolerating emotional discomfort.
4. Ask yourself, “And what’s so bad about that?”
5. Accept limitations that some things just can’t be changed. We can only change our bit.

Links

Joanne Olney
Joanne Olney on Instagram
Joanne Olney on Facebook 
Joanne Olney on Pinterest
AWE: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life, Dacher Keltner

Takeaways

1. Let your field go fallow for a while. Step away from it and allow things to percolate.

2. If you get to the point where you're not able to tap into that pure place where you’re “just making the work because you love it”  then the work suffers and the whole thing starts to fall down.

3. You’re the only one who can take your shower.

4. Having different stages of your artwork in your back pocket allows you to work on some aspect of your art regardless of your emotional or mental or physical state.

Mentioned in this episode

Follow Megan Woodard Johnson on Instagram

Follow Megan Woodard Johnson on Facebook

Megan Woodard Johnson’s website

Megan’s Mastermind information

Check out Megan Woodard Johnson’s Pinterest

The tube wringer!

Takeaways

1. Live life through loving kindness.
2. Make more garbage art. We need to give people opportunities to fail, to experiment, to prototype.
3. The Napping Wall!!! (you’ll just have to listen…)
4. If you’re stuck: 1) work in series, 2) turn your art upside down, 3) put your art on the napping wall, 4) change what you’re up to.
5. When we take the time to slow down and learn how to tune in to ourselves, our creative practice, and our own work, we create work that is authentically ours.
6. There is a singular subjective perspective of how people remember and experience and create stories of others and themselves.

Mentioned in this Episode

Follow Shannon on Instagram

Shannon’s website

Shannon’s small batch limited editions with Kunst/100 in Berlin, including the Risograph print of Baltic Sea Study

TimeSlips

Takeaways

1. You begin to realize you’re limiting your options and every positive choice that you make to do something means there are other things you don’t get to do.

2. Do what you can to quiet the internal voices that tell you you’re not very good at this and say, “thank you for your opinion, we can have this discussion another time” and just go to work.

3. Make the thing you need to make and then do it again and show up tomorrow and do it again and show up the next day and do it again.

4. It’s so much easier to keep showing up once I realized that it’s never going to get easier, that it wasn’t a problem I had, that it’s not inherent in me, it’s just that a creative life is hard.

5. Pants before noon.

Mentioned in this episode

Follow Nick Petrie on Twitter

Follow Nick Petrie on Instagram

Follow Nick Petrie on Facebook

Nick Petrie’s website

Boswell Books

Daniel Pinkwater

Takeaways

1. My art table is my oxygen, my sanctuary, and the place I go to let my breath out.

2. If I can get out of the critical part of my mind and enter the deeper place it feels better in my body and the work feels so much richer.

3. Befriend those difficult emotions. Acknowledge the anxiety.

4. When there isn’t a tool between me and the artmaking, there’s a deeper intimacy and it becomes an intuitive, sensory experience.

Mentioned in this episode

Follow Emma on Instagram

Emma Freeman Designs

Emma’s podcast, Reflections from My Art Table

Asemic writing

The First Free Women Original Poems Inspired by the Early Buddhist Nuns 

At Home in the World Stories and Essential Teachings from a Monk’s Life

Recovery Dharma

Beyond podcast with Daphne Cohn

Takeaways

1. We're just doing what we do hoping it speaks to somebody.
2. Saying "no" is one of the hardest but one of the most important things we can do for ourselves.
3. Just because you don’t like one of your own paintings  doesn’t mean someone else won’t.
4. You need to believe in what you’re doing and keep at it.
5. None of it comes easy. It’s determination that makes the difference.

Mentioned in this episode

Follow Ginnie Cappaert on Instagram

Follow Cappaert Contemporary Gallery on Instagram   https://www.instagram.com/cappaertcontemporarygallery/

Follow Ginnie Cappaert on Facebook

Ginnie Cappaert’s website

Cappaert Contemporary Gallery, Egg Harbor, WI

Ninth Street Women, New York Times book review 

Globe Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Takeaways

1. There is no overnight success. Everyone pays their dues, one way or another.

2. Every human being is unreliable in the way they tell stories.

3. Take pleasure in the striving aspect of the process. The fact that you worked really hard and accomplished the goal is the thing.   “It’s not the having, it’s the getting.” Elizabeth Taylor

Mentioned

Samantha Downing

Samantha Downing on Twitter

Samantha Downing on Facebook

Samantha Downing on Instagram

Parasite

I Care A Lot

Daphne du Maurier, author of Rebecca

Marissa Huber is an artist, connector, and creative instigator for the Carve Out Time for Art community and co-author of “The Motherhood of Art.” She works primarily in water-based mediums like gouache and acrylic, cut paper, and digital mediums and is interested in exploring memory, space, and color in her paintings and surface pattern designs. She creates playful & colorful patterns that aim to bring people a moment of delight, and a bit of sunshine. Marissa is passionate about keeping it real – if you need any evidence of this just check out her reels on Instagram - and encouraging others who are not full-time artists to make the most of their time and circumstances. Her greatest joy (besides her kids) is connecting with kindred spirits over an experience, a funny story, or shared dreams which makes her feel positively lit up. She believes in taking her dreams quite seriously but tries not to take herself too seriously. During our conversation Marissa talks about commute chats, not overthinking, and searching for meaning in the big and the small things.

Takeaways

1. You can do everything, just not at the same time.
2. Don’t overthink everything, this isn’t dating in your 20’s.
3. What you choose to do or what your life looks like is up to you but there's no one right way to have a creative life.
4. When your life is a spaghetti mess just think of that one thing that you can do to nudge yourself along the path. And snacks help.
5. Artists are resilient problem solvers and comfortable in the vague place between the uncomfortableness of not knowing what's next but having the trust that we can figure it out because we've done it so many times.

Mentioned

Marissa Huber

Follow Marissa Huber on Instagram

Follow Marissa Huber on Twitter

Follow Marissa Huber on Facebook

Follow Marissa Huber on Pinterest

Follow Marissa Huber on LinkedIn

Follow Marissa Huber on Tiktok

Carve Out Time for Art

The Motherhood of Art, by Marissa Huber and Heather Kirtland

Heather Kirtland

Range, Why Generalists Triumph In A Specialized World, by David Epstein

Mike East

Artist Mother Podcast

Artist Residency in Motherhood

Mondo Beyondo

Josef Frank

Nancy Gruskin on Savvy Painter

Krista V. Allenstein, Midwest Optimistic Artist, loves neon signs, old buildings, dollhouses and the culinary delights of Kwik Trip. She loves painting things often overlooked as beautiful. Monkeying around with words and phrases makes her especially happy. Krista often wishes she had a camera in her eyeball so she could share how she sees the world. Her paintings attempt to make that wish a reality. 

During our conversation Krista talks about embracing chaos, being uncomfortable with compliments, middle-age anonymity and invisibility, and the crippling nature of looking backwards. Krista is a true Francophile who would move to Paris if she could get away with it. She embraces and reveals all the parts of her authentic self – from her contagious optimism and positivity to her control freak tendencies.

A graduate of the School of Visual Arts (NYC), Krista has had the opportunity to participate in exhibitions at the Lakefront Festival of the Arts (In 2023 as the featured poster artist), Des Moines Arts Festival, Columbus Arts Festival, Oconomowoc Arts Festival, Madison Art Fair On the Square, Cincinnati Artfest, Free Range Art, Frank Juarez Gallery, Gallery 2622, MARN Gallery, 2020 Wisconsin Artist Biennial, and a 2019-2020 ARTservancy and MARN mentor/mentee appointments.

Takeaways

1. See the world not the way it is but the way you prefer it to be.
2. Tightly controlled situations aren't that interesting.
3. You have two choices. You could live your life being scared something terrible is going to happen again, or you could just live your life and assume it's not going to.
4. You’re exactly how you’re supposed to be whether you like it or not.
5. The key to successful art is when people know that you mean exactly what you put out there and you're not trying to be someone else, you’re not trying to say something you don't mean. People respond to that kind of authenticity.

Krista V. Allenstein

Amélie

The Regal Find, Madison, Wisconsin

News in Slow French

Finch  

Takeaways

1. Be more open and generous and accept what is in the world right now.
2. Science and art are great places to learn how to question everything and how to look out for yourself.
3. Sometimes calamity happens and then it just backs away again.
4. All art comes from something you’re expressing. Even if you’re not ready to hear it yourself, it might be time for someone else to receive it.
5. It would be really hard to be the sand reckoner.

Mentioned in this episode

Follow Deb Dila on Instagram

Deb Dila’s website

Var Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

ArtPrize, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Pier Gustafson

Hamlin Lake, Michigan

Idea generation, your brain on cartoons, incongruency & divergent thinking, and how to encourage your creativity are all on the mind of cartoonist, writer and artist Paul Noth.

Paul is a cartoonist for The New Yorker magazine, where his work has appeared regularly since 2004. He created the Emmy-nominated animated series "Pale Force" for Late Night with Conan O’Brien. He has been an animation consultant for Saturday Night Live and developed shows for Cartoon Network Adult Swim and Nickelodeon. Paul is the author of the middle grade novels “How to Sell Your Family to the Aliens,” “How to Properly Dispose of Planet Earth,” and “How to Win the Science Fair When You’re Dead,” all published by Bloomsbury.

Takeaways

1. Embrace the limitations of your art form.
2. Conscious effort impedes the incubation process.
3. The preparatory phase of creative work requires hard work and skill, but it also requires letting go.
4. The idea comes despite the effort not because of it.

Paul Noth on X

Paul Noth on Instagram

Paul Noth on Facebook

Paul Noth on LinkedIn

Paul’s middle grade books

Paul Noth on IMBD

'Midwest nice' cartoonist for The New Yorker is ready for Chicago and the DNC

The New Yorker 

This is Your Brain on Cartoons article by Sarah Larson

Roz Chast

Iain McGilchrist

Photo credits, Camila Guarda, Chicago Sun Times

Takeaways

1. There are endless possibilities if you’re paying attention to what [the glass] wants.

2. “I will stop underestimating the power of my drive and what I can accomplish.”

3. Stop being so hard on yourself.

4. Mountain biking and glassblowing are both good ways to look hard at yourself and know that there are only certain things you can control.

Mentioned in this episode

Follow Chelsea Littman on Instagram

Polpelka Trenchard Glass

The Tambourine Collaboratory

Joanna Manousis

Articulation, pivoting, sketchbooks, observation, and travel all play a key role in Ethan Keister’s creative life.

Graphic designer, illustrator and art director Ethan was born in Vietnam, grew up in the backwoods of Upstate New York and now calls Milwaukee, Wisconsin his home.

When Ethan isn't ruining his posture at his desk, you can find him snow skiing, water skiing, biking, hiking, traveling, and writing about himself in the third person. 

Takeaways

1. Pivot in a way that allows for more growth and a fresh perspective.
2. Eighty percent of drawing is seeing.
3. When sketching people, be on the lookout for good poses and gestures.
4. “Beautiful things don’t ask for attention.” James Thurber

Ethan Keister

Ethan Keister on Instagram

Ethan Keister on Facebook

Ethan Keister on LinkedIn

Ethan Keister on TikTok

Mark Manson

Paul Noth (episode 92)

Jon Horvath (episode 89)

Takeaways

1.     A proposal of study can focus the mind and maintain a rigor within your work.

2.     Everyone has different challenges - build on what you’ve got.

3.     Social media is a platform to talk about my obsessions.

4.     Question your own perspective about animals.

Mentioned

Follow Suzy on Instagram

Suzy’s website

Duncan Petrie's short film showcasing Suzy's work

The Good Ship Illustration

Sir Peter Scott

Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust

David Shepherd

Thomas Bewick

John J Audubon

Michael McConnell was born in Michigan, where he used to watch squirrels from the front window. He graduated from Columbus College of Art & Design, with an emphasis in lithography and painting, and landed in the Bay Area soon after, where he still lives. Making art is how Michael makes sense of the world and his forgotten childhood, creating visual narratives that examine the space between memory and nostalgia.

During his conversation with Molly Meng, Michael talks about how falling in love with Joseph Cornell’s work allowed him to excavate his own language of “symbology.” He also reveals how the ropes and strings used in his work are about lineage and connection, symbolizing a narration thread.

Takeaways

1. You can figure out how you want to make something by learning how someone else makes something.
2. Your personal life affects your artwork. If you’re feeling like you don’t have a voice, ask yourself what you want to say with your art. Are people listening?
3. Slow down and let go of the expectation that you should crank the work out.
4. Be careful what you start collecting!  
5. Color becomes an environment for things and is about pushing something and taking it further.
6. “Sometimes you just go into the studio and just sharpen pencils.” The Woodmans documentary

Michael McConnell

Michael McConnell on Instagram

Michael McConnell on Bluesky

Joseph Cornell

Courtney Cerruti

Brian McDonald

The Woodmans documentary

Wanderlust, giving ourselves permission to do more than one thing and the inspiring non-fiction books that are holding our interest these days are just a few topics we chat about as we go down the beautiful meandering path of Tina Norén. Tina is an artist and designer, 2nd generation Filipino-American and mother to three school-aged children. Tina has designed and painted several murals, including 3 at elementary schools, as well as the mural in the Art Park at the Santa Paula Art Museum, where she also works part-time. Her art is bold and colorful and is often filled with meditative and therapeutic repetitive lines.

Takeaways

1. Consider saying no without giving an excuse or a reason.

2. Embrace the fact that your creative practice is helping you be a better parent and partner. 

3. If you often have kids or family barging in on you while you’re creating, try to find work that allows you to be interrupted.

4. Don’t say you don’t have enough time to do something just acknowledge that you haven’t prioritized it yet.

Mentioned 

Tina Norén

Follow Tina on Instagram

Follow Tina on Facebook

Ruth Asawa

Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman

Unfollow Your Passion, How to Create a Life That Matters to You, Terri Trespicio

Essentialism, Greg McKeown

Atomic Habits, James Clear

From Strength to Strength, Arthur C. Brooks

Ten Percent Happier, Dan Harris

Takeaways

1. The best part of living is embracing the absurd things that happen every day.
2. You can’t put a forcefield around anyone with your worry.
3. You can always put something out in the world that is positive.
4. Take a lesson from Fred Rogers. Be nice, share, treat others the way you’d want to be treated.
5. People respond to truth.

Mentioned in this Episode

Follow Krista on Instagram, Facebook

Krista’s web site - Follow The Signs Painting

Farm Girl Antiques

The feminine form has returned in Denise Daffara's latest work along with every day familiar objects such as her much loved chairs and cups of tea. Denise is an artist, soulful seeker, wild wonderer, deep listener, sacred space holder, Creativitea Time inspirer & private priestess, Intentional Creativity Guide & Certified Color of Woman Teacher.

Denise's art practice is an intuitive, light and colour fueled exploration of her life’s journey. Her paintings are filled with Australian and New Zealand botanicals and plenty of tea related moments. You’ll also find Matisse inspired feminine figures visiting her painted interiors and table settings depicted in a non-realistic, contemporary style. Her art expresses the sacred union between beauty and healing for the heart.

Takeaways

1. Creativity can help us hold space for our grief. 
2. Pay attention to the beginning, middle and end energy while you’re creating a piece of work.
3. Share your art journey in an open and honest way.
4. When it's more uncomfortable to NOT do it, creative inspiration shows up.
5. “Your vision is stronger than your fear.” Kylie Slavik

Links

Denise Daffara 
Denise Daffara on Instagram
Little dd on Instagram
Denise Daffara on Facebook
Denise Daffara on Youtube
Insights at the Edge with Tammy Simon podcast: Chip Conley: Midlife: From Crisis to Chrysalis
Gertrude and Alice bookstore and coffee shop

Takeaways

1. The beauty of art is that you’re always looking for a solution, and sometimes the solution isn’t always singular.

2. “Art is my savior and art is my destruction.”

3. Be willing to try even if you make mistakes.

4. “The trick for all this madness is for it to become part of your daily routine.”

Mentioned in this episode

Follow Frank Juarez Gallery on Instagram

Follow Frank Juarez on Instagram

Frank Juarez

Follow Artdose Magazine on Instagram

Artdose Magazine

Thea Kovac

Ricky Powell, “the Lazy Hustler”

Milwaukee Area Teachers of Art

Lenore Tawney

Zach Mory 

The monumental labors of women that often go unnoticed, and the resilience of women under the invisible weight they carry are themes interwoven in the current work of interdisciplinary artist Nirmal Raja. 

Nirmal's current solo exhibition at the Portrait Society Gallery of Contemporary Art is titled Grace and Grit, and highlights her current authentic obsession with material intimacy.  Nirmal’s keen observations and curiosity during her 3-month Kohler Arts/Industry residency resulted in an inspirational and wide body of work, including works cast in iron and brass, sound recordings and photographs. Nirmal is also part of the Paglees, a feminist collective of artists of South Asian origin living across the United states, currently exhibiting their work at the South Asia institute in Chicago. 

Nirmal collaborates with other artists and strongly believes in investing energy into her immediate community while also considering the global.

Takeaways

1. Despite all the restrictions, I am strong.
2. “Share your excitement for your practice and your own work.” Jason Yi
3. “There is mud and there is the lotus, and you cannot have the lotus without the mud.” Thich Nhat Hanh
4. Push against restrictive boxes we put ourselves in.

Links

Nirmal Raja
Nirmal Raja on Instagram
Nirmal Raja on Linkedin
A Brush With… Cornelia Parker
Portrait Society Gallery of Contemporary Art, Grace and Grit- solo exhibition 
South Asia Institute, The Paglees: Between Reason and Madness
Grace and Grit Catalog
John Michael Kohler Arts Center Arts/Industry Residency Program

Takeaways

1. At the end of the day you just have to really find yourself fully in the person that you are

2. The more time you give yourself in a creative space the more the art that you're making communicates to you what you need to be working on.

3. The happier we are with the person that we were meant to be, the more able we are to give to others.

4. Make the most of every opportunity you have.

5. Facing fears and feelings is what it’s all about: living with the unknown and the uncertainty.

Mentioned

Follow Tracey on Instagram

Follow Tracey on Facebook

Tracey’s website

Art Juice podcast with Alice Sheridan and Louise Fletcher

The Great Women Artists podcast with Katy Hessel

Prunella Clough

Turps Banana

Winnicott Wednesdays

Wimbeldon Art Studios

Tarlov Cyst Disease

 From chenille bedspreads & fringe vests to mosaics & ceramics, Andryea Natkin shares her journey as a seeker, always on the lookout for what is truly hers so she can express it. She  was born into a family of artists, which gave her that foundation of permission to trust herself.  Andryea persevered and eventually received her BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, all along working in a variety of mediums including drawing, painting, printmaking, mosaic and ceramics.

Takeways

1. Be wasteful and make ugly things.
2. Make a lot of mistakes.
3. Don’t judge yourself while you’re making.
4. Inspiration comes from my heart, not my head.
5. Turn the fire up. It’s time to get going.

Links

Andryea Natkin  
Andryea on Instagram
Andryea on Facebook
Your Brain on Art, Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross
Artery Ink

Mentioned

Follow Melanie Chadwick on Instagram

Melanie’s website

Melanie’s workshops, postcard project and shop can be found on this website

Melanie’s YouTube channel

Melanie’s Food Illustration course, Illustrated Recipes: Making Delicious Art on Domestika

Creative Catchup YouTube

Creative Catchup Instagram

Takeaways

1. Letting go of how something should look diminishes my perfectionist tendencies
2. Having an anchor allows you to feel free to go and explore and engage your curiosities.   
3. The wrong way is not doing it at all.
4. My whole senses are awakened when I’m out in the wild. It makes me feel alive when I experience what’s going on around me and being in the moment.
5. It’s not always the end result it’s the process of making and creating.
6. My faith doesn’t restrict me, it helps take away that fear that I might have of exploring the unknown.
7. Success is finding contentment in the life that I lead and finding joy in the mundane things.

Alison Watt has worked as a biologist on seabird colonies, an ecotour guide, has published a novel, a work of non-fiction and a book of poetry. She teaches painting online and in her studio on Protection Island, near Nanaimo, British Columbia.

Alison is interested in where science (especially biology) and art interface and her paintings are informed by landscape and botanical forms. As a self-taught artist who has been painting for over thirty years, Allison relates to both the dream of making the paintings we see in our minds, and the frustrations of mastering the tools, techniques, and mindset to achieving them. Alison is not interested in moral instruction but in illuminating new ways of seeing.

During our conversation, Alison talks about creative destruction, informed intuition, and how freeing it is to paint without brushes. 

Takeaways

1. Paint as if neither your time nor your materials are valuable.
2. “We grow small when we try to be great.” David Hockney
3. Our job is to have an authentic relationship with what we’re making.
4. Take some time to pause and look back at what you have created.
5. Visual imagery can slide underneath language right to the heart.
6. Create a lot of opportunity for unexpected events.
7. Every layer makes it better.

Mentioned

Alison Watt

Alison Watt on Instagram

Alison Watt on YouTube

Artwork Artplay

Alison Watt on Pinterest

Dazzle Patterns, by Alison Watt

Triangle Island, Anne Vallée Triangle Island Ecological Reserve

David Hockney

Joni Mitchell

Siara Berry creates multi-medium sculptures influenced by neighborships, housing systems, and American domestic landscapes. Deeply influenced by her upbringing in the suburban Midwest, her work contends with cultural narratives about place and purpose, property and people. Using a combination of found object and traditional craft processes, Berry deploys a visual language that is equally quotidian and absurd.

Listen in as we chat about neighborships, domestic landscapes, construction sites, the lawn, yard signs, and control over nature.

Takeaways

1. Artists should feel creative, comfy, and cared for.
2. Every artist is working in their best interest in what feels right to them, and when it doesn’t feel right it’s a negotiation between the artist and the work.
3. Acknowledge that social media is not the full picture.
4. Neighborships are a collective effort in living a private life.

Siara Berry

Siara Berry on Instagram

John Michael Kohler Arts Center Arts/Industry Residency Program

Mary L. Nohl Fund Fellowships for Individual Artists

The Curious History of Your Home podcast

all photos courtesy of Michael Lagerman.

Glimpses and layers of time, what will remain, walking, beauty, palimpsest, AI art, and clothespins are all on the mind of London-based photographer and writer Duncan Petrie.

Duncan explores nature in the human landscape, and what the world might look like when we are gone. His images, found on long walks, are a sort of synecdoche: from a single frame, a single point of punctum, they construct a world. He seeks simple images in order to strip them of their context, and to allow the viewer to peer at the world between them. He holds a 1st class degree in Marine and Natural History Photography from Falmouth University.

Takeaways

1. Always book the tickets the day before. It’s important to make it easy to fit the creative bits into your life. 
2. Photography is a collaboration with the world.
3. Look! See!
4. The future, the end of history, can be beautiful.
5. Look at this world that we have built and notice what things might outlive us and what things are very temporary.

Duncan Petrie on Instagram

Duncan Petrie on YouTube

Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes

Beauty in Photography, Robert Adams

This American Life

Ursula Le Guin

The Worm Ouroboros, E. R. Eddison

The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle

Piranesi, Susanna Clark

Lud-in-the-Midst, Hope Mirrlees

Takeaways

1. The graveyard of ideas that never got finished is where all of the hang ups live.

2. Be open to the opportunity to bring people into your life. You meet the people you need when you need it.

3. Explore the invisibles that come with making work.

4. Navigate your own narrative.

4. Deadlines can help override the overthinking.

Mentioned in this episode

Follow Jenna Freimuth on Instagram

Jenna Freimuth’s website

Sign up for Jenna’s Pencil Post Newsletter

The Wondermakers Collective with Mindy Sue Wittock on Instagram

The Wondermakers Collective website

Saint Kate the Arts Hotel

Lynda Barry’s website, The Near-Sighted Monkey 

Syllabus: Notes from and Accidental Professor, by Lynda Barry

You’re Wrong About podcast

My Favorite Murder podcast

Armchair Expert podcast

Tranesca Ergonomic Grip Holder for Apple Pencil

Punch Neapolitan Pizza

Trauma journalism, social activism, igniting and changing conversations, and telling stories in a visual way are all integral part of Amy Putman’s life. Amy is a collagist and mixed media artist with a passion for issues of social justice. She helped create and brand the Million Mom March for Common Sense Gun Laws with her logo and slogan “Looking for a Few Good Moms.” 

Amy says: “I am drawn to texture, materials pattern, and color in their own right. Working with found objects expands my visual vocabulary. These materials, each of which brings its own history and associations, give a deeper and multi-dimensional reading to the work, work I hope will ignite conversation.”

Participating in artist groups, non-profit organizations, art community adds to her depth and breadth of the work she creates. She is a Trustee of the Montclair Art Museum in New Jersey, SKIP of New York and the Trust for Trauma Journalism, a founding member of the New York Collage Ensemble, and Co-Chair of the Artists and Talent Peer Group for the Impact Guild. Her studio is in Manufacturer’s Village Artists, East Orange, New Jersey.

Key takeaways

1. “I have an obligation to myself to not run away from what I have to say.”
2. You have to fill your puzzle box with all the pieces before you put the puzzle together.
3. Being out there in the world helps you become aware of what’s relevant and is inspirational for the art.
4. Art is an adventure. Keep growing, as a person, and bring those adventures to your art.
5. Art is definitely therapy, whether you know it or not.
6. Know when to say no, but remember to say YES to opportunities!

Amy Putman

Amy Putman on Instagram

The Jealous Creator - Deborah Roberts episode 190, Bisa Butler episode 185

Austin Kleon

Million Mom March

NY Collage Ensemble

The Camp Gallery – The Contemporary Art Modern Project Gallery

Tish Lampert

Takeaways

1. “Food is edible love” Nicola’s mom.

2. Write a list of nice things you’d say to a friend and tell those to yourself.

3. Say “shut up” to your inner critic.

4. Celebrate where you are and be proud of the work you make.

Mentioned in this Episode

Nicola Bennett

Nicola Bennett on Instagram

Nicola Bennett on Facebook

Neuroscientist Camilla Arndal Andersen

Nino

Wayne Thiebaud

Takeaways

1. When it’s really overwhelming, go outside with the dogs.
2. Be more flexible with yourself.
3. “How you spend your days is how you spend your life.” Annie Dillard
4. You don’t have to fit nicely into a box in order to be successful.
5. Nature is essential for emotional health.

Mentioned

Follow Melissa on Instagram

Follow Melissa on Pinterest

Follow Melissa on Facebook

Melissa’s website

Melissa’s Blog

Sally Maxwell scratchboard artist

Takeaways

Pay attention to the role of contemplation in your art practice.

When you give your art time and space to breathe amazing things emerge.

Taking better of your body could help your art practice.

Why not you?

Mentioned

Follow Emma on Instagram

Emma’s website

Emma’s podcast, Reflections from My Art Table

Yarrow Magdalena’s book - Rituals and podcast - Daydreaming Wolves

The DIY Small Business podcast

Beyond podcast with Daphne Cohn

Teaching Artist Podcast

Weave podcast

Sheila Hicks

Mentioned

Follow Jo York on Instagram

Find Jo York on Facebook

Jo York’s website

Lamicall Gooseneck Bed Phone Holder Mount

Barbara Hepworth

Paul Feiler

Artemisia Gentileschi

Brimham Rocks, North Yorkshire

Jennifer Pazienza’s Gotta Minute? videos

Takeaways

1. Acrylics are dead useful.
2. Working in a series help keeps the momentum going and gives yourself the time to delve in and get deep into it.
3. Just calling yourself an artist is quite a big deal.
4. “When I get really stuck I tidy up the studio and do loads of displacement activities.”
5. Don’t doubt yourself.
6. We need to allow people to grow up with a creative outlet and awareness of nature.

Takeaways

1. Keep working, keep moving forward and eventually it all gets done. 

2. “The only rule is work.” Sister Mary Corita Kent

3. “Inspiration is for amateurs.” Chuck Close

Mentioned in this episode

Frank Korb

Frank Korb on Instagram

Frank Korb on Facebook

Frank Korb on YouTube

A Brush With podcast 

The Modern Art Note Podcast

Robert Rauschenberg

Sister Mary Corita Kent's Rules of the Studio

Chuck Close

Jasper Johns and the Savarin coffee can  

Taliesin

Carol Paik, a New York based artist, is interested in many different media, but really found meaning working with repurposed textiles. After years of buying expensive and often toxic materials for her work, her goal now is to create art exclusively out of the unappreciated, overlooked, landfill-destined stuff she finds around her, of which there is never a shortage.
She most enjoys taking something that is overlooked, and looking at it closely. Or, taking something too frequently seen, and looking at it slightly differently. She is interested in the emotions that we bring to the things we discard: nostalgia, guilt, desire, and loss, and her goal is to give these objects--and, by extension, ourselves—new possibilities.

During our chat, Carol talked about the idea of leaving a mark without marring a landscape, specifically in relation to her cairn projects, but it got me thinking of that in a broader sense. And she also assured me that sometimes finishing a project is overrated.

photo by Sharon Schuur

Takeaways

1. Ask yourself: Why do I need to do it THAT way?
2. Keep your eye on the road because wherever you’re looking is where you’ll end up.
3. Take a closer look.
4. If you limit yourself, you’ll look at things in a different way.
5. Look around for things you can reuse for your projects.

Links

Carol Paik
Carol Paik on Instagram
Heidi Parkes
Nina Katchadourian
Natalya Khorover

Takeaways

1. Creating fuels creating.

2. Be content with whatever that day holds.

3. “I’m not gonna let anything with self-talk get in the way.”

4. “Fight for joy in whatever that season holds. The joy that comes out of me comes from those hard seasons.”

Mentioned

Follow Sandi on Instagram

Sandi’s YouTube channel - Bits of an Artist’s Life

Sandi’s website

Mary Fedden

Lilias Trotter

Takeaways

Having a small easy project that you never struggle to do, is a way in to the work and lets you stop procrastinating.

The best pieces come out of those bold gestures.

Music alongside painting amplifies both.

Choose to keep the canvas that’s not working and have a dogged determination not to let the canvas win.

Mentioned

Follow Sue on Instagram

Sue’s website

Asbury and Asbury website

Quintin Lake photography

Making Sense podcast with Sam Harris

Art Juice podcast

Takeaways

1.     Just say yes to more things. Even if you’re scared. A little bit of fear feeds the soul.

2.     Cowboy boots, cinnamon tea and a boogie dance is a great way to start the day.

3.     Just try new material. No one is going to look at it it if you don't want them to. If it’s for you only what are you afraid of?

4.     Working on cradled plywood can be a game changer!

5.     The key to get over imposter syndrome and insecurities is to force yourself to go to the studio and play. Sketch or paint and not worry about the results.

Mentioned

Follow Krissy on Instagram

Krissy's website

Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED Talk - It’s OK to feel overwhelmed. Here’s what to do next.

Joan Eardley

Sean Scully

Robert Motherwell

Glue & adhesives, rules & parameters, loving the outcome without loving the process (this is where discipline comes in!), purposefully making things that others might not want, and knots all come up in today’s episode with Lisa Solomon.

Lisa Solomon is a studio artist that moonlights as a college professor and illustrator/graphic designer. Profoundly interested in the idea of hybridization (sparked from her Hapa heritage), her mixed-media works and large installations revolve around domesticity, craft, and personal histories. She often fuses "wrong" things together--recontextualizing their original purposes and incorporating materials that question the line between ART and CRAFT. She resides in Oakland, California with her husband, a teenager, two kitties, a three legged pit-bull, a dachshund mutt and many, many spools of thread. She is the author of - A Field Guide To Color, The Color Meditation Deck, a historical book on Crayola crayons, Knot Thread Stitch, and the illustrator for 20 Ways to Draw a Chair and Draw 500 Everyday Things. 

Takeaways

1. When it comes to making art, consider using the word ‘parameters’ instead of ‘rules.’
2. Art is a space where you investigate things.
3. Discipline is integral to everything.
4. It’s not about only making work when you are inspired, it’s about the ACT of making.

You can contribute to Lisa’s Japan Chroma Exhibit by sending material before May 30, 2025 to: PO BOX 99534, Emeryville, CA 94662

Lisa Solomon

Lisa Solomon on Instagram

Lisa Solomon on Bluesky

Lisa Solomon on Pinterest

Lisa Solomon on Amazon

Artists Take Action

This to That

Walter Maciel gallery

Tadao Ando architect

The challenges of creating on a deadline, having faith and trust in the thing you’re doing, and the feelings that arise when switching from the act of writing to marketing and promotion all come up during our conversation.

Nick Petrie is the author of 8 best-selling Peter Ash crime fiction novels, including The Price You Pay, out February 2024. His debut, The Drifter, won both the ITW Thriller award and the Barry Award for Best First Novel, and was a finalist for the Edgar and the Hammett Awards. He is also  an excellent husband (mine!) and father (to our son Duncan).

Takeaways

1. Winnow down and lean into the thing that is interesting to you and that you really want to pursue and then let go of the outcome when it gets out into the world.
2. “Keep a clean antenna."
3. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
4. Seamus Heaney on the hardest thing about writing: “Getting started, keeping going and getting started again.” 

Links

Nick Petrie’s website

Follow Nick Petrie on Instagram

Follow Nick Petrie on Facebook

Follow Nick Petrie on X

Your Brain on Art, Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross

Mystery Tribune, The Cleveland Job

Bill Schweigart

Boswell Books

The Poisoned Pen Bookstore

Murder By the Book bookstore

Kaye Publicity

Michael Mann, Blackhat and Collateral

The Great Creators with Guy Raz episode 67 with Andy J Pizza of Creative Pep Talk

Rocker chick Paula Hare talks about no longer giving a rip what other people think, New York City, and Wisconsin’s most iconic dessert – the cream puff.

Paula Hare is a life-long artist, designer and creative director, plein air and studio painter. She brings a unique perspective to her work which includes unusual juxtapositions, compositions, and subjects. Paula's keen eye for detail and appreciation for the unconventional allows her to breathe life into scenes that might escape the notice of others. Whether it's the play of light on chrome, the wind-swept landscapes that unfold along the journey, or elements of a back-alley way, Paula captures the essence of the moments they portray and the stories they tell. 

Paula’s obsession with the biker lifestyle (Harley’s, not bicycles!) spills over into all her ventures, including Gearhead Fashion, which features sustainable, repurposed, reinvented, one-of-a-kind apparel and accessories for anyone that wants to look and feel like a rock star.

Takeaways

1. Do cool stuff, paint cool things.
2. You gotta jam 24/7 – suck it up and get to work. You’ve got to make yourself do it. Just put one foot in front of the other and just keep moving forward and not stop.
3. Bundle up all your skills and energy and figure out what’s in you, and then you have a direction. Stick to that path and you’ll be successful.

Paula Hare

Paula Hare on Facebook

Paula Hare on LinkedIn

The Arts Mill on Facebook, and Instagram

Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

Deadwood, South Dakota

Original Cream Puffs

Sketchnoting

Gearhead Fashion

Gearhead Fashion on Instagram

Takeaways

1. Try everything.
2. Getting started is a new battle every day.
3. Even though we paint for ourselves, we need to know that the notes are not flat when the audience hears them, and that the message is landing.
4. Racism is the concrete manifestation of greed.
5. Self-worth is an inner game, and the feedback you get on social media is about the art, not about you.

Mentioned

Follow Benjamin Seaman on Instagram

Benjamin Seaman’s website

Art and Fear, Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

Paper FiftyThree

More information about Internal Family Systems

Brooklyn Art Library’s The Sketchbook Project

Delaware Valley Arts Alliance

Follow Sean Frankino on Instagram

Follow Tom Hlas on Instagram

Follow Pete Hocking on Instagram

Follow Joe Mangrum on Instagram

Ben briefly mentions “rapid fire exquisite corpse” and I had to look it up and share this in case you didn’t know about it either! Cadavre exquis (exquisite corpse) is a collaborative drawing approach first used by surrealist artists to create bizarre and intuitive drawings.

Takeaways

1. You don’t have to make anything, you can just explore. And if meaning comes out of that, great, but it doesn’t have to. 

2. We need to forgive ourselves for not being other artists than who we are. Who we are in the rest of our lives is going to come out in our work. It comes from who we are and we can’t change that. When we make art, we are who we are.

3. Don’t despair if your art doesn’t sell. Alice Sheridan said that sometimes you need to hold on to your art because you’re not finished learning from it 

4. When you become an artist later in life, you’re not starting from zero. You have a huge resource of experience, confidence and self-knowledge that gives you a head start and lets you develop a clear voice and style more quickly and more surely.

5. “You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don't take.” Wayne Gretzky

Mentioned

Lisa Woodward

Lisa Woodward on Instagram

Lisa Woodward on Pinterest

A Glorious Freedom: Older Women Leading Extraordinary Lives, by Lisa Congdon

On Trails, An Exploration, by Robert Moor

Jane Davies

Algonquin Provincial Park

Finding your people, measures of success, optimistic teenagers, and soft pants vs. hard pants with high school English teacher, former professional actor, and author Nicole Kronzer! There’s also some chatter about thinking you’re too weird for the world, and how to fit our weirdness into a greater life.

Takeaways

1. People who read fiction are nicer.
2. “Write with the door closed, edit with the door open.” Stephen King
3. Keep going.
4. It's OK to find the thing that makes your heart sing.
5. Keep your eyes on your own paper.

Mentioned

Nicole Kronzer
Follow Nicole Kronzer on Instagram
The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be, Shannon Gibney
The Great Gatsby: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, K. Woodman-Maynard
Emotion Thesaurus
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King
Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert
Story Genius, Lisa Cron
Where You See Yourself, Claire Forrest

Diving deep into your own life to find your voice, the selfish nature of being an artist, the power of observation, and reacting to marks and layers are all considered during my conversation with Victoria McDonnell.

Victoria relocated from Bogota, Colombia – at the age of 28 – to the rural countryside of Norfolk, UK. The cultural change was already overwhelming, but the language barrier added another layer of challenge. It was an act of courage, driven by love, to move to a town of just over 300 people. In response, she turned to the language without words – art – which became her constant companion that has deepened over time.

Victoria offers glimpses of familiarity in her subjects, inviting viewers to engage playfully while allowing ample room for personal exploration. Working across a diverse array of subjects in oils and acrylics, she unifies them through the lens of abstraction.

Victoria’s latest obsession is ‘Chairs,’ a project of exploration, observation, and discovery. Inspired by the simple objects that are central to our daily lives and our personal connections with them, she examines the narratives they embody. Whether it's the chair in the corner that sparks conversation, the kitchen chairs that keep the family united, or the old nursing chair passed through generations, each chair tells a different story.

Takeaways

1. “Not having distractions is my best friend.”
2. The more you put yourself out there, the more comes your way. Little steps give way to little successes and they all add up.
3. “Through her eyes we organized my mind.”
4. Abstraction requires a lot of confidence.
5. Every chair has a story.

Victoria McDonnell

Victoria McDonnell on Instagram

Victoria McDonnell on Facebook

Victoria McDonnell on Pinterest

Victoria McDonnell on TikTok

Victoria McDonnell on LinkedIn

Colombian Rainbow River

Gooderstone Water Gardens

Vejer de la Frontera 

Art and Success Pro Abstract Painting

Norfolk Painting School Studio talk & master classes

Roisin O’Farrell Love to Paint, Learn to Paint

Takeaways

1. Be more forgiving of yourself for not meeting those impossible standards every single time.

2. Ask yourself: What do I authentically want to communicate and what is the best way for others  to receive that message? 

If you don’t try it definitely won’t go anywhere.

3. During the creative process give your body permission to lead where things are going, and the reasons will become clear.

4. If it’s genuine part of your experience, anger is an acceptable emotion during the grieving process. 

5. Try and create as many access points as possible because your viewers are living in the framework they are given, and don’t necessarily have the context to see your work from just one point of view.

Mentioned in this episode

Follow Brianna on Instagram

Brianna L. Hernández Baurichter

The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD

Janine Antoni

Bruce Mau -  An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth

Takeaways

1. It's looking in and finding out, “what is your special thing?” That's going to be your key to starting the thing you want to do.

2. We all think other people are doing it better and have it sorted and then when you're sharing with these people in groups you find out you're all doing exactly the same. When you know that something like procrastination or perfection is a natural part of the process, you don't put much weight on it. You can recognize it and then it doesn't consume you.  

3. We don’t realize how important the little easy things that we do are, and how much they’re a part of us.

4.  “I’m not a big believer in busy.”

5. Success is when I'm relaxed and comfortable and confident in what I'm doing and that's only when I'm doing what comes from inside. When you look elsewhere that's when it goes wrong.

6. It helps to put words into those feelings that come and take you over, making them more manageable.

Mentioned

Follow Caroline on Instagram

Caroline’s website Stitched Pictures by Caroline

Follow Julie King on Instagram

Follow Jillian Lawrence, Modern Marketing on Instagram

Maud Lewis

Takeaways

1. Stretching a canvas in the studio is like making a sauce in the kitchen.

2. It’s still challenging to realize there will be another painting after this one.

3. Not every painting is going to be a painting you’re happy with but there’s something in it that may challenge you and move you that gets resolved in the next one.

4. Short bursts of bouncing (on a trampoline!) are very good for the spirits.

5. With a limited palette comes endless possibilities.

6. My painting practice is where I recover from other stuff that’s going on in life.

7. I trust that all the interior landscapes of my life inform how I understand the natural world landscapes around me and what actually winds up on the canvas.

Mentioned in this episode

Follow Jennifer Pazienza on Instagram

Follow Jennifer Pazienzaon Facebook

Jennifer Pazienza’s website

Gotta Minute? videos

Art NXT Level Academy

Upper Canada Stretchers

Melissa Guido is a multidisciplinary printmaker and illustrator whose work draws inspiration from fashion and costume design of the 1920’s. Melissa is currently living in Iceland for 9 months under a Student Fulbright Open/Study Research Grant where she is exploring Iceland’s sustainable textile practices and unique plant sources for natural dyeing. 

During our conversation Melissa talks about digital art, the magic of Iceland, the collaborative nature of printmaking and some surprising revelations about rulers and paper cutters. Her obsession with pushing boundaries is evident in her printing work –screen printing, letterpress, etching, lithography, and relief printing – as well as her current creative pursuits focused on traditional textile arts, natural dyeing, embroidery, weaving, and knitting.

As the co-founder of Sourwood Press, a design and printing studio established with Brittany Emerson, Melissa leads a female-run business specializing in designing, producing, and selling products such as bandanas, stationery, and tote bags. Sourwood Press also collaborates with designers and businesses to create bespoke printed goods and products. 

Takeaways

1. What is the best possible way to make a piece shine?
2. My skills were built over having lots of mistakes.
3. Stay curious about tactile skills.
4. Don’t ever wish your life away.

Melissa Guido

Melissa Guido on Instagram

Sourwood Press on Etsy

Peter Hristoff on Instagram

Chelsea Cardinal

Larry B Wright

Charles Yoder

Jillian Tamaki graphic novelist

Dafi Kühne on Instagram

Hamilton Wood Type Museum

Pressing On: The Letterpress Film

New York Collage Ensemble

Fulbright Student Fulbright Open/Study Research Grant

Let the loose thread be dangling! 

Born and raised in New England, Sarah Haskell has a BFA in Textile Design from RISD and a Masters of Art and Healing from Wisdom University.  As a seeker, maker and creative pathfinder her medium is most often thread, investigating the mystery of encoded fabrics and the hidden language of cloth.

Sarah talks about the soothing nature of weaving, the importance of community involvement, how the natural world and its objects (rocks, shells, pinecones) speak to her, and making work that you yourself need to see. Sarah uses embroidery, weaving, and natural dyes to explore personal truth and universal wisdom. I love how she describes her obsession as taking separate objects and putting them together in an organized structure that other people can respond to. She creates a structure from things that are chaotic.

Takeaways:

1. A sketchbook is a repository for your dreams, thoughts and ideas - all of it, everything!
2. Weaving is a full body process.
3. Thread is elemental- almost like DNA.
4. Approach everything with an awareness of all the things we can see and those that we cannot.
5. Make the work you need.
6. Find a way to raise up all the boats in the harbor.
7. Take off the backpack of self-doubt and keep forging ahead.

Sarah Haskell

Sarah Haskell on Instagram

Sarah Haskell on Facebook

Molly Meng

Takeaways

1. Authenticity is painting what you truly want to paint. Vulnerability is sharing it with other people.
2. It’s all about the process. Freeing yourself of the obligations of the end result lets you create something unique, that is satisfying to the viewer, and enjoyable to make.
3. Advocate for anyone who has an interest in the arts, even if they’re not “gifted.”
4. Experiences and relationships have so much more value than any items.

Mentioned in this Episode

Follow Paula’s Palette on Instagram, Facebook

Follow Paula’s hand painted wearables on Instagram,

Paula DeStefanis Fine Art

Paula’s Etsy shop

The Arts Mill

North Shore Academy of the Arts

Follow John Paul Berry on Instagram

Takeaways

1. You can’t say yes to everything or everyone.

2. The more structure you add into your week the more flexibility you have.

3. We make HARD a problem, but it’s just part of life. Without the hard you don’t have the good stuff.

4. It’s just a layer.

5. What’s the next right step?

Mentioned

Lea Ann Slotkin

Follow Lea Ann Slotkin on Instagram

Cy Twombly

Lukas paint

Do You Want to Slow Down? Anna Sale on awe as an antidote to anxiety, on The Science of Happiness podcast

Lea Ann creates bold and colorful mixed media paintings and collages, focusing on the background layers, which gives her work a lot of energy & visual excitement and leaves little hints of magic peeking through to leave space for wonder and reflection about one's own story.  During our conversation we talk about nature, boundaries around our time, and how putting some structure in your week can be pretty freeing. 

Takeaways

1. Our bodies are not machines.

2. Prioritize how things FEEL vs caring about how things LOOK.

3. Sometimes you can have a tricky relationship with things leaving the studio.

4. Language happens so fast, but art happens much more slowly and is open to interpretation.

Mentioned in this episode

Kassandra Palmer

Follow Kassandra on Instagram

Brenda Goodman

Frank Juarez

Rainer is a queer creator, collector, and tinkerer raised in lederhosen with a pet buffalo on a floral farm in rural Pennsylvania by an eccentric immigrant father and a defiantly strong mother. Rainer is a designer leveraging art to explore and document encounters of the human condition. He is a sculptor and a painter who creates interactive installations and experiences that help people feel seen and heard.

During our conversation we talk about documenting the human process, what helps and what hurts, machines, control and letting go, procrastination, and seeing time in yearly spirals.

Takeaways

1. Stand up for what’s right. Don’t be afraid to try new things.
2. Sometimes when you start a project you have no idea how much of an impact you will have.
3. Self-doubt can push you into problem-solving and exploration.
4. Not knowing the rules can give you confidence.
5. Don't forget to keep the other burners of your life alive.
6. We’re so much more similar than we are different.

Rainer Wolter

Rainer Wolter on Instagram

Rainer Wolter on LinkedIn

The Accounting, by EJ Trask (Rainer’s debur in short horror story)

Art Prize

Khadi Papers

Krista Allenstein, Authentic Obsessions Episode 2

Priorities, patriotic quilts, procrastination, studio space evolution, and playing with the tension and finding the edge!

Maura's journey began in 2011 when she followed her dream to merge gardening and quilting. Hailing from a family of quilters and tailors, Maura finds joy and meaning in connecting with her ancestors through her craft and preserving heritage techniques. A pioneer in hand-dyed fabrics and hand-stitched quilts, Maura has inspired an international movement by sharing her plant-based dyeing processes and using those colors in quilt making. Her brand, Folk Fibers, has become a sought-after choice for heirloom quilt collectors. At her home studio and garden sanctuary, Maura immerses herself in color, allowing the transformation from seed to plant, dye, and textile to inform her work. 

She shares her expertise by teaching workshops locally and abroad, emphasizing a balance of technique and play. Maura and her family live on a ten-acre woodland property near the lower Colorado River in Bastrop, TX. Embracing the seasons, Maura's connection to nature and authentic living continues to inspire her creative work.

Takeaways:

1. Once you sit down to work in this slow intentional process of hand sewing there’s a heartbeat, a quiet space, a discipline of being present and reflection, allowing the waters to clear.
2. Artist dates are where creativity blooms.
3. Quilts touch the deepest parts of people’s lives.
4. There are many places in life where we have a need to control, but our art practice is a place where we can let go of that control.
5. The work speaks for itself, it’s told to me in real time.

Maura Ambrose Folk Fibers

Maura Ambrose on Instagram

Maura Ambrose on Facebook

Aurora Silk natural dyes 

Takeaways

1. It takes a village to be creative even if the work is solitary.
2. Little tweaks to the environment can help you transition to the creative work.
3. Your identify is not in what you do, it’s in who you are.
4. It’s all about showing up every day – you don’t have to be perfect.
5. If you want to be a good writer, be a good reader.

Mentioned

Jess Pillay

Jess Pillay on Instagram

Jess Pillay on Twitter

Jess Pillay on Facebook

Jess Pillay on Bandcamp

Jeff Tweedy, Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back)

Amelia Kaiser

Wes Speight

Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

Rachel Yamagata

Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Follow Iris on Instagram

Iris’s YouTube channel - Iris Impressions Art

Iris’s website

Haribo sweets (the Deutsch site of course!)

Primrose Hill in Regent’s Park, London

Listen to Iris on the Get Messy Art podcast with Caylee Grey

Takeaways

1. If you’re really interested in something, it's worthy of your time.
2. “Making the art that I want to make, writing the things that I want to write, and sharing in my vlogs the things that I'm already doing is the most genuine way of growing my audience in a meaningful way.”
3. Make things imperfect on purpose. It doesn’t have to be good, it just has to exist.
4. “If I do things ‘authentically’ and the way I want to and when it's nice for me then I can do it fairly consistently.”

Takeaways

1. Nature is like sketchbook in real time; it makes you feel like it’s going to be ok.

2. You have to interact if you want an audience. (You have to be a friend to get a friend.)

3. "You need to work with the medium that works with how fast you think and paint." (source unknown)

4. If you want to get to the next level, then it’s time to put the phone down. 

5. The universe will rearrange itself to help you live out your dreams if they come from a sincere place.

Mentioned in this episode

Follow Amy Jarvis on Instagram

Follow Amy Jarvis on Facebook

Amy Jarvis website

Megan Woodward Johnson Artist Masterminds

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Steve White Yoga Pranayama video.  Calming, centering and balancing breath work for the nervous system.

Tom Uttech

Takeaways

1. In our busyness and urban-ness we’ve been taken away from the beauty and mystery and magic that exists around us.

2. You have to be able to live in that uncomfortable zone in order to get to new and magical things.

3. The job of the mentor is not to change your opinion or your work, or not to tell you what's not going right, but to bring your nose off of the mirror and allow you to see it in a different or wider angle and have a more global perception of what you’re doing.

4. When the silence is so full, like in the forest, it’s not a silence of emptiness, but it allows you to become deeply in tune to your own thoughts and your way of looking at the world.

Mentioned

Follow Vicky Lentz on Instagram

Follow Vcky Lentz on Facebook

Vicky Lentz’s website

Follow Vicky Lentz on Pinterest

Mardens Surplus and Salvage  

Agnes Martin

The torus

Created Here magazine

Feedback loops in the art world, finding ways to accumulate more moments of joy, the in-between spaces, writing vs. storytelling, not fitting into a box, and the orange couch are all part of Bela Suresh Roongta’s story. Bela is a Milwaukee-based visual artist, writer and storyteller. She has shown in solo & group exhibitions, been featured as a writer & speaker and recognized for innovation and success in art and storytelling. Committed to the rituals of drawing, journaling and traveling, Bela makes art, writes stories and curates experiences that explore identity & place, dance with memory and tradition and tell of the times we live in. Her art and storytelling honors those who came before us, our shared experiences and our differences.

Key Takeaways:

1. The more personal you are, the more personal your work is, and the more universal it becomes.
2. Find the magic in the unknown.
3. Allow yourself to be seen so that others can be seen. The more story we know about you the more connected we feel.
4. Art is a very self forward profession.
5. Find ways to accumulate more moments of joy.

Bela Suresh

Bela Suresh on Instagram

Part 1 | Night Country Origins with Showrunner Issa López and Executive Producer Mari Jo Winkler
The True Detective: Night Country Podcast

Saint Kate Exhibition: Relief — The Stories We Carry by Bela Suresh Roongta

Robin Davisson Episode 69 on Authentic Obsessions

Takeaways

1. It’s ok to do a whole bunch of different things. That’s why we work in series - to do something with all these ideas.

2. Persevere even if you have a lot of anxiety, insecurity and self-doubt. Showing up is such a big part of being an artist.

3. “I allow the painting to take me to where it needs to go. I can never force the idea into the painting.”

4. Just trust the process.

5. Recognize that they are just thoughts and feelings – push through and learn to trick that inner critic.

Mentioned in this episode

Follow Amy Weil on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/circles_and_grids/

Amy Weil’s website https://www.amyweilpaintings.com/ 

440 Gallery Brooklyn, New York https://gallery440.squarespace.com/artist-amy-weil

Gowanus Studio Space Brooklyn, New York https://www.gowanusstudio.org/

Eva Hesse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Hesse

Stones, learning, confidence, pattern and line, expressing beauty, and promoting your work are just a few topics artist Rena Diana covers today.

After retiring from a fulfilling career as an educator in Baltimore, Rena started focusing full time on her artwork. She worked every day in a studio at the Art Students League in New York City, where she began painting abstract landscapes. Rena is fortunate to divide her time between Baltimore and her home on Lake Champlain in Vermont, which is the source of much of her inspiration. 

Rena on art journals and sketching: "Throughout my adult life, I have kept notebooks chronicling my observations and experiences.  Gradually these became art journals, filled with sketches and collages, along with personal narrative and remarks about the creative process. As these notebooks evolved into more formal exercises, I realized that they were distinct art forms in themselves. At that point, I began creating larger, single pieces. These art journals remain a core part of my studio practice."

Takeaways

1. You develop confidence as you learn to trust yourself and the process. Believe in yourself and that what you have to share with other people is valuable.
2. It’s a marathon. A long game.
3. Learning is the best antidepressant.
4. First think about who YOU are before you decide how and where you’re going to promote your work.

Links

Rena Diana

Rena on Instagram

City Arts and Lectures, Ann Patchett

Mary Lynn O’Shea

The Art Students League of New York

Last Light, How Six Great Artists Made Old Age a Time of Triumph, Richard Lacayo

Takeaways

1. Use your artwork to quietly talk about things that are important to you.

2. If you’ve never made paper I highly recommend. It’s like magic.

3. ATCs (artist trading cards) are great because: 1) it’s a great way to get unstuck, 2) it’s not a big commitment, and 3) there is no monetary incentive.

Mentioned in this episode

Follow Mel Kolstad on Instagram

Mel Kolstad’s website

Mel Kostad’s TedX talk - Channeling Your Inner Kid for Your Career

ATCs for All Artist Trading Cards

Themla Sadoff Center for the Arts

The Exquisite Uterus Project

Arnold Grummer’s

Monumental undertakings through multimedia narrative projects, travel and deep introspection, embracing chance and spontaneity, baseball, and how people define happiness, all come up during my conversation with Milwaukee interdisciplinary artist and writerJon Horvath.

Influenced by his early formal education in creative fiction writing, philosophy, and composing music, Jon's practice has since expanded into the mixed use of photography, video, performance, sculptural objects, and other mediums brought into a combined space. He desires to share open-ended, poetic narratives rooted in an exploration of how we build personal and cultural mythologies as a way to better understand the world around us.

Takeaways

1. The making is driven by intuition.
2. Let go of having to know everything about every choice to allow unexpected moments.
3. Don’t let something that's making you fearful influence choices that you’re making.
4. Some distance from your more regular experience allows you to have permission to entertain other possibilities.
5. Pictures are influenced by that which surrounds them.

Jon Horvath

Jon Horvath on Instagram

This is Bliss

Throughline

Slow Burn

Old books, tight deadlines, the button box, design, and dancing all come up during my conversation with mixed media artist Sue Johnson.

Sue Johnson is a mixed media artist from the UK who loves painted papers, pattern, and repetition. Her working process is quite eclectic but often begins with a colour palette and experimental mark making and various printing and painting techniques. She often works on found surfaces and ephemera such as used envelopes and pages from discarded books destined to be shredded. These provide unique surfaces to paint and print on and the use of collage yields unexpected results. Her printed textiles background informs her composition and process but play, curiosity and intuition lead the way.

Takeaways

1. Push all the boundaries and do something different.
2. Little and often.
3. Notice what you notice.
4. Sometimes the best things come out at the end during the last-minute push.
5. To get unstuck, hold your work up to a mirror to distance yourself and see what needs to be changed.

Sue Johnson

Sue Johnson on Instagram

Sue Johnson on Facebook

Creative Visionary Program with Nicholas Wilton

Bindex UK Link, Bindex US Link

Rex Ray: Art and Design YouTube video 

We Are All connected Art Project, Beatricia Sagar

Art Juice podcast

Takeaways

1. There’s a real strength in knowing your weakness.

2. What I learned in art school taught me to expand my vision and self-critique.

3. Fear no longer gets a vote.

4. So often our fear pushes us away from our internal voice and toward security and what might be an argument.  My greatest successes in life have been when I’ve faced the fear and listened to that voice. 

5. “Get in the short lines first.” - Gary Kelly

6. “There's no such thing as a no-win scenario there's always a way to make it work.“ - Captain Kirk

7. “Success is 99% failure.” - Thomas Edison

8. “A 10 year old can't sing a love song.” - Smokey Robinson

Mentioned in this episode

Follow Aaron Boyd on Instagram

Follow Aaron Boyd on Facebook

Aaron Boyd’s website

Takeaways

1. When you can tap into the honesty and be who you really are without worrying about how other people see you, that's where true self happiness starts.
2. Sometimes you have to change what success looks like depending on the week. But all of it helps the artwork go where it needs to go.
3. You can find magic anywhere.
4. Sewing is an act of repair and an ancient way of brining things together so they can’t come apart again.
5. Objects are just objects.

Mentioned in this episode

Follow Mindy Sue Wittock on Instagram

MIndy Sue Wittock’s website

Wondermakers Collective on Instagram

Wondermakers Collective website

New Kids On The Block

Axl Rose

Stevie Nicks

SarahPedlow, founder of ThreadWritten, is an artist working with embroidery and cultural preservation through workshops, textile travel tours, and fine art. ThreadWritten supports women artisans, traditional textile practices, and the preservation of heritage through research, education, and the cultivation of a global community of makers.

While participating in an artist’s residency in Budapest, Hungary in 2009, Sarah fell in love with Hungarian embroidery and clothing during a visit to the Ethnographic Museum. The experience led her to seek out women embroidering in the written style in Transylvania, Romania, and start ThreadWritten in 2012, first with artisan-made bags and pillows. Since 2014 she has focused on education, lecturing, and teaching cultural embroidery workshops. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, she moved to Amsterdam, NL, in 2019, and to Rotterdam this year.

Takeaways

1. Notice what feels nourishing to you. Keep your antenna up and remain curious and creative.
2. Each part enriches the other part.
3. Keep the channel open – the gist of a longer quote by Martha Graham
4. “A miracle is a shift in perception.” Marianne Williamson

Sarah Pedlow

Sarah Pedlow on Instagram

ThreadWritten

ThreadWritten on Instagram

Tim Ingold

A brush with…podcast

Museum of Ethnography, Budapest

Mentioned

Follow Gill Edwards on Instagram

Follow Gill Edwards on Facebook

Gill Edwards

Bloomsbury Group

Romo Group

Alice Sheridan’s Connected Artist Club

Nicholas Wilton’s Creative Visionary Program (CVP)

Elizabeth Blackadder

The Suffolk Coast

Takeaways

1. Consider writing your ideas on a giant piece of paper and tacking it up on the wall so they are front and center.
2. It’s not wrong to be a perfectionist, but it can stop you from progressing.
3. Dental tools, trowels, wooden butter pats, and a toilet brush all make lovely marks on a canvas!
4. “I believe that if I love what I’m doing then somebody somewhere will love it too.”

Takeaways

1. We’re so complex and weird as human beings - we know what is good for us and what will give us satisfaction so why don't we just go do more of that?

2. If you listen very carefully each tree and each kind of a leaf makes a different sound.

3. Social media is like an unwanted guest in your house. They have just arrived, they have no plans of leaving, and we just don't know whether we're going to get along or not, but we are figuring it out.

4. It is such a privilege to do work that allows you to meet people who are doing such insanely cool things. Entering their studios and places of work exposes you to this whole different way of thinking .

5. Commit to watching at least one documentary film a month.

Mentioned

Follow Laj on Instagram

Follow Red Crane Films on Instagram

Follow Red Crane Films on Facebook

Red Crane Films website

Milwaukee Film Festival - On Hands

Together Alone, a short film by Laj

On Being with Krista Tippett podcast

Emergence Magazine

Asian American Documentary Network

Kanopy

Frederick Wiseman

Agnes Varda

Anand Patwardhan

Deep Work - sessions available from Caveday

Classical Stretch series by Miranda Esmonde-White

Mentioned

Follow Paula’s Palette on Instagram and Facebook

Follow Paula’s hand painted wearables on Instagram

Paula’s website

Paula’s Etsy shop

The Arts Mill

North Shore Academy of the Arts

Frida Kahlo

Kate Scott

Takeaways

1. There’s an insecurity and vulnerability in giving your artwork to other people.
2. How we envision our art going out into the world doesn’t mean that’s what it’s going to do.
3. One of the dangers of social media is that your art can come out looking like everybody else’s.
4. It always feels better if you’re not forcing something.

Takeaways

1. Just ask.

2. On social media: Follow less, engage more.

3. Same but different.

4. Be here now. Let go.

5. When you want to see beauty somewhere, if you don’t already see it, you have to create it. Make it come about.

Mentioned

Follow Molly on Instagram

Molly’s website

The Traveling Postal Club

Matthew Frederick

French General workshops

Jen Peterson’s Instagram - the pursuit of sunshine

On Being with Krista Tippett podcast

Chanel Miller

During our chat, Anna talks about receptacles, the Minystery of Consideration, discovering and processing beauty, permission, belonging, and what makes us tick.

Takeaways

1. Just do your job.
2. Don't do other people's jobs.
3. It doesn’t get any better or more beautiful than this.
4. It’s all here already.
5. Do what’s real and what’s true, and remember that you don’t always get there while you’re walking upright.

Links

Anna van der Putte
Anna van der Putte on Instagram
Lesley Hilling
Scott Roberts
John T. Upchurch
Alison Jackson-Bass
Office of Collecting
Aja Lund
Hedi Kyle book arts
Stephanie Hüllmann Atelier-Talk podcast
The Secret Life of Lance Letscher
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, Elizabeth Gilbert

Weather, layers, inner worlds, thick living and 10,000 folded paper cranes. Brianna’s work is driven by world-building. She’s interested in exploring possible and impossible landscapes that may or may not exist on this planet, in this dimension, in a memory, a dream, or a vision…they may never have existed anywhere — until now. Her creations convey an architectural/organic world which thrives in paradox and ambiguity; it’s a place that gives voice to so much more than can be articulated with sound or words. Each piece she creates is an earnest translation of the feelings, ideas, images, landscapes, and visions of her inner world — for Brianna, the ultimate goal of her creative life is to ardently impart to your inner world what she can from her own.

Takeaways

1. We are all complicated nuanced onion layers of humans.
2. We are all works in progress.
3. The lessons are everywhere.
4. Sharing of the art is just as important as the creating of the art.
5. There are no mistakes in art. If you think it’s not right, it’s just not done.
6. We are little time tornadoes creating our own weather.

Links

Brianna Martray

Brianna on Instagram

Brianna on Facebook

Brianna’s YouTube Video: "The Making of a Public Art Installation at Denver International Airport" (June 21, 2011)

Tim Hecker

Lee Bontecou 

Takeaways

1. Installation – within an exhibit space - is an art form in itself.

2. Entering a wooded area feels like a hug.

3. Reach out to someone who is different from you in language or color or heritage and connect over art or making or simply just being together.

Mentioned in this episode

Nirmal Raja

Nirmal Raja on Instagram

Nirmal Raja on Facebook

Nirmal Raja on LinkedIn

Reimagining the Global Village

Reimagining the Global Village on Instagram

Reimagining the Global Village on YouTube

Mary Oliver

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life by Natalie Goldberg

Global Village and Marshall McLuhan

Art 21 art documentaries

The Tate Modern short art documentaries

The Brooklyn Rail

Ann Hamilton

UWM Special Collections Library 

K. Woodman-Maynard’s obsession with emotional expression comes out not only in her graphic novels but also through anger journaling and diary comics. She loves tree time, cold water swimming, running and cross-country skiing. Katharine is a sequential storyteller and an artist who writes (as opposed to a writer who draws) and loves to mentor other creatives. Her debut, The Great Gatsby: A Graphic Novel Adaptation was called, “hugely rewarding” by The Wall Street Journal. 

Takeaways

1. Be present and enjoy yourself.
2. What can I do for social media, not what social media can do for me.
3. Get some tree time.
4. Bring in people for feedback during a long term project.

Links

K. Woodman-Maynard
K. on Instagram
K. on Facebook
K. on Linkedin
K. on Pinterest
Great Gatsby Graphic Novel, K. Woodman-Maynard
The Big Leap, Gay Hendricks
Healing Back Pain, John Sarno
Art Matters, Neil Gaiman

Susan Lerner is  a New York City based contemporary hand-cut collage artist drawn to vintage imagery and maps, evoking a sense of familiarity and nostalgia.  Her work is a reflection of the power of visual storytelling and its ability to connect us to our memories and emotions. Susan’s work has been published in periodicals and books, she’s the co-founder of the New York Collage Ensemble, and she is currently licensed with Jiggy Puzzles and Jiggy Studio. Enjoy our conversation about tag sales, boundaries, trying new things, taking pauses, and challenges of selling your work. 

Takeaways

1. “Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.” Twyla Tharpe
2. Having too many options can drive you crazy.
3. Moving your body helps with problem solving and artistic creativity.
4. Find different outlets to sell your work.

Links

Susan Lerner

Susan Lerner on Instagram

Jiggy Puzzles, City of Dreams

92NY

Hollie Chastain

Galen Gibson-Cornell

Art and Cocktails podcast

The Jealous Curator, Art for Your Ear podcast

Sue Bulmer is an artist, educator, Art Psychotherapist and Inspiration Facilitator. Her expressive, energetic and colourful work is inspired by landscape and seasonal alignment. Sue believes we are all creative souls and is a passionate advocate for the well-being benefits of living a more creative life. ​She has a deep understanding, stemming from personal experience, of the many benefits of living a more creative life and the barriers and beliefs that stop us. We chat about paying attention to when it’s time to rest, confronting the fear that tries to keep you small and safe, being stuck and what happens when you stop fighting it, putting yourself out there even though it can be scary, the payoff is worth it!

Takeaways:

1. Make art just for you.
2. Nature takes a rest during the year. Why don’t we?
3. Categorizing things help us understand things, but they come with rules and those rules can be limiting.
4. It’s in the spaces that the ideas come.
5. “Stress is caused by being here and wanting to be there.”
6. It’s never too late.

Sue Bulmer

Sue Bulmer on Instagram

Sue Bulmer on Facebook

Sustain Your Creativity through Autumn & Winter, A free guide from Sue Bulmer

The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative, Florence Williams

Environmental Arts Therapy and the Tree of Life, Ian Siddons Heginworth

Rick Rubin on Feel Better Live More

Sue’s Creative Soul Sketchbooks course

Kellee Wynne Conrad, Build it Remarkable

Beltane, Gaelic May Day Festival

Takeaways

1. There’s no screaming in art. And there’s no crying in troweling.

2. You can’t give up and give in to self-doubt. Of course there will be self-doubt and tears, but work it out in your head, and then move on.

3. “I put my passion in my suitcase when I travel – trowels and truffles.”

4. Several things teach patience: Italy, and children.

5. Just be good to each other.

Mentioned

Follow Carrie and Chimenti Studios on Instagram

Follow Chimenti Studios on Facebook

Takeaways

1. “I have a lot of tabs open in my browser.”

2. Creativity does not need to be artistic - the mere act of being alive is creative.

3. Engaging in process art with no intent, no direction and no meaning is a great way to PLAY!

4. Take a lesson from the kindergarten crowd and when you make art just react from your gut, from your soul, and from your intuition.

Mentioned

Follow Natalie Ergas on Instagram

Follow Natalie and Native Essence Art on Facebook

Natalie’s Native Essence Art website

Takeaways

1. Just because you carry the load well doesn’t mean it isn’t heavy.

2. You don’t have to be just one thing.

3. It IS a good day to have a good day!

4. No colors clash in nature.

Mentioned in this episode

Follow Jes Zange on Instagram

Jes Zange’s website

Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival

Fiberwood Studio

Takeaways

1. “If you are producing good work, you likely have a lot of bad work holding it up.”  Sandi

2. “Just drawing what I saw in front of me grounded me and I just felt like I could breathe again.”  Mel

3. “When you draw it, it becomes interesting, especially kitchen utensils.” Mel

4. “Get absorbed in the ordinary.” Sandi

Mentioned

Follow Melanie Chadwick on Instagram

Melanie’s website

Melanie’s workshops, postcard project and shop can be found on this website

Find Melanie on YouTube

Follow Sandi Hester on Instagram

Find Sandi on YouTube at Bits of an Artist’s Life

Sandi’s website

 AuthenticObsessions.com

Instagram

Takeaways

1. Don’t wait for confidence. You get confidence by doing.
2. Suit up and show up because you never know what's going to happen. Even if it’s a terrible day in the studio, you might just meet someone that really lifts your spirits and makes you think about your work differently.
3. Let go of all the rules that say art has to be this way or that way. Just do it because you want to.
4. The best revolution we could have for the preservation of democracy is to do it yourself.

Mentioned in this Episode

Follow Mary on Instagram

Penny McElroy at the University of Redlands

Mary’s internship in New Jersey pouring bronze casts for different artists led me to research the sculptors she worked with. Check out the trailer for this fascinating documentary “Julian Schnable: A Private Portrait.”

Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Ox-Bow School of Art

American Craft Council list of schools with craft workshops and courses

University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts Sculpture program

University of Wisconsin Madison Glass Lab

Women’s Caucus for Art 

Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest 

Takeaways

1. Beauty matters.

2. Beauty is a whisper of our humanity.

3. If you’re going to use the wheel, break the rules.

4. Even extroverts need quiet spaces.

5. The reason art and beauty exist is to remind us that we matter. Feeling seen and heard shouldn't be based on a post code and it shouldn't be a luxury, it should be a birthright.

Mentioned

Follow Rachel on Instagram

Rachel’s website

Follow Rachel on Facebook

Follow Rachel on Twitter

Rachel talks about Hope in this short film Barnaby Festival

Kintsugi

Lucie Rie

The Great Pottery Throw Down

Edmund de Waal

Theaster Gates and a link to short films about his work

Whiterocks Beach, Northern Ireland

Lisa Kellner went through a major transition in her work life, moving from a textile installation artist back to her true love of painting.  Over the course of a few years, she dug deep, got really honest with herself, and saw how all the intangible parts of herself find their way into her work. Lisa uses a reductive language and intuitive approach to make paintings and sculptural constructions about the environment, societal constructs and how we occupy space.

Takeaways

1. Is there urgency?
2. Make sure your roots are strong.
3. Give space between you and your work.
4. Find comfort in the space of not knowing.
5. Don’t discount those parts of yourself that you can’t quantify or measure. 

Links

Lisa Kellner
Lisa on Instagram
Lee Bontecou
Elizabeth Murray

Lisa Kellner’s paintings and sculptural constructions have been exhibited throughout the United States and internationally. Her work can be found in private residences and commercial spaces in the United States, Europe and Japan. Exhibiting institutions include the Bellevue Arts Museum (WA), the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (NY), the Brooklyn Arts Council (NY), the Weatherspoon Museum (NC), the Islip Art Museum, Washington Project for the Arts and the Muscarelle Museum of Art (VA), among others. She has created site-responsive installations for institutions including the Cornell Fine Arts Museum (FL), the Bellevue Arts Museum (WA), Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Swing Space (NY), Brooklyn Arts Council (NY), the Center for Maine Contemporary Art (ME), Lehman College Art Gallery (NY) and the Target Gallery at the Torpedo Factory (VA). Kellner’s work has been reviewed and mentioned in publications including The New York Times, The Boston Globe and Sculpture Magazine in addition to several podcast and interview series. Lisa has received several awards including the New Media Invitational from the Target Gallery, DC and was nominated a Joan Mitchell Emerging Artist semi-finalist. She recently completed an artist residency at Don Pedro Island Preserve; a place dramatically impacted by Hurricane Ian.

Mentioned in this episode

Follow Nicole Shaver on Instagram

Nicole Shaver

MARN, Milwaukee Artist Resource Network

Shirley Schanen Gruen

Penland School of Craft

The Darkroom

Susan Rothenberg Art 21 video

Ozaukee Washington Land Trust

Takeaways

1. Pay attention to the “oooh factor,” that genuine interaction with a place or object.

2. If the work starts to get stale or is stuck, put it in the blender to get out of the dip.

3. It's got to come from a genuine place otherwise it is kind of false.

4. Artists are strategic hoarders.

5. “The future belongs to those who are still willing to get their hands dirty.” – unknown

Listen in as Stacy Bogdonoff talks about using verbs as she works on a project, the importance of not putting too much (psychologically) into social media, slowness and control,  living at the intersection of design and art, and why the media & the process – the heart and head of knowing and being known- is her authentic obsession.

Stacy is a mixed media artist who divides her time between her very messy studio in Kent, CT. and her neater tabletop workspace in NYC. Stacy works with textiles, vintage fabric, paper, paint, dyes, and found objects to explore the theme of “Home, Safety, and Shelter”, and how those change as we age and move through life. "My inspiration comes from three directions.  I am deeply drawn to a wide variety of unconventional media, and I love to explore tools and new ways to use them.  I am also equally driven to explore my inner world and understand my feelings."

Takeaways

1. Understanding the context behind the work enhances the experience.
2. You don’t always know. You sometimes find out.
3. Know what you like to do and clear the decks to do it.
4. The phone works both ways.

Stacy Bogdonoff

Stacy Bogdonoff on Instagram

Rick Lowe

Martha Tuttle

El Anatsui

Death of An Artist podcast

Desert Island Discs podcast

Takeaways

1. "If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it's not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That's why it's your path.”  Joseph Campbell
2. Fine art is essentially an exploration. You DON’T know how everything is going to turn out.
3. Art is never easy – you must learn to live with the discomfort.
4. Pay attention to the difference between inspiration (what gets you into the studio) and what your paintings express.
5. People get stuck because they have a plan and stick to it, when sometimes you just need to NOT plan.
6. Notice your defaults and then expand upon them.

Mentioned

Jane Davies

Jane Davies on Instagram

Jane Davies on Facebook

Jane Davies on Youtube

Jane Davies on Pinterest

Jane’s book, Abstract Painting: The Elements of Visual Language

Rupert Village Trust and The Sheldon Store

Winslow Art Center

Musicians James Hill and Anne Janelle  

Aboriginal artists Minnie Pwerle and Emily Kame Kngwarreye 

Poppy Dodge is an abstract painter and a Color Maximalist who delights in creating harmony and balance using all the colors. Her work explores her obsession with stacking color and shapes and is influenced by modern improvisational quilting and abstract collage. Poppy says: "I approach painting intuitively and am entirely process driven.  I like to think of my work as color celebrations; a stacking of playful color conversations joyfully stitching my life experiences together. We talk about newsletters, tea, the “Ladies of Yet,” and why it can be discouraging to make content solely to be seen instead of for

Takeaways

1. It’s got to get ugly before it gets good.
2. Persistence and obsession keep you going forward.
3. Remind yourself that you’re on Instagram for opportunities and take your ego out of it.
4. Add the “YET.” Don’t say I haven’t done that, say I haven’t done that YET.
5. A big studio is great – but if you’re scrappy you can carve out a space anywhere.

Mentioned

Poppy Dodge

Poppy on Instagram

Poppy on Facebook

Poppy on Pinterest

Gee’s Bend quilting retreats

Hand Yoga Club on YouTube with Heidi Parkes

Frankie magazine 

Oruaiti Reserve hike, aka the Kupe Trail

Lynn Giunta

Lisa Congdon

Bisa Butler

1. It’s through the details that we notice changes and transitions.

2. A change in your environment can cause a change in you and your art.

3. We can only love those things that we know and we only want to protect the things we love. We must understand nature so we can protect it.

4. It's possible to have this art life if your heart is set on it and if you really feel that this is what you want to do. Please don't think about university degrees, just do it. And if you can, do it every day.

5. Share your work! If there is even one person who looks at things through different eyes, because of your work, there might be others.

Mentioned

Follow Stephanie on Instagram

Stephanie’s website

Friedensreich Hundertwasser

Millerntor Gallery

Art Juice podcast with Alice Sheridan and Louise Fletcher

Beyond podcast with Daphne Cohn

Mixed media artist and painter Erica Jane Huntzinger was raised in the western suburbs of Chicago. Her parents hail from Maine and Pennsylvania and they drove back there each year to see family and friends all while absorbing and exploring the landscapes and ground they missed. Her immediate family was centered in questioning, learning and growing. Her mother was a psychologist, her father, a minister and Erica was the sister to an adventurous brother. Erica made her way through creative explorations from hundreds of coloring books, mud, rock and stick scapes into multi-media work through the lens of a painter.

We talk about flow, the importance of play, and demystifying the creative process, including how people make creative decisions in their life and how and where people can affect dynamic change for themselves through creative actions.

Takeaways

1. You can affect dynamic change for yourself through creative actions.
2. Be open to asking yourself: why DON’T you do some of the things you aren’t doing?
3. Play helps get you through difficult feelings, which in turn drives your curiosity.
4. Whatever you make, and it doesn’t matter what kind of artist you are, there's somebody out there that's going to like it.

Erica Jane Huntzinger

Erica Jane Huntzinger on Instagram

Erica Jane Huntzinger’s podcast, In The Act

Erica Jane Huntzinger on YouTube

Creative Quest, Questlove

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Sara Willadsen

Art as Medicine, Creating a Therapy of the Imagination, Shaun McNiff

Marco Polo

Lois Keller

Rachel Weaver Rivera

Whitney Morales

On Writing: A Memoir of Craft, Steven King

Cooper Diers

Takeaways

1. You show up, you commit, you don’t let people down, and you put something back into the community.

2. Don't give up when you get frustrated by your materials.

3. Don’t overcomplicate things.

4. Work hard, be generous and don’t take yourself too seriously.

5. Chiropractic and acupuncture treatments, wine, and a dog go a long way to self-care.

6. The technical aspects of art didn't come together until I had something I wanted to say.

Mentioned in this episode

Follow Abigail Bowen on Instagram

Follow Abigail Bowen on Facebook

Abigail Bowen’s website

Artist, teacher, collector, and storyteller Molly Meng interviews artist and illustrator Elizabeth DeJure Wood for today’s episode. They discuss the authenticity of non-human animals, being fully present, generating ideas and limiting options.

Elizabeth has a creative background in ceramics, graphic design, illustration, and fine art. She loves drawing every day and enjoys developing novel visual solutions for clients. Molly and Elizabeth met in the beautiful coastal town of Portsmouth New Hampshire where they both reside.

Takeaways

1. Animals are inherently authentic.
2. Staring into space is important for your creative life.
3. An extended eye to eye with an eel makes an impact.
4. Being fully present in the moment to moment makes a really great life.
5. Keep your instruments or tools of play in sight so you can express yourself fully whenever you need.
6. Generating ideas often come during the ordinary moments and while moving our bodies.
7. Limiting options in the media you use helps with discipline and getting into a more regular art practice.

Elizabeth DeJure Wood

Elizabeth DeJure Wood on Instagram

Elizabeth DeJure Wood on YouTube

Elizabeth DeJure Wood on LinkedIn

Elizabeth DeJure Wood on Bluesky

Elizabeth DeJure Wood on Pinterest

Molly Meng

Takeaways

1. Try to be stronger than your shadows.

2. Give your art away.

3. Tilt your head and looks sideways.

4. Art is a way to always move forward and open yourself up to curiosity.

5. Success is getting to your essence and being willing to have a conversation that is uncomfortable.

Mentioned in this episode

Flavia Testa

Flavia on Instagram

Flavia on Facebook

Tracy Emin

Frida Kahlo

Robin shares her life changing week at The Penland School, the importance of doing experiments to get to the truth, and the exhilaration of discovery and curiosity. Robin's lyrical, process-driven work is rooted in eclectic curiosity and the material surprises she discovers working with her finely developed visual vocabulary. 

Takeaways

1. It is important to keep doing experiments so you can get to the truth.

2. Pay attention to your materials and their ability to constantly surprise you.

3. Just make more time for it.

4. The more you learn about the business side of things, the more confident you get in your art making. And the more confident you get in your art making, the more confident you get in running your business.

5. “The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all and then stands back to see if we can find them. The hunt to uncover those jewels, that's creative living.” Elizabeth Gilbert

Mentioned

Robin Davisson

Follow Robin Davisson on Instagram

Studio Lab intro

Thomas Gleaner aka Brad Thomas

Penland School of Craft

Emily Mason

The effect of knitting during the birthing process, the importance of resting, felting as the wild sister of fiber arts, and the role of felting in community practices and traditions all comes up during my convo with Megan Henderson. And the always impactful practice of letting go and surrendering to the present moment.  Megan is a fiber artist living on a few wooded acres in Central Ohio who is inspired by nature, our connection to it and to each other, myths, lore and symbols, shadow work and the mysteries that lay just beyond our grasp.

Key takeaways

1. Pay attention and notice when fear needs to be conquered and when it is our intuition giving us a warning.
2. Don’t beat yourself up when you find yourself going down the path of thinking you’re not doing enough. But if you try and notice when it happens, those feelings might lessen.
3. You don’t have to EARN your rest.
4. “We are not meant to understand it all. We are not meant to grasp it. We are meant to make guesses about it.”

Megan Henderson

Megan Henderson on Instagram

Megan Henderson on Facebook

Nuno felting

Insight Timer meditation app

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, Oliver Burkeman

Rest is Resistance, Tricia Hersey

The Leftovers

ArtHoles, 7 episodes of Frida Kahlo

Pulling the Thread podcast, Knitting Together our Lives (Peggy Orenstein)

Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole, Susan Cain

Antieau Gallery