Episodes

This week, Painter and NYC Crit Club director, Catherine Haggarty, joined me to talk about that old enigma wrapped in a riddle: How to Host a Studio Visit. She gave tons of helpful tips for managing in-person visits, zoom visits AND how to guard against the emotional fallout that can come after a bad one. It's a gold mine! Also, Catherine gave a teaser for the upcoming courses on offer at NYC Crit Club this Fall. Some great instructors are on tap, along with some brand new exciting classes like...

Mandy is back to help me dissect this beloved classic book "Ways of Seeing" 1972 (and BBC TV show) by John Berger. Welcome back, Mandy! And, as always on Book Talks, much art-nerdery was indulged. Come along with us as we consider Berger's thoughts on Art: aka How it was changed by the age of reproduction, How the Nude functions as a tool for the Male Gaze, and How art is used as a status symbol for the wealthy, and in advertising to create Glamour. "Ways of Seeing" was created mainly by John B...

This week I had an amazing conversation with artist, Adie Russell. We discussed her incredible new "Lacuna" series of charcoal works on cotton rag paper (based on old Victorian glass negative studio portraits that are put through an obscure Photoshop filter) and also, her newest video work, "Hydriogenesis," which was born of a craving for a feeling of safety in nature and from the long periods of introspection we all experienced during the pandemic. We also talked about the trickiness of navigat...

As an artist, do you find yourself climbing up the "caterpillar pillar"? Or, are you "risking the butterfly"? These analogies are from a wonderful book from the early 1970's called Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus. And in this episode, I explore how this fable can apply to artists and inspire them to choose their own path. #AlwaysRiskTheButterfly Thanks to Adie Russell for the recommendation and check out her interview coming up next on the podcast! Send me a voice message on Speakpipe.com...

Come listen along as I speak with the incredible painter and sculptor, Ever Baldwin. Ever makes abstract oil paintings that loosely reference the body, eyes, nature, roads and even drag makeup...all enclosed in carved and burned wooden frames. The paintings and frames fuse together visually to create a new surprising whole, greater than the sum of its parts. Ever Baldwin's website and Insta: https://everbaldwin.com/ and @pretzeltime Upcoming exhibitions: Marinaro Gallery, "Quiet Yes," July 6 - ...

I was so excited to have painter, Melissa Capasso, whose visionary style is inspired by daydreaming, join me this week to continue my series on the Dream in Art. Melissa makes charcoal drawings and oil and acrylic paintings that explore themes of mother and child, St. Lucia and Catholic icons, vision, blindness, and the vanitas...all in a wavy gestural style with vibrant color or primal black and white. She invents her subjects in her mind while walking and thinks of her work as a kind of visua...

Come along on a ~~Dream Quest~~ with me to discover works of art that show real dreams...not just images of sleepers or "dream-like" paintings. I set out to discover the bonafides. I began in 1525 with Albrecht Durer, then moved to France with Odilon Rédon in the 1800's, the Surrealists and André Masson in the 1920's, and then shot over and up to the US in the 50's to Jasper Johns, and finally landed back at modern day with the exquisitely-observed representational paintings of Catherine Murphy....

Sculptor, Shari Mendelson joined me this week to discuss her work. Shari lives and works in Brooklyn and Upstate NY. She is represented in New York by Tibor de Nagy Gallery and has won many prestigious grants, including 4 NYFA-NYSCA Fellowship awards, a Pollock-Krasner grant and most recently a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2017. She makes human & animal figures & vessels made up of cut-up plastic bottles that riff on stone, clay & glass forms from ancient antiquity. The resulting sculptures can loo...

Mandy Wilson Rosen is back to co-host another Book Talks for Artists! Welcome back, Mandy! This week we are discussing "How to Work a Room" by Susan RoAne to see if it jusssttt might have some helpful tips inside for artists. Spoiler alert: It does. It's chock full of helpful tips for surviving an opening and we can't wait to talk about it. I even found some cocktail party lounge music for the ep. Join us! Link to the book: Amazon or Thriftbooks Hoban Press business cards: https://hobanpress.co...

This episode I look at the plusses of slowing down and taking our own sweet time in the studio. Artist slow-poke examples include Giorgio Morandi (read by Frank Bango), Jay Defeo, Charles Burchfield's "reconstructions" like "Sun and Rocks," Michelangelo, Cy Twombly, and, last but not least: Agnes Pelton and her silver baby. I didn't hold back on the crazy effects on this one, guys...it's a full vibe. Agnes Pelton readings were from: "Agnes Pelton: Desert Transcendentalist" ed. by Gilbert Vicar...

Installation artist, painter and photographer, Portia Munson, joined me on the podcast to talk about her work with cast-off objects, cultural waste, and girl kitsch. Tune in to hear our conversation about her work's feminist and ecological themes. We also spoke about how the objectification of women persists...in objects. And how endless inspiration can be found simply by roaming around an antiques mall or a swap-shop. Portia has a few shows happening this Summer (2022) if you'd like to catch h...

Think you can't make work unless you have a big palatial studio? Think again! Great art can also be made in kitchens! Here's proof: Ida Appelbroog: Art 21 episode "Power" & Jo Applin essay Martha Rosler: "Semiotics of the Kitchen" Mimi Smith at White Columns in "Gloria" 2002 and at her website: https://mimismith.com/1970.html Betye Saar's "Black Girl's Window" Joseph Cornell's works & The Guardian article Carrie Mae Weems: "Kitchen Table Series" 1990 & National Gallery of Art Lecture Robert Ra...

Catherine Haggarty, a friend of the show, painter and Executive Director of NYC Crit Club stopped by this week for a Bonus Episode to tell me a bit about her upcoming summer courses online and in person. She's got some great faculty lined up too, including Claire Grill, Clarity Haynes, Erika Ranee, Paul Gagner and Jared Linge. We also got talking about how it was for each of us starting out and how much we could have used a mentor or peer network at crucial moments. This experience helped her de...

Painters, Keisha Prioleau Martin and Emilia Olsen joined me this week to talk about their work. Both painter's painters, they work primarily with the figure and use vibrant luscious color to add to the content of their work. Listen in to hear about why the "bather" is still a rich subject to paint (especially by women or female-identifying artists), why the city's character and quirks can inspire endless imagery and also what advice they would each give their younger selves. See more of their w...

Friend of the show, Paddy Johnson, is back on Peps! Welcome back, Paddy! She gave me tons of Instagram tips for artists (that old enigma wrapped in a riddle) and she also told me a bit more about "Netvvrk," her business network providing training for professional working fine artists. You may remember that she came on as part of a panel for "Episode 3: Alternative Art Programs" back in 2021, and this time we did more of a deep dive. Her program's membership opens quarterly and is currently openi...

Where did the phrase "That gave me the willies" come from and how did it kick off the American Sublime? And what was the first landscape on Earth? Find out in this week's episode as my guest, collage artist, Todd Bartel joins me to talk about our favorite subjects: Collage and Landscape. Click here to see images of Todd's work: https://www.toddbartel.com/ Click here to read Todd's writings on collage: https://issuu.com/toddbartel Todd Bartel's music (used in this episode): "Several Big Changes"...

This weeks on Pep Talks, I am taking a quick dive into Roland Barthe's concept of the "Punctum" from his book "Camera Lucida," to explain why some artworks and films stick in your mind and others don't. Find out why Stanley Kubrick's choice of music for scoring "2001: A Space Odyssey" & Ingrid Bergman's turn as a boxing nun made both of these films punctum-y and stick in my brain. Also, come hear about Barthe's personal quest to find a photo of his mother that contained her true essence, and how...

Come along this week to find out why I think an episode of the Twilight Zone is the perfect analogy for going on an artist residency ...AND also hear a little radio play I made about going to a Provincetown/Truro dune shack for a week as an Artist in Residence and all about my neighbors: 1,000 gray seals and a single white-footed dune mouse. It will be "Ever so much fun." Further reading/watching/links: "The Twilight Zone" ep "The After Hours" (S1, Ep34, w/ Anne Francis as "Marsha") "Wired to ...

This week on Peps, we're going to tackle the metaphysical question: When is a work finished? I explore some texts that try to pin down a definition and also share some of my own thoughts and metaphors...But I am most excited to share that this episode contains recorded messages from listener-artist contributors! 6 generous artist listeners sent in their own unique ways of describing this indescribable phenomenon. A very special thanks to: Elizabeth (Beth) Gilfilen https://elizabethgilfilen.com/...

This week I had 4 fellow collage enthusiasts join me for a great roundtable about contemporary collage: Curator, Kathy Greenwood and Artists, Ginnie Gardiner, Todd Bartel and Michael Oatman. If you love collage, aka "the finding, minding & binding," (thanks, Todd!) then you'll love this episode. And my obsesh w/ glue became next level as we explored both its physical and metaphysical properties. This episode was recorded during a live Clubhouse event 2/8/22 and was held in conjunction with "Ech...

Friend of the show, Mandy Wilson Rosen is back to co-host with me this week! Welcome back, Mandy! At a recent artist meet up on Clubhouse, we learned that many many artists cite "The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985" ed. Maurice Tuchman/LACMA as their most prized book on their studio bookshelf. Neither of us had heard of the book before, so we set about to find out what all the fuss was about. The book is a TOME (heavy as a brick, dense as a neutron star and 430 pages) and out of p...

Gather 'round, me hearties, for a tale of a fearsome creature of the deep: a sea monster that feeds on #wip posts, called the "Leave-It-Like-That." This week's podcast is about how this unsolicited comment on our social media posts and in the studio can derail us if we aren't hyper vigilant against their meddling shenanigans. Hoist the main mast and scuttle the jib, as we set sail into Leave-It-Like-That-infested waters and emerge unscathed. Weigh in on what sea monster best embodies the Leave-...

I was so thrilled to have Ann Toebbe in my clutches this week as she joined me on the Peps Pod this week to discuss her show "Cooler by the Lake" at Tibor de Nagy Gallery at 11 Rivington through Jan 27, 2022. We talked about her exquisite gouache and oil collage paintings, the space in Indian miniature paintings, the dollhouse in art, her project of recreating friends' homes via their Facebook photos, being an artist parent, and the great tradition of Chicago artists. See Ann's work online and ...

This week I was really excited to have Sharon Butler on the podcast for the second installment of my "Interview the Interviewer" series. Sharon is a painter, writer and founder of the Two Coats of Paint Blog-azine which offers a space for alternative critical writing for the arts in the New York/Tri-State area. We nerd-ed out about paint brushes, spoke about her "Good Morning" drawings, and about allowing "bad" compositions into your work. We also talked about Two Coats of Paint's role in the NY...