Podcasts about american artist

David Mayernik is an architect, artist, writer, educator and most of all, he is a life-long student. David grew up in Allentown Pennsylvania. As he tells us during this episode, even at a young age of two he already loved to draw. He says he always had a pencil and paper with him and he used them constantly. His mother kept many of his drawings and he still has many of them to this day.   After graduating from University of Notre Dame David held several positions with various architectural firms. He always believed that he learned more by teaching himself, however, and eventually he decided to leave the professional world of architecture and took teaching positions at Notre Dame. He recently retired and is now Professor Emeritus at Notre Dame.   Our conversation is far ranging including discussions of life, the importance of learning and growing by listening to your inner self. David offers us many wonderful and insightful lessons and thoughts we all can use. We even talk some about about how technology such as Computer Aided Design systems, (CAD), are affecting the world of Architecture. I know you will enjoy what David has to say. Please let me know your thoughts through email at michaelhi@accessibe.com.     About the Guest:   David Mayernik is an architect, artist, writer, and educator. He was born in 1960 in Allentown, Pennsylvania; his parents were children of immigrants from Slovakia and Italy. He is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and the British Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, and has won numerous grants, awards and competitions, including the Gabriel Prize for research in France, the Steedman Competition, and the Minnesota State Capitol Grounds competition (with then partner Thomas N. Rajkovich). In 1995 he was named to the decennial list of the top forty architects in the United States under forty. In the fall of 2022, he was a resident at the Bogliasco Foundation in Liguria and the Cini foundation in Venice.   His design work for the TASIS campus in Switzerland over twenty-eight years has been recognized with a Palladio Award from Traditional Building magazine, an honorable mention in the INTBAU Excellence Awards, and a jury prize from the Prix Européen d'Architecture Philippe Rotthier. TASIS Switzerland was named one of the nine most beautiful boarding schools in the world by AD Magazine in March 2024. For ten years he also designed a series of new buildings for TASIS England in Surrey.   David Mayernik studied fresco painting with the renowned restorer Leonetto Tintori, and he has painted frescoes for the American Academy in Rome, churches in the Mugello and Ticino, and various buildings on the TASIS campus in Switzerland. He designed stage sets for the Haymarket Opera company of Chicago for four seasons between 2012 and 2014. He won the competition to paint the Palio for his adopted home of Lucca in 2013. His paintings and drawings have been exhibited in New York, Chicago, London, Innsbruck, Rome, and Padova and featured in various magazines, including American Artist and Fine Art Connoisseur.   David Mayernik is Professor Emeritus with the University of Notre Dame, where for twenty years he taught in the School of Architecture. He is the author of two books, The Challenge of Emulation in Art and Architecture (Routledge, UK) and Timeless Cities: An Architect's Reflections on Renaissance Italy, (Basic Books), and numerous essays and book chapters, including “The Baroque City” for the Oxford Handbook of the Baroque. In 2016 he created the online course The Meaning of Rome for Notre Dame, hosted on the edX platform, which had an audience of six thousand followers. Ways to connect with David:   Website: www.davidmayernik.com Instagram: davidmayernik LinkedIn: davidmayernik EdX: The Meaning of Rome https://www.edx.org/learn/humanities/university-of-notre-dame-the-meaning-of-rome-the-renaissance-and-baroque-city     About the Host:   Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.       Transcription Notes:   Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:17 Well, hi and welcome once again. Wherever you happen to be, to another episode of unstoppable mindset. Today, we get to chat with David Mayernik, unless you're in Europe, and then it's David Mayernik, but either way, we're glad to have him. He is an architect. He is an award winning architect. He's an author. He's done a number of things in his life, and we're going to talk about all of those, and it's kind of more fun to let him be the one to talk more about it, and then I can just pick up and ask questions as we go, and that's what we'll do. But we're really glad that he's here. So David, welcome to unstoppable mindset.   David Mayernik ** 01:57 Oh, thanks so much. Michael, thanks for the invitation. I'm looking forward to it.   Michael Hingson ** 02:02 Well, I know we've been working on getting this set up, and David actually happens to be in Italy today, as opposed to being in the US. He was a professor at Notre Dame for 20 years, but he has spent a lot of time in Europe and elsewhere, and I'm sure he's going to talk about that. But why don't we start, as I mentioned earlier, as I love to do, tell us kind of about the early David growing up.   David Mayernik ** 02:25 Well, so my both of my parents passed away several years ago, and when I was at my mom's funeral, one of our next door neighbors was telling my wife what I was like when I was a kid, and she said he was very quiet and very intense. And I suppose that's how I was perceived. I'm not sure I perceived myself that way I did. The thing about me is I've always drawn my mom. I mean, lots of kids draw, but I drew like credibly, well, when I was, you know, two and three years old. And of course, my mother saved everything. But the best thing about it was that I always had paper and pencil available. You know, we were terribly well off. We weren't poor, but we weren't, you know, well to do, but I never lacked for paper and pencils, and that just allowed me to just draw as much as I possibly could.   Michael Hingson ** 03:16 And so I guess the other question is, of course, do you still have all those old drawings since your mom kept   David Mayernik ** 03:23 them? Well, you know? Yeah, actually, after she passed, I did get her, Well, her collection of them. I don't know that all of them. My father had a penchant for throwing things away, unfortunately. So some of the archive is no longer with us, but no but enough of it. Just odds and bits from different areas of my life. And the thing is, you know, I was encouraged enough. I mean, all kids get encouraged. I think when they're young, everything they do is fabulous, but I had enough encouragement from people who seem to take it seriously that I thought maybe I had something and and it was the kind of thing that allowed me to have enough confidence in myself that I actually enjoyed doing it and and mostly, my parents were just impressed. You know, it just was impressive to them. And so I just happily went along my own way. The thing about it was that I really wanted to find my own path as somebody who drew and had a chance in high school for a scholarship to a local art school. I won a competition for a local art school scholarship, and I went for a couple of lessons, and I thought, you know, they're just teaching me to draw like them. I want to draw like me. So for better or worse, I'm one of those autodidacts who tries to find my own way, and, you know, it has its ups and downs. I mean, the downside of it is it's a slower learning process. Is a lot more trial and error. But the upside of it is, is that it's your own. I mean, essentially, I had enough of an ego that, you know, I really wanted to do. Things my way.   Michael Hingson ** 05:02 Well, you illustrate something that I've believed and articulate now I didn't used to, but I do now a lot more, which is I'm my own best teacher. And the reality is that you you learn by doing, and people can can give you information. And, yeah, you're right. Probably they wanted you to mostly just draw like them. But the bottom line is, you already knew from years of drawing as a child, you wanted to perhaps go a slightly different way, and you worked at it, and it may have taken longer, but look at what you learned.   David Mayernik ** 05:37 Yeah, I think it's, I mean, for me, it's, it's important that whatever you do, you do because you feel like you're being true to yourself somehow. I mean, I think that at least that's always been important to me, is that I don't, I don't like doing things for the sake of doing them. I like doing them because I think they matter. And I like, you know, I think essentially pursuing my own way of doing it meant that it always was, I mean, beyond just personal, it was something I was really committed to. And you know, the thing about it, eventually, for my parents was they thought it was fabulous, you know, loved great that you draw, but surely you don't intend to be an artist, because, you know, you want to have a job and make a living. And so I eventually realized that in high school, that while they, well, they probably would have supported anything I did that, you know, I was being nudged towards something a little bit more practical, which I think happens to a lot of kids who choose architecture like I did. It's a way, it's a practical way of being an artist and and that's we could talk about that. But I think that's not always true.   Michael Hingson ** 06:41 Bill, go ahead, talk about that. Well, I think that the   David Mayernik ** 06:44 thing about architecture is that it's become, well, one it became a profession in America, really, in the 20th century. I mean, it's in the sense that there was a licensing exam and all the requirements of what we think of as, you know, a professional service that, you know, like being a lawyer or a doctor, that architecture was sort of professionalized in the 20th century, at least in the United States. And, and it's a business, you know, ostensibly, I mean, you're, you know, you're doing what you do for a fee. And, and so architecture tries to balance the art part of it, or the creative side, the professional side of it, and the business side. And usually it's some rather imperfect version of all of those things. And the hard part, I think the hardest part to keep alive is the art part, because the business stuff and the professional stuff can really kind of take over. And that's been my trial. Challenge is to try to have it all three ways, essentially.   Michael Hingson ** 07:39 Do you think that Frank Lloyd Wright had a lot to do with bringing architecture more to the forefront of mindsets, mindsets, and also, of course, from an art standpoint, clearly, he had his own way of doing things.   David Mayernik ** 07:54 Yeah, absolutely he comes from, I mean, I wouldn't call it a rebellious tradition, but there was a streak of chafing at East Coast European classicism that happened in Chicago. Louis Sullivan, you know, is mostly responsible for that. And I but, but Right, had this, you know, kind of heroic sense of himself and and I think that his ability to draw, which was phenomenal. His sense that he wanted to do something different, and his sense that he wanted to do something American, made him a kind of a hero. Eventually, I think it coincided with America's growing sense of itself. And so for me, like lot of kids in America, my from my day, if you told somebody in high school you wanted to be an architect, they would give you a book on Frank Lloyd Wright. I mean, that's just, you know, part of the package.   Michael Hingson ** 08:47 Yeah, of course, there are others as well, but still, he brought a lot into it. And of course there, there are now more architects that we hear about and designers and so on the people what, I m Pei, who designed the world, original World Trade Center and other things like that. Clearly, there are a number of people who have made major impacts on the way we design and think of Building and Construction today,   David Mayernik ** 09:17 you know, I mean America's, you know, be kind of, it really was a leader in the development of architecture in the 20th century. I mean, in the 19th century was very much, you know, following what was happening in Europe. But essentially, by the 20th century, the America had a sense of itself that didn't always mean that it rejected the European tradition. Sometimes it tried to do it, just bigger and better, but, but it also felt like it had its, you know, almost a responsibility to find its own way, like me and, you know, come up with an American kind of architecture and and so it's always been in a kind of dialog with architecture from around the world. I mean, especially in Europe, at Frank Lloyd Wright was heavily influenced by Japanese architecture and. And so we've always seen ourselves, I think, in relationship to the world. And it's just the question of whether we were master or pupil to a certain extent,   Michael Hingson ** 10:07 and in reality, probably a little bit of both.   David Mayernik ** 10:12 Yeah, and we are, and I think, you know, acknowledging who we are, the fact that we didn't just, you know, spring from the earth in the United States, where we're all, I mean, essentially all immigrants, mostly, and essentially we, you know, essentially bring, we have baggage, essentially, as a culture, from lots of other places. And that's actually an advantage. I mean, I think it's actually what makes us a rich culture, is the diversity. I mean, even me, my father's family was Slovak, my mother's family Italian. And, you know from when I tell you know Europeans that they think that's just quintessentially American. That's what makes you an American, is that you're not a purebred of some kind.   Michael Hingson ** 10:49 Yeah, yeah. Pure purebred American is, is really sort of nebulous and and not necessarily overly accurate, because you are probably immigrants or part other kinds of races or nationalities as well. And that's, that's okay.   David Mayernik ** 11:08 It's, it's rich, you know, I think it's, it's a richer. It's the extent to which you want to engage with it. And the interesting thing about my parents was that they were both children of first generation immigrants. My mom's parents had been older Italian, and they were already married, and when they came to the States, my father's parents were younger and Slovak, and they met in the United States. And my father really wasn't that interested in his Slovak heritage. I mean, just, you know, he could speak some of the language, you know, really feel like it was something he wanted to hold on to or pass along, was my mom was, I mean, she loved her parents. She, you know, spoke with him in Italian, or actually not even Italian, the dialect from where her parents came from, which is north of Venice. And so she, I think she kind of, whether consciously or unconsciously, passed that on to me, that sense that I wanted to be. I was interested in where I came from, where the origins of my where my roots were, and it's something that had an appeal for me that wasn't just it wasn't front brain, it was really kind of built into who I was, which is why, you know, one of the reasons I chose to go to Notre Dame to study where I also wound up teaching like, welcome back Carter, is that I we had a Rome program, and so I've been teaching in the Rome program for our school, but we, I was there 44 years ago as a student.   Michael Hingson ** 12:28 Yeah. So quite a while, needless to say. And you know, I think, well, my grandmother on my mother's side was Polish, but I I never did get much in the way of information about the culture and so on from her and and my mom never really dealt with it much, because she was totally from The Bronx in New York, and was always just American, so I never really got a lot of that. But very frankly, in talking to so many people on this podcast over almost the last four years, talking to a number of people whose parents and grandparents all came to this country and how that affected them. It makes me really appreciate the kind of people who we all are, and we all are, are a conglomerate of so many different cultures, and that's okay, yeah? I mean,   David Mayernik ** 13:31 I think it's more than okay, and I think we need to just be honest about it, yeah. And, you know, kind of celebrate it, because the Italians brought with them, you know, tremendous skills. For example, a lot of my grandfather was a stone mason. You know, during the Depression, he worked, you know, the for the WPA essentially sponsored a whole series of public works projects in the parks in the town I grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania. And Allentown has a fabulous park system. And my grandfather built a lot of stone walls in the parks in the 1930s and, you know, all these cultures that came to the states often brought, you know, specialized skills. You know, from where they they came from, and, and they enriched the American, you know, skill set, essentially, and, and that's, you know, again, that's we are, who we are because of that, you know, I celebrated I, you know, I'm especially connected to my Italian heritage. I feel like, in part because my grandfather, the stone mason, was a bit of jack of all trades. He could paint and draw. And my mom, you know, wrote poetry and painted. And even though she mostly, you know, in my life, was a was a housewife, but before she met my father, and they got married relatively late for their day, she had a professional life in World War Two, my mom actually went to Penn State for a couple of years in the start of at the start of the war, and then parents wanted her to come home, and so she did two years of engineering. Penn State. When she came back to Allentown, she actually got a job at the local airplane manufacturing plant that was making fighter planes for the United States called company called volte, and she did drafting for them. And then after World War Two, she got a job for the local power company drafting modern electrical kitchens and and so I've inherited all my mom's drafting equipment. And, you know, she's, she's very much a kind of a child of the culture that she came from, and in the sense that it was a, you know, artistic culture, a creative culture. And, you know, I definitely happy and proud of   Michael Hingson ** 15:37 that. You know, one of the things that impresses me, and I think about a lot in talking to so many people whose parents and grandparents immigrated to this country and so on, is not just the skill sets that they brought, but the work ethic that they had, that they imparted to people. And I think people who have had a number of generations here have not always kept that, and I think they've lost something very valuable, because that work ethic is what made those people who they were   David Mayernik ** 16:08 absolutely I mean, my Yeah, I mean my father. I mean absolutely true is, I mean tireless worker, capable of tremendous self sacrifice and and, you know, and that whole generation, I mean, he fought in World War Two. He actually joined, joined the Navy underage. He lied about his age to get in the Navy and that. But they were capable of self, tremendous self sacrifice and tremendous effort. And, you know, I think, you know, we're always, you know, these days, we always talk about work life balance. And I have to say, being an architect, most architects don't have a great work life balance. Mostly it's, it's a lot of work and a little bit of life. And that's, I don't, you know. I think not everybody survives that. Not every architects marriage survives that mine has. But I think it's, you know, that the idea that you're, you're sort of defined by what you do. I think there's a lot of talk these days about that's not a good thing. I I'm sort of okay with that. I'm sort of okay with being defined by what I do.   Michael Hingson ** 17:13 Yeah, and, and that that's, that's okay, especially if you're okay with it. That's good. Well, you So you went to Notre Dame, and obviously dealt with architecture. There some,   David Mayernik ** 17:28 yeah. I mean, the thing, the great thing about Notre Dame is to have the Rome program, and that was the idea of actually a Sicilian immigrant to the States in the early 20th century who became a professor at Notre Dame. And he had, he won the Paris prize. A guy named Frank Montana who won the Paris prize in the 1930s went to Harvard and was a professor at Notre Dame. And he had the good idea that, you know, maybe sending kids to five years of architecture education in Indiana, maybe wasn't the best, well rounded education possible, and maybe they should get out of South Bend for a year, and he, on his own initiative, without even support from the university, started a Rome program, and then said to the university, hey, we have a Rome program now. And so that was, that was his instinct to do that. And while I got, I think, a great education there, especially after Rome, the professor, one professor I had after Rome, was exceptional for me. But you know, Rome was just the opportunity to see great architecture. I mean, I had seen some. I mean, I, you know, my parents would go to Philadelphia, New York and, you know, we I saw some things. But, you know, I wasn't really bowled over by architecture until I went to Rome. And just the experience of that really changed my life, and it gave me a direction,   Michael Hingson ** 18:41 essentially. So the Rome program would send you to Rome for a year.   David Mayernik ** 18:46 Yeah, which is unusual too, because a lot of overseas programs do a semester. We were unusual in that the third year out of a five year undergraduate degree in architecture, the whole year is spent in Rome. And you know, when you're 20 ish, you know, 20 I turned 21 when I was over there. It's a real transition time in your life. I mean, it's, it was really transformative. And for all of us, small of my classmates, I mean, we're all kind of grew up. We all became a bit, you know, European. We stopped going to football games when we went back on campus, because it wasn't cool anymore, but, but we, we definitely were transformed by it personally, but, it really opened our eyes to what architecture was capable of, and that once you've, once you've kind of seen that, you know, once you've been to the top of the mountain, kind of thing, it can really get under your skin. And, you know, kind of sponsor whatever you do for the rest of your life. At least for me, it   Michael Hingson ** 19:35 did, yeah, yeah. So what did you do after you graduated?   David Mayernik ** 19:40 Well, I graduated, and I think also a lot of our students lately have had a pretty reasonably good economy over the last couple of decades, that where it's been pretty easy for our students to get a job. I graduated in a recession. I pounded the pavements a lot. I went, you know, staying with my parents and. Allentown, went back and forth to New York, knocking on doors. There was actually a woman who worked at the unemployment agency in New York who specialized in architects, and she would arrange interviews with firms. And, you know, I just got something for the summer, essentially, and then finally, got a job in the in the fall for somebody I wanted to work with in Philadelphia and and that guy left that firm after about three months because he won a competition. He didn't take me with him, and I was in a firm that really didn't want to be with. I wanted to be with him, not with the firm. And so I then I picked up stakes and moved to Chicago and worked for an architect who'd been a visiting professor at Notre Dame eventually became dean at Yale Tom Beebe, and it was a great learning experience, but it was also a lot of hours at low pay. You know, I don't think, I don't think my students, I can't even tell my students what I used to make an hour as a young architect. I don't think they would understand, yeah, I mean, I really don't, but it was, it was a it was the sense that you were, that your early years was a kind of, I mean an apprenticeship. I mean almost an unpaid apprenticeship at some level. I mean, I needed to make enough money to pay the rent and eat, but that was about it. And and so I did that, but I bounced around a lot, you know, and a lot of kids, I think a lot of our students, when they graduate, they think that getting a job is like a marriage, like they're going to be in it forever. And, you know, I, for better or worse, I moved around a lot. I mean, I moved every time I hit what I felt was like a point of diminishing returns. When I felt like I was putting more in and getting less out, I thought it was time to go and try something else. And I don't know that's always good advice. I mean, it can make you look flighty or unstable, but I kind of always followed my my instinct on that.   Michael Hingson ** 21:57 I don't remember how old I was. You're talking about wages. But I remember it was a Sunday, and my parents were reading the newspaper, and they got into a discussion just about the fact that the minimum wage had just been changed to be $1.50 an hour. I had no concept of all of that. But of course, now looking back on it, $1.50 an hour, and looking at it now, it's pretty amazing. And in a sense, $1.50 an hour, and now we're talking about $15 and $16 an hour, and I had to be, I'm sure, under 10. So it was sometime between 1958 and 1960 or so, or maybe 61 I don't remember exactly when, but in a sense, looking at it now, I'm not sure that the minimum wage has gone up all that much. Yes, 10 times what it was. But so many other things are a whole lot more than 10 times what they were back then,   David Mayernik ** 23:01 absolutely, yeah. I mean, I mean, in some ways also, my father was a, my father was a factory worker. I mean, he tried to have lots of other businesses of his own. He, you're, you're obviously a great salesman. And the one skill my father didn't have is he could, he could, like, for example, he had a home building business. He could build a great house. He just couldn't sell it. And so, you know, I think he was a factory worker, but he was able to send my sister and I to private college simultaneously on a factory worker salary, you know, with, with, I mean, I had some student loan debt, but not a lot. And that's, that's not possible today.   Michael Hingson ** 23:42 No, he saved and put money aside so that you could do that, yeah, and,   David Mayernik ** 23:47 and he made enough. I mean, essentially, the cost of college was not that much. And he was, you know, right, yeah. And he had a union job. It was, you know, reasonably well paid. I mean, we lived in a, you know, a nice middle class neighborhood, and, you know, we, we had a nice life growing up, and he was able to again, send us to college. And I that's just not possible for without tremendous amount of debt. It's not possible today. So the whole scale of our economy shifted tremendously. What I was making when I was a young architect. I mean, it was not a lot then, but I survived. Fact, actually saved money in Chicago for a two month summer in Europe after that. So, you know, essentially, the cost of living was, it didn't take a lot to cover your your expenses, right? The advantage of that for me was that it allowed me time when I had free time when I after that experience, and I traveled to Europe, I came back and I worked in Philadelphia for the same guy who had left the old firm in Philadelphia and went off on his own, started his own business. I worked for him for about nine months, but I had time in the evenings, because I didn't have to work 80 hours a week to do other things. I taught myself how to paint. And do things that I was interested in, and I could experiment and try things and and, you know, because surviving wasn't all that hard. I mean, it was easy to pay your bills and, and I think that's one of the things that's, I think, become more onerous, is that, I think for a lot of young people just kind of dealing with both college debt and then, you know, essentially the cost of living. They don't have a lot of time or energy to do anything else. And you know, for me, that was, I had the luxury of having time and energy to invest in my own growth, let's say as a more career, as a creative person. And you know, I also, I also tell students that, you know, there are a lot of hours in the day, you know, and whatever you're doing in an office. There are a lot of hours after that, you could be doing something else, and that I used every one of those hours as best I could.   Michael Hingson ** 25:50 Yeah. Well, you know, we're all born with challenges in life. What kind of challenges, real challenges did you have growing up as you look back on it?   David Mayernik ** 26:01 Yeah, my, I mean, my, I mean, there was some, there was some, a few rocky times when my father was trying to have his own business. And, you know, I'm not saying we grew up. We didn't struggle, but it wasn't, you know, always smooth sailing. But I think one of the things I learned about being an architect, which I didn't realize, and only kind of has been brought home to me later. Right now, I have somebody who's told me not that long ago, you know? You know, the problem is, architecture is a gentleman's profession. You know that IT architecture, historically was practiced by people from a social class, who knew, essentially, they grew up with the people who would become their clients, right? And so the way a lot of architects built their practice was essentially on, you know, family connections and personal connections, college connections. And I didn't have that advantage. So, you know, I've, I've essentially had to define myself or establish myself based on what I'm capable of doing. And you know, it's not always a level playing field. The great breakthrough for me, in a lot of ways, was that one of the one of my classmates and I entered a big international competition when we were essentially 25 years old. I think we entered. I turned 26 and it was an open competition. So, you know, no professional requirements. You know, virtually no entry fee to redesign the state capitol grounds of Minnesota, and it was international, and we, and we actually were selected as one of the top five teams that were allowed to proceed onto the second phase, and at which point we we weren't licensed architects. We didn't have a lot of professional sense or business sense, so we had to associate with a local firm in Minnesota and and we competed for the final phase. We did most of the work. The firm supported us, but they gave us basically professional credibility and and we won. We were the architects of the state capitol grounds in Minnesota, 26 years old, and that's because the that system of competition was basically a level playing field. It was, you know, ostensibly anonymous, at least the first phase, and it was just basically who had the best design. And you know, a lot of the way architecture gets architects get chosen. The way architecture gets distributed is connections, reputation, things like that, but, but you know, when you find those avenues where it's kind of a level playing field and you get to show your stuff. It doesn't matter where you grew up or who you are, it just matters how good you are, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 28:47 well, and do you think it's still that way today?   David Mayernik ** 28:51 There are a lot fewer open professional competitions. They're just a lot fewer of them. It was the and, you know, maybe they learned a lesson. I mean, maybe people like me shouldn't have been winning competitions. I mean, at some level, we were out of our league. I wouldn't say, I wouldn't say, from a design point of view. I mean, we were very capable of doing what the project involved, but we were not ready for the hardball of collaborating with a big firm and and the and the politics of what we were doing and the business side of it, we got kind of crushed, and, and, and eventually they never had the money to build the project, so the project just kind of evaporated. And the guy I used to work with in Philadelphia told me, after I won the competition, he said, you know, because he won a competition. He said, You know, the second project is the hardest one to get, you know, because you might get lucky one time and you win a competition, the question is, how do you build practice out of that?   Michael Hingson ** 29:52 Yeah, and it's a good point, yeah, yeah.   David Mayernik ** 29:55 I mean, developing some kind of continuity is hard. I mean, I. Have a longer, more discontinuous practice after that, but it's that's the hard part.   Michael Hingson ** 30:07 Well, you know, I mentioned challenges before, and we all, we all face challenges and so on. How do we overcome the challenges, our inherited challenges, or the perceived challenges that we have? How do we overcome those and work to move forward, to be our best? Because that's clearly kind of what you're talking about here.   David Mayernik ** 30:26 Yeah, well, the true I mean, so the challenges that we're born with, and I think there are also some challenges that, you know, we impose on ourselves, right? I mean, in this, in the best sense, I mean the ways that we challenge ourselves. And for me, I'm a bit of an idealist, and you know, the world doesn't look kindly on idealist. If you know, from a business, professional point of view, idealism is often, I'm not saying it's frowned upon, but it's hardly encouraged and rewarded and but I think that for me, I've learned over time that it's you really just beating your head against the wall is not the best. A little bit of navigating your way around problems rather than trying to run through them or knock them over is a smarter strategy. And so you have to be a little nimble. You have to be a little creative about how you find work and essentially, how you keep yourself afloat and and if you're if you're open to possibilities, and if you take some risks, you can, you can actually navigate yourself through a series of obstacles and actually have a rich, interesting life, but it may not follow the path that you thought you were starting out on at the beginning. And that's the, I think that's the skill that not everybody has.   Michael Hingson ** 31:43 The other part about that, though, is that all too often, we don't really give thought to what we're going to do, or we we maybe even get nudges about what we ought to do, but we discount them because we think, Oh, that's just not the way to do it. Rather than stepping back and really analyzing what we're seeing, what we're hearing. And I, for 1am, a firm believer in the fact that our inner self, our inner voice, will guide us if we give it the opportunity to do that.   David Mayernik ** 32:15 You know, I absolutely agree. I think a lot of people, you know, I was, I for, I have, for better or worse, I've always had a good sense of what I wanted to do with my life, even if architecture was a you know, conscious way to do something that was not exactly maybe what I dreamed of doing, it was a, you know, as a more rational choice. But, but I've, but I've basically followed my heart, more or less, and I've done the things that I always believed in it was true too. And when I meet people, especially when I have students who don't really know what they love, or, you know, really can't tell you what they really are passionate about, but my sense of it is, this is just my I might be completely wrong, but my sense of it is, they either can't admit it to themselves, or they can't admit it to somebody else that they that, either, in the first case, they're not prepared to listen to themselves and actually really deep, dig deep and think about what really matters to them, or if they do know what that is, they're embarrassed to admit it, or they're embarrassed to tell somebody else. I think most of us have some drive, or some internal, you know, impetus towards something and, and you're right. I mean, learning to listen to that is, is a, I mean, it's rewarding. I mean, essentially, you become yourself. You become more, or the best possible self you can be, I guess.   Michael Hingson ** 33:42 Yeah, I agree. And I guess that that kind of answers the question I was was thinking of, and that is, basically, as you're doing things in life, should you follow your dreams?   David Mayernik ** 33:53 You know, there's a lot, a lot of people are writing these days, if you read, if you're just, you know, on the, on the internet, reading the, you know, advice that you get on, you know, the new services, from the BBC to, you know, any other form of information that's out there, there's a lot of back and forth by between the follow your dreams camp and the don't follow your dreams camp. And the argument of the don't follow your dreams camp seems to be that it's going to be hard and you'll be frustrated, and you know, and that's true, but it doesn't mean you're going to fail, and I don't think anybody should expect life to be easy. So I think if you understand going in, and maybe that's part of my Eastern European heritage that you basically expect life to be hard, not, not that it has to be unpleasant, but you know it's going to be a struggle, but, but if you are true to yourself or follow your dreams, you're probably not going to wake up in the middle of your life with a crisis. You know, because I think a lot of times when you suppress your dreams, they. Stay suppressed forever, and the frustrations come out later, and it's better to just take them on board and try to again, navigate your way through life with those aspirations that you have, that you know are really they're built in like you were saying. They're kind of hardwired to be that person, and it's best to listen to that person.   Michael Hingson ** 35:20 There's nothing wrong with having real convictions, and I think it's important to to step back and make sure that you're really hearing what your convictions are and feeling what your convictions are. But that is what people should do, because otherwise, you're just not going to be happy.   David Mayernik ** 35:36 You're not and you're you're at one level, allowing yourself to manipulate yourself. I mean, essentially, you're, you know, kind of essentially deterring yourself from being who you are. You're probably also susceptible to other people doing that to you, that if you don't have enough sense of yourself, a lot of other people can manipulate you, push you around. And, you know, the thing about having a good sense of yourself is you also know how to stand up for yourself, or at least you know that you're a self that's worth standing up for. And that's you know. That's that, that thing that you know the kids learn in the school yard when you confront the bully, you know you have to, you know, the parents always tell you, you know, stand up to the bully. And at some level, life is going to bully you unless you really are prepared to stand up for something.   Michael Hingson ** 36:25 Yeah, and there's so many examples of that I know as a as a blind person, I've been involved in taking on some pretty major tasks in life. For example, it used to be that anyone with a so called Disability couldn't buy life insurance, and eventually, we took on the insurance industry and won to get the laws passed in every state that now mandate that you can't discriminate against people with disabilities in providing life insurance unless you really have evidence To prove that it's appropriate to do that, and since the laws were passed, there hasn't been any evidence. And the reason is, of course, there never has been evidence, and insurance companies kept claiming they had it, but then when they were challenged to produce it, they couldn't. But the reality is that you can take on major tasks and major challenges and win as long as you really understand that that is what your life is steering you to do,   David Mayernik ** 37:27 yeah, like you said, and also too, having a sense of your your self worth beyond whatever that disability is, that you know what you're capable of, apart from that, you know that's all about what you can't do, but all the things that you can do are the things that should allow you to do anything. And, yeah, I think we're, I think it's a lot of times people will try to define you by what you can't do, you   Michael Hingson ** 37:51 know? And the reality is that those are traditionally misconceptions and inaccurate anyway, as I point out to people, disability does not mean a lack of ability. Although a lot of people say, Well, of course it, it is because it starts with dis. And my response is, what do you then? How do you deal with the words disciple, discern and discrete? For example, you know the fact of the matter is, we all have a disability. Most of you are light dependent. You don't do well with out light in your life, and that's okay. We love you anyway, even though you you have to have light but. But the reality is, in a sense, that's as much a disability is not being light dependent or being light independent. The difference is that light on demand has caused so much focus that it's real easy to get, but it doesn't change the fact that your disability is covered up, but it's still there.   David Mayernik ** 38:47 No, it's true. I mean, I think actually, yeah, knowing. I mean, you're, we're talking about knowing who you are, and, you know, listening to your inner voice and even listening to your aspirations. But also, I mean being pretty honest about where your liabilities are, like what the things are that you struggle with and just recognizing them, and not not to dwell on them, but to just recognize how they may be getting in the way and how you can work around them. You know, one of the things I tell students is that it's really important to be self critical, but, but it's, it's not good to be self deprecating, you know. And I think being self critical if you're going to be a self taught person like I am, in a lot of ways, you you have to be aware of where you're not getting it right. Because I think the problem is sometimes you can satisfy yourself too easily. You're too happy with your own progress. You know, the advantage of having somebody outside teaching you is they're going to tell you when you're doing it wrong, and most people are kind of loath do that for themselves, but, but the other end of that is the people who are so self deprecating, constantly putting themselves down, that they never are able to move beyond it, because they're only aware of what they can't do. And you know, I think balancing self criticism with a sense of your self worth is, you know, one of the great balancing acts of life. You.   Michael Hingson ** 40:00 Well, that's why I've adopted the concept of I'm my own best teacher, because rather than being critical and approaching anything in a negative way, if I realize that I'm going to be my own best teacher, and people will tell me things, I can look at them, and I should look at them, analyze them, step back, internalize them or not, but use that information to grow, then that's what I really should do, and I would much prefer the positive approach of I'm my own best teacher over anything else.   David Mayernik ** 40:31 Yeah, well, I mean, the last kind of teachers, and I, you know, a lot of my students have thought of me as a critical teacher. One of the things I think my students have misunderstood about that is, it's not that I have a low opinion of them. It's actually that I have such a high opinion that I always think they're capable of doing better. Yeah, I think one of the problems in our educational system now is that it's so it's so ratifying and validating. There's so we're so low to criticize and so and the students are so fragile with criticism that they they don't take the criticism well, yeah, we don't give it and, and you without some degree of what you're not quite getting right, you really don't know what you're capable of, right? And, and I think you know. But being but again, being critical is not that's not where you start. I think you start from the aspiration and the hope and the, you know, the actually, the joy of doing something. And then, you know, you take a step back and maybe take a little you know, artists historically had various techniques for judging their own work. Titian used to take one of his paintings and turn it away, turn it facing the wall so that he couldn't see it, and he would come back to it a month later. And, you know, because when he first painted, he thought it was the greatest thing ever painted, he would come back to it a month later and think, you know, I could have done some of those parts better, and you would work on it and fix it. And so, you know, the self criticism comes from this capacity to distance yourself from yourself, look at yourself almost as as hard as it is from the outside, yeah, try to see yourself as other people see you. Because I think in your own mind, you can kind of become completely self referential. And you know, that's that. These are all life skills. You know, I had to say this to somebody recently, but, you know, I think the thing you should get out of your education is learning how to learn and like you're talking about, essentially, how do you approach something new or challenging or different? Is has to do with essentially, how do you how do you know? Do you know how to grow and learn on your own?   Michael Hingson ** 42:44 Yeah, exactly, well, being an architect and so on. How did you end up going off and becoming a professor and and teaching? Yeah, a   David Mayernik ** 42:52 lot of architects do it. I have to say. I mean, there's always a lot of the people who are the kind of heroes when I was a student, were practicing architects who also taught and and they had a kind of, let's say, intellectual approach to what they did. They were conceptual. It wasn't just the mundane aspects of getting a building built, but they had some sense of where they fit, with respect to the culture, with respect to history and issues outside of architecture, the extent to which they were tied into other aspects of culture. And so I always had the idea that, you know, to be a full, you know, a fully, you know, engaged architect. You should have an academic, intellectual side to your life. And teaching would be an opportunity to do that. The only thing is, I didn't feel like I knew enough until I was older, in my 40s, to feel like I actually knew enough about what I was doing to be able to teach somebody else. A lot of architects get into teaching early, I think, before they're actually fully formed to have their own identities. And I think it's been good for me that I waited a while until I had a sense of myself before I felt like I could teach somebody else. And so there was, there was that, I mean, the other side of it, and it's not to say that it was just a day job, but one of the things I decided from the point of your practice is a lot of architects have to do a lot of work that they're not proud of to keep the lights on and keep the business operating. And I have decided for myself, I only really want to do work that I'm proud of, and in order to do that, because clients that you can work for and be you know feel proud of, are rather rare, and so I balanced teaching and practice, because teaching allowed me to ostensibly, theoretically be involved with the life of the mind and only work for people and projects that interested me and that I thought could offer me the chance to do something good and interesting and important. And so one I had the sense that I had something to convey I learned. Enough that I felt like I could teach somebody else. But it was also, for me, an opportunity to have a kind of a balanced life in which practice was compensated. You know that a lot of practice, even interesting practice, has a banal, you know, mundane side. And I like being intellectually stimulated, so I wanted that. Not everybody wants   Michael Hingson ** 45:24 that. Yeah, so you think that the teaching brings you that, or it put you in a position where you needed to deal with that?   David Mayernik ** 45:32 You know, having just retired, I wish there had been more of that. I really had this romantic idea that academics, being involved in academics, would be an opportunity to live in a world of ideas. You know? I mean, because when I was a student, I have to say we, after we came back from Rome, I got at least half of my education for my classmates, because we were deeply engaged. We debated stuff. We, you know, we we challenged each other. We were competitive in a healthy way and and I remember academics my the best part of my academic formation is being immensely intellectually rich. In fact, I really missed it. For about the first five years I was out of college, I really missed the intellectual side of architecture, and I thought going back as a teacher, I would reconnect with that, and I realized not necessarily, there's a lot about academics that's just as mundane and bureaucratic as practice can be so if you really want to have a satisfying intellectual life, unfortunately, you can't look to any institution or other people for it. You got to find it on your own.   46:51 Paperwork, paperwork,   David Mayernik ** 46:55 committee meetings, just stuff. Yeah, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 47:00 yeah. Yeah, which never, which never. Well, I won't say they never help, but there's probably, there's probably some valuable stuff that you can get, even from writing and doing, doing paperwork, because it helps you learn to write. I suppose you can look at it that way.   David Mayernik ** 47:16 No, it's true. I mean, you're, you're definitely a glass half full guy. Michael, I appreciate that's good. No. I mean, I, obviously, I always try to make get the most out of whatever experience I have. But, I mean, in the sense that there wasn't as much intellectual discourse, yeah, you know, as my I would have liked, yeah, and I, you know, in the practice or in the more academic side of architecture. Several years ago, somebody said we were in a post critical phase like that. Ideas weren't really what was driving architecture. It was going to be driven by issues of sustainability, issues of social structure, you know, essentially how people live together, issues that have to do with things that weren't really about, let's call it design in the esthetic sense, and all that stuff is super important. And I'm super interested in, you know, the social impact of my architecture, the sustainable impact of it, but the the kind of intellectual society side of the design part of it, we're in a weird phase where it that's just not in my world, we just it's not talked about a lot. You know,   Michael Hingson ** 48:33 it's not what it what it used to be. Something tells me you may be retired, but you're not going to stop searching for intellectual and various kinds of stimulation to help keep your mind active.   David Mayernik ** 48:47 Oh, gosh, no, no. I mean, effectively. I mean, I just stopped one particular job. I describe it now as quitting with benefits. That's my idea of what I retired from. I retired from a particular position in a particular place, but, but I haven't stopped. I mean, I'm certainly going to keep working. I have a very interesting design project in Switzerland. I've been working on for almost 29 years, and it's got a number of years left in it. I paint, I write, I give lectures, I you know, and you obviously have a rich life. You know, not being at a job. Doesn't mean that the that your engagement with the world and with ideas goes away. I mean, unless you wanted to, my wife's my wife had three great uncles who were great jazz musicians. I mean, some quite well known jazz musicians. And one of them was asked, you know, was he ever going to retire? And he said, retire to what? Because, you know, he was a musician. I mean, you can't stop being a musician, you know, you know, if, some level, if you're really engaged with what you do, you You never stop, really,   Michael Hingson ** 49:51 if you enjoy it, why would you? No, I   David Mayernik ** 49:54 mean, the best thing is that your work is your fun. I mean, you know, talking about, we talked about it. I. You that You know you're kind of defined by your work, but if your work is really what you enjoy, I mean, actually it's fulfilling, rich, enriching, interesting, you don't want to stop doing that. I mean, essentially, you want to do it as long as you possibly can. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 50:13 and it's and it's really important to do that. And I think, in reality, when you retire from a job, you're not really retiring from a job. You're retiring, as you said, from one particular thing. But the job isn't a negative thing at all. It is what you like to do.   David Mayernik ** 50:31 Yeah. I mean, there's, yeah, there's the things that you do that. I mean, I guess the job is the, if you like, the thing that is the, you know, the institution or the entity that you know, pays your bills and that kind of stuff, but the career or the thing that you're invested in that had the way you define yourself is you never stop being that person, that person. And in some ways, you know, what I'm looking forward to is a richer opportunity to pursue my own avenue of inquiry, and, you know, do things on my own terms, without some of the obligations I had   Michael Hingson ** 51:03 as a teacher, and where's your wife and all that.   David Mayernik ** 51:06 So she's with me here in LUCA, and she's she's had a super interesting life, because she she she studied. We, when we were together in New York, she was getting a degree in art history, Medieval and Renaissance studies in art history at NYU, and then she decided she really wanted to be a chef, and she went to cooking school in New York and then worked in a variety of food businesses in New York, and then got into food writing and well, food styling for magazines, making food for photographs, and then eventually writing. And through a strange series of connections and experiences. She got an opportunity to cook at an Art Foundation in the south of France, and I was in New York, and I was freelancing. I was I'd quit a job I'd been at for five years, and I was freelancing around, doing some of my own stuff and working with other architects, and I had work I could take with me. And you know, it was there was there was, we didn't really have the internet so much, but we had FedEx. And I thought I could do drawings in the south of France. I could do them in Brooklyn. So, so I went to the south of France, and it just happens to be that my current client from Switzerland was there at that place at that time, scouting it out for some other purpose. And she said, I hear you're architect. I said, Yeah. And I said, Well, you know, she said, I like, you know, classical architecture, and I like, you know, traditional villages, and we have a campus, and we need a master plan architect. And I was doing a master plan back in Delaware at that time, and my wife's you know, career trajectory actually enabled me to meet a client who's basically given me an opportunity to build, you know, really interesting stuff, both in Switzerland and in England for the last, you know, again, almost 29 years. And so my wife's been a partner in this, and she's been, you know, because she's pursued her own parallel interest. But, but our interests overlap enough and we share enough that we our interests are kind of mutually reinforcing. It's, it's been like an ongoing conversation between us, which has been alive and rich and wonderful.   Michael Hingson ** 53:08 You know, with everything going on in architecture and in the world in general, we see more and more technology in various arenas and so on. How do you think that the whole concept of CAD has made a difference, or in any way affected architecture. And where do you think CAD systems really fit into all of that?   David Mayernik ** 53:33 Well, so I mean this, you know, CAD came along. I mean, it already was, even when I was early in my apprenticeship, yeah, I was in Chicago, and there was a big for som in Chicago, had one of the first, you know, big computers that was doing some drawing work for them. And one of my, a friend of mine, you know, went to spend some time and figure out what they were capable of. And, but, you know, never really came into my world until kind of the late night, mid, mid to late 90s and, and, and I kind of resisted it, because I, the reason I got into architecture is because I like to draw by hand, and CAD just seemed to be, you know, the last thing I'd want to do. But at the same time, you, some of you, can't avoid it. I mean, it has sort of taken over the profession that, essentially, you either have people doing it for you, or you have to do it yourself, and and so the interesting thing is, I guess that I, at some point with Switzerland, I had to, basically, I had people helping me and doing drawing for me, but I eventually taught myself. And I actually, I jumped over CAD and I went to a 3d software called ArchiCAD, which is a parametric design thing where you're essentially building a 3d model. Because I thought, Look, if I'm going to do drawing on the computer, I want the computer to do something more than just make lines, because I can make lines on my own. But so the computer now was able to help me build a 3d model understand buildings in space and construction. And so I've taught myself to be reasonably, you know, dangerous with ArchiCAD and but the. Same time, the creative side of it, I still, I still think, and a lot of people think, is still tied to the intuitive hand drawing aspect and and so a lot of schools that gave up on hand drawing have brought it back, at least in the early years of formation of architects only for the the conceptual side of architecture, the the part where you are doodling out your first ideas, because CAD drawing is essentially mechanical and methodical and sort of not really intuitive, whereas the intuitive marking of paper With a pencil is much more directly connected to the mind's capacity to kind of speculate and imagine and daydream a little bit, or wander a little bit your mind wanders, and it actually is time when some things can kind of emerge on the page that you didn't even intend. And so, you know, the other thing about the computer is now on my iPad, I can actually do hand drawing on my iPad, and that's allowed me to travel with it, show it to clients. And so I still obviously do a lot of drawing on paper. I paint by hand, obviously with real paints and real materials. But I also have found also I can do free hand drawing on my iPad. I think the real challenge now is artificial intelligence, which is not really about drawing, it's about somebody else or the machine doing the creative side of it. And that's the big existential crisis that I think the profession is facing right now.   Michael Hingson ** 56:36 Yeah, I think I agree with that. I've always understood that you could do free hand drawing with with CAD systems. And I know that when I couldn't find a job in the mid 1980s I formed a company, and we sold PC based CAD systems to architects and engineers. And you know, a number of them said, well, but when we do designs, we charge by the time that we put into drawing, and we can't do that with a CAD system, because it'll do it in a fraction of the time. And my response always was, you're looking at it all wrong. You don't change how much you charge a customer, but now you're not charging for your time, you're charging for your expertise, and you do the same thing. The architects who got that were pretty successful using CAD systems, and felt that it wasn't really stifling their creativity to use a CAD system to enhance and speed up what they did, because it also allowed them to find more jobs more quickly.   David Mayernik ** 57:35 Yeah, one of the things it did was actually allow smaller firms to compete with bigger firms, because you just didn't need as many bodies to produce a set of drawings to get a project built or to make a presentation. So I mean, it has at one level, and I think it still is a kind of a leveler of, in a way, the scale side of architecture, that a lot of small creative firms can actually compete for big projects and do them successfully. There's also, it's also facilitated collaboration, because of the ability to exchange files and have people in different offices, even around the world, working on the same drawing. So, you know, I'm working in Switzerland. You know, one of the reasons to be on CAD is that I'm, you know, sharing drawings with local architects there engineers, and that you know that that collaborative sharing process is definitely facilitated by the computer.   Michael Hingson ** 58:27 Yeah, information exchange is always valuable, especially if you have a number of people who are committed to the same thing. It really helps. Collaboration is always a good thing,   David Mayernik ** 58:39 yeah? I mean, I think a lot of, I mean, there's always the challenge between the ego side of architecture, you know, creative genius, genius, the Howard Roark Fountainhead, you know, romantic idea. And the reality is that it takes a lot of people to get a building built, and one person really can't do it by themselves. And So collaboration is kind of built into it at the same time, you know, for any kind of coherence, or some any kind of, let's say, anything, that brings a kind of an artistic integrity to a work of architecture, mostly, that's got to come from one person, or at least people with enough shared vision that that there's a kind of coherence to it, you know. And so there still is space for the individual creative person. It's just that it's inevitably a collaborative process to get, you know, it's the it's the 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. Side architecture is very much that there's a lot of heavy lifting that goes into getting a set of drawings done to get

Welcome to Vatican Insider on this exciting weekend in Rome when the Jubilee of Youth that started July 28 continues with a vigil Saturday night and a Mass on Sunday on the Tor Vergata esplanade to conclude the weeklong event. My young guest in the interview segment is Johnny Vrba, creator of the now-famous 1000-piece mosaic that depicts the future Saint Carlo Acutis. He spent some days in Rome during the Jubilee, sharing the mosaic and its story with young people. Join us for this edition of Vatican Insider!

Are you an artist dreaming of a creative life abroad? Well, consider moving to Berlin, which offers artists the opportunity to live in Germany on a freelance artist visa! Carly, a holistic health coach, DJ, and storyteller, shares her path to getting a freelance visa in Germany as an artist juggling multiple creative pursuits. If you're a creative who doesn't qualify for a traditional work visa or a digital nomad visa, then this visa might be for you!Carly breaks down the process and requirements for obtaining a freelance visa in Berlin, including language requirements, resources to support you, and steps to German citizenship. She also talks about her unexpected loneliness, culture shock, and living costs in this vibrant city.  If you're considering moving to Berlin to continue your artistic career, Carly's honest advice will give you essential information to get you started on the path to residency.In this episode:The process for obtaining a freelance artist visa in BerlinUnexpected challenges of culture shock as an American living in GermanyHow Carly pursues multiple creative careers while living in BerlinLanguage learning visa as an alternative to the freelancer visaCarly's key advice for artists who want to move to GermanyAbout CarlyCarly is a multi-disciplined artist, coach, and creator devoted to inspiring greater freedom, connection, and vitality in every area of life. Through her work as a holistic health coach, DJ, and storyteller, she empowers others to nourish their bodies, express their creativity, and live with authenticity and joy. Guided by the belief that true well-being arises from the harmony of mind, body, and spirit, Carly weaves together wellness, music, and community-building as pathways to deeper connection—with ourselves and with each other.Find Carly on Instagram@‌CarlyPFeldman@‌karli.musikMore resources on the show notes at shehitrefresh.com/ep68/This episode is sponsored by International Living.

BUSHRA CHAUDHRY A memorable interview wit Bushra Chaudhry  She expresses her vision and understanding of culture, identity and changing world through her beautiful paintings. Bushra expresses her identity in a distinct manner, she unites the continents and erases borders.  If you happen to visit Santa Monica Art Studios, you may see her paitings or other artists work from Pakistan. I hope you will enjoy learning about her.   dildarpakistan@hotmail.com  

From bestselling author Juliette Aristides comes an inspirational guide to thinking, making, and embodying the mind of a creative person. The third Monacelli Studio title from Juliette Aristides, The Inner Life of the Artist, is an inspirational guide to thinking, making, and embodying the mind of a creative person. The book contains a series of short, insightful essays and significant, meaningful quotes by contemporary and historical artists, each accompanied by a moving and inspiring selection of nearly 100 past and present artworks to help enlarge our capacity for wonder. For those interested in drawing, painting, and other art forms, the book expands upon Atelier principles with fun, approachable, and practical exercises applied throughout, with an emphasis on cultivating the artistic mind, along with the hand and the eye. This is the perfect book to inspire all creative thinkers, presented in a visually arresting compact package and wrapped in a cerulean blue cloth case. Juliette Aristides is a Seattle-based fine artist, author, and educator who seeks to understand and convey the human spirit through art. She has participated nationally in dozens of museum exhibitions including the solo shows Observations at the Reading Museum of Art in Reading, PA and A Life's Work at the Customs House Museum in Clarksville, TN. Aristides is the author of six best-selling books including Lessons in Classical Drawing and Lessons in Classical Painting, which have been translated into several languages. Her seventh book, The Inner Life of The Artist publishes this April from Monacelli. Juliette has been the director of the Aristides Atelier for over 20 years and founded the first Atelier in the Northwest at Gage Academy in Seattle. Her Atelier's achievements have been recognized in four consecutive exhibitions at the Maryhill Museum of Art. Aristides' artwork and writing have garnered national media attention in publications such as Fine Art Connoisseur, American Art Collector, Artist's Magazine, and American Artist. She has also been recognized as an Art Renewal Center “Living Master” and is the recipient of the prestigious Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grant. Michael Magrath received his BA in mythology and comparative religions at Reed College and his MFA in Sculpture and Public Art from the University of Washington in Seattle. Mike has studied in Florence and Rome, and taught at The Art Academy of London, The University of Washington, and the Gage Academy of Art where he began teaching in 2004. Since 2014, he has directed the Magrath Sculpture Atelier, where he also serves as Faculty Chair. His awards include the IFRAA best Religious Sculpture, the ART Renewal center First Prize in Sculpture. Magrath brings a craftsman's approach to sculpture, having come into art via the trades, working as a finisher, fabricator and foundryman. He also worked in college art programs for many decades, and so approaches teaching and artmaking from conceptual and maker-based perspectives. As such he seeks a marriage between elegance of concept and excellence in craftsmanship. As a teacher he seeks to demystify and make accessible to all the art making process. Magrath does both private and public commissions and has exhibited internationally. Clients include Microsoft, the University of Washington, the Archdiocese of Portland OR, as well as numerous private clients. Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Gage Academy of Art. Buy the Book The Inner Life of the Artist: Conversations from the Atelier Elliott Bay Book Company

We mark Native American Heritage Month with artist Rose B. Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo) who discusses her work in large-scale public art, and her journey as a creative rooted in Santa Clara Pueblo heritage. Simpson reflects on her process, exploring themes of protection, generational healing, and the deep connection between her art, identity, and community.  Simpson explains how her background in Santa Clara Pueblo pottery and her experiences studying in Japan and at the Rhode Island School of Design ( RISD) have shaped her unique approach, blending cultural reverence with innovative techniques.  We talk in-depth about her recent installation Seed, commissioned by the Madison Square Park Conservancy to mark its 20th anniversary  and funded in part by the NEA, a work inspired by both the Lenape land and Simpson's own explorations of safety and lineage, and her monumental exhibit Strata currently showing at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Simpson also discusses her automotive training and its impact on her art particularly her work  Maria--the black-on-black El Camino, symbolizing the Pueblo tradition of pottery within lowrider culture.  Simpson shares the challenges of creating art that respects cultural boundaries while pushing expressive boundaries, capturing the spirit of resilience and interconnectedness that defines her work.

We mark Native American Heritage Month with artist Rose B. Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo) who discusses her work in large-scale public art, and her journey as a creative rooted in Santa Clara Pueblo heritage. Simpson reflects on her process, exploring themes of protection, generational healing, and the deep connection between her art, identity, and community.  Simpson explains how her background in Santa Clara Pueblo pottery and her experiences studying in Japan and at the Rhode Island School of Design ( RISD) have shaped her unique approach, blending cultural reverence with innovative techniques.  We talk in-depth about her recent installation Seed, commissioned by the Madison Square Park Conservancy to mark its 20th anniversary  and funded in part by the NEA, a work inspired by both the Lenape land and Simpson's own explorations of safety and lineage, and her monumental exhibit Strata currently showing at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Simpson also discusses her automotive training and its impact on her art particularly her work  Maria--the black-on-black El Camino, symbolizing the Pueblo tradition of pottery within lowrider culture.  Simpson shares the challenges of creating art that respects cultural boundaries while pushing expressive boundaries, capturing the spirit of resilience and interconnectedness that defines her work.

Welcome to Hearts of Oak.  Our interview today features sculptor Sabin Howard discussing his monumental piece, "A Soldier's Journey," set to unveil at the National World War I Memorial in Washington, D.C.  Sabin reflects on his late start in art at age 19, influenced by his European heritage, and details the nearly decade-long creation process of the 60-foot sculpture depicting a soldier's transformative experience in war.  He emphasizes the importance of traditional techniques, public connection, and the role of art in addressing collective trauma.  Sabin also notes the challenges faced during production, including logistics impacted by COVID-19, and is working on a documentary and a book titled "Born Cancelled."  His work aims to create accessible art that resonates with universal themes and honours veterans while reflecting on the human condition. Sabin Howard is the sculptor of A Soldier's Journey, the sculptural heart of the National WWI Memorial to be installed in Washington DC in September, 2024. Sabin grew up in New York City and in Torino, Italy. He studied art at the Philadelphia College of Art and then earned his MFA from the New York Academy of Art. For twenty years, he taught at the graduate and undergraduate levels. He has been elected to the board of the National Sculpture Society. He has received numerous commissions and has showed his work at more than fifty solo and group shows. After 72,000 hours of working from life models in the studio, Sabin designed and created the hero's journey that memorializes the courage and sacrifice of our veterans in WWI, and in all wars, in A Soldier's Journey. He has created an illustrious body of work, including three heroic scale pieces, HERMES, APHRODITE, and APOLLO, as well as many smaller pieces. His works are owned by museums and private collectors all over the world, and they have been favorably reviewed by USA Today, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Epoch Times, American Artist, Fine Arts Connoisseur, American Arts Collector, and The New Criterion, as well as many other journals internationally. He is an accomplished public speaker and is the subject of several television profiles. BBC article about "A Soldier's Journey" WWI Memorial     bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-67789635 Connect with Sabin... WEBSITES    sabinhowardsculpture.studio                       https://sabinhoward.com/

Send us a Text Message.The Tampa Morgue- Episode #56On this episode American underground cartoonist and album cover artist Mike Diana (Boiled Angel zine) visits the Morgue. Mike has done album covers/artwork for Autopsy, Agoraphobic NoseBleed, Fornicator, Iron Monkey, Whore,ect. He was a one time suspect in the 1990 Gainesville student murders (falsely accused) and also the first person to receive a criminal conviction for artistic Obscenity for his comic Boiled Angel. We talk to Mike about his youth, underground comix, homemade horror, his court case, G.G. Allin, and much more. See you at the Morgue!Beautiful Bert And The Luscious Ones-Beat Me BitchG.G. Allin/Antiseen- Violence NowDwarves- Lesbian Nuncontact:TheTampaMorgue@gmail.com The Tampa Morgue Podcast can be found on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, Youtube and most places you listen to your podcasts!

Learn more at TheCityLife.org --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/citylifeorg/support

For the 2024 Olympics, Paris has become an open-air art gallery. In part three of our arts24 Olympic series, we talk to American artist Alison Saar, who was commissioned to create an Olympic sculpture at the foot of the famous Paris avenue, the Champs-Élysées. The work, entitled "The Salon", shows a Black woman holding an olive branch and a golden flame – designed for the city of lights by an artist from the city that will host the next Games in 2028, Los Angeles.

In this episode i sit down with 8x Grammy Award winner, American Artist and Poet, MALIK YUSEF. We discuss his upbringing in Chicago, first poem he wrote, Def Comedy Jam, working with Kanye West, advice, hobbies, plus much more --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-marin-ham-show/support

As we approach her 100th death anniversary, we're talking all about Mary Cassatt and how great of an influence she was to the impressionist movement (and to me). In this episode, you'll: Learn how Mary Cassatt brought impressionist art to America Discover the stories behind her most popular paintings Explore the current exhibits where you can see her art in person   For full show notes, go to schulmanart.com/312  

In this episode of ArtFreaks we are joined by American Artist, Frenemy. Constantly learning and adapting, Frenemy has had an interestingly varied career thus far. With roots in Graffiti and Hardcore Punk, Frenemy has continued to experiment with new ways of working that have led to big commercial illustration clients like Converse, a new hustle in tattooing and, more recently, creating video games with The Sandbox. In this episode we talk about the importance of staying open to creative collaborations, of following your gut, trying new things and perhaps most vital, never giving up. The game that we discuss is now LIVE! Go to Frenemys social links to find out more. I hope you enjoy our chat :) Art Freaks: IG: https://www.instagram.com/artfreakspodcast Frenemy: IG: https://www.instagram.com/frenemylife/ X: https://twitter.com/frenemylife WEB: https://www.frenemylife.com/ Daniel Crossan: IG: https://www.instagram.com/danielcrossan/ X: https://twitter.com/DanielKCrossan WEB: https://www.danielcrossan.com/ ArtFreaks Music by LOFOX: IG: https://www.instagram.com/lofoxmusic

Jessica Russo Scherr is an artist known for her large-scale paintings and social media videos that demystify art making. Her paintings intertwine her love of art history, travel, memory, and motherhood in a manner that often blends represented reality to such a degree that the visuals combine into plays of abstraction. Jessica is an International Baccalaureate Art Educator who challenges her students to create large-scale paintings and to understand their work in the context of art history. As a dedicated creator and as a teaching tool, she can't help but create her paintings in the same space as her students. Her media presence is full of honest experiences of succeeding and failing using materials like Gelli printmaking sheets or more traditional art-making methods. The Fulbright Grant she received earlier in her career set her on a track of international art education and art creation ventures that continue into her life now.  Jessica lives with her two kids and her husband in Germany where she teaches at the Frankfurt International School and continues to influence and share her passion for art with others. Jessica's creative life can be followed at @bluelavaart. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thestolenhourspodcast/message

Today, Curtis talks about Mayor Eric Adams addressing investigations related to his potential involvement in illegal campaign funding and sexual abuse allegations during his latest press conference. Also, Nancy joins the show live from City Hall to update Curtis and the listeners on the arrest of American Artist, Scott Lobaido.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Wright” with a “W, spider webs, sewing needles, Dune, grief, and Black and Blue. Join the friends as they visit Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility. Artists include: American Artist, Kevin Beasley, Rebecca Belmore, Dawoud Bey, John Edmonds, Ellen Gallagher, David Hammons, Lyle Ashton Harris, Tomashi Jackson, Titus Kaphar, Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Joiri Minaya, Sandra Mujinga, Chris Ofili, Sondra Perry, Farah Al Qasimi, Faith Ringgold, Doris Salcedo, Lorna Simpson, Sable Elyse Smith, Stephanie Syjuco, Hank Willis Thomas, WangShui, Carrie Mae Weems, and Charles White.

Luke Chueh: ArtistThings Discussed- Colonoscopies to Tiktok- Has he or hasn't he edited his own Wikipedia- One of his college professors told him he was a mediocre designer but was a better Illustrator and how the impacted his life- How addiction informed his artwork- The realities of wanted to evolve and not abandon his fans and so much more.EPISODE LINKSLuke ChuehDay Stalker by Carpenter Brut WTYM Guest Hype song playlistWTYM LINKSRitzy PeriwinkleWord To Your Mama Store: Use code WTYM at check out to receive 10% off any order YouTubeWTYM Patreon PageDONATEMEDIA KITWTYM was recorded using Riverside.FM TRY NOWAVAILABLE WHERE EVER YOU CONSUME PODCASTS on socials @wtymama | email: hola@wordtoyourmama.com

The Daily Quiz - Art and Literature Today's Questions: Question 1: Which american artist is known for a portrait of his mother? Question 2: Which famous novel features the chapter titled 'Queequeg in His Coffin'? Question 3: What novel written by Louisa May Alcott follows the lives of girls called Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy? Question 4: Which author wrote 'Novelas ejemplares ruth nailibeth'? Question 5: Which song from the musical 'South Pacific' begins with the lyrics 'We got sunlight on the sand, we got moonlight on the sea'? Question 6: Which art technique can be described as "Reducing or distorting in order to represent three-dimensional space as perceived by the eye"? Question 7: Which Rhode Islander painted portraits of the first 6 presidents of the USA? Question 8: What is the follow-up tale to "The Call of the Wild" by Jack London? This podcast is produced by Klassic Studios Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to ARTMATTERS: The Podcast for Artists. Today is the final installment of my conversation with the artist TL Solien. In this last section, TL talks about building his dream studio, selling his dream studio, the best years of his career, dwindling interest, staying afloat, vulnerability, taking things personally, contemplating failure, building paintings in moments of fracture, learning art history late, finding satisfaction, healthy fuel, 30 minutes of joy, scale, notes from an opera, Tex Avery cartoons, how he starts a painting now, being stumped, and problem solving.I'd like to add that I've been receiving a lot of love for the previous parts of this  conversation, and if this means you would like more long-form conversations like this one, please let me know at artmatterspodcast@gmail.com Finally please consider supporting this podcast by donating to ARTMATTERS Patreon. I just set it up and by donating you will help ensure the availability and continuation of these quality conversations.  About:T.L Solien, born in Fargo North Dakota in 1949, received a BA degree in Art from Moorhead State University, Moorhead MN in 1973, and an MFA in Painting and Sculpture from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1977.TL Solien has been  invited to  participate in numerous exhibitions  of National and International magnitude including, the 1983 Whitney Biennial, the 39th  Biennial of American Painting at the Corcoran Museum, Washington, D.C.; Avant-Grade in the 80”s, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The American Artist as Printmaker,   Brooklyn Museum NY; Images and Impressions, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; and Contemporary Drawings, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA. Solien was the subject, recently, of a 25 year retrospective at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison WI, entitled “ T.L. Solien: Myths and Monsters", as well as a touring exhibition porganized by the Plains Museum of Fargo North Dakota, entitled "Toward the Setting Sun", comprised of 65 work, and supported by a 200 page catalog published and distributed by the University of Minnesota Press.TL Solien has had approximately 40 solo exhibitions over the last 25 years.TL Solien is represented in numerous corporate and public collections including, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Art Institute of Chicago, IL; The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis;  High Museum of Art, Atlanta; The Metropolitan Museum, New York; The Tate Modern, London;  The Smithsonian Museum ,Washington D.C.;  The Frederick Weisman Foundation, Los Angeles;  The National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.;  The Milwaukee Museum of Art, Milwaukee, WI. and  Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, WI.   TL Solien is currently represented by Tory Folliard Gallery in Milwaukee, and his most recent solo exhibition was at OTI in Los Angeles, CA. If you're enjoying the podcast so far, please rate, review, subscribe and SHARE ON INSTAGRAM!       If you have an any questions you want answered, write in to artmatterspodcast@gmail.com host: Isaac Mannwww.isaacmann.cominsta: @isaac.mann guest: TL Solienhttps://www.solientl.com/insta: @tlsolien

Welcome back to ARTMATTERS: The Podcast for Artists. And we're back with Part 2 of my three-part conversation with Wisconsin-based artist, TL Solien. Today we conclude the exploration of his early (or phase 1) art practice, including a fun description of the origins of his pictographic works. We talk about his early career experiences in visiting and exhibiting in New York City and living for a time in Paris. We discuss family, and home-life, agreements, and finances, the difficulties following the art market crash, and TL's  experience entering the culture of academia. Then we come back around to the concept or self-respect, the second phase of TL's studio practice, collage, Moby Dick, building paintings towards vibration , space, implied linearity and more. As I mentioned last week, I am extremely proud of this interview, and very thankful to my guest for his patience and his willingness to share so much of life with me and the ARTMATTERS listeners. About:T.L Solien, born in Fargo North Dakota in 1949, received a BA degree in Art from Moorhead State University, Moorhead MN in 1973, and an MFA in Painting and Sculpture from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1977.TL Solien has been  invited to  participate in numerous exhibitions  of National and International magnitude including, the 1983 Whitney Biennial, the 39th  Biennial of American Painting at the Corcoran Museum, Washington, D.C.; Avant-Grade in the 80”s, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The American Artist as Printmaker,   Brooklyn Museum NY; Images and Impressions, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; and Contemporary Drawings, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA. Solien was the subject, recently, of a 25 year retrospective at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison WI, entitled “ T.L. Solien: Myths and Monsters", as well as a touring exhibition porganized by the Plains Museum of Fargo North Dakota, entitled "Toward the Setting Sun", comprised of 65 work, and supported by a 200 page catalog published and distributed by the University of Minnesota Press.TL Solien has had approximately 40 solo exhibitions over the last 25 years.TL Solien is represented in numerous corporate and public collections including, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Art Institute of Chicago, IL; The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis;  High Museum of Art, Atlanta; The Metropolitan Museum, New York; The Tate Modern, London;  The Smithsonian Museum ,Washington D.C.;  The Frederick Weisman Foundation, Los Angeles;  The National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.;  The Milwaukee Museum of Art, Milwaukee, WI. and  Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, WI.   TL Solien is currently represented by Tory Folliard Gallery in Milwaukee, and his most recent solo exhibition was at OTI in Los Angeles, CA. If you're enjoying the podcast so far, please rate, review, subscribe and SHARE ON INSTAGRAM!       If you have an any questions you want answered, write in to artmatterspodcast@gmail.com  host: Isaac Mannwww.isaacmann.cominsta: @isaac.mann  guest: TL Solien https://www.solientl.com/insta: @tlsolien

Welcome back to ARTMATTERS: The podcast for artists. I'm particularly excited about today's episode with the artist TL Solien. Prepare yourself for an epic conversation, recorded over two separate studio visits, and subsequently over four hours of material. In light of this, I've edited this conversation down into three episodes, which will come out weekly until complete, unlike the usual bi-weekly format of the show. ● In episode 1, we get into TL's painting process and his background and education.● In episode 2, we talk about his family, his explosive early career success, and the challenges that followed the art market crash, when he was forced to seek out adjunct teaching opportunities wherever he could, move frequently, and often on his own.● And in episode 3 where i pepper him with whatever i else i forgot, including his current painting ideology and focus. Also collaging and Moby Dick. I am extremely proud of this interview, and very thankful to my guest for his patience and his willingness to share so much of life with me and the ARTMATTERS listeners. About:T.L Solien, born in Fargo North Dakota in 1949, received a BA degree in Art from Moorhead State University, Moorhead MN in 1973, and an MFA in Painting and Sculpture from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1977.Solien has been  invited to  participate in numerous exhibitions  of National and International magnitude including, the 1983 Whitney Biennial, the 39th  Biennial of American Painting at the Corcoran Museum, Washington, D.C.; Avant-Grade in the 80”s, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The American Artist as Printmaker,   Brooklyn Museum NY; Images and Impressions, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; and Contemporary Drawings, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA. Solien was the subject, recently, of a 25 year retrospective at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison WI, entitled “ T.L. Solien: Myths and Monsters", as well as a touring exhibition porganized by the Plains Museum of Fargo North Dakota, entitled "Toward the Setting Sun", comprised of 65 work, and supported by a 200 page catalog published and distributed by the University of Minnesota Press. Solien has had approximately 40 solo exhibitions over the last 25 years. Solien is represented by Tory Folliard Gallery in Milwaukee,Luise Ross Gallery in New York City, and Bockley Gallery in Minneapolis. Solien is also represented in numerous corporate and public collections including, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Art Institute of Chicago, IL; The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis;  High Museum of Art, Atlanta; The Metropolitan Museum, New York; The Tate Modern, London;  The Smithsonian Museum ,Washington D.C.;  The Frederick Weisman Foundation, Los Angeles;  The National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.;  The Milwaukee Museum of Art, Milwaukee, WI. and  Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, WI.   If you're enjoying the podcast so far, please rate, review, subscribe and SHARE ON INSTAGRAM!         If you have an any questions you want answered, write in to artmatterspodcast@gmail.com  host: Isaac Mannwww.isaacmann.cominsta: @isaac.mann  guest: TL Solien https://www.solientl.com/ insta: @tlsolien

Larry Li was inspired to create “Ask Your Ma About ‘89” after learning a harrowing story about how the Tiananmen Square protests affected his family. Free drinks, female attention, and fabulous parties are some of the upsides for super good-looking men in LA. But that's not the whole story. Germans founded Anaheim in 1857. Chinese immigrants then built much of the city and developed a bustling Chinatown district. Today, few remnants of Anaheim's historic Chinatown remain.

Quiz #188 - Get ready to test your general knowledge with 10 challenging quiz questions in this week's Pub Quiz. Questions including "What ancient wonder of the world was located in the city of Alexandria, Egypt?" and "What is the official language of Iran?" Send me a message on Twitter if you'd like a shout out or have a burning trivia question you'd like me to ask. Don't forget to follow me on social media and spread the podcast goodness by sharing it with your friends and family. Cheers! Pete  If you have an Alexa say, "Alexa, Play Pub Quiz" If you have a Google Assistant say, "Hey Google, Talk to Pub Quiz" Subscribe to Pete's Pub Quiz for 20 more questions every week for even more entertainment! Subscribe to Pete's Pub Quiz for 20 more questions every week for even more entertainment!Don't forget to enter our Golden Question competition for your chance to win £100! ⁠⁠https://hugo.fm/pub-quiz-golden-questions⁠⁠

In this episode of ArtFreaks we are joined by Painter, Street Artist and Designer: Olive47. Based in LA, Olive47 creates impactful work to bring a moment of stillness to those that come into contact with them. With a long and diverse career in the arts and design worlds, Olive47 offers an honest perspective on many of the issues facing Artists today. Our conversation ends up diving into AI as a new tool for artists, reincarnation, the negative impacts of social media consumption (and production) and how art has the ability to heal people. I hope you enjoy our chat :)

Taylor Swift sweeps the VMA's. NSYNC perform onstage. Shakira became the first South American artist to win the coveted Video Vanguard Award and Sean “Diddy” Combs took home the Global Icon Award. Oprah Winfrey and Dwayne Johnson respond to Maui fund outrage backlash. Sophie Turner was seen for the first time since her estranged husband, Joe Jonas , filed for divorce.This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5949787/advertisement

Quiz #182 - Get ready to test your general knowledge with 10 challenging quiz questions in this week's Pub Quiz. Questions include, "Who is the king of the Olympian gods in Greek mythology?" and "The Yangtze River is primarily located in which country?" Send me a message on Twitter if you'd like a shout out or have a burning trivia question you'd like me to ask. Don't forget to follow me on social media and spread the podcast goodness by sharing it with your friends and family. Cheers! Pete  If you have an Alexa say, "Alexa, Play Pub Quiz" If you have a Google Assistant say, "Hey Google, Talk to Pub Quiz" Subscribe to Pete's Pub Quiz for 20 more questions every week for even more entertainment! Subscribe to Pete's Pub Quiz for 20 more questions every week for even more entertainment!Don't forget to enter our Golden Question competition for your chance to win £100! ⁠⁠https://hugo.fm/pub-quiz-golden-questions⁠⁠

Robert Keating reminds us that life is long and retirement is an opportunity to become a whole new version of yourself. Robert was the long term CEO, now chairman of Topographic Inc. His company specialized in aero photography surveying oil and gas land. After running his company, Robert leaned into his creative side and became an author of his first book titled "Poteet Victory." His recent published work explores the tremendously colorful life of Poteet Victory, an American Indian who is now one of the most collected artists in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Keating spent an entire year studying Poteet to tell his story -- you can learn about the making of this book and the artist who is known for the highly controversial mural "Trail of Tears" on the campus of Oklahoma University. It still stands unfinished due to disagreements and discomfort about the depiction of Native American violence. The mural depicts the abuse of Native Americans during forced migration to Oklahoma. 

For almost sixty years, longtime Chinatown resident Arlan Huang has operated as an artist and collector, and amassed a large collection of work from Asian American artists while he operated his framing shop, Squid Frames. The archive includes photographs by the late Corky Lee. In the 1970s, Huang was also a member of the Basement Workshop, a loose collective of Chinatown artists and activists inspired by the Black Panther Party. A new exhibition at Pearl River Mart displays pieces from the collection, and Arlan Huang alongside curator Danielle Wu join to talk about the show. Just Between Us: From the Archives of Arlan Huang is on view through August 27.

Today's Snack is "Arms" from Jose Israel, off his "American Artist" release. If you like what you hear, check out his band, Rotundos. They're playing at Fargo Skatepark in DeKalb on 4/15 and downstairs at SubT on 5/26.

In this Podcast, we will inquire a little about the life and work of this phenomenal artist known in the art world for his unique skill in his bold and gestural brushstrokes and drops, Jackson Pollock. Moreover, we talked about who was Dr. Henderson and Lee Krasner. How did these characters influence the life of Jackson Pollock? Certainly, at the time of this American artist, given the situation of conflict and battle they were going through, mental health experts designed people's behavior to help them and address any psychological problem.

On today's episode of Exploring Art Podcast myself, Yvette, and Markus discussed the life and legacy of the great American Artist, Jackson Pollock. The creator of the Drip Technique in art, a role model to many, one who struggled with many hardships throughout his life. We talked about how his widow, Lee Krasner, had wishes of destroying his work following his passing and how she did not agree with selling the work to galleries around the states.

heck out this weeks interview with Chisom. His music celebrates his rich heritage while making meaningful observations on American society. We talked about a past encounter with the cops that inspired the album title Bracelets. How attending Howard University helped him find his sound and more Listen to New Project : https://open.spotify.com/album/1LctEi9HdRjxpdb4WvIHahPurchase 411 guide book Journal ➡️ https://amzn.to/3Qa9Zl7 ✌

Artist bio Danieljkeys.com   Daniel J. Keys was born on Oct. 7th 1985, in Fresno CA. Upon noticing a glimpse of artistic talent in him at an early age, Daniel was encouraged by his parents to pursue his passion, namely painting; and being entirely home educated, time was very permitting for him to develop his skill as a self taught artist.  He started painting at the age of eleven using a paint set purchased with birthday money. It was later during his impressionable teenage years that Daniel discovered the work of Richard Schmid: a master artist whose works he later began emulating in his own paintings. Since that time Daniel has had opportunity to paint with his mentor, and Mr. Schmid has become a sort of art adviser to him throughout their close friendship.     In recent times, Daniel has taken up pastel painting in addition to his work in oils. Alternating between the two mediums, he has already established himself in the world of pastel painting through a highly successful one-man show, winning multiple awards through the International Association of Pastel Society as well as Pastel Society of America, and published in the esteemed Pastel Journal.  Daniel's work is now highly sought after by discerning collectors and hangs in many prominent collections throughout North America, Europe, and Russia. In addition to his art, he also teaches workshops that often draw students from around the world who seek out his esteemed instruction. He has won numerous awards including the Portrait Society of America's “Draper Grand Prize 2018” award, and his work has graced the covers of multiple magazines including Art of the West, American Artist, American Art Collector (twice), Plein Air Magazine, Pastel Journal, Pastel World, and Pratique des Arts.  Currently, Daniel's new works are represented by the following fine art galleries: LEGACY GALLERY - Scottsdale A SENSE OF PLACE GALLERY - Fresno WEST WIND FINE ART - Walpole GALLERY1261 - Denver HIGHLANDS ART GALLERY - Lambertville

Artist bio Danieljkeys.com   Daniel J. Keys was born on Oct. 7th 1985, in Fresno CA. Upon noticing a glimpse of artistic talent in him at an early age, Daniel was encouraged by his parents to pursue his passion, namely painting; and being entirely home educated, time was very permitting for him to develop his skill as a self taught artist.  He started painting at the age of eleven using a paint set purchased with birthday money. It was later during his impressionable teenage years that Daniel discovered the work of Richard Schmid: a master artist whose works he later began emulating in his own paintings. Since that time Daniel has had opportunity to paint with his mentor, and Mr. Schmid has become a sort of art adviser to him throughout their close friendship.     In recent times, Daniel has taken up pastel painting in addition to his work in oils. Alternating between the two mediums, he has already established himself in the world of pastel painting through a highly successful one-man show, winning multiple awards through the International Association of Pastel Society as well as Pastel Society of America, and published in the esteemed Pastel Journal.  Daniel's work is now highly sought after by discerning collectors and hangs in many prominent collections throughout North America, Europe, and Russia. In addition to his art, he also teaches workshops that often draw students from around the world who seek out his esteemed instruction. He has won numerous awards including the Portrait Society of America's “Draper Grand Prize 2018” award, and his work has graced the covers of multiple magazines including Art of the West, American Artist, American Art Collector (twice), Plein Air Magazine, Pastel Journal, Pastel World, and Pratique des Arts.  Currently, Daniel's new works are represented by the following fine art galleries: LEGACY GALLERY - Scottsdale A SENSE OF PLACE GALLERY - Fresno WEST WIND FINE ART - Walpole GALLERY1261 - Denver HIGHLANDS ART GALLERY - Lambertville

Australian-born multimedia artist Cybele Rowe lives on two and a half acres in Joshua Tree where she feels unconstrained to oursue whatever art ideas she wants. In her words, it's better to invest 100% of your time to strive to make good art than be spending 50% of your time making money for someone else. Her abstract work includes scuplture, painting, tufting and many other mediums. She is inspired by the scientific discoveries, litrature on psycology and phisics. https://www.instagram.com/cybeleroweart/ https://cybelerowe.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/in-the-art-scene/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/in-the-art-scene/support

What if it were possible to dream up entirely new things? Join host Charlotte Burns as she interviews one of the most interesting artists working today. American Artist — who changed their name in 2013 — produces deeply thoughtful work that is as enmeshed in digitization and technology as it is history and alternate realities. American talks about how their art tackles police violence in the US. They also discuss a newer body of work centering on the life and writings of sci-fi novelist, Octavia E. Butler. American says their work is ultimately hopeful: “If I didn't feel strongly that things could change I wouldn't even bother. But I want everyone else to try as hard as I do.”

This exhibition can be viewed on weekdays in TU's Hogue Gallery through March 9, 2023.

What do you see when you look into your trash can? Trash? Ruby Silvious sees opportunities. Throughout her career, she painted on eggshells, pistachio shells, acorns, and other stuff, she used fast food wrappers to create bras. But more than anything, she is known for her work with teabags. Not only she has been painting intricate scenes and portraits, but she also used teabags as a medium to create collages and even clothing garments. https://www.instagram.com/ruby_silvious/ https://www.rubysilvious.com/ Check out her latest book "Reclaimed Canvas. Reimagining The Familiar" --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/in-the-art-scene/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/in-the-art-scene/support

THE ARTIST AND THE PASTORA revealing comparative study of the similarities and distinctions of an American Artist and A Pastor. Craig Singleton and his special guest Pastor Mike explore our spiritual and artistic social lives as Americans! How art and faith play a huge part in our daily lives and our pursuit of happiness! You'll love this show! The show debuts on 1-8-23 Happy New Year!

We are closing out 2022 with highlights from eight incredible artists that graced the show this year. Tune in to hear the voices of Gary Hill, American Artist, WangShui, Meriem Bennani, Alan Michelson, Tourmaline, Arthur Jafa, and Hito Steyerl discussing how they think about the preservation and documentation of their work, as well as intimate inside glimpses into their practice and studios. Sending a huge heartfelt thanks to everyone all of the listeners that made 2022 such a memorable year for the show – wishing you all the best and see you in the new year! xoGet access to exlusive content - join us on Patreon!> https://patreon.com/artobsolescenceJoin the conversation:https://www.instagram.com/artobsolescence/Support artistsArt and Obsolescence is a non-profit podcast, sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts, and we are committed to equitably supporting artists that come on the show. Help support our work by making a tax deductible gift through NYFA here: https://www.artandobsolescence.com/donate

In this day & age there are few rap artists who are considered true lyricist, but this artist is quickly proving why he's a lyrical force to be reckon with. We talk to the “Pen Assassin” Five. Tune in as he tells why his music has fans from all over wanting more and exclusive details about his upcoming project. Five then hits the stage perform his hit single “The Hustle Way.” Follow Five: YouTube: @YICPRODUCTIONS Instagram: @yicproductions Spotify: @Five

Mike Baron, the Eisner Award Winner behind the Punisher, is being shadowbanned on IndieGoGo for a comic being too pro-American??? In this episode of CultureScape, we interview the Eisner Mike Baron as he discusses his latest comics project, PRIVATE AMERICAN. We discuss what it is like putting together this project, being censored on social media, and his feelings on what the comics industry could learn to do better. PRIVATE AMERICAN: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-private-american?utm_medium=web&utm_source=backerkit#/ Sponsored by Baen Books & Young Voices. CultureScape is the show that interviews the geek creators and influencers that built nerd culture. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music by FAAS Sounds, Song: Best Time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFB6-I9b4Ak Art & Editing by Peter Pischke Interviews scheduled with the help of Sean Korsgaard Assistance from Bobster: https://twitter.com/FilmBobster --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/culturescape/message

Ryan Egan is an American artist and songwriter living in Paris, France. With the release of his EPs Fever & Bloom and Postures, along with a slew of self-produced singles, Ryan has gained critical acclaim from outlets like Billboard, Noisey, DIY, Clash and more as well as substantial support from Spotify and Apple Music editorial teams, accumulating millions of streams across platforms. His debut, full-length album, Soft Power, is out now.https://www.thisryanegan.comhttps://www.instagram.com/thisryanegan/https://www.facebook.com/thisryaneganhttps://www.soundcloud.com/thisryaneganhttps://www.twitter.com/thisryaneganSupport the show

https://www.dunawayfineart.com   Michelle Dunaway is an American artist whose paintings are revered for their bold brushwork yet sensitive portrayal of emotions that capture the human experience. Dunaway exhibited a strong penchant for drawing the human form from a young age and that fascination has continued throughout her life and career. Her artwork has been featured in international exhibitions and publications including Fine Art Connoisseur, Art of the West, International Artist, American Art Collector, Southwest Art, and American Artist.    Dunaway's work has received numerous awards and honors including Finalist and Award of Exceptional Merit at the 2010 Portrait Society of America's International Portrait Competition for her painting Katie and Jenni -The Daughters of Jane Seymour;  a Certificate of Excellence from the Portrait Society of America in 2014 and 2017; Finalist and Award of Exceptional Merit at the 2016 and 2108 Portrait Society of America's International Portrait Competition; and Finalist in the Art Renewal Center's ARC Salon Competition 2019 winning the American Legacy of Fine Art Award.    Although Dunaway paints and exhibits a variety of subject matter, her first love has always been portraiture. After studying anatomy and drawing at Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, CA), Dunaway continued her painting education by attending workshops with two prominent artists with whom she has become good friends over the years: Jeremy Lipking and Morgan Weistling. Both Lipking and Weistling encouraged Dunaway to pursue a career as a fine artist when they saw her work. Upon attending one of Lipking's very first workshops, Dunaway brought a painting in for the artist to critique. Lipking and his wife Danielle decided to purchase the painting for their collection. Lipking told Dunaway she was ready to be in galleries and showed the painting to the gallery where he exhibited in Beverly Hills and they subsequently invited Michelle to exhibit.   Dunaway spent time in California painting from life extensively while showing at galleries in Los Angeles and Laguna Beach and doing private portrait commissions for local patrons. In 2009 she moved back to New Mexico, where she settled in a beautiful studio overlooking the Sandia Mountains, and was invited to show at a well-established gallery in Santa Fe. While working on paintings for gallery shows, Dunaway entered several  competitions. She won the Best of Show in an online competition for her still life Mucha and Peonies and was  juried into the prestigious Portrait Society of America's International Portrait Competition where her portrait painting of two sisters was chosen as one of 16 top finalists out of 1,300 worldwide entries. The painting was exhibited in Washington, DC at the Art of the Portrait Conference. Dunaway won an award for that painting and shortly thereafter received a phone call from renown artist Richard Schmid. Schmid expressed how impressed he was by her painting ability after seeing this portrait online and invited Dunaway to paint with him and his wife, artist Nancy Guzik, at his studio in Vermont. Through their close friendship over recent years, Schmid has advised and encouraged Dunaway in her work. "Michelle is very much a force in this movement toward excellence in painting," Schmid stated recently in his instructional video wherein he painted Dunaway's portrait.    Dunaway receives invitations to give painting demonstrations, lecture, and teach internationally and these events attract artists who travel from around the world to study with her. Believing strongly in "passing on the torch" of  knowledge in painting, she takes time from her busy schedule of shows and exhibitions to accept these invitations when possible. "It is extremely important to me that the legacy of strong painting continues for future generations," Dunaway states. "I have always been passionate about pursing excellence in my own work and constantly growing as an artist, and I feel a strong calling to help others reach their full potential as well. For me, creating great art is about putting light into the world. It is of course capturing the light that falls on a subject and translating that luminosity into the painting, but it's also about shining light whenever possible through teaching and passing on wisdom." After one such painting demonstration at the Portrait Society conference in 2015, Dunaway met and had a conversation with Richard Ormond,  John Singer Sargent's grand-nephew. He told her something that touched her heart deeply, considering she reveres Sargent as her favorite painter. Ormond mentioned he had been in the audience and watched her main-stage painting demonstration. "I have spent most of my life concerned about preserving the legacy of  Sargent's painting," he said, "but after watching  you paint I am no longer worried." That was a profoundly meaningful moment for Dunaway and a great confirmation that she was spending her time wisely in teaching, volunteering, and mentoring in the arts while constantly pursuing higher levels of skill in her own painting.   Dunaway exhibits in galleries throughout the United States, and her paintings are highly sought after by sophisticated collectors. Those collectors say that Dunaway's paintings capture much more than a likeness, that her work embodies a timeless quality and illuminates the essence of the individual. Dunaway's paintings hang in private collections throughout North America and Europe.  She is currently represented by these fine art galleries. InSight Gallery (Fredericksburg TX) , Legacy Gallery  (Scottsdale, Az and Bozeman, MT), VRFA Gallery (Laguna Beach CA) and Sage Creek Gallery (Santa Fe  NM)    

https://www.dunawayfineart.com   Michelle Dunaway is an American artist whose paintings are revered for their bold brushwork yet sensitive portrayal of emotions that capture the human experience. Dunaway exhibited a strong penchant for drawing the human form from a young age and that fascination has continued throughout her life and career. Her artwork has been featured in international exhibitions and publications including Fine Art Connoisseur, Art of the West, International Artist, American Art Collector, Southwest Art, and American Artist.    Dunaway's work has received numerous awards and honors including Finalist and Award of Exceptional Merit at the 2010 Portrait Society of America's International Portrait Competition for her painting Katie and Jenni -The Daughters of Jane Seymour;  a Certificate of Excellence from the Portrait Society of America in 2014 and 2017; Finalist and Award of Exceptional Merit at the 2016 and 2108 Portrait Society of America's International Portrait Competition; and Finalist in the Art Renewal Center's ARC Salon Competition 2019 winning the American Legacy of Fine Art Award.    Although Dunaway paints and exhibits a variety of subject matter, her first love has always been portraiture. After studying anatomy and drawing at Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, CA), Dunaway continued her painting education by attending workshops with two prominent artists with whom she has become good friends over the years: Jeremy Lipking and Morgan Weistling. Both Lipking and Weistling encouraged Dunaway to pursue a career as a fine artist when they saw her work. Upon attending one of Lipking's very first workshops, Dunaway brought a painting in for the artist to critique. Lipking and his wife Danielle decided to purchase the painting for their collection. Lipking told Dunaway she was ready to be in galleries and showed the painting to the gallery where he exhibited in Beverly Hills and they subsequently invited Michelle to exhibit.   Dunaway spent time in California painting from life extensively while showing at galleries in Los Angeles and Laguna Beach and doing private portrait commissions for local patrons. In 2009 she moved back to New Mexico, where she settled in a beautiful studio overlooking the Sandia Mountains, and was invited to show at a well-established gallery in Santa Fe. While working on paintings for gallery shows, Dunaway entered several  competitions. She won the Best of Show in an online competition for her still life Mucha and Peonies and was  juried into the prestigious Portrait Society of America's International Portrait Competition where her portrait painting of two sisters was chosen as one of 16 top finalists out of 1,300 worldwide entries. The painting was exhibited in Washington, DC at the Art of the Portrait Conference. Dunaway won an award for that painting and shortly thereafter received a phone call from renown artist Richard Schmid. Schmid expressed how impressed he was by her painting ability after seeing this portrait online and invited Dunaway to paint with him and his wife, artist Nancy Guzik, at his studio in Vermont. Through their close friendship over recent years, Schmid has advised and encouraged Dunaway in her work. "Michelle is very much a force in this movement toward excellence in painting," Schmid stated recently in his instructional video wherein he painted Dunaway's portrait.    Dunaway receives invitations to give painting demonstrations, lecture, and teach internationally and these events attract artists who travel from around the world to study with her. Believing strongly in "passing on the torch" of  knowledge in painting, she takes time from her busy schedule of shows and exhibitions to accept these invitations when possible. "It is extremely important to me that the legacy of strong painting continues for future generations," Dunaway states. "I have always been passionate about pursing excellence in my own work and constantly growing as an artist, and I feel a strong calling to help others reach their full potential as well. For me, creating great art is about putting light into the world. It is of course capturing the light that falls on a subject and translating that luminosity into the painting, but it's also about shining light whenever possible through teaching and passing on wisdom." After one such painting demonstration at the Portrait Society conference in 2015, Dunaway met and had a conversation with Richard Ormond,  John Singer Sargent's grand-nephew. He told her something that touched her heart deeply, considering she reveres Sargent as her favorite painter. Ormond mentioned he had been in the audience and watched her main-stage painting demonstration. "I have spent most of my life concerned about preserving the legacy of  Sargent's painting," he said, "but after watching  you paint I am no longer worried." That was a profoundly meaningful moment for Dunaway and a great confirmation that she was spending her time wisely in teaching, volunteering, and mentoring in the arts while constantly pursuing higher levels of skill in her own painting.   Dunaway exhibits in galleries throughout the United States, and her paintings are highly sought after by sophisticated collectors. Those collectors say that Dunaway's paintings capture much more than a likeness, that her work embodies a timeless quality and illuminates the essence of the individual. Dunaway's paintings hang in private collections throughout North America and Europe.  She is currently represented by these fine art galleries. InSight Gallery (Fredericksburg TX) , Legacy Gallery  (Scottsdale, Az and Bozeman, MT), VRFA Gallery (Laguna Beach CA) and Sage Creek Gallery (Santa Fe  NM)    

Joe has a workshop coming up in Italy. The Workshop info for Padula Italy can be found on my website homepage- Www.joepaquet.com Or- Www.artcenterpadula.com @artcenterpadula Profile of Joseph Paquet Joseph Paquet was born in 1962 in Patterson New Jersey to hard-working parents of immigrant stock. His father Jim was a railroad man, working as an ironworker, dock builder & mason that also painted and carved wood and stone. His mother Theresa was a homemaker and craftsperson who sewed and knitted. His childhood was one of being outdoors: wondering, wandering and daydreaming. “It's a great irony to now get paid for those things which got me into trouble when I was a kid,” Joe says. He attended the School of Visual Arts in New York and credits artist-instructors John Foote, David Palladini, James McMullan with inspiring his deep love of drawing. Later he studied with John Phillip Osborne in Ridgewood New Jersey and was introduced to the Prismatic Palette. Joe states, “John opened a new world for me and set me on a path to painting outdoors – it was incredibly life changing.” Paquet's philosophy is one rooted in deep connection and sensitivity to his subjects. He says, “Because I work directly from nature, each painting is a chunk of my life – a piece of me and record of my experience on this earth.” Joe was the subject of the October 1995 Washington Post Sunday Magazine feature article. He's also been featured in the March 2004 issue of American Artist magazine and the July 2005 issue of PleinAir magazine. Follow Joe Paquet on social media: Instagram: paquetjoe Facebook: Joe Paquet

Joe has a workshop coming up in Italy.  The Workshop info for Padula Italy can be found on my website homepage- Www.joepaquet.com Or- Www.artcenterpadula.com @artcenterpadula   Profile of Joseph Paquet Joseph Paquet was born in 1962 in Patterson New Jersey to hard-working parents of immigrant stock. His father Jim was a railroad man, working as an ironworker, dock builder & mason that also painted and carved wood and stone. His mother Theresa was a homemaker and craftsperson who sewed and knitted. His childhood was one of being outdoors: wondering, wandering and daydreaming. “It's a great irony to now get paid for those things which got me into trouble when I was a kid,” Joe says. He attended the School of Visual Arts in New York and credits artist-instructors John Foote, David Palladini, James McMullan with inspiring his deep love of drawing. Later he studied with John Phillip Osborne in Ridgewood New Jersey and was introduced to the Prismatic Palette. Joe states, “John opened a new world for me and set me on a path to painting outdoors – it was incredibly life changing.” Paquet's philosophy is one rooted in deep connection and sensitivity to his subjects. He says, “Because I work directly from nature, each painting is a chunk of my life – a piece of me and record of my experience on this earth.” Joe was the subject of the October 1995 Washington Post Sunday Magazine feature article. He's also been featured in the March 2004 issue of American Artist magazine and the July 2005 issue of PleinAir magazine. Follow Joe Paquet on social media: Instagram: paquetjoe  Facebook: Joe Paquet 

In this episode, Wes and Todd sit down with the 21st Century's Greatest Draftswoman, Laurie Lipton. Lipton talks about confidence, having supportive encouraging parents, being obsessed with drawing since the age of four, her mother teaching her to think outside the box, the thought behind the work, the hierarchy of art, seeing in images, drawing out feelings and emotions, Carnegie-Mellon, plotting her art life, developing her own way of drawing, Goya, living in Europe, the catalyst to move back to the United States, the pandemic, fear, process and technique, routine and discipline, legacy, transmogrification of the work, news and media, themes, pricing, Diane Arbus, galleries, commissions, social media, inspiration, and living in gratitude. Join us for a phenomenal conversation with the one and only, Laurie Lipton.Check out Laurie's breathtaking work at www.laurielipton.comFollow Laurie Lipton on social media:On Instagram - www.instagram.com/laurieliptondrawings/@laurieliptondrawingsOn Facebook - www.facebook.com/laurieliptonartCatch Laurie's work in person:“Hey, Drawing Show”Halle Saint Pierre Museum – www.hallesaintpierre.org2 Rue Ronsard75018 ParisFranceJanuary 22, 2022 – December 31, 2022Watch the short documentary “Love Bite: Laurie Lipton and Her Disturbing Black & White Drawings”, here - www.vimeo.com/356729842

April Gornik is an American Artist  known for her dynamic and powerful landscape paintings.  Gornik's large scale luminous paintings evoke moments of transience and calm, as well as volatility and eruption.  Yet, her vivid canvases are never literal, but rather imagined and emotional spaces.  While Gornik focuses on the light and colors of the landscape, her evocative use of contrasts brings a sense of aliveness and psychological drama to her work.  Gornik's fascination with light distinguishes her art, and she describes light as “the beating heart of your eyes''.April Gornik's work is included in major museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC. We spoke in depth with April about her unique creative process and artistic journey -- with her professional career beginning in New York City during the dizzying, male-dominated heights of the 1980's art boom.  A longtime resident of Sag Harbor, Long Island, we also learned about April's recent efforts to revive the local Cinema, as well as co-found The Church, a non-profit artist residency,  creative center, and exhibition space.