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Ceramicist, Malene Barnett, returns to the Noize! We learned all about her amazing book Crafted Kinship and now we learn all about her artistic practice. From designing rugs to ceramics walls Malene's curiosity and passion has pushed her in new directions. After discovering her love for hand building clay she has been on a journey to learn the craft and make work in all forms. We talk about her ceramic murals, how residencies helped her learn about ceramics, being a part of a community of artists, and the structure she uses to keep her on track in the studio. Malene has some great insights in to clay and how it connects her to her ancestors. More of that good art talk that you love on the Noize! Listen, subscribe, and share!Episode 202 topics include:Crafted Kinship world tourworking in clayfinding residencies to study clay being a part of the ceramics communitybeing objective about your worksturcture and discipline in art practiceceramic muralstraveling to Ghana for research Malene Djenaba Barnett is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, textile surface designer, and community builder. She earned her MFA in ceramics from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture and undergraduate degrees in fashion illustration and textile surface design from the Fashion Institute of Technology. Malene received a Fulbright Award to travel to Jamaica in 2022–23 as the visiting artist at Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston. Malene's art reflects her African Caribbean heritage, building on her ancestral legacy of mark-making as a visual identity, and has been exhibited at galleries and museums throughout the United States, including the Mindy Solomon Gallery in Miami, the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art & Storytelling in New York City, the African American Museum of Dallas, and Temple Contemporary in Philadelphia. Malene's art and design work has appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, Galerie, Elle Decor, Architectural Digest, Departures, and Interior Design. In addition, Malene hosts lectures on advocating for African Caribbean ceramic traditions and has participated in residencies at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Greenwich House Pottery, Judson Studios, the Hambidge Center, and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. In 2024, Malene released her first book, “Crafted Kinship: Inside the Creative Practice of Contemporary Black Caribbean Makers” (Hachette), which includes interviews with over 60 artists of Caribbean heritage, taking readers on an important journey through the world of Black Caribbean creativity. This groundbreaking collection is the first to feature Caribbean makers' intimate stories of their artmaking processes, and how their countries of origin—the “land” —influences and informs how and what they create. See more: Malene Barnett website + Malene Barnett IG @malene.barnettFollow us:StudioNoizePodcast.comIG: @studionoizepodcastJamaal Barber: @JBarberStudioSupport the podcast www.patreon.com/studionoizepodcast
Welcome to Episode 253 of Autism Parenting Secrets. This week, we're exploring something every parent needs to embrace—supporting your child in expressing their true self.Our guest is Kathleen (Kathy) Somers, a talented creative and now author of Barely Visible, a moving memoir about raising her son with Asperger's. Her story isn't just relatable—it's raw, real, and full of the wisdom that only comes from walking the walk.In this conversation, we unpack the challenge of navigating labels, the danger of overprotection, and how radical honesty and acceptance can unlock growth for both parent and child.This episode is about connection, courage, and the sacred work of supporting your child's truest expression.The secret this week is…Empower THEIR Voice You'll Discover:Kathy's Journey: From Diagnosis to Memoir (2:07)The Unique Challenges of Asperger's Syndrome (6:26)The Pros and Cons of Labels (15:20)The Downside of Too Much “Bubble Wrap” (27:07)Why Apologies Aren't Helpful (28:53)About Our Guest:Kathleen Somers, a debut author, holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Temple University's Tyler School of Art and works as a freelance graphic designer and copywriter. She is a passionate observer of humanity who believes in the power of connection that comes from each of us sharing our individual stories and the importance of authenticity when doing it. Having spent 24 years guiding her son through a disability most can't see has not made her an authority on the topic. It's having been the student to all that he has taught her that has brought her closer than anything ever will. When Kathleen isn't busy with her career as a creative, she is out on her bike finding new roads to explore or spending time with her son, opening his eyes to everything the world has to offer, both big and small. She lives with her family in the suburbs of Philadelphia.https://www.kathleensomers.com/References in The Episode:Barely Visible: Mothering a Son Through His Misunderstood Autism by Kathleen SomersAdditional Resources:To learn more about personalized 1:1 support, go to www.elevatehowyounavigate.comTake The Quiz: What's YOUR Top Autism Parenting Blindspot?If you enjoyed this episode, share it with your friends.
Visit our Substack for bonus content and more: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/trenton-doyle-hancock Aarron's friend Trenton Doyle Hancock did something remarkable when they were both in the graduate Painting and Drawing program at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia—he had work in the Whitney Biennial. It was a bit like winning an Oscar while in acting school, just not something that ever happens. Most people are thrown by early success, but not Trenton. He pressed forward in his studio where he crafted epic stories in large scale paintings that later expanded into installations, sculptures, and performance art. His creative process is unique. Piles of collected objects, receipts, food wrappers, etc find their way into his work where their color, texture and attitude unfold as the fabric of Trenton's universe of heroes, villains, and ancient mysteries. We spoke with Trenton about his neurodivergent approach to the world, how collecting influences his visual sensibilities, and how chaos becomes precise order in his work. At the time of our recording, Trenton had a large show at the Jewish Museum in New York exploring intersecting themes in his work and that of Philip Guston. Bio For nearly two decades, Trenton Doyle Hancock has created a vivid, fantastical universe where autobiographical elements blend seamlessly with references to art history, comics, superheroes, and popular culture. Through paintings, drawings, and expansive installations, Hancock crafts complex narratives exploring themes of good versus evil, infused with personal symbolism and mythology. His work draws stylistically from artists like Hieronymus Bosch, Max Ernst, Henry Darger, Philip Guston, and R. Crumb, integrating text as both narrative driver and visual element. His distinctive storytelling has extended beyond gallery walls into performances, ballet collaborations such as Cult of Color: Call to Color with Ballet Austin, and murals at prominent public spaces including Dallas Cowboys Stadium and Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park. *** Premium Episodes on Design Better This is a premium episode on Design Better. We release two premium episodes per month, along with two free episodes for everyone. Premium subscribers also get access to the documentary Design Disruptors and our growing library of books, as well as our monthly AMAs with former guests, ad-free episodes, discounts and early access to workshops, and our monthly newsletter The Brief that compiles salient insights, quotes, readings, and creative processes uncovered in the show. Upgrade to paid ***
Today we shine the light on our Caribbean brothers and sisters with Malene Barnett and her amazing book Crafted Kinship: Inside the Creative Practices of Contemporary Black Caribbean Makers. Melene talks about her heritage and how this incredible book came together. More than 60 artists are featured included some Studio Noize Alumni like April Bey. Malene talks about the connections between Caribbean artists in the diaspora, experimenting with materials, and what it means to be rooted to a place. It's more of that good art talk that we love right here on the Noize! Listen, subscribe, and share!Episode 197 topics include:Crafted Kinship: Inside the Creative Practices of Contemporary Black Caribbean Makershighlighting Caribbean artists in the diasporagrowing up with parents from the Caribbeanexperimental materials land, climate and sustainability as a themepride in your homelandsocial constructs around artistic disciplinesceramics in the CaribbeanMalene Djenaba Barnett is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, textile surface designer, and community builder. She earned her MFA in ceramics from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture and undergraduate degrees in fashion illustration and textile surface design from the Fashion Institute of Technology. Malene received a Fulbright Award to travel to Jamaica in 2022–23 as the visiting artist at Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston.Malene's art reflects her African Caribbean heritage, building on her ancestral legacy of mark-making as a visual identity, and has been exhibited at galleries and museums throughout the United States, including the Mindy Solomon Gallery in Miami, the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art & Storytelling in New York City, the African American Museum of Dallas, and Temple Contemporary in Philadelphia. Malene's art and design work has appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, Galerie, Elle Decor, Architectural Digest, Departures, and Interior Design. In addition, Malene hosts lectures on advocating for African Caribbean ceramic traditions and has participated in residencies at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Greenwich House Pottery, Judson Studios, the Hambidge Center, and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. In 2024, Malene released her first book, “Crafted Kinship: Inside the Creative Practice of Contemporary Black Caribbean Makers” (Hachette), which includes interviews with over 60 artists of Caribbean heritage, taking readers on an important journey through the world of Black Caribbean creativity. This groundbreaking collection is the first to feature Caribbean makers' intimate stories of their artmaking processes, and how their countries of origin—the “land” —influences and informs how and what they create.Malene is also the founder of the Black Artists + Designers Guild, which supports independent Black makers globally. When she's not traveling the world researching Black diasporic aesthetics, Malene resides in Brooklyn, New York.See more: Malene Barnett website + Malene Barnett IG @malene.barnettFollow us:StudioNoizePodcast.comIG: @studionoizepodcastJamaal Barber: @JBarberStudioSupport the podcast www.patreon.com/studionoizepodcast
In this episode of A is for Architecture, I spoke with Pablo Meninato, Associate Professor of Architecture at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University, Philadelphia, about Urban Labyrinths: Informal Settlements, Architecture, and Social Change in Latin America (Routledge 2024), co-authored with Gregory Marinic. Exploring the complexities of informal urbanism, Pablo discusses how self-built settlements shape cities, challenge conventional architectural narratives, and drive social transformation. From favelas to barriadas, we examine resilience, adaptation, and policy implications for equitable urban development. Tune in for insights on architecture, urban design, and Latin America's evolving cityscapes. Pablo is on can be found on the Temple University website, on X, Instagram and LinkedIn. The book is linked above.
“I appreciate the Rococo for its extravagance and theatricality, as it appeals to my love of kitsch.”- STUART NETSKY Netsky is a conceptual artist making paintings, mixed media sculptures, prints and other objects. An original voice and artist whose work jumps off the canvas and confronts us with the eclectic absurdity of our image inundated culture. A lover of the theatrical, mixed with his unique version of pop and Romantic master painting. His work is made in distinct series, creating a pictorial eclecticism that obscures our ability to make sense of the image, acting as a metaphor for the confusion and shifting dichotomies in social interactions.Digital images speak to our technologically driven world and reflect the temporal paradox in pop culture whereby the past is brought to the present, the present to the past. He digitally appropriates art and historical images with those from film and popular culture, juxtaposed with psychedelic and floral patterns and mixes them all together. His influences include Francois Boucher and Gerhard Richter, Jean-Honore Fragonard, Gene Davis, Bridget Riley, Nicholas Krushenick and Jean-Antoine Watteau, among others - the rococo and abstraction, op art and pop art, anime and realism, and the psychedelic all come together, layered, spliced and distorted, materials that evoke the psychosexual. He views his practice as a drag display operating within the time he has lived in while embracing nostalgia and romanticism for their tender and universal sensibilities. He received a Master of Art in Art Education from Philadelphia College of Art in 1986 and went on to receive a Master of Fine Art in sculpture from Tyler School of Art, Elkins Park, PA in 1990. Netsky was an Adjunct Professor at The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, and is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Jefferson University. He has had solo exhibitions of his work at Philadelphia's Institute of Contemporary Art, Larry Becker Contemporary Art, Richard Anderson, NYC, Locks Gallery, Bridgette Mayer Gallery, and a retrospective at the Rosenwald Wolf Gallery, University of the Arts. He has also shown in innumerable group shows nationally and internationally. In 1995, he received the Pew Fellowship in the Arts. His work is in the collections of The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Woodmere Art Museum, as well as the Johnson and Johnson Collection and many private collections.
Painter Athena Scott's winding path as an artist has brought her through many of Philly's famous arts schools and institutions – Temple's Tyler School of Art, the University of the Arts, PAFA, and more.
Kati Gegenheimer, photograph by Mark Gibson Kati Gegenheimer was born in Bucks County, PA, in 1984 and lives and works in Philadelphia, PA, where she is an Assistant Adjunct Professor at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture. She received a MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale University in 2013 and a BFA in Printmaking and Art History from the Tyler School of Art in 2007. Her works have been exhibited in solo exhibitions at North Orange, Montclair, NJ, 2022 and Gross McLeaf, Philadelphia, PA, 2021. Group and two-artist exhibitions include Kati Gegenheimer | Chenlu Hou, Kristen Lorello, New York, NJ, 2023, Mars in Cancer, David Peterson Gallery, Minneapolis, MN, 2023, Reveries, Peep Projects, Philadelphia, PA, 2022, and Good Pictures, curated by Austin Lee, Jeffrey Deitch, New York, NY, 2020. She is the recipient of a Yaddo Artist Access Grant and a smART Ventures Grant, and has been granted artist residencies at The Goldey House Artist Residency, the Elizabeth Murray Artist Residency, and the Pollock-Krasner Residency at Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY. Kati Gegenheimer, Shell Songs, 2024, Oil on linen, 24 x 18 inches, Courtesy of the Artist and Kristen Lorello, NY, Photo: Charles Benton Kati Gegenheimer, Correspondence, 2024, Oil on linen, 24 x 36 inches, Courtesy of the Artist and Kristen Lorello, NY, Photo: Charles Benton Kati Gegenheimer, Atlas of Feeling, 2024, Oil on linen, 24 x 18 inches, Courtesy of the Artist and Kristen Lorello, NY, Photo: Charles Benton
Gene Koss uses glass as a medium of pure sculptural expression resulting in monumental sculptures of cast glass, steel and light. He developed innovative techniques to transform his memories of the mechanized Wisconsin farm of his youth into foundry-based glass sculptures. He combines glass and steel found objects to create small-scale sculptures that often also serve as studies for his larger-scale works. Opening on September 20, 2024 and running through February 9, 2025, The Bergstrom Mahler Museum of Glass (BMM), Neenah, Wisconsin, presents a major solo exhibition of Koss' work: From Farm to Flame. Says Casey Eichhorn, Curator of Collections and Exhibitions at BMM: “Gene Koss' career in glass has been one informed by experience, and driven by creative experimentation. Alongside two of his sketchbooks, Farm to Flame showcases the tangible results of these experiments in the form of 14 sculptures of glass, steel and wood – each highlighting a specific point in time in the artist's illustrious career.” After receiving a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin at River Falls in 1974, Koss then earned a Master of Fine Arts from the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, in Philadelphia. In 1976, he moved to New Orleans to develop a new glass facility and program for Tulane University, and subsequently became head of the department. “Gene's career at Tulane University helped shape the Newcomb Art Department, and he is a pivotal figure in the teaching and creation of glass art in the South,” said Stephanie Porras, chair of the Newcomb Art Department. Koss is the recipient of several awards including the National Endowment for the Arts, The New Orleans Community Arts Board and Pace-Willson Art Foundation grants. His work has been exhibited at the New Orleans Museum of Art; the Contemporary Arts Center of New Orleans; the Masur Museum of Art in Monroe, Louisiana; the Sculpture Center in New York City; as well as the International Biennale for Contemporary Art in Florence, Italy. It has been published in International Glass Art, Contemporary Glass-Color, Light & Form and Glass Art from Urban Glass publications. Koss is represented by Arthur Roger Gallery in New Orleans, LA. His work is in many prominent collections including the Pan American Life Collection in New Orleans and the Corning Museum of Glass in New York. The Arnoldsche Art Publishers of Germany released a 2019 retrospective monograph of his work, Gene Koss Sculpture. Creating Koss' majestic works in glass and steel requires demanding techniques to realize their monumental scale. These massive volumes of glass are married with elaborately engineered steel elements. The artist casts molten glass directly from the hot furnace, working with teams of highly-skilled assistants and rigging elaborate systems for transporting his finished abstract works for display in museums, galleries and public spaces. Working with serial cast glass parts to enlarge scale and combining these elements with iron and neon, he has raised glass sculpture to the realm of public art. Koss' work has had a profound impact on American artists working in both steel and glass media.
In this episode, I speak with Martha Jackson Jarvis, an acclaimed sculptor whose work has been showcased in numerous exhibitions across the U.S. and internationally. She has received several prestigious awards, including the Creative Capital Grant, the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and the 2024 DAR Women in the Arts Recognition Award.Born in 1952, Martha grew up in Lynchburg, Virginia, and now lives in Washington, D.C. She holds a BFA from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University and an MFA from Antioch University, and she has studied mosaic techniques in Ravenna, Italy.Her public and corporate art commissions include projects for the Philip Morris Corporation, Merck Company, Fannie Mae, Washington Metro Transit Authority, and the Spoleto Festival.Martha Jackson Jarvis shares the significance of scale in her work and how it shapes her artistic approach. She shares her ongoing quest for knowledge and the courage required to stand firm as an artist. Martha reflects on her journey, highlighting the importance of making art a central part of her identity.Martha also offers valuable insights on time, urgency, and living in the moment. She emphasizes the necessity of making every day count and actively nurturing one's dreams and goals. You can connect with Martha at https://www.instagram.com/mjjstudio/Why do you listen to this podcast https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfqYe7Kp9yTItZY5--I0NP05GAgqDyo-hCyGUrNO13Xj8yp4g/viewform
Michael Ambron is a painter and paint maker who works through wildly experimental and meditative approaches to making in order to hone in on a kind of overwhelming simultaneity of lived experience. From an investigation of and curiosity about one's own perception, to the challenges and worries of living in uncertain and upsetting times, Ambron builds symbols, materials, and gestures into an expansive, floating, and timeless space. His paintings immerse the viewer in a loop of dreams, cartoon violence, lived experience, and world events, that create a vibrating sense of absurdity and urgency. Ambron received his BFA from Tyler School of Art and his MFA from The Ohio State University. He is currently based in Long Island City, NY where he is the owner and operator of Paint Makers Notes LLC, a small business that offers education, consulting, and paint making services to amateur and professional artists around the world. Boundaries, 2021, 63” x 66” x 2” - pigment, glass, stone chalk, acrylic, cellulose, marker, & pastel on canvas - photography for Ortega y Gasset Projects by Gidra Studios. Dilation, 2023, 50 x 52 x 3” - pigment, cork powder, glass, stone chalk, acrylic, cellulose, airbrush, marker, pastel and sand on canvas - photography for Ortega y Gasset Projects by Gidra Studios. No Time installation view Sell Your Dreams, 2024, 66 x 66 x 3" - pigment, marker, acrylic, cellulose, airbrush, & stone chalk on canvas (small painting: "Awake" 2024, acrylic, cellulose, pigment, marble sand, shellac & chalk on wood panel) - photography for Ortega y Gasset Projects by Gidra Studios.
On today's episode of Architectette we welcome Hosts of the Open Plan Podcast- Maria Pastorelli and Emily Khalid. Maria and Emily met during grad school at Georgia Tech and have continued their friendship and podcast collaboration despite working in Atlanta and Philadelphia respectively. Emily is a Lead Architect and Project Manager at WSP, Maria is an architectural designer with a background in marketing. Their podcast conversationally bridges the gap between professional development, licensure, and lifestyle. We talk about: - The origins of Maria and Emily's friendship and how the podcast developed from their conversations about school, work, and exam prep. - We next chat about a huge focus of the podcast: the AREs. Emily talks about the highs and lows of her recent experience taking and passing all of the architecture registration examinations and Maria shares insights into her study process and exam strategy. - Maria discusses her transition from architecture to marketing and the skills she developed along the way, emphasizing the value of exploring different career avenues within the field. - Emily reflects on the challenges of teaching first year architecture students and how she encourages them to build creative problem-solving skills within an architectural toolkit. - We end by reminiscing about the challenges of job hunting during the pandemic. Both guests share their experiences transitioning into the job market during uncertain times and how it impacted their career paths. A bit more about our guests: Emily Khalid, AIA, NCARB is a Philadelphia-based architect, project manager, and educator with 9+ years of experience working with buildings that are old, new, and everything in between. She currently is a Lead Architect and Project Manager at WSP, where she specializes in transportation and civic architecture across the public and private sectors. She is co-host of the Open Plan Podcast, where she is passionate about creating accessible education, licensure, and career content for architecture professionals. She was selected for the Emerging Leaders in Transportation 2023-2024 cohort, is a mentor for the Women in Transportation Student Chapter, and has taught as an Adjunct Professor at Temple University, Tyler School of Art and Architecture. Maria Pastorelli is an architectural designer who received both her B.S. in Architecture and Master of Architecture from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Originally from Brazil, she moved to Atlanta in 2014 to pursue her studies. Since then, she has been consistently involved in school leadership positions as a member of the Advisory Board and a Teaching Assistant. Aside from her coursework, Maria was the Marketing Chair of student-led organization Equity in Architecture, while also completing internships in Atlanta. Her early experience has been in healthcare and community-driven initiatives. She graduated with her Masters in 2020 and has been working on various multi-family, educational, and commercial projects. Additionally, Maria has gained valuable experience in Marketing and currently consults with small architecture practices. Links: Open Plan Podcast Connect with Maria on LinkedIn Connect with Emily on LinkedIn Open Plan Podcast on Spotify Architectette Podcast Website: www.architectette.com Connect with the pod on LinkedIn, Instagram (@architectette), and TikTok (@architectette) Exclusive Content on our Newsletter: www.architectette.com Connect with host Caitlin Brady on LinkedIn. Music by AlexGrohl from Pixabay. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/architectette/support
Enjoy this stained glass panel discussion with top industry professionals and educators Judith Schaechter, Stephen Hartley, Megan McElfresh, and Amy Valuck. Topics addressed include: what is needed in stained glass education; how the massive number of Instagrammers making suncatchers and trinkets affect stained glass; how to promote stained glass in a gallery setting; and how to stay relevant as stained glass artists. The panelists: By single-handedly revolutionizing the craft of stained glass through her unique aesthetic and inventive approach to materials, Judith Schaechter championed her medium into the world of fine art. The content of her work – some of which gives voice to those who experience pain, grief, despair, and hopelessness – resonates with viewers, leaving a profound and lasting impression. Schaechter has lived and worked in Philadelphia since graduating in 1983 with a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design Glass Program. She has exhibited her glass art widely, including in New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, The Hague and Vaxjo, Sweden. She is the recipient of many grants, including the Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in Crafts, The Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, The Joan Mitchell Award, two Pennsylvania Council on the Arts awards, The Pew Fellowship in the Arts and a Leeway Foundation grant. Her work is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Hermitage in Russia, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Corning Museum of Glass, The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution and numerous other public and private collections. Schaechter's work was included in the 2002 Whitney Biennial, a collateral exhibition of the Venice Biennale in 2012, and she is a 2008 USA Artists Rockefeller Fellow. In 2013 the artist was inducted to the American Craft Council College of Fellows. The Glass Art Society presented Schaechter with a Lifetime Achievement award in 2023, and this year she will receive the Smithsonian Visionary Award. Schaechter has taught workshops at numerous venues, including the Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle, the Penland School of Crafts, Toyama Institute of Glass (Toyama, Japan), Australia National University in Canberra, Australia. She has taught courses at Rhode Island School of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy, and the New York Academy of Art. She is ranked as an Adjunct Professor at The University of the Arts and Tyler School of Art Glass Program, both in Philly . Born in Philadelphia, Stephen Hartley began his craft career working on a variety of historic buildings and monuments throughout the region. In 1999, he moved to South Carolina to attend Coastal Carolina University, where he earned his undergraduate degree in History. He then relocated to Savannah, Georgia, and continued to work in the traditional crafts and conservation fields while attending graduate school. After completing his MFA in Historic Preservation at the Savannah College of Art and Design, Hartley was employed as an instructor at various colleges within the Savannah area. He earned his PhD from the University of York in 2018 where his dissertation thesis studied the historical and modern frameworks of trades training in the US and the UK. Hartley eventually returned to the Philadelphia area and accepted the position of Head of Building Arts at Bryn Athyn College, where he formulated the first Bachelor's of Fine Arts (BFA) in traditional building within the United States. Hartley, currently an associate professor in Notre Dame's School of Architecture, wants his students to have a deeper appreciation for the work craftspeople do to fulfill an architect's vision—by learning the vocabulary of the trades, understanding their history, and, when possible, trying out the tools. Executive Director of the Stained Glass Association of America (SGAA), Megan McElfresh has dedicated her professional life to community service and the art and science of stained glass. With a background in fine arts and operations management, she joined the Association as a professional member in 2015 and became the Executive Director in the fall of 2017. Growing up in small stained glass studios, McElfresh continued to build on her technical skills in the medium by seeking mentorship opportunities throughout college. Some of the highlights of her glass studies were traveling to Pilchuck Glass School and time spent at the nationally recognized kiln forming resource center, Vitrum Studio. Prior to working with the SGAA, McElfresh worked in a variety of roles from operations management at a life sciences firm in Washington, D.C. to IT and web support for small non-profit art organizations. In 2011, McElfresh moved from Northern Virginia to Buffalo, New York, and founded her studio, McElf GlassWorks. With a passion for her professional career as well as her new community, she never turned down an opportunity to collaborate with neighborhood teens and local programs to provide enthusiastic and creative educational enrichment. In her personal work, McElfresh uses her artwork in the advocacy of issues she became passionate about during her time working at a forensics laboratory concerning subjects like domestic violence and rape, and DNA backlogs. Her studio work has been featured in the Stained Glass Quarterly, Design NY, The Buffalo News, and Buffalo Rising. Find out more about the SGAA's 2024 conference here: Conference 2024: Sand to Sash | The Stained Glass Association of America Amy Valuck is a stained glass artist and conservator based in Southeastern Pennsylvania, and the current president of the American Glass Guild. She began her apprenticeship in 1998 at The Art of Glass in Media, PA, and in 2014 went on to establish her own studio, Amy Valuck Glass Art, now located in West Chester, PA. Her studio's primary work is the restoration and conservation of historical windows from churches, universities, and private residences. As a conservator she specializes in complex lead work, plated windows, and replication painting. Valuck also maintains a personal art practice, producing autonomous stained glass panels for private commissions and public exhibition, including the AGG's American Glass Now annual exhibit. Her personal work is heavily influenced by the fabrication and painting techniques of historical windows but frequently includes experimental fused glass elements. Valuck is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, who earned her BFA degree in jewelry and light metals. Her work in jewelry earned awards including the first annual Cartier Prize, and the MJSA (Manufacturing Jewelers and Silversmiths' Association) Award. She has served on the board of directors of the American Glass Guild since 2017 and has participated as a lecturer and instructor at several of the AGG's annual conferences. Registration is now open for the 2024 Grand Rapids conference, July 9 – 14. Find out more about the AGG's 2024 conference here: https://www.americanglassguild.org/events/agg-2024-conference-grand-rapids-mi For further exploration of panel discussion topics: The Campaign for Historic Trades Releases First-of-its-Kind Labor Study on the Status of Historic Trades in America – The Campaign for Historic Trades
Tales of a Red Clay Rambler: A pottery and ceramic art podcast
Today on the show I talk with artist and educator Lauren Sandler. In her current body of work she drapes stacked vessels with beads, beans, and other objects to tell broader economic and cultural narratives. In our interview we talk about her anthropological approach to materials, adornment through accumulation, and mentoring students at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA, where she is an assistant professor. For more information visit www.laurensandlerstudio.com. I'm excited to have a live taping of the show at this year's NCECA conference. Thursday March 21st at 2:30pm Lisa Giuliani and Brian Kakas will join me to talk about the Changing landscape of ceramic education. Directly following at 4:00pm guest Red Clay Rambler host Malene Barnett will record Clay Roots: Exploring Ceramics Across the Black Diaspora - From Africa to the Caribbean and the Americas. The Rosenfield Collection of Functional Ceramic Art www.Rosenfieldcollection.com Bray Clay www.archiebrayclay.com
Some might say that Daniel Clayman is more a sculptor using glass as his primary material than a glass artist. That is to say his sculptures would be successful from a formal point of view no matter what material they were created in. With one major exception: the play of light in Clayman's glass art enhances the objects dramatically in comparison with how they might appear in a solid, non-translucent medium. Born in 1957 in Lynn, Massachusetts, Clayman planned a career as a theater lighting designer, studying in the theater and dance departments at Connecticut College, eventually dropping out of college to work in the professional theater, dance and opera world. A chance class in 1980 introduced the artist to using glass as a sculptural material. In 1986, he received his BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and has maintained a studio in East Providence, Rhode Island since then. Clayman's interests in engineering, the behavior of light, and the memory of experience, act as an impetus for much of his work. Having turned his attention to large-scale installations, he employs technology from the simplest hand tool to the latest three-dimensional modeling and production tools. Recent public projects include Rainfield, Massachusetts College of Art and Design and Media Center Atrium, exhibition dates: January 23, 2017 – January 23, 2018; and Radiant Landscape, Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton Township, New Jersey, exhibition dates: May 7, 2017 – February 28, 2018. Clayman is the recipient of several grants and awards and has had numerous one-person shows throughout the country to include the Tacoma Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington, the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts. Works in glass sculpture by the artist can be found in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Art in San Francisco, The Museum of Art and Design in New York, the Corning Museum of Glass, the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Art in Boston and the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. An artist/educator, Clayman has taught in Japan, Israel and Australia in addition to a robust teaching schedule here in the U.S. He has been a Visiting Critic at the Rhode Island School of Design and Artist in Residence at Tyler School of Art and Massachusetts College of Art and Design. He lectures frequently and teaches workshops at Penland School of Crafts, Pilchuck and The Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass, among others. In 2018, Clayman became the first endowed chair of glass at University of the Arts, Philadelphia. Clayman states: “While I moved away from a professional career pursuit in lighting design, I have never turned away from my observations of light. Using glass as my primary sculptural material, I have spent the last 20 years developing a vocabulary of forms which describe volumes of light. Over the past four years, my studio work has centered around the creation of large-scale glass castings that thematically reference the capturing of light. One of the many mysteries of light is that it refuses to reveal any of its essence until it happens to reflect on something other than itself. For instance, the headlight of a car projects (reflects) light onto objects as the viewer approaches, but not until there is a foggy mist in the air does one see the shape and arc of the beam.”
Episode 56 of Why Make? is a conversation 50 years in the making! Erik sits down sit with his childhood friend, the amazing metalsmith, jeweler, sculptor and teacher Boris Bally. Erik last saw Boris sometime in 1974 when they were 12 years old. Originally, like Erik, from Pittsburgh, Boris now resides and works in Providence RI. A maker from the early days of his youth, Boris fell in love with the magic of working metal and never looked back. Growing up in a Swiss family he took advantage of an opportunity to do a 1 year apprenticeship in Basil Switzerland in metal smithing after high school. Upon returning to the U.S he enrolled in the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia and finished his degree at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Always the practical artist Boris has fashioned his career by teaching, doing commission work and designing and producing a number of very successful production items, along with his own more personal work. Join us as we catch on the last 50 years and find out what just what Boris Bally has been making. We had the privilege of having this conversation with Boris while he was teaching a workshop at the Pocosin Center for the Arts in Columbia, NC in June with Bob Ebendorf our guest on Episode 54. Many thanks to the good folks at Pocosin for allowing us to spend some time on campus.
In this episode I chat with illustrator and author, Rachel Ignotofsky about blending illustration and education, crayons, women in STEM, and her latest book, What's Inside A Caterpillar Cocoon? Rachel Ignotofsky is a New York Times Best Selling author and illustrator, based in California. She grew up in New Jersey on a healthy diet of Star Trek and pudding and graduated from Tyler School of Art in 2011 with a BFA in Graphic Design. Rachel's career as a scientific communicator started by nurturing her own curiosity. Out of college, she created art and infographics about topics she found interesting and important- with a focus in science literacy. She had many friends starting their careers in teaching, and Rachel wanted to create resources to help them with their lessons. Soon Rachel's online store was selling her posters to schools, labs and science enthusiasts across the country and her work was scooped up to be featured on the likes of Scientific American, Fast Company, PRI and PBS. Rachel's art has been embraced by the science community and she has spoken at and partnered with institutions like NASA, The Salk Institute, The San Diego Natural History Museum, The Chicago Field Museum, The Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and many more! Rachel believes when you take the time to organize complex information—and then take the next step to make it beautiful with art — you can reach even the most reluctant learner. Illustration is a powerful tool when it comes to education. With her first book Women in Science (2016), Rachel used her art to address the growing gender gap in STEM and shed a light on women's stories. It became an instant success and was on the NY Times Best seller list for over 90 weeks. Since then, Rachel has continued to use her background in graphic design and her skills as a storyteller to make dense information and fun and accessible. Her work is published in over 24 different languages and enjoyed by readers all over the world! She has written more books about women's history like Women in Sports (2017) and Women in Art (2019). As well as tackling topics like conservation and climate change in her book The Wondrous Workings of Planet Earth (2018). She has introduced backyard biology to the youngest readers with What's Inside a Flower? (2021) which is the first installment of her new picture book series with Random House Kids. Now she is excited to share her newest book The History of the Computer (2022). This book is the first of its kind — a fully illustrated book that spans over 25,000 years of human history and tells the story of our evolving relationship with technology. Rachel sees all of her books as a love note to educators, and is thrilled to see them used in classrooms.Rachel IgnotofskyRachel's Etsy ShopRachel's BooksThe Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, Steve BrusatteThe Rise and Reign of the Mammals, Steve Brusatte Support the showThe Bookshop PodcastMandy Jackson-BeverlySocial Media Links
Lauren Whearty and Eric Hibit are artists, curators, and educators, who both think deeply about the importance of color as a subject in art, society, and in how they teach painting and design courses. Color is a vital component in foundational artistic studies, it also plays an important role in culture, technology, history, science, and more. In this episode Lauren & Eric will discuss the ways they use and think about color in their studios, Eric's “Color Theory for Dummies” book, book recommendations, and how they each approach color in the classroom. Lauren Whearty is an artist, educator, and curator living and working in Philadelphia, PA. She received her MFA from Ohio State University, and her BFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University. She has been a Co-Director at Ortega y Gasset Projects, an artist-run curatorial collective and non-profit in Brooklyn, NY since 2017. Lauren has attended residencies such as Yale's Summer School of Art through the Ellen BattelStoeckel Fellowship, The Vermont Studio Center, Soaring Gardens Artist Retreat, and the Golden Foundation Artist Residency. She has recently received grants from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, and Joseph Roberts Foundation. Lauren also received the President's Creative Research and Innovation Grant from University of the Arts, to develop work for her first solo exhibit which was recently at Gross McCleaf Gallery in Philadelphia. Lauren currently teaches 2D Design, Color, Painting & Drawing courses at University of the Arts and Tyler School of Art & Architecture in Philadelphia. Eric Hibit (born Rochester, NY) is a visual artist based in New York City. He attended the Corcoran College of Art + Design (BFA,1998) and Yale University School of Art (MFA, 2003). In New York, he has exhibited at Morgan Lehman Gallery, Dinner Gallery, Deanna Evans Projects, My Pet Ram, One River School of Art + Design, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Underdonk Gallery, Anna Kustera Gallery, Max Protetch Gallery, and elsewhere. He has exhibited nationally at Hexum Gallery in Montpelier, VT, Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, NC, Wege Center for the Arts at Maharishi University in Fairfield, IA, Geoffrey Young Gallery in Great Barrington, MA, The University of Vermont, Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek, CA and internationally in Sweden, France and Norway. His work has been covered by the Washington Post, The Village Voice, Hyperallergic, Newsweek, New York Times and New York Post. Hibit has taught studio art at Drexel University, The Cooper Union, Suffolk County Community College, 92NY, Tyler School of Art, NYU and Hunter College. Artist residencies include Terra Foundation in Giverny, France (2003), and Kingsbrae International Residency for the Arts (2019) and Green Olives Arts in Tetouan, Morocco (2019). Publications include Dear Hollywood Writers, with poet Geoffrey Young (Suzy Solidor Editions, 2017) and Paintings and Fables with Wayne Koestenbaum, a limited edition artist's book (2017), and Color Theory for Dummies, published by Wiley (2022). He is currently Co-Director of Ortega y Gasset Projects, an artist-run gallery based in Brooklyn, where he has curated exhibitions since 2014.
A brewery's trademark and its subsequent labels are its identity and protecting that involves many steps that involve beverage lawyers, government agencies, keeping tabs on other breweries and so much more. Today we speak to three guests with an eye on trademark protection, homage/parody vs. intellectual property theft and the legal ramifications of what happens when the judicial system has to get involved. This is a fascinating part of the beer world. Guests:Brian Kulbacki of Departed Soles Brewing. Brian is a 2012 Graduate of the American Brewers Guild Brewing School, where he took their Intensive Brewing Science & Engineering course for Breweries in Planning. Prior to that he graduated from Boston College with a double major in Marketing & Finance. He has worked in marketing for the New England Patriots/Revolution and the Lakewood BlueClaws, as well as finance for Major League Baseball and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. He has also managed operations for a family business. Brian founded Departed Soles Brewing Company in 2014, which in 2015 opened its doors to become the first brewery in Jersey City, New Jersey since prohibition, and the first brewery on the east coast to craft gluten free beer in dedicated equipment, along with traditional glutenous beers. The brewery has won medals at GABF, the World Beer Cup, and Best of Craft Beer Awards, among others. The brewery is now run by Brian's dog, Bogan.Bill Covaleski of Victory Brewing Co. Bill has played a pivotal, creative role in leading the overall growth strategy of Victory Brewing Company. He serves as creative muse and guide for Victory beer brands and culinary collaborations as well as a driving force behind community engagement. Covaleski and Victory co- founder, Ron Barchet, serve as brewmasters, providing strategic guidance in the development of new beer brands.In February of 2016 Covaleski and Barchet joined Phin and Sara DeMink, founders of Lakewood, NY based Southern Tier Brewing Company, as Artisanal Brewing Ventures, a partnership platform for like-minded brewers to continue to innovate and grow. With the addition of Brooklyn, NY based SixpointBrewing in 2018 and Bold Rock Ciders in 2019. Prior to co-founding Victory, he earned a degree from the prestigious Doemens Institute of MunichGermany, having completed their International Course in Brewing Studies after an invaluable five-year apprenticeship under German trained Dutch brewmaster, Theo deGroen. Before pursuing his craft beer dreams, Bill labored as an art director after earning his B.F.A. from Temple University's Tyler School of Art.Brendan PalfreymanBrendan focuses on intellectual property matters, commercial litigation, and has significant experience efficiently and promptly reviewing corporate contracts. He has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in patent, trademark, copyright, and trade dress infringement actions. He also prosecutes trademark and copyright applications in the United States and globally for a wide range of clients and industries. A major focus of Brendan's practice is representing and counseling breweries, wineries, and distilleries with regard to everything from corporate formation and licensing to M&A and distribution contracts. He is an award-winning homebrewer and one happy client even named a beer after him. Brendan has been quoted in various publications about legal issues facing the alcoholic beverage industry including the Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, and San Francisco Chronicle. He is a regular guest on industry podcasts such as BrewBound and Good Beer Hunting.This Episode is Sponsored by:Estrella GaliciaEstrella Galicia is an independent, family-owned brewery in northwest Spain, founded in 1906.Estrella Galicia Cerveza Especial is a world class lager, brewed using the finest Spanish malts, locally cultivated Galician hops and the best brewing practices, in a state-of-the-art facility in A Coruna. Recognized around the world for quality and exceptional character. Estrella Galicia is “A beer like no other.”Yakima Valley HopsLooking for an easy hop sourcing experience? Yakima Valley Hops offers the finest quality hops from right here in our Valley and premium growing regions around the world. Get the hops you need when you need them, with ultra-fast shipping and awesome customer service. With a full line of liquid hop products and all your favorite varieties, no contracts are needed to brew with the best. Shop now at YakimaValleyHops.com. Hosts: Don Tse and Em Sauter Guests: Brendan Palfreyman, Bill Covaleski, Brian Kulbacki Sponsors: Estrella Galicia, Yakima Valley Hops, All About Beer Tags: Brewing, Law, Intelectual Property, Ingredients, Business The following music was used for this media project:Music: Awesome Call by Kevin MacLeodFree download: https://filmmusic.io/song/3399-awesome-callLicense (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-licenseArtist website: https://incompetech.com ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
The wonderful Althea Murphy-Price joins the Studio Noize fam today! Althea is an awesome printmaker and professor at the University of Tennessee- Knoxville. Her work explores the politics and culture of Black women's hair. She's not confined to one medium in her exploration. She does lithography, screenprinting, collage, photography, and 3D printing. We talked about what inspired her to do so much experimentation and where she found her love for printmaking. Of course, we talk about her wonder work, ideas of realness and perfection, adornment of little girls, being a “good printer,” and much more. Two printmakers that love printmaking talking that good art talk like you like it. It's the Noize! Listen, subscribe, and share!Episode 178 topics include:Falling in love with printmakingstruggling with letting gogetting into teaching having an artistic communitythe politics of Black women's hairexperimenting with materialsbeing a good printerusing technology in experimentingmaking mistakes in the print shopAlthea Murphy-Price is inspired by the social implication of beauty and its relationship to female identity, women, and culture. Topics of real and false, decoration, and imitation are explored in two and three-dimensional working methods, using traditional and non-conventional approaches to printmaking and sculpture.Althea Murphy-Price began her studies in Fine Art at Spelman College before receiving her Master of Arts in Printmaking and Painting from Purdue University and later studying at the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, where she earned her Master of Fine Arts. Her artwork has been shown widely throughout the country and in international cities in Spain, China, Japan, Italy and Sweden. Her writings and work have been featured in such publications as Art Papers Magazine, CAA Reviews, Contemporary Impressions Journal, Art in Print, Printmaking: A Complete Guide to Materials and Process., and Printmakers Today.See more: Althea Murphy-Price website + Althea Murphy-Price IG @altheamurphypricePresented by: Black Art In AmericaFollow us:StudioNoizePodcast.comIG: @studionoizepodcastJamaal Barber: @JBarberStudioSupport the podcast www.patreon.com/studionoizepodcast
Priestess Stephanie Rose Bird is the author of numerous books of magic including the COVR award-winning Sticks, Stones, Roots and Bones, as well as The Healing Power of African American Spirituality, A Healing Grove, Four Seasons of Mojo, 365 Days of Hoodoo, and her most recent book, African American Magick: A Modern Grimoire for the Natural Home. She also illustrated two of her published books and is illustrator for the upcoming book, Motherland Herbal.Priestess Stephanie is a Black magick maker and healer, and her writing brings to the fore her eclectic practices, combined with her passion for mythology, folklore, and fairytales from around the world, but especially of her ancestry - the African diaspora. She is an accomplished fine artist with works in major collections. Bird has exhibited in numerous galleries, universities, libraries, institutions, and programs such as the Arts-in-the-Embassies program where she is being exhibited at the US Malaysian Embassy, Kuala Lumpur. A Fulbright Senior Scholar, Bird did her fieldwork in anthropology and art in Australia, studying in various Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in the Outback. She holds a BFA cum laude from Temple University, Tyler School of Art, and a MFA from University of California at San Diego, where she was a San Diego Opportunity Fellow. A former Professor of Fine Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she has been interviewed on PBS Madison WI, ABC-7 news, BBC London, Urban Gardener, WNPR, WBEZ, in the Smithsonian, and many other venues.On this episode, Priestess Stephanie discusses the magic of the African diaspora, the gifts of intuitive gardening, and why seasonal living can make spiritual practice more potent. Pam also talks about getting to know her new garden, and answers a listener question about a feline altar-cation. Our sponsors for this episode are Feline, VVITCH Digital, On Venus Botanica, Ritual+Shelter, BetterHelp, and Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab We also have brand new print-on-demand merch like Witch Wave shirts, sweatshirts, totes, stickers, and mugs available now here.And if you want more Witch Wave, please consider supporting us on Patreon to get access to bonus Witch Wave Plus episodes, Pam's monthly online rituals, and more! That's patreon.com/witchwave
Ep.151 features Layo Bright. Mining personal archives and collective experiences, her sculptural practice interrogates how materials shape perception, culture, and politics. Bright's work explores specific themes of migration, inheritance, legacy and identity through hybrid portraits, textiles, and mixed media that call on natural forms and ancestral memory. Employing a range of materials such as glass, clay, wood and textiles, these forms mirror fragile yet complex relationships with the personal, natural, and built environment. Bright's work with plastic, checkered bags—often linked to migrants around the world—combines the material with crushed glass to critically address the inevitability of migration and loss in our current global climate. In fusing these and other materials, Bright's practice carefully considers the legacy of suppressed histories within inequitable class structures. Bright (b.1991, Lagos, Nigeria) received her LL. B (Hons.) from Babcock University (2014), was called to the Nigerian Bar Association (2015) and received her MFA in Fine Art (Hons.) from the Parsons School of Design (2018). Bright has exhibited work both internationally and nationally. Solo and group exhibitions include: Rockhaven, moniquemeloche, Chicago, IL (2022); Undercurrents, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, NY (2022); Lubeznik Center for the Arts, Michigan City, IN (2022); Bode Projects, Berlin, Germany (2022); Phillips, New York, NY (2021); Welancora Gallery, New York, NY (2021); Mike Adenuga Centre, Lagos, Nigeria (2021); Anthony Gallery, Chicago, IL (2021); Parts & Labor, New York, NY (2020); Meyerhoff Gallery at MICA, Baltimore, MD (2020); Untitled AWCA, Lagos, Nigeria (2019); Mana Contemporary, Chicago, IL (2019); and Smack Mellon, New York, NY (2019), among others. In fall of 2023 Bright's work will be included in A Two Way Mirror: Double Consciousness in Contemporary Glass by Black Artists, Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA. She is the recipient of honors and awards including the UrbanGlass Winter Scholarship Award (2021/2020), the International Sculpture Center's 2018 Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award (2018), and the Beyoncé Formation Finalist Scholarship (2017). Previous residencies include Tyler School of Glass, Philadelphia, PA; Art Cake Residency in Brooklyn, NY; NXTHVN Fellowship in New Haven, CT; Triangle, Brooklyn, NY; Flux Factory, Queens, NY; The Studios at Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA; Tritryagain Studio Residency, Brooklyn, NY; International Studio Center Sculpture Residency at Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton Township, NJ. Bright lives and works in New York, NY. Photo credit: Daniel Greer Artist https://layobright.com/ moniquemeloche https://www.moniquemeloche.com/ Welancora Gallery https://www.welancoragallery.com/artists/38-layo-bright/works/ Superposition Gallery http://superpositiongallery.com/layo-bright Museum of Glass https://www.museumofglass.org/a-two-way-mirror ARTnews https://www.artnews.com/list/art-news/market/art-basel-hong-kong-2023-best-booths-1234661821/ ArtReview https://artreview.com/discover-arcuals-pioneering-blockchain-technology/ Artsy https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-10-best-booths-art-basel-miami-beach-2022 okayafrica https://www.okayafrica.com/layo-bright-interview/ Bode Gallery https://bode.gallery/artists/109-layo-bright/overview/
For four generations, the Raiffe family toy designers and inventors used ingenuity and creativity to bring joy to others. In homage to this family tradition, Josh Raiffe carries out that mission in his own uniquely beautiful medium – hot glass. He recently caught the attention of both art and fashion lovers with his creative glass interpretation of the Coperni Swipe Bag – a modern handbag designed to adorn a subject's hand. Coperni approached Raiffe to create a glass bag for a photo shoot. His original design was inspired by the painting of Saint Denis of Paris. Holding his head in his hands, a halo appears where St. Denis' head once rested. Raiffe wanted to create a glass handbag that would reveal a halo around the hand of its wearer, selecting colors to illuminate the hand as if to reveal a divinity from within. Experimenting with glass color combinations, he applies an overlay to the inside and outside of each of his bags. The glass layers work in concert to create color combinations that are amplified through a coldworking process. The resulting objects have captured the attention of art and fashion enthusiasts alike, making the laborious process required to create them worthwhile. Raiffe loves to create in a space where emotion and instinct supersede language and rationality. His pieces are first and foremost inspired by personal relationships and emotions such as love, conflict, anger or intimacy. He creates pieces that allow the owner/observer to feel something unique based on their own personal experiences. As an artist who celebrates self-expression, he explains: “I hope people use my work to express themselves by adorning their spaces and their bodies with objects that speak to them.” The son of Meryl Raiffe, owner of The Glass Underground, Warren, New Jersey, Josh Raiffe earned his BFA from Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During that time, he worked for Belle Mead Hot Glass, Township, New Jersey, producing blown chandelier parts and taught classes at the Crefeld School in Philly. Upon graduating from Tyler, he received the Steve Stormer Award and the Penland Partner Scholarship, which allowed him to attend the Penland School of Craft, Bakersfield, North Carolina. He has also been fortunate enough to attend classes at Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, Washington, and the Bullseye Resource Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Raiffe has taught glass classes at the Tyler School of Art, East Falls Glassworks in Philly, Brooklyn Glass and UrbanGlass in New York. He also assists with fabrication for glass artists Thaddeus Wolf, Rob Wynne, Mitchiko Sakano, Jamie Harris and Deborah Czeresko. As a Brooklyn-based designer, Raiffe has collaborated with DesignSpec Co-Founder Fiona Sanipelli to create original art installations for interiors projects. His work, which also includes lighting and neon, has been exhibited at Philadelphia locations such as the Philadelphia Art Alliance, the Sculpture Gym, and the Spirit of the Artist, and at 555 Gallery in Boston, Massachusetts. It was featured on the pages of New Glass Review 38, The Corning Museum of Glass' yearly survey of cutting-edge artworks made with glass. Raiffe is represented by Habatat Gallery, Piece Gallery, Strada and Hawk Gallery. Objects become memorable when they prompt an emotional response from their audience. Though Raiffe's glass work has been owned by celebrities such as Dojacat, Kylie Jenner, JT, Beth Dewoody, Olivia Song and Snoop Dog, he makes art to be enjoyed by the masses.
Artists-in-Residence programs are popular and prevalent in American ceramics. Artist and educator Lauren Sandler walks us through the experience of being a teaching resident at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. Today's episode is brought to you by the following sponsors: For the past 100 years, AMACO Brent has been creating ceramic supplies for our community ranging from underglazes to Electric kilns, ...and they have no plans of slowing down. www.amaco.com The Bray is actively committed to promoting, celebrating, and sustaining the ceramic arts through its residency program, education center, and gallery. www.archiebray.org
In this episode Amy and I have a fun and lively conversation about painting, color mixing, and the importance of distilling images down to exactly what they need. We touched on meditative practice and some of the hurdles that arise when beginning that journey. We also had a really enriching discussion around consumer culture and what it means to be someone who makes art in a time when there is such an abundance of stuff all around us. --------------- Amy Lincoln lives and works in New York City. She completed her MFA in Painting at Temple University's Tyler School of Art in 2006 and her BA in Studio Art at University of California, Davis in 2003. Lincoln's work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Taymour Grahne Projects, London (2022), Sperone Westwater (2021), Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York (2018; 2016) and Monya Rowe Gallery, Saint Augustine, FL (2016), among others. Her work has also been featured in numerous group exhibitions at galleries including The Hole (2022), Sargent's Daughters (2018), Regina Rex (2017), as well as internationally at Galerie Valerie Bach, Brussels, Belgium (2020) and Stems Gallery, Paris, France (2022). Lincoln has been awarded residencies at the Wave Hill Winter Workspace program, the Inside Out Art Museum Residency in Beijing, and a Swing Space residency from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. amylincoln.com speronewestwater.com taymourgrahne.com See More from Martin Benson *To stay up on releases and content surrounding the show check out my instagram *To contribute to the creation of this show, along with access to other exclusive content, consider joining my Patreon! Credits: Big Thanks to Matthew Blankenship of The Sometimes Island for the podcast theme music! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/martin-l-benson/support
In this episode of "The Truth In This Art," host Rob Lee sits down with Traci Mims, a talented artist from St. Petersburg, Florida now residing in Atlanta, Georgia. Traci's passion for art began at a young age, influenced by her father's talent in portrait drawing. Traci's work is focused on exploring themes of Black identity, especially as a Black woman in today's cultural and political climate. Her art often incorporates historical narratives and social realism, presented in the form of cultural allegory.Throughout the episode, Traci shares her experiences as a formally trained artist with degrees from Florida A and M University and Tyler School of Art at Temple University. She discusses how art has been a powerful form of protest against injustices in the world, and a way for her to express her voice and make meaningful statements. Rob and Traci also explore the significance of representation and diversity in the art world, and the impact it can have on underrepresented communities.Listeners will gain a unique perspective on the importance of art as a form of self-expression, social commentary, and activism, and the role it can play in promoting diversity and equity in society. Join Rob and Traci for an inspiring and thought-provoking conversation on "The Truth In This Art.Creators & Guests Rob Lee - Host Traci Mims - Guest ★ Support this podcast ★
Joining me for this episode is Stephanie Rose Bird, author of “The Healing Power of African American Spirituality: A Celebration of Ancestor Worship, Herbs and Hoodoo, Ritual and Conjure.” Stephanie Rose Bird is the author of 5 published books including “Sticks, Stones, Roots and Bones: Hoodoo, Mojo and Conjuring with Herbs,” and “A Healing Grove: African Tree Remedies and Rituals for Body and Spirit.” Her writing has been published in numerous magazines and anthologies including "Natural Home and Garden," "Herb Quarterly," "Sage Woman," and "Llewellyn Herbal Almanac.” https://www.stephanierosebird.comStephanie graduated with honors from Temple University, Tyler School of Art and received an MFA from the University of California San Diego, where she studied Visual Arts. Bird won a Senior Fulbright Scholar Award and through that award she did field work in anthropology and art in Australia with various groups of Australian Aboriginal people.She has studied Gullah culture in South Carolina as well. As an artist she has exhibited nationally in museums, universities and galleries. She has been a member of the College Arts Association, Fulbright Foundation, Chicago Artist's Coalition, Woman Made Gallery Advisory Board, American Botanical Council's Herb Research Society, American Folklore Society, Society for Shamanic Practitioners, and the International Center for Traditional Childbearing (Black Midwives and Healers).PLEASE HELP THE CHANNEL GROW • SUBSCRIBE, like, comment, and click the Notification Bell so you don't miss a show. Thank you! https://www.youtube.com/mysticlounge LINK TREE: https://linktr.ee/CoffeeandUFOsHALF LIGHT documentary: https://youtu.be/ib7r2M_ntBkPlease consider supporting the channel by becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/mysticloungeHumanitarian Aid for Ukraine: https://www.npr.org/2022/02/25/1082992947/ukraine-support-help Check out other fantastic Un-X shows at https://www.unxnetwork.com/shows
Born and raised on her family's 7-acre ranch in Auburn, Washington, African American sculptor Marita Dingus has been exhibiting her artwork locally and internationally for over 30 years. Working almost exclusively with found objects of every possible variety, Dingus's work is a commentary on the enslavement of African people, recycling, and the politics of poverty. Her signature African-inflected figures of all sizes have become a familiar sight in the region, having been shown at galleries, museums, outdoor installations, and even on the walls of Town Hall Seattle, where her piece “Woman as the Creator” can be viewed on the 1st Floor. Gary Faigin talks with her about her long career and where she plans to go from here. Marita Dingus attended Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia (BFA, 1980) and San Jose State University (MFA, 1985). She has received a Visual Art Fellowship from Artist Trust (1994), a John S. Guggenheim Fellowship (1999), and the Morrie and Joan Alhadeff PONCHO Artist of the Year Award (2005). Dingus has had solo shows at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter and The Stenersen Museum, both in Norway (2002, 2006), as well as the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA (2005 – 2006). Her work has been included in Nature/Culture organized by The Society for Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh (2006 – 2008), Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC (2006 – 2007) and 21st Century American Women Artists at the Residence of the United States Ambassador to NATO in Brussels, Belgium (2006 – 2010). Her work is in many regional museums and corporate collections. Dingus currently lives and works in the state of Washington and is represented by Traver Gallery in Seattle. Painter, critic, and author Gary Faigin is cofounder and Artistic Director of Gage Academy of Art in Seattle, as well as the school's Still Life Atelier instructor. Faigin also serves as a Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, where he teaches facial expressions to graduate animation students and works on a research team studying the human perception of stylized facial expressions. He has taught in art schools across the country including the National Academy of Design and the Parsons School of Design. In 2001, Faigin published his first book, The Artist's Complete Guide to Facial Expression, which has since been translated into seven languages and reprinted sixteen times. Presented by Town Hall Seattle and the Gage Academy of Art.
Steve Keister (b.1949, lives and works in New York, NY) earned a BFA and an MFA from Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and a Gottlieb Foundation Grant, among other awards. He has had solo exhibitions at Freddy, Harris, NY; Underdonk, Brooklyn, NY; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Texas Gallery, Houston; Blum Helman, New York; Galerie Rudolf Zwirner, Cologne; Feature, Inc, New York; and Mitchell Algus, New York. Steve's solo exhibition BIO MESO is currently on view at Derek Eller Gallery through February 4, 2023. Steve Keister Installation, Derek Eller Gallery Steve Keister Siamese Cat, 2022 glazed ceramic, acrylic on wood 11 x 14.25 x 3.5 in. Steve Keister Flying Bat 2, 2023 glazed ceramic, acrylic on wood 10 x 23.5 x 10 in.
Comprised of hundreds of objects fabricated using multiple glass processes, Between Seeing and Knowing is a large-scale, site-specific installation by artists Anna Boothe and Nancy Cohen. The installation is on view now through February 5, 2023 at Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass, Neenah, Wisconsin. Created as part of a collaborative residency that took place at the Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG) in 2012, the artwork has been previously exhibited at Accola Griefen Gallery, New York, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, and Philadelphia's International Airport. At its core, Between Seeing and Knowing is the result of both artists' long-standing interest in and in-depth study of Tibetan Buddhist thangka paintings and the integration of their otherwise very separate studio practices. Thangkas are ordered cosmological paintings, often scrolls, created for the purpose of meditation and composed of numerous visual elements. This installation reinterprets the symbolism in the paintings to create new work that reflects the organizational structure and palette of the paintings, as well as the sense of expansiveness and lack of hard resolution characteristic of Buddhist ideology. Boothe and Cohen state: “Overall, through this collaboration, its subject matter, and our chosen methodology, we seek to understand, both visually and viscerally, another cultural perspective or expression unlike our own, through our dissection and re-assemblage of elements unique to that culture. Just as collaboration brings forth the opportunity for a deep exchange of ideas and the development of sympathetic approaches to doing what one does, pragmatically and metaphorically, this is our attempt at bridging gaps between cultural approaches to explain the unexplainable.” With degrees in sculpture from Rhode Island School of Design and glass from Tyler School of Art/Temple University, Boothe has worked with glass since 1980. Included in the permanent collections of CMoG, Racine Art Museum and Tacoma Museum of Art, her cast glass work has been exhibited widely, including recently at the Albuquerque Art Museum, Fuller Craft Museum, Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts and the Hotel Nani Mocenigo Palace in Venice, as well as at several villas in Italy's Veneto Region. Boothe taught in Tyler's glass program for 16 years, helped develop and chaired Salem Community College's glass art program and has exhibited and/or lectured internationally in Australia, Belgium, Israel, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, Taiwan and Turkey, as well as at numerous US universities and glass-focused schools. She served on the Board and as President of the Glass Art Society from 1998-2006 and is a former Director of Glass at Philadelphia's National Liberty Museum. With an MFA in Sculpture from Columbia University and a BFA in Ceramics from Rochester Institute of Technology, Cohen has been working with glass (among other materials) since 1990. Her work examines resiliency in relation to the environment and the human body. Cohen's work has been widely exhibited throughout the United States and is represented in collections such as The Montclair Museum, The Weatherspoon Art Gallery, and The Zimmerli Museum. She has completed large-scale, site-specific projects for The Staten Island Botanical Garden, The Noyes Museum of Art, The Katonah Museum, Howard University, and others. Recent solo exhibitions include Walking a Line at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts in Chelsea, New York, and Nancy Cohen: Atlas of Impermanence at the Visual Arts Center in Summit, New Jersey. Group exhibitions include All We Can Save: Climate Conversations at the Nurture Nature Center in Easton, Pennsylvania, and ReVision and Respond at The Newark Museum. Cohen is a 2022 recipient of a Mid-Atlantic Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. She currently teaches drawing and sculpture at Queens College. In a review of Boothe and Cohen's collaborative project, Elizabeth Crawford of N.Y Arts Magazine, wrote: : “Intuitively proximate to Buddhist philosophy, the piece is about the inter-relatedness of things. Each glass part appears sentient and in direct communication with the others. In a Thangka painting, none of the forms are meant to be isolated but work together to invite the viewer to take the painting in at once, as a whole. Similarly, all of the pieces in Boothe and Cohen's installation contribute to a sense of continuous breath or movement which is enhanced by light reflecting through the glass.” For this innovative work the artists used an astounding range of glass processes including kiln-casting, slumping, fusing, blowing, hot-sculpting and sand-casting.
Twenty years ago, a rare disease rendered David New deaf, blind, and paralyzed from the waist down. Rejecting his doctors' terminal diagnosis, defying all odds, David learned to walk again and gradually regained his hearing, though he did not regain his sight.Multi-talented, he has since become a steadfast advocate for people with disabilities, creates glass sculptures, founded several companies and non-profits, and has embarked on an exciting venture, the South Beach Jazz Festival, www.sobejazzfestival.com.David was born and raised in Philadelphia and began his university studies at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. He continued his education at the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City and the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. An artist at heart, David worked in his family's furniture business while creating his own interior design firm, R. David New Interior Design. He relocated to South Florida in 2000 and continued pursuing his passion for art and design.“As a visual artist my whole life, I was missing a component. I had to rethink everything. I got more involved in the community. I started new organizations and non-profits,” adds David.David works tirelessly to break down barriers and to educate people about living and working with people with disabilities. In addition to serving as president of Power Access Inc. and Ability Explosion®, he was chairman of the Miami Beach Disability Access Committee for six years until January 2016, where he is still instilled as a member. David was the founder of the Miami Beach Council of the Blind, an affiliate of the Florida Council and the American Council of the Blind. In 2012, he took over Access Now Inc., which is an advocacy organization for enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act. With Access Now, David is working to build the first fully accessible art museum in the world located in Philadelphia Pennsylvania.Through Power Access and Access Now, his two non-profit organizations, David provides programs and produces experiential events centered around building awareness of the challenges faced by people with disabilities, including Dining in the Dark, Disability Awareness Day and the South Beach Jazz Festival.David recently reignited his lifelong passion for creating art when he learned about a new 3-D laser technology for creating laser-etched glass sculptures, a perfect medium for his visionary mind and imagination. He was introduced to the machinery, serendipitously located in Miami - the only one of its kind in the country. He designs the concept, the imagery, dimensions, and presentations, as well as the polished stainless-steel bases and glass specifications. David's work has been exhibited in art galleries, at Art Basel Miami and he has plans to open a gallery on Miami Beach.
For over fifty years, Dona Nelson has made series of different kinds of paintings, distinguished by a variety of approaches to both image and material.Nelson was born in Grand Island, Nebraska in 1947. She received a B.F.A. from Ohio State University (1968), and studied at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program (1967). She is a Professor of Painting and Drawing at Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, where she has worked since 1992. Her paintings are included in museum collections such as The Carnegie Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum, The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, The Pompidou, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Museum of New South Wales in Australia. Among other grants, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1994 and in 2011, she received a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. The Night of the 25th of May, 2022. Acrylic and acrylic media on canvas. 80 x 80 inches. The Night of the 25th of May, 2022. Acrylic and acrylic media on canvas. 80 x 80 inches. Surveyor's Lunch, 1981-1982. Oil on canvas, 72 x 78.5 inches. Untitled05, 1978. Oil on canvas. 32 x 17 inches.
Rachel Ignotofsky is on the #ReadingWithYourKids #Podcast to celebrate her new nonfiction title The History of the Computer. Rachel is a New York Times Best Selling author and illustrator, based in California. She grew up in New Jersey on a healthy diet of Star Trek and pudding and graduated from Tyler School of Art in 2011 with a BFA in Graphic Design. Rachel's career as a scientific communicator started by nurturing her own curiosity. Out of college, she created art and infographics about topics she found interesting and important- with a focus in science literacy. She had many friends starting their careers in teaching, and Rachel wanted to create resources to help them with their lessons. Click here to visit Rachel's website - https://rachelignotofskydesign.com/about Click here to visit our website - www.readingwithyourkids.com
The first thing you see when you walk into the medical school building at the University of Texas at Tyler is a teaching kitchen, and the director of the nutrition curriculum is a dietician from the East Texas Food Bank. That should give you some idea of how differently the school's founding Dean, Dr. Brigham Willis, sees its mission. “What we're trying to do is create a very unique program focused on how we can serve the particular needs of East Texas,” he tells host Shiv Gaglani. And in a region that has some of the highest rates of obesity, diabetes, and smoking in the country, that means focusing on lifestyle medicine. “Our students are actually going to have the opportunity to become nutrition coaches and personal trainers which I think is really foundational to what we're trying to do. Instead of just saying, “eat better," they're going to have actual strategies and be a connection to resources to be able to help patients do that.” It also means being deeply embedded in the community in everything they do, and recruiting students from the region to increase the chances that they will eventually practice there and help reduce a physician shortage. From limiting lectures in favor of active learning, to requiring students to become certified EMTs in the first six weeks, to pushing to make education tuition free for all students, Dr. Willis and his team are taking full advantage of the opportunity to build a medical education from the ground up, as you'll learn in this fascinating episode. Mentioned in this episode: https://medicine.uttyler.edu
Amy Pleasant received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1994) and an MFA from the Tyler School of Art, Temple University (1999). Amy was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 2018, the South Arts Prize for the State of Alabama (2018), Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Award (2015), Mary Hambidge Distinguished Artist Award (2015), Cultural Alliance of Birmingham Individual Artist Fellowship (2008), and Alabama State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship (2019/2003). She has held solo exhibitions at Hunter Museum of American Art (Chattanooga, TN), Brackett Creek Editions (NYC), Geary Contemporary (NYC/Millerton, NY), Laney Contemporary (Savannah, GA), Institute 193 (Lexington, KY), Jeff Bailey Gallery (Hudson/NYC), whitespace gallery (Atlanta, GA), Augusta University (Columbus, GA), Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art (IN), Birmingham Museum of Art (AL), Atlanta Contemporary (GA), Auburn University's School of Liberal Arts (AL), Rhodes College (Memphis, TN), Candyland (Stockholm, Sweden), and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (AL) among others. Her group exhibitions include Brackett Creek Editions (Bozeman, MT), Zuckerman Museum of Art (Kennesaw, GA), Knoxville Museum of Art (Knoxville, TN), Hesse Flatow (NYC), SEPTEMBER (Hudson, NY), Mindy Solomon Gallery (Miami, FL), Tif Sigfrids (Athens, GA), Hemphill Fine Arts (Washington, D.C.), Adams and Ollman (Portland, OR), Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts (AL), Cuevas Tilleard Projects (NYC), The Dodd Galleries (Athens, GA), Weatherspoon Museum of Art (NC), Hunter Museum of American Art (Chattanooga, TN), Columbus Museum of Art (GA), National Museum of Women in the Arts (D.C.), The Mobile Museum of Art (AL), and the U.S. Embassy, Prague, Czech Republic. Her work has been reviewed in publications such as World Sculpture News, Sculpture, The Brooklyn Rail, Art in America, Artforum, Art Papers, Bad at Sports and BURNAWAY. Her first monograph, The Messenger's Mouth Was Heavy, was released in 2019, co-published by Institute 193 and Frank. Amy also co-founded the curatorial initiative The Fuel And Lumber Company with artist Pete Schulte in 2013.
As a storyteller, John Moran's work is constructed from a series of anecdotes, references, and experiences. While he draws ties to American pop culture, politics, and social issues, it's not done arbitrarily. The artist attempts to illustrate how he sees the barrage of consumerism, religion, and politics colliding with depictions of social injustice, secular beliefs, and popular culture. These hot sculpted works pack an emotional punch through unforgettable imagery as seen in pieces such as New Times Roman and Sale of the Deathman. Moran States: “I myself am a product of all of these things; I am American, and America was founded on dissent. To paraphrase Picasso: my work is a collection of lies, hopefully helping the viewer realize the truth. Though for me the truth is not absolute, it is simply how I see the world. It is not necessarily an attempt at subversion, but more an attempt to reconcile, and in a way celebrate, the absurdity and hypocrisy of society.” These attributes and ideologies made Moran's appearance on the Netflix glassblowing competition series, Blown Away 3, a personal nod to irony. Originally from Philadelphia, the winner of Season 3 currently resides in Ghent, Belgium, where he directs Gent Glas, a community glass studio he co-founded in 2014. The mission of Gent Glas is to build an inclusive community of artists working to introduce glass as an artistic medium to the public. Receiving his BFA from Tyler School of Art and MFA from Illinois State University, Moran recently completed his PhD at Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw, Poland. He has participated in several international artist in residence programs including CGCA at WheatonArts, S12, GlazenHuis Lommel, and STARWorks. His work has been exhibited in many galleries and museums across the United States and Europe, including Habatat Galleries, SiC! Gallery, Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, and Delaware Contemporary. Since winning Blown Away 3, Moran has been extremely busy. October events included demonstrating at Michigan Hot Glass and a Meet the Artist event for the exhibition We Are Blown Away at Habatat Detroit Fine Arts. On October 21 at 7 p.m., Moran will give a public demonstration at the Pittsburgh Glass Center (PGC) alongside Minhi England and John Sharvin. Throughout the month of November, he will participate in Habatat's online exhibition Not Grandmas Glass. His residency at Museum of Glass Tacoma runs from November 9 – 13. In 2023, an exhibition with England and Sharvin will be held at PGC in February and Moran's Corning Museum of Glass residency – grand prize for winning Blown Away 3 – begins in April. Of the inspiration for his glass sculpture, Moran states: “It may not seem autobiographical, but my experiences and observations are the genesis of my ideas. Each piece is a reaction to a specific event, but is not an illustration of it. I pull from everything around me. My own political and religious views, art, books, movies, family, and popular culture culminate into layers of seemingly random references, multiple components, and a visual overload that mimics our daily experience.”
Natalie Cheung received her MFA in Photography from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and her BFA in Photography from the Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington, DC. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally; she is a 2022 DC Arts & Humanities Fellowship recipient and has had work represented in numerous collections including the Museum of Fine Art, Houston and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Cheung currently teaches at the George Washington University and has previously taught at the Corcoran College of Art + Design and Temple University, Tyler School of Art. She has been represented by Morton Fine Art since 2014.The Truth In This ArtThe Truth In This Art is a podcast interview series supporting vibrancy and development of Baltimore & beyond's arts and culture. To find more amazing stories from the artist and entrepreneurial scenes in & around Baltimore, check out my episode directory. Stay in TouchNewsletter sign-upSupport my podcastShareable link to episode ★ Support this podcast ★
Commercial Interior Designer Christine Flannigan joins me in this episode to talk about her process in designing retail spaces. Christine really embraces experimentation and quirkiness in her designs, putting her own unique spin on each space she creates. She shares what her path into the design world was like, highlighting both the fun aspects of designing for retail spaces and the challenges. We also discuss what it's like to strive for a better balance between our work and home lives.Guest Bio Christine is a mixed media artist currently practicing art and commercial interior design in San Diego. She was trained at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, and currently specializes in experiential art installations. When she joined the team at Modern Times Beer, Christine found herself a home in the beverage industry. Her time at Modern Times taught her to be uninhibited and to trust the team she worked with. During the pandemic, she got the opportunity to make an outdoor event space in Barrio Logan called “Sideyard” attached to ReBru Spirits, and from there, she met the wonderful team at Kove. Kove needed brand direction, and Christine was in the right place at the right time with the skills they needed. She already adored the people and the brand behind it and was lucky to have found Kove at the time she did. Christine then designed the tasting room in Miramar that opened in June of 2022. It was designed to be a ‘modern eclectic experience that can seamlessly transition from day to night.' Christine's interior spaces continue to highlight the work she and others produce as fine artists. No two spaces should ever look the same, and bespoke installations are a signature of the work she produces. Featured in this episodeFeatured candle: Beeswax candle from Mithras CandleFeatured brew: Mushroom Mocha from Fun Earth CoFeatured deck: Radiant Crystal Cards by Bouchette DesignConnect with ChristineInstagramAre you an interior designer or are you interested in Holistic Interior Design? Check out my membership program, the Design Coven! This program is a real-world industry mentorship for Holistic Interior Designers that has everything you won't find in traditional design school curriculum. You'll learn from practicing interior designers working on real life projects, and get access to cutting edge vendors, suppliers, furniture makers, textile designers, and design resources that I've curated over my 17 years of design experience. As a member, you'll have the opportunity to build valuable relationships of your own. Learn more.Connect with Rachel LarraineWebsiteInstagramPatreonInterior Design Services
In this podcast episode, Tamryn McDermott engages in a conversation with Tyson Lewis and Peter Hyland, the authors of the book, Studious Drift: Movements and Protocols for a Postdigital Education, which was published earlier this year by the University of Minnesota Press. Lewis and Hyland engage readers in questions such as, “What kind of university is possible when digital tools are hacked for a more experimental future?” From the book jacket: “The global pandemic has underscored contemporary reliance on digital environments. This is particularly true among schools and universities which, in response, shifted much of their instruction online. The virtual classroom opens opportunities to move beyond familiar learning practices toward radical digital possibilities for education. Studious Drift revives the relationship between studying and the generative space of the studio in service of advancing educational experimentation for a world where digital tools have become a permanent part of education. Drawing on Alfred Jarry's pataphysics, the “science of imaginary solutions,” this book reveals how the studio is a space-time machine capable of traveling beyond the limits of conventional online learning to redefine education as interdisciplinary, experimental, public study.” Additionally, here are a few of the links that were mentioned within the episode. We invite you to explore Studio D (https://onstead.cvad.unt.edu/studio-d) and the Education as Experimentation 1 video (https://youtu.be/llUj_Qyd5Zo). Studious Drift can be accessed digitally here: https://manifold.umn.edu/projects/studious-drift Lewis, T. and Hyland, P. (2022). Studio Drift: Movements and Protocols for a Postdigital Education. University of Minnesota Press. Tyson Lewis is a professor of art education in the College of Visual Arts and Design at the University of North Texas where he teaches courses in aesthetics, critical theory, educational philosophy, philosophy for children, and critical phenomenology. Recently, his articles have appeared in journals such as Angelaki, Symploke, Cultural Critique, and Thesis Eleven, and he is the author of the book Walter Benjamin's Antifascist Education: From Riddles to Radio (SUNY Press, 2021). Peter Hyland is director of the Jo Ann (Jody) and Charles O. Oustead Institute for Education in the Visual Arts and Design at the University of North Texas. Peter is the author of the poetry collection "Out Loud "(Sheep Meadow Press, 2013). Peter's poems, book reviews, and articles have also appeared in "American Literary Review," "Conduit," "Green Mountains Review," "New England Review," "Ploughshares," and elsewhere. Peter earned a B.F.A. in Studio Art: Drawing and Painting from the University of North Texas and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing – Poetry from the University of Houston. Tamryn McDermott is currently a PhD student in the department of Arts Administration, Education and Policy at the Ohio State University. She received a BFA from Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University and an MFA in Fibers and Sculpture from the University of Missouri.
I Like Your Work: Conversations with Artists, Curators & Collectors
Past guest and visual artist, Eric Hibit, joins me again today to chat about his work and his new book that he authored, Color Theory for Dummies which is a beginners guide to color theory for artists. Eric Hibit was born in Rochester, New York and is a visual artist based in New York City. He attended the Corcoran College of Art + Design (BFA,1998) and Yale University School of Art (MFA, 2003). In New York, he has exhibited at Morgan Lehman Gallery, Dinner Gallery, Deanna Evans Projects, My Pet Ram, One River School of Art + Design, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Underdonk Gallery, Ortega y Gasset Projects, Zurcher Studio, C24 Gallery, Anna Kustera Gallery, Max Protetch Gallery, and elsewhere. He has exhibited nationally at Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, NC, Adds Donna in Chicago, Curator's Office in Washington, DC, Geoffrey Young Gallery in Great Barrington, MA, The Cape Cod Museum of Art, Satellite Contemporary in Las Vegas, NV, The University of Vermont, Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek, CA and internationally in Sweden, France and Norway. His work has been covered by the Washington Post, The Village Voice, Hyperallergic, Newsweek, New York Times and New York Post. Hibit has taught studio art at Drexel University, The Cooper Union, Suffolk County Community College, 92NY, Tyler School of Art, NYU and Hunter College. Artist residencies include Terra Foundation in Giverny, France (2003), UNILEVER Residency in New York (2015), and Kingsbrae International Residency for the Arts (2019) and Green Olives Arts in Tetouan, Morocco (2019). Publications include Dear Hollywood Writers, with poet Geoffrey Young (Suzy Solidor Editions, 2017) and Paintings and Fables with Wayne Koestenbaum, a limited edition artist's book (2017), and Color Theory for Dummies, published by Wiley (2022). He is currently Co-Director of Ortega y Gasset Projects, an artist-run gallery based in Brooklyn, where he has curated exhibitions since 2014. LINKS: https://www.erichibit.com/ https://www.instagram.com/erichibit/ https://www.amazon.com/Color-Theory-Dummies-Eric-Hibit/dp/1119892279 Sponsors: https://www.artworkarchive.com/ilikeyourwork https://www.sunlighttax.com/ilyw I Like Your Work Links: Submit Your Work Check out our Catalogs! Exhibitions Studio Visit Artist Interviews I Like Your Work Podcast Say “hi” on Instagram
UT Tyler SOM is ready for your application! Learn about the newest medical school in Texas during this session and learn what it takes to craft a competitive application to the 21st member institution and first medical school in East Texas! ---------- Join our online communities to receive early access to the podcasts, ask questions about preparing for professional school, and receive information directly from TMDSAS/TXHES, professional schools and advisors. The TMDSAS Hub is open to all applicants. The TMDSAS Non-Traditional Applicants group is open to all applicants who identify themselves as non-traditional. If you have any questions or comments about the podcast, reach us at info@tmdsas.com. Inside Health Education is a proud affiliate of the MededMedia network.
Rachel Ignotofsky is a New York Times bestselling author and illustrator, based in Santa Barbara. She grew up in New Jersey on a healthy diet of cartoons and pudding and graduated from Tyler School of Art in 2011. Her work is inspired by history and science. She believes that illustration is a powerful tool that can make learning exciting. She has a passion for taking dense information and making it fun and accessible. Rachel hopes to use her work to spread her message about scientific literacy and feminism.Bryan Ripley Crandall has an interesting story with technology, as he remembers vividly the envy he felt when his best friend, Peter Boy, got the first home computer of the neighborhood and, later, when his college classmates came to campus with clunky, but helpful, keyboard machines. He taught for over a decade in Louisville, Kentucky, and became part of the 21st cohort of the Louisville Writing Project. It was then he began thinking about the ways technology was shifting his own classroom instruction. In fact, he was first published in Teaching the New Writing: Technology, Change, and Assessment in the 21st Century Classroom, edited by Anne Herington, Kevin Hodgson, and Charles Moran. Ah, but he confesses that he knew little about the history of the computer until reading Rachel Ignatofsky's book.
From sketch books to glassware, lighting or toilets, Zach Puchowitz's raw aesthetic, in combination with humorous, self-reflective drawings and scribbled thoughts, are inspired by daily life, inner psyche struggles, low-brow art, subculture and guys from the neighborhood. From his Hot Rod Derby Cars to his Punished Head series to The Idiots, The Kennys and Billy B., Puchowitz's stunning sculpting skills continue to amaze fans and collectors alike. Even the Corning Museum of Glass (CMOG), Corning, New York, couldn't resist Puchowitz's work and recently acquired his Hot Rod Derby Car #2 for its permanent collection. This functional pipe in the form of a hollow, colorless flameworked car features a bald eagle, two conical black and colorless headlights with diamond-patterning, and a rectangular red-, white-, and yellow-striped license plate reading “WOODY” applied to back. The main character is a flameworked rider with rubber boots, exposed midriff, red fabric bandana, black mohawk with red and yellow tips, and the Anarchy symbol on one side of his head. Currently living and working in Barcelona, Spain, Puchowitz first experienced glassmaking in 1998. He became addicted very quickly and built his first lampworking studio in ‘99 as well as began studying glass at the Tyler School of Art. While learning that “the glass moves when it's hot,” the artist was able to develop his understanding of the arts and glass as a material. He sharpened his hand skills in flameworking and furnace glass studio processes while developing his signature aesthetic. After graduating in 2003, Puchowitz spent a year in Burlington, Vermont, as a resident artist at local glass shops. Needing more perspective, he traveled throughout Europe for three months while he grew out his beard and pondered life. He worked alongside with the late Venetian Maestro, ELio Quarisa, as his teaching assistant. Upon returning to his native Philadelphia, and after shaving his face, Puchowitz established his own multiformat glass shop. In 2007, he began transforming the space that would later become Ouchkick. Since then, Puchowitz has dabbled in different avenues of the conventional glass artist by returning to his Alma mater to present slide lectures and teaching at local glass shops. The artist has exhibited his work at galleries in Philadelphia, NYC, LA, Denver, SOFA Chicago, Scope Miami as well as many other unconventional events and marketplaces, becoming well-known in the subculture of heady art and glass making. Puchowitz will be throwing down a few weekend workshops in Barcelona. The classes will run from 12 – 8 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Workshops include demos, torch time with instruction, glass, etc. Only six seats are available per class: June 11, 12 – Pipemaking 101 workshop; June 25, 26 – Pipemaking 101 workshop; and July 2, 3 – Pro Class –Sculpting. To apply, send an email to ouchkickstudio@gmail.com. Please put 101 in the subject title and indicate your level of glass experience. Any questions or to find out more details feel free to DM on Instagram @ouchkick. Puchowitz will also teach a workshop in 2023 at CMOG.
About the guestTim McFarlane is a painter based in Philadelphia, PA. His paintings and works on paper examine the fluid and contradictory nature of memory and place, with an emphasis on color, multi-layered systems and process. His practice has extended to include wall-based painting and drawing installations, as well. Much of his work is informed by everyday observations of the visual impact of human activity and engagement with the outdoor environments of his native Philadelphia.Tim is a 1994 Temple University/Tyler School of Art graduate who has exhibited his work extensively in the U.S. and has been featured in major art fairs in New York, Miami, Dallas and San Francisco. He has been a visiting artist and lecturer at several universities, has been a regular participant in artist panels and has taught at Tyler School of Art & Architecture. Tim McFarlane's paintings and works on paper reside in numerous private and public collections such as Bucknell University, Fox School of Business (Temple University) and West Virginia University. His work is represented by the Bridgette Mayer Gallery (Philadelphia).The Truth In This ArtThe Truth In This Art is a podcast interview series supporting vibrancy and development of Baltimore & beyond's arts and culture.Mentioned in this episodeTim's websiteTo find more amazing stories from the artist and entrepreneurial scenes in & around Baltimore, check out my episode directory.Stay in TouchNewsletter sign-upSupport my podcastShareable link to episode★ Support this podcast ★
Our guest is artist, actress, and content creator Catherine LaSalle. Catherine is a graduate of the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Catherine's first major role is playing Padme Amidala in the Star Wars Theory fan-film “Vader Episode 1: Shards of the Past.” The film became a massive YouTube hit and to date has over 26 million views.Catherine discusses how her passion for art began, her YouTube channel, and her favorite Obi-Wan Kenobi moments.You can learn more about Catherine LaSalle by visiting her website at https://www.catherinelasalle.com/, and Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/catlasalle2/.YouTube video clip and portraits used with permission from Catherine LaSallehttps://www.youtube.com/c/CatherineLaSalle
What you'll learn in this episode: How Jonathan moved from sculpture to jewelry to drawing, and why he explores different ideas with each medium How the relationship between craft and fine art has evolved over the years Why people became more interested in jewelry during the pandemic Why jewelers working in any style benefit from strong technical skills How you can take advantage of the 92nd Street Y's jewelry programming and virtual talks About Jonathan Wahl Jonathan Wahl joined 92nd Street Y in July 1999 as director of the jewelry and metalsmithing program in 92Y's School of the Arts, the largest program of its kind in the nation. He is responsible for developing and overseeing the curriculum, which offers more than 60 classes weekly and 15 visiting artists annually. Jonathan is also responsible for hiring and supervising 25 faculty members, maintaining four state-of-the-art jewelry and metalsmithing studios, and promoting the department locally and nationally as a jewelry resource center. Named one of the top 10 jewelers to watch by W Jewelry in 2006, Jonathan is an accomplished artist who, from 1994 to 1995, served as artist-in-residence at Hochschule Der Kunst in Berlin, Germany. He has shown his work in the exhibitions Day Job (The Drawing Center), Liquid Lines (Museum of Fine Arts Houston), The Jet Drawings (Sienna Gallery, Lenox MA, and SOFA New York), Formed to Function (John Michael Kohler Arts Center), Defining Craft (American Craft Museum), Markers in Contemporary Metal (Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art), Transfigurations: 9 Contemporary Metalsmiths (University of Akron and tour), and Contemporary Craft (New York State Museum). Jonathan was awarded the Louis Comfort Tiffany Emerging Artist Fellowship from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, two New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships in recognition of "Outstanding Artwork," and the Pennsylvania Society of Goldsmiths Award for "Outstanding Achievement." As part of the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, TX, and The Museum of Arts and Design in New York, his work has been reviewed by Art in America (June, 2000), The New York Times (June 2005), and Metalsmith Magazine (1996, 1999, 2000 2002, 2005, 2009); his work was also featured in Metalsmith Magazine's prestigious "Exhibition in Print" (1994 and 1999). Jonathan's art work can be seen at Sienna Gallery in Lenox, Massachusetts, which specializes in contemporary American and European art work, and De Vera in Soho, New York. His work can also be seen in the publications The Jet Drawings (Sienna Press, 2008), and in three collections by Lark Books: 1,000 Rings, 500 Enameled Objects and 500 Metal Vessels. Before joining 92Y, Jonathan was, first, director of the jewelry and metalsmithing department at the YMCA's Craft Students League, and later assistant director of the League itself. Mr. Wahl holds a B.F.A. in jewelry and metalsmithing from Temple University's Tyler School of Art and an M.F.A. in metalsmithing and fine arts from the State University of New York at New Paltz. He is a member of the Society of North America Goldsmiths. Additional Resources: Website: www.jonathanwahl.com Website: www.92y.org/jewelry LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jonathancwahl Instagram: @jonathancwahl/ Photos: Available at TheJewelryJourney.com Transcript: With more than 60 jewelry classes offered weekly, the 92nd Street Y's Jewelry Center is by far the largest program of its kind in the country—and it's all run by award-winning sculptor, jeweler and artist Jonathan Wahl. He joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about the different relationships he has with jewelry and sculpture; why craftsmanship should be embraced by the art world; and what he has planned for 92Y in 2022. Read the episode transcript here. Interview with Jonathan Wahl 4/3/22 Sharon: Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. Today, my guest is Jonathan Wahl, Director of the Jewelry Center at the 92nd Street Y in New York. Jonathan was recently on the podcast, but we had to rush through the description of the many jewelry programs that are going on at the Y. So, I asked him back to tell us about the programs in more detail. Many of them are online and are recorded, so it doesn't matter where you are in the world. Jonathan, nice to see you again. Jonathan: Nice to see you, Sharon. Thanks for having me back. Sharon: You ran through it very quickly at the end because I didn't realize how much you had to say basically. So, tell us first about your interviews you have with sculptors and jewelers. Tell us about those. Are there any upcoming? Who are the next ones? Give us-- Jonathan: Sure, so the lecture series came out of the pandemic obviously. I think I've done about 25 or 30 lectures or interviews so far. The most recent series was a series of three talks about female sculptors who are jewelers or jewelers who are sculptors. As you could tell from our last conversation, I'm really interested in this line be-tween the fields of art, particularly between jewelry and sculpture or fine art and decorative art. So, I was really curious to talk to these three in particular New Yorkers who practice in both fields and it was Joe Platner who is a longtime jeweler in New York City, Michelle Okeldoner(?) whose work was primarily sculpture and also does jewelry and Anna Corey whose work also started in sculpture, but now is primarily a jeweler. So, it was really fascinating to talk to these women artists about how they practice and what inspires them in their practice. Sharon: And do you have series upcoming more in the spring or summer? Jonathan: Yup, I'm working on a series about enamel. Enameling seems to be having a re-surgence in our department and I think in jewelry in general, we're seeing a lot more enamel and a lot more color in metals. So, it will be with a contemporary artist, a historical collection and a contemporary fine jeweler. Sharon: It sounds very interesting and enamel, at least in the view I see now, is becoming much more popular. Jonathan: Yeah, yeah, I'm not exactly sure why. I'm really curious. I think maybe it's happy; it's colorful; it's as close to painting, I guess, as you can get in jewelry in a way. Sharon: It's such a skill if you do it right. It's an artistry. Jewelry is an art, but it's such an artistry within the art in a sense. Jonathan: Absolutely, you can, as we say, shake and bake and get color on metal pretty easily. So, you can get pretty direct results and get color on your metal pretty simply. Of course, to be an expert enamellist, to practice grisaille or cloisonne or brioche, you need to become master craftsman. So, there's a lot to dig into. Sharon: So, do we need to keep our eyes on the spring session, the summer session or when? Jonathan: It's going to be the summer session. I think it's going to take place in June. Sharon: O.K., I look forward to it. Jonathan: I'm not sure of the dates, but it's coming and you'll see it. Most of the talks so far are on our archives at 92Y.org in the jewelry center page. Sharon: Yeah, I know there are some that I'd really like to go look at that I missed. Jonathan: The previous three were with three Brazilian jewelers. Sharon: Now, you just had an interview with—I don't know how to say her last name—but she was talking about a Brazilian jeweler, Roberto Burle Marks. Jonathan: Uhum, correct. Sharon: But that was separate. Jonathan: It was part of the Brazilian series because Roberto Burle Marks was a Brazilian. Sharon: But it wasn't part of the Sculpture and Artist Series; it was a different series. Jonathan: Correct, right, they were three and three. Sharon: There's a lot going on. So, tell us about this jewelry residency. I was just looking at your Instagram and the ads for it. So, tell us about it. Jonathan: The Jewelry Residency Program, it would be its fifth year, but we took two years off because of the pandemic. The Jewelry Residence Program is something that I've always dreamed of doing and I'm so happy that it's back on. What it provides is a studio apartment here in our facility, 24-hour access to one of our studios and air-fare to and from New York City from anywhere in the world. Sharon: Are people applying now? When does it start? Jonathan: Yes, the applications are open until April 15. We extended the deadline. Sharon: Does it start in September-- Jonathan: Sorry, it's August 18-September 19, if I'm not mistaken. That's the residency program. Sharon: And you get applications from all over the world or what? Jonathan: We had applications from fifty countries in 2019. I would love to have applications from farther afield. Most of them come from western Europe. We're still trying to figure out how we reach populations in Asia or sub-Saharan Africa or Africa in gen-eral or even more in South America. It's been kind of hard to get to some of those areas. I'm working on a trip to Korea which you know about, so I sent it to all the artists that we're going to visit in Korea. So, I hope we get some applications from Korea and I also just was in contact with an artist who's a Ukrainian jeweler and she has started on Facebook to try and raise money and funds and help Ukrainian jewel-ers who've been displaced, so of course I've shared that residency with her and the opportunity. We would love to support a Ukrainian jeweler and have them here in New York City for a month, particularly if they're not in a studio, but I'm also looking forward to seeing how we can support a Ukrainian jeweler in general if they are here in New York City. Sharon: And so it doesn't matter, a male, female, anybody in between. Jonathan: It doesn't matter and it is open to Americans. It is an international jewelry resi-dency, but you are welcome to apply as an American. The reason for the residency is, as I mentioned, to expand New York City's access to jewelers who don't maybe normally get here and the type of work that isn't often shown in New York City, but it's also for an artist who might not normally be able to come to New York City to come to New York City, but it's also about why an artist needs to be in New York, what would New York City do for them and that could be for a whole host of reasons and there is a jury panel that I assemble every year that helps me decide who that next person should be. Sharon: Wow! That sounds pretty competitive, but it's sounds really worthwhile. Jonathan: Well, there's only one spot. Sharon, with funding, we could expand that. So again, if anyone wants to help support a residence. The residency program, I'm completely open to a conversation. Sharon: Well, I will suggest that people get in touch with you, O.K., or at least send the checks. O.K., so tell us about the travel program to Korea. Jonathan: I do a trip every other year to somewhere in the world and we have gone to Israel, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, India, Japan and this year hopefully to Korea. Sharon: Wow! That really sounds fabulous. Jonathan: Yeah, the trips are centered around historical collections and contemporary jewelers and if you're not familiar with the Korean jewelry scene, it's really vibrant and really robust. It has its roots in Europe and the United States as well as with Korean tradi-tion. So, I'm really excited to meet these artists who blend a lot of techniques and traditions and they're doing some really extraordinary work. Sharon: Well, the Korean artists who have exhibited at the international shows have really been creative and really amazing. Jonathan: Really strong work, yeah. Sharon: So, the last I talked to you, I just wanted to double check. Are you still thinking you'll be going October 6, whenever? Jonathan: Yeah, that's the tentative plan. The one thing. Korea has lifted quarantine restric-tions which is great, but groups are still restricted to six or fewer, so it's a bit of a problem for our group which is about fifteen people. So, I'm a little bit on edge about that. I'm waiting to see if that will change. Sharon: Wow! Six or fewer, that's pretty-- Jonathan: That would make going out to dinner a problem and just going to into groups and staggering them, it's like taking two trips frankly. Sharon: Yeah, no, it sounds like a lot of logistics. Jonathan: With that being said, I have a trip to the southwest in the wings for the end of October. If for some reason the gods are not with us to go to Korea, I'm putting together a trip to San Jose and Taos. Sharon: There's lots to see there. Jonathan: Uhum. Sharon: So, you also have a program for highschoolers to teach them about the jewelry industry. Tell us about that. Jonathan: Yeah, this is certainly a program that's been a dream of mine for a long time. It is a program that is offered to Title 1 art and design school in New York City and Title One schools tend to service underserve populations in general in New York City and most of those students wouldn't normally get access to a jewelry studio in high school. Most kids don't get access to a jewelry studio in high school in general. Particularly this population most likely wouldn't be taking a class at the 92nd Street Y as a fee-for-service program for obvious reasons. So, this is a program to get kids who would normally be in the studio into the studio and expose them to the tech-niques and materials and offer them a view into a possible career path, if that's something they would like to pursue. We're coordinating with New York City Jewel-ry Week who has organized wonderful guest speakers with these kids and with NYCJWM and the Department of Education, are able to offer paid internships this summer which is really exciting. It's the first year of this program, so we're still find-ing our footing and I know there are going to be some kids who decide to go into the next year and I think particularly the juniors and seniors will hopefully take advan-tage of some of these opportunities and perhaps go deeper into the field. Sharon: It sounds like a great opportunity, yeah. Jonathan: Even master soldering to a teenager, regardless of whether or not you go into the field as a career, it's a great skill to have. Sharon: I don't know that much about New York and the school system, but I would assume that there are not a lot of opportunities like this that are going on in New York. Jonathan: To my knowledge, there is not a functioning jewelry studio in any of the public high schools in New York City. Sharon: Now, that's really amazing to me. Would a shop class teach jewelry and metal-smithing? Jonathan: To my knowledge, there aren't any functioning jewelry programs classes in New York City public schools right now and we don't have trade schools for jewelry in America. There are art schools and we've talked about how that's always the best fit if you're going into the trade. Sharon: It sounds like a program that would really take off. So, what else should we know about—and what else is coming up? I know you have some great—you've had Tony Greenbaum teaching a class who teaches about modernist jewelry. Jonathan: Yup and Bella Neyman just finished a great series on costume jewelry that was really fascinating. Sharon: Uhuh, I do have to say it was great. I did listen to it. It was great because it was in Los Angeles and it was at seven in the morning which is usually not the time I'm up to watch class. So, I watched the recorded classes which was great to have. Jonathan: Yeah, and we're working on our fall programming, so I'm not exactly sure what the talks will be, but I'm sure there will be one. I'm working on another few initiatives—well, one initiative in particular that is not confirmed yet, but I would like to also create a younger designer's award or fund in which we would help support a new jeweler and help them with classes and to continue their education as well as men-torship through our faculty and through our connections. One of the huge leaps is to go from undergrad or grad in these very supportive environments and then to be let loose to fly free. Many people hone their skills while working for another artist doing benchwork, but I would like to help an artist or a young designer home their skills through our classes and through our faculty mentorship and our professional mentorship opportunities. So, I'm working on that. I would love to see it happen by the fall, but TBD. Sharon: O.K., well, you can keep us posted. I know you have so much going on, so thank you so much. I just envision you juggling so many balls. Jonathan: There's always a lot going on as well as continuing to support the programing that we do on an ongoing basis here. Every day, every week--there's a class going on right outside my office right now, one of three or four classes going on right now in the center. We do offer over fifty classes a week for jewelry alone, so that in itself is enough of a job-- Sharon: For hands-on jewelry. Jonathan: Hands-on jewelry, hands-on making. To my right, there's a wax covering class going on. To my left, there's a jewelry two class going on. Further down the road is a goldsmithing class and then—yeah, I can't remember what's in the fourth studio right now, but the most pressing thing is if you are interested or know someone who might apply for the Jewelry Residency Program, I'd strongly encourage them to do so. We've got some wonderful press from Town and Country Magazine last year and in the cut from New York Magazine, so there are some great opportunities. Sharon: It sounds like it and since the deadline is right around the corner, April 15, people need to get on it. Jonathan: But it's easy. It's a submittable application. You upload your images. You make the case for why you want to be in New York City and away you go. Sharon: I don't know. That still involves somebody sitting down and really putting their brainpower behind it. Jonathan: Get on it, people. Sharon: Jonathan, thank you so much for being here today. Jonathan: You're welcome. Sharon: And we'll keep everyone posted on what else is going on at the Y. Jonathan: Thank you, Sharon, it's always a pleasure. Hope to see you soon.
What you'll learn in this episode: How Jonathan moved from sculpture to jewelry to drawing, and why he explores different ideas with each medium How the relationship between craft and fine art has evolved over the years Why people became more interested in jewelry during the pandemic Why jewelers working in any style benefit from strong technical skills How you can take advantage of the 92nd Street Y's jewelry programming and virtual talks About Jonathan Wahl Jonathan Wahl joined 92nd Street Y in July 1999 as director of the jewelry and metalsmithing program in 92Y's School of the Arts, the largest program of its kind in the nation. He is responsible for developing and overseeing the curriculum, which offers more than 60 classes weekly and 15 visiting artists annually. Jonathan is also responsible for hiring and supervising 25 faculty members, maintaining four state-of-the-art jewelry and metalsmithing studios, and promoting the department locally and nationally as a jewelry resource center. Named one of the top 10 jewelers to watch by W Jewelry in 2006, Jonathan is an accomplished artist who, from 1994 to 1995, served as artist-in-residence at Hochschule Der Kunst in Berlin, Germany. He has shown his work in the exhibitions Day Job (The Drawing Center), Liquid Lines (Museum of Fine Arts Houston), The Jet Drawings (Sienna Gallery, Lenox MA, and SOFA New York), Formed to Function (John Michael Kohler Arts Center), Defining Craft (American Craft Museum), Markers in Contemporary Metal (Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art), Transfigurations: 9 Contemporary Metalsmiths (University of Akron and tour), and Contemporary Craft (New York State Museum). Jonathan was awarded the Louis Comfort Tiffany Emerging Artist Fellowship from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, two New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships in recognition of "Outstanding Artwork," and the Pennsylvania Society of Goldsmiths Award for "Outstanding Achievement." As part of the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, TX, and The Museum of Arts and Design in New York, his work has been reviewed by Art in America (June, 2000), The New York Times (June 2005), and Metalsmith Magazine (1996, 1999, 2000 2002, 2005, 2009); his work was also featured in Metalsmith Magazine's prestigious "Exhibition in Print" (1994 and 1999). Jonathan's art work can be seen at Sienna Gallery in Lenox, Massachusetts, which specializes in contemporary American and European art work, and De Vera in Soho, New York. His work can also be seen in the publications The Jet Drawings (Sienna Press, 2008), and in three collections by Lark Books: 1,000 Rings, 500 Enameled Objects and 500 Metal Vessels. Before joining 92Y, Jonathan was, first, director of the jewelry and metalsmithing department at the YMCA's Craft Students League, and later assistant director of the League itself. Mr. Wahl holds a B.F.A. in jewelry and metalsmithing from Temple University's Tyler School of Art and an M.F.A. in metalsmithing and fine arts from the State University of New York at New Paltz. He is a member of the Society of North America Goldsmiths. Additional Resources: Website: www.jonathanwahl.com Website: www.92y.org/jewelry LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jonathancwahl Instagram: @jonathancwahl/ Photos: Available at TheJewelryJourney.com Transcript: With more than 60 jewelry classes offered weekly, the 92nd Street Y's Jewelry Center is by far the largest program of its kind in the country—and it's all run by award-winning sculptor, jeweler and artist Jonathan Wahl. He joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about the different relationships he has with jewelry and sculpture; why craftsmanship should be embraced by the art world; and what he has planned for 92Y in 2022. Read the episode transcript here. Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the second part of a two-part episode. Today, my guest is Jonathan Wahl, Director of the Jewelry Center of the 92nd Street Y in New York City. The program is the largest of its kind in the country. In addition to his life in jewelry, Jonathan is an award-winning artist whose work is in the permanent collections of prestigious museums. Welcome back. When do you have time to work on your jewelry? Jonathan: I'm here Monday through Wednesday in the studio here. Then I'm in my studio the rest of the time, so Thursday, Friday, Saturdays and Sundays. Sharon: Your home studio or a studio at the Y? Jonathan: No, it's not here. It's in Brooklyn. I wouldn't be able to work here. People would be finding me. No, I maintain a studio in Brooklyn. That's where I've done all my work basically for the past 25 years. Sharon: Tell us about your work. I was reading about you. You have a whole series of different things, drawings, collections. Jonathan: Lest I forget, I have had a jewelry line. In 2005—and I'll get to the larger bodies of work—when I moved to New York, my work was primarily sculpture. It was the tinware. It became the oversize tinware. I got a Tiffany fellowship which gave me a nice chunk of cash, and I made a series of work based on Frederic Remington, a series called Cowboys and Unicorns. I made a series of tasseled heads for this exhibition. It took about a year. There were many bodies of work, like Aztec Astronauts, which is inspired by Jared Diamond's book, “Guns, Germs, and Steel.” There's no jewelry in it at all, but it was interesting. I had a wonderful Foundation for the Arts fellowship for Cowboys and Unicorns. I had this Tiffany fellowship. I thought I was hot to trot. I was an artist, but because I've also been very self-directed in my work, I have made choices on my own, and I certainly hadn't thought of the larger picture, like, “Who am I marketing to?” At one point, I felt like maybe I should do something different. I saw these people putting jewelry lines together and I thought, “Well, let me try that. I'm going to throw together a jewelry line.” I did put together a jewelry line in 2004 and 2005, and it got a lot of press. Barneys called and Bergdorf called. It was exciting and, true to myself, I looked at this opportunity and thought, “What they're asking for sounds like I'm going to have to start a real business.” Between my role here as Director of the Jewelry Center and my studio practice, I wasn't sure I wanted to run a full-time jewelry business. What this position here affords me is the time and space to work in my studio on what I want to make. I thought that if I put together a jewelry line, that was a different kind of hustle, and a hustle that was going to take over. As a consequence, I declined Barneys and Bergdorf. I did sell my line at De Vera in New York, which is a much more boutique, gorgeous store that has since moved. Interestingly enough, launching the jewelry line brought me to drawing. People who knew me and knew my work as a sculptor, when I said I'd launched a jewelry line, to put it politely, they looked confused. I've said this in many interviews: a jeweler in the art world, people don't really get. An artist who makes jewelry is different than a jeweler who makes art, may I say. Sharon: That's interesting. Jonathan: I think that has changed. It has changed to some extent, but it's different. It's a one-way street. A potter and a sculptor, interesting, particularly with clay being very hot right now. A painter and a bartender makes sense; people get that. Anyway, I found this look of confusion quite perplexing. I started these large drawings, renderings of jet jewelry. I was working on a series of drawings about jewelry, about history, about my love for history, and I happened upon jet jewelry. I thought it was so out of the ordinary: monochromatic, at times really epoch-shifting in terms of what it was. So, I decided to start drawing these objects to take them out of the realm of jewelry and present them to the viewer as an object. Rendered large, they took on a completely different identity. It paralleled my experience of having this conversation with people saying I'm a jeweler and a sculptor. I thought, “If I present them with these drawings that are straight-up portraits of jewelry, maybe they'll think differently about what those edges are about or what those lines are, what those determinations are.” Sharon: That's interesting about people not getting a jeweler as a painter or an artist. That's what you said, right? Jonathan: I wish I could deny it. Again, this is 20 or 15 or 17 years ago; I can't remember. Things have changed a lot in the art world. I'll probably get in trouble for this; I don't know if any of the Whitney curators are going to hear this, but the Whitney, one of my favorite museums, had an exhibition of artists who employ craft, I think. It was all artists who made objects or used material that represented craft in some way. It was such an artist's use of craft, and done in a way that was pure aesthetics and abstraction, which was such a different experience with respect to the materials that I think a craftsperson has. I also find that curators are really only looking at artists who use craft techniques or craft materials from this artistic, old-school, may I say modernist perspective. I truly mean that because it was fascinating to see how a fine art museum presented craft in this way. To me, it reiterated how these fields are viewed, certainly from each corner of the art world. I found the show at the Whitney really underwhelming in terms of how they represented craft. Just because you use yarn doesn't mean it's craft. That's the takeaway. I think that represents this weird, one-way street or one-way mirror of how crafts and art are viewed together. Martin Puryear was not in that show. Sharon: Pardon? Jonathan: Martin Puryear, whose work definitely involves craftsmanship. He wasn't in that exhibition. There were people who I thought could have been in that exhibition to represent how craft is employed in the fine art world and would have made the statement better. Sharon: So, what is craft? It always seems to me the question that's has no answer. How do you know, when you're looking at something, whether it's craft or fine art or jewelry made with yarn? What's the difference? Not difference, but how do you separate it? Jonathan: I think it's many times subjective. To that point, the curators at the Whitney could have put whatever they wanted and called it craft, but I think when you see craft, you know it. I think you really do. I think their lines can be crossed. I think there's craft that's art, and I think there's art that's craft, but for myself, I know it when I see it. I think it also depends on how you employ the materials and for what end. I've been thinking about this recently. Craft was never really thought of as espousing an agenda other than its function. That was how it started, but now in some ways, the art world is looking at craft that explores itself beyond its function. It's making social commentary and is actually functioning in the way fine art would have explained itself, as material subjugated to the thought process of the artist. Craftsmen can be both, explaining or using functional materiality. They can also use a fine arts strategy, if they're making a commentary or going beyond the object's functionality into a realm that makes you think about the object differently. That is more of a fine arts strategy. So, it gets really sticky. Sharon: It's one of those questions. I'm thinking about craft in jewelry. I'm thinking about when you were in camp, the lanyards you would make, the necklaces you'd make with plastics. I guess you could call it a type of craft jewelry. Jonathan: For sure. I don't think craftsmen should be offended by lanyard jewelry. That's how you start. It's weaving; it's one of the most basic weaving skills. Voice that history. Those are old skills. That's how we built civilization. Believe in that. We wouldn't be here without those skills. Don't be afraid of that. I think my own jewelry journey, if you will, has been influenced by these experiences. I love jewelry. I love objects. I love technique. I love skill. I'm so in awe of people who can make, who can really fabricate something. It takes skill. It takes work. It takes focus. I love jewelry. I wear one ring and a watch. I change my ring up whenever I feel like that. They're mostly rings I've made, but they're a specific type of ring. Apart from my look in the 80s, I'm a relatively conservative-looking guy, so I wear jewelry that reflects the aesthetics of myself. It tends to be kind of traditional, so I have no problem with great jewelry that has a great stone, that's made well, that some would consider traditional. I'm O.K. with that. You know what? Wear whatever kind of jewelry makes you feel right. I love art jewelry and I think it's important in pushing the boundaries or the materiality of the field. I'm happy to see and support that. I love going to SCHMUCK. I'm always blown away when I see what's happening in the world of contemporary jewelry. I think contemporary or art jewelry, the field is also changing. I have to say everything's moving more towards the middle in a way, whether it's contemporary jewelry, studio jewelry or art jewelry. When I look at work today, it's all moving a little bit towards the middle, which is fascinating. But when it comes to jewelry, I don't have any problem with good jewelry, period. I love good jewelry. Sharon: Big stones are nice. Jonathan: I'm just saying good jewelry, however you classify jewelry, I like jewelry. Sharon: Why are things moving towards the middle? Why do you think that? Is that part of the ethos of the country, or that people don't want to be extreme? They don't want purple hair anymore? Jonathan: With all that being said, the generation that's coming up now wants to have purple hair, absolutely. I look at the trends that are going on right now, and I think of myself in art school in the high 80s with my hoop earrings and my dyed red hair and my capri pants and my corny shoes and my vests and yada, yada, yada. I look at this younger generation thinking, “Wow, it's coming back around again, interesting.” Maybe I talk out of two sides of my mouth, but I think in general, the bulk of those fields are moving a little bit closer together. I think there's an appreciation in the art jewelry world for techniques and processes that might not have been so accepted 10 or 20 years ago. I think there's an appreciation all around. I think I see contemporary jewelry making gestures that might have only happened in the art jewelry world 10 or 20 years ago. Sharon: You also talk about the rift between fine art and jewelry. Can you talk a little bit about that? Jonathan: I've got to say, I've met some great fine art collectors in New York and their jewelry has really stunk. I find it really funny when I see people who've got a great dress on and have a great art collection and mundane jewelry. It's the last thing that people think about sometimes. Although, the one person I'll say that always bucks the trend is Lindsay Pollock, who has great jewelry and has great art and knows great art. Sharon: Who? I'm sorry; I didn't hear. Jonathan: Lindsay Pollock, who used to be an editor at Art Forum. Now she also works for the Whitney Museum of Art, I think, as Director of Communications. I'm not sure, but she's a wonderful collector. Sharon: And she has great jewelry. Jonathan: Yes, and she knows the art world really well. Your question; please repeat it. Sharon: The rift between fine art and jewelry. Is there a rift? Jonathan: There's a difference. I think for so long people were trying to justify themselves, so people got defensive. Now people are starting to own what they do and who they are without the defense: “I'm not an artist, I'm a craftsperson” or “I'm a craftsperson, not an artist.” I think there's less apprehension about that now in terms of owning those fields. This is a conversation had by many people, but when modernism took its toll on craft, it stepped up its identity in many ways. I think since then, craftsmen and jewelers have been trying to figure out their way back to be on par with the rest of the arts. I think for a long time, because it wasn't modern art or contemporary art, there was a real apprehension about how we define artwork. I think about how jewelry was, for a long time, just photographed on a white background so it reads as an object, like you're presenting it like a little sculpture. For many years, that's how it was presented. I find that representative of how we explain the work we were making. When you saw it, you generally saw it sitting on nothing except white, in a void, outside of any wearability or reference to the person, which I get. But when you think about that, for me, it has resonance. I also think that's kind of who we are and what we do. I think that's changing to some extent, but the art world and the craft world have been trying to figure out the relationship for a while. Sharon: Do you make jewelry now? Jonathan: I do. I just made a ring for myself with a beautiful piece of lapis that I came across. It's very plain and modernist. I had an old necklace from my former landlord who passed away and left it to me. I melted down this necklace, I milled the jewelry, I rolled down the sheet and I made a half-round wire that I put through the mill again so it was more like a trapezoid and set it again. Man, I was a jeweler for a day. I love good jewelry, and I like to represent. Sharon: You like to represent? What do you mean? Jonathan: I like to represent the field with a good piece of jewelry. Sharon: Wow! You made the sheet metal and then you rolled your wire. The first time I saw somebody rolling wire, I thought, “You could buy wire. Why would anybody roll it?” Jonathan: One great thing is I didn't have to buy new gold. Another great thing is I'm recycling the gold. I recycle, recycle, recycle whenever possible. I worked it all the way down, but I do not have a jewelry line. I rarely make jewelry on commission. Most of my studio practice is focused in other ways, although as I've been drawing for the past 12 years, I recently picked up my tin shears again. I have actually been making more tinwork, which is also reflective of our current state of politics and our country again. It's been fascinating to work in metal again, so stay tuned. Sharon: How does it reflect where we are as a country or politically? Jonathan: I'm making tinware again, and I think a lot of what's in question right now in our country is what is traditional? Who are Americans? There's a lot of questioning about do you fit, do you belong, what are those parameters, how are you judged as an American or not as an American. The painted tin I'm making right now is so understood as a traditional object and a traditional way of making. Mixing and presenting that work within this very traditional material and history of making is, again, a metaphor for traditionality. The viewer automatically looks at this thing and things it's an original object. It's meant to look very traditional, although right now I'm working on a six-foot-by-four-foot painted stenciled decal tray, which, after a few minutes of looking at it, you will know is definitely not from the 19th century. But again, the techniques and the feeling and the look are traditional, I find that that's what we're questioning right now. We're questioning what is traditional. What are these traditions? The more I dig into these traditions, particularly in painted tinware—Japanware is what it was called. It was meant to imitate Japanese lacquerware. It had nothing to do with America. Another iteration is painted tinware that comes from a German and Scandinavian aesthetic, also not traditional American. So, these objects that you'd see in a folk museum and be like, “Yeah, Ohio, 1840, I got it,” these traditions and materials were not traditional until they became traditional. There's a lot of this material culture history that I find fascinating. It's very layered for me. I hope it's as interesting to the viewer. I have never really found the right format for many of my ideas or questions that fit into jewelry, and that's one of those cruxes. I've never found the right way for me to use jewelry or engage in jewelry with the same intents that I have in other materials or formats. Sharon: What do you mean exactly? It doesn't fit into a category? Jonathan: No, I can be really political with this tinware. I've never figured out how to get the same effect, with the same feeling, in jewelry. I find, for me, the wearing of jewelry is the great part of it, and I don't want my jewelry to say the same thing as my tinware. This is personal: I don't want my jewelry to work the same way as this giant tinware piece does, because I like this ring that fits on my finger. I love it, and I love when I get compliments on it. I think jewelry is special. It's great because we wear it. As a sidenote, it was fascinating that during the pandemic, jewelry took off. Sales of jewelry took off. All my friends in the field of luxury jewelry and studio jewelry, they had great years. Jewelry is the stuff you take with you. Jewelry is the stuff you wear. Jewelry is the intimate stuff, and I think it was fascinating to know that in this time of extreme stress and trouble, people were going to jewelers to buy these things they could hold and keep and literally run with it if they had to. There is this intimacy of jewelry that people sought out, and that's special. It doesn't exist in other places. Those are the kinds of things, the resonance, that I want to embrace and love about jewelry and that I will not run away from. One of the reasons why I started even playing around with images of jewelry, which led me to the drawings, is because I did this class at the Met called Into the Vaults. We went through all these different departments of the Met, jewelry and old jewelry. I came across the story of the Hannebery Pearls, which were pearls that were given to Catherine de Medici from her uncle, who was the Pope. This string of pearls went through the Hanoverians and then eventually into the British Crown Jewels. I thought, “Wow, if this string of pearls could talk, what we would know. What has it seen?” I was fooling around with this image of a gem, a ring that I had Photoshopped a historical scene from a movie on top of, so it almost looked like this gem was reflecting what it saw. I thought, “Wow, wouldn't it be amazing if there was a ring from ancient Greece that was passed down every generation until now, and that ring was held and worn by 200 generations?” I don't know how many generations that would be. That intimacy and history of an object doesn't exist in other places in the same way, where it's worn and carried with it. There's something about the intimacy of jewelry and the history that it can be embraced in a specific way that I really love. Sharon: It's something very different and novel. I don't know if it's been done already. Jonathan: I have an idea for a novel. I'll talk about it off-camera. We should talk about it. It's about that same kind of story, a will to survive. Sharon: All right. Jonathan, thank you so much for talking with us today. Jonathan: You're welcome. Sharon: I expect an invitation to the opening of the 92nd Street Y in Los Angeles. I can't wait. Jonathan: In the meantime, I hope you can come with us to Korea. As you know, I do trips around the world. South Korea is on the books, and there are a number of other wonderful things happening. The only residency for jewelry in New York City, called the JAIR, Jewelry Artist in Residence, that's happening this summer. Applications are open on our website. We had applications from 50 countries in 2019. It has been suspended since the pandemic. Another little sidenote: I'm excited about a program called Team Gems, which is a fully-funded program for high school kids in New York City, Title 1 high schools in New York City. It's a fully-funded program for kids to get experience in jewelry that they wouldn't normally have, and will maybe create a pathway for a career in jewelry outside the academic model. I hope I'm going to be able to tell you more about it, but it's the first year and it's very exciting. Also, keep your ears open for my new series of talks coming up. I think this topic is going to be about enamel, and then hopefully a series in June in honor of Pride Month. A lot's going on at the Jewelry Center. Sharon: Well, thank you for being here. We want to hear more about it in the future. Thank you so much, Jonathan. We greatly appreciate it. Jonathan: Thank you, it's such a pleasure. Be well. Sharon: You, too. Thank you again for listening. 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What you'll learn in this episode: How Jonathan moved from sculpture to jewelry to drawing, and why he explores different ideas with each medium How the relationship between craft and fine art has evolved over the years Why people became more interested in jewelry during the pandemic Why jewelers working in any style benefit from strong technical skills How you can take advantage of the 92nd Street Y's jewelry programming and virtual talks About Jonathan Wahl Jonathan Wahl joined 92nd Street Y in July 1999 as director of the jewelry and metalsmithing program in 92Y's School of the Arts, the largest program of its kind in the nation. He is responsible for developing and overseeing the curriculum, which offers more than 60 classes weekly and 15 visiting artists annually. Jonathan is also responsible for hiring and supervising 25 faculty members, maintaining four state-of-the-art jewelry and metalsmithing studios, and promoting the department locally and nationally as a jewelry resource center. Named one of the top 10 jewelers to watch by W Jewelry in 2006, Jonathan is an accomplished artist who, from 1994 to 1995, served as artist-in-residence at Hochschule Der Kunst in Berlin, Germany. He has shown his work in the exhibitions Day Job (The Drawing Center), Liquid Lines (Museum of Fine Arts Houston), The Jet Drawings (Sienna Gallery, Lenox MA, and SOFA New York), Formed to Function (John Michael Kohler Arts Center), Defining Craft (American Craft Museum), Markers in Contemporary Metal (Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art), Transfigurations: 9 Contemporary Metalsmiths (University of Akron and tour), and Contemporary Craft (New York State Museum). Jonathan was awarded the Louis Comfort Tiffany Emerging Artist Fellowship from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, two New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships in recognition of "Outstanding Artwork," and the Pennsylvania Society of Goldsmiths Award for "Outstanding Achievement." As part of the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, TX, and The Museum of Arts and Design in New York, his work has been reviewed by Art in America (June, 2000), The New York Times (June 2005), and Metalsmith Magazine (1996, 1999, 2000 2002, 2005, 2009); his work was also featured in Metalsmith Magazine's prestigious "Exhibition in Print" (1994 and 1999). Jonathan's art work can be seen at Sienna Gallery in Lenox, Massachusetts, which specializes in contemporary American and European art work, and De Vera in Soho, New York. His work can also be seen in the publications The Jet Drawings (Sienna Press, 2008), and in three collections by Lark Books: 1,000 Rings, 500 Enameled Objects and 500 Metal Vessels. Before joining 92Y, Jonathan was, first, director of the jewelry and metalsmithing department at the YMCA's Craft Students League, and later assistant director of the League itself. Mr. Wahl holds a B.F.A. in jewelry and metalsmithing from Temple University's Tyler School of Art and an M.F.A. in metalsmithing and fine arts from the State University of New York at New Paltz. He is a member of the Society of North America Goldsmiths. Additional Resources: Website: www.jonathanwahl.com Website: www.92y.org/jewelry LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jonathancwahl Instagram: @jonathancwahl/ Photos: Available at TheJewelryJourney.com Transcript: With more than 60 jewelry classes offered weekly, the 92nd Street Y's Jewelry Center is by far the largest program of its kind in the country—and it's all run by award-winning sculptor, jeweler and artist Jonathan Wahl. He joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about the different relationships he has with jewelry and sculpture; why craftsmanship should be embraced by the art world; and what he has planned for 92Y in 2022. Read the episode transcript here. Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. Here at the Jewelry Journey, we're about all things jewelry. With that in mind, I wanted to let you know about an upcoming jewelry conference, which is “Beyond Boundaries: Jewelry of the Americas.” It's sponsored by the Association for the Study of Jewelry and Related Arts, or, as it's otherwise known, ASJRA. The conference takes place virtually on Saturday and Sunday May 21 and May 22, which is around the corner. For details on the program and the speakers, go to www.jewelryconference.com. Non-members are welcome. I have to say that I attended this conference in person for several years, and it's one of my favorite conferences. It's a real treat to be able to sit in your pajamas or in comfies in your living room and listen to some extraordinary speakers. So, check it out. Register at www.jewelryconference.com. See you there. This is a two-part Jewelry Journey podcast. Please make sure you subscribe so you can hear part two as soon as it comes out later this week. Today, my guest is Jonathan Wahl, Director of the Jewelry Center at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. The program is the largest of its kind in the country. In addition to his life in jewelry, Jonathan is an award-winning artist whose work is in the permanent collections of prestigious museums. It has been exhibited nationally and internationally. We'll hear more about his jewelry journey today and how art fits into that. Jonathan, welcome to the program. Jonathan: Thank you, Sharon. It's a pleasure to be here. It's a pleasure to see you. Sharon: It's nice to see you. Hopefully next time, it'll be in person. Jonathan: I would love that. Sharon: Jonathan, tell us about your jewelry journey. How did you get to jewelry? Was that where you originally started out? Jonathan: Recently I've been doing a lot of interviews myself with artists around the world—virtually since the pandemic—as Director of the Jewelry Center, and one of the questions I always ask them is “How did you find your way to jewelry?” It's one of the questions I love to be asked because, at least for myself, it was interesting. I think all of us start out as artists, unless we're born into a jewelry family. Everyone learns how to draw. Everyone paints on their own. Maybe they have classes in high school. If you're lucky, you have a jewelry class in high school. I didn't, so like many people, I discovered jewelry in college at Tyler School of Art, which has one of the best jewelry programs in the country, but I didn't know jewelry existed until I went to art school. When I went to art school, I thought I was going to be a graphic designer. Being the son of a banker and coming from a prep school, I figured I was going to be an artist, but I had to make a living. I wasn't going to be a painter, so I was thinking I was going to be a graphic designer when I grew up. At the college, I discovered jewelry in my sophomore year. Stanley Lechtzin said to me—I'll never forget it—“After you graduate you could design, if you wanted, costume jewelry in New York City,” and I thought, “That sounds kind of exotic and fun in New York City.” That's how my jewelry journey really began, in an elective class as a sophomore at Tyler School of Art. Sharon: Where is Tyler? I'm not familiar with it. Jonathan: In Philadelphia. It's part of Temple University. Sharon: And Stanley Lechtzin, is he one of the professors there? I don't know that name. Jonathan: Stanley Lechtzin really put the program on the map. He's in collections internationally. He pioneered the use of electroforming in individual objects. Electroforming was a commercial process used throughout the country for many different industrial applications, but Stanley figured out how to finetune it for the individual artist. His work has recently had some new-found appreciation because of the aesthetics from the 60s and 70s that are also coming back into vogue. His pieces are extraordinary. Sharon: Before you came to the Y, did you design jewelry? Did you do art? Did you come home from your banking job and work on that stuff? Jonathan: My father was a banker. I was not a banker. The closest I got to banking was working at a casino in Atlantic City one summer. My family has a house in Ocean City, New Jersey, so I could get to Atlantic City. I had to count a bank of anywhere between $30,000 and $70,000 a night. That's the closest I got to being a banker. I quickly then moved to London. This was the summer of my senior year after Tyler. After I graduated from Tyler, I moved to London briefly and worked for a crafts gallery in northern London. Then I decided I wanted to go to graduate school. I came back for about a year to work towards applying to graduate school, which ultimately became SUNY New Paltz. I graduated Tyler in 1990, so most of my undergraduate years were in the 80s. If you're familiar with 80s jewelry, it was no holds barred. It was any kind of jewelry you wanted. My work—or at least my practice—quickly started to veer away from jewelry and towards objects and what I would call small sculpture. My choice to go SUNY New Paltz was specific because I didn't really want to make jewelry, but I was interested in the field and decorative arts, the material culture of jewelry and metalsmithing. That's what I pursued while I was in graduate school. I was recreating early American tinware about my experience as a gay American at that time. I wish there were visuals included, but that's what I was doing at SUNY New Paltz. Sharon: How did you find that material? Jonathan: The tinware was a metaphor for America, for traditionalism. The pieces were metaphors for the function or dysfunction of America. These objects were a little perverse, a little sublime and really honest about how frustrated I felt about being an American and growing up in Philadelphia during the bicentennial. I thought life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness was for everybody, but I found myself not really able to access the full extent of that saying, like many people in our country even today. But I'm happy to report that a piece from that era was just acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. I'm thrilled that the older work is getting some interest. There's some interest from the New York Historical Society, which is not finalized yet, but it's interesting to see that work with new eyes 20-some years later. Sharon: Congratulations! Jonathan: When I was in Germany, my partner at the time was finishing his master's degree, and I was an artist in residence there at the Hochschule der Künste, which is now the Academy of Art, I think it's called. That was an interesting experience because Europeans in general, and Germans in particular, approach craft differently. They have a much longer and supportive tradition of craft of all kinds, so when they saw my tinware, it was a little confusing to them. I ended up in a program called small sculpture as an artist in residence because there was no jewelry program at this art university. It was interesting. It was curious. Sharon: Tell us how you came to jewelry. Jonathan: Jewelry eventually gets into my story. After leaving Berlin, I moved to New York. I knew I wanted to be a New York artist. That's the place I had to go. That's the place I had to find my destiny. I was walking around looking for positions in a gallery, which was what I thought I was supposed to do. I walked into one gallery and the director there said, “I don't have any gallery work for you, but I'm on the board of a not-for-profit gallery at the YWCA. That's the home of the Craft Students League. They are looking for a program associate, which pays a ridiculously low hourly wage but has health benefits.” I thought, “O.K., I can do that.” That's when I found myself in the not-for-profit arts administration position that was developed into what I do now, at least part time. I was the program coordinator for the Craft Students League, which is unfortunately gone now, but had a wonderful ceramics, jewelry, painting, and book arts department. I ultimately became director of the jewelry studio and metalsmithing studio there, and then I became the assistant director of the whole program before I moved to the 92nd Street Y to become the director of the Jewelry Center here. Sharon: Did they have an opening? How did you enter the 92nd Street Y? Jonathan: Yes, there was an opening. There was John Cogswell. The Jewelry Center has some wonderful previous directors. It was Thomas Gentile from the late 60s to mid-70s, who really put this program on the map. He was followed by John Cogswell until the early 90s. Then briefly Shana Kroiz took over. She was between Baltimore and New York, and when she left the department, there was a call for a new director. That's when I joined the program here. Sharon: Wow! I didn't know that Thomas Gentile was one of the—I don't know if you want to call it the founders, but one of the names that launched it. Jonathan: Yeah. The program began in 1930 in its earliest form as a class in metalworking and slowly evolved into a few more classes. It became part of the one of the largest WPA programs in the country here at the 92nd Street Y, but it kind of floated along until Thomas came—and Thomas, forgive me if I get this wrong—in the mid-60s, I think, maybe later. He came in and really started to formulate a program of study here. He was the one who really created the Jewelry Center as a center. Sharon: Was he emphasizing art jewelry or all jewelry? Jonathan: There was a great book put out by the Museum of Modern Art in the 50s about how to make modern jewelry. Now, I don't know if the MOMA realized that they put out a book on how to make jewelry, but my point is in New York, I think there was still this idea of the modernist aesthetic and the artist as jeweler or jeweler as artist. I would say that Thomas was focused more on artist-made jewelry, the handmade, the one-of-a-kind object. It was still not looking in any way towards traditional or commercial jewelry. Sharon: Jonathan, tell us what the 92nd Street Y is, because people may not know. Jonathan: The 92nd Street Y is a 140-year-old institution here on the Upper East Side of New York City. It is one of New York City's most important cultural anchors. It has many different facets. We have a renowned lecture series. The November before the pandemic, I remember we had back-to-back Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Lizzo. Wednesday night it was Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Thursday night it was Lizzo. Last night we had Outlander here, and I think we had a full house of 900 people plus 2,000 people online. We also have a world-renowned dance center that has a long history with Martha Graham and Bill T. Jones. In many ways, modern dance coalesced at the 92nd Street Y. The Jewelry Center has had a presence here at the Y since 1930. We have a wonderful ceramic center. We also have one of the most prestigious nursery schools in New York City. You name it. The 92nd Street Y is a Jewish cultural center. It's part of the UJA Association, but it's kind of its own thing. It's a whole other story about what Ys are and the difference between YWCAs, YMCAs and YM-WHAs, which is what we are, but the 92nd Street Y is really a cultural center. Sharon: When are you opening your West Coast branch in Los Angeles? Because you have such an incredible number of speakers and programs. Jonathan: Many of them come from the West Coast. We had Andrew Garfield here the week before last to talk about his amazing performance for a Reel Pieces program with Annette Insdorf. I think that was a full house of 900 people for a performance from “Tick Tick Boom,” which was great. I don't know when we're coming to LA. We're just reemerging from the pandemic here in New York. Sharon: This is not related to jewelry, but do you think that without the pandemic, you would have gone online to such an extent? Would it have been possible for people around the world, including on the West Coast, to see what's going on? Jonathan: The pandemic was the catalyst to do something we'd always thought about, but yes, the pandemic definitely forced us to do it. On March 13, New York City shut down. That Monday, we flipped all of our classes, every single one of our classes in the Art Center, which is about 200 classes, to be virtual. That worked for some classes better than others, obviously for painting and drawing. It was fine for jewelry. It's tough if you don't have a studio. What we did through the summer is offer online classes. We still offer online classes to some extent, but my focus is on building back our in-person class schedule, which we're doing. We're over about half enrollment now from the pandemic and moving quickly towards three-quarters. Sharon: Did the people who enrolled in hands-on jewelry classes, did that just stop with the pandemic? Jonathan: Yes, it stopped from March 2020 until September 2020. In September, we actually opened back up for in-person classes. We wore masks. We were socially distanced. We were unvaccinated. I was taking the subway and it worked. It was slow at first, but I think this process is a part of many people's lives and this program is so meaningful for so many people. Being in New York, access to a studio is important, and very few people have studios at home. This is not only an important part emotionally of their lives, it's also literally, physically, an important part of making jewelry their practice. Sharon: Since you started as director of the program, I know you've been responsible for growing it tremendously. Was that one of your goals? Did you have that vision, or there was just so much opportunity? What happened? Jonathan: All of the above. There was a lot of opportunity. Unfortunately, the Crafts Students League closed shortly after I left. Parsons closed their department. There were a number of continuing education programs that left Manhattan, and this is before the country of Brooklyn was discovered, even though I lived there. There were no schools in Brooklyn, really. The 92nd Street Y became one of the few places to study when I came on. Also, to my point about studying jewelry in art school, you're studying to be an artist generally in art school; you're not really studying to be a jeweler in the way most people understand jewelers to be. Although certainly at Tyler, it was a great technical education and I learned a lot of hard skills, many people, including myself, were not adept at those hard skills. We're not taught at a trade school, and I found that most of the people who were looking for jewelry classes wanted to make more traditional jewelry than the classes we were offering. Most of our faculty came from art school. There were some amazing people, Bob Ebendorf and Lisa Grounick(?) to name just a few, but as the 90s wore on and the aesthetic changed, I found that people really wanted to learn how to work in gold, how to set a stone. The aesthetics of jewelry shifted. You probably know yourself that the art jewelry world shifted a little bit too. For myself, I wanted to learn more hard skills, and I basically started creating classes that reflected my interests in how to make better wax carvings, how to set a brilliant-cut stone. I can then make that into what I want: studio jewelry, art jewelry, whatever, but those hard skills were lacking. I've said this many times: I don't know that this program would exist in another city other than New York because there was so much talent here. There were people from the industry here. There were artists who were studio jewelers and art jewelers all at my fingertips. I think that was one of the ways it grew, not because I reduced the perspective of what was being made here, but because I enlarged the perspective of what was being made here or taught here. Sharon: How did you do that? Did you do that by identifying potential teachers and attracting them? What did you do? Jonathan: I was lucky to have some wonderful people in New York City at that time. We had a wonderful faculty to begin with, but we also were able to expand the faculty with incredible people who had recently resigned. Pamela Farland, who was a master goldsmith and was the goldsmith at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for many years, was on our stuff. Klaus Burgel, who was trained at the Academy of Munich, was here in New York and came to us as a faculty member. Tovaback Winnick(?), who was a master wax carver and worked for Kieselstein-Cord for many years, came on as well. Some people work here for a shorter period of my time. My good friend, Lola Brooks, was here and taught stone setting. There was some really stellar talent around that helped me build this program. Sharon: That's quite a lineup you're mentioning. Jonathan: And a really diverse lineup. Sharon: Diverse in what sense? Jonathan: Klaus' work is pure art jewelry: the iconic object, incredibly crafted, but what one would consider as art jewelry in its most essential sense. Lola Brooks, her work crosses the lines of both art and jewelry, and she's got a beautiful studio jewelry line. Then there are people like Pamela Farland, who made very classical, Greco-Roman, high-carat granulated stones, classical goldsmithing. Then there was Tovaback Winnick who teaches carving, which is how the majority of commercial jewelry is made. We had real range as well as your regular Jewelry 1, Jewelry 2, Jewelry 3 classes where we're teaching the basics of sawing, forming and soldering. Sharon: You answered my question in part, but if somebody says, “I'm tired of working as a banker; I want to be a jeweler,” can you come to the Y and do that? Can you go through Jewelry 1, Jewelry 2, Jewelry 3 and then graduate into granulation? I don't know if there's a direct line. Jonathan: Absolutely. We don't have a course of study. We don't have a certificate, but you can definitely come here and put your own skillset together. That's also what I found strong about the program, that it gave people access to put their skillsets together without going through art school or going through college. You're able to learn those hard skills in an environment where it's no frills. Sharon: Are they mostly younger people, older people, people of all ages? Jonathan: It's people of all ages. When I joked about the country of Brooklyn not being discovered yet, I lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for my whole New York life, so I'm speaking the truth. There really wasn't anything out there. If you were young and hip and cool when I lived in Brooklyn, you had to come here. So, for a long time, we had a much younger population that was cool, hip. Now, everybody has moved to the country called Brooklyn. That demographic has aged a little bit for us. We have three classes during the day. We have a morning class, an afternoon class, a late afternoon class and then an evening class. If you're a younger person, it's most likely that you have a job, so you're going to come at night for our classes. That's only one-quarter of the population that can take a class here, because there's only one slot of night classes. There could be four classes happening at the same time, but all from 7:00-9:30. So, in general our population skews old because those are the people who are generally available during the day. That being said, it's New York City. There are lots of different ways to make a living here. There are definitely people who are actors or bartenders or artists or what have you who do have time during the day and come here. It really depends on what class, but absolutely; we have all ages for sure. We also have kids' classes in the afternoon from 4:00-6:30.
This week, Ben and Elisabeth talk with Rachel Bell (@rachellbel). Rachel Bell is a mixed media artist living and working in the Lehigh Valley. After graduating from Tyler School of Art at Temple University with a BFA in painting and drawing and a minor in art history, she immersed herself in the Lehigh Valley art scene. She began working as the front desk receptionist at the Banana Factory and soon after that she started interning at the Allentown Art Museum in the exhibition and collections department. After putting in a year at the art museum, she then went on to work as a gallery assistant at Bethlehem House Gallery. Over the course of 2018 she went back to Temple and became a certified floral designer. Furthermore, in 2019 she started working under a local florist in the Easton, PA flower shop “Bloomies”. Her role as a floral designer influenced her contemporary painting style and brought her work into the 3D realm. In 2020, during the pandemic shutdown, she was able to expand her portfolio and create a body of new work, which was on display in the Bethlehem House Gallery's Holiday Show 2020. The exhibit included many of Rachel's mixed media paintings & drawings, floral arrangements, installations, and prints. Currently, Rachel has elevated her role at the House Gallery to Assistant Director, continues to create fresh floral arrangements at Bloomies, which was rated 2021's Best Flower Shop in the Valley by LV Style Magazine, and she also manages her art practice in Studio 248A at the Banana Factory.Our opportunity for the week is the artist reception for for “Black Vision.” Femi J. Johnson is the guest curator for this celebration of Black History Month. Femi has chosen three prominent local artists to feature in the show — Berrisford Boothe, Al Johnson and Charles Stonewall. The reception is Thursday, February 3, 5:30-7:30, at ARTHAUS (645 Hamilton St).
Jen Shade is a regional radio legend. A 30-year veteran of Central Pennsylvania radio, Jen Shade is the co-host of the 105.7 The X's top-rated The People's Morning Show. She also is the News Director and the midday host. The well-known and well-loved radio host is heavily involved in local charities, including the American Legion Auxiliary, VFW Auxiliary, Loyal Order of the Moose and Angels Among Us Pet Sanctuary. She has a degree in Graphics and Animation from Temple University's Tyler School of Art. She grew up in New Cumberland and still lives there. We are excited to have Jen Shade on this episode of the Bridge.