AD 262 | John Wentz
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
John Wentz is a contemporary artist whose work is an exploration of process and technique. Working within the classical idiom of the human figure, his goal is to reduce and simplify the image to its core fundamentals: composition, color, and mark-making. Paint application and brush strokes are broad and simplified as a means to connect and convey these ideas to the viewer with an abstract sensibility. John was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. His interest in art began at the age of 6 when he first discovered Batman and Spiderman comic books. After years of copying comics...
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AD 261 | Tim Bettinson (Vancouver Sleep Clinic)
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Tim Bettinson is a 27-year-old singer-songwriter and producer most recognized for creating and living behind the lustful, ambient guise of Vancouver Sleep Clinic. Across his catalogue, elements of anthemic indie rock, intimate R&B, and sophisticated folk provide a sweeping film soundtrack for Bettinson’s gentle vocal and expansive storytelling. Emerging from his native Brisbane, Australia on the strength of a series of singles including “Someone To Stay," “Middle of Nowhere," “The Wire,” and the bedroom-produced viral cover of “As It Was," Tim now roams the world with a laptop...
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AD 260 | Saman Kesh
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Iranian-American filmmaker Saman Kesh has the most Vimeo staff picks, ever. He attributes this accolade to excessive consumption of rocket fuel and a knack for combining the human experience with a healthy dose of controlled chaos. After his music videos won him YDA Silver at Cannes and two Best Video at SXSW, his foray into advertising was an epic international Superbowl spot for Taco Bell. Since then, he has worked with major brands like Zoom, Google, Citibank, Uber, and most recently picked up a handful of Clio awards for his work with Toyota and Nintendo. Saman has written and directed...
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AD 259 | Daniele Bolelli
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Daniele Bolelli is a writer, martial artist, university professor, and podcaster. He was born in Italy and currently lives in Los Angeles. Topics discussed in this episode: Daniele’s podcasts History on Fire and The Drunken Taoist (00:05:55) Daniele’s writing practice (00:08:51) Family and navigating personal struggles (00:15:03) The origin of Daniele’s passion for history (00:30:59) Reflections on legacy (00:35:02) Unpacking success, values, and the nature of quality (00:40:46) The complexities of meritocracy (00:53:32) Discussing personal values (01:08:19) Thoughts on the...
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Photo Roulette | Yoshinocast #15
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Yoshino is a multi-hyphenate artist and the host of Artist Decoded. Yoshino’s essay “Photo Roulette” can be read at . Yoshino’s Links:
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AD 258 | Wesley Stringer
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Wesley Stringer (b. 1985) was born in Oklahoma City and has worked as a photographer for the past 13 years. Stringer began photographing while a BFA student at the University of Oklahoma. His practice is concerned with the natural environment, both in its untouched state, as well as how it relates to the spaces people occupy. The printed image is as important to Stringer’s work as the physical and textural presence: his photographs frequently take the shape of handmade books or boxes. In addition, the artist prints many of his photographs on translucent gampi paper and mounts them by hand to...
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AD 257 | James “Munky” Shaffer (Korn + Venera)
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
James “Munky” Shaffer is best known as co-founder and guitarist for American rock band Korn. With a career spanning three decades, his latest project Venera ventures into experimental electronic territory. Venera L.A.-based James Shaffer and Atlanta-based Chris Hunt converged as Venera in early 2022 in Downtown Los Angeles while working on songs for singer Xhoana X. Their kindred interest and backgrounds in dramatic texture, electronics, and experimentation inspired an improvisation-based recording process that seeks to explore a sonic universe defined by evolving atmosphere, cinematic...
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AD 256 | Paul Yoon
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Paul Yoon is the author of four previous works of fiction: Once the Shore, which was a New York Times Notable Book; Snow Hunters, which won the Young Lions Fiction Award; The Mountain, which was an NPR Best Book of the Year; and Run Me to Earth, which was one of Time magazine’s Must-Read Books of 2020 and longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, he lives in the Hudson Valley, New York.
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AD 255 | Johan Van Mullem
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Johan Van Mullem (Belgian painter born in 1959) persisted in his youthful search for wrinkled faces, seeking the beauty he recognized in an experience engraved on the faces and in the hands. Since then, the face remains the major subject of his work but over time reversing the imprint of it on his own face while these subjects seem to rejuvenate, disappearing or emerging in a halo of light in old-fashioned sfumato, offering the gaze an escape into the world of emotion, because Johan van Mullem's work is an invitation to introspection, to a journey whose omnipresent emotional charge...
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AD 254 | Jacqueline Castel
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Jacqueline Castel is an internationally award-winning director, screenwriter, and curator based in NYC. Her short film work has been featured at more than fifty festivals worldwide, including Sundance, SXSW, Rotterdam, BAMcinemaFest, Sitges, and Fantasia. She has written for and directed cult auteurs John Carpenter and Jim Jarmusch, and collaborated on a film with David Lynch for his Festival of Disruption in 2018. Her most recent short film, a portrait of Cannes award-winning actor Caleb Landry Jones, debuted on NOWNESS in 2021. Castel’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The BBC,...
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https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About Allie X: Somewhere amidst the outer reaches of iconoclastic pop darling Allie X’s mind, you’ll find the limits of a surreal hamlet inspired by the East Coast’s infamous playground of the pedigreed, Cape Cod. That said, it doesn’t take long for all the overbearing, Americana-worshipping idyll to melt into a gloomy, grandiose fantasy world of Allie’s creation.
A distinct departure from her previous effort — the irreverent, observational Super Sunset — this new writing is an intimate, healing journey focused inwards. Told through the perspective of character rooted in Allie’s own reluctant reflections upon her teenage alienation, it’s an invitation to recontextualize the banality of our shared suburban coming-of-age angst via wry romanticization and darkly-dreamlike production. To rethink ostracization and ennui as a vehicle to unite,
rather than isolate, all of the anxiety-ridden outsiders.
“I was waiting for the right moment and place and maturity level where I could comfortably and accurately put these feelings into song,” Allie says, before adding, “This sort of margin in time, and space helped me dive in, and explore some repressed feelings.”
Interestingly enough, her new work was created within the span of few whirlwind weeks. A literal world away from the hook-driven writing rooms of Los Angeles. Thanks to the help of like-minded Swedish producer, Oscar Görres, and co-writer James Alan Ghaleb, lead single “Fresh Laundry” unfurled into a gaudily melancholic, whimsical encapsulation of the surreal world Allie always dreamed of belonging to.
Meanwhile, tracks like “Regulars” explores the struggle of a fish-out-of water forced to adhere to the conventional, while the Troye Sivan duet “Love Me Wrong” expounds upon these feelings — turning it toward the often fraught relationships with our family that we eventually end up internalizing.
A carefully constructed meditation on universal themes of identity and belonging, most importantly, this new work is also a declaration of the autonomy we have when it comes to redefining ourselves and our place in the world. Although, Allie herself may still be on a journey toward reconciling with her past, by allowing herself to continue exploring the margins of contemporary pop, she’s ended up finding herself, at last, a little bit closer to home.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- Her collaboration with Mitski (singer / songwriter) for their song “Susie Save Your Love”
- Cognitive dissonance
- Her writing process for her newest album, Cape God, which was inspired by the 2015 HBO documentary entitled “Heroin: Cape Cod USA” directed by Steven Okazaki
- Sifting through disparate elements
- Challenges faced in her music career
- Adaptive resilience