AD 277 | Yulia Bas
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Yulia Bas’s artwork explores the fragmentation of contemporary individuality, healing, and the body as a somatic memory tool. Across her paintings, sculptures, and installations, equilibrating between figuration and abstraction, Yulia employs unconventional materials to explore her perception of physical and mental thresholds, transitional states, and subjective wholeness. Guided by her personal journey of transformation through body therapy and meditation as well as her immigrant background, Yulia's work embodies her experience of multiplicity of self. She searches for ways to show the...
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AD 276 | Saman Kesh
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Iranian-American director and writer 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. Saman gained recognition with popular music videos like Cinnamon Chasers: Luv Deluxe (which won ‘Best Video’ at SXSW), Kygo: Stole The Show and Basement Jaxx: Never Say Never, along with videos for Calvin Harris, Ed Sheeran, and Placebo. He has also directed award-winning commercials for major brands like Zoom, Google, Uber, Toyota and Nintendo. Saman...
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AD 275 | Tomas Watson
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Tomas Watson (b.1971) is a British artist who has lived and worked in Greece since 1994. He studied at the Slade School of Art in London. In 1998, he won the BP Portrait Award and was subsequently commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery to paint the author John Fowles. This portrait is in their permanent collection. He is represented by the Jill George Gallery in London () and Accesso Galleria in Tuscany () Topics Discussed In This Episode: Tomas recounts where his artistic journey began (00:02:11) The importance of mentorship (00:07:46) Tomas's experiences at Slade...
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AD 274 | Pasqual Gutierrez and Ben Mullinkosson
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Pasqual Gutierrez is a writer, director and actor. Sundance 2025 Comedy “Serious People” was his debut into feature filmmaking alongside veteran documentary filmmaker Ben Mullinkosson who co-wrote and directed. Gutierrez is also 1/2 of music video directing duo CLIQUA who has worked with some of the biggest names in the industry including The Weeknd, Bad Bunny, J Balvin, Rosalia, Madonna, and more. Gutierrez is developing his second feature, a sequel to Serious People. Ben Mullinkosson was raised in the suburbs of Chicago and trained in directing at Chapman University. After graduating Ben...
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AD 273 | Shuchi Talati
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Shuchi Talati is a filmmaker from India whose work challenges dominant narratives around gender, sexuality, and South Asian identity. Her feature film, Girls Will Be Girls, premiered at Sundance where it won an Audience Award and a Special Jury Award. Shuchi was a Gotham Awards Breakthrough Director nominee and a John Cassavetes Award nominee at the Spirit Awards. During development, Girls was supported by the Aide Aux Cinémas du Monde and Sørfond grants, Gotham Week, Berlinale Project Market and Script Station, and Cine Qua Non Script Lab. Shuchi’s short film, A Period Piece, was...
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AD 272 | Landon Van Soest
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Landon Van Soest is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, Fulbright Scholar, and two-time Sundance Fellow. His work presents social commentary through rich characters and immersive narratives. Landon recently directed the Hulu Original Documentary The Jewel Thief, which was the #1 most viewed movie on Hulu worldwide in the summer of 2023. His previous documentary, For Ahkeem, premiered at the 2017 Berlinale and Tribeca Film Festivals, won seven Best Documentary awards, opened theatrically in ten cities, and is being distributed by The Orchard and Amazon. His first documentary, Good Fortune, was...
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AD 271 | Jacob Rosenberg
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Growing up in Northern California, Jacob Rosenberg developed his passion for video and film as a skateboarder in the early 1990s, making acclaimed videos for Plan B Skateboards under the mentorship of the late founder Mike Ternasky. Upon his graduation from Emerson College, Rosenberg began his professional career directing music videos, short films, and commercials where he has directed and produced talent names such as LeBron James, Quincy Jones, Snoop Dogg, and Latto. Rosenberg served for a decade as a partner at the independent studio Bandito Brothers, spearheading forward-thinking digital...
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AD 270 | Joshua Hagler (Æmen Ededéen)
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Joshua Hagler (b. 1979, Mountain Home AFB, Idaho) is a first-generation graduate with a graphic design degree from The University of Arizona. A 2018 grant recipient of the Roswell Artist in Residence Program, Hagler has since made New Mexico his permanent home. Currently, he lives with his wife and daughter in the high desert village of Placitas at the foot of the Sandia Mountains. In recent years, his practice has been guided by an approach he calls Nihil, a set of nine self-imposed principles that have grown out of solitary excursions throughout the state. These principles determine all...
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Slow Creativity | Yoshinocast #18
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Yoshino is a multi-hyphenate artist and the host of Artist Decoded. Yoshino’s Links:
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AD 269 | Nouel Riel
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
“As an artist, I am interested in observing the transmutation process of unconscious material moving into conscious awareness. I work in painting, photography, writing, performance and video. My paintings utilize inner visions and depth psychology to form works layered with symbolism and metaphor. In photography, I employ an experimental process on film that focuses on Jungian Intuitive and Feeling typology. By blurring, altering or disrupting the straight forward information in a photograph, the image moves from analysis to an abstraction - allowing the viewer’s point of focus to relax,...
info_outlineErik Davis, PhD, is an author, award-winning journalist, sometimes podcaster, and popular speaker based in San Francisco.
He is the author of 6 books which include:
- Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium (MIT Press)
- High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the 70s (MIT Press/Strange Attractor Press).
- Nomad Codes: Adventures in Modern Esoterica (Yeti, 2010).
- The Visionary State: A Journey through California’s Spiritual Landscape (Chronicle, 2006), with photographs by Michael Rauner.
- Led Zeppelin IV (Continuum, 2005) - 33 1/3 volume.
- TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information (Crown, 1998; republished by North Atlantic Press).
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- Erik’s work and his areas of interest (00:04:37)
- Deciding what projects to dedicate his time to (00:06:36)
- Finding his authentic voice (00:13:27)
- The transformation of subcultural movements into mainstream cultural (00:13:18)
- Trying to make sense out of confusing times (00:24:22)
- Learning to appreciate banality, and simplicity in an increasingly more technologically focused world (00:36:33)
- Separating yourself from devices and giving yourself the space to allow the muse to enter (00:46:15)
- The consensus trance and becoming more conscious (00:49:38)
- Having good “epistemological hygiene” (00:57:04)
- Getting back to basic joys (01:05:09)
- Erik’s new book “Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium” (01:07:09)
Episode co-host: Jennifer Sodini
artistdecoded.com
techgnosis.com
x.com/erik_davis
burningshore.com