Episode 132 Debra Frances
Vulnerability in life and art
"Books transform and shape us," says Winnipeg-based book artist Debra Frances. What makes a book a book? And how are we shaped by what we experience through books? Inspired after making a book to showcase her daughter's artwork, Debra now creates stunning pieces from natural materials like milkweed seedpods and driftwood, as well as her own handmade papers and dyes. She teaches bookbinding classes and also leads a one-week retreat every summer on Malcolm Island, British Columbia (for which I'm on the list in August 2027 :-) And the project where she collaborated with a climate scientist to...
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Episode 131 Bryn Gladding
Vulnerability in life and art
Based in Kitchener-Waterloo Ontario, Bryn Gladding is a commercial photographer who works with developers, researchers, inventors, artists, and manufacturers, alongside pursuing his own personal projects. I found his insights and reflections into his personal projects in particular, from the perspective of his own vulnerability, very moving. Bryn is as passionate about nurturing connections with people as making photographs of and for them. He embraces the opportunities that come with new technologies as they emerge, and at the same time he looks forward to a resurgence in our general...
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Episode 130 Moving towards
Vulnerability in life and art
This is a quick ramble about the learning field - designing courses and workshops - and sustaining dramatic tension in long-form fiction.
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Episode 129 Jackie Reeves
Vulnerability in life and art
This was a fun coversation from a personal perspective, because I went to high school with Jackie Reeves, a painter who also does collage, installations, film, and animations. Jackie grew up making art and exudes a lovely sense of calm confidence not only in her talent, but also in her choices to make art as child, teen, and adult. She has faith in her drawing hand, her painting hand. I did envy that a little, and I told her so. Did I follow through the right pigeonhole? My mother, as she has listened to these conversations over time, has noticed when artists have grown up in families who've...
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Episode 128 Laura Tafe
Vulnerability in life and art
I had the opportunity to speak with Laura Tafe about her collage work, which I find bright and bold. She also works as a pathologist and has been able to reintegrate artistic practice into her life as an adult, with a spirit of intentionality and a desire to express different aspects of herself, both to herself and to others. Laura talks about the role of art, creativity, and self-expression in her leading a fully realized life. Paper - through its textures as well as acts of cutting out pieces - is her preferred medium for showing physical bodies and parts in motion and expressing a range of...
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Episode 127 Stefan Lorenzutti (reprise)
Vulnerability in life and art
This is my second conversation with Stefan Lorenzutti, a poet who runs the independent press Bored Wolves in collaboration with his partner Joanna Osiewicz-Lorenzutti. Stefan and I were messaging a few months back and he shared that it had been a challenging year, and how responses from when we last talked would no longer be quite the same. So in a way we talked about many of the same big picture questions, but this time with a focus on what it means to publish 50 books in 50 months; interacting with respect, trust, grace, and forgiveness; and appreciation of the details and stories behind...
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Episode 126 Liv Wickedly
Vulnerability in life and art
One might think that by my fifth year of doing this podcast, I'd remember to introduce the guest at the beginning of the episode! Sadly, I did not in this case. So, this is my conversation with Liv Wickedly, a multidimensional artist and creative who loves jumping in to try new things, a woman after my own heart. We talk about art as intentional self-expression, through whatever medium feels right, which has personal value regardless of how it may be 'liked.' Reaction and feedback from others, however it may align with your own feelings and intentions, are always better than ambivalence. And...
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Episode 125 Surf woman
Vulnerability in life and art
In this episode, I talk about what surfing means to me. It's a challenge on many different levels. Most importantly, it is teaching me what the real challenge is, in my relationship to the ocean, control, and lessons still to learn. Be sure to check out the book Nature of Surf Women @nature_of_surfwomen written by Ivana Bajic @ivanabajic with photography by Gabriela Tellez and audio recordings by Martyn Stewart. I also highly recommend the podcast of the same name. And if you find yourself in LA and want to learn to surf, you can get in touch with Heather Alley of Soul Surf Sessions...
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Episode 124 Jon Schmidt
Vulnerability in life and art
This is my first episode - and probably my first conversation ever - with an action actor (which is today's term for the profession I would've referred to as stuntman). Jon Schmidt fell into the work after time in the Peace Corps and then completing his MBA, when the job overseas that he had accepted fell through. Jon explains how in the beginning of his career, he worried that saying no to a role might mean he'd never work again. I connected with that, though I work in a completely different field. Overpromising on performance is actually the greater risk; learning to undersell (or at least,...
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Episode 123 Amy Horowitz
Vulnerability in life and art
Amy Horowitz is a freelance photographer based in New York City who takes portraits of young adults in and around Washington Square Park, looking for the softness under the shell and documenting today's generation in tumultuous times, in moments of connection. Here's the core message of her work - and I really like how she says it: I was brought up in a different way...but people are how they are...we're all the same. The message is deceptively simple of course. Her photographs, on the other hand, tell deep stories about people, identities, self-expression, and navigating turbulent times....
info_outlineThis is a quick ramble about the learning field - designing courses and workshops - and sustaining dramatic tension in long-form fiction.