Art Talks Again

Episode 15 features an interview with painter Bryan de Roo in his Los Angeles studio. Please check out his work at http://www.entoptics.com. We discuss drawing both Mickey Mouse and the Kiss logo as a kid, school, art history, witchcraft, and generally geek out on painting stuff throughout.

This episode features a conversation I had last spring with the very unique painter Andrew Hladky. We discuss his UK roots, the paintings of Constable and Giacometti, the way advertising is changing human consciousness, and making space for strangeness. Please check out http://www.andrewhladky.co.uk  .

Todd Melicker is a San Francisco based poet. We discuss small town origins, abstraction in language, meditation envy, the painter Richard Diebenkorn, his day job working for the city of Petaluma, and more. He is currently working towards a new book of poems rooted in his perceptions of the relationships between biblical psalms and Shakespeare's sonnets. To learn more about Todd, please visit: http://www.rescuepress.co/toddmelicker/  

Cannes Film Festival award winner Carlos Reygadas may well have created a perfect new English word to describe his filmmaking: factical. He's perhaps Mexico's best-known filmmaker who has preferred to remain out of the mainstream, with five feature films to his name since 2002. He sat down with us for a deep discussion about what motivates him to create his art… but just don’t call him an “artist”.

Episode #11 brings a conversation with Tim Peck, a composer and pianist from Connecticut. We discuss his jazz roots, diverse influences, Modern American Music, and writing stuff for teenagers as a day job. Check out Tim's music here: https://timpecktrio.bandcamp.com https://store.cdbaby.com/Artist/TimPeckTrio https://soundcloud.com/tim-peck  

For Episode 10, we talk with Iranian novelist Aida Moradi Ahani about growing up in Tehran, switching from electrical engineering to writing, being a wild child, publishing books in Iran, and appreciating solitude. To read her blog, visit http://aidamoradiahani.com. Heads up, it's in Farsi.

Gina and Peter visited writer Shruti Swamy in her San Francisco study to discuss growing up in the California woods, influences ranging from Gina Berriault to Proust, and her new novel centered within the life of a Kathak dancer in 1970's Bombay. Utter. Not Udder. https://www.shrutiswamy.com/  

This week we talk with Miriam Klein Stahl, rad woman illustrator of the Rad Women book series. We talk about her LA punk youth, starting an arts academy at Berkeley High, making paper cuts, and publishing books. NYT bestsellers, even.

Lena Wolff is a visual artist influenced by American folk arts as well as modern and contemporary movements of minimalism, geometric abstraction, op art and feminist practice. We met with her in her garden studio in Berkeley, California.   Learn more about Lena and her work here: http://lenawolff.com

We join Dean Smith in his West Oakland studio for a conversation about painting, drawing, film, the perception of spirituality in art, working with Bruce Conner, and wasp nests.   deansmith.us anglimgilbertgallery.com

Gina and Peter talk to artist/musician John Gullak about the Mutants, the SF music scene in the 70's and beyond, photography, drywall, and art making without toxic headaches. Follow John on Instagram @ mutantme.

We visit Michelle Wilson in her North Oakland studio to discuss intersections of art, politics, social and environmental change, and collaboration. She is a papermaker, printmaker, sculpter, bookmaker, and installation artist. Please visit her website at: http://www.michellewilsonprojects.com.

From abstracts to rendered "mermen", John Smiddy's paintings are infused with a contemplative quality, whether they're nightmarish or whimsical, or both at the same time. Gina and Peter discuss his fascinating journey through a disparate resumé of careers, fortuitous meetings, and how music lies behind everything. We spoke to John in his brightly lit, high-ceiling painting studio in West Oakland, California. See John's work at his web site: www.johnsmiddy.com

Peter and Gina meet up with "appropriation artist" Tim Buckwalter in his office at the NIAD Art Center in Richmond, CA to discuss the genesis of his work as being based upon "reuse", his background as a music nerd, surviving as an artist, and being gallery director at NIAD. http://timbuckwalter.com/ http://niadart.org/ And buy affordable art!: https://niadart.myshopify.com/  

Masako Miki is a multi-discipline visual artist living and working in Berkeley, California. Art Talks Again spoke to her smack dab in the middle of the De Young Museum gallery where she was artist-in-residence for the month of August 2016, illuminated by the comforting glow of her paper lantern sculptures. We learn about her upbringing in Japan and her move to North America without knowing a word of English, the evolution of her process through life upheavals, the Yokai tradition, and share an understanding about cats. To see more of Masako's work, visit www.masakomiki.com