A Creative Excuse

A Creative Excuse is on indefinite sabbatical. We may come back as something completely new, or not at all. We don't know. Thanks for listening!

kelli cain is one part monome, one part caretaker of an apple orchard and mushroom farm in upstate NY. part-time ceramicist and maker of things, music, and things that make music. believer in the power of language, the value of words, and the many ways to speak with image and sound. 

Jamison Chās Banks is a multi-disciplinary artist who creates films, paintings, performances, and installations. His works often explore the history of war and territorial expansion, both literal and psychological. Banks appropriates and alters symbols employed in propaganda and popular culture and redeploys them in contexts that subvert their original meanings. He usually begins with an area of investigation that spawns a series of interrelated artworks in different media. Jamison Chās Banks is currently a Visiting Instructor in the Studio Arts Department and had been an Adjunct Instructor since 2012. He is a citizen of the Seneca-Cayuga Nation of Oklahoma. Banks is also a descendant of Oklahoma Cherokee and Ioway Tribal members respectively. Banks earned a BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts in 2012. https://chasbanks.blogspot.com/

A 2019 recipient of the Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists and "remarkable and insightful musician" (LA Times) "joyfully rocking out at his keyboard" (New York Times), pianist Adam Tendler is a recognized interpreter of living and modern composers. A pioneer of DIY culture in classical music, between 2005 and 2006 Tendler performed in all fifty United States as part of a grassroots recital tour he called America 88x50, which became the subject of his memoir, 88x50, a Kirkus Indie Book of the Month and Lambda Literary Award nominee. A presence in all new music and classical genres as a concert soloist, recording artist, speaker and educator, Tendler has also performed the complete major piano works of Aaron Copland and collaborates with the John Cage Trust and Edition Peters in presenting Cage’s work internationally. In 2019 he released the album Robert Palmer: Piano Music on New World Records, and published his second book, tidepools.

Jason Garcia is an artist from Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico. His ceramic work can be found in the collections of the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC.

Under the alias Daedelus, Alfred Darlington has been an instigator of electronic music culture for the past 20 years. A fore-figure of Los Angeles' Beat Scene they have released over 20 LPs, countless EPs, remixes, and additional productions on labels such as Ninja Tune, Brainfeeder, and Anticon. As a performer they're synonymous with performative controllers such as the Monome. Now a founding faculty member for the Berklee College of Music in Boston of their new EDI (Electronic Digital Instrument) program, Daedelus has begun to live up to their Greek mythological namesake.

Graphic Designer and co-founder and Director of Innovando la Tradición and has been interested in the social and ethical dimension of design and its power as an agent of change. Diego holds a Master in Type Design from one of the best schools in world for Typography, The Konickleink Academy of Art The Hague in The Netherlands. In addition, Diego holds a Postgraduate in photography by the School of Active Photography in Mexico, a Fine Arts Postgraduate Diplomaet by Konstfack University in Stockholm, Sweden and a Diplomaet in Narrative Techniques by Colectivo Practicas Narrativas in Mexico City. Diego also teaches across many universities in Mexico and previously ran the Workshop of Utopias at the Universidad Iberoamericana which prepared students to challenge the conventions of contemporary society and design practice.

Bianka Groves is a potter in Santa Fe & her work is represented all across the United States. She is a graduate of George Washington University’s Corcoran College of Art & Design in DC. Bianka has studied all over the country & taught ceramics at Baltimore Clayworks, Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, & Santa Fe Clay. Her pottery is thoughtfully functional and has the ability to complete the elegance of any interior space. The polished composition of her porcelain surfaces are an ode to the simplistic repetition and studies of simple design, architecture, and landscapes. When she’s not making pots out of her home studio in Santa Fe, you can find her teaching ceramic classes or out hiking in the desert with her dogs.

Kara Duval is a Massage Therapist and Dancer in Santa Fe, NM. She and the host of this podcast also happen to be married.

Anna Johnson is a studio jeweler based in Asheville, North Carolina. Her compositions consist largely of found objects mixed with semi-precious and precious materials. Johnson's work is heavily influenced by nature, cultural ideas of value, and environmental preservation.

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Lindsay Locatelli grew up in a family of artists who ranged from a clothing designer, musician, painter, illustrator, potter and furniture maker. Lindsay is interested in engaging her audience through adorning the body and the tactile experiences of wearing art jewelry. Her pieces are created solely by hand by using a wide variety of materials and techniques with polymer clay being the primary medium.

Andrea Hanley is the chief curator at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian and an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation. In her 25-plus year career in the arts, she has worked as a curator, gallerist, writer, fundraiser, lecturer, and volunteer. She spent a decade at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, returned to Arizona to be the fine arts coordinator and curator for the city of Tempe, was the founding manager of the Berlin Gallery at the Heard Museum, and worked as Membership and Program Manager for the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe before joining the Wheelwright. 

Kat Kinnick is a multi-disciplinary artist based in New Mexico. Illustrating wildlife and wilderness of the high desert of New Mexico, Kinnick works to inspire a culture of fondness & connectedness to nature.

Todd Ryan White is an artist based in Santa Fe, NM. He has done very important things like been a college professor and worked at a pizza restaurant. But really his passion is making Art - Serious Art.

Chris Casey is a ceramic artist based in Albuquerque, NM. His work has been shown widely across the US and his Instagram page (219k followers!) is a rich resource of ceramics process videos.

Heather Bradley is an artist in Santa Fe, NM working in ceramics.

Sydney Cooper is an artist in Santa Fe, NM working in many media. Cooper has exhibited widely, including the Santa Monica Museum in California, the Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Allied Cultural Prosthetics in New York City as well as various galleries and other venues. 

Daniel McCoy (Muscogee Creek/Citizen Band Potawatomi) is an artist in Santa Fe, NM working primarily in painting. His work has been shown widely across the US including at the New Mexico Museum of art, SITE Santa Fe, and the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts.

Bess Murphy is an Art Historian and Curator at the Coe Center in Santa Fe, NM. She has a M.A. and Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Southern California and was the co-founder and curator of the A.D. Collective in Santa Fe, an artist-run alternative exhibition space and community.

Leia Zumbro is a jewelry artist living in St. Louis, MO. In addition to showing at Hecho a Mano, her handcrafted jewelry is available widely across the US