Art on the Air

Join Tamara for an interview with photographer Bailey Davidson, a Milledgeville native who lived in NYC as an aspiring actor for a few years, before returning to Georgia in the late 90s to pursue his MFA in Photography at SCAD.  Since graduating, Bailey has built his freelance career in all aspects of professional commercial and editorial photography, working with a wide range of clients, including Savannah Music Festival, Wine Enthusiast Magazine, and The London Observer. This past spring he opened a studio in City Market - go visit him and his 20 years' worth of Savannah photos there!  Check out Bailey's work and follow him here:  https://www.facebook.com/BaileyDavidsonPhotography  https://baileydavidson.com/  Topics in their chat include: Bailey's indie movie he acted in, called "Bringing Down Dejonga" (this was the ending title after all! I found out online. --Tamara); how while in NYC he started taking headshots for his fellow actors and gradually took more and more photos, getting into art shows, and drifting from acting to photography; how he first heard of SCAD because his parents happened to meet the Poetters on a cruise; his Flannery O'Connor tie-ins of having grown up in Milledgeville and then living in the garden apartment of her childhood home as his first Savannah apartment; his practice immediately post-grad of shooting weddings and family portraits, to support himself as he built up his clients for commercial and editorial shoots; his show at the JEA last year that was a continuation of his MFP thesis show, "Bailey's Acres," all Holga pinhole camera work; the nostalgia of taking photos with an analog/film camera and then being surprised by the images once you pick up your developed photos; his Storyboards website where he displays his series of photos that combine to tell a story, influenced by David Hockney and Robert Rauschenberg; his photography books "Seasons of Savannah," "Savannah Past and Present," and "Milledgeville Then and Now;" recently getting published in the fine art mag "Black & White Magazine;" and his advice to students and young photographers to just shoot shoot shoot as there's no substitute for practicing your craft.   Tune in and get all the details!

Join Tamara for an interview with Julia Roland, a Savannah native who graduated from SCAD earlier this year with a BFA in painting and a minor in art history. The paintings in her portfolio symbolize the many different layers of African American culture and human identity through the juxtaposition of frontal facing confrontational figures, saturated colors, bold shapes, and loose patterns. These paintings are reflections of her identities intersecting as a black, queer woman.  You can view her work in the current FAAA Small Works show at the Jepson Center, through November 26, 2024; at Bobby Bagley's studio/co-op gallery in City Market; and murals at Kim's Cafe and the outside door of a Head Start off of MLK.   Check out Julia's work and follow her here:  https://www.juliaroland.com/ https://www.instagram.com/j.r.art_/  Topics in their chat include: How Julia began showing her work in various Savannah spots as young as 18; she enjoys hand-building her substrates and using a jigsaw to cut out organic shapes for her wood panel art; she's always been into design and pattern but didn't want to create strictly abstract paintings, so her current work is portraits with abstract backgrounds; to build up the abstraction she relies on the underpainting to guide her, letting areas peek through or inform a pattern she's going to emphasize; creating murals at Kim's Cafe on MLK, including a portrait of MLK, Malcolm X, and the owners' mother, Kim (and thus the pressure to get portraits right when they're of recognizable people); what is a collagraph and why is it a good printmaking process for someone with a small working space?; her collagraph inspired by her experiences with roommates of different races and thinking about the differences in their hair; the challenge of using a handheld jigsaw to cut out her organic-shaped panels - it has to be thick enough to cut cleanly, but if it's too thick then the piece is very heavy, so Julia likes 1/4" plywood or a small piece of birch; her upcoming group show at Swan Coach House Gallery in Atlanta; her best advice to young artists who are looking to to find their style, message, and audience: thinking of creating art as a lifestyle and not a career, so that you find success in your productivity and not necessarily in your sales.    Tune in and get all the details!

Join Tamara for an interview with Zack Turner, a Savannah native who studied Sequential Art at SCAD for 3 years, until COVID happened. Since then, he has been working and pursuing his art by creating sequential art zines, illustrations, and occasional murals. For the month of October, you can find Zack every Saturday 11-6 and Sunday 1-5 at Neighborhood Comics, where's he's working as the Artist in Residence.  And check out “Sunday Scaries” - his newly-self-published 16 page horror-comedy comic collection - available at Neighborhood Comics or through his IG.    Check out Zack's work and follow him here: https://www.instagram.com/intentional_zombiehorde/ https://www.zackturnercomics.com/  https://neighborhoodcomics.com/pages/neighborhood-comics-sequential-artist-in-residence-program  Topics in their chat include: The challenges of working in traditional sequential art media - pencil and then pen and ink on paper or board - when you have a "heavy hand;" how the industry really calls for artists being able to do at least some of their work in digital, unless there's a big enough budget for the time it generally takes to work traditionally; for his artist residency Zack is working on a collaborative zine called Radio Jammers, with a few artist friends in Texas, creating narratives based on songs they've chosen (Zack's is Death Machine by AJJ); the physical challenges of painting murals, including the need to constantly run back and forth away from it, to evaluate the entire scene; learning how to do comic book lettering with an Ames Lettering Tool; thinking of comic books as "a movie on paper," and you do the work of the director, sound designer, costumer, screenwriting, etc, so a lot of comic book artists also work in storyboarding for movies; the common practice in comic books to collaborate with a different artist who specializes in the graphic design and lettering aspects; did you know that the GA Southern Armstrong campus has a print shop available to the public?; the joy of classic Sunday newspaper comics such as Peanuts, Garfield, and Calvin and Hobbes; how much fun he had during the SOY X SOY Art Battle back in July and how surprised he was to make it to the last round; and finally: Zack loves art collaborations - feel free to reach out to him if you're interested!   Tune in and get all the details!

Join Tamara for an interview with Brian MacGregor, a fine artist and - more so over the past couple of years - a muralist who's had a studio in City Market for 20+ years now. He moved to Savannah from Richmond, VA in 2000 and got an Illustration degree from SCAD. Brian says: "You may have notice​d all the handwriting in the backgrounds of my paintings. These pages come from thousands of different people's hand written nocturnal dreams that I collage into the background of my work.​ I have been collecting these dreams for over 15 years in several journals hanging outside my galleries for the public to write in. I call my style "Romantic Surrealism" inspired by the artists of the late eighteen hundreds, mixed with contemporary artistic methods."   Check out Brian's work and follow him here: https://brianmacgregor.net/  https://www.instagram.com/brian.macgregor/ Topics in their chat include: How Brian started showing at A.T. Hun Gallery in City Market in 2003 (until 2008), while still a student, because he was assertive about getting involved in, and volunteering for, the gallery; his trial and error with layering different colors as transparent layers that will be saturated, yet still show the collaged handwriting pages beneath; how he plans out and draws the compositions of his paintings precisely, but then wants the painting stage to be fairly loose; how currently his art business has shifted to be more mural jobs than fine art sales; the importance of researching how much sunlight an outdoor mural is going to get; renting a construction lift for his big murals; how physically arduous painting a mural is; the huge ceiling mural he did on the soon-to-open Subaru dealership in Pooler (and how hard that was on his body); his devotion to Behr paint and toned primers; the recent mural he did for the City, right on the surface of a road at an intersection in Cloverdale, intended to slow down traffic; and Brian's advice to begin your mural portfolio just by painting your own walls.    Tune in and get all the details!

Join Tamara for an interview with Kasey Jeffrey, a mixed media artist and graphic designer. She is currently focusing on collage and watercolor, often incorporating organic and hand done elements into her digital designs and illustrations. She's a member of Dreamhouse Studios, an artist workspace above the Starland Strange shop, where she both creates her art and leads various craft workshops. You can order her "Magic Beet" book through Barnes & Noble, etc!    Check out Kasey's work and follow her here: https://www.instagram.com/kaseymakesstuff/ https://www.kaseyjeffrey.com/ https://www.dreamhousesavannah.com/workshops Topics in their chat include: How Kasey moved here from Pennsylvania in 2022, sight unseen, with her partner, and loved it here right away; her degree in Communication Design - comprised of graphic design, advertising, web design, and illustration - and how the illustration parts have inspired her to bring in handmade, physical collage into her graphic design; her first post-college job as an in-house designer for Martin Guitars in PA, doing such work as the labels inside sound holes, art on the guitar neck and fretboard, and the graphics for the company's guitar museum; visiting the workshop where the "inlay guys" were hand-creating the fretboard art she had designed; the joy of using a "clay pasta" machine to make her polymer clay jewelry; she's now a year into being completely freelance, juggling her graphic and web design work, making and selling her own prints and jewelry, and hosting regular creative workshops; "Magic Beet," a book illustration project she landed while still in college, after having proactively reached out to local design businesses for gigs; Kasey's belief in the benefit of cold-calling potential clients to grow her graphic design business; her advice to only show work in one's portfolio that's the type you want to continue to make; and going forward, she's pushing herself to work on larger and more detailed pieces, using paper that expands out beyond the page and has non-flat elements, and working through how to finish/frame it.   Tune in and get all the details!

Join Tamara for an interview with Mary Carol Kenney, a "figurative artist known for her work in painting and mixed media, often drawing inspiration from her surroundings to explore themes of nature, people, and culture." Mary Carol moved to Savannah in early 2021, largely because someone once told her she would really like it here, and joined the City Market Art Studios at the beginning of July, after having spent years working from her home studio. Visit her symbolism-filled figurative paintings and her pop art screenprints in her studio, or on Saturdays at the farmers' market/lane of artists selling in Forsyth Park!  * This Sunday, Sept 8 from 4-7pm we're throwing an Open Studios event at the City Market North side (above the Georgia Tasting Room) - please join us to chat with the artists and enjoy light refreshments and music! *   Check out Mary Carol's work and follow her here: https://www.marycarolkenney.com/ https://www.instagram.com/marycarolkenney/   Topics in their chat include: How Mary Carol transitioned from being a "happy hermit" in her home studio to working out of City Market at the beginning of July, to boost her sales from just selling Saturdays in Forsyth Park; what are cyanotypes and screenprints?; her time spent in Santa Barbara taking all variety of art and craft classes at the local school; her first career of working as a self-taught seamstress for 40 years; her thoughts about the "generosity of spirit" she saw amongst artists both in Savannah and in Santa Barbara; how Mary Carol ended up in Savannah based on someone once telling her she would really like it here; how she began her painting series of shells with Dutch pours through doing crafts with her young grandchildren, of which 6 paintings were recently chosen by a new interior decor shop downtown (!); how her "To Err is Human" series was inspired by the time she spent caring for her mother with late-stage dementia; getting involved in a few upcoming art fairs this fall: Gordonston and Isle of Hope; and her thoughts about selling in Forsyth Park and all of the energy the SCAD students bring to town.  Tune in and get all the details!

Join Tamara for an interview with Lusiana Morales, who was born in Puerto Rico and began an architecture program there, while also apprenticing at a local tattoo shop and honing her linework skills. Midway through her degree she moved to Savannah to instead get her BFA in Painting at SCAD - she arrived in town in early 2020, so her first months here were during the height of Covid!   Since graduating, Lusiana spent some time in Miami before returning to Savannah to work at Tramp Art Studios and pursue her MFA in Fibers, which she is currently halfway through. Check out Lusiana's work and follow her here: https://www.instagram.com/lusiana.arte/ (art) https://www.instagram.com/lusiana_morales/ (tattoos)  https://www.lusianamorales.com/  Topics in their chat include: How Lusiana got into art and making by carrying her coloring books and markers around everywhere as a child, and then by her Grandma teaching her how to use a sewing machine growing up; growing up amongst the nature of Puerto Rico (including snakes and iguanas); her 2 years of architecture school, which led to her apprenticeship as a tattoo artist, and the gradual realization that she wanted to study drawing painting instead; how she arrived in Savannah at the beginning of 2020 and the challenge of then immediately taking her Life Drawing and other studio classes over Zoom; what kind of undergarments do life models wear when they are modeling over Zoom?; the tattoo licensing exam is mostly about how to handle bodily fluids and about pathogens and CPR; her recent 1-month internship in various rural areas of Guatemala to learn about traditional textile techniques; the difference between back-strap weaving and a floor loom; being able to travel around and do guest residencies at other tattoo shops, and how she packs her inks for plane travel; and what she's looking forward to: the annual SOY X SOY group show this fall at the Cultural Center, and looking ahead to her final year of her Fibers MFA program. Tune in and get all the details!

Join Tamara for an interview with Jason Bible, an Americana and rock singer-songwriter and instrumentalist who was born in Fort Worth, Texas. He began performing and recording music in the 90s - singing and playing guitar and harmonica. He left Texas and moved to Savannah in 2001 (due to a "banking issue"), and immediately began playing multiple shows a night, focusing on bars on River Street, and eventually out on the islands. In 2005 he formed the band The Train Wrecks, who are still going strong today. Nowadays you can catch Jason playing solo, with The Train Wrecks, *and*, recently, out playing Nirvana covers with his teenage son Jack.   Check out Jason's music and follow him here for concert and album news: https://www.instagram.com/jasonbiblemusic/ https://open.spotify.com/artist/1UXKMDrq24J2TJIJi4DJAN  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-7NvBK95xe8bPrdmvtW_IA   Topics in their chat include: How Jason started learning guitar and harmonica in HS, through private lessons focusing on early Dylan songs; playing solo both in indie coffee shops and in various Barnes & Nobles in Denton, TX during the heydey of the coffeehouse era; his recent gig opening for BB King's daughter and Stevie Ray Vaughan's nephew at Tybee Post Theatre; what does he mean by "leave sawdust on the stage?;" how his longtime band The Trainwrecks started, playing 3 gigs a night running around out on Tybee and Wilmington Island; how he and a co-writer have written 2 books, with a corresponding song per chapter, named for principles/tenets of Buddhism (contact Jason for these books); how difficult it is to find left-handed guitars and Jason's recommendations for where to buy them; the "Quarantine Concerts" Jason played during the pandemic; Jason's recent musical endeavor with his drummer son Jack, performing Nirvana covers around town for the past year, and the challenge of reenacting Kurt Cobain's screams; his karaoke song is "Roadhouse Blues;" and his upcoming projects: keep an eye on his IG about a new record and book coming out hopefully fall 2025, and about all of his upcoming gigs.   Tune in and get all the details!

It's the 2-year anniversary of Rob Hessler handing the podcast over to Tamara Garvey (after having done it for 5 years)! To celebrate, Tamara, Rob, and David Laughlin - who also did the show for a few year with Rob - met up for a looooong wild chat about Savannah's creative scene and the art(s) of interviewing and writing about it.  (One thing we all agree on is the excitement of getting feedback from people who are listening to/reading our interviews HINT HINT!)     Do you want even more of our unhinged thoughts? Check out each of our social media here: https://www.instagram.com/tamgarv/ https://www.instagram.com/work_by_rob_hessler/  https://www.instagram.com/thedavidlaughlin/    Topics in our chat include: Rob insulted his way into a regular writing gig at the Savannah Morning News; the in-and-outs of the current publishing cycle of the SMN; how the nature of the 1-on-1 interview is much easier for (introverted) creatives to talk about their work than at public Artist Talks; how creating each interview episode is an art project in itself; how rewarding it is to interview a burgeoning artist and give them a little boost; particular interviews that have stood out to each of us; the time David recorded a car crash during one of his interviews; the fact that Savannah has been a cultural mecca for years and we are wondering if it has/is peaking (a la Key West), because of housing prices; we each answer a few of David's "studio questions," including a great piece of advice we've each received; Rob talks about a recent article he wrote that has drawn some heat; choosing interview subjects and the necessity of being inspired by each other; "art decorates space and music decorates time;" the shared experience of trying to protect our time and our creative labor when society tries to get these things for free.   Bonus article David found that related to our talk about Savannah! Tune in and get all the details!

Join Tamara for an interview with Adriana Iris Boatwright, a creative photographer and writer with a focus in social media. She was born and raised in Puerto Rico, and came to Georgia in 1994 by way of NYC and Germany.  Her clients include: Coca Cola, Savannah Morning News, H&M, Bath and Body Works, Ghost Coast Distillery, Paramount Pictures, Do Savannah, and more. Adriana is also an editor for La Voz Latina (a Spanish online magazine for SMN), *and* one of about 4 founding members of SOY X SOY, a space for Latino and Native American artists and creatives to meet, collaborate, and exhibit their work. * Get ready for Art Rumble - A @soy_x_soy event! 8 artists will go head to head to win it all. What they draw is up to you! So make sure you attend to participate. July 13 | 5-9 pm | Starland Yard * Check out Adriana's work and the SOY X SOY group here: https://www.instagram.com/adrianairis/  https://adrianairis.com/  https://www.instagram.com/soy_x_soy/  Topics in their chat include: How Adriana was involved in Starland becoming an artsy district from its early days, throwing theme parties at the Wormhole; how her creative career came about through her blog about her baby daughter - she wrote a post about her brother's death and it went viral, and she suddenly got photography offers from various publications, including Savannah Morning News, where she still works; she transitioned out of blogging about her daughter as she got a bit older, to writing and photographing for SMN, particularly when they first launched "Do Savannah;" she shot the covers for years, including covers with the first gay couple and the first drag queen; how much she loved doing photo shoots with bands and collaborating about their location and their visuals; the pressure that comes from having a large Instagram following and a lot of people keeping an eye on you; the fact that Savannah has about 300 professional photographers (!); the importance to her of still going out to do personal and conceptual photo shoots for fun; having to transition from film photography to digital, including teaching herself Photoshop; being a sort of "purist" who doesn't rapid-fire during a shoot; doing food photography for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and SMN; she tells a wild story about the time an alligator suddenly walked through City Market, until being rehomed by Animal Control; shooting the yearly Lowcountry Pow Wow at Hardeeville, the only one in the area; upcoming Conde Nast Traveler in England of our local coffee shop Agatha's (!); and the upcoming SOY X SOY Art Battle.   Tune in and get all the details!

Join Tamara for an interview with Henry Dean, who works in various modes (drawing and mixed media works on paper, installation, painting, sculpture, video), and is also a Foundations professor at SCAD.  Our talk centered around his recently completed "Now and Then," a national immersive land-art project inspired by Nature and Cosmos - specifically the April 8th, 2024 total eclipse. As an Arts-Science initiative it imagines Nature and environment as unique and wonderful attributes of the cosmic whole (and was a project two years in the making!).  Henry graduated St. Andrews University, Scotland (1980, MFA honors, Geography and Fine Arts combined), and Savannah College of Art and Design (2003, MFA Painting). Check out his work and the "Now and Then" project specifically, and follow him here: https://www.henrydean.art/  https://www.instagram.com/nowandtheneclipse24/  Topics in their chat include: Before Henry moved from Philadephia to Savannah in 1999, he was mostly making and selling very large, plein air landscape paintings; his theories on why North America has had 2 total eclipses a few years apart, after not having had any for years; we try to wrap our heads around the experience of the Old Masters who created art in obscurity, died, and then were discovered & lauded throughout the world for centuries (!); how a long creative career always involves different waves of work, including transitional periods, and how craftspersonship can carry your work through successfully; coming to see that "Now and Then" was not specifically about the eclipse, but really about people, honoring communities and landscapes, expressing a wonder for nature, shared experiences, and tying communities together; and the details on that project: two years' worth of work and planning, 15 sculptures across 6 locations, driving across the country reaching out to local governments and chambres of commerce to make pitches for an art project that hadn't yet been completely designed.   Tune in and get all the details!

Join Tamara for an interview with Sharon Norwood, a conceptual artist whose work spans several media to include painting and ceramic. She was born in Jamaica, then raised in Canada, before moving to the US to earn BFA and MFA degrees in art & painting from schools in Florida. Sharon's work investigates the ways in which race, gender, and cultural identity shape our perceptions of ourselves and other people. In her work the curly line becomes a metaphor for the “black body." She is an active educator and lecturer, and her work is part of public collections at notable institutions such as the Gardiner Museum, Washington & Lee University Museums, The Telfair Museums, and The National Museum for Women in the Arts. Check out Sharon's work and follow her here: https://sharonnorwood.com/ https://www.instagram.com/sharonnorwoodartist/  Topics in their chat include: Sharon and other family members emigrated from Jamaica to Canada when she was about 9 years old, which plunged her into a period of muteness; getting her BFA and MFA degrees after an early career in graphic design; a "controversially famous" poet uncle; how her time at art school began with her trying to get better at painting realistic portraits, but because she was then the only student concerned with mixing colors for painting dark skin tones, her work immediately became tagged as "political" or "about race," when that wasn't even her intention; so her work then became an examination of *that* phenomenon; how many porcelain tea sets are luxury items; her group show in 2019 at Laney Contemporary; her great practice of traveling around the US and Canada for artist residencies; and a recent installation she did in the drawing room at the Owens-Thomas House, in which she also incorporated sound. Tune in and get all the details!

Join Tamara for an interview with Will Penny, who grew up in Ontario and first moved to Savannah about 20 years ago, to get his BFA in Painting from SCAD. After graduation he moved away, later returning for his MFA in Painting, and has been in town ever since.  * Special note that on Weds 5/22 and Thurs 5/23, he will participate in a two-day event at Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum: a light and sound festival entitled “Celestial Seafarers,” featuring Will and 6+ other local artists. Info and tickets here: https://www.shipsofthesea.org/celestial-seafarers Will is a multi-disciplinary artist whose practice incorporates an assortment of media ranging from painting, video, sculpture, programming, and projection. His work aims to combine traditional art making tools with new technologies, to create space to explore themes such as embodiment, presence, fantasy, and the sublime. Check out Will's work and follow him here: https://www.willpenny.com/ https://www.instagram.com/willpennyart/  Topics in their chat include: During his BFA Will focused on refining his skills at painting realism, but when he returned for grad school he focused more on exploring concepts, and took elective classes in motion media design and visual effects; his interest in nostalgia (ex. the history of hockey masks) and working through his childhood of the 80s and 90s, both the good memories and the more traumatic ones; working through your memories, with all of the associated emotional attachments; how he came to be represented by Laney Contemporary; the whole emerging element of how archival work that incorporates technology or media is, whether it might degrade over time, and whether a museum or artist should maintain it; how his past series of 3D printed pieces were exploring the "sublime experience" of nature (but ended up too expensive to continue to produce); lessons he learned from his Big Mouth Billy Bass AI project, both from the summer heat outside of Green Truck and indoors at the recent ArtFields Festival; and his upcoming two-day event at Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum: a light and sound festival entitled “Celestial Seafarers,” featuring Will and 6+ other local artists.  Tune in and get all the details!

Join Tamara and David for an interview with Autumn Gary, a largely self-taught American/First Nations painter, sculptor, and art instructor from Portland, Oregon. Her practice revolves around therapeutic art outreach, public art, and intertribal collaboration with indigenous/native arts communities. Mark your calendar: Autumn and Alexis Javier (of Sulfur Studios) will have a joint exhibition at the #art912 space in the Jepson Center from July 19 until next February 9, with an Artist Talk & Reception on July 18!  Check out Autumn's work and follow her here: https://www.instagram.com/autumn.gary.art/ https://www.telfair.org/exhibitions/of-one-mind/  Topics in their chat include: Growing up in an artistic and inclusive environment; making pilgrimages to the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory in Quebec; learning the Mohawk language and discovering how many words and feelings are untranslatable between it and English; having moved to Savannah in 2008, largely as the result of a dream; her sculpture project at the Savannah Center for the Blind and Low Vision, which was a collaboration with the blind users of the center; the center's Training Sidewalk, which recreates the various topographies of a city, so blind people can practice getting around; what she and AJ are planning for their collaborative sculpture and immersive Jepson Center exhibition coming up in a few months; the unstructured way she teaches at the Telfair's art summer camps; the awesome surfing metaphor we came up with toward the end of the show; and dancing with seniors.  Tune in and get all the details!   * And some cool podcast news: Feedspot has highlighted Art on the Air as one of the Top 3 Georgia Art Podcasts on the web. Hooray!  https://blog.feedspot.com/georgia_art_podcasts/

Join Tamara and David for an interview with Melyssa Amann, who was born and raised in the Caribbean country Trinidad and Tobago. She came to Savannah in 2016 to attend SCAD, and after trying a couple of directions, earned a BFA in illustration with a minor in scientific illustration. Her website shows a wide variety of her work - portraiture, editorial and commercial work, murals, and scientific illustration - and she does a great job including sketches and progress images for each project.  Since graduating, Melyssa has gotten a steady stream of mural commissions. You can go see her public work at Kanpai II on Chatham Pkwy., the new Artstryngs Gallery on Liberty St.; and the JEA's basketball court.  Check out Melyssa's work and follow her here: https://www.melyssaamann.com/ https://www.instagram.com/melyssaamann/  Topics in their chat include: A little background info on Melyssa's birthplace of Trinidad & Tobago; her roundabout journey to studying illustration at SCAD after trying engineering and industrial design, due to not knowing how one would make a living in the arts if not in a "serious" design field; the weirdness of graduating college in spring 2020; how working at Wasabi's on MLK while studying at SCAD led to her first mural, of koi fish, which has in turn led to multiple other mural commissions (even today!); the agony of seeing your chalk mural getting accidentally smudged by restaurant diners; the pluses and minuses of having many different styles and types of projects on one's website; the arduous experience of painting on a basketball court during June in Savannah;  her desire to continue breaking away from just depicting strict and tight representation, but to be able to incorporate concepts as well; and a lovely piece of advice Melyssa would give to other artists. Tune in and get all the details!   * And some cool podcast news: Feedspot has highlighted Art on the Air as one of the Top 3 Georgia Art Podcasts on the web. Hooray!  https://blog.feedspot.com/georgia_art_podcasts/

Join Tamara for an interview with Danèlle Lejeune, who is a poet, memoirist, and photographer, as well as the Assistant Director at the Ossabaw Writers’ Retreat. From her website: "Danèlle was a livestock farmer in Southern Iowa. She moved to Georgia with her three kids and nothing else in 2016, to begin again from the ground up. After a twenty year hiatus she's writing poetry, making art, and creating a a lot of chaos with her opinions on onions and pies." You can find her debut poetry collection, Landlocked: Etymology of Whale Fish and Grace (Finishing Line Press, 2017), at the Book Lady here in Savannah, or online at the major book retailers. Check out Danèlle's work and follow her here: http://www.danellelejeune.com/  https://www.instagram.com/danelle_lejeune_author/   https://ossabawwritersretreat.org/    Topics in their chat include: Coming to Savannah in 2014 for the first time to attend the Ossabaw Island Writers' Retreat...but she was actually undercover to research and study the Ossabaw pigs, to help with her and her then-husband's pig farm in Iowa; how her quick iphone photos taken while hiking on Ossabaw were published as the posters for AWP (Association of Writers & Writing Programs); how that conference led to her getting an invite for a free(!) writers' retreat & residency in Prague, where she wrote enough Irish mythology-related poems to make an entire book, which was also quickly published; teaching composition classes at University of South Carolina at Bluffton; how dramatic a writers/artists retreat can be; and how supportive the Book Lady shop has been for her and for other local writers. Tune in and get all the details!

Join Tamara for an interview with Molly Cusick, who works in the dual arts of photography and pottery, and shares a City Market studio with her mother (who also works in two art forms!). Traveling through the world's most beautiful places, Molly sees beauty where others are not looking. Faces of rocks, creek reflections, abandoned cars and barnacled boats offer a rich interplay of texture, color, and tone. Her eyes are drawn to the way that nature overtakes manmade objects. She has a specific project called the Tree Pilgrimage: "...born from the ashes of the Thomas fire, in January 2018, is a project honoring embodied connection and awakening.   I followed a calling from deep within my heart to be with and photograph the amazing Trees around the world while I still had the chance."   Check out Molly's work and follow her here:  https://www.instagram.com/mollycusickphotography/ http://www.mollycusickphotography.com/  https://www.thetreepilgrimage.com/ https://www.instagram.com/mollycusickpottery/   Topics in their chat include: Growing up in a creative home and receiving her first (film) camera at 14; her affinity for junkyards and rusty old cars; in February 2020 Molly went to New Zealand for a 3-6 month photography trip, and when the pandemic hit she ended up staying there for 1 1/2 years, extending her visa to travel solo and do nature photography; her early time in Savannah selling work at the Savannah Gallery of Art; being a part of the Clayer & Co pottery teaching studio in Thunderbolt; getting photo prints made and her discovery of metal prints; close calls with bears and cobras; and her plans for future photography trips to Bulgaria and Madagascar. Tune in and get all the details!

Join Tamara for an interview with Phoebe Plank, who is just a few months from finishing her MFA in Fibers at SCAD. Her path to making art in the first place began when she studied abroad in Paris during her undergrad program, and had her eyes opened to a more unconventional way of life by the older woman who housed her. After graduating, she moved from Vermont to San Francisco, eventually making a bunch of artsy friends and attending the Burning Man festival, and from there she decided to move to Savannah and pursue her art.  Phoebe says: "With what might be considered waste, or overlooked foraged materials, I assemble and create useful art objects and experiences. To address an overwhelming degree of alienation in our time, I aim to make work that is useful, even if in quiet sensory ways."   Check out Phoebe's work and follow her here:  https://www.instagram.com/phoebe_plank/ https://phoebeplankart.squarespace.com/   Topics in their chat include: Phoebe coining the name "stickwork" for her recent series of pieces, alluding to a magical, whimsical, wand-like vibe; playing around with hanging her stickwork on the wall with one point of contact, as a metaphor for how one exists/balances in the world, vs. hanging it from the ceiling and allowing it to sway around; what is "wet lab" felting and how do horses come into it?!; how is a jacquard loom like a player piano?; how "Dobby" refers to both a Harry Potter character and a person in the weaving process; weaving weeds in Lacoste; Phoebe's "pocket Rumi" book and how she pairs a poem with each of her pressed flower pieces; the amazing Rumi poem about cooked chickpeas that sticks in her memory; and her goal to live in France and pursue her art, post-MFA. Tune in and get all the details!

Join Tamara and David for an interview with Stephen Kasun, who moved to Savannah and began working in the City Market studios back in 2009, and now has two ground-floor studios/gallery spaces. Before that he went to art school at Memphis College of Art, and then University of Cincinnati, and then sold his work in art fairs for years. Lately painting with acrylic paint and a palette knife, Stephen says: "My subject matter can be anything--as long as it’s about mood and light. My direct, deliberate approach requires a lot of pre-mixing my colors and doing most of the "thinking" on my mixing plate. Each paint stroke is carefully considered beforehand."  Check out Stephen's work and follow him here:  https://www.kasunstudio.com/ https://www.instagram.com/kasunart/   Topics in their chat include: His switch from oil paint to acrylic 10 years ago and the experimental nature of acrylics; how both pig bladders and earwax (!) have figured into creating paint through the centuries; falling in love with Savannah and City Market back in the 1990s; his recommendation to young artists starting out; the time he lost an entire wall full of paintings into the Savannah River because of a gust of wind during a River Street art fair; how does one pronounce the word "scourge?"; the benefits of selling art through a gallery even though they're taking a commission; is a palette knife the Ferrari of painting materials?; the requirement when you have a ground floor space in City Market to staff/open your studio 7 days a week, but the tradeoff of how high your sales are; the specific qualities of acrylic paint that allow Stephen to be a "mad scientist" and do experiments with air brushing, mediums, etc; Stephen's bespoke palette knives (!); how the Six Pence phone booth is a "gift to artists;" and his upcoming work hopefully to be based on his new drone photography hobby. Tune in and get all the details!

Join Tamara and David for an interview with The Maxines, "a badass all chick rock band in Savannah, GA - grunge w/ a kiss of metal." They're led by AJ Grey on vocals, with Emma Smith on bass, and twins Coco and Maddie Oke on drums and guitar. You might remember them from our musical episode back around Thanksgiving - if not, go have a listen! The Maxines released their debut album "Skin Tight" - named after the first song they ever wrote - back on October 1.  Their next show will be Feb 24 at El Rocko!  Listen to The Maxines and follow them here:  https://www.instagram.com/themaxinesband/ https://themaxinesband.bandcamp.com/album/skin-tight   Topics in their chat include: Their great experience recording their recent and first album, Skin Tight, with Scary of Black Tusk; their new bassist Emma, who replaced Veronica Garcia-Melendez (a previous interviewee on the show!); the addition of an instrument called a "donkey jaw;" how the band formed through word-of-mouth of various female musicians around Savannah, and all of the shared songs they wanted to cover; AJ's physicality during their performances and her philosophy on preparing ahead of time for that; Madonna's lifelong influence; working through the stage fright of their first performance; the complicated bass solo in their song "Letter to a Pill" and how Emma faces it; the success of their first show - an open mic in late 2021 at the Wormhole; their collaborative process of songwriting; going on their recent first tour, lasting 2 weeks, with Savannah band Neckromance; how Coco and Maddie have taught themselves screenprinting to produce all of the band's merch; the excitement of getting CDs made (they still have some available!); their brand-new band manager!; the success of the album release party / music fest they threw in October; new experimental sounds they look forward to trying, such as megaphones; and how metal singers take care of their voices, both in general and especially on tour.  Tune in and get all the details!