Artists in Offices

On this episode, I'm thrilled to welcome Lisa Solomon to the podcast! Lisa is a studio artist, college professor, and illustrator whose work explores themes of domesticity, craft, and personal history—often blurring the lines between art and craft through her mixed-media pieces and large installations. She's exhibited nationally and internationally, with work in both private and public collections, and she's also the author of several books including A Field Guide to Color, The Color Meditation Deck, Knot Thread Stitch, and more (find all her books here). Beyond her art practice, Lisa teaches on CreativeBug and continues to create from her backyard studio in Oakland, where she lives with her husband, their teenager, two cats, a three-legged pit bull, a dachshund mix, and countless spools of thread. Shout-outs to artist and UC Berkeley professor emerita Katherine Sherwood (also the reason I first met Lisa over 20 years ago) and longtime Chroma series collaborator Christine Buckton Tillman. Lisa shares more about how her many books came about on various other podcasts and interviews (so we didn't spend too much time talking about it), including Authentic Obsessions earlier in 2025, a 2019 conversation with Abby Glassenberg, and a recent Canvas Rebel article here. We do talk about Lisa's dreamy backyard studio in Oakland, California. You can check out a cool timelapse of the studio being built here. Finally, learn more about Lisa's newest book Art, Craft, Color, coming out in February 2026, here. To learn more about Lisa and her work, check out her website and follow her on Instagram. Artists in Offices is produced and edited by Rebecca Bird Grigsby. Music is provided by Jesse Kelsey. Additional information and episodes can be found at artistsinoffices.com.

In this episode, I'm excited to welcome Sarah Kobrinsky to the podcast! Sarah is the former Poet Laureate of Emeryville, California, and the author of Nighttime on the Other Side of Everything. Her poems and stories have appeared in places like Magma Poetry, Red Light Lit, Monkeybicycle, 100 Word Story, and many more. Born in Canada, raised in North Dakota, seasoned in England, and tempered in California, she now lives in the Bay Area, where she and her husband run a handmade ceramic dinnerware company called Jered's Pottery. She also hosts literary workshops and readings there, and beyond her creative and professional life, she's a folk dancer, a martial artist, an aspiring polyglot, and the mom of a teenage son. During our interview, Sarah reads two of her poems: Elf-Portrait and Phantom Letdown. She paraphrases Joan Didion (and gets very close to the actual quote: "I don't know what I think until I write it down."). Finally, you can get a sense of how she engages her audiences during poetry readings here. To learn more about Sarah and her work, follow her on Instagram. Artists in Offices is produced and edited by Rebecca Bird Grigsby. Music is provided by Jesse Kelsey. Additional information and episodes can be found at artistsinoffices.com.

On this episode, I'm excited to speak with Susana Sanchez-Young! Susana is a visual journalist with more than 20 years of experience in newspaper design and graphic and photo illustration. Her award-winning work has covered everything from presidential inaugurations to Spanx for men to nudist camps in South Florida—and pretty much everything in between. She's been recognized by the Society of News Design and multiple state press associations across the country. Susana is also the creative force behind The Designing Chica, a brand she launched after realizing during her pregnancy that there wasn't enough artwork reflecting her own Guatemalan-Nicaraguan-American culture. She has since channeled that inspiration into vibrant, culturally rooted designs often created late at night, after work and the many family obligations she has as the mother of two. To learn more about Susana and her work, check out her website and follow her on Instagram.  Artists in Offices is produced and edited by Rebecca Bird Grigsby. Music is provided by Jesse Kelsey. Additional episodes and information can be found at artistsinoffices.com.  

I'm thrilled to talk with David Burke on this episode of the podcast! David is an artist whose career balances teaching, studio practice, and public art. Over the past two decades, he's created murals, exhibitions, and collaborative projects that merge creativity with community storytelling. He's the founder of Hungry Ghost Productions, a Bay Area mural collective dedicated to diversity, social justice, and collaboration, and their ongoing Love Letter to Oakland project celebrates generations of artists, activists, and leaders in the city. In his studio work, David explores ecology, climate change, and the relationship between the natural and built environment. His teaching career has taken him from Chiang Mai University in Thailand to the Academy of Art University and Cal State East Bay. David is also the father of two. During our conversation, I reference another podcast interview David did with Urban Artist Talk. You can check out that interview here. Shout-outs to David's mural crew & collaborators: Steve Babuljak, Pancho Pescador, and Joevic Yeban. Special recognition goes to Hung Liu, an artist featured in the Love Letter to Oakland mural in Oakland's Temescal neighborhood and a major influence on artists in the Bay Area and beyond, as you'll hear in future episodes. To learn more about David and his work, check out his website and follow him on Instagram.  Artists in Offices is produced and edited by Rebecca Bird Grigsby. Music is provided by Jesse Kelsey. Additional episodes and information can be found at artistsinoffices.com.

This week's guest is Briana Loewinsohn! Briana is a high school art teacher and cartoonist, and the author of the acclaimed graphic memoir Ephemera, published by Fantagraphics in 2023. The book was named one of the American Library Association's top graphic novels of the year and won the 2023 Foreword Indies Editors Prize for Nonfiction. Her latest graphic novel, Raised by Ghosts, came out in early 2025—also with Fantagraphics—and recently won the Harvey Award for Best Young Adult Book. Briana lives in Oakland, California, with her husband, their two kids, and their cat, Gary. We talk a lot in the episode about Briana's "bestie," Thien Pham, fellow teacher and comic book & visual artist. Briana has been featured in a lot of articles and interviews, but I particularly enjoyed her "Diary of a Struggling Comics Artist" interview with Chris Wisnia; you can listen to the 2nd part of their conversation for free here. She talks a lot about her experience getting her work published in this and other interviews. Some other projects we discuss include her Color Field for the Drawn to MoMA series and Movie Theaters We Have Lost for KQED. To learn more about Briana and her work, follow her on Instagram. Artists in Offices is produced and edited by Rebecca Bird Grigsby. Music is provided by Jesse Kelsey. More information about the podcast can be found at artistsinoffices.com.

In episode 3, I speak with Buffalo-based artist Andrea Wenglowskyj. Andrea is a photo-based artist and commercial/editorial photographer whose work explores how memory and community are shaped by war and authoritarianism, inspired by her Ukrainian-American heritage. A Fulbright Grant recipient in Ukraine, she has exhibited across the U.S. and internationally, including at CEPA Gallery, Silver Eye Center for Photography, and Galerie Amu in Prague. Her photography has appeared in The New York Times, NPR, and more. Andrea has taught at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the International Center of Photography, and the Brooklyn Museum, among others. She co-founded creative organizations Kind Aesthetic and DELVE and has participated in numerous residencies and grant-funded projects. Most recently, her work appeared in Portrait of Buffalo II at CEPA Gallery, where she'll open a solo exhibition in November 2025. During our conversation, I reference Andrea's May 2017 CreativeMornings Buffalo talk about Paths of Intention. You can watch the video here. To learn more about Andrea and her work, visit her website and follow her on Instagram. Artists in Offices is produced and edited by Rebecca Bird Grigsby. Music is provided by Jesse Kelsey. More information about the podcast can be found at artistsinoffices.com.

On this episode, I'm excited to welcome back Janine Biunno to the podcast! When we last talked, Janine was wrapping up her MLS degree while working as an archivist and maintaining her art practice. This time around, we talk about life after that degree, parenthood during a pandemic, day jobs that turn into careers, daily practices, and valuing the little moments. During our conversation, we discuss Oliver Burkeman's book Four Thousand Weeks, Janine's husband Mac Pohanka, co-owner of Brooklyn-based Noble Signs, and our graduate advisor (and mom of 2!) Jennifer Schmidt. Janine is a New York–based visual artist and archivist whose work explores how we experience architecture, infrastructure, and city spaces, and how our memories of them shift in the digital age. She currently leads the archives at The Met, after 8 years at the Noguchi Museum. Her art has been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the International Print Center of New York, the Center for Book Arts in New York, Transmitter Gallery, and Satellite Miami, and is included in major collections across the country. Janine holds a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University, an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, a graduate certificate in Museum Studies from Tufts University, and an MLS from CUNY Queens College Graduate School of Library and Information Studies. Janine is also the mom of a 5-year-old son. For more information about Janine and her work, please visit her website and Instagram. Artists in Offices is produced and edited by Rebecca Bird Grigsby. Music is provided by Jesse Kelsey. More information about the podcast can be found at artistsinoffices.com.

For the first episode of season 2, I welcome back Lisa Jonas Taylor, who became a parent in 2023. Lisa is a Santa Rosa-based artist who makes paintings that often incorporate sculptural and theatrical elements. Lisa has shown her work at places like Bass & Reiner Gallery, Southern Exposure, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, and the Casa Romantica Cultural Center in Southern California. Collaborative projects include God Sees Everything, part of SFMOMA's Fertile Ground at the Oakland Museum of California, and Solarium, created during a residency at This Will Take Time and later exhibited at City Limits Gallery in Oakland. Lisa holds an MFA from California College of the Arts and a BFA from CSU Long Beach. When we recorded this conversation in August 2025, Lisa had recently left her full-time job at CCA after 10 years. We talk about that transition as well as life with a toddler, and a studio in flux...again. If you haven't already done so, you can listen to my season 1 chat with Lisa here. Artists in Offices is produced & edited by Rebecca Bird Grigsby. Intro music is provided by Jesse Kelsey. More information about the podcast can be found at artistsinoffices.com.

Artists in Offices explores how the work we do for pay supports the work we do for love. I'm your host, Rebecca Bird Grigsby—visual artist, mom of two, and full-time project manager by day. Season 1 featured artists balancing day jobs and creative practice. This season, I'm talking with artists who are also parents about making art while raising kids. We'll dive into the challenges and joys of sustaining creativity alongside caregiving—how parenting reshapes priorities, changes our sense of time, and redefines what studio work looks like. Guests share stories of support networks, teaching as livelihood, navigating unexpected life shifts, and modeling persistence for their children. At its core, Season 2 is about embracing the conversation: how art and caregiving intersect, transform each other, and keep us creating. Welcome to Artists in Offices, Season 2! Music provided by Mr. Neat Beats

In this bonus episode between seasons 1 and 2 of the podcast, I talk to Lennon Michelle Wolcott Hernandez, a Boston-based interdisciplinary artist who works in graduate admissions. Originally from Michigan, Lennon is a Latinx artist who speaks better Japanese than Spanish, is named after a Beatle, and comes from a family line that signed the Declaration of Independence. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Art at Michigan State University. After leaving the Midwest, Lennon attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University for the Post-Baccalaureate Certificate (2015) and Master of Fine Arts (2017) programs. In early 2020, Lennon will present a workshop at the Michigan Indian Educational Council Conference, where her work "Mother 2017" will be featured. In "All Work and No Play", a solo exhibition at Gallery 263 in Cambridge, Lennon explores how having a full-time job impacts artists' time for creativity and practice. Office supplies inspired by her day job are used as materials for the work. This exhibition, which also features patterns and symbols of the artist's multicultural American heritage, serves as a self-portrait broadly defined. In this episode, we talk about her work in this show, as well as her experiences leading up to it, both in the studio and beyond. Additional Links: You can learn more about Lennon's work on her website and follow her on Instagram.  As always, podcast music is provided by Mr. Neat Beats.

In this bonus episode, I check in with Laura Torres, the second artist I interviewed for season 1 of the podcast. About a month after our initial interview in December 2018, Laura quit her full-time day job in higher education fundraising to focus more time on her circus arts training and everything else that supports her creative practice. This bonus episode was recorded in March 2019, a couple of months after Laura left her job. Since then, Laura reports that she is meeting a lot of her tightwire goals, though like all art objectives, everything takes much longer than initially anticipated. She has her own rig, she co-created and performed her first duo act, and participated in a wirewalking workshop at NECCA (New England Center for Circus Arts) in VT. She's also halfway through Karl Marx's Capital Vol. 1, which she reports is a challenging but worthwhile read. You can follow Laura's progress on her Instagram. To listen to our original interview, look for episode 2. Music, as always, is provided by Mr. Neat Beats.

In this bonus episode, I check in with Elizabeth Amento, the first artist I interviewed for season one of the podcast, who has since left her day job in San Francisco and moved to New York City. This bonus episode was recorded in late June 2019, a week before she started her new job, and about three months after she made the move. Elizabeth was born in Boston, MA, and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She returned to the East Coast to attend Boston College for Studio Art and Psychology, Brandeis University for a Post-Baccalaureate in Studio Art, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University for her Masters Degree in Fine Arts. Elizabeth's work has been exhibited in Mighty Tieton Gallery, Washington, Baton Rouge Gallery, Louisiana, Arena 1 Gallery, California, Modified Arts, Arizona, Melvin Gallery, Florida, Boston Young Contemporaries, Massachusetts, among others. Her work is featured in Index Book's Cut out for Collage. She currently resides in Brooklyn, NY. Links: In the interview, Elizabeth mentions taking a woodshop course at Makeville Studio in Brooklyn. For more information about Elizabeth and her work, please visit her website and Instagram. As always, podcast music is provided by Mr. Neat Beats.

In the final episode of season one, I speak with Mike Rothfeld, an artist living and working in Oakland and San Francisco. He received his MFA in Fine Art and MA in Visual and Critical Studies from California College of the Arts (CCA) and his BFA in Photography and Imaging from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University (NYU). Rothfeld's lo-fi, seemingly clumsy sculptures serve as set-pieces and props for the partial science-fiction and fantasy narratives he imagines while working in the studio. His sculptures display a dedication to play, campiness and the absurd along with an underlying sentiment of melancholy and doom. Concerned by an inability to imagine new and viable alternative futures, while still wanting to locate hope for a better tomorrow, Rothfeld makes work that references an era of visual media effects that required viewers to heavily suspend their disbelief to immerse themselves in an imagined reality. Rothfeld's work has been displayed at The Contemporary Jewish Museum, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Southern Exposure, the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, Alter Space Gallery, and San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA; the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; Jan Larsen's Xpo, Brooklyn, NY; the Beacon Artist Union, Beacon, NY; and the Institute of Contemporary Art, London, England; among other venues. His writing has appeared in Art Practical and show take-aways for Stairwell's exhibitions. Additional Links: In the interview, Mike mentions working with artist, author, and curator Deb Willis while studying at NYU. She she later introduced him to the graduate programs at CCA. Between undergrad and grad school, Mike attended the Haystack Mountain School of Craft Residency. Finally, Mike and I discuss his participation in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts' 'Bay Area Now 7' exhibition, a project that was curated by Stairwell's. You can learn more about Mike's work on his website and follow him on Instagram. As always, podcast music is provided by Mr. Neat Beats.

In episode 9, I speak with Nicole Kita,  a visual artist living and working in Northern California, who works as an educator and advocate for artists with developmental disabilities. As an educator, Kita has taught artists of diverse ages, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, as well as individual behavioral and learning needs. She currently works as a full-time teacher at The Studio, a non-profit arts organization in Eureka, California, that provides an inclusive studio environment for artists of all abilities to foster an authentic art practice and professional growth.   As an artist, Kita explores the visual language of signs and symbols. Her practice is informed by anthropology and the history of print media: artifacts of the history, folklore, and cultural heritage of North America. Links: In the interview, Nicole mentions traveling to Chicago to screenprint with Dan McAdams at Crosshair. Learn more about Nicole on her website, visit her Etsy shop, and follow her on Instagram. As always, podcast music is provided by Mr. Neat Beats.

Em Meine makes drawings, paintings, and sculptures as a means of exploring collective memory, storytelling, natural history, and anthropomorphism. The works are often figurative representations of imaginary objects or landscapes. She considers her artistic practice to be a ritual for contemplation and self-care, which enables her to experience a sense of connectivity and communion with everything beyond her self. Em's process is meditative, allowing her to disengage from the external world, and to instead explore an internal universe. More recently, Em has been making drawings that articulate vulnerable ideas based on her own experiences with anxiety or grief. With this work, she is exploring how very personal, unique emotions can become relatable and relevant to other people. Em is a member of CTRL+SHFT Collective, an exhibition and studio space located in West Oakland. As a group of cis-women, trans-spectrum, gender non-conforming, queer, and PoC members, CTRL+SHFT interrogates what it means to build and be a part of a community. Through workshops, exhibitions, and other community engagements, CTRL+SHFT focuses on providing a platform for their ever-growing family, which includes writers, artists, thinkers, performers, curators, allies, agitators, organizers, activists, and teachers who are people of color, women, queer, trans-spectrum, and gender non-conforming folks. Meine received a BFA in General Fine Arts at Maryland Institute College of Art and her MFA in Fine Art from California College of the Arts. She has exhibited in New York, Texas, Chicago, and California, including shows at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Southern Exposure, and The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. Em lives and works in Oakland, CA. Links: Learn more about Em on her website and follow her on Instagram. As always, podcast music is provided by Mr. Neat Beats.

Gabriel Martinez specializes in political art and Visual Cultural design. Gabriel has an eclectic history of being an artist whose works span the spectrum of being displayed on Bay Area gallery walls or finding their way directly to the hands of people for political empowerment. He has even had his portrait displayed at the de Young Museum. Gabriel's work unifies art and design. The discursive style elements in Gabriel's work have been inspired by the graphic works of lowbrow art, political cartoons, and culture jamming. Thus, Gabriel has always been comfortable creating with a stylus and a ruler. He realized his knack for doing straight forward graphic design when he enlisted himself to create communication material to promote his art. Working as a graphic designer has allowed Gabriel to be around other creatives and to work for organizations with an emphasis in social justice. Links: In the interview, Gabriel mentions studying with mural artist Juana Alicia at Berkeley City College. We also discuss "instagrammable" art and how artists and museums are utilizing this new tool with the example of Masako Miki who recently exhibited at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Learn more about Gabriel on Linkedin and Behance. Keep up to date on Gabriel's art musings @sfavc_web on Twitter. As always, podcast music is provided by Mr. Neat Beats.

In this mini bonus episode, Los Angeles area artist & museum preparator's assistant Christopher Thomas Ford discusses the decision to attend the Museum School's post-baccalaureate program before pursuing his Master of Fine Arts degree. If you'd like to hear our full conversation, look for episode 6 of this podcast. Music provided by Mr. Neat Beats.

In episode 6, I speak with Christopher Thomas Ford, an interdisciplinary artist from the Boston area who relocated to Los Angeles in 2016. He received his MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University. In Dorchester, Massachusetts, he co-founded the Howard Art Project artist space and artist collective. He has taught at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and the Lesley University College of Art and Design. His work has been exhibited across the United States. In addition to maintaining an active studio practice, Christopher works as a Preparator's Assistant at a contemporary art museum in southern California. Links: In the interview, in addition to past teaching experience, Christopher mentioned working for another art podcast. For more information about Christopher and his work, please visit his website and Instagram. As always, podcast music is provided by Mr. Neat Beats.

In Episode 5 I speak with Brooklyn-based artist and archivist Janine Biunno. About three years ago, Janine decided to go back to grad school, having previously attended for art, to obtain a Master's degree in Library Science. In this bonus mini-episode, Janine and I discuss her experiences the second time around and the similarities and differences between the MLS and the MFA. If you'd like to hear our full conversation, look for episode 5 of this podcast. Janine Biunno is a visual artist and archivist based in Brooklyn, New York, whose work is focused on analyzing and interpreting the semiotics of the built environment. As an archivist, Janine is focused on research and collections at the intersection of the fields of art, architecture, and design. Links: For more information about Janine and her work, please visit her website, Tumblr, and Instagram. As always, podcast music is provided by Mr. Neat Beats.

Janine Biunno is a visual artist and archivist based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work is focused on analyzing and interpreting the semiotics of the built environment. Janine's artwork addresses the subjective practice of understanding and representing the architecture, infrastructure, and density of urban space, and how our general perception of those physical spaces is altered due to the increasing influence of the digital realm. She has exhibited at International Print Center of New York, Tiger Strikes Asteroid and Transmitter Gallery in Brooklyn, Satellite Art Fair, Miami, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and ACRE Projects in Chicago. As an archivist, Janine is focused on research and collections at the intersection of the fields of art, architecture, and design. She currently works as the Head Archivist at The Noguchi Museum in Queens. Links: In her interview, Janine discusses the work of Agnes Martin and creative advice from Werner Herzog. For more information about Janine and her work, please visit her website, Tumblr, and Instagram. As always, podcast music is provided by Mr. Neat Beats.