Recorded June 6, 2023. William Deresiewicz is a non-fiction writer whose work includes The End of Solitude, Excellent Sheep, and A Jane Austin Education. In this episode he speaks with us about his book The Death of the Artist: How Creators are Struggling to Survive in the age of Billionaires and Big Tech. Over the course of our conversation Bill gives us a synopsis of the book and highlights different factors that have resulted in the current marketplace for creatives. He includes the n...
Recorded May 8, 2023. Kyle Tallio, from Nuxalk and Hailzaqu Nations, makes Northwest Coast Art primarily out of Prince Rupert in Canada. Kyle focuses primarily on wood carvings that are used traditionally: masks, spoons, bowls, and boxes. He comes from a family of artists and started out his creative pursuits in two dimensional work. As his carving has progressed he has gleaned inspiration from the traditional principles of Northwest Coast Art but is settling into his own style. Kyle hig...
Recorded April 18, 2023. Addison de Lisle is a metalsmith who primarily focuses on non-ferrous metals but with a very eclectic range of forms. Within his breadth of interests, Addison makes an effort to set himself a few parameters; his work is metal, should at least hint at utility, and shouldn’t shy away from conceptual ideas. In other words, he’s free to explore! During the course of our conversation he shares the view that craftspeople are alchemists who are a bridge between nature a...
Recorded March 20, 2023. Kathryn Sullivan is a woodworker who focuses on restoration and conservation. Over the course of our conversation Kathryn highlights the importance of communication with their clients. Learning more about what a piece will be used for and the client's motivation for Kathryn's services informs how they will approach the restoration process. We also dig into the series of choices Kathryn made that brought them to restoration and how their academic background helps ...
Recorded March 13, 2023. Robell Awake is a furniture maker based in Atlanta Georgia. He has a background in the trades, but has dedicated his current efforts in ladderback chair making and green woodworking. Along with making the furniture itself, Robell has researched the true origins of the Poynor chair; a mule-eared, curve-backed ladderback chair designed by one of the most prolific Black furniture makers in the 19th Century; Richard Poyner. Robell’s research has led him toward combat...
Recorded February 6, 2023. Gabriela Marván is a cartonera living and working in Wisconsin. Cartonería is a paper sculpture technique that has roots in the beginning of colonialism in Mexico. The Catholic Church used sculptures to communicate its doctrine with indigenous people but now the technique is used during celebrations and folk art of all kinds. Gabriela specializes in Day of the Dead decorations and loves the artistic flexibility that comes along with designing Catrina’s (the ico...
Recorded January 2, 2023. French bookbinder Louise Bescond is couched within the multifaceted world of bookbinding. She describes her niche as bookbinding “haute couture,” but despite her exacting eye, she acknowledges the moving bar of perfection in her professional life. Admittedly not a bookbinding historian, Louise gives us a sense of the historical context for these bindings, as well as an overview of the variety of specialized craftspeople within the field that emphasizes the colla...
Recorded December 12, 2022. Letterpress printer and designer Ben Blount believes in the power of the printed word. He uses design as a way to communicate, motivate, tell stories, and record histories. He uses the printed word as a vehicle for conversations ranging from race and identity to stories we tell ourselves. Ben loves to highlight nuance and use the intricacies of larger cultural contexts to create catalysts for questions and new conversations. To find more of Ben’s w...
Recorded November 7, 2022. Jögge Sundqvist is a slöjdaire from Umeå Sweden. As a multi-talented woodworker he’s made everything ranging from butter knives to theater entrances. During this episode, Jögge helps us clear up the definition of slöjd and its cultural roots. Technically speaking the word means being “clever in your hands”, but Jögge also gives the term a wider context and shares how it applies to his own understanding of craft. He elaborates on the connection between the rhyth...
Recorded September 19, 2022. Dr. Esra Alhamal creates illuminated paintings and works out of England. In this episode, she clears up the language surrounding biomorphic patterns and the western idea of Islamic Art. Instead, Esra promotes the Arabic word Nabati; meaning “from plant” to describe the organic curvy patterns she uses to create illuminated paintings. She guides us through regional differences in the stylized visual patterns and talks about her own process as she creates ...
Recorded July 25, 2022. Ceramic artist David “Swen” Swenson creates his utilitarian wares in Clearwater, Minnesota. His work is a cacophony of design elements and motifs that fit together like quilt pieces. Swen draws inspiration from a variety of places, from ancient pottery in museums to art history, but always manages to work his own narrative into his pieces. He gives credit to his dyslexia for his spatial acumen, and also for understanding how students learn in different ways when h...
Recorded April 25, 2022. Episode contains some language.Textile Artist and surface designer Aliyah Salmon has had a recent breakthrough with her large hand-tufted wall hangings. The opportunity came quickly to start working with tufting during the pandemic and she’s taken the opportunity in stride as she builds her work and creates larger contemporary yarn paintings. Aliyah offers a fresh perspective on building a vocabulary of motifs and the complex meaning behind the images she hand-t...
Recorded May 2, 2022. Bladesmith Andrew Meers focuses his creative practice on making a variety of knives. Most of his knives are heavily embellished art and are not strictly utilitarian. Conversely, he also sometimes makes batches of kitchen knives. Andrew often incorporates story and narrative themes to his work, especially in his decorative inlay which includes anything from a leaping fox to a bee pollinating a flower. His relationship to his work has changed overtime, and he notes th...
Recorded April 18, 2022. Soapmaker Andrea Davis is the owner of Motherland Essentials in South Carolina. She focuses on cold process soapmaking and loves the interplay between art and science that soapmaking allows. During our interview she guides us along her path into soapmaking: from a traumatizing situation in the corporate world to how she relied on creativity to help the healing process as she dealt with personal loss. She is making more than nourishing skin and body products; Andr...
Recorded March 28, 2022. Blacksmith Caitlin Morris is the founder of Ms. Caitlin’s School of Blacksmithing in Frederick, Maryland, and “is dedicated to sharing the craft with as many unsuspecting people as possible!” Caitlin is a dedicated teacher who learned the perils and triumphs associated with learning when she first started her craft. As a smaller-built person, she noticed the difference between technical nuance and brute strength. She learned how to get the results she wante...
Recorded April 4, 2022. Ceramicist Makeda Smith took a leap of faith during 2020 to start her own business. She had dabbled in ceramics in college, but when a friend saw her talent and encouraged her to take her creative side more seriously, she decided to accept the challenge. The acknowledgement and support she received from her community culminated in her own home art show called Funktion. From then on, Makeda was hooked. Since then she’s opened a storefront, and was able (with the bl...
Episode Recorded February 28, 2022. Jesse Merrill is a craft baker and greenwood worker/turner from Ontario Canada. He has his feet in two areas of craft. Running Polestar Hearth Bakery supports his family through the planned obsolescence of bread baking which gives him room to delve heart first into green woodworking and turning. During this conversation we talk about craft vs. industry and where those lines are drawn. We elaborate on how we all manage our perfectionism and how lo...
Episode Recorded February 21, 2022. Eleanor Rose is a craft-based sculpture artist, and toolmaker currently based in Pennsylvania. During our conversation, she shares how she started making tools; she didn’t have access to what she needed during her undergraduate studies, so she made them herself! Our candid conversation floats in and out of the undefinable nature of some of Eleanor's work- going back and forth between a more craft based approach to tool-making and the heady concep...
Episode Recorded February 7, 2022. Mikko Snellman specializes in knot tying and ropemaking and comes from a long line of sailors in Finland. During our conversation, he shares the important place cordage has in human history and how it helps us today. Personally, he grew up tying knots and was familiar with ropework from sailing with his father, but as he grew older he stepped into craftwork at a cabinetry shop where he learned that handcraft is not a series of tricks but a mindset...