Down to a Fine Art

This episode, Izzy and Anna are joined by the wonderful Amelia Fulton, a ceramicist and, much to Izzy’s delight (although Anna’s slightly less so), a lover of bones. There is much to discuss: archaeology, waste material glazes, folklore, conflict minerals, gabbroic clay, teaching – and a slightly terrifying fact about slugs. Artists and books mentioned: Rosanna Martin (specifically her waste materials course), Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe, The Meteorites by Helen Gordon, Westcountry Potters Association, and Garath the Goat Pottery. You can see Amelia’s work on Instagram @ameliak_fulton and on her website ameliakfulton.com.

Following on from an episode way back in 2021, Izzy and Anna decide to revisit the question ‘What is the point of art?’. This time, rather than trying to cover all points of art as they did before, they focus just on one: art’s relationship to mental health. Using Micha Frazer-Carroll’s book ‘Mad World: The Politics of Mental Health’ as a starting point, they explore the role art has to play in looking after our mental wellbeing, be that a folk concert making a bad day better or the way art can allow us to radically rethink our mental health care systems. Also mentioned in this episode: James Leadbitter’s Madlove, Ad Minoliti, Hospital Rooms, Christina Poulton, Kazzum, Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Transform our Health by Daisy Fancourt, @lacdoodles, and Aleksandra Kasuba: Shelters for the Senses at Tate St Ives. Content warnings: discussion of mental health and psychiatric wards throughout. Brief mention of suicide and self-harm at 1hr5mins. Brief mention of vomit at 40mins.

It’s a big episode for the podcast – and for not one reason, but two! Firstly, Izzy and Anna have finally decided it is time to start taking themselves seriously as podcasters and have bought some microphones, so an era of crisp audio and unexpected sound effects begins. Secondly, this is the 100th episode of Down to a Fine Art! To celebrate, Izzy and Anna decide to ask each other 100 (quickfire – ish) questions, which range from what the best exhibition they have ever seen is to whether they would rather be sticky or itchy for the rest of their life. Artists mentioned in the episode include Josie KO, Katie Paterson, Tania Kovats, Iman Datoo, Rosanna Martin, Bridgette Ashton, Abigail Reynolds and Naomi Frears.

This month, Izzy and Anna are talking about art school - what makes a good one? What makes a bad one? They talk about their own experiences, some alternative forms of art school, how well art fits within typical education structures, and what art school even is. They talk about the film Manifesto by Ane Hjort Guttu, which recently showed at CAST, and also mention Lucy Willow’s Wandering School of Art.

This episode, another Anna joins the podcast! Artist and curator Anna Dermitzaki talks to Izzy and Anna about her experience as a third culture kid who moved to Cornwall for an art job. They explore the relationship between her artwork and curatorial work, how she got into curation using transferable skills from other fields, networking, the pros and cons of being a freelancer, and how to keep making artwork with limited resources. To see more of Anna’s work, visit her Instagram @annadermitzakiart or her website www.annadermitzaki.com (or follow her on LinkedIn!).