Los Angeles-based artist and writer Maya Gurantz talks about:
Getting out of the staid confines of where she grew up, and what it was (and is) like being an angry feminist from an early age; her ‘accountability group,’ a group of women artists (from various art forms) she organized to hold each other accountable to work-related goals; her teaching and mentoring of students, at U.C. Santa Barbra; making work that is “messy,” as in tending to be potentially less likable than other work; and three of her epic essays: one on James Turrell related to his retrospective at LACMA, one on Carl Andre and Ana Mendieta (the piece that led us to Maya initially), and one as yet unpublished piece on Mike Kelley’s Mobile Homestead.
New York-based artist/performer Matt Starr talks about:
His never really fitting into artist communities in New York, both during his time living in Brooklyn and now Manhattan; his performance-based art, including his highly interactive street-based performance Amazon Boy; how some of his projects led to advertising work, and his ambiguous and complex relationship to that form; his severe ADD (his description), and how it’s affected his art and his work life; co-directing his film project, “My Annie Hall: a Remake Starring Seniors,” which has led to a documentary film about their making the film; his “I’m Sorry…” bus poster project, including “I’m Sorry – Men,” which went viral and sparked a lot of dialog; his “Baby-core” couture project (inspired by norm-core), which also went viral, but despite that, none of the original fashion pieces he made were purchased; his “Famous Artist Looking for a Job” poster, which actually led to a couple of brief gigs, one working in a Japanese hair salon and the other enrobing chocolate truffles; and his project “Looking for Friends,” which is pretty much what it sounds like, and turned out to be a very satisfying endeavor.