Brooklyn-based artist and performer Guy Richards Smit talks about:
Moving to Williamsburg in the early '90s, and living in Bedford Stuyvesant now while having his studio in Williamsburg, after growing up in Manhattan, and how he avoids having those cliché conversations about 'how much things have changed…"; the tenuousness of living in New York, especially as an artist, and how he doesn't like being tied down with home ownership, etc., so he could leave town at a moment's notice (in his fantasy) if necessary; living across the street from Morningside Park, which during the time he was growing up was "terrifying;" his forays into comedy, starting with being the 'funny guy' for survival in his neighborhood, through open mics and eventually doing satirical comedy as the character Jonathan Grosmalerman (a name that may have come from his take on comedians as entertainers as being "gross;" his time as the lead singer of the band Maxi Geil! & Play Colt, and how being a performer has paired with being an artist alone in the studio; navigating the murky waters of the entertainment industry in order to try and sell his alternative sitcom (which includes references to painters); the difference between 'eating shit' as an artist and 'eating shit' as an actor or screenwriter; and the Williamburg artists of the mid-'90s who inspired his Jonathan Grossmalerman character.
London-based filmmaker/artist Steven Eastwood talks about:
His East London neighborhood of Hackney, where he's been for 15+ years, and the evolution it's gone through from dodgy to hipster haven; the divisiveness not only between London and the rest of the U.K., but also between generations, as in Steven and his father, with whom his values vastly diverge, who voted for Brexit and perceives London as intimidating and full of cultural elites, and ultimately wants the country to go back to the way it was; his productive time in the U.S. teaching film at SUNY Buffalo from 2004-07, after a 48-hour interview process (in the U.K. you're in and out the door in 45 minutes, he said); his evolution as a teacher, which is lead him to something of a dream teaching job currently, with a research post that allows him to spend a lot of time on his films; the complexities around distribution of art-based films – when and where to release and in what addition - which still hasn't been figured out; how his ongoing state in making films is to feel alien, how feels like a stranger to himself when he's making them; his film Island, which will begin as a multi-channel art gallery installation before its release in late 2017/early '18 as a feature film, and is about the end of life (literally); all of the complex logistics with legal as well as emotional contracts and the navigation of ethics that allowed him to be a first-hand witness on more than one occasion; how art has always had a relationship with death, but it's been somewhat taboo dealing with it through film; and finally a story about a harrowing night on a Scottish isle that he and former guest Kysa Johnson shared.
Los Angeles and international-based artist Lisa Soto talks about:
Her Global Child tendencies, which make her itchy to be traveling and/or abroad after she's in the States for too long; how she misses the culture that you get abroad, particularly dissemination of information—in the hair salons in London, for example, they're talking about contemporary art, whereas here it's about reality show-style pop culture; her rhythm of traveling/being abroad for about three months at a stretch, which came out of her growing up going to the south of Spain every summer with her family; the strong lineage of intuition in her family, which gave her the ability to read people's energy, something she was really good at as a youth, though as you age your head gets filled with ego and so that skill has dissipate; her particular love of Ghana, where she's spent a lot of time, will be going back to and would even consider moving to when she doesn't have so many local commitments; and the energy (and chakra) forces which are how she moves through and understands the world and universe (which she is not always putting out as conversational material, but believes in, and is happy to explain to people who have prejudices).
San Francisco-based artist and SFAI professor Lindsey White talks about:
Her Mission neighborhood in SF, where she lives and has her studio just several blocks away (and has rent control both places), and that there are still a lot of great people in its intimate art scene that come as well as go; how her interest in combining comedy and art became an entry point to address complex issues with humor; her collaborations with comedian Ron Lynch, from photographing him to working on a comedy book together, and how her conversations with him have shaped her understanding of comedy; the class she teaches at SFAI about humor in art, which deconstructs and takes an intimate look at many forms of comedy and also includes standup performances, which she participates in along with her students (and MCs); how both artists and comedians are "noticers" of the world, among other things they have in common; comedians who have been important to her in thinking about art, particularly Joan Rivers and Phyllis Diller.
Kansas City-based artist, educator and Rocket Grants program coordinator Julia Cole talks about all things Kanas City, including: the housing and rental markets, which are still affordable, but gentrification is making its presence felt in certain neighborhoods; her public art projects, which she collaborates on with her husband; how living in such an affordable city allows her to take more risks in her art, since she isn't depending on income from it; how she moved from being a scientist to an artist, as well as her path from England (which she still loves and dreams about) to settling in the States; the perils of working on public art projects, whose pay schedules are how she's come to appreciate her neighborhood and community in KC, amid a thoughtful meditation on acceptance and learning to love the here and now; how living in KC means not living in a sealed bubble (politically), which she appreciates; and she talks about her least favorite art expression of art jargon, 'creative placemaking,' which she wrote an article about: http://www.lumpenmagazine.org/thoughts-on-creative-placetaking/
And here are Julia's shout-outs to long-term, influential Kansas City artists: Mike Sinclair, Roger Shimomura, Jose Faus, Egawa & Zbryk, Peregrine Honig, Glenn North, Cary Esser, Jim Woodfill, Warren Rosser, David Ford, Sonie Joi Ruffin, Miki Baird, Marcie Miller Gross, Albert Bitterman, Gloria Baker Feinstein, Mark Southerland, Erika Nelson, Jorge Garcia Almodovar, Judith G. Levy, Dave Loewenstein, Anne Austin Pearce, Marcus Cain, Archie Scott Gobber, Barry Anderson, Susan White, Laura Berman, Caitlin Horsmon and Charlotte Street Curator in Residence, Lynnette Miranda