Explore every episode of the podcast Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Dive into the complete episode list for Artist Decoded by Yoshino. Each episode is cataloged with detailed descriptions, making it easy to find and explore specific topics. Keep track of all episodes from your favorite podcast and never miss a moment of insightful content.
Rows per page:
50
1–50 of 324
Title
Pub. Date
Duration
AD 282 | Roy Dean | "A Constant Journey Into Mastery"
18 Nov 2025
02:13:03
Roy Dean is a martial artist, filmmaker, and creative storyteller whose work bridges the worlds of combat and art. A black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under Roy Harris, Roy is known for his elegant approach to movement, mastery, and self-expression. Through his films, writings, and instruction, he reveals the artistry within discipline—showing how the resistance of training can refine both technique and character. His latest projects continue to explore the intersection of creativity, philosophy, and the martial path.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Roy's origin story in martial arts and the philosophies that shaped him (00:03:23)
Applying martial arts philosophy to everyday life (00:18:16)
On letting go — acceptance, release, and personal evolution (00:34:38)
Transforming stress into deeper empathy and expanded perspective (00:42:44)
Men and masculinity — reflections on growth and identity (00:51:31)
Mentorship — Roy on his teacher, Roy Harris (00:57:58)
The duality of jiu jitsu: humbling yet deeply inspiring (01:06:05)
The intersection of art and martial arts (01:11:38)
Longevity in training — practical advice for recovery and staying in the game (01:18:44)
Mastery and style — Roy speaks on mastery; Yoshino on artistic style (01:33:53)
Refining fundamentals — patterns, basics, and the value of repetition (01:40:30)
Value structures — understanding them and knowing when to transcend them (01:46:58)
AD 281 | Æmen Ededéen | "On Aletheia House and Nihil"
03 Nov 2025
01:27:01
Æmen Ededéen lived and worked in San Francisco and then Los Angeles for fifteen years before moving to Roswell, New Mexico in 2018 as a grant recipient of the year-long Roswell Artist in Residence Program. He and his wife, the artist Maja Ruznic, have since made New Mexico home and have recently welcomed their first child, a daughter, into the world. Hagler was born at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho in 1979 and is a first-generation college graduate with a visual communications degree from the University of Arizona in Tucson. Self-directed research and travel has underpinned Hagler's career and is essential to how the artist integrates creative influences with his life experience.
2018 saw two museum shows at the Brand Library and Art Center in Los Angeles and the Roswell Museum and Art Center in New Mexico entitled "The River Lethe" and "Love Letters to the Poorly Regarded" respectively. 2021 marks two solo exhibitions for Hagler with "Drawing in the Dark" at Cris Worley in Dallas and "The Living Circle Us" at Unit London, curated by David Anfam. He has exhibited paintings, sculpture, video, and animation in galleries and museums in North and South America, Europe, and Australia including a long list of solo exhibitions. Reviews and features about the work, as well as his own poems and essays, have appeared in a variety of publications and media outlets in the U.S. and other parts of the world.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Æmen on Aletheia House and the inception of the residency (00:03:05)
Creating art beyond self-satisfaction; maturing through service to others (00:10:45)
Engaging with life soulfully (00:16:41)
The film, Being There (Peter Sellers). and aligning with a higher calling (00:21:00)
Franz Kafka's The Hunger Artist (00:28:27)
Æmen on his relationship with his wife, artist Maja Ruznic (00:36:03)
On becoming (00:46:55)
On Æmen new book, Nihil (00:52:26)
Yoshino and Æmen discuss spirituality and religion (01:03:46)
Exploring values; deepening consciousness and awareness (01:19:06)
Landon Van Soest is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, Fulbright Scholar, and two-time Sundance Fellow. His work presents social commentary through rich characters and immersive narratives. Landon recently directed the Hulu Original Documentary The Jewel Thief, which was the #1 most viewed movie on Hulu worldwide in the summer of 2023. His previous documentary, For Ahkeem, premiered at the 2017 Berlinale and Tribeca Film Festivals, won seven Best Documentary awards, opened theatrically in ten cities, and is being distributed by The Orchard and Amazon. His first documentary, Good Fortune, was broadcast on the award-winning PBS series POV, where it received an Emmy Award, the Witness Award for Human Rights and the Overseas Press Club's Carl Spielvogel Award. Landon is a founder of the not-for-profit Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective and co-founder of Transient Pictures, where he has collaborated with non-profits and brands including Toyota, UNICEF, eBay, Facebook, 23andMe, Lincoln Center, ABC, National Geographic and PBS.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Landon's introduction to filmmaking (00:02:06)
Skateboarding's influence on culture and creative expression (00:04:31)
Landon describes his mindset on approaching his creative projects (00:11:49)
Discussion about Landon's film Light, Darkness, Light and its conceptual roots (00:13:30)
How Landon chooses which projects he wants to work on (00:38:30)
Yoshino and Landon speak about the process of letting go (00:46:48)
Landon recounts the making of The Jewel Thief on Hulu, the story of master criminal Gerald Blanchard (00:49:15)
Yoshino and Landon discuss the importance of starting projects, evolving through them, and staying authentic to one's interests (01:00:51)
Damon Davis is a post-disciplinary artist based in St. Louis, Missouri. His work spans across a spectrum of creative mediums to tell stories exploring how identity is informed by power and mythology. He is well known for his body of work, Darker Gods, which explores Afro-surrealist manifestations of Black culture. Davis is a Firelight Media, Sundance Labs, TED, and Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Fellow. He is the founder and creative director of St. Louis-based music label/ artist collective FarFetched and his work is featured in the permanent collection at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Show Notes:
00:03:18 - Reflections on George Floyd and 2020
00:09:55 - Power dynamics in American society
00:14:35 - The soulful impact of art
00:17:40 - America's amnesia & the complexities of blackness
00:20:49 - Value systems
00:29:56 - Damon's intention with the mythology he created for "Darker Gods"
00:33:39 - Power, wisdom, and empathy
00:39:15 -The desensitization and fetishization of death
Allowing Interests To Guide You with Jingna Zhang | AD 204
31 May 2021
00:52:38
Born in Beijing and raised in Singapore, Jingna Zhang is a fashion and fine art photographer and director based in New York City and Seattle. Imbued with love for the Pre-Raphaelites and Japanese anime, Jingna's work interweaves Asian aesthetics with western art styles, bringing unique visions of painterly and fantastical images to fashion and fine art photography.
Before photography, Jingna was a world-class air rifle shooter representing Singapore at the Commonwealth Games and World Cup. She was the only female founder of a North American esports team in StarCraft 2; and was once a concept artist and illustrator's agent, with clients including LucasArts, Amazon Publishing, and Sony Online Entertainment.
Jingna majored in fashion design before dropping out of school to pursue photography. She is an alumna of Stanford's innovation and entrepreneurship program Ignite and a Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 listmaker.
Jingna's works have appeared on multiple editions of Vogue, Elle, and Harper's Bazaar. Her clients include Mercedes Benz, Montblanc, and Lancome. Jingna's fine art works have exhibited at Leica Gallery Milan, Tsinghua University, and Japan Creative Centre in Singapore, and she has spoken at Laguna College of Art and Design, Monterrey Institute of Technology, and Square Enix.
Show Notes:
00:00:00 - Introduction
00:05:24 - Self-Expression
00:11:54 - Jingna's start in art
00:16:20 - Competition
00:18:12 - Working with certainty and uncertainty
00:22:08 - Resources for growth
00:29:39 - Jingna's work with creative writing / the beginner's mindset
Photography, Community, and Friendship with Graham Dunn | AD 203
24 May 2021
01:18:46
Graham grew up in Ojai, a small ranching town in Southern California with pink sunsets dipping below the mountains. He spent his childhood exploring Europe and the Southwestern United States with his travel writer father and family.
His upbringing informs his photography, which is largely based in simplicity, nostalgia, nature, and the truth of a moment. Graham lives in Los Angeles with his wife, a kindergarten teacher, and his son, an extremely inventive whippersnapper.
Show Notes:
00:00:00 - Introduction
00:04:55 - Teaching all aspects of history
00:08:53 - Homogenization of culture
00:12:22 - The importance of community
00:15:56 - The confluence of non-sequiturs
00:18:36 - The shifting landscape of commercial photography
00:25:00 - Human psychology within photography
00:33:16 - Graham's projects during covid
00:42:45 - Having a "jack of all trades" approach
00:48:15 - Personal values influencing the way you approach your career
00:54:54 - Having a balanced life
00:56:51 - Learning and adapting from experience
01:06:00 - Mentorship
01:08:00 - Technical learning vs practical learning
AD Non-Weekly Round Up #8 with artist, Jesse Draxler, and Yoshino.
Jesse Draxler was born in rural Wisconsin, studied in Minneapolis, MN, and currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. A formal mixed media & inter-disciplinary artist, Draxler has exhibited extensively both domestically and internationally.
Draxler collaborates with brands including Hugo Boss, McQ Alexander McQueen, and Ferrari, with original artwork appearing in Elle, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic, among other publications.
Show Notes:
00:00:32 - Seasons in life
00:07:18 - Focusing on the process instead of the result
00:12:05 - The confluence of running and creativity
00:16:32 - Self-reflection
00:22:16 - Personal values
00:34:35 - The practical reality of art
00:39:53 - Creativity thorough destruction
00:47:56 - Jesse's personal growth throughout the years
00:53:05 - Life and death
00:57:09 - The importance of being conscious of one's physical and mental health
Empathy, Change, and Cultural Nuance with Nadia Waheed | AD 202
17 May 2021
01:59:33
Nadia Waheed, BFA 2015 School of the Art Institute of Chicago, is a Pakistani-American painter who makes partially autobiographical allegorical figurative paintings that explore selfhood, choice, and cultural trauma. Exhibition history includes shows with Mindy Solomon Gallery in Miami, BEERS London, Thierry Goldberg in New York, and Gallery 1957 in London. Upcoming exhibitions in 2021 include shows with Andrea Festa Fine Art in Rome, Lawrie Shabibi in Dubai, and Aicon Gallery in New York.
Show Notes:
00:04:18 - Being aware of your youth
00:05:52 - Having numerous perspectives
00:09:40 - Nadia's childhood
00:16:40 - Cultural nuances
00:23:07 - The core language approach and inner generational trauma
00:27:54 - The influence of mentorship
00:31:12 - Politics within the art world
00:37:46 - Telling someone who you are, through your actions
00:39:30 - Dating and relationships
00:46:39 - The loss of community and connectivity
00:53:01 - Intentionality and being vulnerable
01:00:45 - Being comfortable with who you are
01:08:33 - Engaging with emotions and understanding the context
01:20:16 - Nadia's hesitance towards talking about her work
The son of Chinese immigrants, Nicholas came to LA by way of Hawaii and Hong Kong. Working as a truly international director, he has helmed global campaigns for brands like Google, Samsung, Disney, P&G, Kia, Dewars, and Nestle, working closely with top agencies such as BBDO, Ogilvy & Mather, and Iris Worldwide. In the music world, he is an MTV VMA nominated director having shot videos for Nick Jonas, Blink-182, Sara Bareilles, Bastille, Snakehips, Jess Glynne, Monsta X, and more.
Known for his cinematic, emotional, and dynamic visual language, Nicholas' films often center on character-driven stories deeply grounded in humanity and sensitivity. His work has been featured in most major publications including The LA Times, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Variety, The Telegraph, The Independent, Entertainment Weekly, Vogue, Forbes, Booooooom, Shots Creative, Little Black Book, and many more.
When not on set, Nicholas will be found tearing through the canyons in his cars or motorcycle, creating new recipes in the kitchen, or talking watches with fellow nerds.
Show Notes:
00:03:04 - The "Three R's" Philosophy
00:05:41 - Finding one's voice
00:08:34 - Filtering your work through a personal lens
00:10:14 - Navigating through the music video and film world
00:13:10 - Hardships within directors transitioning from music videos to feature films
00:18:59 - "The new aesthetic"
00:21:06 - Keeping a healthy mindset
00:24:36 - Pattern recognition
00:27:21 - Psychedelics
00:32:27 - The catch-22 nature of technology
00:37:00 - Difficulties and rewards within directing
00:41:54 - Having a balanced ego
00:46:29 - A director's relevancy in the commercial world
00:49:44 - Nicholas's first feature film
00:51:27 - The importance of representation
00:53:34 - Redefining the structures within the film industry & Asian American cinema
The Journey of a Multi-Disciplinary Artist with Justin Daashuur Hopkins | AD 200
03 May 2021
01:14:34
Justin Daashuur Hopkins is a multidisciplinary storyteller (Director and Cinematographer, Musician and Composer, Graphic Designer, and Gallerist).
Born into an artistic household, to renowned Illustrator Chris Hopkins and internationally collected sculptor Jan Hopkins, Justin was raised in Mukilteo, Washington, but now lives and works in Los Angeles. At the age of fifteen, he was already doing professional work for multiple clients, including conceptual merchandising and design for Costco, sound design and illustration for RedBull, and music for ESPN TV spots. He also shot the short film "Baristas," which played to enthusiastic audiences in New York, LA, and Seattle.
At the age of eighteen, Justin was hired at Olio Inc, an architectural firm specializing in major hotels in places like Vegas and Dubai. He spent the next five years doing architectural and sound design for international clients. In 2009, he struck out on his own, working as a freelance illustrator and fine art painter. He moved to New York and began showing in numerous international exhibitions, in addition to garnering attention for his commercial work.
Upon his return to Los Angeles, Justin co-founded NOH/WAVE, an art agency, and production company, with gallery space downtown. This has given him the opportunity to curate shows by internationally acclaimed artists. His unique aesthetic and attention to detail have made him a sought-after director of film and mixed media video for clients including Universal, RCA, Warner Brothers, Atlantic, Def Jam, and Domino Records.
Show Notes:
0:00:00 - Introduction
0:05:00 - Analysis of "Woman in the Dunes" by Hiroshi Teshigahara
0:11:56 - Lineage of NOH/WAVE
0:13:19 - Being A Multidisciplinary Artist
0:16:15 - Justin's Transition From Music to Film
0:17:50 - Justin's Family Allowed For Freedom of Expression
0:22:10 - Gravitating Toward The Arts
0:24:17 - Yoshino's Filmmaking and Photography
0:26:39 - Professional Careers, Making Money, and Artistic Struggle
0:30:51 - Romanticizing Artists VS Personal Experiences
0:35:23 - Sacrificing For The Work
0:40:04 - Learning From Each Other
0:41:12 - Evolution of The Self & More "Woman in the Dunes"
0:48:58 - Analysis of "Tokyo Sonata" by Kiyoshi Kurosawa
0:55:21 - Not Examining Just From Surface Level
0:58:10 - "An Artist Says a Hard Thing in a Simple Way"
Respecting The Unexpected with Johan Van Mullem | AD 199
23 Apr 2021
00:57:53
Johan Van Mullem (Belgian painter born in 1959) persisted in his youthful search for wrinkled faces, seeking the beauty he recognized in an experience engraved on the faces and in the hands. Since then, the face remains the major subject of his work but over time reversing the imprint of it on his own face while these subjects seem to rejuvenate, disappearing or emerging in a halo of light in old-fashioned sfumato, offering the gaze an escape into the world of emotion, because Johan Van Mullem's work is an invitation for introspection, to a journey whose omnipresent emotional charge cannot leave indifferent as the depth is often dizzying.
Johan's work has been exhibited internationally and can be found in many important collections.
The superimposition and erasure of the very many smooth layers of the diluted inks further accentuates this feeling of inexpressible presence on the canvas. The self-taught mastery of the specific and unique technicality of his work because only executed in etching ink (an extension of his experience as an engraver) gives his work an additional exceptional character.
Complete artist, designer, painter, and sculptor, (but also poet and musician) Johan Van Mullem strives to create a multiple, diverse but absolutely coherent body of work offering links and bridges to all our senses awakened by this work that projects as much into the past as into a contemporaneity.
Show Notes:
00:00 - Being conscious of your work changing
10:04 - Finding meaning within the things we do
13:18 - Giving and receiving
19:24 - Living a life of intention
21:14 - The blessing of life
24:12 - "Do what you feel"
27:28 - Gratitude
31:52 - Adaptability within trials
32:45 - Johan's progression within his body of work
Mauro Martinez juxtaposes common pictorial forms from art history with the monotonous streams of online imagery that we, as an increasingly digital society, are so often subjected to. Skillfully utilizing metaphor, irony, and dark humor, Martinez's paintings respond to the doctrines of internet culture, at once critiquing and mocking our relationship with contemporary imagery.
Lorne Lanning is an American game designer, director, writer, and voice actor. He is co-founder and creator of Oddworld Inhabitants. He is best known for creating the Oddworld series including the games Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus, Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath, and Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty. The next Oddworld game titled Oddworld: Soulstorm will be released on April 6, 2021.
Initially studying photo-realism and commercial illustration at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, Lanning soon attended the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California, where he graduated with a BFA in Character Animation.
Working as a Technical Director at TRW, Lanning later moved to Rhythm & Hues Studios in Hollywood, where he would later meet producer Sherry McKenna, who helped co-found Oddworld Inhabitants.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Lorne's journey from fine art into developing video games
The change of perception within art
Perceiving the value of art
Art as a form of commerce
"Fragility of the perishable"
The dark side of globalization
Lorne's passion for environmentalism
The genesis of emerging technology in the late 80s
The power of visualization and how to sell big ideas
Making your own luck
Lorne working for a military defense company
Marketing yourself as an artist
Following an intuitive pursuit
Staying hungry within your craft
Understanding "what your audience is eating"
Being a talent vs. being a creator
Finding business opportunities
Video games
Artists's unique perception and ability to express that
The symbiosis of engineering and art
Compromising with a team while making a video game
Understanding various subjects and adjacent industries
Empathy within video games
Game speak
The impact of George Orwell's "1984" and "Animal Farm" on Lorne's storytelling process
"Lo-brow access points to high art."
Emulating the player interacting with real-world objects.
Self-publishing
Oddworld's latest release, "Soulstorm"
The depth of character creation, controls, and tone of the story
The new generation of gaming technology
Systems of monetization within emerging technologies
Growing up in Northern California, Jacob Rosenberg developed his passion for video and film as a skateboarder in the early 1990s, making acclaimed videos for Plan B Skateboards under the mentorship of the late founder Mike Ternasky. Upon his graduation from Emerson College, Rosenberg began his professional career directing music videos, short films, and commercials where he has directed and produced talent names such as LeBron James, Quincy Jones, Snoop Dogg, and Latto. Rosenberg served for a decade as a partner at the independent studio Bandito Brothers, spearheading forward-thinking digital workflows as their CTO and in-house director. He contributed expertise to productions such as Avatar and Act of Valor as well as numerous documentaries including Shine A Light and S.O.P..
In 2012, Rosenberg's directorial debut, Waiting for Lightning, premiered at SXSW, going on to be released by Samuel Goldwyn Films. The documentary feature painted an intimate portrait of childhood friend and skateboard legend Danny Way, who in 2005 attempted to jump the Great Wall of China on a skateboard.
With a penchant for telling deeply human stories, Rosenberg's documentaries range on subjects from land speed racing to skateboarding, photography, technology, and the world of magician Franco Pascali. His award-winning broadcast work has included campaigns for Ford, INFINITI, HUMMER, NBA, MLB, Royal Caribbean, Burger King, Beats, Advil, Intel, and countless others. Rosenberg's latest works include co-curating a first-of-its-kind museum exhibit on the emergence of skateboard videos in the 1990s at The Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, as well as his first photo book RIGHT BEFORE MY EYES, documenting a decade of Bay Area hip-hop and skate culture. The book focuses on Jacob's story, coming up as a filmmaker for Plan B and then a photographer for the rap collective Hieroglyphics—which culminated in filming, editing, and directing their first group music video "You Never Knew" in 1998.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Jacob speaks about his new book, Right Before My Eyes (00:09:32)
Magic, childlike curiosity, and the film "The Red Balloon" (00:13:19)
Jacob shares his experience creating "Waiting For Lightning," a documentary about skateboarder Danny Way (00:18:51)
Jacob reflects on how creative pursuits helped him navigate childhood trauma (00:22:08)
Finding acceptance through skateboarding (00:29:52)
Jacob opens up about childhood trauma and how it fostered his ability to empathize with others (00:38:14)
Yoshino shares how teaching boxing to kids highlights their natural embrace of diversity, connecting it to skateboarding's cultural inclusivity (00:40:42)
Jacob reflects on how childhood influences like Star Wars and Public Enemy shaped his creativity (00:52:09)
Jacob recounts meeting his mentor, Mike Ternasky (Co-Founder of Plan B and H Street Skateboards), at a skate camp in 1988 (00:58:04)
How authenticity and small acts of kindness create meaningful connections (01:04:56)
The conversation explores empathy as a counter to divisiveness in politics and mass media (01:07:46)
Yoshino reflects on experiencing racism while traveling (01:18:15)
Jacob discusses creating Plan B's iconic skate videos: Questionable, Virtual Reality, and Secondhand Smoke (01:21:54)
Jacob highlights a museum exhibit celebrating 1990s skateboarding videos as cultural and documentary art (01:32:10)
Joan Scheckel and her embodied storytelling technique (01:35:36)
The importance of open-hearted living and artists staying fearlessly present during turbulent times (01:41:53)
Yoshino and Jacob admire the subtle storytelling in Wim Wenders' Perfect Days (01:51:07)
Jacob discusses his book Right Before My Eyes, chronicling his growth as a filmmaker and skateboarding's evolution from 1988 to 1998 (01:58:28)
Yoshino and Jacob explore how modern technology overwhelms and disconnects, emphasizing slowing down and finding grounding in nature and analog experiences (02:03:57)
Dr. Bruce Hoffman did not choose the Medical Arts as a vocation. Originally, he wanted to be a writer and poet. His interest in health and healing developed later in life, after a long and winding road of self-discovery, life experience, and learning. He only applied to medical school, so he could complete a residency in psychiatry and subsequently study Jungian analysis to understand the human condition and behavior. As life would have it, his destiny took him on a different journey. He never did formally pursue a psychiatry residency or Jungian Analytic Training, but his love for art, poetry, and psychology remain.
Dr. Hoffman was born and educated in South Africa and obtained his medical degree from the University of Cape Town. After two years of compulsory military training, his distaste for the local regime convinced him to emigrate to Canada in 1986 where he pursued family medical practice in rural Saskatchewan, Canada.
Once ensconced in the practice of family medicine, he quickly realized that his interests in medicine were broader than just drugs and surgery. The allopathic medical practice was limited to treating symptoms and illnesses but failed short in restoring the patient's health entirely.
Bruce embarked on a journey to understand what constitutes the human experience, what are the triggers and mediators that perpetuate human suffering. He wanted to assist his patients not only to be free of disease but to realize their maximum potential.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Dr. Hoffman's early interest in poetry and writing
Exposure to alternative lifestyles
Exploration of oneness
Properly diagnosing patients
The pitfalls of having a purely allopathic approach to treating patients
The "7-levels" diagnosis
The failures of Western medicine
Non-duality
Reframing negative events in life to reexamine them as positive experiences
Unconsciously placing ourselves in a type of purgatory
Jesse Damiani is a writer, curator, and cultural producer living in Los Angeles, CA. He covers art, media, and technology on Forbes, and serves as . Other writing appears in Billboard, Entrepreneur, Quartz, The Verge, and WIRED. He has consulted with Google, Oculus, and the Sundance Institute, and served as a mentor in the YouTube VR Creator Lab. He is also Founder and Series Editor of Best American Experimental Writing. He was the Curator/Producer for the XR art exhibition, Spatial Reality, at sp[a]ce gallery; Co-Curator of Virtual Futures with LACMA for LA Art Show; and Co-Curator of SIM-CINEMA with FLOAT and Wevr. He is Curatorial Advisor for CURRENTS New Media and founded the AWE Arts Initiative, where he curated and produced the Immersive Arts Symposium. He also curates The Tech Zone at DesignerCon and XR For Change, the XR summit at Games For Change.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
NFTs and the blockchain
The future of NFTs
Artists managing the sale of their work
VR exhibitions powered by NFTs and blockchains
Unlocking the potential of NFTs
The ecological impact of NFT transactions
How an artist can use NFTs to sell their artwork
Jesse's entry point into emerging technologies
Human and A.I. collaborations
Translating high-level concepts into tangible and practical applications
Nolwen is a first-generation Colombian-French photographer and director, working in Los Angeles. As a mixed-race queer woman, her identity plays an active role in the type of narratives she is drawn to.
Her interests lie in shifting social consciousness, breaking down gender norms, and representation. Exploring portraiture within the landscape of American culture, Nolwen's photographs deal with vulnerability and gaze between both subject and viewer.
She has photographed a multitude of prolific figures and her client list includes The New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Netflix, Dove, amongst others.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Nolwen's career journey
Multihyphanate artistry
Importance of broadening your artistic toolbox
Financial management for artists
Cryptocurrency
Addiction
Nolwen's spiritual experience before sobriety
Breaking free from trauma
Focusing on the present moment
Life being a puzzle
Feeling connected to a greater calling
Being intentional within your fearlessness
Keeping the process in mind rather than the outcome
Brian Booth Craig (b. 1968; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is a contemporary American representational sculptor. Sculpting from life and imagination, Brian's work translates traditional techniques into depictions of contemporary human presence, capturing moments of individual self-assertion. Through ambiguous actions, surprising talismans, and subtle gestures, Brian endeavors to reveal the subjectivity of narrative perspective.
Brian holds a B.A. from the Pennsylvania State University and an MFA from the New York Academy of Art. For ten years he was the apprentice and studio assistant of the painter and sculptor Audrey Flack. Brian is represented by Louis K Meisel Gallery in New York City.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Brian's start in sculpture
Intellectual pursuits
Economic fears of being an artist
The internal, external, and emotional narrative to art
Creating something unique vs. creating something that "fits" within a craft
Representing the body and human nature through sculpture
Vanessa Prager (b. 1984) is an American artist, born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. Known mainly for her large-scale, abstract oil paintings, Prager's main subject is the female figure. Thick, loose, heavily impastoed bodies melt in and out of their form, and what we consider beauty and identity is often a central theme to her work.
Prager has had solo shows at The Hole, New York; Richard Heller, Los Angeles; and Kristin Hjellegjerde, Berlin and London; and group shows in Los Angeles with Over The Influence; M+B; and Diane Rosenstein Gallery.
Vanessa's latest solo show, "Static" shows at the Diane Rosenstein Gallery from February 20th to April 10th, 2021
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Emotions felt through the COVID-19 lockdown
Processing emotions
Painting what one sees
Understanding one's reality
Motherhood
Vanessa's upbringing
The depiction of woman within a patriarchal society
Julian Doan is a second-generation Vietnamese American filmmaker. He enjoys exploring the uncomfortable corners of our existence through awkward, yet heartfelt comedy. His past projects include the sentient zombie digital series "Everyone I Love Is Dead". He is currently working on the editorial team of HBO's "In Treatment". He loves the great outdoors and looks forward to seeing a Vietnamese American film renaissance in his lifetime. He is thrilled to be premiering "Raspberry" at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and is beyond thankful for the stunning cast and crew who all brought this film to life.
Raymond Lee was a series regular in Alan Ball's HBO series, "Here and Now" opposite Tim Robbins and Holly Hunter. He has recurring roles on "Prodigal Son", "Mozart in the Jungle", and Scandal. Theater credits include the world premiere productions of "Vietgone at Manhattan Theater Club", which he was awarded the Theatre World Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Debut, "Office Hour" opposite Sandra Oh at South Coast Repertory, and "Cambodian Rock Band" also at South Coast Repertory. He will be next seen in the PARAMOUNT feature film "Top Gun: Maverick opposite Tom Cruise, Jon Hamm, Miles Teller and Jennifer Connelly and as a series regular in upcoming the AMC series "Kevin Can F*ck Himself". Raymond resides in Los Angeles, CA.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
The subject and absurdity of death
Speaking openly about death
The origins of "Raspberry"
Being emotionally available towards inspiration
The creative process behind character creation
Yoshino's personal approach to photography and inspiration
Processing death and dealing with loss
Reactions to "Raspberry"
The tone of the film
Subtle nuances of expression
The differences between Eastern and Western thoughts
Mark Wolynn is the director of the Family Constellation Institute in San Francisco. He is a leading expert in the field of inherited family trauma.
His book It Didn't Start With You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle (published by Viking/Penguin) is the winner of the 2016 Silver Nautilus Book Award in psychology and has been translated into 19 languages.
His articles have appeared in Psychology Today, Mind Body Green, MariaShriver.com, Elephant Journal, and Psych Central, and his poetry has been published in The New Yorker.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Inherited family trauma - a detailed overview of trauma's resonating effect
Our bodies reaction to trauma and how we can biologically pass those reactions to our offspring through our genes
Current research within the scientific field of trauma
The potency of language
Mark's "Core Language Approach" or otherwise known as trauma language, which is seen through the observation of verbal and non-verbal cues
When a musical ensemble chooses to self-title an album mid-career, it usually signifies their conviction that they've struck upon the motherlode, hit the jackpot, stepped up, and generally arrived at a point they've always strived for but never quite attained. Coming from GoGo Penguin at this stage in the game, it's quite a bold statement: the instrumental trio from Manchester, England have fielded plaudits and rave reviews for inspiration and originality at every turn since 2013, when they settled on their dream line-up of Chris Illingworth (piano), Rob Turner (drums), and Nick Blacka (bass). Fusing jazz, classical and electronic influences (amongst others) with a thirst for innovation, they've been garlanded as makers of one of the Mercury Prize album of the year (in '14), and have enjoyed success on record and in the live arena matched by precious few vocal-free groups post-millennium. After that prestigious Mercury nomination for 2014's v2.0 album, Chris, Nick, and Rob worked hard, consolidating their musical bond across a further two albums, which were written and recorded while juggling hectic touring commitments. For GoGo Penguin – their fourth album together (and the third to be released by the legendary Blue Note label) – they decided to jump off the rollercoaster and devote the majority of their working time in 2019 to pushing at the limits of their music. "In the past, we'd have to get in the studio and finish the album in what felt like three days. This time we had six months of writing, and two weeks of recording, so everyone had a lot more time to contribute to each track. There was more experimentation, trying things out and often throwing them away. As a result, the album is more sophisticated. We had quite simple lives in the past. We were younger, so there wasn't so much drama, and there hadn't been so many important events in our lives that fed into the music. This time, there's a lot more facing the realities of becoming older, and mortality, and watching people that you care about being very close to death. At the same time, Chris became a dad. The longer you live, the more complicated your reality becomes, so we felt our music had to reflect that." - Rob Turner (GoGo Penguin)Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Emotions while writing the newest GoGo Penguin album
Personality conveyed through music and art
The positive and negative dualities of life
Conflicting emotions
Spirituality
Personal Philosophies
"The Overview Effect"
Empathy
GoGo Penguin's desire to be "genreless"
Self-imposed limitations and creative limitations imposed by ourselves
The state of music
Breaking away from boundaries within your art
Conformity and intentionality behind the composition
Chris's background as a classical musician
Finding inspiration
Reverting back to one's child-like state
Driving force
Examining one's self, so that others are positively affected
Shari Frilot is a filmmaker who has produced television for the CBS affiliate in Boston and for WNYC and WNET in New York before creating her own independent award-winning films, including Strange & Charmed, A Cosmic Demonstration of Sexuality, What Is A Line?, and the feature documentary, Black Nations / Queer Nations? She is the recipient of multiple grants, including the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Media Arts Foundation. She is presently working on a feature film project about the crisis in water supply with producer Effie Brown's production company, Duly Noted Inc.
In tandem with filmmaking, Shari also maintains a career in festival programming, occupying a distinguished position on the curatorial vanguard through her pioneering development of immersive cinematic environments. As the Festival Director of the MIX Festival in New York (1992-1996) she co-founded the first gay Latin American film festivals, MIX BRASIL and MIX MEXICO film festivals. As Co-Director of Programming for OUTFEST (1998-2001), she founded the Platinum section which introduced cinematic performance installation and performance to the festival. She is presently in her 22nd year as a Senior Programmer for the Sundance Film Festival. She is the curator and driving creative force behind New Frontier, an exhibition and commissioning initiative that focuses on cinematic work being created at the intersections of art, film, and new media technology.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Collective consciousness and being on the cusp of the new year
Shifts within communities
Finding confluence within multiple subjects
Art and science working together
Visualization
Shari's love of culture, and her work within curation and art
Wave-particle dualities
Measuring the concept of love within our life
The differences in seeing something versus feeling something
Neuroplasticity
Perceiving reality
Storytelling
Sundance Festival and New Frontier 2021, and the innovations that are taking place
Subjective and objective truths
Empathy
The lost art of listening
Shari's experiences with filmmaking and changing the framework of the industry itself
The complications within creating and presenting Sundance's 2021 festival
Focusing on humanity
Pushing into the new year with aspirations of inclusivity and connectedness
Mark Henick is an internationally recognized mental health strategist, advocate, speaker, podcaster, and media commentator. His TEDx talk is one of the most-watched in the world. He regularly speaks to diverse audiences about mental health, hope, and recovery.
Mark Henick's TEDx talk about being saved from death by a stranger is one of the most-watched in the world and has been viewed millions of times. His search for "the man in the brown jacket" whose bravery and strong arms kept him from falling to his death went viral around the world (and was successful!). Henick has been on television and radio and has written many articles on mental health. He has hosted more than 60 intimate conversations about mental health with notable public figures and celebrities on his podcast, So-Called Normal, and has executive produced and hosted the Living Well podcast for Morneau Shepell.
Henick has served on the board of directors for the Mental Health Commission of Canada and was the president of a provincial division of the Canadian Mental Health Association — the youngest person in either role. He has worked as a frontline clinician, a program manager, and the national director of strategic initiatives for CMHA. Mark is currently the CEO and principal strategist for Strategic Mental Health Consulting.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Destigmatizing mental illness
Mark's personal story and TedX Talk
The search for the man in the light brown jacket
Struggles and hardships being a source of strength
Self-actualizing and truth
Commercial art
Compartmentalizing particular aspects of your life
Joshua Hagler (b. 1979, Mountain Home AFB, Idaho) is a first-generation graduate with a graphic design degree from The University of Arizona. A 2018 grant recipient of the Roswell Artist in Residence Program, Hagler has since made New Mexico his permanent home. Currently, he lives with his wife and daughter in the high desert village of Placitas at the foot of the Sandia Mountains.
In recent years, his practice has been guided by an approach he calls Nihil, a set of nine self-imposed principles that have grown out of solitary excursions throughout the state. These principles determine all aspects of the work from its imagery and process to the media and objects comprising it. Concept and meaning, as such, naturally unfold out of synchronistic experiences occurring over time.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Romanticizing solitude and isolation (00:05:53)
Joshua describes his meditative practice (00:09:06)
Yoshino reflects on how names and labels impact our perception of reality (00:14:15)
Joshua discusses his project "Nihil" (00:17:24)
How Joshua's personal grief has shaped his work (00:23:28)
Joshua and Yoshino share personal anecdotes and experiences with encountering spiritual signs (00:29:41)
Yoshino discusses the challenge of describing spiritual experiences. Joshua adds that people often exist in a projected reality, shaped by narratives and labels, which sometimes diverge from actual reality (00:46:21)
Exploring ideas around purpose (00:51:23)
The danger of equating success with self-worth (00:58:39)
Joshua shares his experiences about how his project "Nihil" began and ended (01:17:45)
Yoshino uses the metaphor of the "Easter egg" in video games to explain an artist's desire for others to understand the depth of their work (01:25:41)
The benefits of living in simplicity and not being attached to outcomes (01:30:47)
Joshua shares a recent interaction with a younger artist, offering advice on handling the pressures of age and expected timelines (01:37:59)
Sean Cheetham was born in 1977 in San Francisco, studied at the College of San Mateo, in California, and earned a B.F.A. degree with honors from Art Center College of Design, in Pasadena, California. His paintings have been included in numerous significant exhibitions internationally including the National Portrait Gallery in London. He has a devoted following of collectors and art students that are inspired by his work and distinctive technique. Primarily a figurative painter, Sean is known for his technical prowess in achieving accuracy and harmony in his alla prima paintings which he credits to a deep understanding of drawing and his own system of mixing colors which he uses adeptly to govern shadows, midtones and highlights. In addition to having an exceptional ability to understand, draw, and paint the human form, Cheetham's selection of subjects typically in familiar urban scenes contributes a truthful and often raw spirit that makes his work distinctive and a contemporary testimony of our time.
Kate Zambrano is a self-taught fine artist who applies major influences and themes such as the systemic urge to understand human nature, behavior, and the beauty in the expressive nuances.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Kate and Sean's relationship
COVID's effect on workflow
Personal hobbies and the meditation behind them
Endless curiosities within relationships and art
Community and interaction in the midst of COVID
Appreciating the mundane experiences of life
The origin of Kate and Sean's art practice
Balance
Teaching and lessons learned from the experience
Remaining flexible within your career
Relying on other mediums to feed into your main passions
Laura Fried is a Los Angeles-based curator and is a Co-Founder and Director of Active Cultures, a nonprofit organization that explores the convergence of food and art in contemporary life. Through collaborative projects by cooks and artists, Active Cultures' programming takes a multitude of forms such as performances, workshops, meals, and education initiatives. Throughout her career, Fried has advocated for artists and institutions while pushing forward new models for engagement and exhibition-making. She recently served as founding Artistic Director of the Seattle Art Fair, for which she organized a comprehensive program of large-scale installations, performances, talks, and projects. Fried was previously on the curatorial staff of Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA, as well as a curator at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. Fried received her MA in the History of Art from Williams College and the Clark Art Institute.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Laura's journey in curation
Working within non-profit organizations
The convergence of food and art
Collaboration
Unique opportunities that are provided through the community
Laura's work with her business partner
Laura's advocation for artists and institutions
The innovation of the exhibition
The interconnected nature of art and food
The beginnings of "The MSG Club"
Future endeavors of Active Cultures in the midst of COVID-19
Cliqua is a directing duo (Pasqual Gutierrez and RJ Sanchez) born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. They have directed music videos for J Balvin, Rosalia, Bad Bunny, and others. In the span of a year, the duo has amassed over 700 million Youtube plays. They have also worked with brands like Adidas, Nike, Amazon, and Tecate. Currently Cliqua is continuing to shoot music videos and commercials while developing a feature-length film and an episodic television show.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Pasqual and RJ forming Cliqua
Reflections on past commercial and music video work
Intentionality within Cliqua's planning process
Going into the trenches within business and collaboration
Teamwork and collaboration
Shared business values
Examining the future, reevaluating work practices, and moving forward
Inspiration through others
Taking a step back from one's work
Controlling one's process
Being aware of faults
Workflow
Cliqua's recent music video for The Weeknd's track "Too Late"
As a visual artist, Adam Hall began working mostly with charcoals and oils. Self-taught, he attempts to mix traditional style with contemporary. Using palette knives and layering techniques he creates a true richness and depth to his work. Adam believes every painting is his next opportunity in truly expressing his vision and vibe through landscape. "Art is such a powerful tool and I strive to use it in the most positive way I know how."
While his passion for art began growing up in Wellsburg, West Virginia, his professional artistic career began nearly two decades ago in Nashville. When he was not on the road touring with bands all over the world, Adam slowly became involved with a local design firm whose clientele took great interest and demand for his art. Eventually, he started working full time with major record labels and recording artists in Nashville, all the while pursuing his dream to become a full-time artist.
Today, his work has been represented in galleries all over the United States and has been featured in such magazines as American Art Collector Magazine & Fine Art Connoisseur. Adam Hall proudly resides in Nashville, TN, with his wife Thais. Adam spends most of his time in his studio in Historic Franklin and continues to discover a fulfilling purpose through art.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
The benefits of technology during COVID
Adam's early career in the music industry
Utilizing elements from outside fields of study and incorporating them into your artistic practice
Adding different experiences and tools to your "toolkit"
Adam's changing perspectives on painting
The dynamic of a career vs. a hobby
Being disciplined and producing organic results
Healthy competition
Surrounding yourself with individuals who are greater than you
Humility
Faith and understanding how it relates to our experiences
Being in a constant state of questioning
The notion of personal truth(s)
Religion and ideologies
Inclusivity and exclusivity
Remaining open to other aspects of the world
Adam's experiences traveling to Africa
Morality and ethics
Intentions behind our actions
The meaning behind Adam's ocean paintings
The emotion that translates through a person's artwork
Jeffrey Martin Zacks, American psychology educator, member of the American Psychological Association, American Psychological Society, and the Cognitive Science Society.
His book, Flicker: Your Brain on Movies, delves into the history of cinema and the latest research to explain what happens in your brain when you sit down in the theatre and the lights go out.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
How the brain helps us think perceive and aid us in solving problems
Mirror neurons
The impact that film has on it's viewers
Mimicking attributes of the brain and how it specifically helps us in daily life
Film perception
Evoking and implementing cues for specific responses within films
"The willing suspension of belief"
Kids viewing violent films and how it affects them when they are adults
Mindset and engagement
Age and films
Neuroplasticity
The "nimble brain"
The brain's development and how we can shift the way we think in order to retain a greater amount of plasticity
Movies and the brain's correspondence with what we are visualizing
"Feeling" what we are viewing
Creating plots and narratives that affect your emotion
The power of non-analytical effects
The documentary "The Social Dilemma", and Jeff's views on the way technology is progressing
"What are you subscribing to?"
Children and social media
Reflecting on how we use social media and how it influences our brain and habits
Self-taught, David Uzochukwu (b. 1998, Austria) creates (self-)portraits that speak of both placelessness and belonging. His work sees bodies shifting through nature, performance, and digital reconfiguration. Uzochukwu's photographs have been exhibited at Bozar, Photo Vogue Festival, and Unseen Amsterdam. He has collaborated with artists FKA twigs, Pharrell, and Iris Van Herpen, and received commissions by Dior and Hermès. Since 2019, he is a participant of CPH:DOX's talent development program. British Journal of Photography named him One to Watch in 2020. He currently lives in Berlin, where he pursues his first degree in philosophy.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
David's development and obsession with photography
Looking at other photographers work and being inspired
Distraction and aesthetic within David's work
Emotions and the expression of an image
David's photography process
Finding your signature approach
Navigating your youth, and standing your ground
Leaning into your intuition
Organic transition within artwork
Simplicity
Swallowing your feelings and fighting to have your needs met
Finding your artistic voice and rooting yourself within that
David's interest in philosophy
Ethics and practical reasoning for the things that you do
Aesthetics being used as a "glazing" to your art
Masculinity and the roles of gender
Strength and vulnerability
Futurism
Getting to the point of reflecting your opinions within your art
Bias
The future for Davids self-portraiture and photography
About Justin: Justin Mortimer (b.1970) is a British artist whose paintings consistently invite us to question the relationship between subject matter and content, beauty and horror, and between figuration and abstraction. While the imagery is almost exclusively pitiless, the texturing of the paint, the play between light and shade, and the passages that lead from photo-realist definition to near-abstract formlessness are so sensitively handled as to make the work at least partially redemptive as well as to indicate a key philosophical dimension: the oblique relationship between evidence and interpretation.
In his recent solo show, his works create paradoxical beauty in the landscape of oppression and violence around the world. With the Covid-19 pandemic and the escalating racial conflict, Justin Mortimer's solo exhibition sets the stage for reflection on the 'tomorrow' of our society.
Show Notes:
0:00:00 - Introduction
0:04:52 - Paradoxical Psychological Truth in Work
0:08:34 - Feeling Like An Outsider & Childhood Stories
0:12:57 - Balloons as Proxy For The Body & Learning Figurative Painting
0:17:06 - Painting Latex, Dysmorphia, and Masks
0:20:22 - BP Portrait Award and Learning and Unlearning Portrait Painting
0:24:25 - Digital Collaging The Overlooked Imagine
0:29:23 - Not Knowing When Paintings Are Done
0:32:54 - Empathy With People Diametrically Opposing Views
0:37:19 - New Meanings of Paintings Included in Solo Show "Tomorrow"
0:42:53 - COVID-19 Struggles
0:46:40 - "The Social Dilemma" by Jeff Orlowski and No More Truth
0:48:54 - Past Generations and "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" by Werner Herzog
0:54:02 - Decoding The Everyday Object
0:58:03 - Meanings Transform Over Time
1:02:11 - Painting David Bowie and Expectations of Portrait Painting
Mind Over Matter with Mike Lee x Columbia Tatone | AD 180
11 Oct 2020
00:53:21
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About Mike: Mike Lee is a world-ranked professional boxer who has fought in some of the world's most iconic arenas like Madison Square Garden, Cowboys Stadium & The MGM Grand in front of millions of fans. In 2014 Mike was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, ankylosing spondylitis, that almost ended his career. In and out of hospitals for over two years he became tired of all the medications and treatments. Mike began searching for all-natural alternatives which lead him to discover CBD and all of its incredible physical and mental benefits! Using his background in finance and business, Mike felt that creating Soul CBD would be the perfect way to share his knowledge while helping others to defeat whatever battles with the pain they may be facing.
Columbia Tatone is an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer. Known for her dynamic cinematic action and relational, relevant storytelling, she often features unique elements of sci-fi in her work. Tatone studied Jazz at Berklee's College of Music in Boston and later received her Business degree at Vanguard University. As a commercial, music video, and narrative director, Columbia empowers her audience through eye-popping, thought-provoking action sequences. As a champion for women and the underrepresented, Tatone often uses her work to promote social justice while also taking us into different realities that highlight the emotional scar tissue of life.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Fight and flight mode
The state of flow
The fullness of living out your destiny
Mike's early stages of boxing
Performing with gratitude and happiness
Mike's autoimmune illness
Empathy and wellness
Grit
Eastern Medicine
Looking at pain as a gift
Mind over body
Reprogramming of your mind
How COVID has put everyone on an equal playing field
About Edon: Edon Guraziu specializes in Concept Design & Consultation. These various industries range from Entertainment, Industrial, Defense, Medical, Consumer Products, and more. Many years of collaboration have resulted in meaningful relationships with the following companies, some of which include: 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures, Microsoft, Netflix, NVIDIA, MPC, Method Studios, JBC Safety Plastic Inc., StrikerVR, TheVRCompany, Swiss Federal Railways, and more.
About Jesse: Jesse Draxler was born in rural Wisconsin, studied in Minneapolis, MN, and currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. A formal mixed media & inter-disciplinary artist, Draxler has exhibited extensively both domestically and internationally.
Draxler had solo exhibitions in New York at the Booth Gallery in 2017 and 2016, and has been in exhibitions across Europe at galleries in Munich, London, Paris, Hamburg, and Berlin. Draxler collaborates with brands including Hugo Boss, McQ Alexander McQueen, and Ferrari, with original artwork appearing in Elle, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic, among other publications.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
The path of friendship
The intentionality behind social media
Thinking about the motivations behind what you are doing
Dedication within your craft
Artists relation to sports
Mental fortitude and willpower
The meaning behind Jesse's latest show, "Table of Losses"
Letting artwork play itself out
The payoff of patience
The sense of urgency that comes with social media
Having a sense of mental separation between yourself and your artistic practice
Ego death
Copying yourself and it equating to an artistic death
Jesse continually re-inventing himself
The emotional weight behind the artwork
Taking criticism as an artist
Modern and Post-Modern art
Moral limits, and how art challenges your morals
Finding inspirations within everyday life
Jesse's music project "Reigning Cement"
Jesse's "Love, hate" relationship with his environment
Collaborative pieces of art being influenced by the environment
The concept of a suffering artist
Success and drive
Understanding and creating from a place of purpose
About Yasmine: Yasmine Nasser Diaz is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice navigates overlapping tensions around religion, gender, and third-culture identity. Her recent work includes immersive installation, fiber etching, and mixed media collage using personal archives and found imagery.
Diaz has exhibited and performed at spaces including the Brava Theater in San Francisco, the Albuquerque Museum of Art, and the Torrance Art Museum. She is a recipient of the California Community Foundation Visual Artist Fellowship (2019) with works included in the collections of LACMA, UCLA, and the Arab American National Museum. She lives and works in Los Angeles.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
The background behind the title of Yazmine's latest show "Soft Powers"
The concept of "code-switching"
Navigating different worlds within the world we live in
Cultural differences Yazmine has experienced and how it has personally developed in her work
Growing up within two different cultures and countries
A nuanced discussion on arranged marriage and forced arranged marriage and the hardship that came with it
Online dating and "matchmaking" and how it has affected our world
Yasmine's journey to New Mexico
Poverty, capitalism, and the disbursement of power
Yazmine's current work and why she chose the 90s as a timepiece
Engagement between the artist, the content, and the viewer
The business of art and the complications that come with selling art
"Social practice" of art
The complicated reality of morals and ethics within different career fields
The concept of death and knowing what you stand for
Being intentional of why you want power and resources
About Pádraig: Pádraig Ó Tuama is a poet and theologian from Ireland whose poetry and prose have been published widely across Ireland, the US, and the UK. He presents Poetry Unbound with On Being, a hugely successful podcast where he explores a single poem. Short and unhurried; contemplative and energizing, this podcast had more than a million downloads of its first season. The second season starts on the 28th of September. Mondays and Fridays for twelve weeks.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
What Padraig's poem means to him, reflecting back on it
Life being circular
Padraig's writing process
The beauty in the confluence of various things coming together
Padraig's roots within writing poetry
Embracing the flourishing of life
Isolation within artists
The "peasant poet"
Cultural conflict
Shelter and the shadow
Leaning into self-discovery within our life
Considering things that have been ingrained within us and actively challenging their purpose within our live
The Cosmic Nod with Colin Frangicetto (Circa Survive) | AD 175
13 Sep 2020
01:03:23
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About Colin: Colin Frangicetto is a multidisciplinary visual artist, musician (Circa Survive & Psychic Babble), and podcaster (The Cosmic Nod). He lives and works in Portland, OR.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
The genesis of Circa Survive
Colin's experiences with psychedelic drugs at an early age, and how it affected his view of life in both the present and future
Empathy towards others
Being present with an individual
Lessons learned within political unrest
Learning to intentionally listen to those who you disagree with
"Being your own Buddha" and living the teachings you subscribe to
Colin's journey with ayahuasca
Intentions of reciprocity
The concept of giving and taking
Homelessness being on the rise within L.A. and Portland
Giving your life to the arts
Life as an artist
The difficulty of not being able to tour throughout the COVID-19 pandemic
Circa Survive's "rhythm of touring"
An artists' work turning into a brand
Being connected to yourself and being comfortable in your own skin
About Carlos: Carlos Torres has been tattooing for over 20 years and is mostly self-taught. Early in his career, Carlos worked at a couple of tattoo shops before he got his big break at So. Cal Tattoo in San Pedro, CA. It was there he learned the most and built his tattoo portfolio. Carlos specializes in black & grey realism and surrealism tattoos and loves creating original pieces of art. In addition to tattooing, he enjoys photography, painting, sculpting, teaching workshops, and traveling. His travels to international and domestic conventions have earned him awards including Best Small Black & Gray, Best Large Black & Gray, and Best Backpiece.
In October of 2017, Carlos opened his own studio, The Raven and The Wolves. This fine art gallery and tattoo studio is located in the heart of downtown Long Beach and is home to 8 artists.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Carlos' start in tattooing
The power of mentorship
Apprenticeship in the tattoo practice
Intuition and learning to be in-tune with your gut
The ever-changing nature of tattooing
The art of tattooing in relation to other mediums
Carlos' love for realism
Being a "loose painter on skin"
Mastering a medium
Mood and stress having a factor in tattooing
The human element, and subjectivity towards ideas
The clients desire for a tattoo, versus the artist's interpretation and advice
Carlos' recent work within oil paints
Freedom
Growing up in the ghetto
Staying positive in the midst of life
Teaching making you a better artist
Being informed by toggling back between art medium
Covid-19 and Carlos' time spend thinking about lif
Taking time off and implementing fresh ideas into your ar
Creatives becoming caricatures of themselves
Having child-like sensibilities with your art practice
Sowing Seeds For The Future While Living In The Present with Sophia Rokhlin | AD 173
18 Aug 2020
00:50:34
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About Sophia: Sophia Rokhlin is an author, speaker, and nonprofit organizer dedicated to supporting the conservation of indigenous wisdom and territory. Through engaged botany and ecology, she bridges the worlds of traditional ecological knowledge and Western science.
She is a Program Coordinator at the Chaikuni Institute, supporting sustainable ayahuasca cultivation and reforestation in the Peruvian Amazon. She is a co-author of When Plants Dream: Ayahuasca, Amazonian Shamanism, and the Global Psychedelic Renaissance (Watkins, 2019) on the global spread of ayahuasca. She helps coordinate Folk Medicine, a live-stream benefit for communities of the Amazon rainforest impacted by COVID-19. She sits in the Ayahuasca Community Committee for the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines. Her research appears in publications including the New York Times and the BBC.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
The beginning stages of Sophia's work with indigenous people groups
How human communities understand and grow in community with each other
The differences between the "American path" vs the path that indigenous people groups take
The association of wavelengths and the togetherness of individuals
How western culture has lost a sense of togetherness
The concept of reciprocity
"Sowing seeds for the future, while living in the present"
Capitalism and the approach to success
Coronavirus and it's affect to our larger structures
Working together in teams
Happiness
Technology and social innovations
How indigenous people groups approach health and wellness
America viewing health in an allopathic way
Environmentalism
The romanticization of interconnectedness
The traditional and modern uses of Ayahuasca
Meditation, present-mindedness, and prayer
The loss of ritual within modern society
Being honest with yourself
Living in a world full of tools, but having the lack of community to utilize them
Human wisdom
The mindset of jumping from interest to interest, rather than going deeper into a context
Happiness and Evolutionary Psychology with William Von Hippel | AD 172
06 Aug 2020
00:51:36
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About William: William von Hippel, Ph.D., grew up in Alaska, got his B.A. at Yale and his PhD at the University of Michigan, and then taught for a dozen years at Ohio State University before finding his way to Australia, where he is a professor of psychology at the University of Queensland. He has published more than a hundred articles, chapters, and edited books in social psychology, and his research has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, The Economist, the BBC, Le Monde, El Mundo, Der Spiegel, and The Australian.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
William's start in social evolutionary science
The fear we experience being attributed to evolution
Technology affecting our evolution
Social vs. technological innovations
The difference and similarities between hunter and gatherers and us now living in the modern world
Great ideas being found
Sexual selection within evolution and how it has shifted with the influence of dating apps and the internet
Maximizers vs. satisficers
Finding the fundamental purpose of your life
The meaning of life
Coronavirus and self-isolation
The evolution of collaboration
Being present-minded
The fallibility of memories
Sociopathic tendencies within humans
The cost of empathy
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and self-actualization
"Killing the Mastadon"
How art and science fit within evolution.
Objectivity
The acceptance of the truth
The end result of science and art being incredibly similar
Greetings From The Wild Wild West with Cj Hendry | AD 171
28 Jul 2020
01:18:29
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About CJ: Cj Hendry (b. 1988) is a New York based artist originally from Brisbane, Australia. Globally renowned for her large-scale, photo-realistic drawings of consumer goods and immense, interactive exhibitions, she has developed a dedicated following through her unique brand of technical mastery and conceptual depth.
A self-professed "lover of products", Hendry is heir to the Pop Art tradition that firmly established depictions of everyday objects and mass culture in the art historical canon. In the footsteps of Andy Warhol, Hendry generates instantaneously appealing images that celebrate kitsch aesthetics and it's ubiquitous presence in contemporary digital culture.
More recently, the artist has incorporated new subject matter to delve into deep-seated concerns and anxieties of current society. After seven years of studying architecture and finance in Australia, Hendry abandoned the endeavor in 2014 to pursue art full-time. She has since presented 6 solo exhibitions across Australia, the U.S., and Asia. In 2017, the artist collaborated with esteemed fashion house Christian Louboutin to present her first works in color during the 2017 edition of Art Basel in Hong Kong.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Adaptability
Not being bogged down by life and "going on with the show"
The dynamic of achieving greatness without falling into individualistic, isolated, and greedy viewpoints.
Discipline, and its relation to our daily life.
The importance of community, and how opening yourself up and allowing people to be involved with what you are doing brings about a particular level of freedom.
The concept of creative energy - Being relaxed, calm, and effortless within your life and art practice.
Art not about being able to draw something well. Rather, art being more about the conceptual nature behind it.
Creatively letting go of what others think about you, and doing work that is fulfilling for yourself within art.
Clusters of People Shapeshifting Into One with Anna Park | AD 170
23 Jul 2020
01:15:10
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About Anna: Anna Park is a contemporary artist based in New York City, creating pieces that blur the lines between figurative and abstract work.
Creating a dazed, yet emotional experience, Anna's central content revolves around larger bodies of people within social settings while provoking a vaporous and ethereal sensation.
Her most recent work takes on a new form, having a larger, tangled, and fragmented abstraction that envelops the viewer as the cacophony of black and white charcoal reveals intimate messages relating to society and the people we interact with.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
The inspiration behind her most recent work describing them as an "amalgamation of people"
The desire for "the viewer can become the voyager"
Anna feeling that the inspiration for her new body of work can be attributed to her living in New York City
The dynamic of paintings feeling nostalgic and how our subconscious draws from past memories without truly knowing why
Work and life during the quarantine
The dynamic of creating art in a self-fulfilling way vs creating art specifically for other people
Anna's upbringing moving from multiple states and her interactions with her mentor, Bruce Roberson, and how he "taught her everything" and how it solidified Anna's desire to be an artist
Gratitude surrounding Anna's move to New York
Submergence within different cultures
Community
Power structures and how toxic masculinity has permeated the world and made it difficult to empathize and move past our hierarchical viewpoints
"As an artist, I am interested in observing the transmutation process of unconscious material moving into conscious awareness. I work in painting, photography, writing, performance and video. My paintings utilize inner visions and depth psychology to form works layered with symbolism and metaphor. In photography, I employ an experimental process on film that focuses on Jungian Intuitive and Feeling typology. By blurring, altering or disrupting the straight forward information in a photograph, the image moves from analysis to an abstraction - allowing the viewer's point of focus to relax, moving closer to the body and the Self. This subtle shift of perception is why I describe my photographs as Portals of Feeling."
Nouel Riel is a Los Angeles based Artist. Following many years performing as a competitive gymnast she earned a full athletic scholarship to The University of Minnesota. There she studied Apparel Design, continuing that focus at The Art Institute of Portland. Since receiving her BFA from Santa Fe University of Art and Design in 2014, she has shown in solo and group exhibitions in Santa Fe, NM, Los Angeles, New York, and London.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Yoshino and Nouel reconnect after not seeing each other for over four years (00:06:30)
Nouel reads The Layers by Stanley Kunitz, and the conversation explores the poem's meaning and personal resonance for her (00:08:23)
How Yoshino and Nouel met (00:13:05)
Archetypes and Jungian psychology (00:18:56)
Nouel talks about her background in competitive gymnastics (00:24:24)
Finding art as a tool for self-discovery and healing (00:38:52)
Giving a voice for our dark energy and integrating with our shadow-self (00:48:38)
Embracing different types of intelligences and trying to not take things personally (00:56:23)
Exploring loneliness and how it could relate to the missing connection with the Devine feminine and masculine (01:08:20)
Nostalgia, popular culture, and the perception of self (01:25:21)
The importance of representation in mass media and Yoshino's personal experiences dealing with racism (01:32:12)
The Intersection Between Art, Science, and Spirituality with Ryan York x Justin Daashuur Hopkins | AD 169
17 Jul 2020
00:44:15
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About Ryan: Ryan York is a Doctor of Philosophy, postdoctoral scholar within the department of neurobiology at Stanford University, and an author of over a dozen publications.
His research is focused on the evolutionary genomic basis of brain and behavior with a specific interest in the courtship behaviors of Lake Malawi cichlid fish.
Having a passion for music and working in constant collaboration with individuals such as Justin Daashuur Hopkins, Ryan borders the line between highly intellectual compositions and spontaneous, free-flowing, and seemingly primal soundscapes
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Ryan's work as an evolutionary biologist, and his specific project working within computational methods in understanding behaviors
Applying concepts used within artificial intelligence and using them for work in other areas of science
The overlap of art and science
The idea of repeatability
Collective consciousness and collaboration
Provisional answers and the unknown
Continually shifting based upon your ever-changing context
Scientific having ties to elements of spirituality
Free will
Humility
The power of the mind
Philosophy of science
Different levels of understanding
Dogmatism
Placebo's having a similarity to art
The subconscious vs analytical instinct
Slow vs fast understanding and experience
Creativity being an exploration of what the world is
About Daniele: Bolelli reads a passage about fear from his book, "Not Afraid: On Fear, Heartbreak, Raising a Baby Girl, and Cage Fighting"
Daniele Bolelli (born January 11, 1974) is an Italian-American writer, university professor, martial artist, and podcaster based in Southern California. He is the author of several books on philosophy, and martial arts, including On the Warrior's Path. Known for his writing since the 1990s in Italy and the early 2000s in the United States, Bolelli rose to greater public prominence in the 2010s, beginning with his appearances on popular podcasts such as The Joe Rogan Experience. He went on to create his own podcasts, and has hosted The Drunken Taoist since 2012 and History on Fire since 2015.
Bolelli holds M.As in American Indian Studies and history from UCLA and California State University, Long Beach, and did postdoctoral research in history at Cardiff University. As a professor, he has taught a wide variety of courses in the arts, humanities, and social sciences on topics including Native American history and culture, Taoist philosophy, and Ancient Rome. He teaches at CSULB and Santa Monica College.
About Jerome: Acclaimed and revered painter, Jerome Lagarrigue, was born in France to a father who was an illustrator and a mother who was a writer and journalist. Being rooted within a world of creativity and culture, Jerome's life - from youth to adulthood, can be described as a type of compelling metamorphosis, including experiences both from a creative and racial point of view which directly saturates his current work as a painter.
Finding love within depicting movement inside of his work, Jerome continues to create powerful work that calls into question particular aspects of the world we live in and frames the subtle and reflective essence of human beings.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Jerome being exposed to two different cultures, and how it offered both confusing and later, harmonious element to his life as a whole
The topic of race – its objectivity, functionality, horrific nature, and the struggles that have come with being associated with a specific race
Jerome's upbringing - living both in France and Harlem, and how he was always drawing as a child
The effects of social injustices on racial identity
The layered nature of the social justice protests and riots
Capitalism shaping the way we live our lives
The genesis of creativity
Decisions of engaging in a subject matter
Searching continually within art
The power in saying no
Creative instinct
The wave and the weight of the reaction to coronavirus
Captivation within the movement and process of painting
Stanly Kubrick's process and its relation to creativity
The growth from the mentality of seeing the world as either one or another absolute into viewing the world as being "gray"
An Individual's desire to be comfortable rather than be challenged
Jerome's decision to paint riots
The connection of energy, nature, and humanism within paining