Authentic Obsessions – Details, episodes & analysis

Articulation, pivoting, sketchbooks, observation, and travel all play a key role in Ethan Keister’s creative life.

Graphic designer, illustrator and art director Ethan was born in Vietnam, grew up in the backwoods of Upstate New York and now calls Milwaukee, Wisconsin his home.

When Ethan isn't ruining his posture at his desk, you can find him snow skiing, water skiing, biking, hiking, traveling, and writing about himself in the third person. 

Takeaways

1. Pivot in a way that allows for more growth and a fresh perspective.
2. Eighty percent of drawing is seeing.
3. When sketching people, be on the lookout for good poses and gestures.
4. “Beautiful things don’t ask for attention.” James Thurber

Ethan Keister

Ethan Keister on Instagram

Ethan Keister on Facebook

Ethan Keister on LinkedIn

Ethan Keister on TikTok

Mark Manson

Paul Noth (episode 92)

Jon Horvath (episode 89)

Idea generation, your brain on cartoons, incongruency & divergent thinking, and how to encourage your creativity are all on the mind of cartoonist, writer and artist Paul Noth.

Paul is a cartoonist for The New Yorker magazine, where his work has appeared regularly since 2004. He created the Emmy-nominated animated series "Pale Force" for Late Night with Conan O’Brien. He has been an animation consultant for Saturday Night Live and developed shows for Cartoon Network Adult Swim and Nickelodeon. Paul is the author of the middle grade novels “How to Sell Your Family to the Aliens,” “How to Properly Dispose of Planet Earth,” and “How to Win the Science Fair When You’re Dead,” all published by Bloomsbury.

Takeaways

1. Embrace the limitations of your art form.
2. Conscious effort impedes the incubation process.
3. The preparatory phase of creative work requires hard work and skill, but it also requires letting go.
4. The idea comes despite the effort not because of it.

Paul Noth on X

Paul Noth on Instagram

Paul Noth on Facebook

Paul Noth on LinkedIn

Paul’s middle grade books

Paul Noth on IMBD

'Midwest nice' cartoonist for The New Yorker is ready for Chicago and the DNC

The New Yorker 

This is Your Brain on Cartoons article by Sarah Larson

Roz Chast

Iain McGilchrist

Photo credits, Camila Guarda, Chicago Sun Times

Susan Lerner is  a New York City based contemporary hand-cut collage artist drawn to vintage imagery and maps, evoking a sense of familiarity and nostalgia.  Her work is a reflection of the power of visual storytelling and its ability to connect us to our memories and emotions. Susan’s work has been published in periodicals and books, she’s the co-founder of the New York Collage Ensemble, and she is currently licensed with Jiggy Puzzles and Jiggy Studio. Enjoy our conversation about tag sales, boundaries, trying new things, taking pauses, and challenges of selling your work. 

Takeaways

1. “Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.” Twyla Tharpe
2. Having too many options can drive you crazy.
3. Moving your body helps with problem solving and artistic creativity.
4. Find different outlets to sell your work.

Links

Susan Lerner

Susan Lerner on Instagram

Jiggy Puzzles, City of Dreams

92NY

Hollie Chastain

Galen Gibson-Cornell

Art and Cocktails podcast

The Jealous Curator, Art for Your Ear podcast

The feminine form has returned in Denise Daffara's latest work along with every day familiar objects such as her much loved chairs and cups of tea. Denise is an artist, soulful seeker, wild wonderer, deep listener, sacred space holder, Creativitea Time inspirer & private priestess, Intentional Creativity Guide & Certified Color of Woman Teacher.

Denise's art practice is an intuitive, light and colour fueled exploration of her life’s journey. Her paintings are filled with Australian and New Zealand botanicals and plenty of tea related moments. You’ll also find Matisse inspired feminine figures visiting her painted interiors and table settings depicted in a non-realistic, contemporary style. Her art expresses the sacred union between beauty and healing for the heart.

Takeaways

1. Creativity can help us hold space for our grief. 
2. Pay attention to the beginning, middle and end energy while you’re creating a piece of work.
3. Share your art journey in an open and honest way.
4. When it's more uncomfortable to NOT do it, creative inspiration shows up.
5. “Your vision is stronger than your fear.” Kylie Slavik

Links

Denise Daffara 
Denise Daffara on Instagram
Little dd on Instagram
Denise Daffara on Facebook
Denise Daffara on Youtube
Insights at the Edge with Tammy Simon podcast: Chip Conley: Midlife: From Crisis to Chrysalis
Gertrude and Alice bookstore and coffee shop

The monumental labors of women that often go unnoticed, and the resilience of women under the invisible weight they carry are themes interwoven in the current work of interdisciplinary artist Nirmal Raja. 

Nirmal's current solo exhibition at the Portrait Society Gallery of Contemporary Art is titled Grace and Grit, and highlights her current authentic obsession with material intimacy.  Nirmal’s keen observations and curiosity during her 3-month Kohler Arts/Industry residency resulted in an inspirational and wide body of work, including works cast in iron and brass, sound recordings and photographs. Nirmal is also part of the Paglees, a feminist collective of artists of South Asian origin living across the United states, currently exhibiting their work at the South Asia institute in Chicago. 

Nirmal collaborates with other artists and strongly believes in investing energy into her immediate community while also considering the global.

Takeaways

1. Despite all the restrictions, I am strong.
2. “Share your excitement for your practice and your own work.” Jason Yi
3. “There is mud and there is the lotus, and you cannot have the lotus without the mud.” Thich Nhat Hanh
4. Push against restrictive boxes we put ourselves in.

Links

Nirmal Raja
Nirmal Raja on Instagram
Nirmal Raja on Linkedin
A Brush With… Cornelia Parker
Portrait Society Gallery of Contemporary Art, Grace and Grit- solo exhibition 
South Asia Institute, The Paglees: Between Reason and Madness
Grace and Grit Catalog
John Michael Kohler Arts Center Arts/Industry Residency Program

Stones, learning, confidence, pattern and line, expressing beauty, and promoting your work are just a few topics artist Rena Diana covers today.

After retiring from a fulfilling career as an educator in Baltimore, Rena started focusing full time on her artwork. She worked every day in a studio at the Art Students League in New York City, where she began painting abstract landscapes. Rena is fortunate to divide her time between Baltimore and her home on Lake Champlain in Vermont, which is the source of much of her inspiration. 

Rena on art journals and sketching: "Throughout my adult life, I have kept notebooks chronicling my observations and experiences.  Gradually these became art journals, filled with sketches and collages, along with personal narrative and remarks about the creative process. As these notebooks evolved into more formal exercises, I realized that they were distinct art forms in themselves. At that point, I began creating larger, single pieces. These art journals remain a core part of my studio practice."

Takeaways

1. You develop confidence as you learn to trust yourself and the process. Believe in yourself and that what you have to share with other people is valuable.
2. It’s a marathon. A long game.
3. Learning is the best antidepressant.
4. First think about who YOU are before you decide how and where you’re going to promote your work.

Links

Rena Diana

Rena on Instagram

City Arts and Lectures, Ann Patchett

Mary Lynn O’Shea

The Art Students League of New York

Last Light, How Six Great Artists Made Old Age a Time of Triumph, Richard Lacayo

The challenges of creating on a deadline, having faith and trust in the thing you’re doing, and the feelings that arise when switching from the act of writing to marketing and promotion all come up during our conversation.

Nick Petrie is the author of 8 best-selling Peter Ash crime fiction novels, including The Price You Pay, out February 2024. His debut, The Drifter, won both the ITW Thriller award and the Barry Award for Best First Novel, and was a finalist for the Edgar and the Hammett Awards. He is also  an excellent husband (mine!) and father (to our son Duncan).

Takeaways

1. Winnow down and lean into the thing that is interesting to you and that you really want to pursue and then let go of the outcome when it gets out into the world.
2. “Keep a clean antenna."
3. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
4. Seamus Heaney on the hardest thing about writing: “Getting started, keeping going and getting started again.” 

Links

Nick Petrie’s website

Follow Nick Petrie on Instagram

Follow Nick Petrie on Facebook

Follow Nick Petrie on X

Your Brain on Art, Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross

Mystery Tribune, The Cleveland Job

Bill Schweigart

Boswell Books

The Poisoned Pen Bookstore

Murder By the Book bookstore

Kaye Publicity

Michael Mann, Blackhat and Collateral

The Great Creators with Guy Raz episode 67 with Andy J Pizza of Creative Pep Talk

Carol Paik, a New York based artist, is interested in many different media, but really found meaning working with repurposed textiles. After years of buying expensive and often toxic materials for her work, her goal now is to create art exclusively out of the unappreciated, overlooked, landfill-destined stuff she finds around her, of which there is never a shortage.
She most enjoys taking something that is overlooked, and looking at it closely. Or, taking something too frequently seen, and looking at it slightly differently. She is interested in the emotions that we bring to the things we discard: nostalgia, guilt, desire, and loss, and her goal is to give these objects--and, by extension, ourselves—new possibilities.

During our chat, Carol talked about the idea of leaving a mark without marring a landscape, specifically in relation to her cairn projects, but it got me thinking of that in a broader sense. And she also assured me that sometimes finishing a project is overrated.

photo by Sharon Schuur

Takeaways

1. Ask yourself: Why do I need to do it THAT way?
2. Keep your eye on the road because wherever you’re looking is where you’ll end up.
3. Take a closer look.
4. If you limit yourself, you’ll look at things in a different way.
5. Look around for things you can reuse for your projects.

Links

Carol Paik
Carol Paik on Instagram
Heidi Parkes
Nina Katchadourian
Natalya Khorover

K. Woodman-Maynard’s obsession with emotional expression comes out not only in her graphic novels but also through anger journaling and diary comics. She loves tree time, cold water swimming, running and cross-country skiing. Katharine is a sequential storyteller and an artist who writes (as opposed to a writer who draws) and loves to mentor other creatives. Her debut, The Great Gatsby: A Graphic Novel Adaptation was called, “hugely rewarding” by The Wall Street Journal. 

Takeaways

1. Be present and enjoy yourself.
2. What can I do for social media, not what social media can do for me.
3. Get some tree time.
4. Bring in people for feedback during a long term project.

Links

K. Woodman-Maynard
K. on Instagram
K. on Facebook
K. on Linkedin
K. on Pinterest
Great Gatsby Graphic Novel, K. Woodman-Maynard
The Big Leap, Gay Hendricks
Healing Back Pain, John Sarno
Art Matters, Neil Gaiman

 From chenille bedspreads & fringe vests to mosaics & ceramics, Andryea Natkin shares her journey as a seeker, always on the lookout for what is truly hers so she can express it. She  was born into a family of artists, which gave her that foundation of permission to trust herself.  Andryea persevered and eventually received her BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, all along working in a variety of mediums including drawing, painting, printmaking, mosaic and ceramics.

Takeways

1. Be wasteful and make ugly things.
2. Make a lot of mistakes.
3. Don’t judge yourself while you’re making.
4. Inspiration comes from my heart, not my head.
5. Turn the fire up. It’s time to get going.

Links

Andryea Natkin  
Andryea on Instagram
Andryea on Facebook
Your Brain on Art, Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross
Artery Ink