AART

Finding poetry in the landscape is how Erin Spencer portrays her work as she connects with nature. Born in Northern California, the second of seven children, Erin moved to Maryland as a toddler. She showed an early interest in writing, dancing and archeology and would later study archeology and history at Brigham Young University in Utah. Her father, Boyd, was a chemistry professor, as well as a pianist and composer, and her mother Janine, a teacher who encouraged all her children to be creative. In her 20’s, Erin spent 18 months in The Netherlands as a church missionary, where she took photographs, which provided her with the inspiration for her early paintings. After returning to the US, Erin married her husband, Peter, and in 2008 the couple moved to Rhode Island where they have raised three children. Faith and family are the most important aspects of Erin’s life — she reads her scriptures daily and spends time each day at the easel. Her inspiration for her landscapes comes from California to New England via Europe and she captures her scenes in plein air or in the studio. “I think what’s so exciting about the art, what I produce but also art that I get to see from others, not just paintings but anything that people create, it’s an exciting thing to see.” Erin also spends time studying art and teaching workshops. Her paintings are included in private collections across the United States and around the world including Canada, Europe, Israel, Australia, and Japan. She says: “My personal process begins with observation and study of the natural world in all its splendid variation. Whether working from life or from sketches back in my studio, my paintings become translations of what I perceive. The beauty of this is that I will always have work to do, poems to create from my personal impressions of the world.”
Erin’s favorite female artists:
Maria Josenhans
Mary Tonkin
Laura Rios
Bethann Moran-Handzlik
Sarah Manolescue
Jennifer Moses
Erin’s playlist:
“It varies. Sometimes it's a podcast (often an art podcast or This American Life). I often listen to music. Currently I'm playing Johnny Flynn, Gregory Alan Isakov, Kishi Bashi, and Dar Williams. It changes, but music is a huge part of my practice.”
https://www.erinspencerart.com/
Instagram: @erinspencerart
Host: Chris Stafford
Produced by Hollowell Studios
@theaartpodcast
Email: [email protected]
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This week the Vietnamese photographer and author Ngoc Minh Ngo. Ngoc was born in Vietnam in 1963 and grew up during the Vietnam War. Her father, Chau Minh Ngo, was a colonel in the South Vietnam Army and her mother Phi Truong became a nurse's aide after raising eight children. Ngoc was the sixth child—she has four sisters and three brothers. Despite enduring a brutal war, Ngoc describes her childhood as enchanting and beautiful. Her parents did all they could to protect their family and offer some normalcy to those troubling times by spending time on the beach. At the age of 12, shortly before the end of the war in 1975, the family were evacuated to the US and settled in Sacramento, California where, with the help of sponsors, they began a new life. Ngoc described herself as a very shy and reserved child but that did not hinder her development. She found her own way to the University of California, Berkeley where she earned a BA followed by a Masters of Landscape Design at Columbia University. After spending some time traveling to Japan and Europe Ngoc made her way to New York with a view to working in painting restoration. But after a chance encounter while working on a feature film she discovered her true passion was to be photography, so she learned black & white photography and developing. Ngoc's images have been published The World of Interiors, T Magazine, Vogue, Architectural Digest, Cabana, and House & Garden UK. She is also the author of five books: Bringing Nature Home: Floral Arrangements Inspired by Nature; In Bloom: Creating and Living with Flowers, and Eden Revisited: A Garden in Northern Morocco, The House of a Lifetime, and New York Green. She is currently working on a new book entitled Roses in the Garden inspired by her father’s death. She has, she says, always been independent and self-contained, paving her own way as a refugee and re-imaging her life as a reflection through the beauty of the images she creates. Ngoc and her husband, the photographer Julian Wass, live in New York. They have a daughter Lily who works in public health and is also a poet.
Ngoc’s website: https://www.ngocminhngo.com/
Instagram: @minh_ngoc
https://www.instagram.com/minh_ngoc
Ngoc’s playlist:
"The Rip by Portishead (I love Beth Gibbons, both with Portishead and her solo work)
The Spoils by Massive Attack with Hope Sandoval (I'm a fan of both Hope Sandoval and Massive Attack)
Wildfires by Sault (A song about George Floyd that happens to be very catchy)
Diamonds and Rust by Joan Baez (Poignant song about her relationship with Bob Dylan)
Purple Rain by Prince (bog fan of Prince for his fearless originality and incomparable talent)
Halo by Ane Brun (Ane Brun is brilliant at reinterpreting other people's song in her inimitable way) Hope We Meet Again by Brit Marling (I love her folksy songs)
La Rua Madureira (I love this French interpretation of an iconic bossa nova song)
Paradis Perdu by Christine and the Queens (I love the way she combines one of the favorite songs of my childhood with a Kanye song and makes it completely her own)."
Ngoc’s favorite female artists:
Agnes Martin
Anni Albers
Ruth Asawa
Hilma af Klint
Kiki Smith
Host: Chris Stafford
Produced by Hollowell Studios
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This week the painter and curator Kristin Calabrese. Kristin was born in 1968 in Mountain View, a suburb of San Jose, CA and spent her childhood moving back and forth between Massachusetts and Arizona. Her father, Bill, was an engineer and her mother, Karen, a housewife. Kristin has a younger brother Greg and they grew up in the 70s in a middle-class white American suburb with an abundance of children in the neighborhood. However, Kristin’s childhood was not easy; her father was an authoritarian and she was bullied by children in school. She says her family environment was very sexist and she vowed to live a very different life to her mother’s. In 1995, Kristin graduated with a Bachelor in Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute and Master of Fine Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1998. She found her way as an artist after exploring a variety of mediums in college, venturing into graphic design and creating websites before eventually concentrating on oils. She says: “My paintings speak plainly, make jokes, and are irreverent. I paint to make my thoughts, feelings, and experience into monuments that mark my small and large, personal existence.” The focus of Kristin’s work includes psychology, humor, politics and formal issues of composition and representation, primarily through painting. Since the mid 90’s, Kristin has held numerous shows in the US and Europe. Solo exhibitions include Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles, Brennan & Griffin in New York, and Michael Jansen in Cologne. She has also curated many group exhibitions, including at the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions and Honor Fraser Gallery. Her work is featured in numerous collections, including Saatchi and The Armand Hammer Museum. Together with her husband, artist Joshua Aster, they have a small business for art supplies, such as canvases and framing, and then they spend the evenings painting. Kristin says that she is now in a happy place as an artist and curator at home in Los Angeles.
Women artists whose work Kristin admires:
Mary Weatherford
Susanna Coffey
Michelle Grabner
Anne Harris
Deb Sokolo
Lucy Bull
Lauren Quin
Kristin’s Playlist
“I don't listen to music in the studio. I listen to podcasts and books on tape. Once I recognize a song, I find it annoying and distracting, so I listen to podcasts and books on tape. I'm pretty interested in history right now, stuff I never learned in school like the 30 Years War, The Reformation, even more current American history, like J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI. I play podcasts all day long, need it to sort of distract myself from being antsy, they help me focus on the painting.
Here are some or my current podcast faves:
American Prestige
Background Briefing
Know Your Enemy
The Majority
Report Chapo
Trap House
The Tom Hartman Show
Left Reckoning
Letters and Politics
AndI've adopted a couple astrology podcasts:
Chani Nicholas Astrology of the Week Ahead
Anne Ortelee weekly weather
Also some comedy podcasts, here's one: Thought Spiral".
Kristin's website: https://kristincalabrese.com/
Instagram: @only_future_thing
Host: Chris Stafford
Produced by Hollowell Studios
Follow @theaartpodcast on Instagram
Email: [email protected]
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Claudia Concha describes herself as a Gestural Expressionist, painting with both hands at the same time, sometimes just with sticks and mostly with her eyes closed. Claudia was born and raised in Bogatá, Colombia and moved with her husband to Santa Monica in 2003 where they live with their two children. Her studio is every artists dream in an aircraft hanger at Santa Monica airport where she holds exhibitions. While she was not artistic as a child, she was always creative. Subsequently her college education in architecture and studies in Italy clearly influenced her work on a large scale. Her paintings can occupy an entire wall to accommodate the physical effort they demand. Her art is self described as a conversation connecting with every part of her body using the Gestalt method and other techniques. For Claudia her art has a deeply spiritual emphasis, which she also conveys in her workshops and art therapy.
Host: Chris Stafford
Produced by Hollowell Studios
@theaartpodcast
@claudiaconchaart
claudiaconcha.com
What’s on Claudia’s Playlist:
“I like a lot to paint in the silence to balance silence, after listening to meditations and/ or music, helping me to get attuned to the moment. “
Music playlist: Josh Groban Meredith Monk Cesária Evora Jazz/ Claude Bolling & Alexandre Lagoya Carlos Santana Rock- Pink Floyd , Peter Gabriel, Roger Waters, Rush, Yes, Sting.. Tibetan Bells music Nadama Radio from ( Pandora) Cirque du Soleil Music, particularly “ O”
Claudia’s Favorite Female Artists: Gelah Penn Eline de Kooning Joan Mitchell Mary Abbott Deborah Remington Judith Godwin Ethel Schwabacher Juana Gaviria, Contemporary Colombian Artist Olga de Amaral, Colombian Textiles/ Installations
Art suppliers: Dick Blick
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My guest this week is a landscape artist who has a special relationship with trees. Some call her the tree lady. A Texan through and through, Austin-based Julie Davis came to art following a law degree and three children. She had an early interest in 35mm photography but it wasn’t until 2008 when she began taking art classes and meeting artists with whom she developed friendships, that she began to develop her own artistic pathway. Julie is now a full-time artist, attending workshops, showing her work around the country and inspiring women to do the same.
Women artists who have inspired Julie: Jill Carver Laurel Daniel Allie Zeyer Erin Spencer Kathie Odom Christine Lashley Jane Hunt Suzie Baker Pam Padgett Karen Philpott Hunter Ash
What does Julie listen to while she’s painting? ‘My playlists on Spotify are really random; Paint Vibes and Painting 2.0 are the ones I most frequently listen to.’
Host: Chris Stafford
Produced by Hollowell Studios
Instagram @theaartpodcast
Julie Davis - https://www.juliedavisstudio.com/
Instagram: @juliedavisstudio
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