The Open Call Podcast with Michelle Forsyth

05/19/21 • 15 min

The Open Call Podcast hosted by Anne Stagg and Laura Tanner, features conversations with contemporary artists about their work.
In this episode of The Open Call Podcast, we talked with Michelle Forsyth who lives and works in Toronto, Canada. Michelle creates richly detailed artworks that combine a multitude of artistic practices including painting, sculpture, fabric and clothing design, printmaking and photography, as well as others. She designs new patterns as a way to mark her identity: hand drawing films, which are then screen-printed onto fabric, and sewn into the garments that she wears in her “Improvisations” photographs. She thinks of these layered patterns as painterly skins that simultaneously evade and describe her individuality.
Michelle has advanced stage Parkinson’s and over the course of her artistic career, she has had to contend with the increasing physical limitations of her body. Because her work is often characterized by very labor intensive processes, her hand has effectively marked the progression of her disease. Michelle is an Associate Professor at OCAD, Ontario College of Art & Design University where she teaches painting and graduate studies.
New podcast episodes are released bi-weekly on Thursdays. In addition to the podcast, we keep an active Instagram where we share images of the artwork that we talk about. Discover our Instagram @the_open_call_podcast.
Special thanks to Susan Cooper for voicing our Outro, Scott Stagg for composing our music, and to our wonderful research assistants: Erin Miller and Alyssia Price who help with web and social media design.

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The Open Call Podcast with Elizabeth Alexander

The Open Call Podcast hosted by Laura Tanner and Anne Stagg, features conversations with contemporary artists about their work.
In this episode of The Open Call Podcast, we talked with Elizabeth Alexander. Elizabeth creates intricate installations and sculptural collages from deconstructed wall paper. Her installations often present objects associated with domestic spaces. They are impeccably cast and then covered in lush floral cut-outs. Often the work looks like it is in the process of decay or growth and she presents her work as a way to interrogate the ways that the home influences public life and vice versa. Her interdisciplinary installations touch on themes of domestic power dynamics, class, and the home as a site of generative ideologies. Her work asks the question, "what if the objects embody the emotions of the people in the space?" Elizabeth also performs in her work. Elizabeth is on the faculty at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem where she teaches sculpture.
New podcast episodes are released bi-weekly on Thursdays. In addition to the podcast, we keep an active Instagram where we share images of the artwork that we talk about. Discover our Instagram @the_open_call_podcast.
Special thanks to Susan Cooper for voicing our Outro, Scott Stagg for composing our music, and to our wonderful research assistants: Ainsley Coty, Syd Cole, Erin Miller, Alyssia Price, and Christian Pruitt who help with production.

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The Open Call Podcast with Joelle Dietrick

The Open Call Podcast hosted by Laura Tanner and Anne Stagg, features conversations with contemporary artists about their work.
In this episode of The Open Call Podcast, we talked with Joelle Dietrick. Joelle is a multi-disciplinary artist who works in digital and physical realms, creating conceptual artworks that thematically champion the individual in the face of large economic systems, and inevitably, those system failures. Joelle's studio practice is steeped in research, reacting to current social and political events. Her work is often characterized by warped architectural elements, large scale shifts and bright color. In her work, she calls into question the relationship between person, place, and the concealed global systems that govern our everyday lives.

In addition to her independent studio practice, Joelle also collaborates with her husband, Owen Mundy, who is an artist and coder. Together with Joelle’s background in painting, illustration, and design, they pool their skill sets to expand their approach to subjects and create interactive artworks that extend into the public sphere. There is often an educational component to their collaborative work, exposing surveillance capitalism and digital trackers, and reminding us to balance our virtual interactions with those in the material world. Their collaborative works often break free from the gallery and engage the viewer through more accessible platforms like public spaces, websites, and our cell phones: bringing awareness of the symbiotic relationship between all of these spaces. Joelle is on the faculty at Davidson in North Carolina School.
New podcast episodes are released bi-weekly on Thursdays. In addition to the podcast, we keep an active Instagram where we share images of the artwork that we talk about. Discover our Instagram @the_open_call_podcast.
Special thanks to Susan Cooper for voicing our Outro, Scott Stagg for composing our music, and to our wonderful research assistants: Erin Miller and Alyssia Price who help with web and social media design.