Why Make? Podcast

In this episode I talk about my first impressions of the Emma International collaboration, which took place on July 31 to August 8, 2024 in Big River Saskatchewan. If you need a little more background on Emma take a listen to What is Emma? Episode 59 of the podcast

When I returned from Why Makes great adventure to Emma earlier this month, I knew I needed to sit down and collect my thoughts about my experience before they started to drifted away. This short episode is a collection of my thoughts about having attended my first artist collaboration. I promise you there will be much more to come.

Retired educator, jeweler and metalsmith extraordinaire Bob Ebendorf joins us on episode 54 of the Why Make podcast. Originally from Topeka Kansas, Bob was a star football player and wrestler in high school who had the choice of a big time college athletic scholarship or attending art school. Lucky for us he made the right choice! After spending his undergraduate and graduate years in the art department at the University of Kansas Bob then went on to spend a fair amount of time in Norway honing his technical skills in metal smithing before returning to the U.S to teach. Bob is a self proclaimed radical in the jewelry and metals field, often choosing to work in found objects, thrift store finds and junk instead of precious metals and stones. After a long career in the arts Bob’s work is in the permanent collection of many museums and at 83 he still enjoys teaching, creating and just being curious.

We had the privilege of having this conversation with Bob while he was teaching a workshop at the Pocosin Center for the Arts in Columbia NC in June. Many thanks to the good folks at Pocosin for allowing us to spend some time on campus.

Welcome to Episode 53 of Why Make? On this episode we talk with Robert F. Lyon, a woodturner, artist and educator who lives and works in the Columbia, SC area.

Literally climbing the walls with handmade ladders as a small child, the sky was the limit, as Robert explored model rockets and building theater sets, before landing in art school for college. His lifetime in the arts started in ceramics when he discovered he could spend the whole day at the wheel and not notice the passage of time. No matter what he did Robert always wanted everyday to feel like that flow state.

We talk with Robert about being an assistant professor at Louisiana State University where he helped to set up one of the most vibrant ceramics programs in the U.S at the time before discovering the lathe. After 5 years in administration Robert returned to teaching in the art department at the University of South Carolina until retiring in 2017. Robert has continued with enthusiasm to teach, and explore the lathe, making his outlandish turned forms during his full-time art practice.

Join us as Robert F. Lyon takes us back and forth across the Rio Grande, flowing through his minds eye, into those places where he finds inspiration.

Find out more about Robert on his website http://www.robertflyon.com/

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In Episode 62 of the Why Make Podcast we introduce the 1st in our Mind of a Maker series, a new part of the Why Make Podcast, with our guest Steve Fishman. Steve is a North Carolina printmaker and a painter in many mediums, as well as being skilled with pen and ink and the mighty pencil. He is also a teacher and someone who really knows how to think about the process of making art.

So journey back with me, Erik Wolken a little bit... to May of 2023. I'm thinking about how to put some new elements in the podcast and come up with the idea of trying to follow the thought process of an artist creating a specific piece of art. The name that came to me for that was Mind of a Maker, which I stole directly from the Anthony Bourdain PBS series Mind of a Chef

I was also thinking of this as a hybrid project, both a podcast and a short film, because of course after making one film I have mastered the medium. So the first thing I need is a guest/guinea pig to try out the idea, someone who will not mind if I waste their time and flail around. And that would be my good friend Steve Fishman, a willing victim, whom I've spent endless hours talking with about art and art making.

Steve had recently completed work on an exhibition of moon inspired paintings that were part of a much larger ongoing series. And as Steve and I are both fond of saying, "Bob's your uncle." I now had a willing subject and the perfect topic for my experiment.

So sit back and listen as Steve regales you with tales of painting the moon 🌙 🎨🌝