I recently attended and exhibited at Scottsdale Art Week, which was the third week in March. They had a lovely series of lectures, and one of them was with photographer Cara Romero. She's a terrific artist that I have in my personal collection.

The Phoenix Art Museum has a big show of her work on display through June 2026 called "Cara Romero: Panûpünüwügai (Living Light)." It's a terrific show and I have been up there twice since it opened. It's very well curated and it's an immersive experience.

In this lecture, Emilia Mickevicius, the Norton Family Assistant Curator of Photography at Phx Art, speaks with Cara about the exhibit and about the works in the First American Girl series, Indigenous Futurism series, and her most recent photographic works. They discuss the themes of survivance, activism and ecology, and how Cara weaves these into each and every photograph she takes.

Cara has her own gallery in Santa Fe and I highly recommend you go see that as well.  It was a wonderful lecture. I really enjoyed it and I'm glad I get to upload this talk. This is photographer Cara Romero and curator Emilia Mickevicius on the Art Dealer Diaries Podcast.

This podcast is a very interesting podcast, because we get to talk to Curt Walters about his retrospective exhibition "Curt Walters: Resilience" at Western Spirit: Scottsdale Museum of the West. We walk through the exhibit and hear about his life as he speaks on his magnificent landscape paintings. 

Curt was born in 1950 and he lived in Farmington, NM and this is where his artistic journey really begins. It was so interesting to do this walk-and-talk with Curt through the museum. To be able to see and speak with him and understand what he's done in life in front of some of his most monumental works of art.

I hope people come to see the show Western Spirit and I also hope you watch this on YouTube so you can really get the sense of what we were talking about. It's great as an audio-only experience, but there's something about actually seeing the paintings when he's describing them that is just wonderful.

Anyhow, I'm glad to have had the chance to record this and I hope you enjoy. This is master Grand Canyon painter Curt Walters on Art Dealer Diaries Podcast episode 388.

If you didn't get to come to our Thomas Blackshear opening and hear this lecture, well, you're in luck, because we recorded it and it was really a wonderful event. Basically, it was Thomas Blackshear and myself talking about the show "Neon Cowboy Posse, The Ten Most Wanted Plus One," and how the whole series began. Questions like, "what was the impetus to do it?" We talk about the characters that Thomas came up with, and how I wrote the short story styled after a pulp fiction magazine to accompany the show.

It's a very interesting lecture and i'm glad Thomas was so open to talking at my gallery. I really loved the fact that I got to be part of the creative process for the show. It's a rarity for art dealers. We usually get to come up maybe with an idea or the way we set things up, but to be actually part of the creative process was a real joy.

As an added bonus, at the beginning of the talk folk recording artist Eli Blackshear (Thomas's son) sang two songs for us. We included that in the podcast as well and are so glad to get to share his talent with our audience.

And so that's what this is all about. I hope you enjoy Thomas Blackshear, Eli Blackshear and myself on Art Dealer Diaries Podcast episode 387.

When you get to go to an artist's studio, it's literally a sacred place. That's just the best way I can describe it, because it's where creativity begins and ends and inspiration is found there, too. In this case, it was Thomas Blackshear II and his studio. 

To be able to see the things that made his career. Seeing the relics that he's held on to in addition to the WIP early stages of the show that is going to open here at Medicine Man Gallery on March 13, 2026. That second part was the main reason I was there. The show is called "Neon Cowboy Posse: The Ten Most Wanted Plus One" and I wanted to go to his studio to see how it was going. It's something we've been working on for almost two years and you get to see those early images of the pieces before they were completely finished.

This studio tour was done like six months ago. You also see his props, his library and an insight into other sides of his life, which are the figurines that he's very well known for. I'd recommend watching this on YouTube, because I think it'll have so much more impact to be able to visualize everything we discuss.

So this was a very special podcast because I'm in that inner sanctum and you get to be as well. This is Thomas Blackshear II on Art Dealer Diaries Podcast episode 386.

See the show online:
https://www.medicinemangallery.com/collections/march-6-2026

I had Jeremy Winborg on and what a wonderful person he is. I really enjoyed our talk. You know, he's just a classic artist in the sense that everything he's done in his life has been related to creating and making art.

It might be a genetic thing. His father, Larry C. Winborga, is a well-known illustrator and fine artists and his daughter Swede Winborg is an up-and-comer on the Western Art scene. 

We had this discussion about how all of that  affected his journey and how hard he still has to work on this journey. I mean, he really didn't hit his stride until he's in his late 30s and he's 46 now. So it's not one of these things where you you feel like, oh, he's just an overnight success. But was he actually? The answer is no. 

Being an artist is a very difficult journey. Jeremy typifies that journey and we talk about that. So he's just a lovely guy. Jeremy Winborg on Art Dealer Diaries Podcast episode 385.

This episode of the podcast is a recording of the lecture that Billy Schenck gave to collectors and friends at the Maynard Dixon and Native American Art Museum in early February 2026. The lecture centered around Schenck's prints and the many types of works he's reproduced over the past 55 years. Billy also discusses his iconic career, going into depth about his contemporaries and how he has been influenced by the ever changing cast of artists in his life. 

The lecture serves as the end point in a trilogy of podcasts filmed over the last 3 years. These three episodes of the podcast revolved his hugely successful 55-Year Retrospective exhibit and sale that opened at Medicine Man Gallery in Tucson, AZ on February 6th, 2026.

Billy Schenck is a pioneer in the pop-western art movement and we are extremely grateful to have hosted such an important show. His work is on display in dozens of museums across the country, and will someday be housed in his own museum near Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

This lecture was not only educational, but very entertaining and I'm glad we were able to record it. This is Billy Schenck on Art Dealer Diaries Podcast episode 384.

I had artistic polymath Joel Oppenheimer on the podcast today who has recently retired from being an art dealer. He was the former president of Oppenheimer Gallery in Chicago, IL with his son David officially taking over last year. 

It's a wonderful gallery. There are many different components to Oppenheimer Gallery. One of them is art conservation, which is how I've gotten to know Joel over the years. Hands down the best paper conservator I've ever had the pleasure of working with. 

They also have a renowned art printing component. They make and sell prints of the works of ornithological artist J.J. Audubon. In fact, much like how I am known for my expertise on the artist Maynard Dixon, Joel is most likely the world's leading expert on Audubon and his prints. He's done a couple of different books on Audubon that showcase his knowledge as well as his commitment to achieving the highest quality reproductions possible.

Anyhow, it was a long podcast, we talked for almost two hours, but it was very, very interesting. His life is definitely unique and he's a very wise individual.

He's also an artist. Joel basically started as fine artist and navigated through the art world from expertise to expertise, and now with retirement, he's going back to his original love, painting and pastels. 

So this was very unique story of a very successful art dealer and I had a great time. This is Joel Oppenheimer part two.

I had artistic polymath Joel Oppenheimer on the podcast today who has recently retired from being an art dealer. He was the former president of Oppenheimer Gallery in Chicago, IL with his son David officially taking over last year. 

It's a wonderful gallery. There are many different components to Oppenheimer Gallery. One of them is art conservation, which is how I've gotten to know Joel over the years. Hands down the best paper conservator I've ever had the pleasure of working with. 

They also have a renowned art printing component. They make and sell prints of the works of ornithological artist J.J. Audubon. In fact, much like how I am known for my expertise on the artist Maynard Dixon, Joel is most likely the world's leading expert on Audubon and his prints. He's done a couple of different books on Audubon that showcase his knowledge as well as his commitment to achieving the highest quality reproductions possible.

Anyhow, it was a long podcast, we talked for almost two hours, but it was very, very interesting. His life is definitely unique and he's a very wise individual.

He's also an artist. Joel basically started as fine artist and navigated through the art world from expertise to expertise, and now with retirement, he's going back to his original love, painting and pastels. 

So this was very unique story of a very successful art dealer and I had a great time. This is Joel Oppenheimer part one.

So Billy Schenck and I have been working on a two year project. It's a retrospective, a 55-year retrospective, and we did a catalog. This podcast was filmed a year ago at Billy's studio where we talked about this project at length.

Now, you get to actually see what we've been working on. To put all this effort in and to get to see them all together is exceptionally gratifying. I'm sure it's gratifying for Bill because this is a big deal, but it's a big deal for me too. 

On top of all of his important works that make up the museum show, Billy has has been putting away new works for two years for this show.  Large format photographic prints that have never been shown before, as well as some of his caption pieces and a beautiful group of his landscapes.

It was quite interesting to try to set this up because we're looking at his life's work (his serigraphs and foundational paintings) in combination with the result of a life of working on art (his newest body of work). The museum show has a good portion of his serigraphs paired with his early paintings. Trying to figure out that balance from a curatorial standpoint was an interesting experience.

If you're listening to the podcast, go to YouTube, go check out the show, not only the gallery show, but the museum show. We have included a preview of the show in this version of episode 377 of the Art Dealer Diaries Podcast. 

So this podcast that you're listening to is the culmination of all the work that we did over the last two years to get to this point. It was an exercise in storytelling, telling the Billy Schenck story, and I think we've done a beautiful job of it. 

I had a podcast today with Erika Victor, who's this just unique individual who I had originally met at the Far West show in Austin, Texas. I had followed her on her Instagram because I liked her work. I just thought it was very unique. It has a sensibility that's different from most other people, and that's what I'm looking for in an artist. 

Erika came by my gallery in Tucson to record this episode and I had no idea that by the end of the podcast I'd be showing her work. I truly didn't expect to have that happen. After seeing her work in person, getting to speak to her for an extended period of time, all of that really solidified my idea that this is a person that has what it takes to succeed as an artist and is committed to her craft. 

She's from Kansas, and she got her degree in photography, but nowadays she teaches art in Zuni, New Mexico. Not everybody can make the transition to a place like Zuni. It's beautiful, I love the place and the people, but it's very isolated. Erika moved there for her job, but picked Zuni specifically over a handful of other options because of the landscape (something she absolutely loves to paint). She loves painting people too and her paintings of Native American people exhibit a contemporary approach to a classic western art theme.

Anyhow, I enjoyed this podcast a great deal and I hope you like this podcast as much as I did. This is our newest represented artist as of January 2026, Erika Victor.

View available works by Erika Victor here: https://www.medicinemangallery.com/collections/victor-erika