Artist Decoded by Yoshino

Mia Bergeron's Bio

Mia Bergeron is a classically trained oil painter that uses modern techniques and concepts to create layered imaginative works. Imagery in her work often oscillates between the fictitious and the observed in equal parts. Rooted in her upbringing in New York City with continuous exposure to modern art, her paintings also reveal her choice to study classical painting in Florence, Italy under Charles H. Cecil in her twenties. Heavily influenced by historical artists such as Diego Velázquez, Titian, Anthony van Dyck, and John Singer Sargent, her paintings are also shaped by contemporary artists such as Alex Kanevsky, Ann Gale, and Adrian Ghenie. For Mia, the process of making paintings is similar to meditation. Each painting is the listening and contemplating of the surrounding world. The minutes at the easel are similar to focusing on the breath- there are times when the scrutiny is welcomed and quiet, and other times when the mind is loud and unintelligible. It is this dynamic contrast that is at the center of Mia's paintings. This dualistic nature of life is what pushes and inspires her work. Mia has been published numerous times in international magazines. Her painting "Tranquil Ghosts" was the cover image for the January 2022 Issue of American Art Collector Magazine. She continues to teach throughout the United States and Europe. She and her husband, artist John McLeod, lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

John McLeod's Bio

Living and working in Chattanooga, Tennessee, John McLeod graduated from Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi in 2001. His earliest influences come from studying ancient Mesoamerican and Egyptian sculpture and imagery. John works with a wide range of materials and methods to explore emotional experiences, communicate beliefs in visual terms, create enigmatic situations, or simply to share beauty, pain, or both. Featured in Beautiful Bizarre and American Art Collector magazines, his work is collected internationally. John is currently represented at Abend Gallery. Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• How Mia and John originally met
• Their experiences living in Chattanooga, Tennessee
• Their newest duo show "Totems and Vessels" @ Robert Lange Studios in Charleston, South Carolina
• Mia and John describing each of their processes
• Cultivating a solid relationship
• Creating a work/life balance in their lives
• How John sees the confluence between all of his vast interests and hobbies
• Finding a meditation practice through physical activities
• The joy that comes from having multiple creative outlets
• The anxiety of constant self-improvement
• Meditative qualities and subject matter within Mia's work
• Understanding the technical aspects of a painting in order to express more personal ideas

Books Mentioned:

• "The Year of Magical Thinking" by Joan Didion

artistdecoded.com miabergeron.com johnmcleodart.com robertlangestudios.com/shows/totems-and-vessels

Riley Stearns grew up in Pflugerville, TX, a suburb of Austin. His feature debut FAULTS premiered at SXSW in 2014 and went on to play festivals around the world. THE ART OF SELF-DEFENSE, his second feature, also premiered at SXSW in 2017. The film was released by Bleecker Street domestically and Universal Pictures internationally. DUAL is Stearns' third feature as writer/director and first as a producer. When not making films you can find Stearns on the mats training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• Riley's origin story
• Riley's first memories of growing up
• The memory retention of "highly sensitive people"
• Riley's past life as a musician
• How Riley started writing short films and feature films
• Riley initially finding his voice through mimicking other people's writing styles
• When Saman and Riley met at SXSW in 2013
• Where the initial idea of Dual came from
• How Riley creates the tone in his films
• Riley's time working as a staff writer for TV shows
• Riley speaks about legacy
• Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
• Logistics for getting films made

Artists Mentioned:

• Aaron Paul (Actor)
• Karen Gillan (Actor)
• Jim Jarmusch (Director)
• Yorgos Lanthimos (Director)
• Aaron Stewart-Ahn (Filmmaker)
• Jack Nicholson (Actor)

Watch the video version of the podcast here

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Saman Kesh (born Saman Keshavarz) is an Iranian-American filmmaker based in Los Angeles, California. He is known for his narrative music video work for notable artists such as Basement Jaxx, Calvin Harris, Kygo, Placebo, !!! Chk Chk Chk, Vitalic, Apparat and Porter Robinson. Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• Living and being isolated in the desert
• The Definite Chief Aim - a concept by Napolean Hill through way of Mitch Horowitz
• Grieving the death of his girlfriend Jean Guo
• Gaining momentum through commercial success
• Understanding purpose
• Working through failures
• Accepting ourselves
• Being magick
• Balancing out the need for control
• Changing negative perspectives
• "Hollywood has this ability to arrest you in this psychosis of delusions" - Saman Kesh
• The gift of an existential crisis
• Power in analyzing dreams
• Functioning under depression
• Saman's "Zoom" call analogy
• Martial arts

Books Referenced:

• "Fierce Intimacy: Standing Up to One Another with Love" by Terry Real

Artists Mentioned:

• The Daniels (Directing Duo)
• Martin Scorsese (Director)
• Jonah Hill (Actor)
• Joyce Carol Oates (Writer)

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Mitch Horowitz is a historian of alternative spirituality and one of today's most literate voices of esoterica, mysticism, and the occult. Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• Explaining his new book Cosmic Habit Force
• Exploring the psychology of mediocrity
• Harnessing honest self-expression and creativity
• Asking oneself with brutal honesty, "What do I really want from life?"
• Breaking through social conditioning
• The Miracle of a Definite Chief Aim
• Concentration producing force
• Gaining perspective on personal "failures"
• Taoism
• Paradoxical events in one's life
• Mitch gives a personal example of how a perceived failure turned into a blessing in disguise
• Rediscovering himself as a writer in his late 30s after working in publishing
• Writing his first book, "Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation"
• 2 famous definite chief aims from Octavia E. Butler and Bruce Lee
• The power of focused aims
• Healthily dealing with fear and trauma
• The law of reciprocity
• The power of the mastermind

Books Referenced:

• "Cosmic Habit Force" by Mitch Horowitz
• "Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation" by Mitch Horowitz
• "The Miracle of a Definite Chief Aim" By Mitch Horowitz
• "No Longer Human" by Junji Ito x Osamu Dazai
• "The Inner Game of Tennis" by Timothy Gallwey
• "Non-Violent Communication" by Marshall Rosenberg
• "Think and Grow Rich" by Napolean Hill

People Mentioned:

• David Foster Wallace (Writer)
• Jacob Needleman (Philosopher)
• Barry Zito (Professional Baseball Player)
• Neville Goddard (Writer)
• Octavia E Butler (Writer)
• Bruce Lee (Actor and Martial Artist)
• Napolean Hill (Writer)

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Rina Yang is a director of photography based in London. She grew up in a small city in Japan, where she studied still life and portrait painting. She has been selected for the BAFTA Breakthrough 2020, and she is also the first female DOP ever to win a cinematography award at the British Arrows, as well as being nominated for the best cinematographer in fiction at the BAFTA Cymru Awards 19', making history in both commercials and narrative categories. Her recent narrative projects include NANNY (Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner), Euphoria (HBO/A24), and her upcoming feature with MGM Studios, entitled 'Flint Strong'. Topics Discussed:

• Rina's outlook creating goals for herself
• Rina's creative stamina
• Taking breaks between shoots
• How she structures her time
• The differences between shooting a feature film, music video, and a commercial
• How she started cinematography
• Her experiences growing up in Japan then moving to London
• Working hard at a very young age
• Getting accepted into university by creating a short film about an older man's running journey
• Technique vs. intuition
• Building technical knowledge as a cinematographer
• The importance of communicating to your crew as a DP
• Existential realizations spurred by the pandemic
• Personal values
• Her journey into becoming a successful cinematographer
• How her childhood affected her outlook on work
• The occasional lonely reality of being a working cinematographer
• Exploring purpose
• The feeling of being an underdog
• Creative longevity
• The importance of exposure and PR
• Being patient in cultivating skills in any artistic medium
• Giving up too soon

Projects Discussed That Rina Has Worked On:

• Nanny (Directed by Nikyatu Jusu)
• Euphoria
• Flint Strong (Directed by Rachel Morrison; Written by Barry Jenkins)

Books Referenced:

• "The Miracle of a Definite Chief Aim" by Mitch Horowitz
• "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" by Haruki Murakami

Movies Referenced:

• Tokyo Sonata (Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

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April Maxey was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, and is currently based in Los Angeles. She was 1 of 8 Directors chosen to be a part of AFI's Directing Workshop for Women, where she made her short film Work, which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. April was recently selected for AWD's Directing the Actor Lab. She is also an alumna of the prestigious Berlinale Talents Short Film Station. Her drama pilot screenplay for Work was a top 5 finalist in the New Orleans Film Festival Screenplay Competition. Her previous short film, After You Left, won the Shorts Jury Prize at the Milwaukee Film Festival and has screened at Academy and BAFTA-Qualifying festivals such as Palm Springs Int'l Shortfest, Flickerfest, HollyShorts, and Outfest Fusion. April's short films have collectively screened at over 60 festivals across 14 countries and won 8 awards internationally, such as the 100Autori Award for Best Screenplay at the Sicilia Queer Film Fest in Italy, and Best International Narrative Short at Kashish Mumbai Queer Film Festival in India for her 2012 short Polaroid Girl. April was also a guest writer/director on the lesbian web series Same Same, and her episodes premiered at Newfest in 2016. April's directing approach is informed by her background in working as a cinematographer, editor, and actor. She is most interested in working on stories that center on underrepresented perspectives that challenge the mainstream. She holds a BFA from Pratt Institute in Film/Video.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• Destigmatizing sex work and sex workers
• Shame culture
• Her short film that premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival entitled "Work"
• Challenging the traditional patriarchal lens
• Writer Amy Tan's Masterclass
• Following one's own creative sensibilities
• Her writing process
• April's experiences working with AFI's Directing Workshop for Women
• Underground lap dance parties in New York
• "Election" a 1999 film by director Alexander Payne
• "2030: How Today's Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything" a book by Mauro F. Guillén
• April's advice to her younger self
• The Nostalgia Bone on the Throughline podcast

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Curious & creative mind working at the intersection of art, blockchain, and Web3. Founder and CEO of Vertical Crypto Art - a web3 native studio & artist-first community dedicated to NFTs, crypto art, and elevating web3 culture in the metaverse. Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• Micol working with creators in the tech industry at Facebook and Instagram
• Artists living off of making art and tokenizing work
• The origins of her platform, Vertical Crypto Art
• Helping artists navigate the new territories within the NFT world
• The online artist residency component of Vertical Crypto Art, which consists of a WEB 3.0 educational program
• Sustainability within the NFT space
• Artists creating art through coding, smart contracts, and the blockchain
• The work that she's doing in collaboration with Tezos
• Hic Et Nunc
• Frieze LA (Feb 17th - Feb 20th, 2022)
• Tezos vs. Ethereum
• Versum NFT Platform
• The importance of properly displaying digital artworks

Artists Mentioned:

• Sarah Zucker
• Kevin Abosh
• Sarah Meyohas (Founder of BitchCoin)
• Mitchell Dan
• Simon Danny
• Rhea Myers
• Sol LeWitt
• Lucas Aguirre
• Marjan Moghaddam
• Manolo Gamboa Naon

artistdecoded.com verticalcrypto.art twitter.com/verticalcrypto twitter.com/JesseDraxler

Shantell Martin is one of today's most groundbreaking multimedia artists. Known for her ongoing exploration of the vast potential of the spontaneous hand-drawn lines, below the surface of her signature black and white drawing is an exploration of the reciprocal relationship between artist and viewer, in which a work of art is more than an object of admiration. Exploring themes such as intersectionality, identity, and play, Shantell is a cultural facilitator, forging new connections between fine art, education, design, philosophy, and technology.

Simultaneously with her work as a fine artist, exhibiting at institutions such as Albright-Knox, the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, and MoMa, Shantell's practice continuously pushes the boundaries of creative expression through thoughtful, innovative collaborations with artists, brands, and cultural institutions such as Pulitzer Prize-winning performance artist Kendrick Lamar, acclaimed designer Kelly Wearstler, the New York City Ballet, Tiffany & Co., and Nike. Shantell is also fascinated with the relationships between storytelling, visual art, and technology. She is an adjunct professor at NYU Tisch ITP (Interactive Telecommunications Program) and completed a two-year tenure at an MIT Media Lab as a visiting Scholar, where she worked with the social computing group to use drawing as a medium to explore the interaction of social processes with physical spaces.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• Tapping into child-like sensibilities as an adult
• Moving from darkness into light
• Creating artwork with a "good intention"
• "What if we asked all children, who are you at the core, instead of what do you want to be?" - Shantell Martin
• Letting go of societal baggage in order to create our own way
• Creating purpose
• Spontaneously creating artwork
• Drawing and how it can have an impact on one's mental health
• Physically drawing vs. drawing digitally
• Expressing one's self through various mediums, not being restricted by a single medium
• "Kites"by Martin with the Boston Ballet, ChoreograpHER
• "The Importance of Conversation" by Martin, an NFT Project in collaboration with Nifty Gateway
• "You are where you are meant to be", Martin's personal affirmation to herself
• "Does progress really exist, or is it the scenery that changes?" - Shantell Martin
• Having existential thoughts
• The power of making and sharing
• Finding herself when she moved to Japan from the UK in the early 2000s
• "There's a freedom in being lost in the sense that you get to discover and find yourself." - Shantell Martin
• The perspective of success and failure in Taoism

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Stephanie E. Hanes was born in Alberta, Canada in 1985. In 2009 they received a BFA from The Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University in Halifax, Canada. Hanes is a recent MFA Graduate of Ceramics at the Rhode Island School Of Design in 2017 and received the prestigious Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship for a graduate student with exceptional promise. Stephanie was one of the artists awarded the 2020 NCECA Emerging Artist Prize. In addition, they have exhibited Internationally with a solo show at C.R.E.T.A Rome Gallery in Italy and several group shows at Lefebvre et Fils Gallery in Paris, France. Their ceramic sculptures have been exhibited throughout the USA in New York City, Providence, Seattle, Portland, and Los Angeles. Hanes is a full-time lecturer in 3D4M at the University of Washington in Seattle, where they teach sculpture and ceramics.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• The male gaze vs the female gaze
• The art of turning the internal world into external objects
• Female bodies always changing to suit the patriarchal norms of the time
• Using the techniques of "chiaroscuro" and "englaze luster" in their sculptures
• Their research into queer and feminist theories
• Identity and gender expression
• Pansexuality
• Grappling with pain and suffering
• "À Priori" and "À Posteriori"
• Immanuel Kant's writing on metaphysics
• Semiotics
• Following false prophets in our patriarchal society
• Their residency in Rome in 2014 where they started creating ceramic sculptures and where they created their body of work entitled, "Into The Looking Glass" @ C.R.E.T.A. Rome.
• The Medusa in symbolizm
• The extinguishing of female powers by the patriarchy
• Their decision into why they decided to get an MFA
• Teaching her university students about gender, equality, and diversity
• Making ideas palatable in art
• "Find a way to make work no matter what"

Authors and Book Recommendations:

• Bell Hooks
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• "Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto" by Legacy Russell
• "A Cyborg Manifesto" by Donna J. Haraway

Artists Mentioned:

• Carolee Schneemann
• Theaster Gates
• Simone Leigh
• Katy Schimert

Films and Documentaries Mentioned:

• Promising Young Woman (2020)
• Feminists: What Were They Thinking (2018)
• This Changes Everything (2018)

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Shari Frilot is a filmmaker who has produced television for the CBS affiliate in Boston and for WNYC and WNET in New York before creating her own independent award-winning films, including Strange & Charmed, A Cosmic Demonstration of Sexuality, What Is A Line?, and the feature documentary, Black Nations / Queer Nations? She is the recipient of multiple grants, including the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Media Arts Foundation. She is presently working on a feature film project about the crisis in water supply with producer Effie Brown's production company, Duly Noted Inc. In tandem with filmmaking, Shari also maintains a career in festival programming, occupying a distinguished position on the curatorial vanguard through her pioneering development of immersive cinematic environments. As the Festival Director of the MIX Festival in New York (1992-1996) she co-founded the first gay Latin American film festivals, MIX BRASIL and MIX MEXICO film festivals. As Co-Director of Programming for OUTFEST (1998-2001), she founded the Platinum section which introduced cinematic performance installation and performance to the festival. She is presently in her 22nd year as a Senior Programmer for the Sundance Film Festival. She is the curator and driving creative force behind New Frontier, an exhibition and commissioning initiative that focuses on cinematic work being created at the intersections of art, film, and new media technology. New Frontier 2022 Projects Discussed:

• "On The Morning You Wake (To The End of The World)" by Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, Mike Brett, Steve Jamison, Arnaud Colinart, and Pierre Zandrowicz
• "The State of Global Peace" by Daanish Masood Alavi
• "Gondwana" by Ben Joseph Andrews and Emma Roberts
• "Suga" by Valencia James
• "The Inside World" by Jennifer and Kevin McCoy
• "Web 3.0 / NFT Meetups" by Amelia Winger-Bearskin and Jesse Damiani
• "32 Sounds" by Sam Green
• "Seven Grams" by Karim Ben Khelifa

Other Topics Discussed:

• Transhumanism
• Identity
• Futurism
• "Notes on Blindness - Into Darkness" @ New Frontier 2016
• The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima, Japan
• Projects on climate and social change
• NFTs and Web 3.0
• Handling hardship and pain
• Finding vitality in community
• Finding reasons to be optimistic
• Conscious and positive use cases for technology
• Systemic issues artists face in the US
• Building the immersive experience of Sundance's spaceship through XR and VR with the creative studio Active Theory

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