Artist Decoded by Yoshino

Artist Decoded is a weekly podcast hosted by Yoshino.

Join us as we dive into the habits, mindsets, and inner workings of some of today's greatest artists and creative thinkers.

Trailer Credits (in order of appearance):

• Adam Hall
• Kate Zambrano
• Densil McFarlane @ The OBGMs
• Kris Esfandiari (King Woman)
• William von Hippel, Ph.D. (The Social Leap)

Yoshino is a visual artist, writer, entrepreneur, and host of Artist Decoded. Show Notes:

• The power of introspection and self-analysis
• The pitfalls of following false prophets
• "Getting lost in the forest"
• Seeking answers
• Pantheism
• Art as a communication mechanism
• Critical thinking
• "You and you alone hold the answers to your questions."

Yoshino's Links: yoshinostudios.com nohwave.co instagram.com/yoshinostudios twitter.com/yoshinostudios

Yoshino is a visual artist, writer, entrepreneur, and host of Artist Decoded. Show Notes:

• Identity and persona
• Leaving the commercial and fashion photography world
• Martial arts
• Exploring the idea of what it means to be an artist
• Living a life of fluidity
• Capitalism
• Growing up Christian
• Spirituality
• Moving to the desert from LA

The Conversation Art Podcast Links: iTunes SpotifyMichael Shaw's IG The Conversation's IG Yoshino's Links: yoshinostudios.com nohwave.co

Fashion and advertising photographer from Singapore turned 3D virtual model creator, Shavonne Wong creates artworks with her virtual models that juxtapose realism and surrealism together, placing the virtual models in scenes that cannot be done with a real human model. She is part of the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list in 2020 and has recently done an NFT for the first-ever NFT cover of Vogue.

Show Notes:

• Shavonne's past fashion photography career
• Romanticizing the struggling artist lifestyle
• Stereotypes and the importance of art
• 3D modeling and the transition into the NFT space
• The social implications of virtual influencers
• Shavonne's NFT charity work
• The future of NFTs
• The negative aspects of NFT's & the blockchain
• Criticism and feedback
• Krav Maga

www.artistdecoded.com www.shavonnewong.com www.instagram.com/shavonne.wong www.twitter.com/shavonnewong_

Sarah Zucker is an artist + writer based in Los Angeles. Her art merges the gorgeous and grotesque through humor, psychedelia, mysticism, and the interplay of cutting edge + obsolete technologies. She works across mediums, specializing in mixing digital and analog video techniques and the use of VHS. Her GIF art has been viewed over 6.7 billion times on Giphy. She has been involved in Crypto Art since early 2019, tokenizing single and limited editions of her screen-based artwork on the blockchain. Her NFTs – digital art editions – can currently be found on SuperRare, NiftyGateway, Foundation, KnownOrigin, Hic Et Nunc, and Rarible. She holds a BA in Theater/Creative Writing for the Media from Northwestern, and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU.

Show Notes:

• Sarah's childhood and developing interest
• NFTs and Crypto Art
• "Wrestling your angels"
• Struggling as an artist
• The call to be an artist
• Theosophy
• Humanitarian contributions in the NFT space
• Identity
• Changing the world
• Dancing with the abyss
• Exploring the concept of suffering
• The societal expectation of immediate rewards

www.sarahzucker.com www.instagram.com/thesarahshow www.twitter.com/thesarahshow

CJ Hendry (b. 1988) is a New York-based artist originally from Brisbane, Australia. Hendry transforms her fascination with contemporary material culture into large-scale, hyper-photorealistic drawings. Cj Hendry's exhibits aren't intended to be passively observed but, rather, actively experienced through engaging, fun, and thought-provoking exhibits. For her exhibit Monochrome, Hendry and her team built an entire multi-room "home" inside a warehouse with each room entirely monochrome-colored from floor to ceiling and everything in between. For Rorschach, guests jumped through a gigantic bouncy house maze in order to reach and finally view the impressive series. Each Cj Hendry exhibit, from Miami to Melbourne, draws massive crowds with attendees waiting in line for several hours - and, in the end, everyone leaves more enriched than when they arrived. With her celebrity clientele – and many works in private collections - Hendry's waitlist is now well over 3,000 collectors with a wait time of up to five years to get their hands on a piece.

• Cj's NFT Release
• Stoicism and being a creative
• Her experiences creating art exhibitions
• The book "Atomic Habits" by author James Clear
• Quality vs. quantity
• Hard work vs. natural ability
• The importance of creating ideas
• Cj's latest exhibition, "Blonde"
• The social implications of wigs
• Creative problem solving / life struggles
• Parenting

www.artistdecoded.com www.cjhendry.live www.instagram.com/cj_hendry

Alice Brooks (ASC) is a cinematographer who has photographed award-winning feature films, television shows, and commercials. Her next feature project is director Jon M. Chu's adaptation of the hit musical WICKED. Brooks most recently photographed tick tick…BOOM! for Netflix and Imagine Entertainment, directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda and produced by Ron Howard. Her other recent work includes the 2021 summer release of Miranda's IN THE HEIGHTS directed by Chu. The film's cinematography received widespread critical acclaim. Brooks is a graduate of the USC School of Cinematic Arts and is a member of the International Cinematographers Guild, Local 600. She became a member of the prestigious American Society of Cinematographers in Oct. 2021. Show Notes:

• Alice's start in cinematography
• Her childhood & the inspiration behind the film, "tick, tick... BOOM!"
• Collaborating with director and long time friend, John Chu
• Having a "Definite Chief Aim"
• The gift of an existential crisis
• The ebbs and flows of the film industry and working as a creative
• Alice being one of 30 women to be accepted into the ASC
• Finding creative kindred spirits
• Following your dreams
• Self-preservation

www.artistdecoded.com www.alicebrooks.com www.instagram.com/_alicebrooks_

Mitch Horowitz is a historian of alternative spirituality and one of today's most literate voices of esoterica, mysticism, and the occult. Mitch is a writer-in-residence at the New York Public Library, lecturer-in-residence at the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles, and the PEN Award-winning author of books including Occult America; One Simple Idea: How Positive Thinking Reshaped Modern Life; and The Miracle Club.

Show Notes:

• The power of masterminds
• The New Thought Movement
• Napoleon Hill and Neville Goddard's teachings
• Writing and the habits of writing
• Using different platforms to test material
• The myth of the self-made person
• The significance of the word, "Miracle"
• Book recommendations on the creative process
• Mitch's writing process

www.artistdecoded.com www.mitchhorowitz.com www.twitter.com/mitchhorowitz www.instagram.com/mitchhorowitz23

Skygolpe interviewed by Jesse Draxler

The essential figures that emerge from Skygolpe's research have an openly disruptive immediacy and impact. His work represents the artist's tension towards the definition of a clear idea and a path outlined towards direct introspection. Skygolpe explores the NFT medium in a unique and original way. His single digital editions are sought after by major collectors and demonstrate how works created with a strong meaning and a defined concept can have a lasting place in the new world of digital collecting.

Show Notes:

• Skygolpe's intro into art
• Art contradicting itself
• Catastrophe, existentialism, and nihilism
• The denial of the divinity
• Objective truth
• Skygolpe's distinct aesthetic
• The power of conceptual art
• Inspiration
• Memories, traumatic experiences, and their overflow into Jesse's artwork
• "Destroying the Belief"
• Skygolope's NFT work
• The history of digital art / Web 3.0

www.artistdecoded.com

www.superrare.com/skygolpe

www.instagram.com/skygolpe

www.twitter.com/skygolpe

After a high profile career designing, drawing and painting images for movie poster art in Hollywood — Return of the Jedi, Labyrinth, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom — Chris now feels driven to produce works which celebrate compelling stories of American perseverance — the Tuskegee Airmen, First Nations peoples of America's Pacific Northwest, and the Japanese Americans who were incarcerated during WWII.

It's been an unusual career path, to say the least. Chris was a star on the Southern Oregon College wrestling team when he dropped out in 1974 rather than bow to the inevitable pressure to become a high school wrestling coach. He loaded up his '68 sky blue Camaro and hit the road, picking up jobs from southern California to Montana and living out of his car. After he ran out of gas in Boise, Idaho, he settled there for a year and a half and worked as a bouncer at the Bronco Hut (the college bar where he met his wife), a lift operator at a ski resort, and as an utterly unqualified counselor at a home shelter for troubled boys. All the time he created art — drawing behind the bar, sculpting unflattering portraits of ski resort personnel, and carving the bar's Billy club into a more appealing shape. Chris' older brother convinced him he'd soon be too old for this bohemian, aimless lifestyle and that he might want to apply to the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. He put together a crude portfolio, submitted an application and remembers "it surprised the crap out of me when I was actually accepted". In the middle of the college program, Chris still hadn't figured out a painting system that he liked, so one weekend he locked himself in a room and refused to come out until he'd conquered it. In 1979, he graduated from Art Center with honors. A diploma from art school, so what next? Pouring and finishing concrete for foundations, walkways, driveways and most everything else that required concrete until he heard that legendary illustrators Charles White III and David Willardson were starting a studio and looking for young talent. Chris' persistence paid off and he was hired. After months of sketching he was finally assigned to paint the marquee art for The Mountain Men. Soon afterwards he discovered the airbrush and the whole process became fun, especially incorporating brushwork with airbrush techniques. He painted the clouds, skies, and water all from his Pacific Northwest childhood memories, and was known as The Sky King, a tribute to his unmatched ability to paint natural backgrounds After four years, Chris left Willardson and White ready for his next challenge — painting people. Yes, he learned to do that, too painting and drawing the comprehensive and finished poster and magazine promotional art for Return of the Jedi, Peggy Sue Got Married, Labyrinth, The Abyss, and who could forget the portrait of the studly Harrison Ford on the Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom theatrical advance poster art?

In 1988 he picked up his family and relocated to the state of Washington where he's once again tackled a new, but classic, technique. Now he's brush-painting stories of American perseverance. Show Notes:

• Chris's early job experiences
• Working for Charles White III and David Willardson
• Traveling as an artist for the Air Force
• Chris's revolutionary work with airbrushes
• Painting the Tuskegee Airmen and The Japanese Incarceration
• "Hidden Heroes: The Nisei Soldiers of WWII"
• Future exhibitions
• Resilience

www.artistdecoded.com

www.chrishopkinsart.com

www.instagram.com/chrishopkinsart