Joy and Teresa are goal-setters by nature, even when it comes to creativity. To close out the year, they take a look back at the 2025 goals they each set as creators and disclose whether they accomplished them. Before kicking off the main topic, though, Joy quizzes Teresa on her knowledge of terms-of-art. . .for art! In Rabbit Holes and Recommendations, Teresa discovers a hidden message in an old book left behind by someone in her past, and Joy talks about writing reviews for Nancy Drew books when she was a kid. A discussion of favorite 1980s movies has the two podcasters revealing very different tastes in the movies they loved growing up.

~Show Notes and Links~

Chiaroscuro

From Here to the Great Unknown

War Games

Pretty in Pink

How do two Artsy Types celebrate the holidays? With home cooking, homemade crafts and one very peculiar tradition involving 80s vinyl records. Joy and Teresa also count down their favorite holiday songs, finding themselves knee-deep in a difference of opinion about the Gen X holiday anthem, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” The two also share memories of their favorite TV Christmas specials from the 1980s and reminisce about an early form of co-branding involving Norelco razors.

~Show Links and References~

The Story Behind If We Make It Through December

The Dark Legacy of Do They Know It's Christmas

Top Rankin Bass Christmas Special Ranked

The Norelco Razor Commercials

Sometimes creators need more than the voice in their own head--they need a nudge from a friend. Joy and Teresa assign each other surprise creative challenges in this episode, laying out a path for listeners to try their own projects. Joy kicks off the episode reporting on her visit to Milan to see DaVinci’s Last Supper. Teresa recommends an Instagram rabbit hole where followers can see famous songs coming to life, and Joy is recommending a thousand-page novel about building a cathedral. The discussion ends with contemplation of why time passes differently at various ages and phases and a memory swap of being in high school the day of the Challenger accident.

~Show Links and References~

Leonardo's Last Supper Museum

Fresco Painting Method

@SongsBeingMade (Account on Instagram)

Ken Follett Talks About The Pillars of the Earth

The Pandemic Altered Our Perception of Time

Gen Xers wonder how the Space Shuttle Challenger tragedy would be handled by adults today

Whether or not to take commissions is a question every creator is faced with at some point. Joy and Teresa are talking pros and cons, logistics, and reliving a commission gone awry involving an airbrush and a Harley Davidson. Rabbit holes and recommendations is on a hiatus, and taking its place is a new segment, “The Last Thing I Wrote Down.” Joy is taken to task in real-time for gatekeeping Gen X culture, and Teresa laments not having any Garanimals in her closet as a kid.

~Show Links and References~

10 Questions to Ask Before Accepting an Art Commission

Art Commission Agreement

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, by Stephen King

A History of Garanimals

Divine inspiration, random occurrences, ideas born from dreams. . .what are we to make of creative ideas that come to us in unconventional ways? Joy and Teresa look at famous examples of great works of art born out of dreams, then attempt to gain an understanding of how the supernatural can impact creation. The exchange leads to a practical discussion of ways artists can quiet the logical part of their minds and allow creative flow to the forefront. In Rabbit Holes and Recommendations, Joy talks about Paul McCartney’s book, “The Lyrics,” and Teresa has been listening to Thom Yorke’s “Dawn Chorus.” In a rare podcast role reversal, Teresa is in charge of this week’s Gen X flashback segment, and dives into the lost art of album covers and memories of prog rock.

~Show Links & References~

Stream of Consciousness and Virginia Woolf

How the Experience of Awe Can Improve your Well-Being

Salvador Dalí’s Bizarre Napping Ritual May Tap Into a Hidden Power of the Brain

Best Album Cover Art of the 70s According to Reddit

Rick Wakeman's Myths and Legends of King Arthur Album Booklet

Daydreams, hidden ambitions and a never-before-shared passion project—Joy and Teresa are telling each other their secret goals for the first time. A coffee table book, a herd of cows and St. Sulpice all get laid bare in this swap of secrets. In Rabbit Holes and Recommendations, Teresa has discovered a mysterious cure for insomnia, and Joy has discovered a band that everybody else discovered 30 years ago. The episode ends with both artists reliving the day in high school that they were put on a bus and taken to motivational speaker, David Toma, to get scared straight. If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime!

~Show Links and References~

Nick Bantock's Griffin & Sabine

An Artist "Sketchbook Wandering" Wanders the St. Sulpice Neighborhood

Plein Air artists encountering cows

AI Generated ‘Boring History’ Videos are Flooding YouTube

"Is This It" Debut Album by The Strokes

1983 News Article about Speaker David Toma

From Sylvia Plath to Wayne Thiebaud, Joy and Teresa are talking about the creators who’ve inspired and influenced their work. Whether it’s Plath’s ability to impart “an impression of a feeling that you don’t know what to do with,” or Thiebaud’s colorful shadows, these old-school influencers are at the heart of an interesting discussion about early inspirations.

In Rabbit Holes and Recommendations, Teresa talks about the Symbolism Movement and her discovery of a haunting painting, while Joy recommends an under-the-radar Jack London book. The unlikely piece-de-resistance of the episode occurs when Joy closes the episode quizzing Teresa on 1980s alcoholic beverages, including the (thankfully) long-forgotten Hairy Buffalo.

~Show Links and References~

The Applicant by Sylvia Plath

The New Oxford Book of American Verse

Artist Wayne Thiebaud

Island of the Dead by Arnold Böcklin

Hairy Buffalo Drink Recipe

The History of Wine Coolers

Joy and Teresa are back at it, starting season two by workshopping four seemingly-eccentric journal entries (rodents seeking revenge, a strange golf tournament, big strawberries, pickups at the gym), determining which “is something” that could be transformed into a developed story. The twosome workshop the ideas, settling on a concept, sharing their creative process as the discussion moves along.

Teresa goes down a rabbit hole to explore Cabinets of Curiosities, and Joy raves about the André 3000 interview on Rick Rubin’s Tetragrammaton podcast.

The episode ends with Joy and Teresa sharing memories about the first time they each went on the internet and what web browsing was like for young GenX’ers, the last generation to know life without the internet.

~Show Links and References~

Meetup Website

Steven Pressfield: The Foolscap Method of Story Outlines

The Erewhon Viral Strawberry

Massimo Listri Cabinet of Curiosities

André 3000 Interview on Tetragrammaton

Gabocorp Website

The History of Netscape

In this highlights episode, Joy and Teresa bring back several of their most popular segments. Their discussion about what to do when you’re too busy for art struck a creative chord with listeners who shared their own hacks for making time for art after hearing this discussion. Teresa goes down the rabbit hole that is Elizabeth Siddal and Joy is dissecting the old-fashioned card game, cribbage. The two end by pondering one of life’s more perplexing questions: why are banana clips and Candie’s clogs back in style?

Joy and Teresa are on hiatus enjoying the final days of summer by taking a holiday in the South of France. Just kidding! Joy is getting kids back to college and Teresa is helping her mom move to a new house. In the meantime, they have carefully assembled a “bespoke” offering of their favorite segments from season one. From losing a limb to having a bunny mistaken for a gopher, they are opening up about the fears they each have as artists. They try to figure out how to write in the style of the Twilight Zone, discuss the hidden messages in flowers and recount the horrors of the President’s Physical Fitness Tests of their youth.