Austin Art Talk

"The way that I look at things, anything, even this big storm brewing outside, I feel like my eyes aren’t acknowledging it enough. I feel almost restless that I’m not able to look at it and be satisfied. I want to capture it again. I want to hold the moment again through my hand or a gesture of that big tree blowing in the wind. I want to recycle and feel it again but through my translation. Because I think this world is so gosh darn gorgeous and people are so interesting that it’s not enough just to look at them. I want to smell them and draw them and feel it again."

America Martin endeavors daily to capture this gorgeous and interesting world and the people in it with her art. She translates what she sees by holding and acknowledging the many moments and gestures of life through painting, drawing and sculpture. It’s not enough just to look. This translation then communicates to the viewer the world as she perceives it. Knowing at a young age that she wanted to be an artist she set about getting to work and has not stopped since. Her work ethic is solid and she is prolific in what she creates. Filled with hope and curiosity she she figures out how to do what she wants to do and is always looking for new perspectives.

She voraciously consumes literature, music, art, and people with a sense of just what little time we do have. What is there to learn and how could she change her perspective and look at things differently? Being curious and fascinated by the joyful bits of life and experimenting and doing more are motivation enough to keep going. The life of an artist can also be very solitary so time with family and friends, bringing people together, and checking out other artists work, is the counterbalance that then feeds back into her own work and passion.

This was a really enjoyable conversation recorded during an intense rain storm. America is a delightfully interesting artist who truly embodies that profession. Her passion and interest in the world and people is refreshing. And there is an appealing visual language in her work that I think taps into some kind of universal symbolism and iconography that is very appealing. Please enjoy the interview and if you come across this episode before May 26, 2018, please make a point to see her work at Wally Workman Gallery. Even after the show comes down her work will be available for viewing. Enjoy!

Artist beginnings

1202 West 6th Street

Open Tuesday - Saturday, 10am to 5pm.

Links:

• America Martin — Fine Artist

"What are the sensual takeaways from being in a place? When I think about how it feels to be lying in my backyard in the hammock watching the pecan trees it's not static images of green leaves. It's spectral light, it's rainbow light moving through. It has pink and it has orange and it has all of these colors."

Elizabeth Chiles creates photographic collages and complex composites with images she has taken of nature. Growing up her love of the outdoors and the openness of the big Texas sky lent itself to her eventual pursuit of the natural world as her primary subject. As a child each day was an eternity without rules, with time to explore and enjoy her shared suburban wilderness.

She found her innate calling to create art in college while studying art history and went on to study photography, video, performance, and book making in graduate school. During her years at school she also worked at many prestigious art galleries and gained a very useful education there as well. Since moving back to Austin after graduating she has continued to purse the same questions that have fascinated and motivated her from the beginning.

How do you communicate through images the quiet moments and slowness of life in a fraction of a second captured by a camera? How do you make work that is alive and true to what a moment in the world is like? She finds much joy in the making of the work and wants to contribute her own voice to the dialogue happening across time with artists past and present.

Her most recent project and current exhibition at grayDUCK Gallery is called WEAVE. Images of plants, tress, and clouds have been woven together with vivid colors that are based more on personal perception than any realistic rendering. They are sensual takeaways from being in a place, light moving through things, and experiments seeking to shift perspectives and move the viewer through the world in a very alive way. The whole project including the exhibit, poetry, performance, and workshops, is a conversation of lines of interaction, each being an individual consciousness, woven together with horizontal lines of metaphorical text and dialogue to create something stronger and more whole. A textile of reciprocity.

The breadth of Elizabeth’s knowledge of art, history, and photography is vast and we only just scratched the surface of what she could share. Hopefully there will be a part two at some point. Please enjoy the interview and if you come across this episode before May 20, 2018 please make a point to see her work at grayDUCK Gallery.

WEAVE

grayDUCK Gallery

Exhibition Dates: April 13th - May 20th, 2018

2213 E. Cesar Chavez

512-826-5334

[email protected]

grayduckgallery.com

Hours: Thur-Sat 11-6pm & Sun 12-5pm

Parking is located in the back of the building via the alley off of Mildred

Childhood in nature

Banner image by Elizabeth Chiles

Links:

• Elizabeth Chiles - website

"We all are photographers. Everybody will have their own excuses to take photos. But to me just being able to keep shooting I think it is already in my veins, in my mind, in my heart, in my soul."

Photographer Faustinus Deraet learns more about himself every time he clicks the button on his camera, captures an image, and makes a print. These images are windows into his subconscious (subconsciente) which end up revealing something deeper that needs to be expressed. He also uses photography as a journal of his life as he tries to be fully in every moment and find balance. The work he creates is initially only for himself and is for the pure joy of it. The universality of his images are not as much about a specific place but more a kind of language of relationship, reality, and of something deep in the soul.

What a fun and lighthearted conversation. Faustinus is such charming and humorous guy and his images really speak to me. We talk all about how he got started in photography and speak about his work, views on life, and his upcoming solo exhibit at the Dougherty Arts Center.

“Chilango Subconscious is a collection of street photography by Faustinus Deraet taken in Mexico City. Guided by the artist’s subconscious, chance encounters result in candid images that look closely at the urban environment.”

Chilango Subconscious

Dougherty Arts Center

May 11th - June 2nd, 2018

Artist Reception: May 11, 2018 6-8pm

Artist Talk: May 30th, 7 to 8pm

West Austin Studio Tour May 12-13 and 19-20, 11am to 6pm

DAC - Contact Info

1110 Barton Springs Rd. 
Austin, TX 78704

Open Hours:

Some of the subjects we discuss:

His previous career at IBM

Links:

• Faustinus Deraet : Photographer

"I am just grateful that people are finding this as an outlet to be able to say that this happened to them. As a way of walking through and finding some semblance of healing in it or using it as their very first outcry. There are people who have reached out to me who have never told anyone else……There is a true feeling of empowerment in doing this. It’s been so cathartic for me. Whether you are a survivor or not the one thing that I hope will happen is that it will make people talk."

The Pink Bow Project is an installation at Gallery Shoal Creek in Austin, Texas from April 13th to May 12th, 2018. Fifty two panels each with 1000 bows to approximately represent the substantiated cases of sexual abuse of females under the age of 18 each year in the US. The problem with that reported number is that it is likely very low when considering all of the factors that go into and work against each case first being shared, then believed, and lastly officially proven.

Every aspect of the installation has meaning and at first the beauty of it is disarming and it’s easy to be drawn in. But once in the middle of the panels you might feel constricted and unable to connect with others you see just on the other side of thousands of innocent pink bows. All of this and more is intended to communicate some of the feelings Karen Hawkins has had as an artist and survivor of sexual abuse.

Karen created the project to open up more conversations about sexual abuse, to help educate people, to create the opportunity for healing, and bear witness to those who are the victims of that abuse. It originated out of a space where she was really struggling to see how she fit in the world, was looking for more purpose, and also a desire to be a part of the national discourse about abuse. How could she add to the collective empowerment of the movement and keep it going it forward? Karen decided to use her story, creative energy, and voice, along with those of other women, in a potentially influential way to help bring this issue out of the shadows. If others can be vulnerable and come forward then so can she.

Karen started to explore being an artist later in life out of the necessity to stay sane once she had raised her children. She found sculpture very fulfilling as she moved towards expressing her creative side in a less domestic way. Art satisfied her soul and helped with anxiety and depression which dissipated the more she was creative and worked with her hands. But early on she still found it hard to own that she was an artist even though she was creating in a more powerful way along with journaling and therapy to help process her past traumas and struggles. After many years of hard work and with the help of many loving and supportive people that changed.

A lot of her art is based on books, which she has been enamored with since childhood. As an adult she still very much loves the form of the book, the feel of the paper, the smell of its history, and imagines the life it led and who possessed it. The process of turning a book into an object and manipulating its form for her is a repetitive, healing, and zen like practice and movement. It is the entire process she goes through that is the most satisfying, not just the final product. Her work is visually engaging and often has meaning beyond its atheistic form as is of course the case with The Pink Bow Project.

What a powerful and moving conversation this was for me. Karen’s vulnerability is so impressive and the fact that she created such an important installation to address a severely under-appreciated issue is commendable. The first half of the interview we speak about her art career and life and the second half we dig into the details of The Pink Bow Project. If you find this interview valuable please share it and further Karen’s mission to help educate and hopefully try to heal and prevent this all too common abuse perpetrated upon the women of the world. As she says in the interview we can no longer accept the status quo.

Seeking expression/sanity

Gallery Shoal Creek

April 13 - May 12, 2018

512-454-6671

Links:

• The Pink Bow Project

"If everyone that wants to make a difference, just started making and taking those steps to actually make a difference, then imagine the world we would live in. I think that doing good today is invaluable and we need it. Just do it. Just start. Just take the necessary steps to make it happen."

Like a Trojan horse some of her work presents itself as beautiful landscapes and arrangements of hand made rolled paper but when you look into the meaning of a piece you cant help but be introduced to and informed about the serious topics Jenn believes we should all take issue with, contemplate, and ultimately make action to change or improve. Defeating ignorance is the mission and intent.

Humble small town beginnings along with an unstable family life growing up contributed to her hard working ethic and leadership qualities. Luckily she also had some great mentors in her community. Soon after finishing high school she enlisted in the Air Force and fate took her to the UK where she worked as a dental technician. On her way to becoming a dentist in college after leaving the military she found art and switched her major. Her career and studio practice continue to evolve as she strives to address issues, work on commissions, and experiment with new directions and ways of expressing herself. And she is about to embark on a new chapter in her career by attending grad school in New York City.

You might or might not be able to tell in the interview that Jenn and I have been good friends and neighbors for many years. I think her work is really important and I'm very happy to see her expanding her world and future. No doubt she will keep up the hard work and be a voice for the issues that are not addressed and dealt with enough. All the best to her and her family on their new adventure. Have a listen and get involved if you can with anything that might be of service to others. You likely will not regret it.

Humble beginnings

Links:

• Jenn Hassin Studios - My Short Story

"People they are the cloth that protect me, that cover me. Without them, I’m nothing, I can't do anything. So they take me to this level. They should not leave me here. They should continue. Be behind me. Be forward. Be at the back. Be at the side. And I will also do my best and continue to be there and be contributing to this world we are living."

It was not until he thought his career as a pharmacist was set and he was a role model to his family and community that he found his true calling. He chose to start over and study art, a tough choice that lost him the support of a lot of his family for quite some time. But he loves challenges and hard work and after many years was able to prove to himself and his family in Nigeria that it was a worthwhile pursuit and now he is reaping many blessings from that choice. And his study and work as a scientist still plays a part in the adding and subtracting and experimentation that is involved in creating new works.

How do you create an artwork or a performance that will stop someone in their tracks and make them forget where they are for a memorable moment? Engaging and getting the audience involved is important, as is creating a discussion. So is collaboration which allows anyone to be a part of the creation, inspiring them to be much more connected to the work and its life and fate. By approaching art in a humble way and by traveling and exposing himself to different places and ways of doing things all over the world he developed his style and motivation to be a part of making the world a better place to live for everyone. If we find ourselves in a privileged position we can use that to help others.

When I think about Akirash and especially when I see him I get the biggest smile on my face. There is a lot of joy in him that is infectious. He also has a lot of life experience and wisdom that I was excited to talk with him about. This was a great interview for me and those of us who are in Austin are fortunate to have such an artist in our midst. He is someone who enjoys challenging himself and the rest of us to be better and make a difference. His example inspires me to explore my limits, ask questions, and not play it so safe all of the time.

Origin of his name

Links:

• ARTWITHAKIRASH | Olaniyi R. Akindiya | Multimedia Artist | PERFORMANCE

"Within our festival there’s space for really different kinds of expression of art, and some of those are perhaps harder immediately to relate to. But we’re holding space for those artists to challenge things, to experiment, to tinker. To help us as people, as artists, think about things in new ways, and give us things to chew on. I love things that have mystery to them, that I don’t understand."

Beyond the event itself the intention of Fusebox is to take something typically ephemeral, and keep it alive in relation to the city of Austin year round. The arts are not separate from life and as the city grows and changes how can he and his team play a role in keeping the dialogue about housing, space for artists, and other issues, moving forward and allow for community engagement, inclusivity, and thinking about solutions while staying in tune with the rhythm of the neighborhoods they aim to serve.

Ron’s leadership style allows for and encourages contributions from others and is driven by curiosity, a desire to learn and grow, and the use of doubt as an impetus to crack things open and find new answers. Over the last 14 years, since the festival started, Ron had traveled all over the world, has experienced 100’s of performances, and has built a vast network of artists, curators, organizations, and collaborators to work with. Even though the line between his personal and professional life is blurry he finds much inspiration and is fed artistically as the festivals Executive & Artistic Director.

Ron is such a generous and wonderful guy and our conversation was really fun for me. It’s hard not to be excited and inspired by what he and his team are doing every year. If you have ever attended the festival you know how fantastic it can be. Not to say that it is easy to relate to all of the work and that some of it will not challenge you in new ways, but if you are open to it the rewards can be very memorable and thought provoking.

Some of the subjects we discuss:

Ron’s background

FUSEBOX Festival 2018

April Tue 17th - Sun 22nd, 2018

Office: 512-800-3066

Links:

• Fusebox Festival | 2018 Festival

“Giving people compassion and respect, it just goes such a long way to healing. You never know what somebody is going through or what could happen in their lives.”

Elizabeth has had a lifelong love of art and creating, and an openness and compassion for others. Especially people that might not fit in or be as easy to relate with. But as she says everyone deserves compassion and respect. Her desire to help others led her to art therapy as a career. It’s a job that is not very common or completely understood so the Second Lady Karen Pence, an artist herself, started an initiative to raise awareness. Mrs. Pence met with Elizabeth last year which helped spotlight her work at Dell Children’s within the medical center and to the whole city of Austin and beyond.

This conversation will enlighten you to the world of art therapy and inspire you to think about the ways you could incorporate it into your own life. Art can be a powerful force if we allow it, by letting go of the perfectionism, the judgment, the fear, and just letting ourselves play. Please enjoy this conversation and consider donating to the Art of Giving event or directly to Dell Children’s. And share this episode far and wide so that more people can know about art therapy and what an influential force for good it can be in anyone’s life.

What is Art Therapy?

April 8, 2018

https://www.dellchildrens.net/support-dell-childrens/art-of-giving/

Links:

• Support Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas

“We all have creativity in us and we’re all very imaginative people but we also have all these voices that tell us we’re not. I just don’t give myself credit for it. I don’t think any of us do.”

To re-create a world based on the lives of many you have to exercise your empathy, listen, and imagine what it must have been like. Some of the story though she doesn’t have to imagine because she lived it herself. Her family fled Peru in the late 80’s to get away from the violence, terrorism, and unrest common at the time. She moved many times once in the US and has memories in all of the places she has called home. But what would it take for you to leave your home forever and start over from scratch in a new place? You might have to learn a whole new language. And you might eventually, after never really feeling welcome or at rest, have to leave that place and move again.

Her first book, about the experience of a woman kidnapped for ransom in Peru, and her husband’s plight to get her back, was based on stories from her family. Chasing The Sun was not as much about Natalia’s life as it was that of many people subjected to the fear of having a loved one kidnapped in South America decades ago. Her second novel, Everyone Knows You Go Home, delves more into immigration and life on the border of the United States, of reality, and the spirit world. It's a more personal story drawn from her own life that starts on the Day of the Dead, the same day she was married.

There is a lot to learn in this conversation, especially for someone who wants to do a better job at understanding and choosing to stand up for those who often have to fight harder for their rights and opportunities. We speak about her childhood, the craft of writing, both of Natalia’s published books, a few of the things she learned in 2017, and some other very important and timely issues. Everyone Knows You Go Home is available now online and everywhere books are sold. As of March/April 2018 she is touring the US on a book promotion tour and has already started working on her third novel.

Some of the subjects we discuss:

Starting to write as a kid

Links:

• Natalia Sylvester Author - website

"That's the thing that got me excited about being creative is that you start with nothing and then something happens. We have so much power as creatives."

If you get to the point in your artistic career where you are invited to help carve and build a church and sculptures out of ice in Slovakia for three weeks, you might think you have made it. But for Griffon Ramsey it is only a part of the beginning of the next exciting chapter. After spending many years working and creating in the world of theater/film and the gaming/comic/online sphere she discovered something more entrepreneurial, challenging, physically satisfying, and ultimately a purer form of expression.

How about carving raw masses of wood into highly detailed and often elaborate sculptures, using a portable mechanical saw with a toothed rotating chain, along with many other specialized tools. Over the course of many days or even in just an hour something amazing can be created. This could play out in a secluded warehouse, a scene that epitomizes the solitary artist, or in front of hundreds of people, who live and breathe with awe and exhilaration as the story of the piece is revealed. So there is the skill and the art of creation, the performance, the experience of the onlooker, and the durable final product, a literal work of art born from a lot of hard work.

After many years of practice and persistence Griffon has reached a level where she is invited to carving events and competitions all over the U.S. and the world. This allows her to pursue the professional and artistic development she desires with a global community of piers and mentors who enjoy sharing and learning from each other. Its a community she loves and wishes to promote and encourage. So listen and learn and share!

This was such a fun conversation and Griffon’s voice is so enjoyable to listen to, she had me smiling the whole way through. We talk about her beginnings in Oregon growing up in a ghost town and discover the original childhood inspiration for her current career, Sea Gulch! She touches on her schooling and work in film and theater, her years at Rooster Teeth, and the rest of the time we cover many different aspects of chainsaw art, carving, and the life of an artist. Don’t try this at home might be an appropriate warning but you do have to start somewhere. And there are a few curse words which she does apologize for. Enjoy!

Chainsaw art

Banner photo by Brian Vogel

Links:

• Art and Apparel by Chainsaw Carver Griffon Ramsey