Creatively Thinking With Carolyn B

Jean Martin, a Quebec-based artist, loves working outside; he admits that 90% of his work is made in this energetic space. Jean shares his multi-disciplinary practice with us and explains how he began his creative practice as a child. When he was introduced to other media, and what sparked him to take certain paths in his creative journey.

Deciding to take further studies in art at Concordia University's BFA program, added additional talents and enhanced skills to Martin's practice, which allow him to develop and refine his layers of creativity. He has had nearly thirty years of education, combined with being self-taught, in the art and design field.

Winning first place in a recognized art competition early on fuelled Martin to continue exploring his creativity further. Join me as we discover how Jean introduced new media into his practice, what they symbolized, and how they have driven his energies toward greater focus and nuance as his creative career has thrived. 

Connect with Jean Martin: https://www.jeanmartinraven.com/

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Betty Goodwin's depictions of the human body, suffering, and the passage of time resonated with me when I discovered her at the Manitoba Gallery. These haunting images spoke to me in ways I wasn't familiar with. I was incredibly young and foolish at the time. I was on an adventure crossing our country to the West Coast.

When I saw Goodwin's mysterious works, she drew me in with those lines, that density, that complexity pulled me in, and hasn't let me go ever since. Even to this day, when I see artwork inspired by her on the walls of Toronto's Union Station, I am reminded of her encapsulating nature. She is a genius of dark metaphors and decisive yet fluid ambiguity.

Join me as we go deep into her world as a creative. What inspiration brought her to this precipice? How did printmaking become her focus? How did she learn to decipher her intensity to create these masterpieces? Was she influenced by anyone in particular? Or was her style unique and original? What drove her to become an artist in the first place?   

Union Station Mural: Zones of Immersion by Stuart Reid

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It has been about a month since I have launched a pod. I thought I would apologize. I realized that was silly, so I decided to share what exactly happened. Tell you, devoted listeners, what I have been up to, what has distracted me from interviewing local creatives. 

I have created a lineup of artists to interview all the way into mid-summer. I am looking forward to it tremendously. Some interesting people are coming up that I share in this podcast. Some are from art history, some are unusual in the fact that they bring artists together. Another publishes interesting small-press works. Another is a sculptor sculpting unique forms North of the Niagara region. 

And finally, a multi-disciplinary artist called the Raven, whose assemblages scream city with inscriptions of poetry and street language that vibrate with the vigor his urban sculptures inhabit. Join me as I describe what actually happened last month to knock me off my insanely focused trajectory of bringing you bimonthly interviews with local creatives.

Thank you so much for listening to The Creatively Thinking Podcast! Share your thoughts, insights, and suggestions.ly Thinking Podcast! We are so happy you popped by, I will be for sure make sure I give a shout out to you in one of my future episodes. Please remember to like, share, and comment where ever you get your podcasts.

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Being in the right lane was always on Lex's mind. Knowing she wanted to be an Astronomer as a child was part of the challenge in knowing where she wanted to be; the only problem was difficulty with Mathematics. This didn't phase Lex, it made the goal more appealing.  

They are a graduate of Ontario College of Art and Design University's Criticism and Curatorial Practices, with a minor in Fine Art and Mixed Media. Focusing on finding the smallest joys in our everyday life, which reconnects our inner child to our current selves.

Lex's curatorial practices have ranged from numerous shows from TOAF, Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, Toronto Society of Artists (TSA), the Archive of Ontario, and OCAD Emerging Drawing and Painting Students. They have had a lengthy career as a Critic with articles in Academic Journals, Artist Magazines following exhibitions and events, including Nuit Blanche, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the artist-run centre Propeller Gallery. Lex's writing circle around gender, sexuality, societal conformity, philosophical concepts, and individualization.

To connect with Lex: https://www.lexbarrie.ca/

Thank you so much for listening to The Creatively Thinking Podcast! Share your thoughts, insights, and suggestions.ly Thinking Podcast! We are so happy you popped by, I will be for sure make sure I give a shout out to you in one of my future episodes. Please remember to like, share, and comment where ever you get your podcasts.

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Being an award winning artist is one of many roles Albert Slark inhabits in his multifaceted career. Beginning with an interest in drawing superheroes Albert began exploring classical painting and drawing, he graduated from Alberta University of Arts. He continued taking classes at Michael John Angel, and even studied with Max Ginsberg in New York privately. 

Slark started working as an illustrator and began illustrating for ads for commercials, video game ads, and Sci-Fi covers. This led him to finally start illustrating paperback covers in a myriad of different genres from adventure to western to romance. He has become a sought after Portrait artist for his style has developed into masterful compositions that are uniquely original.

Albert's big break came in 2003 when he became one of only three Canadians who have been commissioned to paint celebrity portraits for the United States Postal Service on commemorative stamps. These stunning stamps are featuring celebrities like Marian Anderson, Spencer Tracy, and Betty Davis.

To connect with Albert: https://portraitsbyalbertslark.com/

Thank you so much for listening to The Creatively Thinking Podcast! Share your thoughts, insights, and suggestions.ly Thinking Podcast! We are so happy you popped by, I will be for sure make sure I give a shout out to you in one of my future episodes. Please remember to like, share, and comment where ever you get your podcasts.

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           Alice lives a quiet life up in Cobourg Ontario, Canada. A life that has tremendous beauty from the landscapes that surround her every day to the moments that transcend and transport her within her peaceful life. Meeting this wonderful artist I simply had to have a chat with her about her incredible work. Work that speaks volumes with subtlety, sharp curves and silent warm hues. This is the power behind our overwhelming backdrop known as the Canadian outback. 

        Join me as I take a plunge into the imagination of Alice Vander Vennen - an Artist recently purchased by Mark Zuckerberg, an Artist who has reached new heights while continuing to wonder those around her. Within her quiet fortitude we may discover how artists can achieve magnificent strengths and depths. Can she share secrets of a path that can lead creatives into this successful stream of consciousness? 

Does Alice have access to a unique meditative realm, or are there other tools required? Vander Vennen may help us discover how creatives and other individuals can become more intune with themselves and more centred on being inspired and intrigued on their environment, and how to channel creativity to be more of an integral part of society, and independently cathartic and compassionate.  

Podcast Credits:

Audio Links from: Adobe Creative Suite
Podcast by Carolyn Botelho/Alice Vander Vennen

Thank you so much for listening to The Creatively Thinking Podcast! Share your thoughts, insights, and suggestions.ly Thinking Podcast! We are so happy you popped by, I will be for sure make sure I give a shout out to you in one of my future episodes. Please remember to like, share, and comment where ever you get your podcasts.

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         Jacques background is accounting, while his passion is art in a multitude of mediums. Practicing his craft for 25+ years he has woven an intricate tapestry of  artwork that has a range many would be intrigued by. He loves the process of working with his inspiration - where he grew up in Northern Quebec, and the places he likes to travel.

         Inspired by landscapes, although the longer you look at these compositions the more you begin to see the thin layers that he uses to 'have the images create themselves.' That the layers he applied previously shine through the layers painted thinly on top. This he admits must be from his experience with working with pastels.

        Primarily Jacques uses oil paint, but he also works with watercolour, sculpture, pastel and a range of other mediums to capture the atmosphere, the emotion evoked by nature. To catch the essence of a space and time. Amongst his mediums he pauses time with his compositions of stillness.

Podcast Credits:

Carolyn Botelho/Jacques Descoteaux

Adobe Creative Suite

Thank you so much for listening to The Creatively Thinking Podcast! Share your thoughts, insights, and suggestions.ly Thinking Podcast! We are so happy you popped by, I will be for sure make sure I give a shout out to you in one of my future episodes. Please remember to like, share, and comment where ever you get your podcasts.

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         I discovered this genius in high school, or was it somewhere in the collective consciousness that I saw his melting clocks? I’m not certain, but I know when I found this eclectically strange human with his peculiar moustache, his Spanish background, I was hooked. At the time I was getting into the band The Doors, and Aldous Huxley’s Doors of Perception, Brave New World, and The Perennial Philosophy. 

         It was an electric time of innovation and industry that was buzzing and thriving with creativity during a very traumatic political period.  Let’s take a deep dive on these Artists and what was so radical a century ago, It was a period of time that was chaotic, progressive, and downright controversial. With an active movement of  imagination becoming a source of spiritual renewal. There were veins of international networks exploring poetry, writing, philosophy, politics, and social change brought about by the rapid urbanization, and advancements in science and technology. 

         There was a fever frenzy pace that was happening simultaneously and independently. A concentration of fertile energetic ideas that challenged the establishment. There was an urgency that hadn’t been seen before. An almost neurotic romanticism during this time, it was dynamic, and even a little bit sexy.  How multiple cultures, countries and climates were collectively collaborating, composing, and creating. They were pushing the envelope, challenging the critics, causing riots, and even shocking the bourgeois aesthetic – Duchamp’s Urinal readymade placed nonchalantly inside the gallery signed R. Mutt.

Podcast Credits: Carolyn Botelho

Audio Links from: Adobe Podcast
Podcast by Carolyn Botelho

Thank you so much for listening to The Creatively Thinking Podcast! Share your thoughts, insights, and suggestions.ly Thinking Podcast! We are so happy you popped by, I will be for sure make sure I give a shout out to you in one of my future episodes. Please remember to like, share, and comment where ever you get your podcasts.

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          Exploring Art for 50+ years has proven to Anne MaClear that painting will always have it's challenges, and new ways of seeing. MaClear looks to find unexplored avenues to go down that provide new opportunities. Having the educational framework in her bones of numerous classes ranging from pastels, oil stick, embroidery, encaustic, wax, oil, and textile to name a few. 

     From her admiration of fellow Artists Mark Rothko and Robert Motherwell - two pioneers from the Modernist art movement; more specifically Pop, and Abstract Expressionism.  MaClear punctuates her practice with flourishes from these two Artists. So subtly and pervasively, that they have an uncanny resemblance, but one that is not inherently obvious. This is a skill Anne has developed over decades in her creative practice.

Join me as we discuss the mediums, the message; what being Canadian addsto her practice, and what a little bit of chaos brings to artwork.  How titles are chosen; and how often people assume Abstract Art is easier, when in fact it is quite the opposite. Anne shares how and why she is intrigued to take on this style.

Connect with Anne MaClear: https://propellerartgallery.com/members/anne-mcalear/

Podcast Credits:

Anne MaClear/Carolyn Botelho

Audio Links from: Adobe Podcast
Podcast by Carolyn Botelho

Thank you so much for listening to The Creatively Thinking Podcast! Share your thoughts, insights, and suggestions.ly Thinking Podcast! We are so happy you popped by, I will be for sure make sure I give a shout out to you in one of my future episodes. Please remember to like, share, and comment where ever you get your podcasts.

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How did I fall into this obsession? It really was an accident, something I never intended. When I studied Art in high school there were so many artists that fascinated me. Mainly from the modern art movement. I remembered Andy Warhol's soup cans and silkscreens; but  they weren't anything special.

It wasn't until much later that I realized we had similarities that went beyond any artistic technique or style. My family was in no way similar to Mr Warhola's religious upbringing - far from it. My family is very British. What we shared is a little horrific. 

What my fascination did spark for me was a kinship with Andy Warhol. I wanted to know more about his background, his life in the 60s' and 70s'. Where he discovered his eclectic style of using consumerism as a motif. Join me as we do a deeply different dive on Andy Warhol. One that feels a little bit more real than what the history books are telling you.    

Thank you so much for listening to The Creatively Thinking Podcast! Share your thoughts, insights, and suggestions.ly Thinking Podcast! We are so happy you popped by, I will be for sure make sure I give a shout out to you in one of my future episodes. Please remember to like, share, and comment where ever you get your podcasts.

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