TO WATCH A VIDEO OF THIS INTERVIEW, GO TO INSPIRING CONVERSATIONS PODCAST CHANNEL ON YOUTUBE OR VIEW DIRECTLY AT https://youtu.be/axDo-6CL4_8

Jeff sits down to visit with artist Liz Downing from her studio in Baltimore to hear her share deeply about her perspective, her process, and about what her live performance art that with "aural images as companions to visual symbols."

Liz speaks about the healing aspect of her work and about the origins and inspiration for it that is rooted in her childhood and from her experiences growing up in the South.

To learn more about Liz and her work, visit
http://lizdowningart.com/

Liz Downing creates aural images as companions to visual symbols. She collects sounds from beloved environments and embeds these sounds into a blanket for words to rest upon. If all goes well, when these words are sung they activate the symbols, which live again in the air. This is the magic of music. The visual images whom she paints and draw arise from the landscapes which she loves to manipulate into existing upon a flat surface. 
This is the magic of art.

TO WATCH A VIDEO OF THIS INTERVIEW, GO TO INSPIRING CONVERSATIONS PODCAST CHANNEL ON YOUTUBE OR VIEW DIRECTLY AT https://youtu.be/ijwuNHHsFZ8

Jeff sits down with the Tony Tiger, the curator and 3 other artists from this exhibition, Antonia Belindo, Joshua Hinson, and Randi Narcomey-Watson to hear their perspective on the connection between Indigenous art and language and how it is all connected to their tribal communities and to the Ancestors.

TO WATCH A VIDEO OF THIS INTERVIEW, GO TO INSPIRING CONVERSATIONS PODCAST CHANNEL ON YOUTUBE OR VIEW DIRECTLY AT https://youtu.be/wxnTyImpirg

Jeff sits down with artist and educator Ebony Iman Dallas to hear about her work, her artistic perspective, and about how she has evolved as a result of creating and sharing her art.

She also shares about how she tells stories that are often overlooked with her art and how that has impacted her at a deeper level.

To learn more about Ebony and her work, visit

https://www.ebonyimandallas.com/

Ebony Iman Dallas is a fifth-generation Oklahoman, second-generation Somali-American. She is an artist, writer, and founder of Afrikanation Artists Organization (AAO).Ebony received her BA Journalism Advertising and Arts degree from the University of Central Oklahoma and her MFA Design degree from California College of the Arts in San Francisco. 

Her thesis titled "Painted Bridges" explored ways to unify the African American, Afro Caribbean, and continental Africans through art and design for community activism. 

As a result, Afrikanation Artists Organization was founded as a non-profit, NGO based Hargeisa, Somaliland, and a 501(c)3 in the United States.Ebony’s work has exhibited extensively in the United States and Somaliland, Somalia in group and solo exhibitions. 

Her artwork was included in Food Network’s "Restaurant Impossible" renovation of Urban Roots in Oklahoma and she was a featured artist in the Romare Bearden Centennial Celebration in New York. Her work can be found at The Hargeisa Cultural Center, Joyce Gordon Gallery, and private collections in Namibia, Somaliland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Ebony is a proud graduate of the Oklahoma Arts Council’s Leadership Arts program and ArtistINC.

*Photo credit Charlie Neuenschwander

TO WATCH A VIDEO OF THIS INTERVIEW AND TO SEE HER ARTWORK THAT SHE SHOWS, GO TO INSPIRING CONVERSATIONS PODCAST CHANNEL ON YOUTUBE OR VIEW DIRECTLY AT https://youtu.be/Y47enNAK38g

Jeff sits down with Cherokee artist and educator Candessa Tehee as she shares very deeply about the connection between her artwork, her work teaching American Indian Studies and coordinator of Cherokee Language Education and Cherokee Cultural Studies Programs at Northeastern State University, and how this is all integrated within a life spent serving her community.

She shares some of her artwork and a story about how she learned finger weaving and the oblique form and about how she has been teaching this centuries-old art form to others as well.

Honored for her finger weaving, Candessa Tehee has helped resurrect this nearly forgotten art form, winning several finger-weaving awards since she began in 1999. She has mastered both the warp and weft form of finger weaving and the oblique form. In 2015, Tehee was an apprentice to Cherokee National Treasure Dorothy Dreadfulwater Ice.

Currently, she serves as an assistant professor of American Indian Studies and coordinator of Cherokee Language Education and Cherokee Cultural Studies Programs at Northeastern State University.

Candessa Tehee received the honor of Cherokee National Treasure in 2019.

Before joining NSU, Tehee managed Cherokee Nation’s Cherokee Language Program and oversaw the Language Technology Department, Translation Department and Community Languages Program.

TO WATCH A VIDEO OF THIS INTERVIEW, GO TO INSPIRING CONVERSATIONS PODCAST CHANNEL ON YOUTUBE OR VIEW DIRECTLY AT https://youtu.be/TQUoCk64fdk

Jeff sits down with Cherokee artist and writer Roy Boney, Jr. to hear about the evolution of his art, about his life journey, and about his work with the Cherokee Nation Language Program.

He also shares about how this program has adapted to make it easier for citizens of the Cherokee nation and others who are interested to learn the language to communicate with one another using popular electronic devices,

Roy Boney, Jr. is an award winning Cherokee artist & writer. He grew up in Locust Grove, Oklahoma and currently lives in Tahlequah, where he works for the Cherokee Nation Language Program. His work has been exhibited across the US , Paris, and London. 

His writing and artwork have appeared in First American Art Magazine, Native Peoples, Indian Country Today, Oklahoma Today, and Art in AmericaHe is a painter, comic book artist, and digital media artist.

He has also contributed to the graphic novel anthologies Tales of the Mighty Code Talkers, Trickster, Native Graphic Classics, and the newly released Moonshot,

TO WATCH A VIDEO OF THIS INTERVIEW AND TO SEE SOME OF BOBBY'S WORK THAT HE SHOWS, GO TO INSPIRING CONVERSATIONS PODCAST CHANNEL ON YOUTUBE OR VIEW DIRECTLY AT https://youtu.be/VvcR3dxCxNY

Jeff sits down with artist and educator Bobby C. Martin to hear about his life journey and what inspired him to begin to create art, about how he and his practice has evolved over the years, and about why he has been deeply moved to utilize older family photographic images as the focal point of his work.

As the conversation concludes, he talks about what the current exhibit at Living Arts, Speak: Speak While You Can means to him at a deeper level and why he feels the sense of urgency to participate in the revitalization of his native language.

To learn more about Bobby and his work, visit
https://www.bobbycmartin.com/

Bobby C. Martin is an artist/educator/facilitator who works out of his 7 Springs Studio near West Siloam Springs, Oklahoma. Martin’s artwork is exhibited and collected internationally. He has been featured in numerous group and solo exhibitions, the most recent being a one-person exhibition entitled But You Don’t Look Indian… that traveled to multiple venues in 2018-2019. His current project, Altars of Reconciliation, is a three-person show featuring Martin, Erin Shaw (Chickasaw) and Tony Tiger (Sac & Fox/Muscogee/Seminole) that focuses on the experiences of the artists as Native Americans and as Christians, and is currently traveling through Fall 2021. 

Martin’s work is in numerous museum collections, including the Philbrook Museum and Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the Museum of the Great Plains in Lincoln, Nebraska. An enrolled citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) tribe in Oklahoma, Martin currently holds a Professor of Visual Arts position at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, and he frequently leads printmaking workshops and artist retreats at his studio and at various museums and art centers around the world.

TO WATCH A VIDEO OF THIS INTERVIEW, GO TO INSPIRING CONVERSATIONS PODCAST CHANNEL OR VIEW DIRECTLY AT https://youtu.be/8Bdp9UDi0T8

Jeff sits down with Lokosh (Joshua Hinson) to hear about his life journey, about his work in Chickasaw language revitalization, about his artwork, and about how he integrates all of these aspects of himself.

He speaks very compellingly about why the work of Native language revitalization is so important and urgent, and he also shares about the importance of community and how the Chickasaw nation is working so diligently to assure every citizen's well-being during the pandemic.

Lokosh (Joshua D. Hinson) is of Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), Cherokee, and Euro-American ancestry and is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. A conversational speaker of the Chickasaw language and an award-winning artist, he holds a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Painting from Abilene Christian University, a master’s degree in Native American Art History from the University of New Mexico, and a PhD in Native Language Revitalization from the University of Oklahoma. 

He makes art on the Chickasaw Nation Reservation, Ada, Oklahoma.

Hinson, whose Chickasaw name Lokosh translates as “Gourd,” is of the Imatapo (Their Lean-to People) house group and Kowishto' (Panther) clan.

TO WATCH A VIDEO OF THIS INTERVIEW, GO TO INSPIRING CONVERSATIONS PODCAST CHANNEL OR VIEW DIRECTLY AT https://youtu.be/XJLZNcDy1fo

Jeff sits down with Bernadette Pleasant, the founder of Femme! & The Emotional Institute as she shares very deeply about the meaning of her work in promoting emotional freedom through movement and empowerment, about her own Journey that led her to do this very powerful work and why it matters so much to her and to those that she works with, and about the impact that it has had on others. 

As the conversation concludes, she shares an incredibly moving and deeply compelling perspective on the importance of healing all of the grief, trauma, pain, and challenges that we have been going through here in the U.S. and in the world. 

To learn more about Bernadette and her work, visit 
https://theemotionalinstitute.com/ 

Intoxicating and energetic, Bernadette Pleasant is a fiery sensual Speaker, Somatic Healer, and Creator of The Emotional Institute LLC, 400 Years: Unlearning Racism & Femme!, a mind-body wellness program. She has spent a lifetime exploring creative visualizations and celebrations of the human form, from sensual dance to somatic healing. A gifted healer, dancer, and entrepreneur, she channels her personal journeys and her radical empathy into transformative, immersive experiences that empower and celebrate people of all genders, ages, sizes, and fitness levels. Bernadette travels globally empowering all through classes, private workshops, retreats and conference engagements.  

With certifications in Emotions-Centered Coaching, Nia Technique, Nia 5 Stages, Ageless Grace, Pole Dance, Somatic Healing, Reiki, and Integrated Energy Therapy—and studies in African, Tribal, and Free Dance—Bernadette Pleasant promotes emotional freedom through movement and empowerment. 

As an experienced entrepreneur and the founder of Femme! & The Emotional Institute, Bernadette Pleasant regularly leads discussions on emotional healing, grief rituals, inclusive movement, and empowerment for all. Her authenticity, charisma, and warmth allow her to empathize with and inspire those ready for a journey of emotional exploration and affirmation. Intuitive and engaging, Bernadette Pleasant is a vibrant, sensual speaker who connects with those who have been silenced and shut down to support their physical, emotional, and healing journeys—whether in a classroom, from a podium, or one-on-one.

TO WATCH A VIDEO OF THIS INTERVIEW, GO TO INSPIRING CONVERSATIONS PODCAST CHANNEL OR VIEW DIRECTLY AT https://youtu.be/dN-XDtPl_PA

Jeff sits down with Dustin Pittsley to hear about what his music means to him at a deeper level, how he got started playing music and creating art, and what about the last few months have been like for him as an artist and as a human being.

He also offers some reflections about the inner experience of performing live for an audience both in the U.S. and abroad and the differences between that and performing online. 

As the conversation concludes, he also offers his thoughts about the Tulsa Sound and why the Tulsa music community means so much to him.

To learn more about Dustin's music, visithttp://dustinpittsley.com/