Kites and Strings

Truth be told, Kites and Strings has been unfair to accountants,  but we have have made it a point, as per our mission, to appreciate the tensions between different worlds.  So Kites and Strings went looking for somebody who could help us bridge the gap between the arts world and the ordered, numbers world.  Kelley Brubaker bridges that gap and she helps us understand that the gap does not have to be huge and ominous

You see, Kelley Brubaker, is an artsy CPA.  She markets her accounting services to artists. Creativity is in her art and has been for a long time, even though it has gone dorment for a while.  She is now dusting off those parts and getting back into photography and drawing. We’re also gonna hear about how she helps artists create sound business models while remaining true to their vision, and this entails connecting and discussing things that go beyond just numbers. 

Kelley's website -  https://artsycpa.com/cpaartsy/
Kelley's Photography website - https://www.brokenroadimages.com/

Our guest this week is New York City-based actor Michelle Simone Miller, who has stage, TV, Film and commercial credits.  She's been aware of her passion for acting early on, which lead to childhood roles on TV and off-Broadway.  More recently she's played a title character role on an episode of MTV’s One Bad Choice, a Co-star role in CBS’s Blue Bloods and on Showtime’s Homeland.   Winter’s Tale and Bomber Jackets, along  with playing the lead in the sci-fi film, Queen Crab, round out her film credits.  She has been in numerous commercials and there's a good chance you've seen her hands on a long standing  cell phone commercial campaign. Plus she produces and hosts the very cool podcast, Mentors on the Mic, which is a newer joy and demonstrates her ability to adapt.

Note: this episode contains some adult language

Michelle's Website  http://www.michellesimonemiller.com/
Twitter            @MichelleSimoneM
Instagram      @michellesimonemiller

This week's guest is Jenny Hart, an amazing artist and founder/CEO of Sublime Stitching,  a contemporary studio for hand embroidery, delivering designs and patterns that are far edgier than anything your grandmother every worked on.  Jenny has authored many books on the subject, has been feature in numerous publications,  she's exhibited her work in prestigious galleries and shows, and  has rejuvenated a medium in danger of loosing relevance and slipping in obscurity.  She was an original founder of the Craft Mafia in Austin Texas, only to be replicated in many other cities, and Jenny was in a select group of artists called 40 under 40 who were recognized by the Smithsonian on the 40th anniversary of the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery, where some of her art remains on display.  She has sold work to some of Hollywood's elite, including Laura Dern, Tracy Ulman  and two really big names that she will share a really funny story about in our episode.  Unlike many of the artists we have interviewed, Jenny does not perfer a box and the influence of structure, especially when she is grabbing her string and flying her kite in it’s purest form. 

Check out Jenny's Website - http://www.jennyhart.net/
and
Sublime Stitching - https://sublimestitching.com/
and as referenced in the episode
Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath, by W. Eugene Smith https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomoko_Uemura_in_Her_Bath

Today, Steve and Catherine interview celebrity makeup artist, Christina Flach, and unless you've been living under a stone, you have seen her work before.  She's made up a wide swatch of folks, ranging from televison and movies stars, politicians, celebrity cooks, pop stars and heavy metal bands.  As the founder and CEO of Pretty Girl Makeup, she gets her creative on in all sorts of manners and has found happiness all along the way in even the most mundane tasks.  She's also at the helm of Sepsis awareness given that her tennis champion husband, Ken Flach, died of Sepsi suddenly just a few years ago.  Still, she has made sure that, despite losses that many call tragic, she finds pleasure  living her life as an Ugg-wearing, sometimes frumpy, mini-van driving mom of five who can dish it out as a soap opera digest columnist too.

NOTE: this episode contains some adult language

Christina Flach Website
Pretty Girl Makeup
The Northern Pikes, She Aint Pretty (music video link)

Today we speak with Taylor Tash a New Your City author and playwright who’s been writing since he could hold a pen.  Years later, after moving to New York City, he's written interactive/immersive theatre  with the company,  Accomplice, and Taylor's Off Broadway musical, Night Tide, which is a retake of the 1961 B-Thriller movie, was called a “Top Notch Musical” by Dave Roberts along with a good number of positive reviews.  Our Interview with Taylor explores his creative process, which harkens ideas and character’s from Russian history and we learn how Taylor struggled with the process and how he handles his muse. Ultimately Taylor found the perfect day job which allows him to grab that string and fly his Kite, even outside of New Your City.  Namely, just outside of Chicago in Hammond, IN, at the Towle Theater,as Night Tide is scheduled to be on the stage in summer 2021 (COVID-willing).

Note: this episode contains some adult language.

the Night Tide Website
Towle Theatre (Hammond Indiana theatre, right outside of Chicago)
Accomplice, the Show: Adventure Theatre in New York City

Today we talk with Beverly Feldt - She started acting as a child, began voiceover work when she was 15  on a  Chicago kids television show called The Magic Door in the late 60's and has been doing voice over work ever since. But she has done and continues to do a whole lot more.  20 years ago she’s helped co-founded Workplace Interactors, which is a workforce development and education program that employs actors to help change culture in the workplace.  They tackle important topics like gender and racial diversty, white fragility, and they have a direct impact on folks around some of the time's most pressing and important issues.  Bev is also a singer, song-writer, choir-director, burgeoning harpist and she writes and delivers uplifting sermons that provide guidance and reflection to several Unitarian Universalist congregations.  It is clear that Bev is finding many ways to grab that string and fly that kite.

Workplace Interactors
The Magic Door Song

This is a BONUS, 10 minute "minisode," that is in part, acknowledging  the release of our 20th episode earlier this week (yay us).  But the bigger part is our recognizing that we have a couple cities who really seem to be digging what we're laying down; Ashburn VA and Dublin, Ireland (YAY US!!!).  We express some excitement and discuss plans to bring on guest from those respective locations, which has us here at K & S feeling very clever.  We begin to explore a bit about the role that place and culture has on creative expression and we start thinking about stuff we will might explore in those upcoming episodes.   

This is a re-release of an episode featuring visual artist, Luis Sahagun in anticipation of the exhibition that he mentions in this episode.  The exhibition is call Unearthing: Magic, Mimicry, and the Mundane,  

In this episode, Steve and Catherine have the distinct pleasure and honor to interview Luis Sahagun, an amazing artist who is tremendously candid in sharing how he discovered that his artmaking gave him, an undocumented at-risk youth from south of Chicago, a voice.   He speaks on how he discovered that he is a creative, how he's received support for being an artist and how sometimes he recieved messages that weren't so supportive. He also shared about his earliest memories of his creative process, leaving a more lucrative design career, and how he learned that exploring and researching the images that came out of his creative process truly helped him process trauma and loss.  You will learn on the tough decisions and sacrifices Luis has made to create his art and he speaks on how he teaches children that they too have a voices.

Luis has been featured in New American Paintings (Issue #111), and his work was showcased at the International Exposition of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago.  He has also held residencies at Arquetopia Oaxaca, Roswell New Mexico, Chicago Artist Coalition, Mana Contemporary in Miami, Michigan State University in East Lansing and  the Chicago Cultural Center which featured his one-person show, BOTH EAGLE AND SERPENT.

 Cate White when talking about his show, THE MOUNTAINS WHISPERED AND THE CANYON SANG, says that Luis Sahagun has one of these voices that carries far and wide. His realness allows him to connect with any social group—from the hood to the hills and whatever’s in between.

Exhibition Description:
This Exhibition celebrates the conclusion of Luis' time as a Michigan State University, Artist-in-Residence in Critical Race Studies. It runs from June 6th to Aug 6, at the MSU Union Art Gallery. It is open and free to the public.

Unearthing: Magic, Mimicry, and the Mundane, is a quest to widen the understanding of ancestral artifacts, the imagination, and art as vital sources for dismantling western forms of intellectual imperialism. Rooted in object-orientated ontology, the exhibition interweaves Mesoamerican archeological artifacts and contemporary artworks from Mexican artists such as Rufino Tamayo, Graciela Iturbude, Flor Garduno, and Luis Sahagun in order to conjure mystical teachings via spiritual mestizaje.

 

NOTE:  This episode has a few adult words

Luis Sahagun - Website
Both Eagle and Serpent - Chicago Cultural Center
Chicago Gallery News article about BOTH EAGLE AND SERPENT 

Kites and Strings Website: https://www.kitesandstrings.com/​
​Facebook: @kitesandstringspodcast
Twitter:   @Kitesandstrings
Instagram:  @Kites_and_strings

Kites and String's is produced and edited by Steve Ploum at Turning Stones Counseling, Inc.
Our theme music is by Harrison Amir, and all other original music by purple planet music at https://www.purple-planet.com

This is a first for Kites and Strings - A panel discussion.  In this episode we talk with Maddie Schmidt, Morgahn Crawford and Maggie Teachout; three twenty somethings who are from Chicago, Dallas and Seattle, respectively.  Each have identified and initiated steps down their own creative paths.  Finding their way and ensuring that their creative selves are represented is such an individualized process in and of itself but these young artists are approaching it thoughtfully and gracefully even though the pandemic and the quarantine has had such a significant impact.  They share how they've adapted and evolved in practice and in thought both before and during the quarantine, and they share how they have felt supported throughout the process by their family, friends and their communities.

Note: there is a small amount of adult language in this episode

Some links for today's episode
Maggie Teachout on Spotify
Maggie Teachout - Video - Lemonade - Green Monkey Records 
Maggie Teachout - Video for Odysseus
Maddie Schmidt - Soundcloud
Maddie Schmidt  leading Butterfield Creek
Maddie Schmidt Providing Some Support in the For What It's Worth Video
Anne Colton Video -  referenced by Steve and Maddie
Morgahn Crawford - YouTube Channel 

Today (May 3, 2021,) we re-release an episode from November 2020 with singer/songwriter  Empress in honor of her newest series of songs; the Vixen series, which recognizes and honors strong females.  recently the Music Video for the song "Snow Globe"  has been winning awards all over the globe and we are on the look out for her newest EP, called We Own This Crown.   

Our guest in this episode  with Empress, we have a very enjoyable and enlightening discussion about ballet and Broadway.  You see, prior to becoming Empress, she was Shannon Rugani and had an 11-year career dancing for the San Francisco Ballet before transitioning to acting on Broadway, which lead to her current music career.  In this episode we hear details regarding the life of a ballet dancer, including diets, focus, ballet moms, shoes, the ballet dancer's drive to be quiet and to have the right shaped butt.   Empress also shared about her unique transition in 2015 from ballet to Broadway as she  joined the original cast of Tony Award winning An American In Paris, and we learn just how big a culture shock that was for her.  After An American in Paris closed in 2017, she focused on an early love, music, songwriting, performing and the idea that drives her claiming the name Empress.

“I want to empower people to be their own empress or emperor – ruler of their personal world. That’s why I call myself EMPRESS – because I’m empowering myself to rule my own life.”
                          EMPRESS

Note: there are some adult words in this episode

the Empress Website  = https://empress-music.com/
https://www.facebook.com/EMPRESS.music/
https://www.instagram.com/empress.music/
Empress Music on YouTube
Empress on Spotify