On Goingness

Shayna Klee is an American multimedia Artist and Youtuber living and working in Paris, France. Through video, installation, sculpture and performance, Shayna creates works that are visually tumultuous, appealing to immersive scales, patterns and vivid colors. Her practice is multidisciplinary and variable: from multimedia theater pieces to writing a book (The Purple Palace & other poems), Shayna seeks to tell stories and create worlds that are both utopique and fragile; where she acts as both consumer and performer. In this episode, we discuss building community in a virtual space, her upcoming film series project "Tales From the Digital Realm", moving from Florida to Paris, and the central vulnerability that frames her work. 

Nasrin Jafari is the founder and designer of Mixed, a New York City based fashion brand and textile studio making a name for printwear. She designs statement prints and pieces that inspire you to embrace your mixed identities and be seen in full color. In this episode, we chat about building her brand in a global pandemic, how she connects her personal identity to her public brand, and her ways of approaching and embracing diversity within in her career, business and creative process. 

Brandi Spering resides in Philadelphia, where she writes, sews, and paints. Favoring non-fiction and poetry above else, her writing tends to sway between both, carrying a little over each time. Spering’s first book, This I Can Tell You is available through Perennial Press. Other works can be found in super / natural: art and fiction for the future, Schuylkill Valley Journal, Forum Magazine, Artblog & more. In this episode, we talk about the process of beginning and finishing her first book, writing as a kind of therapy in juxtaposition with loss and trauma, the malleability of memory, and her hopes for the future.

Jordan Bruner is an artist and filmmaker from Virginia Beach, VA. Growing up she learned how to paint from her artist mother and on her twelfth birthday received a video camera. Having developed a love for painting, illustration, and movie making from her time experimenting as a child and studying at the Governor’s School for the Arts in high school, she continued her studies in animation and filmmaking at VCU in Richmond, VA. Inspired by filmmakers like William Kentridge, Martha Colburn, Yuri Norstein and Jan Svankmajer whose personal styles are central to their films, Jordan moved to New York City in 2007 to pursue a career in animation. Jordan has continued to create films and paintings while also working professionally as an animation director for clients such as the NYTimes, Google, Eve Ensler, Amazon, and This American Life. In 2013 she was the recipient of the Art Directors Club Young Guns Award which honors creative individuals under 30 worldwide for their collective portfolio. Her films have shown at festivals worldwide including Pictoplasma and the LA Film Festival, and her illustration work has been honored by the Society of Illustrators and American Illustration. Jordan currently lives in Richmond, VA with her partner Zack, cat Pablo, and dog Zucchini. In this episode we discuss balancing commercial work with the personal, challenging definitions of success, and the importance of leisure, boredom and reflection within creative process. 

StudioSophiaSophia is a color and earring enthusiast who makes jewelry that is not for wallflowers. Her handcrafted statement pieces are known for their unapologetic use of loud color and bold shape, which can be viewed as wearable small sculptures meant for starting conversations. In this episode we chat about the marriage of fine art and design, the dilemma of small town vs. big city, working corporate vs. running a small business, and the pandemic life-crisis moment. Looking to check out StudioSophiaSophia outside of the internet? She will be showing at Shoppe Object, New York’s semiannual independent home and gift show, from September 19th-21st, 2021. 

Aminah Ibrahim is an interdisciplinary artist of Kuwaiti, Black American, and Indonesian heritage, raised in Kuwait and currently based in NYC. Through anthropological and movement research, she connects performance, video, and sound to build modern mythologies. Using meditative modes of improvisation and repetition, she explores the geographies of identity, body politics, mysticism and ritual transformation to find freedom in the space between binary. Most recently, Aminah was a resident of Triskelion Arts, a non-profit arts organization in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. In this episode, we discuss her experience as a performance artist over the course of the pandemic, the healing nature of the sacrum bone, fashion in movement, and building intuition. 

Tarini Sethi is a fine artist and curator based in New Delhi, India. In this episode we talk about her time at Pratt Institute, her curatorial project The Irregulars Art Fair (India's first anti-art fair), The Irregular Times (India's new quarterly Art and Design newspaper), breaking through taboo, and keeping up an art practice in the real world. If you ever find yourself wondering how you create the world you wished you lived in, Tarini's story may be the perfect place to start.