PAINTER MAN

Justine Rivas is a painter and writer based out of Los Angeles, and a good friend of mine. She recently had her MFA thesis exhibition at UCLA, which we get into a little bit.  We also talk about her time as an apprentice for an herbalist that went awry and how she wrote a play about it,  how we met at the San Francisco Art Institute, our short-lived band, balancing sincerity with humor,  psychedelia, dating red flags and green flags, and so much more. Enjoy this very special episode. 

Justine Rivas- Plateaus at Et Al, San Francisco, CA
Justine Rivas - How to Carry a Cloud at The Valley, Taos, NM

instagram
samspano.com

I answer some listener questions about last week's episode: fantasy movies, Carl Jung, being sensitive. Also some mythology talk and working with pastels.  Another classic episode.

instagram
samspano.com 

Season 2 premiere.

We're back. A painting is never finished.

instagram
samspano.com 

Art and music critic Harry Tafoya joins us this week to get to the bottom of it all-
 
We take a look at a recent New York Times article by art critic Holland Cotter on the Titian show at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum to explore why museums and critics might feel the need to frame art from the past through a contemporary political lens, especially when it doesn't need to. Is it productive,  cynical, or just completely clueless?

Is it possible to show reverence for art on social media?
Can art save us in an increasingly atomized world?
Have we forgotten how to FEEL and LOOK at art? Did we ever even know?
Are museums still able to fulfill their role as places for understanding art?  What is the responsibility of the critic in all of this?

-Harry on getting blocked by Jerry Saltz.
-Alice Neel at the MET.
-The ability to still appreciate troubling and difficult art.
-Harry talks about me and my recent paintings- AM I THE HORSE???
-Alex Katz, the painter as "wife guy" and romantic obsession in painting.
-How male painters are all THOTS,  and painting is their sexual release. 

PLUS: Harry tries to get me to start an OnlyFans, Ryan Trecartin and tik-tok influencers, Taylor Swift,  Joy Division, Lil' Nas X and gay rappers,  Sylvia Plath and so much more.

SIDE NOTE:
Throughout the episode we repeatedly make reference to Harry's Instagram  @gaykatemoss. Sadly, after the recording of this episode Harry's account got nuked. You can now find Harry on Instagram at @harrytafoya and on Twitter at @gaykatemoss

LINKS:
Holland Cotter on Titian at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum:  
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/arts/design/titian-isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-review.html?referringSource=articleShare

Ryan Trecartin, Center Jenny (2013)

ME:
SAMSPANO.COM
instagram 

Back with a very special episode, the first interview/studio visit on the show, with NYC-based painter Jennifer Sullivan. I visited Jennifer's studio in July following her show of paintings at Turn Gallery in New York, titled SLEEPER.  We talk about everything going into her new work  including Courtney Love,  earnestness and vulnerability as a transgressive act, painting as a diary, meditation and breathing exercises, cats as muses, becoming a "serious painter",  the power of seeing Susan Rothenberg paintings in person and so much more.

You can find Jennifer Sullivan's art here

 SAMSPANO.COM
instagram

It's really nice out so I take the show on the road, driving up the North Shore of Massachusetts.  Along the way I talk about one of my favorite painters, Pierre Bonnard, and think about how he influenced my work when I moved from abstraction to representational painting.   
 

SAMSPANO.COM

instagram

Sam's Museum 

Another late night, laid-back and loose episode. I talk about my bungled attempt at recording while walking outside, visiting the MFA in Boston to see a Monet show, starting some new still lives, and my love of window paintings.

SAMSPANO.COM

instagram
 sam's museum

I go outside to paint for the first time,  and have an experience with a cherry blossom tree.

Plus, my thoughts on the recent art forgery documentary MADE YOU LOOK, the nature of  truth in art,  magic,  and one of my all-time favorite movies- a better movie about art forgery,  Orson Welles' F FOR FAKE.

 SAMSPANO.COM
instagram 

A late night meditation on information overload, the speed of life, the trouble with working from photographs, and painting landscapes.

follow along on instagram 

SAMSPANO.COM

Talking about painting as a performance and knowing what motivates your work internally.
I started a group of quick paintings where I try not to overthink it, work quickly, and hopefully stumble into something exciting. 
The importance of leaving room for discovery.  I find a clarifying quote, and have brief visions of paradise.

Follow along on  instagram 

SAMSPANO.COM