Anthony is a self-taught mixed media painter and sculptor with a 20 plus year career in construction creation and restoration of decorative architecture. He has been drawing since the age of three and painting with mixed mediums since the age of twelve. As a young adult, he worked as a scenic on movie, video and theater sets. He has mastered live painting and created pieces in front of audiences at the renowned Leaf Art and Music Festival in Asheville, NC to The Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, PA. 

All of these life experiences lead to his current painting style, which is a mix of sculptural relief with a repurposing of found objects and recycled materials. Anthony's work has been exhibited at reputable New York galleries such as Kenny Schacter Contemporary and La Mama La Galleria as well as The Painted Bride Art Center. The Ellen Powell Tiberino Memorial and Rush Arts Philadelphia. 

Anthony’s work is inspiring and when I say that it sheds light on matters, I mean that both literally and figuratively. His light paintings and his light sculptures that involve powered lighting are particularly the thing that drew me in to his work because his use of found and recycled objects and the lights tickled my own abstract imagination and I have been following his work ever since discovering it. 

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Born in Columbus, Ohio in 1968, from an early age travel and world cultures inspired his love of art prompting him to engage in the creation of art ultimately describing himself as an artist when he was a child.

Roger began woodcarving while a student at The University of California, Santa Cruz in the 1980’s where he studied under master sculptor, Jack Zajac. After college, he visited Japan to study the country’s rich woodcarving heritage where he was introduced to Koyo Taketani, a carver of traditional wooden dolls, who gave Wing his first Japanese tools.  The Japanese mallet made especially for Wing almost 30 years ago is a tool that he uses daily. 

Roger names Christopher Gonzales, a leading Jamaican sculptor, and Barrington MacLean, a Panamanian born artist and Wing’s first woodcarving instructor as two of his early influences.  His love of woodcarving has carried over to many other materials and Roger is also adept with stone, ice, snow and sand.

His work is mostly figurative, and Roger’s art makes me feel like he has plucked a character from a magical, mystical world and rendered them into a 3-dimensional form from a piece of wood, a block of ice, or whatever he is using to bring them to life. What inspires me the most about Roger’s work is the confidence that emotes from his pieces and I may be biased because we are Friends, but Roger’s work motivates me to stay creative because he is just that good!

Roger’s art is known worldwide, and he’s been to places like a remote Zimbabwe artist community where he got his first taste of stone carving. He has also been invited multiple times to carve ice in China, Finland, Poland, and Germany and he has been invited to carve sand at the top international events. Roger currently works out of his studio at 40th and Westminster in West Philadelphia. 

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Bernard is a proud South Philadelphia native who now resides in my hometown of Lawnside, NJ, a historic place in South Jersey connected to the Underground Railroad that became the only antebellum, Black community in NJ founded and incorporated by Black folk prior to desegregation in the United States. And it is important to note that as Lawnside was once well known for the kind of culture that Bernard honors through his creative energy.

Bernard is a visual artist, poet, lyricist, muralist and educator who has shared his art across New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. A figurative artist, I am always drawn in by Bernard’s portrait work which to me is beyond amazing as his use of color and his command of composition are masterful. 

Bernard has this to say about his fine art, "My paintings are a reflection of my desire to understand the human body and soul. As an African American artist, I have had to balance my educational background which has been firmly grounded in European (traditional) techniques such as glazing, under-painting etc. and my desire to capture the liveliness and innovativeness that is present in African American culture.”

Bernard and I have been friends and contemporaries for close to 30 years now and I consider him one of the greatest creatives of my generation. 

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Visit me at www.oskarcastro.com and if you like what you hear please support us at - https://www.patreon.com/Oskar.

Today’s Guest is Misty Sol 

Misty and I met over social media a couple of years ago when we were introduced by a mutual friend and fellow art aficionado. An interdisciplinary artist, Misty uses the gifts she’s developed as a painter, a performance artist, and a farmer, among her many other talents.  Misty Sol creates art that explores Black people’s connections to nature, wellness, and speculation. Her paintings, children’s book illustration, stories and eco practice are heavily influenced by Black history and aesthetics.

Misty’s work inherits a sense of narrative, sensuality, magic, timelessness, hope, the bucolic and fecund stimulated by the history of her family through tales told to her by her grandmother who was a migrant farmworker, a midwife and a gifted story teller in early 20th century America.  

Since 2018, Misty has been the creative director of Tiny Farm Wagon. Misty's paintings made international debut on the CBS sitcom Grand Crew in 2021. In 2022 her paintings were seen on the set of the Oprah Network's All Rise Season 3, now streaming. Misty Sol has a BA in Literature from Penn State University Park and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art from Goddard College. 

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An accomplished culinary artist, that’s not what we are going to talk about with our guest Charles Mason today. Charles is also an accomplished maker who is known publicly for his time spent on the reality-TV show, "Steampunk'd" a show that brought other creatives together in a steam punk themed competition to see who would stand out as the best steam punk creative.  

Over the pandemic period, Charles put the combination of skills he has acquired into making commercial grade cosplay outfits, as well as relevant accessories and gear, by kit-bashing and  using his design talents to become a sought-after creative for those looking for original steampunk and cosplay creations. 

Support the show

Visit me at www.oskarcastro.com and if you like what you hear please support us at - https://www.patreon.com/Oskar.