Talking to Artists

By Kate Taylor Art

Talking to Artists is a weekly casual conversation where artists share their inspirations, process, challenges and business ideas to give art lovers and aspiring artists a peek behind the curtain. You... more

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FAQs about Talking to Artists:

How many episodes does Talking to Artists have?

The podcast currently has 66 episodes available.

Talking to Artists episodes:

September 10, 2020 With Photographer Sage Szkabarnicki-Stuart (Episode 17)
Synopsis:
Sage joined me from beautiful Salt Spring Island. We had a very interesting chat about her theme - human impact on the environment as well as artist residencies, public art and her next project about "invasive" species.

About the Artist:
Sage Szkabarnicki-Stuart is a 24 year-old emerging photographer living in Toronto. She mostly uses herself as the subject of her photographs, which is both vain and necessary because she is alone a lot of the time. She is completely self-taught.

Sage’s work focuses on how humans interact with their home environment. The central question of her work is: what defines a place as home? One way to try and answer this is by highlighting aspects of the day-to-day that are embedded in routine. Through her photographs Sage hopes to give the viewer a new sense of appreciation and awareness for the place they call home.

Sage graduated with a degree in animation from Concordia University in 2018. Her work has been recently exhibited at Art Toronto and the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair where she won both the Honourable Mention: Student and Emerging Artists by Emerging Curator awards. She is currently resident artist at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga.
To see more of Sage's work, please visit:
· Instagram
· Facebook
· Website
...more
46min
September 03, 2020 With Painter Cherie Harte (Episode 16)
Synopsis:
A deep conversation about the role of emotions, specifically shadow emotions, that get processed and integrated into our work.

About the Artist:
Intrigued by the evolution of the human spirit; Harte seeks to translate intimate thoughts, moments, and feelings of daily life into art works. Harte’s use of symbolism, as well as hidden and fractured images, draw the onlooker into multilayered portals of storytelling. Although at times seemingly raw, Harte challenges the onlooker to lean in and fully immerse ones self, with an open heart.

Cherie’s work has been celebrated in ads for Saatchi Art and was recently named “Must See Artist” at “The Other Art Fair”, by Rebecca Wilson Chief Curator and Vice President of Art Advisory at Saatchi Art (Los Angeles March 2019).

Harte's work was featured in the 75th anniversary exhibit of Peggy Guggenheim's “31 Women” exhibition, as selected by juror Kate Bryan, head curator of SoHo House International (Sept 2018).

To see more of Cherie's work, please visit:
· Instagram
· Facebook
· Website
...more
46min
August 27, 2020 With Painter Corynn Kokolakis (Episode 15)
Synopsis:
We talked about how motherhood influences Corynn's work and the place of figurative work in art society. She shared her inspirations and how volunteering has helped her build her business knowledge and grown her network.

Artist Statement:
Corynn is a full-time artist and mom of three. Having given up painting for over a decade to raise her family, her reinvigorated practice merges the disparate roles of mother and artist through the centring of child development and the labour of caregiving.

Corynn’s vivid renderings record intimate moments of transition and development, capturing children when they are most honest and without reserve. The figurative gesture is celebrated, and a sense of the individual emerges as each child moves autonomously through the world. With an emphasis on the caregiver’s point of view, these sensitive portrayals anchor the fleeting firmly in paint, giving weight to emotion and memory. The work is painted allaprima, welcoming the viewer to explore the material processes of oil paint. The result is a contrast that plays between the stillness of the image and the dynamic movements inherent in the physical act of painting.

To see more of Corynn's work, please visit:
· Instagram
· Facebook
· Website
...more
47min
August 20, 2020 With Multimedia Artist Caterina Stambolic (Episode 14)
Synopsis:
We had a lively conversation about creating public installations, the mental health benefits of creating and experiencing art and how collaborations can sometimes be a challenge but can grow your creative inspirations. Also a shout-out to Deserres - a Canadian art supply company! Next show for both of us is ArtWalk in the Square Online.

Artist Statement:
"I’m a Toronto-based contemporary artist, currently working in sculpture. This ongoing series “Prone to Overthinking” consists of pieces I create that are an exploration of the relationship between you and the art. I’m fascinated by our differences in brain chemistry, which shape the way we experience reality and drastically impact how we relate to the world on a physical level. Each piece examines the point at which our individual perspectives meet and we experience reality as shared beings. The sculptures take cues from images of neurons, mapped cell structures, and brain scans. Curling up from their supports, the pieces will transform with changes in light as their bodies cast colourful shadows onto the surface below. As the mounted sculptures reflect themselves, I hope you find a moment of reflection as well."
For show notes, please visit my website.
To see more of Cat's work, please visit:
· Instagram
· Facebook
· Website

...more
40min
August 13, 2020 With Painter Lisa Hickey (Episode 13)
Synopsis:
We had an engaged conversation about creating in a collaborative workspace, commissions and the unexpected transition to full-time artist.

Artist Statement:
"Forging out a moment of reprieve in a hectic world by taking a deep breath and looking up to the sky. That’s the experience I try to recreate with my paintings. Treading a wobbly line somewhere between abstraction and realism, my work taps into the familiarity of the natural world and landscape whilst nudging at the edginess of abstraction."
For show notes, please visit my website.
To see more of Lisa's work, please visit:
· Instagram
· Facebook
· Website
· LinkedIn

...more
49min
August 06, 2020 With Painter Gordon Leverton (Episode 12)
Synopsis: A great conversation today about commissions and the power of a connected community - both as an artistic inspiration but also as a powerful support network.

About the Artist:
Gordon Leverton is a contemporary painter of urban landscapes living in Hamilton, Canada.
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He breaks down the city into component parts. Shadows, buildings and skylines, all become part of the same plane and transform into pieces of a puzzle. Using acrylic paint and soft pastel mediums, Leverton explores a theme common to the urban experience – how community connects us all.

Check out his newest work in the Dundas School or Art auction.
For show notes, please visit my website.
To see more of Gordon's work, please visit:
· Instagram
· Facebook
· Website
· LinkedIn
...more
52min
July 30, 2020 With Glass Artist Layne Verbeek (Episode 11)
Synopsis: An incredible chat with glass artist Layne Verbeek who created kiln formed and cast glass sculptures. We talked about how he moved quickly during Covid to offer in studio and in home classes with his "Glass in a Box".

Artist's Statement:
My work is an exploration in capturing nature’s movement and its many mottled textures and colours. And, my hope is to create unique sculptural forms that can arise from harnessing glass’ contradictory and magical qualities.

Unlike bronze, steel, stone, clay or wood, glass can be simultaneously opaque, transparent or anywhere in between. Glass is also liquid when it’s most transformative and warm glass techniques allow me to use time and gravity to mold, melt and meld this medium into the interesting sculptural spaces.

My contribution to the warm glass movement is glass swarf. The swarf or “rock-like or lava-like” elements that are cast or fused into many of my pieces, are, in fact, all glass.

To see more of Layne's work, please visit:
· Instagram
· Facebook
· Website
· LinkedIn

Classes website: verbeekglass.com
...more
45min
July 23, 2020 With Painter Andrew Cheddie Sookrah (Episode 10)
Synopsis:
Had a wonderful conversation with landscape artist Andrew Cheddie Sookrah. We chatted about the best way to manage a commission to ensure client and artist is happy with the final piece. We talked about the influence of culture and travel (and Tom Thompson) on our work and the interconnectedness of the natural world. Ran out of time to talk about his stint as a finalist on the Canadian Landscape Painter of the Year show.....next time!
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About the Artist:
Andrew Cheddie Sookrah is a Toronto-based painter, sculptor, and fine art instructor.

Sookrah is a raw colourist whose free brushwork is confident and powerful. His strengths can be seen in his strong sense of design, exquisite use of effective composition, confident presentation of bold colours… and in his figurative and portraiture work, his capturing the essence of the human spirit.
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His is a masterful expression of the unity of nature.
For show notes, please visit my website.
To see more of Andrew's work, please visit:
· Instagram
· Facebook
· Website
· LinkedIn

...more
39min
July 16, 2020 With Painter Jennylynd James (Episode 9)
Synopsis:
In this week's chat, we talked about Jennylynd's musical upbringing, her inspiration, taking risks and painting people without faces!
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About the Artist:
Jennylynd James is a “Renaissance” woman: an artist, writer, and Classical music singer with a long work history as a food scientist! Jennylynd earned a Ph.D. in Food Science at McGill University, working in industry for companies in the United States, Ireland, Canada and the Caribbean. Her series of travel memoirs recount her many adventures in relocation.
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Jennylynd James discovered a hidden talent for drawing and painting while working as an entrepreneur in the Republic of Ireland. Her artsy flair in running a food business took an interesting turn when in an amateur art class the instructor found Jennylynd excelled in portraiture and sketching. She uses the vivid colours of her heritage to influence her work. Jennylynd now lives in Bloor West Village, Toronto where she has embraced self expression in art as a new lifestyle. Her artwork is held in collections in Canada, the United States, the Caribbean and the United Kingdom.

For show notes, please visit my website.
To see more of Jennylynd's work, please visit:
· Instagram
· Facebook
· Website
· LinkedIn

...more
41min
July 10, 2020 With Collage Artist Marjolyn van der Hart (Episode 8)
Synopsis: Marjolyn, Memory Art Girl, talked about how her work has changed during this 'great pause". Her work is about nostalgia and this feeling is what people are drawn to in these uncertain times. Marjolyn has also taken this time to create a program that helps artists become more proficient in social media and digital marketing - helping them step out of their comfort zone.
About the Artist: Let the Past inspire your Present! For many of us, our identity is tied to memories from our childhood. There are moments when we see an image, and we are taken to another time and place. One that seemed simpler. My goal is to find these triggers of memory. However, I also try to find a way to give us a deeper sense of who we are today by using these images from the past. By doing this, there is a bridge between the vintage style and a modern perspective. What is old becomes new. A contemporary vision of our reality.
Each image creates a cluster of thoughts, a memory or idea that takes you into another place. This place references the past, as though to take you out of the uncertain/unknown present and into romantic glory days that creates a nostalgic twinge.
To learn more about Marjolyn and her work, check out:
Instagram
Facebook
Website
...more
28min

FAQs about Talking to Artists:

How many episodes does Talking to Artists have?

The podcast currently has 66 episodes available.