On this episode I am joined by Robert Platt, a painter from London, England, who’s practice expands far beyond the confines of canvas into scenic design, costuming, optics, and architectural installations and film. 

His lush oil paintings span subjects from hermits and seekers, to neurons and tree branches and are often created using pigments that Robert has mined or grown himself. 

Philisophicaly, his work deals with the role of  contemporary landscape, human perception, surface and materiality in the age of increasing virtuality.

Robert engages deeply with these subject matters through exploring caves, making mountain pilgrimages, and even sailing to the polar north as part of The Arctic Circle residency which saw him and an interdisciplinary crew of artists and scientists sailing around in a traditionally rigged Tall Ship around the mountainous Arctic archipelago of Svarlbard, 10 degrees from the North Pole.

A film Robert made while there featuring his iconic Dazzle costuming which is making the rounds at film festivals called “Becoming Arctic”

When I was a student I was fortunate to spend a month caving, and creating work with Robert and Culdesac alumni Riley Hanson during a study abroad trip to the Burren College of Art, in Ireland. 

It was here that I really learned the extent of Robert’s exploring practice, descending into some of the most incredible cave systems on the planet. This was not like walking into mammoth caves, or something, there were no guard rails, we were squeezing, crawling, worming our way through the crust of the earth. The experience remains one of my favorite. 

Currently, Robert is a professor at the University of Michigan’s stamps school of art and design. He holds a PhD in painting from the Kyoto City University of Arts, An MA from the Royal College of Art, where he brushed shoulders with the likes of Charles Satchii and drove around the paintings of Peter Doig.

It was a true honor to get to re-connect and catch up. The conversation is presented here un-edited. Hope you enjoy it! 

Matt Rosner is an organizational strategist and lamp designer, currently based in New York, crown heights to be exact.

His studio practice, Superlamp, is one that focuses deeply on the objects that illuminate our studio practices, lamps.

Through Superlamp, Matt focuses on materials and designs that are both conceptually and materially sustainable. Every project is marked with a cult-like devotion to craft and is often the result of collaboration between a talented and growing community.

Ben Leigh is an artist and designer, working in New York City, he originates from Montclair, New Jersey. Ben designs tour merchandise for a music label (which is NOT owned by lizard people?) and has worked on projects for some of the biggest acts around including Ariana Grande, Slipknot, Blink182 x Lil Wayne, and 21 Savage.  He has also worked on conceptual garment projects, tracing and documenting his late grandfather’s life through brand making and design.

Richard Tinkler born 1975 in Westminster, Maryland has been working on a book of drawings for nearly twenty years. Like a growing crystal forming fractals, his process based practice generates thousands of intricate drawings based in color and geometry. He has shown these works in NYC, Italy, Paris, just to name a few geographic locations. Richard lives and works in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Born in 1978, John Maggie has held studio spaces in Hamtramck and Ann Arbor. He employs a variety of painting styles to build his figurative paintings, often mixing clean, representational approaches with 3-dimensional applications of pre-dried paint piled on the canvas. Maggie also makes books, flip books and holds it down as a psychiatric nurse. His latest release is "head" a collaboration with Jim Chatelain and printed in risograph by Print Cache.

Philadelphia based artist Molly Metz uses paint and collage to capture streams of consciousness and personal narratives. Interested in humor, and inspired by dreams, she constructs these spaces layering loops and wavy gestures to simulate psychological environments. She received her MFA at Tyler School of Art in 2016, she is currently exhibiting work in a group show, “Hoarse Whispers”, at Fjord Gallery Philadelphia, PA.

DaylightShavings, Molly's noise music.

Micheal Ambron sees things. His work is primarily concerned with perception and the development of sustainable systems for investigating altered states of consciousness. Drawing inspiration from direct hallucinatory experience as well as ways in which memory is stored within the body, he creates paintings composed of stone chalks, glass powders, pigments, and clay, often affixed to found substrates.

He received his BFA from Tyler School of Art in 2007 and his MFA from The Ohio State University in 2012. He is currently based in Long Island City.

Otto Muzik is a Professor of Pediatrics and Radiology at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. Originates from Vienna, Austria and obtained a PhD in Physics from the Technical University of Vienna in collaboration with the KFA Julich (NW, Germany). Prior to his appointment at Wayne State University, conducted post-doctoral research at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Expertise as PET physicist, specifically in the kinetic analysis and quantification of PET imaging data as well as in the development of image analysis software for integrative analysis of pediatric imaging data.

A conversation with Christopher James Davison an artist living in Manhattan, NY. 

Christopher Davison is a New York-based painter with an MFA from the Tyler School of Art. His first solo exhibition in New York was in 2009 at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery and his most recent two-person exhibitions were at Horton Gallery, NYC and Harpy Gallery, New Jersey. He has been included in exhibitions in New York, Miami, Copenhagen, Philadelphia, Boston, Rome, Los Angeles and Brussels. His work can be seen in the public collections of the Rose Art Museum (MA), University of Alabama (AL) and Museum of the Hague (Netherlands). In addition to creating works of art, Christopher is a part-time professor of art in Philadelphia at the University of the Arts, and Moore College of Art. A collection of his work can be seen at ChristopherDavison.com

Our conversation came out of a chance encounter on the internet. 

We discuss some texts and philosophies from the following: 

Sri Ramana Maharshi (sorry I butchered the pronunciation)

Ananda Coomaraswamy

PDF of Coomaraswamy's Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art

René Guénon

PDF of Guénon's Crisis of the Modern World

Terence McKenna - A drive folder of many of his recorded talks.

Riley is a painter. Although his practice extends far beyond canvas to sculpture, writing, and performance.

Riley’s work has most recently been the subject of two-person-show with James Gregory Atkinson, organized by Daisy Sanchez, called Rawr Means I Love You in Dinosaur at Lubov, New York, NY. He has also mounted solo shows including Duck. Duck. Duck. Duck. Duck. Duck. Duck.  Duck. Duck. Tom Cruise. at No Place Gallery, Columbus OH.

He is currently based in Philadelphia, PA.