We Are Art People

Musa Guston Mayer is a writer, curator, breast cancer advocate and President of The Guston Foundation, living in Woodstock, NY. She is the daughter of the formidable painter, Philip Guston (1913-1980) and her Mother is, painter and poet Musa McKim Guston (1908-1992). Since his passing in 1980, alongside a team of committed champions of Guston’s work, Musa has been involved in shaping her Father’s legacy, who is recognized today as a Modern Master. Not bad, sonny. Pas mal

While pursing an MFA in writing at Columbia University, Musa published her first title — an intimate memoir, Night Studio (1988) — grounded in a personal account of being the daughter of Philip Guston. Musa’s process of writing as a way of self discovery and to deepen her understanding of who her father was, evokes an awareness of the fragility and beauty of life, through what feels to be a natural inclination for storytelling. Originally trained as a mental health counselor, Musa authored several books reflecting her journey and diagnosis with breast cancer; Examining Myself: One Woman's Story of Breast Cancer Treatment (1994) Recovery, Advanced Breast Cancer: A Guide to Living with Metastatic Disease (1998) and After Breast Cancer: Answers to the Questions You're Afraid to Ask(2003). She has curated exhibitions, and published amongst others, the award winning catalogue ‘Philip Guston: Nixon Drawings, 1971 & 1975’. Night Studio remains in print after 37 years.

We discuss the fragility and nature of living closely to an inner life, storytelling as an act towards activism and social-political commentary, and the value of Musa’s promised gift of 220 ‘Not.For.Sale’ paintings to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, for scholarship and in support of her Father's legacy. The Guston Foundation continues to further a dialogue with Philip Guston, to a wider public. Upcoming projects include an audiobook of Night Studio, narrated by Musa Guston Mayer (2027) and publishing the Journals of Musa McKim Guston, A Life with P. (2026).

Links:

@the_guston_foundation

www.philipguston.org

https://www.youtube.com/@TheGustonFoundation

Show notes:

Restoration of "The Struggle Against Terrorism", by Philip Guston and Reuben Kadish, Morelia, MX.

Musée Picasso — Philip Guston: The Irony of History [opens October 14 2025]

Arensberg Collection

Scottsboro Boys https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottsboro_Boys

Ira Progoff "Intensive Journal Method"

Giorgio de Chirico, The Gladiators' School: the Combat [1928]

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Pascale Gatzen is not someone who you can bind with words. She moves freely across and within spaces of education, pattern making, commoning and compassionate communication. She continues to seek opportunities for and to shape the conditions under which people learn together.

In the '90s, Pascale was a member of a group of fashion designers known as Le Cri Néerlandais (“The Dutch Cry”) including Saskia van Drimmelen, Viktor Horsting, Rolf Snoeren et al. — and the first Dutch designers to present their collections in Paris. Her garments have been included in early editions of Purple Magazine, photographed by Mark Borthwick and presented in spaces of cross-disciplinary dialogue. Alongside a practice of making garments, Pascale’s place in education, aligned on making and situating fashion as an expression of being — has included developing an alternative fashion program at the Parsons School of Design in New York City and she previously led the Fashion Design Master’s program at ArtEZ, Netherlands. 

Our conversation dances between generative projects Pascale has contributed to; including The Linen Project, a collective endeavor to reintroduce small-scale local flax cultivation to the Netherlands, and a clothing workshop Pascale facilitated with guards at Art Tower Mito, in Japan. Interspersed, with the acknowledgment of and observing feelings and needs, reflective of Marshall Rosenberg’s teachings of Non-Violent Communication (NVC). Pascale has recognized this practice to be a vital design for human communication, an opportunity to meet each other with empathy and authentic connection.

Pascale makes and wears her clothing.

Links:

The Linen Project https://thelinenproject.online/

Friends of Light https://www.friendsoflight.net/

Art Tower Mito, Japan https://mitoguards.blogspot.com/

Show notes:

"If ‘commoning’ has any meaning, it must be the production of ourselves as a common subject." - Silvia Federici

Intentional communities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intentional_community

Gana Community, Statan Island https://geo.coop/articles/40-years-community

NYCNVC https://www.nycnvc.org/thom-bond 

Hannah Arendt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Arendt

Eric Fromm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Fromm

Pema Chödrön; Comfort Zones youtube.com/watch?v=MH2vfdhGiTM

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LARAAJI is an interdimensional artist, musician and playful laughter therapist— living in Harlem, New York City. LARAAJI is a seven letter word, including three upward facing triangles (A) and the hieroglyphic RA, in reference to the ancient Egyptian deity of the sun. 

Born into the physical world as Edward Larry Gordon in Philadelphia (1943), LARAAJI has embarked on a journey of the soul, a vision quest of remembering and discovering. Engaging in music, playing the violin during his school years, his connection to the string instrument has been a life long bond which led him to the autoharp, which he exchanged for his guitar at a pawn shop in New York City, this was in 1969. After studying Piano and composition at Howard University and a brief moment navigating stand-up comedy in the 1970s, LARAAJI began to explore the complexities of sound and in alignment with his mystical discoveries, he has become a pioneer and composer of ambient and new age sounds. 

We discuss the role of mentors that have appeared along his path. This has included; Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati, founder of the Ananda Ashram, New York, organizers of The Tree of Life, a metaphysical bookstore in Harlem, who blessed LARAAJI with an unofficial naming ceremony during a meeting at Bethseda Fountain, in Central Park and Brian Eno, their connection at Washington Square Park evolved into the creation of Ambient 3: Day of Radiance (1980), which Brian Eno produced.

LARAAJI's ambient and extrasensory music is both a celebration of community and a space for communication with the non-dimensional world. We discuss the notion of bouncing between dimensions, and the presence of holding space while co-creating in the physical plane. In a form similar to a yogic shavasana, LARAAJI creates an sonic environment that invites the body to unlock the abstract self, to enter into unexplored states of rest, allowing space to move and connect with greater ease and peace within our self, interconnected as one with the cosmos. LARAAJI's musical and spiritual voice, is a tool of service, to support the growth and evolution of humanity. He continues to celebrate his connection and evocation of the sun’s loving presence and his adoration for orange clothing. 

Links:

https://laraajimusic.bandcamp.com/

@laraaji_official

Show Notes:

Shavasana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shavasana

Ohso https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajneesh

Tree of Life https://www.nytimes.com/1976/01/24/archives/a-parking-lot-is-to-replace-the-tree-of-life-in-harlem.html

440HZ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A440_(pitch_standard)

Zither / Autoharp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoharp

Pentatonic Scale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentatonic_scale

The Orange Book: The Meditation Techniques of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

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Jordan Huelskamp is the founder of Salon, a community-oriented and member managed contemporary art collection, based in New York City.

The role and persona of the art collector has shifted and accessibility has widened. We discuss what choices are available to build a collection of art, that offers space for expressive dialogue, whilst being a discerning financial investment. With shared ownership, commitments to long-term acquisition is more accessible through a model forged by Salon. Through collaboration in decision making, members contribute to building a future legacy, a time-stamp of a culture, which for Salon is reflected in a co-owned portfolio of blue-chip contemporary art.

After graduating with a Masters in Journalism from Columbia University, Jordan found herself embedded in the art world, serving as Curatorial Lead at Artsy, a leading digital marketplace for art. Here, Jordan finely tuned her curatorial tastes, acumen and ‘art world’ savvy, which bolstered her creative vision and strategic planning for Salon’s evolving success.

Jordan reflects on how the relationship to an artwork develops, the moments of connection to an artists work, both imbued through the artists act and the storytelling that is reflected through living and being with art in our personal spaces. Jordan shares her ongoing joy and experiences with, Broom Eater, a personal acquisition, by Japanese-American artist Kikuo Saito. And, we discuss the approaching and possibly unnerving conversation that is taking place around Artificial intelligence and its role in art. Jordan shares her unanswered feelings towards rumors of a robot that paints! What impact do these shifts have on the artist and an the value of the maker, when acquiring a work of art? Jordan’s fluid perspectives of the art world and emerging technologies, has allowed her to be a leading voice in contemporary art collecting. You will find Jordan deep within a rabbit hole or wandering through an Art Fair in New York City. 

Links:

@jordanhuelskamp

Salon https://salon.fund/#/

https://www.jordanhuelskamp.com/

Show notes:

Kennedy Yanko

James Turrell

Land Art

Artsy

Oculus Rift

Kikuo Saito

Puck - Marion Maneker

O'Flatery's NYC

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Ry Russo-Young is a New York-born filmmaker, living and working in Los Angeles, California.

Through a natural evolution of becoming, storytelling and character exploration has been embedded in her since a young age, patching together short-movies with friends and family and her mothers’ taking photographs of her in the Meatpacking District in the 90's, dressed up as Cindy Sherman-esque characters.

Ry’s 3-part documentary series, Nuclear Family was released with HBO in 2021. It is an expose of Ry’s understanding and experience of being the daughter of two lesbian mothers who conceived Ry and her sister Cade, with known sperm donors, at a time when the concept of a LGBTQ+ family was untraveled, and which bred its own challenges. The series, which Ry wrote, directed and featured in navigates this origin story and the perspectives of those around her. Through the experience of her family being under the microscope at a young age, Ry took it on to tell her story and version of events. What evolved is an intimate telling, where Ry herself, candidly processes her unresolved feelings and takes the viewer on an emotional journey of healing and invokes us to comprehend the complex nature of family and relationships. 

We discuss Ry’s process for and taking time to find the best version of a project and her journey of adapting stories into a visual form and the complications that arise through this process. Ry has directed and co-written Nobody walks, with Lena Dunham featuring Olivia Thirlby and John Krasinski. She has collaborated with Stella Schnabel, in the writing and direction of You Won’t Miss Me, and other film and television projects, including episodes for Just Like That, Before I Fall and The Sun is Also a Star. Ry's work has been presented at Sundance, SXSW, Stockholm, Torino, and TriBeCa.

Links:

@ryrussoyoung

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1735543

Nuclear Family https://www.hbo.com/nuclear-family

You Won't Miss Me https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1249443

Show notes:

Hannah Takes the Stairs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Takes_the_Stairs

Creative Capital https://creative-capital.org/

The Screenwriting Life https://bobcat-cello-9863.squarespace.com/episodes/148-jodie-foster-on-building-truthful-characters

Abbas Kiarostami 

Ingmar Bergman

Mishegas (Yiddish) meaning senseless behavior, craziness, or foolishness. 

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Lauren Servideo is a funny person, and a comedian and actress living in the East Village in New York City.

Her main gig is to write, produce and portray the people amongst us, where she is dressed up as various characters and people that we all know. What Lauren has effortlessly been able to achieve is transforming her own self into the beings of others, which she shares most often via an instagram video, filmed on the fly with her partner Emerson Rosenthal. Her characters include; Anubis a ghoulish vampire that enjoys lazing about in swimming pools, her friends are fleeting and she is at present wandering the landscapes of New York City, it is 2025. Regulars are Miss Piggy, Dog Breeder, Greg Finkel, Grandmas Boyfriend, Victoria is from Pittsburgh and then there are the delectable moments and happenings that Lauren discovers along the way, each with a keen display of vulnerability and an ability for stretching our imagination.

We discuss the transformative power of becoming another, and how Lauren has navigated the creative process of workshopping and improvisation, as an opportunity to get to know her characters. Lauren herself questions, what is the underlying drive that has fed her creative process and for making video projects for over a decade. Why do we laugh or why do we need to laugh is a question pertinent in this current moment of global uncertainty, instability… what is the purpose of humor? Lauren’s ability to sit at the edge of humanity and culture — capturing the pulse of the zeitgeist with a fresh and dynamic spirit, is an art. For clarity, it is best you watch her videos on instagram.

Links:

@servideo

IMBd https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9939178/

Show notes:

Nominative determinism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism

Hole, Doll Parts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD9xK9smth4

The Wizard of Oz (Glinda's arrival) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvQ7HiJkUJ4

William Esper Studio https://esperstudio.com/

Manchester by the Sea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_by_the_Sea_(film)

@the.dialect.coach

Tulpa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulpa

Miranda July https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_July

Chris Lilley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Lilley_(comedian)

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Okkyung Lee is a cellist, composer and improviser. She was born in South Korea and moved to Boston (USA) in 1992, to study Contemporary Writing and Production and Film Scoring at Berklee College of Music and continued with a Master’s degree at the New England Conservatory of Music in Contemporary Improvisation.

Okkyung moved to New York in the 2000s and fell with ease, into the avant-garde music scene that included performance nights at Tonic, the Knitting Factory and a plethora of artists and musicians that she was able to stretch, move, bend — and create a sonic world with. Over the last two decades, Okkyung has been widely recognized for her improvisational works and instrumental compositions. She has collaborated with artists from a range of disciplines including Arca, Mark Fell, Ellen Fullman, Douglas Gordon, Christian Marclay, Marina Rosenfeld, Thurston Moore, Ikue Mori and Rashad Becker. In 2016, Okkyung formed Yeo-Neun Quartet and composes music for a harp (Maeve Gilchrist), cello, double bass (Eivind Opsvik), and piano (Jacob Sacks). Okkyung has performed internationally as a solo artist and composer including; Borealis Festival (Bergen, Norway), Donaueschingen Music Festival (Donaueschingen, Germany), Museum of Modern Art (New York), Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, USA), The Met Breuer (New York, USA), Museo del Novecento (Milan, Italy), Serpentine Galleries (London, UK), White Cube Galleries (London, UK) and has recently moved to Berlin, where she is the recipient of the 12-month DAAD Artists-in-Berlin residency program.

Links:

@okkyung_lee

Yeo-Neun https://shelterpress.bandcamp.com/album/yeo-neun

Show notes:

Knitting Factory w/Joe Maneri

Tonic (music venue)

Bach Cello Suite 6

Richard Abrams, George Lewis and Roscoe Mitchell Venice Biennale [2003]

Christian Marclay and Okkyung Lee Perform Calder's Small Sphere and Heavy Sphere, Whitney Museum [2017]

Bergen Kunsthall, Still Hoping for a miracle?

Upcoming events:

Lisa Ullén-Okkyung Lee https://exploratorium-berlin.de/en/events/stage/lisa-ullen-okkyung-lee-duo/

Okkyung Lee-Rashad Becker https://www.maxxi.art/en/events/okkyung-lee-rashad-becker/

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Loren Munk is an (amateur) art historian, an alchemist and maker of vibrant paintings about the history of the New York Art community. His nom de guerre is James Kalm — an art fanatic that rides a bike around the boroughs and visits galleries and art shows in New York City.

Loren has obtained a unique perspective and understanding of the New York phylogeny of art and its communal happenings. This was a default process of acquiring knowledge, through delivering art supplies for Utretch, to the artists' studio. Making notes of his findings of who and where everyone was, Loren started making connections, and analyzing systems of thinking and behaviors. Take a look at his paintings and the story will be clear. Something Loren reflects on, is the idea of the symbiotic relationships that exists within art communities. Saying hello to your artist neighbor at the bodega you buy your milk, sharing a drink at the local bar, it may not be a significant exchange but these passings are present. Munk believes it is these engagements and interactions that are just as essential to an artists life, as to what is happening in the studio. 

We discuss the aesthetic propensities of James Kalm, who makes wobbly videos, which are posted on two prominent youtube channels; The James Kalm Report and James Kalm Rough Cut - quoted as the ‘freshest and most urgent art coverage on the internet”. With 18 years of footage, these two channels have amassed over1600 programs, and many millions of views. Loren has presented his artworks across Europe and New York, his most recent exhibition at was a dynamic display of paintings with Ruttkowski;68 and Rail Curatorial Projects, presented as the 10th installment of Singing in Unison; Loren Munk & James Kalm [Curated by Phong H. Bui & Cal McKeever]. James Kalm previously wrote art criticism for The Brooklyn Rail, from 2000 to 2012.

Links:

@lorenmunkstudio

www.lorenmunk.com

www.youtube.com/@jameskalmroughcut/videos

www.youtube.com/@jameskalm

Singing in Unison, Part 10 Loren Munk & James Kalm

Show notes:

Irving Sandler Railing Opinion: A Call to Art Critics

The Brooklyn Rail

Jane Goodall

Soho Art Mateirals

Red Hook

Sun-thickened linseed oil

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David Watson is an experimental musician, composer and organizer. He most often performs with the guitar or the highland bagpipes. His work encompasses improvisation, composition, and he is the organizer of Striped Light, an avant-garde performance series in New York City, co-curated with guitarist Ian Douglas-Moore.

We discuss the formidable journey from New Zealand to New York City, arriving by bus in 1987. The complicated nuances of practicing a profoundly audible instrument, in a densely populated city and the impact of building artist-led initiatives as a way to explore performance and collaboration. David has made a life of bringing people together, continuing a dialogue around experimental music and methods for performance. He is part of trio Glacial - a collaboration of 25 years, with Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth) and Tony Buck (The Necks). And, he has collaborated with choreographers, musicians and performers, including Chris Abrahams, Robert Ashley, Frisner Augustin, Marcia Bassett, Anthony Coleman, David First, Shelley Hirsch, Samara Lubelski, Ikue Mori, Yoshi Wada, Phil Niblock et. al. David was a core member of The Primitive Art Group, a music group formed in Wellington, New Zealand [1981-1986]. For 2025, The Foundation for Contemporary Arts has awarded David the Alvin Lucier Award for Music.

Links:

@davidwatsun

https://davidwatsonmusic.net

Bandcamp https://davidwatsonmusic.bandcamp.com

Striped Light https://www.instagram.com/striped_light

The Primitive Art Group

Glacial

Show notes:

The Knitting Factory

Foundation for Contemporary Arts

Alvin Lucier

Highland Bagpipe

Desperately Seeking Susan

Stranger Than Paradise

Gamalan

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Zuqqara Egyptian bagpipe

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Todd Bienvenu is a painter, living in Brooklyn, New York. His paintings are a reflection of his biographical universe — they are thick, direct and humorous. Resourcing images from his daily life and occurrences, his paintings feature tattooed rockers, beach bums, urban crashes and mosh pits. It is life in motion.

We discuss the journey of making comic books during his adolescence, to navigating a life as a painter in New York, contending with the materiality of paint and paper in the studio or making a tiny pizza delivery man, reminiscent of his early days riding around Brooklyn. Todd is represented by Almine Rech and Galerie Sébastien Bertrand, in Geneva. He has exhibited work internationally, in Hong Kong, London, New York, Brussels and Switzerland. In 2018, he was recognized and received an award from the American Academy of Art & Letters, for excellence in painting, conferred by Peter Saul.

Links:

@toddbienvenu

https://www.alminerech.com/artists/358-todd-bienvenu

https://sebastienbertrand.com/artist/todd-bienvenu

https://www.artsy.net/artist/todd-bienvenu

Show notes:

Little Rock, Arkansas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Rock,_Arkansas

Romare Bearden https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romare_Bearden

Aaron Michael Skolnick https://www.marchgallery.org/exhibitions/the-entertainer/

Hannah Rowan https://www.hannah-rowan.com/

Bill jensen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Jensen

*Poetry*

Wave of Blood [2025] p.66 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariana_Reines

Pioneer Works, Brooklyn https://pioneerworks.org/

You might have to feel it to believe me

To believe how wretched I was but also

How determined. Poetry isn't a profession

A person simply goes into. You have

To be fucked up to do this and especially

To stay. It does not attract the best

Or the brightest. We are some of the most

Sanctimonious low-attention-span narcissists

Around. But it gave me my life

Which I had a longing to see naked

And it held me up to living

In a very naked way

And showed me breathing

And gave me space

To find my way ...

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