Artist Lily Nicholson grew up connected to the Land and aware of its gifts. It wasn't just for growing food - she found in it endless creative inspiration. On family trips she would draw maps of her experiences, especially those connected to Nature.

After attending art school far from home and often finding herself living off beans, she and her partner once again found themselves drawn back to Yuin Land, where they live with their boys and where Lily has a home studio with extraordinary views of the bush. Throughout our chat, we discuss navigating career choices, food and nourishment, Mothering, day job-ing, covid lockdowns, bushfires, money and more.

She tells us how to tear watercolour paper perfectly and how her Mum Eve's "Granny Cake" has been with her almost weekly for her whole life.

Find us @whatartistseat on Instagram and our website www.whatartistseat.com.au

Find Lily on instagram @lilyjohannah

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When we asked Giuliano Ferla of FERLA to describe himself and his practice, he had an interesting way of explaining his craft. He's definitely a musician and a lyricist, but in the past he wasn't sure if he could call himself a poet. For Giuls, it's the combo of putting poetry to music that's important to him. He feels that "there's a gravitas to the title of poet that doesn't fit..." but he seeks to redefine it. He's settled on being a reluctant, flippant and flamboyant poet.

If you know the band FERLA, you'll probably know FERLA PASSATA, the most wonderful band merch on God's green earth.

The romantic ideal of the suffering and 'Starving Artist" was something that Giuls was swept up in as a younger man. The idea that struggling was a rite of passage was part of his narrative, and he was warmed by the nostalgia. Whilst the romance for suffering for one's art has cooled, he still believes that as an artist "you need to sacrifice an element of security" to be able to commit to your craft.

For Giuls, cooking is nourishment for the soul and he is still so moved by the meals that sustained him as a young boy. Our chat with him was too short, as always, but we felt deeply nourished afterwards, and upon listening, we hope you do too.

Find us @whatartistseat on Instagram and our website www.whatartistseat.com.au

Links to Giuls' work and anything else we chatted about:

• FERLA Website
• FERLA Instagram
• FERLA Bandcamp
• FERLA Spotify
• Musician Cate le Bon
• Salt Fat Acid Heat
• Brenta Meats for pork and fennel sausage
• Mukka Indian restaurant on Brunswick Street (Giuls loves their Butter Chicken)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lorna Crane is the real deal. She’s a mixed media artist who has been exhibiting for 40 years and has been a practising artist her entire life, whilst working in between. Fibre has been a big part of her work for a long time and  “even in my earlier paintings I would collage in a piece of jute or hessian or a bit of cloth as well, because for me, cloth holds a memory, it’s something that, when we’re born, we get snuggled into a piece of cloth and it comforts us…”. 

Lorna started making her own brushes after a residency in Venice with Allison B. Cooke, and then became known as “the brush maker”. The urge to make brushes goes back to her art school days, when she saw a documentary on Arthur Boyd’s work and processes. She was inspired by his huge canvases and that he was using his own handmade brushes - the splashing motions being particularly inspiring.

As her career progressed, Lorna found that artist residencies became increasingly crucial to her, with her preference being self funded residencies, where there is more freedom and autonomy.

If you take anything from our chat with Lorna, we hope it’s the inspiration to colour outside the lines and absolutely break the rules. 

Find us @whatartistseat on Instagram and our website www.whatartistseat.com.au

Links to Lorna's work and anything else we chatted about:

• LORNA’S WEBSITE
• LORNA’S INSTAGRAM
• LORNA’S COURSE
• THE CHURCHILL TRUST
• BUNDANON RESIDENCY
• SHIELA HICKS ARTIST
• ALLISON B COOKE ARTIST

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that someone with a social media handle @snackswithyeo was some kind of famous chef. Whilst Yeo is pretty brilliant in the kitchen, as you’ll find as we go along, it’s music that captured him early on and remains his true love. Internationally recognised Yeo has been releasing music for over a decade, with his craft taking him across Australia and as far from home as Ecuador, the US, Canada and Singapore.

You’ll find throughout the interview that Yeo is big on DIY - in music and food. This man absolutely loves learning how to do new things and problem-solving. “My attitude is if it’s already broken, there’s no harm in breaking it further to try to make it try to work again”.

Yeo reminds us that being able to cook is a privilege, especially for those who are time poor and exhausted. He recommends the “Time to Eat” series by Nadiya Hussain on Netflix that features super quick recipes. As for his own recipes, we cannot WAIT to make his steamed fish dish and took particular note of his advice to be meticulous when you julienne the ginger and spring onions. 

Yeo’s kitchen superpower is a power that we at What Artists Eat would like a LOT more of and his kitchen disaster story is a romantic pyrotechnic drama for the ages. 

Find us @whatartistseat on Instagram and our website www.whatartistseat.com.au

Links to Yeo's work and anything else we chatted about:

• YEO’S WEBSITE
• YEO’S INSTAGRAM
• NADIYA HUSSAIN
• PRESTON MARKET
• SITEWORKS
• TESTING GROUNDS
• MALAYMAS RESTAURANT

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nowadays, Leili Tehrani Walker believes that their Persian background has only done good things for their relationship to art and food, though they didn’t always believe this was the case. Growing up, it was complicated.

From the start, it seemed for Leili that art, culture, identity and politics were related. Early memories of seeing a distinctive mural in Kings Cross about the AIDS crisis made a huge impression on them when they were young. Interestingly the mural had similarities to political graffiti in their ancestral home in Shiraz, Iran.

Growing up in red-light district ‘The Cross’ (Eora Sydney) with a mother who escaped from Iran during the Iran Iraq war, Leili found that they were living between two worlds. Like many children of the Iranian diaspora, they didn’t feel like they fit in at their white anglo school but also didn’t have a large Iranian community to connect with.

Listen out for Leili incriminating a family member’s ingenious knack for producing enormous Persian feasts in the blink of an eye. We find out their favourite artist is painter Iman Raad (who creates Iranian miniature style paintings that you can get deliciously lost in). Their favourite kitchen sound is completely original and their favourite smell is definitely not what we were expecting! For a kitchen disaster story that involves a dinner party and cat food, plus the best tip for taking the bite out of red onion you’ll have to tune in.

** This episode contains themes around mental health and depression. If you're struggling, help is available via LIFELINE, BEYOND BLUE, TRANSCEND, GENDER CENTRE and TRANSHUB **

Find us @whatartistseat on Instagram and our website www.whatartistseat.com.au

Links to Leili's work and anything else we chatted about:

• LEILI’S WEBSITE
• LEILI’S INSTAGRAM
• COYOTE PARK WEBSITE
• BACKWOODS GALLERY 2022 EXHIBITION
• LINDSAY MAGAZINE ARTICLE
• EVERLASTING MEAL COOKBOOK
• PINK EMBER STUDIO
• FRANCES CANNON
• GERM FLACK

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s no big surprise that a kitchen utensil that looks pretty similar to a drum stick would be Nick Reid’s favourite. It is, however, pretty interesting that he derives just as much pleasure from ‘reading the history’ of the humble wooden spoon, as he does plunging it into an intuitively created curry that happens to be spicier than the deepest depths of hell.

Musician Nick Reid hasn’t been calling himself an artist for very long, despite being the drummer for the Australian indie-rock outfit Cousin Tony’s Brand New Firebird for over 5 years. It wasn’t until starting his solo project Kitsch Kitchen and diving deep into it thanks to the pandemic cancelling his band’s US South X SouthWest tour in 2020 that he began to really lean in. 

**Language warning - a few spicy words are thrown around during our conversation**

Find Nick's 'Lovers Curry' recipe and more at www.whatartistseat.com.au

Follow Nick on Instagram @kitschkitchenmusic

Links to anything else we chatted about:

• KITSCH KITCHEN BANDCAMP https://kitschkitchen.bandcamp.com/
• COUSIN TONY’S BRAND NEW FIREBIRD https://cousintonys.bandcamp.com/
• SHANNON MARTINEZ https://www.instagram.com/shannon_martinez/?hl=en
• HETTY MCKINNON http://hettymckinnon.com/
• ARTIST BEC SMITH https://becsmith.net/
• COMPOSER PETER CORRIGAN https://www.instagram.com/petercorriganmusic/?hl=en

Find us @whatartistseat on Instagram and our website www.whatartistseat.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Zoe Blow is an utter ray of sunshine. She’s your true multi-hyphenate, with her brilliance shining from the role of artist to studio director to life drawing host to gallery director to… you get the picture. Zoe’s the kind of person who, when she can’t find what she wants, will create it. Naturally, she decided to start hosting life drawing classes when she was lonely in her studio with a stack of art supplies, craving community. For the past 3 years, she’s been running Council Street Life Drawing in Naarm / Melbourne. Her deep passion is accessible community art, where anyone can be involved.

**Language warning - a few spicy words are thrown around during our conversation**

Find Zoe Blow's recipe and more at www.whatartistseat.com.au

Follow Zoe Blow on Instagram @zoeblow_

Council Street Life Drawing @councilstreetlifedrawing

The Nabe Studios Instagram and Website

Links to anything else we chatted about:

• Yolanda Whelan
• Joy Hester
• Rosalie Gascoigne
• “Simple” book anchovy salad recipe - scroll down a few recipes to find this one!
• Chunky Move dance studio
• Beci Orpin
• Mahalia Jackson
• Lizzo
• Julia Child

Find us @whatartistseat on Instagram and our website www.whatartistseat.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Long ago, artist Claire Lefebvre went on a date. After splitting the bill, her date tossed 70c across the table at her with a sly grin, “Here you go, for the ‘Starving Artist’”. Surprisingly, it didn’t work out.

That wasn’t the first time she’d heard it, and it wouldn’t be the last, but something really stuck that night when she heard “STARVING ARTIST” yet again (it stuck the way a poppyseed sticks between your two front teeth).

Claire continued to chew on the Starving Artist archetype, bringing her partner, sound artist Zoltan Fecso into the conversation. They both love art and food and found that plenty of their fellow artists had a lot to say about these topics too.

So Claire and Zoltan got their mates over for a meal and a chat to find out What Artists Eat!

If you love art and food, if you’ve always wanted to know what goes on behind the studio and kitchen doors, we have plenty for you to nibble on. Listeners will get inside info on the realities of the creative industries and what it often takes to be able to feed yourself as an artist. Tune in each week as we serve up juicy, funny and heartfelt interviews with leading professional artists. Make room for recipes, tips, tricks and hilarious kitchen disaster stories.

Sounds yummy right?

Join our table from March 3rd to find out What Artists Eat.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.