Elinor Carucci is an Israeli-American Fine Art Photographer based in New York City. Her photographs are included in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art New York, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Houston Museum of Fine Art, among others. Her work has been published in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, W, Aperture, and many other publications. She has published four monographs: Closer, Diary of a Dancer, MOTHER and Midlife. In this episode we chat about her wonderful book Midlife and the gifts of getting older. We also discuss long term projects, and the nuances of moving between cultures and existing in two languages.
Victoria Chang is a poet, writer and editor. Her new book of poetry is The Trees Witness Everything (2022). Her other books include Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence and Grief (2021) and OBIT (2020). In this episode, we chat about collaboration in art, her wonderful and varied use of form in her writing, and her current role as poetry editor at The New York Times Magazine. We also talk about growing up between cultures, and the realization that the very things that make us different are often, as Victoria notes, our strengths.
Melissa Febos is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, Whip Smart, and the essay collections, Abandon Me and Girlhood. Her craft book, Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative, will be published on March 15th. In this episode, Melissa and I chat about her wonderful book Body Work. We talk about writing as a spiritual practice (and mode of discovery), learning to quiet that pesky voice saying “who cares?” while making art, and some of the other common fears and worries creatives face.
David Hilliard is a fine art photographer based in Boston. He received his BFA from Massachusetts College of Art, and his MFA from Yale University. Through the use of diptychs and triptychs, his beautiful work documents his life and the lives of those around him. In this episode, David talks about his life in photography and how his love of theater, film, and storytelling influence the images he makes. We also chat about the perks of middle age, on being introverted as an artist, and what it’s like when personal work becomes public. Photographers David mentioned in this episode: Cheryl St. Onge: https://cherylestonge.com/ Corinne May Botz: https://www.corinnebotz.com/ Billie Mandle: https://www.billiemandle.com/
Fernando A. Flores is a writer based in Austin, TX. His books include the collection "Death to the Bullshit Artists of South Texas", the novel "Tears of the Trufflepig", and his upcoming book is "Valleyesque". In this episode, Fernando and I talked all about the ups and downs of the creative life, on living between cultures, the difference between writing vs. publishing, and the question Fernando asks that I’d like to put on a t-shirt: “Is this good for my creative brain?”
Michael Kleber-Diggs is a poet, essayist, and literary critic. His debut poetry collection "Worldly Things" was published last year and he is also a contributor to the book "There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love: Letters from a Crisis". Michael teaches creative writing through the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop and at colleges and high schools in Minnesota. In this conversation, Michael and I discuss his writing story, hope and sorrow, the power of mentorship to change a life and more.
Janelle Lynch is a New York-based artist whose images reveal an inquiry into themes of connection, presence, and transcendence. She uses an 8x10-inch view camera, and her recent work is deeply informed by her training in perceptual drawing and painting. Janelle’s photographs are in many private and public collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the International Center of Photography, New York; and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. She has three monographs published by Radius Books: Los Jardines de México (2010); AIGA award-winning Barcelona (2013), which also features her writings; and Another Way of Looking at Love (2018). In this deeply honest conversation Janelle speaks about influence in art, her practice, her expanded view of the word “family”, and ambiguous grief. If you’d like more of this conversation there is a written interview with Janelle here: www.musingsoftheartist.com
Jill Andrews is a musician and songwriter living in Nashville. Her EP "Ellen" was released this fall. In this episode Jill and I chat about the perils and gifts of being highly sensitive, moving out of our 30s, art-making, and more. Plus, find out the book Jill would like to put in people’s stockings!
Daisy Hernández is a writer and cultural activist. She is the author of the award-winning memoir "A Cup of Water Under My Bed" and coeditor of "Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism". Her latest book is "The Kissing Bug: A True Story of an Insect, a Family and a Nation's Neglect of a Deadly Disease". In this episode, we have a wide-ranging conversation about spirituality, writing, the nuances of language and cultures and more!
Aline Smithson is a visual artist, editor, and educator based in Los Angeles. She is also the Founder and Editor- in-Chief of Lenscratch, a daily journal on photography. In this conversation, Aline talks about her trajectory to fine art photography: from painter, to fashion editor to photographer. We discuss roadblocks and fear, long-term projects, the nuances of rejection, building community in the art world, and much more! If you are feeling a little stuck creatively then this is the episode for you. Get ready to be inspired!