Art Dealer Diaries Podcast

Terry Williams (Deixh Teexli), discusses his early life growing up in Seattle and having Bill Gates in his cub scouts.  Terry is the owner of Inside Passage Arts in Skagway, AK, and sits down with host Dr. Mark Sublette to discuss the Inuit carvings that he has devoted his life to preserving and their future. We hear about Terry’s time as an artist resident in the Alaskan wilderness as well as his...

Native arts expert and gallery owner Al Anthony takes an hour out of his busy schedule to chat with his old friend Dr. Mark Sublette in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We get an inside look into Al’s days as a nuclear engineer for the USAF and how being stationed in New Mexico led him to Wright’s Trading Post in Albuquerque where he bought his first Maria Martinez bowl on layaway for two hundred dollars. Al...

Bob Kapoun, the owner of the historic Shop of the Rainbow Man in Santa Fe New Mexico, discusses the factors that led him down the path of dealing in Native American art. His interest in taking pictures during the Vietnam war led to an appreciation of photography and cinema, ultimately leading to a degree from Southern Illinois University and connecting Bob to the world of renowned photographer Edw...

Long-time Native American art dealer Chris Selser sits down with Dr. Mark Sublette during Indian Market in Santa Fe to reflect on 50 years of being involved in the Antique Native Arts industry. Selser discusses his upbringing and how several key events changed his trajectory into becoming an expert in Navajo weavings and jewelry. We hear about the romanticizing of Woodstock, and the proliferation...

Appraiser and author Scott Hale sits down with our host Dr. Mark Sublette to discuss his background in education and cinema, becoming a curator of private art collections, and finally the growing interest in authentic Native American items among millennials. Scott explains how his Grandfather ran a Native American art store at Hoover Dam in the 1930's and 40's.  His mother Cindy Hale (al...

Jim Jeter Native American dealer shares his amazing life story of forgery, war and redemption in the second episode of a two-part interview with Dr. Mark Sublette Well respected antique Indian Arts dealer Jim Jeter tells the story of his love of Native American art and Hispanic weavings. The son of a well-known actor James Jeter was raised in Southern California when a single arrowhead sparked the...

Well respected antique Indian Arts dealer Jim Jeter tells the story of his love of Native American art and Hispanic weavings. The son of a well-known actor James Jeter was raised in Southern California when a single arrowhead sparked the love of antique Indian art.  Jim shares the intimate story about how he became a specialist in antique Indian jewelry and how this gift lead him down the road of...

Michael Ettema, a former museum director for the Henry Ford Museum and Desert Caballeros Museum in Wickenburg shares his journey from training at Winterthur Museum to becoming a museum art director to gallery manager and finally art appraiser. He is the owner of Art Appraisals of Santa Fe.

Dallas based trader Michael McKissick sits down with host Mark Sublette during the Antique American Indian Art Show in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This episode of the Art Dealer Diaries covers a nearly 60 year long native art dealing career that begins with a pair of moccasins bought at a rodeo in the 1960's and continues to this day. Formerly a cryogenic systems designer, McKissick established a c...

Michael Haskell Indian Art and Spanish Colonial furniture dealer discuss his life story of how he got interested in the field fifty years ago, he's a third-generation Santa Barbara resident.  Interesting story about the painter Don Perceval, Maynard Dixon, and Clay Lockett as well as buying old pawn off the Navajo reservation.  Amazing story of how Michael Haskell tried to buy the C.G. Wallac...

Tad Anderman shares his life story of growing up in the Southwest and his love of Indian Art.  How he turns his passion for looking at Native American art at the Denver Art Museum into a profession.  Tad takes us on his journey to Sydney Australia to open one of the first Native American Art galleries and the challenges involved in selling Indian Art in another country.  Besides selling Native Ame...

Historian Jeff Hengesbaugh sits down with host Mark Sublette to discuss recreating his journey of being a current-day mountain man and fur trader into a Native American and Antique dealer. Mark and Jeff discuss his path from a self-taught anthropologist and the many trials he endured to make a living selling antique goods. Jeff's insight into the history of mountain man is not to be missed.

Jan Musial sits down with host Dr. Mark Sublette to discuss his love of Native American Art and how he became a dealer in the Indian art trade. Jan goes into depth about how being married to a Navajo woman changed his perspective on the art he had been collecting and selling. Jan worked as an LA County firefighter before transiting into Indian Arts. Jan explains his relationship with some of the b...

Kim Martindale, producer of such art shows as the LA Art Show and the Objects of Art  and Antique Native American Show in Santa Fe sits down with our host Mark Sublette to discuss his life and career dedicated to the arts.  Kim has been collecting Native American Art his entire life and gradually moved from the dealer's world to that of major art show promoter.  The LA Art Show is one of the...

Artist Kevin Kehoe discusses life growing up in New England and how his professional journey led him through Boston, Providence, Utah, Seattle, San Francisco, and New York, ultimately leading him back to Utah where he lives today. Kevin recounts his time conjuring up ad campaigns for the likes of automotive manufacturers like Saturn and how his design career helped shape his artistic process.

Celebrate Woodstock's 50th anniversary with legendary Rolling Stone and Rock n' Roll photographer Baron Wolman in this intimate interview with host Dr. Mark Sublette. Baron's journey from his teenage years, crossing police lines and eventually into a stint of espionage on behalf of the US government in East Berlin. His life-changing moment comes after meeting twenty-one-year-old Jan...

Historian and Museum director Steve Friesen takes a detour from his appearance at the Western Writers Association to drop by the Medicine Man Gallery studio.  Mark and Steve take a fascinating journey into the life of the Western legend Buffalo Bill Cody and the many characters that would orbit the showman in his lifetime. Interesting and outright surprising details about the worldwide phenomenon...

Tim Yazzie stops by the Medicine Man Gallery studio to discuss his upbringing in New Mexico and the journey that led him to Tucson, Arizona where he lives today. Tim indulges us in the hardships of being a Native American silversmith (half Santo Domingo, a quarter San Felipe, and a quarter Navajo) in the 21st century and tells the story of his first job working with silver and turquoise inlay. Fro...

Executive Editor of True West Magazine shares his life story and his love for history and western art since he was a kid. His amazing ride from radio host, cartoonist, and writer for the counter-culture magazine New Times for ten years. Bell discusses his art show and book on Billy the Kid.

Native American antique art dealer Michael Bradford travels to Tucson, Arizona to sit down with host Mark Sublette and talk about his experiences traveling the country searching for and selling Native American art and antiques. Michael discusses his time in the United States Navy and how a few life-changing moments turned a bull rider from a rodeo junky to a traveling antique expert. Family, nativ...

Expert framer and art dealer Michael Collier stops by Medicine Man Gallery to discuss his personal journey through the art world.  Michael shares his connections with important artists including photographer Dan Budnik, painter/muralist Edith Hamlin, and the legendary Arizona artist Ed Mell (whose frames come directly from Collier). Michael also discusses how to design the perfect frame to fit eac...

Highly regarded New York artist, Leonardo Drew discusses his latest work 'Navajo' and how he became an artist growing up in the projects.  Leonardo explains his process of how and why he titles his art pieces using numbers and how his pieces form in his consciousness, then come to fruition. Anyone who is interested in art, more specifically contemporary sculpture, will love hearing from...

Johnny D. Boggs shares his life story as an aspiring sportswriter and newspaper editor before finding his true calling as an author of historic fiction.  His journey from the Carolinas to New Mexico is in itself a tale of westward expansion. Johnny shares what it takes to be an author of Western novels and his methods behind an award-winning career in the world of historical fiction. Johnny Boggs...

Santa Fe, Italy, San Francisco, Phoenix, Central California, all are stops along the way for the modern sculptor.  Otton Rigan explains shaping tons and tons of stone and the peril of working with 800lbs sculptures This is an enlightening interview for artists and collectors alike to understand the circuitous road to becoming a world-class artist.

Mark and Murray Arrowsmith, sons of the remarkable and influential trader Santa Fe Indian Art Trader Rex Arrowsmith, reflect on their father’s lasting contribution to the Native American art community. Story after story, these two unique individuals share the fantastic details of their upbringing in Santa Fe Native American art scene in the 1960 and '70s and how Rex help shape Santa Fe into t...