Art Pays Me

Halifax, Nova Scotia based filmmaker Leah Johnston discusses her artistic journey and creative process – sharing how a vocal surgery ended her singing career but led her to filmmaking. Johnston emphasizes the importance of patience and openness in finding inspiration for her films, often drawing from personal experiences and merging ideas over time. Leah values the support of institutions in Canad...

Duane welcomed Writer and Performer, Lee-Anne Poole to discuss her residency at Pavia Gallery. Lee-Anne is the author of 7 produced plays, her first full-length play, Splinters, has been adapted into a feature film by Thom Fitzgerald. Splinters premiered at The Toronto International Film Festival and was the Opening Night Gala presentation at The Atlantic Film Festival. Lee-Anne was featured in Hu...

Cartoonist, illustrator and novelist Vivian Zhou discusses her creative process, influences, and experiences – emphasizing the importance of daydreaming and quiet time for developing stories. Vivian also highlights the value of having an agent to navigate the publishing industry and maintain creative control over her work. The Creative Nova Scotia Awards are presented by  Arts Nova Scotia  and the...

Return guest Christopher Webb joined me to chat about artist residencies and the residency that he hosts out of Pavia Gallery in Herring Cove, Nova Scotia. This conversation took place in July 2025.

Welcome to a special series of Art Pays Me interviews with the winners of the  2025 Creative Nova Scotia Awards . Presented annually by  Arts Nova Scotia  and the  Creative Nova Scotia Leadership Council , these awards celebrate artistic excellence across Mi'kma'ki. Award categories are as follows: Creative Community Impact Prix Grand-Pré Established Artist Emerging Artist Black Artist Indigenous...

Welcome to a special series of Art Pays Me interviews with the winners of the  2025 Creative Nova Scotia Awards . Presented annually by  Arts Nova Scotia  and the  Creative Nova Scotia Leadership Council , these awards celebrate artistic excellence across Mi'kma'ki. Award categories are as follows: Creative Community Impact Prix Grand-Pré Established Artist Emerging Artist Black Artist Indigenous...

On this episode, I chat with  Cairista MacIsaac about ArtWorks East (AWE) . AWE is an association of visual artists and crafters who live in Guysborough County that was founded in 2019. They welcome local artisans of all ages and levels of experience as well as those who want to support the visual arts in their area. 

Jaclyn represents fast-growing, people-focused competitive brands who are addressing the evolving consumer market. She tells stories across all media platforms for partners in industries spanning art, fashion, beauty, health & wellness, Consumer packaging goods, technology and home. Most notably having worked with Vega, Saje Natural Wellness, Russell Wilson and Ciara's fashion brand The House of L...

Welcome to a special series of Art Pays Me interviews with the winners of the  2024 Creative Nova Scotia Awards . Presented annually by  Arts Nova Scotia  and the  Creative Nova Scotia Leadership Council , these awards celebrate artistic excellence across Mi'kma'ki. Alan Syliboy grew up believing that native art was generic.  "As a youth, I found painting difficult and painful, because I was unsur...

Ariana Roberts is a Canadian makeup artist, currently based in Halifax, working primarily in film and TV. Born in Edmonton, and raised in Baltimore, Halifax and two years in Bolgatanga, Ghana. While pursuing a double major in Linguistics and Anthropology at Concordia University in Montréal, she decided to switch gears and went to makeup school at the Blanche MacDonald Centre in Vancouver. She quic...

Welcome to a special series of Art Pays Me interviews with the winners of the  2024 Creative Nova Scotia Awards . Presented annually by  Arts Nova Scotia  and the  Creative Nova Scotia Leadership Council , these awards celebrate artistic excellence across Mi'kma'ki. Tim Crofts is a first generation Canadian of British and Indian descent. He is an improviser, a traditional non-traditionalist, and/o...

Welcome to a special series of Art Pays Me interviews with the winners of the  2024 Creative Nova Scotia Awards . Presented annually by  Arts Nova Scotia  and the  Creative Nova Scotia Leadership Council , these awards celebrate artistic excellence across Mi'kma'ki. On this episode I spoke with musician and Prix Grand-Pré recipient, Robert Deveaux. This special episode would not be possible withou...

Welcome to a special series of Art Pays Me interviews with the winners of the  2024 Creative Nova Scotia Awards . Presented annually by  Arts Nova Scotia  and the  Creative Nova Scotia Leadership Council , these awards celebrate artistic excellence across Mi'kma'ki. On this episode I spoke with Emerging Artist Award recipient, Lux Gow-Habrich (星尘) , a multidisciplinary visual artist, facilitator...

Andrea Tsang Jackson is a textile artist, quilt designer, author and educator. After working in various design fields and settings ranging from architecture to museums, the quilting medium called to her as a way to explore place, belonging, and agency. Andrea and I have now become good art friends since her first appearance on the show. This time we talked about her new book, Quilting: A Modern Cr...

Chanelle Jefferson is a Canadian mixed media artist and counsellor whose work explores themes of healing, emotion, and connection. Her art has been exhibited internationally, including at Museo Bellini (Florence, Italy), and is held in private collections such as those of Pete Luckett and the MacKay-Lyons family. She was the 2023 Artist-in-Residence at the Lunenburg School of the Arts, where she d...

Welcome to a special series of Art Pays Me interviews with the winners of the  2024 Creative Nova Scotia Awards . Presented annually by  Arts Nova Scotia  and the  Creative Nova Scotia Leadership Council , these awards celebrate artistic excellence across Mi'kma'ki. This would not be possible without the fantastic production work of Heist and Keke Beatz . On this episode I spoke with 2024 Indigeno...

Aux Tale Gravy Music Group is a Toronto-based record label, dedicated to developing richness, shifting the culture and changing the status quo in world music. From their cookhouse to the world, Aux Tale Gravy's dynamic team shares a signature 'one pot' recipe of simmering spices, serving a variety of cultural music dishes that 'feed the people' , everywhere. Aux Tale Gravy is passionate about work...

Welcome to a special series of Art Pays Me interviews with the winners of the  2024 Creative Nova Scotia Awards . Presented annually by  Arts Nova Scotia  and the  Creative Nova Scotia Leadership Council , these awards celebrate artistic excellence across Mi'kma'ki. This would not be possible without the fantastic production work of Heist and Keke Beatz . On this episode I spoke with Established A...

Elise Campbell is a multimedia artist based in Stillwater Lake, Nova Scotia. Working primarily with wool, silk, and other natural fibres, she creates sculptural pieces that push traditional craft boundaries and the limits of wool as a medium by exploring human-nature relationships through textural forms, histories, and surface design. Utilising both contemporary techniques such as needle felting a...

Welcome to a special series of Art Pays Me interviews with the winners of the  2024 Creative Nova Scotia Awards . Presented annually by  Arts Nova Scotia  and the  Creative Nova Scotia Leadership Council , these awards celebrate artistic excellence across Mi'kma'ki. This would not be possible without the fantastic production work of Heist and Keke Beatz . On this episode I spoke with Emerging Arti...

Kordeena Clayton is the owner of She Nubian Liberation Art & Apparel, founder of Takin' BLK Business Initiative Co-operative, co-founder of the Takin' BLK Gottingen and Markets. A 7th generation descendant of the first African migrants to ever accompany Nova Scotia, a proud African Nova Scotian Queer Visual artist who focuses on the importance of representation of Black and Brown people; Inclusivi...

Camille Georgeson-Usher , PhD, is a Coast Salish / Sahtu Dene / Scottish writer, artist, and scholar from Galiano Island, British Columbia, unceded territories of the Penelakut and Lamalcha First Nations, as well as other Hul'qumi'num speaking peoples and is the ceded traditional territories of Tsawwassen First Nation. She is Assistant Professor, Modern and Contemporary Indigenous Art at the Unive...

In this throwback to my chats with the participants in our 2023 collaborative exhibition with  Haliente – Arte & Movement, I spoke with artist, Beverly McKay .

In this throwback to my chats with the participants in our 2023 collaborative exhibition with  Haliente – Arte & Movement, I spoke with artist Mike Kasongo .

Welcome to a special series of Art Pays Me interviews with the winners of the  2024 Creative Nova Scotia Awards . Presented annually by  Arts Nova Scotia  and the  Creative Nova Scotia Leadership Council , these awards celebrate artistic excellence across Mi'kma'ki. This would not be possible without the fantastic production work of Heist and Keke Beatz . On this episode I spoke with Emerging Arti...