Finding the Words

From his breakthrough series "Anthology," which turned Calvin & Hobbes into poetry, to his epic installation pieces that transform William Buckley's arguments from his 1965 Cambridge debate with James Baldwin into graphite-coated strenography, Tony Lewis has carved a unique space for himself in contemporary drawing. Working mainly in graphite, Lewis' practice challenges the conventions of language...

Michael James Schneider's quotes that promote positive mental health rendered in mylar balloons have become an online sensation. They seem somewhat destined to succeed, but his route to this point was far from assured. A self-taught artist, Michael has gone from retail management to now releasing his second book on August 5th, 2025, with a special book signing happening on Saturday, August 9th at...

Jesse Duquette has been skewering DJT, and the various boot lickers in his orbit, since day one of the first Trump administration. He started the Daily Don in 2017, by posting one drawing everyday detailing all the lies and buffoonery. His current Instagram account continues that same mission and has been a consistent target for the political right. Jesse is threatened consistently by online troll...

Iceland's Halldór Ragnarsson uses a combination of repetitive phrases in his native Icelandic, abstract compositions, and a muted palette punctuated with bright yellow to create the signature look of his paintings. I had a chance to ask Halldór about how he comes up with his phrases and how repetition fit into his philosophy of language, and the transformative nature of losing his home studio in a...

The creative journey of Lake Charles, LA artist Robbie Austin is filled with starts and stops, detours, and coincidences. You could say in a way it's all been one very long u-turn, which led him from Louisiana, to Los Angeles for college, on to Houston, then back to his hometown. After an extensive period away from art he's back and better than ever, putting his signature abstractions onto old tex...

After a 35-year career in advertising that saw him co-found not just one but two of the top firms in the British ad world, Dave Buonaguidi (whom you might know from Instagram as Real Hackney Dave) was at a crossroads, both personally and professionally. He needed to find a new path for himself, and found just that after a fateful screen printing seminar. It should come as no surprise that the same...

In honor of Tim Youd's latest installation of the 100 Novels series, here is an encore presentation of his visit on the very first episode of Finding the Words. Tim will be retyping The Dick Gibson Show by Stanley Elkin, as well as the short story collection Criers & Kibitzers, Kibitzers & Criers, in conjunction with the current exhibition "Stanley and Joan Elkin's Artistic Kingdom" at the Olin Li...

From woodblock prints and paintings, to concert posters for top-line acts and recording his own music, Indianapolis-based multi-disciplinary artist Nathaniel Russell has proven he can do it all. I sat down with Nathaniel a few days before the closing reception for his two-person show along with Lori Damiano, Foot Chorus, at Minnow Arts in Santa Cruz, CA, to discuss how he's able to keep creating i...

Reconnecting with someone who's been an important part of your life is always wonderful, but when that person is also a top-notch painter with fantastic stories to tell, you just have to share. Greg Miller, one of my former college teachers, is also a skilled mixed media artist. A self-described "contemporary cave painter," he combines painting and collages of vintage magazines to add layers and d...

This episode with Florida-based collage artist Duane Toops is bittersweet. While excited to chat with Duane about his immersive analog/digital hybrid collages, the circumstances surrounding the interview were challenging to say the least. Recorded a few days after wildfires tore through the LA area (my home and family are ok, but the effects on the city can't be understated) which caused a huge pa...

In the non-objective paintings of Joseph O'Neal, one constant holds true: dualities. Eye-popping colors combine with stark black and white. Ambiguous shapes play off of thought-provoking text that seems to drift in on a stray radio frequency. Even his recurring series of paintings of Jackie Onassis contain hidden dualities, which we get into, as well as Joseph's journey as an artist, in our discus...

Though best know for his 2001 piece Guerrilla Public Service, which consisted of taking it upon himself to correct an oversight on downtown Los Angeles freeway signage, Richard Ankrom has had an extremely varied and interesting artistic career and creative journey. I sat down with him to discuss sign making and his various forays into fine art. And, of course, we discuss Guerrilla Public Service,...

In the street art hub of Lisbon, one artist isn't aiming her spray paint can at buildings. Dear Anushka chooses instead to tag her particular brand of witty sayings, romantic longings, and universally relatable missives onto a much different canvas: discarded mattresses left on the streets. We discuss how these temporary queen-sized galleries provide a voice for the voiceless while performing an u...

Corita Kent, or Sister Mary Corita as she was known in her days as a nun, was an educator, activist, and widely-acclaimed artist, creating some of the most influential pop art serigraphs of the 1960s. Her career continued into the 1980s, and the steward of her art and legacy is the Corita Art Center in Los Angeles, led by Executive Director Nellie Scott. In this episode I sit down and talk with Ms...

Today's guest is New Hampshire-based painter, Chad Etting. We discuss Chad's influences, how the pandemic helped shape his practice, his surprising beginnings in New York City after graduation, plus a whole lot more. https://www.chadetting.com/

On the closing day (10/19/2024) of his Los Angeles solo debut show "I'm Trying to Live Forever" at Lowell Ryan Projects, Eric Stefanski joins me from his studio in Chicago to discuss the themes in his work, the beginnings of his artistic journey, plus a peek at what the future holds in store. https://www.ericstefanski.com/ https://www.lowellryanprojects.com/eric-stefanski-im-trying-to-live-forever

For today's episode Kenneth chats with Mexico City-based author Eloisa Hernandez Viramontes about her new book The Word as Artistic Language: Textual Practices in Mexico, which is the first book to ever tackle the topic of Mexican text-based art. But, you probably already know Eloisa for her Instagram account, Word Artworks.

Here's my discussion with Joshua Tree-based artist Judy Lichtman. We dig into how the events of 2020 ushered her into her text-based style, how her art practice and her painting practice coincide, and what life is like in her tight-knit desert artistic community. judylichtman.com https://www.mbcac.org/pages/hwy-62-open-studio-art-tours

For our first episode Kenneth talks to L.A.-based multi-disciplinary artist Tim Youd about his 100 novels series and its latest installments in Georgia Retyped at Atlanta Contemporary. By using a typewriter as an element of performance, Tim's art examines the act of reading closely by crushing an entire novel into a diptych. How? Join us to find out. https://atlantacontemporary.org/exhibitions/tim...

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