Pep Talks for Artists

The new definition of painterly success just might be having Elisabeth Condon describe your painting. It's truly that satisfying. Elisabeth is back on the pod to describe a painting, and it's a fascinating one: " Untitled" 1968-69 from the Edge Painting series by Sam Francis . Come along as Elisabeth takes us not only through the painting itself, but also through Sam Francis'...

Join me this week as I welcome esteemed Choreographer, Julia Gleich! Julia, with Jason Andrew, is the co-founder of Norte Maar in Brooklyn and co-produces a collaborative ballet series every year called CounterPointe. This year marked the exciting 10th anniversary of the project. The series features 7 dances created through intense collaboration between 7 women choreographers and 7 women visual ar...

This week, I welcomed back, painter, Catherine Haggarty to the Peps pod. We spoke about her background as a high school basketball player and how the focus and commitment required to be an athlete have so many parallels to the life of an artist. Catherine makes luminous paintings and drawings using spray paint, acrylic, watercolor and oil stick of imagined domestic interiors, all put through her u...

This episode is a Mini! A little jalapeno popper for your ears and also a little nudge about putting ourselves out there more, being louder and taking up more space. Don't forget that the world needs our voices. You'll also learn more than you ever wanted about an obscure squishy baseball-type sport (played only in New Orleans and Chicago), which is adorably called "cabbage ball.&quot...

Ready your note-taking typing fingers because this week's guest is none other than Paddy Johnson of VVrkshop.art and she's here to give us 10 best-practice tips for writing our artist statements, thank God! Paddy is the founder of Netvvrk, a supportive membership that helps artists level-up in their careers AND also an award-winning arts writer. She has edited a gazillion artists' stat...

This episode is about letting play and non-seriousness back into our studios, with a dash of silly rabbits and mind-boggling space telescopes thrown in. Come along with me as I dive into the Nothing Burger state of mind. Mentions: James Webb Telescope, Louella Parsons, Charles Garabedian, Rembrandt, Dick Gackenbach's "Mother Rabbit's Son Tom," Eva Hesse, Sol LeWitt --------------...

This episode is a valentine of sorts... an homage to the German-Argentinian artist, Grete Stern, and how she snuck her incredible tragicomic feminist photomontages into a dream interpretation column into a 1950's Buenos Aires ladies' magazine during the reign of Peron and his Iron Fist. Cackle along with me as I take a deeper look at her hilariously sly and poignant photomontage illustrati...

What do we do if we get blocked in the studio? It's the absolute worst feeling and we all occasionally come down with this fever plague. I'll look at some books, some artist-to-artist tips, explore the strangely-relevant history of sugar packets, mule labor and much more to give us some tips for busting through any annoying walls that have dared to spring up around our creativity. Books mentioned:...

Our beloved guest host and artist, Elisabeth Condon, and her series "Elisabeth Condon Describes a Painting!" are back for a new installment! This time Elisabeth chose to describe Joseph Stella's oil on canvas painting "Tree of My Life" from 1919 that she saw at The Norton Museum in "Joseph Stella: Visionary Nature." The show is traveling next to the High Museum and to the Brandywine Museum. I...

Should artists go to the fairs? Or should we just leave it to the galleries and collectors? Is it too soul-crushing, or are there benefits? The hilarious Jennifer Coates is back to cohost with me this week (yay!) and I took the opportunity to grill her about her recent experience as an artist visiting "Untitled", a major art fair in Miami. Her gallery High Noon was presenting her work there as a s...

The wonderful Jennifer Coates is back in the co-host seat this time to help me kvetch about all things art and being an artist. We come correct with a panoply of over 35 heartfelt pet peeves. It was our pleasure to also dive into the IG mailbag for some Listener Peeves! Where do pushpins go when they fall to the floor and immediately vanish? Why is titanium white sold out more often than not? Why...

Collage artist and sculptor, Natalie Beall, joined me to chat about her work this week. We spoke about both her paper collage series "Utility Suite" and her painted wood and clay sculptures that tweak 2-D and 3-D space through a quiet visual flattening. Her mysterious images seem to represent game boards, domestic storage racks or display shelves that have long-lost their instructions and vital fu...

Join me this week as I speak to 4 artists working in mixed media and textiles (Olivia Baldwin, Melissa Dadourian, Sidney Mullis and Kelsey Tynik) about their show at Collar Works in Troy, NY called "Soft Play." We spoke about the works in the show, textiles in art, craft and fine art and the intermingling of the two, and the legacy of our mothers and grandmothers passed down through sewing. Also!...

Break a bottle of bubbly beverage over the hull, because today, Pep Talks is launching the very first installment of..."Elisabeth Condon Describes a Painting!"  In this episode, Elisabeth chose to describe Jules Olitski's "Wanderings, Bilbao: Orange Yellow and Blue" acrylic on canvas painting from 2004. She recently saw the painting at The Sam and Adele Golden Gallery in New Berlin, NY, in "J...

As a super fan, I was thrilled to welcome multi-media artist, Paula Wilson to the podcast this week. Paula joined me to talk about her current show, "Imago," at Denny Dimin Gallery in NYC (up right now through Oct 29, 2022) and also allowed me to pepper her with questions about her work in general. Paula works in expansive ways with collage, large-scale woodcut, video, and painting and lives and w...

Today's episode is all about avoiding the trap of that old heap of coffee grounds and lemon peels: Artistic Bitterness. I investigate how artists of history, like Carmen Herrera, Louise Bourgeois and Laurie Simmons, persevered and dealt with feeling like their work was ignored by the art scene. I also read some quotes from the eternally wise Enrique Martinez Celaya. Also, why am I always bringing...

This week, join me as I talk to Liz Weiss about her fascinating "Paxlovid Nightmare" series of watercolors that she made at the kitchen table in her New York City apartment. These small, vibrant works were directly inspired by the vivid dreams she had while talking the Covid medication. We also go deep into the topic of getting back to your work after an extended break, as Liz worked for many year...

I welcome Etty Yaniv to the podcast this week!  Etty lives and works in Brooklyn but is from Tel Aviv. She makes small paintings, drawings and sculptures, but also creates room-sized installations of swirling vortexes of plastic and found materials. She is the founder of Art Spiel, an online arts magazine, that interviews under-represented artists doing rigorous work and also offers reviews o...

It's just like old times having Jennifer Coates back to co-host the podcast! This week we're talking about the miasmic malaise that descends upon each of us after a show closes (and also the "narcissistic fugue state" that descends upon us during the run of the show). We all begin as studio goblins cranking on a deadline, feeding on coffee and starbursts, and then all of a sudden...the show comes....

Sarah Grass, Artist and Founder of The Pack Art School stopped by Peps this week to talk about her new upcoming class "The Artist Rebirth Cycle" and also, how artists can foster a long healthy relationship with their art over the long haul. She shared a lot of fascinating ideas about the psychology of making art as well as some techniques for drilling down to our true creative selves...inspired by...

This week, Painter and NYC Crit Club director, Catherine Haggarty, joined me to talk about that old enigma wrapped in a riddle: How to Host a Studio Visit. She gave tons of helpful tips for managing in-person visits, zoom visits AND how to guard against the emotional fallout that can come after a bad one. It's a gold mine!  Also, Catherine gave a teaser for the upcoming courses on offer at NY...

Mandy is back to help me dissect this beloved classic book "Ways of Seeing" 1972 (and BBC TV show) by John Berger . Welcome back, Mandy! And, as always on Book Talks, much art-nerdery was indulged. Come along with us as we consider Berger's thoughts on Art: aka How it was changed by the age of reproduction, How the Nude functions as a tool for the Male Gaze, and How art is used as a status symbol...

This week I had an amazing conversation with artist, Adie Russell. We discussed her incredible new "Lacuna" series of charcoal works on cotton rag paper (based on old Victorian glass negative studio portraits that are put through an obscure Photoshop filter) and also, her newest video work, "Hydriogenesis," which was born of a craving for a feeling of safety in nature and from the long periods of...

As an artist, do you find yourself climbing up the "caterpillar pillar"? Or, are you "risking the butterfly"? These analogies are from a wonderful book from the early 1970's called Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus. And in this episode, I explore how this fable can apply to artists and inspire them to choose their own path. #AlwaysRiskTheButterfly Thanks to Adie Russell for the recommendation a...

Come listen along as I speak with the incredible painter and sculptor, Ever Baldwin. Ever makes abstract oil paintings that loosely reference the body, eyes, nature, roads and even drag makeup...all enclosed in carved and burned wooden frames. The paintings and frames fuse together visually to create a new surprising whole, greater than the sum of its parts.  Ever Baldwin's website and Insta:...