The Art Box

Boom, this hit our wheelhouse of nature, public lands, native culture and creativity, Linda and Steve thought they were in heaven interviewing Fairbanks based naturalist, wilderness guide and writer Michael Engelhard. Come join us for an interview touching on how Michaels western adventures shapes his writing.  Click here for Micheals website. Click here to purchase Michels books. Check back now a...

This is a marvelous episode that artists will appreciate from beginning to end. Linda Harris masterful job of asking questions displays the breadth of her guest research and profound understanding of the creative process. Besides being a great artist, Cody is very much a conservationist, lover of all thing’s nature and a full-time ranger with the US Forest Service.  You can find out more about Cod...

A Saturday Art Box road trip to Las Vegas found us at the Blue Ox Tavern on Sahara meeting up with artist and College of Southern Nevada (CSN) professor Sean Russell for a wide-ranging and fun chat about creativity and art. Slip on the headphones, sit back, maybe grab a glass of good red wine, or an IPA and enjoy this lovely conversation. No extra charge for the neat bar sounds in the background....

In our efforts to publish community based content, today we will talk about coyotes. As Mesquite pushes boundaries deeper into coyote habitats, rapid development, driven by population growth and economic expansion, encroaches upon the once-remote territories where coyotes roam. As Mesquite expands, it brings infrastructure, residential areas, and commercial developments, fragmenting natural landsc...

Linda and Steve welcome Suzie White as our "From the Theatre" host. Suzie will be focusing on performing arts in the Virgin Valley and beyond.  Today Suzie welcomes Al Vysinka and Jim Blanco from the musical trio "Off the Rails" to our STEAM Center studio to chat about their upcoming performance at the Mesquite Community Theatre on Saturday May 18. John Maystadt their third member was vacationing...

What a pleasure it was to sit down with Brian Cornett in our Do It Best Hardware recording studio in the Mesquite Works STEAM Center. Brian is just a nice guy, with a heart for volunteering and writing. We hope you enjoy this episode with a true Mesquite upstanding citizen and artist. 

You might recognize Teresa Skye and Dave Ward from their appearance in Episode 76 - Deep Space, Volunteering and Nature Journaling - from March 10, 2023. We recorded at their campsite in Gold Butte National Monument . The Art Box has not been recorded outside since then until now. Steve drove 323 miles to Horseshoe Canyon in Canyonlands National Park to catch our amazing volunteers at their Nation...

Steve was honored in early 2023 to attend Torrey House Press Voices for the West Writers Workshop in Sprindale, Utah just outside of Zion National Park. Our fiction group was led by amazing author Kase Johnstun and included Morgan Sjogren ( Path of Light ), Stacie Shannon Denetosie ( The Missing Morningstar ), the talented Liana Morales, many others and me.  As we introduced ourselves I was enthra...

The Art Box was pleased to welcome Mesquite Public Arts Commission (MPAC) Chair Karen Miskimins to our Do It Best Hardware Studio at the Mesquite Works STEAM Center to chat about promoting public art in Mesquite. Our wide-ranging conversation ran from MPAC inauguration by the city council, to initiatives such as First Fridays, fundraising, pollinator garden, our new fire department, youth art, and...

We were graced at our Do It Best Hardware studio in the Mesquite STEAM Center with local entertainer DJ Van Dyke. Listen in as DJ recounts her journey of creativity and song that she will be sharing this May in Mesquite. DJ Van Dyke is an Iowa farm girl who made her way to Nevada by way of a short stop in Colorado that lasted 42 years.  DJ headlined a contempory rock band in the mid-70's.  Raising...

It was our pleasure to host Lydia Wolfe as a guest on the Art Box Podcast. Lydia is full of energy in her work at Get Outdoors Nevada and her many other heartfelt commitments to our local community. Those who know Steve, know that he loves quotes and Lydia gave him two "Every artist breathes life into the piece they are making" and one so amazing it is the title of this episode "Treat art like lif...

As part of our humanities programming The Virgin Valley Artists' Association and The Art Box are proud to present a podcast with Southern Nevada Health Districts health educator Pitchaya Pattasema. Pitchaya oversees the Pop-Up Produce Stands program.  The Pop-Up Produce Stands program is part of CDC’s Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) program which aims to improve health, pr...

If you hang out at the Mesquite Rec Center chances are you will catch a glimpse of our two whirlwind friends Donna and Ann buzzing about, teaching classes and being happy. Linda has been working for some time to schedule a podcast and poof a week ago our Art Box studio in the STEAM Center came alive with these two dynamos. Here is a little bit about them below, then listen to an energy packed podc...

We are going to start a new short podcast idea by interviewing artists whose works have received Best of Show awards. Not just at our local gallery but from anywhere. We will start with the Mesquite Fine Arts Gallery March exhibition "Through Our Eyes" and the Best of Show "Leaping Lizards Southwest Style" by Linda Harris. Linda is interviewed by Floyd Johnson. Enjoy.

Steve looks forward to Spring every year when Lori and Dan Rowland visit Gold Butte National Monument giving him friends to go out and play.  This year JT and Anastasiya came along with Dan, Lori, Ruby and myself on a good hike in Garden Canyon. The next day Lori and Dan visited our STEAM Center studio for a much anticipated podcast. Lori was her always brilliant self giving us a behind the scenes...

The Art Box was privileged to host director Fred Bell at our STEAM Center studio. Fred recently captured the Best Nevada Filmmaker award at the Dam Short Film Festival in Boulder City, Nevada for “Sounds of Blue Spaces.” Fred Bell is very comfortable sitting in the desert, miles from anywhere, listening to (and recording) the spirit of the land.  A 2005 article in the Seattle Times about “One Squa...

Our friend Bob Craig zoomed into our STEAM Center studio to chat about the Virgin Valley Theatre Groups coming production of Almost Maine. As Director, Bob provides us a unique look at this popular play, its stories, it's almost-ish, and it's magic. Gwen and I have our tickets for opening night, this is going to be our spring MUST SEE in the Virgin Valley and beyond.  Almost, Maine, a town that’s...

Linda and Tyler sat down with Pennsylvania based artist Denzy Dark recently for a wide ranging discussion of poetry, creativity, visual arts and life in general. This will go down as one of our best podcasts.   Denzy Dark, artistic alias for Dustin Nispel, is an international award-winning poet and visual artist. His works dive into dark surrealism with cumbersome emotion that pulls at the viewer’...

Linda and her granddaughter Natalie sat down during the summer to discuss music in the schools, and the physical and intellectual challenges of playing an instrument in a marching band.  Natalie has advanced in her music since this discussion, and recently won Gold for her saxophone solo in her District Competition.  She now advances to the state competition.  

Morgan Sjogren is an author, explorer, and defender of wild places. Her books and writing focus on human-powered adventure, public lands, conservation, history, travel, and food. Sjogren devotes much of her writing and time to advocate, educate, and inspire others to help protect endangered landscapes and the environment. Sjogren is the author of  Path of Light: A Walk Through Colliding Legacies o...

Our good friends from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Jennifer Heroux and Rob Vinson drove to Mesquite to enlighten our listeners about the history of US wildlife refuges and how the Federal Duck Stamp Program has positively impacted wildlife through land preservation. Jennifer oversees the Nevada Junior Duck Stamp program and she takes time to explain how teachers and young artists can engage. ...

We wrapped up our visit to Elko, enjoying our old friends and making many new ones. Not much sleep, long ride up and back but our time was precious. We hope you can enjoy the myraid of talented guests that graced our mic. Many thanks to the worldwide fans of The Art Box and to our sponsors the Virgin Valley Artists' Association. 

Karen Terrey is a writer, editor, and writing coach, offering marketing and business writing, copy editing, publishing guidance, and creative writing workshops in Truckee through her business Tangled Roots Writing for clients of all ages.  She has taught at Lake Tahoe Community College, Sierra Nevada College, and Sierra College and has served as a poetry editor for the literary journals Pitkin Rev...

To quote my Grandmom and Annie MacKennzie "Welp", we tried to record during our annual shopping spree of the vendors setup in the Conference Center, and the background noise mostly washed out the conversations we had with  the many talented vendors. But here you go, the best we could edit. Hope you can semi-enjoy this.

WOW, is all you can say after a Kristyn Harris show, she PLAYS the guitar like no one else, and she belts out her tunes that has you tapping your toes and dancing in your seat. We caught up with Kristyn this year along with her Grandpa the evening before they headed north to work on her herds calving in Southern Idaho. Thank you Kristyn for an always fun interview. Have fun in Europe this summer a...