Art on the Air

Art(s) on the Air with Julia Roland

Join Tamara for an interview with Julia Roland, a Savannah native who graduated from SCAD earlier this year with a BFA in painting and a minor in art history. The paintings in her portfolio symbolize the many different layers of African American culture and human identity through the juxtaposition of frontal facing confrontational figures, saturated colors, bold shapes, and loose patterns. These paintings are reflections of her identities intersecting as a black, queer woman. 

You can view her work in the current FAAA Small Works show at the Jepson Center, through November 26, 2024; at Bobby Bagley's studio/co-op gallery in City Market; and murals at Kim's Cafe and the outside door of a Head Start off of MLK.

 

Check out Julia's work and follow her here: 

https://www.juliaroland.com/
https://www.instagram.com/j.r.art_/ 

Topics in their chat include:

How Julia began showing her work in various Savannah spots as young as 18; she enjoys hand-building her substrates and using a jigsaw to cut out organic shapes for her wood panel art; she's always been into design and pattern but didn't want to create strictly abstract paintings, so her current work is portraits with abstract backgrounds; to build up the abstraction she relies on the underpainting to guide her, letting areas peek through or inform a pattern she's going to emphasize; creating murals at Kim's Cafe on MLK, including a portrait of MLK, Malcolm X, and the owners' mother, Kim (and thus the pressure to get portraits right when they're of recognizable people); what is a collagraph and why is it a good printmaking process for someone with a small working space?; her collagraph inspired by her experiences with roommates of different races and thinking about the differences in their hair; the challenge of using a handheld jigsaw to cut out her organic-shaped panels - it has to be thick enough to cut cleanly, but if it's too thick then the piece is very heavy, so Julia likes 1/4" plywood or a small piece of birch; her upcoming group show at Swan Coach House Gallery in Atlanta; her best advice to young artists who are looking to to find their style, message, and audience: thinking of creating art as a lifestyle and not a career, so that you find success in your productivity and not necessarily in your sales. 

 

Tune in and get all the details!

Art on the Air presents H. Gene Thompson

On this week's episode of Art on the Air we were excited to welcome H. Gene Thompson into the studio, with special guest co-host Becca Cook!

H. Gene Thompson is a Pittsburgh resident and an On::View Artist in Residence at Sulfur Studios. "The Rainbow Connection Project" had us thoroughly intrigued and we were interested to chat with them all about it!

From sulfurstudios.org:

"The Rainbow Connection Project connects people both physically and energetically.

During this residency H. Gene Thompson proposes to further delve into these concepts and adapt this work for Savannah and the needs of its community. With the work, they will seek to build metaphorical bridges, and develop refreshing perspectives on how to use physical proximity as a tool for connecting people. A public call will be made for performers to join in the facilitation of this project, and three movement workshops will take place on Wednesday evenings to explore how community members engage, and what content they bring and work through in their exploration. Most central to the work is getting people to engage with one another using fabric sculptures, movement workshops and live facilitation.

In this adaptation of The Rainbow Connection Project, built for the space at On::View and for multiple communities in Savannah, GA, the artist is interested in working with performers to develop ways we can hold space for audiences to connect and work through energetic pathways using movement. As we share psychic space with an audience, they would like to delve into questions relating to how we can also use ourselves as a medium to connect the audience to the land where they live, and address deeper unresolved issues of past versions of ourselves. As an audience observes us tapping into these energies, the artist would like to pose the question: how do we hold this vulnerability and create opportunities that are truly motions for change and rebalancing of energy, through the observation of the performer moving energy?"

PLUS we broadcast our Field Note with Kelly Boehmer and a surprise second mystery guest.

Tune in!

Art on the Air June 5th, 2019 with Peter Roberts

This week's broadcast of Art on the Air features the multitalented Peter Erwin Roberts!

Roberts' discusses his solo exhibition "If Only." Here's the show blurb:

"17 new works explore randomly connected thoughts that become fanciful environments. Based on real life experiences, arbitrary gossip and true encounters, each 12" x 12" has a pop art approach embellished by cut paper."

We can't wait to have Peter in studio to take a deep dive into not only this show, but his artistic practice and philosophy, as well as his take on the Savannah art community as a whole.

Also a Field Note with emerging artist Peggy Jo Aughtry and her inspiring story of how a very recent and unprecedented interest and practice in creating art saved her life.

Well worth a listen.