Art on the Air

Art(s) on the Air with Carmen Aguirre

Join Tamara for an interview with oil painter Carmen Aguirre, a Miami native who got her BFA Fine Art in Miami, and then went to Spain for graduate study with Valencian classical painter Amadeo Roca Gisbert.  

Carmen moved to Savannah in 2016 and then spent about 10 years working for the former Grand Bohemian Gallery at the Mansion, eventually becoming Gallery Director. She is a figurative painter working in oil on canvas and/or panel. While she represents scenes of daily life, her objective is also to convey how the subject touches and inspires her. 

Check out more of Carmen's work and follow her here: 
https://www.instagram.com/carmenmaguirre/ 
https://www.carmenmariaaguirre.com/ 

 

Topics in their chat include:

The sharp learning curve of her graduate program in Spain, where she was thrown into the deep end of representational oil painting; she reminisces about her college and grad school era of not being super concerned about what her art would lead her to, career-wise, but just being at peace about pursuing your art degree for learning's sake; living in Miami and attending Art Basel from when it began in 2002; how she moved to Savannah about 20 years ago after having visited her daughter here many times; how she met good friend and fellow painter Dana Richardson when coming across Dana painting in Forsyth Park; her preference for including a frame on her art to call it "finished;" lessons learned from a past solo show at the JEA in which she had 24 (!) paintings; what are mangroves?; her conceptual painting of an orange LifeSaver candy; her years of having real creative control over discovering new Savannah artists and bringing them into the Mansion's Gallery; her recent series of paintings exploring Daffin Park and depicting the sense of vast space there; and her goals for 2025 of: building up a big series of paintings, putting on a public show, and possibly starting a series of artist salons.

 

Tune in and get all the details! 

Art(s) on the Air with Darcy Melton

Join Tamara for an interview with oil painter Darcy Melton, a local native who attended Savannah Arts Academy and then tried fashion school in NYC for a year, before returning to Savannah and the self-directed study of fine art. Her work focuses on portraits (she accepts commissions) and still lifes, and she has taught painting workshops at the Jepson Center and at Arts on the Coast in Richmond Hill.

Darcy's mother-in-law is Melinda Borysevicz, a former local figurative oil painter who has moved to Italy, and through her Darcy's been able to gain Italian residency too. She now splits her time between Savannah - look for her in shows at Location Gallery, SLAM, and Isle of Hope Art Fair - and Padula, Italy! 

 

Check out more of Darcy's work and follow her here:

https://www.darcymeltonfineart.com/
https://www.instagram.com/darcymeltonfineart/

Topics in their chat include:

How Darcy transitioned from watercolor painting to oil, and her advice that if you can work simply, with a limited palette and just one "solvent," moving from watercolor to oil painting is actually way less intimidating and complicated than people tend to think; once she started showing her work in person at a Sulfur Street Fair, and expanding to portrait work, both around 2021/2022, her career rapidly got a foothold; a large part of her art business recently is portrait commissions (she is open if you would like to book one!); juggling trying to learn Italian and/or Neapolitan, the dialect spoken in her town of Padula; and the 2 projects she shares with her husband Nathaniel Mellor - the "Only a Bag" podcast of Italian travel tips, news, and history tidbits, and their art & literary magazine "Pigeon Review," which they started during COVID and hope to reinstate in the near future.

P.S. - at some point we could not remember what ASMR actually stands for and I promised to do research, so here it is! "ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) is a relaxing sensation triggered by specific sounds or visuals, often described as a 'tingling' feeling in the head or spine." 

Tune in and get all the details! 

Art(s) on the Air with Mary Carol Kenney

Join Tamara for an interview with Mary Carol Kenney, a "figurative artist known for her work in painting and mixed media, often drawing inspiration from her surroundings to explore themes of nature, people, and culture."

Mary Carol moved to Savannah in early 2021, largely because someone once told her she would really like it here, and joined the City Market Art Studios at the beginning of July, after having spent years working from her home studio. Visit her symbolism-filled figurative paintings and her pop art screenprints in her studio, or on Saturdays at the farmers' market/lane of artists selling in Forsyth Park! 

* This Sunday, Sept 8 from 4-7pm we're throwing an Open Studios event at the City Market North side (above the Georgia Tasting Room) - please join us to chat with the artists and enjoy light refreshments and music! *

 

Check out Mary Carol's work and follow her here:

https://www.marycarolkenney.com/
https://www.instagram.com/marycarolkenney/

 

Topics in their chat include:

How Mary Carol transitioned from being a "happy hermit" in her home studio to working out of City Market at the beginning of July, to boost her sales from just selling Saturdays in Forsyth Park; what are cyanotypes and screenprints?; her time spent in Santa Barbara taking all variety of art and craft classes at the local school; her first career of working as a self-taught seamstress for 40 years; her thoughts about the "generosity of spirit" she saw amongst artists both in Savannah and in Santa Barbara; how Mary Carol ended up in Savannah based on someone once telling her she would really like it here; how she began her painting series of shells with Dutch pours through doing crafts with her young grandchildren, of which 6 paintings were recently chosen by a new interior decor shop downtown (!); how her "To Err is Human" series was inspired by the time she spent caring for her mother with late-stage dementia; getting involved in a few upcoming art fairs this fall: Gordonston and Isle of Hope; and her thoughts about selling in Forsyth Park and all of the energy the SCAD students bring to town. 

Tune in and get all the details!

Art(s) on the Air with Mary Hartman

Join Tamara for an interview with Mary Hartman, who moved to Savannah in 1996 to get her M.F.A. in Painting from SCAD and has lived here ever since. She works with vine and compressed charcoal, pastel, and acrylic washes, traditionally on heavy hot pressed watercolor paper, but lately has branched out into canvas and panel as well.

Her work is very distinctive - an abstracted, gestural way of depicting realism. The subjects of her ethereal drawings include: horses and other livestock; still life objects such as lemons, juice presses, and cast iron pans; and anvils; as well as portrait commissions. 

Check out Mary's work and follow her here:

http://www.maryhartman.net/ 
https://www.instagram.com/maryhartmanstudio/ 

Topics in their chat include:

How Mary spent the pandemic delving into lots of virtual foundation & drawing classes on classical technique; the different types of erasers one can use on charcoal, including parts of your hand; how the starting of a piece is the absolute worst but using toned paper or laying down an immediate field of charcoal helps a bit; her love of depicting a lemon; what is liquid pencil?; her night owl tendencies; the technical aspects that have to go into framing a charcoal or pastel piece - floating mats, and spacers in the glass; how you can currently view Mary's work upstairs at PW Short on Whitaker St., and finally - she's working toward putting on a solo show sometime in the next year, possibly called Decommissioned! 

Tune in and get all the details!

Art(s) on the Air with Angela Burson

Join Tamara for an interview with Angela Burson, who works in a variety of media to depict images of (frequently cropped or headless) figures, their belongings, and interior spaces, which indicate complex psychological and social relationships with one another. Her sharply painted work includes detailed classic clothing and accessories, and is frequently compared to the aesthetic of Wes Anderson movies. Angela first moved to Savannah from Liberty, Missouri in the late 1980s, to get her B.F.A. in Painting from SCAD. After a few years away, she returned in 2004 and has lived and exhibited here ever since.   

Her 2020 feature in New American Paintings has led to a rush of national and international opportunities over the past year, including shows and art fairs in NYC and Madrid, and she's currently preparing for a solo show in L.A. in December 2023. 

http://www.angelaburson.com/
https://www.instagram.com/angelaburson/ 

Topics in their chat include:

Angela's early years in the late 1980s living near Colonial Park Cemetery, and then on Jones St for $250 a month (!); how her first solo show of cowboy- and gun-themed artwork inadvertently boosted local gun sales; how her painting entitled "Danny Hansford's socks" led to her long running fascination with observing and painting peoples' socks; which rock star's hand is her frequent reference for depicting cigarette smoking; her History of Menswear reference book; which one specific outfit from a Wes Anderson movie she has included in a painting; and her advice to keep applying to New American Paintings no matter how many rejections you get. 

 

Tune in and get all the details!

Art(s) on the Air with Becca Cook

Join Tamara and Melissa for an interview with Becca Cook, a folk artist from the islands off the coast of Savannah. She works in needlework, lacemaking, dollcrafting, performance, installation, and painting, and also manages Escape Savannah, an art collective and escape room experience.

 

https://www.beccacookart.com/

https://www.instagram.com/beccacookart/

 

PLUS a Mini Interview with REM about her Immersive Gallery space in City Market. It provides individualized and small group Creative UV experiences.

https://www.facebook.com/The-REM-Mark-Immersive-Gallery-111364634948265/   (Starts around 52mins.)

 

Get the answers to such burning questions as:

 

How long did Becca sit and crochet chain stitches to represent the number of people incarcerated in the U.S? 

What's the longest scarf Becca has made and where has it traveled?

What's a fun game you can play to make dish washing more fanciful?

 

Tune in and find out!

Art(s) on the Air with Joy Dunigan

Join Tamara and Melissa for an interview with photographer Joy Dunigan, a Savannah native! (We love a Savannah native.) Her images reveal her endless intrigue and fascination with Georgia heritage and culture, mainly its sea islands and their dynamically stable surroundings. She's a member of Kobo Gallery, a downtown co-op, and the owner and director of the Photopoint Gallery in Richmond Hill.

 

https://www.instagram.com/joydunigan/

https://www.joydunigan.com/

 

PLUS a Mini Interview with Jennifer Nolan about her current show - mixed media paintings of wild animals - at Location Gallery. (Starts around 53mins.)

 

https://www.instagram.com/jen.jen.nolan/

https://www.jennifernolanart.com 

 

Get the answers to such burning questions as:

Where can you take a beautiful shot of an oak tree lane that's more obscure than the iconic Wormsloe image?

Which local island has a creepy, abandoned resort? 

What happens when you keep a little cup of resin sitting around?

 

Tune in and find out!

Art on the Air presents Peter Roberts and Leslie Lovell

Two long form Field Notes on this week's episode of Art on the Air!

First, we spoke with Peter Erwin Roberts of Location Gallery all about having a show open in New York City as a pandemic hits, his role as curator, and how he's being safe while still trying to inspire others.

Then we chatted with Leslie Lovell of Roots Up Gallery all about her new foray into painting, her efforts to move her gallery online, and her Creatives in Need program to help local artists.

Tune in!

Art on the Air presents The Critique

This episode is made possible by Savannah's ONLY independently-owned art supply store, Starlandia Supply!

According to Dictionary.com, a critique is "a detailed analysis and assessment of something, especially a literary, philosophical, or political theory."

On this very special episode of Art on the Air, we gathered together several of the artists featured in "Tape Paper Scissors Print" at Location Gallery to talk about the importance of critiques, and to delve deep into the works that they are exhibiting in the show.

Includes guest artists Axelle Kieffer, Jordan Mooney, Laurie Darby, Ahmad Jackson, and Peter Erwin Roberts.

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.