Art on the Air

Art(s) on the Air with Matt Toole

Join Tamara for an interview with Matt Toole ("Maker. Teacher. Explorer. Collector.") of Toole Sculpture Works. He creates contemporary artwork, custom furniture, lighting, and other unique objects for a variety of home and garden applications. Most elements are handcrafted from ferrous metals or upcycled from selected materials both manufactured and found in nature.

Matt grew up around the barrier islands and salt marshes of Savannah, Georgia. He received a BFA from Georgia Southern in 1994, and an MFA from Southern Illinois University in 2000. He returned to Savannah for good around 2003, and then spent time as a professor at both Georgia Southern and at SCAD, before eventually creating his company and becoming a full-time sculptor. 

Check out Matt's work and follow him here:

https://www.instagram.com/toole_sculpture_works/
https://toolesculptureworks.com/ 

Topics in their chat include:

How Matt fell in love with pouring and melting metal during his BFA program for 3D art; working as an art mover and installer in Atlanta between undergrad and grad school; how seeing a George Beesley iron performance inspired him to go into iron casting and making art for a living; what's the difference between casting and forging?; the safety mishap he had during a metal splashing demo; how a Minnesota winter drive him back to Savannah for good, around 2003; how many of his commission clients want to collaborate on the thinking and planning processes and how much Matt enjoys that; his work with the city's Storm Drain and Rain Garden Flowers projects, educating kids (and adults!) about environmental issues; how towns with "bloom" in the name come from the steel industry, ex. Bloomington, Indiana; his upcoming group show at Ology Gallery in October; and the music festival he's organizing for Nov 18 - a benefit for Pegasus Riding Academy, which helps kids and veterans with special needs. 

Tune in and get all the details!

Art(s) on the Air with Kurtis Schumm

Join Tamara for an interview with Kurtis Schumm, a 20-year Tybee Island resident who started his adolescence playing guitar in the "esteemed haunts of Nashville and beyond, including the famed Bluebird Cafe at 14." After moving here, he transitioned into a culinary career, opening Tybee Island Social Club with his wife and eventually running 4 successful restaurants at once. 

Just before Covid, they sold their restaurant concepts and Kurtis transitioned again, into a full-time art career. His work largely depicts female portraiture and an island aesthetic, and his materials are truly unique: epoxy and acrylic paints, and ink, on plexiglass. (And because he's painting on a clear surface, he works "backwards," i.e. painting in mirror image on the back side of his substrate.)

Check out Kurtis's work and follow him here:

https://www.instagram.com/givemeschumm/
https://www.kurtisschumm.com/ 

Topics in their chat include:

The connection between wine and colors, and how that led Kurtis to visual art; moving to Savannah about 20 years ago, when his artist mother moved to Tybee; studying food under a woman from Verona, Italy; Kurtis's idea to teach cooking to underprivileged communities so they can get the most healthy food out of a small budget; how he began painting just to create some art for the walls of his restaurants, and finding success selling them; details about how Plexi behaves - how you can cut it down by scoring, how he hangs it with or without frames, how various types of paint and ink behave on it; doing a portrait commission for realtor Cora Bett Thomas that included her surrounded by 10 of her dogs through the years; if you own his art and repaint the wall it's hanging on, you can change the color tone of his piece; getting his art printed on the labels of 2 wines for California-based Seamus Wines; how you can buy his work around town at Grand Bohemian Gallery and One Fish, Two Fish, as well as on St. Simon's Island; and also at the Isle of Hope show on Oct. 21, where Kurtis will be selling various sizes of original paintings.

 

Tune in and get all the details!

Art(s) on the Air with Charla Pettingill

Join Tamara for an interview with Charla Pettingill, a published illustrator, surface designer, and illustration professor with 14 years of industry experience designing for print and pattern. A native of East Tennessee, she graduated from SCAD with a B.F.A. in Illustration and an M.A. in Visual Communication, then moved to Atlanta to work in the industry.

She's now back in Savannah, having returned to SCAD's Illustration department as a professor. Charla juggles this with her freelance work creating artwork for magazines, product packaging, floor coverings, fabric, gift wrap, and greeting cards, as well as children's activities and books. Repeat patterns are her passion!

Check out Charla's work and follow her here:

https://www.charladraws.com/ 
https://www.instagram.com/charladraws/

Topics in their chat include:

Savannah feeling like a big city when she arrived in 2004; learning the "straight line technique" in life drawing class; interesting facts about the use of gouache in mid-century illustration, and its revival now, including being used in Rifle Paper Co.'s greeting card illustrations; while in "Intro to Illustration" class as a sophomore she got a freelance job illustrating a family friend's book, "The Last Voyage of the Cosmic Muffin;" what does "Work for Hire" mean in a contract?; how print on demand sites are great for artists to continue making passive income; how Charla transitioned into digital art during SCAD, learning Illustrator and Corel Painter (now surpassed by Procreate); her advice to anyone doing graphic or surface design to "make friends with Illustrator;" what is "collateral" in the design world?; how nowadays illustration can overlap with animation, film, graphic design/advertising, and architecture; what is "fairycore?"; and the time a journal she design was featured in Apartment Therapy.

Tune in and get all the details!

Art(s) on the Air with Faran Riley

Join Tamara for an interview with Faran Riley - local artist, geology enthusiast, fine jewelry connoisseur, and aspiring surfer. A Savannah native, she was one of the first classes to go through Savannah Arts Academy. After living in both Boston and NYC, she returned to town in 2020 and now works out of Sulfur Studios, exhibiting her drawings, paintings, and rock collections.

Faran begins her paintings with abstract imagery in Sumi ink (and sometimes acrylic paint), then "carves the image out," adding backlighting and moments of realism and surrealism using colored pencils. Her fantastical landscapes are inspired by a combination of her Night Walks around Savannah, and time spent at her family home in coastal Maine.

Check out Faran's work and follow her here:

https://www.instagram.com/faranriley/
https://www.faranriley.com/

Topics in their chat include:

Working on performance art and installation while attending the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, including a diner in her studio made of cardboard, operating 24 hours a day; the emotional turmoil of her college critiques and review boards; her post-college years living in NYC and working as a studio assistant to Yunhee Min; Faran's thoughts about the contemporary versions of the Old Masters artists who subcontracted parts of their painting work to assistants; her interest in gemstones and diamonds, stemming from working for years in a high-end jewelry boutique; getting back into art by taking drawing classes at the 1898 NYC institution, The National Arts Club; how she moved back home to Savannah at the start of Covid; using materials to experiment with markmaking in order to depict textures in her landscapes; the well-loved NYC art model Madeline; Savannah's new gallery space Ology Gallery near Bonaventure Cemetery; her current pieces merging the foliage and landscape of Savannah with her family's home in Maine; and her final words about Savannah feeling like such a supportive community because there are enough artist opportunities to go around without us competing.

Tune in and get all the details!

Art(s) on the Air with Trae Gurley

Join Tamara for an interview with singer and musician Trae Gurley. He's a long-time Savannahian who specializes in songs by The American Songbook legends, such as Sinatra, Mercer, Porter, Gershwin, and Cahn. Over his 30-year career, Trae has performed at restaurants, jazz bars, private parties, and weddings, from The Hollywood Hills to Cape Cod.

When downtown staple Jazz'd first opened in 2003, Trae began a weekly Thursday night singing gig, and he stayed for 10 years! After all these years, he and his band El Alma are about to return for 3 performances: Saturday August 19, Saturday September 23, and Saturday October 14.  

Check out Trae's music and follow him here:

https://www.traegurley.com/ 
https://www.instagram.com/traegurley1975/ 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok9b7-deggc&t=4s 

Topics in their chat include:

How Trae got started in music by learning saxophone in high school; his memories of growing up in Garden City and then Pooler; the thriving musical theatre scene in Savannah during the 90s (did you know there used to be "Shakespeare in the Square?!"); how he spent years emceeing kids' dance competitions every weekend before segueing into becoming a voice performer; his earliest performances in a Savannah club called Moxie's, singing in an oversized tuxedo at midnight, to people playing pool; the term "The Great American Songbook" to describe Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, etc; his night singing "Moon River" at a gig next door to Johnny Mercer's old house; and getting to return to musical theatre by performing this past spring in "Once." 

(Side note re: our conversation about Sinatra, per Google it is true that "He didn't have any formal music education, but he had perfect pitch.") 

Tune in and get all the details!

Art(s) on the Air with Adonis Deking (one year later)

Join Tamara for a re-interview with freelance artist/illustrator Adonis Deking. He was Tamara's first interviewee, so we're checking in to see what the past year has brought him! 

Adonis recently had a month-long exhibition of landscapes and pet portraits at the Churchwood Gallery in Pennsylvania. He's a self-directed learner who recently taught himself the impasto and sgraffito techniques, and he's juggling his pet portrait commissions with fulfilling orders of his stickers and prints on both Faire and Etsy. 

Check out Adonis's work and follow him here:

https://www.instagram.com/deking_art/
https://adonisdeking.com/

Topics in their chat include:

How Adonis started having more success selling his stickers and prints wholesale, i.e. to businesses, than directly to people; how his pet portrait business has grown massively since he raised his prices substantially -- he now provides a certificate of authenticity, plus a sticker and a print of the pet; the difficulty of painting landscapes on-site (en plein air) as an introvert; his easel that has a built-in carrying case and wheels, so he can safely transport a still-wet painting; what do the techniques impasto and sgraffito mean?; Adonis's cool project of tracking all of the states to which he's shipped Etsy orders; the excitement of buyers wanting to see you hand-sign the print they're buying; his practice of looking at other artists selling similar items for inspiration of how he can package/market his pieces better; and his goal to sell a higher amount each month even if by $5, to constantly be "a better version of himself." 

Tune in and get all the details!

Art(s) on the Air - Tamara’s one-year anniversary show! - Replay of first interview with Adonis Deking

It's the one-year anniversary of Tamara taking over host duties from Rob Hessler!

Join her for a replay of the first show - an interview with then-co-host Melissa Taylor of recent SCAD graduate Adonis Deking. This episode originally aired on July 20, 2022. 

And stay tuned for our next show, when I'll re-interview Adonis to see where he is in his freelance artist/illustrator career now that it's one year later! 

Check out Adonis's work and follow him here:

https://www.instagram.com/deking_art/
https://adonisdeking.com/

This episode includes the following, plus much more:
What is Adonis’s theory of the 3 groups his fellow Animation students can be broken into?
What inspired him to pick up brushes and paints instead?
What early degrees did Tamara and Melissa get, before pursuing completely different fields?
What 1980s method of transportation does Adonis use?

Art(s) on the Air with Kristopher Monroe

Join Tamara for an interview with Kristopher Monroe: "writer, editor, and freelance culture assassin with over two decades of experience writing about the arts and other symptoms of human creativity." He was born and raised in Atlanta, where he began his freelance writing career, then lived in Seattle and NYC before settling in Savannah in 2013. 

You've probably read Kristopher's arts column in the Savannah Morning News, which he wrote for many years. He's also contributed to publications ranging from The Atlantic Monthly, Playboy, Village Voice, Juxtapoz, Dazed & Confused, Beautiful/Decay, and Swindle. Lately he's been serving as the current Chair of the Savannah-Chatham County Historic Site and Monument Commission, AND has returned to his first writing love - sci-fi and cyberpunk - and is actively looking for an agent for his recently-completed first novel!

Check out Kristopher's work and follow him here:

https://www.cultureassassin.com/
https://www.instagram.com/savartscene/
https://www.amazon.com/What-Tired-Web-We-Breed-ebook/dp/B07XPD8PH6 

Topics in their chat include:

What Kristopher means by calling himself "a cultural assassin;" how the World Trade Organization protests impacted his life trajectory; how he fell into writing about fine art, street art, and pop art despite no formal art education; how 2013 was the last time that either Kristopher or I had a full-time job (!); his years spent balancing a weekly SMN column with 1-2 columns in the Do magazine; how he has blossomed into full adulthood in his community work; and how in the past couple of years he has gotten back to his early love of sci-fi and surrealist creative writing - one short story is available on Amazon for $1 (with cover art by local designer and art aficionado Don Sanders!) - plus a full novel; and his obscure skills with running and fixing a 35mm film projector. 

Tune in and get all the details!

Art(s) on the Air with Anna Young Byrd

Join Tamara for an interview with commercial photographer and SCAD grad Anna Young Byrd, who works out of Sulfur Studios. She fell in love with Savannah at age 12 when her sister came to attend SCAD, and has now lived here since 2017. Two years out of school, she's at such an exciting time in her career - just about to transition into doing her freelance photography full-time! 

Anna's goal during a shoot is to make the subject feel like "the coolest person ever," and her dream project would be shooting Dave Grohl for a Rolling Stone cover. 

The main design element she focuses on in her work, especially during the editing process, is color. From her site: "Anna is a forward-thinking, hard-working, and inquisitive artist. She is the first to introduce herself, the first to think, and the first to solve a problem. Her fulfillment in life is to bring joy to others. What better way to do that than taking some kickass photos."

Check out Anna's work and follow her here:

https://www.annayoungbyrd.com/
https://www.instagram.com/annas_eyeball/ 

Topics in their chat include:

How being a people person is so beneficial to her work in making her photo subject feel comfortable as quickly as possible; how coming to Savannah and finding other creative people made her transition from introversion to extroversion; using a digital Nikon as her first camera when she was young and experimenting; how the current trendy look in digital photography is to make it look like it was done with film - light leaks, grain, dust marks - i.e. the perks of digital but with the aesthetics of film; an added bonus of working in photography is working with her hands - putting lights and backgrounds together, and breaking things down; how getting her "big boy camera" allows her to take photos with huge file sizes, big enough to print at billboard size; the importance of using a reference photo to show clients her inspiration/direction/essence of her idea; she takes us through the start-to-finish process of a shoot; how choosing the wrong music once hurt her connection with a model on a shoot; being the creator of her set; how photography is the study and control of light; what is a "treatment book?"; how one's artistic community can help each other through imposter syndrome; and the elaborate setup and editing process it took to create her beautiful shot of a Neutrogena jar leaning over in water. 

Tune in and get all the details!

Art(s) on the Air with Ariel Felton

Join Tamara for an interview with Ariel Felton, a writer and editor with a decade of experience in feature writing, travel writing, and copywriting. She first arrived in Savannah in 2013, to pursue her MFA in Writing from SCAD. 

Post-graduation, she held writing jobs with SCAD and then taught creative writing for local non-profit Deep Center. Her writing has since been published in The New York Times, Vogue, The New Yorker (Shouts & Murmurs), The Washington Post, Bloomberg, The Bitter Southerner, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Scalawag Magazine, and more. Her essay “A Letter to My Niece,” first published in The Progressive, was listed as Notable in “Best American Essays 2020.”

Check out Ariel's work and follow her here:

https://arielfelton.com/writing
https://www.instagram.com/ar.felton/
https://twitter.com/Ariel_R_Felton 

Topics in their chat include:

When Ariel began her MFA program there were only 2 other new Writing students; the aspiration to become a David Sedaris-type writer of personal essays; keeping her own creative writing going while she worked as a creative writing teacher for middle- and high-schoolers at Deep Center; her observation that today's young generation cares about anti-bullying and how the internet has handed them terminology that helps them not internalize the various -isms they experience; showing her piece "A Letter to My Niece," a response to James Baldwin's "A Letter to My Nephew," to her parents and sister before it was published; her love for Twitter and using it to find publications' pitch calls; how writing travel blurbs for Atlas Obscura led to a door opening with a Washington Post editor; how she formats her email pitches to editors; how she pitched to the editor at the New Yorker for a year before getting an assignment; branded content is the "cheat code" for a writer to pay the bills; and how she's currently throwing herself into an upcoming book project.  

Tune in and get all the details!