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 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 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 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!

Art(s) on the Air with Katie Glusica

Join Tamara for an interview with textile maven Katie Glusica. She came to Savannah in 2008 to pursue her MFA in Fibers from SCAD, where she would have access to a then-rare and sought-after jacquard loom. 

Post-graduation, she exhibited her personal textile work in tons of renowned shows, including the Smithsonian Craft Show, the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, and a SCAD booth at Design Miami of Art Basel. She uses weaving as a means to engage her viewer with the quantum concept of wave/particle duality. 

At the same time, Katie launched her business of repairing and restoring handmade rugs, caning, wicker, and rattan. In recent years she has *also* done consulting work with the Telfair Museum and the Owens-Thomas House, assisting them with various textile preparation, installation, and appraisal. 

Check out her work and follow her here:

https://www.instagram.com/katieglusica/ 
https://www.katieglusica.com/ 

Topics in their chat include:

How landing a part-time job at a rug restoration shop in Richmond during undergrad inspired Katie's lifelong work; at her fine craft shows she created an immersive gallery space to create an "experience;" she built her business of restoring furniture and rugs with an eye toward sustainability, which is antithetical to the design world which relies on you consuming every few years; her work with the Oglethorpe Plan Coalition, dedicated to preserving the Savannah Downtown National Historic Landmark District; her message to artists: tenacity is very important and don't be afraid to hear "no;" rugs are a special niche even within the special niche of textiles, and not taught in very many academic spaces; what does "deaccessioned" mean?; and how the Jacquard loom, developed in 1804, was the first machine to use binary code. 

 

* More info on the Oglethorpe Plan Coalition:

The National Historic Landmark District in Savannah, Georgia, designated in 1966, is now under threat from excessive and inappropriate development. The district is supposed to be protected by local ordinances, but increasingly, important provisions in these ordinances are not being enforced. The National Park Service grades the district as “threatened,” and preservationists are now grouping together to take action to restore the district’s integrity.

https://oglethorpeplancoalition.org/ 

Tune in and get all the details!

Art(s) on the Air with Curtis Bartone

Join Tamara for an interview with Curtis Bartone, printmaker and SCAD printmaking professor, who's lived in Savannah since 2001. His paintings, drawings, and etchings focus on the uneasy relationship between human beings and the natural world, exploring the idea of wilderness and how it has changed from being a real place–mysterious, unknown, and pristine–to a distorted fiction.

Curtis does a great job breaking down all the ins and outs of various printmaking processes, including lithography, intaglio, and etching, and also his subject influences -- from Italian Renaissance painting and 17th-century Dutch still life to 19th-century scientific illustration. 

Check out his work and follow him here:

https://www.instagram.com/cabartone/
https://www.curtisbartone.com/ 

Topics in their chat include:

Our perception of the natural world vs. the reality of it; his fascination with animals who have been brought / have migrated to an area where they aren't naturally found; how Curtis started out as a painter but fell in love with printmaking in an etching class during grad school at Northwestern; what is Bavarian limestone?; the Tamarind Institute, a a lithography workshop in New Mexico; the art of purposefully leaving some areas of a piece unfinished; how printmaking is the art of "thinking in layers"; his experience doing an artist residency in Iceland; how much he's learned from bearing witness to his students' printmaking experiments in his 20+ years; and the best artist advice he's gotten. 

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 Kamryn Shawron

Join Tamara for an interview with Kamryn Shawron, who moved to Savannah from Ocoee, Florida about 10 years ago to earn her SCAD degree in Fibers, and now works as a multimedia artist. Her work focuses on the integration of portraiture, embellishment, and fibers, and she describes it as "stitching and sewing beads into both found and original photos, canvas, and everything else."

Kamryn has created a large body of work stemming from her own photos shoots, which she directs and designs, using friends and family as models, and then embellishes the photos to craft her desired narrative(s). In the past 2 years, she's had both a group and a solo exhibition at galleries in Atlanta, and she also installed a large piece in the Whitaker Street Windows, which locals will know as the tall windowed column just outside of Starland Yard. 

Check out Kamryn's work and follow her here:

https://www.instagram.com/kamrynleelu/
https://www.kamrynshawron.com/

 

Topics in their chat include:

How Fibers artists Tricia Cookson and Sam Norgard influenced her early career; describing her art as "painting with beads;" the post-college transition and how being furloughed during COVID was what really gave her the time first to create a big extensive piece, and then to launch her full-time art career; lessons she has learned about running a needle back and forth through a photograph as opposed to a piece of canvas; does Kamryn's way of working make her a crow, a raccoon, or a surgeon?; her words of wisdom when it comes to stitching various areas across a large surface; her "Mystery Bag" pieces and how she loves decorating and embellishing them; and the theme of celebration/joy/happiness in her work.

Tune in and get all the details!