Art on the Air

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 - A Local Music Special Show!

Hi everyone! It's the holidays and I'm taking a little break. Please enjoy a compilation of songs from many of the Savannah musicians I've interviewed over the last 2.5 years (since Rob Hessler handed the show over to me). 

Here are timestamps of the musicians included, and links to listen to their interview and to follow them, if you like what you hear and want more of it!

 

1:27-9:55
Kristin King (harpist and co-owner of New Arts Ensembles, a music booking agency)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/art-s-on-the-air-with-kristin-king/id1483496536?i=1000577827751 
https://www.instagram.com/kristinharp9
https://www.facebook.com/newartsensembles

9:55-13:22
Derek Hakikta AKA Kola Hak (solo electronic musician and also bassist for the metal band Black Tusk)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/art-s-on-the-air-with-derek-hak%C3%ADkta-lynch-kola-hak/id1483496536?i=1000580221896 
https://www.instagram.com/kola_hak/
https://kolahak.bandcamp.com 

13:22-22:01
Veronica Garcia-Melendez (half of synth band Bero Bero - singer, keys, songwriting)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/art-s-on-the-air-with-veronica-garcia-melendez-of/id1483496536?i=1000597614544 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSeLKL2d5alzeNSpMAQHDVg
https://www.instagram.com/beroberoband/ 

22:01-27:54
Matt Eckstine (Americana/Folk singer, guitar, songwriting)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/art-s-on-the-air-with-matt-eckstine/id1483496536?i=1000640427905 
https://www.instagram.com/matteckstinemusic/
https://www.matteckstinemusic.com/ 

27:54-35:44
The Maxines ("a badass all chick rock band in Savannah, GA - grunge w/ a kiss of metal")
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/art-s-on-the-air-with-the-maxines/id1483496536?i=1000644487928 
https://www.instagram.com/themaxinesband/
https://themaxinesband.bandcamp.com/album/skin-tight

35:44-42:19
Jason Bible (Americana and rock singer-songwriter, guitar, harmonica) 
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/art-s-on-the-air-with-jason-bible/id1483496536?i=1000664592162 
https://www.instagram.com/jasonbiblemusic/ 
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1UXKMDrq24J2TJIJi4DJAN
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-7NvBK95xe8bPrdmvtW_IA

42:19-56:13
Eric Jones Trio (Jazz band who kindly provides she show's intro and outro music) 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLwMrATqJ7yl6ZCM_o1_VJA  
https://www.instagram.com/edjmusicworld/ 

Thanks so much for listening, to this show and in general! I appreciate all of your support and kind words about our interviews.

Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, and see you back here with a new interview on Weds, Jan 1, 2025! 

--Tamara 

Art(s) on the Air with Charles Alexander

Knives out! Join Tamara for an interview with Charles Alexander, the Chef de Cuisine at Farm Bluffton. He grew up in NYC with a father who worked as a chef in Manhattan, and Charles has worked at fine dining restaurants in Key West, Atlanta, and now Savannah/Bluffton. 

Passionate about high quality and seasonal cuisine, Charles is trained and experienced in classical French, Mediterranean, Asian, and American cuisines.

Mark your calendars: Charles will be putting on a ramen pop-up at Strangebird on Tues, Dec 10! *Edit Dec 6 - unfortunately this has been canceled, but keep an eye on his IG for events to come*

 

Check out Charles's work, follow him, and get news on more pop-ups he'll be doing here:

https://www.instagram.com/chefcharlesalexander/ 

 

Topics in their chat include: 

Knives - seriously, so much info about Japanese knives!; the crossover between working in ceramics and working as a chef; how to use a thin metal probe to test whether fish is cooked properly (it's not as simple as using it to test a cake); the importance of math - how Michelin star restaurants measure ingredients out to the gram, so a recipe can easily be scaled up and down; the French term "mise en place;" why the earliest restaurant kitchens were run by military cooks; his tips on food photography and on multitasking when cooking a meal with multiple components; and how "farm to table" means that Charles has personal relationship with local farmers. 

Tune in and get all the details!

Art(s) on the Air with Zack Turner

Join Tamara for an interview with Zack Turner, a Savannah native who studied Sequential Art at SCAD for 3 years, until COVID happened. Since then, he has been working and pursuing his art by creating sequential art zines, illustrations, and occasional murals.

For the month of October, you can find Zack every Saturday 11-6 and Sunday 1-5 at Neighborhood Comics, where's he's working as the Artist in Residence. 

And check out “Sunday Scaries” - his newly-self-published 16 page horror-comedy comic collection - available at Neighborhood Comics or through his IG. 

 

Check out Zack's work and follow him here:

https://www.instagram.com/intentional_zombiehorde/
https://www.zackturnercomics.com/ 
https://neighborhoodcomics.com/pages/neighborhood-comics-sequential-artist-in-residence-program 

Topics in their chat include:

The challenges of working in traditional sequential art media - pencil and then pen and ink on paper or board - when you have a "heavy hand;" how the industry really calls for artists being able to do at least some of their work in digital, unless there's a big enough budget for the time it generally takes to work traditionally; for his artist residency Zack is working on a collaborative zine called Radio Jammers, with a few artist friends in Texas, creating narratives based on songs they've chosen (Zack's is Death Machine by AJJ); the physical challenges of painting murals, including the need to constantly run back and forth away from it, to evaluate the entire scene; learning how to do comic book lettering with an Ames Lettering Tool; thinking of comic books as "a movie on paper," and you do the work of the director, sound designer, costumer, screenwriting, etc, so a lot of comic book artists also work in storyboarding for movies; the common practice in comic books to collaborate with a different artist who specializes in the graphic design and lettering aspects; did you know that the GA Southern Armstrong campus has a print shop available to the public?; the joy of classic Sunday newspaper comics such as Peanuts, Garfield, and Calvin and Hobbes; how much fun he had during the SOY X SOY Art Battle back in July and how surprised he was to make it to the last round; and finally: Zack loves art collaborations - feel free to reach out to him if you're interested!

 

Tune in and get all the details!

Art(s) on the Air with Kasey Jeffrey

Join Tamara for an interview with Kasey Jeffrey, a mixed media artist and graphic designer. She is currently focusing on collage and watercolor, often incorporating organic and hand done elements into her digital designs and illustrations.

She's a member of Dreamhouse Studios, an artist workspace above the Starland Strange shop, where she both creates her art and leads various craft workshops.

You can order her "Magic Beet" book through Barnes & Noble, etc! 

 

Check out Kasey's work and follow her here:

https://www.instagram.com/kaseymakesstuff/
https://www.kaseyjeffrey.com/
https://www.dreamhousesavannah.com/workshops

Topics in their chat include:

How Kasey moved here from Pennsylvania in 2022, sight unseen, with her partner, and loved it here right away; her degree in Communication Design - comprised of graphic design, advertising, web design, and illustration - and how the illustration parts have inspired her to bring in handmade, physical collage into her graphic design; her first post-college job as an in-house designer for Martin Guitars in PA, doing such work as the labels inside sound holes, art on the guitar neck and fretboard, and the graphics for the company's guitar museum; visiting the workshop where the "inlay guys" were hand-creating the fretboard art she had designed; the joy of using a "clay pasta" machine to make her polymer clay jewelry; she's now a year into being completely freelance, juggling her graphic and web design work, making and selling her own prints and jewelry, and hosting regular creative workshops; "Magic Beet," a book illustration project she landed while still in college, after having proactively reached out to local design businesses for gigs; Kasey's belief in the benefit of cold-calling potential clients to grow her graphic design business; her advice to only show work in one's portfolio that's the type you want to continue to make; and going forward, she's pushing herself to work on larger and more detailed pieces, using paper that expands out beyond the page and has non-flat elements, and working through how to finish/frame it.

 

Tune in and get all the details!

Art(s) on the Air with Jason Bible

Join Tamara for an interview with Jason Bible, an Americana and rock singer-songwriter and instrumentalist who was born in Fort Worth, Texas. He began performing and recording music in the 90s - singing and playing guitar and harmonica.

He left Texas and moved to Savannah in 2001 (due to a "banking issue"), and immediately began playing multiple shows a night, focusing on bars on River Street, and eventually out on the islands. In 2005 he formed the band The Train Wrecks, who are still going strong today.

Nowadays you can catch Jason playing solo, with The Train Wrecks, *and*, recently, out playing Nirvana covers with his teenage son Jack.

 

Check out Jason's music and follow him here for concert and album news:

https://www.instagram.com/jasonbiblemusic/

https://open.spotify.com/artist/1UXKMDrq24J2TJIJi4DJAN 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-7NvBK95xe8bPrdmvtW_IA

 

Topics in their chat include:

How Jason started learning guitar and harmonica in HS, through private lessons focusing on early Dylan songs; playing solo both in indie coffee shops and in various Barnes & Nobles in Denton, TX during the heydey of the coffeehouse era; his recent gig opening for BB King's daughter and Stevie Ray Vaughan's nephew at Tybee Post Theatre; what does he mean by "leave sawdust on the stage?;" how his longtime band The Trainwrecks started, playing 3 gigs a night running around out on Tybee and Wilmington Island; how he and a co-writer have written 2 books, with a corresponding song per chapter, named for principles/tenets of Buddhism (contact Jason for these books); how difficult it is to find left-handed guitars and Jason's recommendations for where to buy them; the "Quarantine Concerts" Jason played during the pandemic; Jason's recent musical endeavor with his drummer son Jack, performing Nirvana covers around town for the past year, and the challenge of reenacting Kurt Cobain's screams; his karaoke song is "Roadhouse Blues;" and his upcoming projects: keep an eye on his IG about a new record and book coming out hopefully fall 2025, and about all of his upcoming gigs.

 

Tune in and get all the details!

Art(s) on the Air - Two-year anniversary chat w/ Tamara, Rob, and David

It's the 2-year anniversary of Rob Hessler handing the podcast over to Tamara Garvey (after having done it for 5 years)!

To celebrate, Tamara, Rob, and David Laughlin - who also did the show for a few year with Rob - met up for a looooong wild chat about Savannah's creative scene and the art(s) of interviewing and writing about it. 

(One thing we all agree on is the excitement of getting feedback from people who are listening to/reading our interviews HINT HINT!)  

 

Do you want even more of our unhinged thoughts? Check out each of our social media here:

https://www.instagram.com/tamgarv/
https://www.instagram.com/work_by_rob_hessler/ 
https://www.instagram.com/thedavidlaughlin/ 

 

Topics in our chat include:

Rob insulted his way into a regular writing gig at the Savannah Morning News; the in-and-outs of the current publishing cycle of the SMN; how the nature of the 1-on-1 interview is much easier for (introverted) creatives to talk about their work than at public Artist Talks; how creating each interview episode is an art project in itself; how rewarding it is to interview a burgeoning artist and give them a little boost; particular interviews that have stood out to each of us; the time David recorded a car crash during one of his interviews; the fact that Savannah has been a cultural mecca for years and we are wondering if it has/is peaking (a la Key West), because of housing prices; we each answer a few of David's "studio questions," including a great piece of advice we've each received; Rob talks about a recent article he wrote that has drawn some heat; choosing interview subjects and the necessity of being inspired by each other; "art decorates space and music decorates time;" the shared experience of trying to protect our time and our creative labor when society tries to get these things for free.  

Bonus article David found that related to our talk about Savannah!

Tune in and get all the details!

Art(s) on the Air with Adriana Iris Boatwright

Join Tamara for an interview with Adriana Iris Boatwright, a creative photographer and writer with a focus in social media. She was born and raised in Puerto Rico, and came to Georgia in 1994 by way of NYC and Germany. 

Her clients include: Coca Cola, Savannah Morning News, H&M, Bath and Body Works, Ghost Coast Distillery, Paramount Pictures, Do Savannah, and more.

Adriana is also an editor for La Voz Latina (a Spanish online magazine for SMN), *and* one of about 4 founding members of SOY X SOY, a space for Latino and Native American artists and creatives to meet, collaborate, and exhibit their work.

* Get ready for Art Rumble - A @soy_x_soy event!
8 artists will go head to head to win it all. What they draw is up to you! So make sure you attend to participate.
July 13 | 5-9 pm | Starland Yard *

Check out Adriana's work and the SOY X SOY group here:

https://www.instagram.com/adrianairis/ 
https://adrianairis.com/ 
https://www.instagram.com/soy_x_soy/ 

Topics in their chat include:

How Adriana was involved in Starland becoming an artsy district from its early days, throwing theme parties at the Wormhole; how her creative career came about through her blog about her baby daughter - she wrote a post about her brother's death and it went viral, and she suddenly got photography offers from various publications, including Savannah Morning News, where she still works; she transitioned out of blogging about her daughter as she got a bit older, to writing and photographing for SMN, particularly when they first launched "Do Savannah;" she shot the covers for years, including covers with the first gay couple and the first drag queen; how much she loved doing photo shoots with bands and collaborating about their location and their visuals; the pressure that comes from having a large Instagram following and a lot of people keeping an eye on you; the fact that Savannah has about 300 professional photographers (!); the importance to her of still going out to do personal and conceptual photo shoots for fun; having to transition from film photography to digital, including teaching herself Photoshop; being a sort of "purist" who doesn't rapid-fire during a shoot; doing food photography for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and SMN; she tells a wild story about the time an alligator suddenly walked through City Market, until being rehomed by Animal Control; shooting the yearly Lowcountry Pow Wow at Hardeeville, the only one in the area; upcoming Conde Nast Traveler in England of our local coffee shop Agatha's (!); and the upcoming SOY X SOY Art Battle.

 

Tune in and get all the details!

Art(s) on the Air with Will Penny

Join Tamara for an interview with Will Penny, who grew up in Ontario and first moved to Savannah about 20 years ago, to get his BFA in Painting from SCAD. After graduation he moved away, later returning for his MFA in Painting, and has been in town ever since. 

* Special note that on Weds 5/22 and Thurs 5/23, he will participate in a two-day event at Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum: a light and sound festival entitled “Celestial Seafarers,” featuring Will and 6+ other local artists.
Info and tickets here:
https://www.shipsofthesea.org/celestial-seafarers

Will is a multi-disciplinary artist whose practice incorporates an assortment of media ranging from painting, video, sculpture, programming, and projection. His work aims to combine traditional art making tools with new technologies, to create space to explore themes such as embodiment, presence, fantasy, and the sublime.

Check out Will's work and follow him here:

https://www.willpenny.com/
https://www.instagram.com/willpennyart/ 

Topics in their chat include:

During his BFA Will focused on refining his skills at painting realism, but when he returned for grad school he focused more on exploring concepts, and took elective classes in motion media design and visual effects; his interest in nostalgia (ex. the history of hockey masks) and working through his childhood of the 80s and 90s, both the good memories and the more traumatic ones; working through your memories, with all of the associated emotional attachments; how he came to be represented by Laney Contemporary; the whole emerging element of how archival work that incorporates technology or media is, whether it might degrade over time, and whether a museum or artist should maintain it; how his past series of 3D printed pieces were exploring the "sublime experience" of nature (but ended up too expensive to continue to produce); lessons he learned from his Big Mouth Billy Bass AI project, both from the summer heat outside of Green Truck and indoors at the recent ArtFields Festival; and his upcoming two-day event at Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum: a light and sound festival entitled “Celestial Seafarers,” featuring Will and 6+ other local artists. 

Tune in and get all the details!

Art(s) on the Air with Autumn Gary

Join Tamara and David for an interview with Autumn Gary, a largely self-taught American/First Nations painter, sculptor, and art instructor from Portland, Oregon. Her practice revolves around therapeutic art outreach, public art, and intertribal collaboration with indigenous/native arts communities.

Mark your calendar: Autumn and Alexis Javier (of Sulfur Studios) will have a joint exhibition at the #art912 space in the Jepson Center from July 19 until next February 9, with an Artist Talk & Reception on July 18! 

Check out Autumn's work and follow her here:

https://www.instagram.com/autumn.gary.art/
https://www.telfair.org/exhibitions/of-one-mind/ 

Topics in their chat include:

Growing up in an artistic and inclusive environment; making pilgrimages to the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory in Quebec; learning the Mohawk language and discovering how many words and feelings are untranslatable between it and English; having moved to Savannah in 2008, largely as the result of a dream; her sculpture project at the Savannah Center for the Blind and Low Vision, which was a collaboration with the blind users of the center; the center's Training Sidewalk, which recreates the various topographies of a city, so blind people can practice getting around; what she and AJ are planning for their collaborative sculpture and immersive Jepson Center exhibition coming up in a few months; the unstructured way she teaches at the Telfair's art summer camps; the awesome surfing metaphor we came up with toward the end of the show; and dancing with seniors. 

Tune in and get all the details!

 

* And some cool podcast news: Feedspot has highlighted Art on the Air as one of the Top 3 Georgia Art Podcasts on the web. Hooray! 

https://blog.feedspot.com/georgia_art_podcasts/