Austin Art Talk Podcast

"I’m going to continue to push my work forward. The work has always come first. It has to be the work, because it’s no good if it’s not. That’s my philosophy. I don’t push that on anyone else. That’s just always been my thing. That the work has to do what it needs to do."
In this highly anticipated followup to my first interview with Deborah from March of 2018, we sit down to talk about all of the wonderful and somet... Read more

"There are all these pressures and talks about how do you make your career. How do you make a living? How do you make it sustainable? How do you be an entrepreneur as an artist. And they are all great sounding, very trendy. But at the same time I want to come back and say, why did you want to be an artist? And what makes you want to wake up in the morning and run to the studio and make that thing. At the very beginning it was n... Read more

"I think artists are extremely inspirational people. You need a lot of mental discipline to continue to affirm the role of creativity and your voice in the conversation. That’s why I think artists are so important because it's just a really important point of view and perception in this cacophony that we hear. Especially now it's really good to bend your ear towards maybe more nuanced, more complicated, more complex mur... Read more

“I’m always trying to be tranquil. I’ve experienced a lot of sadness and crisis and trauma in the last 10 years. I think there is a part of me that could have gone that direction and you would have been able to see it in my work. I have done some small pieces where they do look angry. But as far as the larger pieces, I would always feel like if I was working on something that gave that message that it didn’t really calm me. It did... Read more

"My most recent work there seems to be more of an embrace going on between parts as opposed to these diverse parts fitting together, maintaining their diversity. They seem now to be more a part of each other. That’s a mystery to me."
Sydney Yeager is an artist who describes her current painting style as gestural abstraction. She also teaches drawing and painting at Austin Community College. Teaching has been a part o... Read more

"I just think that we have a greater strength en masse. The more we can come together and support each other the greater our potential. Don’t build walls. Don’t tell people they cant do it. Show up for the people you think that you can, and you have the strength to."
GD Wright (http://gdwright.com/) is a sculptor, fabricator, and design consultant working most often with metal, cast concrete, and blown glass. He also... Read more

“I’m not solely an artist, that’s not my identity. I’m not just an artist, I’m a vessel. You are not defined by your occupation. You are not defined by the person that you spend your life with. You’re a creation that’s meant for more than just being an accountant, or a photographer, or a painter, or a carpenter. You’re meant for much more than just that. You are meant to use that as a place to help people.”
Dallas based arti... Read more

"All of us as artists have inspiration that comes from a myriad of places. I felt just through a couple situations that had occurred, where I had not intended to do something, that the art had taken a life of its own separate from me. And I had seen the positive aspects associated with it, so it encouraged and motivated me to work hard to stay out of the way and to allow the inspiration to take place. And then once I acted on i... Read more

"I think more and more now people are interested in this conversation of the intersection of art and culture with social movements. Art & culture have always been a part of social movements, but being strategic with artists inside of campaigns and things that we are trying to move forward, there’s a really rich conversation that’s happening now. It’s just really exciting to be in a place where I can be both-and. Because it ... Read more

"It’s about looking, and continually trying to hone that and develop an eye."
Sev Coursen (http://arcaneworld.com/) is an artist working in multiple media including photography, sculpture, film and video. His work has been presented in exhibitions and screenings in the United States and Europe.
ONE PLUS ELEVEN OBJECT SHOW Curated by Lauren Jaben APRIL 2019 Opening Reception Saturday 27 April, from 4-7pm AGAV... Read more

"If I close it off then it’s not right. If you look at it and there’s only one answer, then it’s not right. So when I was talking about my older work, maybe it’s not technically good, but it brings up a question that everybody would give a different answer to. And not just other people. Quite often I’ll go back and see something I haven’t seen in a while and it will set off a whole new chain of thoughts."
https://fil... Read more

"I feel that my capacity to create, in so many different forms of media, to step into my work as an activist, to speak in a very vulnerable way in the types of spaces I’ve been invited into, really began with writing about and sharing my deepest shame. And once I had finally illuminated that, and I had brought everything into the light, the things I was the most ashamed of, the things that caused me the greatest pain in my life... Read more

"I was aware of the culture I grew up in, but I was unaware of the cost for other people, and also unaware of the cost for me. I think when you are raised in a culture like that you have definitions for yourself that feel very comfortable and safe and you’re not even really aware of that. And so you start thinking, why am I telling myself these things? Why is that true? Why does that have to be true? It started seeming like an ... Read more

"When I was eleven I said I was going to be an artist, it’s just part of the process. You have to make bad work sometimes, it’s part of the deal. If you are not willing to make bad art then you are not willing to take chances. You have to make bad art to get to the good stuff. It’s just part of it."
Text courtesy of Stella's website Stella Alesi (https://www.alesiart.com/) has resided in Austin, Texas for the las... Read more

"For me the success of a piece is if I’m able to create a weird sense of peace and disturbance to keep people there longer to sort of sit with it. Sometimes it can be hard because a lot of my work on the surface level you’re not able to see that research, you’re not able to receive that information. So a lot of it is the form and the experience with the form. I’m not necessarily interested in making didactic work. I’m very inte... Read more

"Failure or success is really subjective, and it’s conditional. The one moment I might consider a failure, I learned something so I guess since I learned something maybe it wasn’t a failure. By having those prints I will open up another possibility that I didn’t even consider thinking of. I think those are fertilizer. Probably it stinks in the beginning but it will eventually become part of a very important fuel for the creativ... Read more

"As an artist you have to remember that you are always working. And you’re not just working when you are in the studio actually making something. You are working when you’re sleeping, dreaming, reading, looking at other peoples art, having conversations, and tripping over a rock. It’s all a part of your practice. To be able to embrace every element of your life as being a part of your practice takes the pressure off of going to... Read more

"Seriously it's like being in love, staying in the studio."
Alejandra Almuelle (https://www.alejandraalmuelle.com/) is a full time ceramic artist who creates sculptures and pottery that often merge traditional and contemporary styles and often feature the human figure. Her most recent and largest exhibition of work to date titled The Journey, interpreted the hero’s journey and was inspired by events in her own li... Read more

"In a way you can use words as a lure to get people to think in a way that’s more expansive. To think in visuals, and in space, and in symbol that’s beyond language. To find meaning between words. So writing about art is really fun. Because art can mean things that really can’t be touched on with language. But you can kind of lead a reader to it. You can take these glancing blows at what arts meaning is and maybe through that l... Read more