Art on the Air

Join Kate for an interview with Jose Ray, a multi-faceted artist. You can find his work on gallery walls, in public murals, in the bookstore, and you can find him in the DJ booth downtown. 

Born and raised in the Midwest, Jose grew up with a love for wide-open exploration and do-it-yourself spirit. That outlook took him in many different directions while always building the knowledge and skills toward a creative path…and eventual...

Join all AOTA past hosts Tamara Garvey, Rob Hessler, & David Laughlin as they welcome new host Kate Stanton Melendez, and serve as a transition team. The artists and arts journalists share background info on the show's roots, give advice on becoming a podcaster, and dispense wisdom on the state of the arts in our beloved Savannah, Georgia (i.e., reminisce and gossip). We enjoyed catching up and goofing off, and hope you enjoy i...

Join Tamara for an interview with musician (upright and electric bass) Marc Chesanow, whose music plays at the beginning and the end of every episode of this show! 🎉 

He played drums and trombone in HS band and then came to bass later: attending Eastman School of Music in NY for undergrad and then University of Memphis for his master's degree. He's been a working musician ever since, with occasional stints as a music professor. 

M...

Join Tamara for an interview with artist/illustrator (my fellow artist at the co-op Gallery 209 on River Street!) Erica Catherine, who draws "Vintage Inspired Designs for the Old Soul." 

Erica is a native Savannahian who graduated from Savannah Arts Academy and then SCAD, with a BFA in Illustration. After graduation she started her business, selling her paintings and products made from her art, including prints, cards, scarves, and...

Join Tamara for an interview with musician (singer-songwriter, drums, guitar, bass) Markus Kuhlmann, whose IG description reads: "Pandemic-Born Dad-Bod Rock." He's a "recovering architect" originally from South Carolina who moved from Charleston to Savannah in the late 90s/early 00s.

Over the past decades Markus has been in a number of beloved Savannah bands - The Train Wrecks, Clouds and Satellites, and now East Bay-Ardsley - gene...

Join Tamara for an interview with Armando Nieto, an artist/illustrator born in Caracas, Venezuela. He has an Associate's degree in Illustration, and then came to Savannah to complete his B.F.A in Illustration with a concentration in Concept Design for Animation and Games from SCAD. He became proficient in working in Procreate, as well as in traditional painting media. 

He worked as a freelance Illustrator right out of graduation, a...

Join Tamara for an interview with Jazz Howington, a versatile painter, muralist, and illustrator who started her career in 2012 (SCAD Illustration Alumna 2011). She has a day job in UX Design and creates art part-time, out of her studio at Cedar House (go visit her on weekends, receptions, or by appointment!).

She'll have work in the upcoming Cedar House show “SPECTRUM,” June 6th - 27th, with a reception on Friday, June 6. 

Her "Pr...

Join Tamara for an interview with Brittany Curry, a Savannah native who started her career as the coordinator of Oconee Area Citizen Advocacy, an organization that helps people with disabilities build a life outside of professional services. In 2012 she discovered Graphic Recording, an emerging field of documenting meetings with large, hand-drawn, visual graphics.

She began doing this work during nights and weekends, and in 2015 wa...

Join Tamara for an interview with Dana Richardson (b. Sewanee, TN), an artist, muralist, and art instructor at Savannah Christian Preparatory School. Her connection to landscape painting began during a year spent at the Marchutz School of Painting in the south of France. 

Dana first moved to Savannah to get her B.F.A. in Painting from SCAD, and is currently pursuing an M.F.A. at the Maryland Institute College of Art, expected to gr...

Join Tamara for an interview with singer-songwriter (and ukulele queen) Mandy Madson, who trained in opera and musical theater and then eventually "traded the stage of Carnegie Hall for the dim lights of the honky tonks."

Mandy is one half of Andy and Mandy - she and Andrew Sovine are "a brother and sister classic country duo that brings low brow laughs with a high lonesome sound across the lowcountry." 

She has a Bachelor’s in Mus...

Join Tamara for an interview with Savannah, GA artist Maxx Feist, a nonbinary self-taught artist from Asheville, NC who spends all the days and all the times painting! Highly influenced by a regular regiment of caffeine, heavy metal, and true crime podcasts, Maxx fights to connect the cerebral with the visual…always trying to maintain a balance between the dark and the light. This generally come through by way of underworld subject...

Join Tamara for an interview with Ben Copperwheat, a versatile artist known for his exceptional work in fine art, wearable art, and interior concepts. 

His distinctive style is characterized by vibrant colors, bold graphic imagery, and captivating screen prints. His art bursts with a riot of rainbow and neon hues, encompassing a diverse range of motifs and icons that form a unique visual language. 

Ben was born in 1975 in Luton, U....

Join Tamara for an interview with singer-songwriter Cyril Durant, who has lived in Savannah since 2013, after receiving a BM and an MM in vocal performance from Georgia Southern University.

His early professional life was as an opera singer (!), including performing at Opera Fayetteville in Fayetteville, AR as Friedrich Bhaer in Little Women. Since then, he has performed in the Savannah Music Festival, headed up the funk/jazz band ...

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 pa...

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 Melind...

Join Tamara for an interview (actually, we're calling it a conversation!) with notable movie producer Andrew Meyer. What exactly does a movie producer do? You better believe we cover that in the first few minutes! 

Andrew spent years in Hollywood, where he served as the President of Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss’ A&M Films, Robert Redford’s Wildwood Productions, and Norman Lear’s Act All Productions. For the past 20 years, he has ...

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...

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 ca...

Join Tamara for an interview with photographer Bailey Davidson, a Milledgeville native who lived in NYC as an aspiring actor for a few years, before returning to Georgia in the late 90s to pursue his MFA in Photography at SCAD. 

Since graduating, Bailey has built his freelance career in all aspects of professional commercial and editorial photography, working with a wide range of clients, including Savannah Music Festival, Wine Ent...