Diane Gilleland lives in Portland, OR but her online reach is far. An early adopter of blogs and podcasts, Diane has built a small empire of DIY craft teaching through e-books, podcasts, and online tutorials. Sister Diane is heavily invested in helping others bridge the gap between making, connecting, and marketing. Her podcast covered everything from how to creatively reuse materials, building an online narrative through blogging to connect to an audience, and how important it is to just keep making. Diane and I come from different worlds that share a lot of parallels but meet up very rarely. Indie craft and Fine craft come from the same place, at least on an individual level: we all want/need to make things. But maybe that's where the similarities end. There seems to be a mutual suspicion and lack of understanding between the two worlds. Diane and I address those issues, we talk about the work that she's known for online, and how we look at a craft object. I really had a blast talking to Diane and I felt like this was just the first part of a much longer conversation. Enjoy!

Garth Johnson seems to be in a lot of places at once, and is somehow always at the point of convergence where art and ideas take place. Early on in Lincoln, NE he was involved in the local music scene, where he met friends who would later on connect him with LA comedy. Garth also has a life in acaedmia in Eureka, CA and is still able, no, make that willing, to keep connected to other, seemingly disparate non-academic movements (craftivism, Maker Faire, DIY). Garth is interested in the connections between people, material, and the importance of making. He's written extensively about ceramics and craft and still manages to make his own work. The only thing that impresses me more than Garth's ability to juggle so many things at once is the fact that he sees the ceramic world much differently than most who are invested in it: that there ought to be a lot less hand wringling about our place in the larger art world, that we are stronger than we think, and that we need to look outside of ourselves to really make creative inroads when it comes to concept and execution. He drops a lot of things to check out in this conversation, keep a notepad and pencil ready and check them out later on.

Sharon Van Etten and Shearwater cover the Stevie Nicks/Tom Petty classic "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around."

Robbie Lobell and I took some time out of our busy NCECA week to get to know one another a bit better. Our broad reaching conversation covers her background as a student protester in Berkeley during the 60's, her late arrival to functional ceramics, and the necessity of choosing flameware as a way to make a living. She's inherited her flameware directly from Karen Karnes and has built a niche market by connecting the function of her work, localvore cutlure, and the internet. I really had a good time talking with Robbie and I admire her tenacity and openess to taking on risk.

Hilary Pfeifer is a Portland artist who's had a quite a number of successes over the years. She came by the house and we spent some time getting to know one another a bit better. I must say that I admire her ability to do well at what she does and her focus to get what she wants out of her work, both artistically and financially. We also get into a discussion about the merits of cuteness.

Jeff Guido is the artistic director at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia. For the past ten years he has guided the aesthetic and programming decisions as well as having a hand in choosing resident artists. We talk about Jeff's background, his expectations for residents, the importance of the handmade, and an upcoming event that will help to push the importance of functional ceramics. Enjoy! 

I took the train out to Doylestown, PA where Lisa Naples has been making pots for the past 20 years or so. Our conversation stretched almost twice as long as prior podcasts and covered a range of topics relevant to art making: selling work, being willing to changing work and open to its inherent difficulty, and what makes a successful artist. This is the second part of a two part podcast.

Philadelphia sound collage: carriage ride, bus ride, Chinese New Year, Bobo snoring, studio sounds, birds in January.

I took the train out to Doylestown, PA where Lisa Naples has been making pots for the past 20 years or so. Our conversation stretched almost twice as long as prior podcasts and covered a range of topics relevant to art making: selling work, being willing to changing work and open to its inherent difficulty, and what makes a successful artist. This is the first part of a two part podcast.

When I was in high school I listened to a lot of Fugazi. At a certain point  I also started listening to the Wu-Tang Clan. This mini ep comes from the Minneapolis label Doomtree. Cecil Otter and Swiss Andy spent a year cutting up Fugazi tracks to fit Wu-Tang's acapella. They released Wugazi: 13 Chambers in July of 2011.