Mark Henick is an internationally recognized mental health strategist, advocate, speaker, podcaster, and media commentator. His TEDx talk is one of the most-watched in the world. He regularly speaks to diverse audiences about mental health, hope, and recovery.
Mark Henick’s TEDx talk about being saved from death by a stranger is one of the most-watched in the world and has been viewed millions of times. His search for “the man in the brown jacket” whose bravery and strong arms kept him from falling to his death went viral around the world (and was successful!). Henick has been on television and radio and has written many articles on mental health. He has hosted more than 60 intimate conversations about mental health with notable public figures and celebrities on his podcast, So-Called Normal, and has executive produced and hosted the Living Well podcast for Morneau Shepell.
Henick has served on the board of directors for the Mental Health Commission of Canada and was the president of a provincial division of the Canadian Mental Health Association — the youngest person in either role. He has worked as a frontline clinician, a program manager, and the national director of strategic initiatives for CMHA. Mark is currently the CEO and principal strategist for Strategic Mental Health Consulting.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- Destigmatizing mental illness
- Mark’s personal story and TedX Talk
- The search for the man in the light brown jacket
- Struggles and hardships being a source of strength
- Self-actualizing and truth
- Commercial art
- Compartmentalizing particular aspects of your life
- Life being an artform
- Going all-in on your passion
- Building your passion
- Resilience and grit
- Recovery
- Not knowing your full self yet
- Toxic productivity
- Toxic masculinity
Sean Cheetham was born in 1977 in San Francisco, studied at the College of San Mateo, in California, and earned a B.F.A. degree with honors from Art Center College of Design, in Pasadena, California. His paintings have been included in numerous significant exhibitions internationally including the National Portrait Gallery in London. He has a devoted following of collectors and art students that are inspired by his work and distinctive technique. Primarily a figurative painter, Sean is known for his technical prowess in achieving accuracy and harmony in his alla prima paintings which he credits to a deep understanding of drawing and his own system of mixing colors which he uses adeptly to govern shadows, midtones and highlights. In addition to having an exceptional ability to understand, draw, and paint the human form, Cheetham’s selection of subjects typically in familiar urban scenes contributes a truthful and often raw spirit that makes his work distinctive and a contemporary testimony of our time.
Kate Zambrano is a self-taught fine artist who applies major influences and themes such as the systemic urge to understand human nature, behavior, and the beauty in the expressive nuances.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- Kate and Sean’s relationship
- COVID’s effect on workflow
- Personal hobbies and the meditation behind them
- Endless curiosities within relationships and art
- Community and interaction in the midst of COVID
- Appreciating the mundane experiences of life
- The origin of Kate and Sean’s art practice
- Balance
- Teaching and lessons learned from the experience
- Remaining flexible within your career
- Relying on other mediums to feed into your main passions
- Refinement
- Flipping your mentality
- Ego
- Natural talent, and doing the hard thing
- Persistence
Laura Fried is a Los Angeles-based curator and is a Co-Founder and Director of Active Cultures, a nonprofit organization that explores the convergence of food and art in contemporary life. Through collaborative projects by cooks and artists, Active Cultures' programming takes a multitude of forms such as performances, workshops, meals, and education initiatives. Throughout her career, Fried has advocated for artists and institutions while pushing forward new models for engagement and exhibition-making. She recently served as founding Artistic Director of the Seattle Art Fair, for which she organized a comprehensive program of large-scale installations, performances, talks, and projects. Fried was previously on the curatorial staff of Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA, as well as a curator at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. Fried received her MA in the History of Art from Williams College and the Clark Art Institute.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- Laura’s journey in curation
- Working within non-profit organizations
- The convergence of food and art
- Collaboration
- Unique opportunities that are provided through the community
- Laura’s work with her business partner
- Laura’s advocation for artists and institutions
- The innovation of the exhibition
- The interconnected nature of art and food
- The beginnings of “The MSG Club”
- Future endeavors of Active Cultures in the midst of COVID-19
Cliqua is a directing duo (Pasqual Gutierrez and RJ Sanchez) born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. They have directed music videos for J Balvin, Rosalia, Bad Bunny, and others. In the span of a year, the duo has amassed over 700 million Youtube plays. They have also worked with brands like Adidas, Nike, Amazon, and Tecate. Currently Cliqua is continuing to shoot music videos and commercials while developing a feature-length film and an episodic television show.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- Pasqual and RJ forming Cliqua
- Reflections on past commercial and music video work
- Intentionality within Cliqua’s planning process
- Going into the trenches within business and collaboration
- Teamwork and collaboration
- Shared business values
- Examining the future, reevaluating work practices, and moving forward
- Inspiration through others
- Taking a step back from one’s work
- Controlling one’s process
- Being aware of faults
- Workflow
- Cliqua’s recent music video for The Weeknd’s track “Too Late”
- Thematic filmmaking within music videos
- Creating something that is bigger than you
- The distillation of aesthetics and ideas
Densil McFarlane is the lead singer and guitarist of the Canadian rock trio, The OBGMs.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- The origin of The OBGM’s
- Complications and stresses of the business of music
- Densil’s honest self-reflection on why he creates music
- Not caring too deeply about what others think of you
- The new clarity and purpose found within Densil’s latest album.
- Being in touch with how you are feeling
- Success being a multi-dimensional phenomenon
- Batteling the identifiers of success
- Balancing your ego
- Shifting negative energy into positive and productive motivation
- The energy found within Densil’s latest album
- The changes within the music industry
- Staying innovative
- Specific values that current listeners have
- Incentivization within social media
- Keeping musicianship alive throughout covid
- Cultivating real friendships
- Staying committed to your craft
- Differences between Canada and America
www.artistdecoded.com
www.theobgms.com
www.instagram.com/theobgms
About Adam Hall:
As a visual artist, Adam Hall began working mostly with charcoals and oils. Self-taught, he attempts to mix traditional style with contemporary. Using palette knives and layering techniques he creates a true richness and depth to his work. Adam believes every painting is his next opportunity in truly expressing his vision and vibe through landscape. “Art is such a powerful tool and I strive to use it in the most positive way I know how.”
While his passion for art began growing up in Wellsburg, West Virginia, his professional artistic career began nearly two decades ago in Nashville. When he was not on the road touring with bands all over the world, Adam slowly became involved with a local design firm whose clientele took great interest and demand for his art. Eventually, he started working full time with major record labels and recording artists in Nashville, all the while pursuing his dream to become a full-time artist.
Today, his work has been represented in galleries all over the United States and has been featured in such magazines as American Art Collector Magazine & Fine Art Connoisseur. Adam Hall proudly resides in Nashville, TN, with his wife Thais. Adam spends most of his time in his studio in Historic Franklin and continues to discover a fulfilling purpose through art.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- The benefits of technology during COVID
- Adam’s early career in the music industry
- Utilizing elements from outside fields of study and incorporating them into your artistic practice
- Adding different experiences and tools to your “toolkit”
- Adam’s changing perspectives on painting
- The dynamic of a career vs. a hobby
- Being disciplined and producing organic results
- Healthy competition
- Surrounding yourself with individuals who are greater than you
- Humility
- Faith and understanding how it relates to our experiences
- Being in a constant state of questioning
- The notion of personal truth(s)
- Religion and ideologies
- Inclusivity and exclusivity
- Remaining open to other aspects of the world
- Adam’s experiences traveling to Africa
- Morality and ethics
- Intentions behind our actions
- The meaning behind Adam’s ocean paintings
- The emotion that translates through a person’s artwork
- Adam’s experiences as a father
- Micro-decisions within our daily lives
- Striving creatively through parenting
- “Current Journeys”
Links:
www.artistdecoded.com
www.adamhallart.com
www.instagram.com/adamhallart
Jeffrey Martin Zacks, American psychology educator, member of the American Psychological Association, American Psychological Society, and the Cognitive Science Society.
His book, Flicker: Your Brain on Movies, delves into the history of cinema and the latest research to explain what happens in your brain when you sit down in the theatre and the lights go out.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- How the brain helps us think perceive and aid us in solving problems
- Mirror neurons
- The impact that film has on it’s viewers
- Mimicking attributes of the brain and how it specifically helps us in daily life
- Film perception
- Evoking and implementing cues for specific responses within films
- “The willing suspension of belief”
- Kids viewing violent films and how it affects them when they are adults
- Mindset and engagement
- Age and films
- Neuroplasticity
- The “nimble brain”
- The brain’s development and how we can shift the way we think in order to retain a greater amount of plasticity
- Movies and the brain’s correspondence with what we are visualizing
- “Feeling” what we are viewing
- Creating plots and narratives that affect your emotion
- The power of non-analytical effects
- The documentary “The Social Dilemma”, and Jeff’s views on the way technology is progressing
- “What are you subscribing to?”
- Children and social media
- Reflecting on how we use social media and how it influences our brain and habits
Self-taught, David Uzochukwu (b. 1998, Austria) creates (self-)portraits that speak of both placelessness and belonging. His work sees bodies shifting through nature, performance, and digital reconfiguration. Uzochukwu’s photographs have been exhibited at Bozar, Photo Vogue Festival, and Unseen Amsterdam. He has collaborated with artists FKA twigs, Pharrell, and Iris Van Herpen, and received commissions by Dior and Hermès. Since 2019, he is a participant of CPH:DOX’s talent development program. British Journal of Photography named him One to Watch in 2020. He currently lives in Berlin, where he pursues his first degree in philosophy.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- David’s development and obsession with photography
- Looking at other photographers work and being inspired
- Distraction and aesthetic within David’s work
- Emotions and the expression of an image
- David’s photography process
- Finding your signature approach
- Navigating your youth, and standing your ground
- Leaning into your intuition
- Organic transition within artwork
- Simplicity
- Swallowing your feelings and fighting to have your needs met
- Finding your artistic voice and rooting yourself within that
- David’s interest in philosophy
- Ethics and practical reasoning for the things that you do
- Aesthetics being used as a “glazing” to your art
- Masculinity and the roles of gender
- Strength and vulnerability
- Futurism
- Getting to the point of reflecting your opinions within your art
- Bias
- The future for Davids self-portraiture and photography
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz are both directors and writers, known for Antebellum (2020), Rapture, and 17 Seventeen (2017).
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- Required solitude
- Shifting perspective within a paradigm
- Truth
- Bush and Renz’s collaboration and how that has evolved
- Acceptance of failures and misfortunes
- The process of working together within relationships
- Discovery within the arts
- Companionship within the process of creating
- The process of trusting your art
- Spiritualism
- The collective consciousness
- Inspiration and how an artist taps into it
- Leaving behind a legacy
- When to put on and shed your ego
- Being afraid to feel something
- The emotion felt while filming Antebellum
- Social change
- The foundations and future of America
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About Justin: Justin Mortimer (b.1970) is a British artist whose paintings consistently invite us to question the relationship between subject matter and content, beauty and horror, and between figuration and abstraction. While the imagery is almost exclusively pitiless, the texturing of the paint, the play between light and shade, and the passages that lead from photo-realist definition to near-abstract formlessness are so sensitively handled as to make the work at least partially redemptive as well as to indicate a key philosophical dimension: the oblique relationship between evidence and interpretation.
In his recent solo show, his works create paradoxical beauty in the landscape of oppression and violence around the world. With the Covid-19 pandemic and the escalating racial conflict, Justin Mortimer's solo exhibition sets the stage for reflection on the 'tomorrow' of our society.
Show Notes:
- 0:00:00 - Introduction
- 0:04:52 - Paradoxical Psychological Truth in Work
- 0:08:34 - Feeling Like An Outsider & Childhood Stories
- 0:12:57 - Balloons as Proxy For The Body & Learning Figurative Painting
- 0:17:06 - Painting Latex, Dysmorphia, and Masks
- 0:20:22 - BP Portrait Award and Learning and Unlearning Portrait Painting
- 0:24:25 - Digital Collaging The Overlooked Imagine
- 0:29:23 - Not Knowing When Paintings Are Done
- 0:32:54 - Empathy With People Diametrically Opposing Views
- 0:37:19 - New Meanings of Paintings Included in Solo Show "Tomorrow"
- 0:42:53 - COVID-19 Struggles
- 0:46:40 - "The Social Dilemma" by Jeff Orlowski and No More Truth
- 0:48:54 - Past Generations and "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" by Werner Herzog
- 0:54:02 - Decoding The Everyday Object
- 0:58:03 - Meanings Transform Over Time
- 1:02:11 - Painting David Bowie and Expectations of Portrait Painting
- 1:15:15 - Wrap Up
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About Mike: Mike Lee is a world-ranked professional boxer who has fought in some of the world’s most iconic arenas like Madison Square Garden, Cowboys Stadium & The MGM Grand in front of millions of fans. In 2014 Mike was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, ankylosing spondylitis, that almost ended his career. In and out of hospitals for over two years he became tired of all the medications and treatments. Mike began searching for all-natural alternatives which lead him to discover CBD and all of its incredible physical and mental benefits! Using his background in finance and business, Mike felt that creating Soul CBD would be the perfect way to share his knowledge while helping others to defeat whatever battles with the pain they may be facing.
Columbia Tatone is an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer. Known for her dynamic cinematic action and relational, relevant storytelling, she often features unique elements of sci-fi in her work. Tatone studied Jazz at Berklee's College of Music in Boston and later received her Business degree at Vanguard University. As a commercial, music video, and narrative director, Columbia empowers her audience through eye-popping, thought-provoking action sequences. As a champion for women and the underrepresented, Tatone often uses her work to promote social justice while also taking us into different realities that highlight the emotional scar tissue of life.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- Fight and flight mode
- The state of flow
- The fullness of living out your destiny
- Mike’s early stages of boxing
- Performing with gratitude and happiness
- Mike’s autoimmune illness
- Empathy and wellness
- Grit
- Eastern Medicine
- Looking at pain as a gift
- Mind over body
- Reprogramming of your mind
- How COVID has put everyone on an equal playing field
- Identity
- Mike’s work with his company “Soul CBD”
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About Edon: Edon Guraziu specializes in Concept Design & Consultation. These various industries range from Entertainment, Industrial, Defense, Medical, Consumer Products, and more. Many years of collaboration have resulted in meaningful relationships with the following companies, some of which include: 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures, Microsoft, Netflix, NVIDIA, MPC, Method Studios, JBC Safety Plastic Inc., StrikerVR, TheVRCompany, Swiss Federal Railways, and more.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- Upbringing and immigrating
- Not allowing fear to inhibit productivity
- Logic and emotion
- Age and skills
- Movies and their influence
- Mentors and relationships
- Being present, here and now
- Decision making and their ripple effect
- Valuing yourself, your art, and your business
- Art and business
- Stoicism & identity of work
- Work, failure, and recontextualizing
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About Jesse: Jesse Draxler was born in rural Wisconsin, studied in Minneapolis, MN, and currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. A formal mixed media & inter-disciplinary artist, Draxler has exhibited extensively both domestically and internationally.
Draxler had solo exhibitions in New York at the Booth Gallery in 2017 and 2016, and has been in exhibitions across Europe at galleries in Munich, London, Paris, Hamburg, and Berlin. Draxler collaborates with brands including Hugo Boss, McQ Alexander McQueen, and Ferrari, with original artwork appearing in Elle, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic, among other publications.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- The path of friendship
- The intentionality behind social media
- Thinking about the motivations behind what you are doing
- Dedication within your craft
- Artists relation to sports
- Mental fortitude and willpower
- The meaning behind Jesse’s latest show, “Table of Losses”
- Letting artwork play itself out
- The payoff of patience
- The sense of urgency that comes with social media
- Having a sense of mental separation between yourself and your artistic practice
- Ego death
- Copying yourself and it equating to an artistic death
- Jesse continually re-inventing himself
- The emotional weight behind the artwork
- Taking criticism as an artist
- Modern and Post-Modern art
- Moral limits, and how art challenges your morals
- Finding inspirations within everyday life
- Jesse’s music project “Reigning Cement”
- Jesse’s “Love, hate” relationship with his environment
- Collaborative pieces of art being influenced by the environment
- The concept of a suffering artist
- Success and drive
- Understanding and creating from a place of purpose
- Setting goals within life
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About Yasmine: Yasmine Nasser Diaz is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice navigates overlapping tensions around religion, gender, and third-culture identity. Her recent work includes immersive installation, fiber etching, and mixed media collage using personal archives and found imagery.
Diaz has exhibited and performed at spaces including the Brava Theater in San Francisco, the Albuquerque Museum of Art, and the Torrance Art Museum. She is a recipient of the California Community Foundation Visual Artist Fellowship (2019) with works included in the collections of LACMA, UCLA, and the Arab American National Museum. She lives and works in Los Angeles.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- The background behind the title of Yazmine’s latest show “Soft Powers”
- The concept of “code-switching”
- Navigating different worlds within the world we live in
- Cultural differences Yazmine has experienced and how it has personally developed in her work
- Growing up within two different cultures and countries
- A nuanced discussion on arranged marriage and forced arranged marriage and the hardship that came with it
- Online dating and “matchmaking” and how it has affected our world
- Yasmine’s journey to New Mexico
- Poverty, capitalism, and the disbursement of power
- Yazmine’s current work and why she chose the 90s as a timepiece
- Engagement between the artist, the content, and the viewer
- The business of art and the complications that come with selling art
- “Social practice” of art
- The complicated reality of morals and ethics within different career fields
- The concept of death and knowing what you stand for
- Being intentional of why you want power and resources
- The dynamics between parents and children
- Subminimally thinking about art
- Yazmine’s latest work
- Transforming style over time
- Authenticity
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About Pádraig: Pádraig Ó Tuama is a poet and theologian from Ireland whose poetry and prose have been published widely across Ireland, the US, and the UK. He presents Poetry Unbound with On Being, a hugely successful podcast where he explores a single poem. Short and unhurried; contemplative and energizing, this podcast had more than a million downloads of its first season. The second season starts on the 28th of September. Mondays and Fridays for twelve weeks.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- What Padraig’s poem means to him, reflecting back on it
- Life being circular
- Padraig’s writing process
- The beauty in the confluence of various things coming together
- Padraig’s roots within writing poetry
- Embracing the flourishing of life
- Isolation within artists
- The “peasant poet”
- Cultural conflict
- Shelter and the shadow
- Leaning into self-discovery within our life
- Considering things that have been ingrained within us and actively challenging their purpose within our live
- Poetry being the unfolding of the unexpected
- Finding beauty within the imperfections
- Being interested in looking
- Meditation within daily life
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About Colin: Colin Frangicetto is a multidisciplinary visual artist, musician (Circa Survive & Psychic Babble), and podcaster (The Cosmic Nod). He lives and works in Portland, OR.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- The genesis of Circa Survive
- Colin’s experiences with psychedelic drugs at an early age, and how it affected his view of life in both the present and future
- Empathy towards others
- Being present with an individual
- Lessons learned within political unrest
- Learning to intentionally listen to those who you disagree with
- “Being your own Buddha” and living the teachings you subscribe to
- Colin’s journey with ayahuasca
- Intentions of reciprocity
- The concept of giving and taking
- Homelessness being on the rise within L.A. and Portland
- Giving your life to the arts
- Life as an artist
- The difficulty of not being able to tour throughout the COVID-19 pandemic
- Circa Survive’s “rhythm of touring”
- An artists’ work turning into a brand
- Being connected to yourself and being comfortable in your own skin
- Genuine artists and self-proclaimed artists
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About Carlos: Carlos Torres has been tattooing for over 20 years and is mostly self-taught. Early in his career, Carlos worked at a couple of tattoo shops before he got his big break at So. Cal Tattoo in San Pedro, CA. It was there he learned the most and built his tattoo portfolio. Carlos specializes in black & grey realism and surrealism tattoos and loves creating original pieces of art. In addition to tattooing, he enjoys photography, painting, sculpting, teaching workshops, and traveling. His travels to international and domestic conventions have earned him awards including Best Small Black & Gray, Best Large Black & Gray, and Best Backpiece.
In October of 2017, Carlos opened his own studio, The Raven and The Wolves. This fine art gallery and tattoo studio is located in the heart of downtown Long Beach and is home to 8 artists.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- Carlos’ start in tattooing
- The power of mentorship
- Apprenticeship in the tattoo practice
- Intuition and learning to be in-tune with your gut
- The ever-changing nature of tattooing
- The art of tattooing in relation to other mediums
- Carlos’ love for realism
- Being a “loose painter on skin”
- Mastering a medium
- Mood and stress having a factor in tattooing
- The human element, and subjectivity towards ideas
- The clients desire for a tattoo, versus the artist’s interpretation and advice
- Carlos’ recent work within oil paints
- Freedom
- Growing up in the ghetto
- Staying positive in the midst of life
- Teaching making you a better artist
- Being informed by toggling back between art medium
- Covid-19 and Carlos’ time spend thinking about lif
- Taking time off and implementing fresh ideas into your ar
- Creatives becoming caricatures of themselves
- Having child-like sensibilities with your art practice
- “Holding onto your dinosaurs
- Observing people losing their creative instinct
- The cliche’s of adulthood
- Storing ideas and inspiration
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About Sophia: Sophia Rokhlin is an author, speaker, and nonprofit organizer dedicated to supporting the conservation of indigenous wisdom and territory. Through engaged botany and ecology, she bridges the worlds of traditional ecological knowledge and Western science.
She is a Program Coordinator at the Chaikuni Institute, supporting sustainable ayahuasca cultivation and reforestation in the Peruvian Amazon. She is a co-author of When Plants Dream: Ayahuasca, Amazonian Shamanism, and the Global Psychedelic Renaissance (Watkins, 2019) on the global spread of ayahuasca. She helps coordinate Folk Medicine, a live-stream benefit for communities of the Amazon rainforest impacted by COVID-19. She sits in the Ayahuasca Community Committee for the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines. Her research appears in publications including the New York Times and the BBC.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- The beginning stages of Sophia’s work with indigenous people groups
- How human communities understand and grow in community with each other
- The differences between the “American path” vs the path that indigenous people groups take
- The association of wavelengths and the togetherness of individuals
- How western culture has lost a sense of togetherness
- The concept of reciprocity
- “Sowing seeds for the future, while living in the present”
- Capitalism and the approach to success
- Coronavirus and it’s affect to our larger structures
- Working together in teams
- Happiness
- Technology and social innovations
- How indigenous people groups approach health and wellness
- America viewing health in an allopathic way
- Environmentalism
- The romanticization of interconnectedness
- The traditional and modern uses of Ayahuasca
- Meditation, present-mindedness, and prayer
- The loss of ritual within modern society
- Being honest with yourself
- Living in a world full of tools, but having the lack of community to utilize them
- Human wisdom
- The mindset of jumping from interest to interest, rather than going deeper into a context
- Art being an expression of exploration
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About William: William von Hippel, Ph.D., grew up in Alaska, got his B.A. at Yale and his PhD at the University of Michigan, and then taught for a dozen years at Ohio State University before finding his way to Australia, where he is a professor of psychology at the University of Queensland. He has published more than a hundred articles, chapters, and edited books in social psychology, and his research has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, The Economist, the BBC, Le Monde, El Mundo, Der Spiegel, and The Australian.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- William’s start in social evolutionary science
- The fear we experience being attributed to evolution
- Technology affecting our evolution
- Social vs. technological innovations
- The difference and similarities between hunter and gatherers and us now living in the modern world
- Great ideas being found
- Sexual selection within evolution and how it has shifted with the influence of dating apps and the internet
- Maximizers vs. satisficers
- Finding the fundamental purpose of your life
- The meaning of life
- Coronavirus and self-isolation
- The evolution of collaboration
- Being present-minded
- The fallibility of memories
- Sociopathic tendencies within humans
- The cost of empathy
- Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and self-actualization
- “Killing the Mastadon”
- How art and science fit within evolution.
- Objectivity
- The acceptance of the truth
- The end result of science and art being incredibly similar
- The concept of the “starving artist”
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About CJ: Cj Hendry (b. 1988) is a New York based artist originally from Brisbane, Australia. Globally renowned for her large-scale, photo-realistic drawings of consumer goods and immense, interactive exhibitions, she has developed a dedicated following through her unique brand of technical mastery and conceptual depth.
A self-professed “lover of products”, Hendry is heir to the Pop Art tradition that firmly established depictions of everyday objects and mass culture in the art historical canon. In the footsteps of Andy Warhol, Hendry generates instantaneously appealing images that celebrate kitsch aesthetics and it’s ubiquitous presence in contemporary digital culture.
More recently, the artist has incorporated new subject matter to delve into deep-seated concerns and anxieties of current society. After seven years of studying architecture and finance in Australia, Hendry abandoned the endeavor in 2014 to pursue art full-time. She has since presented 6 solo exhibitions across Australia, the U.S., and Asia. In 2017, the artist collaborated with esteemed fashion house Christian Louboutin to present her first works in color during the 2017 edition of Art Basel in Hong Kong.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- Adaptability
- Not being bogged down by life and “going on with the show”
- The dynamic of achieving greatness without falling into individualistic, isolated, and greedy viewpoints.
- Discipline, and its relation to our daily life.
- The importance of community, and how opening yourself up and allowing people to be involved with what you are doing brings about a particular level of freedom.
- The concept of creative energy - Being relaxed, calm, and effortless within your life and art practice.
- Art not about being able to draw something well. Rather, art being more about the conceptual nature behind it.
- Creatively letting go of what others think about you, and doing work that is fulfilling for yourself within art.
- The concept of working hard and living humbly.
- Triumphing in the midst of defeats.
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About Anna: Anna Park is a contemporary artist based in New York City, creating pieces that blur the lines between figurative and abstract work.
Creating a dazed, yet emotional experience, Anna’s central content revolves around larger bodies of people within social settings while provoking a vaporous and ethereal sensation.
Her most recent work takes on a new form, having a larger, tangled, and fragmented abstraction that envelops the viewer as the cacophony of black and white charcoal reveals intimate messages relating to society and the people we interact with.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- The inspiration behind her most recent work describing them as an “amalgamation of people”
- The desire for “the viewer can become the voyager”
- Anna feeling that the inspiration for her new body of work can be attributed to her living in New York City
- The dynamic of paintings feeling nostalgic and how our subconscious draws from past memories without truly knowing why
- Work and life during the quarantine
- The dynamic of creating art in a self-fulfilling way vs creating art specifically for other people
- Anna’s upbringing moving from multiple states and her interactions with her mentor, Bruce Roberson, and how he “taught her everything” and how it solidified Anna’s desire to be an artist
- Gratitude surrounding Anna’s move to New York
- Submergence within different cultures
- Community
- Power structures and how toxic masculinity has permeated the world and made it difficult to empathize and move past our hierarchical viewpoints
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About Ryan: Ryan York is a Doctor of Philosophy, postdoctoral scholar within the department of neurobiology at Stanford University, and an author of over a dozen publications.
His research is focused on the evolutionary genomic basis of brain and behavior with a specific interest in the courtship behaviors of Lake Malawi cichlid fish.
Having a passion for music and working in constant collaboration with individuals such as Justin Daashuur Hopkins, Ryan borders the line between highly intellectual compositions and spontaneous, free-flowing, and seemingly primal soundscapes
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- Ryan’s work as an evolutionary biologist, and his specific project working within computational methods in understanding behaviors
- Applying concepts used within artificial intelligence and using them for work in other areas of science
- The overlap of art and science
- The idea of repeatability
- Collective consciousness and collaboration
- Provisional answers and the unknown
- Continually shifting based upon your ever-changing context
- Scientific having ties to elements of spirituality
- Free will
- Humility
- The power of the mind
- Philosophy of science
- Different levels of understanding
- Dogmatism
- Placebo’s having a similarity to art
- The subconscious vs analytical instinct
- Slow vs fast understanding and experience
- Creativity being an exploration of what the world is
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About Daniele: Bolelli reads a passage about fear from his book, “Not Afraid: On Fear, Heartbreak, Raising a Baby Girl, and Cage Fighting”
Daniele Bolelli (born January 11, 1974) is an Italian-American writer, university professor, martial artist, and podcaster based in Southern California. He is the author of several books on philosophy, and martial arts, including On the Warrior's Path. Known for his writing since the 1990s in Italy and the early 2000s in the United States, Bolelli rose to greater public prominence in the 2010s, beginning with his appearances on popular podcasts such as The Joe Rogan Experience. He went on to create his own podcasts, and has hosted The Drunken Taoist since 2012 and History on Fire since 2015.
Bolelli holds M.As in American Indian Studies and history from UCLA and California State University, Long Beach, and did postdoctoral research in history at Cardiff University. As a professor, he has taught a wide variety of courses in the arts, humanities, and social sciences on topics including Native American history and culture, Taoist philosophy, and Ancient Rome. He teaches at CSULB and Santa Monica College.
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About Jerome: Acclaimed and revered painter, Jerome Lagarrigue, was born in France to a father who was an illustrator and a mother who was a writer and journalist. Being rooted within a world of creativity and culture, Jerome’s life - from youth to adulthood, can be described as a type of compelling metamorphosis, including experiences both from a creative and racial point of view which directly saturates his current work as a painter.
Finding love within depicting movement inside of his work, Jerome continues to create powerful work that calls into question particular aspects of the world we live in and frames the subtle and reflective essence of human beings.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- Jerome being exposed to two different cultures, and how it offered both confusing and later, harmonious element to his life as a whole
- The topic of race – its objectivity, functionality, horrific nature, and the struggles that have come with being associated with a specific race
- Jerome’s upbringing - living both in France and Harlem, and how he was always drawing as a child
- The effects of social injustices on racial identity
- The layered nature of the social justice protests and riots
- Capitalism shaping the way we live our lives
- The genesis of creativity
- Decisions of engaging in a subject matter
- Searching continually within art
- The power in saying no
- Creative instinct
- The wave and the weight of the reaction to coronavirus
- Captivation within the movement and process of painting
- Stanly Kubrick’s process and its relation to creativity
- The growth from the mentality of seeing the world as either one or another absolute into viewing the world as being “gray”
- An Individual’s desire to be comfortable rather than be challenged
- Jerome’s decision to paint riots
- The connection of energy, nature, and humanism within paining
- Feeling, rather than reacting
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About CJ: CJ Johnson is an acclaimed Speaker and Digital Marketing Consultant, servicing Fortune 50 clients worldwide and a prominent digital influencer with hundreds of thousands of online supporters. CJ is best known for creating successful influencer marketing campaigns as both an influencer and a Consultant, helping content creators and companies maximize their ROI. As a successful influencer, CJ uses his voice for creative storytelling to provide inspiration, digital marketing tips, and work/life balance advice in our modern era. As a Consultant, CJ specializes in digital brand strategy, creative campaigns, influencer marketing, future of work, diversity & inclusion, and trend forecasting. His work specializes in the technology, fashion, lifestyle, political, travel, and entertainment industries. Currently, CJ is a GQ Insider, Google Next Gen Policy Leader, and a Digital Marketing Consultant to innovative companies.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- The joys of having a daughter
- Couch surfing while finishing college in Los Angeles
- Finding success through design and conscious actions
- Doing marketing for tech companies
- How money plays into an overall idea of success