https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About Alexis: Alexis Marshall is the singer of the band Daughters.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- The making of Daughters’ “Less Sex” music video
- How their newest album, “You Won’t Get What You Want”, came together
- Catharsis and visceral connections to performing on stage for Alexis
- Alexis’s writing process
- Approaching life with gratitude and appreciation
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About David Kassan: Raw, poignant and profoundly honest, David Jon Kassan’s work aesthetically captures humanity in its true form. As an artist, Kassan acts as an empathetic intermediary between the subject he portrays and the viewer. More than simply replicating his subjects Kassan seeks to understand them. He seeks to capture the essence of those he paints, imbuing them with their own voice. They communicate with the viewer interpersonally and we see them through our own eyes. Our gaze transcends the picture plane and permeates deep into the subject’s psyche. We are moved by Kassan’s depictions, captivated by powerfully expressive hands, pensive faces, and flesh that appears warm to touch. Kassan’s portraits pulsate with the lives of his sitters – the weighty streams-of-consciousness of past experiences, feeling and introspection.This is what reality means to Kassan – preserving the realness of nuanced emotion and expression emanatingfrom the people he paints. Kassan’s technical mastery of oil paint combined with adept draftsmanship enables him to fluently represent what he sees. This is evident in the stunning flesh tones Kassan achieves. Transparent layers of oil paint are built up, forming an intricate lattice of veins, blood and skin. Through this light enters and is reflected back, infusing the subject with veridical luminosity. We can also sense movement and life beneath the undulating creases and folds of clothing. It is the artist’s intent to control the medium of oil paint so that it is not part of the viewer to subject equation. Kassan facilitates an interface between subject and viewer with which he is conscious not to interfere. The technical aspect of his work is thus a means to an end; an end rooted in the viewer’s experience.We find inherent contradictions in Kassan’s work as it oscillates between representation and transformation, reality and abstraction.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- Kassan's journey creating paintings based on his interactions with Holocaust survivors, and his recent emotionally transcendent experience exhibiting these works at the Fisher Museum of Art at USC.
- How his early paintings of his family allowed him to develop a closer relationship with them.
- Wanting his students and followers to understand more of why he paints other than how he paints.
- The power of overcoming great trauma, and how it inspires Kassan artistically.
- Grappling with the issue of how people dehumanize one another.
- The balance between the emotional, and technical process of painting.
- Making artwork that doesn't necessarily follow trends, or the desires of a gallery.
- Working with the Shoah Foundation, and how they help genocide survivors.
https://www.instagram.com/davidkassan/
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About Antrese: Antrese Wood is an artist and the host of the Savvy Painter Podcast. The Savvy Painter features interviews with top artists who talk about their mindset, process, and gives tips and techniques to aspiring painters. Antrese paints and teaches online workshops from her home in Argentina.
A painter herself, Antrese left her job art directing video games at the Walt Disney Company to focus exclusively on her art. She lived in Argentina for six years where she created a Kickstarter campaign for her painting project, A Portrait of Argentina. She and her husband spent two years driving from the jungles to the glaciers as she painted her way across the country. Check out her paintings at antrese.com.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- The journey that lead to Wood's pursuit in podcasting
- Graduating from the Art Center College of Design and soon after landing a position working for Disney, where she would work on and off at for twelve years
- Leading a "monastic" lifestyle and managing her painting practice between work before deciding to travel as much as possible and live freely
- Adventures in Wood's life including an exchange program in Honduras as a teen, a 90 day NOLS backpacking and kayaking expedition in Chile, and other trips around the world
- The importance of taking chances and how they can drastically alter your life
- How global communication makes it easier for Wood to live in a different country and still connect to family, friends, and other artists
- Living in Argentina and its financial benefits contrasted to living in Los Angeles
- Acknowledging her tendency towards people pleasing and having the confidence to follow her own desires and life path
https://www.instagram.com/savvypainterpodcast/