AJA, The Spirit Guide Coach, is a spiritual counselor who specializes in connecting you with the guidance and wisdom of your unique Spiritual team.

The advice from your Spirit Guides is incorporated into AJA’s intuitive coaching process in order to help you create a plan for breaking negative patterns, finding your path, and accepting the love and support that your Guides surround you with every single day.

As the bridge between you and your Guides, AJA considers this to be sacred work and is honored to help those who wish to deepen their connection with their higher self and learn to love themselves on a deeper level.

Spirit Guide Life Coaching is an incredibly intimate and rewarding process that allows you to hear the advice and support that your Guides wish to offer you.

AJA is a true believer in the innate power every person has to achieve radical expansion through self-love.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• Aja’s experiences in mediumship and channeling spirits
• Losing connection with ourselves
• Children being closer to the source
• Daily distractions of the modern era and the connection to feeling disconnected from oneself
• What led Aja to her personal spiritual awakening
• Her experiences speaking with her spirit guides
• Connecting to our higher self
• How people can connect with their guides through meditation
• The importance of journaling
• Tapping into one’s own psychic abilities
• Creation and destruction
• Making the right decisions for ourselves
• The most rewarding things about being a medium
• Embodying archetypes
• Actions precipitating change
• Not repeating negative patterns that can hold us back

Books Mentioned:

1. The Body Keeps The Score (Bessel van der Kolk)
2. Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype (Clarissa Pinkola Estés)

Films and TV Shows Mentioned:

1. Ghosts (2021)
2. Hereditary (2018)

artistdecoded.com
thespiritguidecoach.com
instagram.com/thespiritguidecoach

Yoshino is a multi-hyphenate artist and the host of Artist Decoded.

Topics Discussed:

• Thinking about habits as a necessity, similar to breathing
• The idea of the Daemon (or Daimon)
• Being a vessel for creative energy to flow through you
• Channeling ourselves to our intuition
• “Everyone is a hero in their birth.” - Otto Rank

Artists Mentioned:

• Marie-Louise von Franz (Psychologist)
• Philip K. Dick (Author)
• Otto Rank (Philosopher)

Books Mentioned:

1. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Philip K. Dick)
2. The Myth of the Birth of the Hero (Otto Rank)

Yoshino’s Links:
yoshinostudios.com
instagram.com/yoshinostudios
twitter.com/yoshinostudios

Natalie Goldberg is the author of fifteen books, including Writing Down the Bones (Shambhala, 1986), which has sold over one million copies, has been translated into fourteen languages, and started a revolution in the way we practice writing in this country.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• Natalie’s first book, “Chicken and In Love” (1979)
• Being afraid of both success and failure before her book, “Writing Down The Bones,” came out in 1986
• Having thin values
• “I shop therefore I am.” - Barbara Kruger
• Consuming vs. finding meaning
• Natalie writing two books while undergoing treatment for cancer
• Accepting suffering
• Thinking about one’s legacy
• Zen Buddhism
• “Writing closes the gap between who you think you are and who you are.” - Natalie Goldberg
• What writing has revealed to Natalie
• “Make this moment an occasion to live deeply, happily in peace.” - Thich Nhat Hanh
• Managing discursive thoughts
• The pros and cons of the advent of the interview
• The art of haiku writing

People Mentioned:

1. Margaret Atwood (Writer)
2. Amy Tan (Writer)
3. Katagiri Roshi (Sōtō Zen Priest and Teacher)
4. Lidia Yuknavitch (Writer)
5. Barbara Kruger (Artist)
6. Joan Didion (Writer)
7. Viktor Frankl (Neurologist, Psychiatrist, Philosopher, Writer)
8. Carson McCullers (Writer)
9. Thich Nhat Hanh (Monk)
10. Masaoka Shiki (Poet)

Books Mentioned That Natalie Goldberg Wrote:

1. Chicken and In Love
2. Writing Down The Bones
3. Let The Whole Thundering World Come Home
4. The Great Spring
5. The True Secret of Writing
6. Three Simple Lines

Books Mentioned:

1. The Year of Magical Thinking (Joan Didion)
2. Man’s Search For Meaning (Viktor Frankl)
3. The Ballad of the Sad Café (Carson McCullers)
4. 2030 (Mauro F. Guillén)

aristdecoded.com
nataliegoldberg.com

Yoshino is a multi-hyphenate artist and the host of Artist Decoded.

Article Mentioned:
Why Your Brain Needs To Dream by Matthew Walker

Podcast Mentioned:
Sleep Is Non-Negotiable: Dr. Matthew Walker | Rich Roll Podcast

Yoshino’s Links:
yoshinostudios.com
instagram.com/yoshinostudios
twitter.com/yoshinostudios

Yoshino is a multi-hyphenate artist and the host of Artist Decoded.

Show Notes:

• Giving space for one’s own stream of consciousness to flow
• The power of writing daily
• “What is your identity?”
• Awakening the spirit

Yoshino’s Links:
yoshinostudios.com
instagram.com/yoshinostudios
twitter.com/yoshinostudios

Lidia Yuknavitch is the nationally bestselling author of the novels The Book of Joan, The Small Backs of Children, and Dora: A Headcase, the story collection Verge, and the memoir The Chronology of Water. She is the recipient of two Oregon Book Awards and has been a finalist for the Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize and the PEN Center USA Creative Nonfiction Award. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• “One life is all we have, and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are, and to live without belief—that is a fate more terrible than dying.” - The Book of Joan
• Having grit and an unwillingness to surrender as an artist
• False notions around the idea of transcendence
• Social conditioning
• Patriarchy
• The umbilical cord as a metaphoric symbol in Lidia’s writing
• Objective correlatives
• Intergenerational trauma
• Her writing center “Corporeal Writing”
• How her newest book “Thrust” is a love letter dedicated to her son and mother
• “The edges of everything are always shimmering” - Lidia
• Enzo circles
• Having a competitive spirit as an athlete
• Lidia feeling comfort in the water
• The connection between colonization and the way we view the gender binary
• Lidia’s process of researching while she is writing a book

People / Artists Mentioned:

1. VOWWS (Band)
2. Jesse Draxler (Visual Artist)
3. David Lynch (Filmmaker)
4. Melissa Febos (Writer)
5. Terese Marie Mailhot (Writer)
6. Judith Butler (Philosopher)
7. Danez Smith (Poet)
8. David Cronenberg (Filmmaker)
9. Viggo Mortensen (Actor)
10. Kristen Stewart (Actor)
11. Jane Campion (Director)
12. Philip K. Dick (Writer)
13. Brandon Cronenberg (Director)
14. Percy Bysshe Shelley (Poet)
15. Elizabeth Moss (Actor)
16. Margaret Atwood (Writer)

Books Mentioned:

1. The Misfit’s Manifesto
2. Thrust
3. The Book of Joan
4. It Didn’t Start With You
5. Frankenstein

Films / TV Shows Mentioned:

1. eXistenZ (1999)
2. Crimes of the Future (2022)
3. Titane (2021)
4. Blade Runner (1982)
5. Dead Ringers (1988)
6. Possessor (2020)
7. Mary Shelley (2017)
8. Shirley (2020)
9. The Handmaid’s Tale (2017)

artistdecoded.com
lidiayuknavitch.net
instagram.com/lidiamiles
twitter.com/LidiaYuknavitch

Martin Wittfooth was born in Toronto, Canada in 1981 and works in two studios in Kingston, New York, and Savannah, Georgia. He earned his MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 2008. Wittfooth’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, including the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Akron Art Museum in Ohio, and La Halle Saint-Pierre in Paris, with solo exhibitions in New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Copenhagen. His paintings have also appeared in numerous publications, including Juxtapoz, The New York Times Art Review, and Vice, and cover features in New American Paintings, Hi-Fructose, Chronogram, and American Artist Magazine.

Wittfooth’s paintings, drawings, installations, and sculptural works investigate themes of the intersection and clash of industry and nature, and the human influence on the environment. Many of his works explore the theme of shamanism - rituals and practices as old as our species - through which we have attempted to dialogue with nature: the nature outside of ourselves and the nature within. His creative language uses the combination of allegory and symbolism to convey visual narratives.

Martin Wittfooth is represented by Gallery Poulsen in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• Martin’s upcoming solo exhibit “The Plasticene Era,” which opens on September 17th, 2022 @ Gallery Poulsen in Cøpenhagen
• The longest amount of time he has spent on one painting
• Getting inspiration from the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles
• The pre-career retrospective
• Creating an exquisite corpse with oneself
• Martin growing up in Finland
• Martin working as an illustrator directly out of college 
• 3D printing
• World building
• Speaking about one’s personal observations of the world through one’s paintings
• The Siren in Greek mythology
• Google’s “sentient” AI, LaMDA
• Creating meaning out of one’s own life
• Balancing being a working artist and having a family
• Being a community-focused artist

People / Artists Mentioned:

1. Gerhard Richter (Visual Artist)
2. David Cronenberg (Director)
3. Bret Easton Ellis (Writer)
4. Darren Aronofsky (Director)
5. Adrian Ghenie (Painter)
6. Justin Mortimer (Painter)
7. Cecily Brown (Painter)
8. Anish Kapoor (Sculptor)
9. James Turrell (Artist)
10. Albert Einstein (Physicist)
11. Blake Lemoine (Google AI Engineer)

Books Mentioned:

1. American Psycho
2. Less Than Zero

Films / TV Shows Mentioned:

1. Crimes of the Future (2022)
2. Mother! (2017)
3. The Shining (1980)

martinwittfooth.com
instagram.com/martinwittfooth

Emma Ruth Rundle is a singer-songwriter, guitarist, and visual artist. 

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• Emma leaving Cal Arts to move to Wellington, New Zealand
• Outsider art
• Yoshino’s introduction into photography
• Finding one’s flow state
• Tapping into the collective consciousness within one’s art
• Exploring the role of an artist
• Her newest album and visual art project “Dowsing Voice”
• Traveling to Wales to record “Dowsing Voice”
• Unblocking the gateway of the mind to allow the muse to enter
• Emma exploring getting her MFA
• Journaling
• Arthurian legends and Celtic myths
• Feeling less lonely when you can connect with an artist’s body of work
• Finding people you can connect with along the way
• Post-narrative work

People / Artists Mentioned:

1. Henry Darger (Artist)
2. Maja Ruznic (Painter)
3. Vivian Maier (Photographer)
4. Francis Bacon (Painter)
5. Sibylle Baier (Folk Singer) 
6. Nick Drake (Singer-Songwriter)
7. Joan Didion (Writer)
8. Margaret Atwood (Writer)
9. Olivia Laing (Writer)
10. Phil Hale (Artist)
11. Shape of Despair (Band)
12. Patrick Walker (Musician)
13. Lidia Yuknavitch (Writer)
14. Mizmor (Band)
15. Mary Maddux of Meditation Oasis
16. Wim Wenders (Director)
17. Andrei Tarkovsky (Director)
18. Dave Elitch (Drummer)

Books Mentioned:

1. “Everybody” by Olivia Laing
2. The Mabinogion
3. Poetic Edda
4. “The Misfit’s Manifesto” by Lidia Yuknavitch

Films / TV Shows Mentioned:

1. Wings of Desire (1987)
2. Midsomer Murders (1997)
3. Slow TV - Norway
4. Stalker (1979)

artistdecoded.com
emmaruthrundle.com
instagram.com/emmaruthrundle
twitter.com/emmaruthrundle

There is a way a voice can cut through the fascia of reality, cleaving through habit into the raw nerve of experience. Nika Roza Danilova, the singer, songwriter, and producer who since 2009 has released music as Zola Jesus, wields a voice that does that. When you hear it, it is like you are being summoned -- not to somewhere new, but to a place that's already wrapped inside you, somewhere previously obscured from conscious experience. This place has been buried because it tends to hold pain, but it's also a gift, because once it's opened, once you're inside of it, it can show you the truth.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• Nika’s newest album “Arkhon”
• Accepting the past and exploring the unknown
• How her life drastically changed after the release of her album “Okovi” in 2017
• Her journey creating her albums: Taiga, Okovi, and Arkhon
• “When you’re trying to make music to fit into a world that already exists. It’s much less interesting.” - Nika
• Problems with viewing one’s art within the lens of commerce and commercial viability
• Having confidence in one’s own unique process
• The healing powers of meditation
• Having full faith and trust in the muse
• Transcendental Meditation
• Creating music in isolation
• The Definite Chief Aim
• Losing touch with one’s internal dialogue
• Cultivating purpose
• Returning to nature to understand that we are part of a greater ecosystem
• Human hubris
• Being mindful of how one expends their energy 
• Changing the world through our artistic contributions
• Being completely honest with oneself
• Subverting the algorithm
• Defining success and value for ourselves
• Exploring ideas surrounding monetary success and prosperity
• “If you could only have a couple of things in your life, what would they be?” - Nika
• Existentialism
• “I want to focus on my experience. Not on how other people are experiencing me.” - Nika

People / Artists Mentioned:

1. Alex DeGroot (Producer & Musician)
2. David Lynch (Filmmaker)
3. Andrei Tarkovsky (Director)
4. Mitch Horowitz (Writer)
5. Jesse Draxler (Artist)
6. Napolean Hill (Writer)
7. Margaret Atwood (Writer)
8. Joan Didion (Writer)

Books Mentioned:

1. “Catching The Big Fish” by David Lynch
2. “The Body Keeps The Score” by Bessel van der Kolk
3. “Daydream Believer” by Mitch Horowitz
4. “The White Album” by Joan Didion
5.  “The Year of Magical Thinking” by Joan Didion

Films Mentioned:

1. Arrival (2016)
2. Don’t Look Up (2021)

artistdecoded.com
zolajesus.com
instagram.com/zolajesus
twitter.com/zolajesus

Jay Cheel’s career in non-fiction filmmaking has focused mostly on character-based portraits of quirky, passionate obsessives, realized in a highly cinematic style. His debut feature Beauty Day premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as part of their Canadian Front Programming Series. The film was also an official selection at the Hot Docs International Film Festival and was nominated for a Genie Award in 2012. His second feature How to Build a Time Machine premiered at Hot Docs and went on to screen at AFI Docs, the Rotterdam International Film Festival, and DOC NYC. His latest is Cursed Films, a five-part documentary series produced for AMC Networks and Shudder. The show focuses on the legends surrounding some of Hollywood’s most troubled horror film productions and has gone on to become the highest-rated documentary series on the platform.
 
Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• Jay’s short film Twisted
• Him being exposed to horror films at a young age
• Recognizing the importance of a director in a film production at a young age
• What piqued Jay’s original interest in entering film as a career
• His podcast Film Junk, which holds a Guinness World Records for the longest-running film podcast
• His short film Beauty Day
• Creating deep interpersonal connections with crew members on a film set
• The need for control as it relates to artistic pursuits
• How Jay’s perspective of curses has changed while working on the Cursed Films project
• How the film, The Exorcist, negatively impacted the cultural lexicon by reinforcing the existence of the devil
• Predatory capitalism
• Personal tragedies that happened for Jay while filming Cursed Films
• The importance of providing context in a documentary project
• The Manson murders
• The murders and tragedies that have occurred in Benedict Canyon in LA
• Ethical decisions they had to make regarding what scenes to show in Cannibal Holocaust
• Naive actors getting involved in Cannibal Holocaust, and Carl Gabriel Yorke signing on without reading the script

People / Artists Mentioned:

1. John Carpenter (Filmmaker)
2. Lidia Yuknavitch (Writer)
3. Gary Oldman (Actor)
4. Robert Deniro (Actor)
5. Tim Burton (Director)
6. Bill Pullman (Actor)
7. Steve Rash (Director)
8. Judy Garland (Actor)
9. Lorna Luft (Actor)
10. Roman Polanski (Director)
11. Dianne Lake (Writer / Former Manson Family Member)
12. Julian Wasser (Photographer)
13. Ruggero Deodato (Director)
14. Andrei Tarkovsky (Director)

Cursed Films Episodes Mentioned:

1. Twilight Zone: The Movie
2. The Exorcist
3. The Wizard of Oz (S2 E1)
4. Rosemary’s Baby (S2 E2)
5. Stalker (S2 E3)
6. The Serpent and the Rainbow (S2 E4)
7. Cannibal Holocaust (S2 E5)

TV Shows + Films Mentioned:

1. The Day After (1983)
2. The Thing (1982)
3. Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
4. They Live (1988)
5. Prince of Darkness (1987)
6. Be Kind Rewind (2008)
7. American Movie (1999)
8. Ed Wood (1994)
9. Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1977)
10. Weekend (1967)
11. Andrei Rublev (1966)

artistdecoded.com
jaycheel.com
instagram.com/jaywesleycheel
twitter.com/JayCheel

Mia Bergeron's Bio

Mia Bergeron is a classically trained oil painter that uses modern techniques and concepts to create layered imaginative works. Imagery in her work often oscillates between the fictitious and the observed in equal parts.

Rooted in her upbringing in New York City with continuous exposure to modern art, her paintings also reveal her choice to study classical painting in Florence, Italy under Charles H. Cecil in her twenties. Heavily influenced by historical artists such as Diego Velázquez, Titian, Anthony van Dyck, and John Singer Sargent, her paintings are also shaped by contemporary artists such as Alex Kanevsky, Ann Gale, and Adrian Ghenie.

For Mia, the process of making paintings is similar to meditation. Each painting is the listening and contemplating of the surrounding world. The minutes at the easel are similar to focusing on the breath- there are times when the scrutiny is welcomed and quiet, and other times when the mind is loud and unintelligible. It is this dynamic contrast that is at the center of Mia’s paintings. This dualistic nature of life is what pushes and inspires her work.  

Mia has been published numerous times in international magazines. Her painting “Tranquil Ghosts” was the cover image for the January 2022 Issue of American Art Collector Magazine.  She continues to teach throughout the United States and Europe. She and her husband, artist John McLeod, lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

John McLeod's Bio

Living and working in Chattanooga, Tennessee, John McLeod graduated from Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi in 2001. His earliest influences come from studying ancient Mesoamerican and Egyptian sculpture and imagery.  John works with a wide range of materials and methods to explore emotional experiences, communicate beliefs in visual terms, create enigmatic situations, or simply to share beauty, pain, or both.  Featured in Beautiful Bizarre and American Art Collector magazines, his work is collected internationally.  John is currently represented at Abend Gallery.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• How Mia and John originally met
• Their experiences living in Chattanooga, Tennessee
• Their newest duo show “Totems and Vessels” @ Robert Lange Studios in Charleston, South Carolina
• Mia and John describing each of their processes
• Cultivating a solid relationship
• Creating a work/life balance in their lives
• How John sees the confluence between all of his vast interests and hobbies
• Finding a meditation practice through physical activities
• The joy that comes from having multiple creative outlets
• The anxiety of constant self-improvement
• Meditative qualities and subject matter within Mia’s work
• Understanding the technical aspects of a painting in order to express more personal ideas

Books Mentioned:

• “The Year of Magical Thinking” by Joan Didion

artistdecoded.com
miabergeron.com
johnmcleodart.com
robertlangestudios.com/shows/totems-and-vessels

Riley Stearns grew up in Pflugerville, TX, a suburb of Austin. His feature debut FAULTS premiered at SXSW in 2014 and went on to play festivals around the world. THE ART OF SELF-DEFENSE, his second feature, also premiered at SXSW in 2017. The film was released by Bleecker Street domestically and Universal Pictures internationally. DUAL is Stearns’ third feature as writer/director and first as a producer. When not making films you can find Stearns on the mats training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• Riley’s origin story
• Riley’s first memories of growing up
• The memory retention of “highly sensitive people”
• Riley’s past life as a musician
• How Riley started writing short films and feature films
• Riley initially finding his voice through mimicking other people’s writing styles
• When Saman and Riley met at SXSW in 2013
• Where the initial idea of Dual came from
• How Riley creates the tone in his films
• Riley’s time working as a staff writer for TV shows
• Riley speaks about legacy
• Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
• Logistics for getting films made

Artists Mentioned:

• Aaron Paul (Actor)
• Karen Gillan (Actor)
• Jim Jarmusch (Director)
• Yorgos Lanthimos (Director)
• Aaron Stewart-Ahn (Filmmaker)
• Jack Nicholson (Actor)

Watch the video version of the podcast here

artistdecoded.com
instagram.com/rileystearns
twitter.com/rileystearns

Saman Kesh (born Saman Keshavarz) is an Iranian-American filmmaker based in Los Angeles, California. He is known for his narrative music video work for notable artists such as Basement Jaxx, Calvin Harris, Kygo, Placebo, !!! Chk Chk Chk, Vitalic, Apparat and Porter Robinson.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• Living and being isolated in the desert
• The Definite Chief Aim - a concept by Napolean Hill through way of Mitch Horowitz
• Grieving the death of his girlfriend Jean Guo
• Gaining momentum through commercial success
• Understanding purpose
• Working through failures
• Accepting ourselves
• Being magick
• Balancing out the need for control
• Changing negative perspectives
• “Hollywood has this ability to arrest you in this psychosis of delusions” - Saman Kesh
• The gift of an existential crisis
• Power in analyzing dreams
• Functioning under depression
• Saman’s “Zoom” call analogy
• Martial arts

Books Referenced:

• “Fierce Intimacy: Standing Up to One Another with Love” by Terry Real

Artists Mentioned:

• The Daniels (Directing Duo)
• Martin Scorsese (Director)
• Jonah Hill (Actor)
• Joyce Carol Oates (Writer)

artistdecoded.com
samankesh.com
instagram.com/saman_kesh
twitter.com/ghibli303

Mitch Horowitz is a historian of alternative spirituality and one of today’s most literate voices of esoterica, mysticism, and the occult. Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• Explaining his new book Cosmic Habit Force
• Exploring the psychology of mediocrity
• Harnessing honest self-expression and creativity
• Asking oneself with brutal honesty, “What do I really want from life?”
• Breaking through social conditioning
• The Miracle of a Definite Chief Aim
• Concentration producing force
• Gaining perspective on personal “failures”
• Taoism
• Paradoxical events in one's life
• Mitch gives a personal example of how a perceived failure turned into a blessing in disguise
• Rediscovering himself as a writer in his late 30s after working in publishing
• Writing his first book, “Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation”
• 2 famous definite chief aims from Octavia E. Butler and Bruce Lee
• The power of focused aims
• Healthily dealing with fear and trauma
• The law of reciprocity 
• The power of the mastermind

Books Referenced:

• “Cosmic Habit Force” by Mitch Horowitz
• “Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation” by Mitch Horowitz
• “The Miracle of a Definite Chief Aim” By Mitch Horowitz
• “No Longer Human” by Junji Ito x Osamu Dazai
• “The Inner Game of Tennis” by Timothy Gallwey
• “Non-Violent Communication” by Marshall Rosenberg
• “Think and Grow Rich” by Napolean Hill

People Mentioned:

• David Foster Wallace (Writer)
• Jacob Needleman (Philosopher)
• Barry Zito (Professional Baseball Player)
• Neville Goddard (Writer)
• Octavia E Butler (Writer)
• Bruce Lee (Actor and Martial Artist)
• Napolean Hill (Writer)

ArtistDecoded.com
MitchHorowitz.com
Mitch’s Twitter
Mitch’s Instagram

Rina Yang is a director of photography based in London. She grew up in a small city in Japan, where she studied still life and portrait painting.

She has been selected for the BAFTA Breakthrough 2020, and she is also the first female DOP ever to win a cinematography award at the British Arrows, as well as being nominated for the best cinematographer in fiction at the BAFTA Cymru Awards 19', making history in both commercials and narrative categories.

Her recent narrative projects include NANNY (Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner), Euphoria (HBO/A24), and her upcoming feature with MGM Studios, entitled ‘Flint Strong’. Topics Discussed:

• Rina’s outlook creating goals for herself
• Rina’s creative stamina
• Taking breaks between shoots
• How she structures her time
• The differences between shooting a feature film, music video, and a  commercial
• How she started cinematography
• Her experiences growing up in Japan then moving to London
• Working hard at a very young age
• Getting accepted into university by creating a short film about an older man’s running journey
• Technique vs. intuition
• Building technical knowledge as a cinematographer
• The importance of communicating to your crew as a DP
• Existential realizations spurred by the pandemic
• Personal values
• Her journey into becoming a successful cinematographer
• How her childhood affected her outlook on work
• The occasional lonely reality of being a working cinematographer
• Exploring purpose
• The feeling of being an underdog
• Creative longevity
• The importance of exposure and PR
• Being patient in cultivating skills in any artistic medium
• Giving up too soon

Projects Discussed That Rina Has Worked On:

• Nanny (Directed by Nikyatu Jusu)
• Euphoria
• Flint Strong (Directed by Rachel Morrison; Written by Barry Jenkins)

Books Referenced:

• “The Miracle of a Definite Chief Aim” by Mitch Horowitz
• “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running” by Haruki Murakami

Movies Referenced:

• Tokyo Sonata (Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

artistdecoded.com
rinayang.com
instagram.com/the_rinayang
twitter.com/the_rinayang

April Maxey was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, and is currently based in Los Angeles. She was 1 of 8 Directors chosen to be a part of AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women, where she made her short film Work, which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.

April was recently selected for AWD’s Directing the Actor Lab. She is also an alumna of the prestigious Berlinale Talents Short Film Station. Her drama pilot screenplay for Work was a top 5 finalist in the New Orleans Film Festival Screenplay Competition. Her previous short film, After You Left, won the Shorts Jury Prize at the Milwaukee Film Festival and has screened at Academy and BAFTA-Qualifying festivals such as Palm Springs Int’l Shortfest, Flickerfest, HollyShorts, and Outfest Fusion.

April’s short films have collectively screened at over 60 festivals across 14 countries and won 8 awards internationally, such as the 100Autori Award for Best Screenplay at the Sicilia Queer Film Fest in Italy, and Best International Narrative Short at Kashish Mumbai Queer Film Festival in India for her 2012 short Polaroid Girl. April was also a guest writer/director on the lesbian web series Same Same, and her episodes premiered at Newfest in 2016.

April’s directing approach is informed by her background in working as a cinematographer, editor, and actor. She is most interested in working on stories that center on underrepresented perspectives that challenge the mainstream. She holds a BFA from Pratt Institute in Film/Video.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• Destigmatizing sex work and sex workers
• Shame culture
• Her short film that premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival entitled “Work”
• Challenging the traditional patriarchal lens
• Writer Amy Tan’s Masterclass
• Following one’s own creative sensibilities
• Her writing process
• April’s experiences working with AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women
• Underground lap dance parties in New York
• “Election” a 1999 film by director Alexander Payne
• “2030: How Today’s Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything” a book by Mauro F. Guillén
• April’s advice to her younger self
• The Nostalgia Bone on the Throughline podcast

artistdecoded.com
aprilmaxey.com
instagram.com/amaxey422

Curious & creative mind working at the intersection of art, blockchain, and Web3. Founder and CEO of Vertical Crypto Art - a web3 native studio & artist-first community dedicated to NFTs, crypto art, and elevating web3 culture in the metaverse.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• Micol working with creators in the tech industry at Facebook and Instagram
• Artists living off of making art and tokenizing work
• The origins of her platform, Vertical Crypto Art
• Helping artists navigate the new territories within the NFT world
• The online artist residency component of Vertical Crypto Art, which consists of a WEB 3.0 educational program
• Sustainability within the NFT space
• Artists creating art through coding, smart contracts, and the blockchain
• The work that she’s doing in collaboration with Tezos
• Hic Et Nunc
• Frieze LA (Feb 17th - Feb 20th, 2022)
• Tezos vs. Ethereum
• Versum NFT Platform
• The importance of properly displaying digital artworks

Artists Mentioned:

• Sarah Zucker
• Kevin Abosh
• Sarah Meyohas (Founder of BitchCoin)
• Mitchell Dan
• Simon Danny
• Rhea Myers
• Sol LeWitt
• Lucas Aguirre
• Marjan Moghaddam
• Manolo Gamboa Naon

artistdecoded.com
verticalcrypto.art 
twitter.com/verticalcrypto 
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Shantell Martin is one of today’s most groundbreaking multimedia artists. Known for her ongoing exploration of the vast potential of the spontaneous hand-drawn lines, below the surface of her signature black and white drawing is an exploration of the reciprocal relationship between artist and viewer, in which a work of art is more than an object of admiration. Exploring themes such as intersectionality, identity, and play, Shantell is a cultural facilitator, forging new connections between fine art, education, design, philosophy, and technology.

Simultaneously with her work as a fine artist, exhibiting at institutions such as Albright-Knox, the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, and MoMa, Shantell’s practice continuously pushes the boundaries of creative expression through thoughtful, innovative collaborations with artists, brands, and cultural institutions such as Pulitzer Prize-winning performance artist Kendrick Lamar, acclaimed designer Kelly Wearstler, the New York City Ballet, Tiffany & Co., and Nike. Shantell is also fascinated with the relationships between storytelling, visual art, and technology. She is an adjunct professor at NYU Tisch ITP (Interactive Telecommunications Program) and completed a two-year tenure at an MIT Media Lab as a visiting Scholar, where she worked with the social computing group to use drawing as a medium to explore the interaction of social processes with physical spaces.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• Tapping into child-like sensibilities as an adult
• Moving from darkness into light
• Creating artwork with a “good intention”
• “What if we asked all children, who are you at the core, instead of what do you want to be?” - Shantell Martin
• Letting go of societal baggage in order to create our own way
• Creating purpose
• Spontaneously creating artwork
• Drawing and how it can have an impact on one’s mental health
• Physically drawing vs. drawing digitally
• Expressing one’s self through various mediums, not being restricted by a single medium
• “Kites”by Martin with the Boston Ballet, ChoreograpHER
• “The Importance of Conversation” by Martin, an NFT Project in collaboration with Nifty Gateway
• “You are where you are meant to be”, Martin’s personal affirmation to herself
• “Does progress really exist, or is it the scenery that changes?” - Shantell Martin
• Having existential thoughts
• The power of making and sharing
• Finding herself when she moved to Japan from the UK in the early 2000s
• “There’s a freedom in being lost in the sense that you get to discover and find yourself.” - Shantell Martin
• The perspective of success and failure in Taoism

artistdecoded.com
shantellmartin.art
instagram.com/shantell_martin
twitter.com/shantell_martin

Stephanie E. Hanes was born in Alberta, Canada in 1985. In 2009 they received a BFA from The Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University in Halifax, Canada. Hanes is a recent MFA Graduate of Ceramics at the Rhode Island School Of Design in 2017 and received the prestigious Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship for a graduate student with exceptional promise. Stephanie was one of the artists awarded the 2020 NCECA Emerging Artist Prize. In addition, they have exhibited Internationally with a solo show at C.R.E.T.A Rome Gallery in Italy and several group shows at Lefebvre et Fils Gallery in Paris, France. Their ceramic sculptures have been exhibited throughout the USA in New York City, Providence, Seattle, Portland, and Los Angeles. Hanes is a full-time lecturer in 3D4M at the University of Washington in Seattle, where they teach sculpture and ceramics.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:

• The male gaze vs the female gaze
• The art of turning the internal world into external objects
• Female bodies always changing to suit the patriarchal norms of the time
• Using the techniques of “chiaroscuro” and “englaze luster” in their sculptures
• Their research into queer and feminist theories
• Identity and gender expression
• Pansexuality
• Grappling with pain and suffering
• “À Priori” and “À Posteriori”
• Immanuel Kant’s writing on metaphysics
• Semiotics
• Following false prophets in our patriarchal society
• Their residency in Rome in 2014 where they started creating ceramic sculptures and where they created their body of work entitled, “Into The Looking Glass” @ C.R.E.T.A. Rome.
• The Medusa in symbolizm
• The extinguishing of female powers by the patriarchy
• Their decision into why they decided to get an MFA
• Teaching her university students about gender, equality, and diversity
• Making ideas palatable in art
• “Find a way to make work no matter what”

Authors and Book Recommendations:

• Bell Hooks
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• “Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto” by Legacy Russell
• “A Cyborg Manifesto” by Donna J. Haraway

Artists Mentioned:

• Carolee Schneemann
• Theaster Gates
• Simone Leigh
• Katy Schimert

Films and Documentaries Mentioned:

• Promising Young Woman (2020)
• Feminists: What Were They Thinking (2018)
• This Changes Everything (2018)

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stephaniehanes.net
instagram.com/stephanie.hanes

Shari Frilot is a filmmaker who has produced television for the CBS affiliate in Boston and for WNYC and WNET in New York before creating her own independent award-winning films, including Strange & Charmed, A Cosmic Demonstration of Sexuality, What Is A Line?, and the feature documentary, Black Nations / Queer Nations? She is the recipient of multiple grants, including the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Media Arts Foundation. She is presently working on a feature film project about the crisis in water supply with producer Effie Brown's production company, Duly Noted Inc.

In tandem with filmmaking, Shari also maintains a career in festival programming, occupying a distinguished position on the curatorial vanguard through her pioneering development of immersive cinematic environments. As the Festival Director of the MIX Festival in New York (1992-1996) she co-founded the first gay Latin American film festivals, MIX BRASIL and MIX MEXICO film festivals. As Co-Director of Programming for OUTFEST (1998-2001), she founded the Platinum section which introduced cinematic performance installation and performance to the festival. She is presently in her 22nd year as a Senior Programmer for the Sundance Film Festival. She is the curator and driving creative force behind New Frontier, an exhibition and commissioning initiative that focuses on cinematic work being created at the intersections of art, film, and new media technology.

New Frontier 2022 Projects Discussed:

• “On The Morning You Wake (To The End of The World)” by Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, Mike Brett, Steve Jamison, Arnaud Colinart, and Pierre Zandrowicz
• “The State of Global Peace” by Daanish Masood Alavi
• “Gondwana” by Ben Joseph Andrews and Emma Roberts
•  “Suga” by Valencia James
• “The Inside World” by Jennifer and Kevin McCoy
• “Web 3.0 / NFT Meetups” by Amelia Winger-Bearskin and Jesse Damiani
• “32 Sounds” by Sam Green
• “Seven Grams” by Karim Ben Khelifa

Other Topics Discussed:

• Transhumanism
• Identity
• Futurism
• “Notes on Blindness - Into Darkness” @ New Frontier 2016
• The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima, Japan
• Projects on climate and social change
• NFTs and Web 3.0
• Handling hardship and pain
• Finding vitality in community
• Finding reasons to be optimistic
• Conscious and positive use cases for technology
• Systemic issues artists face in the US
• Building the immersive experience of Sundance’s spaceship through XR and VR with the creative studio Active Theory

festival.sundance.org
artistdecoded.com

Artist Decoded is a weekly podcast hosted by Yoshino.

Join us as we dive into the habits, mindsets, and inner workings of some of today's greatest artists and creative thinkers. 

Trailer Credits (in order of appearance):

• Adam Hall
• Kate Zambrano
• Densil McFarlane @ The OBGMs
• Kris Esfandiari (King Woman)
• William von Hippel, Ph.D. (The Social Leap)

Yoshino is a visual artist, writer, entrepreneur, and host of Artist Decoded.

Show Notes:

• The power of introspection and self-analysis
• The pitfalls of following false prophets
• “Getting lost in the forest”
• Seeking answers
• Pantheism
• Art as a communication mechanism
• Critical thinking
• “You and you alone hold the answers to your questions.”

Yoshino’s Links:
yoshinostudios.com
nohwave.co
instagram.com/yoshinostudios
twitter.com/yoshinostudios

Yoshino is a visual artist, writer, entrepreneur, and host of Artist Decoded.

Show Notes:

• Identity and persona
• Leaving the commercial and fashion photography world
• Martial arts
• Exploring the idea of what it means to be an artist
• Living a life of fluidity
• Capitalism
• Growing up Christian
• Spirituality
• Moving to the desert from LA

The Conversation Art Podcast Links:
iTunes
Spotify
Michael Shaw’s IG
The Conversation’s IG

Yoshino’s Links:
yoshinostudios.com
nohwave.co

Fashion and advertising photographer from Singapore turned 3D virtual model creator, Shavonne Wong creates artworks with her virtual models that juxtapose realism and surrealism together, placing the virtual models in scenes that cannot be done with a real human model. She is part of the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list in 2020 and has recently done an NFT for the first-ever NFT cover of Vogue.

Show Notes:

• Shavonne’s past fashion photography career
• Romanticizing the struggling artist lifestyle
• Stereotypes and the importance of art
• 3D modeling and the transition into the NFT space
• The social implications of virtual influencers
• Shavonne’s NFT charity work
• The future of NFTs
• The negative aspects of NFT’s & the blockchain
• Criticism and feedback
• Krav Maga

www.artistdecoded.com
www.shavonnewong.com
www.instagram.com/shavonne.wong
www.twitter.com/shavonnewong_

Sarah Zucker is an artist + writer based in Los Angeles.

Her art merges the gorgeous and grotesque through humor, psychedelia, mysticism, and the interplay of cutting edge + obsolete technologies.

She works across mediums, specializing in mixing digital and analog video techniques and the use of VHS. Her GIF art has been viewed over 6.7 billion times on Giphy.

She has been involved in Crypto Art since early 2019, tokenizing single and limited editions of her screen-based artwork on the blockchain. Her NFTs – digital art editions – can currently be found on SuperRare, NiftyGateway, Foundation, KnownOrigin, Hic Et Nunc, and Rarible.

She holds a BA in Theater/Creative Writing for the Media from Northwestern, and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU.

Show Notes:

• Sarah’s childhood and developing interest
• NFTs and Crypto Art
• “Wrestling your angels”
• Struggling as an artist
• The call to be an artist
• Theosophy
• Humanitarian contributions in the NFT space
• Identity
• Changing the world
• Dancing with the abyss
• Exploring the concept of suffering
• The societal expectation of immediate rewards

www.sarahzucker.com
www.instagram.com/thesarahshow
www.twitter.com/thesarahshow