Art Nomad

SCRAPPY is one of those qualities that helps so much in life. We have all had scrappy friends, foes, or family members that seem to gracefully walk through those invisible walls that are put up all over life. Is SCRAPPY something we learn? Is it nurture? Or is it nature? Like so many things, I’d imagine it’s a complex mix of the two.

I had this friend in college, Abe, and every time I was putting on the brakes, he was grabbing me by the arm and hitting the gas. And the thing is, applying the gas almost always worked. We all lived in campus housing and hated it. Abe decided five of us deserved better and found a great home to rent instead. We had more space, and somehow it was cheaper too. There was a pool, and it allowed pets (I got a dog). Abe was always different, always making something out of nothing for the betterment of others. I thought it was magic...but really, he just scrapped his way right past those invisible walls so many of us are busy building.

This week, I’m talking with two people who know SCRAPPY. Kate Fauvell is a single mom, a full-time artist, and a New Yorker who lives from painting to painting as she scraps her way through the city she loves to do the only thing that ever made sense…art. Barbara Anderson can walk through walls…really! During COVID, she saw Manhattan’s storefronts going dark and shutting down. She knew the city was better than that and did something about it. Thanks to Barbara, those empty spaces are now converted into galleries and artist studios that beam back out onto the city and its people. How’d she do it? She walked right in and refused to take no for an answer.

Two powerful women who know how to turn obstacles into opportunities, using their SCRAPPY spirit to do wonderful things in (and for) New York.

There is A LOT of conversation happening around AI. Not just in the world of art and creativity, but everywhere. It’s a topic that pushes buttons and can get hot on the tongue at times. A topic that’s personal and filled with passionate points of view. Because AI runs off in so many directions, I thought it better to speak to more than just one person. So this week is the first time I’ve interviewed two people together. (Well, actually three people if you include Gemini, who we also have a conversation with during the podcast.)

My two guests use AI all the time…both for work and life. Annie Chiu ‘dreams in crochet’ and brings AI along for that ride. Off the clock or on, as an Executive Creative Director, it’s a tool she leans on across every part of the creative process.

My other guest, Daria Dorosh, is in her 80s, holds a PhD in New Media, and creates her artwork with Nymer, her AI assistant. Daria and Nymer spend a lot of time together, even playing games. It’s a fascinating look at what happens when an artist with decades of experience doesn’t just use AI as a tool, but makes it a personal part of her everyday life.

In this episode, we wander the surprisingly rich world of WALLS.

Until my guest, Rhea Karam, crossed paths with me, I saw a wall as rather one-dimensional—an upright structure that simply divides or encloses space. But after speaking with Rhea, I better understand the rich meaning baked into walls all across the world. Walls are very much living, breathing entities that can teach you a lot if you stop and give them a chance.

Rhea Karam is a New York-based artist who spends a lot of time with walls all over the world. She basically has a PhD in walls… and she’s deeply in love with them.

Our world is "always-on," and there's often too much going on. In the art world, you usually have to shout and dance your way to being seen. But some artists find calm while living inside that storm. They arrive on their own terms, with a kind of grace and tranquility that feels increasingly rare.

My guest, Kalle Hellzén, makes art that does exactly that. His paintings don't demand your attention or try to shout you in. They simply wait for you to discover them. And once you do, they take hold. The colors draw you in, and then the stillness holds you captive. In thought.

When I met Kalle, he was working in advertising, just like me — but he walked away from that for some CALM, and became an artist instead. No degree in fine arts. No formal training. He's even color blind. None of those held him back. If anything, it's the opposite: color blindness became the very thing that made him a master of color in a way I can only dream about.

When DEVOUT is spoken, religious ears twitch. Our minds go straight to faith, extremism, hard lines, absolute conviction. But artists can be some of the most DEVOUT people in the world, and it often has nothing to do with religion at all. That same intensity, aimed at making, questioning, provoking, can become something entirely different. Something beautiful.

Some people spend their lives searching for something to believe in. Others simply find something worth giving their lives to. That's DEVOUT.

And that's my guest, Darryl Fossa. He's a Berlin-based artist with zero religion in his blood, but an unwavering dedication to the things that matter to him: his art, his wife, and her homemade granola, for starters. Darryl is rather soft-spoken. His artwork is not. It shouts from its own pulpit, with a very clear, very powerful message.

In this episode, we wander the world of DARK and explore what that means for art and artists alike. My guest this week is New York artist Reka Nyari.

From a very young age, she was drawn to the DARK and disturbing. If Reka is ever in a city with a torture museum, she’s visiting it (and it turns out there are quite a few of them).

Reka’s work captures stories of the skin—the good, the bad, and the DARK. She almost always photographs against a black background, draining the color from her subjects.

Lately, Reka has focused mostly on women, showcasing them in their rightful place as gods and creators.

Welcome to Art Nomad, A podcast that wonders that world of Art, Creativity and culture. Here we dive into the minds of creatives in an effort to rock their roll and make strides as they stroll.

My guest this week is Jay Indigo. When I look at his body of work, I see a man that spends a lot of time in different worlds. He draws the aliens that were around before humans existed. His music and films take us into the psychedelic dream world. He is an astral traveler. (I had to look it up, but it's basically means he has out of body experiences.) And he's an Afro-Surrealist - a group that's constantly digging deep under the skin of contemporary culture.

Jay talks about how he deals with Social Media, what the future of art looks like and why he always zags when the world zigs.

Here we're wondering the world in search of art that helps us see things differently. Hunting for anything that might open our eyes to the underbelly of culture and creativity. In a way it's a journey that will never end.

This week's theme is FACES and I'll tell you right now, I could do 100 episodes on this topic...it's a thick and juicy theme with content that runneth over. I'm sure that as we continue this Nomadic journey, we will cross paths with FACES again because I've had to leave so many topics and stories in pixel purgatory this time around.

My guest this week is Erica Elias. She is a self taught artist living in Belgium, and in a way faces found her. Once they found their way into Erica's work, they took up residency and have been there ever since, becoming a vessel for conveying emotions and human truths.

My guest is Gary Copeland—writer, poet, photographer, and boxer. Gary embodies RAW: unfiltered, honest, emotionally direct. But what makes him invaluable is that he doesn't keep it to himself. In this episode, Gary shares raw advice on getting started creatively and why living authentically might be the most important creative practice of all.

Welcome to Art Nomad, a podcast that wanders the world of art and creativity with those making it. Each conversation offers a window into the minds of today's artists and thinkers—sharing the stories, ideas, and decisions shaping contemporary culture, while opening up new ways to think about your own creative path.

This week's theme is PLAY, and my guest is artist Elisabeth Condon. She was smoking cigarettes before she could light a match, which might surprise you given her strict Christian Science upbringing. She also didn't speak a word until she was four years old, while most children begin talking around age one.

Instead of speaking, Elisabeth retreated into an imaginary world shared with her dolls—a world that profoundly shaped both her life and her artistic practice.

Join us as we explore the role of PLAY in creativity, and why it may be one of the most powerful tools we have for discovering new ideas, new perspectives, and new possibilities.

In this STORMY episode we are talking to New York artist Sage Gallon—painter, poet, photographer, music producer, author, recording artist, and filmmaker. A man who wears many hats, and wears them all remarkably well.

To say Sage's life has been a storm would be an understatement. It's been more like a crushing tornado that has flung him from coast to coast, deep into darkness, through homelessness, addiction, and prostitution. Yet from that wreckage Sage emerged to be named one of the 40 Black artists to watch in 2014.

Sage and I walk through his journey—the chaos, the resilience, and the warmth that now embraces him. Beyond his story, we explore how the theme STORM has shaped the art world, and the profound impact it has had on culture and creativity.

Art Nomad explores how creative minds think and shape culture. Through conversations with artists, we uncover the ideas, obsessions, and contradictions that define how they create—and in doing so, we change how you see the world.

Each episode is built around a theme shaped by the guest's creative DNA. We don't just interview; we experiment in real time, bend the format, and create moments that couldn't happen anywhere else.

If you're looking for creative inspiration, new ways of thinking, or a deeper understanding of your own imagination, this is a podcast for you.

See you somewhere unexpected...