Episodes
My son has been watching me record podcasts for years and he has worked hard to produce his own. Rainbow Puppy Science Lab is a kids and family podcast dedicated to the study of everything awesome. Every week the show will focus on a different topic, but only the good stuff. It is filled with fun facts and trivia games the whole family can enjoy. Enjoy this sneak peak (the official launch for the show will be Tuesday, April 25) and please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you...
Published 04/26/23
This week I am introducing you all to my other art podcast, Who ARTed. If you enjoy learning the stories that make up art history, check out Who ARTed on your favorite podcast app. This is my episode about Jack Kirby, the legendary comic book artist. Jack Kirby created some of the biggest names in the golden age of comics including: Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Iron Man, Black Panther, The Incredible Hulk. He basically populated the Marvel Universe. In 1970 though he felt like he wasn't getting...
Published 04/19/23
Published 04/12/23
This week's episode is about block printing. For the history segment, I talked a bit about Katsushika Hokusai, a Japanese woodblock printer in the 19th century, and I interviewed Speedball Art Products to learn about modern materials and methods. To learn more about Speedball, check out their website: https://www.speedballart.com/ Fill out the Airwave Media Network survey to give me feedback and get a chance to win a $500 gift card: www.surveymonkey.com/r/airwave Art Smart is an Airwave...
Published 04/12/23
This week's episode is about photography. While numerous scientists were conducting experiments with light sensitive materials as early as the 18th century, it was Daguerre in the middle of the 19th century who really advanced the medium. He wasn't the first photographer, but he innovated coming up with a practical method and sharing it with the world so others could build off his process and improve it further. Daguerre was also among the first to recognize photography as an art form and not...
Published 04/05/23
In this episode, I share a little bit of the history of how film developed with early pioneers of motion pictures. For my interview, I spoke with Stefanie Hubbard, an independent film producer and owner of Pure Magic Pictures. Check out Pure Magic Pictures: IG: @puremagicpictures www.skyehoshi.com www.puremagicpictures.com In this episode, I referenced an episode of my other show Who ARTed. Listen to that episode about Louis Daguerre and The World's First Photobomb Fill out the Airwave...
Published 03/29/23
There are all sorts of different papers out there from standard construction paper to fine art papers. Learn a little bit of history how paper was developed centuries ago, how different papers are made today and what to look for in selecting the right papers for your art. Fill out the Airwave Media Network survey to give me feedback and get a chance to win a $500 gift card: www.surveymonkey.com/r/airwave Big thanks to Canson and Tru-Ray for helping me in this episode. Check out their...
Published 03/22/23
Andy Warhol famously said that he wanted to be like a machine producing artworks in his factory studio. The irony is of course he played with colors and exposures, leaning in to the imperfections of an over exposed image or printing without perfectly aligning his screens. He put a human touch into the mechanical process elevating pop culture subjects to the realm of fine art. In this episode, I spoke with Melissa Sorenson from Speedball Art Materials to learn how screen printing works. She...
Published 03/15/23
In this episode, I got the story of Herb Williams, an incredible crayon artist. While most people look at crayons as a drawing tool, Williams uses crayons to sculpt. His work has been featured in numerous galleries and he was nice enough to let me pick his brain a little bit. Learn how he made the creative leap to sculpt with a drawing material on this episode, and if you want to learn more about him, check out his website: https://www.herbwilliamsart.com/ You can also find Herb Williams on...
Published 03/08/23
Markers were one of my favorite media growing up. I loved the immediacy of being able to draw with markers and create bright, bold colors. When I got a little older, I became frustrated with the limitations as the colors always seemed flat. Now as an adult I have found that markers are surprisingly versatile. In this episode, I talked about the artist, Tom Deslongchamp and his incredible marker drawings. You can see a video of him explaining and demonstrating his technique on his website...
Published 03/01/23
For this week's episode, we are focusing on paints. Painting is one of the oldest artforms, and as I have said many times before, art is the most important development in human history as it is our capacity to imagine a better tomorrow and communicate that vision with others. We have found evidence of art such as paintings on cave walls that are almost as old as humanity itself. In this episode, I shared a little bit about the paintings on the walls of the caves in Lascaux then I spoke with...
Published 02/22/23
In the last episode we learned about clay and this week, I found out about glazes. Learn a bit about different kinds of glazes, what they are made of and how to make the most of them. For this episode, I spoke with Kathy Skaggs from Amaco Clay to learn more about glazes. You can find incredible educational resources including tips and tricks for working with clay at Amaco's website. Art Smart is an Airwave Media Podcast. You can help me and get a chance to win a $500 gift card by filling out...
Published 02/15/23
Clay was one of the first art materials humans learned to work with. It is one of the only art materials that has been in continuous use by cultures all over the world from prehistoric times up to today. For this episode, my guests were Greg Vogel and Kathy Skaggs from Amaco Clay. You can find incredible educational resources including tips and tricks for working with clay at Amaco's website. Art Smart is an Airwave Media Podcast. Connect with me: Website | Twitter | Instagram |...
Published 02/08/23
In this episode, I explored the most commonly used and probably least thought about art material, the pencil. Have you ever wondered why we call the core of a pencil lead even though it is graphite? Have you ever wondered how they get that graphite rod into the middle of a pencil, or what those letters and numbers on the pencil mean? I talked to Becky Trudeau from Dixon Ticonderoga to learn all about it. Connect with me: Website | Twitter | Instagram | Tiktok Support the show: Merch from...
Published 02/01/23
Season 3 of Art Smart will start next Feb. 1. For season 3, I am talking to the makers of media to learn stories behind different materials, how they are made and how we can make the most of them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Published 01/25/23
Season 1 of Art Smart focused on the Elements of Art and Principles of Design. Season 2 covered a variety of different art movements. Please let me know what you would like me to focus on for Season 3 which will be coming into your feed starting in January. Go to www.ArtSmartPodcast.com/vote to tell me what you want me to cover. Art Smart is an Airwave Media Podcast. Connect with me: Website | Twitter | Instagram | Tiktok Support the show: Merch from TeePublic | Make a Donation As always you...
Published 11/02/22
The Baroque era came after the Renaissance, while both eras often focused on biblical and historical subjects and both art forms prized highly polished, naturalistic craftsmanship, the renaissance was about intellectual pursuits, it was an era of artists developing the mind but the Baroque was all about the heart. It was emotional, dramatic and active. While Renaissance artists would create blanced, ordered and visually satisfying compositions, the Baroque embraced asymmetrical balance to...
Published 10/26/22
Matisse and Derain showed their work at the Salon de Automne in 1905, and at that salon, a critic Louis Vauxcelles was walking around looking at all the works when he saw a renaissance sculpture surrounded by the modern works of Matisse, Derain and their friends. Vaucelles was heard to remark “Donatello au milieu de fauves” meaning “Donatello among the wild beasts” Like the Impressionists, the fauvists took the term a critic used to insult their work and transformed it’s meaning. They were...
Published 10/19/22
When most people hear of the Abstract Expressionist movement, the first thought is of Jackson Pollock and his drip paintings. While he was probably the biggest name in the movement, the style was extremely varied and consisted of more than just drips and splatters. Willem de Kooning made figurative works, Rothko and Frankenthaler created color fields, but what tied all of these works together was an emphasis on the expressive qualities of art. The abstract expressionist or ab ex movement was...
Published 10/12/22
Art is as old as humanity. I have often said that art is what defines us as human. It is why and how we got out of the trees. The ability to express ourselves creatively is what allows humans to come together, to understand each other, to envision a better future. While prehistoric art predates recorded history and therefore we have no artist’s statements giving us certainty into the intentions behind these works, we do see clues in the designs, the materials used by the aritsts, and the...
Published 10/05/22
In 1907, Pablo Picasso and George Braque developed art from a new perspective. They began creating works that seemed fragmented and at times almost unrecognizable. The idea was to show the subject from multiple perspectives all in one composition. Art Smart is an Airwave Media Podcast. Connect with me: Website | Twitter | Instagram | Tiktok Support the show: Merch from TeePublic | Make a Donation As always you can find images of the work being discussed at www.ArtSmartPodcast.com and of...
Published 09/28/22
Art Nouveau was a style that rose to prominence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I would say the heyday for art nouveau was from around 1890 to 1910, but of course, there is not a specific start and end date for any art movement. People can’t even agree on when or where the term first appeared. Some say it was in an art magazine in Belgium in the 1880s, while others say the origin of the name came about in Paris when the collector Sigfried Bing named his gallery, La Maison de’l Art...
Published 09/21/22
In two-dimensional art, the ancient Egyptians practiced an approach referred to as frontalism. Each feature was shown from the ideal, most recognizable view. The head was shown in profile while the torso was facing forward. The feet would then be shown from the side as that was a more easily recognizable shape for a foot. The result was a mix of perspectives on the figure making it appear contorted but it was the ideal symbol rendering each part in ways that would be easily...
Published 09/14/22
The term Ukiyo-e means images from the floating world. The word Ukiyo initially referred to the Buddhist idea that life and the material world were ephemeral. It seems rather ironic that the term referring to the Buddhist philosophy of not becoming overly attached to the material world would then be used in this art that is very much about the material world. The Ukiyo-e images of the floating world were celebrations of the joys of life for these newly wealthy people. Here are the artists and...
Published 09/07/22
The word Renaissance means re-birth. Around 1400 CE there was a tremendous shift in visual arts and other aspects of culture. One major influence in the Renaissance was an appreciation for Greek and Roman art and philosophy. While a lot of the works of Plato, Aristotle and others had been lost to Europeans in the middle ages, many of the ancient texts had been translated by Muslim scholars starting around the 8th century and through trade, the texts were re-introduced to Europe. The Italian...
Published 08/31/22