Seeing Color

Hi everyone. I hope you are doing well. I want to first say my heart goes out to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas community following the tragic shooting that occurred on December 6th. Through the podcast, I had the privilege of connecting with many at UNLV and my thoughts are with you all. It's important to acknowledge that while prayers and sympathies are extended, they can only do so much in the face of the ongoing issues surrounding gun violence and the accessibility of firearms. This recent event is but one of the many somber reminders of the urgent need for meaningful change in gun control. How exactly to do this I myself am still figuring out in a country still glorifying guns. This incident ties into some of the concerns I’ll be discussing with this week's guest, Ali Fathollahi, an Iranian artist currently residing in Las Vegas. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak with Ali's wife, Nanda, and you can listen to that conversation as well. Ali holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and went to the Azad University of Art and Architecture in Tehran, Iran for his Bachelor of Arts and his first Master of Fine Arts. Ali works in a wide variety of mediums, such as sculpture, light, and performance. In recent years, his work has critically examined the contemporary obsession with "Survivalism," both as a lifestyle and an ideology, often driven by fear and nostalgia. During our conversation, we delve into topics such as the challenges of language, the use of humor as a coping mechanism, and how pop culture influences our fascination with survival kits. As always, stay safe and healthy and I hope you enjoy this. Photo by Mikayla Whitmore.

Hey everyone. I hope you are ready for the long weekend with friends and family. Maybe catch up on sleep? I know I’m totally ready to sleep some more if I can. In the meantime, I’ve got you covered with this week’s episode as I talk with Ashley Hairston Doughty. Ashley, currently an Associate Professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is a visual storyteller, explaining personal experiences through verbal and visual language. Ashley’s research on BIPOC design pedagogy was published in the award-winning Black, Brown + Latinx Graphic Design Educators by Princeton Architectural Press in 2021. She holds a BFA from Washington University in St. Louis and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. We had a quick chat about how moving around the US has impacted Ashley’s work, what is visual communications, and how motherhood has affected and influenced her current project. As always, stay safe and healthy, and I hope you enjoy this.

Hi everyone. I hope you are doing well. These recent days have been shrouded in a somber tone, although perhaps it has always been. I am both saddened and angered by what is happening in the Middle East. As a method to cope through it all, I am trying to keep busy and seek solace in my daily activities. Wherever you are, I hope you are finding your own ways to navigate this insane situation. With that all said, today I am interviewing Quindo Miller. Quindo spent their formative years in Guam before moving to Las Vegas. They earned a BFA at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and explores isolation, rituals, and repetition through the medium of painting, drawing, installation, video, and sound. They have exhibited at venues such as the Goldwell Open Air Museum, 5th Wall Gallery, La Matadora Gallery, and the Las Vegas Contemporary Art Center. Our discussions lead us to empty tarot cards, musing about art residencies, the process of archiving everything, and documenting a sense of place. So please, wherever you are, be safe, take care of yourself, and I hope you enjoy this.

Hey everyone. Wow, it has been a while since my last episode. Life kinda happened and I just needed another break to deal with some moving and life changes. I’m back with 10 new episodes that will be released over the course of the coming year in conjunction with local Las Vegas artists. A few things about my life since. I started doing some VR with Unreal and I was able to show it in this year's Ars Electronica. At the same time, I got to travel around a bit in Austria with my parents. Just two weeks ago, I traveled back to China for my Ph.D. in Computational Media and Arts, which I talked a bit about with my guest today, Krystal Ramirez. Krystal is an interdisciplinary artist and educator from Las Vegas, Nevada. Her practice focuses on our relationship with places of reverence and devotion. She has a BFA in Photography and Studio Art from the University of Las Vegas, Nevada and she recently received her MFA in Art Practice from Stanford University. She has shown in museums and galleries throughout the United States, including the Nevada Museum of Art (Reno, NV), Barrick Museum of Art (Las Vegas, NV), NMSU Art Museum (Las Cruces, NM), SOMArts (San Francisco, CA), and Gallery 400 (Chicago, IL.) Through our conversation, we discussed our interests in photography, the instability of language, and the possibility of working with our parents in art. As always, stay safe, and relax, and I hope you enjoy this.

Hi everyone. It has been a while since I last released an episode. Sorry for the long pause. I just needed a brief break to get some mental rest. It has been a crazy year with lots of changes for me both personally and professionally. After the brief pause, I got back some extra energy and will be releasing a few more episodes periodically over the next few months. I will do my best to keep up the bi-weekly schedule but I hope you understand if the episodes deviate in schedule a bit here and there. Anyway, with that out of the way, I would like to introduce my guest for today, Teresa Flores, an interdisciplinary artist whose work examines identity and wellness and often takes place in the public sphere and incorporates civic engagement. Teresa studied at CSU Fresno and Fresno City College, and holds an MFA in Public Practice from Otis College of Art and Design. Her work responds to the consumption and accessibility of food, culture, and art in suburban and urban spaces. I recorded this episode a while back right before I took a break. Teresa was so kind as to still let me release our conversation. I smiled as I listened to our discussions meander around the pronunciation of names, creating fancy quesadillas, and doing yoga in unexpected places. As always, sit back, relax, and I hope you enjoy this.

Hi everyone. I hope you are doing well! Today I have the lovely Yara El-Sherbini, an interdisciplinary artist who uses humor and play to create socially and politically engaged work. Yara got her BA Fine Art in Context at the University of the West Of England, Bristol and her MA Fine Art Media at Slade, University College London. She has shown in venues such as the Tate, the Venice Biennale, ZKM, and so much more. I actually had a chance to play her piece at the Venice Biennale before I knew about Yara, which was a happy coincidence. Yara was so kind as to take time out of her day to chat with me and we got to discuss how bodies interact in public spaces, pub quizzes, what does it mean to be participatory and playful, and rethinking context within an artwork. As usual, take care, stay safe, and I hope you enjoy this. Photo credit: Hugo Glendinning

Hey everyone. Welcome to a new year and I am excited to share with you the first episode of 2022! I have with me today Maria Gaspar, an interdisciplinary artist whose work addresses issues of spatial justice to amplify, mobilize, or divert structures of power through individual and collective gestures. Maria got her BFA from Pratt Institute, an MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and is currently an Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I became aware of Maria’s striking photographic pieces before realizing her large breadth of work that existed also in installation, sound, and performance. I enjoyed our conversation where we talked about going to art school as a first-generation immigrant, performance as practice, the invisibility of jails, guides that are generative as opposed to predictive, and re-imagining new and better worlds. As always, stay safe and healthy in this new year and I hope you enjoy this.

Hi everyone. Hope you are well. It is hard to imagine how time is flying…it has been just about over a year since I landed in China since the pandemic started. Now this past week I just had an exhibition opening which went okay. Felt kinda relieved after and was able to relaxed a bit. Now back to documenting and working on new projects. Gotta keep moving. Anyway, for this week, I have the amazing Ashanti McGee, an artist and arts advocate who has been living in Las Vegas for over 25 years. Ashanti began working in with arts institutions through grant writing and has since been part of WESTAF’s Emerging Leaders of Color program and most recently served as a district representative for Nevada Congresswoman Susie Lee, focusing on outreach for Black, Native American, and LGBTQ+ communities around arts and culture, and environment and public lands. A proud parent of four, Ashanti has committed her work to updating arts education standards for the Nevada Department of Education; serving as a board member for Cultural Alliance of Nevada; co-founding the Las Vegas Womxn of Color Arts Festival, and acting as a core member of NUWU Cultural Arts + Activism complex. She also just curated "A Common Thread" at the Barrick Museum of Art at the University of Nevada, an exhibition celebrating womxn of color textile artists. I got to talk with Ashanti about many of these amazing activities, along with the importance of finding support in the arts while finding rest for yourself. Sit back, relax, and I hope you enjoy this.

Hi everyone. I hope you are doing well. I’ve been quite busy lately and don’t know where the time is going. Everything seems like a haze. The teaching and art are going well. Everything humming along as usual. For this week, I am releasing a live interview with Jennifer Kleven as part of the Rogers Art Loft Residency that I attended this past summer. The wonderful Lance Smith introduces both of us before our conversation and we end with a quick Q&A from the listeners. Jen is an arts administrator, artist, curator, and current grants manager for the Neon Museum in Las Vegas. Jen holds a BA in Art History and BFA in Art from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her work has been exhibited in the Las Vegas City Hall gallery, Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery, Trifecta, and CounterSpace in Las Vegas. From 2010-2013 Jen founded and operated Kleven Contemporary, a gallery exhibiting emerging artists in downtown Las Vegas. Jen shares her experiences as a curator, working at Starbucks, being part of the Gulch Collective, and juggling work and studio time. I have to admit, I was a bit nervous doing the interview live and I think it turned out ok. In any case, stay safe and healthy and I hope you enjoy this.

Hey everyone. I hope you are all doing well as the fall comes full force. Things have been busy for me. I’ve been in the midst of completing three new video works and it is taking all my time. Mid-autumn Festival was a nice quick break and the upcoming national holiday will be some extra time for me to do my own work. Otherwise, today I have the amazing Fawn Douglas, an Indigenous American artist and enrolled member of the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe. Fawn is dedicated to the intersections of art, activism, education, identity, place, and sovereignty. Within her art-making and activism, she tells stories in order to remember the past and also to ensure that the stories of Indigenous peoples are heard in the present. Fawn is currently working on her Master of Fine Arts at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and co-curates the Vegas Institute for Contemporary Engagement (V.I.C.E), an artist team that has been the catalyst for exhibitions, podcasts, interviews, performances, and experimentation that makes space for marginalized artists in the Las Vegas community. Fawn and I had a wonderful conversation about call-out culture, cultural accessibility, and giving each other grace. It was moving listening to Fawn discuss her work as a community organizer and her experiences as an activist. As always, take care and I hope you enjoy this.

Hi everyone. I hope you are well. I've been getting ready for the new semester and just saw this Netflix show called The Chair in preparation, which makes fun of academia. Obviously, there were many parts made for dramatic effect, and it was trying to tackle way too many subjects in way too little time, along with being produced by the same people from Game of Thrones gave me pause, but there were a few nice moments that felt also true that made me laugh, along with Sandra Oh's great performance. I'm not sure if that is a strong recommendation or not to see it. But anyway. This week I am returning back to the Las Vegas community through the Rogers Art Loft Residency and I am speaking with the amazing Vogue Robinson, a poet, author, mentor, and teaching artist. Originally from Perris, California, Vogue got her BA in English at San Diego State University before eventually landing in Las Vegas. Vogue was the poet laureate of Clark County, Nevada (2017-2019) and is the first Black woman to receive the Silver Pen Award from the Nevada Writers' Hall of Fame. Vogue has an infectious laugh and was a joy to talk to. We discussed what a poet laureate does, the croaking of frogs, Pringles, Nikki Giovanni, and so much more. As I was listening to the recording, I realized my voice was quite lethargic, even more than usual that day, and I apologize for that. I hope you can bear with it. I think Vogue brings the energy levels up every time she speaks and can't wait to visit her in Las Vegas in the near future. As always, stay safe and healthy and enjoy the show.

Hey everyone. Hope you are doing well. I just finalized a 4-channel video during my time in Shanghai and had a chance to exhibit it to the local art community. I am currently preparing to leave back to Zhuhai in a bit. I also just finished my time at the Rogers Art Loft residency and held the closing talk last week, so thank you to all who swung by. It was a wonderful experience and I hope to visit everyone in Las Vegas soon. I will be posting the conversations I had with the local Las Vegas Community over the next few months, interspersed with previous interviews I conducted. So stay tuned. For today, I will be talking to Brent Holmes, a multi-disciplinary artist with a deep affinity to words- historical, epistemological and ontologically themed creative projects. Holmes also seeks to create a dialogue through several culinary projects, on the nature of communication, and morality and identity. Brent holds no degrees and says he most likely never will. Being the son of an entertainer, Brent is thoroughly traveled but has never completely identified any one place as his home until moving to Las Vegas. Brent and I chat about the coming apocalypse and for whom, the construction of the American West in relation to freedom, the body within a landscape, and symbolisms in objects. It was an enjoyable chat and I hopefully you will like it as well. As always, stay safe and healthy wherever you are and I hope you enjoy this.

Hi everyone. I hope you are doing well wherever you are. As I mentioned previously, I am currently part of the Rogers Art Loft residency in Las Vegas and they have been putting me in touch with the local community and helping me meet people for the podcast. I have been speaking with quite a number of wonderful artists and cultural workers and these conversations will be released throughout the summer and upcoming fall season. For today, I am excited to share with you the first one of these talks as I speak with Shahab Zargari, an Iranian-American filmmaker, record label owner, and musician. Shahab takes me through his journey from working in advertising to making his own independent films and what drives him to tell the stories that he tells. We also talk about the pronunciation of names, Iranian films, Mad Men, and how he got a shoutout from Kevin Smith. Shahab also talks about his latest short film, Oh, the Guilt, which is a coming-of-age story set in the 1990s featuring a Persian-American as the main character. The plot tackles death, loss, and survivor’s guilt, elements of the human condition that transcend age, race, and creed. Check it out if you have the chance. Again, this episode was made possible through the Rogers Art Loft residency and I want to thank them for this opportunity. I hope you all enjoy this.