The Art Colony

This week, we interview Cole Cook, a sculptor who was born in New York, raised in Los Angeles by actor parents, and spent summers on Cape Cod. Cook describes being shepherded into baseball, playing professionally across all minor-league levels, then becoming unhappy and eventually leaving the sport after an eye-opening trip around artists in New York. After studying improv at UCB, writing, and working as a pitching coach, he moved to Cape Cod during the pandemic with his cats and began making wood sculptures, drawn to trees, woodworking, and the “truthfulness” of carving. He discusses learning tools through observation and experimentation, wood selection and sourcing.

This week, we interview Liz Carney, artist and owner-director of Gallery 411 on Commercial Street. She describes her roles as painter, educator, entrepreneur, and property manager, and traces her family’s Provincetown roots through her mother, a MassArt-trained art educator who bought 411 Commercial Street around 1980 and filled it with renters including artists, writers, and local characters. She discusses the building’s history as the Francis Guest House and its architectural changes in the 1960s. Liz explains founding the small storefront gallery in 2011, her shift from “studio” to gallery, her focus on local artists, and advice for artists seeking representation. She also discusses her plein-air painting practice, influences, and the next generation of creative Carneys, ending with a brief speed round.

This week, we welcome Provincetown artist and teacher Pete Hocking. Pete discusses seven as a formative age before peer pressure. Pete recounts childhood Cape Cod trips, early dreams of living and painting here, and influences from comics, superheroes, and Snoopy. He describes a career balancing art with teaching activism and leadership at Brown and RISD and art at Goddard, adoption’s impact on his self-portrait and queer-themed work, and how an MFA in creative writing ultimately brought him back to painting. In Provincetown, street scenes and later dune and seashore walks shaped more abstract paintings focused on fragility, climate, and remaking the world; he outlines his workshop philosophy and upcoming classes, and reflects on social media as a long-term creative archive.

Art in L'overalls with Myra Kooy.  Our guest today is a visual artist who also co-owns her own art gallery in Provincetown, the Radiance Art Gallery.  In this episode, we talk about how being a woman, and African-American, has played a role in Myra's life and art.  We journey through her growth as an artist, from selling handmade suspenders on the streets of New York City to owning an art gallery in Provincetown.  This episode is full of happiness and laughter, as we discuss choosing joy in our lives. 

This week, we interviewed a Provincetown multidisciplinary artist, educator, and curator Megan Hinton about how studios and process shape art. Hinton, raised in Ohio, describes coming to art through deep looking and connecting drawing to sports via eye–hand coordination, with art helping to live more freely and queerly. We describe current abstracted-realism bird collages built from drawings, photos, and cut canvas, using a blue-black palette and birds as a symbol of freedom amid a polarized society. Hinton discusses reappropriating historical and Provincetown painters as a transformative, long-standing artistic conversation. 

This week Gaston welcomes to the studio the very talented playwright and improvisation artist Cody Sullivan.  For the last seven years Cody has been making Provincetown audiences laugh with his witty and insightful stage performances.  Learn about his origins as an artist, about his connection and love for improvisation, about his popular event "Cody Plays," and about the plays he has staged and that he is currently working on.

This week, we interviewed Marian Roth about arriving to Provincetown in 1982, helping start the Freehand writers’ school, and leaving a career in political science to become an artist. She recalls being inspired by women in nontraditional jobs and began photographing “The Working Women of Provincetown,” before finding her artistic voice through pinhole photography, including transforming a van into a giant camera—work tied to her Guggenheim Fellowship. Roth describes how the AIDS crisis shaped daily life through caregiving and activism with the PWA Coalition, though it did not directly drive her art. She discusses recurring themes of village, diaspora, and home, later work using silhouetted figures influenced by her mother’s dementia, and her current focus on making paper and building collage “villages,” guided by a love of learning and beginner’s mind.

Gaston talks with author Jeannette de Beauvoir, a France-born writer and historian who settled in Provincetown and created the Sidney Riley series. She explains how the town’s festivals, shifting seasonal crowds, and real locations inspire her plots, discusses “Dead in the Water,” and notes she weaves Provincetown history into the series. She previews her next novel and shares her Dune Shack–inspired historical novel “Our Lady of the Dunes,” reading an excerpt. She also describes “Making Light,” her monthly Commons gathering for artists to support each other.

Wall Writer and Wave Rider with Andrew Jacob

Cut and Paste with John Derian

This week, we interview Roddy Bottum, and explores topics such as Roddy's journey in 1980s and 1990s rock, his experiences with addiction and coming out as gay, and his new book which reflects his life and the cultural landscape of San Francisco during that era. They discuss his move to Provincetown, the magic of the town, and his ongoing musical projects. 

The Birthplace of American Theater with David Drake

Comedian Kristen Becker shares her journey and experiences in the world of comedy and activism. Kristen discusses her roots in Buffalo, New York, and her career progression through comedy, including her start in Toronto and extensive tours in the Deep South. She recounts her move to Provincetown, the significance of queer representation in comedy, and her efforts to promote diverse voices through her show, Fruit Basket. Kristen also highlights her involvement in the Summer of Sass program, which brings queer youth from the South to Provincetown for a transformative summer experience. She reflects on the importance of community, her unique characters such as Sandy Claus and Sergeant Roach, and her ongoing contributions to the Provincetown art scene.