Art on the Air Tamara Garvey

Join Tamara and David for an interview with Melyssa Amann, who was born and raised in the Caribbean country Trinidad and Tobago. She came to Savannah in 2016 to attend SCAD, and after trying a couple of directions, earned a BFA in illustration with a minor in scientific illustration.
Her website shows a wide variety of her work - portraiture, editorial and commercial work, murals, and scientific illustration - and she does a great job including sketches and progress images for each project. 
Since graduating, Melyssa has gotten a steady stream of mural commissions. You can go see her public work at Kanpai II on Chatham Pkwy., the new Artstryngs Gallery on Liberty St.; and the JEA's basketball court. 
Check out Melyssa's work and follow her here:
https://www.melyssaamann.com/https://www.instagram.com/melyssaamann/ 
Topics in their chat include:
A little background info on Melyssa's birthplace of Trinidad & Tobago; her roundabout journey to studying illustration at SCAD after trying engineering and industrial design, due to not knowing how one would make a living in the arts if not in a "serious" design field; the weirdness of graduating college in spring 2020; how working at Wasabi's on MLK while studying at SCAD led to her first mural, of koi fish, which has in turn led to multiple other mural commissions (even today!); the agony of seeing your chalk mural getting accidentally smudged by restaurant diners; the pluses and minuses of having many different styles and types of projects on one's website; the arduous experience of painting on a basketball court during June in Savannah;  her desire to continue breaking away from just depicting strict and tight representation, but to be able to incorporate concepts as well; and a lovely piece of advice Melyssa would give to other artists.
Tune in and get all the details!
 
* And some cool podcast news: Feedspot has highlighted Art on the Air as one of the Top 3 Georgia Art Podcasts on the web. Hooray! https://blog.feedspot.com/georgia_art_podcasts/

Join Tamara for an interview with Danèlle Lejeune, who is a poet, memoirist, and photographer, as well as the Assistant Director at the Ossabaw Writers’ Retreat.
From her website: "Danèlle was a livestock farmer in Southern Iowa. She moved to Georgia with her three kids and nothing else in 2016, to begin again from the ground up. After a twenty year hiatus she's writing poetry, making art, and creating a a lot of chaos with her opinions on onions and pies."
You can find her debut poetry collection, Landlocked: Etymology of Whale Fish and Grace (Finishing Line Press, 2017), at the Book Lady here in Savannah, or online at the major book retailers.
Check out Danèlle's work and follow her here:
http://www.danellelejeune.com/ https://www.instagram.com/danelle_lejeune_author/  https://ossabawwritersretreat.org/ 
 
Topics in their chat include:
Coming to Savannah in 2014 for the first time to attend the Ossabaw Island Writers' Retreat...but she was actually undercover to research and study the Ossabaw pigs, to help with her and her then-husband's pig farm in Iowa; how her quick iphone photos taken while hiking on Ossabaw were published as the posters for AWP (Association of Writers & Writing Programs); how that conference led to her getting an invite for a free(!) writers' retreat & residency in Prague, where she wrote enough Irish mythology-related poems to make an entire book, which was also quickly published; teaching composition classes at University of South Carolina at Bluffton; how dramatic a writers/artists retreat can be; and how supportive the Book Lady shop has been for her and for other local writers.
Tune in and get all the details!

Join Tamara for an interview with Molly Cusick, who works in the dual arts of photography and pottery, and shares a City Market studio with her mother (who also works in two art forms!). Traveling through the world's most beautiful places, Molly sees beauty where others are not looking. Faces of rocks, creek reflections, abandoned cars and barnacled boats offer a rich interplay of texture, color, and tone. Her eyes are drawn to the way that nature overtakes manmade objects.
She has a specific project called the Tree Pilgrimage:
"...born from the ashes of the Thomas fire, in January 2018, is a project honoring embodied connection and awakening.  
I followed a calling from deep within my heart to be with and photograph the amazing Trees around the world while I still had the chance."
 
Check out Molly's work and follow her here: 
https://www.instagram.com/mollycusickphotography/http://www.mollycusickphotography.com/ https://www.thetreepilgrimage.com/https://www.instagram.com/mollycusickpottery/
 
Topics in their chat include:
Growing up in a creative home and receiving her first (film) camera at 14; her affinity for junkyards and rusty old cars; in February 2020 Molly went to New Zealand for a 3-6 month photography trip, and when the pandemic hit she ended up staying there for 1 1/2 years, extending her visa to travel solo and do nature photography; her early time in Savannah selling work at the Savannah Gallery of Art; being a part of the Clayer & Co pottery teaching studio in Thunderbolt; getting photo prints made and her discovery of metal prints; close calls with bears and cobras; and her plans for future photography trips to Bulgaria and Madagascar.
Tune in and get all the details!

Join Tamara for an interview with Phoebe Plank, who is just a few months from finishing her MFA in Fibers at SCAD. Her path to making art in the first place began when she studied abroad in Paris during her undergrad program, and had her eyes opened to a more unconventional way of life by the older woman who housed her. After graduating, she moved from Vermont to San Francisco, eventually making a bunch of artsy friends and attending the Burning Man festival, and from there she decided to move to Savannah and pursue her art. 
Phoebe says: "With what might be considered waste, or overlooked foraged materials, I assemble and create useful art objects and experiences. To address an overwhelming degree of alienation in our time, I aim to make work that is useful, even if in quiet sensory ways."
 
Check out Phoebe's work and follow her here: 
https://www.instagram.com/phoebe_plank/https://phoebeplankart.squarespace.com/
 
Topics in their chat include:
Phoebe coining the name "stickwork" for her recent series of pieces, alluding to a magical, whimsical, wand-like vibe; playing around with hanging her stickwork on the wall with one point of contact, as a metaphor for how one exists/balances in the world, vs. hanging it from the ceiling and allowing it to sway around; what is "wet lab" felting and how do horses come into it?!; how is a jacquard loom like a player piano?; how "Dobby" refers to both a Harry Potter character and a person in the weaving process; weaving weeds in Lacoste; Phoebe's "pocket Rumi" book and how she pairs a poem with each of her pressed flower pieces; the amazing Rumi poem about cooked chickpeas that sticks in her memory; and her goal to live in France and pursue her art, post-MFA.
Tune in and get all the details!

Join Tamara and David for an interview with Stephen Kasun, who moved to Savannah and began working in the City Market studios back in 2009, and now has two ground-floor studios/gallery spaces. Before that he went to art school at Memphis College of Art, and then University of Cincinnati, and then sold his work in art fairs for years.
Lately painting with acrylic paint and a palette knife, Stephen says: "My subject matter can be anything--as long as it’s about mood and light. My direct, deliberate approach requires a lot of pre-mixing my colors and doing most of the "thinking" on my mixing plate. Each paint stroke is carefully considered beforehand." 
Check out Stephen's work and follow him here: 
https://www.kasunstudio.com/https://www.instagram.com/kasunart/
 
Topics in their chat include:
His switch from oil paint to acrylic 10 years ago and the experimental nature of acrylics; how both pig bladders and earwax (!) have figured into creating paint through the centuries; falling in love with Savannah and City Market back in the 1990s; his recommendation to young artists starting out; the time he lost an entire wall full of paintings into the Savannah River because of a gust of wind during a River Street art fair; how does one pronounce the word "scourge?"; the benefits of selling art through a gallery even though they're taking a commission; is a palette knife the Ferrari of painting materials?; the requirement when you have a ground floor space in City Market to staff/open your studio 7 days a week, but the tradeoff of how high your sales are; the specific qualities of acrylic paint that allow Stephen to be a "mad scientist" and do experiments with air brushing, mediums, etc; Stephen's bespoke palette knives (!); how the Six Pence phone booth is a "gift to artists;" and his upcoming work hopefully to be based on his new drone photography hobby.
Tune in and get all the details!

Join Tamara and David for an interview with The Maxines, "a badass all chick rock band in Savannah, GA - grunge w/ a kiss of metal."
They're led by AJ Grey on vocals, with Emma Smith on bass, and twins Coco and Maddie Oke on drums and guitar. You might remember them from our musical episode back around Thanksgiving - if not, go have a listen!
The Maxines released their debut album "Skin Tight" - named after the first song they ever wrote - back on October 1. Their next show will be Feb 24 at El Rocko! 
Listen to The Maxines and follow them here: 
https://www.instagram.com/themaxinesband/https://themaxinesband.bandcamp.com/album/skin-tight
 
Topics in their chat include:
Their great experience recording their recent and first album, Skin Tight, with Scary of Black Tusk; their new bassist Emma, who replaced Veronica Garcia-Melendez (a previous interviewee on the show!); the addition of an instrument called a "donkey jaw;" how the band formed through word-of-mouth of various female musicians around Savannah, and all of the shared songs they wanted to cover; AJ's physicality during their performances and her philosophy on preparing ahead of time for that; Madonna's lifelong influence; working through the stage fright of their first performance; the complicated bass solo in their song "Letter to a Pill" and how Emma faces it; the success of their first show - an open mic in late 2021 at the Wormhole; their collaborative process of songwriting; going on their recent first tour, lasting 2 weeks, with Savannah band Neckromance; how Coco and Maddie have taught themselves screenprinting to produce all of the band's merch; the excitement of getting CDs made (they still have some available!); their brand-new band manager!; the success of the album release party / music fest they threw in October; new experimental sounds they look forward to trying, such as megaphones; and how metal singers take care of their voices, both in general and especially on tour. 
Tune in and get all the details!