Artifice

Artifice Podcast by Emily Merrell
  • 5.0 (22)
  • Arts
  • Updated Biweekly

Great art almost feels like magic—it opens our minds to brand new ideas, and teaches us to see ourselves and our world more clearly. Of course, behind all great art, there are artists. And that’s where the real magic happens… As we go beneath the art itself to explore how different artists do what they do, we see glimpses of the sorts of creativity, resilience, and bravery that lead to the art that moves our world. And maybe we can learn to borrow some of that magic for our very own thinking. Join professional musician Emily Merrell for conversations with artists of all kinds. Together, we examine the mysteries of our own experiences, our muses and fears, our gifts and foibles, our beliefs about the origins of creativity, and the secret magic we’ve discovered in our unique creative processes. Mediums include: studio art, graphic design, dance, cooking, illustration, creative writing, storytelling, comedy, music composition, music performance, film making, acting, production, fashion design, photography, and more. Visit https://emilymerrellmusic.com/artifice-podcast/ for more information. - Theme Song "As You Are" by Emily Merrell @emilymerrellmusic - Illustration and Graphic Design by Sarah Keele @sarahkeeleart - Photography by Jen Palmer @jenpalmerphoto - HMU by Shawna Turner @shawnaturnerdesigns

  1. 2d ago

    Ep. 244: Deanna Kei

    Deanna Kei is a NYC based fashion and beauty illustrator, specializing in live event art and detailed fashion branding, blending luxury fashion with New York street style. After a decade as a womenswear designer, she transitioned into illustration, and now works with brands such as Gucci, Dior, Burberry, Givenchy, and more. Her commissioned illustrations have been gifted to celebrities including Gigi Hadid and Blake Lively. Deanna collaborates with luxury fashion and beauty brands to create elevated, storytelling-driven illustrations and imagery that inspire customer engagement while honoring each brand’s identity. She is also known for her live guest sketching at NY Fashion Week events, brand activations, luxury retail experiences, galas, corporate events, private parties, and weddings. Her live sketches celebrate guests’ unique personal style, capturing the details that make each look memorable. Since her first live sketching event in 2018, Deanna has illustrated thousands of guests. Her work is deeply influenced by her background in fashion design and her upbringing in New York City. She is a Fashion Institute of Technology alumna with over a decade of experience across women’s contemporary sportswear, outerwear, athleisure and performance, juniors, childrenswear, and menswear design categories, as well as professional styling roles. Deanna’s illustrations have been featured across television commercials, magazines, newspapers, digital platforms, market week promotions, press trip packages, and live fashion week events. Her extensive knowledge of garment construction, fabric, silhouette, and fit informs every project, allowing her to approach illustration, design, and styling with precision and intention. Through her art, Deanna aims to encourage confidence, individuality, and positivity—celebrating personal style as a powerful form of nonverbal communication, always with a distinct New York edge. For more information or to discuss a new project contact Deannakei@gmail.com!

    Ep. 244: Deanna Kei

  2. Jul 21

    Ep. 243 : Perla Sanchez

    Perla Sanchez is a Dominican American artist and illustrator whose work explores identity, self-trust, growth, and reflection. Through expressive figures, bold color, and botanical elements, she creates intimate scenes that celebrate strength, becoming, and the beauty of quiet moments. Her immersive work invites viewers to pause, reconnect with themselves, and find inner peace and joy. Website: https://www.perlyblooms.com Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/perlyblooms Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/perlyblooms

    Ep. 243 : Perla Sanchez

  3. Jul 13

    Ep. 242 : Eliza Carrington

    Singer-songwriter Elthia creates indie pop music that leaves her listeners marveling at her wordplay and vibing to her ethereal, dreamy style. Combining real stories with fantastical elements, Elthia writes character pieces and ghost stories that she sets to music in each of her songs. In her own words, “I want my songs to feel like paintings that you sit in front of and stare at for a long time, getting completely entranced by them. I want you to listen to my music and continue to get lost in that world.” She enhances her artistic image by creating wearable art pieces, using dripping candles, demitasse spoons, and skeletal claws, all featured in her music videos. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3o650cPIv3LQmts2yph8F1?si=fmmmtU-DQ7KxCV_eV6XjcQ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/elthia

    Ep. 242 : Eliza Carrington

  4. Jul 7

    Ep. 241 : Alex Josephson

    Alex Josephson OAA, M.Arch (University of Waterloo), B.A.S (University of Waterloo) President Born in Toronto, Canada. Alex Josephson studied architecture at the University of Waterloo and in Rome. He co-founded PARTISANS in 2012 after dropping out of the Architectural Association School of Architecture (AA). Alex is the only Canadian to have received the New York Prize Fellowship at the Van Alen Institute, he was named 2015 Best Emerging Designer by Canada’s Design Exchange. He currently lectures at the University of Toronto’s Daniels Faculty of Architecture. Alex is a registered architect in Ontario. https://partisans.com/ https://www.instagram.com/alexanderjosephson/

    Ep. 241 : Alex Josephson

  5. May 19

    Ep. 240 : Chris Ramos Returns

    Christopher Ramos is currently serving as Director of Bands and Assistant Professor of Music at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. He conducts the UVU Wind Symphony and directs instrumental studies within the music education area. He additionally teaches courses in conducting, music education, and music appreciation. He received the DMA in instrumental conducting at The Hartt School, studying with Glen Adsit and Edward Cumming. While at Hartt, he assisted in conducting Hartt's instrumental performing ensembles and the Greater Hartford Youth Wind Ensemble, and as part of the adjunct faculty he taught courses for graduates and undergraduates in conducting, brass methods, diversity and belonging, jazz pedagogy, and in the core music theory sequence. Before Hartt, Chris served as a band director at Dalat International School in Penang, Malaysia where he taught Western classical and jazz music in performing and theory courses across grades 6-12, and his students were invited to perform in international festivals across Southeast Asia. He is also an active scholar working at the intersection of musicology, wind band studies, and music education with his latest publications forthcoming in the Music Educators Journal (NAfME) and the Utah Music Educators Journal (UMEA). In 2022 he received the Goldstein Award from the University of Hartford, and in 2016 he received the Joanne Kealinohomoku Prize from the Society of Ethnomusicology Southwest for his scholarship. He holds additional degrees from the University of New Mexico where he studied with Eric Rombach-Kendall, and from East Texas A&M University (formerly Texas A&M University-Commerce) where he studied with Phillip Clements (conducting), Luis Sanchez (piano), and Mike Morrow (horn). In addition to his conducting, researching, and teaching, he actively performs both on the French horn and at the keyboard. He has produced, performed, and conducted on records for the Naxos, Summit, and Parma record labels, and he has performed in and conducted ensembles in concert halls, stages, forests, and patios across the United States and Asia. An avid supporter of new music, he has been part of numerous commissioning projects for solo horn, chamber ensembles, and wind ensembles. He is a second-place winner in The American Prize for conducting and in 2025-27 he holds the Harry Begian Conductor Scholar Award at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. He is an active member in the College Band Directors National Association, Utah Music Educators Association, Utah Bandmasters Association, National Band Association, American Musicological Society, and National Association for Music Education, and is an honorary member of the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia National Music Fraternity.

    Ep. 240 : Chris Ramos Returns

  6. May 12

    Ep. 239 : Makoto Chi

    Makoto Chi is a visual artist, born and raised in Canada, and currently living in Western Massachusetts. His artistic backgrounds are in tattooing, drawing and painting, occasionally eddying into sculpture and installation. These practices cross-pollinate and share thematic through lines: Queer eros, ritual, diasporic desire for belonging, dualisms, and revisiting and refracting personal memories. Research into the visual cultures, mythologies and spiritualities of his Japanese and Ashkenazi Jewish heritages are important touchstones, where the fractured narratives of fleeing homelands, internments, of receiving and enacting grave violence are given space to speak and merge together. For Makoto, Chi, eroticism within anthropomorphic bodies is a means of queer refraction and reimagining of these histories and myths; they re-knit severed relationships to his heritages while opening space for new meaning and surprises. Makoto Chi Graduated from Emily Carr University in 2015 with a bachelor's degree in illustration. He currently lives in Western Massachusetts at Lupinewood Collective, an intentional living space and community project. Important links: https://www.patreon.com/makotochi https://store.lupinewood.com/ and https://www.lupinewood.com/evergreen/ https://www.instagram.com/makoto.chi/ https://www.makoto-chi.com/

    Ep. 239 : Makoto Chi

  7. May 5

    Ep. 238 : Cricket Jergens

    My work is fueled by the complex dissonance of a modern human experience—dominant over and separate from the natural world. A dance between grief and hope, my art evokes visual representations of ambiguous loss of natural entities and celebrations of persistent patterns, teachers, medicine and kin. Trees are my primary source of inspiration. My mediums range across fiber arts disciplines and include felting, weaving, paper and book making, and basketry. Process is essential to comprehension of my felted work as it represents a personal expression of ritual, and the fusing of individuals into collective; an echoing of earthly interconnectedness, mycelial networks and coalescence. Bent knees allow flat palms to meet earth, expressing acts of care, reverence and patience–a physical prayer of grief, gratitude, and remembrance. This ritual of wet felting and its physically demanding process help me to expel grief, loss, frustration and anger. In turn, because of the labor intensive process, I must give myself fully to the piece knowing I will sacrifice my body’s abilities in the days following. I view this dynamic as an exploration of “how much do we live in reciprocity with our earth?”. While traveling, basketry has been my most consistent medium choice as it allows me the flexibility of a gradual less demanding process.  My work aims to evoke an environmentally conscientious community through a declaration that we are a global community, equally responsible for the protection of Earth.  Materials sourced from nature engage environmental agents as collaborators, not merely subject matter. I have been traveling/volunteering fulltime since the summer of 2024. After the completion of my degree, I craved education from life beyond the realm of academia and the insular scope of American understanding. I have since been to 11 countries. This experience has helped me flourish in problem solving, communication, forgiveness, my understanding of international relations, the connectedness of our human experiences despite nationality or social position, that positive land relationships exist everywhere, and the importance of my relationship with myself, my artwork and my spirituality. Links: Contentsofcricket.com @contentsofcricket ig

    Ep. 238 : Cricket Jergens

  8. Apr 21

    Ep. 237 : Katy Lipscomb

    Katy Lipscomb is an illustrator and author known for vivid watercolor creatures that merge the natural world with the imagined. Her practice centers on finding magic in the everyday and inviting viewers into lush, character-driven worlds, using processes that emphasize creative confidence, storytelling through imagery, and the joy of traditional media. Alongside co-founder and co-author Tyler Fisher, she has published The Artist’s Drawing Book and Sketch Your Art Out, which blend approachable drawing instruction with creative prompts and professional insight to help build a sustainable art practice. Together, they run Katy Lipscomb LLC, where her work has appeared in TIME Magazine, on NPR’s All Tech Considered, on ABC’s The View, and in art publications such as ImagineFX, Artists Network, and Colored Pencil Magazine, as well as in gallery exhibitions and merchandise lines developed with partners including Adidas, Diamond Art Club, Winsor & Newton, Derwent, Upper Deck, and more. The studio’s work reaches over half a million followers and millions of viewers worldwide, with projects recognized by organizations including Effie Worldwide, SCAD, and more. KatyLipscomb.com • @katy_lipscomb

    Ep. 237 : Katy Lipscomb
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5
out of 5
22 Ratings

About

Great art almost feels like magic—it opens our minds to brand new ideas, and teaches us to see ourselves and our world more clearly. Of course, behind all great art, there are artists. And that’s where the real magic happens… As we go beneath the art itself to explore how different artists do what they do, we see glimpses of the sorts of creativity, resilience, and bravery that lead to the art that moves our world. And maybe we can learn to borrow some of that magic for our very own thinking. Join professional musician Emily Merrell for conversations with artists of all kinds. Together, we examine the mysteries of our own experiences, our muses and fears, our gifts and foibles, our beliefs about the origins of creativity, and the secret magic we’ve discovered in our unique creative processes. Mediums include: studio art, graphic design, dance, cooking, illustration, creative writing, storytelling, comedy, music composition, music performance, film making, acting, production, fashion design, photography, and more. Visit https://emilymerrellmusic.com/artifice-podcast/ for more information. - Theme Song "As You Are" by Emily Merrell @emilymerrellmusic - Illustration and Graphic Design by Sarah Keele @sarahkeeleart - Photography by Jen Palmer @jenpalmerphoto - HMU by Shawna Turner @shawnaturnerdesigns

Information

  • Creator
    Artifice Podcast by Emily Merrell
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    259
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    Artifice