“We all long for Eden, and we are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature at its best and least corrupted, its gentlest and most human, is still soaked with the sense of exile.”
-JRR Tolkein
To be human is to be changeable. To believe one way in one moment and another the next. This shifting sense of the world around us does not mean we are unreliable or fickle, it does not stand up to the scrutiny – so often heaped upon altered minds – that a changed believe denotes that the previous held were not authentic. Indeed, to change the mind is part of how we learn and grow as human beings. No one should stand solidly in one place, immovable throughout their entire life. Rather we must strive to take in information as it comes and use it to fuel our ever-evolving view of the world and our place in it.
Joy Episalla spoke to us in mid-July. We discussed her exhibition, crack fold burn bright, on view at Tibor de Nagy in New York City until August 5. The show features work created on photographic paper. With this series, Episalla is pushing the envelope on where photography becomes sculptural. What the viewer may read as image is embedded in the paper. Episalla breaks all the rules of photography, using damage in a positive way to create her art. To hear more about the process to make this work, listen to the complete interview.
Alexandra Noel joined us in mid-July to discuss her work and her upcoming exhibition at Derosia Gallery in New York City. For this show, Noel is basing her work on a previous series meditating on the uses of tables. In some of the work, she created surreal scenes beneath tables, seascapes and landscapes – in others, she incorporated food. She considered the way that children often use tables as miniature shelters within their larger shelter. To hear more on this theme, and about other aspects of her work, listen to the complete interview.
A Few Words to Keep in your Pocket
Remain open to change.
Interviews are available on iTunes as podcasts, and for Android please click here. All weekly essay pieces in a shareable format are here. The full archive of interviews is here.
Books to Read
What are you reading? Add your titles to our reading list here. Joy Episalla recently reread the work Jane Austen, an author she finds soothing in a turbulent world. Alexandra Noel recently watched a documentary about Ted Fujita, the creator of the F-scale for tornadoes.
Deadlines:
Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art (MAWA) is accepting applications for residency at their Winnipeg location. This residency is open to women, non-binary, trans and 2-Spirit women-identifying visual artists. Residency period lasts from 2-4 weeks and includes free accommodation while offering residents the chance to research, reflect, network and/or produce. For more information, visit the website. Deadine for applications is August 5.
Brainard Carey is an author, artist and educator. He is the director of Praxis for Aesthetics. He has written six books for artists, most recently Making it in the Art World.