With Nancy Rivera, a visual artist, curator, and arts administrator based in Salt Lake City, Utah. As an artist, she works primarily in the fields of photography, video, sculpture, and installation. Her practice is influenced by her dual cultural identity and its effects, such as code-switching, cultural assimilation, and displacement. We talk about the artificial versus reality, a-i generated art (or is it?),  immigration, and originality.

Nancy's most recent work reflects on her experience as a first-generation Mexican American through her own history of migration and we spend some time talking about her immigration experience in this episode. 

She has exhibited nationally in a variety of traditional and non-traditional venues and her work is part of private and public collections. From 2018–2021, she served as board member and vice-chair of the Salt Lake City Art Design Board. She was a 2021 National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) Leadership Institute Fellow and currently oversees the Visual Arts Program at the Utah Division of Arts & Museums. I love that she’s always experimenting with different mediums and looking at ways to subvert it, such as her still life photography, which you can see at www.nancyrivera.com.

Follow Nancy on instagram at @_nancy_rivera.

[26:19] Portrait by AI program sells for $432,000

[28:16] Most people can’t distinguish between AI and human art, says a new study

Feel free to follow @artbreakerspodcast on Instagram for fun behind-the-scenes photos of the artists at work and snippets from the show. And if you have an admired artist you'd like to hear from, visit artbreakerspodcast.com for artist submissions, show notes, and more.

With artist J. Kirk Richards, a visual artist of many mediums, but primarily known for his sculpture and oil painting work, specializing in Judeo-Christian themes.

I’d recommend seeing his award-winning art for yourself instagram @jkirkrichards or www.jkirkrichards.com. You can also follow @jkirkrichards on tiktok for oil painting tips and more art-related advice. J. Kirk Richards is a favorite among admirers of contemporary spiritual artwork. His love of the textural, the poetic, and the mysterious has translated into a unique take on traditional Judeo-Christian themes.

We both share in having grown up in Mormon backgrounds, and while I have since left the religion, I haven’t left faith and spirituality, so J. Kirk and I find plenty of common ground in which to discuss art, the Mormon faith and the larger framework of Christianity, and the intersection of art with religion, and the spiritual underlinings of creativity.

Richards attributes much of his love for the arts to an early emphasis on musical training in his parents’ home. Turning then from music to visual arts, Kirk studied with painters Clayton Williams, Bruce Hixson Smith, Patrick Devonas, Hagen Haltern, Gary and Jennifer Barton, James Christensen, Wulf Barsch, Joe Ostraff, and others. Two years in Rome influenced Richards’ palette, which often consists of subdued browns and rusts.

Kirk is best known for his contributions to the BYU Museum of Art exhibit Beholding Salvation: The Life of Christ in Word and Image; for his contributions to Helen Whitney's PBS Frontline Documentary entitled The Mormons: An American Experience; for the cover image of Jeffrey R. Holland’s book, Broken Things to Mend; and for his imagery on the cover of BYU Studies Magazine and in the Ensign, Liahona and Upper Room publications.

Feel free to follow @artbreakerspodcast on Instagram for fun behind-the-scenes photos of the artists at work and snippets from the show. And if you have an admired artist you'd like to hear from, visit artbreakerspodcast.com for artist submissions, show notes, and more.

with Randy Slaugh, music producer and composer.

Randy Slaugh is a music producer and composer based in Salt Lake City, UT. He has worked on Grammy®️-nominated, Juno award-winning and Billboard #1 records for world-class musicians including Architects, The Amity Affliction, Periphery, Devin Townsend, David Archuleta, TesseracT, Sleeping with Sirens, and Four Year Strong. He is a voting member of the Recording Academy and has been heavily involved in the music industry for over a decade with a diverse background in a variety of genres, but we spend a lot of time talking about his niche in orchestration for metal and punk bands. He has also had hundreds of television placements on shows such as MTV’s Catfish, Undercover Boss, Project Runway, Food Network’s Chopped, among many others. Etc.

Randy is a super cool dude and you should consider giving him a follow on instagram at the handle @randyslaugh or checking him out at randyslaugh.com. We talk about starting new opportunities, finding one’s niche, the importance of an abundance mindset and offering value first, and go into defining what a “work/life” balance can mean.

The third voice you hear pop in from time to time is my previous audio person, Erik and it’s great to hear from him as well.

Feel free to follow @artbreakerspodcast on Instagram for fun behind-the-scenes photos of the artists at work and snippets from the show. And if you have an admired artist you'd like to hear from, visit artbreakerspodcast.com for artist submissions, show notes, and more.

Hey everyone! The podcast release cadence is going to be tweaked to be every two weeks! Tune in next week for the full episode.

Art Breakers is also on the hunt for an audio person to assist with editing episodes and even potentially helping record them (preferably in the Utah area but not necessarily). Hours are low, and pay is also low as this podcast is currently produced out of passion, but I (Mandy Harmon) am also open to trade deals, skill swaps, etc, with all my marketing and film knowledge at my disposal. Please message the Art Breakers instagram page if you know someone or are someone. Thank you so much and don't forget to tune in next week for the next full episode of Art Breakers.

With Bianca Cline, cinematographer. We talk about originality, the importance of representation behind and in front of the camera, authenticity in art, and a bit of Bianca’s transgender journey as a transwoman and woman in the film world. Near the end of the episode, Bianca opens up a little bit about how she’s recently been dealing with ideas around death and the meaning of life and art, brought on through the death of fellow cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, whose accidental shooting on the set of Rust, a western starring Alec Baldwin, made international headlines. I’m not one for sensationalism, so we don’t go there, yet Bianca has a unique experience and personal connection to the tragedy, as she worked at the same agency as Halyna and was interviewed and considered for the exact same role as DP of Rust. meaning, it genuinely could have been her instead.

Bianca Cline is a Director of Photography, a Mom to three kids, and also a Transwoman. Bianca is one of those rare filmmakers that was actually born and raised in Los Angeles. After high school she moved to Spain for several years and then she attended Brigham Young University in Utah to study film and photography, and even taught a camera class there for a while before eventually moving on. Bianca is best known for her films "Murder Among The Mormons," the Peabody Nominated "Belly of the Beast," and the upcoming "Marcel The Shell With Shoes On," which is a stop-motion film that has been getting some great buzz at the Telluride Film Festival. You can keep up with Bianca on instagram @biancaclineDP.

[14:46] "Directors and DPs direct the subtext, but not the text." - Bianca, quoting a director friend

[23:39] The 8 Art Forms. Literature was the one I blanked on!

[25:25] Referencing episode 02 with VFX Artist and Filmmaker Bryan Fugal

[36:25] “Originality doesn’t come in one single idea. One single idea has probably been done before and that's okay. Originality comes in the execution and organization of multiple ideas.” -Mandy

[37:14] "I think what makes something original is when you can feel all the filmmakers fingerprints on it." -Bianca

[38:58] "I think that my pathway as an artist was limited and stunted because I was in denial about who I was." -Bianca Cline

Feel free to follow @artbreakerspodcast on Instagram for fun behind-the-scenes photos of the artists at work and snippets from the show. And if you have an admired artist you'd like to hear from, visit artbreakerspodcast.com for artist submissions, show notes, and more.

With pianist and musician Jared Ray Gilmore. We talk about the broke, miserable artist trope, substance abuse and addiction, depth work, which is a process of therapy drawn from the work of Carl Jung, and Daemons (both as terms for the shadow self and also as the name of his EP album), sex as creative energy, and other aspects of reconciling the psyche and our numerous “altar ego” forms. 

At the time this was recorded, Jared Gilmore was in the process of leaving the digital media arts center nonprofit Spyhop, where he was an audio mentor for teens. He’s currently training under various psychologists and starting his own practice as a personal mentor in depth-work and other therapies of emotional thought, trauma, creativity, and subconscious. You can contact him the handle @jaredraygilmore on instagram or Tiktok. You can also find all these links in the show notes. 

As you get into the episode, please excuse the water trickling in the background at the beginning, that was my self-watering plant system that still couldn’t keep those poor things alive. I have to admit, I’m a neglectful plant parent. There’s also a bit of apartment-life interference throughout, I’m on the hunt for a more soundproof space, but until then, the podcast must go on. 

[13:45] Listen to Jared’s EP Daemon on Spotify or Apple Music

[14:05] Socrate’s Daemon

[17:50] Sexual energy is creative energy.

[34:10] What is Depth Work: Diving into Your Psyche

[35:19] The Alter Ego Effect by Todd Herman

[1:10:41] Jared’s Spiritual Mentoring: Instagram and Tiktok and Website

Feel free to follow @artbreakerspodcast on Instagram for fun behind-the-scenes photos of the artists at work and snippets from the show. And if you have an admired artist you'd like to hear from, visit artbreakerspodcast.com for artist submissions, show notes, and more.

There won't be a full episode this week in observance of MLK Day. I encourage you to instead take this time to commit to doing one thing to further educate or learn about the ongoing issues of systemic racism in the US. Personally, in the next couple months, I will be reading So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo. As a white person, I think it's important to get informed and even pass the mic, amplifying the experiences of PoC folks. Thanks again and we'll be back next week!

As mentioned, if you have an admired artist you'd like to hear from, topic ideas you'd like to listen about, or even questions you'd like to hear answers from artists: message @artbreakerspodcast on Instagram.

When young Oscar Jiménez looked ahead to potential education and career paths, none of them placed him behind a camera. He certainly didn’t envision what would happen: 6 months after graduating from film school in 2019, Jiménez received an American Society of Cinematographers’ Student Heritage Award for his work on the short film, Gather. Then in 2020, he shot my favorite Sundance film of the year, The Killing of Two Lovers. We talk about the lack of stability in filmmaking, and the gumption it takes to push through. It’s not all pretty, and Oscar’s grounded, adaptable view on life and art is full of inspiration to my own life, and hopefully, to yours as well. 

As per usual, the first 10-20 minutes is Oscar’s history, then we get into more nitty-gritty ideas on life, food, and filmmaking. You can keep up with Oscar @osacre on instagram, and you can watch The Killing of Two Lovers here on hulu.

[40:26] Should you say Yes to every project that comes your way?

[41:55] "If the only thing keeping you back is fear or laziness…you should push through those." -Oscar

[42:53] "That’s what school is for, you're supposed to fail. It should be a safe space to fail and learn." -Oscar

[44:57] “When I see failure in my own personal work, I ask, is the aesthetic fulfilling the story? If it’s too distracting, I feel like I failed." -Oscar

[46:27] “As self-deprecating as I am, I have to be really happy with some of the stuff I do. Otherwise, I'll be like, this isn't fulfilling for me at all." -Oscar

[48:22] "Treat your project like it’s your last one, and give it your all. That's easier said than done and I'm probably a hypocrite." -Oscar

[51:12] "If you go into creativity with the question, "is this going to be any good," you're gonna freeze or fall apart before you even get started." -Mandy

If you'd like, follow @artbreakerspodcast on Instagram for fun behind-the-scenes photos of the artists at work and snippets from the show. And if you have an admired artist you'd like to hear from, visit artbreakerspodcast.com for artist submissions, show notes, and more.