Making Problems to Solve

Mark and Nick are back for another whirlwind tour of our brains from museums to travel and reading. We answer a listener question from Griffin Makes!

Send in your question for the next "Art Talk with Mark and Nick". We'll revisit the themes of trying to make art in a world of distractions periodically.

Johnny Tromboukis is known for his Kumiko projects, kits and jigs. He also teaches Kumiko woodworking classes, and was part of the team that brought us the giant flaming dinosaur and jackalope for the Maker Burn at Catskill Mountain Maker Camp!

We're back for the thrilling conclusion with Mark and Nick! We talk about creative journeys, motivation and passion, exploration, sharing, and you guessed it Maker Camp. Along the way we cover design school and learning creatively.

We all know Mark Adams as the black and white photographer of makers. Nick recently is probably best known for his support of the WGA+SAG strikes with his clever protest art. We have great conversation about doing your creative thing, learning and communication. We went pretty deep. This is the first half of our conversation. We'll have the conclusion next week!

Susana McDonnell is a printmaker and teacher working with colorful geometric patterns. We discussed her exploration of media from ceramics, drawing, glassblowing, and printmaking. Along the way we learn about the online printmaking community, and Susana's work being featured on Speedball product packaging and in art stores alongside their products.

Caroline Landau is a glass artist who combines glass blowing with nature. We chat about their Archiving Ice and Prometheus projects which capture details and transformation in glass. We also explore art as a process, and a creative life lived in chapters.

Dan Scrima is the proprietor of Whoashop Woodworking as well as the host of the new Make It While You Fake It Podcast! He's also working on creating a new maker space MontcoMakers. We talk about being in a band and the maker mantra "I can probably figure it out."

This week my guest is Samantha Sic from Earth Found Designs. She creates nature inspired clothing and accessories, often from repurposed materials. We talked about balancing creating multiples versus making each piece unique.

This episode we learn about Rebecka Jonasson a tattoo and metal artist from Sweden. She also works in painting, photography and jewelry. We explore the idea of taking time to make something, a Maker Day, once a week, or taking a little time every day. Do we finally define "Art", absolutely not, but we explore learning about art through the personality of the artist. We also discuss why rust is so great.

Chris from Cowdog Craftworks is my guest, he's a self-taught hand tool woodworker who tries to challenge himself on every project. We talk about making for yourself, and how creating content just might get you closer to making art. Somehow we never got around to discussing exactly what a cowdog is!

This episode I talked to Kris from Meltdown Metal Art about her journey from painting, to mechanics, to welding, fabrication, blacksmithing teaching and metal art!

Chelsea Andersson is a miniaturist making tiny objects for decorating dollhouses, television, and stop-motion advertising. She was a contestant on Making It, season three, and now is renovating her mid-century modern house in her spare time! We discussed her her journey from making tiny things growing up to landscape architecture and model making, to building full-size furniture back to miniatures. Chelsea has created an online course for Domestika and recently published a book "50 Makes for Modern Minatures".

For this new year's episode I caught up with my friend Keith Woltje. He started out mainly in digital fabrication and then started learning the more traditional maker crafts. We chat about how we met as fans of Laura Kampf, and meeting without knowing it at Maker Camp! We reminisce about classic vector graphics and learn about Keith's history with maker spaces.

This week I talked to Dave Anderson from Atomic Airship works. He spent his career as a mechanical engineer, but always had a hand in creating physical models using the tools in the workshop. Along the way he's tried just about every making skill from glass blowing to home-built airplanes. We had a great conversation about lifelong curiosity and making.

My guest is Jill Jacobs, metal artist. She makes metal "vessels" by combining repeating shapes from uniform steel rods in unique combinations to create 3-D forms. Our conversation ranged from art to philosophy, and of course, the community of creative people who share what they do.

Dave Miao - 3D DDIY Dave - is well known for his Maker Scans project, 3D scanning makers and making those files available. He started out focused on photography, and now explores the ways to combine traditional materials with 3D printing. He's always learning and sharing what he learns.

Tiffany Marchand from Nightcarver Designs has been creating for as long as she can remember, from helping her parents at craft shows to her unique painted carved signs, and multiple podcasts! Tiff is a great supporter of the maker community and has recently begun teaching power carving.

This episode I had the pleasure of talking to Larissa Huff, who you may know from the Call Me Mabie Maker Documentary about her work. Larissa wanted to teach and help people understand practical applications for math, and along the way discovered one of the best ways to use math in woodworking and furniture making. Now along with commission work she explores the personal connections in her work as well as combining geometric precision with organic curves.

Logan Needham is all about a mindset of creativity and wonder! We explore his home school experience, and his path from making music in a rock band through advertising, programming, sign making, to becoming a full time creative problem-solver! Logan's maker motto is "Do Hard Things". His journey was so interesting we are going to need to circle back and cover that in another episode!

Scot from Crabtree Creative caught my eye with his amazing tribute to Wesley Treat's Makers Welcome sign. He put everything he has learned in the sign business into the creation. His blend of design skills with fabrication makes for some impressive work!

I had a fun chat with Alma from Pink Soul Studios. She's been solving problems for her family by making furniture, toys, and whatever else she can imagine, mostly from wood. She actually found the maker community accidentally after sharing her projects with family on social media. There's also a fun bit about motorcycles!

Char Miller-King, known as Woodenmaven - is your friendly shop teacher, has been learning woodworking, and sharing what she knows since she started by DIYing a platform bed she wanted, but couldn't afford at the time. Now she shares her love of woodworking with kids and adults at the Decatur Makers makerspace, online, and on TV.

John Grassey started woodworking like so many of us, to fill a need a home, and with an attitude of "I think I can do that!" He started out on the creative side of theatre and moved into stage management before a side trip to software product management, for theatre. Lately he's been exploring the creativity of the written word and completed a 30 day writing project!

I had a great conversation with Bernie Solo, Artist, Designer, Sometimes Inventor, and Problem-Solving Maker of Things. You might know him from his fire-breathing zombie fighting circular as seen on YouTube or in person at Maker Camp, or his fidget invention the Sprok-it, or his CNC lamp carving saw. We talked about finding patterns in nature, functional inspiration and always adding to your toolbox of skills.

Wesley Treat makes cool signs, retro-futuristic art, and shop upgrades most makers would dream of (shop elevator!?) We talked about his love of classic roadside signs, theatre, and how his work making signs and decor in Texas lead to connection with an Upstate New York Drive-In.

My guest this time is Bonnie from Vermont Print specializing in screen printed apparel with a focus on the outdoors and nature of Vermont. Bonnie learned html and web design starting by customizing MySpace pages and turned that into a career in user experience design. In her creative print work she follows a practice of "don't take yourself too seriously" and we discuss making fun art to find your audience of people who appreciate it.

Glen gave me a lot to think about around art, creativity, craft, and paying attention. One highlight was the "Spiraling Circle of Learning". We talked about photography, high-end audio visual installations and cardboard robots along the way.

I met Tony Rouleau at Making It 100 - and learned he was a relatively local maker and a great guy! He's well known for making quality tools such as his brass infill block plane, double squares, and bevels made in his home shop. We covered how he started making tools, his design inspiration, an mention a bunch of folks from the maker community.

My conversation with Ellen ranges from Heavy Metal Knitting to Conceptual Art and Tom Sachs. Ellen is always ready to learn the next thing, from spinning steel wool to forging and welding, to complete the next project ans share what she learns to help new makers.

Taylor Hokanson and Rob Ray hosted the super creative Opposable Thumbs podcast which challenged the hosts and a guest to solve a creative problem every two weeks. They've taken a break from the podcast but they are still out there spreading the good word about being a creative weirdo at Columbia College and Cal State San Benardino. We learn why teaching is like being the captain of a pirate ship.

This weeks guest is Justine Silva, a multidisciplinary artist and winner of Making It Season 2! She started her professional art career as an intern working on window displays at Anthropoligie, and explored residential construction as a project coordinator before getting pick to participate in the Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman show Making It on NBC. That experience led to her working behind the scenes on a future season of Making it and on Making Fun! for Netflix with some of our favorite YouTube makers.

I had a great conversation with woodturning and tattoo artist Rebecca DeGroot. We talked about the definition of functional art, teaching in the classroom and workshops, where Rebecca is going next, furniture as danger, and why everything is better with legs.

This week I talked to Lucas De'Angelo, otherwise known as Mann Made in MA and discover the start of his vintage cast iron obsession, and some tips about getting started finding and collecting old machines. We discussed his history with making, and his relatively recent entry into the online maker community.

This week I catch up with Morley Kert, repeat guest, about the changes in his making in the last 9 months, his experience at Maker's Central, and 3D printing for the public in London!

This week I talked with Katie Freeman, a woodworker who specializes in power carved art pieces. We talked about her making from making with her family, to shop class, to learning woodworking, discovering power carving, and to her latest exploration of furniture design. Of course we talked about her experience finding the maker community, online, and in person at Workbenchcon!

I had the great pleasure of hanging out with two of the best makers and podcasters out there, Geoff Feder and Keith Decent. We started talking about art but of course the conversation took off and we ended up talking about products, teaching, sharing, and problem-solving from sculpture to business. 

This week I talked to Shawn Beckner and Jimmy Diresta about their bandsaw history. Along the way we covered paint robots, video editing, and race cars.

I had the great pleasure of chatting with Chris Faroe about his path through creativity from music to permaculture to spoon carving and his development of the Creative Mapping Project. We talked about anti-mentors, who push you away from the wrong thing, even if they're not quite sure what the right thing might be.

You might know Keith Mitchell from his woodworking, tool making, and boat building, or from his illustration work with Lost Art Press, or have met him at the Total Boat tent at Maker Camp. We had a great conversation about making, art and learning. We talked about learning the trades and passing on the knowledge, though mentorship or apprenticeship, sharing what you know with the maker community online, or teaching in person at your shop or at a maker event.