I recorded my conversations with artist Michael Noland at his spacious and bright studio in Woodstock IL. He is also an avid art collector and I was able to tour his home which full of what he considers excellence in art. Much of this collected art could be seen as folk art, outsider art, unstrained art of self-taught. It was a varied and interesting collection.

As these things happen, I didn’t know Michael when I started our talk so I didn’t know what to expect. I quickly realized I just needed to get out of the way and let his spirit just come through.

Oscar Joya is a Chicago-based artist. Born in Lilongwe Malawi, he was exposed to drawing a very, very early age. An eventual move to the United States stimulated and fueled his artistic activity. He went to an arts magnet high school, and studied art in college, focusing on the human form. For certain, he has learned to rules of painting and drawing.

Oscar’s story and his work are wonderful example of learning the tools and using these to move things forward. His paintings are anchored in the foundations of portraiture, but he has extended this in a style that is unique and reflects his past, his experiences, and his values.

He has learned the rules and then made it his own.

Chavonne Hodges has identified just a few top priorities, a few things she values above other things. She has gathered a lot of experience through the challenges life serves us all and has decided, moving forward, what gets the most time and attention, and what falls away. The results are inspiring and impressive.

Life is a continual series of choices. Every day we are presented with options of what to do with our bodies, our voices and most importantly our thoughts and beliefs. These daily choices all add up and create the results in our lives: the projects we work on, the goals we achieve and the people we connect with. I always find it inspiring when someone’s choices, transform a no so great life experience, into something positive and helpful to our world.

Experience 032 The Choice Parade on:

Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Lori Felker is a filmmaker, teacher, and artist. I don’t know much about the film making process and I am very curious about it. I love movies and documentaries but It always seems very like it would be very complicated to create something in this media. Film uses so many different forms of art together: sound, imagery, composition, voice… Lori was nice enough to come on Eager To Know and talk with me. I am very glad she did.

Mark Toland is an international award-winning mind reader. We spoke about how he got into such a unique and interesting career. I personally am fascinated with magic, mind reading and all that stuff, so I was thrilled to be able to hang out with him and get to know him better.

I met Pete Barker at the record store right around the corner from my home where he works. He shared with me the music that he writes and we spoke about his relationship to this music. He mentioned his experience with mental illness and how that related to creativity. I thought a discussion about this could be very helpful to people and he agreed to be a guest on Eager To Know.

Pete’s experience with depression, anxiety and OCD has had an impact on living his life and his creative journey. He shared that he found that music was a way to refocus all of the hard work his mind was actively doing. I was curious about his story and I am very grateful that he sat down with me to talk about it.

Many of the guests I have had on Eager to Know are people well established in their creative careers. Often times we talk about what it was like when they started out , the challenges, and how they got things moving. I decided to speak with people who are currently in the early stages of a creative journey. I wanted to speak to them about what they currently experiencing today. My guest on this this episode are an Actor and a painter, who are starting out.

For this episode I brought back two of the very first guests I had on my then yet to be launched podcast. Alex Wolking and Paul Shultz join me to talk about many of the concepts that have kept showing up on the past 25 episodes of Eager to Know.

This summer I traveled back home to New England to take a landscape painting class in Old Lyme CT. I was looking to inject some energy into my art process by doing something new and learning something new.

My instructor was perfect, and just what I needed. Not only did he paint right beside us students, but his way of providing instruction and guidance was very valuable.

His name Jesus Emmanuel Villarreal and over the 2 weeks working together, we got to know each other as artists and people. A couple of interesting things I learned about Jesus were that first, is father was an artist so he grew up with art being presented as a valid pursuit. The other was was that Jesus started formal drawing and painting training rather young age,15 years.old, and continued this consistently for the next 10 years. I was being guided some with a lot of experience, training and skill.

Driving to my studio every day, I pass a restaurant with a visible rooftop farm right in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. Every time I drive by it I think, “a rooftop farm, what an amazing thing!” When I finally visited Uncommon Ground, I realized there was even more.

Not only is it a successful restaurant with a rooftop farm, it’s a live music venue, an art space, and a organic brewery. There is just a lot interesting things there.

My conversation with Helen Cameron, it’s founder, quickly revealed the character traits guiding the creation of these unique business elements; visualization, eagerness to try new things, willingness to take calculated risks. All of these traits have enabled them to grow ideas, into amazing things.

It was suggested I check out Tony Rossi as a potential guest. I found out he was both an actor and a coach, a mindset coach. I was very intrigued and curious to speak with him. I found Tony to be very honest. His honesty enabled me to understand how the the job of an actor is much different than I expected. Being a struggling actor activates the thoughts and feelings many people struggle with; self doubt, not feeling enough , comparison to others. I found our conversation fun, refreshing and very inspiring.

ALSO LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Summerdale is a horror novel taking place in the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago, where I just so happen to live. Once reading it, I was eager speak with its author David Jay Collins. I was excited to discuss the power of words that formulate a story, characters, and themes. But in speaking with David, I also learned about the power of another set of words; the ones we tell ourselves. And, how what we tell ourselves can hold us back, or move us forward David’s story as an artist and author is about creativity, hard-work and sacrifice, but I also think it’s about the impact of the story we all create in our mind about about ourselves.

A few weeks back, a friend of mine invited me to be his guest at a record release party for a band I knew nothing about. I didn’t know what to expect and as these things happen, I was pleasantly surprised and immediately made a connection with the music.

It was a folk-rock duo called “They Wont Win” and that evening I was able to listen to their songs but also hear them tell the personal experiences that inspired their creation. I wanted to know more and that night they accepted my invitation to be guest on Eager to Know. I have since been listening to their first full-length album titled “Lost at Sea”

I came into our conversation thinking this was duo of talented musicians who produced a wonderful album. But after spending time with Greg and Danny, I see these men, and what they created, in an entirely different way.

Lesley Ames www.lesleyames.com is a designer, brand maker, and photographer. She is currently on a journey to find her creative voice. I speak with her about this journey, what she has leaned along the way and a few suggestions for all of us.

I have been listening to The Rialto Report podcast to in order to prepare for this interview. I absolutely love it - it is very interesting, well done and I could not be more excited to speak with iit’s co-founder, April hall. The Rialto report is an oral history, audio, photo, and documentary archives from the golden age of adult film in New York. We start our conversation by speaking about the variety that is found in the interviews.

Bénédicte Lassale https://www.benedictelassalle.com is a San Francisco bay area based photographer focusing on architecture, portraiture, and lifestyle projects. We speak about her creative journey, inspirations, challenges and being a professional photographer in the age of Instagram.

Ernesto Lopez is the owner of Chicago based Oak Leaf Garden Design. I loved learning about the origins of his interest in gardening and how he always sees the potential of things before he begins. We start our conversation with one of the unique aspects of what he does; that it combines both creativity and biology.

Ernesto Heen artinuum.com and I met at a 6 week painting and drawing workshop in Florence Italy. He is currently a painter based in Hamburg Germany and also has started teaching art technique. Ernesto’s background is very similar to mine and our creative journey has many parallels.

Brian Justice’s brianjustice.com career spans the visual and written arts. He was an oil painter, transitioned to being a freelance writer and is currently working on a play. We speak about creativity across all of these roles and how he keeps things moving forward.