Wendy Chin-Tanner, author of the poetry collections Turn (a finalist for the Oregon Book Awards) and Anyone Will Tell You (both from Sibling Rivalry Press), as well as co-author of the graphic novel American Terrorist (A Wave Blue World), is the mother of two daughters, married to a graphic novelist, co-founder of A Wave Blue World, and the proud daughter of immigrants. Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY and educated at Cambridge, she talks with us about how racism kept her from writing for a decade and motherhood brought her back. If ever there was an artist who was able to talk with deep eloquence and insight about the necessity of a creative life when you are a mother, it is Wendy.
Read MoreEpisode 14: Interview with mamas extraordinaire Grace Campbell (flash fiction and nonfiction) and Laura Stanfill (writer and publisher) /
In this special episode, recorded at the Mineral School Artist Residency in Mineral, Washington during parent-artist week, Grace Campbell (flash fiction and non-fiction writer and mother of 3) and Laura Stanfill (fiction and non-fiction writer and mother of 2) talk with Claudia about how women can take up space and honor their voices, while not buying into cultural myths about motherhood and art-making. You won’t want to miss this crass, revealing, insightful talk that can only happen when three fed up women speak their minds.
Read MoreEpisode 13: Interview with Amy and Brandon Conway (visual artist/comedian, and musician) /
Two artists interview two artists--with our children playing in the adjoining room sometimes, sometimes under our feet. Amy Conway is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work utilizes performance, drawing, writing, video, installation, collaboration, and comedy. Her pieces tend toward reflections of the personal. Brandon Conway is a guitarist who primarily focuses on free improvisation. He likes both minimalism and maximalism, spontaneous intuition and nerdy formalism. Amy let’s everything run together and percolate. Brandon compartmentalizes his art, work, and family life. They have two boys, Heywood and Alvah, aged 10 and 8, who love video games and comic books.
“There are so many people, [who say] ‘I don’t like kids, I mean yours are okay.’ But you know what? You can go fuck yourself.” —Amy
Brandon and Amy taking time to relax.
“Brandon and I have a long history of arguing over art…”
The Conway family wades in the surf.
The Conway family in their mirror.
Amy
https://amyconwayart.wordpress.com/
https://www.instagram.com/glacierface/
he moves like the ocean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMkICKJ1pRc&t=2s
this is how i communicate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsycgtycouU&t=17s
twist and shout: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIGuujRhOfA&t=7s
Brandon
https://halfbird.bandcamp.com/
https://soundcloud.com/halfbird-pdx
https://soundcloud.com/nanrandcowboy
“I’m pretty adamantly against delay and looping pedals, but if someone uses them I still like them.” —Brandon
Indivisible Gallery: https://www.indivisiblepdx.com/
OCAC/PNCA combined MFA in Applied Craft & Design: http://acd-ocac.pnca.edu/
Creative Music Guild: https://creativemusicguild.org/
Kickstand Comedy Space: http://www.kickstandcomedy.org/
Episode 12: Interview with Jacklyn Brickman (visual artist, educator, and mother of 3) /
Jacklyn Brickman, visual artist, environmental activist, and mother to Felix, Sabine, and Reuben renews our trust in change and possibility. An avid experimenter in both form and subject matter, Jacklyn has produced work on the competitiveness of birds, the calls of frogs, the housing crisis, suburban lawns, and Egyptian mother goddesses. A Detroit, Michigan native, she recently moved her family of 5 to Columbus, Ohio to start a graduate program and has fallen in love with the black walnut. She is interested in the dynamic interrelationship between people and their habitats and her work spans installation, sculpture, drawing, and video with a special interest in collaboration and social engagement. Take the time to enter her world online. If you're extra lucky, she'll have an exhibit near you soon.
Read MoreEpisode 11: Interview with Christopher Luna (poet, educator, community organizer, publisher, and dad) /
Christopher Luna, poet, organizer and dad to Angelo, reminds us what it means to trust others and ourselves and how that can be applied to art-making, child-rearing, and life. An avid collaborator and supporter of others, he believes that putting love and community first allows everyone access to the best parts of themselves. He lives and teaches in Vancouver, Washington, runs the Ghost Town Poetry reading series at The Angst Gallery, runs Printed Matter Vancouver: a press and editing business with his wife, Toni Partington, and has transformed the writing scene, being named the Poet Laureate of Clark County for a record 5 years.
"So, I'm in Vancouver [USA] and I'm bored because it is boring."
Christopher Luna (photo by Julian Nelson
"It is not the path of least resistance, it is the path of no resistance...what would happen if you allow people to self-police?"
Christopher with his son, Angelo, at his high school graduation
"When Angelo turned 12, I kept waiting for him to wake up...and hate me...but it never happened and now he is 18 and we still trust and respect each other."
Christopher and Angelo on St. Mark's Place
"No one says, can you take those poems off the bus please? I think it is a good thing for a writer to take public transportation because it gives you a more direct experience of your life."
Check out one of Christopher's latest projects Documenting Street Art (with Toni Luna and Leah Jackson) at The Angst Gallery--July 6-28, 2018.
Christopher Luna's work space
Episode 10: Interview with Andre St. James (bassist and educator)--Part 2 /
In Part 2 of our interview with single dad, bassist, and educator Andre St. James, Andre talks relationships, musically and romantically. His hard choices. His brave ones. Get the tissues. We mean it this time.
"She's pregnant... Oh, man, does this mean I have to get a regular job? Working for Maytag or something?"
Andre and his son, Dreydan
"Oregon saved my life... before that I had no concept of what a relationship was. It was always that the music was first...having a child was not in my reality, I was going all around the world playing."
Check out and buy Andre's latest project with the Thollem/DuRoche/StJames Trio.
"I was on Intercity.... I've done so many recordings I can't keep track. I remember the record labels that I was on.... Idris Ackamoor, the alto player from The Pyramids, was in town and we were all hugging and kissing, it was all beautiful...and, then, he says, 'you were on that one record, that compilation, I'll get you a copy of it.' And, I was like what?"
Episode 9: Interview with Andre St. James (bassist and educator)--Part 1 /
Single dad, bassist, and educator Andre St. James, splits open our mind with his stories of the tough choices he's made as a father and musician and of the jazz greats and teachers who shaped him. He'll make you howl with laughter and weep a bit, too.
"They're just precious, so little, freaked out about the world... so I just couldn't leave for one or two weeks at a time when I got offers to travel and play."
Andre and his son, Dreydan
"I was a bad trumpet player as a kid and my neighbor said, 'hey, man, you might want to try this.'..and gave me a bass."
Episode 8: Interview with Josh Gaines (writer and editor) /
"I like to say I ditched a promising military career to write books, run a profitless press, and build blanket forts with my daughter..."
People become poets for many reasons, but stage fright is not usually at the top of the list. When Josh Gaines was an Air Force Captain he had terrible stage fright. Horrendous. "I would almost be sick and I had to give generals reports on weapons. So, I thought of the most embarrassing thing I could do. I had these 3 poems. I began reading them several times a week in front of open mike audiences, and, one day, I thought, I could do better. I can write better poetry." So, Josh became a poet and a regular at the open mike he started attending in Oklahoma, and, then, once he left the military he helped organize and run more readings in North Carolina and, then, Chicago, culminating in a graduate degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a partnership and daughter, and a press, ThoughtCrime, where he supports the work of other writers and is supporting his desire for a better country.
"I like to say I ditched a promising military career to write books, run a profitless press, and build blanket forts with my daughter. My biggest challenge in making work since having a kid has to do with alone time at the right time. I get up, make her lunch, make her breakfast, and my wife takes her to school on the way to work. Then it's my time to write, but even getting into that head space takes a couple of alone hours for me. Then I start to stress and by the time I get to writing, I only have an hour or two before I have to run by the post office to mail books out and then go pick up my daughter. I admit I kinda quit here and there, and then I'll get to a point where I become a far less happy human and a few hours of writing brings everything back in line."
Episode 7: Interview with Robin Romm (writer and editor) /
In our conversation with writer Robin Romm we discuss (as the antidote to Trump's State of the Union address) what it means for women to be ambitious, what we risk, how we fail, and if you can actually nurse twins while writing your novel. We tackle the hard stuff and leave nothing for the President.
Episode 6: 2017 in Review + Ice Cream + Beer + Parakeets /
Claudia and John riff on 2017's art-making, crazy-household-making, artists collaborated with in the past year, and their best ice cream recommendations that will allow you to still pay your rent. Also, a look ahead to the parent-artists who will appear on the podcast in 2018.
Episode 5: Interview with Howard Fonda (visual artist) /
Visual artist Howard Fonda goes deep about Romanticism, bird cages, Bukowski, and why the Governor can't be political. And, of course, we also discuss the philosophical influence children can have on art-making.
Episode 4: Interview with Margaret Malone (fiction writer) /
Margaret Malone talks with Thick in the Throat, Honey about time, taxes, and tours, and how she and her filmmaker husband Brian Padian balance art, work, and family life in a two parent-artist household.
Episode 3: Interview with Juniana Lanning (sound designer) /
Juniana Lanning (sound designer/electronic artist/drummer/mama) talks with Thick in the Throat, Honey about raising two kids and making music with the entire Lanning family, as well as running a record label and business with her rock musician husband, Chad.
Episode 2: When a Musician and Writer Meet /
John and Claudia open up about why they are artists, who's inspired them, how they got together, and how life has changed since having their daughter.