Artist Chat Archive

Justin N. Kim is a painter who is interested in interconnectedness and how parts come together to create a larger structure. By painting maps that reveal the intersections and influences of human-made systems, he explores how individual components form a whole.

In this chat, Justin talks about cartography, exploring Los Angeles, and how/why he painted Garfield Park.

To learn more about Justin’s mail art and accompanying film by Miguel Ayala, go here.

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Show Notes

• See the mail art

• See more of Justin's Microchip Pieces and Map Pieces

• Trailer for Dust Catchers, Miguel Ayala's film paired with this mail art

Camille Ora-Nicole is a filmmaker, poet, musician, and visual artist. In their visual art, they are interested in creating abstract diagrams that show movement around words in order to spatially illustrate the impact of and relationships between ideas. Sharp lines or curves create gestures around the words/ideas to show direct connections between them or to create more analogous connections, suggesting community or private spaces.

In this chat, Camille talks about their multi-disciplinary practice, the process of ekphrasis, and how their work in architecture informs their work.

To learn more about Camille’s mail art and accompanying film by Nina Sarnelle, go here.

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Show Notes

• See Camille's mail art

• See the trailer for the sound film paired with Camille's art

• Check out Camille's music

José Guadalupe Sánchez III is an interdisciplinary artist and educator who was born and raised in West Los Angeles. His work relies heavily on self-reflectivity, and is an investigation of the multilayered experiences of varying Brown social realities in Los Angeles spanning the past, present, and future. 

In this chat, José talks about the TracoNaut Chronicles series and Brown/Chicanx concepts he’s been developing in his work.

To learn more about José mail art and accompanying film by Squash&Biscuit and Mengxi Yang, go here.

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Show Notes

• See José's mail art

• Learn more about José

• See more of José's TrocaNaut Chronicles series

• See the trailer for the film paired with this art

Christine Shan Shan Hou is a multi-disciplinary artist who works in collage and poetry. Their collage art introduces viewers to surprising combinations, absences, and shapes anchored in the tangible world of physical materials and locations.

In this chat, Christine talks about handcrafting as a creative practice, their poetry and collage work, and the glacier for which the mail art is named.

To learn more about Christine’s mail art and accompanying film by Roxanne Nesbitt, go here.

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Show Notes

• See Christine's mail art

• Learn more about Christine

• Check out Christine's book of poetry

• Watch the trailer for the film paired with Christine's postcard

Adrian is a visual artist, musician, and sustainable landscape architect whose work intertwines themes of ecology, reciprocity, environmental justice, and individual and community healing. 

In this chat, Adrian talks about her practice of drawing by listening, the intersections she has found between landscape design and visual art, and how activism is intertwined with her creative practice.

To learn more about Adrian’s mail art and accompanying film by Nailah Hunter and Hsuan-Kuang Hsieh, go here.

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Show Notes

• See Adrian's mail art

• Check out Adrian's comic drawing and thoughts on landscape

• Listen to Adrian's Album

• See the film trailer paired with Adrian's art

Alicia Brown is a visual artist born in Jamaica and based in Florida. The Crown, her painting-turned-postcard this month, features a figure adorned with natural, everyday objects shaped into a crown and collar that references those worn by European aristocrats during the Renaissance.

In this chat, Alicia talks about her story as an artist, why she is drawn to portraiture, and the inspiration behind the painting, “The Crown,” which is our mail art this month.

To learn more about Alicia’s mail art and accompanying film by CuZns, go here.

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Show Notes

• Learn more about Alicia here

• Check out Alicia's other portraits here

• See her mail art here

• See the trailer paired with this visual art here

María Alejandra Bulla is a multi-disciplinary music maker whose work lives comfortably at the intersection of music, design, and craft. She often creates small handmade objects that convey a sense of sound through touch and texture

In this chat, María talks about how objects are incorporated into her art and the process behind making her film and mail art.

To learn more about María’s film and accompanying postcard, go here. To see her film, become a Middle Ear Project member and access our full film catalogue.

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Show Notes

• See the trailer for María's film

Liz Melchor is a visual artist who blends precision with unpredictability. When she first encountered a pen plotter, she was drawn to the challenge it posed: how could she use a precise and predictable machine to produce the surprises that drive her art? Her pen plot drawings explore layers and materials, embracing errors, mistakes, and glitches—traces of the perfect machine being imperfect. Liz is obsessed with pushing these machines to their limit to exploit these glitches.

In this chat, Liz talks about her first exposure to pen plotters, the different techniques she employs to manipulate drawing machines, and the importance of being surprised by your own work.

To learn more about Liz’s mail art and accompanying film by Viola Yip, go here.

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Show Notes

• Learn more about Liz's work

• See Liz's mail art, Call and Response

• See the trailer for the film paired with Liz's art

• One of Liz's responses to criticism of "machine-made" art

• See the pen plotter making Call and Response

• Learn more about Liz's drawing teacher, Michael Markowitz

• Some of Liz's other mail art pieces

DesoDuo is a duo of composer/percussionists Kaitie Eikam and Kevin Good. Their practice often uses found objects, percussion instruments, and field recordings — unearthing unique practices into handcrafted performances. 

Katie Eikam is also a visual artist. Using photography and line drawings with natural materials collected on her hikes, Kaitie’s visual work reflects, contradicts, and enhances views of the natural objects while preserving their natural simplicity. This month, Kaitie’s visual art serves as both this month’s postcard and a graphic score for DesoDuo.

In this chat, Katie & Kevin talked about their musical practices, Jen & Cassia’s collaboration with them through film, and Katie’s visual art which served as the score.

To learn more about DeoDuo’s film and accompanying postcard by Katie Eikam, go here. To see their film, become a Middle Ear Project member and access our full film catalogue.

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Show Notes

• See the trailer for DesoDuo's film

• See Katie's mail art

• See more of Katie's graphic scores

• Learn more about Kevin's "The Chords in My Life" project

• Read about Fodor's Recommendation to avoid Eaton Canyon

• See how the film was made

• Learn more about our library partnership

In order to explore the roots of human history and historical traumas, both political and environmental, multimedia artist Alicia Piller combines new and discarded materials in forms that mimic cellular biology.

In this chat, Alicia talks about why she’s interested in cellular forms, how she uses new and discarded materials, and how she made the art for this month's postcard, Reconfiguration 4. 

To learn more about Alicia’s mail art and accompanying film by Ashton Phillips, go here.

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Show Notes

• See Alicia's mail art

• Learn more about Alicia

• Explore Alicia's fashion work

• See the trailer for Ashton and Pure Filth Society's film

• See a peek into Alicia's process

Sophie Pearson is an oil painter who lives in Worcester, MA. Her current work revolves around self-portraiture and the experiences of growing up in a tumultuous household. Using her own childhood photos as both inspiration and reference, she explores themes of memory loss, childhood, and trauma. 

In this chat, Sophie talks about how she depicts the complexity of memory in her paintings, her process of re-creating and amending childhood photographs, and how her art connects with her personal healing process.

To learn more about Sophie’s mail art and accompanying film by Kai-Luen Liang, go here.

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Show Notes

• See Sophie's mail art

• Learn more about Sophie

• See work from Sophie's body image and photograph series

• See Sophie's Nostalgia Paintings

• Visit Sophie's Patreon

• See the trailer for the film paired with Sophie's mail art

Felix Quintana is a Salvadoran-American artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans  photography, digital media, collage, drawing, and installation to uplift the beauty of the day-to-day routines and emblems of diasporic communities of Los Angeles. 

In this chat, Felix talks about his interest in cyanotype, the use of Google Street view in his practice, and his “fantasma paraiso” series of works.

To learn more about Felix’s mail art and accompanying film by Forbes Graham, go here.

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Show Notes

• See Felix's mail art

• Learn more about Felix

• See work from Felix's Fantasma Paraiso project

• Learn more about Cyanotypes

• See the trailer for the film paired with Felix's mail art

Tori Tinsley’s visual art is inspired by bonds with her mother, who suffered from dementia, and her children. Her cartoonish, nude figures inhabit vibrant, textured environments, expressing the emotional complexity and vulnerability of caregiving: longing, disbelief, discomfort, and hope, steeped in tenderness, dark humor, and the persistent desire to love and be loved.

In this film, Tori talks about the recurring, delightful, cartoonish figures in her work, her personal experiences as a caregiver, and how the dark humor and delight in her pieces relates to the emotional complexity and vulnerability of caregiving.

To learn more about Tori’s mail art and accompanying film by āññā duo, go here.

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Show Notes

• See Tori's mail art

• Learn more about Tori

• Scroll to see work from Tori's Hug series and recent romance-novel-inspired paintings

• See Tori's Airport installation

• See the trailer for the film paired with Tori's mail art

Sara Roberts is a visual, sonic, sculptural, and performance artist whose work explores touch, texture and eccentric worldbuilding. We were drawn to Sara Roberts’s work with sewn plant material for the way it quietly repositions overlooked plant materials into something reverent. In her practice of sewing material for the ground, Sara collects fallen plant skins—fragments from palms, cactuses, and trees—and stitches them not to repair, but to notice. 

In this chat, Sara talked about her interdisciplinary process, the story behind the shawl in this month’s mail art, and the improvisatory nature of working with plant-based materials. 

To learn more about Sara’s mail art and haana lee’s accompanying film, go here.

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Show Notes

• Learn more about Sara Roberts

• See Sara's plant embroidery

• See more of Sara's illustrative ceramics

• Lolly Willowes; or The Loving Huntsman, the book Sara's piece is inspired by

• Learn about Lace Lichen

• See the trailer for the film paired with Sara's mail art

Lacey McKinney is a visual artist whose work explores themes of embodiment and ecology through figuration. Her paintings encourage a dialogue about identity, social constructs, transformation, and the shared experience of life across lines of difference.

In this chat, Lacey talks about her use of mixed media such as paint and solar dyes, the role of the human figure in her practice, and how layering is central to both her technique and the metaphors in her work.

To learn more about Lacey’s mail art and accompanying film by Akari Komura and Ilana Waniuk, go here.

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Show Notes

• See Lacey's mail art

• More about Lacey

• See Lacey's Reconfiguration and Contact Zone Series

• Topics and resources mentioned in this chat that inspire Lacey's work: Marianne Wex, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, When Species Meet by Donna Jeanne Haraway, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

• Check out Lacey's upcoming projects: Foundation House & Holter Museum

• See the film by Akari Komura and Ilana Waniuk paired with this mail art

Ariel Oakley is an artist living and working in Los Angeles, California whose paintings explore the boundaries of self and non-self, external and internal, life and generative decay. Her images combine medieval fresco, anatomical references, and are informed by her job as a nurse in surgery at Keck Hospital of USC.

In this chat, Ariel talks about her experience as a surgical nurse and how that inspires her painting practice, what draws her to medieval fresco techniques, and the idea of shared breath that inspired her MEP visual artwork.

To learn more about Ariel’s mail art and accompanying film by Ian Power and Clint McCallum, go here.

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Show Notes

• See Ariel's postcard art

• Learn more about Ariel Oakley

• Read Notes on Complexity by Neil Theise

• Learn about Deep Listening by Pauline Oliveros

• See Ariel's recent work and Breath of Devotion triptych

• Maryland Institute College of Art Low-Residency MFA

• Learn about the Middle Ear Project library program

• See the trailer for the film paired with Ariel's mail art