I'm here at the Saguaro Theater in Wickenburg, AZ to give a presentation on my newest novel "Broken Promises: A Westin Blackwood Art Detective Mystery." This event was setup and hosted by my dear friends at the Desert Caballeros Western Museum. The museum itself is a wonderful place so I hope everyone can come out and visit them. I've been here dozens and dozens times. They have one of the greatest collections of Western and Native American art. This podcast is partly an art history lesson since...
Nov 27, 2024•53 min•Season 1Ep. 322
I had Maeve Eichelberger on today and I really like to call her just "Maeve." I think that's a good way to just brand her name, but maybe you'll hear that on the podcast. I don't remember if I talked about it in the podcast or if it was just in private, but that's the fun thing about podcast is you never know what's going to come out. Maeve and I talked about the new show she's having with Jordan K. Walker, Josh Gibson, and Whitney Gardner which is the New Young Gun show. It was fun to just kind...
Nov 20, 2024•41 min•Season 1Ep. 321
Whitney Gardner brought in new paintings for the New Young Guns Group Show, which opens in a few days so we decided to record a podcast at my studio in Tucson. The show features Jordan Walker, Josh Gibson, Maeve Eichelberger, and today's guest, Whitney. Now, she's been on the podcast before, which we filmed in November 2022, the same day I began representing her in my gallery. Two years and 100 episodes later, Whitney sheds light on what she's been up to the last couple of years. It's really qui...
Nov 13, 2024•42 min•Ep. 320
I had Barbara Van Cleve on the podcast today and she is just incredible. Barbara spent her entire life as photographer, getting her first camera in 1946 at age 11. She has a photograph that is still being printed and published to this day that she took in 1950 when she was 15 while on a camping trip with her father. We talk about her life and how she managed to go from being a fourth generation rancher to the celebrated photographer she is today. Her family gets to Montana in 1889, years before ...
Nov 06, 2024•55 min•Season 1Ep. 319
I had Barbara Van Cleve on the podcast today and she is just incredible. Barbara spent her entire life as photographer, getting her first camera in 1946 at age 11. She has a photograph that is still being printed and published to this day that she took in 1950 when she was 15 while on a camping trip with her father. We talk about her life and how she managed to go from being a fourth generation rancher to the celebrated photographer she is today. Her family gets to Montana in 1889, years before ...
Oct 30, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 318
I had Dennis Ziemienski on today, and I've known Dennis for a long time, represented him for about 20 years, and we're doing a retrospective for him on December 6th in Tucson. He's going to turn 77 in May, and he's been working on this for over a year. There's a new on Dennis that just came out and we're going to have over 60 paintings in the show. It's a big deal for artists to have their lives celebrated. Dennis definitely needs to be celebrated because he's a remarkable artist. As an illustra...
Oct 23, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 317
I had Allyson Scheumaker on today, and we talked about the A.R. Mitchell Museum of Western Art, of which she is the Executive Director. It's a very interesting museum with some amazing illustrators that Mitchell had traded with. So it's a unique kind of podcast, understanding how a smaller museum can not only survive, but thrive. They have illustration shows, they have shows related to the photographs that Mitchell took, and of course, A.R. Mitchell was a very interesting guy. He did over 150 co...
Oct 16, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Season 1Ep. 316
I had Jon Flaming on today. I'm a big fan of his work, I love it. I think he's so unusual and has a very personal, unique take on Western art. It comes from a place that is deeply ingrained in him because he is a true Westerner. His family owned ranch in Kansas. His grandfather's father was from that area, but Jon's been in Texas since he was five years old. Clearly, he's a Texan through and through. His art is a modern synthesis of what the West can be through the eyes of somebody who sees thin...
Oct 09, 2024•48 min•Season 1Ep. 315
I had Jon Flaming on today. I'm a big fan of his work, I love it. I think he's so unusual and has a very personal, unique take on Western art. It comes from a place that is deeply ingrained in him because he is a true Westerner. His family owned ranch in Kansas. His grandfather's father was from that area, but Jon's been in Texas since he was five years old. Clearly, he's a Texan through and through. His art is a modern synthesis of what the West can be through the eyes of somebody who sees thin...
Oct 02, 2024•47 min•Season 1Ep. 314
This podcast is a recording of a lecture that renowned jewelry artist Sam Patania gave at the Mountain Oyster Club in Tucson, AZ. Lecturing on his family of silversmiths to a crowd of Western jewelry collectors, Sam provides background on the techniques, tools, and wisdom passed down from his grandfather (Frank Patania, Sr.) to his father (Frank Patania, Jr.) and then to him. I was honored to have introduced him, and I hope you enjoy the story behind this legendary family tree of silversmiths. T...
Sep 25, 2024•45 min•Season 1Ep. 313
I had Amery Bohling on my podcast today and I really enjoyed this one. You get the sense of who she is both as an artist and as a normal human being. She's such a bubbly, fun person and at the same time very a serious artist. Amery is most well-known for her Grand Canyon paintings and I've been very familiar with her work for over a decade. She's had her own studio/gallery in Scottsdale, at the heart of Main Street and now she's being represented by a couple of new galleries, Parsons Gallery in ...
Sep 18, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 312
I had artist Jerry Jordan on the podcast today. No surprise, it was a really great talk (My god, this guy is so deep). I've always been a fan of his paintings. The way he moves paint, the way that he looks at his subject matters, all of it. After talking with him for almost two hours I could understand where all this beauty comes from and it's from a deeper place. He just has this very personal, organic approach to painting. Jerry's story is an interesting one. It takes a bunch of twists and tur...
Sep 11, 2024•48 min•Season 1Ep. 311
I had artist Jerry Jordan on the podcast today. No surprise, it was a really great talk (My god, this guy is so deep). I've always been a fan of his paintings. The way he moves paint, the way that he looks at his subject matters, all of it. After talking with him for almost two hours I could understand where all this beauty comes from and it's from a deeper place. He just has this very personal, organic approach to painting. Jerry's story is an interesting one. It takes a bunch of twists and tur...
Sep 04, 2024•48 min•Season 1Ep. 310
I thought I would do something a little different with today's podcast - It's a lecture that I did for the Nevada Museum of Art. They recently had a large Maynard Dixon exhibit and there's a great book that goes with it on Dixon's Nevada pieces. So this is an hour long lecture on just Maynard Dixon and the West. You know, the whole story. Basically from when he was born to when he dies. It starts in the Gilded Age and goes all the way through to the Nuclear Age. You might find this episode more ...
Aug 28, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 309
So for anyone who's never gone to Santa Fe Indian Market, I'll just give you the lowdown on what happens on the Friday beforehand. You have this event around noon-ish where they announce all of the winners for that year. Now, it's mainly for the artists and the press, but we were fortunate enough to have sponsored the grand prize, which is the Best of Show award and as a result we got to attend the ceremony. I asked SWAIA if we could film the event and release it as an episode of my podcast, got...
Aug 20, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 308
I've known Michael Higgins for 35+ years and he was actually one of the first dealers that I met in Tucson when I moved here. You see, Michael has been actively buying and selling Native American arts since 1972. Michael got out of the military after serving in Vietnam, and went directly into the buying and selling of Native American art. His area of expertise ranges from the contemporary to historic Native American art, especially beadwork. It was wonderful to get to actually spend some time ta...
Aug 12, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 307
I had Ron Munn on today. Ron's been in the business for 60+ years. He started his first gallery in 1968 and ran a very successful auction for decades. I've known him for over 30 years and he's always been one of the individuals I wanted to have on the podcast, because he has the longevity. He's known all of the players and he's seen the art and the art business over the past 60 years which it gives him a very unique perspective that other people don't have. He's still active too. He'll be showin...
Jul 31, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 306
I had Terry DeWald on today. I've known Terry for over 30 years. He's a magnificent person and he's a dealer, but he's also an expert in Native American basketry and textiles, specifically Navajo. He's spent his entire life working with the Tohono O'Odham basket makers and knows them all very intimately and are a big part of his life. I've been trying to get him to come for a long time because he has so much to say. He knows so many people. He did so many interesting things, from being a profess...
Jul 24, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 1Ep. 305
Stephen Datz gave a wonderful lecture for the Western Art Patrons at the Tucson Museum of Art and, you know, it's one thing to actually see paintings up-close and in person, and it's another to actually hear the artist talk about his journey and where those paintings fit in to the greater story. This was the first time Stephen has given a lecture like this and he did a fantastic job. So we wanted to share this lecture with you and I think it's much more enjoyable if you watch it on YouTube vs. l...
Jul 17, 2024•40 min•Season 1Ep. 304
I had photographer Scott Baxter on today and I enjoyed this interview a lot. I was listening to this man's life unfold in front of me and it came out so fluid and easily digestible. He's a loquacious individual but he's also just really interesting. You see, Scott gets a degree in history and just goes: "I'm not going to be a teacher, I'm going to be a photographer - and furthermore, I'm not going to be just a commercial photographer... I'm going to be a fine artist." And the projects that he's ...
Jul 10, 2024•53 min•Season 1Ep. 303
I had photographer Scott Baxter on today and I enjoyed this interview a lot. I was listening to this man's life unfold in front of me and it came out so fluid and easily digestible. He's a loquacious individual but he's also just really interesting. You see, Scott gets a degree in history and just goes: "I'm not going to be a teacher, I'm going to be a photographer - and furthermore, I'm not going to be just a commercial photographer... I'm going to be a fine artist." And the projects that he's ...
Jul 03, 2024•47 min•Season 1Ep. 302
I had Mary Platt on today. It was a really fun talk because we were at the Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University in Orange, CA and she did a walk and talk of the Disney material, and that's her expertise. In fact, she's done a book on that specific area. So this is a great podcast to watch on YouTube because you can see the paintings and what we're talking about. We just had a wonderful conversation in the museum, talking about the main animation related exhibit they have at the...
Jun 26, 2024•51 min•Season 1Ep. 301
I had Tim Peterson on today, and it was really a wonderful podcast. He's an individual I've wanted to have on for very long time. I've had many conversations with him over the years and he's been on the podcast recently, speaking on exhibits at the Western Spirit: Scottsdale's Museum of the West, but this time I wanted HIS story. This is an individual who is a very serious collector. He's done around ten or so major exhibits on the different items he collects and they're always phenomenal exhibi...
Jun 19, 2024•1 hr 27 min•Season 1Ep. 300
Had a nice talk with artist Bob Coronato today, and it went on for a long time. We went over two hours so it's a two parter for sure. Bob's lived an interesting, unique life. He's been in Wyoming for most of his life at this point, but he actually grew up in New Jersey. In part two, we hear the story of Bob and a very special portrait of Russell Means. Now, for those who don't know who Russell Means is, he was a Lakota activist, writer, and actor, and he was highly involved in the AIM protest at...
Jun 12, 2024•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 299
Had a nice talk with artist Bob Coronato today, and it went on for a long time. We went over two hours so it's a two parter for sure. Bob's lived an interesting, unique life. He's been in Wyoming for most of his life at this point, but he actually grew up in New Jersey. We hear the whole story of how he managed to get out of New Jersey and wind up at the Otis Institute of Fine Art in Los Angeles. after a bit he moves to Wyoming where he meets and works with cowboys, and it's just domino after do...
Jun 05, 2024•59 min•Season 1Ep. 298
I had Donna Howell-Sickles on today, and I think she's probably one of the more recognizable Western multimedia artists. So today's podcast was fun for me on many levels. First off, Donna is iconic and paints iconic imagery and second, she was a leader in the field early on. On top of that, I just love her story. I mean, she grew up on a ranch that was hit with a terrible drought, but they managed to hang on to it. After all of that, her parents became teachers. For Donna, it was really a strugg...
May 29, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 297
It's always fun to go someplace new. In this case, it's the Hilbert Museum, which is part of Chapman University. It's a museum that opened in 2016, but it's just recently reopened with two major wings and some incredible art. I had the fortune of walking, talking, and interviewing Mark Hilbert, who is the person who really designed and gave all the art and money to develop this museum. He had been collecting art for 50 years and he had a vision wanted to share it with the world. It's just full o...
May 22, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Season 1Ep. 296
Today's podcast is a little different because I went to the Western Spirit in Scottsdale and we filmed Dr. Larry Len Peterson give a lecture. He just released his new book, "Edward Curtis:Printing the Legends." It's a great book, and he took us through Curtis's life for over an hour. I would recommend watching this one so you can see the different slides and things that he's talking about on YouTube, but also you can just listen to it. He's got a great voice. It's very interesting and he has an ...
May 15, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Season 1Ep. 295
I did a podcast with Mark Winter a while back (Episodes 37 and 38). This was maybe 3 or 4 years ago, and I wanted to have Mark on again because we didn't get to talk about his vast knowledge of Saltillo Sarapes. If you really want to immerse yourself in the depth of that subject, you have to go through Mark, because he is THE expert in the field. There are a few other experts of note, sure, but Mark is clearly one of the leading experts in the world. So we had a wonderful talk. We went through t...
May 08, 2024•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 294
I did a podcast with Mark Winter a while back (Episodes 37 and 38). This was maybe 3 or 4 years ago, and I wanted to have Mark on again because we didn't get to talk about his vast knowledge of Saltillo Sarapes. If you really want to immerse yourself in the depth of that subject, you have to go through Mark, because he is THE expert in the field. There are a few other experts of note, sure, but Mark is clearly one of the leading experts in the field. So we had a wonderful talk. We went through t...
May 01, 2024•59 min•Season 1Ep. 293
