My recently released philosophy book, A Philosophy of Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art , from Bloomsbury Press, features short descriptions of artists and their works which I find important to visual metaphor. Here is one, one of several times I discuss the great William Conger. Get the book and read it! But here is an excerpt. Link to page for my book on Bloomsbury Press: US: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/philosophy-of-visual-metaphor-in-contemporary-art-9781350073838/ Europe: https://www.bl...
Jun 16, 2024•5 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a crossover episode, it is a short interview Dan Hill made on his EQ Spotlight podcast with me, Mark Staff Brandl, about my book A Philosophy of Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art . Dan Hill’s EQ Spotlight podcast link: https://www.sensorylogic.com/eq-spotlight-podcast Link to page for my book on Bloomsbury Press: US: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/philosophy-of-visual-metaphor-in-contemporary-art-9781350073838/ Europe: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/philosophy-of-visual-metaphor-in-conte...
Jul 04, 2023•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Last episode, I discussed the ins-and-outs of the front cover of my new book from Bloomsbury Press, A Philosophy of Visual metaphor in Contemporary Art. This episode we have a few discussion points about the recommendation blurbs on the back cover by three very important and creative scholars Dr Daniel F. Ammann, Dr James Elkins, and Dr Philip Ursprung. Link to page for the book on Bloomsbury Press: US: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/philosophy-of-visual-metaphor-in-contemporary-art-9781350073838...
Apr 17, 2023•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast The podcast is back after a break of about one year. I was extremely wrapping up my book titled A Philosophy of Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art for Bloomsbury Press. This is the first of an arc of podcast episodes where I will be working my way somewhat improvisationally through the book. Not reading it out-loud, though. I will go through and find certain details, points, examples, artists and ideas that I want to expand on or use as springboards. Bloomsbury link: https://www.bloomsbury.com/...
Mar 19, 2023•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Catastrophes, such as the Covid pandemic, don't cause problems and breakdowns in society as much as reveal and intensify the problems already present. The coronavirus crisis has accelerated already existing troubles in the artworld. Normal was not all that great anyway, and to revive it as a zombie would be even worse.
Jan 18, 2022•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast A new Dr Great Art Podcast Episode 72: Design vs Fine Art After a 7 month break, I'm back. My artecdote this time is concerns differentiating the ontological state of design versus that of fine art without denigrating either. They are different. It has to do with purposeful polysemy.
Aug 04, 2021•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Christmas time! A Dr Great Art podcast about how Santa Claus LOOKS --- the history of his visual appearance. St. Nicholas, Thomas Nast, Fred Mizen, Coca-Cola, Luther, the Orthodox Santa, "Twas the Night Before Christmas," Puritans, Nazis and more including the Swiss Samichlaus and Schmutzli This is the 71st Dr Great Art podcast, a reprise from way back, podcast number 5. In this troublesome time of Covid, Lockdowns and the attempted fascist takeovers of the US and the UK still in progress, let u...
Dec 11, 2020•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast The New Dr Great Art Podcast, Episode 70. The Grammar of Visual Metaphors Part 3 of 3. The third of three parts of a breakdown of the fourth chapter from my in-the-works philosophy book for Bloomsbury Press titled 'Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art and Analytic Philosophy.' Conceptual Blending, Foundational Metaphors and Allusciviousness in visual metaphors. Sonya Clark, William Conger, and more.
Dec 02, 2020•40 min•Ep 70•Transcript available on Metacast The New Dr Great Art Podcast, Episode 69. The Grammar of Visual Metaphors Part 2 of 3. The second of three parts of a breakdown of the fourth chapter from my in-the-works philosophy book for Bloomsbury Press titled 'Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art and Analytic Philosophy.' Trope: including metaphor, metonymy, simile, synecdoche, litotes, hyperbole, irony, analogy, allegory, symbol, metalepsis and so on. Visual metaphors are not linguistic, nor illustrations of them; they are more deeply embo...
Nov 21, 2020•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast The first of three parts of a breakdown of the fourth chapter from my in-the-works philosophy book for Bloomsbury Press titled 'Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art and Analytic Philosophy.' Is there a set of structural rules governing the creation of visual metaphors by artists that parallels the conventions of linguistic grammar? Analytic philosophy, Literary theory, cognitive metaphor theory, Anti-Positivism, Similarities and more interesting dissimilarities between linguistic and visual trope...
Nov 01, 2020•25 min•Ep 68•Transcript available on Metacast The third of three parts of a breakdown of the third chapter from my in-the-works philosophy book for Bloomsbury Press tentatively titled 'Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art and Analytic Philosophy.' Philosophy affects our ways of living, and more important to this book, it affects or artistic production, even when we are not completely cognizant of this. Visual trope production is how contemporary artists achieve what they do.
Oct 19, 2020•22 min•Ep 67•Transcript available on Metacast The second of three parts of a breakdown of the third chapter from my in-the-works philosophy book for Bloomsbury Press tentatively titled 'Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art and Analytic Philosophy.' Philosophy affects our ways of living, and more important to this book, it affects or artistic production, even when we are not completely cognizant of this. Visual trope production is how contemporary artists achieve what they do.
Oct 14, 2020•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast The first of three parts of a breakdown of the third chapter from my in-the-works philosophy book for Bloomsbury Press tentatively titled 'Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art and Analytic Philosophy.' Philosophy affects our ways of living, and more important to this book, it affects or artistic production, even when we are not completely cognizant of this. Visual trope production is how contemporary artists achieve what they do.
Oct 05, 2020•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast The third of three parts of a breakdown of the second chapter from my in-the-works philosophy book for Bloomsbury Press for the "Aesthetics and Contemporary Art" Series, titled Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art and Analytic Philosophy . A discussion of what visual metaphor is. This is Part 3 of 3 episodes covering this chapter.
Jun 14, 2020•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast The second of three parts of a breakdown of the second chapter from my in-the-works philosophy book for Bloomsbury Press for the "Aesthetics and Contemporary Art" Series, titled Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art and Analytic Philosophy . A discussion of what visual metaphor is. This is Part 2 of 3 episodes covering this chapter.
May 10, 2020•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast A breakdown of the second chapter from my in-the-works philosophy book for Bloomsbury Press for the "Aesthetics and Contemporary Art" Series, titled Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art and Analytic Philosophy . A discussion of what visual metaphor is. This is Part 1 of 3 episodes covering this chapter.
Apr 16, 2020•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Since we have to keep a certain social-distancing in real life, social contact online is important. I am inviting all to join me in online streaming "live" art history and art discussions. Skype (mark.staff.brandl), Facebook ("Mark Staff Brandl" or "Dr Great Art"), or Microsoft Teams. Contact me at Facebook Messenger or the Dr Great Art Email to set up a time.
Mar 18, 2020•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast A shorter episode, I call a "mini." This time with interesting little facts about Pablo Picasso.
Jan 11, 2020•4 min•Ep 60•Transcript available on Metacast A cursory breakdown of the first chapter from my in-the-works philosophy book for Bloomsbury Press for the "Aesthetics and Contemporary Art" Series, tentatively titled Visual Metaphor in Contemporary Art and Analytic Philosophy . A discussion of what metaphor is, in general, as a lead up to my philosophy of visual metaphor.
Nov 25, 2019•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Blues ethos as a strategy of persistence against melancholy. The Life Blues got me. I had a few slaps upside the head and they affect my art inspiration and production.
Oct 20, 2019•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Immaturity, maturity, and the desire for the latter in art and the repression of that desire in culture at large.
Sep 29, 2019•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast An 'academicist' in the arts is someone who over-idealizes the art academy; one who follows the precepts taught there and insists others do so as well. Here is a short history of academicism and thoughts about the problem now.
Sep 01, 2019•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Epistemology: the philosophical analysis of the search for knowledge. Does it exist in art? How and what can we know? Will it replace the ubiquitous ontological expressions in Postmodernism?
Aug 16, 2019•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast A short, yet gloomy, podcast for summer. My mother Ruth Staff Brandl passed away very recently at the age of 87. In this tough, sad time, my mind still approaches the world through art, yet I find it hard to find any comfort therein. In our artworld nowadays, it seems almost ridiculous. Grief, though, like most important and complex human emotions, has been the subject or inspiration for many great works of art Her obituary is at: http://brandl-art-articles.blogspot.com/2019/07/ruth-staff-brandl...
Jul 23, 2019•7 min•Ep 54•Transcript available on Metacast The creation of a term for one of the problems in the artworld, one very obvious around June each year when we all go to the Basel Art Fair, often the Venice Biennale, documenta etc. A phrase for the convenient conformity of (small) minds to have identical tastes in order to achieve hegemony.
May 31, 2019•7 min•Ep 53•Transcript available on Metacast Julia Kristeva, the Bulgarian-French philosopher, offers in her theorization hope for resistance against ruling ideologies within artworks themselves. Artists can produce "openings" by creating metaphors through serious play, turning rules upside down, displaying pleasure, laughter and poetry which include thoughtful critique --- delightful, anarchistic, alternative visions that are embodiments of and empower other forms of resistance.
May 12, 2019•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dr Cornel West has described himself as a "Bluesman in the life of the mind, and a Jazzman in the world of ideas." I feel similarly, I am a Bluesman of the mind, a Rock n Roller of painting and installations, a sequential-artist/comic-book penciler of art history.
Apr 27, 2019•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast FIFTY! Petr Brandl, the once very famous Baroque painter from Bohemia/Czech Republic and my distant ancestor. And a Festival Brandl with Geisslers Hofcomoedianten in Prague!
Apr 14, 2019•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast Peaceable Kingdom, Georama, Kamishibai. Edward Hicks, John Banvard, Toba Sojo. Inspirations and antecedants for my Dr Great Art performance-lecture paintings.
Mar 03, 2019•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast This podcast episode concerns something important to many artists, yet seldom openly discussed. That is, what "side jobs" artists have to do to stay alive. Many do not want to admit to this AT ALL.
Feb 01, 2019•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
