The Light Grey Art Lab Podcast

The Rolemodels exhibition opens this Friday, and The Battle For Vyk'Tornaahl decks are in our hands and ready to ship (which you can order from http://shop.lightgreyartlab.com)! On this week's podcast, Lindsay, Jenny, Francesca and Chris talk about the genesis of the Rolemodels project, why your character choices might reflect something about yourself, and how went about the daunting task of designing a brand new card game from the ground up.

This month's Nights & Weekends exhibit features several gorgeous books, zines and comics from a variety of artists. On this week's podcast, we talk to Nights & Weekends artists Evan Palmer, Anna Bongiovanni, Sebastian Koch and Sandra Brandstätter. Each has experience creating small press books in a variety of formats. We talk with them about self publishing, working collaboratively, or not so collaboratively, with other creatives, what it takes to hit a deadline and plenty more.

This month's Nights & Weekends exhibit is all about the talent and dedication of 13 amazing artists making big, long-term projects happen in their off-hours and free time. On this week's podcast, we talk to Nights & Weekends artists Jesse Lindhorst, Genevieve FT, and Paul Patterson and combine their interviews into one big discussion about their approach to creating, how and why they decided to undertake these large scale projects, their creative networks and mentors and much, much more.

Today's podcast was inspired by a lecture from Arctic explorer and environmentalist Will Steger, who has devoted every facet of his life to a very focused and noble vision. Lindsay, Jenny, Chris, and Francesca talk about sacrifice, working in small teams for big results, creating and planning with the long-term in mind, and lots more.

On this week's podcast we talk to prolific artist and all-around-great-guy Campbell Whyte. Campbell's massive 8-Bit Dreams series is on display in this month's Nights & Weekends exhibit, and he traveled all the way from Australia to join us for the opening and to lead All-Night with Campbell Whyte, an all-night comic workshop. Campbell is no stranger to incredible, large-scale projects and we talk to him about where his ideas come from, how he manages to stays motivated and get so much accomplished, and much much more.

This week we talk to Victor Mosquera, an incredibly talented video game concept artist who has shown work in the Macro + Micro and In Place exhibits. But first, Jenny, Chris, Francesca and Lindsay share their thoughts about last week's Create, Concept and Collaborate workshop hosted by Mike Yamada and Victoria Ying. In the second half of the podcast, we talk to Victor about his experience as a concept artist, his roots in traditional media, how he got started in the industry, the importance of reference and life drawing and lots, lots more.

Walt Disney Animation Studios visual development artists Mike Yamada and Victoria Ying visited Minneapolis to host our weekend workshop, Create, Concept & Collaborate. To kick off the event, we hosted a public artist talk where Mike and Victoria spoke about the Visual Development process in a studio environment. Since Mike and Victoria are not only incredibly talented artists, but also super knowledgeable and a treat to listen to, we thought it would be a great conversation to share on the podcast!

In Place finally opened this past Friday! Along with an awe-inspiring exhibit, the event also launched 'In Place: Wish You Were Here,' a companion book that collects all the artwork from the show in one place, along with context for each piece in text and maps. The following morning we held a book signing and artist talk at Verdant Tea, where we chatted about how the project originated. We were joined by participating artists Casey Crisenbery, Jeff Johnson>, who shared their perspective and the stories behind their pieces. In the conversation, we directly reference a lot of specific pieces of art from In Place, so you might want to have the online gallery open to follow along!

With our big Create, Concept and Collaborate workshop looming at the end of the month, it got Lindsay, Jenny, Chris and Francesca thinking about how new, unusual, and stressful situations can quickly form strong bonds between strangers. Whether it's a hectic workplace, the unfamiliar surroundings when traveling, or even the pressure of group projects in the classroom, strange and wonderful things can happen when you throw people together and see what happens.

On this week's podcast we talk to Colin Foran, a concept artist and art director on the publishing side of Microsoft Game Studios. Colin helps shape the look and feel of countless video game projects on a daily basis, and we talk to him about the culture of work, the importance of practice and self reflection, how he continues to grow as an artist, and dealing with the balance of personal art and a demanding creative career. After the interview, Lindsay, Jenny, Francesa, and Chris talk about managing creative energy, work-life balance, and taking things one step at a time.

This week's (admittedly strange) podcast revolves around the apocalyptic vision of the future described by a number of vintage sci-fi book covers in the Station Zero show. We explore the idea of what we'd do in a hostile alien world, and somehow relate that to real life's difficult endings, new beginnings and hard resets. Whether it's a new job, a new life, or a whole new solar system, dealing with the unknown is not always that bad of a thing.

This week podcast is the audio from 'Crossing the Line in the Cranial Sand', which was a night of nontraditional poetry and storytelling performed by spoken word artists Tom Cassidy and Mr. Thursday at Light Grey Art Lab on Friday, July 26th.

On this week's podcast we talk to Evan Palmer, a local artist and good friend who has contirbuted work to a number of Light Grey Art Lab exhibits, including the just-launched Station Zero! We talk to Evan about his contribution to Station Zero then proceed to pick his brain about his books, art, movies, games and more!

Station Zero opens this week and in honor of the vintage sci-fi books that inspired the exhibit, we're talking to Don Blyly - owner of Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore. Uncle Hugo's is the oldest surviving Science Fiction bookstore in the country, filled with countless sci-fi books stacked floor to ceiling. Besides the store, Don estimates his private sci-fi book collection at nearly 20,000 volumes. So who better to talk to about the history of science fiction and get a little perspective about the world and culture that inspired Station Zero?

As the You Can Do It, Put Your Back Into It exhibition ends, we seek advice and encouragement from a couple of talented illustrators who have made it a point to stay creative, inspired and motivated. In the first half of the show, we chat with New York City-based illustrator Daniel Fishel about determination, overcoming mighty odds, and finding a positive edge to the tough parts of being an illustrator. Daniel has been a huge advocate for up-and-coming illustrators through his very active online presence and his participation in various creative panels. For the second half of the show, we have a great conversation with Twin Cities-based James O'Brien about his 20+ year career as a professional illustrator, as well as his experience as both an instructor and mentor in his time teaching, advising and leading in collegiate-level education. Jim addresses some insightful strategies for overcoming fear, the benefits of a visual journal, and some incredibly thoughtful advice on how to keep going if you really want to be in a creative field.