This Is Not My Magnum Opus: Recent Episodes
Nicole Ringel & Spencer Newcomb
Through interviews with artists, musicians, actors and cultural organizers, This is Not my Magnum Opus explores low-fi, impulsive, small, and otherwise overlooked artworks and creative practices.
This week, on the last episode of season one of the This Is Not My Magnum Opus Podcast, Frederick-based artist Dylan Hyman joins Nicole to discuss their artistic practice, which spans music, drawing, and photography. In this conversation, Dylan describes a process of self-discovery that has undergone numerous transitions, which ultimately brought them to music and visual art as a mode of self-discovery and expression. From loud and distorted music and auditory experiences to hand-drawn postcards and blurred, low-fi images, Dylan’s work attempts to cut through the mundane with memorable resonance.
Listen to TeeVee. on Bandcamp
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This week, Frederick-based musician Davy Haynes joins Nicole to discuss their songwriting practice. Rigorous and prolific, Davy’s practice has resulted in an impressive and extensive catalog of solo work. In this conversation, they offer us a closer look at an unlikely, but stunningly resonant performance at Olde Mother Brewing Company on February 11, 2023.
In addition to their solo work, Davy is currently bassist for Frederick-based band Dumb Valley, and is guitarist in Good Time Jordie.
Davy Haynes Music
Dumb Valley
Good Time Jordie
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This week, interdisciplinary artist Leah Clare Michaels joins Nicole to discuss her artistic practice. Leah is a Baltimore native, artist, writer, professor, and surfer. She has produced documentary film, multi-media installation, and performance works rooted in historical research and in the space where social justice, art, and cultural exchange intersect.
Leah received a B.A. in History with a focus in Classics from the University of Washington in Seattle in 2012 and a M.F.A. in Intermedia and Digital Arts from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) in 2019. Michaels has taught and presented in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Her written work has appeared in UMBC Magazine, BmoreArt, and the Debutante Journal based in Edinburgh, Scotland. She is currently teaching film and cinema studies at Towson University and Anne Arundel Community College.
Leah’s website:www.leahcmichaels.com
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This week, artist and graphic designer Kayla Rafferty joins Nicole to talk about her painting practice, which offers viewers an authentic, and celebratory depiction of fragmented bodily forms. By representing incomplete components, yet never the whole, Kayla reflects on her own journey through self-criticism and doubt, and the role art embodies in her life as a method of processing and making sense of the raw and emotional experiences that often define and shape our lives. Kayla discusses her warm and joy-filled appreciation for the process of painting, creating, and expression while celebrating and offering space for feeling your feelings, for reflecting on personal growth, and for celebrating selfhood.
kaylarafferty.myportfolio.com
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This week, Nicole talks with Flo Petite, a Maryland-based singer-songwriter whose music and writing practice explores and narrates deep, fleeting, and richly detailed personal connections experiences. In the interview, Flo discusses her avid journaling practice, her desire to document experiences, and key moments of transformation that have shaped the course of her artistic journey. Through it all, Flo’s practice offers a sensitive and authentic account of the tender and bewildering paradoxes of being human.
Flo Petite is a singer-songwriter, currently based out of Maryland. Her debut EP, titled “Soft Wrinkled Feelings,” was released in March of 2018, securing her a spot in the emerging DIY scene. Preceding her first album, she was discovering her sound by doing shows with the Maryland Institute of Music and toting her guitar around to a variety of open mics and talent competitions. These efforts landed her in the top five of Washington County Teen Idol in 2018, and helped her tweak her performance skills. Aside from being a student and song-writer, Flo is a lifelong vegan with an eclectic mix of other side passions. Pandemic life derailed her performance efforts a bit, but she is still making music and sharing her tunes when she can, while she finishes her senior year at the University of Maryland.
Flo’s website: FloPetite.com
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This week, Could Be Better Mehtwork collaborator Kiki Wilson joins Nicole to talk about her work as an artist, poet, and writer. From bitingly expressive poetry to relevant and invaluable local arts and political writings, Kiki’s work is deeply rooted in an unwavering commitment to amplify and support the constellation of artists living and working on Route 40 in Frederick, MD – a predominately BIPOC region which, Kiki tells us, is rich with talent and artistry despite a legacy of having been largely excluded from the city’s arts and culture institutions. In addition to hosting The Weekly with Kiki, Kiki is the founder and sole operator of Out40 blog, an online publication founded in 2013 to cover local hip-hop, R&B, arts, culture and politics, in addition to hosting music festivals, poetry readings, and other events.
Read Out40 Blog: out40.com/
Watch Kiki’s Performance of Why Frederick Needs More Black Girls
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This week, Virginia Warwick joins Nicole to talk about her creative practice as an interdisciplinary artist and performer. A prankster at heart, Virginia weaves her connection to and affection for animals with whimsical, dark, and deadpan comedic energy in her performance series “Olivia the Sea Turtle.” Virginia offers audiences a unique – and at times hilarious – experience that blurs conventional distinctions between performance art, stand up comedy, and musicianship.
Virginia received her M.F.A. from the Rinehart School of Sculpture at MICA, and has shown her work at such places as the Arlington Arts Center, ConnerSmith, Edison Place Gallery, Hood College, Goucher College. City Arts Gallery, Metro Gallery, Creative Alliance, E.M.P Collective, Current Gallery, 14kt Cabaret, Ruby Projects and Visarts at Rockville. She has been included in the Transmodern Festival in Baltimore multiple years and has participated in Brooklyn International Performance Arts Festival in New York City Infridgement Festival in Buffalo, New York. She recently attended the La Baldi artist residency in Montegiovi, Italy. Virginia currently teaches and creates artwork in Baltimore, Maryland.
Check out more of Virginia’s work here: https://www.virginiawarwick.com/
For full performances of Olivia the Sea Turtle, visit: https://www.youtube.com/@vawarwick
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This week, Mitchell Noah joins Nicole to talk about his creative practice, which stems from a longstanding study of glassblowing. Mitchell’s influences range from traditional venetian maestros, to experimental jazz, punk, and intermedia sculpture. Mitchell’s unique cross-disciplinary approach to glassblowing offers a case study in dedication to craft, and the value in pushing the boundaries of material, expertise, and collaboration.
Mitchell’s practice incorporates glass, objects, sculpture, image making and video. He received an InterMedia + Digital Art MFA from UMBC, and an MFA in Glassworking from BGSU in Ohio. His work has been shown in group exhibitions both nationally and internationally, particularly through artist-run and independent arts spaces. He has taught glassmaking at Bowling Green State University (OH) from 2013-2015, the University of Louisville’s Hite Art Institute (KY) in 2020, and currently at Corradetti Glassblowing Studio (Baltimore, MD) since 2016.
In 2019, Mitchell and his partner Chinen Aimi founded Spatial Oddity Studio as a way to share table objects and wares for everyday-use. Their glass and ceramic works are represented by the Made in Baltimore program, and were recently featured in American Craft Council’s 2021 Baltimore Craft Week.
You can find Mitchell’s glass objects online at Spatial Oddity Studio: spatialodditystudio.com
For his full portfolio, visit: mitchellnoah.com
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Chinen Aimi joins Nicole to discuss her longstanding ceramic practice, the dynamic potential of forming functional objects from earth, and the deep roots her sensitivities have to the natural world around us and her childhood in Okinawa. Using a keen attention to material, nature, and ancestral knowledge, Aimi offers us a playful, experimental, and thoughtful alternative approach to globalized and mass-produced culture of the western world that reaches far beyond the walls of the gallery and into domestic and everyday practice.
Chinen Aimi is an artist working as an anthropological detective. Through personal and political narratives, she plays with variety of mediums including ceramics, glass, digital media, and film photography. She was born to an Indigenous 琉球人 Ryukyu mother and a U.S. Marine father; a by-product of the colonized and the colonizer. Her approach is rooted in the transformative potential of social sculpture and the power of Ryukyu Sosensuhai (Ancestors Worship), while also acknowledging the realities of globalization. Through affective objects that relate and stimulate emotions from the past and present, she aims to share the ritual of spherical thinking -- that is, meaning shaped through the historical consideration of time and space -- in hopes of stimulating the power of the collective unconscious and possibilities of PEACE.
You can find Aimi’s ceramic objects online at Spatial Oddity Studio: https://www.spatialodditystudio.com/
For her full portfolio, visit: https://www.chinennaimi.com/
To see her work in the SPEAK Protest Magazine: https://www.protestmagazine.com/getprotest/speak
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Nicole talks with Jillian Abir MacMaster about photography as an avenue to accessing one’s power, vulnerability, and etherial self. A frederick-based artist and curator, Jillian offers us a closer look at her photography practice, and her take on the significance of artmaking and organizing in a small town.
Jillian Abir MacMaster (b. 1995, she/her) is a Palestinian-American photographic artist from Frederick, Maryland. She holds a BFA in photography from Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
You can find Jillian’s online portfolio here:https://www.jillianmacmaster.com/about
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Nicole talks with longtime friend and collaborator about their practice of creating the ultimate non-binary accessory: Intricate, surreal, and other-worldly bolo ties constructed from found natural elements, vibrant pigments, and glittery textures. These wearable sculptures, SJ tells us, are glistening worlds that offer an invitation for adornment, celebration, and connection.
SJ Brekosky is a farmer, florist, and freelance artist with a graphic design practice dedicated to actualizing the visions of nonprofits, small businesses, farmers, artists, and organizers. When they aren’t in their studio or behind the screen they can be found with their hands in the dirt – growing flowers, food, and community in Baltimore, Maryland. SJ has organized multiple entry-based zine projects, including “Field Notes: Meditations and Lessons Learned Working with the Land" and has exhibited drawings, illustrations, and sculptures in Maryland and beyond.
You can follow SJ and their multidisciplinary artistic practice by following them on Instagram @lil_crispy_egg and the Bolos and Baskets, Baby! practice @bnb.bby.
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Episode 1: Mehtworks, Music, and Making a Scene with Could Be Better Nicole and Spencer talk with Chris Perry and Colin McGuire about their collaborative venture: Could Be Better. From their origins as practicing musicians, to booking shows in church basements, to podcast-launching endeavors, our Executive Producers offer a glimpse into their vision for weaving...