Studio Aesculapius: Recent Episodes
With hosts Edward Dupuy and Gene Beyt
In the last few years, the world seems to be falling apart. We believe the arts can help. At Studio Aesculapius we explore ways the arts help us—through conversations with artists, musicians, poets, actors, writers and thinkers. We hope to discover with you how the arts offer an antidote to the current hurt, divisiveness, and malaise we experience in our fragmented, everyday world. Please join us on this journey.
In this Anatomy of a Photo, photographer Steve Bliss shares his story of collaboration with painter friend John Hull, as Steve’s photographs comes full circle and uses, not only his boys, now adults, but also “graphic information” around images, something he explored as a very young artist.
See Steve's photo at Studio Aesculapius.com.
Studio Aesculapius Podcasts feature the stories of artists and the art of stories. We seek the personal stories of artists—their journeys—and the impact of their art on their own well-being and on those who encounter their work.
As the language of humanity, art tells stories of inspiration, hope, and healing even as it acknowledges the hurt and despair that afflicts us all.
Hosts Edward Dupuy and Gene Beyt draw out our human stories in the hope that in their telling, artists will offer a new story of humanity for you, the listener.
Learn more at StudioAesculapius.com.
In this Anatomy of a Photo, photographer Steve Bliss recounts how, when they were young, his two boys became his photographic subjects and how he realized that they were stand-ins for him or, as he says, vice versa. In any case, it’s part of the joy and drama of being father who was once also a child.
See Steve's photo at Studio Aesculapius.com.
Studio Aesculapius Podcasts feature the stories of artists and the art of stories. We seek the personal stories of artists—their journeys—and the impact of their art on their own well-being and on those who encounter their work.
As the language of humanity, art tells stories of inspiration, hope, and healing even as it acknowledges the hurt and despair that afflicts us all.
Hosts Edward Dupuy and Gene Beyt draw out our human stories in the hope that in their telling, artists will offer a new story of humanity for you, the listener.
Learn more at StudioAesculapius.com.
Steve Bliss is serious about the value art can bring to a fractured society, yet he recognizes that elements of art can also be used to manipulate a culture. Bliss believes there is a truth that can be approached through photography, despite its proclivity to nostalgia—capturing a romanticized or idealized feeling of the past—and he appreciates the turn photography has taken toward awakening a sense beyond nostalgia.
Bliss is frank, funny, and unpretentiously intelligent in the stories he tells of his art and art in general. Join us for this enlivening discussion.
Studio Aesculapius Podcasts feature the stories of artists and the art of stories. We seek the personal stories of artists—their journeys—and the impact of their art on their own well-being and on those who encounter their work.
As the language of humanity, art tells stories of inspiration, hope, and healing even as it acknowledges the hurt and despair that afflicts us all.
Hosts Edward Dupuy and Gene Beyt draw out our human stories in the hope that in their telling, artists will offer a new story of humanity for you, the listener.
Learn more at StudioAesculapius.com.
Meryl Truett is a curator, gallerist, teacher, consultant, and artist. She earned an MFA from Savannah College of Art and Design. After years in the United States, where she taught and produced works such as Vernacular Highway and a photography book, Thump Queen and other Southern Anomalies, she moved to the magical pueblo of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Meryl continues to exhibit—in the US, Europe, and now Mexico. Her current work mixes photography with other media in order to excavate her past. She speaks of such excavations in this episode of Artists Telling Stories.
Artists Telling Stories Podcasts feature the stories of artists and the art of stories. We seek the personal stories of artists—their journeys—and the impact of their art on their own well-being and on those who encounter their work.
As the language of humanity, art tells stories of inspiration, hope, and healing even as it acknowledges the hurt and despair that afflicts us all.
Hosts Edward Dupuy and Gene Beyt draw out our human stories in the hope that in their telling, artists will offer a new story of humanity for you, the listener.
Learn more at StudioAesculapius.com.
Josephine Sacabo’s art seeks transcendence and connection. She eschews any chasing after artistic fashion in favor of diving into what she loves. In this way she connects with those who view her work. The many layers of her work evoke layers of being, some disturbing, yes, but ultimately transcending such disturbance to “come full circle” with compassion and beauty.
Artists Telling Stories Podcasts feature the stories of artists and the art of stories. We seek the personal stories of artists—their journeys—and the impact of their art on their own well-being and on those who encounter their work.
As the language of humanity, art tells stories of inspiration, hope, and healing even as it acknowledges the hurt and despair that afflicts us all.
Hosts Edward Dupuy and Gene Beyt draw out our human stories in the hope that in their telling, artists will offer a new story of humanity for you, the listener.
Learn more at StudioAesculapius.com.
In this extended trailer, please join Austin Tichenor, Aline Smithson, Joe Harjo, Vincent Valdez, Jay Tolson, Alicia Olatuja, and Jim Lavilla-Havelin in discovering the importance of stories, the language of our humanity, and the transformative power of art. Artists Telling Stories Podcasts draw out human stories in the hope that in their telling, artists will offer a new story of our shared humanity, bringing all of us closer together. Join us for a new season in 2024!
Artists Telling Stories Podcasts feature the stories of artists and the art of stories. We seek the personal stories of artists—their journeys—and the impact of their art on their own well-being and on those who encounter their work.
As the language of humanity, art tells stories of inspiration, hope, and healing even as it acknowledges the hurt and despair that afflicts us all.
Hosts Edward Dupuy and Gene Beyt draw out our human stories in the hope that in their telling, artists will offer a new story of humanity for you, the listener.
Learn more at StudioAesculapius.com.
Jim Lavilla-Havelin has written six collections of poetry, with several more in the works. His work has been anthologized widely, and he has been nominated for Poet Laureate of Texas, where he has lived for the last few decades. This episode of Studio Aesculapius is different. Jim reads three poems and has a wide-ranging discussion with co-host, Eddie Dupuy: about the poems, about poetry, about art and activism, about language and knowing and finding patterns, about the human desire to make marks and the attempt to make meaning.
The arts, which engage both the head and the heart, may offer the needed aesthetic experiences to promote human flourishing, and provide a remedy to our current hurt, lassitude, and alienation. Studio Aesculapius guests point to the value of the arts in their lives, which may light the path toward a renewed sense of our humanity.
Learn more at StudioAesculapius.com.
Joe Harjo says he didn’t have “access to seeing ‘artist as profession,’” while he was growing up in Oklahoma as a member of the Muscogee (Creek) nation. When he told a guidance counselor in high school that he wanted to teach, the counselor rebuffed him. When he said he wanted to be an artist, he got a similar response. Now he’s both artist and teacher, and his work tries to counter misrepresentations of Native peoples in popular culture. After a particularly difficult year of isolation, an injured knee, the resurgence of racial strife, and Covid, Harjo discovered his origins anew, both as an artist and as a Native person. He felt “lifted” and “carried through” by histories, his own and that of his ancestors, and he shared that discovery in a series of prints. It’s one of the mysteries of art that you will find something of yourself in his story as well.
See Joe Harjo's art at Studio Aesculapius.com and JoeHarjo.com.
The arts, which engage both the head and the heart, may offer the needed aesthetic experiences to promote human flourishing, and provide a remedy to our current hurt, lassitude, and alienation. Studio Aesculapius guests point to the value of the arts in their lives, which may light the path toward a renewed sense of our humanity.
Learn more at StudioAesculapius.com.
Aline Smithson was always drawing as a child growing up in Los Angeles. After a stint as a large format painter, Smithson went to New York for 10 years, working in fashion. She returned to LA, took a class in photography and realized she “could use the camera to make art.” She had found her “visual voice,” and now, as a teacher for more than 20 years, savors the moments she sees that voice arise in her students. Smithson is one of the most recognized names in photography, not only because of her work developing LENSCRATCH, an online resource for and community of photographers, but also because of her own significant body of work, which elevates the everyday world into something more. You will enjoy our conversation with her because of the individuality and universality, the humanity, she shares with us.
Visit Aline's website AlineSmithson.com, and enjoy her publication LENSCRATCH.com.
The arts, which engage both the head and the heart, may offer the needed aesthetic experiences to promote human flourishing, and provide a remedy to our current hurt, lassitude, and alienation. Studio Aesculapius guests point to the value of the arts in their lives, which may light the path toward a renewed sense of our humanity.
Learn more at StudioAesculapius.com.
Adriana Corral credits both sides of her family for her interest in art. Her father's side had several physicians who invited her to see their work of healing and who gave her a strong sense of the body. On her mother's side were an aunt and uncle who opened to her ideas of social justice. Like her place between her father’s and mother’s families, Corral sees between spaces as “where vital content exists.” She invites those who view her installations to do so “bodily.” Looking up, looking down, being aware of where they are in space. The spaces she creates are meditative or contemplative, dealing with heavy subjects that pull her viewers in (like gravity) while still giving them space to experience the work uniquely. Her conversation with us is no less weighty, drawing listeners to her thoughtful reflections on her life and work.
See Adriana Corral's art at StudioAeaculapius.com and AdrianaCorral.com.
The arts, which engage both the head and the heart, may offer the needed aesthetic experiences to promote human flourishing, and provide a remedy to our current hurt, lassitude, and alienation. Studio Aesculapius guests point to the value of the arts in their lives, which may light the path toward a renewed sense of our humanity.
Learn more at StudioAesculapius.com.
Paul Elie (from the Berkley Center at Georgetown University) talks about his two books, The Life You Save May be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage (2003) and Reinventing Bach (2012), especially the “hard won” pilgrimages of Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Flannery O’Connor, and Walker Percy. Elie goes on to speak of his own pilgrimage in and around the Catholic Church, his struggle to remain within its story while writing about some “awful things”—such as the sexual abuse crisis. He speaks of Bach’s unique place as religious artist and, finally, of his work on the American Pilgrimage Project, where he has discovered the healing power of a diversity of American religious experience beyond even his broadest expectations.
We are grateful for Elie’s own “hard won” pilgrimages in his books and his story. You will be too. You can also find his many contributions at NewYorker.com.
Take a little time to browse StudioAesculapius.com, here you may find something fresh in what may have been stale.
The arts, which engage both the head and the heart, may offer the needed aesthetic experiences to promote human flourishing, and provide a remedy to our current hurt, lassitude, and alienation. Studio Aesculapius guests point to the value of the arts in their lives, which may light the path toward a renewed sense of our humanity.
Learn more at StudioAesculapius.com.
Jay Tolson says, following T.S. Eliot, that "in my beginning is my end." And what an end, one that has led him to see art's power to connect us to one another through a shared reality.
He began as an undergraduate studying cultural and intellectual history and after a long career in journalism at US News and World Report, the Wilson Quarterly, and Radio Free Europe, he was asked by the University of Virginia's Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture to serve as editor of The Hedgehog Review. Although he has returned to his origins, his work at The Hedgehog Review brings cultural study to a markedly higher (and sane) level.
Jay discusses with us his meeting Peter Pomerantsev, author of Nothing Is True and Everything is Possible, and This is Not Propaganda, two books that recount the author's exposure to the fabricated reality that has become the Putin regime in Russia, but which has also spread across the globe, notably in the West, and into U.S. politics.
For Tolson and Pomerantsev, the destabilizing information sector (as opposed to journalism, a discipline that strives to reveal truth), creates a culture that proclaims private or alternate "truths" and seeks to undermine the very idea that truth exists. Hence, the labeling as "fake news" organizations that once could be trusted as seeking truth in reporting. Such destabilization, exacerbated by social media monopolies and app designers, makes it impossible to create norms for what can be considered civil or hateful discourse. A pursuit of truth, then, gives way to the entertaining endorphin highs that social media creates.
Tolson goes on to discuss his work on Walker Percy, not only his award-winning biography, Pilgrim in the Ruins, but Percy's work as an ironist, an irreducible and mysterious human characteristic. As a man of faith and an ironist, Percy followed his philosophical mentor, Soren Kierkegaard, who joins faith and doubt, the inescapable existential predicament of any person of faith, even Mother Theresa!
But it's Percy's idea of connection through symbols that most excites Tolson, not only the everyday symbols that we share in language, but also the symbols of art, science, poetry, and novels. Art connects us to one another in an awareness that we are not alone, that we share (an often difficult and sad) reality, but a reality that exists beyond each of us and is itself capable of sharing. In this way, artists, scientists, and, yes, journalists move toward a better approximation of truth and reality. Clearly, this endeavor is itself hopeful.
A journalist, editor, author, and critic, Jay Tolson covered religion, culture and ideas for U. S. News & World Report after working for more than decade as the literary editor and editor of the Wilson Quarterly. He served as the news director of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague, Czech Republic, directed the French to Africa service of the Voice of America, and launched the Global News Network for the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors.
His interest in religion and cultural and intellectual history runs throughout his journalism and criticism and informed his prize-winning biography of novelist Walker Percy, Pilgrim in the Ruins. His work has appeared in the New Republic, Nation, National Review, Wall Street Journal, American Scholar, Times Literary Supplement (London), and other publications.
Take a little time to browse Studio Aesculapius, here you may find something fresh in what may have been stale.
Austin Tichenor loves his work, and it certainly comes through when you speak to him. He's funny, "I've always loved telling stories...and I have an irreverent sense of humor." He also lives in dread of taking himself too seriously. The arts tend to foster that, but he avoids it like the plague.
He says he's forever grateful to his father for telling that he would "hate law school" and that he shouldn't go. So he went into theatre, acting, and writing instead. He's been with the Reduced Shakespeare Company for 30 years. When asked "Why reduction?" he says it forces you to get to the point, again avoiding "gas bags," and those who take themselves too seriously.
On the arts, Austin says we don't give them enough attention: "We all draw as kids and we make up stories, but we stop because we think they're not important....We all have the impulse....And we have to craft stories all the time, for dates, for jobs, but we have to tell our story to ourselves first."
Shakespeare, of course knew that, and he crafted stories that speak to us in our divided times, in our fear of plague, and during this time of war. In many ways Shakespeare's work centered on plague: he wrote amidst the plague, in its wake, and in dread of the anticipation of a next plague. In that way he tells stories of losing one's station (pivoting, if you will) and we respond to the existential fears he addresses, asking ourselves "What is normal?"
Nothing is normal about Austin's career, but his love of what he does allows him to suggest that although we often question whether we should be doing something different from what we are doing, particularly during our troubled times, what the arts help us see is that whatever you're doing now is what you're supposed to be doing.
Austin Tichenor is the Artistic Director of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, the host of The Shakespeareance, and co-author of nine plays, including William Shakespeare's Long Lost First Play (abridged), which premiered at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Austin has acted off-Broadway, in London's West End, at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, on PBS with The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), with the LA Philharmonic, and in venues around the world. Austin’s television credits include recurring roles on Alias, Ally McBeal, and Felicity; and guest starring roles on The West Wing, Gilmore Girls, ER, and The X-Files.
He is also the author of the creative illustrated book Pop-Up Shakespeare, the irreverent reference book Reduced Shakespeare: The Complete Guide for the Attention-Impaired (abridged), and the comic memoir How The Bible Changed Our Lives (Mostly for the Better). And Austin produces and hosts the weekly Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast.
Take a little time to browseStudio Aesculapius, here you may find something fresh in what may have been stale.
Alicia Olatuja partially credits Ms. Marsh, one of her elementary school teachers, for her singing career. Ms. Marsh told her she would be a famous singer but warned her not to "get the big head." Alicia's mother and grandmother, both educators, also facilitated her trajectory, giving her a strong worth ethic and a sense of purpose through music.
And Alicia has not disappointed. The New York Times has noted her "luscious tone and amiably regal presence." When she found out she had been invited to solo at Barack Obama's second inaugural ceremony, she was so astounded she lay flat on the floor for two hours. Her cat checked on her from time to time to make sure she was okay. Calling on her deep resources, however, Alicia aligned head, heart, and voice to offer a rousing performance, connecting not only with Obama, who gave her a memorable thumbs up, but with herself and the millions in her audience. She giggled to herself at the end, giddy with the stirring presence she found in herself and which had overflowed into her audience.
Now she has connected with some of the greats in jazz—Billy Childs, Christian McBride, Stefan Harris—and, like her mother and grandmother, has also become an educator. Through her Vocal Breakthrough Academy, she uses her experience as a performer to invite to a "mental reset" those who have doubts or who have experienced trauma, asking them to make a journey to find their voice, to find presence and connection not only with themselves but with our troubled world.
In this way, Alicia's power of voice ripples endlessly, extending beyond stage performance and into the head, hearts and voices of others.
You can find more information about Alicia and her music, including her recent album Intuition: Songs from the Minds of Women on her website here. Her Vocal Breakthrough Academy can be found here. Alicia’s Instagram photographs and videos can be found here.
And, take a little time to browse Studio Aesculapius, here you may find something fresh in what may have been stale.
Although he studied visual communication as an undergrad at the American University of Sharjah, Mohammed Al Shaibani (Momo) knew that comics were his passion. So his family sold their house and moved into his Grandfather's house so Momo could attend the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) where he would earn an MFA in Sequential Art (Comics). Young and highly energetic, Momo nevertheless classifies himself as a connoisseur of craft. He strives to excel in illustration and story-telling, the marriage of which drives the craft of the comic arts. For him, art involves the "mastery of expression"—image and text—telling a story through both.
Momo is part of a vibrant art scene in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, but he sees the small Emirate of Sharjah as producing some of the strongest expressions of Emirati art. For his part, Momo delves into his personal story—compulsory military service (a leveling factor for Emiratis), the death of his grandfather, a crush on a woman—and finds himself turning to art to express and heal. Art in the UAE, like that in other parts of the world, creates both dissonance and consonance, for the artist who makes it and for its viewers.
Momo received his Bachelor of Science in Graphic Design from the American University of Sharjah and his Masters of Fine Arts in Sequential Art from the Savannah College of Art and Design. He works traditionally, using any tool that provides an ink line. He has exhibited with Fn Design in their first Fakie Dexhibition and the first Project MEGA Exhibition. He’s also contributed to Amor, A Magazine of Random with his recreation of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns cover, and has been published nationally (Corniche) and internationally (US and Lebanon). Momo also took part in The Salama bint Hamdan Emerging Artista Fellowship (SEAF); he resides in Dubai where his drawing time is divided between finishing pieces and chasing his nieces for his materials.
Sandstorm is Momo's dedicated comics studio that focuses on developing local talent, investing in new and unique home-grown IP, advancing the work of content creators, and using the comic book platform to showcase authentic and unique stories from the region.
And, take a little time to browse Studio Aesculapius, here you may find something fresh in what may have been stale.
Fr. Sean Duggan, OSB, knew as a teen that he wanted to find a way to combine his love of music with his call to a religious life. He ultimately found that combination by joining the community of Benedictine Monks at St. Joseph Abbey in Covington, Louisiana, where liturgy and music thrive. Fr. Duggan sees music, like the other arts, as an opportunity to approach God through beauty, and though he has mastered the work of countless composers, he's drawn time and again to Johann Sebastian Bach.
For Fr. Duggan, Bach's music is endlessly infectious and playful, intellectually stimulating, and always interesting. He finds balance in Bach, who doesn't point to himself in his artistry, but points to something higher and transcendent. Sean thinks Bach, more popular today than ever before, reminds us of the godliness that resides in humanity—the ability of humans, like God, to create spiritual beauty—even in our era of loss, imbalance, and malaise. In so doing, Bach's music re-centers, restores balance, and heals.
Sean Brett Duggan was born in Jersey City. Piano lessons for Sean started at age 10 with the local church organist. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance at Loyola University in New Orleans and his Master of Fine Arts degree at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in 1979. For three years he was the Pittsburgh Opera Company’s pianist and assistant chorus master. He also taught piano at Carnegie Mellon and was a member of the Carnegie Mellon Piano Trio.
Sean left Pittsburgh to enter the Benedictine order at St. Joseph Abbey near Covington, Louisiana, in 1982 he graduated with a Master of Arts degree in Theology from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1988.
In September 1983, Sean won first prize in the Johann Sebastian Bach International Competition for pianists in Washington. In the “Bach Year” 1985, he gave complete performances of J.S. Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier in New Orleans, Pittsburgh, and Birmingham to critical acclaim. In 1991 he participated again in the Bach Competition in Washington; he was one of three first-place winners.
Sean was a visiting professor of piano at Eastman School of Music, and member of the piano faculty at the University of Michigan. He is currently on the faculty at SUNY Fredonia. And, the video of his faculty recital in December of 2020 can be foundhere.
And, take a little time to browse Studio Aesculapius, here you may find something fresh in what may have been stale.
Vincent Valdez says he began drawing when he was four and "hasn't looked back." We are the happy recipients of his forty-four years of learning to "tell a story through images."
He happily cuts against the grain of contemporary art, he says, and though he didn't start out with the idea of critiquing what Gore Vidal calls "the United States of Amnesia," he can't turn away from what he sees.
Rich in detail, his images wake the viewer from somnambulance. If, three days later, that viewer, still haunted by Valdez's powerful work, looks up more about his subject matter, then Valdez considers he has made a small contribution to ameliorating the "trauma of living in 21st century America."
His efforts are very large indeed, painted with the deft strokes of one who remembers his Mexican-American heritage, all the while proclaiming his "American" voice as well.
Vincent's artist statement: "I create images as instruments to probe the past in order to reveal an immediacy to what is occurring today. To remark on a universal struggle within various socio-political arenas and eras. I am alarmed by the denial of history. I will continue to create counter-images, to impede the social amnesia that incites our fateful desire to repeat it. I offer this work as a report. My visual testimony of transformation, hope, love and survival in twenty-first century America."
Vincent’s website ishere. Vincent’s 2020 PBS American Masters Special: Vincent Valdez: The Beginning is Near can be found here.
And, take a little time to browse Studio Aesculapius, here you may find something fresh in what may have been stale.
René Paul Barilleaux knew he had a problem with reading when he was young, but no one did anything to help him overcome it. Instead, he drifted toward what he knew he liked—images, objects, drawings. It is no wonder, then, that he became a visual artist and later a curator, now head of curatorial affairs at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas.
In our inaugural program, René discusses his everyday work, "something new all the time," and those moments when he walks from his office through the galleries at the McNay to see people "staring at things, just standing and staring," and he thinks "about what they're seeing and how they're connecting."
In the post-pandemic world, René says people "come to museums...to reconnect with beauty, to transport them, and to take them away from the everyday."
René finished his Masters of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute. He subsequently served as a Fellow at the Center for Curatorial Leadership in New York, and is the recipient of the Award of Excellence from the Association of Art Museum Curators.
ManMade! Gay Folk, Craft, and Visionary Art is the first exhibition to focus exclusively on folk art and craftwork created by gay men, often exploring issues of gay identity and culture. René notes, "all people can gather around objects—whether quilts, collages, or sculptures—and appreciate them for their artistry and the artists’ courage to share, especially the vulnerable and sacred parts of themselves." The exhibition is currently in development.
More information on René and the McNay Art Museumis availablehere.
And, take a little time to browse Studio Aesculapius, here you may find something fresh in what may have been stale.