The Artist and the Hunter: Recent Episodes
Robin and John Cressman
Robin, an artist, and John, a hunter, are married and talk about their chosen crafts - hunting and making - with humor, candor, and big love.
Robin & John sit down at the mic after a brief summer hiatus to talk about expanding their shared weekly creative practice into writing. Robin has had a handful of experiences publishing written work; John is more or less brand new to the party. Both experience imposter syndrome. But keep writing anyway!
Robin's FreeWrite device: https://getfreewrite.com/products/freewrite-traveler
John and Robin recap their birthday trip to Hawaii, John's hunting in Hawaii . . . and their fight in Hawaii.
John and Robin recap John's first day of spring turkey, where John harvested a Jake within the first ten minutes of the season!
Robin is fascinated and delighted by the idea of antlered does and bearded hens, and or any representation of tomboys in the wild.
John got his Jake within ten minutes of the first day of hunting, so he spent the rest of the day preparing a Steve Rinella-style camp meal of turkey organ burgers on a flat stone over the campfire. (Organs harvested: liver, heart, gizzard, and testicles.)
Then, John and Robin, who have the same birthday (April 19; 1976 for John, 1985 for Robin) discuss their upcoming birthday trip to Hawaii where John will spend a few days hunting on Maui while Robin hangs at the beach, and then Lanai, where Robin will spend that same time hunting for the best massage at one of the island's Four Seasons resorts.
John and Robin beat their track record for the last two years and record their second episode of 2025. In this episode, they talk about two different theories of the stages of learning:
Four Stages of Learning: 1) unconscious incompetence 2) conscious incompetence 3) conscious competence 4) unconscious competence
Three Stages of Motor Learning: 1) cognitive 2) associative 3) autonomous
Robin and John are back at the mic for their first and hopefully not only episode of 2025. Robin discusses her recent discovery that the knots she ties in macrame and crochet are WAY too tight, almost like she's tying to strangle the ropes she's working with. She wonders if she might need to loosen up, in art and in life. John suggests that it might be part of her mastery journey, learning to tie these knots and practice her craft with nuance. John then discusses the bone-on-bone arthritis he discovered in his right knee a year ago, how he has been rehabbing it, and how it affects his hunting and training. Robin suggests that, because of his arthritis, he now is compelled to approach the hunt with a fair amount of nuance. John likes how that really tied the podcast together.
To be discussed next time, on The Artist and The Hunter podcast: the stages of learning/competence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_stages_of_competence
Tip of the hat to Meghan Daum, and The Unspeakable Podcast, for the exquisite phrase "Nuanced AF" https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-unspeakable-podcast/id1524832743
Heart & Soil supplements referral link (R&J get 20% off after you make a purchase through this link): https://refer.heartandsoil.co/hs533876
John and Robin sit down again after a long hiatus, but grateful and excited to be back at the mic. Their topic for today's episode: collaboration. What's it like to collaborate with others, in hunting and in art? The Artist and The Hunter dig into their personal experiences and preferences, and discover by the end of the podcast that they may be actually be talking about teaching . . . or collaborating in LOVE.
Show note:
"A new report released on Oct. 12 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows that 14.4 million hunters aged 16 and over contributed $45.2 billion to the economy in 2022. The survey found that 6% of the U.S. population hunted, and they spent a combined 241 million days afield last year."
John and Robin return for season 3 episode 1!
Robin and Murphy joined John for a turkey hunt in April. Robin discusses her reactions to that pleasantly idyllic experience.
They saw a bald eagle, and Robin crocheted a hat!
A vague agreement has been reached that when Robin joins John for a hunt, the day will end with slightly more glamorous accommodations.
Robin’s conditions for hunting include: good weather, beautiful views, and a goldilocks level of fussiness about how much she hikes.
Robin will one day learn not to give up John’s hunting spots, but that day is not today.
John discusses his upcoming hunting calendar for the rest of the year, including some out-of-state hunts in AZ, PA, and potentially UT.
Robin discusses new techniques and materials she’s playing with in the studio, including paper, metal, and all of these skulls she has lying around here.
John shares a fun new word: pedicle!
Robin has decoupaged her first skull.
Cotton rope is not something that Robin has ever felt great buying a lot of, due to ecological damage and human rights violations.
But an art studio filled with WILDERNESS TREASURES is something she can get behind.
Robin and John debate the origin of the bone that Robin bedazzled - femur or pelican or fawn?
John offers another great word: encrusted!
Robin digs John’s style.
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The Artist brings The Hunter to a museum: The Art Institute of Chicago!
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This was John's first time to Chicago, and to AIC
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Robin loves a museum. Can't get enough of them.
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AIC is what's called an "encyclopedic museum" which means it collects and exhibits most if not all periods in art history
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One of Robin's favorite things about museums is going with a newbie like John
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The scene from Ferris Beuller's Day off when they visit The Art Institute of Chicago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBBOMLURSGA
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A Sunday on La Grand Jatte by George Seurat https://www.artic.edu/artworks/27992/a-sunday-on-la-grande-jatte-1884
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Robin estimates they saw around 20% of the entire museum during their 2.5 hour trip
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The Artist and The Hunter agree that their favorite part of the museum was experiencing it together
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Robin is bummed out that people think museums are inaccessible, and that generally speaking they ARE inaccessible because of cost, and well as general lack of arts education
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Robin knows how lucky she is to have studied art history and worked in museums in college, despite not being able to get a job afterward. She thinks that museums are fun and cool and evidence of the most subversive minds in history.
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Art is meant to conjure. Art is meant to bring something out of nothing. It's meant to make you think and react, and no matter what reaction you have, YOU'RE RIGHT!
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Art can help you get to know someone else, by asking: what do you think of this?
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The Cressmans love finding ways of learning new things about each other, and museums are one of their favorite ways to do that.
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Not everyone has a good partner to discuss art with; Robin says that's because we ignore museums and don't have enough art education
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Art is for all of us. Museums are for all of us. Creativity is for all of us.
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More and more small and niche and community museums are closing, especially in the wake of the pandemic
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Robin was inspired by a small textile exhibition, and the conversation veers into necessity of slowness in weaving, textile art, and the modern fashion industry
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Alexander McQueen (Chanel) and John Galliano (Dior) are two modern examples of creative directors of fashion houses losing their minds due to the demands of modern fashion.
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John was most drawn to the furniture on display in the museum; he noted how function and beauty come together in a well crafted piece, including inlay, exotic woods, and decorative materials like bone and ebony
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Robin and John look forward to many more museum dates in the future <3
- Robin and John discuss "Stars in the Sky" by Steve Rinella, available on Netflix
- Robin is an "A" student with excellent notes on discussion topics.
- The movie addresses the rift between hunters and non-hunters.
- R&J discuss how nutritional philosophies also lead to great rifts in ideology.
- Robin describes her own journey of making food choices based on ethics to making choices based on health.
- R&J dive into the ethics of hunting, veganism, and farming.
- The movie presents hunters as conservationists, which Steve calls environmentalists with guns.
- Stars in the Sky posits that hunters are the most well acquainted with "the interconnected cogs of the natural world."
- Is more hunters a good thing?
- R&J discuss how fair chase ethics dictate how people hunt.
- Two thumbs way up for Stars in the Sky!
A longer episode this week, with the excitement of a technical difficulty! After about 30 minutes of hearing about John's elk hunt, the feed was cut (maybe accidentally by Robin . . . ) so they re-recorded the last 20 minutes. All in a day's podcasting!
-John and Robin discuss the results of John’s recent elk hunt.
-Highlights included the vast open landscape, many encounters, and Robin’s chance to experience part of the hunt through FaceTime.
-John is unwilling to take focus away from the hunt to film the experience.
-Robin compares the calling and decoying of a hunt to a performative art.
-Robin and John talk a bit about the movie “The Deer Hunter” including details that may or may not be correct.
-John describes some of the up close encounters with elk on this Nevada hunt.
-Robin and John talk about mental and emotional exhaustion leading to a drop in motivation.
-Technical difficulties lead to an abrupt cut and transition to a discussion on Robin’s art practice.
-Robin digs into the difficulties of finishing her projects.
-John and Robin discuss the relation between the cycle of creating, editing, and publishing to the cycle of peak states.
-Robin describes her state during creation as being drunk . . . or is it more like tripping?
-Robin is ready to add catharsis and communitas to go along with the ecstasis she is so familiar with.
-Robin has the great opportunity to be challenged and motivated to keep up with other writers and creators she has connected with.
Robin and John are back after a summer hiatus! And they're glad to be back at the mic.
- John is about to leave on a weeklong elk hunt in Nevada.
- Robin forgets the word "calf" and refers to elk calves as Elk Children. She might even refer to a sow as a Lady Pig.
- John's tag in Nevada is for muzzle-loader only; an ornery weapon if there ever was one.
- Robin is curious if a muzzle loader feels different to shoot.
- John and Robin eat deer eyeballs!
- Deer have pretty good eyesight. Similar to humans.
- John applied for elk tags in lotteries in the states of Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and California. And he drew in Nevada!
- John doesn't want to wait 20 years for a dream hunt, he'd rather go elk hunting every year. So, he applies for easier tags to get like this muzzle loader (less popular weapon) cow (less popular animal) tag.
- Link back to Season 1 Episode 6, "Frequent Failure, Sporadic Success," the preview to John's Arizona elk hunt! https://www.buzzsprout.com/1777537/10081476-006-frequent-failure-sporadic-success.mp3?download=true
- Nevada is mostly (John thinks around 95%) public state/federal land. The other 5% is Vegas (and Reno).
- Robin uses the word "assuage" and "wifely" in the same sentence.
- Not sponsored by Garmin, but the Garmin satellite phone is highly recommended for backcountry hunters.
- Robin is hunter John's Laker Girl.
- Robin dives into how difficult she finds having a relationship with an audience, and what such a relationship entails.
- Fearless Writing by William Kenower https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/35128554
- There are only two questions to ask when making art or writing anything: What am I trying to say? and, Have I said it?
- Robin reveals she's been afraid of not being understood, especially when it comes to talking about health.
- These are strange times we're in; Robin thinks we need generosity of spirit. John thinks of the benefit of shared experience.
- John's handle on GoWild: @johncressman
- Robin asks John: do you have a desire to be heard and/or known far and wide? John's response: maybe, but he still prefers experiencing over sharing experience. Robin thinks that an audience might actually be her wilderness to explore (or, her favorite phrase to refer to John's hunting, that he "fucks off into the wilderness.")
- Robin thinks its adorable/hilarious that John spends time in the wilderness pretending to be girl animals and/or emotionally manipulating boy animals (as the girl animals surely do).
- John recounts telling a client who works in a school (and gets a little cut off in the recording) about the behaviors of animals he hunts; the client says these animals sound like teenagers.
- Robin thinks Daylight Savings is the dumbest thing ever, and arrived at this conclusion mostly through observing John's hunting practice.
- John decides to backcountry camp on this particular hunt; not his usual choice.
- Robin likes it when John hunts closer to home, which makes for local eatin'.
- Both R&J highly recommend bacon wrapped quail.
- Robin is struggling to balance the call of writing with the call of fiber arts.
- She takes a deep dive and attempts to share her personal philosophy of health - Artist, Athlete, Addict - and how she arrived at this idea, through years of living with illness.
- Robin wants to destigmatize Artists, Athletes, and Addicts; how all of us, at one point or another, say "I don't have an artistic/athletic bone in my body" or "that person is an addict, but not me." She thinks that every single one of us is all three.
- John notes that each - Artist, Athlete, Addict - can be used as helpful tools, or hurtful weapons.
- Robin's definition of Addict: a person who needs medicine. Full stop.
- The way to achieve balance is to know when you're medicating/knowing and acknowledging when you need medicine.
- Robin's mind is further blown (John's less so) of the etymology between text and textiles, her two chosen crafts.
- John describes learning a single macrame knot.
- John stares at hills all day; Robin stares at fibers all day. Both can spend a whole day doing so and end the day with nothing to show for it.
Robin shares something she's been making - an Op-Ed, advocating for greater insulin access and affordability. It's a challenging topic, but when if craft not challenging?
Robin and John, both coaches, discuss the quote and concept from Winston Churchill: "Plans are worthless, planning is priceless."
Please pardon the audio on this episode! It comes in a bit tinny; our audio producer (which is Robin) is learning on the job.
An old episode, recorded in late 2021 - Robin talks about using up materials in the studio and getting used to this Etsy shop thing (and even feels differently now, a few months later); John talks about (still) hunting Elk in AZ, and the gravitas of taking a life, and not injuring one.
Robin realizes that artists and hunters are both explorers.
A longer episode! John talks about his upcoming Elk hunt in Arizona; Robin rambles about the challenges of opening an Etsy shop; and they vibe for awhile on the idea (from Steven Pressfield) of "The Panic Threshold" and take a deep dive into the concepts of mindset and mastery.
Robin shares her creative process with her latest project in the studio - a big, beautiful dream catcher.
Find Robin (and the dream catcher!) on IG @robincressman or @robincressmanstudios
In today's episode we hear about John's wildly successful hunt in the Los Padres National Forest - in which he brings home not one but two big game animals. And Robin expresses her newfound love of "liquid gold."
Today the Artist and the Hunter ask their baseline podcast questions of each other: what is John hunting, and what is Robin making? They discuss California hunting zones, butchering skills, and seeing God in the cavity of a still-warm animal; parameters in the art studio, utilitarian art materials, and Robin not knowing where her on/off switch is.
Robin wants to go a'hunting about as much as John would like to go a'weaving. Which is not very much, for either. Good thing they like listening to each others' stories. John talks about getting started in hunting, Robin talks about autoimmunity, and things get spiritual at one point. And they both talk about what Robin should do in the studio with all these bones and antlers!
Welcome to The Artist and the Hunter Podcast! John and Robin shake the rust off and get used to this microphone thingy, and plan what this podcast is going to be. John cops a great weaving pun. Robin laughs too much. She might be flirting.