Short Answer Sunday: Patrick Berran

Meant to elicit quick, intuitive responses, Short Answer Sunday will introduce readers to a wide variety of artists, educators, writers, curators, art enthusiasts and art adjacent individuals whose inclinations I admire. With the intent of getting to know the person behind the artwork as well generating new avenues to artistic discovery, participants may respond with only a few words or an artist’s name, always with the opportunity to elaborate if they wish!

Patrick Berran makes abstractions with attitude. His non-objective compositions are kaleidoscopic, incorporating spliced, contrasting patterns, colors and shapes that layer, mirror, repeat and echo (think flatbed picture plane meets astral plane).  To absolutely no one’s surprise, I’m so into Pat’s use of color. A fellow chromophile, his paintings and drawings are punky, vibrant and playful. Although blue is a color that we culturally link with sadness, Patrick Berran’s blues aren’t the melancholic types. Often used in a primary triadic combo with bright pinks and yellows, a real sense of buoyancy is developed (I don’t know about you, but this is something I can always use a bit more of).

His work ethic is a total inspiration to me and love getting sneak peaks into his studio via Instagram because there is always something exciting going on. As you would expect, his Short Answer Sunday responses are equally generous and insightful. For more about Patrick Berran and his work, find him here and here.

In other news, I’ll be out of the country next week, so I may post something, but it won’t be a Short Answer Sunday. We’ll see! ✌️
xo, Lauren

Name: Patrick Berran
Occupation: Artist & Professor
Astrological data: Gemini
Hometown: Woodbridge, VA
Current location: Kill Devil Hills, NC

Other than Instagram, how do you find new-to-you artists?

Independent research and “word of mouth” conversations

An artwork that makes you laugh?

Paul McCarthy: “Painter” (1995)

An artwork that makes you cry?

“Heroes” by David Bowie. No joke, I cry every time his voice crescendos

Most underrated artist?

Eduard Vuillard

An artwork that you’d like to live inside for a week?

Red Forest by Max Ernst

Max Ernst, The Red Forest, 1970, oil on canvas, 80.6 x 64.8 cm

An artist whose work you can’t stop thinking about?

Mark Bradford

An artwork that feels like a warm hug?

Richard Diebenkorn, Ocean Park paintings

What’s your favorite characteristic in an artwork?

Color

Erotic artwork? (Ed. note: this is a multiple choice question)

No: ✅

What’s an artwork that you secretly hate?

Schnabel paintings

Most insane art piece?

James Turrell “Meeting” at PS1. So simple, but so amazing. Always weather dependent, I used to have so much anxiety/anticipation visiting PS1, would the piece be open, can I visit? Some of the greatest moments with that piece were just a clear day, bright blue sky, silence and no one at the museum.

Fav monograph or art book?

Hilma AF Klint

Last exhibition you saw irl?

Natan Lawson at Foyer Gallery

An artwork that packs a spiritual punch?

Owl with a Coffin, 1835-1838 Caspar David Friedrich

Caspar David Friedrich, Landscape with Grave, Coffin and Owl, ca. 1836-1837, brown sepia over pencil on paper, 15 x 15 inches

What art material do you love to nerd out on?

paper

What was the last thing that you listened to in the studio?

NIN Tron soundtrack

What’s a book that changed your life?

Annie Dillard Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

❤

Patrick Berran is an artist and educator that lives and works in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Berran’s painting practice incorporates drawing, transfer processes and collage. Berran has exhibited his work both nationally and internationally. Berran’s work has been featured in the New York Times, Hyperallergic, the Brooklyn Rail, Bomb Magazine, Style Weekly, New American Painters and Architectural Digest.

For more about Patrick Berran and his work, check out his website and Instagram.

 

Short Answer Sunday: Rachel Jeffers

Meant to elicit quick, intuitive responses, Short Answer Sunday will introduce readers to a wide variety of artists, educators, writers, curators, art enthusiasts and art adjacent individuals whose inclinations I admire. With the intent of getting to know the person behind the artwork as well generating new avenues to artistic discovery, participants may respond with only a few words or an artist’s name, always with the opportunity to elaborate if they wish!

What a delight to get lost in a painting, to be confused and amused and surrender to color, form, pattern, light. Rachel Jeffers’ painterly still lifes offer so much of this smart, giddy, retinal pleasure. Sinks & dishes, lunches about to be eaten, a fried egg in a luminous skillet (the sleepy, muted spatula next to this orange glow really gets me), floral arrangements, slinking house cats, puzzles in process, and the reflective glow of Christmas lights (a personal favorite) are all explored and elevated in Rachel’s compositions. The paintings’ surfaces contain traces of the painting process, in which marks and forms are built, layered, or obliterated over time (sharing a bit of kinship with Richter’s Tisch).

The subjects in Rachel’s paintings may be casual domestic scenes, however they are developed in such a way that they become extraordinary worlds. In these worlds, mimesis and playful expression mingle, and pictorial depth expands and collapses. In her interview, Rachel shares that she would like to live in one of Vuillard’s interiors for a week (fully support this). If given the opportunity, I would like to live in one of Rachel’s paintings and I’d choose this one. Just look for me in the middle, playing in the paint.

Last week, I saw Rachel’s phenomenal show Monday Alchemy at Foyer and highly recommend that all those in the Richmond area make a trip to see her work in person. The show is up through May 29, with an artist talk on May 21 . A friend of the blog, Rachel was also interviewed on Art Habit by Nikki in 2023 (check it out, if you missed it). I so appreciate Rachel’s honest and insightful responses for Short Answer Sunday and I know that you will, too.

For more about Rachel Jeffers and her work, head on over to her website and follow her on Instagram.

xo, Lauren

Name: Rachel Jeffers
Occupation: Artist
Astrological data: Scorpio sun, Virgo moon, Taurus rising
Hometown: Tennessee
Current location: Richmond, VA

Other than Instagram, how do you find new-to-you artists?

When artists I like are in group shows, I look up the other artists in the show, which often leads me to more galleries, and then to more artists.

An artwork that makes you laugh?

The Ham by Paul Gauguin. The first time I saw this at The Phillips Collection, I was fresh out of grad school, and going through a lot of turmoil about what painting is for. The message I had absorbed was that for art to be meaningful, it had to be ‘Important’. I turned the corner and came upon this absurd painting - of course still life has been around forever, but there was something so surprising about the formality with which he treated a slab of ham. This painting reminded me that there are many ways for painting to have meaning.

Paul Gauguin, The Ham, 1889, oil on canvas, 19 3/4 x 22 3/4 in

An artwork that makes you cry?

I have a hard time looking at Picasso’s Guernica.

Most underrated artist?

Childe Hassam. Georges Braque

An artwork that you’d like to live inside for a week?

Any of Vuillard’s interiors. I’d especially like if I could blend into the wallpaper and just observe without being noticed.

Edouard Vuillard, The Flowered Dress, 1891, oil on canvas, 38 x 46 cm

An artist whose work you can’t stop thinking about?

Lisa Sanditz has been a favorite since I saw her show Sock City at CRG Gallery in 2008.

What’s your favorite characteristic in an artwork?

Color, evidence of the hand, seeing residue of the painter’s decision-making process, and ideally, a composition that arrives at an unexpected solution in combining all of these elements

What’s an artwork that doesn’t look like art?

I really like Richard Tuttle’s work.

Richard Tuttle, Sylva Head, 2020, plywood, spray paint, wood glue, and nails, 21 x 15 1/8 x 2 inches

Fav monograph or art book?

Drawings of Jim Dine
Cindy Sherman The Complete Untitled Film Stills
Tina Barney Theater of Manners
Alex Katz Collages
The Hours of Catherine of Cleves

Fav museum or gallery in your current location?

VMFA

An artwork that packs a spiritual punch?

Alison Hall’s paintings. You have to see them in person. Fra Angelico Entombment

An artwork that you’d like to see before you die?

I would’ve answered Impression Sunrise by Monet, but I got to see that last year when it came to DC. Another answer would’ve been Sargent’s The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit but I saw that in Boston in 2019. I think next on my list has to be Matisse’s Woman with a Hat.

What art material do you love to nerd out on?

Color wheels and color charts. My training in color theory was based on the Munsell System. It reminds me of a lot of musical scales and music theory. I don’t understand why everyone isn’t as excited as I am about color wheels.

What was the last thing that you listened to in the studio?

I’ve had Grimes’s 2020 album, Miss Anthropecene on a constant loop for the past couple of months.

What’s a book that changed your life?

The Alphabet Versus the Goddess by Leonard Shlain

What song, book, podcast or film do you think everyone should know about?

2 books that made a huge impact on me are Deborah Tannen’s That’s Not What I Meant! and You Just Don’t Understand
They’re not art books, but they’re about language, and the subtle differences in communication styles that lead to misunderstandings. I love anything to do with linguistics, grammar, and psychology. It’s one thing I really enjoy about painting, the infinite number of ways there are to say one thing.

❤

Rachel Jeffers holds an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art's Mount Royal School of Art and a BFA from Columbus College of Art and Design. She studied with Turps Correspondence Course and is now a course mentor. Her work has been exhibited throughout the Eastern US, with recent appearances at Shockoe Artspace, Stay Home Gallery, and My Pet Ram. Her current solo show, Monday Alchemy, is on view at Foyer Gallery until May 29. She is a member of Zeuxis: A Collective of Still Life Painters. She lives and works in the Richmond, VA area.

You can find out more about Rachel Jeffers and her work on her website and on Instagram.

Short Answer Sunday: Ali Kaeini

Meant to elicit quick, intuitive responses, Short Answer Sunday will introduce readers to a wide variety of artists, educators, writers, curators, art enthusiasts and art adjacent individuals whose inclinations I admire. With the intent of getting to know the person behind the artwork as well generating new avenues to artistic discovery, participants may respond with only a few words or an artist’s name, always with the opportunity to elaborate if they wish!

I was first introduced to Ali Kaeini's work at 1708 Gallery in Richmond almost exactly three years ago (my memory is not normally this precise, but for some reason this has stuck). I was struck by the whole show--a fantastic two-person exhibition called Earth Blossom with Ali’s work alongside equally awesome artist Eleanor Mahin Thorp.  

Ali makes stunning work that is closely aligned with painting and drawing, but also incorporates techniques associated with textiles. His paintings on raw canvas are sewn, dyed, and printed, in addition to including fabric collage, inks and various types of paint. Many of Ali’s paintings hang like unconventional tapestries. Amplifying their sculptural and architectural qualities, they hover off of the walls and jut into the gallery space. There are a good number of reasons why I’m drawn to Ali’s work, including but not limited to his collage methodology, his material intelligence, the imagery that refuses to settle and slips elusively between abstraction and representation and my inclination that destruction & production intertwine in his creative practice.

I highly recommend this video developed in conjunction with Ali’s recent solo show Missed Mist at Nika Project Space in Paris, in which he talks about many aspects of his practice and process.  Big thanks to Ali for his time and thought on this Short Answer Sunday—I know you guys will love it.  

For more about Ali Kaeini and his work, go to his website or follow him on Instagram.
xo, Lauren

Name: Ali Kaeini
Occupation: Artist and Educator
Astrological data: Taurus
Hometown: Tehran, IR
Current location: Brooklyn, NY

Other than Instagram, how do you find new-to-you artists?

Residencies, Studio visits, Open studios, Galleries

 

An artwork that makes you laugh?

 

The recent show by Paz Sher called Justice [laughter] Justice 

 

An artwork that makes you cry?

Marina Abramovic works and Francesco Clemente

Francesco Clemente, Perseverance, 1982, Oil on linen, 78 x 93 in.
Image Source

An artwork that you'd like to live inside for a week?

Chinese landscapes maybe from Song dynasty - mountains and rivers

An artist whose work you can't stop thinking about?

It changes regularly, but right now: Renate Druks, Duane Linklater and Kiki Smith

An artwork that feels like a warm hug?

Persian carpets and Anni Albers works

Anni Albers, Design for a Rug, 1927
Black ink and watercolour over graphite with drawn and cut paper additions on off-white wove paper
Image Source

 

Carpet, circa late 16th-early 17th century, silk, metal wrapped thread; tapestry weave
Image Source

 

Erotic artwork? (editor's note: this is a multiple choice question)

Yes: ✅

What's an artwork that doesn't look like art?

Delcy Morelos, her show at Dia -El abrazo last year was amazing

Fav museum or gallery in your current location?

Dia Foundation, Drawing center, MOMA PS1

Last exhibition you saw irl?

Wendy Red Star at Sargent’s Daughters

An artwork that you'd like to see before you die?

Nazca lines in Peru

What art material do you love to nerd out on?

Natural homemade dyes and Woodblock printmaking

What song, book, podcast or film do you think everyone should know about?

Wim Wenders movies (Ed. note: 1000% percent 🙌)

 ❤

Ali Kaeini, an Iranian interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY, earned his MFA from VCU in 2023. He has received the MacDowell Fellowship, VMFA Professional Award, and Hamiltonian Fellowship and attended the Skowhegan residency. His work has been exhibited across the U.S. Europe and the Middle East.

For more about Ali Kaeini and his work, check out his website and follow him on Instagram.

Short Answer Sunday: Kathleen Kennedy

Meant to elicit quick, intuitive responses, Short Answer Sunday will introduce readers to a wide variety of artists, educators, writers, curators, art enthusiasts and art adjacent individuals whose inclinations I admire. With the intent of getting to know the person behind the artwork as well generating new avenues to artistic discovery, participants may respond with only a few words or an artist’s name, always with the opportunity to elaborate if they wish!

Kathleen Kennedy is an artist, professor and genuinely delightful human who also happens to be one of my colleagues (yes, I’m really very lucky in the colleague department). An expert in jewelry and all things metal, Kathleen’s recent work resembles jewelry, but it is not jewelry. Rather, it expands on the language of jewelry through the modality of sculpture, both subverting and upholding expectations of the jewelers' craft.

Kathleen’s jewelry-inspired objects maintain a devotional attention to touch, labor and precision, while being unorthodox in scale (they are oversized), media (not real gold but Nu Gold, or gold leaf on foam and plaster armatures) and wearability (not wearable). There’s a sense of hope and restraint found in the visual metaphors—hearts (both buoyant and weighty), nets, tethers and clasps abound. Manifestation is one of Kathleen’s pieces that I can’t stop thinking about. Enticed by the subtle variations of the surface textures (I’m just a tad obsessed with neutral warm/cool juxtapositions), it's the question of weight that I return to again and again. The jumbo heart charm feels both hefty and deflated, vulnerable, but also playful, lassoed and suspended slightly askew like a lopsided anchor or a ball and chain.

Kathleen is as passionate and engaging (both as a teacher and a maker) as the generosity of her responses suggest and her Short Answer Sunday is a total banger. For more about Kathleen and her work, go to her website and follow her on Instagram.
xo, Lauren

Name: Kathleen Kennedy
Occupation: Artist & Professor
Astrological data: Cancer Sun, Gemini Moon, Virgo Rising (Cancer Mars, Gemini Venus, Leo Mercury...you know so much about me now).
Hometown: Richmond, VA
Current location: Richmond, VA - a true townie

Other than Instagram, how do you find new-to-you artists?

Pure Luck...word of mouth...conversations with friends...hyperallergic

An artwork that makes you laugh?

I don't know if I can say it always makes me laugh out loud...because sometimes humor can point out sadness...but I do love the work of Lynda Barry and all things from the near sighted monkey.

An artwork that makes you cry?

I 100% cried at the Nick Cave Guggenheim exhibition...partly because of the work and partly because I was seeing it in person....his work really gives me a "I want to see with my hands not my eyes" energy...but that is a major no-no at a museum.

Image Source

Most underrated artist?

all art jewelry needs more love

An artwork that you'd like to live inside for a week?

any juicy piece of jewelry made by Lola Brooks

An artist whose work you can't stop thinking about?

I often can't stop thinking about how perfect the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Perfect Lovers piece is...Whenever I've seen it in real life, the clocks have always been out of sync with one another...which feels like an accurate representation of life...out of step but still together, side by side.

I also can’t stop thinking about Cornelia Parker’s drawing series, specifically the wedding ring drawing…It’s so drool worthy…It uses drawing in both the 2D sense AND in the metalsmithing sense of drawing down wire. In this piece she has taken 2 wedding bands and melted them down in to an ingot, she then mills the ingot out…or rather draws the ingot out, until it is the length of the perimeter of a living room…This gold wire simultaneously symbolizes the love between two people...keeping them together...and the distance of that space between us that inevitably creeps in.

An artwork that feels like a warm hug?

The I love you box by Julianne Schwartz

What's your favorite characteristic in an artwork?

the cared for details that make you come close

Erotic artwork? (editor's note: this is a multiple choice question)

Yes: ✅

What's an artwork that doesn't look like art?

a Karin Sander polished plaster wall...look close or you'll miss it.

What's an artwork that you suspect that you shouldn't like, but you do (guilty pleasure)?

kei trucks

What's an artwork that you secretly hate?

It's not so much of a secret...but that Jeff Koons Pink Panther piece at the Moma...I have dreams about bumping in to it and knocking it over...but then it turns in to a nightmare because the topple off of the pedestal doesn't make it shatter in to 1 million pieces.

Most insane art piece?

Doris Salcedo's Shibboleth at the Tate...especially thinking of the Tate as a body, and that piece as a wound which left a permanent scar in the skin of the floor.

 

Fav monograph or art book?

Tone Vigeland : Schmuck / Jewelry, Objekt / Objects, Skulptur / Sculpture Monograph AND The Quilts of Gees Bend: Masterpieces from a Lost Place Monograph

Fav museum or gallery in your current location?

The Faberge Collection at the VMFA....the enamel and metalwork is drool worthy

Last exhibition you saw irl?

Testimony & Welter @ Reynolds Gallery...but will see Firewood (A love letter to the VCU wood program) at Alma's on Friday! AND (as this is being published) I will be making my way back from LA, where I will have seen the Monuments Exhibit at The Brick and MOCA (I’m also hoping to stop by Craft in America and the Center for Craft…fingers crossed I can hit it all)

 

Kathleen's photos from Testimony at Reynolds Gallery

 

Kathleen's photos from Testimony at Reynolds Gallery

 

Kathleen's photos of Jack Wax's work in welter at Reynolds Gallery

 

Kathleen's photos of Jack Wax's work in welter at Reynolds Gallery

An artwork that packs a spiritual punch?

the work of Lauren Fensterstock and the work of Lori Talcott

 

An artwork that you'd like to see before you die?

I know I totally have an answer for this, but my mind is blanking

What art material do you love to nerd out on?

All hail the METAL

 

What was the last thing that you listened to in the studio?

MMMBop...I'm sad to say this is the real answer...and I did love it. Was anyone else absolutely devastated when they found out Hanson was indeed the Hanson BROTHERS, and that Taylor Hanson was, in fact, NOT a girl…and that you, a teen girl, had been modeling your style after a BOY?!?!?!? #Mortified #pre-internet

What's a book that changed your life?

Friends of Interpretable Objects by Miguel Tamen

 

What song, book, podcast or film do you think everyone should know about?

ok...there are a couple of podcasts that I love...The Dead Authors Podcast; Oh, Hello: the P'dcast; and the Museum of Curiosity (a bbc radio show) For Music...all things Beyonce

❤

Kathleen Kennedy is an artist, sculptor, jeweler, and educator based in Richmond, Virginia. She holds an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a BFA in Craft/Material Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University. Kennedy is Assistant Professor of Art in Jewelry & Metalsmithing at Longwood University. Additional teaching includes Virginia Commonwealth University, the Haystack Mountain School of Craft, the Penland School of Craft, and Montgomery College. Kennedy is a recipient of the 2026–27 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Visual Arts Fellowship and the 2023 Center for Craft Teaching Artist Fellowship. She serves on the Board of Directors of The Community for Ethical Jewelry. From 2017 to 2025 she served as Director of Radical Jewelry Makeover (RJM), an international jewelry mining and recycling project focused on education and collaboration. RJM lays bare the social and environmental destruction of mining, inspiring artists to shift their practices towards sustainable solutions, and asking communities to radically alter their habits of consumption. Kennedy teaches, lectures, and exhibits her work both domestically and abroad. 

For more about Kathleen Kennedy, go to her website and visit her on Instagram.

Short Answer Sunday: Esteban Garcia Bravo

Meant to elicit quick, intuitive responses, Short Answer Sunday will introduce readers to a wide variety of artists, educators, writers, curators, art enthusiasts and art adjacent individuals whose inclinations I admire. With the intent of getting to know the person behind the artwork as well generating new avenues to artistic discovery, participants may respond with only a few words or an artist’s name, always with the opportunity to elaborate if they wish!

Esteban Garcia Bravo is an ambitious artist whose work combines digital technologies and community-driven, events-based practices. His current work takes the form of monumental, illuminated structures that not only exist in the public sphere, but attempt to repurpose and reclaim public spaces. Collectivity is at the root of the content and form --these projects are inherently collaborative, from ideation to fabrication to exhibition. Acting as beacons in the dark, these site-specific sculptures invite interactions with visitors and encourage play and curiosity, but also promote the somewhat grander hope of generating civic engagement.

There’s an older piece of Esteban’s that comes to my mind often-- an artist-made video game that my husband and I curated into a 2013 exhibition at the gone (but not forgotten) DC artist-run exhibition space, Delicious Spectacle. Did I scour the depths of the Esteban’s Instagram to find an image of this piece? Indeed, I did. So now you only have to partially imagine this fully-functional, 90's-style video game encased in a DIY papier-mâché, corncob arcade cabinet. The game itself, if memory serves, allowed the player to direct a little corncob OC on a quest to learn about the health impacts of GMOs (fun and educational).

I got a lot out of Esteban’s Short Answer Sunday and I know you will, too. Find more about Esteban here and here. Thx for reading😀
xo, Lauren

Name: Esteban Garcia Bravo
Occupation: Artist and teacher
Astrological data: Taurus
Hometown: Bogotá, Colombia
Current location: San José, CA

Other than Instagram, how do you find new-to-you artists?

go to art openings, galleries and museums in my area

 

An artwork that makes you laugh?

hot glue sculptures by Aaron Nemec

Aaron Nemec, Peace Flag Cat, hotglue/enamel
3.75x3.25x1.5 inches
2026 
Image Source

An artwork that makes you cry?

Krzysztof Wodiczko - Monument

 

Most underrated artist?

Aldo Giorgini

 

An artwork that you'd like to live inside for a week?

Yayoi Kusama: Fireflies (infinity mirror series)

 

An artist whose work you can't stop thinking about?

Holy Mountain: Alejandro Jodorowsky

 

An artwork that feels like a warm hug?

Carlos Cruz-Diez, Chromointerefence or Physichromie series

What's your favorite characteristic in an artwork?

materiality

 

Erotic artwork? (editor's note: this is a multiple choice question)

Yes: ✅

What's an artwork that doesn't look like art?

a lot of contemporary art that I don't have the time/interest to read

What's an artwork that you suspect that you shouldn't like, but you do (guilty pleasure)?

Requiem for a Vampire, or other films by Jean Rolin

What's an artwork that you secretly hate?

Rafaël Rozendaal's Haiku series

Most insane art piece?

Frank Stella: K.81 (or any assemblage)

Frank Stella, K.81 combo (K.37 and K.43) large size, 2009
Protogen RPT with stainless steel tubing
15 x 16 x 10 ft.
Image Source

Fav monograph or art book?

Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art

Fav museum or gallery in your current location?

Empire 7 Studios, MACLA

Last exhibition you saw irl?

KAWS Family at SFMOMA

An artwork that packs a spiritual punch?

Leonora Carrington

An artwork that you'd like to see before you die?

Arcosanti by Paolo Soleri

What was the last thing that you listened to in the studio?

Discodélicos DJ sets on youtube

What's a book that changed your life?

El Libro de San Cipriano: Tesoro del hechicero, Book of Saint Cyprian & The teachings of Don Juan

What song, book, podcast or film do you think everyone should know about?

Terrence McKenna's lectures -or his books True Hallucinations & Archaic Revival

❤

Esteban Garcia Bravo is a Colombian-American artist and scholar whose work bridges computational art history, digital media, and public art technology, exploring how code and light shape collective experience. His practice evolved from research on the “lost histories” of early computer art into the creation of large-scale interactive installations such as GEODE, Aurora Almanac, and PRISMA, which integrate animation, data, and community participation into public space. Through commissions, residencies, and collaborations, he develops site-specific works that reimagine technology as a medium for placemaking, civic engagement, and shared wonder.

For more on Esteban, visit his website and follow him on Instagram.