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.

Short Answer Sunday: Marissa Long

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!

Everything that I’ve ever seen Marissa Long make is awesome. Go to her website and you will see with your own eyes that I’m not exaggerating, not even a little bit. Marissa works with photography, sculpture, drawing, video and installation, all while maintaining a consistently high level of visual and conceptual rigor. In fact, I struggle to think of many other artists who shift across visual art forms so skillfully (it bears emphasis that she makes this look easy, when it is, in fact, not easy). Marissa’s recent sculptural work pairs elaborate, artist-made cast resin objects with photographs, some of which are found or altered. The cast objects often become framing devices which take on a range of unconventional forms--sometimes chunky rococo sarcophagi, other times droopy intestinal flowers—and house mysterious and tender images that evoke impermanence, distance, grief, and longing.

Marissa has a discerning eye for compositional drama. She composes materials and images to achieve contrasts in scale, value, color and texture that metamorphize into other types of oppositions, seduction/repulsion, hiding/revealing, abundance/scarcity, decomposition/rebirth (if you watch the David Altmejd video that Marissa shared below, you will hear his thoughts on how tension generates energy). Both eerie and exceedingly beautiful, her work is precise, but not at all simple, striking just the right balance between information given and information withheld.

Marissa brings the same discerning eye to her curation at Art Enables, a DC non-profit that supports artists with disabilities. I regularly look through the Art Enables’ website (and Instagram) and I’m constantly blown away by the resident artists’ work as well as the stellar line-up of visiting artists who exhibit there. The current show with the excellent title Shrimps on the Mountain has repeatedly captivated me!

As you soon will learn from her Short Answer Sunday, Marissa rocks. The generosity of her responses is unparalleled and I am so inspired by all of the artists she mentions, as well as her commentary!
xo, Lauren

Name: Marissa Long
Occupation: Gallery Director & Curator at Art Enables
Astrological data: Virgo (Capricorn moon + Scorpio rising, whatever that means!)
Hometown: Reading, PA
Current location: Arlington, VA

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

Through galleries and museums, reading, and friends, mostly. 

 

An artwork that makes you laugh?

Maurice Barnes (of Art Enables), Visit to the Clown Cemetery. The cemetery is just outside some circus tents. The clowns are crying but the non-clown people are laughing because – clowns?! So many of the details in Maurice’s works make me laugh.  

 

Maurice Barnes, Visit to the Clown Cemetery, 2025,
colored pencil and ink on paper, 12 x 9 in
Image Source

An artwork that makes you cry?

Film and music tend to make me cry the most. Recently in film: Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value. So brilliantly, delicately layered, plus the power of art to connect people when difficult emotions interfere. Charlotte Wells' Aftersun also really got me. 

In music: I saw several artists with disabilities perform at a symposium last year through Studio Route 29’s Beauty Music program and embarrassingly could not stop crying throughout – it was so cool, and joyful, and affirming.

I’ve cried several times seeing Aldous Harding play. I love her in general but something about the beauty and mystery of her music paired with her gestures and often weird, intense facial expressions is so moving to me and I find it hard to describe why. I love this feeling – when I can’t fully analyze or unpack why I’m deeply moved by something.

Wait, one more! A book: Percival Everett’s Telephone. The ending of several others of his books had made me teary before I read this one, and as I was approaching the last page, I was thinking to myself that I didn’t see how that could happen again with the amount of text left – a couple paragraphs. Wrong! Totally undone by the last sentence. Does this answer make me seem like I’m crying all the time?? lol

Most underrated artist?

Cheating a little here, but I’m going to say all the artists of Art Enables. Progressive studios like Art Enables exist because artists with disabilities don’t get the same opportunities and recognition as many other artists, when in fact they’re doing some of the most interesting things you will find in the art world. Their work constantly surprises and thrills me, and there’s such a wide range of styles and ways of seeing happening here. I really implore everyone to visit, check out, follow Art Enables, but I feel extra strongly about other artists doing so. I’m biased in multiple directions here, but I do find it hard to imagine that other artists won’t find at least one artist at Art Enables who really speaks to them.

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

Wow, hard to answer. Without overthinking it, I’d be happy to be in Rae Klein’s Blue Sphinx for a week. I feel like she’s bounding and floating through magical landscapes, just inhabiting her power. No stress, chill confidence, peeking into other dimensions, drinking raindrops from flowers.

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

Nickola Pottinger. Her use of materials in her sculptures is very compelling. I’d like to use materials in this more painterly, organic way. Her sculptures are like talismans or totems – they feel spiritual but so deeply physical at the same time. And Stella Waitzkin. Similar theme here, re: materials. Her resin works are so much more painterly and raw than the way I work. I’d like to push myself to work more like this.

What's your favorite characteristic in an artwork?

I love the combination of beautiful and unsettling or even grotesque elements, and I also really swoon over subtlety. When something sits at JUST the right level of scrutability that you might almost miss but it quietly, dramatically alters the meaning of the piece – I am slayed. Also: materiality forever. That was three things.

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

Other: ✅ Sure! Depends what it is, I guess.

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

Photos of people’s derpy Easter lamb cakes online. Love. Current interest.

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

I think I mostly just like what I like these days, although often I’m parsing out what I’m responding to in a work vs. what I recognize as complicated, or feel is unsuccessful, or lazy, or even offensive. I tend to really enjoy that analysis, even if a piece is, like, 90% terrible or infuriating!

What's an artwork that you secretly hate?

I once worked with someone who owned one of Wim Delvoye’s tattooed pig skins. This was from his controversial “art farm” project where he tattooed live pigs. They were supposedly sedated during the process and treated very humanely, etc., although I believe he moved the project to China because animal welfare laws were more lax there. The pigs were shown live in galleries and not skinned until they died of natural causes, I think. If they were saved from slaughter because of this project, great. But overall, I’m just not into it, regardless of any cultural commentary. I want all factory-farmed animals to be set free in sanctuaries without Wim Delvoye drugging and tattooing them first.

Most insane art piece?

I don’t know if this is the MOST insane piece, but the complexity of David Altmejd installations like “The Heart is a Werewolf” are wild to me.

Fav monograph or art book?

This is so hard to answer but in recent years, I’ve really loved Sara Cwynar’s Glass Life. And Pia Paulina-Guilmoth’s Flowers Drink the River. I can’t believe some of these images by Guilmoth exist.

PPG notable: the glittering spiderweb photo on this page and the horse and burning house here

Pia Paulina Guilmoth, we make a flower, 2022
Image Source

Last exhibition you saw irl?

All of the incredible booths at the Outsider Art Fair

An artwork that packs a spiritual punch?

Allison Schulnik’s Eager (love all of her work so much)

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

Stretching the parameters of this question, but I’d like to see as many cathedrals around the world as I can. I’m not religious, but I am very drawn to their kind of sacred imagery and vast, dramatic, spaces. Visiting cathedrals is one of my favorite things to do in life. They’re like deeply experiential museums. Discovering what’s in all of the different spaces and the history of the structure and everything in it is incredible to me. The ultimate is during the day when there’s an organ player practicing in intense stop-and-start spurts. It makes me so happy.

What art material do you love to nerd out on?

Resin and other mold-making and casting materials. I’ve done a lot of casting in the last 8 years or so and these materials are so complex. So many different types, different ways to exploit them, so many tricky things to figure out in terms of what materials can be combined. When I get to talk to a fellow mold-maker/caster, I feel the most excitement I’ve experienced discussing any medium.

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

Sheila Heti's Pure Color

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

I have to admit that questions like these really stall me. I consume a lot of all of these things and I love talking about them, but picking just one or even a few feels impossible! So, these probably aren’t my platonic ideal answers, but I’m going to mention Percival Everett again (an author, not a book) because I’m always stumping for him. My faves are Telephone, as mentioned, So Much Blue, Erasure, The Trees and his more recent James was also great. Some of these books can be intense and deal with trauma but are also profound and extremely funny (some others are primarily just funny and absurd, too), and he’s always doing interesting structural things. There are three different versions of “Telephone” out in the world with no indication other than tiny differences in the cover art! So you might read a slightly different version of the book than I did. He’s the coolest. 

 

Joshua Oppenheimer’s 2013 doc The Act of Killing and its 2014 companion film The Look of Silence also stand out to me as important works that people should know. I couldn’t stop thinking or talking about these for months after I saw them and clearly I still can’t. These are also very intense – they concern the mass killings in Indonesia in the 60’s. “Death squads” killed over a million alleged communists, but a lot of this was just racial profiling. The first film follows some of the men who led the squads. At the time of filming, these people were still in power, their actions had not been publicly condemned. The director asks them to participate in musical re-enactments of some of the killings they perpetrated. At first, they’re very eager to do this – they’re proud and boastful, they feel like movie stars glorifying what they think of as their achievements. But they’re re-enacting scenes as both themselves and as their victims, having to reckon with their actions from a different perspective for the first time. The Look of Silence is a more quiet but equally profound extension of this story. After these films came out, they actually changed the culture of the country and the way the genocide is acknowledged. I just wanted to end my Short Answer Sunday on a really fun note.

❤

Marissa Long is the Gallery Director & Curator at Art Enables - an organization that supports the creative and professional growth of artists with disabilities and spotlights their valuable contributions to the arts - where she has curated over 60 exhibitions including Art Enables artists and visiting artists from around the country. Recent external collaborations include “ALIAS” at the Corcoran School of Art at GW, and “Forward” in collaboration with Amtrak at Union Station. As an artist, Long works across mediums including sculpture, photography, drawing, and installation, exploring themes of loss, transformation, connection, and perception. Notable solo and 2-person exhibitions include "Blister Pearl" at MoCA Arlington (2023), “Instruction Manual” at NoVA’s AFA Gallery (2020), Borrowed From Dust" (MoCA Arlington, 2019) and "Luminiferous Aether" at Transformer [2017]. Long holds an BFA from The Corcoran School of Art and Design (2006). She lives and works in the DMV Metro area. 

Get to know more about Marissa and her work on Instagram and on her website.

6 + 1 Questions with Austin Brady

Sometime in the 90's, when I was a kid, my dad decided that he would build a platform structure for my brother and I on the wooded hill behind our house. From what I remember, it was meant to be some sort of wooden deck for a tent, an outdoor area for my brother and I to play camping. The job was started, but then slowly and imperceptibly abandoned. I was given no rationale, nor did I ask for one. The reminder of this failed endeavor remained in the back yard for years--the stacked cinder block foundation, a monument to projects left undone. Now, as an adult and a parent, I can think of about a million solid reasons why one might ditch an uneccessary project. To his credit, my brilliant, funny and thoughtful father also successfully completed many household jobs. However, this is the memory that comes to my mind when I reflect on Austin Brady's work, likely pulled forth by his body of work’s compelling title, “No Dads No Masters”.

There is a haphazard, mutable quality to Austin's work, although decidedly different than my dad's abandoned project. For one, Austin's work is complete, though perhaps not in the way a layperson might anticipate. Secondly, Austin’s various states of (in)completion are an intentional conceptual choice. Great care is put into his application of various methods and techniques. In one sculpture, Flail, Austin leaves visible the lumber grade stamp on a mass produced 2 x 4. This exposure is in contrast to a neighboring trompe l'oeil hole within which we glimpse painted Skeletors in a dark, cartoon world. In another sculpture, a modern-day Excalibur is adorned with truck balls and protrudes from an orange Home Depot bucket, its blade stuck and useless in what appears to be cement.

In addition to complicating the hierarchy between high and low art practices, Austin’s work invites a playful breakdown between fantasy and convention. An ordinary work space, such as the garage, becomes a place where magic can happen. The paintings and sculptures flip flop between functional and decorative, as I sift through a multitude of possible masculine gender roles. Some are problematic and stereotypical, while others are funny, nostalgic, vulnerable and unexpected.

I'll end on a synchronicity. As I am writing, I am listening to a recent Astrology Podcast ep called "Unshaming the Signs". When speaking about Gemini, astrologer Britten LaRue indicates that Gemini's tendency toward distraction has important benefits. Maybe each so-called distraction gives us something we need at a given moment. Maybe we aren't meant to finish every task. 

A thousand thank-you’s to Austin for sharing such thoughtful responses to my questions and for providing generous insight into his work, process and habits.  You can find more about Austin Brady and his work on his website: www.austin-brady.com and on Instagram @_wolfprison_

*☿*☽*☉ Bonus Astrology PSA ☉*☾*☿* I am not an astrologer, but after listening to hundreds of hours of The Astrology Podcast (plus extra cred for reading Chris Brennan’s 700-page book Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune), I am at least entitled to play one on this blog. Most people are familiar with sun-sign astrology, which is the zodiacal sign of the sun at the time of your birth.  Each of us, though, has an entire birth chart, which represents the placement of all of the planets in the sky (as well as other important astrological points) at the time of birth. In our natal charts, each person has a section (aka a ‘House’) for each of the 12 zodiacal signs. This means that we are all a little bit Gemini, babes. So, if you take astrology seriously enough to malign a sign, remember that every sign provides you with a different set of ways to exist in the world and is also, in some way, a part of you.

Enjoy! xoxo

1. What’s your sign? If you are astrologically literate, feel free to give your Sun/Moon/Rising. Do you identify with the characteristics of your sign(s)?

It’s pretty funny, I get this question almost every semester as a professor and I always tell my inquiring students to guess based on my personality. They usually get it wrong 5-7 times before they land on Gemini. When I confirm they are always like “uhggg, of COURSE you are a Gemini”

My mom was always very into astrology, and so I know a bit about it, but not a ton. I wanted to do a little research and found out my moon is Pisces and my rising is Leo.

I suppose I do identify with some of the characteristics, which I see as this kind of gazing pool, or like the Studiolo in the Ducal Palace. Just this big mesh to catch and organize all these insecurities and indecisions. It’s helpful to have some external source that can assign meaning and direction to all the chaos. 

2. What is your morning routine?

I am so bad at routine, hahaha. I find myself getting off task pretty easily. It’s kind of goofy, but I need a checklist to direct myself and show myself that I am actually accomplishing things. It is usually: brush teeth, wash face, take meds, feed the boys (our cats), make an improvised breakfast out of whatever we have in the fridge, listen to the news while I cook, and do whatever chores my partner and I have talked about the night before. If it is a day that I teach, I always leave extra early to go down to Milwaukee Cafe so that I can get a coffee with oat milk and vanilla cardamom syrup (shout out to Vern, a good friend and the best barista in Detroit) and then I walk from the cafe to campus and do all of my prep before class.

Before I say this, I have to acknowledge that, yes, I know he is problematic, but there is a thing that I watched about Tom Sachs where he practices “output before input” where you are supposed to draw or sketch or dance or whatever before you scroll your phone or listen to the news. I am so bad at this, but sometimes I can commit for few days at a time and it always comes out good. I really need an old-fashioned alarm clock so I don’t touch my phone first thing in the morning, otherwise I am in bed for an embarrassingly long amount of time just scrolling. 

3. Have you ever cried in front of an artwork? If so, what was it?

Absolutely. Every time I even talk about Untitled (Portrait of Ross in LA) by Felix Gonzalez-Torres I start to weep. It is so simple, and tender, and the feeling of loss… enjoying these small little bits of sweetness while the body diminishes. There is no greater love letter in the world. There are definitely others. I don’t shy away from being moved by artwork, but this one has made me cry pretty much every time. 

4. What are you reading now?

I have been reading a lot of sci-fi/fantasy with my partner. I know I should be reading more theory and whatnot but N.K. Jemisin has a chokehold on me. I read her Broken Earth trilogy and I was just hooked. I am a quarter of the way through The Shadowed Sun. So good. 

I am also reading The Wound is (Not) Real: A Memoir by Marty Cain, which is this absolutely beautiful and haunting book of poetry that are spliced with QR code’s that you scan for these short videos. I picked it up at this local book store (another shout out to Book Suey in Hamtramck) and I read about 3 lines of a random poem and practically ran to the register to buy it. It hurts my heart in all the right ways.

5. Tell us four truths about yourself and one lie (in any order, just don’t divulge which is the lie!):

a. I was once ran over by a car while biking to an interview and still showed up to the interview, on time, and in the back of a cop car
b. I once ran out of D-rings when prepping for an exhibition and ended up stapling pop tabs to the back of my art as a quick fix (and still get teased about it)
c. I have a casting of Vin Diesel’s real face in my studio that I talk to some times
d. I once mistook a sculpture at the MOCAD for my partner of 13 years. Even put my arm around its waist and got yelled at by security.
e. Coming up with truths about myself is a hell of a lot harder than coming up with the lie.

6. This is the wild card question. Your work often includes unusual, non-art materials that are in conversation with traditional oil paintings. Can you talk about the symbolic value of the materials you use? How and where do you find your materials?

There were quite a few processes that happened simultaneously in my practice that felt very important to this transformation. The big one is that I began to consider a painting as an object with an image on it rather than the traditional “portal” that depicts a scene. It is this funny punishment to painting. It started by leaning paintings against the wall rather than hang them in order to take them down a notch. When I did start hanging paintings on the wall, I would stack things on top of them to turn them into these really dumb shelves where I could just put knick knacks and empty beer cans onto. They are receptacles for the runoff of life. They get all gunked up.   

I am also in love with flatbed paintings and the way they could organize information free of physics. Things feel like they are always subject to change. I slowly shifted into the vernacular of the “garage,” letting it become a mythical site in which these paintings live. The organizational logic of garage pegboard worked in the same way that flatbed painting does. Here are these images and objects that are essentially tools of identity (more specifically white midwestern masculine identity in my work) that I can take off the wall, use, and put back when I no longer need them. Mounting swords or truck nuts onto the paintings felt as natural to painting as using the color red or using a certain brush. It also confused and frustrated some of my grad school professors, which I loved.

I source the materials from all sorts of places. Most of the weapons I get from flea markets when I can, or source online if I am looking for something very specific. Some of the objects are casts, such as the silicone D20s I use. Others are sourced from vintage shops or resale stores. I just picked up this resin “floating beer bottle” sculpture from a vintage shop that has got to make an appearance soon.

7. What other artist(s) would you like to see answer these questions?

I love Kyle Koguts work. I did a duo show with him a few years back at KO gallery and I think he would be great

Kristina Sheufelt would also be great. They have an insane body of work that spans ecological and technological realms that it just jaw dropping

Oh, and Kara Güt! Killer artist. Everything that they do just keeps getting impossibly better and better.

© Jeff Cancelosi 2022

Austin Brady was born in the cold midwestern town of Gaylord, Michigan and lived the majority of his life in the Detroit area. He received his BFA from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan with a concentration in painting, and received his MFA in Painting from the University of Notre Dame with a minor in Gender Studies. He is also an alum of the Redbull House of Art residency, and has been exhibiting nationally, including the South Bend Museum of Art, Snite Museum of Art at Notre Dame, Field Projects, Vantage Art Projects, and KO studio gallery. He currently resides in Detroit with his loving partner Lyndsay, and his dumb cats Renaissance and Goose. He enjoys cheeseburgers, Dungeons & Dragons, and music most would consider aggressive and unlistenable.

www.austin-brady.com

All images of artwork courtesy of the artist. 

6 + 1 Questions with Shaina Kasztelan

I am delighted to have another 6 + 1 interview to share. I am equally delighted that the interview is with Detroit-based artist Shaina Kasztelan.  I've been a fan of Shaina's work for a long time, since her years as an undergraduate art student at The College for Creative Studies. If you are even a little familiar with my own work, you are probably not surprised by the attraction—I’m drawn to painters that have an element of subversion in their work, whose use of materials expands the possibility of what can be included in a painting. Even classifying Shaina’s work only as painting feels narrow; the work is more contraption than window.

Contextually, looking at Shaina’s work through the lens of Halloween is rewarding. The paintings exude an undeniable October glammy kitsch: imagery of webs and wigs, bats and hats collide with faux leather and crushed velvet. Spandex stretches across plush surfaces. Painted marks comingle with swirls of synthetic hair, beads and textiles.

There’s more here, too, many layers to peel back and look beneath. Detroit, music, the 90’s, the history of abstraction and feminism all inform the work for me. I could go on and on…but I won’t. Let’s get to the good stuff: the interview. And Shaina’s gorgeous work.

Thank you, Shaina, for the generosity of your time and your willingness to share insight into your work and practice!

Shaina Kasztelan is currently completing her final year as an MFA candidate at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI. Look for her work in the Cranbrook Graduate Degree show in Spring 2024.

❤❤❤

Shaina Kasztelan

Beyond the Black Rainbow

48” x 29” x 6”

Faux fur, upholstery fabric, fleece fabric, glitter, sequins, textile trim, acrylic paint, faux leather, rhinestones, synthetic hair, spandex, beads, plastic needlepoint mesh, yarn, polyester stuffing, crushed velvet, embroidery thread, puffy paint, sand

2023

LR: What’s your sign? If you are astrologically inclined, feel free to give your Sun/Moon/Rising. Do you identify with the characteristics of your sign(s)?

SK: I am a Gemini (May 25). I’m not astrologically inclined whatsoever but I do think horoscopes are fun to read and fantasize about! Looking up the characteristics of a Gemini online, I definitely identify with the majority of the various traits: 

-I’m naturally curious
-I love to learn
-I can be impulsive
-I love to have fun and I’m adventurous
-I’m adaptable
-I’m indecisive
-I have a variety of hobbies
-I’m quick-witted

The only one that I don’t completely identify with is being a social butterfly. I love hanging out with my friends and don’t really have trouble talking to strangers but my social battery gets drained very quickly. I love spending personal time alone and prefer smaller, more intimate interactions with others. Big groups can be fun but it’s very over stimulating so I end up spending more time observing (or nervously overcompensating by talking too much haha). 

Shaina Kasztelan

2c-B(irthday Cake) 

34” x 24” x 6”

Spandex, satin fabric, sequins, cotton fabric, textile trim, beads, lace, plastic chains, hot glue, latex paint, puffy stickers, balloons, resin, glitter, acrylic paint, polyester stuffing, faux leather, sand, faux fur, white opaque flakes, styrofoam 

2023

LR: What is your morning routine?

SK: I desperately want to be the type of person who has an active morning routine but to be honest, ever since 2020 it’s been very hard for me to form and stick with healthy habits. COVID lockdowns, leaving my dream job because of OSHA concerns, and the death of one of my best friends and also my father all within a short window of time really did a number on me. I still feel a huge void inside of me so it’s been a challenging transition but I'm trying to focus on being present with myself and not dwelling too much on the past or anxiously anticipating the future. There is a part of me that is really appreciative of the whole situation though because it forced me to confront bad habits and reevaluate what was important to me.

Something that has helped shift that perspective in the last year has been undergoing ketamine treatments at Michigan Progressive Health. They’ve really made me more emotionally aware, feel more connected to myself & the world around me, and recognize that life isn’t strictly based on extremes of always/never or good/evil; there is so much more nuance to consider and both can be true at the same time. It’s also helped override this “default mode” in my brain that keeps me feeling stuck in mechanical thoughts and behaviors and instead encourages me to embrace absurdity and the unknown.

Because of this shift, the only semblance of a routine I have right now is a mindfulness practice that encourages me to be present in the moment. I try to do it daily but I’m not perfect. It’s something that seems like it should be so simple but it can be difficult to make time for. Inspired by the Situationist International’s practice of dérive, it’s basically just walking an unplanned route, reflecting on different sensations I’m feeling, and spontaneously allowing myself to be drawn to different areas that capture my attention without overthinking it. I’ve stumbled upon so many beautiful sightings because of this which feels pretty serendipitous at times. The other day I walked up on a huge group of deer sleeping in the forest, all of them surrounding a stump covered in bright yellow mushrooms! I usually put on headphones and listen to something ambient like Pauline Anna Strom or Boards of Canada; music makes everything seem more grand and emotionally compelling, even if it’s just watching how the light shines through the leaves in the trees or feeling the temperature change on my skin when moving from an open field to a densely wooded area. Afterward, I like to journal about my experience to really reflect on my gratitude.

Overall, this practice of grounding is about celebrating fleeting moments that I might overlook when I’m rushed or burnt out, even if it’s something small and seemingly insignificant. It’s welcoming the unexpected, letting it capture my full attention, reveling in the fact that I was in the right place at the right time to witness it happening, and recognizing that there is value in slowing down and connecting with the world around us.

Shaina Kasztelan

Mystic Picnic

36” x 18.5” x 8.5”

Fake grass, wicker basket, acrylic paint, spray paint, rhinestones, plastic beads, plastic toys, dentures, sequins, embroidery thread, faux fur, Joann Fabrics printed cotton fabric, textile trim, wooden wagon wheel bracket, wooden toilet paper holder  

2022

LR: Have you ever cried in front of an artwork? If so, what was it?

SK: I’ve never cried in front of a static, singular artwork like in a gallery or museum setting (I did feel pretty emotional in the Thierry Mugler exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum this spring though; he is a queer icon and an amazing designer and with all of the drag queen “satanic panic” type culture war stuff going on, I felt some type of way) but I did tear up while watching a live performance of "Our Domestic Resurrection Circus" from the Bread and Puppet theater troupe this past fall. I had just found out about them a year prior while I was briefly involved in the MFA program for Set Design at Wayne State University but they’ve been around since the 1960’s, so I was really excited to hear that they would be coming to Hamtramck to perform at the Detroit Puppet Company. Their performances have always been political in nature, very anti-war & anti-capitalist, and they utilize large handmade paper mache puppets that are made collaboratively on a farm in Vermont. They also run a printing press and sell prints at the end of their performances. One of my favorite prints was their Cheap Art Manifesto.

It reads:  

“People have been thinking too long that art is a privilege of the museums & the rich. Art is not business! It does not belong to banks & fancy investors. Art is food. You can’t eat it but it feeds you. Art has to be cheap & available to everybody. It needs to be everywhere because it is the inside of the world. Art soothes pain! Art wakes up sleepers! Art fights against war and stupidity! Art sings Hallelujah! Art is for kitchens! Art is like good bread! Art is like green trees! Art is like white clouds in blue sky! Art is cheap! Hurrah”

What moved me the most about this performance was the community atmosphere. Weeks prior, they put out a call inviting locals to participate in the show. The day of, I arrived at the Detroit Puppet Company’s outdoor space with my best friend (& frequent creative collaborator) Heidi Barlow, my brother Jacob, and my sister-in-law Qingzhuo. The performance was free to attend and the area was full of families, couples, friends, neighbors, children, curious passersby, etc all packed together laying on blankets or sitting in lawn chairs across the grass facing this hand-painted old school bus. When 7pm hit a huge group of like 20 or so people came running out from behind the bus all dressed in white, carrying flags, bouncing around the perimeter of the stage, laughing and cheering as they circled each other. The energy was electric- I immediately started smiling so big and tearing up because it just hit me on such an emotional level being surrounded by all this collective joy. After an isolating pandemic, grieving the deaths of some really important people in my life, and just feeling pretty depressed about the future, this experience breathed new life into me. I highly recommend attending one of their shows if they ever come to a town near you. They are currently on tour this fall so keep an eye on their website! https://breadandpuppet.org/tour-schedule 

Shaina Kasztelan

Somewhere Over the Rainbow is a Double Rainbow

52” x 36” x 6”

Joann Fabrics printed cotton fabric, spandex, quilted fabric, acrylic paint, fleece fabric, faux fur, rhinestones, metal clasps, sand, beads, embroidery thread, textile trim, metal frames, found objects, polyester stuffing 

2023

LR:.What are you reading now? (You can also include what you’ve read lately, as well as what you are listening to, watching, etc.)

SK: I’ve been obsessively downloading tons of PDF’s from JSTOR while I have access to it via Cranbrook, so I have a seemingly never ending amount of content to browse for the next few years. Like my Gemini nature suggests- I’m on a quest for knowledge. There are many different subjects that I’m interested in researching and alluding to in my artwork: consumerism, psychedelic experiences, escapism, the act of play, the American suburbs, glitches, subcultures, American visual culture, Dada, Surrealism, sci-fi & horror movies, cartoons, internet culture, kitsch, queer camp, psychology, theater, nostalgia, the environment, etc. I also have like 100+ tabs open on my computer and phone of various articles, websites, PDFs, whatever. I’m slowly trying to organize my huge archive of research but there’s so much stuff it’s going to take a really long time.

Over the summer, I read (or am still in the process of reading):

Glitch Feminism by Legacy Russell
In Defense of the Poor Image by Hito Steyerl
Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention and How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari
Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke
The City Authentic by David A. Banks

Things I’ve been (re)watching and (re)listening to lately:

-Brad Troemel’s Patreon video essays
-Beyond The Black Rainbow by Panos Cosmatos
-The Holy Mountain by Alejandro Jodorowsky
-Wonder Showzen
-Comedy Bang Bang podcast
-A lot of newer jazz, like Portico Quartet and Yussef Dayes
-My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult’s Confessions of a Knife album
-New Aphex Twin stuff. He’s a huge influence. His live set at the Warehouse Project in Manchester from 2019 is so amazing. I really like to bop around to that in the studio while I’m working.



LR: Tell us four truths about yourself and one lie (in any order, just don’t give away the lie!):

SK:

a. I have four cats.
b. I’ve known my fiance since we were teenagers.
c. I’ve done some of my own piercings/tattoos.
d. I am an only child.
e. I’ve only ever lived in Michigan.

Shaina Kasztelan

Would You Like to Have a Happy Heart?

62” x 33” x 18”

Fleece fabric, Joann Fabrics printed cotton fabric, plastic toys, colored pencils w/erasers, resin, glitter, textile trim, plastic pills, beads, acrylic paint, sequin witch hat, dowel rod, decorative metal hooks, studded belt, plastic toilet paper rack, synthetic hair

2022

LR: Wild card! Can you share a bit about how play and experimentation relate to your artistic practice? How does failure play a role in your work?

SK: Play and experimentation are absolutely crucial to my work- they are the main drivers behind my entire practice. Having a day job in production over the past few years, everything I built had to be meticulously planned or constructed based on someone else’s blueprints with no room for my own personal touch. I had to perfectly follow my boss’s instructions and work as quickly and efficiently as possible which meant a lot of pre-planning and sticking to a strict schedule. It definitely exacerbated my perfectionism! In my own studio, I try to let that all go and allow myself much more freedom.

I really enjoy working intuitively and being spontaneous. I can just sort of turn off my logical brain and make intuitive connections in the moment based on responding to color, shapes, material, etc. I use a lot of found objects and found images in my work so I’ll start by going through bins full of junk that I have on my shelves or on my computer and pairing things together. Maybe there is a toy that fits perfectly into the curvature of another random object or maybe there is an object that is referenced in a found image that I’ll print off and incorporate. From there it’s kind of just moving things around, breaking them apart, manipulating them, and putting them back together in different ways until something feels right.

I try not to overthink it; if I plan too much or if the work translates too literally on a conceptual level then I get bored of a piece really easily. I am much more interested in work that surprises and challenges me. I want to sit with a piece and question what I’m even looking at and how did I get there.

Failure has taught me a lot in the studio. It took me a while to appreciate it, but now I welcome and oftentimes seek out those experiences. I have worked in a lot of different creative industries and have a huge skill set but I don’t have all the answers, so when something fails it teaches me a lot about what went right, what went wrong, and how I can change the results next time. Sometimes it’s something important like a matter of structural integrity which helps me become a better builder on future projects. Sometimes it’s just an unexpected material reaction which can be really weird and exciting. I’ve stumbled across a lot of great textures by accident because I mixed the wrong things together or added too much of something. It has never ended up in catastrophe, but when things have failed it’s opened up a whole new world of possibilities I would have otherwise never experienced.

Failure is inevitable; I don’t want to gloss over the messy parts of life and hide it under the rug. It feels more honest and human allowing scars to show rather than creating the illusion of a smooth, impervious shield. People who expect anything to be perfect in life are just going to end up very disappointed. I think reframing our experiences of failure as an educational guide rather than a moral judgment of character is a healthier outlook for all aspects of our lives.

LR:  What other artist(s) would you like to see answer these questions?

SK: My Cranbrook studiomates Sara Nickelson and Olivia Guterson! And BFF Heidi Barlow!

Shaina Kasztelan is a multidisciplinary artist based in Detroit, Michigan. Her artwork takes on many forms including painting, sculpture, and installation. She received her BFA from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit and is currently pursuing her MFA at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI with a concentration in painting. Her work has been exhibited in various institutions including the Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit Artist Market, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. Painting murals has transported her work internationally from the NXNE Music Festival in Toronto, Canada to the CIMU Mural Festival in Mexico City, Mexico. In addition to creating work in her studio, Kasztelan has assisted many artists throughout her career. Most notably, she has worked in collaboration with a group of painters executing the mural work of Gabe Gault in Toledo, Ohio, which is currently the largest mural in the United States. As a production assistant, she has collaborated with a creative team building parade floats for America's Thanksgiving Day Parade in Detroit as well as theater sets for Wayne State University's Hilberry Theatre. 

Find her work at: http://www.shainakasztelan.com/ or @clowntearz on Instagram

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All images courtesy of the artist.