With Nancy Rivera, a visual artist, curator, and arts administrator based in Salt Lake City, Utah. As an artist, she works primarily in the fields of photography, video, sculpture, and installation. Her practice is influenced by her dual cultural identity and its effects, such as code-switching, cultural assimilation, and displacement. We talk about the artificial versus reality, a-i generated art (or is it?),  immigration, and originality.

Nancy's most recent work reflects on her experience as a first-generation Mexican American through her own history of migration and we spend some time talking about her immigration experience in this episode. 

She has exhibited nationally in a variety of traditional and non-traditional venues and her work is part of private and public collections. From 2018–2021, she served as board member and vice-chair of the Salt Lake City Art Design Board. She was a 2021 National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) Leadership Institute Fellow and currently oversees the Visual Arts Program at the Utah Division of Arts & Museums. I love that she’s always experimenting with different mediums and looking at ways to subvert it, such as her still life photography, which you can see at www.nancyrivera.com.

Follow Nancy on instagram at @_nancy_rivera.

[26:19] Portrait by AI program sells for $432,000

[28:16] Most people can’t distinguish between AI and human art, says a new study

Feel free to follow @artbreakerspodcast on Instagram for fun behind-the-scenes photos of the artists at work and snippets from the show. And if you have an admired artist you'd like to hear from, visit artbreakerspodcast.com for artist submissions, show notes, and more.

With artist J. Kirk Richards, a visual artist of many mediums, but primarily known for his sculpture and oil painting work, specializing in Judeo-Christian themes.

I’d recommend seeing his award-winning art for yourself instagram @jkirkrichards or www.jkirkrichards.com. You can also follow @jkirkrichards on tiktok for oil painting tips and more art-related advice. J. Kirk Richards is a favorite among admirers of contemporary spiritual artwork. His love of the textural, the poetic, and the mysterious has translated into a unique take on traditional Judeo-Christian themes.

We both share in having grown up in Mormon backgrounds, and while I have since left the religion, I haven’t left faith and spirituality, so J. Kirk and I find plenty of common ground in which to discuss art, the Mormon faith and the larger framework of Christianity, and the intersection of art with religion, and the spiritual underlinings of creativity.

Richards attributes much of his love for the arts to an early emphasis on musical training in his parents’ home. Turning then from music to visual arts, Kirk studied with painters Clayton Williams, Bruce Hixson Smith, Patrick Devonas, Hagen Haltern, Gary and Jennifer Barton, James Christensen, Wulf Barsch, Joe Ostraff, and others. Two years in Rome influenced Richards’ palette, which often consists of subdued browns and rusts.

Kirk is best known for his contributions to the BYU Museum of Art exhibit Beholding Salvation: The Life of Christ in Word and Image; for his contributions to Helen Whitney's PBS Frontline Documentary entitled The Mormons: An American Experience; for the cover image of Jeffrey R. Holland’s book, Broken Things to Mend; and for his imagery on the cover of BYU Studies Magazine and in the Ensign, Liahona and Upper Room publications.

Feel free to follow @artbreakerspodcast on Instagram for fun behind-the-scenes photos of the artists at work and snippets from the show. And if you have an admired artist you'd like to hear from, visit artbreakerspodcast.com for artist submissions, show notes, and more.

with Randy Slaugh, music producer and composer.

Randy Slaugh is a music producer and composer based in Salt Lake City, UT. He has worked on Grammy®️-nominated, Juno award-winning and Billboard #1 records for world-class musicians including Architects, The Amity Affliction, Periphery, Devin Townsend, David Archuleta, TesseracT, Sleeping with Sirens, and Four Year Strong. He is a voting member of the Recording Academy and has been heavily involved in the music industry for over a decade with a diverse background in a variety of genres, but we spend a lot of time talking about his niche in orchestration for metal and punk bands. He has also had hundreds of television placements on shows such as MTV’s Catfish, Undercover Boss, Project Runway, Food Network’s Chopped, among many others. Etc.

Randy is a super cool dude and you should consider giving him a follow on instagram at the handle @randyslaugh or checking him out at randyslaugh.com. We talk about starting new opportunities, finding one’s niche, the importance of an abundance mindset and offering value first, and go into defining what a “work/life” balance can mean.

The third voice you hear pop in from time to time is my previous audio person, Erik and it’s great to hear from him as well.

Feel free to follow @artbreakerspodcast on Instagram for fun behind-the-scenes photos of the artists at work and snippets from the show. And if you have an admired artist you'd like to hear from, visit artbreakerspodcast.com for artist submissions, show notes, and more.