49: Creating Visual Art in Your Local Community with April Bey

49: Creating Visual Art in Your Local Community with April Bey

Are you dedicated to creating wonderful art? If so you are really in for a treat! Today’s guest is April Bey, an exciting visual artist, and teacher. April teaches art at a community college in California. She loves drawing and using her art to explore contemporary themes about current events. In today’s episode, April talks to us about her life, her studies, her art, and her career. Tune in now to find out more.

April grew up in the Bahamas, and for all her life she’s been passionately creating. Art is a very prominent subject in schools in the Bahamas, yet April realized during high school that there were no careers in art to be had there. So she moved to the United States. She did her undergrad in the Midwest, obtaining a BFA in drawing from Ball State University. She then went to LA, to do her master’s in interdisciplinary painting at California State University in Northridge, Los Angeles. Listen in today, to find out about April’s creative approach to her art and teaching.

Show Highlights:

  • At the moment, April is doing a lot of sewing that’s acting as drawing.
  • April explains how she got to where she is right now with her art.
  • She is currently making art about West Africa and textiles, how women run the trade there, and how their labor is often exploited.
  • The materials and techniques that she uses.
  • Why April loved the freedom of teaching at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena so much.
  • Having overbearing foreign parents is something that April has in common with many of the students at the community colleges.
  • What led April to explore the textiles of Africa.
  • A lot of the fabric in Ghana is imported.
  • All the places in Africa that April went to on her research trip.
  • April’s textile works also act as portraits.
  • You can go to April’s website to take a look at her awesome art. Go to April Bey.
  • What you can expect to find on April’s website.
  • She does a lot of work with feminist themes.
  • Some of the advice that April gives to her art students.
  • April had some really wonderful mentors.
  • Some of the shows that are coming up for April.

Links:

April’s website:  April Bey.

48: Approaching Art Mindfully for Greater Inspiration with Mou Saha

48: Approaching Art Mindfully for Greater Inspiration with Mou Saha

Are you looking for some inspiration? If so, you will really enjoy listening to the interview with our guest for today, the very creative and naturally talented artist, Mou Saha. Mou was born and raised in India. She is an unassuming teacher with a bold spirit of exploration and she uses her mindful approach art to really inspire people to experiment with art media and color. Listen in today, to find out about what Mou, what she does, and how she got to do what she’s doing.    

Mou, a mixed-media artist, and a storyteller is an intelligent and very courageous woman. Her passionate and straightforward manner is reflected in the easy and pleasurable expression of her work. Despite the number of setbacks and complications she’s experienced in her life, she has produced some really meaningful work. Listen in to find out more about Mou’s really creative approach to life.

Show Highlights:

  • The way that Mou’s art classes have evolved over time.
  • Mou’s work has been published in a number of different publications.
  • What inspired Mou to start teaching.
  • Faber Castell launched a new brand for the crafting community and they reached out to Mou to do some projects for their launch. After seeing her work, they asked her to join the design team they were putting together.
  • Mou, as a child, really loved to draw- and she would draw everything!
  • Mou was an only child and her really artful family treated as a small adult. This really inspired her!
  • Although Mou was not very good at drawing accurately as a child, she used her drawing to express herself. She won a competition due to this.
  • In sixth grade, Mou was awarded a national scholarship for drawing. And after receiving the scholarship, she began to take her art more seriously.
  • Mou was already interested in doing counseling and psychology in the eighth grade, so she found out what she needed to do in order to do that.
  • How Mou discovered that she could move beyond what her parents had taught her about what was safe, and about what she could and could not do.
  • Everything came full circle for Mou when she moved to Tampa, Florida, after getting married.
  • Mou almost lost everything about herself in the process of coming to America, and she felt really lost.
  • How taking a course really helped her to gain a real perspective.
  • How Mou discovered scrapbooking.
  • How Mou coped with the devastating discovery of a lump in her breast.
  • How winning the grand prize for a scrapbooking competition really helped Mou.
  • Teaching people about what really matters with art.
  • You will receive a free gift from Mou for signing up for her newsletter.
  • Creating the time to do something for yourself that you really love to do.

Links:

Mou’s website: Mou Saha

Mou’s Youtube

Mou on Facebook

Mou’s gift for signing up to her newsletter

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