Process Driven

In this episode, I start things off with a couple stories about my various connections to Eddie Van Halen, which started back when I was a kid and continued through college and into an unexpected job in Hollywood. My friend Patrick (http://www.patrickshipstad.com/) calls in to talk about how his work as a portrait photographer has changed under quarantine. He also shares some stories about his friend Taylor Negron, who he first met on the set of Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Matt from Denver calls in to talk about process versus results in his own creative practice and how a career change has forced him to make some decisions about how and where creativity fits into his life.Music in this episode:Bored by Jahzzar (CC BY-SA 4.0)Effects of Elevation by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0)Thank you to everyone who called in. I appreciate your time and energy very much. Let's do it again next week! Let me know what you think in the comments or connect with me using the links below. WANT TO SUPPORT THE WORK I'M D

In this episode, we're talking about the importance of backing up your work, and some of the ways what we do as creative professionals has changed during lockdown. SHOW NOTESDigging Deep with Robert Plant - https://lnk.to/RPDiggingDeepPodcastThe Honeydrippers - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_HoneydrippersPhotoWork with Sasha Wolf - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/photowork-with-sasha-wolf/id1523742299Richard Boutwell - http://www.richardboutwell.com/Scully & Osterman Studio - http://www.collodion.org/Fred Levy (The Black Dogs Project) - https://www.fredlevyart.com/index/G00007N.NR0KFZ5I/thumbsProcess Driven 25: Ondřej Vachek - https://jefferysaddoris.com/everything/processdriven-25/Music in this episode:Low Force by Daniel Birch (CC BY-SA 4.0)Hold On by Vienna Ditto (CC BY 4.0)Time by Pedro Santiago (CC BY 4.0)Realize by Ian Sutherland (CC BY-SA 4.0)Waveshift by Gorowski (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)Thank you to everyone who called in. I appreciate your time and energy very much. Let me know what you th

I don’t remember how it came up but I was talking to Sean Tucker a while back and we ended up talking about different photographers that we had found recently and he asked me whether I’d seen the work of Maria Lax. Maria is a Finnish photographer based in London who had published a book called Some Kind of Heavenly Fire. Honestly the title alone was enough to pique my interest but what I found beyond it was a fantastic set of images that were inspired by a book her grandfather wrote documenting a series of encounters with UFOs by the locals of the small Finnish town where she grew up. I’ve always had a fascination with UFOs so I was interested straight away and the work beautifully straddles the line between reality and possibility. Maria takes a little X-Files, a bit of Twin Peaks, and maybe even a dash of Todd Hido and turns it into something uniquely her own —and that combination of style and vision is there in both her personal and her commercial work, which is no easy feat.I’d like to thank Tom Booth Woo

The third episode of my livestream call-in show. As I try to solidify the direction of a some new projects (including this one), a couple of terrific books are really helping me to think about where those "aha!" moments come from and how creativity works.SHOW NOTESOrganizing Genius by Warren Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman http://bit.ly/OrganizingGeniusAbeBooksWhere Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson http://bit.ly/GoodIdeasAbeBooksBrian Eno On Genius, And “Scenius” https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/07/09/brian-eno-on-genius-and-scenius/Austin Kleon - Further notes on scenius https://austinkleon.com/2017/05/12/scenius/**The book links above are not affiliate links and I don't make anything from them. I'm directing you to Abe Books, rather than Amazon, because it gives you the opportunity to help smaller booksellers and get great deals on new and used books. I use them myself and can't recommend them enough.Thank you to everyone who called in. I appreciate your time and ene

In this episode, we continue to talk about music — how we relate to bands and how we listen to them. Adrianne shares a powerful story around how her father's "come to Jesus moment" affected his relationship with music and with her. We also talk about experiences around live music both from an audience perspective and as a member of the crew. Thank you to everyone who called in. I appreciate your time and energy very much.If you'd like to listen and call in live, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel.Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Overcast | Google Podcasts | RSSMusic in this episode:"Just Give It Time" by Pierce Murphy (CC BY 4.0)"Time Flux" by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0)"Secret Geometric States" by Kevin Bryce (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)WANT TO SUPPORT THE WORK I'M DOING?Subscribe & Review: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Overcast | Google PodcastsTell Your Friends & Share Episodes Online: You can even share a favorite show cli

I spend a lot of time thinking about materials and objects as they relate to art and art making and I spend a fair bit of time talking about it with Jon. In this conversation, we’re talking about some of our first memories of art and of objects that we somehow recognized as “special.” We also talk about the how the contrast between the refinement of Europe and the chaos of India in Jon’s childhood contributed to and maybe even directly informed the type of work he produces decades later.Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Overcast | Google Podcasts | RSSCONNECTYou can find Jon on Instagram @jonwilkening or on his website at jonwilkening.comIf you have questions, feedback on the show, or an idea for something you'd like us to talk about, I’d love to hear from you. Email me at talkback@jefferysaddoris.com or connect with me on Instagram @jefferysaddoris.Music in this episode: Take Me Higher (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0WANT TO SUPPORT THE WORK I'M DOING?Subscribe & Review: Apple Podcasts |

Growing up, I can’t remember not having a radio in one form or another. The first one I remember was a big walnut console with a turn table and a television that we had in our house in either San Dimas or Azusa — that part’s a little fuzzy but it had to be the early 70s. I also remember a little Panasonic clock radio my mom had on her night stand — and this was probably when I was in third or fourth grade — and the main reason I remember it is because it had those little black and white flippy numbers. I got my first stereo in junior high — I don’t remember which year — but I do remember that the first record I ever got was Robin Williams Reality… What a Concept.As I got older and started listening to the radio more often, I started to recognize the DJs in addition to the music. The first one I remember was probably Wolfman Jack because he was just such a character. Because we were in LA, there were a ton of DJs to listen to — Rick Dees on KIIS FM, Richard Blade and Rodney Bingenheimer on KROQ, Mark and Brian

If you’ve listened to any of my shows before, you know that I spend a fair bit of time talking about creativity, both in the literal and in the abstract. I’m fascinated by how and why we create. Why for some, the need to express who they — we — are is as important to the human experience as taking a breath. Questions around creativity inform many of the conversations I have — whether or not I’m rolling tape — what I read and even some of the things I watch. For example, this morning I watched a TED Talk by Ethan Hawke. Now, I wouldn’t call myself a FAN of Ethan Hawke, per se, although I’ve seen Gattaca a half-dozen times and he was great in Training Day with Denzel Washington. Anyway, like I said, I’m not a huge fan but I do have massive respect for the choices he makes as an artist. I mean, just scanning through his filmography reminds you of some of the often unexpected and occasionally brilliant left turns he’s made in his career. And whether or not a project did well at the box office or was acclaimed by

When I was a kid, my mom used to say that if the house ever caught fire, the one thing she would grab before anything else was the box of family photos that she kept in her closet, which I’m sure was common for many of us before analog became digital. For my mom, those photos were the things — the objects —that she held most dear, more than jewelry or money or a favorite piece of clothing. They anchored her to specific memories and feelings and because of that were more or less irreplaceable. Objects have meaning and more importantly value, and to what degree we value the objects in our lives is different for all of us.Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Overcast | Google Podcasts| RSSCONNECTYou can find Jon on Instagram @jonwilkening or on his website at jonwilkening.comIf you have questions, feedback on the show, or an idea for something you’d like us to talk about, I’d love to hear from you. Email me at talkback@jefferysaddoris.com or connect with me on Instagram @jefferysaddoris.Music in this

At the end of May, I decided to take a break from social media so I could focus on making without the constant background noise that seemed to be sucking the life out the urge to create anything. It was a self-imposed blackout that I hoped would allow at least some of the creative light back in. Inspired by a recent documentary, I decided to work on a series of 12 paintings simultaneously rather than a single piece, and within a couple weeks I had completed twelve new pieces of work. Seeing them spread out on the bench was like fuel to keep going, so I set a fairly ambitious goal: to create 53 new paintings — including the first twelve — by my 53rd birthday on July 21st. Well, my birthday was yesterday and at about 4 o’clock, I put the final brushstrokes of black edging on the last piece, which was actually piece number 54. A week or so ago, when I still wasn’t quite sure I’d make the goal, I sat down with Jon to talk about the project.Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Overcast | Google Podcast

There’s something about wet plate photography that I can’t get out of my head. Maybe it’s the process, maybe it’s the unpredictable nature of it—Sally Mann calls it “the angel of uncertainty.” Or maybe it’s the permanence of the objects themselves. When you look at an image by Matthew Brady or Timothy O’Sullivan, for a moment you’re no longer part of the present. And I would argue that that sense of timelessness is one of the reasons a handful of modern photographers still choose to embrace the 170-year-old process.In 2018 there was a Sally Mann show at the National Gallery called A Thousand Crossings. It is by far my favorite show I’ve ever seen since I've been in DC and, in fact, I went back to see it about a half-dozen times. While I love her entire body of work, it was the wet plate work—both plates and prints—that I found myself gravitating to the most. Far from the pristine edge-to-edge sharpness of modern photos, they exude life, inexorably binding them to the maker.A couple weeks ago, I got an em

Last week, I decided to take a much needed break from social media. There’s just too much going on in the world that pulls my focus away from the areas of my life that really warrant - and frankly need - that focus - specifically my family and my art. In my final Instagram post before the break, I wrote that I wasn’t who I wanted to be lately followed by a list of distractions that to a lesser or greater extent contribute to it. After seeing the post, Jon reached out and asked if I’d like to talk about it.Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Overcast | Google Podcasts | RSSSHOW NOTESDavid Goggins - https://davidgoggins.com/Elizabeth Gilbert's TED Talk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86x-u-tz0MAJocko Willink - https://jockopodcast.com/Cal Newport - Deep Work*CONNECTYou can find Jon on Instagram @jonwilkening or on his website at jonwilkening.comIf you have an interesting story to share, I’d love to hear from you. Email me at talkback@jefferysaddoris.com or connect with me on Instagram @jeffe

What happens next? That’s the question isn’t it? It’s something I get asked a lot, especially lately, both from friends and from strangers. I wish I had an answer but honestly I’m still spending a fair bit of time struggling to answer “what now?” I’m sure most of you are thinking about it too and maybe you even have an answer. Eventually, we’ll all have to think about it. What happens when we can go outside — without a mask — to grab dinner with family and friends, go to the movies, see a baseball game and just get back to something resembling normal? But, what does normal even look like in the wake of this?SHOW NOTESIf you’re a gamer—and even if you’re not—the tech demo for Unreal Engine 5 running on the PS5 is pretty damn impressive. The level of detail that’s possible is just incredible and in many ways it’s a quantum leap over the already impressive Unreal Engine 4, which in addition to being used to power AAA games was also used to create the virtual environments on Disney’s The Mandelorian.PS5 Unreal En

As much as I love working with acrylics in my paintings, because many of them are literally dozens of layers of pigment, collage, found objects, and thick layers of acrylic medium, it can take weeks to finish a single piece just waiting for layers to dry. A few years ago, I began looking into using encaustic, which offers the ability to create work with a similar aesthetic to my acrylic work in a fraction of the time. In doing the research, I came across the work of Lisa Pressman. Lisa is a fabulous artist from New Jersey who works in both encaustic and oils and has been exhibiting her work for nearly four decades. In addition to making her own work, she inspires others to start their own artistic journey through her workshops and one on one mentoring. Lisa and I have spoken a few times and I’m so grateful that we were finally able to hit the record button. LINKShttps://elizabethmurrayart.orghttps://rbleckner.com/http://www.gregoryamenoff.comhttps://www.terrywinters.orghttps://www.wikiart.org/en/philip-guston

Back in January, I came across a terrific piece of writing by author Paul Jarvis. One part of it in particular really spoke to some of the things I’ve wrestled with over the years — loving what you do, following your passion, and the costly obsession that often goes along with each of those things. I ended up subscribing to Paul’s newsletter and regardless of whether you’re a full-time creative, an enthusiastic amateur or someone in the middle just trying to live a more creative or interesting life, there are so many valuable insights and observations that it’s quickly become one of my favorite weekly reads. I shared the piece with Jon and while he wasn’t familiar with it, he had actually spoken to Paul before. Since Jon is just as big a fan of rabbit holes as I am, I thought it might be fun to unpack it a little.Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Overcast | RSS | StitcherIf you enjoy listening to In Between, please consider leaving a review or rating wherever you listen or sharing it on social media.

Do you know the Serenity prayer? Even if you don’t know it by name, you’ve likely heard it. It goes:“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference.”Originally written as part of a sermon in the 1930s by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, the Serenity prayer has been adopted by a number of twelve-step programs, most notably Alcoholics Anonymous.Regardless of whether or not you are religious or part of a twelve-step program, the core of the Serenity prayer - change and acceptance - are ideas that virtually everyone struggles with at one point or another. I know I do.If you enjoy listening to Iterations, please consider leaving a review or a rating on iTunes to help others discover the show.LINKSRegina GimenezThe Price of EverythingUnder the (Ray) Gun: Chris AshworthMusic in this episode: The Wrong Way (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

Several years ago when I wasn’t really sure what direction my life was taking, one of the ideas I kept coming back to was getting a Volkswagen Westfalia van and just driving around the country, allowing the universe to put interesting people and experiences in my path rather than trying to follow a specific plan. I hadn’t started podcasting yet, nor had I picked up my paint brushes again, so the “what I would be doing to actually support myself” aspect of it was pretty nebulous. Still, I loved the idea and for years it was a running joke between my friend Jude and me. Whenever one of us was dealing with some sort of personal or existential challenge, the other would respond with “well, you could always get a Westfalia van and just drive around.”For Dutch photographer Maarten Rots and his wife Anne, the dream of van life has become a reality. For 6 to 8 months a year, they trade their home in the Netherlands for a Ford Transit camper van and travel throughout Europe, often without a fixed destination. For Maar

This might be one of the most process driven episodes of Process Driven yet. I’ve known Karl Taylor for more than a decade. I was introduced to his work by my friend Patrick in the form of a DVD of Karl‘s Photography Master Class. What struck me straight away was Karl‘s enthusiasm for photography – that and his encyclopedic knowledge of the medium. 12 years after its initial release, Karl has created a brand new remastered version of his original introduction to photography built on a decade of learning and refining what was already an incredible understanding of both the art and science of photography. In this conversation we talk about some of the things he’s learned over the past 10 years, including a deep-dive into the biology of how we see and process images. CONNECT WITH KARLWebsite: https://karltaylor.comPlatform: https://karltayloreducation.comInstagram: https://instagram.com/karltaylorphotography MUSICPlease Listen Carefully (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

When I saw the work of photographer Ryan Struck, particularly his surf and lifestyle photography, I knew I wanted to talk to him. From the first photo, it was obvious that Ryan wasn’t just an outsider simply documenting this lifestyle, he was living it and I bet he had an interesting story to tell. Turns out, whether he’s self-funding a documentary about the community surrounding an all-female surf competition, or photographing abandoned televisions on the streets, interesting stories don’t just fuel his photography, they fuel his life. LINKSTofinoQueen of the Peak CONNECT WITH RYANWebsite: https://ryanstruck.com/Instagram: @ryanstruckMUSICPlease Listen Carefully (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 4.0

A couple weeks ago, I got a text from my friend Sean who had just gotten out of the cinema seeing 1917, the new World War I epic from director Sam Mendes. The text simply read “so good.” I remember seeing the trailer for the film months ago and thinking that it looked incredible. But most of recent the buzz about the film seemed to center around the idea that it was all shot in one continuous take. In fact, the first plot keyword you’ll see in the IMDB listing for the film is “one take.” You’ll also read it or a variation of it in virtually every review of the film. The problem is it’s not true. 1917 was filmed to appear as one continuous shot, which it is a remarkable achievement on a film of this scale, but that doesn’t make it any more true. When I got the “so good” text from Sean, I remember asking him whether the one shot thing worked or if it came off as more of a gimmick. “I don’t know,” he responded. “I have mixed feelings I think.” Now that we’ve both seen it and had a chance to think about it, I tho