Strand, the Story of an Artist

Kevin Kirkwood sits down with Charlotte-based painter Kate Schultz for a conversation about color, shape, nature, and the experiences that continue to influence her work.
Working in acrylic and mixed media, Kate creates paintings inspired by the quiet beauty of the natural world. In this episode, she discusses her current exploration of color relationships, her interest in moving away from conventional ideas of depth, and what it was like growing up in rural Mississippi. She also shares how her flower garden and the wild birds surrounding her Charlotte home continue to find their way into her paintings.
Kate earned her BFA in painting from the University of Mississippi and has been creating work professionally for over a decade. Her influences include Paul Klee, Milton Avery, Pablo Picasso, Mary Fedden, and Arthur Dove.
Learn more: kateschultzart.com | @katefschultz
Shain Gallery: shaingallery.com | @shaingallery
Follow the host: kevin-kirkwood.com | @kevinwillpaint | @strandpodcast
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Kevin Kirkwood recorded this episode a few weeks ago inside the studio of ceramicist, Lilith Rockett. 
Lilith is a Portland-based ceramicist who has spent 23 years working primarily in porcelain, creating tableware, teaware, and larger vessels. She spent 15 years collaborating with acclaimed chefs and restaurants. Her work has shown in national juried exhibitions, including the Smithsonian and the Craft Council. She has received the Oregon Arts grant three times. In recent years her practice has expanded into atmospheric wood and wood-soda firings that incorporate wild-foraged ash, clay, and rock.
Learn more: lilithrockett.com | @lilithrockett
Follow the host: kevin-kirkwood.com | @kevinwillpaint | @strandpodcast
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Kevin Kirkwood joined Portland, Oregon-based sculptor and multidisciplinary artist Malia Jensen during his recent recording trip through the Pacific Northwest.
Malia’s work is focused primarily in sculpture and video. Her materially driven practice combines the tactile assertions of the hand-made with complex psychological narratives, physical comedy and a quest for beauty and understanding. Her work is held in many public and private collections throughout the Northwest, including the Portland Art Museum, where Three Sisters: Nest, Flee, Swarm, is currently on view, and the City of Beaverton, where Endless Pigeons, can be found on the plaza of the Patricia Reser Center for the Arts. Current projects include a large-scale public commission for the City of Seattle, installing in 2027. She has been an Artist in Residence at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation (Captiva, FL), Ucross Foundation (Clearmont, WY), Headlands Center for the Arts (Sausalito, CA), Portland Garment Factory and GLEAN (Portland, OR) and visiting artist at Whitman College (Walla Walla, WA), Southern Oregon University (Ashland, OR), Pacific Northwest College of Art (Portland, OR), and Massachusetts College of Art and Design (Boston, MA). Her work is represented by Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, and Cristin Tierney Gallery, New York.
 
Learn more: maliajensenstudio.com | @maliajensenstudio
Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland | elizabethleach.com @elizabethleachgallery
Cristin Tierney Gallery, New York | cristintierney.com @cristintierneygallery
Follow the host: kevin-kirkwood.com | @kevinwillpaint | @strandpodcast
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Portrait by Rebekah Johnson @rebekah_johnson_photography
 

Kevin Kirkwood recorded this episode inside the Portland studio of Kari Merkl to talk about craft, materiality, and building a studio around collaborative problem-solving.
Kari has been designing and creating objects of function for over 25 years. She started in the study of architecture, which eventually led her to industrial design. That path shaped her hands on approach to fabrication. She founded Merkled Studio in 2009, a Portland-based design and manufacturing company specializing in contemporary furniture, fixtures, and products for residential and commercial spaces. Her work has been shown at galleries and retail stores around the world, including the NY MOMA Design Store, ICFF, IDS, and NeoCon.
Merkled Studio is a process-driven studio. It values collaboration, simplicity, quality, craftsmanship, and material exploration. Her work reflects her own appreciation for materials, mechanics, and craft. She also founded the League of Women Designers, with chapters in Portland and Chicago.
Learn more: merkled.com | @merkledstudio
Follow the host: kevin-kirkwood.com | @kevinwillpaint | @strandpodcast
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Kevin Kirkwood recorded this episode in Portland, Oregon. This conversation covers fifty years of curating, a lifelong photographic documentation of a city, and what it means to grow up inside a family of working artists.
Christopher Rauschenberg is a Portland-based photographer and curator. He is a founding member of Blue Sky Gallery, where he has co-curated and co-produced over a thousand exhibitions since 1975. He also co-founded Photolucida and the Nine Gallery co-op. In 1995 he launched the Portland Grid Project, a systematic photographic survey of the city now in its fourth round. His own photographs have appeared in 131 solo shows across eight countries and live in the collections of thirteen major museums.
At the center of Christopher's practice is a commitment to looking closely at communities.
Learn more: blueskygallery.org
Follow the host: kevin-kirkwood.com | @kevinwillpaint | @strandpodcast
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Kevin Kirkwood recorded this episode in Portland, Oregon, in a conversation covering craft, self-taught mastery, and the survival of a nearly lost trade.
Bryan Yonki is a Chilean sign painter, educator, and author based in Portland, Oregon. Inspired by the hand-painted signs he grew up seeing in Santiago, he moved to Los Angeles in 2014, taught himself the craft, and founded Well Done Signs in 2016, painting signs, murals, and storefronts for businesses across the West Coast under the motto "Always Hand Painted." He also teaches sign painting workshops nationally and documents vernacular lettering through books, photography, and printmaking.
At the center of Bryan's practice is a commitment to preserving traditional sign painting, not just as a livelihood, but as a living heritage worth passing on.
In this conversation, Bryan reflects on the Santiago signs that first shaped his eye, what it took to teach himself a craft with few living teachers left, and how his publishing and photography work fit into a larger effort to keep the tradition alive for future generations.
Learn more: welldonesigns.com | @welldonesigns
Follow the host: kevin-kirkwood.com | @kevinwillpaint | @strandpodcast
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Kevin Kirkwood recorded this episode in Portland, Oregon during a weeklong trip through the Pacific Northwest, opening a new series of conversations with six regional artists and beginning with sculptor Ivan McLean.
Ivan took an unconventional road into art, from studying farm management at Cal Poly to the Peace Corps, a sheep station in Australia, and a furniture business run with his brother. He first learned to weld out of necessity, fixing machinery on Northern California ranches, and moved into sculpture full time only after the furniture business hit a downturn in 2001. Since then he has become known for his intricate sculptures, working across steel, bronze, kiln-formed glass, wood, and stone.
In this conversation, Ivan reflects on the winding path that led him to sculpture, the moment welding stopped being a repair skill and became a creative language, and what he is making in the studio these days.
Learn more: ivanmclean.com | @ivanmcleanartartelementsgallery.com | @artelementssculpturesite.com | @sculpturesite
Follow the host: kevin-kirkwood.com | @kevinwillpaint | @strandpodcast
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Kevin Kirkwood recently sat down with Savannah-based artist and designer Nikole Nelson.
Nikole Nelson is the founder of BLKCORAL, an interdisciplinary studio renowned for crafting immersive, thought-provoking environments that bridge fine art, interior architecture, and set design. A SCAD graduate, she has collaborated with premier global brands including Tory Burch, Kate Spade, Coach, and NBC Universal. In 2022, she debuted her Botanical Collection as an Artist in Residence at SCAD Lacoste in France.
Nelson's practice is rooted in transforming organic elements and conceptual environments into experiences that invite a deeper connection to space and the natural world.
In this conversation, Nikole reflects on her journey from Hawaii to New York and Miami, and how each place shaped her creative voice. She also speaks to the mentors who recognized her potential early on, and what she hopes people feel when they first encounter her work.
Learn more: blkcoral.com | @blkcoral
Follow the host: kevin-kirkwood.com | @kevinwillpaint | @strandpodcast
Listen to The Strand on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Amazon Music, and other major podcast platforms.

Kevin Kirkwood recently visited Basil's studio to discuss his journey from Jamaica to the international stage, the development of his artistic voice, and the responsibility of creating public monuments that preserve collective memory.
Over the course of his career, Basil Watson has created public sculptures that explore history, identity, culture, and the human experience. His work can be found throughout the Caribbean, the United States, and Europe, including the National Windrush Monument in London, a tribute to the contributions of the Windrush generation to British society.
Watson's practice is rooted in translating complex narratives into public form, using sculpture to create spaces that invite reflection and connection.
In this conversation, Basil reflects on the artists who influenced his early career, the challenges of creating work for diverse audiences, and the importance of gratitude and finding peace in everyday life.
Learn more:basilsculpture.com | @basil.sculpture
Follow the host:kevin-kirkwood.com | @kevinwillpaint | @strandpodcast
Listen to The Strand at the link in bio, or on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Amazon Music, and other major podcast platforms.

Kevin Kirkwood recently visited Navin's studio to talk about the objects, places, and histories that have shaped his art and practice.
Norling's work spans painting, assemblage, reclaimed windows, salvaged signage, and found objects: materials pulled from the edges of American life and reassembled into layered visual narratives. His practice draws on family history, folk traditions, quilting, and the vernacular of both rural and urban America, transforming discarded things into work that holds memory, identity, and cultural inheritance.
Born in California, shaped by the Bay, New York City, and now Atlanta, Norling brings a wide range of experience to his art. In this conversation, he and Kevin trace the environments that formed him, including the lasting influence of artist Raymond Saunders, and how time in New York deepened his thinking about race, class, and Americana.
They discuss his exhibition Dangerous Games at Johnson Lowe Gallery, exploring the role of whitewashing, visibility, and erasure in his work, and how beauty, humor, and materiality can hold difficult histories.
Learn more:
navinjunenorling.com   |   @navinjunenorling
johnsonlowe.com   |   @johnsonlowegallery
Follow the host: kevin-kirkwood.com | @kevinwillpaint | @strandpodcast
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