I Like Your Work: Conversations with Artists

• What's Happening at Miami Art Week 2025: Artist Takeaways from Art Basel, NADA, Untitled & SCOPE

  If you've been watching the Miami energy from afar and wondering what it all means for your studio practice, this episode gives you the trends, themes, and takeaways that actually matter for artists.In this episode, Erika covers: • The big-picture trends shaping Miami Art Week 2025:  – Institutional validation and residencies becoming more influential  – The shift toward sustainable careers and long-term practice  – Experiential installations dominating many fairs  – Latin American and Caribbean artists in the spotlight  – The ongoing market correction and what collectors are looking for • A breakdown of the key fairs:  – Art Basel Miami Beach: What's new, what curators are paying attention to, and how residencies fit into this year's programming  – NADA: Emerging artists, experimental work, and themes like climate fiction + myth/memory  – Untitled Art Fair: Thoughtful curation and a special focus on reflection-based work  – SCOPE Miami Beach: Where Erika is speaking this year on sustainable artist careers and the power of residencies  – Additional satellite fairs: Design Miami, Aqua, Art Miami + Context, Satellite, Prizm Erika also shares: • How the fairs are highlighting conversations around artist support, sustainability, and community  • A grounded takeaway for artists who aren't in Miami: how to move your career forward from your own studio Whether you're at the fairs, following along online, or simply curious about the current art-world landscape, this episode gives you the quick, real insights behind the images.   I Like Your Work Links: Thank you to our sponsor, Sunlight Tax.  Make Taxes Easier and Stash an Extra $152k in Your Savings Free Class: sunlighttax.com/ilikeyourwork   Right now, listeners of I Like Your Work can get this free artists' tax deduction guide by going to sunlighttax.com/ilikeyourworkguide   Pre-order our catalog: https://www.ilikeyourworkpodcast.com/resources   Have a question you want Erika to discuss in a mini episode? Email it to [email protected] with the subject "mini eps"    Apply to the Chautauqua School of Art Residency Program: art.chq.org Join Erika in Italy at Umbria Contemporary Arts this Summer: https://www.umbriacontemporaryarts.com/product-page/the-symbolic-landscape-instructor   Join the Works Membership! https://theworksmembership.com/ Watch our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ilikeyourworkpodcast Submit Your Work Check out our Catalogs! Exhibitions Studio Visit Artist Interviews I Like Your Work Podcast Say "hi" on Instagram

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• Italian Journey: Corot, Goethe & the Self We Discover

  In this episode, Erika explores how observation, travel, and memory shape artistic practice, inspired by her upcoming class in Italy, The Symbolic Landscape. Drawing from Corot's plein air studies and Goethe's Italian Journey, she reflects on how artists discover themselves through what they see—whether in a distant landscape or a simple daily moment. The episode invites listeners to make space for beauty and reflection, wherever they are, and to see art as both a return to the world and a way to transcend it.   The Symbolic Landscape- Class in Italy Dates: May 10 - May 24 Early Registration Discount: A 20% discount applies if Payment In Full is made before December 2nd, 2025.   I Like Your Work Links: Thank you to our sponsor, Sunlight Tax.  Make Taxes Easier and Stash an Extra $152k in Your Savings Free Class: sunlighttax.com/ilikeyourwork   Right now, listeners of I Like Your Work can get this free artists' tax deduction guide by going to sunlighttax.com/ilikeyourworkguide   Thank you to our Sponsor, the 2026 Canopy Program: Join an info session with Founder and Executive Director Catherine Haggarty and apply by January 14th at thecanopyprogram.com   Pre-order our catalog: https://www.ilikeyourworkpodcast.com/resources   Have a question you want Erika to discuss in a mini episode? Email it to [email protected] with the subject "mini eps"    Apply to the Chautauqua School of Art Residency Program: art.chq.org Join Erika in Italy at Umbria Contemporary Arts this Summer: https://www.umbriacontemporaryarts.com/product-page/the-symbolic-landscape-instructor   Join the Works Membership! https://theworksmembership.com/ Watch our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ilikeyourworkpodcast Submit Your Work Check out our Catalogs! Exhibitions Studio Visit Artist Interviews I Like Your Work Podcast Say "hi" on Instagram

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• Understanding Your Experience with Painter Gail Spaien

  Gail Spaien (b. 1958, Hartford, Connecticut)  is an American artist and educator based in Maine. Her studio practice centers around the idea that a painting is a site of connection; an object that transmits emotion from one person to another. She is of a lineage of artists who think craft and beauty shape and build a more relational world. Spaien has been the recipient of numerous fellowships, including the Ucross Foundation (2024), Varda Artist Residency Program, Djerassi Foundation Resident Artists Program, Millay Colony for the Arts, and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She has received grant funding from the Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed Foundation, the Maine Arts Commission, and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions, including Taymour Grahne Projects, Dubai, UAE(2025);  Mrs. Gallery, NY (2025); Nancy Margolis Gallery, NY; Taymour Grahne Projects, London, UK;  Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, ME;  Ellen Miller Gallery, Boston, MA;  and Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME.  Group exhibitions include Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Taymour Grahne Projects, London, UK; Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME; 1969 Gallery, NY; studio e, Seattle, WA; Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, MA; University of New Hampshire Museum, Durham, NH; Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, ME; Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME; and the DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA. Spaien received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and BFA from the University of Southern Maine. After thirty years as faculty at the Maine College of Art and Design, she is full-time in the studio.   "Inspired by my geographic location and the landscape that surrounds me, the images in my paintings are of observed and imagined places where one can be in relationship with others, the world, and the self. They celebrate the beauty of everyday acts and the quiet rhythms of daily life. They are compact reductions of lived experiences and permeable arenas of contemplation. The way I make my work is a performance of slowness. Created through repetitive handcraft, marked by decorative patterning, flattened space, and subtly skewed perspectives, my paintings reflect the intimacy of their making. Blending still life with landscape, often depicting a unification between the interior and exterior, spectators of my paintings become inhabitants of a world in slower motion. Composing an idealized counterpoint, I suggest that slowness and attention to the rhythms of an ordinary day is a form of quiet resistance and renewal. My source material ranges from the animated movies of Hayao Miyazaki and Walt Disney to the symbolism of Dutch Still Life paintings. I reference quilts, samplers, mourning paintings, Japanese embroidery, early American wooden furniture, wooden boats, and the architecture of simple cottages. The meditative and precise quality of paint-by-numbers, which I did as a child, also informs my work, as well as my admiration of early American folk artists, the Pattern and Decoration movement, Intimism and the ancient artists of Ukiyo-e. My paintings are places, and I approach them as such. As a painter, I turn my back on the external world and enter the world of the painting. I hope a viewer might do that too. When people say, "I want to go there," I feel I have hit the mark in some way."   LINKS:   gailspaien.com   @gailspaien     Artist Shout out:  A shout out to my colleagues who are showing with Taymour Grahne Projects:  Amy Lincoln https://www.amylincoln.com/ @amyplincoln Matthew F. Fisher https://www.matthewffisher.com/ @matthewffisher Sarah Mceneaney https://taymourgrahne.com/artists/sarah-mceneaney @sarahmcinerney Samira Abbassy https://www.samiraabbassy.com/ @samira_abasy Katia Kamali https://taymourgrahne.com/artists/katia-kameli @kamelikatia Faycal Baghriche https://taymourgrahne.com/artists/faycal-baghriche And a VERY small few of my Maine colleagues: Philip Brou https://philipbrou.com/home.html Honour Mack https://honourmack.com/home.html @honourmack Tessa Greene O'Brien https://www.tessagreenobrien.com/ @tessagreeneobrien Grace Hager https://gracehager.com/ @gracemakes Hilary Irons https://hilaryirons.com/home.html @h.irons.h Brett Bigby https://www.alexandregallery.com/artists-work/brett-bigbee#tab:thumbnails @brettbigby Rose Marasco https://rosemarasco.com/ @rosemarasco     I Like Your Work Links: Thank you to our sponsor, Sunlight Tax.  Right now, listeners of I Like Your Work can get this free artists' tax deduction guide by going to sunlighttax.com/ilikeyourworkguide   Thank you to our Sponsor, the 2026 Canopy Program: Join an info session with Founder and Executive Director Catherine Haggarty and apply by January 14th at thecanopyprogram.com     Pre-order our catalog: https://www.ilikeyourworkpodcast.com/resources   Have a question you want Erika to discuss in a mini episode? Email it to [email protected] with the subject "mini eps"    Apply to the Chautauqua School of Art Residency Program: art.chq.org Join Erika in Italy at Umbria Contemporary Arts this Summer: https://www.umbriacontemporaryarts.com/product-page/the-symbolic-landscape-instructor   Join the Works Membership! https://theworksmembership.com/ Watch our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ilikeyourworkpodcast Submit Your Work Check out our Catalogs! Exhibitions Studio Visit Artist Interviews I Like Your Work Podcast Say "hi" on Instagram

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• Most Overlooked Area in Open Calls

  In this episode, I'm diving into open calls including what jurors look for when reviewing applications, and why the description box is crucial for providing context about your artwork. I'm also sharing practical tips on how artists can use detailed descriptions to make their submissions stand out and highlighting resources for artists to improve their application process.   I Like Your Work Links: Thank you to our sponsor, Sunlight Tax.  https://www.sunlighttax.com     Apply for our Winter Exhibition: Deadline is November 15: https://www.ilikeyourworkpodcast.com/submitwork   Pre-order our catalog: https://www.ilikeyourworkpodcast.com/resources   Have a question you want Erika to discuss in a mini episode? Email it to [email protected] with the subject "mini eps"    Apply to the Chautauqua School of Art Residency Program: art.chq.org Join Erika in Italy at Umbria Contemporary Arts this Summer: https://www.umbriacontemporaryarts.com/product-page/the-symbolic-landscape-instructor   Join the Works Membership! https://theworksmembership.com/ Watch our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ilikeyourworkpodcast Submit Your Work Check out our Catalogs! Exhibitions Studio Visit Artist Interviews I Like Your Work Podcast Say "hi" on Instagram

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• The Life of Objects with Painter Gwen Strahle

  Gwen Strahle is a painter living and working in northeast CT. She teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design. She shows her work at Nancy Devine Gallery in RI. Strahle has received several awards including the Connecticut Artist Fellowship, the Purchase Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Guggenheim Fellowship, and an Honorarium from the Drawing Center. Strahle earned her MFA from Yale University in 1983. "I have been making paintings of objects arranged on my studio table for over forty years. Many of the objects in my work have been with me for the entirety of that time. The objects are painted both from life and from memory: bud vases, shells, pitchers, and glasses. Each of these objects is a kind of vessel, and I often think about what is inside of an object- the fullness of something empty in appearance. The objects are personified in the paintings, and I have become emotionally invested in them; they are part of my family. Over the years, they have changed and aged with me as I paint them into each image. I have created a hierarchy of icons using these familiar objects that can grow and change depending on their arrangement from one painting to the next. That dynamic relationship between objects is important to me. The covered table under the set-up serves as the canvas, or as the painting itself. Its flat surface is raised up for the viewer, with the malleability of a blank slate that allows objects to emerge from and be pushed back into the surface of the table—like a garden bed. It represents the painted world in which my objects can exist. Twenty years ago, I began to add my own silhouette to the paintings, which has recently turned into a shadow, and it presides over the still-life, and is in turn embraced by it. It made sense for that figure to be my own body, or my own shadow, as I am the one experiencing my relationship to the still-life, with these objects. This transparent form can dissolve across the objects and the table. My process involves moving the objects around the image, eliminating and adding as I work through each painting. My paintings come together slowly, sometimes over the course of months or years before I find resolution in the composition. In the practice of painting, I seek the feeling of being present in the world. The slowness allows for this."   LINKS:     gwenstrahle.com   @gwenpaints       I Like Your Work Links: Thank you to our sponsor, Sunlight Tax.  Taxes for Humans is the clearest, kindest, funniest tax book you've ever read. It's as generous as you are. Pre-Order by Nov 11 to get a discount AND instant access to Hannah's course. Go to sunlighttax.com/bonus If you have questions about: Estimated quarterly taxes Deductions Business setup steps (making it "official") LLCs Bookkeeping Getting and staying organized Getting out of a jam (payment plans, tax-cheating spouses, etc) Getting a lot more money from tax savings This book is your answer key. Uplifting, practical, and tax-deductible. A companion to the book, the WORKBOOK covers mindset exercises, clears mental blocks, and applies the knowledge you learned in the book.It has the best tax organizer you've ever seen (for actually organizing your tax info at tax time). https://www.sunlighttax.com       Apply for our Winter Exhibition: Deadline is November 15: https://www.ilikeyourworkpodcast.com/submitwork   Pre-order our catalog: https://www.ilikeyourworkpodcast.com/resources   Have a question you want Erika to discuss in a mini episode? Email it to [email protected] with the subject "mini eps"    Apply to the Chautauqua School of Art Residency Program: art.chq.org Join Erika in Italy at Umbria Contemporary Arts this Summer: https://www.umbriacontemporaryarts.com/product-page/the-symbolic-landscape-instructor   Join the Works Membership! https://theworksmembership.com/ Watch our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ilikeyourworkpodcast Submit Your Work Check out our Catalogs! Exhibitions Studio Visit Artist Interviews I Like Your Work Podcast Say "hi" on Instagram

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