My favorite podcasts are the ones where I get to go to the person's studio and/or house, sit in their environment, and talk to them. It gives me such a deeper understanding of that person and where their creative juices come from.

I got to do that with renown sculptor Star York. We've been working on a 50 year retrospective, and this was part of that project. We recorded this interview in August in preparation for her Retrospective show here in Tucson on October 24th.

It's a two part podcast. The first part is us sitting and talking on her front porch and part two is the two of us going into her studio and doing a deep dive on what she does, how she does it, and why she does it.

Part one and part two are very different types of podcasts. One is more from the personal background standpoint. The other one, really more of what's happening today.

Anyhow, this is Star York part two on the Art Dealer Diaries Podcast. I hope you enjoy.

My favorite podcasts are the ones where I get to go to the person's studio and/or house, sit in their environment, and talk to them. It gives me such a deeper understanding of that person and where their creative juices come from.

I got to do that with renown sculptor Star York. We've been working on a 50 year retrospective, and this was part of that project. We recorded this interview in August in preparation for her Retrospective show here in Tucson on October 24th.

It's a two part podcast. The first part is us sitting and talking on her front porch and part two is the two of us going into her studio and doing a deep dive on what she does, how she does it, and why she does it.

Part one and part two are very different types of podcasts. One is more from the personal background standpoint. The other one, really more of what's happening today.

This is Star York part one on the Art Dealer Diaries Podcast. I hope you enjoy.

I had Jeremy Lipking on today and he is such a wonderful artist. I've always been a fan of his work. You know, it's not a far stretch to compare him to somebody like John Singer Sergeant or Joaquín Sorolla. He has this strong sense for posing figures, highlighting their emotions and body language. The way he sees these images in his head and then is somehow able to translate them to the viewer is quite remarkable.

In early September 2025 our schedules lined up and I finally had the opportunity to record a podcast with him. We had been talking about doing this for quite a few years, but I wanted to do it in person as opposed to recording over Zoom. We actually got together during the Far West Show here in Austin and recorded on the balcony of my hotel room with the beautiful backdrop of the Austin skyline in the background.

Like all these podcasts, I came away with something unique. In this case, it was the essence of who this individual is and his humbleness, quite frankly. I found out something unique that I had never even considered.

You see, Jeremy is a quarter Native American, and it's not something that he's really spent time talking about or exploring so much. So for me, that was quite interesting, to say the least, to hear about that component of his life. That's the thing. You have to take your time when interviewing people so you can hear their story in full. Jeremy was very generous and let everybody get to hear about his world.

So I had a great time with this really important artist. He's got a retrospective that's going to come up in April 2026 at the Booth Museum that you don't want to miss. This is Jeremy Lipking on Art Dealer Diaries Podcast episode 365.

I had a great interview with Starr Hardridge and he's just an incredible artist. He's Muskogee (Creek) and is known for his pointillism paintings that he does primarily of Native imagery. He also does some abstract artwork, which I really like as well.

It's a very unique style and takes an insane amount of time to do it. We even talk about how he does it, which usually I get more into the story of the person rather than the process. His style is just so unique and it's worth listening or watching this deep dive into it to find out how he does it.

He has this incredible journey like so many artists that I've interviewed. It is not an easy path to get to the promised land, and I do believe Starr is at that point. In fact, I ended up winning a draw to buy a piece of his art from the Eiteljorg because I really wanted one for my collection.

I had a great time talking to Starr. We did this at the Eiteljorg Museum and we got a room setup and just podcasted. I learned a lot about him and that's the great thing about this podcast, and not just for me, but other people that get to hear this, you get to get this inside view of the individual.

So this is Starr Hardridge on Art Dealer Diaries Podcast episode 364.

Doing podcasts can be such a joy and it was with Jordan Sprigg. This is the beauty of social media and the internet. My son and I found images of Jordan's sculptures online and we both gravitated to the man's work. It's just so interesting. He uses found material to build these beautiful sculptures of wildlife. Fish, ibex, rhinoceroses horses, etc.

He seemed like a really creative and genuine person on his Instagram account so we reached out to him in Australia to do the podcast. He lives over by in Perth (Or at least not too far from Perth) and he said, sure, I'll do a podcast with you.

You can feel the joy in this man's work. I recommend watching it on YouTube, just because you can see the smiles and the wonderment of how he became the artist that he is today.

He was a kid that drew and played with Legos, but he went to university for psychology and that's where he thought he was going end up. You see, he's a fourth generation farmer, in Australia. Then one day he art world finally opened up to him when he visited a sculpture exhibit on a beach in Australia.

He was able to show his work through Instagram, and his account blew up to over a million followers. So and we talk about that, what is that like to have so many followers and how he deals with all of the attention.

Jordan even had one video that had over 50 million views. So I had to ask him what's it like to go viral, you know? You might be surprised about his thoughts on something like that. I know I was.

That's what this whole podcast is about. Identifying those unique voices in the world. In this case, it's an artist who creates because he must create. So I hope you enjoy. This is Art Dealer Diaries Podcast episode 363 featuring Jordan Sprigg.

Barry Walsh, who's a specialist in Hopi Kachina, did a lovely presentation talking about different types of the kachinas and, as he refers to them, as katsinam. It was uniquely interesting because he's got, you know, decades of research and understanding of the kachinas themselves and has close ties to the Hopi.

He says in his lectures, he's not a expert. That 'an expert' could only be one of the Hopi carvers. That being said, Walsh has interviewed countless Hopi kachina artists and scribed numerous books on the topic.

This is a good podcast to watch on YouTube because we use all his slides from his presentation. If you ever wanted to really get a good sense about kachinas, the different types, and where it all began, this is a very good lecture.

Santa Fe Indian Market is such an interesting event and should be on every art lover's bucket list. This is the 103rd market and it's always the third week in August. They have a big ceremony to kick the weekend off and it's when they judge all the different art that comes in from all the artists.

Medicine Man Gallery and the Sublette Family Foundation for the Arts provide the funds for the Best of Show award, so we get to attend this exclusive event. I wanted you to be able to experience the event and if you watch it on YouTube, you can actually see the artist win and the pieces that won them the awards.

For these artists, winning can be such a life changing event. The winners have their name called up as the best of their respective classification, whether it's pottery, jewelry, weaving etc. then they allow the judges to decide who is the best of all. Santa Fe Indian Market Best of Show is an extremely rare accolade to have as an artist. This year is no different than any other.

I am soooo happy I was not a judge. It would have been very difficult to determine who was the best of the best. I was a surprised when they announced the winner and was somebody who was participating in Santa Fe Indian Market for the very first time. To be honest, it was a remarkable piece that won and there's no question it was among some of the toughest competition in years.

It's so much fun to hear and to see the artists and their families and how they react to winning. The joy you can see on their faces is second to none and well deserved. So I hope you enjoy this podcast. This is the Best of Show award ceremony for the 2025 SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market.

Billy Schenck's 55 Year Retrospective will open February 6, 2026 at Medicine Gallery, and over a year ago, I came out to Billy's studio to talk to him about what we're planning to do. It's been a year since then, and with the show coming up next year, that makes it a two year project. So you get to see Billy's studio (if you're watching on YouTube) and be able to hear the thought process behind what's required to do such a comprehensive show.

I mean, it's going to be his life's work, from his serigraphs to his older paintings to new paintings as well. We'll be using the entire gallery, as well as the Maynard Dixon & Native American Art Museum for this exhibition. This podcast will give you a taste of what's coming and the explain the basic requirements for an artist and a dealer to pull off a show of this magnitude.

There's a lot of moving parts, two years worth, for that matter, and there's a companion art book that Billy put together and I had the privilege to write the introduction for it

So I hope that you enjoy the podcast, but I also hope that you put into your databases the February 6th, 2026 date for this show. It's going to be important and it's going to be a party. There's going to be a lot of work there spanning the entire career of the legend, Billy Schenck.