Sam Michelle and Deb McKenzie met more then a decade ago when they were both given studios in a shared space through their framer. What started as five or six days a week working alongside each other quietly became one of the most important relationships in both their practices.

In this conversation we talk about what it means to have someone who genuinely gets it, not just the excitement of a new show, but the pre-show spiral, the post-show crash, the gallery relationship you're not sure is right, the decision that feels too big to make alone. We talk about vulnerability and whether you actually move through self-doubt faster when you've got someone to be honest with. We talk about the art world feeling opaque and why having one person you can call and say "is this normal?" matters.

We also get into what it means to have someone who can give you an honest perspective without any competing interest, someone who knows what's normal in this industry and what isn't, and who will tell you either way.

Find Sam here on her website here and her instagram here: sammichelle.com.au and on Instagram @sammichelleartist.

Find my previous chats with sam here

Find Debbie McKenzie on her website here and her instagram here debbiemackenzieartist.com and Instagram @debbiemackenzieartist

Find my previous chat with Deb here

You can find the podcast here on Instagram & here on substack

Thanks so much for listening! Feel free to rate, review & share if you enjoyed it, this helps other people find the show

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Most artists know the Affordable Art Fair exists. What it's actually like to be there as an artist, on the floor, in the booth, talking to strangers about your work for four days straight, is a different story. Georgia Huestis is the Fair Director of the Affordable Art Fair in Australia, with Fairs in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and she was so generous with information this week in our chat.

In this conversation we get into the mechanics of how the fair actually works for artists, be it with a gallery, the collective model, the Young Talent program for unrepresented artists under 35. We chatted about the sort of support the fair offers around selling, hanging, and getting your booth to land. Georgia is refreshingly practical about what a slow day means, what a first fair is supposed to feel like, and why bringing someone in as your support person might be one of the best decisions you make.

you can find Georgia on instagram here

Plus find the Affordable Art Fair Australia here on Instagram and their website here

The Melbourne Affordable Art fair is on soon- August 27-30

SYDNEY: 5-8 November

BRISBANE: May 2027

Links

• Affordable Art Fair Australia
• Georgia Huestis
• Alice Palmer
• Rich & Strange Gallery
• Angela Moritz
• Vandal ltd
• Rachel Rush
• Diego Faivre
• Claudio Kirac
• Anna Price

You can find the podcast here on Instagram & here on substack

Thanks so much for listening! Feel free to rate, review & share if you enjoyed it, this helps other people find the show

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if standing in front of a work of art actually changed it?

That's the question at the heart of this conversation with Harriet Schwarzrock, an Australian glass artist who captures plasma inside blown glass vessels that respond to your presence. Move closer, and the light shifts. Touch the surface, and it intensifies. The viewer literally becomes part of the circuit.

Harriet is a doctoral candidate at the Australian National University researching plasma illumination as a responsive and relational artistic medium. Her work has been shown at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, Berengo Studio in Murano Venice, and most recently in Fluid Presence at Wagga Wagga City Art Gallery.

We talk the role of the viewer, when she thinks about it, what it means for a viewer to complete a work and the interactions that happen when an artwork that can be touched or changes on approach. And we talk about what the role of human connection plays in the organic, vascular shapes that run through her most recent work.

You can find Harriet here on instagram and here on her website

Links:

• Harriet Schwarzrock: www.schwarzrockglass.com
• Harriet's 2026 Wagga Wagga Art Gallery Installation
• Harriet's 2021 National Portrait Gallery installation: portrait.gov.au
• ANU School of Art & Design
• Canberra Glassworks : canberraglassworks.com
• Steven Cole: stevencole.com.au
• Richard Wheater : www.richardwheater.com
• Emma Kate Heart :www.neon-hart.com
• David Haines & Joyce Hinterding: haineshinterding.net
• Richard Box — FIELD:

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