Scratching the surface with City Kitty

This week I’m talking to life long clown, Clown Kong. Clown Kong’s career in clowning started in the 1980’s when he attended Ringling Brothers Clown College. He then spent two years on the road with Ringling Brothers traveling 11 months out of the year. But his latest iteration of clowning, Clown Kong was created when he moved to NYC in 2002. It was great to talk with Clown Kong about his experience in the circus and how this type of clowning differs from what he does with Clown Kong. 

This week I’m talking to curator Rachael N. Clark from Queen of Hearts Global. We’re discussing her journey over the past five years leading up to her 5 year anniversary show “Got Heart” opening this Saturday Feb 10th at 115 Bowery 2nd Floor. 

This week I’m talking with my good friend Matt Marialke. After recently loosing my grandmother and dealing with a number of nurses during her final months I thought I would sit down with my friend Matt who has been a nurse for over 20 years. We’re taking about loss, healthcare, why he became a nurse and how he continues to love this profession after so many years.

This week I’m talking with street artist Fire Flower. I first started seeing Fire flower’s work on the streets of NYC in 2019.  Since then she’s been developing her character and style with her brightly colored, eye catching wheatpastes. It was nice to catch up with Fire Flower to discuss what started her street art journey and where she sees her work heading in the years to come. 

This week we're coming to you live from the Brooklyn Art Haus in NYC as part of the East Coast Sticker Movie premiere weekend.  I got to sit down with Agent 5 Smith, Chilly Willy, Tori Luecking, She Posse, Jim Tozzie, Chris RWK and discuss the movie, their journey to reach this point and what's next for the film.

This week I'm talking to Rheytchul Kimmel owner and operator of Lumiere Photo, a custom print shop, frame shop and gallery based in Rochester NY.

This week I'm Discussing the 2022 Film Daliland with my old Professor Maureen Brilla-Fitzparick.

This week Im talk with Tara Gaddy. After Her husband Paul retired they were trying to envision what the next phase of their lives would look like.  After growing up in NYC, living in California and Arizona and spending a number of years back in the TriState area they decided to try living in Europe. After a few months in Portugal they are back in the Tristate area. I wanted to catch up with Tara to hear about their time in Europe and if she sees it as the place to settle down.

This week I'm in Syracuse NY speaking with sculptor Weird Society. I was first introduced to Weird Society's work a year or two ago when I was tagged in one of his miniature street art scenes. So I headed out to Syracuse to talk to him about what got him started down this path and where he sees his work headed in the future. 

For the past 40 Episodes I've been making fake ads at the end of each episode. If you've paid attention I appreciate it. If not here's a cut of all the nonsense I've thought up

This week I’m back talking with my old professor Maureen Brilla Fitzpatrick. She liked our last interview so much she wanted to do a topical series. This week we’re discussing the diffrence between narratives and illustration. 

This week I’m in Barcelona talking  with fellow street artist Toastoro. Toastoro has been on a bit of a tour in the past month getting up in Brazil, LA, Barcelona and Portland where he also attended the premier of the Sticker Movie. Join us as we catch up and talk about his travels. 

This week I’m talking with Barcelona based street artist El Cono De. Even though he’s a newer artist in the scene, getting started during the pandemic, you will see his unique variety of hand painted cones all over the streets of Barcelona. So it was great to meet him on this trip and talk to him about what got him into streetart, where his artist name came from and where he sees his work heading in the future. 

This week I'm in Barcelona for the 2nd annual paste up festival. I'm talking withBritish paste up artist D7606. This is D7606's 2nd year in Barcelona for the paste up festival and he's no stranger to paste up walls. He's been apart of the London Paste up Festival the past few years he's also curated his own collage paste up walls in Manchester and the Straat Museum in Amsterdam.

This week I'm back talking with my professor and mentor teacher from undergrad Maureen Brilla-Fitzpatrick. It's been a year and a half since we last recorded so it was nice to catch up and chat about the artistic process, why we create art and some of the things we've learned along the way. 

This week I’m talking with photographer Brett Lindell. I met Brett back in 2010 when I was showing at the Fountain Art Fair and I’ve been a fan of his work ever since. We’re talking about what got him in to photography, his artistic journey and his new book “UNRAVELING”.

This week I'm sharing with you the music that I use for the podcast. Back in 2013 I wanted to make a Lo-Fi electronic album. I recorded this using a korg kaossilator,  I then played guitar over the top and my brother played bass.  The last track is a song I wrote on a different album at the same time. I was looking to get an MC to rap on the track but I changed directions and focused on my art so I decided to turn the track into the City Kitty Rap Song which I recored with a few friends at the ADR studio at Sound One at the Brill Building in Time Square. I later made a wheat paste with a 1-800 number you could call and listen to the song. I later made a music video to go with the song. 
1. Bolt
2. Dead Letter Station
3. Duende
4. Funky Little Train
5. Mural
6. The Queen
7.  Title Track
8. City Kitty Rap Song
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1498mQ4npng

This week I’m talking to photographer Quajay Donell. We’re talking about what got him into Photography, his work with Wall Therapy and what got him photographing street art and graffiti. If your in the Rochester area this Friday Sept. 15 stop by Quajay’s solo show “Spread Your Light” at the Joy Gallery. 

This week I'm talking with street artist Appleton Pictures. I met Appleton in the streets about 7 years ago but I'd been following his work for awhile before that. Aside from his bold imagery one thing that always stuck out is his use of street art as a platform to raise awareness for diabetes. It was great to catch up with him at his studio to see what he's been working on and find out why he started putting work in the streets and motivates him to keep going ten years in.