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Art Is Awesome with Emily Wilson

Art Is Awesome with Emily Wilson

Von: Emily Wilson with Go-To Productions
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 Journalist Emily Wilson talks to artists about their work and finds out what drives them to create. Kunst Sozialwissenschaften
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  • Kristine Mays - Wire Sculptor

    Kristine Mays - Wire Sculptor
    Feb 17 2026
    Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area. Today, Emily features San Francisco wire sculptor Kristine Mays discussing her politically charged exhibition "State of the Union" at Modernism Gallery. Created in response to the uncertainty and division at the beginning of 2025, the show explores themes of American identity, social justice, and individual responsibility through intricate wire sculptures.Kristine walks through several powerful pieces: "This is America," a frayed wire American flag with beads representing blood and tears; "Human Complacency," depicting the see/hear/speak no evil concept; and "Modern Day Lynchings and Hashtag Memorials," featuring hand-embroidered names of Black people killed by police on silk ribbons. Many works incorporate quotes from writers like Audre Lord, whose words "your silence will not save you" inspired Mays to create this body of work as both political statement and personal healing.She traces her creative journey from childhood craft projects with her mother to her current practice working with construction-grade wire. She explains how she creates faceless figures and sculptural garments that allow viewers to project their own stories and recognize loved ones through gesture alone. The meditative quality of working with wire and its durability appeal to her desire to create lasting legacy work.A major milestone: the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture recently acquired her piece "Hush Harbor." Kristine, who has participated in San Francisco Open Studios for over 20 years, credits her "divinely led" journey and her mother's early encouragement to create without fear of failure.About Artist Kristine Mays :Kristine Mays, a San Francisco native has been an exhibiting artist since 1993. She was the Grand Finale Winner in 2015 of the 5th Annual Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series National Competition. This competition not only provided an opportunity to exhibit her work at Art Basel Miami, but she had a solo exhibition at the Scope NYC Art Fair as well, and was also afforded a chance to collaborate on a large scale public mural. Her mural is on the side of the Boom Boom Room in San Francisco on Fillmore and Geary Streets. (It has large wire feathers placed among the portraits that adorn the walls, reflecting the fleeting existence of black jazz musicians in San Francisco.) In 2015 she also participated in the Hearts in San Francisco program, creating a large 400 pound heart for their annual public art installation. The heart spent a few weeks on display in Union Square before going to its final home upon purchase from AT&T.In 2009, Kristine was a featured artist in the San Francisco Art Commission's "Art in Storefronts" pilot program, a project which transformed vacant storefronts and commercial corridors into a destination for contemporary art, bringing a new energy to the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood. A participant in the San Francisco Open Studios program for over 20 years, Kristine has also served on the Board of Directors for ArtSpan-- the Producers of SF Open Studios and has participated on several of their committees. Kristine served as the 2011-2013 artist-in-residence at the Bayview Hunters Point Shipyard in San Francisco. She is a graduate of Lowell High School, received her Bachelor Degree in Arts Administration from DePaul University and has occasionally served as a grant review panelist through the San Francisco Arts Commission.Seeking to create impact and change with her art, Kristine has participated in raising thousands of dollars for AIDS research through the sale of her work by collaborating with organizations like Visual Aid, the San Francisco Alliance Health Project and WE-Actx. Her work has received local and national press including mentions in the San Francisco Chronicle, New York Times, The New York Post, The Washington Post, Source Magazine, Artsy, and the interior design blog Apartment Therapy. She is represented by Simon Breitbard Fine Arts in SF, the Richard Beavers Gallery in Brooklyn and Zenith Gallery in Washington DC.Kristine has participated in programming at the De Young Museum, Museum of African Diaspora (MoAD) and exhibited at the California African American Museum (CAAM) in Los Angeles, CA. Collectors of her work include an eclectic mix of people including Star Wars creator George Lucas and the dearly departed Peggy Cooper Cafritz (who amassed one of the country’s largest private collections of African-American art). Her work is displayed in many Bay Area homes and private collections throughout the USA.Visit Kristine's Website: KristineMays.comFollow Kristine on Instagram: @KristineMaysFor more about Kristine's exhibit, "State of the Union" CLICK HERE--About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California ...
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    16 Min.
  • Adriene Busch - Weaver

    Adriene Busch - Weaver
    Feb 3 2026

    Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.

    In this week's Episode, Emily features Adriene Busch, a Bay Area fiber artist and weaver whose exhibition "Of Water" is currently on display at M Stark Gallery in Half Moon Bay. They chat at Adriene's home studio and discuss her artistic journey and creative process.

    Adriene grew up in Arizona making art but studied business in college, considering art impractical as a career. She continued creating throughout her education, exploring photography, ceramics, and painting. About 10 years ago, she discovered fiber arts through embroidery, which led her to weaving—a medium that combines everything she loved: the composition skills from photography, the tactile nature of ceramics, and the color mixing from painting.

    Her breakthrough came with "West Bay: A Love Letter," a large-scale aerial view of the Bay Area made with felted wool details like San Francisco skyscrapers. This piece was displayed at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Center for a year and caught the attention of gallerist Marianna Stark, who offered her the current exhibition.

    About Artist Adriene Busch:

    Adriene Busch is a contemporary weaver based in San Mateo, California. She has worked in various modes of fiber art since 2016, eventually committing fully to tapestry weaving. As a self-taught weaver, she finds great joy and satisfaction from artistic problem solving and in the continual development of her technical skills and artistic vision. She is intentional in her selection of materials, using color and texture to represent particular characteristics of her surroundings. As a tapestry weaver, she enjoys the many choices that working with fiber allows; in her pieces, color, texture, and composition interplay to create a balance between bold and neutral, flat and three-dimensional. Adriene’s work reflects her personal connection to the world around her, creating pieces that embody her daily experiences.

    Visit Adriene's Website: WestBayFiber.com

    Follow Adriene on Instagram: @WestBayFiber

    For more on Adriene's exhibition "Of Water" at the M Stark Gallery - CLICK HERE

    --

    About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:

    Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Women’s Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.

    Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil

    Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast

    --

    CREDITS:

    Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.

    Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
    Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

    The Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.

    For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com


    Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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    15 Min.
  • Christine Wong Yap - Visual Artist & Social Practitioner

    Christine Wong Yap - Visual Artist & Social Practitioner
    Jan 20 2026

    Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.

    Today, Emily chats with Christine Wong Yap, a visual artist working in printmaking, social practice, and community-based art.

    Christine discusses her latest project "Bay Windows/Ventanas," a trilingual public art installation featuring lanterns created with Chinese-speaking women in Chinatown and Spanish-speaking women in the Mission District. The lanterns, displayed at five locations through March 11th, explore themes of mental health, belonging, and immigrant experiences through traditional paper-cutting techniques.

    About Artist Christine Wong Yap:

    Christine Wong Yap is a visual artist and social practitioner who works in community engagement, drawing, printmaking, publishing, textiles, and public art. Through her hyperlocal participatory research projects, she gathers and amplifies grassroots perspectives on belonging, resilience, and mental well being. Last year, she received a a Creative Power Award from the Walter & Elise Haas Foundation and Creative Capital Award. She has served as Neighborhood Visiting Artist at Stanford University (Stanford, CA) and Creative Citizenship Fellow at the California College of the Arts (San Francisco, CA). She has developed projects with the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco, For Freedoms, the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, the Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, Times Square Arts, and the Wellcome Trust, among others. She holds a BFA and MFA in printmaking from the California College of the Arts. She was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she has lived since spending a decade in New York City from 2010 to 2021.

    Visit Christine's Website: ChristineWongYap.com

    Follow Christine on Instagram: @ChristineWongYap

    For more about Christine's Bay Windows project and upcoming scavenger hunt CLICK HERE

    To learn about The Creative Capital Award CLICK HERE

    --

    About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:

    Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Women’s Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.

    Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil

    Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast

    --

    CREDITS:

    Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.

    Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
    Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

    The Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.

    For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com


    Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
    Mehr anzeigen Weniger anzeigen
    15 Min.
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