“I have always loved the desert. One sits down on a desert sand dune, sees nothing, hears nothing. Yet through the silence something throbs, and gleams…” -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

There is no such thing as nothing. Even an empty room teems with atoms too small for the eye to detect, but they are there. There is no moment when one is not surrounded by more particles and invisible life than could be counted in a day or a week or a year. Inside every one of us exists a universe of microscopic life sustaining us, at times harming us, growing and changing even as we, too, grow and change.

Caroline Cox is in the studio beginning work on several pieces at once which is her typical way of working. Her work lately has been drawing which is something of a departure. These works are large, rendered in pen and ink and quite gestural. The drawings are fast and improvised. Other current pieces are curvilinear works suspended in space and utilizing optical effects. To hear more about this, as well as Caroline Cox’s other work, listen to the complete interview.

Matthew D. Garcia is occupied most recently at residency for a year in Tuscon, Arizona. His work there centers around The Desertification Cook Book, an artist book with recipes (not all for eating) designed to speak to how to live beautifully in the desert. Garcia began this project several years ago and intends to use his residency period to push it to completion. To hear more about this work and other projects, including the Desert Art Lab, listen to the complete interview.