“Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!” -Charles Dickens

At this time of year, we reflect. Upon the year that has been, and the one we are about to greet. For many this is a time when we open what coffers we can to give to those in need – all beings, be they humans, animals, or the very nature that sustains us. We give to the arts or to advancements in medical science. We give so that others might receive and flourish by our gifts.

Josephine Halvorson teaches at Boston University and maintains a studio overlooking Cambridge toward the Charles River. At present she is finishing some paintings using gouache and found objects from the locations where she created each of the paintings. She also includes silkscreening to create something like a map or key that corresponds with each painting and the location where the objects were found. Other work includes paintings made over the summer in Mexico when Halvorson was the first artist in residence at the Georgia O’Keefe Museum. To hear more about her work, teaching, residency and more, listen to the complete interview.

Steven L. Bridges lives and works in Lansing, Michigan. He anticipates an exhibition called Seeds of Resistance opening in May of 2020 at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University where he works as an Associate Curator. The theme of the exhibition is the idea of a speculative future and involves the idea of seed banking. To hear more about this as well as a conversation about the intersection of the commercial art world and the academic/museum world, listen to the complete interview.