Art Radio is a podcast hosted by the Siskiyou County Arts Council located in Northern California on the land of the Klamath, Karuk, Okwanuchu, Wintu, Modoc, Pit River nations, Shasta Indians and many more Shastan Peoples in Siskiyou County whom we give utmost gratitude to. We aim to uplift the creative voices of the county through this podcast medium.

With the geographical landscape being a large challenge of connecting with each other, the podcast radio waves will be the connecting thread. Our priority at the Siskiyou County Arts Council is to cultivate strong and creative communities in Siskiyou County because we believe the arts are a societal cornerstone that celebrates diverse cultures and shared history. Thanks for tuning in and have a creative day!

New episodes drop Mondays at 8:00AM.

Available without a subscription or account creation on Anchor FM.
Also available on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Radio Public, Breaker, and Pocket Casts.

Arts Council Preview Episode

Episode audio and synced transcript are available via Descript here.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Hello and thanks for listening to Art RADIO podcast. This is our very first episode and today we are doing a sort of meet and greet with the Siskiyou County Arts Council. And, we’re the ones who did this podcast. So today we have Patricia, Marilyne, Kate and Bridgétt and we would all like to sit with you in this moment in time and do a little bit of a meditation just to ground ourselves before we start this episode and for this inaugural podcast. So, if everyone could go ahead and sit down in their seats, sit however you’re most comfortable; if it’s crossing your legs, if it’s putting your feet planted firm on the ground. However you’d like your posture to be start grounding yourself by noticing where your body is. So are your feet comfortable, where they are? How about your knees? How about your legs? How about your hips? How about your torso? And where would you like your arms to be in this moment? Your hands? Your neck? Your head? And while we sit here, go over some things that you are grateful for today, they can be anything large from just …everything is large, honestly, in your family! It could be the county, it could just be for being able to grab some fresh, clean water; anything that comes to mind is okay. And let us all breathe together for 10 seconds with your eyes closed, if you would like, and I will count:… 3, 2, 1, and let us join each other in taking a deep breath.

Yes, we’re very excited to start this episode and I’m going to start it off by introducing Patricia Lord.

Patricia Lord: Hi everyone! My name is Patricia Lord and I am the Executive Director of the Siskiyou County Arts Council.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Awesome! I’m going to read a little bit of your bio. First of all, it’s really great to have you here; it’s great to have you on the Council. You have been integral to the success of the Council, so I appreciate you very much.

Patricia Lord: Oh, thank you.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Yeah. Okay. As Patricia said, she’s the Executive Director after working in museums for over a decade, Patricia is using her MBA to focus on nonprofit administration. She brings enthusiasm and creativity to her role as executive director. Patricia believes in the arts as an economic driver and is working to diversify and strengthen our local economy through the development of local arts and culture. How was your day today, Patricia, what did you do?

Patricia Lord: It was a good day. I slept really well last night and it’s amazing how much a good night of sleep can change the perspective you have on the day.

So I woke up refreshed and then I did some administrative work for the Arts Council. And what that looks like for me a lot of times is bookkeeping, which doesn’t excite a lot of people. It’s not very artsy, but in something that I enjoy, particularly when I can get the books to balance.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Great. Thanks for sharing that. Now, if you could tell us what year you joined the Arts Council or how long approximately you’ve been with the Arts Council and why you believe in it?

Patricia Lord: So, I was hired by the Arts Council in January of 2019. So I’ve been Executive Director for a little over two years, I guess at this point is what that calculates out to. And I originally joined it because I was very involved in the arts and culture scene in Northern California and wanted to continue the work that I was doing to cultivate artistic, creative communities.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: And where are your favorite places to experience art in the county?

Patricia Lord: Good question. One of the most amazing public works of art that we have in the county is actually the Living Memorial Sculpture Garden it’s a beautiful setting and the pieces in combination with the setting really gave me a lot to think about, and I, I appreciated that about the Sculpture Garden and all of the new thoughts that it spurred in my mind.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Wonderful, and this is out past Weed, right? On the highway, correct?

Patricia Lord: Yes, it’s in the shadow of Mount Shasta. It does. It gets kind of cool there; it’s not as hot as a lot of the other places.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: That sounds really great. I went there and just the scenery around it is beautiful in itself. And then when you discover that that’s there, it’s just, it’s very special.

Patricia Lord: Yeah, it’s one of my fondest memories of exploring the county.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Great.

Patricia Lord: I just have to put a shout out to Happy Camp.

Which was one of, I really enjoyed going to Happy Camp. Like everywhere you turn in Happy Camp there’s like some, a little nook or cranny that’s got a wonderful piece of art in it. So I would be remiss if I also did not mention that I thoroughly enjoyed the time that I spent in Happy Camp as well.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Thank you. And is there a particular type of food you like out here?

Patricia Lord: I definitely like spicy food. I don’t know if there’s a lot of spicy food places in Siskiyou County. I think it’s something that I miss that I wish I knew…. and I’m sure there is, and I just don’t know about it.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Yep.

Patricia Lord: But I really enjoy spicy food.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Yes, that sounds good. There’s actually El Zaguan by in Weed and it’s a taco truck and it is amazing. It’s very spicy. Maybe we’ll have to go

Patricia Lord: We’ll have to check that out next time I’m in weed.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Yeah, for sure. Okay, and lastly, we have a, I have a very large question for you. It’s what does art mean to you?

Patricia Lord: Wow yeah, that’s big.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Yeah.

Patricia Lord: Art to me is seeing something that is there in a different light. So it’s creating a different perspective through which you can view something that you already see, or maybe it’s something that you don’t fully see, and this new perspective reveals a hidden facet. But it’s, it’s something that always…, to me art is seeing something that was unseen or not understood before.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: That makes sense. Do you happen to dabble in any sort of art?

Patricia Lord: I do, I do. I am looking right now; I made I wanted to experiment with print making over about a year ago, almost a year, with block printing. But that’s a really unforgiving medium to work in for a beginner so I thought I need to practice. So, I actually saw on the internet that you can make stamps out of potatoes.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Oh yeah.

Patricia Lord: And so I just decided that would test my block printing skills by making a print with some carved potatoes. And I gotta say for my first time, it came out really well. I was really proud of it.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Do you feel comfortable sharing what it was?

Patricia Lord: Yeah, I made a poster print at that time I was working on a project unrelated to the Siskiyou County Arts Council in Redding around the citizen journalism, which is something that is really important. And I would love to see kind of take off in the area, and so I was trying to promote this idea of citizen journalism. You know, that any of us can report on the events that are happening in our community. That’s really important. And so I made a poster print that says citizen journalism now,” and the ‘O’ in the word now is made to look like the moon.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: OK.

Patricia Lord: And kind of imposed upon it is an owl, and I just… so it’s kind of like that stereotypical like image of an owl in front of the moon. And I chose the owl…

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Everyone loves owls.

Patricia Lord: Yeah, it shows the owl ’cause it’s supposed to be representative of wisdom and insight. So I thought that was really apropos of citizenship journalism…

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Yeah.

Patricia Lord: And was really fun cause I, I, I, I did what you have to do, I had to plan out like, ‘okay, for, I have to layer this in such a way.’ And I have to, you know, ‘this stamp actually is in two different parts.’ So, that was really fun for me. And then what came out, and it didn’t look completely terrible, I was like so proud of myself. It was a really great day.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: That’s great to hear. Thanks for sharing that story. It’s also really sustainable, like the way to do it because you know, like wood blocks made out of wood and Lino cuts are just that very thick plastic.

Patricia Lord: So yeah, so you can use the potato, you can store them and you can carve them and store them in the refrigerator overnight so that they don’t totally shrivel up on you.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Yeah.

Patricia Lord: And so I made, I made about five versions of the same print using those potatoes that I carved.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Wow, the potatoes never knew what purpose they would serve.

Patricia Lord: Yeah, you can use different kinds of potatoes. I used Idaho potatoes, like brown potatoes.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Yeah.

Patricia Lord: I also used a sweet potato because they have different textures. So that’s something fun to play with as well.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: That’s so neat. Awesome. I’ll have to try that with my son some day. Pretty soon, actually; summer’s coming, we need more activities. Okay.

Patricia Lord: Yes.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Well, thank you so much, Patricia. I feel like I learned a lot about you, even though I already know you, so that’s great. Thank you very much.

My name is Bridgétt Rex and I live in Mount Shasta, California. I love to make everything from sculptural animal shaped bread to more traditional forms of art, such as papier-mache and line drawings. My work has most recently recently shown at the Latino Center of Arts and Culture in Sacramento, California, where I explored ideas of identity as a Mexican American woman. While reveling in the beauty Mount Shasta has to offer, I look forward to supporting Siskiyou County as a Council member and now President, I feel most aligned with my purpose when I’m meeting new people and helping them express themselves through art. So my day today was awesome. I’ve been doing some summer cleaning and organizing pencils and papers and scraps, magazines. You know, when you sometimes, when you’re an artist or, my particular type of art, means that I have a lot of stuff because just in case, you know inspiration just happens. So, I need to have those things ready. I want to have a lot of stuff, but I just want to be a little bit more organized. So, next question is why the Arts Council, why did I stay, and what do I value about the Arts Council? So I moved to Siskiyou County three years ago. As soon as I moved to a place, I do three things; one, I check out where the library is, two I check out where the bakeries are, and three, I like to see what the arts scene is like. So when I Googled art in Siskiyou County, I found the Siskiyou County Arts Council. I was super thrilled that the Council exists. When I met them, they were all so kind and genuinely care about the arts, but more importantly, the community. I knew immediately that this was something that I wanted to be a part of. So, some of the favorite places that I like to experience art are POPS Performing Arts Center in Dunsmuir; super awesome. They not only have shows for adults, but also for kids that are definitely integral to the community. Thank you POPS! I also love Black Butte Center for Railroad Culture, BBCRC. It preserves and promotes railroad culture by documenting and furthering art, music, stories, community, and work of those who historically, and in modern times, travel or work on the railroads in North America. I went to a photography show there once and also bought some lino cut prints. It was so cool and such a memorable experience. I would highly recommend it.

So what does art mean to me? Art is a way of life to me. It’s about appreciating art in all forms. I do feel like the definition varies from person to person, though. Art is undeniably something that I know all people are capable of making. It’s just in how you frame it. Do I make art myself? Yes. Kind of what I said in the intro. I draw every day and I use that as a form of catharsis. It really calms me and centers me. I also do professional photography, illustration. I’ve tried lino cuts, I play the violin, I bake. I just love making things, just making. I consider sports also a form of art and I’m going to try and actually get good at roller skating. So, that’s rolling in soon into my life.

Something I’m looking forward to for the future? Well, the Siskiyou County Arts Council has a lot of fun projects such as the Art Cart, so look out for us at different events. If you know the…, if the world allows us to, I can’t wait to meet you in person at some point and this past year has been hard and I hope that this world opens up more so we can all speak to each other, safely, face-to-face. In the meantime, keep creating, keep imagining and keep reaching out.

Next we have Kate Yorke. Kate Yorke has lived in Siskiyou County since 1970. She has been an artist since she was about four or five years old. Art is her most comfortable form of communication. She has been a member of multiple arts organizations over the years, including being a board member of their original Siskiyou Arts Council. Her desire is to see a healthy and strong arts community in our area. Hello, Kate, how are you today?

Kate Yorke: I’m pretty good. How are you Bridgétt?

I’m doing

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: really good too. Where are you right now? Are you sitting in your house? Are you sitting outside?

Kate Yorke: Sitting at my kitchen table, looking outside at the wind, wind, wind!

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: How long have you been with the Arts Council? Like how many exact years, do you know?

Kate Yorke: I believe it’s two years.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: OK.

Kate Yorke: In this incarnation.

Wonderful. And what do you value about the Council? I think the part that’s works the best for me about the Arts Council is it’s people of like-mind working together to create a community of artists who want to work together and, and be a cohesive group.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Beautiful. Thank you. What are your favorite places in Siskiyou County to experience art? And this can be, you know, just looking at the mountain or it can be an actual venue.

Kate Yorke: Well, let me preface this by saying I’m, I am a pretty simple person in that. I see art in everything. And, I think one of the reasons I spend so much time working in my garden is I see it as art and I’m out there refining my artwork by playing in the garden. Art to me is the noticing of something beautiful of the way the light hits something, the patterns, the colors. And so, I see art in almost everything.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: And so you would say art is, is a way of life? Art is life?

Kate Yorke: Art is life. When I was when I was young, I I was very, very painfully shy and words were not my comfort zone and art became my way to communicate.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Wonderful. And you’ve always been a are you a visual learner?

Kate Yorke: I am a visual learner. I don’t do well unless someone’s there teaching me and letting me be hands-on. It’s hard for me to learn from a book or something like that.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Yeah, arts can definitely, the arts can definitely carry a message a different way and reach different types of people depending on how you, you make it. I think that’s what makes art really special,

Kate Yorke: Agreed.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: What kind of art do make yourself?

Kate Yorke: Well, I I do watercolors and oil paintings in the painting medium, but I also do a lot of crafty kind of things, also. I’m one of the things that I did quite a bit of this last year is painting on rocks as a way to share random acts of kindness. Paint them and leave them in nice, or just any place where someone else will run across it and have a smile on their face for a moment.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Okay. It’s very sweet. Can you give the artists of Siskiyou County a piece of advice or word of encouragement? An art assignment? Something that you can think of that you’d like to offer them?

Kate Yorke: Oh, dare I say, persevere! It’s, it’s maybe not the easiest road to live in Siskiyou County, but persevere.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Beautiful. Well, thank you so much for sharing a little bit of your life with us too.

Kate Yorke: And thank you, Bridgétt for asking such insightful questions.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Oh, you’re so welcome. Thank you. And we will move on to Marilyne Shamansky and I’m going to go ahead and start by reading Marilyne’s bio from our website. By the way, our website is SiskiyouArts.org.

Marilyne Shamansky is our current board secretary. Marilyne has spent her entire adult life in the North State in the shadow of the mountain. She built a career in higher education, in middle management, and teaching children’s art and learning. Raised two boys, has a master’s degree in education administration and is currently working at the Visitors Bureau with Mount Shasta Chamber of Commerce. Welcome Marilyne Shamansky. How are you today?

Marilyne Shamansky: I’m great, by the way. I have an extremely busy life and yesterday, on Monday, it was stacked with one thing after the other, after the other, after the other, and I love those days. And today, I had absolutely nothing on my calendar and the day was completely myself MY day. And I love those days as well. So, I just enjoyed our clear blue sky and the mountain today. And writing, I do a lot of personal journaling, that kind of thing on days that I’m not stacked.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: I’d love to hear more about that when we talk about what art you do? So don’t let me forget. Let’s first start by going into why the Arts Council? How did you find the Arts Council and what made you want to stay?

Marilyne Shamansky: I moved to Mount Shasta about five years ago in February; it was snowing. And when you drove down Mount Shasta Boulevard, it was totally quiet. I don’t want to be negative and say it was dead, but it was! And there was a time when I felt like a lot more was going on. And so, I wanted to jump in and see what I could do to help the community thrive. And so I did that. I found the Arts Council and believed strongly that a thriving community is also a community that is deeply ingrained with art and art can help a community grow and thrive. And that’s what I would like to see for Mount Shasta and for Siskiyou County.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Okay, great. I know you’re very proactive in the community. What are your favorite places to experience art in Siskiyou County?

Marilyne Shamansky: Yes. I think that community art is so important. I love Liberty Arts. I love the Liberty Arts in Yreka. I love the Liberty Arts openings because not only is there great local art, but it also brings the community together. Same with SAM, with Siskiyou Arts Museum in Dunsmuir; great community involvement and second Saturday they have an opening and it makes a difference. They’re making a difference in the community and I would love to see that same kind of community art gallery slash studio in Mount Shasta as well. The other thing, the other place I love to go is Velvet Elephant, the art supply store. I love Velvet Elephant. And even if I don’t buy a great deal I just like going in there and and wandering around.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: I do too, Iris is great.

Marilyne Shamansky: Iris is great.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Thank you so much for sharing that. Now the big question that I’ve been asking everyone. What does art mean to you?

Marilyne Shamansky: I want art to touch me to take me someplace. I want it to, to be an emotional experience. I was in Eureka, California a few years ago and there was a young artist who was painting at the harbor. His name is Ryan Jensen and he had just come out of the military, Afghanistan. And, so he’s a veteran, and he was using his art to, to heal from his wartime experience. And so I put him on my Facebook and follow his art. And I would love to see that kind of thing in Mount Shasta or in Siskiyou County as well. Really encouraging artists to get out and paint or whatever their art form is. Yeah, that’s… I don’t know if that answers your question.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Yeah, that’s great. Thank you. You even gave an example. Okay. And what type of art do you dabble in Marilyne?

Marilyne Shamansky: Well, it’s called dabbling, but for the last 20 years I have done watercolor. I also quilt, I also knit, and I just started an oil class with Alec Balos. And so, I’m doing oil for the first time. During the pandemic, the whole pandemic. I did art. I helped homeschool my grandson. And so, we had a family art time once a week. And that was probably the highlight of everything I’ve done. So, I don’t do art as much as I would like to. I don’t paint as much. And that’s why I took the oil class. I would like to be doing a lot more.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: It seems like you’re a forever learner.

Marilyne Shamansky: Yeah, that’s it.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: I love it. And do you do writing as well?

Marilyne Shamansky: I have done what’s called morning pages for the last 25 years. For a long time I’ve written every morning. Last year in January, I took a storytelling class, and so I did writing some stories as well. And I just started a writing group here in Mount Shasta, joined a writing group. And so my writing is growing as well, and that’s a lot of fun for me.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Great. It seems like you can do both physical and cerebral art, so that’s really interesting. Thanks for sharing all about you?

Marilyne Shamansky: OK.

Bridgétt Rangel Rexford: Thanks for listening to this episode of Art RADIO. Be sure to check out our Facebook page Siskiyou County Arts Council to see this month’s upcoming Art RADIO guests. We create a Facebook event page for each episode and each guest to make it easy to remember. Every episode drops on Mondays at 8:00 AM through various platforms, such as Stitcher, Google Podcasts and Spotify.

Arts education is an essential ingredient for creating a social arena where ideas and feelings can be communicated with and without words, healthy human development, increasing self-esteem and self-awareness developing creative, critical thinking, social, emotional, and observational skills. So we therefore invite you to join with us in playing an instrumental role in fostering the arts.

Siskiyou County Arts Council is a 5 0 1 C3 social profit organization. Tax deductible donations will support local arts education, creative social change, and community participation in social and cultural events. To donate simply click the green donate button on our website, SiskiyouArts.org. S I S K I Y O U A R T S .org. Happy creating, and thank you for listening to Art RADIO.

Editing and production help is thanks to Aaron Levine. You can find him on Instagram at acovado_toast. That’s the V and C of avocado switched around and then underscore toast. You can also find him on Twitter at Kabuto justice. You can also email him jaaronLevine@gmail.com.

Big thanks to David Blink for creating our beautiful theme music. He is the current music instructor at college of the Siskiyous. You can find him on Soundcloud, at soundcloud.com/davidblink. You can even go to his YouTube, at youtube.com/c/davidblink. Also, if you just type them in in Google, great links come up. Enjoy!