#71 with Bruce Tapola

Welcome back to ARTMATTERS: The Podcast for ArtistsOn this week’s episode I’m joined by Bruce Tapola.Bruce Tapola was born and raised in Ohio and received his BFA from the University of Utah, and his MFA from Montana State University. He has exhibited nationally and internationally and has received several awards, including the McKnight Foundation Visual Artist Fellowship (1995, 2001, 2017). His work has been written about in Artforum, The New York Times, New American Painting, Art Papers, and New Art Examiner, and is in numerous public and private collections. He taught painting and drawing at St. Cloud State University in MN from 2000 to 2022, and in addition to his studio practice, Bruce is a member of the artist collectives Paintallica, Free Art School, and Artpolice (RIP). Bruce lives and works in St. Paul, Minnesota.I sit down with Bruce back in December in Saint Paul, in his backyard studio with a wood-burning stove. It was a cold day, but the studio was cozy and Bruce, I discovered, as you will shortly, is a talker so we covered a lot of ground. Bruce discusses rejecting cleverness, when something smells like art, humor in art, sameness in imagination, screaming colors, sneaking up on a painting, magic, ceramics,  the price of art, emptying-out content, outsider art, having a family of artists and painting the perfect cloud.Before we begin, a reminder that ARTMATTERS is entirely listener-supported. If you want to support the show and help make more conversations like this possible, consider joining the ARTMATTERS Patreon. Supporters get video versions of every episode as well as more behind-the-scenes content. Support this podcast by clicking HERE and becoming a Patreon Supporter!If you're enjoying the podcast so far, please rate, review, subscribe and SHARE ON INSTAGRAM! If you have an any questions you want answered, write in to [email protected] host: Isaac Mannwww.isaacmann.com insta: @isaac.mann guest: Bruce Tapola insta: @btapola