Benjamin Kator is an artist working and living in Philadelphia. From his roots in New Jersey, he ended up in the Kensington neighborhood in Philly while dealing with addiction. There he found a road to recovery and a new lease on his life as a creator.  For the past 5 years, he has built his life back up while building up a small art space named The Blockchain Gallery.  The gallery became a beacon of light in the struggling community. Ben left the light of the space on throughout the night to offer something different than the cycle of struggle that so many walked through on the streets. For creatives, it became a place to show and see work. For those in the neighborhood struggling with substance abuse, homelessness, or poverty it became a safe space to experience community and culture.  Blockchain Gallery gave Ben a place to create and share his creations, but building it into a not-for-profit entity also gave him a positive project to concentrate on while he worked out his life.  Kator's portfolio, full of pen and ink illustrations of the musicians he loves and his experimentations with abstraction and digital art, developed in earnest as he was given back his love and drive to create.   Follow his next ventures in life on Instagram @benkator1 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thestolenhourspodcast/message

Jessica Russo Scherr is an artist known for her large-scale paintings and social media videos that demystify art making. Her paintings intertwine her love of art history, travel, memory, and motherhood in a manner that often blends represented reality to such a degree that the visuals combine into plays of abstraction. Jessica is an International Baccalaureate Art Educator who challenges her students to create large-scale paintings and to understand their work in the context of art history. As a dedicated creator and as a teaching tool, she can't help but create her paintings in the same space as her students. Her media presence is full of honest experiences of succeeding and failing using materials like Gelli printmaking sheets or more traditional art-making methods. The Fulbright Grant she received earlier in her career set her on a track of international art education and art creation ventures that continue into her life now.  Jessica lives with her two kids and her husband in Germany where she teaches at the Frankfurt International School and continues to influence and share her passion for art with others. Jessica's creative life can be followed at @bluelavaart. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thestolenhourspodcast/message

Eteri Chkadua- From Soviet Control to a Life of Freedom and Art Making: Ep. 67 S3 (published 3/21/2024) Eteri studied at the Academy of Arts in Tbilisi, Georgia where her professors taught her to avoid Soviet style Social Realism, with an embrace of abstract and impressionist styles, as a reaction against the oppressive state. Before she finished her time there she made a painting that contained figurative realism to bust the chops of her professors that surprised them so much that it propelled her into the art scene of her home country. She came to America in 1988 with an American Linguist who was studying the Georgian language and helped her leave a place where no one was allowed to leave. Since then, she has become known around the world as a figurative painter who explores serious topics with a sense of humor. Her paintings explore the content of her new life in America (from Rastafarians to new relationships) alongside references to her life back in Georgia or the weapons of war that oppress people around the world. Enjoy this conversation that taps into topics of her creative art-making to Russian control that still threatens today. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thestolenhourspodcast/message

A conversation between four artists who juggle big families, lots of jobs, and sneak in more time than ever to make things. We discuss the joys and struggles of having it all- from artist tips when your life is full of taking care of the kids to humble entrepreneurial endeavors.  Corey and Melissa Hardin, owners of The Art Studio in Highland Lakes, have four children, several jobs, two BFAs, and a passion for making and teaching art. Corey earned his BFA from Pratt and is a career-long Union Carpenter.  Melissa earned her BFA from Ramapo College and is a dedicated art educator in her own art school, and marketing coordinator for Gym Guys. My wife Kristin Dalelio (aka Kitchen) and I have five kids, two BFAs, and a passion for making and teaching art as well.  Kitch got her dual major degrees in Art and Religion from Felician University and is now a Cottage Food licensed baker. Dennis Dalelio earned his BFA from Mason Gross at Rutgers University, his MFA from William Paterson University, and has been a career-long art teacher (and host of this show.) Through years of alarm clocks or babies waking them up before dawn, ships passing each other in the night, learning how to be parents full of wisdom, and dedicated workers who earn their paychecks, all four have maintained a practice of creating and/or teaching art that makes them feel alive and to be who they each were created to be.   --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thestolenhourspodcast/message

Paul Larsen grew up in the woods of West Milford Township in NJ, just up the road from Greenwood Lake and just a stroll away from the Appalachian Trail. Now, he is a cultured arts advocate and community builder who opened an art gallery on a wooded plot of land in the middle of Bergen County next to the flowing waters of the Saddle River. He credits his parents, who brought him to artisan communities throughout NY and NJ and the cultural centers of NYC, and his artistic peers who were always doing interesting things, as his inspiration for a life of collecting and supporting artists. His gallery, in Saddle River, NJ, has become a place to share and sell his collections, but also a place where known and unknown dedicated creators show their work, make new works, and build community.  As he described it, "Our mission is to bring the community together through new exhibitions and opportunities to talk about and engage in fine art."  Follow on instagram @paul_larsen_gallery or go visit him at the gallery in Saddle River, NJ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thestolenhourspodcast/message

Enjoy this conversation with Will Brady, an artist and baker who graduated from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers in 2003. Will's work consists of daily records kept in notebooks that are turned into collages. He has exhibited at Montserrat Gallery in Chelsea, NYC from 2007 -2022.  n 2006, he sold his complete collection of undergraduate school notebooks (weighing 300 lbs) to a collector from Japan when it was shown in the Pleiades Gallery in NYC.   Will recently won first place for drawing at the Bergen County Art in the Park show in 2023. By Day, Will has spent 18 years working in the baking industry. He was a delivery person for 13 years and more recently worked as a pastry chef for the past 5 years.  His experience as a delivery driver allowed him to learn many North Jersey roads and landmarks that he now includes in his art.  While creating his baked goods, he keeps a folded-up piece of computer paper in his back pocket to write down ideas and create drawings. He then turns those notes into framed collages. You can check out Will’s art on Instagram @wbradyart. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thestolenhourspodcast/message

The Artist, Ricky Boscarino, has been creating "Luna Parc," his major work/home/museum/installation for the past 34 years, alongside a journey of forging a career in the arts. The experience he made, for those who have the privilege of touring this creation, is one that is unforgettable and overwhelming. Unforgettable, in that, there is something interesting for everyone- from a collection of his own paintings, metal works, or the architecture itself (that he both designed and built,) to a small box holding his personal collection of matchbox cars from his youth, to collections of instruments, nature, or other artists' creations. It is overwhelming, in that, every detail of the house is an expression of Ricky's vision for the space, and you will most likely miss something- from the sculpted nest and birds hidden inside a cement-formed tree in his gardens to the inlaid glass box surrounded by multi-colored wood pieces within one of the upper floors that is designed to (when the time comes) contain his own ashes for display. Ricky shares how he is another artisan in a long line of artisans in the Boscarino family. He offers advice on how to support yourself with the sale of your own creations. For him it has been the sale of his intricate jewelry and now his ceramic face pots/commissions/tours that have paid all the bills for both his life expenses, the creation of "Luna Parc," and the education-minded Luna Parc Foundation. In the end, he describes, "it takes a lot of time" and effort to be an artist who steals nearly every hour of the day to create something. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thestolenhourspodcast/message

Brian O'Boyle is a dedicated Artist and Art Educator who taught for over a decade in Paterson, NJ, and is now working at Bogota High School.  His entrance into public school art education was the artist's roundabout method into it all called the Alternate Route. Starting his working life as a Kean University-trained artist prior to getting certified to teach helped him to enter the teaching world as a working artist who consistently creates characters with found objects, paint, and his pure imagination combined. His portfolio consists of objects that are truly more relief sculptures than just simply paintings. His characters painted on skateboards, street signs, and old wood come to life as if his cartoon-like personas could not be constrained to only existing on a page or on a screen. He discusses how those who handed him the keys to his own creativity during his undergraduate and early career life have led him to be the one who hands the same type of keys to his students. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thestolenhourspodcast/message

Episode 61 S2: The Author and Illustrator of Coney A Trip to Luna Park- The Artist Jeffrey Lindberg (published April 11th, 2023) Jeffrey Lindberg is a dedicated artist who has spent decades being an illustrator for publishing companies like Simon and Schuster, Penguin, and even the likes of author R.L. Stine.  During that time he has also been a professor of Illustration and Graphic Design at Kean University and other surrounding universities where he shared his love for art making and encouraged his students to give themselves permission to make the thing they want to make.  He recently gave himself to do the same. The result is a children's book that he wrote and illustrated titled, "Coney, A Trip to Luna Park." The book is full of the details of the place in its 1904 roots as only can be shared by someone who is skilled in both telling a history that he loves, but also with the care of an artist who pays attention to detail. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thestolenhourspodcast/message

The Vice Rags is a timeless rock and roll band, inspired by music from the 50s till now, described best by Music Journalist Tris McCall as a group that sounds like a “high-speed Turnpike collision between Tom Petty and gutter punk.” Paul Rosevear on guitar and vocals joined his Long term collaborator GE Gay Elvis on Bass, Jack Roberts on guitar, and Joe Chyb on drums for this NJ love affair.  Their latest EP which came to the world in the last month of 2022 is called Midnight Ride and can be found streaming anywhere.  In this episode, I press record on my monthly meetups with Paul Rosevear at the historic NJ Diner called The Bendix, which packs its own brand of nostalgic timelessness. Here we discuss Pauls’s long and storied career as a songwriter, the Vice Rags’ latest release, and the joys of juggling music with the other joys of his life. Paul has “supported artists ranging from Joan Baez to Stone Temple Pilots, licensed his original songs to major networks like MTV and The CW Network, studied recording at the Magic Shop studio in New York City, and written and sang many songs in service of the world’s biggest brands, including Coca-Cola, Tiffany & Co.,  and Macy’s.” Special thanks to John Diakakis and his family, who have owned the diner since the 80s, whose hospitality and willingness to let us film our conversation in their landmark location were such a gift. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thestolenhourspodcast/message

"Nothing Special" is writer Desiree Cooper's first children's book created in collaboration with the illustrator Bec Sloane.  It is a story of family connection across generations through the simple things of life and a return to the essentials that bring back true joy.  Our conversation introduces the book, the story's significance to Des and her audience, the intricate and impressive work Sloane put into the illustrations, and how the book has a life of its own.  Des Cooper is a former attorney turned Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist and an author of fiction, poetry, and essays who won numerous awards, including the 2017 Next Generation Indie Book Award. Her work has appeared in Flash Fiction America 2023, The Best Small Fictions 2018, Callaloo, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Best American Essays 2019, and many more publications. Bec Sloane, is a visual artist and Agricultural Research Technician working in and around farming communities in Central New Jersey who has worked in the arts and film industries in New York and abroad. She specializes in stop-motion animation and large-scale fabrication work for TV, theatre, and film. She has worked for clients ranging from the Jim Henson Company to Macy's iconic flagship, and has implemented arts-driven curricula for grades K-12. "Nothing Special" was named one of the New York Public Library's Top 10 Best Children's Books of 2022! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thestolenhourspodcast/message

Nick Gallant is a Singer-Songwriter from Santa Cruz, California who doubles as a Disney Creative Director. In our conversation, Nick shares his passion for songwriting, the importance of creating to deal with the realities of life, and what an honor it is to be a part of other people's healing. He also shares some of the stories and the benefits of using his musical talents throughout his career as one who first made soundtracks for games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band and now as a Disney Creative Director.   He has released "6 albums as a solo artist and played/sung on 1000s of recordings for independent and major label artists, films, tv, and video games." His latest album 2019’s State Park was actually recorded in State Parks throughout Southern California. Nick is a father of 2 boys, a surfer, and truly an East and West Coaster as he splits his time between Kennebunkport, ME, and Santa Cruz, CA.  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thestolenhourspodcast/message

Jennifer Lizza, is a writer who has turned her life as a mom into a source of inspiration for her creative writing.  Her "Outsmarted Mommy" blog, first made to be an outlet of self-expression, has led her to become a "parenting team contributor" for TODAY and a well-followed voice for so many.  She has been published in several books and consistently uses social media to share her reflections on her life as a mother of two boys and a wife of a full-time firefighter. Since her beginning, she has found a community of people online who have supported and encouraged her along the way.  Now she is the one who helps propel and support others with her Outsmarted Mommy community.  Here she discusses using her skill as a writer to reach out to the world at a time when she completely disconnected, how this act has been a source of healing for herself and others, and how thrilled she is to see her words mean so much to others. Check out her writing at www.outsmartedmommy.com  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thestolenhourspodcast/message

Serge Strosberg is an acclaimed international artist who is known for his realist and expressionist portraits. After growing up in the US and Europe, he "received classical training at the prestigious Academie Julian in Paris and Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts. In 2008, he exhibited his work at the Felix Nussbaum Museum (Germany) and the Musee de Pontoise (Paris) in Germany with Lucian Freud, Philip Pearlstein, Chaim Soutine, Alex Katz in major group exhibitions of realist painting." He works with oil and egg tempura to create large-scale commissioned pieces for institutions or families. His goal in each painted portrait is to include the personality of the person; not just a photo likeness. Beyond this, his portfolio is full of concepts that critique the elite extremes of American culture (fashion, the 1%..) through figurative pieces that consider both composition and location as a means of questioning high society and cultural norms. He offers a candid description of what it is like to work on his own terms with the support of cultural organizations, the struggle of working within the established gallery system, and the gift of being able to spend his life making art.   The cover art of this episode is one of Serge's paintings- a portrait of Blake Byrne --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thestolenhourspodcast/message

Lisa Marseglia-Moran is a visual artist and art educator, who after she retired from a 30-year career as a public school art educator, is dedicating her every day to creating large-scale paintings, printmaking weaves, and building and encouraging a community of creators around her. Her work is full of an appreciation of the energy and personality found in nature- specifically trees and the history that they contain.  Her love and respect for it, along with her appreciation of the materials she creates, give her an endless amount of inspiration.    Her dedication to teaching and her "greatest creations" (her four boys who are now young adults pursuing their creative endeavors) has consistently been fed by her life as an artist. She speaks of creating her drawings alongside her students after they got into the groove and using her laundry room as a studio.  The love and support of her husband and children go as far as them working together as her promotional team. They are also the ones who helped design and build her a studio from their old garage. She discusses how art changed over her life as a mother and teacher, but there was never a time when she was not creating.   Her insights abound on how to balance it all and how the best things in life are worth dedicating time to even if they don't make money (i.e. relationships, exercise, artmaking, teaching, etc.) --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thestolenhourspodcast/message

"Veggies $3 or pay what you can." was this morning's post from Nonchalant Cheese. Our 2nd episode in season 2 is with the mother and son artisan cheesemaking team Jesse and Jonah Clark. They run Nonchalant Cheese, a local business known for their "grass-fed, raw milk, aged cheeses made from rotationally grazed Jersey cows at Meadowburn Farm in Vernon, NJ." Out of their honor system farm shop, they offer a whole world of original recipe artisan cheeses, breads, and… business practices. This conversation is a follow-up to our last episode talk with Makoto Fujimura, who described the world of agriculture as a metaphor for the importance of creating art and how the effort of literally building/growing something with neighbors produces a sense of culture care and generative good in the world. Jesse and Jonah live that agricultural life and community building daily. Here they offer insight into this process and introduce the concept of collaborating with nature to make their products-. Beyond this, they offer an alternative family story, naturally within their branding and in this discussion, to the fast-paced New Jersey family lifestyle by sharing what life is like working closely together on a farm to bring great food to the community that supports them. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thestolenhourspodcast/message

Our first guest of Season 2 is Makoto Fujimura, an internationally recognized artist, and author. His paintings are made in the “Nihonga tradition, a form dating back to medieval Japan and emphasizing the beauty of materials— gold leaf and finely ground mineral pigments.” His most recent book “Art+Faith: A Theology of Making” was published by Yale Press in 2021. In our conversation, we discuss the book in earnest as he shares his insights into artmaking in connection with God for those who claim faith and for those who do not.  Makoto’s own Christian faith and his dedication to creating visual art throughout his life have led him to an overflowing amount of insights into the studio as a sanctuary and place of connection with the Divine. He offers insights into why we all need to create in order to heal ourselves and our world, but moreover to join in God’s plan for creating a New Creation.  From 2003-2009, Mr. Fujimura was a Presidential appointee to the National Council on the Arts and has 4 Honorary Doctor of Arts Degrees, from Belhaven University, Biola University, Cairn University, and Roanoke College. He is also the founder of the organization IAM, the International Arts Movement. This is where I had the honor of meeting and working with Mako back in the late 1990s into the early 2000s and it is an honor to reconnect here within this recording. The Stolen Hours Podcast is… A media collection of conversations with creatives across the Arts. Season 2 of this collection’s theme is: Creating to heal, connect, and build community across the divide perpetuated by too many in politics, religion, and culture. Cover Art Photo Credit: Wind Rider Productions --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thestolenhourspodcast/message

Melissa DeMarco Clark's designs have been found filling the giant screens in Times Square to launch a latest name brand fashion product line or on toddlers' bathing suits as they run in and out of the ocean.  For over two decades she has been a dedicated fashion designer working as a senior designer or freelancer for the likes of Gap, Aeropostale Kids, Children's Place, James Purcell, Kenneth Cole, Chaus... In 2020, she began Last Trax Design Studio where she continues to design, but this time on her schedule while balancing out the rest of life.  In this version of her career she continues to create original designs whether it be logos and branding for companies, or the Last Trax seasonal lines of clothing and apparel. Inspired by the joys and freedom that come when skiing the mountains of the East Coast, Melissa and friend/co-owner Matt O'Conner have decided to make Last Trax a company that is  dedicated to "making an impression that lasts." The name itself comes from the reality that early morning attempts to make first run on the slopes often fade after late night social gatherings so last tracks are their goal.  Our conversation fittingly marks the last episode of The Stolen Hours Podcast Season 1 released here on the first anniversary of the media collection. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thestolenhourspodcast/message

Rosita Gilsenan is a prolific painter who is originally from Moynalty, Kells, Meath, Ireland. Her landscape themed paintings are made with a method called "deconstruction" where paint is applied and wiped off in order to create atmosphere. She can often be found with a group of artists painting watercolors in plein air or throwing paint onto the canvas in her studios found in Highland Lakes, NJ, Naples, Florida or back in Ireland depending on the season of life.  Her well known batik work began when she studied art in Strawberry Hill in London. This work brought her to New York after a NY Times article introduced her and her batiks to America. Shortly thereafter, she moved to New York City, where she made her early living selling her artwork.  Once established as a US citizen, she eventually began Gilsenan Design Inc., an interior design company based in Warwick, NY that she built and established for 30 years. She recently transferred the reigns of the business to her daughter as she now spends her time steeped in communities in and around making art. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thestolenhourspodcast/message

Brian Legentil is a bass player who listens to music all day while at work and even into the evening after he punches out of the time clock. His bass sits right next to him (and is not ignored) as he works as a manager for the wholesale supplier American Musical Supply. He and his bandmates in the band LKFFCT (pronounced Lake Effect) began making music together over a decade ago. It all began when Brian answered a MySpace request beckoning him with the"seeking a bass player...!" Brian found this request in the midst of finishing up college at Rutgers University, but he saw and heard the call and began playing with the original iteration of the band, originally called Washington Square Park. This put college graduation on pause for a couple of years as they toured all around the nation.  Once they returned home after a hard band breakup the band was reborn as LKFFCT. At this point they are releasing their 5th LP soon to be put out on Pizza Bagel Records in the midst of their grown up lives. Fun fact: In high school Brian had varying ranges of mohawk spikes during the early 2000s giving me hope that the 90s were not over.  He reveals here that he would set those spikes before he went to sleep at night so he could just stumble out of bed and head to class. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thestolenhourspodcast/message