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What’s My Thesis?: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Javier Proenza
Every week, artists teach Javier Proenza.
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- 1 weeks ago1h 49m
$180K in Art School Debt—and She’d Do It Again | Kristin Calabrese
Painter Kristin Calabrese joins Javier Proenza to discuss her development as an artist and her commitment to painting, from studying at the San Francisco Art Institute and UCLA to building a life and practice in Los Angeles. She reflects on growing up between Massachusetts and Arizona, running away as a teenager, the relationship between personal history and artistic practice, and her continuing search for a visual language that can accommodate realism, abstraction, photography, and experimentation. The conversation also considers class, art education and student debt; the ethics of representing homelessness; curating and artist-run spaces; and the economic realities of sustaining an artistic life. Calabrese discusses Serious Topics, the Inglewood artist project space she runs with painter Joshua Aster, as well as her belief in painting as a medium and the importance of artists supporting and collecting the work of other artists.
- Aug 18, 20261h 8m
309 Why Artists Have to Do Everything Just to Survive | Azul Silverio
Azul Silverio is a Los Angeles-based artist, writer, curator, and arts administrator currently working at the Hammer Museum. Drawing on their experience at LACE and on the board of the National Performance Network, Silverio discusses supporting artists through institutions, developing a curatorial and writing practice, and navigating the contemporary art world. The conversation traces Silverio’s background in printmaking, performance, and autobiographical work exploring queer and trans identity, Latino and Mexican culture, and a Catholic upbringing. Silverio and host Javier Proenza also consider burnout, artistic ambition, networking, multidisciplinary careers, and the value of building a creative practice slowly and consistently over time.
- Aug 11, 202657 min
308 Why “I'm Sorry” Is the Wrong Thing to Say | Saba Sadr
Lebanese weaver and performance artist Saba Sadr, an MFA student at Otis College of Art and Design, joins Javier Proenza to discuss returning to Los Angeles after more than two decades in Lebanon and how experiences of displacement, caregiving, and political conflict inform an evolving artistic practice. Although Sadr's work centers on weaving and performance, the conversation expands into broader questions of identity, memory, and belonging. Together they examine the meaning of resilience, the complexities of Lebanese conservatism and resistance, queer community organizing in Lebanon, the challenges of public visibility, and the long-term consequences of war on individuals, families, and cultural memory. Throughout the discussion, Sadr reflects on the relationship between art, community, and the responsibility of speaking from lived experience rather than abstraction.
- Aug 4, 20261h 23m
Would You Buy Art That Won't Last? | Juan Gomez
Juan Gomez returns to What’s My Thesis? to discuss his evolving practice across sculpture, installation, and drawing, and the ways his Mexican American identity and family history have resurfaced through materials associated with physical labor. Working with wire, knots, cement, bricks, packing materials, and found objects, Gomez reflects on his family’s roots in Zacatecas, his father’s blue-collar work, and the unexpected relationship between the labor he grew up around and the work he makes today. In conversation with Javier Proenza, Gomez considers the economics of sustaining an artistic practice outside the commercial art market, the role of mentorship and community, material impermanence and collecting, social comparison, failure, and the pressure to define success through institutional recognition. They also discuss Gomez’s time in Mexico, mortality and memory, AI-generated imagery and handmade objects, and his view of art not as a hobby but as a lasting discipline and way of life.
- Jul 27, 20261h 10m
306 Alex Gonzalez: Painting MacArthur Park, Sign Painting & Narrative Art in Los Angeles
In this episode, Javier Proenza speaks with Los Angeles painter and sign painter Alex Gonzalez about the relationship between place, labor, and artistic practice. Drawing from a lifetime spent in the MacArthur Park neighborhood, Gonzalez describes how its density, street life, and changing social landscape have become the foundation of a narrative painting practice built on observation, symbolism, and allegory. The conversation explores the value of professional sign painting as both a craft and a sustainable career, the realities of maintaining an independent studio practice outside the gallery system, and the challenges of balancing artistic ambition with financial stability and family responsibility. Throughout, Gonzalez reflects on the ways everyday experience can be transformed into contemporary painting without losing sight of the community from which it emerges.
- Jul 21, 202657 min
305 Sterling Wells on Plein Air Watercolor, Contemporary Painting, Water Systems & the Art Market
Sterling Wells is a Los Angeles–based painter represented by Night Gallery whose practice combines plein air watercolor with ideas drawn from conceptual art, environmental systems, and site-specific observation. In this conversation, Wells reflects on growing up in St. Petersburg, Florida, studying painting and sculpture, living in New York after the 2008 financial crisis, and developing an interdisciplinary approach through graduate study at ArtCenter College of Design. The discussion examines the role of water as both material and metaphor, the relationship between documentation and painting, and the evolution of Wells' practice from sculptural installations to large-scale outdoor watercolor works. Wells also speaks candidly about gallery representation, artistic community, financial uncertainty, and the practical realities of sustaining a contemporary painting practice while remaining committed to a slow, labor-intensive process.
- Jul 14, 20261h 13m
304 Moon | Chicago, HBCU Education, DMS Atelier, Community Building & Contemporary Art in Los Angeles
Moon is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, art handler, and co-founder of DMS Atelier, an artist-run space in Los Angeles dedicated to exhibitions, artist residencies, and community programming. Originally from Chicago and a graduate of Grambling State University, he discusses the experiences that shaped his path from athletics and hip-hop culture to contemporary art and arts education. The conversation explores artistic practice, teaching, community-building, and the development of DMS Atelier's residency program and community feed initiative. Along the way, Moon reflects on regional identity, the cultural differences between Chicago, Louisiana, and California, and the importance of creating spaces that foster sustained artistic practice, accessibility, and meaningful relationships within contemporary art.
- Jul 7, 20261h 5m
303 Azole Njengele | Photography, Architecture & South African Contemporary Art at Otis College of Art and Design
In this episode, Javier Proenza speaks with South African interdisciplinary artist Azole Njengele, an MFA candidate at Otis College of Art and Design, about the relationship between architecture, drawing, and photography in her evolving practice. Reflecting on her education and professional experience in South Africa before relocating to the United States, Azole discusses how architectural training continues to shape her understanding of space, image-making, and artistic process. Their conversation explores contemporary photography, portraiture, consent and ethics, South Africa's art communities, and the differences between artistic life in Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Los Angeles. They also consider the practical realities of sustaining a creative practice, the opportunities afforded by graduate study, and the role of observation, collaboration, and interdisciplinary thinking in contemporary art.
About What’s My Thesis?
Every week, artists teach Javier Proenza.
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