SEAMSIDE
SEAMSIDE host Zak Foster co-explores the inner work of textiles with various textile artists. In each episode, we try to understand how working with fabric helps make us more human. Alongside these conversations, you’ll find two other kinds of episodes: BACKSTITCH (where artists are invited back to the show a year later for updates) and CRAZY QUILT (a game show where impossible quilts are dreamed up on the spot)
Episodes
There are certain artists that you remember vividly the first time you saw their work. Julian Jamaal Jones is one of those artists for me. When I saw the body of work he produced at Cranbrook, these all black quilts with bold and colorful marks, I felt like I was seeing a brand new thing in this world.
In this conversation, we discuss:
In our last SEAMSIDE conversation on Episode 5, quilt historian Jess Bailey aka @publiclibraryquilts and I discussed the role of storytelling in art history and the power of visual images to convey narratives, experience of feeling seen and recognized through images, and we talked about why Jess would rather her quilts be considered sturdy rather than soft.
Read more
As an a Southern expat living in a northern state, it’s often nice to connect with somebody from home. We see things about our roots now that perhaps we didn’t when we were growing up immersed in the culture, and how we make sense of all that, for me and Clare at least, requires the help of textiles.
Clare Hu was born in Atlanta to parents who’d immi...
Sylvan and I sit down a year later to catch up on where their work has taken them since we last talked. In that conversation on Episode 7 we talked about their work with Gays Against Guns, and at the time of that recording, we didn't know that the shooting at the supermarket in Buffalo was just a few days away. Sylvan also shares some hard one wisdom from years of activism, and their insigh...
Marlee Grace has a way of capturing human experiences into words that, for me at least, makes them feel lived even if they're not my lived experience.
Writer/dancer/quilter/everything Marlee Grace now lives in rural Michigan where they’re busy making an old house a home. We connect when Marlee was at a friend’s house in Detroit and together we explor...
Udita (website and @uditau) and me dream up a quilt that 1) has a snake resting on a branch, and 2) is also a stained-glass window
Call the CRAZY QUILT HOTLINE open 24/7 at (828) 278-8211 and leave me a message anytime of day or night
⤷ Get your free trial to the THE QUILTY NOOK
In this conversation with quilter Judy Martin, we explore:
① the tole time plays in our work
② how we can meet ourselves in our materials
③ how our creative arc shifts over time
You can learn more about Judy on her website and i...
Hannah (@_hagtime and @ragfairtextiles) and I dream up a quilt that will 1) help you survive a trip over Niagara Falls, and 2) is inspired by a goldfish
Want to be on the show? All contestants are asked to call the CRAZY QUILT HOTLINE open 24/7 and leave me a voicemail (and don't worry, it won't actually ring my phone so call anytime. The number to c...
Victoria Gertenbach and I sit down a year later to catch up on where her work has taken her since we last talked. Have you heard our original conversation? You can listen to it here
Support SEAMSIDE alum Lou Gardiner who been re-diagnosed recently with cancer. You can find her Gofundme page here.
In this conversation with quilter Coulter Fussell, we explore:
① role community plays in her work
② maintains hope in the face of conflict and turmoil
③ the South and family history
You can learn more about Coulter on her websit...
I have wanted to follow up with Maura ever since she first joined us on SOFT BULK. Her candor and generosity radiate easily in this conversation as we discuss:
① the balance of tensions between art-making and parenthood
② the work and writings of sculptor Anne Truitt
③ ...
Beverly Smith catches us up with where her textile work has taken her in the last year since we talked. Have you heard our original conversation? You can listen to it here
Kathryn Greenwood Swanson is the owner of Swanson’s Fabric and purveyor of secondhand fabrics. In this conversation, we discuss:
① the role of the communal stashhouse in a community of fiber artists
② the shame so often associated with our fabric stashes
③ and how to start your own secondhand fabric store like Swanson’s Fabrics
You can also ...
Emma Freeman catches us up with where her textile work has taken her in the last year since we talked. Have you heard our original conversation? You can listen to it here
In this bonus episode of SEAMSIDE, Sara Trail and I have a little surprise for you. After we’d stopped recording the conversation you just heard in episode 1, I asked Sara if she thought her mom, Kay Trail,— who’s obviously played a key role in her life— if her mom would be interested in talking with me a little bit. Without skipping a beat— and this probably comes as no surprise to you now...
Sara Trail, director of Social Justice Sewing Academy, shares her story of getting folks to make their first stitch. A big part of the trick she says is not teaching people HOW to sew, but rather teaching them WHY to sew: namely, to tell their own story.
SJSA can always use your help. Click here to learn more.
Nick D’Ornellas makes life-size screen prints of daily moments with his family around home. He then cuts the screen prints into thin strips and weaves them back together, distorting the original image, both sharing it with the public but also reserving the privacy of homelife.
In our conversation, we discuss:
Read more
Michael Sylvan Robinson is a textile artist and a long-time activist with Gays Against Guns. In this pared-down episode recorded days after the shooting in Buffalo, Sylvan offers some hard-won wisdom from his years of activism that I hope are both a balm and an encouragement to you in doing the good work that needs to be done. I’ll update this episode page soon with further details.
Popular Podcasts
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.
A straightforward look at the day's top news in 20 minutes. Powered by ABC News. Hosted by Brad Mielke.