Okay, first of all, LOOK… there are two little legs dangling out from under the ART FOR YOUR EAR bubble. Yep, that seems exactly right for an episode with LA based artist Esther Pearl Watson {there’s always something a little bit weird ‘n wonderful going on in her world}. So, I’ll cut to the chase. Both Esther and I have been feeling a little lost creatively lately, so we’ve got a new segment called, “Hey Mojo, Where’d Ya Go?”. Can you relate? I bet you can. We follow that with a weird art history trivia quiz, then we’ve given you some links to a couple of guilty pleasures we’ve been turning to, and I’ve kicked off the episode with a bunch of projects you can do at home. Listen right up there under the current state of Esther’s dining room table, and an example of one of her recent empty landscapes {that’ll make sense in a minute}, or you can subscribe right here.

Alright, first up, Esther’s pandemic recipe book!

How hilarious/gross is that!? You can find this, and a bunch of other fun stuff, in her shop.

Okay, we didn’t talk about this specifically, but Esther always paints narratives from her own life. A lot of those stories are from her childhood in Texas, but she manages to sneak in current stuff too… like, “Be Nice to Women”, for example:

Ha! Yep, that’s Martha! This is from a road trip that Esther, Martha and their friend Julie took to Texas in 2019. As you can imagine, any trip involving this crew is going to result in some pretty crazy scenarios… perfect material for new paintings? Clearly.

I wanted to include these pieces too… again, we didn’t talk about them specifically, but I love that Esther can be creative no matter what. In the project prompts I gave off the top, I suggested looking for materials that are already in your house. Well, look at this brown paper bag goodness that Esther made in 2018:

Love… and yes, her glittery pink flying saucers are always my favorite.

And finally, I thought I’d wrap things up with Esther working in isolation, and a positive message of hope on the back of a UFO:

Well now, ain’t that the truth! Thank you so much to Esther for adding me to her very long list of online calls she had to make on the day we recorded; thanks to Create! Magazine for supporting this episode; and of course, great big thanks to YOU for listening – there will be more ART FOR YOUR EAR next weekend.

Other links:

1. Esther on Instagram
2. Esther’s Global Pandemic Recipe Book
3. Vielmetter Gallery, LA
4. Webb Gallery, Texas
5. Create Magazine : Submission info {April 30th Deadline}
6. Jelle’s Marble Runs!
7. @thelesliejordan