I had a great interview with Starr Hardridge and he's just an incredible artist.He's Muskogee (Creek) and is known for his pointillism paintings that he does primarily of Native imagery. He also does some abstract artwork, which I really like as well. It's a very unique style and takes an insane amount of time to do it. We even talk about how he does it, which usually I get more into the story of the person. His style is just so unique and it's worth listening or watching this deep dive into it to find out how he does it

He has this incredible journey like so many artists that I've interviewed, it is not an easy path to get to the promised land, and I do believe Starr is at that point. In fact, I ended up very luckily winning a draw to buy a piece of his art from the Eiteljorg. I really wanted one for my collection.

So I had a great time talking to Starr. We did this at the Eiteljorg Museum and we got a room setup and just podcasted. I learned a lot about him and that's the great thing about this podcast, and not just for me, but other people that get to hear this, you get to get this inside view of the individual.

Doing podcasts can be such a joy and it was with Jordan Sprigg. This is the beauty of social media and the internet. My son and I found images of Jordan's sculptures online and we both gravitated to the man's work. It's just so interesting. He uses found material to build these beautiful sculptures of wildlife. Fish, ibex, rhinoceroses horses, etc.

He seemed like a really creative and genuine person on his Instagram account so we reached out to him in Australia to do the podcast. He lives over by in Perth (Or at least not too far from Perth) and he said, sure, I'll do a podcast with you.

You can feel the joy in this man's work. I recommend watching it on YouTube, just because you can see the smiles and the wonderment of how he became the artist that he is today.

He was a kid that drew and played with Legos, but he went to university for psychology and that's where he thought he was going end up. You see, he's a fourth generation farmer, in Australia. Then one day he art world finally opened up to him when he visited a sculpture exhibit on a beach in Australia.

He was able to show his work through Instagram, and his account blew up to over a million followers. So and we talk about that, what is that like to have so many followers and how he deals with all of the attention.

Jordan even had one video that had over 50 million views. So I had to ask him what's it like to go viral, you know? You might be surprised about his thoughts on something like that. I know I was.

That's what this whole podcast is about. Identifying those unique voices in the world. In this case, it's an artist who creates because he must create. So I hope you enjoy. This is Art Dealer Diaries Podcast episode 363 featuring Jordan Sprigg.

Barry Walsh, who's a specialist in Hopi Kachina, did a lovely presentation talking about different types of the kachinas and, as he refers to them, as katsinam. It was uniquely interesting because he's got, you know, decades of research and understanding of the kachinas themselves and has close ties to the Hopi.

He says in his lectures, he's not a expert. That 'an expert' could only be one of the Hopi carvers. That being said, Walsh has interviewed countless Hopi kachina artists and scribed numerous books on the topic.

This is a good podcast to watch on YouTube because we use all his slides from his presentation. If you ever wanted to really get a good sense about kachinas, the different types, and where it all began, this is a very good lecture.

Santa Fe Indian Market is such an interesting event and should be on every art lover's bucket list. This is the 103rd market and it's always the third week in August. They have a big ceremony to kick the weekend off and it's when they judge all the different art that comes in from all the artists.

Medicine Man Gallery and the Sublette Family Foundation for the Arts provide the funds for the Best of Show award, so we get to attend this exclusive event. I wanted you to be able to experience the event and if you watch it on YouTube, you can actually see the artist win and the pieces that won them the awards.

For these artists, winning can be such a life changing event. The winners have their name called up as the best of their respective classification, whether it's pottery, jewelry, weaving etc. then they allow the judges to decide who is the best of all. Santa Fe Indian Market Best of Show is an extremely rare accolade to have as an artist. This year is no different than any other.

I am soooo happy I was not a judge. It would have been very difficult to determine who was the best of the best. I was a surprised when they announced the winner and was somebody who was participating in Santa Fe Indian Market for the very first time. To be honest, it was a remarkable piece that won and there's no question it was among some of the toughest competition in years.

It's so much fun to hear and to see the artists and their families and how they react to winning. The joy you can see on their faces is second to none and well deserved. So I hope you enjoy this podcast. This is the Best of Show award ceremony for the 2025 SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market.

Billy Schenck's 55 Year Retrospective will open February 6, 2026 at Medicine Gallery, and over a year ago, I came out to Billy's studio to talk to him about what we're planning to do. It's been a year since then, and with the show coming up next year, that makes it a two year project. So you get to see Billy's studio (if you're watching on YouTube) and be able to hear the thought process behind what's required to do such a comprehensive show.

I mean, it's going to be his life's work, from his serigraphs to his older paintings to new paintings as well. We'll be using the entire gallery, as well as the Maynard Dixon & Native American Art Museum for this exhibition. This podcast will give you a taste of what's coming and the explain the basic requirements for an artist and a dealer to pull off a show of this magnitude.

There's a lot of moving parts, two years worth, for that matter, and there's a companion art book that Billy put together and I had the privilege to write the introduction for it

So I hope that you enjoy the podcast, but I also hope that you put into your databases the February 6th, 2026 date for this show. It's going to be important and it's going to be a party. There's going to be a lot of work there spanning the entire career of the legend, Billy Schenck.

I had Daniel Gerhartz on today. What a pleasant, lovely human being that he is. I've always been a fan of his work. It's emotionally driven. For me, when I see it, I feel things.

This is a man who has taken his work seriously since really junior high and started showing in galleries when he was 25 years old. In fact, this year was his 35th Prix de West. He's 60 now and he's had quite the journey so far.

I think for artists, especially the end of the the part of the podcast is very helpful. Dan gives some really helpful tips and shares his perspective on on the art world. This information is really helpful if you're a young artist, trying to break into the business, and trying to be that person who maybe follows in the same footsteps as Dan.

This was a really enjoyable conversation and it's really why I do these podcasts. Getting to spend an hour with somebody who's a remarkable artist that you respect and really get to talk about what makes them tick. For me, it was a gift and I'm grateful. This is Daniel Gerhartz on episode 359 of the Art Dealer Diaries Podcast.

You can see work by Daniel on his website:
www.danielgerhartz.com

I had Marc Sternberg on today, and it was a very interesting podcast, a little different than what I normally do. Marc contacted me, wanting to interview me for the documentary he's working on titled "Cowgirls: The Women of Western Art."

Marc had seen a show that was about cowgirl art at Western Spirit: Scottsdale's Museum of the West, and he was wondering why an exhibit focusing on women was separated from everything else. He just didn't understand why it had to be an entirely separate exhibit. That experience led him down this rabbit hole of women in Western art and he jumped in head first as any inquisitive creative person does when they get that nugget of information that really makes them invested in something new. Marc goes "Well, I think maybe I should do a documentary on it." So he's working on this film now and he's interviewing some of the top women in the Western art space.

Like I said, it's a little different because he wanted to interview me and I wanted to interview him. So we just kind of interviewed each other. You get this great talk about the film and what he's doing and what he's hoping to accomplish. Then I flip it on it's side and let him interview me on questions that he has that are pertinent to his documentary.

So it's an interesting podcast that covers a lot of ground. Not only cowgirl art, but women artists in general. But I had a great time, very fun and, you know, I think if you are interested in this dialog, you will find it fascinating.

Watch the trailer for "Cowgirls: The Women of Western Art" here:
https://vimeo.com/1100188514

I recently visited the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum for the 2025 Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition & Sale. They have this event every year in June and it's a wonderful gathering of some of the very finest Western and Native American Artists. It's basically all sculpture and paintings, and you have very traditional art, but you also have very contemporary art as well.

I interviewed five different individuals for the podcast while I was there. They were all very gracious to give me their time to talk about their paintings and what they're currently doing. So it's a little less in-depth on the journey, but much more heavy on the process, which I like. It's interesting for me because that's usually not my thing as much as trying to figure out why individuals create art the way they do.

So there's, a group of these podcasts and I'm going to have them come out once a week. This is the final episode in the series and it features a true master of contemporary portraiture, Scott Burdick.