Who Arted: Weekly Art History for All Ages

Latest Episodes:

Mariko Mori | Pure Land May 19, 2025

Show notes

Mariko Mori, born in Tokyo in 1967, is a Japanese artist whose work blends traditional Buddhist iconography with futuristic digital art. With a background influenced by her father's inventiveness and her mother's art history knowledge, Mori initially studied fashion design before pursuing visual arts in London and New York. Her early pieces featured herself in elaborate costumes, exploring identity and technology. Mori's notable work, "Pure Land," created between 1996 and 1998, reflects her shift towards spirituality and transcendence. She combines photography with digital manipulation to create surreal, otherworldly scenes, often featuring herself as a goddess figure surrounded by symbolic elements, drawing inspiration from Buddhist art, Japanese mythology, and personal experiences like sleep paralysis. Her art explores themes of enlightenment, technology, and the intersection of tradition and the future.

Please note: I will mostly be playing mini episodes through the summer. I have a few full length episodes coming in June and July, but for scheduling reasons, I am mostly going to be making solo mini episodes for a while.

Links:

AP Art History Cram Session playlist on Spotify

Fun Facts Daily on your favorite podcast app.

Check out my other podcasts Fun Facts Daily | Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com

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Sandro Botticelli | The Birth of Venus (encore) May 16, 2025

Show notes

Sandro Botticelli, born Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, was a renowned Florentine painter during the Renaissance. By the 1470s, Botticelli established his own workshop and gained recognition for his unique style. He received commissions from wealthy patrons, including the powerful Medici family. For the Medici, Botticelli painted portraits and created allegorical and mythological works that showcased his mastery of line, color, and composition. His most famous paintings, "The Birth of Venus" and "Primavera," were created during this period.

"The Birth of Venus" depicts the arrival of the goddess Venus on the shore after emerging from the sea. The painting is rich in symbolism, drawing from classical mythology, Neoplatonic philosophy, and Christian theology. Venus, the Roman goddess of love, beauty, and fertility, is the central figure. Her nudity, while controversial today, was associated with purity in classical art. The painting is filled with symbolic elements, like the wind gods Zephyrus and Aura representing the forces of nature, and the Hora of Spring welcoming Venus with flowers, signifying her connection to fertility.

Check out my other podcasts Fun Facts Daily | Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com

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The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland⁠ May 12, 2025

Show notes

My guest this week is Michelle Young, author of The Art Spy. During WWII, French museum curator Rose Valland risked her life to sabotage the Nazi art theft machine, secretly documenting their plunder and saving countless masterpieces. The book is thoroughly researched to not only verify the facts of Valland's work preserving art, but also to gain insights into Valland as a human being. In our interview, Young shared some of her insights into a largely overlooked but incredibly consequential hero of the French Resistance.

Buy THE ART SPY: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland(HarperOne; 5/13/25) from your favorite book seller.

Check out my other podcasts Fun Facts Daily | Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Ultimate Lego House (encore) May 09, 2025

Show notes

In 2009, a television presenter from the BBC, a guy by the name of James May, gathered about 2,000 volunteers and approximately 3.2 million bricks donated by LEGO to create a two-story house out of Legos. He created this for a series called James May's Toy Stories. The house even went so far as it had working plumbing, like it had a working shower and toilet all made of LEGO. May actually spent the night in his LEGO house and he made two important discoveries. First, he found out that a LEGO bed is not the least bit comfortable. And secondly, he discovered the structure that he had built was not waterproof. When it was time for the house to come down, May and LEGO donated all of those bricks to charity. There's something beautiful about the fact that after May got to live out his childhood dream of building a life sized LEGO house, he paid it forward by passing on those bricks to other people in need so that everyone could have a chance to build their vision and live their dreams.

Check out my other podcasts Fun Facts Daily | Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jessica Poundstone | Museum of Dogs May 05, 2025

Show notes

Jessica Poundstone is the author of Museum of Dogs: a Romp through Art History for Dog People. As the name suggests, it is a light and fun look at dogs as portrayed by various artists throughout time and across cultures. In this episode, we discussed dogs in art history and mentioned several artists including Edouard Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Berthe Morisot, and Diego Velázquez. In the second segment, we looked at Tama, a dog, as painted by Renoir and another version of the same dog painted by Manet.

Buy a copy of Museum of Dogs: a Romp through Art History for Dog People on Amazon or wherever you get your books

Contemporary artists we mentioned who are worth supporting:

Ryan Berkley

Katie Kimmel

Check out my other podcasts Fun Facts Daily | Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marc Chagall | I and the Village May 02, 2025

Show notes

Marc Chagall (born Moishe Shagal, 1887-1985) was a prominent Russian-French modern artist whose life spanned nearly a century of dramatic historical change. Originating from a Hasidic Jewish community near Vitebsk, Russian Empire (now Belarus), Chagall pursued art studies in St. Petersburg before immersing himself in the Paris art scene from 1911-1914. There, he absorbed influences from Cubism and Fauvism, blending them with his unique heritage of Russian folklore and personal memories to forge his signature dreamlike style. Trapped in Russia by World War I, he married his muse, Bella Rosenfeld, and briefly served as Commissar of Arts in Vitebsk after the Revolution. Chagall later returned to Paris, only to flee Nazi persecution during World War II, finding refuge in the United States where Bella tragically died. Returning to France after the war, he married Valentina "Vava" Brodsky and embarked on a prolific late career, expanding into ceramics, sculpture, and notably, magnificent stained glass works, continuing to create until his death at 97.

Please help me launch my new show Fun Facts Daily! Give it a listen and leave a kind rating or review to help others find the show. Find ⁠Fun Facts Daily on Spotify⁠, ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠, ⁠Amazon Music⁠, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com

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Introducing Fun Facts Daily Apr 28, 2025

Show notes

Fun Facts Daily is a new podcast I have been working on for a bit. It is exactly what the name suggests. Every Monday through Friday, on Fun Facts Daily, I’ll be sharing five fun facts, a word of the day and practical tips all related to a single topic in around 10-15 minutes.

I’ll still be bringing you episodes of Who ARTed on Mondays and Fridays, but I wanted to create another show because there’s a lot of amazing stuff to learn beyond the art world. I have been wanting to do this for a while now because I am not just a teacher, but also a lifelong learner and I love sharing the awesome new things I learn. Over the last year or so I noticed that a lot of news shows I listened to left me feeling wound up and anxious. I decided to create the kind of show I want to listen to, focusing exclusively on the good stuff. Every episode has fun facts and interesting stories that are all clean and appropriate for listeners of all ages, so you can listen with the kids and learn together or take some time for yourself to just relax and learn something awesome.

Today, I’m giving you all a sneak peek of two episodes I think you’ll enjoy. First, I’m going to have an episode of Fun Facts Daily on Leonardo da Vinci, then I’ll have my episode on inventions built off NASA technology. I hope you like the show, and if you do, please do me a favor and follow Fun Facts Daily on your favorite podcast app. It’s a brand new show and you really appreciate your help getting it off the ground by giving it a listen, a kind rating or just telling a friend about the show.

Thanks!

Find Fun Facts Daily on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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The Codex Borgia Apr 25, 2025

Show notes

The Codex Borgia is a pre-Columbian Mesoamerican manuscript, a 36-foot folded document made of animal hide, dating from the 13th to early 16th centuries. Created by Indigenous peoples, likely in central Mexico, it serves as a religious and divinatory almanac used by priests. Filled with intricate depictions of deities like Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, and Tlaloc, it illustrates the 260-day tonalpohualli ritual calendar. Part of the “Borgia Group,” it survived the Spanish conquest and is now housed in the Vatican Apostolic Library. The codex offers invaluable insight into pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican beliefs, cosmology, and rituals, showcasing complex iconography and artistic skill. It provides crucial information for understanding the history, culture, and religion of ancient Mexican civilizations.

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Walter De Maria | The Lightning Field Apr 21, 2025

Show notes

Walter De Maria (1935-2013) was a pivotal figure in Minimalism, Conceptual Art, and Land Art, known for large-scale environmental installations. His significant works include The New York Earth Room and The Lightning Field. The Lightning Field, commissioned by the Dia Art Foundation and completed in 1977 in Catron County, New Mexico, comprises 400 stainless steel poles arranged in a precise grid, designed to interact with light and evoke the sublime. De Maria's art often explores themes of scale, human perception, and the relationship between nature and human intervention, emphasizing direct viewer experience over traditional art consumption.

My guest this week is Tim Bogatz, host of Art Ed Radio from The Art of Education University.

Tim and I are both active on the Art of Ed Community and I would encourage all my fellow art teachers to join if you haven't already.

If you are interested in learning more about The Lightning Field or you would like to try to make the pilgrimage and stay there, check head over to Diaart.org

Check out my other podcasts Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elaine de Kooning | Portrait of John F. Kennedy Apr 18, 2025

Show notes

Elaine de Kooning (1918-1989) was a vital figure in 20th-century American art. She was a renowned Abstract Expressionist painter, portraitist, and writer. Elaine de Kooning's 1963 portrait of John F. Kennedy, now at the National Portrait Gallery, is a significant work reflecting her Abstract Expressionist style applied to portraiture. Commissioned by the Truman Library, the painting captures Kennedy's dynamic energy and charisma through vibrant colors, bold brushstrokes, and a fragmented, almost unfinished quality. Created during and after Kennedy's time in office, the work became a poignant memorial after his assassination, symbolizing the turbulence and vitality of his presidency, and cementing de Kooning's reputation as a master portraitist.

Related episodes:

Check out my other podcasts Art Smart | Rainbow Puppy Science Lab

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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