Welcome to Episode 26 of Arts Roll Call–a podcast for the arts curious. In this episode, host Robin Miner-Swartz talks with Steph and Daniel Hogan.
Meet Steph
Steph Joy Hogan is an award-winning mixed-media painter and Lansing, Michigan native. She revels in bold color statements, unknown worlds, and the absurd and delightful all around us. Though she studied art at Michigan State University and the University of Iowa, she considers herself a primarily self-taught mixed-media artist. Inspired by the unbridled imaginations of children, and working primarily with acrylic paint, ink, and scraps of found paper ephemera, Steph intuitively creates layered skyscapes, imaginary universes, and the whimsical creatures that inhabit them.
Steph was voted Top Artist in the 2021 Lansing City Pulse Top of the Town contest (Top 3 in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022) and her recognizably vibrant and whimsical artwork has been showcased in galleries and exhibitions across Mid-Michigan. Her work has been featured on a CATA bus, a bus stop shelter, and two Arts Council billboards, and her commissioned mixed-media paintings can be found permanently installed in Impression 5 Science Center, Fenner Nature Center, and the headquarters of The Davies Project.
Meet Daniel
Daniel J. Hogan is a Lansing cartoonist who works with inks and watercolors, and makes digital art. His focus is creating whimsical, humorous illustrations that get a smile or a chuckle out of the viewer. His inspirations include the goofy creations of Dr. Seuss and Jim Henson, as well as the colorful work of Mary Blair.
Daniel studied film and animation at Grand Valley State University, where one of his animated shorts, “Lunch Date,” won an award and was featured in several festivals. Daniel started making comics in 2012, and in 2015, won a First Place S.P.A.C.E. Prize in the Webcomic Category. Daniel has exhibited his work at the East Lansing Art Festival and at Nelson Gallery. He also had an installation on Lansing Art Gallery’s ArtPath and was awarded an Arts Council Art in the Sky billboard in 2019. In 2022, he received a $1000 Arts Council GRIT Grant to create limited edition reproductions of his original art.
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