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What makes a painting worth saving? What happens when the image in your head refuses to become the image on your panel? And why does everybody want another fox?
This week on Bad at Sports, Duncan MacKenzie, Brian Andrews, and Ryan Peter Miller welcome Chicago painter Mari Eastman for a conversation recorded at Spudnik Press during its Riso Print Fest. Eastman takes us through the pleasures and frustrations of painting, from translating a beloved fox into a woodblock print to rescuing abandoned paintings with techniques borrowed from Bob Ross. They explore fashion photography, the Chicago figurative painting scene, the peculiar intimacy of appropriated images, and the elusive point where faithful representation can lose the feeling that made an image irresistible in the first place.
Name Drops:
- Mari Eastman – bombonprojects.com
- Ben Butler – benbutlerart.com
- Shannon Stratton – shannonraestratton.com
- Edvard Munch – nga.gov
- Kerry James Marshall – nga.gov
- Paul McCarthy – hauserwirth.com
- Tyson Reeder – canadanewyork.com
- Carl Baratta – carlbaratta.com
- Bob Ross – bobross.com
- Rebecca Morris – bortolamigallery.com
- Richard Estes – nga.gov
- Karen Kilimnik – metmuseum.org
- Richard Prince – gagosian.com
- Elizabeth Peyton – gagosian.com
- Margaux Williamson – bradleyertaskiran.com
- Leanne Shapton – leanneshapton.com
- School of the Art Institute of Chicago – saic.edu
- Spudnik Press – spudnikpress.org
- Process/Process – process-process.com
- Bombon Projects – bombonprojects.com
- Episode 974: Mari Eastman - October 5, 2026
- Episode 973: Manuel Mathieu - October 5, 2026
- Episode 972: Jeanette Andrews - September 28, 2026
