As promotion for my upcoming solo exhibit, A Pair of Trowzers, Gallery 5 owner and print maker, Jon Bock and I traveled down into the San Joaquin Valley for an interview at KFCF 88.1 FM radio. The Sierra foothills are gorgeous this time of year, green grasses more reminiscent of Ireland than California. Our heavily snow-capped Sierras dominated the northern horizon. It was a perfect day to travel.
KFCF’s Free Speech Radio home is a modest converted 50’s residential residence just off the Tower District’s main drag, in Fresno, CA. Stepping through the front door, I suspected this would be an atypical Fresno experience. Warm greetings from the local radio personalities set us at ease. Jon is an old friend of the establishment, but this was my first visit.
We were a bit early and the host of our segment on Art Attack, Janet Alexander Flores, had not yet arrived. A little time to chill with a cool bottle of water.
Janet arrived, introductions, a quick catch up on personal events with Jon (Jon and Janet have become old friends), sound checks and we were off. The half hour was less interview and more a 3-way conversation on art between friends, as we reviewed our backgrounds for the listening audience, then touched on my upcoming show, the opening of Jon’s new Gallery 5, Yosemite Renaissance, Sierra Art Trails open studio weekend, Yosemite Western Artist’s upcoming Tri-County show and concerns about likely changes to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and how that would effect arts funding.
Headsets and microphones aside, the conversation continued, off-air, for another hour.
I’ve stumbled on an oasis of like-minded intelligent souls in an increasingly intolerant world. Thank you KFCF for a very pleasant, reaffirming afternoon.