Show Up or Shut Up with Wendy Solganik

Host Wendy Solganik welcomes longtime Fodder Schoolparticipant Cathy Watson, an artist in Christchurch, New Zealand, to discuss Cathy’s creative journey and how the global Fodder School community supports sustained making. Cathy describes growing up with creativity, learning to sew at age 10,loving art at school, and later becoming deeply involved in scrapbooking—working in stores, teaching classes, and navigating limited product access in New Zealand, including reliance on imported supplies and delayed magazines. She explains her transition into mixed media through influences, local classes, and conventions, and shares how Fodder Schoollessons—especially Angela Kennedy’s drawing and Karen Elaine’s Wild Watercolor—build her skills through step-by-step learning. Cathy talks about retirement routines, making art in focused windows, and running a monthly “crop and craft” gathering that supports creative wellbeing.
 
00:00 Meet Cathy Watson
01:24 Podcast Premise
02:46 Zooming From New Zealand
03:50 Fearless With Art
06:15 Sewing And Scrapbooking Roots
09:31 Life In Christchurch
14:50 Supplies And Access Limits
25:00 Mixed Media Enters Scrapbooking
29:32 Travel Albums And Memory Keeping
32:12 Trips Abroad And Family
37:45 Back To Art Skills
40:10 Wild Watercolor Breakdown
41:53 Watercolor Control Struggles
42:28 Learning Curve and Confidence
42:57 Memory and School Stories
44:23 What Creativity Feels Like
45:49 Retail Career and Retirement
50:55 Morning Routine and Cats
55:50 Fodder School Habits
56:37 Supply Hunting in NZ
58:02 The Pen That Worked
01:01:16 When Art Time Happens
01:04:38 Family Reactions to Art
01:06:56 NZ Friends and Immigration
01:10:21 Crop and Craft Community
01:15:59 Wrapping Up and Goodbye

Host Wendy Solganik interviews UK mixed media artist andlongtime Fodder School member Emma Hudson, first discussing the mixed feelings around AI art as a tool that won’t replace human making. Emma shares her path from studying textiles/fashion and working in London—teaching for years in a special needs school and later in a creative nursery team—to focusing on art after medical retirement, rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune issues, caregiving for her mother-in-law with Alzheimer’s, and her daughter leaving for university. She describes lifelong sketchbooks, making cards and projects, anda childhood of “make do and mend,” plus early inspiration from the TV show Take Hart. After starting Instagram in March 2022, she joined Fodder School, posted daily, embraced process over perfection, found community, and now identifies as an artist, exploring collage, gel printing, embroidery on paper, watercolor, pattern, and an earthy sea-and-rust palette.
 
00:00 Meet Emma Hudson
03:28 AI Art Debate
13:48 Emma In England
14:16 From Seaside To London
17:25 Teaching And Family
20:29 Rheumatoid Arthritis Shift
22:21 Sketchbooks And Projects
26:26 Instagram To Fodder School
30:27 Finding Her Tribe
34:12 Early Art Roots
34:53 Scrap Collage Roots
36:10 Childhood Materials Memory
38:28 Take Hart Felt Tips
39:57 Sketchbooks Without Notes
43:58 Art Through Life Shifts
45:22 Finding Purpose as Artist
49:56 Online Community Connection
52:28 Art Shops and Access
58:49 Always Making Projects
59:39 Originality and Inspiration
01:04:03 Aging Into Freedom
01:06:21 Detaching From Doomscrolling
01:07:28 Workday Without News
01:09:34 Kids In The Rage Machine
01:10:31 Personal Art Practices
01:12:34 Learning Styles And Teaching
01:16:44 Altering Clothes For Comfort
01:21:44 Ancestors And Showing Up
01:24:44 Freedom Without Judgment
01:27:41 Finding Your Color Palette
01:29:51 Why We Love Decay
01:33:27 Final Push To Make Art

Host Wendy Solganik interviews longtime Fodder School participant Tina Lee-Cronkhite, an artist in Grand Rapids, Michigan, about her creative path and community. Tina grew up around her mother’s fine art (portraits, oils, landscapes) and shifted from mechanical engineering after a GM supervisor encouraged her to apply to the Center for Creative Studies, where she studied graphic design and later worked at ad agencies doing print design before the digital era. She became deeply involved in calligraphy—helping start a Kalamazoo guild, attending in-person workshops and conferences, exploring bookmaking, and valuing traditional tools—while also embracing looser, mixed-media approaches over time. Tina joined Fodder School in its first year during COVID, credits it as a lifesaver, works from a basement studio, displays art throughout her home, gives pieces away, and typically completes most monthly projects while adapting teachers’ processes to her own style.

00:00 Meet Tina Lee-Cronkhite
01:46 Show Intro Theme
03:07 Tina Background
04:46 Mom Artist Roots
08:02 Engineering to Art
11:44 Graphic Design Career
13:42 Calligraphy Discovery
15:41 Guild Workshops
23:42 Online Classes and Fodder
24:58 Studio Space Reality
28:16 Displaying Finished Work
29:40 Selling vs Making Joy
31:09 Gifting Art Without Fear
31:58 Keeping Up With Fodder School
34:16 UFOs From Loving Projects
36:34 Art Outside The Lessons
37:58 Pickleball And Productivity
39:37 Following Teachers Your Way
43:10 Master Boards And Style
46:20 Traditional Calligraphy Vs Trends
49:44 Guilds Aging And Craft Magic
53:06 Lefty Struggles And Imperfection
55:50 Calligraphy Guild Nostalgia
57:41 Postcards And Wrap Up

Host Wendy Solganik interviews mixed media and collage artistCrystal Marie (formerly Crystal Neubauer), author of The Art of Expressive Collage and a 2018 Racine Art Museum Artist Fellowship recipient, about her life, art, and teaching. Crystal describes moving into a Chicago Little Village live/work storefront to stay near the art scene on an artist’s budget andtraces her maker roots to a craft-filled childhood. She recounts attending a university-affiliated high school, becoming a teen parent, working up through printing-industry project management, and later burning out while raising sevenkids in a blended family. Her professional art career began in the early 2000s through eBay paper packs, Somerset Studio, blog/Flickr communities, early publications and the book A Charming Exchange, then teaching at Art & Soul. Crystal explains evolving from whimsical collage to more restrained work, discovering encaustic to preserve ephemera, coping with mold-related illness that forced her to discard her paper collection, shifting to online teaching during the pandemic, and planning Fodder School projects including a handmade hair calligraphy brush challenge and texture-based collage lessons.
 
00:00 Meet Crystal Marie
02:26 Podcast Premise and Subscribe
03:49 Crystal’s Chicago Studio Life
08:26 Finding the Perfect Live Work Space
13:10 Early Making Roots
15:35 Scholarship to University High
22:04 Teen Parenthood and Survival
30:06 Creativity Through Beads and Sewing
31:50 Printing Career and Moving to Chicago
36:51 Brady Bunch Burnout
39:36 eBay Paper Hustle to Collage
41:57 Somerset Studio Spark
46:59 Blog Era and First Teaching Gig
49:54 Discovering Encaustic Wax
53:59 Basement Studio Beginnings
55:29 Shifting to Abstract Collage
59:24 Selling Art Online Early
01:01:12 Finding the Old Work
01:04:00 Book and Name Change
01:06:15 Intuition and Altering Papers
01:10:45 Mold Loss and Rebuilding
01:16:25 Pandemic Online Teaching Boom
01:19:51 Where to Buy and Follow
01:28:11 Illness and Career Upside Down
01:38:30 Fodder Challenge Hair Brush
01:43:05 Texture Fodder Classes Wrap

Wendy Solganik introduces season six, episode six of theShow Up or Shut Up podcast with guest Connie Fong, a longtime Fodder School member now teaching in Fodder School six. Connie, a Bay Area native and retired computer science professional who worked at IBM and in e-commerce at WilliamsSonoma, shares her lifelong crafting journey through knitting, scrapbooking, bookmaking, and mixed media, plus her love of bold black-and-white contrast, typography, and grungy pops of color influenced by artists like Robin Marie Smith. They discuss how Fodder School’s variety, pacing, and supportive community helped Connie develop her distinctive style, and her surprise atbecoming a teacher. Connie previews her Fodder Challenge whimsical paper dolls (inspired by Mindy Lacefield) and her Fodder School project: a collage-style monthly calendar using ransom letters. She also talks about learning to film online classes with help from her daughter’s former YouTube setup, selling journals on Etsy (Artful Play), daily pickleball, and her shyness about posting publicly on Instagram (@myartfulplay).
 
00:00 Meet Connie Fong
02:01 Podcast Premise
03:23 Bay Area Roots
06:03 Early Crafting Life
07:39 Supplies And Shopping
10:25 Tech Career Path
13:57 From Crafts To Mixed Media
18:31 Finding Her Style
25:03 Becoming A Teacher
27:41 Why Fodder School Works
33:00 Her Fodder Challenge Dolls
35:07 Finding Your Own Style
36:03 Paper Dolls Project
36:30 Calendar Collage Plan
37:21 Ransom Letters Method
39:38 Why Make Art Calendars
43:54 Storing Cutout Letters
45:51 How Style Evolves
50:44 Teaching Online Leap
51:52 Daughter’s YouTube Journey
55:15 Etsy Shop and Instagram
58:49 Pickleball and Family Life
01:00:17 Confidence and Closing