In this episode I am joined by a dear friend, artist, poet, philosopher, and all around magical human being Matthew John Betzalel Bivalacqua. In this episode we discuss his deeply personal art process and its relationship to memory, emotion, and spiritual experience. His works explores a fresh approach to still life and the power of personal symbols encased in memory.

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Matthew John Betzalel Bivalacqua was born in Metairie LA, 1981. In 2015 he received his undergraduate degrees from the University of New Orleans, in Fine Arts and Philosophy. In 2018 Matthew John received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of New Orleans. After converting to Judaism, in 2021, Matthew John was awarded an artist fellowship from Pardes Institute of Jewish Learning, in Jerusalem, where he held poetry workshops.

Matthew John’s process draws subject matter from his narrative, to express a sentiment, a historical relation, or convey an identity beyond an object’s or environment’s manufactured function. The surfaces he creates are technical manipulations of traditional practices for applying mediums. Some of his influences are Van Gogh’s still lifes and David Hockney’s joiner photographs.

Website

Instagram

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Credits: Special thanks to Matthew Blankenship of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Sometimes Island⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for our podcast theme music!

Support this podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/martin-l-benson/support

In this episode I am welcomed by visual artist Terra Keck. Together we explored her initial interests in occult spirituality and how that began to evolve in her life and especially its influence over her art practice. We discuss the nature of awareness and the importance of cultivating a space (both physical and mental) that allows for channeling and transmission to come through the creative process.

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Terra Keck is an artist, curator, and writer based in Brooklyn, New York. She received her MFA from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and her BFA from Ball State University. She is a partner at Field Projects Gallery in the Chelsea Arts District of Manhattan and cohosts the comedy-educational podcast “Witch, Yes!” Her work has been published in Hyperallergic, The Art Newspaper, and Oxford American Arts and can be found in permanent institutional collections in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and California. She is a regular contributing writer to Artspiel, Impulse Magazine, and Artefuse.

www.terrakeck.com

Field Projects Gallery https://www.fieldprojectsgallery.com/

Terra’s Podcast: Witch, Yes! https://open.spotify.com/show/1kWQXQEAkBUhLRFpvqP0EJ

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Credits: Special thanks to Matthew Blankenship of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Sometimes Island⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for our podcast theme music!

Support this podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/martin-l-benson/support

In this episode I am joined by one of my best friends on this planet, Artist and Art Therapist Elijah Chong. Elijah and I have known each other for over a decade and have always been kindred spirits on this journey of cultivating spiritual knowledge and wisdom. In this episode we dive deep into his personal journey and talk extensively about his practice as an art therapist and how that intertwines with his own personal creative practice.

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Born in Anchorage, Alaska, raised in Houston, Texas, Elijah Kane Chong left home to study Architecture at Texas A&M University, which is where he dedicated himself to the arts and specifically to painting. He then moved on to New Orleans to teach art and establish his career in the post-Katrina revival. There, he met up with like-minded friends and helped to establish the Krewe of Motha Roux, an independent collective of far-out creatives and freethinkers. He rededicated himself to art as service, and journeyed to Santa Fe to study Art Therapy and Counseling at Southwestern College. He currently works as a licensed mental health counselor and art therapist in St. Tammany Parish, LA and continues to expand and grow upon his practice and body of work.

Website

Instagram

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*To stay updated on the podcast and related content, check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠my Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

*To support the show and access exclusive content, consider subscribing for $0.99/month on Instagram (link above).

Credits: Special thanks to Matthew Blankenship of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Sometimes Island⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for our podcast theme music!

Support this podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/martin-l-benson/support⁠⁠⁠⁠

In this episode I dive deep with the incredible visionary artist and podcaster Alex Coma. Our conversation is an incredible discussion about spiritual practice, astrology, and the synchronicities to help guide us on the path of expanding our consciousness.

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Alex Coma is an interdisciplinary artist exploring the complex intersections between symbolism, consciousness, and esoteric knowledge. A graduate in photography from Concordia University and former scholarship recipient at the Montreal Fine Arts Academy, Coma’s practice draws on figures like Arnold Böcklin and Carl Jung. His work navigates between visual art, philosophical investigation, and spiritual exploration, deploying a rigorous methodology that questions symbolic systems, cryptographic elements, and ritual methodologies. For the past decade, Coma has studied under Egyptian spiritual teacher Shri Amir Mourad, developing meditative techniques that enable deeper access to unconscious realms and inform his artistic practice—a disciplined inner exploration that has become instrumental in his ability to perceive increasingly more profound symbolic content and archetypal energies.

His works, exhibited internationally at venues including the Visionary Art Collective in New York, the Affordable Art Fair in London and Brussels, and recognized in collections such as Colart and Ubisoft, have been acclaimed by media including CBC Arts, Vie des Arts, and La Presse. In 2023, Coma founded Roze Umbra, an initiative and platform dedicated to visionary artists, extending his commitment to collaborative artistic research that examines the subtle connections between symbolic languages and collective consciousness. As part of this initiative, he created "The Blue Hour Podcast," where he engages with visionary artists worldwide. His approach to all he does is constantly seeking a delicate balance between empirical knowledge and the ineffable mystery, offers an exploration of the borderlands of artistic creation.

Websites:

www.alexcoma.world

Visionary Roze Grant:

www.rozeumbra.com/visionaryrozegrant

Instagram:

@alexcoma.world⁠

@rozeumbra

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*To support the show and access exclusive content, consider subscribing for $0.99/month on Instagram (link above).

Credits: Special thanks to Matthew Blankenship of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Sometimes Island⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for our podcast theme music!

Support this podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/martin-l-benson/support⁠⁠⁠

My conversation with Ukrainian artist Si Golraine is not to be missed. This heart-opening episode begins with her spiritual journey of healing from various physical ailments, which ultimately led her to a path of holistic learning. This journey transformed her life and introduced her to metaphysical and spiritual knowledge that she incorporates into her life and art practice in such an inspiring way. We also dive into the origins of her unique art-making process, where she channels electrical currents through her brushes to “paint” on sheets of titanium, creating a remarkable fusion of art and metallurgy.

Si Golraine (born Olga Panchenko) is a Ukrainian-born multidisciplinary artist based in New York City whose work bridges spirit, science, and art. Her practice centers on applying raw electrical voltage to titanium. Through this medium she explores energy, consciousness, and healing - transforming elemental forces into vibrational fields of color.

Raised in eastern Ukraine, Golraine studied classical piano for eleven years. After receiving a Future Leaders Exchange scholarship, she relocated to the U.S., eventually moving to New York to pursue interdisciplinary arts. Her path later became self-directed in response to the war in Ukraine and its impact on her family.

She is also half of Sestra Kuya, an experimental sonic-visual duo that in 2025 invented and engineered the transmission of fluctuating electrical voltage into both color and sound. In their system, electricity is applied to titanium sheets creating shifting fields of color while simultaneously being routed into modular synthesis to generate sound - merging scientific process with spiritual presence in a living fusion of art and energy.

Golraine is the recipient of a Staten Island Arts Premier Grant and the international Creative Climate Award, where her work received first prize by a panel that included Stanford University. Her practice has been shown with Visionary Projects (NYC), Red 225 (Nashville), and Human Impact Institute, among others, and has been featured in Staten Island Advance.

sigolraine.com

@si_golraine

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*To support the show and access exclusive content, consider subscribing for $0.99/month on Instagram (link above).

Credits: Special thanks to Matthew Blankenship of ⁠⁠⁠⁠The Sometimes Island⁠⁠⁠⁠ for our podcast theme music!

Support this podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/martin-l-benson/support⁠⁠

I have a special episode for you today with visual artist Shuling Guo. In this episode we hear about her incredible story going from a very traditional, small village in Southern China, and her triumph against a very dominant patriarchal culture structure, to go to art school in Beijing, and ultimately to the United States to pursue her artistic path. We learned about her spiritual influences from the women in her life and how that set the stage for her artistic journey.

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Guo graduated from the Oil Painting Department of China Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing (B.F.A.) in 2010. She moved to the United States in 2019, and currently lives between Philadelphia and aboard the Sailing Vessel Selkie. In 2012, she had her first solo exhibition in Beyond Art Space in Beijing. Since then, her work has been exhibited in New York, Beijing, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Platform Art.

Her works have been included in the permanent collections of Central Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum (Beijing) and Art Museum of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (Guangzhou). Her work has been selected to appear in New American Paintings, 2025 Issue 172.

Mindy Solomon Gallery

Shuling's Instagram

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Credits: Special thanks to Matthew Blankenship of ⁠⁠⁠The Sometimes Island⁠⁠⁠ for our podcast theme music!

Support this podcast: ⁠⁠⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/martin-l-benson/support⁠

In this episode I have an inspiring and fascinating conversation with visual artist Nika Fontaine. We dive deep into her personal history and her exploration of identity and spirituality. We talk about alchemy, transformation, and the ways in which art can become a vehicle for self discovery and ego dissolution.

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Nika Fontaine, born in Montreal 1985, lives and work in Berlin and Villalonga, Spain. She received her master of fine arts degree from the Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee in 2013 and subsequently engaged in a post graduate research project funded by the Elsa Neumann Stipendium in Berlin. Her works have been exhibited in North America and largely across Europe. Her works are part of the Royal bank of Canada, Deutsche Bank and City of Laval collections as well as over 100 private collections. In 2010 she co-founded the T10 artists studios in Berlin and in 2019 the organization Aurigin in Berlin and the first Aurigin Center in Spain in 2021. She is currently founding a tokenized real-estate startup to facilitate the acquisition of properties for communities and educational projects. Her artistic and social engagement are working hand in hand to inspire holistic living.

@nikafontaine

@aurigin_center

www.aurigin.org

www.nikafontaine.com

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*To support the show and access exclusive content, consider subscribing for $0.99/month on Instagram (link above).

Credits: Special thanks to Matthew Blankenship of ⁠⁠The Sometimes Island⁠⁠ for our podcast theme music!

Support this podcast: ⁠⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/martin-l-benson/support

In this episode I am joined by visual artist, Brent Houzenga, where we delve into his journey of discovering old photographs in a trash bin and how that changed the course of his life in profound ways. We discuss how this discovery ignited his artistic path and led him to reflect on themes of consciousness, synchronicity, and the essence of identity.

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Brent Houzenga is New Orleans-based artist originally from Fulton, IL. Houzenga earned his B.A. in printmaking and graphic design from Western Illinois University and his MFA at the University of New Orleans in 2017. Houzenga's art has been exhibited all over the country and world, including Warsaw, Chicago, Kansas City, Washington D.C., Portland, Los Angeles, Austin, Miami, and New Orleans.

Houzenga’s work resides in many private and public collections. In 2012 he was commissioned to paint a portrait for Matthew McConaughey's personal collection. He is an accomplished muralist, installation artist, and educator.

Houzenga's work has been featured in publications such as Time Out Chicago, Art and Art Galleries of the South, Art+Design New Orleans, as well as the Rizzoli book Stickers: From Punk Rock to Contemporary Art. In 2021 his work appeared on the cover of the Image Comics book Primordial. In 2022 he was commissioned by Dark Horse Comics to create a variant cover for a Stranger Things story. In 2024 his work appeared on the cover of the dreampunk anthology Somniscope published by Fractured Mirror. He is the subject of the independent documentary film Brent Houzenga: Hybrid Pioneer.

Brent's Website

Brent's IG

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*To support the show and access exclusive content, consider subscribing for $0.99/month on Instagram (link above).

Credits: Special thanks to Matthew Blankenship of ⁠The Sometimes Island⁠ for our podcast theme music!

Support this podcast: ⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/martin-l-benson/support