The Truth In This Art
The Truth In This Art with Rob Lee is a Baltimore-based arts and culture podcast where independent journalist Rob Lee goes beyond the highlight reel to uncover the truth behind the work—the creative process, the choices, and the stories that shape the people who make it. This podcast features thoughtful conversations with emerging and established photographers, filmmakers, designers, musicians, chefs, writers, and other creative voices. Each episode explores how artists build sustainable practices, stay connected to their communities, and create work that reflects the world around them. More than interviews, these are stories about what it takes to build a...
Sara Diani on Painting, Desire, and Being an Afghan American Artist
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, I sit down with Afghan American painter Sara Diani at Eaton Hotel in Downtown DC!
About Sara Diani: Afghan American artist based in Northern Virginia and working in Washington DC, who works in oil and soft pastel to explore intimacy, desire, and attachment — focusing on fragments of the body, lingerie, fabric, curves, and the spaces between forms.
We start at the beginning — Sara's first creative memory is getting reprimanded in first grade for not waiting for the paint to dry during a portrait exercise. She connects that...
RUBY/DAKOTA'S Hannah Studnick on Art Being Fun, The TV Glow Sees Me at Ipso Facto in Hudson NY
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, I'm joined by poet, gallerist, and founder of RUBY/DAKOTA Hannah Studnick.
About Hannah Studnick: Hannah Studnick is an impossibly young and beautiful poet, as well as the founder of RUBY/DAKOTA, a tiny but mighty nomadic gallery born out of New York City's East Village. She believes art should be fun, and that people should buy more of it.
Hannah introduces herself and her work for listeners who may be meeting her for the first time — walking through 13 years in reality TV production, which she cr...
Lauren Ashlee Messina on Dance, Community, and Creative Confidence
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, host Rob Lee welcomes back Lauren Ashlee Messina for a returning visit to the podcast!
About Lauren Ashlee Messina: Award-winning choreographer and community builder based in New Orleans, founder of skool.com/dance — the original and largest multi-style dance community on the Skool platform — and a longtime connector of dancers to one another and to resources.
Lauren returns to the podcast and reintroduces herself and her work for new listeners, catching Rob up on where life has taken her since they last sat down together in p...
Rée the Interdisciplinarian on Impact Producing, Education, and Baltimore
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Rée the Interdisciplinarian!
About Rée the Interdisciplinarian: Originally from Los Angeles, she holds a BA in fine art and an MFA in filmmaking, with a teaching background spanning multiple countries. She now works as an impact producer and is based in Baltimore, where she lives at the intersection of education and media.
Rée joins the podcast and introduces herself and her work for listeners who may be meeting her for the first time — walking through the path from fine art g...
Maryland Humanities Alexandra Cenatus on Public Humanities, Haitian Food, and Community
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Alexandra Cenatus!
About Alexandra Cenatus: PhD student in the language and literature program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, director of programs at Maryland Humanities, and commissioner at the MD250 Commission. Her work spans public humanities, food studies, and Haitian cultural history.
Alexandra joins the podcast and introduces herself and her work for listeners who may be meeting her for the first time, walking through just how many roles she holds at once — and why each one connects to the others.
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Actor, Author, and Artist Victoria Rowell on her MICA Exhibition 'A Woman Becomes...'
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, accomplished actress, artist, writer, director, and New York Times bestselling author Victoria Rowell is here!
About Victoria Rowell: Victoria Rowell is a multi-disciplinary creator widely known for her television roles on Diagnosis Murder and The Young and the Restless. Driven by an innate love of movement and a childhood immersed in the arts by her foster mother, she has built a dynamic creative life spanning classical ballet, acting, and independent filmmaking. She is the artistic force behind "A Woman Becomes," a solo photography exhibition at the Maryland Institute...
Festival Producers Keith Dukes III and Tony Diallo on Pixal Fest 2026 DMV Short Film Festival
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, Pixal Fest producers Keith Dukes III and Tony Diallo are back!
About Keith Dukes III and Tony Diallo: Keith Dukes III is an aspiring filmmaker, storyteller, and founder of Pixal Fest Short Film Festival and Pixal Neon LLC, based in the DMV. Driven by a passion for connecting people through story, he has built Pixal Fest into a community-centered event that pushes well beyond industry standard — curating films from creators met through social media, the workforce, and personal collaboration. Tony Diallo is the marketing and operations force behind Pi...
Shakespearean Actress Renea S. Brown Explains Why Justice in ‘Measure for Measure’ Still Resonates Today
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Renea S. Brown!
About Renea S. Brown: Lexington, Kentucky-born multi-award-winning classical actress and Shakespearean specialist based in the DMV. A storyteller since childhood, Renea began her theatrical journey at nine years old, training at the School of the Creative and Performing Arts before building a career that spans the region's leading stages — from Folger Theater to Roundhouse Theater to Shakespeare Theater Company. She has earned three Helen Hayes Awards, co-founded the Black-led Eminent Theatre Company, and has appeared on screen in Godfather of Harlem an...
Johab Silva Issues Blunt Warning on AI Overload: “Stay Away From Technology”
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Johab Silva!
About Johab Silva: Brazilian artist and arts educator who has lived in the Washington, D.C. region for 18 years. Based in Virginia, Silva works across AI, NFTs, VR and AR, generative media, animation, video projection, and 3D modeling to explore environmental and community issues connected to urban development.
Johab reflects on how his practice shifted around 2017, after a major, material-focused exhibition at Transformer prompted him to investigate where his materials came from and how they connected to the environmental issues already...
Glass Artist Dany Green on Chaos, Order, and Letting Things Break
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the returning guest is Dany Green!
About Dany Green: Self-taught abstract glass artist based in Baltimore, Maryland. Working outside of traditional mosaic training, Green has developed an avant-garde technique she calls glass painting, building each piece shard by shard in response to light, chaos, and the intangible.
Dany first joined the podcast several years ago, and in this conversation, she catches us up on where her practice and her life have taken her since then. She reintroduces her work for listeners who may have missed the...
DC-based photographer Farrah Skeiky on Photography, Grief, and Staying Connected to People
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the returning guest is Farrah Skeiky!
About Farrah Skeiky: DC-area photographic artist with roughly 15 years of experience behind the camera. Her work centers on music and underground scenes, including hardcore punk and DC's alternative drag scene, alongside commercial work in restaurants and hospitality. Everything she creates, she says, is in pursuit of connection.
In our conversation, Skeiky catches us up on where her work and her life have taken her since her last appearance on the podcast. She talks about her ongoing long-term project documenting grief...
Georgina Coka Treviño Reveals the Emotional Reason Behind Her New Newsletter: “I Cried So Much”
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Georgina Coka Treviño!
About Coka Treviño: A cultural strategist and arts advisor originally from Monterrey, Mexico, now based in Austin, Texas. Over the past two decades, she has worked at the intersection of artists, institutions, and contemporary art, collaborating with organizations including the Texas Biennial, Zona Maco, and Untitled Art Fair. Her practice centers on language, communication, and connection, helping artists and organizations clarify how they move through the world and how they speak to the people they serve.
In our co...
Producer LuvJonez on Building Community Through Instrumental Hip-Hop
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is LuvJonez.
About LuvJonez: Portland, Oregon–based instrumental hip hop producer and beat maker whose work weaves a nostalgic, down-tempo blend of musical influences drawn from his cultural roots, extensive travels, and artistic experiences. Beyond music production, he founded and runs A Beat Happening, a free, monthly, all-ages, inclusive BIPOC and LGBTQIA2S+-centered music producer and DJ showcase built to connect artists across the city.
In our conversation, LuvJonez talks about how time on the East Coast, in the Pacific Northwest, and ar...
Dominican artist Jose Duran on Reclaiming Black Femininity Through Baroque and Rococo Opulence
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Jose Duran.
About Jose Duran: Born in Moca, Dominican Republic, Duran is a painter, designer, and sculptor whose work constructs elaborate, opulent interiors rooted in Baroque and Rococo traditions. His practice is grounded in extensive research into survival, celebration, vengeance, sabotage, and aspirational desire within Black communities. Duran centers Black feminine figures in his compositions as a reclamation of their historically overlooked contributions to European standards of taste, and as a form of retribution for generations of forced labor under colonial rule.
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Dominican artist Bony Ramirez - Anchoring Caribbean Memory to Surreal, Renaissance-Inspired Figures
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Bony Ramirez!
About Bony Ramirez: Dominican-born artist based out of Jersey City, New Jersey, working across painting, sculpture, and installation to create a vivid celebration and exploration of Dominican life and Caribbean culture. Blending European painting traditions — Renaissance and Mannerist influences drawn from church art — with distinctly Caribbean imagery, symbolism, and materials, Ramirez has built a visual language entirely his own. His elongated, exaggerated figures function almost like landscapes, each one deliberately distinct, never referencing real people but instead pulling from memory and imagination.
In...
DMV Visual Artist Khadija Jahmila Turns Reclaimed Materials Into Diasporic Storytelling
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Khadija Jahmila!
About Khadija Jahmila: Silver Spring, Maryland–based Afro-Caribbean mixed-media artist, mother, and teaching artist working across hand-cut analog and digital collage. Her pieces pull from folklore and surrealism, layering found and donated print material onto wood panels and reclaimed metal to explore what gets carried forward and what gets left behind.
Jahmila talks about the apartment building her family first lived in after settling in Maryland, and how a printed photo of that building became what she calls the "spark im...
Sand Is Still Sand: DC Artist Dina AZ. Salem on Memory, Texture, and Transformation
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Dina AZ. Salem!
About Dina AZ. Salem: Washington, DC–based abstract contemporary artist born in Alexandria, Egypt, working across painting and sculpture to create materially driven works that explore healing, transformation, memory, and resilience. Through layered surfaces, texture, and unconventional materials, her practice investigates how personal experience can be translated into visual language. She signs her work with the initials of her late father, honoring the person who first encouraged her artistic journey.
In our conversation, Salem talks through growing up in Alexandria, Eg...
Charm City Table Founder Simone Phillips on Building Baltimore Food Culture
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Simone Phillips!
About Simone Phillips: Award-winning content creator and event curator behind Charm City Table, Baltimore's popular food and beverage platform with more than ten million impressions per month. She's become a trusted voice in Baltimore's culinary scene, highlighting the people, places, and stories that shape the city's food culture. She also curates vertical videos for the Maryland Film Festival and works closely with Parkway Theater.
In our conversation, Phillips walks through her journey from starting Charm City Table in 2017 as a hobby...
French-American Painter Louis-Antoine Gilbert on Cubism, Moebius & Art Deco
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Louis-Antoine Gilbert!
About Louis-Antoine Gilbert: French-American painter and artist known for his acrylic on canvas works that create the illusion of depth, living in Washington, DC for nearly a decade, creating colorful acrylic cityscapes inspired by brutalist and modernist architecture, art deco design, and graphic novels by Moebius, François Schuiten, and Benoît Peeters. His cubist-influenced work draws from M.C. Escher and Wassily Kandinsky, and he's also a musician, beat maker, and painting instructor.
In our conversation, Gilbert talks through growing up...
A Revolution Called Love's Zoë Poindexter on Black Love Day, Filmmaking and Storytelling for Us
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Zoë Poindexter!
About Zoë Poindexter: Documentary filmmaker, producer, and director based in Washington, DC. She attended journalism graduate school at Georgetown University, where she continues to work as a documentary teacher's assistant, and specializes in nonfiction storytelling.
In our conversation, Poindexter walks through her journey to A Revolution Called Love, a feature documentary inspired by Black Love Day—a holiday created in DC in the nineties by Mama Ayo Handy-Kendi. After living in DC for almost ten years without ever hearing about it...
Artist Paloma Vianey on Painting "The Most Dangerous City"
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Paloma Vianey!
About Paloma Vianey: Interdisciplinary artist from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, now based in Washington, DC. She holds an MFA from Cornell University and has created large-scale public art installations along the US-Mexico border, with work exhibited at major museums and galleries internationally. She is primarily a painter and educator, teaching at the collegiate level.
In our conversation, Vianey walks through her artistic journey from beginning to paint as a teenager when Juarez was labeled "the most dangerous city in the...
MJ On The Wall: Engineer Turned Self-Taught Painter Miles Johnson on His Art
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Miles Johnson!
About Miles Johnson: Miles Johnson is a self-described "unclassically untrained oil painter" and mechanical engineer based in the DMV area. In over 4 years—starting with over a year on iPad before transitioning to oils 3 years ago—he has created numerous pieces. His late grandmother was a painter herself who created approximately 300 pieces and inspired his creative path. Miles first painted her portrait last summer for his solo show.
Growing up, Miles would run cross-country to the Smithsonian, where Thomas Cole's four...
Bernard Feinsod on 17 Years Behind the Scenes In Media Production from Vice Media to Going Solo
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Bernard Feinsod!
About Bernard Feinsod: Editor, producer, writer, director, sound designer, and voice actor with over 17 years of experience in comedy, documentary, news, variety entertainment, and live events. A Baltimore-raised, Brooklyn-based creative who started at NBC's Today Show at 21, spent eight years at Vice Media, and is now navigating the independent content creator landscape.
In our conversation, Feinsod talks through his 17-year journey in post-production—from the NBC mail room to creative producer, working with Sony, Field and Stream, and Huckberry across te...
How Shakespeare Saved My Life: Jacob Ming-Trent on Trauma, Shakespeare & Black Joy
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Jacob Ming-Trent!
About Jacob Ming-Trent: Acclaimed performer, playwright, and one of American Theater's people to watch. A celebrated artist bringing his solo play, How Shakespeare Saved My Life, to Washington, DC's Folger Theater, and later to The Public Theater in New York with Red Bull producing.
In our conversation, Ming-Trent walks through his journey from a rough childhood in an abusive home to moving to New York at seventeen—having been homeless the previous year and recently dropped out of high sc...
Atlanta-based Museum Registrar Solana Rostick on Black Arts Collections and Gallery 32
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Solana Rostick!
About Solana Rostick: Registrar and Collections Manager at Clark Atlanta University Art Museum. An emerging museum professional dedicated to ensuring underrepresented groups are reflected within institutional collection holdings. Born in Atlanta, raised in Tampa, Florida, and recently completed her Master's in Museum Studies from the University of Florida.
In our conversation, Rostick walks through her journey into the museum world—from early childhood memories of making art with shaving cream on windows at age three to being inspired by her father, on...
Artist Tyreek Morrison Discusses Fatherhood, Generational Legacy, and the Art of Collage
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, I sit down with Tyreek Morrison!
About Tyreek Morrison: Tyreek Morrison is an Atlanta-based collage artist who describes himself as "dad first, collage artist second." Born in New Jersey and raised in Atlanta, Morrison uses collage, found materials, paper, paint, and drawing to explore Black American life through memory, identity, and everyday experiences. His daughter just turned one, and this episode was recorded right before his first Father's Day. His father is an oil and acrylic painter, and Morrison grew up watching him work through the night...
Maurice Scarlett III, Baltimore-Based Visual Artist, on Using Pain as Power and Re-Imagining Black Representation in Art
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, I sit down with Maurice Scarlett III!
About Maurice Scarlett III: Maurice Scarlett III is a Baltimore-based visual artist and multi-disciplinary creative named after his father from West Baltimore. He is of Jamaican heritage and specializes in figurative art characterized by darker, alluring tones that capture the essence of Black figures. His journey began in 2010 with photography—documenting friends who were musicians, DJs, and clothing designers right after graduating high school. In 2017, fashion designer Kirby Jean-Raymond of Pyer Moss discovered him on Instagram and invited him to collaborate fo...
Kris Fulton of Sophomore Coffee on Building Trust Through Consistency and Why Physical Presence Still Matters
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, returning guest Kris Fulton is back!
About Kris Fulton: Kris Fulton is a self-described coffee nerd, Baltimore-based coffee roaster, and co-owner of Sophomore Coffee, a neighborhood coffee shop in Charles Village. He opened Sophomore Coffee in April 2019, just months before the pandemic, and has spent seven years building it into a trusted community fixture. His journey in coffee began at a local café and evolved through his pivotal role at the Four Seasons Baltimore in 2011, where he honed his skills in luxury hospitality and elevated service that would s...
Megan Elcrat of Present Company on Hyper-Local Architecture, Preserving How Spaces Feel, and Place-Making in Station North
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, returning guest Megan Elcrat is back!
About Megan Elcrat: Megan Elcrat is the founding principal of Present Company, a Baltimore-based architecture and design firm where she specializes in urban revitalization, adaptive reuse, and creative workspace design. She co-founded the innovative Co-Lab Baltimore co-working space in Old Goucher, which houses both an architecture firm and a design-focused bookstore. Her work is rooted in the belief that architecture is fundamentally about experience and place-making.
We talk about her formative memories of her father's mathematics department office at...
Dr. David O. Fakunle II on Art, Storytelling, Health Equity, and the Power of Narrative
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Dr. David O. Fakunle II!
About Dr. David O. Fakunle II: Dr. David Fakunle II is a Baltimore native, academic, and self-described mercenary for change and celestial body for change who has spent 25 years using art and storytelling for liberation. He is an assistant professor at Morgan State University in the School of Community Health and Policy and associate faculty at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He serves as director of the TEACH Division (Transforming Equity through Arts, Culture and Health) at the...
Shaun Stewart of Patterson Pins
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Shaun Stewart!
About the guest: Shaun Stewart is the HBIC (Head Bartender In Charge) of Patterson Pins in Baltimore's Upper Fells Point. Known for "killing the business, one cocktail at a time," Stewart brings years of bartending experience—including consulting for Hemingway's, features in Esquire, and competition wins—to his role at one of the oldest duckpin bowling alleys in the country, now reimagined with an arcade gaming and vaporwave aesthetic. Shaun has been part of many of the best, unique cocktail programs in B...
Art Shopping Network's Maxwell Young & Amir Browder of HOMME DC ON 'Acquired Taste'
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Amir Browder and Maxwell Young!
About the guests: Amir Browder is the curator, creative director, and founder of Homme Gallery in DC. Maxwell Young is the founder of the Art Shopping Network, a writer, and works on projects that socialize art buying and support living artists, nonprofit institutions, and galleries.
We talk about Acquired Taste and what it does: a catalog and platform that socializes art buying through Polaroids from the host’s personal archive, prints, editorial interviews and essays, and curated fi...
Sarah B. McCann
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Sarah B. McCann!
About Sarah B. McCann: Sarah is an artist, curator, and founder of SBM Gallery in Baltimore's Highlandtown Arts District. Her text-based mosaics, prints, and multimedia work has been shown nationally. She spent 15 years curating exhibitions nomadically before opening her own space this year.
We talk about launching SBM Gallery and what it means to her to support artists working with love and justice—artists using their work to push for change and move us closer to where we could be. Sh...
Sam Furnish & Bemo's Clothing
In this episode of The Truth In The Art, I sit down with Sam Furnish—founder of Bemo's Clothing and the guy behind Baltimore's "born in Baltimore" premium civvies movement.
About Sam Furnish: Sam launched Bemo's Clothing in 2025 after years in the outdoor industry learning product development and manufacturing. The brand name comes from his father's childhood nickname—"Bemo"—given by Sam's grandpa in 1950s Midwest America alongside nicknames like "Peavy" and "Muley." When Sam moved to Baltimore and locals said "B-more," it sounded just like his dad's name. Bemo's Clothing is his homage to both the man an...
Rachel Mijares-Fick
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, Rachel Mijares-Fick returns to the program.
About Rachel Mijares-Fick: Rachel co-founded Future Fair back in 2020 during the pandemic with Rebeca Laliberte. Future Fair is an art fair in New York where galleries, artist collectives, and independent curators from around the world come to set up exhibitions. The fair spotlights emerging and under-recognized voices in the art world. Over six years, it's launched careers for artists and dealers and become a real part of the fabric of New York's art scene.
We talk about the...
Omri D. Cohen
In this episode of The Truth In The Art, the guest is Omri D. Cohen!
Who is Omri D. Cohen: Author of Questions to Humanity — a collection born from five months backpacking South America — Omri has spent six years asking one question to 700 people across 50+ nationalities, documenting stories and street/landscape photography that reached millions.
Omri D. Cohen talks about his journey leaving home to backpack South America, the process of gathering perspectives for his book Questions to Humanity, building a video series from those encounters, and how storytelling and photography can foster curiosity and...
Interview with Douriean Fletcher: "Douriean Fletcher: Jewelry of the Afrofuture" at Walters Art Museum
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Douriean Fletcher!
About Douriean Fletcher: An acclaimed jewelry designer and artisan whose work bridges adornment and storytelling. She was the specialty jeweler for Marvel's Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and became the first jewelry artist to be part of an Academy Award–winning costume design team—an honor she achieved twice. Douriean has expanded into spacial adornment art, creating large-scale installations and immersive environments.
In our conversation, Douriean Fletcher discusses her exhibition, Douriean Fletcher: Jewelry of the Afrofuture, at the Walters Art...
Alex Jennings
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Alex Jennings!
Who is Alex Jennings: Author, poet, and former standup comedian who lived in New Orleans for nearly 20 years—now working on his second novel from Chicago. You might remember Alex from my New Orleans series where we discussed his book, The Ballad of Perilous Graves, here.
In our conversation, Jennings talks through his new book Dead End Boys—set in an alternate New Orleans where communicating with the dead is the main industry. He connects the project to comedy and digs into...
Barry Wright III
In this episode of The Truth In The Art, the guest is Barry Wright III!
Who is Barry Wright III: Baltimore-based improviser, teacher, technology professional, and co-founder (and current board president) of Highwire Improv, launched in 2020. You might remember Barry from his first appearance on The Truth In The Art here.
In our conversation, Wright talks about Highwire's origin during the 2020 lockdown, building an improv community in Highlandtown, and making improv financially accessible and sustainable. As he puts it, improv "can be done with absolutely no materials. You truly only need other human beings...
Cecilia M. McCormick
In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Cecilia M. McCormick!
About Cecilia M. McCormick: President of MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) with 33 years in higher education, an art collector who raised three sons now working in the creative field.
In our conversation, McCormick talks through MICA's bicentennial year and the vision she's building as the school hits 200. She connects the programming to three themes—illumination, innovation, and entrepreneurship—and digs into new degrees shaped by workforce demand. As she puts it, creativity is "the commodity that cannot be automated, outs...
