Matthew Lambert: In this episode, you've gotten to hear from Anne Henry and about her business, Artsy Fartsy. So here are the details of the contest associated with this episode. For the winner of this contest, you will get to pick a mug from Anne's inventory at Artsy Fartsy. The mug will be of no charge to you and has already been paid for by me. The shipping will also be free as well. All you have to do is pick the mug you like. So, Thank you for tuning into the Generational Gauntlet Top 5 Faves. This is the podcast where we give you our top five on a topic with a generational twist to it. My name is Matt Lambert and I'm the host of this podcast. Each week, I bring in a guest who's from a different generation than me to discuss or debate our top five on a selected topic. Today's topic is your top five favorite artists. And I'm gonna be honest, I am probably the least artistic person in the world. Thank you all for tuning in to today's episode. There is a contest associated with this episode. So make sure that you tune in until the end to hear the contest details. Ann: Okay. Matthew Lambert: This contest is eligible only to those people who live in the continental United States. For our listeners who reside outside of the continental United States, I apologize as the shipping becomes very unruly for international shipping. To be eligible for the contest, here's the details. You must follow the Facebook pages for both Artsy Fartsy and the Generational Gauntlet Top 5 Faves. I'll put links to each of our Facebook pages I can't draw, I can't paint, and after a recent outing with my wife Madison, I realized I can't do pottery either. So for today, I had to bring in a real life artist, and that artist is Ann Henry, a Gen Xer, one of my wife's best friends, and the owner of Artsy Fartsy in Ona, West Virginia. So Ann, thank you for jumping on here today. I appreciate having you, and before we get started, I wanted to let everyone know. in the episode description for this episode. So make sure to follow both pages to be eligible. Once you're following both Facebook pages, leave a comment on the original Generational Gauntlet Facebook post for this episode with the word contest to let us know you're following both pages. These directions will also be clearly noted on Facebook. On Saturday, April 11th, I'll be going live on Facebook to do a drawing a little bit about your business as you're killing it on the art scene. So Anne, could you let everybody know what it is, what is your business all about? Ann: Well, thanks for having me. It's a fun time for sure. So I opened artsy fartsy to, well, originally my plan was to have like a storefront for people that could sell their goods and things, but then it's kind of morphed into a whole pottery studio. And so since my husband is a good sport, he's, he's agreed to join. Matthew Lambert: of those individuals who are eligible to select our winner. Good luck to everyone who participates. Ann: my efforts here and so i quit my job but my teaching job you know with an actual paycheck with actual insurance you know all that and so we've turned the entire basement into artsy fartsy and so i do classes here pottery classes usually on the wheel i have some hand building things that i go into we formed like this really cool community so just come, sometimes they just come just for the community, but then, you know, extra bonus, you get to make fun things too. So that's a cool time. Matthew Lambert: Yeah, I'm sure. And you just mentioned it. So you do pottery on both the will and you hand build as well, correct? Ann: Correct, right now what I'm doing is six week classes. So people sign up on my website and they'll sign up for a six week class. So four weeks of that ⁓ are just basic wheel techniques, how to do it, getting independent. And then there's one day within the six weeks that is just hand building. And then the last day. ⁓ they come back and learn how to glaze all their pieces and then they come back and pick them all up. So they get from very start to finish everything. And then there's also an advanced ⁓ class as well. So we get a little past all the basic stuff ⁓ they get to learn more techniques and like, what am I doing wrong? How do I fix it when this happens? Things like that. Matthew Lambert: Well, I think Madison may have told you, we did a date recently, actually on Valentine's Day, and we went and did a pottery class, I think it was like two hours long down here in South Carolina, and it was one of the most humbling things I've ever done. My hands and arms hurt, and our conversation about you has been that you have to have like arms of steel at this point. It's just physically exhausting. I don't know how you do that all the time. Now, I'm sure. Ann: I used to be so sore after I would finish. So sore. Matthew Lambert: I'm sure. Now, I know we talked a little bit about your classes. Do you take custom orders for any items that you make? Ann: do, ⁓ one of the really cool things that I offer is fingerprint mugs. one of the things, it's really cool, know, when somebody passes away, they can take their fingerprint. A lot of times they can get a fingerprint from a funeral home or whatever, if they have their fingerprint. ⁓ Then can have that turned into a custom stamp and have ⁓ someone's Matthew Lambert: ⁓ okay. Ann: put into the clay. So I usually put like the fingerprint at the top of the handle. And so it's kind of like just a really special thing. You can have your coffee and, you know, have a fingerprint of somebody. You know, that's a really special thing that people like to do. And I do other custom things too. That's like a very personal sweet thing that people like to do. Custom orders make me nervous ⁓ it's so much pressure. ⁓ Matthew Lambert: Yeah. Ann: I love a good ⁓ challenge, but then sometimes I'm like, ⁓ my gosh, it puts so much pressure on me. It's stressy, but I'd much rather somebody come and just like buy something off the shelf and then it takes the pressure off. Matthew Lambert: I'm sure. What's up? That was gonna be my next question. So you have items that are already available for purchase. Ann: I do, yeah. don't have a storefront right now, ⁓ I do have lots of things here at the studio. And then also sell ⁓ ⁓ Tamarack. I got juried in to be an artist in there, so that's pretty cool. ⁓ that's big time. ⁓ very exciting. And that's in Beckley, West Virginia. ⁓ in a couple other stores. There's one in Matewan, West Virginia, Williamson, West Virginia, and then... ⁓ Matthew Lambert: Mm-hmm. Okay. That's big time. Ann: In Huntington, West Virginia, the Red Caboose, I put things down there and then go to festivals and things. Matthew Lambert: Can any of your items, like let's say if somebody reached out to you that's outside of West Virginia, can anybody have things shipped to them if they don't live nearby? Ann: Absolutely. Yeah, I do ship things. It is a little pricey to ship things because things get broken very easily in any kind of shipping method that you do. So whenever I do send things anywhere, I usually do a box within a box so it's extra protected and hopefully it'll make it there in one piece and not 15 pieces. Matthew Lambert: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, and I don't know if you remember this, but we have a coffee cup of yours at our house and it is literally a fight on the weekends to see who gets to drink out of that coffee cup. I can't use it during the week. I take like the travel disposable cups on my way to work. But when Madison and I are both here, it's a fight to see who can get into the cabinet first. So I can say from firsthand experience, your products are awesome. Ann: That's so great. again. Right. I'm so blind. That's so good. Matthew Lambert: I know you mentioned the storefronts that your pottery is being sold at. Is there somewhere that people can check things out online of what you have for sale? Ann: Yeah, for sure. I have a website. It's artsyfartsywv, as in WestVirginia.com. So you can go on there and see a lot of the products that I have. And a lot of times they will say sold out, but it's just because I am not super tech savvy. ⁓ So a lot of times I do have those things. They just are not updated on my website. So if people would just shoot me a message. Matthew Lambert: Mm-hmm. Ann: I can always check for availability or I can just make them whatever they want and whatever color they want. Matthew Lambert: Yeah. And is the, on your website, is that where people can find out more information about the classes and the other things you offer as well? Ann: Yes, yeah, on my website I have a little tab. It says classes. So if you just click that, they can just go on there and check that out. They can register on there. And then I also have an open studio option on Thursdays as of right now. I hope to open that up more. But as of right now, it's just on Thursdays and people can come pay thirty dollars, come. Matthew Lambert: Mm-hmm. Ann: just do whatever they want to. They can use the wheels, they can hand build, they can glaze, work on whatever projects they have. There's not instruction, they just come in and play and hang out in the cool pottery community. So that's usually a fun time. Matthew Lambert: Well, and for anybody listening, I'll be posting Anne's website. I'll be posting her links in this episode description, as well as it'll be on the socials for the podcast on both Facebook and on Instagram. And Anne, before we get into our top fives today, is there anything else that people need to know about you or about your business before we get rolling? Ann: ⁓ I think a really fun little story about artsy fartsy is actually the name. We went around and around trying to figure out what are we going to name this place? Because I knew I wanted to do this and I had other names picked out. And so we were going down the road one day and I said something about artsy fartsy. And my husband says, why don't you just name it that artsy fartsy? Because you say that all the time. So when I got my business license back in 2021, Matthew Lambert: Mm-hmm. Ann: I FaceTimed my grandmother who was then 92 years old and yes, she's still FaceTimes and she's 97 now and I love her. But so I call her and I'm like, Grandma, I got my business license, like super excited. And she's like, oh, that's great. And I said, do you want to know what the name is? And she's like, yeah, what is it? And I said, it's artsy fartsy. And so like the audible gasp from her. She said, ⁓ my gosh, that's filthy. Why would you do that? And I said, well, because like people are gonna talk about it. We're gonna talk about it. I said, we're talking about it right now. Like good or bad, people are gonna talk about it and they're gonna remember it. And I said, so grandma, are you saying that if I got you a shirt that says artsy farty, you wouldn't wear it? And she's like, absolutely not. Don't waste your money. Which is amazing. Matthew Lambert: Did you ever get her a shirt that says artsy fartsy on it? Ann: No, but I've been super sneaky because every year around pumpkin festival season, which happens in Milton in October. So that's usually when she flies back to Florida, you know, cause she's a little snowbird. And so she'll come to the booth that I have there at the pumpkin festival and I have my big artsy fartsy sign. So every year I take a picture of her with me in front of the artsy fartsy sign. So she's a part of it whether she wants to admit it or not. Matthew Lambert: Now, and I do want to ask you something ⁓ extra here. It's my understanding you have a mascot, like an animal mascot. Can you talk a little bit about that? Ann: I do. I definitely do. So it's Karen the cat and Karen is a calico. And if you know anything about calico cats, so they are definitely a little spicy. And so they have a little temperament of you never know what they're going to do. So Karen loves to do pottery, but specifically she likes to jump on people's left shoulder. and just watch while they're on the wheel and she'll sit over and watch you while you're doing pottery. But also, I've created a whole line of Karen the cats. So she has her own line of pottery and she has no idea. So I put a little cat on top of like my mugs or whatever and they're all painted up like Karen the cat. She's pretty famous now. Matthew Lambert: Nice. Well, I think I know what Madison might be getting for Mother's Day now is some Karen the Cat swag. ⁓ Well, like I said, Ann's links will be on the socials, the episode description. Check her out, especially if you're in the West Virginia area. You're looking for a new skill, something to get into, go do some pottery. Say, hey, if you're like, I need to hit the gym, I got to get my arms toned up, I can attest to it. Pottery will do that. You will get cut. All right, so. Ann: You're right. Right. Matthew Lambert: For those that haven't listened to the podcast before, here's how this whole thing works. Anne and I have each put together our own list for our top five favorite artists. I do not know Anne's list, but I do have some intel. I will be shocked if there is a person that's not on her list, but we'll see if I'm right. ⁓ She'll kick things off. She'll give her number five and why. She'll hand it over to me. I'll give my number five and why, and we'll continue until we get to each of our number ones. So with that, Anne, I'm gonna hand it over to you. Who is your number five? Ann: you Okay. ⁓ So ⁓ when you asked me to do the artist, I'm like, my gosh, I've got to like look up some artists that I like. yeah. like, what am I gonna do? But ⁓ landed a few things. So number five is actually a local person and she used to be ⁓ the art that your wife Madison and I worked together. Matthew Lambert: favorite artist. I did too. I did too. Ann: And her name is Leanne Blevins. She's an incredible painter. She does really cool artwork. And she's ⁓ calendars. She's in the Tamarack. She's in all kinds of things. So I think she's a cool cat. Yeah. Matthew Lambert: Okay. It's funny, as you said it, is it Allied Artists of West Virginia is where she's featured on? Ann: I think so. Leanne Blevins is her name. ⁓ I think she is featured in that. Matthew Lambert: ⁓ did. Yeah, I'm actually looking at some of her paintings right now. So for anybody that's interested, there's this website, alliedartistswv.org. She's got some stuff on here, some really good paintings. You are not kidding. Like she is extremely talented. Ann: Yeah, really talented. She does, she'll even take people's photographs of their animals and paint and put them into paintings. Like it's just really incredible. She's super talented. Yeah. Matthew Lambert: ⁓ that's awesome. Well, nice. I like that your number five is somebody local. And my number five is Dr. Dre. ⁓ I'm kidding, I'm kidding. No, had a friend of mine who I was talking to, I told him we were doing this topic, and they said, you should just do top five rappers, because those are artists. I didn't go that route. I went with some real artists here, so my number five, I'm gonna be curious if you've ever heard this guy's name. Ann: ⁓ that's awesome. ⁓ yeah, they're right, that's right. Matthew Lambert: His name is Roy Lichtenstein. Have you ever heard of Roy before? All right, so I had not until a few years ago, and the reason I've heard of Roy is I was in this thing, we were doing presentations, you had to draw a topic out of a hat, and whatever you ended up with, you had to do a 30 minute presentation on. And I drew Roy, and I had no idea who he was. Ann: ⁓ okay. No, I don't have. I don't believe I have. wow. Matthew Lambert: And I started out my PowerPoint and there were pictures of Michigan's Fab Five in the basketball world. There was some hip hop artists like Run DMC. I had a picture of Steve Jobs and then I had a picture of Roy. And I was basically talking about people that had revolutionized their industry or their sport. Roy ⁓ known as one of the leading figures of what's called the pop art movement. Ann: Hmm. Matthew Lambert: And I had to become very familiar with his work for this presentation. He was known for these really large paintings that were inspired by comic books, advertisements, and mass produced imagery. And I don't, I don't know if this technique is used as much today, but back in the day there was this technique called Ben Day Dots. And it was a mechanical printing technique that Roy did by hand. He had some very famous paintings. There's one called Wham. Ann: And. No, Okay. Matthew Lambert: back in 1963 and his very humbly called masterpiece which was created in 1962, sold for $165 million at auction. And I've had a couple people tell me one of the things they enjoy is when this podcast gives some random facts. So with each of my artists, I have a couple random facts I'll throw in. So Roy is a graduate of the greatest university in the United States, maybe the world, the Ohio State University. ⁓ Ann: Wow. Wow. Yeah. Matthew Lambert: I will not go into his awards and doctorate degrees, he's got a lot, but Roy was like an old Jay-Z song. He was able to, quote unquote, change the game. That's my number five, and I'll kick it back to you for your number four artist. Thank you, thank you. Ann: Wow, that's a good one. I think you're going to shore me up with all of these. I don't know. I think your list is probably going to be better than mine's. Matthew Lambert: It won't be, it's never been better than anybody else's. I'm used to taking an L and I'm okay with it. Ann: ⁓ Well, my number four is ⁓ He is a potter. His name is Tim C. S-E-E. ⁓ I came across him probably on Facebook because I started seeing some like instructional videos and some of his pottery. And so I actually flew down to Tallahassee and took a workshop from him and Matthew Lambert: ⁓ wow. Ann: I was really impressed with how he teaches. He's not condescending. Unfortunately, the pottery world can be not so friendly. yeah, and he is one of the better ones on the spectrum. Like he really is, ⁓ he's a good He shows things. He will explain things in great detail and not just once because I see ⁓ Matthew Lambert: Really? Ann: people asking the same question over and over and over again, and yet he just puts it right back out there and explains it. And so I appreciate that. I like how he does his work. It's very unique ⁓ just really cool. And he's not afraid to show people different techniques and stuff. A lot of potters are afraid to show ⁓ they do because, ⁓ know, what if somebody else takes that and runs with it and... Matthew Lambert: Yeah. Ann: But this is a really big world. Like pottery can go vastly among lots of states and lots of people. So it's just good to share. ⁓ he's a good sharer his craft. Matthew Lambert: It's interesting, so as you mentioned him, was pulling up his website here and I'm looking at some of his recent work and he's got, I'm assuming some of this is like some tea kettles, some like, one looks like maybe a gasoline can, and I have no idea how he does that. As I mentioned, I did pottery recently and I had what looked like half of a cup was what I created, so just the intricacies on this is really impressive. Ann: Yeah. Right. Yeah. Hahaha! Yeah, it's wild. His stuff looks real. It looks like real oil cans, real tin cans, all of that. looks super real and it's very impressive. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Matthew Lambert: Yeah. Uh-huh. highly impressive. Well, I love that your list so far is people like you've met and you know, and then I'm like dropping people that I had to Google. So my number four, I know you didn't know Roy, I'm curious if you know my number four, I'm going to give you her full name and then I'm going to give you the name she's known by. So my number four is Magdalene Carmen Frida Kahlo Icatarone or Frida Kahlo. You know Frida Kahlo? ⁓ okay. So I will be honest when I thought of this list, Ann: I think. Holy moly. I do not. do not. ⁓ Matthew Lambert: Most of the people on my list, well I say like a couple of them I had to like really look up, but she was the one that jumped to mind for me immediately. And I am not trying to shame anyone's eyebrow game. I wanna be clear on that. But Frida, like NBA player Anthony Davis, is known for her unibrow. That is something she is known for. She was a Mexican painter who sadly didn't become well known until after her death. She died in 1954 at the very young age of 47. Ann: Nice. Okay. Thank you. Matthew Lambert: And during her life, she had overcome polio. She had a bus accident, other health issues. And what I really didn't know until I started doing a little bit of research on her is that the bus accident is what led to her painting. She was bedridden. Her dad bought her all of her painting supplies. Her mom created a special easel for her. They put a mirror above her bed. And that's how she started painting self portraits, which is what she's known for. So. Ann: Bye. Wow. Matthew Lambert: Passed away in 1954, but in the 1970s she became well known and by the 90s she was considered one of the most significant female painters in history. She's known for her self-portraits, her painting about chronic pain, and her 1940 self-portrait holds the record for the most expensive work by a female artist ever and it was auctioned at $54.7 million. Now, Ann: Well. Wow. Matthew Lambert: My family and Anna, think you are as well. We're big animal lovers here. And Frida owned very exotic pets. So she had two spider monkeys that were featured in one of her 1943 paintings. She owned a parrot, a fawn, an eagle, macaws, hens, sparrows. Ann: for sure. ⁓ well. Matthew Lambert: owned several Mexican hairless dogs. Her animals were known for ⁓ freely on her property, ⁓ Frida's viewed as a feminist icon in the art world. So Frida jumped to mind immediately for me. She's number four, so Anne, if not familiar with her work. Ann: I don't know. Matthew Lambert: I'd say check her out. She's got some good paintings from back in the day. Ann: That's really cool. Yeah, very cool. Okay, so my number three is actually my kids. I put them as a collective number three because they are all very creative, very artistic, and I just, love the style and of course, Matthew Lambert: Well, Anne, who is your number three? Okay. Mm-hmm. Ann: proud mom moment, but I just really appreciate that they are very artistic. They like music, they can play and sing and do the things. But overall, I love their art ⁓ I know that's ⁓ a mom thing to say, but ⁓ I think it's really cool. Matthew Lambert: No, there's nothing wrong with that. I'm probably, Nora's gonna give me some side eye that she didn't make my list. But we had a list on your top five, a former episode where we covered your top five favorite athletes you've seen in person. And Nora was my number one on my list, because of watching her do Jiu Jitsu. So I love the shout out to your kids. Like your number three. ⁓ My number three, and you might know this guy, I don't know, but Bob Ross is my number three. So I'm. Ann: Mm-hmm. ⁓ it's awesome. That's awesome. ⁓ yes, yes, definitely. Matthew Lambert: I won't ask, I'm gonna be curious to see if he makes one of your top two. But for me, Bob Ross was a major figure in my childhood. And he hosted the Joy of Painting on PBS from, I think, what was it, 83 to maybe 94. And what's wild is, and I really did not know this, he discovered his love of oil painting while in the military. And allegedly, after doing his 20 years in the Air Force, he allegedly said he would never yell again. Ann: Right? Right? I think so. Matthew Lambert: which is why he was so chill with his painting. Even though he passed away pretty young, his speed painting style allowed him to create 30,000 paintings during his life. And one of my doctors still shows reruns of Bob Ross in the lobby during my medical appointments. And I think it's just to keep people chilled out. Like he's so relaxing and down to earth. And I, quite frankly, maybe somebody's like, ⁓ Ann: Wow. It's amazing. Yeah. Matthew Lambert: he didn't change the world of art. I totally disagree. I think he brought just such a humanized element. He's like the Mr. Rogers of the art world. Now, and I have a trivia question for you. So, do you know what US state influenced most of Bob Ross's paintings? Ann: Yeah. I fully agree with that, yeah. Okay. I would like to say, I'll see, well if I think about, I would say West Virginia, but if I said, I don't know, he did a lot of mountain paintings with lots of snow. So if it's not West Virginia, I would guess, ⁓ if it's not Alaska, which it could be Alaska. Okay, I'm gonna guess Alaska, final answer. Matthew Lambert: He did. So it's not West Virginia. Mm-mm. Stay with that answer, stay with that answer. Alaska. he was stationed for a long period of time there in the Air Force and that is what most of the nature scenes he's painting is from the state of Alaska. So that is my number three. There's a random fact about him as well and I'll hand it back to you for your number two. Ann: Very cool. Very cool. That's cool. All right, so my number two is another person who's close to me and that would be my brother. He had a knife business called Rider's Knives ⁓ he was on the show Forged in Fire and everything and had started his forging business and would take classes and stuff and then so he is my number two because he could also he could sing and play any instrument he picked up but any kind of art stuff. He loved that and definitely got into the forging thing ⁓ and make anything, made swords and knives and all the things so he's my number two. Matthew Lambert: Yeah, I remember seeing you post his work and it was extremely impressive. Like some really cool stuff. Again, I have no artistic bones in my body, so I just don't know how people can even do that. It's just beyond impressive. Well, yeah, absolutely. My number two is ⁓ maybe somebody you've heard the name of before. Are you familiar with the work of Michelangelo? Ann: Yes. Yeah, he was a cool cat. I am, yeah. ⁓ Matthew Lambert: Okay, so he makes number two on my list. Now I know we've had some recent listeners popping up from ⁓ multiple places in Europe, including Italy. I am about to butcher this pronunciation, but I'm gonna give it a go. His full name is Michelangelo di Lodovico Bunaroti Simoni. That sounded really bad, but tried. ⁓ I was faking it till I make it. ⁓ Michelangelo, I'm gonna go outside of art for a second, was my favorite Ninja Turtle. So I just wanna be clear on that, he's the best. Ann: That was impressive. That sounded impressive. Ha ha. That was my son's favorite too, the orange one, right? Yeah. Matthew Lambert: Did... yeah, did you have a favorite Ninja Turtle? I gotta ask. Ann: I didn't. I mean, I'd probably go with Michelangelo too because that was a Lodge's favorite, but beyond that, I don't know. don't know. It's a support. Matthew Lambert: Okay. Okay. All good. yeah, so Michelangelo, absolute icon from the Renaissance period. He's one of the most well-documented artists of the 16th century. He's famous for sculpting the David. He has two of the most important frescoes in the history of art. He's got the scenes of Genesis that he depicted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome and the Last Judgment on its altar wall. He even took over as an architect later in life at the St. Peter's Basilica. So I, again, I know some people say, hey, give me some random facts. So I got some on Michelangelo. Number one, I did not know this until doing some research. He got his start in art by failed art fraud. He took a sculpture, he made it, and he tried to make it appear ancient. And instead of getting in trouble, the government was so impressed by his work that he was invited by Cardinal Riario to Rome to meet Michelangelo and help him train. Ann: Hmm. Matthew Lambert: Michelangelo was also a fluent poet and he was the richest artist of his time. When he died, he left an estate that is worth $50 million in today's money. He was the first Western artist to have his biography published while he was still alive. But here's the flip side of that. Although Michelangelo was wealthy and he was famous, he was also known for having terrible hygiene. So he rarely bathed. Ann: Yeah ⁓ Matthew Lambert: he rarely changed his clothes or boots that he would sleep in. And this is what's really gross. They said that when he would change his boots, his skin would come off with the boots, like a snake skin. It's so gross. And at the time of his death, his clothes had to be peeled off his body because they were stuck to him, which is just so nasty. But one of the guys who had really poor hygiene had some of the greatest art that we've ever seen in Western history. So my favorite Ninja Turtle. Ann: Noooo Uh-oh. Yeah, that's pretty gross. them. Matthew Lambert: My second favorite artist, Michelangelo. I'll rest on that. And I'll hand it over to you to get your number one here today. Ann: Ha ha ha ha. Yeah. All right, so I'm going to guess that you're probably going to guess what my number one is. When I was still teaching elementary school, I had two themes in my classroom. One was Julie Andrews of Mary Poppins, Sound of Music, all of that, and the other Bob Ross, because in my opinion, he is the goat. He is the greatest at all time artist. I would sit and, well, of course, Matthew Lambert: You ⁓ huh. Ann: you know, everybody would just kind of watch him on PBS when he would be on there. But then, so after I got married, I got a few little oil paints, which were very expensive, and I would record him on the old VHS tapes, because that's who I am. That's where I was. ⁓ So I would record him and then I would watch and then I'd pause it and paint and then I'd watch, pause it and paint. And so Matthew Lambert: Mm-hmm. Ann: I kind of learned how to oil paint from Bob Ross because he is the coolest of all time. Matthew Lambert: He is, he also had maybe the best hair of all the artists. Cause didn't he perm his own hair, I feel like? Ann: Agreed. Agreed. You did and I feel like and I may be incorrect here. I don't know, but I feel like ⁓ in the documentary there was a documentary of Bob Ross and I watched like a little bit of that and I didn't get through the whole thing, but that the network made him keep his hair like that because it was so iconic. I want to say that that was it. Matthew Lambert: I read that. He didn't, yeah, he didn't want the hair anymore, but they were like, you got it, like, this is what you're known for. This is the brand. One of the other things that's cool about him, and if somebody fact checks me on this and I'm wrong, my bad, but I don't think he ever sold his paintings. Didn't he donate them to PBS to be for like fundraisers? Ann: Yeah, this is you. Yeah, yeah. I want to agree with you. I feel like that that is what he did. Yeah, he was just a really cool person. Yeah. Matthew Lambert: Absolutely, yeah, and I knew this was gonna be your number one. This one, very rarely do I, like am I able to say definitively I know somebody's number one, but what I know about you, was like Bob Ross, hands down, he's probably one A and one B. ⁓ Ann: Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. It'd be super cool to have one of his actual original paintings. That would be awesome. Matthew Lambert: So if your husband listens to this, this sounds like this would be a really good birthday or Christmas present for you. Get on it. Well, and I went a little bit of a different route for my number one. And my number one is Leonardo DiCer Piero da Vinci, or what we all know him by, Leonardo da Vinci. I say, real, recognize, real. And I put him my number one. Ann: I agree. I agree. Okay. Mm-hmm. Matthew Lambert: not just because of his art, I cheated a little bit, but it's because of everything else this dude did. If people are unfamiliar with Leonardo, he was known as an engineer, a painter, a scientist, a theorist, a sculptor, an architect. ⁓ notebooks famously had drawings and notes on almost everything, including anatomy and astronomy. He was known as a genius. His ⁓ famous work is the Mona Lisa, which, Ann: Okay. ⁓ Matthew Lambert: many would say is the world's most famous painting. As of 2026, the Mona Lisa is estimated to range between, in worth, between $850 million and $1 billion, yeah, that's with a B, dollars. He painted The Last Supper. In 2017, his Salvatore Mundi was sold at auction for $450.3 million, setting the record for the most expensive painting ever sold at a public auction. Ann: Well. Well. ⁓ Well. Matthew Lambert: When he wasn't painting, he was like, ah, you I'm gonna start working on designs. He conceptualized the flying machine. He conceptualized a type of armored fighting vehicle, solar power. had the idea for a ratio machine. He also had inventions such as the automated bobbin winder. He made substantial discoveries in anatomy, civil engineering, hydrodynamics, and geology. He was obsessed with flying. If. No one's familiar. He wrote the codex on the flight of birds. He reportedly was vegan and he would go to the Florence markets. He would buy caged birds and then he would set them free. So he was an animal activist for his time. What's wild is everybody knows he's a genius. He did all these discoveries, but yet he had little formal education. He was self-educated, self-taught. And that is wild when you look at his artistic and his academic accomplishments. Ann: Yeah. Right. That's cool. Matthew Lambert: And the thing that I find the most amusing about Leonardo is that him and Michelangelo were actually bitter rivals during the Renaissance. And to steal some rap terminology here, I look at this as the biggie tupac beef of the Renaissance period of art. for his accomplishments that go just beyond art, I had to put Leonardo as my number one. So. Ann: Okay. Right, absolutely. That's cool. Matthew Lambert: And when I wrap these episodes up, always ask people, what beef do you have with my list here today? Ann: Hmm. ⁓ but I'm not on it. ⁓ Matthew Lambert: Well, you know, I have a comment I'm gonna make here in a moment and it's this that you all, everybody listening has to check Anne out because here in the next few years she's gonna be my and she's gonna be your all's number one artist on a top five list of artists because she's killing the game. So there you go. I see I threw a plug in there for you at the end. You know, when you've been married as long as I have you got to learn how to like, you know. Ann: Yes, there we go. There we go. Yeah, that made it better. That was good. That was good. ⁓ Right, right. Matthew Lambert: speak and state things. So, and any closing thoughts from you today before we wrap up? Ann: ⁓ go make some fun art. Go, go find some whimsy. There's not enough whimsy as my son Elijah says. Go find something fun to do that just makes you happy. Go out in the grass barefoot. Go check it all out. Like just go have a good time and enjoy life. Matthew Lambert: Those are some words of wisdom. That was nice. Well, Ann, I appreciate you coming on here. Thank you for taking some time out of your busy art schedule to jump on here and do an episode with me. It means a lot. I appreciate it. Ann: Yeah. I appreciate you asking me. That was a fun time. Matthew Lambert: And for all the listeners, I appreciate you all checking this podcast out. If you haven't done so already, please subscribe, leave us a five star review, refer us to somebody else, let somebody else know that they should give this a listen. As I always say, I want this podcast to cover topics that interest you all. If you have a top five list that you want us to rank, I take suggestions at generationalfave5 at gmail.com. That's generational F-A-V-E the number five. at gmail.com.