Riley Harmon and I went through the foundation art classes at the University of Oklahoma. He is someone who I am excited to see where his creative works take him. I will one day be able to tell my kids I knew Riley Harmon.

Where are you from?
The threshold of city and country in Shawnee, Oklahoma, transmitted to
Pittsburgh, PA

What do you do?
I make and break things. Sometimes I mash potatoes and jello 2gether.

Who or what do you use for inspiration?
Dreams, Theories, Books, Music, Movies, People I meet, and the stories
they tell me. Personal experiences to be shared for others to consume.

What artists do you respect right now?
Cory Archangel
Levi van Veluw
Olafur Eliasson

What are you sick of?
Lag

What music are you listening to recently?
Sasha – Invol2ver
Prefuse 73
NIN – Ghosts I – IV
Telefon Tel Aviv

What is your first creative memory?
Contraptions of paper towel rolls and duct tape.

What is your favorite food/drank spot in Norman/Pittsburgh?
Norman: The Library, The Earth, Tom’s Kitchen
Pittsburgh: Greek Gourmet, Brillobox, New Amsterdam, Kazansky’s

Anything else?
If / Else

• The Journal Record: Jim Roth: You say you want a revolution?
• NewsOK: Oklahoma City van drivers fuel veterans’ health
• NewsOK: Project to study anthrax in baboons rejected by OSU
• NewsOK: OKC Zoo improving relationship with Zoological Society
• The Journal Record: Recyclers find profit while tackling cedar tree problem
• A Downtown on the Range: Radical public safety idea: consolidate city/county
• Okie Funk: Conservative Newspaper Supports Government Deficits, Waste?
• Tulsa World: Lawyers, doctors leading donors in governor’s race
• The Norman Transcript: Rosenthal seeks second term as Norman’s mayor

• Tulsa World: Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board balks at ‘innocence’ task
• NewsOK: Oklahoma budget cuts hitting Medicaid recipients
• Tulsa World: Day-work program expands job options
• The Norman Transcript: New Norman librarian likes serving at ‘people’s university’
• NewsOK: Plan to record vehicle tags raises cry of ‘Big Brother’
• NewsOK: Central Oklahoma sees more quakes this year
• NewsOK: Stimulus requests abound for rural Internet service in Oklahoma
• Tulsa World: Cities urge residents to buy locally
• OETA: Story on Seasonal Workers aired on 11/25/09
• A Downtown on the Range: The problem with MAPS’ primary opposition

• NewsOK: MAPS 3 proposal generates debate
• NewsOK: Regulators to take up OU’s wind farm plan
• The Journal Record: It’s a Living: Funeral services professor
• The Journal Record: Declining sales tax revenue hurts funding for sports arena
• The Journal Record: Tulsa homebuilders to launch green council
• OKC Central: How downtown got from point A to point B
• Oklahoma Rock Newsblog: Nice People music label releasing free mp3 singles
• OK Policy Blog: The Rainy Day Fund debate: Not if, but when…and how much?
• OK Gazette: Oklahoma’s five best governors

• Cherokee Phoenix: Justice Department refuses to investigate Freedmen matter
• Cherokee Phoenix: More delays mar Okla poultry waste pollution trial
• The Journal Record: Oklahoma is on the edge of a financial abyss
• KGOU: Keeping up with Congress
• Native American Times: BIA, tribal police dispatched to Cheyenne-Arapaho Complex
• BobWaldrop.net: NOT THIS MAPS! We can do better
• The Apache House: Interview with photographer Thomas Shahan

Thomas Shahan has recently become somewhat of a local celebrity around Norman. He was featured in the October issue of Popular Photography Magazine and interviewed on the Today Show a few weeks back for his macro bug photography. Not only is he a great photographer, but he is a spectacular printmaker and all around artist. Check out his vintage guitar website here, and his Youtube page here.

Where are you from?
Tulsa, more or less.

What do you do?
Macrophotography, Astrophotography, draw/paint, buy/sell/collect vintage electric guitars, make music… I have no job.

Who or what do you use for inspiration?
I’m not sure if I can answer this one – everything is worthwhile and equally inspiring.

What artists do you respect right now?
Most people I respect are not artists. Wayne Maddison, a Zoologist who specializes in salticids, has done some amazing work with documenting and studying the jumping spiders of the world.

What are you sick of?
Many more things than I will tell anyone – there’s no benefit to complaining.

What music are you listening to recently?
Exuma, The Shangri-Las, The Band, Del Shannon, The Chocolate Watchband, Bee Gees, The Ronettes, The Kinks, Bo Diddley, The Carpenters, The Seeds, The Small Faces, The Zombies, Wilbert Harrison, The Move, T-Rex, Procol Harum, Gary Glitter, Cat Stevens, The Sonics, The Gants, Paul Revere & The Raiders, The Music Machine, Fairport Convention, Love, Family, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Los Saicos, Hank Williams, Cliff Carlisle, Son House, Charley Patton, Johnny Horton, Tammy Wynette, Canned Heat, Sonic Youth, Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band, Little Richard, Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, Slim Whitman, The Troggs, Shirley Collins, Beach Boys, Tommy James & The Shondells, The Stooges.

What is your first creative memory?
Maybe not a “creative memory”, but my earliest memories are some dreams I had about the animals in my backyard when I was about 4 or so. I wasn’t afraid of them – I just felt they were more intelligent than me.

What is your favorite food/drank spot in Norman?
I don’t really go out at all – so I can honestly say I don’t have an answer to this one.

Anything else?
Forget The Beatles – The Kinks were the greatest group of the 60’s (next to the Beach Boys of course)