The Art Box

For Episode 489 of The Art Box, Mesquite Fire Rescue Chief Jayson Andrus and Maryann Mainero join Steve in the Mesquite Works STEAM Center studio for a conversation about service, community, public art, and the future of Mesquite.
At the center of our conversation is the new Fire Station #2 and the important difference it is already making by improving emergency response times for residents on the north side of the freeway. But this episode isn't just about a new building. It's about the people who serve inside it—and the community surrounding it.
Jayson and Maryann take us back to their childhoods, sharing some of the experiences that shaped them and the journeys that eventually brought each of them to Mesquite. We talk about what it means to serve a growing community and why those precious minutes saved in an emergency matter so much.
And, of course, this is The Art Box, so we talk about art.
We introduce the plans for the “Next Generation” sculpture garden at Fire Station #2—a welcoming, park-like space centered around a heartfelt sculpture of a firefighter, a young girl, and, naturally, a Dalmatian. It will be a place to honor our firefighters and first responders, celebrate generations of service, and give residents a quiet place to sit, reflect, and enjoy.
We also discuss how our community can become part of the project by supporting the fundraising effort needed to bring the sculpture and surrounding site to life.
It's an episode about much more than a fire station.
It's about response, service, art, community—and the next generation.
Donations can be made: https://www.fundraisingbrick.com/online-orders/mfr/
 
 

For Daniel Brady, creativity has never belonged to just one art form.
In Episode 487 of The Art Box, Steve sits down with poet, writer, musician, teacher, and performer Daniel Brady for a conversation about a creative journey that began in elementary school and took shape during the cultural upheaval of the 1960s and 1970s. Poetry, music, dreams, the moon landing, Earth Day, Civil Rights, the Vietnam era, protest songs, and the open-mic scene of San Francisco all became part of Dan's artistic vocabulary.
Dan takes us inside his unusual creative process. When inspiration arrives, he listens to what he calls his inner voice, writes until that voice has finished speaking, and then begins a process of reading, revising, performing, and sometimes revisiting a poem even years after he thought it was finished.
Community has also played an important role in Dan's life. Open mics became places of connection and healing, eventually leading him to create the Global Open Mic and host a weekly poetry gathering. His advice to emerging creatives is wonderfully straightforward: read, read, read; write, write, write—and don't limit yourself to a single art form.
And now Dan has found yet another creative voice.
Performing under the stage name DanSing, he is bringing folk songs, protest songs, and music that has mattered throughout his life into his performances, another chapter in a creative journey that has lasted more than half a century.
It's a wonderfully wide-ranging Art Box conversation about where inspiration comes from, why we create, the power of words and music, and what can happen when we keep listening for that inner voice.
Find Dan at: Creative Ideas Consulting San Francisco

What happens when you finally achieve the dream you’ve spent your whole life chasing and discover that reaching the summit isn’t what you thought it would be?
In Episode 486 of The Art Box, Steve sits down with Jen Guyton, National Geographic Explorer, wildlife photojournalist, ecologist, and founder of Wild Beyond. Jen’s remarkable journey began as a little girl repeatedly watching a National Geographic gorilla documentary and eventually carried her to Berkeley, Princeton, the wilds of Africa, and the March 2024 cover of National Geographic with her extraordinary infrared photographs of spotted hyenas.
But this conversation is about much more than photography.
Jen talks about standing in the fascinating space where science and art meet, learning to surrender to what nature actually gives you rather than the photograph you planned, and developing an affection for animals—especially hyenas—that humans have often misunderstood. She describes that intersection of disciplines as an ecotone, the rich boundary where two different habitats come together.
We also venture into more personal territory: achievement, validation, burnout, fear, vulnerability, and what happens when creative work stops belonging to the person creating it. Jen shares how achieving one of her greatest professional goals ultimately led her to step away from photography and reconsider what was fueling her ambition.
Today, through her Rewild Method, Jen applies lessons learned from ecology to people, helping them remove some of the expectations and constraints that have shaped their lives and rediscover what might still be waiting underneath.
Along the way we explore a wonderfully Art Box kind of question:
Can creativity itself be a way of turning toward the storm?
Find out more about Jen: https://www.jenguyton.com/
Wildbeyond Coaching: https://www.wildbeyondcoaching.com/
 

Steve makes his annual sojourn to Baker, Nevada, gateway to Great Basin National Park, for another visit with his friends Liz Woolsey and her husband, James, and the remarkable little oasis they have created in one of Nevada’s most remote communities.
This time, Steve also arrives carrying copies of The Art of Noticing and Sandcastle Windows. Liz and James will sell the books in their store, with all proceeds going to support the Great Basin Water Network—a small way for stories, art, landscape and conservation to come together.
Steve and Liz settle in for a conversation right in the middle of the busy store, and Baker provides the soundtrack. Travelers wander through looking for water or something to eat. Others browse the surprisingly generous collection of books, search for information about their next adventure, or simply stop long enough to talk. It is exactly the kind of place Liz imagined more than twenty years ago.
Liz shares the story of that dream and how three decades of exploring America’s natural and cultural wonders with James, during his 32-year career with the National Park Service, helped shape it. She envisioned a crossroads for travelers, a place offering necessities, local knowledge, art, coffee, comfort and conversation. When Liz and James moved to Baker in 2018, they knew they had found that crossroads. On March 4, 2022, the dream officially opened its doors.
March Forth!
The conversation also wanders, appropriately enough, down Nevada’s roads. Liz tells Steve about her work promoting artists throughout Nevada and along Route 50, the legendary “Loneliest Road in America”, and they explore the history and adventures of one particularly colorful traveler: the famous orange chair belonging to the Sisterhood of the Traveling Orange Chair.
It is an Art Box conversation about art, community, public lands, books, conservation, friendship and the wonderfully unexpected things that happen when curious people cross paths in a tiny Nevada town.
And perhaps that is what Liz and James have really created in Baker: not simply a store or a place to stay, but an invitation to slow down, look around, meet somebody new and continue your journey with a little more wonder and whimsy than you arrived with.
Take the drive to Baker and settle in for a great night's sleep at the Stargazer Inn with limitless dark skies for your eyes to witness the Milky Way and constellations galore. There is always something happening at the Stargazer Inn and Bristlecone General Store. Get directions and make you reservations here: https://stargazernevada.com/

In Episode 484, Steve sits down with Matt Hancock, the creative force behind DECO-LUXE, for a conversation about electronic music, creativity, recovery, and the unexpected places where sound can take us.
Matt shares how music became part of rebuilding his life and how his earlier, darker work gradually gave way to the warmth, nostalgia, sunsets, and falling-in-love feeling of his upcoming album, Eventide.
We also dive into Matt's wonderfully ruthless creative process: work on an idea for 30 to 60 minutes, walk away for a week, come back with fresh ears—and if it doesn't hold up, delete it. No mercy!
Matt takes us inside his handmade modular synthesizer, talks about collaboration, technology and AI, and explains why every artist should begin by becoming their own biggest fan.
And because this is The Art Box, things eventually get a little strange. Matt recently dreamed about a mad scientist and is now wondering what a mad scientist might actually sound like.
It's a conversation about darkness and light, persistence and play—and how sometimes music can hold the things words simply can't.
And yes, Addie even drops in to help us figure out just what “synth-wavy” means.
Listen to Eventide: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2j3K8z15j2LdBX0pHafEwD
Explore Matt's work at: https://essentiallypop.com/epop/2026/08/deco-luxe-unveils-first-taste-of-forthcoming-album-eventide-with-new-single-mellow/
 

Sometimes a story is good enough to bring an old friend out of retirement.
After reading Steve’s The Art of Noticing and Sandcastle Windows, former Art Box host Linda Harris reached out with a request: she wanted to return to the studio and interview Steve about his writing.
And Steve couldn’t have been more honored.
Linda, who hosted more than 250 episodes of The Art Box, returns to the Mesquite Works STEAM Center studio—this time turning the microphone toward Steve. The two longtime friends dig into The Art of Noticing and the ideas behind several of its chapters before wandering through the very different world of Sandcastle Windows.
Linda explores why Steve wove some of their Mesquite artist friends into the novel, how familiar people and places found their way into fiction, and the dreams that carry protagonist Sam Mercer from present-day Mesquite into cafés and conversations with the Impressionists of 19th-century France.
It’s a conversation about books, friendship, memory, noticing, imagination, and what happens when the interviewer suddenly becomes the one being interviewed.
And perhaps the nicest part of the story is simply this: Linda enjoyed the books enough to pick up the microphone again. Steve couldn’t ask for a better review than that.
Thank You Linda

More than 475 episodes after her first visit to The Art Box, magnificent Mesquite artist Chris Picior returns—and she is still discovering new ways to create.
Chris was our guest way back on Episode 6, when we talked about her lifelong journey through art. This time, we catch up on where that journey has taken her and, perhaps more importantly, the new artistic freedom she has discovered.
Chris talks about taking classes through Milan Art and how the experience has encouraged her to loosen up, experiment, and trust herself more as an artist. We explore her work with the brush, sketching, ink and her wonderfully creative gourds—and her new adventure into oil painting. Chris's willingness to keep exploring new media has been a hallmark of her artistic life.
We also talk about her years of leadership with the Virgin Valley Artists' Association, her recovery from shoulder surgery, her love of birds, and what happens when an accomplished artist gives herself permission to try something different. Chris remains active with the VVAA today as Past President and Membership Director.
Sometimes artistic growth isn't about learning to paint inside the lines.
Sometimes it's finally realizing you don't have to.
Find Chris' beautiful art at: https://www.chrispiciorart.com/

For nearly three decades, Larry LeMieux has been one of those people who sees something a community could use and then helps make it happen.
On Episode 481 of The Art Box, Steve sits down with Larry for a conversation that becomes something of an oral history of Mesquite. We travel from his early newspaper days and the creation of the Mesquite High Rollers to helping establish the Mesquite Senior Games, organizing the Mesquite Community Band, supporting the beginnings of the Southern Nevada Symphony Orchestra, directing theatre, and producing local talent shows.
We also hear about Larry’s twenty years managing the Mesquite Airport, where airplanes sometimes took a back seat to bringing people together, from hangar parties supporting veterans to giving children the unforgettable experience of their first airplane ride.
And retirement certainly hasn’t meant slowing down. Larry continues finding new ways to contribute through WOMMA, the performing arts, Cowboy Poetry and other community projects.
Larry’s story reminds us that communities don’t simply grow. People build them, one idea, one event, one friendship and one willing volunteer at a time.
And maybe that is another example of something we believe on The Art Box: sometimes the greatest work of art is a community.
 

Sometimes the sweetest chapters of our lives have been quietly taking shape for decades.
On Episode 480 of The Art Box, Steve visits with Thalia “Beep” Stanton, creator of Grama Beep’s Sweets. Beep’s love of candy making began as a teenager in a friend’s kitchen and became a Christmas tradition filled with memories of family and friends. More than 50 years later, after retiring and moving to Mesquite, encouragement from the people around her helped turn that lifelong tradition into a new adventure.
We talk about learning a craft until smell and feel become as important as a recipe, starting something new later in life, supporting local businesses, giving back to the community, and the family traditions that continue to influence Beep today. Beep says making candy is more than a business, it’s a way to share a little happiness and that might just be the perfect description of this conversation.
Find out more about Grama Beep’s Sweets on Facebook: Grama Beep’s Sweets

What happens when a moment in nature changes the direction of your life?
On this episode of The Art Box, Steve talks with Las Vegas native Shauna Walch, whose lifelong connection to the desert and a powerful moment in the McCullough Mountains inspired Compass, a growing vision for nature-based, values-driven places of hope, healing, reflection, and connection.
Shauna shares how doodles become ideas, ideas become collaborations, and sometimes the dreams we try to give away keep finding their way back to us. We explore natural awe, creativity, community, mindfulness, and the simple but powerful idea that spending time in nature can help us rediscover our own inner compass.
And, as Shauna likes to say, “Doodles Open Doors.”
Find out more about compass: https://thecompassrocks.org/the-compass