A podcast recorded inside artists’ studios. Conversations about process, inspiration, and building a career as an artist.
Hosted by Mia Schoolman.
Instagram: @acrossthestudio
TikTok: @acrossthestudio
Substack: @acrossthestudio
In the 23rd episode of Across the Studio, Mia Schoolman sits down with Von Kolk, a painter based in Ridgewood whose current body of work is built entirely out of mistranslation. Von grew up speaking Cantonese but never learned to read or write it, so for years she assigned meanings to words based on a limited vocabulary and built small private myths around them. She thought a cheongsam was a singing dress. It just means long dress.
Rather than correcting those errors, she uses them as source material. She keeps lists of words she isn't sure about, breaks them into their parts, and builds paintings out of the images those fragments summon. The work moves between dense rendering and bare line, mirroring the levels of understanding she actually has. She has decided not to learn to read Cantonese, because knowing would end the myths.
She trained in classical oil painting from childhood, studied fashion design at Parsons because it seemed like the practical choice, worked in the industry for several years, and committed fully to painting after her husband told her she could.
In this conversation: Why she refuses to learn the language. How she sources images from archives, film stills, and screenshots, and why that mirrors how she understands Cantonese. What it took to leave fashion. Why she stopped making the work she thought she was supposed to make. How to get out of a creative rut by figuring out what's actually yours. And why every opportunity she's had came through friends.
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Instagram @vonhyinkolk (https://www.instagram.com/vonhyinkolk/)
Website vonhyinkolk.com (https://vonhyinkolk.com/)
2 Aug 2026
Across the Studio with Lilah Yektai
In the 22nd episode of Across the Studio, Mia Schoolman sits down with Lilah Yektai, a painter and textile artist working between London and Sag Harbor. Lilah weaves her own surfaces on a loom she bought herself, then paints on top of them, building work out of scrap canvas from the edges of her wife's paintings, her father's paintings, and her own.
She studied textiles at RISD and comes from three generations of artists. She was recently shown at the Bridgehampton Museum alongside her grandfather's paintings, her father's paintings, and her uncle's sculptural bench.
In this conversation: why she paints on woven surfaces and lets fate take over. What happens when you weave for a month and a half and paint in an afternoon. Why she bought her own loom instead of sharing one. How she started painting Joanna while falling in love with her, embroidering their love letters into the canvas. What it's like sharing a studio with another painter who works in tiny detailed strokes when you work in fast thick ones. Growing up in a family of artists and figuring out what's yours. And the wedding at Saatchi Yates, where the show on the walls was all paintings of her in wedding dresses.
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Follow LilahInstagram @lilahyektai (https://www.instagram.com/lilahyektai/)Website lilahyektai.com (https://lilahyektai.com/)
27 Jul 2026
Across the Studio with Esther Ruiz
In the 21st episode of Across the Studio, Mia Schoolman sits down with Esther Ruiz, a sculptor based in Brooklyn who works with neon, concrete, plexiglass, carved wood, and stones she collects from around the world.
Esther moved to New York two weeks after her last final at Rhodes College in 2010 with no plan and no job. She landed at a neon shop in Brooklyn where she stayed almost seven years, learning glass bending, gas, and electrical work. Her work has shown at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Chart Gallery, Reynolds Gallery, and BAM, and she recently had a two person show in Tribeca.
In this conversation: how a job at a neon shop rewired her entire practice. What actually happens inside a neon tube. Why a sketchbook full of shapes she thought were stupid became a decade of work. How she runs five bodies of work alongside a full time job. Why she lets herself be a wreck for 48 hours. And why stones tell time.
Follow Across the StudioInstagram @acrossthestudio (https://www.instagram.com/acrossthestudio/)TikTok @acrossthestudio (https://www.tiktok.com/@acrossthestudio)
Follow EstherInstagram @esther___ruiz (https://www.instagram.com/esther___ruiz/?hl=en)Website estherruiz.com (https://www.estherruiz.com/)
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Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
3 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
15 ratings
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