Knowledgeable Failure with Megan Williamson

Recorded live on Lumpen Radio 105.5 FM, Saturday, September 12, 2026

A teacher looked at her painting in front of the whole class and called it a knowledgeable failure. She took it as a compliment.

Chicago painter Megan Williamson has been painting for decades and is nowhere near finished figuring out what painting can do. From a hundred Zoom portraits to a room full of circus figures, her work is about looking, searching, and following an idea wherever it goes.

What We Talk About

• What a teacher meant when he called her painting a knowledgeable failure, and why she now tells that story to her own students
• Why the circus, and what an E.E. Cummings quote and a nun have to do with her new exhibition
• How a hundred Zoom portraits during the pandemic changed what she knew about painting people
• The unexpected turn: what she does when she has no idea what's going to happen in the studio, which is more often than you'd think

If you love hearing an artist talk honestly about not knowing, this episode is for you.

Chapters:

• 00:12 - Live, Unedited Conversation Begins

• 01:12 - Interview Begins — Megan Williamson, Chicago Painter

• 12:54 - Studio Companion: My Dog Tao Teo

• 20:19 - From Classroom to Studio: How Teaching Shapes Her Art

• 30:43 - Ad Break — The Inner Guide: Finding Answers Within

• 42:11 - Learning to Be Brave — Childhood, Horses, and Early Lessons

• 48:44 - From Coloring Pages to a Calling: Teacher Memories

• 59:30 - Closing Remarks — Exhibition Details & How to Follow Megan

All about Megan Williamson

You're gonna love Megan!

She's a painter who is genuinely still curious after decades of doing this. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and this October she has a solo exhibition at the Swope Art Museum in Terre Haute, Indiana, titled Damn Everything But the Circus, after an E.E. Cummings line. She studied at Knox College and the New York Studio School, teaches landscape painting, and keeps a studio here in Chicago.

Things We Mentioned

• Damn Everything But the Circus, Swope Art Museum, opening October
• Her hundred Zoom portraits project
• Knox College and the New York Studio School
• Gabriel Laderman, the teacher behind the knowledgeable failure
• Risha Brown Inner Guide Podcast

Connect with Megan Williamson

• IG: @meganwilliamson_art
• Megan’s Website

Stay Connected

📬 Get the noseyAF Dispatch — all the month's episodes, straight to your inbox once a month. → Subscribe here

🏡 Grab the Good Neighbor Playbook → Download it free

Behind the Mic

noseyAF is a project of Stephanie Graham's art practice — photography, film, and documentary work rooted in community and curiosity. → See the work

More ways to connect

• Email: stephanie@missgraham.com
• Follow on IG: @stephaniegraham
• Listen to more episodes: noseyaf.com

Support & Feedback

noseyAF is listener-supported — thank you for being here. 💛

⭐ Rate & Review the Show

📣 Share noseyAF with a friend who needs to hear this

Episode Credits

Produced, Hosted, and Edited by Stephanie Graham

Lyrics: Queen Lex | Instrumental: Freddie Bam Fam | Cover Art: Emma McGoldrick