Duane Toops

This episode with Florida-based collage artist Duane Toops is bittersweet. While excited to chat with Duane about his immersive analog/digital hybrid collages, the circumstances surrounding the interview were challenging to say the least. Recorded a few days after wildfires tore through the LA area (my home and family are ok, but the effects on the city can't be understated) which caused a huge pause in this episode's production. Then on the eve of finally posting this Duane revealed that he not only lost his job, but was then forced to let go of his studio.
In our discussion we touch on the importance of the studio to not only his daily art practice, but how it's his "happy place," a place crucial to his daily well-being. Listening back to our talk, it hits a little differently now; a reminder of the January fires that seem a lifetime ago, an echo of an artist's bygone routine, but it's also a reminder that a lot of people out there are struggling with the havoc that this "project" that is 2025 is wreaking on our society and that we need to look out for and check in on our friends and neighbors now more than ever.
Despite all of this, our conversation was one of the most joyous and philosophical of the ten that I've done so far. We discuss his need for routine, his innate need to create, and of course the role his studio played in not only his art, but in his everyday life.
Instagram: @duanetoops
Substack: duanetoops.substack.com