About Art

What does it mean to understand ourselves as existing somewhere between the planet and the cosmos?

In this episode of About Art, Heidi Zuckerman speaks with artist Lita Albuquerque as part of a special series created in collaboration with the Aspen Art Fair.

For more than five decades, Albuquerque has explored our relationship to the Earth, the cosmos, time, color, consciousness, and the natural world. Born in Tunisia, raised between North Africa and Europe, and based for much of her life in California, she describes how landscape became fundamental to the way she sees and makes work.

Together, they discuss the desert as a place of discovery, the relationship between nature and culture, ephemeral art and what remains after an artwork disappears, and Albuquerque’s understanding of the Earth as “a sculpture in space” and the cosmos as an installation in which we participate every day.

Their conversation moves between the immense and the intimate: astronomical time and everyday life, the movement of the planet and the feeling of the sun on our skin, creativity and freedom, remembering and forgetting. At its center is the possibility of another way of living—one grounded in attention, curiosity, presence, and the freedom to follow what we love.

As Albuquerque says, “The more you slow down, the more you can hear yourself.”

Patrick Martinez is a Los Angeles-based artist whose paintings, sculptures, and neon works transform the visual language of the city into layered reflections on memory, community, history, and belonging. Drawing on graffiti, signage, architecture, and everyday materials, his practice reveals the stories embedded in the urban landscape while asking us to look more closely at the world around us.

In this episode of About Art, Heidi Zuckerman and Patrick Martinez discuss growing up in Los Angeles, graffiti as an artistic foundation, language as material, beauty and social reality, the importance of slowing down, and the ways artists preserve the experience of living through a particular moment in time.

This episode is part of a special six-episode About Art series presented in collaboration with the Aspen Art Fair.

In this special live episode of About Art, recorded in Aspen as part of a collaboration with the Aspen Art Fair, Heidi Zuckerman speaks with artist, architect, designer, inventor, and educator Ronald Rael.

Raised on a sheep and cattle ranch in southern Colorado, Ronald comes from a family that has lived in the region for seven generations. His work brings that history into conversation with the future, combining traditional adobe construction with robotics and new technologies while exploring borders, sustainability, cultural memory, and the meaning of place.

Heidi and Ronald discuss growing up in an adobe house, preserving historic buildings, his celebrated Teeter-Totter Wall project at the U.S.–Mexico border, teaching, technology, and his desire to practice being both a good descendant and a future good ancestor.

For more than four decades, Lily van der Stokker has challenged conventional ideas about beauty, decoration, humor, and value. Through her wall paintings, drawings, and installations, she embraces qualities that have often been dismissed as decorative or feminine, asking us to reconsider what we take seriously—and why.

In this episode of About Art, Heidi Zuckerman and Lily discuss joy, beauty, feminism, decoration, humor, public art, and the freedom to make work that resists expectation. Together they explore why kindness and optimism can be radical artistic choices and why art remains a place for experimentation, curiosity, and adventure.

Sabrina Rudin is the founder of Spring Cafe Aspen and the author of Healthy with a Side of Happy, a cookbook that combines recipes, personal stories, and practical guidance for creating a healthier, more intentional life. What began with one café has grown into a broader platform centered on nourishment, community, entrepreneurship, and the everyday choices that shape how we live.
In this episode, Heidi and Sabrina discuss writing a cookbook, building a business from the ground up, motherhood, entrepreneurship, creativity, and why food is about so much more than what's on our plates. They talk about creating a life that reflects your values, raising children without fear around food, the importance of community, and the role of joy in healthy living.