Join co-producers of our Podcast, Jeri Rogers and Skip Brown, as they reflect on four years of podcasting interviews with artists and writers published in the Artemis Journal.

Getting ready to launch the next edition of Artemis Journal 24, they look at the event promoting their guest speaker, U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey.

Ana Morales is based in Roanoke, Virginia, and works primarily with mixed media. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA from James Madison University, where she studied studio art and art education. She works at LeisureMedia360 in Roanoke as the art director for publications, including the Roanoker Magazine and the Virginia Travel Guide. Morales has exhibited her work locally and nationally.

ARTIST STATEMENT

For many years, my work has primarily been informed by my life as a type 1 diabetic. I’m interested in art-making as an opportunity to play and experiment, and I think this stems from a lifetime of adhering to rules and routines for my health and well-being. Over the years, I have discovered artistic processes that mimic my daily life with diabetes—processes that explore repetition and routine, control, order, and risk. While my early work is quite literal, my more recent work explores the broader idea of illness versus wellness and the day-to-day fluctuations of my mental health.

Join the conversation with son Gary Isreal, President of the Dorothy M. Gillespie Foundation, and daughter Dorien Gillespie Bietz, children of Dorothy Gillespie, as they reflect on the many gifts their mother had in a groundbreaking documentary Courage, Independence and Color.

Artemis Journal was borne out of writing workshops for abused women. Ms. Gillespie donated her print celebrating Women in the Arts. The journal's mission is to support, develop, and encourage the talents of artists and writers from the Blue Ridge Mountains and beyond. Now in its 48th year, Artemis Journal looks back at its beginnings.