Peachy Keen met up with artist Naomi Falk in a boardroom at the Chattanoogan Hotel during the recent SECAC conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee. After briefly discussing some of the points that Falk made in her conference session on limits in the studio art classroom, we continued to talk about some of the challenges and joys of pushing students in our own classrooms, the long slog to a permanent teaching position in the arts, working collaboratively, and her experiences at artist residencies throughout the US and abroad.

Originally from Michigan, Falk currently lives and works in South Carolina. We discussed how geography has affected her art practice—from a heightened awareness of climate change living in an area affected by hurricanes and frequent flooding, to her use of indigo, an important crop in the state during the eighteenth century.