The Artist Rendezvous

12. The Grocery Store Rethought: Regenerative Food, Real Farmers, Real Joy, with Kevin Fishner of Radius Butcher & Grocery

Kevin Fishner is the founder of Radius Butcher & Grocery — Austin's first regenerative grocery store and the closest thing to a farmer's market open every day. Radius is built on a simple but radical idea: what if your grocery store knew your farmers by name, tested your food for plastics and pesticides, sourced only what's in season from Central Texas land, and felt as warm and alive as a kitchen? Kevin came to this from tech — and from two bouts with Lyme disease that forced him to reimagine his relationship with food and his body. What emerged wasn't just a business, but a philosophy: smaller world, deeper relationships, more joy. This conversation covers all of it — the food, the farming, the why behind the prices, and what it really means to build something because you want it to exist. What We Discuss: * What Radius actually is — and why the farmer's market every day model works * Regenerative farming explained: soil health, rotational grazing, closed systems, and why it matters * Why seasonal eating is more joyful, creative, and connective than convenient abundance * Kevin's personal health journey with Lyme disease and what forced attunement to his body taught him * The SEEDS framework: sleep, exercise, environment, diet, and stress — and why the playbook looks different for everyone * The philosophy of eating from joy rather than fear * Relationships as the most important thing — and how a grocery store can be built around that belief * The real reasons food at Radius costs what it does — and what you're actually paying for * Supply chain realities of working with small local farms * The vision: a regenerative regional food system for Texas This Episode Is For You If… * You've been curious about regenerative food systems, farmers markets, or Radius  * You care about where your food comes from and how it's raised * You're navigating health challenges and looking for a more empowered relationship with food * You've felt the tension between cost and values when it comes to eating well * You're building something because you want it to exist in the world * You live in or are visiting Austin and want to discover something genuinely special * You're interested in how food, community, and place can shape a more meaningful life Notable Mentions: * The Plastic List [https://www.plasticlist.org/report] study and endocrine disruptors, PFAS / forever chemicals, and third-party testing * Origin Ranch and Freedom Farm eggs Follow + Visit Radius  Instagram: @eatradius  Website: eatradius.com Visit: 1912 East 7th Street, Austin, TX (at 7th and Chicon) Follow + Support The Artist Rendezvous If this episode resonated, share it with someone who would love it. Follow the podcast and leave a review or comment with your biggest takeaway.  Instagram / YouTube: @theartistrendezvous  Website: theartistrendezvous.com Reach out:  hello@theartistrendezvous.com The Artist Rendezvous celebrates the creative spirit of Austin, Texas, sharing stories of inspiration, risk, and the courage to create. Each episode explores what it means to live a creative life — and the mindset shifts that make it possible.

11. Building a Creative Community That Actually Makes Money with Richard Samuel of Riches Art Gallery

Richard is the founder of Riches Art Gallery — but what he’s built is far more than an art gallery. Located on the east side of Austin, Riches has become a living creative ecosystem: part gallery, part venue, part classroom, part third place. On any given week, you’ll find jazz nights, poetry slams, figure drawing, comedy, exhibitions, and a steady flow of people expressing themselves fully. This conversation explores what it takes to build a place where people feel safe, inspired, and like they belong — and why spaces like this are essential to a meaningful life. Richard shares how his upbringing, his transition from professional football to art, and his commitment to integrity shaped the gallery’s culture — and how an unconventional business model has made it both creatively alive and financially sustainable. What We Discuss: * What Riches Art Gallery actually is — and why it works * How to create a “third place” where people feel safe and inspired, including practical, tangible guidelines that Richard applies in his business to create a healthy culture * Why traditional art galleries feel inaccessible — and how to change that * How transparency builds trust and long-term community * Creating emotional safety through clear boundaries and structure * Representation — and being one of the only Black-owned galleries in Texas * Moving beyond the “starving artist” narrative * The ecosystem model: how events, rentals, and art sales feed each other * Why constantly evolving your space keeps it alive * How spaces shape our relationships, creativity, and experience of life * Lessons from failure, ambition, and growing too fast * The decision to leave professional football and choose art * How Richard’s family nurtured him as an artist, and how you can nurture the kids in your life This Episode Is For You If… * You want your creative work to be financially sustainable * You’ve felt out of place in traditional creative spaces * You care about community, connection, and meaningful experiences * You’re building something and want it to actually last * You’re an artist or entrepreneur figuring out viability * You’re craving spaces that feel alive and human * You live in Austin (or love it) and want to discover something special Notable Mentions: * ⁠Lian Quan Zhen⁠ [https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&hs=icdp&sca_esv=fa2472da3c8c11ba&rls=en&q=Lian+Quan+Zhen&source=lnms&fbs=ADc_l-aN0CWEZBOHjofHoaMMDiKpaEWjvZ2Py1XXV8d8KvlI3p-ML-906rRL_m6h4jR-tdAeyw6pOVABma0FfM0NmtARdcuGnZVoiSrEQCt2b10nLgJjnciRuscuXtl6T7LaQdCkfGD_59MD7oxsIhZlOUL-35chxRAW0KoV0H8UnTr9cfL5pIgi1wDFc-K04J5dGGlMPa6MviXZrsvZmXSkJWsVTrRUDIc0YsA3MaELSgREuSE9s6Y&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjY2uT14dCTAxWolCYFHfycGl4Q0pQJegQIDRAB&biw=1306&bih=703&dpr=2] Follow Riches Art Gallery * Instagram: @richesartgallery * Website: ⁠https://www.richesart.com/⁠ [https://www.richesart.com/]  * Upcoming Events: ⁠https://www.richesart.com/community-events⁠ [https://www.richesart.com/community-events] * Visit: 2511 East 6th Street, Austin, TX Follow + Support The Artist Rendezvous Instagram / YouTube: @theartistrendezvous Website: theartistrendezvous.com Reach out: hello@theartistrendezvous.com If this episode resonated, share it with someone who would love it. Follow the podcast and leave a review or comment with your biggest takeaway. The Artist Rendezvous celebrates the creative spirit of Austin, Texas, sharing stories of inspiration, risk, and the courage to create. Each episode explores what it means to live a creative life — and the mindset shifts that make it possible.

10. Jack Sanders: Sandlot Baseball, Placemaking, and Building a Living Work of Art

Jack Sanders has spent the last twenty years building far more than a baseball team. He founded the Texas Playboys — Austin’s beloved sandlot baseball club — and later created The Long Time, a one-of-a-kind venue and community space in Far East Austin that feels part baseball field, part art project, part gathering place, part social experiment. What began as a love of baseball has become a much bigger exploration of creativity, collaboration, belonging, and how meaningful places are made. In this episode, Jack shares how his years playing with the Newbern Tigers in rural Alabama transformed the way he understands architecture, service, and community. What started as an architecture thesis project became a life-changing education in collaboration, resourcefulness, and the kind of placekeeping that can’t be manufactured from the outside. We talk about how sandlot baseball became a vehicle for joy, why the best creative work often emerges through iteration rather than perfection, and how The Long Time has become a living laboratory for a more alive and participatory way of making things. Jack’s work is about baseball, but in many ways, baseball is the excuse to reclaim fun, build places where people feel they belong, create with what you have, and to let curiosity and collaboration shape something more beautiful than you could have planned alone. What We Discuss: * How the Texas Playboys grew from one sandlot team in Austin into part of a worldwide sandlot baseball movement * Why fun, imagination, and freedom from critique leads adults to play some of the best baseball of their lives * How Jack’s time with the Newbern Tigers in rural Alabama reshaped his understanding of architecture, service, and community * What he learned from Rural Studio and architect Samuel Mockbee about service, collaboration, and learning from community * The surprising role baseball played in supporting community care  * Why the best creative work comes through collaborative, iterative design rather than rigid plans or individual genius * How The Long Time became a living, breathing creative project — part venue, part art installation, part laboratory * The concept of “dirty minimalism” and creating beauty through constraints, recycled materials, and resourcefulness * Why unfinished, evolving work can still be deeply aesthetic, meaningful, and successful * What it means to create places where people feel relaxed, welcomed, and like they truly belong * How Austin’s artistic lineage has shaped Jack’s work and the ethos of The Long Time * Why baseball is often just the excuse for something deeper: connection, expression, experimentation, and collective joy Notable Mentions: * The Newbern Tigers / Newbern Baseball Club * Rural Studio and Samuel Mockbee * ⁠YETI film⁠ [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNk61iDebno] featuring the Texas Playboys * Sandlot Revolution ⁠podcast episode⁠ [https://open.spotify.com/episode/07tTTLusqq1NLKfYQh6MxJ?si=kEQ3-1ReQT6qVq_90BBGUw] featuring Jack Sanders * Creative Influences: William Christenberry (photographer), Walker Evans, James Agee and Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, Willie Nelson, Richard Linklater, Armadillo World Headquarters, Tim Kerr, Jerry Jeff Walker, Lyle Lovett, Liz Lambert, Ben Kweller * Steve Ross (UT professor) Follow The Texas Playboys and The Long Time * Visit ⁠The Long Time⁠ [https://www.thelongtime.com/?srsltid=AfmBOorHomRpkp7dk2TjFkx44Vl9ZnTSaGL7VwnJuCX3K1LrC_DBDr9R] for a game, whether it be the Texas Playboys or one of the many other sandlot teams that play there!  * ⁠Get a ticket⁠ [https://janix.ai/fusebox/project.html?slug=a-great-play] to the Texas Playboy game at Fusebox Live on April 18! The game (called “The Great Play”) will take place at The Wishing Well in Lockhart. Tickets are $10.   * Follow on Instagram: @⁠thelongtimetexas⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/thelongtimetexas/] and @⁠texasplayboysbaseball⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/texasplayboysbaseball/] and Jack Sanders ⁠@dba_jacksanders⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/dba_jacksanders/] Follow + Support The Artist Rendezvous * Follow the podcast and leave a review or comment with your biggest takeaway * Instagram / TikTok / YouTube: @theartistrendezvous * Website: theartistrendezvous.com * Reach out: hello@theartistrendezvous.com The Artist Rendezvous celebrates the creative spirit of Austin, Texas, sharing stories of inspiration, risk, and the courage to create.

09. Tom Girl: Heartbreak, Grief, and Transformation with Quentin

Quentin has been creating for most of their life — theater, dance, vocals, performance, music — but this conversation centers on a project that took nearly three years to complete: their new album Tom Girl, an homage to the intensity, joy, heartbreak, and becoming of your twenties. What started as a “little solo side project” became something much deeper: a vehicle for grief, endings, identity, queerness, and a return to love — the kind you only reach after you’ve walked through anger and resentment without judging yourself for feeling them. We talk about what it looks like to let creativity lead you somewhere before you consciously understand where you’re going — and how art can become the place you process what life is putting you through. What We Discuss: * How creating music became a way to process grief, anger, and a painful breakup when talking or “moving on” wasn’t possible * What to do when a creative project starts before you realize a chapter of your life is ending — and how to let the work guide you through it * How choosing creation over self-destruction can become a practical tool for emotional regulation and healing * Why resentment often points to unclaimed personal power — and how moving through it leads to peace and clarity * Navigating queer identity, androgyny, and self-expression without shaping yourself to be more “acceptable” to others * How learning to set boundaries made deeper love, safer relationships, and stronger creative work possible * What actually goes into making an album — and how environment, collaboration, and production choices shape the emotional impact * How to stay persistent in the creative industry, keep choosing your art during financial instability, and build a career without giving up on yourself This Episode Is For You If… * You’re in your twenties (or healing from your twenties) and want to feel seen * You’ve ever used creativity to survive grief, heartbreak, or identity rupture * You’re learning boundaries after years of over-giving or people-pleasing * You want a real look at what goes into making an album (emotionally + technically) * You’re trying to build a creative life without stable money — and still keep going Notable Mentions: * Listen to ⁠Cleo Sol⁠ [https://open.spotify.com/artist/3ETLPQkcEd7z4k3IbZmXMq?si=h6UP9R3IQzCjScmrl9aaFA], as a solo artist, as well as the band she performs in, ⁠Sault⁠ [https://open.spotify.com/artist/1uRxRKC7d9zwYGSRflTKDR?si=XdSBoiLRSjekelVDPYHHbQ]  * Check out ⁠Turnover⁠ [https://open.spotify.com/artist/0gLjJuczGWhqKVMmVpIT52?si=PLUSRtdORrSi4AHvBlSoiA] and hit song “⁠Cutting My Fingers Off⁠ [https://open.spotify.com/track/0Wl2RALqRacaIJhnlRHK8J?si=48da430937a04e7b]” * ⁠Poems and Power⁠ [https://www.chelsiediane.com/] women studies class with Chelsea Diane  Follow Quentin: @itsquentin  [https://www.instagram.com/itsquentin/?hl=en] Follow + Support The Artist Rendezvous If you enjoyed this episode, the best way to support the show is to share it with a friend, follow the podcast, and leave a comment with your biggest takeaway. Instagram / TikTok / YouTube: @theartistrendezvousWebsite: theartistrendezvous.comReach out: hello@theartistrendezvous.com The Artist Rendezvous celebrates the creative spirit of Austin, Texas, sharing stories of inspiration, risk, and the courage to create. Each episode explores what it means to live a creative life and the mindset shifts that enable artistic success.

08. Sharing My Story: Career Pivots, Changing My Life, and the origins of The Artist Rendezvous with host, Samantha Pfotenhauer

In this episode, the roles are reversed. Instead of interviewing a guest, Samantha Pfotenhauer — host of The Artist Rendezvous — sits in the guest seat as her friend Bradley interviews her about the winding, honest path that led her from a life centered on productivity and ambition – practicing corporate law in New York City – to a life centered on creativity. What begins as a conversation about career pivots quickly opens into something deeper: how unprocessed trauma quietly shapes our choices, how curiosity creates exits where none seem to exist, and why creativity is not a frivolous exploration, but a skill that can provide direction and confidence. Samantha shares about panic attacks, leaving a prestigious legal career, dismantling an entire life she had built, and choosing aliveness over numbness again and again. This episode is about what happens when you stop trying to force yourself into a life that looks good on paper — and start listening to what your body, intuition, and creativity have been asking for all along. You’re successful on paper but quietly miserable What We Discuss: * Leaving a “golden path” career in law and confronting the fear of starting over without a clear plan * How unprocessed trauma and panic attacks quietly dictated career choices — and what changed when it was addressed * Why curiosity and openness are foundational skills to build a meaningful life  * Choosing aliveness over numbness, even when it brings instability, grief, and identity loss * The courage it takes to be bad at something publicly — and why that’s essential to creating anything meaningful * How creativity becomes a tool for emotional regulation, healing, and self-trust * The three pillars behind The Artist Rendezvous: inspiration, creativity, and connection * What it means to live a creative life that is rooted in service, beauty, and community rather than status or certainty This Episode Is For You If… * You feel a pull toward creativity but don’t know how to trust it * You’ve experienced panic, burnout, or emotional shutdown and want to understand why * You’re navigating a major identity shift — career, relationship, or belief system * You want permission to start before you feel ready, polished, or confident * You’re craving a more alive, intentional way of living Notable Mentions: * Human Design (learn more at ⁠moonrisecommunity.com⁠ [http://moonrisecommunity.com/] and our ⁠Youtube⁠ [https://www.youtube.com/@moonrisecommunity]) * Somatic and trauma-informed healing work - check out Sam’s website ⁠www.wildriver.live⁠ [http://www.wildriver.live/]  * Austin, Texas as a creative and connective ecosystem * The concept of “aliveness” as the space between terror and ecstasy, inspired by ⁠Annie Lalla⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/p/CuS1pEwI9gz/]  Follow + Support The Artist Rendezvous If this episode resonated, the best way to support the show is to share it with someone who needs it, follow the podcast, and leave a comment with your biggest takeaway. Instagram / TikTok / YouTube: @theartistrendezvous Website: theartistrendezvous.com Reach out: hello@theartistrendezvous.com The Artist Rendezvous celebrates the creative spirit of Austin, Texas, sharing stories of inspiration, risk, and the courage to create. Each episode explores what it means to live a creative life — and the mindset shifts that make it possible.