Stories, held with care.
A
space for unfiltered human stories
and the voices behind the creative process.
Honest conversations to tune into.
§ 01 — MANIFESTO
Take from it what stays with you.
A shift in perspective.
A new way of thinking.
Or simply a moment outside your routine.
O
culus Garden is a space for human-first conversations with creatives across disciplines.
The focus is simple.
To understand the person behind the work.
Each episode explores what shaped them,
the experiences that stayed with them,
and the parts of their lives not often spoken about.
Not just the work they make, but how they think, move, and see the world.
Every conversation is led by the host and shaped together with the guest.
The format makes space.
To listen. To think.
To move beyond surface-level answers.
The arts are the entry point.
The conversations are about people.
Some moments may resonate quietly,
whether you come from a
creative background or not.
§ 02 — EPISODES
From Baghdad to the Biennale, with a Kiss for every Painting
EPISODE 3 · 80 MIN · AUDIO
with Bassim Al-Shaker
In this episode of Oculus Garden, we sit down with Bassim Al-Shaker, a Baghdad-born painter and filmmaker whose work has been shown at documenta, the Venice Biennale, the Aichi Triennale, and written about in the New York Times.
Bassim shares the determination that led him to art school as a teenager, the sketch of the Venus de Milo that forced him to leave Iraq for his own safety, and the heartbreak that surrounded his first solo show in the United States.
We get into the rituals that shape his practice, the meditations that take him beyond his body, and a love for painting that no threat has ever broken, not even war.
EPISODE 2 · 73 min · AUDIO · VIDEO
A Negroni, MMA Weight Cuts, and Life Beyond the Chicken Era
with Johnny Novokmet
In this episode of Oculus Garden, we sit down with Johnny Novokmet, better known to many as the New York City storyteller behind the great rotisserie chicken hunt and a three-time Yelpie-winning voice who's turned the everyday meal into something worth pausing for.
Over his drink of choice, Johnny opens up about the moments that shaped him: solo trips that forced him to confront who he really is, family ties that anchored him, deliberate physical extremes, and the many side quests in between.
We get into Bourdain, Da Vinci's woodpecker, the loneliness of filming yourself eating, and why being unapologetically yourself is the only superpower worth chasing.
Meditative Brushstrokes, the Other Monroe, and Lasting Summer Fling
EPISODE 1 · 56 MIN · AUDIO
with Anna Collevecchio
In this very first episode of Oculus Garden, we sit down with Anna Collevechio, a St. Petersburg-born, New York-based multidisciplinary artist whose paintings and installations sit at the intersection of art, science, and self-inquiry.
A lifelong lover of science fiction since the age of six, Anna has carried that curiosity into a practice obsessed with time as a human construct, the spirit of place, and the inner workings of consciousness.
She shares the childhood that shaped by early independence and a deep fascination with systems, the loss that pulled her into meditation and lucid dreaming, her experiments with the Monroe technique, and the unexpected visit to New York that changed the course of her life.
