The Artists in Residence are a group of creative people, skilled in various mediums, recruited by the How Do I Say This? team to contribute their amazing talents to the site. We are proud and honored to showcase their work.

Michael Bodie

Currently in his third year of UCLA’s graduate directing program, Michael has had a varied career in both film and theatre. Most recently he co-directed and co-wrote the “I’m Gay” episode for How Do I Say This?, and had previously directed an episode of the series Sucks Less with Kevin Smith, also for mtvU.

Michael has written and directed three short films in the past two years: Untitled, which is currently in post production; The Page Turner, which premiered at the 2007 OutFest Film Festival; and Missed Connections. He also produced the low-budget feature film Totally Sexy Loser (2002), written and directed by Jason Schafer (Trick). The film played film festivals around the world including OutFest, Frameline, and Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.

Michael has also had a long and varied career in the theatre, both directing and acting , and has worked with some of the world’s preeminent theatre directors including Di Trevis, Helena Kaut-Howsen, and Richard Cottrell.

Michael worked for the Sundance Institute’s Feature Film and Theatre Programs for five years; during which time he participated in the selection of projects to attend their prestigious labs, including Miranda July’s Me and You and Everyone We Know; Michael Kang’s The Motel; Hany Abu-Assad’s Paradise Now; Dito Montiel’s A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints; and Goran Dukic’s Wristcutters.


Jose Gabriel

“Life is beautiful because it is unpredictable.”—Michelangelo Antonioni.

Constant work, improvisation, and impulses are the driving forces of Jose Gabriel’s work. Jose grew up in the corner of Latin America, a city of multiple contrasts best known as TJ. He moved to the United States with the goal of pursuing a career in cinema and is a senior at UCLA film School with an emphasis in production and directing. His inspiration ranges from ice cream, cigarettes, and traveling with friends to Goddard, the Darden, and Maysel brothers; as well as family pictures posted on Facebook.

Silas Howard

Silas Howard is an MFA directing candidate at UCLA. Prior to this, Silas made a movie with her best friend - it took a many, many years and left Silas broke and sworn off film forever. That feature was called By Hook Or By Crook, it premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2002, won some awards and played in the theaters for a hot minute. Silas’s parents like to brag that they know Robert Redford as a result of this, which is not true…Silas is trying to prevaricate less in life.

Howard’s next feature has been in the works for years and years. Exactly Like You, (co-written with Nina Landey), is with Duly Noted, producer Effie T. Brown’s company (Real Women, Rocket Science). The project was selected for the 2007 Film Independent Directors Lab. Howard’s first short documentary, What I Love About Dying (2006), premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.

Silas Howard toured in a small rusted van for years with her band, Tribe 8. The notorious punk band released four full-length recordings on Alternative Tentacles (Jello Biafra’s label). Howard’s first music video, made with Ben Peyser and Standard Quality (www.standardquality.com), premiered on
MTVU and MTV2 in January 2007.

Curt Lam

Curt is an okay-lucky guy, who likes taking pictures all the time. He
came from far off Kowloon Bay to America to try to make friends and an
honest living…He is doing ok…..

He would love to see a UFO and meet an alien one day…He knows one
day he will…we all will..

Elliott Kaplan

Elliott Kaplan is a fine artist currently studying at the University of California, Los Angeles. Sculpture and photography are his primary mediums, while his goal is to create work that is actively engaged with the world around him. Elliott sees the artist as uniquely equipped to highlight and critique the existing social structures in contemporary
society in the hopes of creating positive change. As such, he does not seek to create art that transcends life, but rather art that embraces it.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres is his hero and LA is too hot. http://www.elliottkaplan.com

Clint Kenley

Clint Kenley grew up in Hamiton, Montana in the shade of a lonely pine tree. Prior to coming to California he studied fiction filmmaking with indy stud Hal Hartley and personal documentary with film luminaries Ross McElwee, Robb Moss, and Alfred Guzzetti. During this time he made the documentary Dear, Santiago, about the groundbreaking Cuban filmmaker Santiago Alvarez, whose wonderful films are best described as experimental-docu-propaganda. Clint loves shooting film stock of all sizes and low-res or archaic digital formats. He is currently an MFA film directing student at UCLA where he wants to be makin’ narrative films like it’s 1940.

Aidan McDermott

Aidan McDermott is from Berkeley, California, and now lives in Los Angeles. He’s most comfortable with a pencil and paper, although UCLA’s Design | Media Arts program is converting him into a full-fledged computer nerd. Saul Bass and Charles & Ray Eames are among the designers he admires. He hopes his work communicates interesting ideas in simple ways, and is inspired by Mies van der Rohe’s motto, “Less is more.”

Miwa Matreyek

Miwa Matreyek is an animator/director who creates animated short films as well as performance works that integrate animation and live performance. Her animation shorts have been shown in LA Freewaves, San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, Philadelphia Film Festival, and the Platform International Animation Festival. Some of her collaborative video-performance pieces was shown at Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland, and the Time Based Arts Festival in Portland.

Her solo video-performance, Dreaming of Lucid Living, won the Princess Grace Award for Film, as well as two awards at the Platform International Animation Festival: Student Grand Prix and Audience Choice Award for Best Installation.

A recent graduate from CalArt’s Experimental Animation program, Miwa is trying to figure out how to navigate her head full of ideas through the real world without getting shipwrecked.

Price Peterson

Price Peterson likes to design videos, pictures, and stories. A graduate of UCLA, Price is also a founding member of L.A.-based sketch comedy group Weak Nights and maintains an art blog. Price currently resides in West Los Angeles where he shares an apartment with the ghost of his pet turtle, Dexter.

Joanna Rosso

The bearer of an overactive imagination, this hermit believes in her heart that her bedroom closet is haunted, but lately, at more practical times, strange drawings can also result from this romanticism. She hopes there will be many more to come, and that they will bring joy to others.

Joanna graduated from UCLA in 2005 with a Bachelor’s in Art, where she focused primarily on taking photos of her family, and drawing repetitive lines for hours.

Lily Sparks

Lily Sparks is a product designer who lives over a performance space.
As if that weren’t enough, she also writes for a comedy site
(weaknights.com) and has paintings available for acquisition
Annie Wang

When not working a full-time job or caring for her three cats, Taiwanese-born Annie Wang is busy scouring the interweb for graphic design inspiration and working on getting into art school. Having already graduated UCLA with a Bachelor’s in Sociology, Annie is looking forward to being half a decade older than the undergraduate freshman at the design school most willing to accept her (*cough*MCAD or CALARTS*cough*). Her graphic design work is primarily digital and her photos are primarily of her three cats. She relishes in anthropomorphization and food. Her inspirations range from Japanese anime to Stefan Sagmeister to Mid-Century Modern Furniture. She hopes that her design can touch the heart. Peek at her online home.

Want to become an Artist in Residence? Here’s how:

1) Email us with your interest and any links to your creative work. We’ll get back to you ASAP.

2) If you’re not sure about your abilities or are just starting out, get busy making stuff and submit it to this site. If you’ve got an Artist in Residence in you, we’ll surely spot it—or the community will—and ask you to join.