Indy Correspondent Podcast #4: Dan Grossman interviews his daughter, Naomi

Dan and his daughter Naomi Grossman at Tijuana River Valley Regional Park. Panoramic photography by Dan Grossman

On May 28, 2025, I interviewed my daughter Naomi Grossman in the kitchen of my condo in Carmel, Indiana. I wanted the interview to be informal and short, and to capture the lighthearted nature of our interactions. But I also wanted to give her a chance to talk about her artistic passions and academic pursuits.  You can check out her artwork on her Instagram page.

DAN: All right, Naomi, we are now recording Naomi Grossman, who are you?

NAOMI:  I'm your daughter. 

DAN: Naomi Antonia Grossman, is my daughter, and she goes to Indiana University [the IU Eskenazi Museum of Art, Architecture, and Design in Bloomington, more specifically] and she's a rising senior.  

NAOMI:  I'm a graphic design BFA. So I'm getting my bachelor's of Fine Arts in an intensive study program. 

DAN: What kind of graphic design do you do? What? What is your aesthetic?

NAOMI: I do a lot of illustrative work with vector vector illustration, which means using programs like Adobe Illustrator to create your drawings. And I think I have a very colorful style. I like my greens and my yellows and my oranges, so I have a lot of fun with it. 

DAN: And there's a particular one that I found particularly striking. Can you describe this one? It looks like it's carved wood, painted carved wood. What is it? 

NAOMI: We have a laser cutter at IU so we can design things or make a file on Illustrator, and the laser cutter will cut the wood based off your file. So it's a really cool tool, and I figured that you can build up like sculptures--or I call them more layered illustrations, rather than sculptures. I feel like that's a more fitting word, but I layer my wood in specific shapes, and then I will color them with colored pencil.

“Closing In” by Naomi Grossman

DAN: Well, that's all describing your process, but the visual content, you see a bunch of fishes, like one is one mouth is at the other tail, and they're going in a circular motion. Once they're  going in this circle and then in the middle you see, like, maybe they're the baby fishes doing the same kind of thing. And I'll put this up on my blog so you can see this, but what was the original thought that you had here?

NAOMI: I was really fascinated by food chains. So these are, I think there's a brown trout, there's an emerald, oh, no, I forgot the fish I drew. But there it's a fish food chain of Indiana fish. So the bigger one eats a smaller one, and the smaller one eats the smallest one. So they're all native Indiana species. And I do a lot of work based off Indiana nature and Indiana ecosystems. I find a lot of interest in it.

DAN: So it's basically describing the food chain, the bigger fish eats a smaller fish.

NAOMI: Yeah. But that's, that's, that is the actual species that eat the fish.

DAN: We'll have to find out that actual species name so I could put that up on the plot. And what, I'm sorry, what was the um, the material you used again? What was that wood? What? That's what I thought, yeah, and painted with what kind of pen--

NAOMI: Colored Pencil.

DAN: Oh, that's right, you were talking about how colored pencil …

NAOMI: Yeah, you stole my colored pencil!

DAN: [Laughs]

NAOMI: Beautiful, ultramarine. 

DAN: But you have to understand, for those listening, is, I'm not able to see the actual work. I just see a picture of it. So for me, it could be paint, it could be any kind of medium. But she's actually using colored pencil on wood, which is really interesting. I never knew you could use colored pencil on wood. 

NAOMI: I get that feedback a lot. A lot of people are really surprised that it's not paint. It's just colored pencil, Prismacolors. They're very nice and waxy. It goes great on wood, excellent material. 

DAN:  Well, it's interesting that this artwork kind of reflects your recent interests in both meteorology and geology, and you actually took several meteorology courses. How in the world does a graphic design major get involved in taking meteorology courses? What led you in that direction? 

NAOMI:  Well, you need science courses at IU so I need it for my major. And I've always been interested in weather since I was a kid. You remember that? 

DAN: Oh, yeah, of course. 

NAOMI: I’ve always had a really deep fascination for tornadoes. It started as a phobia, but now it's an interest. But I just took one class, and then it's like, this is really fun. And then I took the other class.

DAN:  And you saw the Twister movie, The Twister movies you've seen both, right? 

NAOMI: Yeah. 

DAN: So did that inspire you in that direction, in any way? Or is that just an outgrowth of your interest?

NAOMI: It's just an outgrowth of what I was already watching in my life, what severe weather live streams before then.

DAN: So you're also interested in geology, so much so that when we were recently -- my parents live in San Diego -- so when I took Naomi down and we were walking around the Tijuana River Valley Regional Park, right on the US Mexico border within sight of the border fence. And I was saying, Look Naomi, this is fantastic. Where else can you see the border of two countries? And the US border region is just basically chaparral. it's empty hills. But on the Tijuana side is incredibly dense urban infrastructure. And I'm saying this, this is incredible, Naomi, you should appreciate this moment. And you're saying, you know, what else is incredible, Dad. And you pick up this, this sedimentary siltstone, smooth rock, and you show it to me,  and you say "This is what's incredible. Dad."

NAOMI:  Well, both are pretty interesting. One doesn't deny the other. 

DAN: That's right, yeah, that's absolutely right. But that's just to prove the point that you're really interested in geology. And in fact you could pull it up and figure out how the Tijuana River Valley was formed. And it was formed millions of years ago when the waters of the Oligocene Era retreated in the coastal plain uplifted by the movement of the Pacific tectonic plate. And I'm just pulling that off of Microsoft Bing, but, but if you look at that rock, it can become a piece of a puzzle. And you can ask, well, how did this rock become smooth? And how? Why? Why is it here, up way above the Tijuana River Basin, which you can, you can kind of see down below, if you're looking at it from where we were, because we're in on, on the, on the edge of the valley, rather than down in it. And so I think that's really interesting when you can look at things like that. So I think it's kind of interesting that your art is reflecting your interests. And in fact, while I was talking, you were reading this book called The Field Guide to Geology that you picked out of Half Price Books. So you're really interested in geology. Now, do you think you're going to take any geology courses? 

NAOMI: If I have room in my schedule? 

DAN: Okay, great. So what is your ultimate goal  with your schooling now? What do you see yourself doing in five years?

NAOMI:  I think the ideal goal would be to be a teaching artist, which is a job where your own artwork is valued as much as teaching. So for example, if you like to work with an institution, they'll give you a studio and they'll give you the supplies to make your own art, but you're also teaching for them, which is like your trade off. But I have to see. I'm going into a risky field, so I have to see what's available. But I do really like to teach. That's one thing I really do enjoy. So teaching artists would be wonderful. That'd be really great.

DAN: You just finished your school year, and you're back home now in Indianapolis, or actually Carmel, I guess you could say greater Indianapolis. But so what you said you weren't doing any art for a while, but actually I caught you working on something just recently.

NAOMI: Well, I just need a break. I overworked myself so bad during the school year. Dad, it was crazy. People didn't know where I was. They didn't know where, who I was, where I am. I stayed in that studio. Every single day I would leave the studio at 9 pm every single day I'd be at school for 12 hours. Hours, 10 hours. I would stay at that studio until the night, until the sun has set, and I would come home, and I would just go to bed. And I think it's okay that I don't have to  do art when I feel like it, but over the summer, but I don't need to force myself to me.

DAN: But you were doing something for fun. 

NAOMI: Yeah, I was. 

DAN: Could you describe that thing? 

NAOMI: I was just drawing some flowers on one with colored pencil.

DAN: And you were also, like, looking at a video of the Marianas Trench while you were doing that. 

NAOMI: I do really like to watch documentaries when I make art. I think I don't like to watch, like fiction when I'm making my art, I think I get too caught up in… 

DAN: …the drama...

NAOMI: Yeah, and there's a lot of visuals, you know.

DAN:  You can watch Anne with an E, that’s what you’re watching on Netflix right now.

NAOMI: I like to watch, like, video essays or documentaries.

DAN: But it’s funny because both you and Anne, with an E share an interest in geology [laughs]

NAOMI: I just had a rock collection for a while. 

DAN: You did. You've had that rock collection for what, most of your life.

NAOMI: I think since I was five, yeah, but I think it'd be nice to learn more about the history of the Earth.

DAN: Well, that's a good goal. All right, Naomi, anything else to add.

NAOMI:  Glad you're back home.

DAN: Oh, well, thank you. Soon, do you leave me again for San Diego, learning, helping my dad take care of my mom. Yeah, all right, I think we've got a good conversation here. Maybe, maybe we can have another one some other time. Okay, all right, farewell, take care. 

NAOMI: Toodaloo

DAN:  Sayonara. Adios, Sai Injima da yawa.