People at the Core
From The Greenpoint Palace bar in Brooklyn, New York writers and bartenders, Rita and Marisa, have intimate conversations with an eclectic mix of people from all walks of life about their passions, paranoia and perspectives. Featured guests could be artists or authors, exterminators or private investigators, or the person sitting next to you at the bar.
People at the Core
The Life of an Artist: Leigha Mason on Clowns, the Commodification of Art and Surviving a Stabbing
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Ever wondered how you can balance the worlds of painting, film, and performance art while living in the heart of New York City? Leigha Mason, a multi-talented artist, takes us through her incredible journey from Phoenix to San Francisco and finally to the bustling streets of NYC. From working to save for her big moves to navigating the challenges of various neighborhoods, Leigha’s story is one of resilience and passion. She shares her experience bartending at Greenpoint Palace Bar and even discusses her role in designing their latest merchandise.
Is art school worth it? What's the real value of a fine arts degree? Leah reflects on her time at prestigious institutions like Parsons and the San Francisco Art Institute, offering candid insights into the often conceptual focus of art education. She compares this with more utilitarian degrees, sparking a thought-provoking discussion on the cultural and subjective valuation of art. We also delve into Leigha's unique transition from painting to film, driven by a desire to avoid commodification and influenced by political movements like Occupy Wall Street.
Finally, get ready for a thrilling story of adventure and perseverance. Leigha recounts her experiences traveling solo through Europe after an art show in London and working as a clown in Berlin. The tale takes a shocking turn in Athens, where she survived an unexpected stabbing. Through all these ups and downs, Leigha's spirit remains unbroken, and she continues to create meaningful art, from her upcoming body of paintings to her insightful newsletter, "Gut Flora." Join us for this captivating episode filled with creativity, resilience, and a touch of whimsy.
Leigha Mason Links
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Email us! peopleatthecorepodcast@gmail.com
People at the Core
Speaker 1From the Greenpoint Palace Bar in Brooklyn, new York, writers and bartenders Rita and Marissa have intimate conversations with an eclectic mix of people from all walks of life about their passions, paranoia and perspectives. Featured guests could be artists or authors, exterminators or private investigators, or the person sitting next to you at the bar. This is People at the Core.
Speaker 2Hey Rita, hi Marissa, how are you okay? Um, I really liked that we both like walked out the door kind of simultaneously and walked each other to record today in the rain, wearing almost the same outfit.
Speaker 3Yeah, we look like something out of West Side Story.
Speaker 2Yeah, but like the gang parts, we both are all wearing our Sunday blacks with our leather coats.
Speaker 3Yeah, it was pretty funny yeah.
Speaker 2I liked it I thought it was a good setting of the tone.
Speaker 3Yeah, I mean, it's raining out you know, oh my god.
Speaker 2I gotta go play a poker game later oh well, I'm excited about that I hope you win me too, or at least don't lose break even at worse. Yeah, yeah, exactly, I'm terrible at I only gamble with other people's money.
Speaker 3Oh smart you know I wish that most people don't give me money to gamble with, so I don't gamble very much and I'm not very good, but I'd be willing to with other people yeah just throwing it out there if anyone wants to.
Speaker 2I don't know, is that a thing? So like only fans, people like sit on objects or like show their feet? If somebody wants to like start a channel for me to like spend their money and poorly gamble, I'd be into it. Yeah, probably there's something for everything. I mean, kids make millions of dollars unboxing, like opening packages. That's a fucking thing.
Speaker 3Yeah, but they're also like 20.
Speaker 2Yeah, but I think there's like eight-year-olds who do it too.
Speaker 3Oh, there's, oh God, now it's getting creepy.
Speaker 2Anyway, okay, all right, before we get too sidetracked, I could go on for this ever ASMR and all of this. Anyway, all right. So, wow, today I know I go um. Today we have with us Leah Mason, artist extraordinaire. Uh, she works in film, video and performance, as well as painting. She's been a force on the art scene from the Bay Area to New York and has had her work shown from the likes of MoMA PS1 to Parsons. She also happens to bartend here at the Palace and has designed the latest merch for the bar, which I'm really excited to see.
Speaker 3Oh, it's awesome, Gotta get my new tees of course represent.
Speaker 2So please welcome Leah.
Speaker 4Hi Hi.
Speaker 2Leah.
Speaker 4Oh my God, my first podcast.
Speaker 3We love you.
Speaker 2Yeah, this is so exciting to have you, I mean, but like this is kind of like in the back room of, yeah, your bar.
Speaker 4Uh-huh.
Speaker 2It's picked the most comfortable setting that we could think of.
Speaker 4I know it's like kind of has a medieval vibe, which I always love about this place, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2Well, which I always love about this place.
Speaker 3Yeah, well, I mean people call it the castle, the palace. Yeah, the palace, right. Well, I mean like the big table in the front is the queen's table, you know like I love that too.
Speaker 2And then you know, former brothel, those layers of royalty.
Speaker 3Yeah, I mean royalty or something. Yeah, exactly Dead and alive. Well they were service workers.
Speaker 2Yes, yeah, exactly Dead and alive. Yeah, well, they were service workers. Yes.
Speaker 3Yeah, that's pretty crazy.
Speaker 5Leah Hi, I love you so much I love you too.
Speaker 3So really quick. Let's just start from with where you came from and how you got here in New York.
Speaker 4Well, I grew up in Phoenix, arizona, and I moved to San Francisco like the day after I graduated high school.
Speaker 5Oh, wow.
Speaker 2And then Did you drive or fly?
Speaker 4I must have. No, I mean, it's part of a journey. I know I like it.
Speaker 2It's time of like starting.
Speaker 4Yeah, I must have drove there. I don't remember, crazy huh. I was like working since I was 13 because I wanted to leave, so bad. So I would go to like Einstein's bagels at 4 am and work till 8 am and then go to high school and like bring bagels for everybody. So I had a bunch of money and then, yeah, I must have, I must have drove there okay and then I came to New York like three years after that. It was like 2008.
Speaker 3Okay, so how old were you then when you moved to New York?
Speaker 4I guess I was 19 or 20.
Speaker 3Wow, that's awesome To be young in New York, I mean I think about like I think I moved here in my 30s and I just think about like I don't know if I would have survived the 20s in New York just as as wild as I was in my 20s and then to be in New. York, like I bet it was insane. Yeah, what neighborhood were you living in then?
Speaker 4my first, my first place was in the financial district, okay, and then I was only there for a few months and then my first apartment was in Crown Heights, okay, which was like very different at that time.
Speaker 2Yeah, well yeah, I bet it was friday, but also from now, like, yeah, there's high-rise buildings, condos and all of this yeah, that's what I mean from now yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3So so you were in, you stayed in manhattan, and then what made you decide to come to brooklyn?
Speaker 4just, affordability yeah, yeah right.
Speaker 2Did you know people when you moved here? No, I mean.
Speaker 4I knew I had a couple friends that lived here from San Francisco but I had people that would invite me to a thing but nobody that I would go to a thing thing with, if that makes sense right, yeah yeah, like you weren't sleeping on their couches and right, sharing breakfasts, right oh 19 yeah. I mean, that's intense but I I like went to school and so I had what I had a you know foundation to to meet people or whatever.
Speaker 2You went to Parsons, didn't you? Yeah, okay, what was the title of your degree or the focus?
Speaker 4I have a Bachelor's of Fine Art in Painting Painting, okay, yeah, which is funny, because I definitely didn't learn anything about painting at Parsons. Really, tell us more what?
Speaker 5did you learn? Which is funny, because I definitely didn't learn anything about painting?
Speaker 3Oh really, okay, really, tell us more.
Speaker 5What did you learn?
Speaker 4Well, so I went to the San Francisco Art Institute first, which is like a very conceptual school. They're like the first art school to have a new genres department, major or whatever. Oh to like veer off of like classical, like performance art, and you know like john cage did stuff there or whatever cool um, and then the parsons fine art department is really, really small, like they kind of I don't know how it is now, but they were focusing all their like energy and resources on the design and fashion elements Tim Gunn Wait.
Speaker 2Isn't Tim Gunn associated with?
Speaker 4Yeah, I mean it's a huge.
Speaker 2I'm just thinking of my project runway when they would do things at Parsons, and I guess me too. I think of Parsons as fashion.
Speaker 4Yeah, yeah, that's like their main thing, I would say. I think the fine art department was like 34 people.
Speaker 2Just for some money.
Speaker 4Yeah, I guess, yeah, um, so yeah, I don't know. I'm sure there are other art schools that have more like technical skill-based programs, but, um, in my experience, uh, I didn't learn much uh in terms of like technical skill, like formal art making do you think it?
Speaker 2was worth it. I mean because there's a whole schools of thoughts on formal training versus you know, artists of the street and I don't know.
Speaker 4I guess I would say like it depends on the person. I think for me it was like I got a scholarship, so it was kind the person. I think for me it was like I got a scholarship so it was kind of just a way for me to get to New York. Um, I mean, sfi was was amazing, like that was definitely worth it. I still am really close with a lot of people. I went to school there. Um, that school has closed down now, which is really sad.
Speaker 3Oh no, I didn't know that. What year?
Speaker 4A couple years ago. Oh wow, I'm not sure exactly when, Like COVID times, Like yeah, around there, which is really sad because it's a beautiful, like Spanish Mission-style campus that overlooks North Beach and there's a big Diego Rivera mural that's famous there. I guess they're protecting that, but anyways, I don't know Now. So in general, I would say no, Like going to art school is not worth it. But you know, it depends like what you mean by worth it, what your goals are, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean like if you got things out of it, whether it was connections or access. I know you got into film and video and that is not painting and art school.
Speaker 4Yeah, I mean, I feel like now I'm really trying to like reckon with this thing of like, yeah, being an artist, but like not really not really knowing like how to paint and um, and I've been sort of in this place of relearning and like trying to shift how I see in terms of you know from, because I I do know the like draftsmanship, like I I do know how to draw and I think that has been sort of like an underpinning of how I see in in terms of line. So I've been trying to teach myself how to see in terms of luminosity and shift into more of like a painter brain and and learn more about color and layers and it's it's much more like bodily, I think, and I think that is definitely influenced by like I don't know if, if I would revere that shift as much as I do, if I had, if it was innately learned.
Speaker 3Right. So it's almost like you're going through the stage of being self-taught, really right.
Speaker 5Yeah, but being in the periphery of yeah Right.
Speaker 4Yeah, like the contrast is really contextualized by not having learned it, I guess.
Speaker 2Huh, that's crazy. And then having a degree in that, yeah, and then having a degree, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4And then having a degree as well, yeah, well it's weird because I feel like the sort of post-industrial revolution system of schooling is to like, plug you into like an existing utilitarian. You know, structure like system of life, right, and like the art world or anything that is, has its like value dictated by some sort of subjectivity. Um, I think we don't really have a clear-cut system of how, of how to plug that in right. It's like if you go to school for software engineering, like when you graduate you can get a job in software engineering. If you go to school to be a doctor, when you graduate you can get it. It's a certification that you have a set of knowledge.
Speaker 4And something like art school. We don't correlate the degree with the certification of knowledge. It's like a more um subjective, uh, cultural value that we sort of correlate more with once you already have success, or right, oh, they're, they're, they've sold out, you know.
Speaker 2Oh, they've got a show at the whitney. They went to parsons, blah blah blah, and then it's just like an advertisement for Parsons and so more kids go and it's like, oh, you should come and get a degree here, because we have artists that have shown at the MoMA. Same with writing right.
Speaker 4Yeah, exactly argument?
Speaker 3yeah, exactly, exactly, you know, and it's that I've read so many books on on mfa versus non-mfa writers. You know, and it's such an ongoing argument yeah, you know same thing right like a street artist versus a trained artist, right and and yeah, and it's perceptive valuation, like it's not actually I'm a coder.
Speaker 2I either know how to code or I don't. Yeah, or I'm a really creative coder and I come up with new things that change the paradigm. But the structure's there, yeah, and you're operating within the box yeah and you can shift the box and the box can get bigger. But with creative arts, performance arts, with music, like you can be a composer and like with anything that doesn't have like a utilitarian function, absolutely capitalism, I think so do you think?
Speaker 3is it when you look back, are you happy that you did that and got the degree, or do you wish that you hadn't? Or how do you feel?
Speaker 4I don't know, I guess I I don't really look back, I don't know.
Speaker 3I mean, yeah, I mean that makes sense too, is like why it's done right? I don't know.
Speaker 4I mean that makes sense too, is like why it's done right. Yeah, you've done it. I mean it's beautiful. Obviously, there are plenty of amazing things that I could trace back to that experience as well. I have, you know, when I started my like artist-run space in the Lower East Side in 2012,. In the Lower East Side in 2012, I was able to go to people who had done that before. That I knew from being my professor. So, like Martha Wilson, who did Franklin Furnace, I was able to meet with her and get advice and get a lot of help on starting my own project. And Nicholas Gaunini, another artist who was really helpful to me starting my projects. And there's other like.
Speaker 2So connections and network.
Speaker 2Yeah, and building connections and community and I think that same thing. You know, I went to NYU and the most I got, or the bigger thing that I got from that was one doors would open for me because I said I'm with NYU or I work and I also worked there, um, but also just connections and getting to know the whole city, like going to consortiums with Columbia, the new school and all of these things and going to talks, and like it was just building my foundation in New York and pre restaurant, I was going to keep an academia. I thought I was going to do both.
Speaker 2I was going to open the restaurant and I was going to go get a doctorate and then quickly decided that was not possible, but yeah, definitely. So how did you get into film then?
Speaker 4I know you do some experimental performative stuff. Well, I think I still approach film from a painter perspective. It's like a sequence of images that are contextualized by each other, which is why I work more in film, 16mm stuff than video, which is like a collection of data in my mind.
Speaker 2Actually, can you explain that? I guess I don't totally.
Art, Film, and Social Commentary
Speaker 4So like physically a film strip is, like you can see it, it's like a strip of a sequence of images, so it's like it's image building in the same way in my mind, in the same way as a painting, okay, whereas like a video is a bunch of like code, that sort of like archives up into being translated into images, okay.
Speaker 2I haven't thought about. I mean like I'm, I mean it makes sense.
Speaker 3I just they're they're not, I do both, but yeah, I mean it just kind of like, reminds me of like analog versus digital right you know like same sort of thing,
Speaker 5with music. Yeah, yeah, just recording versus, you know complicated but, but the purist.
Speaker 4You're a purist when it comes to film a little bit yeah, I wouldn't say that, I just I think that it's not as like disconnected from painting as it may seem, is like I guess what I'm saying okay, but um, I first started doing it because I was having this sort of like existential, like political anarchist crisis of of like not wanting to add more like commodified objects into the world, and I thought film would be a more like dynamic way of working with representation and still practicing image making, but in a way that wasn't adding objects to the market, which I have since kind of gone back on that thinking, but that's why.
Speaker 4I originally started by palace march when it comes out yeah, well, actually, after I was, like, started making film a few years before um, occupy Wall Street happened, and it was through being in meetings around that that sort of like shifted my thinking back to how crucial and important image making and design and representation and you know, static images like, how important they are to every aspect of life, but also political messaging Of like creating iconography, like, I think, of the eagle, the huelga, from the boycott, the Delano boycott, so like that image is representative of, like union workers, of farm workers, of all of this and it's so iconic.
Speaker 2And going back to like Mexican lith uh, lithography there was so many illiterate people that they would create these images gorgeous cartoon, kind of like graphics to communicate and to unify people in the struggle for revolution. And yeah, that was the power of the image and when people saw themselves represented. Just oh, that's me in the field. And then we're fighting against the big board.
Speaker 4Right, yeah, so yeah. And if it has to be circulated through physical interventions, then so be it. Right, so yeah. I kind of got disillusioned during talking to people during the Occupy Wall Street era.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, because you came in what 2008? So it was just before. Because Occupy was, I came in 2011.
Speaker 4And that was right around when it was happening, approaches were really like conceptually outdated and like not fun and like I think fun is one of the most underrated subversive tools, right, and yeah, so that kind of rearranged my thinking about going back to painting and just other modes of art that you know maybe are participating in a market, but that doesn't necessarily have to be.
Speaker 3Like almost like, politically driven but yet also can be enjoyed as art right.
Speaker 4Like almost like a situationist movement sort of scenario, or yeah, well, that's, that's the. That's sort of like where I was going with with film. Yeah um.
Speaker 4I love that, uh, but I guess, uh, it just going through that and the sort of like inner bickering and arguments that I saw just kind of like expanded my view of how like art in general, because, going back to what we were saying earlier, that it isn't a that, that it is one of the only things in our society that kind of functions, in our capitalist society, that functions as like a non-utilitarian social function.
Speaker 4I think because of that, it has this like potential to be to provide like social ruptures and a power yeah, and I and I think and also you know, just like basic semiotics, like you can infuse arguments, ideas, whatever into a meaning. It's meaning making basically into images and objects and experiences. And so I just kind of expanded how I was thinking into all like art mediums, but that is originally how I like started focusing on film.
Speaker 2Right. And then that seems like you started that artist space like shortly, like following the Occupy and following this kind of like shift and revelation.
Speaker 4It was like right before.
Speaker 2Oh okay, and what was so?
Speaker 4it was like an artist collective or it was an artist run space, it was a. I mean, we kind of envision it as a, as an art piece so, but it kind of functioned like a gallery, like, uh, we did one exhibition per month and then we would have between two and four related events, so we'd have performances and talks.
Speaker 2I want to do that.
Speaker 4It was so fun how long did that go, for it was a year-long wow that's amazing and, um yeah, we kind of like set a deadline on it, but sometimes I do wish we would have like kept it going right, that's my dream, I mean we've talked about that, but I would just love to have, like some sort of well, we talk about my, my compound in mexico, exactly I have my friend who's a musician and producer.
Speaker 2He's got the producing studio there that keeps us afloat with the money, because everyone wants to come. It's still cheaper for them to do it in Mexico, but yeah they can keep us afloat. We do a writer's residency workshop. That's so cool. My girl does print and art making things, we do food and my skull stuff. Yeah, that would be great.
Speaker 5So, what are you?
Speaker 3working on right now.
Speaker 4So right now I am doing a new body of paintings, I'm doing some film stuff, and then I am working on my newsletter Gut Flora, gut Flora, gut Flora.
Speaker 3I love it.
Speaker 4It's, you know, the microbiome in your gut.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 1Your other brain.
Speaker 4Yeah, it's like your brain, but guttural embodied yeah.
Speaker 2I love it. Um, and what does that?
Speaker 4do. So it, yeah, so it's. It's you know, I think the the format of it is going to keep shifting as I get more feedback, cause it's, you know, I think the format of it is going to keep shifting as I get more feedback because it's really new, but right now it's pretty much just things that I love that are available for you to love also, so it's watch lists, books that I'm reading, like observation, that I'm reading like observation. So each issue is like three disparate, seemingly disparate cultural references that I like contextualize, together with the hopes of having like a new and fun, like way of seeing or way of looking at them.
Speaker 4So, like a curated Like. The first issue is about muppets, pasolini and caravaggio and um, so it has like a little bit of diaristic type of writing of my take on the three of them contextualized by each other, and then, um, some, uh, I always include like a little bit of work from the past couple weeks, so like sketchbook pages or video or um, some imagery, and then uh, and then, yeah, suggested you know watch lists, re-watch lists whatever cool um, so is this like a sub?
Speaker 4stack situation or it is similar, but it's hosted on something called beehive. Okay, but yeah, it's an email thing cool, we'll make sure to put the.
Speaker 3Yeah, we'll get all the links in the notes, yeah I would love, but I would honestly I would love for like a physical zine to come back. Is that a thing that kids do these days? I mean because I remember. Like don't you guys remember vice, when it was just the? Free little mac yeah, or like aaron, comet bus was a huge.
Speaker 4I know I was talking to someone yesterday on me who was the zine um curator at at abc no rio oh, wow and um, and we were talking about the same thing. But I, I, I think there are I mean the new york art book fair, the la book fair are still like alive and well, so I'm sure there must be people doing that like yeah shift to phone culture and to portability is I mean that's?
Speaker 2everything you can get out on phone. People don't want. Want hands free.
Speaker 2You know everything is like free yourself, but you're actually tethered to an object and a device. Well, um, but having things that you can read on the train and carry with you. You can have that like limited attention span and like having the digital format versus like, I went to. What was it? I went to an art show last week and it was really interesting. It was contemporary art and the themes that popped out at me was like holy shit. All of them, a lot of them, involved selfies, like paintings of people taking photos of yourself.
Speaker 5Yeah, I mean, that's our society right now.
Speaker 2And phones. Cell phones were included in a lot of different multimedia, different approaches, but cell phones were an icon that appeared. And then the other one. I was like, oh, these are like COVID baby paintings, because it was like people just sitting alone.
Speaker 3Where were you? What was the art?
Speaker 2The art fair was the Future Fair. It was held in Chelsea and this is like maybe the fourth year, third, fourth year that it's been going on. And, yeah, and it was a lot of images of people alone. Do you remember the artist's name? Multiple like of all of the artists this is what I'm saying like this theme of like.
Speaker 3I mean none of that's a film.
Speaker 2Yeah, of just like being being isolated, like laying alone on your bed looking at your phone, smoking a cigarette, taking a selfie of your butt. But like all of these like things, but just having this, yeah, that we have this shift and we're, like old enough to have experienced the analog yeah, I think that's exactly as we were at all of us at that age, where we remember zines and walking down the street without a phone where you had to wait and you had to answer any scenes.
Speaker 4Well, that's one of the reasons that I like decided to to do this is, um, to hopefully inspire people to like be more intentional with their cultural consumption, because I am surprised of uh, for example, like how many young like queer punk kids have never seen Paris is Burning, or whatever right and I feel like there's.
Speaker 4There's such infinite, unlimited access to everything all the time that you don't have to um have any like process of discovery that builds up your identity you know what I mean which is like how we sort of grew up yeah, it's like it was a huge part of your, of your construction of self, to go out and like find you'd go to cool places what people were wearing go to places to hear
Speaker 2what the music was it wasn't googling, shit.
Speaker 3Yeah, there's no, there's a bookstore in minneapolis. Arise books I'll never forget, like the super crazy anarchist place where we all hung out. You know buy books like steal this book and aaron comet bus was everywhere.
Speaker 3You know his print outs and or his zines and and just you could make a book. You could make your own little zine and your own little book and bring it in there and they would sell it for like a dollar. I mean, how cool is that? Yeah, I feel like that's lost. We get a little bit of it here at the reading series, where people will bring in their poetry books they clearly have made themselves and I love that.
Speaker 2I think it's beautiful people. One of my favorite, like new poets, um carlos forget his last name. It was amazing but he handed me his little pamphlet was domino sugar and I was like I'm in love with your words. I love with your mind and invited him and then turns out this connection of community and building all of this.
Speaker 4It's, it's, yeah, like the old school stuff, like passing notes man like fuck a text I don't think it's necessarily like better or worse right but I think, um, I think, just having an intentionality about it, like not leaving it up to the algorithm to like decide what is in front of you?
Speaker 2what you're consuming.
Speaker 4What ideas you're like meditating?
Speaker 2on, because it's to a point where we're not even conscious of that, that we think things are accidental or that it's circumstantial. But no, it's actually. We've been targeted and analyzed.
Speaker 3Yeah, we're force-feeding information to us where we're not allowed to choose what we decide to research anymore, or curating it for you. That's a great way of saying it.
Clown's Greek Stabbing Survival Story
Speaker 2As opposed to old old school salons where people would come gather together like this is where I was.
Speaker 3This is what I found and sharing yeah, doing these kind of like yeah, so where can we find your zine when it's ready? Newsletter newsletter newsletter. I'm sorry, it's because I've been saying zine this whole time.
Speaker 4I know If you you can find it on my Instagram, which is leighamaso.
Speaker 5We'll put it all in the notes. We'll put it in the notes, I mean I was just wondering, just in theory.
Speaker 4Yeah, I don't have the URL right now.
Speaker 3Okay gotcha Cool cool.
Speaker 4I'm trying to make it not time-based.
Speaker 2Oh yeah that's even better. Let it happen when it happens, because you said, this will come out later. So I'm like, yeah, it's, it's totally happening, yes, um so shifting gears a little.
Speaker 4Um, I've heard about a story you might have about a travel situation in Greece. Yeah, not to shit talk Greece. I don't even know what this is. No, I love Greece. Okay, yeah, so right at the end of school, I um I got an, I had an art show in London and I had never left the United States before.
Speaker 4So, um, I knew at the time I had been like working as a clown and segue um, and mark that one yeah uh, I, I, for I got my first clown job in San Francisco and then I was like doing it for part-time work in New York. Um, just like face painting, working kids, birthday parties, whatever, nothing. You dressed as a clown. You dressed as a clown. Awesome, I dressed as a clown.
Speaker 2I did balloon animals. I had a red nose.
Speaker 4My name was Lolly, actually my boss, my first clown boss. His real name was Lol L-O-L.
Speaker 3That is hilarious, so good.
Speaker 4But anyways, I was working as a clown at the time and somebody that I knew had like a connection with the circus in Berlin. So my, my plan was, like I told the gallery just buy me a one way ticket and I'm going to like travel around and then stay in Berlin for a while and make some money. So I go, I'm like traveling around. Wait, do you speak German?
Speaker 2No, so you had a mime silent clown.
Speaker 4yeah, exactly yeah, but when I got there I made so much money. It's so fast.
Speaker 3I was a clown. Yeah, oh my god.
Speaker 4I was there for like four weeks and it was I made. You had a clown connection. I did have a connection, but most of the money I made was just like on the street performing, oh shit, like doing balloon animals mostly, but I also did face painting.
Speaker 2Anyways, I Do you have photos of this time? I do, yeah.
Speaker 4But I I made so much money that I was like I'm just going to keep traveling, that I was like I'm just going to keep traveling. So there was like a couple of somebody that I knew at the circus had these other people they knew that were driving to Poland, so I hitchhiked with them, but they didn't speak any English. It was like a one-armed man and then a little person I don't know if that's the right word.
Speaker 2I think we call them little people, I don't know. Okay, the most peaceful respectful version of a smaller person.
Speaker 3How old are you now when this is happening, by the way? Oh?
Speaker 4God, this is 2011. So I don't know.
Speaker 320, 22, 23, something like that. 23.
Speaker 2Okay, all right, so you're in the car so, so I I just so I these are non-circus people or they're connected from they're friends of somebody from that I knew.
Speaker 4And then, um, like, I knew this one person who spoke english, so they hooked me up with these people. It was a one-armed man and a little person who had modded his car out. He soldered the pedal. It was so cool. They didn't speak any English, but they knew every word to every special song. I walked up and they're just like hey, we're Rude Boys.
Speaker 3I was like, oh, cool and then so they drove me to Warsaw, whatever.
Speaker 4I'm traveling. I've been traveling by cool, okay, and then so they drove me to Warsaw. Whatever I keep, I'm traveling. I've been like traveling by myself for like four months and then I get to Greece. I'm in Athens and I'm walking down the street it's like two in the afternoon and this other guy is walking down the same street the other way and as we cross he leans over, stabs me in the chest, in the chest, and then like over my heart, and then just like keeps walking and he didn't say anything, didn't take anything, nothing. So I thought he had just tried to like grab my boob. So I turned around and I was like what the fuck? And then I saw he was holding a knife. So I like looked down and I'm bleeding and I was like did I just get stabbed? So I see a hotel and I'm like, oh, they'll speak English were you dressed as a clown at the time?
Speaker 3no, no, no, okay, okay. I was like this is getting crazy that that was just backstory that's just how I got there.
Speaker 2Clownophobia there's, there's a right.
Speaker 4No, I was just regular okay, regularly dressed um so now you, you realize you're bleeding yeah. So I see a hotel and I was like, oh, they'll speak English. So I run into this hotel and I'm like I just got stabbed. And this woman and I was like don't call an ambulance, I don't have any money, and they're like it's socialized.
Speaker 4I was like sick call an ambulance and um, so, yeah, they, I get an ambulance. Um, I go to the hospital and it's just like crazy. Like there there's one room where all the patients are in. There's no waiting room, so the hallway is just like lined with people waiting for their loved ones. And then there's another room that has all the equipment and stuff, so they're wheeling me like topless back through this like hallway tunnel of people.
Speaker 4And because I got stabbed in the chest and then, and then you know, I'm thinking I'm just gonna like get stitched up and leave. But they admitted me and then, um, eventually the police come up to my room and they were like hey, you know, we thought you didn't have any family here. And I was like I don't. And and they said, oh, this girl called us and said she's your cousin. And I was like what? Like no idea who it could be. So what had happened was the hospital. I guess the embassy had found my grandmother and called her. And then she called my mom. My mom wrote on Facebook does anyone know anyone in Greece Like my daughter's in the hospital alone? This girl I had gone to school with, which maybe this makes it worth it, but this girl I had gone to school with oh. Maybe this makes it worth it, but this girl I had gone to school with, oh, what year your formal education?
Speaker 4Yeah, this girl that I had gone to school with she wrote to this other girl who we went to school with, who was Greek, who I did not get along with because she came from this like uber wealthy family career student, but like whatever. She came from this uber-wealthy family, career student, but whatever. Now we're best friends. So that girl had called every police station in Athens until she found someone who knew who I was, lied and said she was my cousin to get information, and then made the police come back to the hospital and bring me the phone.
Speaker 4Oh, my God, and so I get on the phone and it's her oh my God. And she's like okay, my parents will be there in half an hour. Her parents went and like picked up my luggage from where I was staying. They like translated everything, like got me a sleeping pill. I woke up in the morning and her dad was sitting there with like four cups of coffee and he was like oh, I didn't know how you take your coffee, so I just got one of each. Oh my god, that's so cute.
Speaker 4Oh, and then I had this insane um surgeon who, um, it was like being in a Werner Herzog movie, like he had all of these like theories about why these people, what they love, they want to destroy, and and like it was he had kill what you love, yeah he had there's a lot of stories about him, but the best is that when. So he had a counting crow song as his ringtone and what?
Speaker 2what, mr jones?
Speaker 4and then he was like stitching me up and I'm like, oh, let me get my camera. He's like no, and then so we're. You know, it's like silence for a couple hours he's stitching me up and then he goes. I have made a very bad mistake your surgeon said that yeah, and I was like what? And I looked down, he's like oh no, not with your breasts.
Speaker 4By choosing this song as my ringtone because his like his phone kept ringing that is insane yeah, and then story is crazy they were like if you had smaller tits you'd be dead, because the knife went straight up my heart, but it just went through like boob fat yeah wow and when I, when I got home, um, my friends threw a party and they were chanting god bless that breast, really, yeah, but I so, uh, my greek friend I don't know if I should say her name or not, but, um, love, love you, if you're listening yeah um.
Speaker 4But her family was like, no, no, like you have to come. You have to come, stay with us, so I go to recover at their Grecian mansion. And they felt so bad that this happened to me in their country. It was like we were overlooking the Acropolis, having dinner at night, like it was just amazing, it was the best time ever. And then she had two, um, 13 year old twin sisters. I had a great time with them and, you know, a week later they were like oh, you still can't fly. You might have blood or air leaking into your thoracic cavity. Why don't you come to our island home on Mykonos? And I was like, oh, okay, shut up, I want to see the movie.
Speaker 3I mean, like the visuals writers, wet you're right on the story it was so fun, yeah, um yeah, I had.
Speaker 4I ended up having an amazing time in greece never ate better.
Speaker 3That's so wild right oh my god, I've got like goosebumps I'm sweating I started to cry, you just told me that like a couple weeks ago, and I'm like wait, what the fuck are you talking about? I mean, the story just gets better and better.
Speaker 4Every time you tell it. I'm leaving out a lot of little details.
Speaker 2You got to write that down, yeah.
Speaker 4I made like a little short film about it.
Speaker 3Oh, did you?
Speaker 4You should, yeah, but it's not very narrative, so maybe I should re-approach that.
Speaker 3I think I will help in any way that you need. We'll do an audience poll An audience poll and they're like yes, please give that to us, we will, we'll pay money. Yeah, exactly, um, all right, well, we're on to. We've got time for one question, one question, question roulette, question roulette. And then we'll go into um, you know, stuff, stuff, oh, they're stuck, oh, oh well.
Speaker 2Apropos, if you could only have one medium, which one would you choose? Art, film, literature, music, oh, that's pretty that's weird how these questions work like that I know.
Speaker 5Oh my god that's.
Speaker 3I feel like fuck that question.
Speaker 4I mean, well, I think it's very appropriate for Leah because she kind of dabbles in everything and it is a very difficult question well, I feel like this question is sort of the like your life question. Yeah, it's kind of the conceptual underpinning of my daily struggle, because I really have a difficult time choosing what to put all my focus into. Um, I mean, I guess I would just say art, because that seems the most all-encompassing yeah, it does kind of I know I would want to say literature, but art is kind of all-encompassing, isn't it?
Speaker 3yeah, like that's question is kind of strange no, I would.
Speaker 4I want to see you to do more music stuff.
Speaker 3Oh man, I I do miss playing in bands a lot, but it's been a long time, now that you have all this recording gear. Yeah, that is true she can just like making beats and like I do miss you know, I played in bands for years and years and I I loved it, but but I don't know if I'm a solo artist I need to like thrive off of people.
Speaker 2You know what I mean.
Speaker 3You loved the band yeah, I love the band aspect.
Speaker 4It was like group dynamic seven partners could you ever like make your own stuff and then send it out to collaborate with people? For sure, I could definitely do that.
Speaker 3Yeah, I did the last project I ever worked on was this project called the bleachers, and my boyfriend had a studio in the apartment. He also well, this is funny he um in our apartment. He made this record called wugazi, where it was fugazi and wu-tang mixed together. Oh it was crazy.
Speaker 3I mean the stories of a how they made it but b it hit for. I mean the stories of A how they made it but B it hit Forbes most number one most downloaded of the year. If they would have made one penny off of every download, they would have been millionaires. But Wu-Tang and Fugazi reached out and said we love the record, we think it's great, can't make any money off of it, like literally one penny off a download. And they would have been like you know, it's just crazy. But um, I'm going off.
Speaker 4You know, what's interesting is that doing a podcast is kind of a combination of like your writing and then you're like Sonic.
Speaker 5Yeah.
Speaker 3That is a good point. I love you, leah, so supportive.
Speaker 2Yeah, what would yours be? Yeah, I would say I think art. Like you know, yes, I create writing, but I love drawing and I love making shit, and I think I try and approach everything I do with kind of an artistic perspective for the love of the process, not necessarily the product, but also creating something that is shared and experienced by others, that is from me but lives beyond me. Yeah, like that whole process is very exciting and I've spent most of my life also, like at least the last you know 15 years working with other artists of different types, promoting their work, showcasing, finding ways to network, to find ways for them to subsist off of their creative endeavors, and I think the reading series and the podcast is another layer of me doing that.
Creative Process and Personal Reflection
Speaker 2And then it's also an art for me. I produce the reading series and I produce this. Don't score me on the sound techniques of the previous ones because I was still learning.
Speaker 2But thinking about sound and thinking about imagery, like even when I curate Instagram posts, I think about the songs I go through, I think the right images for like things and like creating stories, and I never thought of myself, of working in the digital sphere but I accidentally am because I always felt very nervous about it because I've not been trained in that and I've learned as I've gone and I like the process of learning, yeah, and then I like the process of creating, and if I can make things that also other people connect to and get excited about, then it's all worth it.
Speaker 5Art art, art art art, art, art, art, art, art, art, art, art, art, art, art, art art. Absolutely I agree.
Speaker 4Especially as, like you said, the more of our peers that are passing away. Even when you go to a museum and you are engaging with an artwork that means something to you the person who made it. You know, my friend, jarrett Ernest was talking about this recently at this book launch event, but, um, the person who made it is very well, probably is um dead, but you get to sort of like transport through time and space to be in this moment with them and it.
Speaker 4Like you know, the artwork is them and it isn't them, but it's it's. So the more uh people who I love, who pass away, um, the more I am like realizing how crucial it is to be making this shit and sharing shit and supporting each other and finding ways to to share and be supportive and to yeah, just I agree, you know, and I I think that that's a huge thing of of reed and I in this podcast too.
Speaker 2It's not just artists, but it's it's humans, and it's all of us sharing and whatever our giving to the world is whether it's, you know, a concept or a product or just who we are, and sharing and making the world smaller and like sharing our intimate bits and to feel less isolated, and I think that is artistic process, is finding connection.
Speaker 3I'm just laughing. You're so chatty today Did you have a lot of coffee? No, I slept.
Speaker 2I actually slept, I've been running on empty for like yeah new job, the podcast coming out and editing and producing and all of this stuff, like I'm.
Speaker 3So I think it's just going, girl, she's going for it all right. So all right, we're gonna go to the last segment because we're running out of time. All right, boo. Um I, I was trying to think and think, so I think I'm gonna do film, okay, okay, we're gonna do so, fuck, kill b.
Speaker 2Who would you fuck? Who would you kill? Who would you be? Not mary, who would you be?
Speaker 3yes, exactly. All right, we're gonna do because I've been watching all the screens we got to do west craven. Okay, right, okay, and then I'm gonna do David Fincher.
Speaker 2I don't know, david Fincher seven. Oh okay, what else has he?
Speaker 3done the game social network. Oh, he's amazing. He started out as a music director and then makes incredible films right. Zodiac. What else has he done? I mean a bunch and we're gonna do Tim Burton. So I know mine already. I'm gonna kill Tim Burton cause fuck that guy kinda, although I do love some of his movies. But I don't know, he just seems like he's not my style, the Willy Wonka what was my other movie?
Speaker 3we can't talk about willie wonka oh, I'll probably have sex with wes craven and I'll be david fincher, because I think fincher is just fantastic and he uses 90 channels all the time and I love trent resner, so it's just even closer. That's my, there's mine. Boom done mic, drop anybody all right, I'm gonna kill tim burton.
Speaker 4Yeah, I knew it, I'm going to be west craven and fuck david fincher love it okay.
Speaker 2Well, they keep changing my mind because originally I was like I wanted to be tim burton, not for all of his things and then we're gonna kill you and then, I wouldn't fuck him. Um, yeah, or like be wes craven, but I feel like I would give myself nightmares if I was wes craven, so I'd have to fuck him. Okay, um, because I I already have enough anxiety and I overthink things. So if I already had like a horror focus thing, no, then I probably I'm gonna be tim. Okay, there's nothing wrong with that?
Speaker 4He's made some great movies yeah he's made some I mean Coraline too, speaking of overthinking wait but he didn't do Coraline?
Speaker 3Coraline, he did not do. He did not do Coraline. No, leah taught me this.
Speaker 1Leah and Nightmare Before Christmas. He did not do Nightmare Before.
Speaker 3Christmas he did not do Nightmare Before.
Speaker 4Christmas, so he did do it, but he didn't direct.
Speaker 5It's like oh, it was just his production.
Speaker 4It's his concept. He made the concept, but he was off making Batman when they were making Nightmare Before Christmas, so I didn't have any time. The guy who did Coraline directed, isn't it the same?
Speaker 3guy yeah, I think it's the same guy Coraline and Nightmare Before Christmas. Right, we should call him Okay, phone a friend.
Speaker 2Okay, I'm going to have to Google this before I give a final answer.
Speaker 4Coraline, but he directed Nightmare Before Christmas. The Coraline director yeah, the Coraline director.
Speaker 2Neil Gaiman created.
Speaker 4Coraline Neil Gaiman's a writer.
Speaker 3He's a writer. Yeah, he did it yes. And then I love Neil Gaiman too, me too, oh.
Speaker 2I love he just needs to like read a cereal box to me and I'm just like.
Speaker 3That's how I feel about Dave Sedaris too, If he just writes to me all day long. Oh yeah, I's the director, Okay.
Speaker 2All right, then I'm going to Okay, I'm going to kill it too. But you know what, if you threw Helena Bonham Carter on that list.
Speaker 4I would be her and she was Mary Zitemberg.
Speaker 3I know and she's Are they not married anymore? Huh, I don't think so. Oh no, it wasn't Lisa Marie, something like that. He left her for Helena Bonham Carter. I need a, I need a. Well, on that note, we're going to peace out.
Speaker 2Okay, we're just going to confirm what are we confirming, helena, that you're going to kill Tim Burton. Personal life.
Speaker 3You have to be careful. She's going to be Tim Burton. Oh yeah, you're going to be Tim Burton. No, I'm going to kill him now. No, you're killing him. Well, because I thought.
Speaker 2Nightmare Before Christmas. I love that. I mean it was his idea.
Speaker 3It's still his idea. Yeah, I mean he created the concept.
Speaker 4It was something he came up with while he was in art school.
Speaker 3Yeah, he was working at Disney, right, walt Disney, oh he pitched it to Disney and they were like no, no yeah, I think that's the story. Yeah, you could be right.
Speaker 4I love urban legends anyway, so there's a great that show that's like the Things that Made Us.
Speaker 3Oh yeah, I love that there's a great episode about Nightmare Before. Christmas. Ooh, I'm going to watch it. That's a great show.
Speaker 2Since 2018, Helena has been in a relationship with art historian.
Speaker 4Yeah, 2018,. Helena has been in a relationship with art historian.
Speaker 2Yeah, she's fucking cool, she's so great, she's such a weirdo. All right.
Speaker 3On that note, peace and out.
Speaker 2Thank you, guys. That wasn't so terrible, was it?
Speaker 4No, it was really fun, but I hope that I don't sound like shit. No baby girl we love you.
Speaker 2It's all great we're peace and out Peace, out Happy Sunday sound like shit. No, baby girl, we love you. It's all great we're peacing out peace, out happy sunday yeah, mother's day, can I say that sure?
Speaker 5all right, I guess happy mother's day to all the mothers when this comes out no, it's not, that's okay though, okay, bye, love you.
