Dr. Lisa Gives a Sh*t

I was totally jolted out of my art world cynicism by spending an hour with these two masters, one accomplished and one on his way. Don Porcella is a well-known artist with amazing, original work and a loooong resume of shows, fairs and collectors. Christian Williams, a young talent, seemingly plucked out of Buffalo, NY—comes to NYC and has the great good fortune of being paired with Don through Wild Geese Gallery. They share a sense of humor and other aesthetics in their work, but what comes through is the magic of a shared passion for creativity which produces a bond that transcends all of the other stuff. Though Don and Christian live hundreds of miles apart, I think these guys will be in touch for many, many years to come. Don Pocella Bio: Born and raised in Modesto, California, Don Porcella’s artwork has been exhibited at galleries and museums around the world including the United States, China, Greece, Germany, France, Denmark, Colombia and Mexico. Porcella’s art has been published in the New York Times, NY Arts, Fiber Arts Magazine, Chelsea Now, San Francisco Magazine and the Village Voice. He has a BA in Psychology from the University of California at San Diego, a BFA from California College of Arts and Crafts and an MFA from Hunter College in New York. Porcella’s work is included in public and private collections across the United States and Europe. Porcella has received grants from the Council on the Arts and Humanities for Staten Island, the Brooklyn Arts Council, an EAF Fellowship from Socrates Sculpture Park, the 2012 West Collects Prize, an artist residency at the Museum of Arts and Design, and a 2014 Swatch Art Residency in Shanghai. In 2015 Porcella collaborated with an artist from Iran and the work was exhibited at the Venice Biennial. In 2016, Porcella created 4 installations for the Hermes Maison in Shanghai, China that was published in over 100 television, online and print media in the US and China. In 2018, Porcella created 7 installations for the Hermes boutique in Manhattan, NY which was featured in Architectural Digest, NY Magazine and Yahoo. Christian Williams Bio: (Kiffy the pit) is an artist from Buffalo, NY working primarily in digital art, pen and ink, and currently adding painting to his arsenal. His style is heavily inspired by cartoons with his own little splash of chaos. His art captures the blissful & free nature of childish creativity a lawless smash up of the first thing that comes to his mind.  Wild Geese Gallery: Wild Geese Gallery is a multi-media collaborative space created by artist Pearce Green during the pandemic with the backing of Wild Geese Productions, which became a gathering place for young artists making new work. The gallery invites renowned artists to collaborate, exchange ideas, share experiences and, with the enthusiasm of our supportive community, help grow the next generation of artists. 473 Amsterdam Ave. (Between 82+83 St.). More about Don's work HERE. Follow Don on Instagram HERE. Follow Kiffy on Instagram HERE.

Jen Dalton did a great show this summer at Mother-In-Laws, a wonderful, experimental art space in Germantown, run by  Jessica Hargreaves, Kathleen Vance and Daniel Aycock Here's a quote from the press release of Jen's exhibition that will highlight the genesis in topics we covered in this emotionally transparent session: There is so much to apologize for. And almost everyone does a terrible job of it, when they try at all. No amount of money seems to smooth the process from mistakes and bad behavior to self-awareness and reckoning. Famous people are terrible role models in this regard, as so in so many others; their vague, slow-to-emerge statements are designed to imply the bare minimum of contrition and help their careers survive another day. Each text is a shrewdly-honed gem that its crafters hope will dissipate a controversy or deflect attention; taken all together they expose the values of those in power and our culture at large. We’re living through a boom-time for disingenuousness, gaslighting and DARVO*, wholly of a piece with the faux authenticity seen elsewhere in our culture. Mistakes Were Made connects some of these dots. More about this exhibition and photos HERE: https://www.frontroomles.com/motherinlawsarchive   Also—there were so many great artists that Jen curated into the show: Featuring: Chloë Bass, Celeste Fichter, Ghost of a Dream, Susan Hamburger, Lisa Levy, Alyssa McClenaghan, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, Sal Muñoz, Andrew Ohanesian, William Powhida, Marshall Reese and Nora Ligorano, Michelle Vaughan, Senon Williams. 

Had a great chat with Liam-he was a well known standup and hosted an underground, well-respected comedy show in NYC for many years - Tell Your Friends, which he made into a movie directed by Victor Varnado. Thanks to Liam, I saw so many fabulous comics perform in an intimate setting such John Oliver, Kumail Nanjiani, Aziz Ansari, Janeane Garafalo, and so many more. In 2015, Liam decided to move to LA. Now at age 46, after receiving several awards for screenwriting he’s been accepted into which is a very prestigious film program at University of Southern California where he begins the end of this month! There’s a lot to Liam behind these details here and getting sober along the way is one part of it. BIOGRAPHY Liam McEneaney is a 2019 Academy Nicholl quarterfinalist. Two of his screenplays placed in the 2020 Final Draft Big Break Contest, and are both semifinalists in the 2021 Atlanta Film Festival. Most recently, he was a contributing writer for GARY BUSEY: PET JUDGE. Touted as one of the "100 Best Comedians of All Time" by GQ Spain, his concert film, 'Tell Your Friends!', had its world premiere at the 2011 SXSW Film Festival. Liam has made many TV appearances, including on Showtime, Comedy Central, Vh1, and IFC, as well as on podcasts like WTF with Marc Maron and radio shows like The Howard Stern Wrap Up Show. His writing credits include shows on Comedy Central, and contributing to Weekend Update and Hannibal Buress' set on The Comedy Central Roast of Justin Bieber. His byline has appeared in Maxim, and many obscure magazines. He is trained at Upright Citizens Brigade in LA for sketch writing and improv. Tell Your Friends! The Concert Film! (SXSW Film Festival)

Traditionally we see the female body as the focus of sexuality, which also make an important innovative with an important an original message. Alexandra is tired of art and sex being so focused on women's bodies. Putting the sole focus on women's bodies can present them in a passive way. Alexandra's work alerts us to a new way of depicting women in art. In her work, women enjoy sex actively. It makes me wonder why we don't see more of it. Rubenstein creates work from the point of view of women's pleasure. She paints famous sexy men, performing cunninglingus on women, from the pov of the woman who is being pleasured. In another series, "Thirsty," men's genitals are replaced with wall-mount bottle openers. And she make lots of beautiful paintings of penises. There is humor in her work which makes it smart, fun to look at and discuss It was great to hear her experiences and thought process on how she began to do this work. One important life event for her was that her family moved to the U.S. from Russia when she was 9. The whole family had to start their life over from scratch. Being from Russia, having to learn English, not fitting in as a 9 year old is a lot for any child to manage. Alexandra is very smart, thoughtful, open and articulate in bringings us into understanding her experiences that inspired her work. A great example of a strong woman This episode was very impactful for me. @therubinstein https://www.alexandrarubinstein.com/

Jon Reid is writing a book. Is Jon’s experience fronting a band that he gave up going to affect the way he handles the publishing world? Will he be disappointed again? How is he going to prepare himself to handle the commercial world of publishing where editors and publishers fuck with writer’s work? These are some of the paths we go down figuring out how Jon is going to get the best results for his hard work of writing a personal and powerful memoir/novel. Here's a previous session I did with Jon from 2021 where we talk more in depth about his background growing up and his escapades as a performing musician. https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/RADIO5057730694.mp3?updated=1638205945 Check out Jon's extremely popular radio show: Race to the Bottom

I really like Jake's work—he's the real deal—no bullshit. He was on the show in 2015 and it was great to catch up and talk about how is career has progressed. He just got back from touring with a cool band Eve 6. Also we had a very thought-provoking talk about polyamory which was great because like I said—it was real. Check out Jake's comedy. I am a fan and I am picky! More about Jake Flores—he has an interesting background: Flores was born in San Antonio, Texas, and grew up in Houston.[3] His father, a chemist, is Mexican-American; his mother, who is white, is originally from the Midwest.[3][4][5] He is descended from Juan José Arredondo, a Mexican anarchist who worked with Ricardo Flores Magón during the Mexican Revolution.[3][6] Stand-up comedy Flores began performing comedy in Austin, Texas, when he was 19, after dropping out of the University of Texas at Austin.[1][7][8][9][10] In 2007, he performed in the finals of NBC's Stand Up For Diversity contest.[11] He moved to Brooklyn, New York, at age 27 to further his comedy career.[8][12][13] Flores is politically leftist and anticapitalist.[5][6][14] His outspokenness has led to controversy. He received national attention when a series of Twitter jokes about Cinco de Mayo, cultural appropriation, and killing ICE agents led to an investigation by Homeland Security, including a visit by several agents to his apartment.[9][15] The incident was written about in publications including Reason and The New York Post,[16] and Flores was interviewed about it on several podcasts including Chapo Trap House.[4][5][11][14] He also discusses the incident on his album Bad Omen.[17] His comedy takes inspiration from the anarchic energy of punk music; Flores has also called himself a "big fan" of Lenny Bruce, explaining to one interviewer that "like him, I also had a run in with the state over comedy, and am a leftist."[18] Jake Kroeger of website The Comedy Bureau called Flores "hysterical and pointedly different from everyone else".[19] The Bushwick Daily called his comedy "low-key, but subversive".[9] He has performed across the U.S.,[1] and at festivals including Austin's Fun Fun Fun Fest,[20] SXSW,[21] The Fest in Gainesville, Florida,[21] Moontower Comedy Festival,[8] New Orleans' Hell Yes Fest,[22] the touring road show of Comedy Central's Roast Battle,[8][23] and at events for the anti-capitalist streaming service Means TV.[24][25] He has written for The New York Observer,[26] Cracked,[27] and the New York Times,[28] and has contributed to Vice magazine.[29]

I have been a huge fan of Portia Munson since I saw her work at the Bad Girls Show at the New Museum in 1994. In our session, she was an open book on so many topics which both surprised me and yet, made sense at the same time since her work is so honest. We talked in depth about her childhood, her dyslexia which likely help develop her focus to make visual art. She talked about growing up in a religious family, and how it affected her. We discussed her role as a young female artist attending Cooper Union and Skowhegan, before moving to the Catskills with her husband. Some great pre-gentrification, lower east side stories in there! She had an early job which including being a cab driver-weird, right? She has a great, secure take on being a mother-she has 2 children, a boy, now 24, and a girl who is 19. I could go on-but just listen for yourself! More about Portia's work: https://www.ppowgallery.com/artist/portia-munson/work www.portiamunson.com This video is a great studio visit with Portia in the Catskills: http://www.gorkysgranddaughter.com/2016/08/portia-munson-july-2016.html

I start this session by blurting out to my guest, ArtNet's National Art Critic, Ben Davis, that I have an art critic crush on him because I do! And I barely know him. Ben is one of the most insightful, honest, direct and hilarious art writers I have ever read. He really stands out to me in his art writing in that he is able to place art in a cultural, economic and social context in a very articulate, comprehendible way, while somehow uniquely incorporating a great sense of humor which makes his work a pleasure to read. Let's give ArtNet a BIG SHOUTOUT too for having Ben in his role there! I dig into whether Ben sees himself they way I see him, as a bit of a rebel in the art world, and turns out Ben had an unusual childhood which I think, gives him a certain objectivity on culture. Ben grew up on a sailboat! This somehow full-on blows my my mind and I have a lot of gee wiz type questions to get to the root of Ben’s perspective on the world from his unusual traveling environment growing up. Ben has just published a new book which we touch on, but mostly I implore him to describe how other art people process his writing. And then I find out about how he grew up which is awesome and not like anyone I've met. I think his upbringing has allowed him to be more objective than most but still with less cynicism than myself and many other folks—you know who you are! BEN'S WEBSITE: http://www.benadavis.com/ BEN'S NEW BOOK: Art in the After-Culture: Capitalist Crisis and Cultural Strategy https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1662-art-in-the-after-culture BEN"S HIGHLY ACCLAIMED PREVIOUS BOOK: 9.5 Theses on Art and Class https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/503-9-5-theses-on-art-and-class ARTICLES THAT BEN WROTE THAT WE REFER TO IN THIS EPISODE: http://www.benadavis.com/archives/2021/3/31/i-looked-through-all-5000-images-in-beeples-69-million-magnum-opus-what-i-found-isnt-so-pretty https://news.artnet.com/art-world/madonna-beeple-2112374 https://news.artnet.com/opinion/inside-nft-rush-axie-infinity-dreamverse-alesso-2042849 https://news.artnet.com/art-world/kaws-what-party-brooklyn-museum-1948026 https://news.artnet.com/opinion/dutch-museum-nail-salon-emily-in-paris-art-2063605 https://news.artnet.com/opinion/artreview-power-100-culturetrack-superblue-merch-2045335 LISA LEVY SCOPE ART FAIR 2006: "My Kid Could Have Done That.": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPzvshzOgp8

I don't usually like to have close friends on because I know the answers to most of my questions and I don't like faking it—but Holly DeRito and I had never discussed the experiences she had when she was working full time as a Dominatrix before she became the Founder and Director of Waggytail Rescue, a small dog rescue with a wide national/international footprint—or should I say pawprint? in the mid-aughts. Holly is a true self-made woman with a highly energetic, generous spirit and is the least judgmental of all beings, including humans that I know. She shares amazing and funny stories of the men and her associates that she worked with as a Dominatrix as well as growing up in rural Pennsylvania, and coming to NYC with some musician friends that were traveling there. Waggytail Rescue is the real deal. A great community of volunteers and fosterers. If you've ever thought about fostering a dog, you can't go wrong working with Waggytail Rescue. They look out for their fosters every step of the way. They also have great comedy benefits (Janeane Garafalo has headlined many of them), music bingo benefits and more. If you're looking to foster, adopt or just be a volunteer with an awesome group of people—definitely check it out!!! Website: https://www.waggytailrescue.org/ Donate: https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/2328924 Contact: [email protected]