Thyme in the Studio: Art & Wellness

Lydia Greer on Shadow Theater, 50 second sagas and collaborating with plants and people

Episode Summary

Lydia Greer and I discuss strategies for collaboration, the influence of Walt Whitman, printmaking, bookmaking, opera and nature on her work. She discusses her beginnings of creating punk feminist shadow theater performances as love offerings. We discuss ideas about teaching pedagogy, creating healing gardens and the exciting adventure of creating a music video for Cass McCombs. So full of insight and inspiration! Lydia Greer is a visual artist whose layered, mixed-media work includes sculptural and video installation, hand-made stop motion animation, single and multiple channel video, puppet theatre, and works with paper. She works with themes of allegory and euphemism in narrative structures exploring the languages of psychology and theatre. From 2003-2007 she directed the LET'S DANCE SHADOW THEATRE, a handmade, ragtag puppet company in Portland, OR creating punk, feminist revisions of broadcast news and fairytales. Since then her multimedia artwork and extended cinema performance work have been exhibited and performed nationally and internationally most recently at Aggregate Space Gallery, Artists' Television Access, Shapeshifter’s Cinema, The Exploratorium Museum, and Kala Art Gallery. In 2019 she co- directed and co-created the music video Absentee for Cass McCombs (Anti Records). She has attended residencies at The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Vermont Studio Center and was awarded a Kala Art Institute Media Arts Fellowship in 2018. www.lydiagreer.com https://www.aidazea.com/ https://www.etsy.com/shop/AidaZeaArts http://www.saramariemiller.me/ https://www.instagram.com/aida.zea.arts/ https://www.instagram.com/thymeinthestudio/ https://www.instagram.com/saramariestudio/ Donate here: https://simplecast.com/donate/6016 music by Komiku

Episode Notes

Lydia Greer is a visual artist whose layered, mixed-media work includes sculptural and video installation, hand-made stop motion animation, single and multiple channel video, puppet theatre, and works with paper. She works with themes of allegory and euphemism in narrative structures exploring the languages of psychology and theatre. From 2003-2007 she directed the LET'S DANCE SHADOW THEATRE, a handmade, ragtag puppet company in Portland, OR creating punk, feminist revisions of broadcast news and fairytales. Since then her multimedia artwork and extended cinema performance work have been exhibited and performed nationally and internationally most recently at Aggregate Space Gallery, Artists' Television Access, Shapeshifter’s Cinema, The Exploratorium Museum, and Kala Art Gallery. In 2019 she co- directed and co-created the music video Absentee for Cass McCombs (Anti Records). She has attended residencies at The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Vermont Studio Center and was awarded a Kala Art Institute Media Arts Fellowship in 2018.

www.lydiagreer.com
Facing West Shadow Opera’s Purcell in Shadows is a surprising combination of Live Baroque Opera and Multimedia Shadow Theatre Performance. Countertenor William Sauerland performs operatic arrangements by Henry Purcell with Lumia artists Caryl Kientz and Lydia Greer. Facing West Shadow Opera creates a dense and holistic visual landscape made from animation, projected found footage, and live shadow puppet theater paired with operatic vocals and special guest accompaniment to create a unique and poetic examination of Henry Purcell’s countertenor repertoire. Imagery inspired by Klaus Nomi, Tom of Finland and the music of Henry Purcell. (Adult Content.)

With live musical accompaniment by Paul McCurdy, keyboard and Andrés David Vera, cello.

Facing West Shadow Opera is a San Francisco Bay Area artist collective hybridizing art forms to create unique performances, each akin to a live graphic novel. Using poetry, queer mythologies, cinema and baroque opera as points of departure, Facing West combines analog shadow theatre with handmade animation, video projection, found footage and live music. Lumia artists Greer and Kientz have been creating live shadow plays with live musical accompaniment as Facing West Shadow Opera for the past 4 years in collaboration with countertenor William Sauerland and Soprano Shauna Fallihee.

https://www.facingwestshadows.com

https://facingwestshadowtheatre.wordpress.com/

https://www.aidazea.com/ https://www.etsy.com/shop/AidaZeaArts http://www.saramariemiller.me/ https://www.instagram.com/aida.zea.arts/ https://www.instagram.com/thymeinthestudio/ https://www.instagram.com/saramariestudio/

Donate here: https://simplecast.com/donate/6016

music by Komiku