Welcome to In Conversation With, my new series where I get to talk to my favorite artists, esotericists, writers, organizers, spiritual + creative workers + people who I think are doing really interesting shit in the world. 

Today I have the great good fortune to be in conversation with Roberta Aylward, an artist living in Portland, OR. Roberta was born in Elgin, Illinois in 1969 + creative expression is essential to her understanding of the world + where she finds her clearest voice. She credits her high school art instructors, Martin Davis (Tucson, AZ) + Milton Harley (Nanaimo, B.C.) for providing a strong foundation for valuing art in her life. She received a BFA with a concentration in painting from The College of Santa Fe in New Mexico in 1991. 

Roberta lives in Portland, OR with her husband, their 13-year-old son + their cat. She works in her home studio + practices drawing, collage + photography in service of her painting. Roberta exhibits her art on her website + in person, opening her studio to the public twice a year. Her work is included in many private collections + has been part of group exhibitions at The Painting Center in New York, Tacoma Art Museum, Oregon College of Art + Craft, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Umpqua Valley Arts Association + The Gretchen Schuette Art Gallery at Chemeketa Community College.

Roberta’s website: www.robertaaylward.com

Roberta’s Instagram: www.instagram.com/robertaaylward

Sign up for exhibition + Open Studio updates: www.robertaaylward.com/contact

.

music: Wii music but hip hop by Lundstroem, Free Music Archive, CC BY 

.

shea in the catskills: https://www.sheainthecatskills.com/ 

book a reading: https://www.sheainthecatskills.com/book 

Tarot as Questions: the book: https://www.sheainthecatskills.com/tarot-as-questions-book 

study tarot series: https://www.sheainthecatskills.com/study-tarot-series 

tarot workshops: https://www.sheainthecatskills.com/tarot-workshops 

Today, I had the great good fortune of speaking with Brett Barry. Brett hosts + produces Kaatscast from Silver Hollow Audio, in the heart of the Catskills. He teaches podcasting + audio production in the Digital Media & Journalism dept. at SUNY New Paltz. Brett graduated from Syracuse University’s television, radio & film program + worked as an associate documentary producer for several years before launching a career in voice-overs in 2002. He returned to Syracuse 10 years later for a graduate degree in television-radio-film. Brett is represented in NYC by Access Talent for television + radio commercials, audiobooks, promos, + narration. He’s the host of public radio’s "Sound Beat," was the longtime voice of India’s English-language network, Zee Café, + the last announcer for the iconic soap opera Guiding Light. He has narrated more than 125 audiobooks + is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA. 

Kaatscast podcast: http://kaatscast.com/

Silver Hollow Audio: http://silverhollowaudio.com/

Brett’s Voice: http://brettsvoice.com/

shea’s favorite kaatscast episodes:

Dowsing for Water with Bill Getz: https://www.kaatscast.com/dowsing-for-water-with-bill-getz/

Indigenous Catskills 101 with Justin Wexler:

https://www.kaatscast.com/indigenous-catskills-101/

“Listening To Taylor Swift In Prison” by Joe Garcia: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/listening-to-taylor-swift-in-prison

music: Wii music but hip hop by Lundstroem, Free Music Archive, CC BY 

shea in the catskills: https://www.sheainthecatskills.com/ 

book a reading: https://www.sheainthecatskills.com/book 

Tarot as Questions: the book: https://www.sheainthecatskills.com/tarot-as-questions-book 

study tarot series: https://www.sheainthecatskills.com/study-tarot-series 

tarot workshops: https://www.sheainthecatskills.com/tarot-workshops 

In this episode:

Today I’m In Conversation With Laetitia Barbier. Laetitia is an intuitive counselor with a great passion for the human soul. She studied art history at the Sorbonne, and has been working professionally in the arts for over a decade. She had her first tarot epiphany at the age of 11, when she bought her first Marseille Tarot deck at a Parisian tobacco shop. A passionate and experienced tarot reader, Laetitia is a firm believer in the cards' empowering nature. Beyond their use as a fortune telling oracle, she views tarot as a visual tool that helps us bring clarity to the complexity of life, providing information and insights on decisions we’re facing, or shining a light on options that we might not have considered. Laeti is also an independent scholar + teacher. She has worked with Morbid Anatomy since 2011 as a programming director, head librarian, + occasional curator + shares her interest for antique divination cards and esoteric iconography via her popular instagram account @laetitia.cartomancy. Laeti’s gorgeous book Tarot and Divination Cards: A Visual Archive was published in 2021 with a foreword by Rachel Pollack. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Laetitia’s website: https://www.laetitiacartomancy.com/ 

Laetitia’s book—Tarot and Divination Cards: A Visual Archive: https://www.morbidanatomy.org/books/2d60hukqya5ejy6oydsq7i7d1c1k7l

Laetitia’s amazing IG account: https://www.instagram.com/laetitia.cartomancy/

Morbid Anatomy: https://www.morbidanatomy.org/ 

Morbid Anatomy’s patreon: https://www.patreon.com/morbidanatomy 

music: Wii music but hip hop by Lundstroem, Free Music Archive, CC BY 

shea in the catskills: https://www.sheainthecatskills.com/ 

book a reading: https://www.sheainthecatskills.com/book 

Tarot as Questions: the book: https://www.sheainthecatskills.com/tarot-as-questions-book 

study tarot series: https://www.sheainthecatskills.com/study-tarot-series 

tarot workshops: https://www.sheainthecatskills.com/tarot-workshops 

Today I’m In Conversation With Jamie Sanin (she/they/any pronouns) is a visual artist, educator, + organizer living + growing in “New York's Hudson Valley,” historically known as the Eastern Door, shared ancestral territory of Mohican, Lenape, Stockbridge Munsee, Algonquin and Haudenosaunee (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, Tuscarora—shouts to all teachers including Iron Path Farms!).

Raised in Washingtonville NY with B.S. in Visual Arts Education, Jamie’s interest in teaching sprouted from her own experiences with the arts; in addition to visual art, Jamie also studied dance, music, + theater from a young age. Each experience provided them not only with a breadth of cultural knowledge but also the opportunity to consider the importance of self care + community care via accessible arts, for which she is a fierce + dedicated advocate.

Through their artwork + events facilitation, Jamie aims to create cultural commentary using visual language + to use the arts as a vessel to foster strong connection + strong communities. She believes that the arts are a universal language + is dedicated to protecting them from co-optation by those who would abuse or oppress people thru gentrification, capitalism, art washing, + other forms of exclusion. Jamie's personal, professional, + creative work is centered around liberation, collaboration, + joy.

Jamie is also the proud founder of Celebrate845, whose mission is to organize, recognize, + celebrate marginalized + working class creatives via pop-up events across the “845.” Jamie is so grateful to have roots in the Hudson Valley + be a part of its creative community.

Jamie Sanin on the web: www.jamiesanin.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/jamiesanin

Celebrate845: www.instagram.com/celebrate.845

Donate to Celebrate845 via Venmo: @Celebrate845 

.

music: Wii music but hip hop by Lundstroem, Free Music Archive, CC BY 

.

shea in the catskills: https://www.sheainthecatskills.com/ 

book a reading: https://www.sheainthecatskills.com/book 

Tarot as Questions: the book: https://www.sheainthecatskills.com/tarot-as-questions-book 

study tarot series: https://www.sheainthecatskills.com/study-tarot-series 

tarot workshops: https://www.sheainthecatskills.com/tarot-workshops 

Welcome to In Conversation With, my new series where I get to talk to my favorite artists, esotericists, writers, organizers, spiritual + creative workers + people who I think are doing really interesting shit in the world. 

Today I’m In Conversation With Cory Nakasue—an astrologer, writer, and theater artist whose work includes choreography, dramaturgy, and video. She is currently the astrologer-in-residence at Poetry Barn, Chronogram, and Opus 40. You can also hear her on The Cosmic Dispatch, a podcast describing stories from the cosmos as they’re experienced on Earth. Cory holds MA degrees in Choreography, Performance Studies and Theater from Middlesex University, London, and California Institute of the Arts. She has maintained a movement education and therapy practice for 20 years called Body Intelligence, and she’s a professional consulting and teaching astrologer who fuses both modern and traditional practices. Her first poetry chapbook The Cosmic Event of the Body came out this year (Cosmic Doghouse Press). She lives in Kingston, New York.

Astrology by Cory

Body Intelligence

The Cosmic Dispatch Podcast

Chronogram Horoscopes

The Cosmic Event of the Body

------

music: Wii music but hip hop by Lundstroem, Free Music Archive, CC BY 

------

shea in the catskills 

book a reading 

Tarot as Questions

study tarot series 

tarot workshops

In this episode:

Elizabethanne Spiotta is a chaplain, a spiritual caregiver, a widow, a mother, and she loves to walk. She is studying the Somatic Experiencing model of addressing grief and trauma as they arise in the body. Elizabethanne works 1-1 with clients where sessions consist of  walking and talking—an approach based on the idea that movement is change, walking while exploring the relationship with grief and trauma offers new perspectives, ideas and curiosity. Everything shifts when we move. We have the chance to feel differently about what is in front of us. Moving forward, moving along. Elizabethanne also leads grief groups and disordered eating groups. She is located in the Hudson Valley but is also available for 1-1 and group sessions via zoom.

Work with Elizabethanne

music: Wii music but hip hop by Lundstroem, Free Music Archive, CC BY

Robyn Love is the founder of Atha Yoga School + a certified Yoga therapist. She has decades of personal practice, over fifteen years of teaching experience + thousands of hours of training in the Viniyoga tradition. All of that is good and important but it doesn’t really convey her passion for sharing the profound wisdom of Yoga, particularly as it is presented in Patanjali’s Yoga Sūtra + other foundational texts. Robyn believes that the ongoing study + practice of a Yoga deeply rooted in abhyasa (daily discipline) + vairagyam (acceptance) honors yoga’s roots in India + takes up its invitation to explore what it means to be alive in a human body. Her teachers are Chase Bossart, Anita Claney, Dolphi Wertenbaker + Bhooma Madavan. Robyn also is a student in the Mountains & Rivers Order of Zen Buddhism. Her teacher is Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi.

Let’s Talk About It: Mistakes

Mastering Pranayama 2024 in-person training

Atha Yoga School + Instagram

Robyn Love’s artist website + Instagram

__________________

music: Wii music but hip hop by Lundstroem, Free Music Archive, CC BY

___________________

shea in the catskills ✨

Tarot as Questions: the book

book a reading

study tarot series

tarot workshops

events

liturgical book club

shea in the catskills podcast

The Ritualists podcast

Camille Michelle Gray is an astrologer, musician, writer, + civil servant from Washington, D.C. She started practicing astrology in 2017. Her consults are steeped in the soulful concepts & archetypal poetry of Evolutionary Astrology & are informed by the technical & traditional techniques of Hellenistic Astrology. Camille writes about astrology a lot, too—for her website, for social media, + for The Astrology Podcast with Chris Brennan. She is also a staff writer for a new astrology dating app that will be releasing later on this year! Be on the lookout for that!!

In this episode:

camillemichellegray.com for readings, @millymichelle on IG and Twitter

The Astro Bash Evolutionary Astrology conference in Borrego Springs, CA 9/28 to 10/2—REGISTRATION OPEN for both in-person and streaming

The Inner Sky by Steven Forrest

Existential Kink: Unmask Your Shadow and Embrace Your Power by Carolyn Elliott, PhD

The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey Into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred by Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

music: Wii music but make it hip hop by Lundstroem, Free Music Archive, CC BY

----------------

shea✨ in the catskills is a queer artist, tarotist, intuition facilitator, pleasure activist, organizer + contemplative.

shea in the catskills

Tarot as Questions: the book

book a reading

study tarot series

tarot workshops

events

liturgical book club

shea in the catskills podcast

The Ritualists podcast