November 1, 2025 • 13 mins
What if the most meaningful part of your story is the chapter you haven’t designed yet. We’re opening our new season by taking a clear-eyed look at legacy, grief, and the artful choices that can turn memory into something living. Welcome to Season 2 ArtStorming the Art of Remembrance.
Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:02):
Have you ever wondered what makes creative
people tick?
Where do their ideas come from?
What keeps them energized?
What kinds of things get intheir way?
Is their life really as much funas it looks from the outside?
Hello, I'm your host, LilyPierpont, and this is
Artstorming, a podcast about howideas become paintings or poems,
(00:24):
performances, or collections.
Each episode, I'll chat with aguest from the arts community
and we'll explore how the mostcreative among us stare down a
blank canvas or reach into thevoid and create something new.
In our inaugural season,Artstorming the City Different,
we dipped our toes into the vastocean of creativity with a focus
(00:45):
on some of our favorite creatorsof Santa Fe, New Mexico.
That conversation was enjoyed byartists and non-artists alike
because it showed us how we canall benefit from learning how to
generate something from nothing,dream bigger, charter new
territories, and solve problemsin new ways.
In season two, we're going totake that concept of generating
(01:05):
our lives with intention to thenext level.
This season, we're talking aboutlegacy, art as legacy, and how
the most creative among ustackle this rich and deeply
personal subject.
Welcome to Artstorming The Artof Remembrance.
(01:28):
Welcome back to Artstorming.
In this episode, I want to giveyou a context for our new
season, the art of remembrance.
But first, I want to start witha moment of quiet reflection.
Because that's what this seasonis really about.
It's about creating the space tothink deeply about the things we
often avoid.
(01:50):
So look around you.
Take a breath.
And now consider one of thebiggest questions of human
existence.
What do we leave behind?
We spend our entire lives makingincredibly intentional choices
about who we are.
(02:10):
The clothes we wear, the houseswe buy, the careers we build,
the values we champion.
We are deliberate about how wepresent ourselves to the world
while we are here.
But when it comes to our finalact, we often leave it to
chance.
We put off, or flat out avoid,the conversation about what
(02:31):
happens when we leave ourbodies.
Focus is always slanted towardsthe hustle, the living, the
doing.
And this avoidance, I havelearned, comes at a significant
cost.
We'll call it legacy drift.
My own education in this driftwas early, intense, and deeply
(02:53):
personal.
I had the dubious honor ofbecoming, somewhat accidentally,
an expert on how to throw amemorial.
Both my parents died when I wasfairly young.
My father died of AIDS in 1985when he was only 50.
My mother died nine years laterin a skydiving accident right
(03:14):
here in Santa Fe, New Mexico, atthe age of 53.
In the span between those twomajor losses, I suffered
additional losses of family andfriends, and I found myself
organizing event after event,attempting to distill a complex,
vibrant life into a singleafternoon ceremony.
(03:34):
And in those quiet, highlycharged rooms, surrounded by
grief and silence, I learned onething above all else.
No one was prepared.
Not the person who died, nor thepeople they left behind.
I was struck by the massive,terrifying silence about the
topic of death.
(03:55):
And this unpreparedness oftenled to logistical and even
emotional absurdities.
For example, both of my parentswere cremated, and they were
both very aesthetically orientedpeople.
But at that time, the array ofoptions were pitiful.
Think like bronze dolphins andsomber wooden boxes.
(04:17):
That was just not going to cutit for them.
My sister and I joked thatDaddy, a dashing international
fashion and interior designer,wouldn't have been caught dead
in the hermetically sealedplastic box that he ended up in.
In fact, that box lived for fiveyears in my uncle's closet
before a snowy Christmas tripled us to finally inter his
(04:39):
remains in frozen ground with afew of my wedding photos thrown
in haphazardly as a gesture ofremembrance.
It just was not right.
Then nine years later, mymother's story was no less
absurd.
She was a rebel who loved SantaFe, but her parents wanted her
remains in the family plot backeast.
(05:00):
In the end, my sister decided torelent, sort of.
She sent half the remains back,and because in her heart, she
knew that mom wanted to be umhere in the Santa Fe foothills.
She took matters into her ownhands and scattered the other
half herself.
Some years later, my grandmotherand my aunt changed their minds,
(05:21):
thinking that if Polly reallywanted to be in Santa Fe, she
should be in Santa Fe.
So the ashes were sent back tomy sister.
The catch?
Well, in that moment of highemotion during the first
scattering, she sort of erasedher sorrow and her memory of the
exact location.
She went out and I completed thesecond ceremony with a second
(05:41):
batch of ashes.
So mom is out there, all right,spread widely somewhere at the
base of the Ski Mountain.
The point of these stories isnot the punchline.
The point is that the vitalquestion of meaning, the
emotional and spiritual residueof my parents' existence, was
relegated to a series of hasty,ill-prepared, and frankly
(06:03):
comical decisions made bybereaved family members.
So, what happens to thepossessions that carry our
stories?
They're dispersed, they'retossed, they're occasionally
fought over.
The vibrant memory of us as theindividual eventually fades.
But what remains is thetalisman, the object.
(06:25):
We spend a lifetime crafting anauthentic life, and yet we leave
our final chapter to fate or tothe$20 billion funerals
industry.
So why don't we apply the sameintense intentionality we use
for our living life to ourlegacy?
Why wait till the end is near?
(06:46):
This is the question thatdefines my work now, and it's
what has inspired the secondseason of this podcast,
Artstorming the Art ofRemembrance.
What if you could actuallychoose your legacy object or
objects or projects?
What if you pre-selected anobject that to represent you,
acquired it now, and lived withit before passing it and
(07:10):
yourself along?
And isn't a piece of art theperfect vehicle for this?
You know, art historically liveson well after we do, but it
remains to tell the story of howwe lived, how we dreamed, what
we stood for.
Art is fundamentally one of ourmost potent tools for memory.
(07:32):
So this is the concept we'reexploring for our new season.
Art pieces as living legacyobjects.
This season I'm going to talk toartists about this unusually
heavy topic because creativesare the cartographers of the
unseen.
They have a direct, activerelationship with the field of
possibility.
(07:52):
They are trained to lookunflinchingly at the world, to
stand at the intersection oflife and death, and to create
something beautiful.
They show us how to turn theinevitability of our end into a
compelling work of art.
And yet, we all have the powerto take control of our final
narrative.
(08:13):
This season is about planningyour artful exit.
So how do we begin?
The solution isn't just about awill, it's about a conversation.
And I encourage you to beginthis conversation with three
simple acts.
Number one, define a talisman.
If you could choose one objectright now to represent the core
(08:37):
of who you are, your values,your voice, your vision, what
would it be?
Is it a piece of art?
A family heirloom?
A journal?
Why not acquire it now, livewith it, and prepare it for its
future role?
Something to think about.
Number two, host an art ofconversation dinner.
(09:00):
These dinners, which I'll talk alittle bit more about in a
minute, have been designed tohelp you gather the people in
your life that you want toconnect with on a deeper level
and support you to learn thingsabout them that you never knew.
And number three, end LegacyDrift.
Stop avoiding the topic.
Talk to your family, tell themwhich stories you want to live
(09:23):
on, tell them what you wouldwant in that moment of crisis.
Stop scrolling and connect.
And to support and inspire youmore in these acts, join me
every two weeks as I sharein-depth conversations with
creatives from all over thecountry as I ask them how they
think about their legacies, howmortality inspires their
(09:45):
creations, what memorial objectswould they choose to represent
themselves?
I believe that there's so muchwe can learn from creatives who
face these questions fearlesslyand often.
As we learned in season one,artists offer us a crucial shift
of perception.
By engaging with theircourageous work and their
philosophical approaches, notonly can we get some great
(10:08):
insights for how to avoid legacydrift, but we can gain new
insights that can truly enrichour experience of being alive.
And because we feel theseconversations are so important,
the podcast interviews are onlythe beginning.
We are building an entirecommunity around this idea of
intentional legacy, and here aremore ways you can engage.
(10:30):
So, number one, follow ourcompanion substack blog for
deeper dives, writtenreflections, and
behind-the-scenes thoughts onour themes.
If they resonate, we ask thatyou subscribe, comment, like,
share, etc.
And as mentioned earlier, we'vestarted a new initiative called
The Art of Conversation.
(10:50):
Because this topic is so richand charged, it deserves
thorough, deep human discussion.
By hosting a dinner with thisintentional topic, you'll learn
more about people you thoughtyou already knew and potentially
develop some intimaterelationships with absolute
strangers.
If there are people in your lifeyou've wanted to connect with on
a deeper level, these dinnersprovide a provocative venue for
(11:14):
exploring compelling topics.
We encourage you to host yourown Art of Conversation event
and share your experience withus as inspiration for others to
join the initiative.
We really want this initiativeto go viral.
So visit our website for detailsand learn how you can host your
own.
And then finally, later thisseason, we'll launch our
(11:35):
companion virtual art exhibitioncalled Remains to Be Seen.
This will be showcasing the workof our guests and some other
excellent examples of memorialarts, turning theory into visual
reality.
We'll have more informationabout that exhibition later in
the season as it evolves.
So keep checking our website fordetails.
(11:56):
Okay, so I think that just aboutcovers everything for season
two.
We have an incredible lineup ofguests so far, but we want this
conversation to be dynamic andinclusive.
So if you know of anybody with acreative mind, either renowned
or emerging, whose work deeplyengages with this theme, please
feel free to send us yoursuggestions via our website.
(12:16):
We definitely do want yourinput.
Okay, so let's get this partystarted.
Where we end up remains to beseen.
Thanks for joining us today.
(12:36):
Look for us on your favoritepodcast platforms or wherever
you listen.
Your subscriptions, likes,comments, and shares help us to
reach more listeners and attractthe support we need to thrive in
these challenging times.
If you love what you hear,please consider making a
contribution.
We rely on your help to keepthese conversations going.
(12:57):
Every dollar you contribute goesdirectly into programs that
support our mission.
And we've been offered amatching grant that will match
every dollar that youcontribute.
That means more compellingstories, more in depth articles,
and an even greater impact onour community.
Please visit our website atwww.artbridgenm.org and thank
(13:19):
you so much for being anessential part of our work.
Have you ever wondered what makes creative
people tick?
Where do their ideas come from?
What keeps them energized?
What kinds of things get intheir way?
Is their life really as much funas it looks from the outside?
Hello, I'm your host, LilyPierpont, and this is
Artstorming, a podcast about howideas become paintings or poems,
(00:24):
performances, or collections.
Each episode, I'll chat with aguest from the arts community
and we'll explore how the mostcreative among us stare down a
blank canvas or reach into thevoid and create something new.
In our inaugural season,Artstorming the City Different,
we dipped our toes into the vastocean of creativity with a focus
(00:45):
on some of our favorite creatorsof Santa Fe, New Mexico.
That conversation was enjoyed byartists and non-artists alike
because it showed us how we canall benefit from learning how to
generate something from nothing,dream bigger, charter new
territories, and solve problemsin new ways.
In season two, we're going totake that concept of generating
(01:05):
our lives with intention to thenext level.
This season, we're talking aboutlegacy, art as legacy, and how
the most creative among ustackle this rich and deeply
personal subject.
Welcome to Artstorming The Artof Remembrance.
(01:28):
Welcome back to Artstorming.
In this episode, I want to giveyou a context for our new
season, the art of remembrance.
But first, I want to start witha moment of quiet reflection.
Because that's what this seasonis really about.
It's about creating the space tothink deeply about the things we
often avoid.
(01:50):
So look around you.
Take a breath.
And now consider one of thebiggest questions of human
existence.
What do we leave behind?
We spend our entire lives makingincredibly intentional choices
about who we are.
(02:10):
The clothes we wear, the houseswe buy, the careers we build,
the values we champion.
We are deliberate about how wepresent ourselves to the world
while we are here.
But when it comes to our finalact, we often leave it to
chance.
We put off, or flat out avoid,the conversation about what
(02:31):
happens when we leave ourbodies.
Focus is always slanted towardsthe hustle, the living, the
doing.
And this avoidance, I havelearned, comes at a significant
cost.
We'll call it legacy drift.
My own education in this driftwas early, intense, and deeply
(02:53):
personal.
I had the dubious honor ofbecoming, somewhat accidentally,
an expert on how to throw amemorial.
Both my parents died when I wasfairly young.
My father died of AIDS in 1985when he was only 50.
My mother died nine years laterin a skydiving accident right
(03:14):
here in Santa Fe, New Mexico, atthe age of 53.
In the span between those twomajor losses, I suffered
additional losses of family andfriends, and I found myself
organizing event after event,attempting to distill a complex,
vibrant life into a singleafternoon ceremony.
(03:34):
And in those quiet, highlycharged rooms, surrounded by
grief and silence, I learned onething above all else.
No one was prepared.
Not the person who died, nor thepeople they left behind.
I was struck by the massive,terrifying silence about the
topic of death.
(03:55):
And this unpreparedness oftenled to logistical and even
emotional absurdities.
For example, both of my parentswere cremated, and they were
both very aesthetically orientedpeople.
But at that time, the array ofoptions were pitiful.
Think like bronze dolphins andsomber wooden boxes.
(04:17):
That was just not going to cutit for them.
My sister and I joked thatDaddy, a dashing international
fashion and interior designer,wouldn't have been caught dead
in the hermetically sealedplastic box that he ended up in.
In fact, that box lived for fiveyears in my uncle's closet
before a snowy Christmas tripled us to finally inter his
(04:39):
remains in frozen ground with afew of my wedding photos thrown
in haphazardly as a gesture ofremembrance.
It just was not right.
Then nine years later, mymother's story was no less
absurd.
She was a rebel who loved SantaFe, but her parents wanted her
remains in the family plot backeast.
(05:00):
In the end, my sister decided torelent, sort of.
She sent half the remains back,and because in her heart, she
knew that mom wanted to be umhere in the Santa Fe foothills.
She took matters into her ownhands and scattered the other
half herself.
Some years later, my grandmotherand my aunt changed their minds,
(05:21):
thinking that if Polly reallywanted to be in Santa Fe, she
should be in Santa Fe.
So the ashes were sent back tomy sister.
The catch?
Well, in that moment of highemotion during the first
scattering, she sort of erasedher sorrow and her memory of the
exact location.
She went out and I completed thesecond ceremony with a second
(05:41):
batch of ashes.
So mom is out there, all right,spread widely somewhere at the
base of the Ski Mountain.
The point of these stories isnot the punchline.
The point is that the vitalquestion of meaning, the
emotional and spiritual residueof my parents' existence, was
relegated to a series of hasty,ill-prepared, and frankly
(06:03):
comical decisions made bybereaved family members.
So, what happens to thepossessions that carry our
stories?
They're dispersed, they'retossed, they're occasionally
fought over.
The vibrant memory of us as theindividual eventually fades.
But what remains is thetalisman, the object.
(06:25):
We spend a lifetime crafting anauthentic life, and yet we leave
our final chapter to fate or tothe$20 billion funerals
industry.
So why don't we apply the sameintense intentionality we use
for our living life to ourlegacy?
Why wait till the end is near?
(06:46):
This is the question thatdefines my work now, and it's
what has inspired the secondseason of this podcast,
Artstorming the Art ofRemembrance.
What if you could actuallychoose your legacy object or
objects or projects?
What if you pre-selected anobject that to represent you,
acquired it now, and lived withit before passing it and
(07:10):
yourself along?
And isn't a piece of art theperfect vehicle for this?
You know, art historically liveson well after we do, but it
remains to tell the story of howwe lived, how we dreamed, what
we stood for.
Art is fundamentally one of ourmost potent tools for memory.
(07:32):
So this is the concept we'reexploring for our new season.
Art pieces as living legacyobjects.
This season I'm going to talk toartists about this unusually
heavy topic because creativesare the cartographers of the
unseen.
They have a direct, activerelationship with the field of
possibility.
(07:52):
They are trained to lookunflinchingly at the world, to
stand at the intersection oflife and death, and to create
something beautiful.
They show us how to turn theinevitability of our end into a
compelling work of art.
And yet, we all have the powerto take control of our final
narrative.
(08:13):
This season is about planningyour artful exit.
So how do we begin?
The solution isn't just about awill, it's about a conversation.
And I encourage you to beginthis conversation with three
simple acts.
Number one, define a talisman.
If you could choose one objectright now to represent the core
(08:37):
of who you are, your values,your voice, your vision, what
would it be?
Is it a piece of art?
A family heirloom?
A journal?
Why not acquire it now, livewith it, and prepare it for its
future role?
Something to think about.
Number two, host an art ofconversation dinner.
(09:00):
These dinners, which I'll talk alittle bit more about in a
minute, have been designed tohelp you gather the people in
your life that you want toconnect with on a deeper level
and support you to learn thingsabout them that you never knew.
And number three, end LegacyDrift.
Stop avoiding the topic.
Talk to your family, tell themwhich stories you want to live
(09:23):
on, tell them what you wouldwant in that moment of crisis.
Stop scrolling and connect.
And to support and inspire youmore in these acts, join me
every two weeks as I sharein-depth conversations with
creatives from all over thecountry as I ask them how they
think about their legacies, howmortality inspires their
(09:45):
creations, what memorial objectswould they choose to represent
themselves?
I believe that there's so muchwe can learn from creatives who
face these questions fearlesslyand often.
As we learned in season one,artists offer us a crucial shift
of perception.
By engaging with theircourageous work and their
philosophical approaches, notonly can we get some great
(10:08):
insights for how to avoid legacydrift, but we can gain new
insights that can truly enrichour experience of being alive.
And because we feel theseconversations are so important,
the podcast interviews are onlythe beginning.
We are building an entirecommunity around this idea of
intentional legacy, and here aremore ways you can engage.
(10:30):
So, number one, follow ourcompanion substack blog for
deeper dives, writtenreflections, and
behind-the-scenes thoughts onour themes.
If they resonate, we ask thatyou subscribe, comment, like,
share, etc.
And as mentioned earlier, we'vestarted a new initiative called
The Art of Conversation.
(10:50):
Because this topic is so richand charged, it deserves
thorough, deep human discussion.
By hosting a dinner with thisintentional topic, you'll learn
more about people you thoughtyou already knew and potentially
develop some intimaterelationships with absolute
strangers.
If there are people in your lifeyou've wanted to connect with on
a deeper level, these dinnersprovide a provocative venue for
(11:14):
exploring compelling topics.
We encourage you to host yourown Art of Conversation event
and share your experience withus as inspiration for others to
join the initiative.
We really want this initiativeto go viral.
So visit our website for detailsand learn how you can host your
own.
And then finally, later thisseason, we'll launch our
(11:35):
companion virtual art exhibitioncalled Remains to Be Seen.
This will be showcasing the workof our guests and some other
excellent examples of memorialarts, turning theory into visual
reality.
We'll have more informationabout that exhibition later in
the season as it evolves.
So keep checking our website fordetails.
(11:56):
Okay, so I think that just aboutcovers everything for season
two.
We have an incredible lineup ofguests so far, but we want this
conversation to be dynamic andinclusive.
So if you know of anybody with acreative mind, either renowned
or emerging, whose work deeplyengages with this theme, please
feel free to send us yoursuggestions via our website.
(12:16):
We definitely do want yourinput.
Okay, so let's get this partystarted.
Where we end up remains to beseen.
Thanks for joining us today.
(12:36):
Look for us on your favoritepodcast platforms or wherever
you listen.
Your subscriptions, likes,comments, and shares help us to
reach more listeners and attractthe support we need to thrive in
these challenging times.
If you love what you hear,please consider making a
contribution.
We rely on your help to keepthese conversations going.
(12:57):
Every dollar you contribute goesdirectly into programs that
support our mission.
And we've been offered amatching grant that will match
every dollar that youcontribute.
That means more compellingstories, more in depth articles,
and an even greater impact onour community.
Please visit our website atwww.artbridgenm.org and thank
(13:19):
you so much for being anessential part of our work.
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