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October 21, 2025 16 mins

Dim the lights, grab a cozy blanket and a mug of cider (or a pumpkin spice latte, if you prefer), and settle in for three tales of terror from our Art World Horror Stories series.

First on the chopping block is Mellyssa Diggs, a brand identity designer whose passion for social justice quickly spiraled into a nightmare of cyberbullying and social media censorship. Next, we turn to Asheville-based artist Wendy Newman. Last fall, her life was upended by Hurricane Helene, which not only obliterated her gallery but also displaced countless artists in her community. Finally, we meet painter Jacobina Oele, another Asheville artist, whose masterpiece was mangled beyond recognition at the hands of an unscrupulous gallery owner. 

Presented by NOT REAL ART’s parent company, Crewest Studio, Art World Horror Stories is a podcast about bad things that happen to good artists. In today’s crossover episode, we delve into the spine-chilling stories usually reserved for the spookiest podcast in Crewest’s network.

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About Art World Horror Stories and Crewest Studio 

Art World Horror Stories is a podcast about bad things that happen to good artists. The series is produced by Crewest Studio, an independent company specializing in entertainment media, publishing, and experiential content, serving a diverse network of professional creatives and enthusiasts. With a mission to entertain, inform, and inspire, the studio recognizes the significance of the $2 trillion creative economy and the 30 million professionals within it. At the helm are co-founders Scott "Sourdough" Power, a seasoned leader with decades of experience, and Man One, a passionate...

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
The Not Real Art podcast isintended for creative audiences only.
The Not Real Art podcastcelebrates creativity and creative
culture worldwide.
It contains material that isfresh, fun and inspiring and is not
suitable for boring old art snobs.
Now let's get started andenjoy the show.

(00:47):
Greetings and salutations, mycreative brothers and sisters.
Welcome to Not Real Art, thepodcast where we talk to the world's
most creative people.
I am your host.
Faithful, trusty, loyal,tireless, relentless host.
Sourdough, coming at you fromCrew West Studio in Los Angeles.
How are you people?

(01:08):
Are you feeling.
Are you feeling a little on edge?
Are you feeling a little likea little goosebumps?
Are you feeling like theremight be something lurking around
the corner?
Are you afraid that there'ssomebody following you?
Look behind you.
Are you being followed?

(01:28):
Are you.
You feeling threatened orscared or frightened in any way?
Because if you are, it'slikely because Halloween is upon
us.
Yes, our favorite holiday ofthe year, Halloween.
When.
When ghosties and ghoulies andlong leggedy beasties are out to

(01:49):
get us and we do our best tosurvive the night.
And to commemorate thisfantastic, wonderful, creative time
of the year, we put out ourspecial Halloween episode, Art World
Horror Stories.
When bad things Happen to Good Artists.
And today we have three.

(02:10):
Three horror stories fromthree artists that are going to keep
you on edge, are going toscare the living daylights out of
you, and bad things happen toall of us, in particular this time
of year during Halloween, whenthe demons and the angels battle
and the monsters and thecreatures come out, and Frankenstein

(02:30):
and Dracula and Wolfman andall of the monsters come to haunt
our dreams.
It's all we can do to surviveand stay alive and thrive during
these horrific nights of fright.
We just love Halloween.
Can't you tell?
We just love Halloween.
And this year for Halloween,we have three art world horror stories

(02:55):
from three artists.
And I want to share them withyou today.
But before I do, I want tothank you for being here with me
today on this Halloweencelebration because you're making
me feel a bit safer.
You're making me feel more calm.
The goosebumps on the back ofmy neck are calming down, so I'm

(03:21):
feeling a little more safe and secure.
And it's all because of you.
You're.
Your loyalty, you showing up,you being here means the world to
me.
It means the world to us.
And I'm extremely grateful foryour support of everything we do
here at Not Roll Art.
And of course, it's Halloween.
What are you dressing up as?

(03:42):
You're going out.
You're going trick or treat.
You're going to some big party.
You're going.
You're going trick or treating.
You take the kids out.
What are you doing?
You're going to dress up.
You're going to.
What are you going as?
You can dress up as a robot,as an astronaut.
You're going to.
You're going to go as a vampire?
Are you going to go as a ghost?
That's always classic.

(04:03):
A ghost, a witch, you dress itup as Evil Knievel.
You're going to.
You're going to go as ourorange hair, orange skinned president.
Hmm.
Well, that would be thescariest one.
Would it?
Well, politics aside, we'renot here to talk politics.
This is Halloween.
We're here to talk art Worldhorror stories.

(04:26):
So you know what?
Before we get into this, let'scue the music.
Hit it.
Our darkness falls as chillsabound Just when you felt all safe
and sound.
Tis artists losing theirbloody minds as their hard work turns
on your evil eyes.

(04:47):
Tis worse than nightmares.
Tis worse than fears asartists cry horrific tears.
Welcome to Art World Horror Stories.
We have three our world horrorstories for you today from three

(05:11):
artists, Melissa Diggs, WendyNewman, and Jacobina Oli.
And these stories, well, theseare stories of when bad things happened
to good artists.
And so we have a story about asocial media nightmare, we have a

(05:32):
story about a natural disasternightmare, and we have a story about
a nightmare of destruction.
So, Melissa Diggs, she writes,I was lying in bed when it happened,
just scrolling and finishingup a post for TikTok.

(05:54):
I had just uploaded one of myprints, a 17 by 11 piece fine art
paper, mixed media and photography.
The message was simple.
It read, racism is wrong.
I thought it might spark somegood conversation, Melissa writes,
maybe even resonate withpeople who needed to see it.

(06:16):
And it went viral, but for thewrong and worst reasons.
She writes.
I had 13,500 followers onTikTok, so I expected a mix of both.
But then I opened the commentsand saw more hateful and trolling
comments like go back to Africa.

(06:36):
This isn't even art.
I could print this at Staplesfor a few cents.
I'll just screenshot it andgive it away for free.
Each comment felt like a punchand and soon it wasn't just on that
post.
The heat spilled into a fewother posts I had shared.
Melissa writes she reportedthe comments over and over, but TikTok

(06:58):
said they saw nothing wrong.
That's when I knew I wasn'tjust having a bad night online.
I was in the middle of my ownart world horror story.
Months later, the storyreached its cruel ending.
She writes.
One day I logged in and gone.
My account banned.
No warning, no reason.

(07:21):
It was like TikTok had decidedI was the problem and not the people
hurling the hate.
The ban wasn't the end of it.
The ban wasn't the end of myart, just the end of my time on that
platform.
My art still matters.
My voice still matters.
And no algorithm or hatefulcomment can take that away.
Melissa writes, I know thisart is powerful.

(07:45):
It makes people uncomfortableand sometimes it scares the ones
who don't want to face its truth.
And that's why I'll keepmaking art.
Melissa Diggs that is a artworld horror story.
To be sure.
We've all had those scarymoments when we think social media

(08:07):
is going to flag us, shut usdown or we post something well meaning
and the trolls pile on in anugly, toxic way.
Wendy Newman, a photographerfrom Asheville, North Carolina, Western
North Carolina.
Her art world horror story isone of natural disaster because of

(08:30):
course we just happen to beliving on a rock hurling in space
where animals on a planet,we're victims to its whims and natural
occurrences for good, bad and indifferent.
And Wendy, Wendy writes my artalong with hundreds of other artists
all had our art at the MarquisArt Gallery in the River Arts district
of Asheville, North Carolinawhen Hurricane Helene hit Asheville

(08:55):
and devastated our town.
And this is what happened tothe art gallery.
My Wendy Newman designsumbrellas were the one thing left
intact in the gallery and theimages of the umbrellas were on the
Jackson Building and Cityhall, so symbolic that our town would
rise above the and find thelight at the end of the tunnel.

(09:15):
Here we are a year later andthings are still hard.
Two days after HurricaneHelene hit.
We could get onto the roads,we could drive around and see the
chaos and destruction.
I managed to get the umbrellasdown and sold them as part of the
Helene's history and gave oneto artists who had lost more than
I did.
I feel sad for thoserecovering and have no home.

(09:38):
Hurricanes and water can wreak havoc.
Yes, Hurricane Helene wreakedhavoc on hundreds and hundreds and
hundreds and hundreds ofartists in western North Carolina.
700 artists were displacedfrom the River Arts District alone,
let alone the surrounding 25counties in which Hurricane Helene
devastated.
And here we have Wendy Newman,an artist who's part of a gallery

(10:02):
along with other artists andthat whole gallery was devastated
in this hurricane.
Artists, hundreds of artistslosing all of their work Just horrifying.
And yet somehow Wendy herumbrellas became a symbol of resilience
and recovery, Jacobina Oliwrites, I was once invited to the
Netherlands for a week longpainting residency.

(10:24):
Artists from Russia,Argentina, the United States and
Germany gathered in the ruraldistrict of Zealand.
Our airfare, lodging andmaterials were covered, but in return
we had to let the publicobserve our process.
Painting a nude model,creating portraits of people in costume,

(10:46):
and developing studio works.
A percentage of sales would goback to the organizers.
I didn't care about the money,jacobina writes.
What mattered to me was thefellowship of peers, watching them
work, exchanging knowledge andsharing inspiration.
It was an intensely joyfulexperience, and I was invited back
the following year.
During the residency, Jacobinawrites, I used the new model studies

(11:10):
as seeds for deeper work.
Born in Zealand, I felt astrong connection to the history
of its old cities, itsseafaring heroes and its devastating
floods.
The regional motto, whichtranslates as I struggle and emerge,
echoed in me, Jacobina writes.
From this I created a 36 by 36inch oil painting, a vulnerable naked

(11:36):
woman rising from the watersas history collapsed around her.
I didn't fully grasp itsmeaning then, but the work sold on
opening day.
The buyer was also the event'smain sponsor.
By the time I returned thenext year, Jacobina writes, the symbolism
of the piece had become clear,and I wanted to share that with the

(11:57):
owner.
I arrived early and stopped atthe local art supply store, which
also doubled as a framing shop.
Then I saw it.
My painting desecrated.
Only the head had been framed.
The rest had been cut up anddiscarded like trash shaking.
I phoned the ownerimmediately, Jacobina writes.

(12:18):
The story that unfolded wasdarker than I could have imagined.
His wife, jealous of hisaffection for me, had decided to
take a knife to my work, myintellectual property destroyed out
of spite.
The fallout was surreal.
I was eventually handed a$10,000 check for damages, but only

(12:38):
on the condition that I nevercontact the man again, Jacobina writes.
Once I got back home, Ipainted the same image once more.
This time, however, it carrieda deeper resonance.
It was no longer just a symbolof struggle and emergence, but also
a story of violation,betrayal, and rebirth through creation

(13:00):
itself.
In a strange way, I feltempowered, Jacobina writes.
I saw a man trapped in anabusive relationship, capable of
love, yet captivated and confined.
That vision made me recognizethe reflection of my own marriage,
bound in similar patterns.
With that realization, I choseto walk away.

(13:22):
The result was ultimatefreedom, the power to create the
life and circumstances Idesired rather than living within
someone else's.
Idea of me.
The woman in the painting wasvulnerable but strong.
And the painting is still inmy possession.
Wow, Jacobina, that is quite a story.

(13:43):
And Wendy and Melissa andJacobina each are sharing the horrors
that artists can experience,whether it's by the hand of another
or the hand of Mother Nature,or even our own hand.
If we post something on socialmedia and inadvertently kick up a
hornet's nest, it's like theold saying, no good deed goes unpunished

(14:06):
and the road to hell is pavedwith good intentions, right?
Well, bad things happen togood artists all the time, and they're
going to happen to you andthey're going to happen to me.
And it's not that it happens,it's what we do about it.
In the end, do we run or do we fight?
Do we cower or do we stand up?
Do we find courage or cowardice?

(14:29):
At the end of the day, we findout what we're made of.
When the times get tough, whenbad things happen to good people
and the horrors of life becomereal, all we can truly control at
the end of the day is ourattitude and our spirit.
Are we going to rise up like aphoenix from the ashes and fight?

(14:50):
Or are we going to cower andbe scared and let life get the best
of us?
Are we going to find thatinner strength to triumph and transcend
the horrors of life?
That, my friend, is up to You.
Choose courage.
Choose strength.
Choose perseverance.
When bad things happen Happy Halloween.

(15:12):
Oh darkness falls as chillsabound Just when you felt all safe
and sound this heart is losingtheir bloody minds as their hard
work turns on evil eyes Tworse than nightmares t worse than
fears as artists cry horrifictears welcome to Art World Horror

(15:38):
Stories.
Thanks for listening to theNot Real Art podcast.
Please make sure to like thisepisode, write a review and share
with your friends on Social.
Also, remember to subscribe soyou get all of our new episodes.
Not Real Art is produced byCrew West Studios in Los Angeles.

(16:01):
Our theme music was created byRicky Pageau and Desi Delauro from
the band Parlor Social.
Not Real Art is created by weedit podcasts and hosted by Captivate.
Thanks again for listening toNot Real Art.
We'll be back soon withanother inspiring episode celebrating
creative culture and theartists who make it.
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