Welcome to "Behind The Studio Door," the podcast unveiling Rochester's creative heart. I'm Molly Rivera, alongside Christian Rivera and producer Chris Lindstrom. We're diving into the diverse art scene of Rochester, NY, a city pulsing with artistic energy.

Our series explores the lives of local artists, musicians, and unique talents like wrestlers. It's more than their art; it's about their journeys, struggles, and triumphs. We'll uncover what inspires a graffiti artist, how a musician's melodies tell untold stories, and the impact of Rochester's history on a playwright's work.

Join us as we connect with these creators, understanding their processes and the personal narratives shaping their art. This podcast isn't just about showcasing talent; it's about bridging the gap between artists and the community, celebrating the shared spirit of creativity.

In this introduction, we set the stage for a series of intimate and enlightening talks. Whether you're a local, an art lover, or just curious, "Behind The Studio Door" is your gateway to the soul of Rochester's art world. Let's embark on this journey together and discover the passion and stories behind the city's vibrant art scene.

Thank you for tuning in. Stay inspired!

Listeners can expect a variety of topics, from the technical aspects of creating art to the introspective questions about the role of art in society. Discussions will range from the tactile details of sculpting to the psychological nuances of developing a wrestling persona, and everything in between.

"Behind The Studio Door" is not just a podcast; it's a mission to build a stronger, interconnected creative community. Through these conversations, we aim to inspire, challenge, and connect listeners, fostering a sense of unity and collaboration within the Rochester art scene.

Mentioned in this episode:

Lunchador Podcast Network

Lunchador Podcast Network is a network of podcasts originating in Rochester, NY. Our goal is bringing creative people together to be a positive force in the arts community. The shows that make up Lunchador are owned by the creators and cover a wide range of topics and backgrounds. http://lunchador.org/

BTSD_ Introduction Episode

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

rochester, visual art, wrestlers, background, podcast, chris, work, community, creative, feeling, creative professionals, artists, facilitation, designing, different industries, making, professional, excited, creativity, podcast network

SPEAKERS

Molly Rivera, Chris Lindstrom, Christian Rivera

Hey everybody, this is Molly Rivera of the Darling revolution. And this is behind the studio door podcast, a podcast where we are taking a glimpse behind the curtain of working creative professionals in Rochester, New York, both in their physical process, as well as some of the internal emotional processes that get them to where they're trying to go. And I want to introduce you to a couple of people here next to me is Christian, you want to introduce yourself, you're my co host.

Hi! my name is Christian Rivera, also your husband, yeah, partner, hey, and creative partner, friend, I would hope we're friends and hang out, we spent a lot of time together talking about creativity. And we've been talking about this project for a little while, and how we want to connect with artists around the Rochester area to really find out what their process is like, like what they're feeling during that process. And I personally want to like poke a little bit and ask some questions around, like, what their relationship to art and art making and community, and maybe even things like purpose, like how does that connect to those things. So those things will emerge as we have those conversations, but I'm excited to be a part of it. So thanks for inviting me.

Thanks for coming. And I just also want to acknowledge our host and producer and all around

amazing talking guy, Chris Lindstrom.

Hello, hello, thanks so much for coming over. We're recording here in the food about town studio today. Really happy to have you both here. And really happy to have you as part of the ever expanding and growing luncheon or podcast network here in Rochester. We're gonna have our official launch coming up in November, hopefully, with I think over 10 shows. And these are all the people who are building community here in Rochester, people that are bringing positivity to all the different aspects that we cover on the network. So if you want to learn more about the shows on the network, and hear about what else is going on in Rochester and around everywhere, because we do general things as well, helping go to lunch at our podcasts on Instagram, you'll see things shared from all the different shows on the network. And you'll check out food about town as well. That's my show, talking about food and drink in Rochester is

a pretty good show, I've heard.

I've heard good things. Thanks so much for having us, Chris, I'm really excited about this podcast network because it really highlights the creative community in Rochester, which is also what I want us to be highlighting with this show. So when I first had the idea for the podcast, it was like a year ago, I want to say and I went through a couple iterations. And I'm really excited to welcome Christian see my husband as the co host, because we both have creative backgrounds. And we're going to talk about that a little bit in our introduction episode here. And I'm really, really interested in what's going to come from the interviews that we have, we're going to talk to creatives in Rochester, not just in visual arts, but also musicians and producers and you know, photographers, I guess that's technically still visual art, sculptors and all kinds of like curators, and people

Yeah, I'm really curious to see what ideas for people that we want to talk to, like, come about, because I was like, I wonder if I could find like a local wrestler and talk to them about like trying to build their character. And what does that mean?

Oh, we've got local wrestlers who... We have a few actually, that some, some have been on major promotions, and have done some traveling recently, and some that are based in our area that do that, um, it'd be super exciting.

I will be making a note of that.

I'm definitely a wrestling guy, by the way I saw you were and I'm like, Oh, I'm excited to talk about that stuff.

Yeah, that's all I ever talked about on Twitter or X. I'm not used to calling it x yet. But it's like, check your Twitter. I'm like, What's Twitter doesn't exist anymore, man. Ya know, the wrestling would be amazing, especially if we have local wrestlers, because I'm just so interested in talking to people who use creativity in all kinds of different ways, especially in a professional capacity. Because it seems to me that there's there's such a concentration of creative professionals in and around Rochester. And everything has changed, especially in the last couple of years. And I'm just really interested in digging into what's up, you know, like, what's going on behind the studio door of people who are working and creating and how are people feeling and what's the community feeling like for them, you know

and I'm curious about the Rochester part of it because I'm not from here. I'm from Philadelphia, and then I lived on the west coast for seven years. And I've Rochester has actually helped me dig into the artist side of myself. I've always been a creative service person for 20 years since I was like about 15 years old, I've been making flyers and photography and video editing podcasting, which is actually nice to have Chris here doing the technical stuff. And I don't have to do any right

when I, when I invited him, Chris, he was like, do I have to do anything? Or can I just show up late you can just show up and talk and he's like, great. That's all I want to do.

Does make it a lot easier doesn't it?

I feel like a star He brought me water

real hardcore thing a Tupperware going on and he gave us like, the fancy

I'm drinking. Like anybody who's been around the restaurant industry, like I'm drinking from a quart deli container. Yeah. Because they're like, they're just sitting in my cap. And I'm like, Yeah, of course I drink from these are the best

eight. Yeah, that is the restaurant guy thing to do. For sure. Yeah.

But I was I was really excited when you mentioned the Rochester has brought out the some of that side of what you like to do. Because I think that's a fascinating topic for what you're talking about, too. Because Rochester, you know, although we're you were based in Rochester, these are, these are stories that are universal. But there's something about going to a new place to revisit your own perspective on what are you what are you doing? Right. And we're going to tell you the story, it will be through the lens of Rochester, you know, so to speak, but it this is, you know, the the journey of learning about yourself through creativity. You know, sometimes a change of venue does that to you too, right? Yeah.

Yeah, it absolutely did for me, I think. And that's really what I'm hoping to discover. Not only I've been trying to discover that within myself, like what is it about Rochester? That's been bringing that out of me. But I'm really curious about the artists that we bring in here. Like, what about Rochester has brought that out of them? And what, what kind of artists is Rochester breeding, for better or worse?

happening here, like I'm interested, I'm so interested in research and qualitative research. And part of my background is I was it I was a teacher, and I almost got my PhD. And it's a whole other story. But um, this is kind of me digging into investigative journalism in a way, you know, seeing what's going on with everybody. And so that was a great segue to you, you know, kind of given a little bit of your background in creativity. Do you want to talk a little bit more about what that actually looks like? Like you worked in the film industry for a little bit?

Yeah, yeah. So I guess the, you know, my dad started from advertising background, so I started working with him when I was about 15 years old, like I, I was like, a Photoshop seven person, like way back in the day, when you used to pirate it and find ways to steal it on the internet. You know, it's been long enough where I'm not gonna get caught by anybody.

So definitely not we're gonna say I remember the pre seven versions, right, of doing that as

well. Yes.

So, you know, I got my feet wet with Photoshop. And I started doing the first time I created, like art for like a professional purpose. I guess you can call it professional. It was like, the back of my book reports. Like I really didn't like doing book reports in school. But I put kids enterprises with a Z on the back of my book report and like a little clip art, and designed the whole thing. It was a lot of fun.

I know. I know. I know. I think there was a part of me that felt like I should be modest. Like I just was.

Three Three Z's is ostentatious. I think it's pretty general convention that three Z's too many I didn't use.

Yeah, I didn't want to put anyone to sleep after crazies is asleep. So I don't I don't want to do all that. I'm so glad we have a professional producer. Fantastic. What a joy. So I mean, I'll speed it along. Basically, I my dad had an advertising business. I was like, I went to my dad one day because I was working at Taco Bell. And I was like, I don't want to do this. And I was like, Can I work for you? I can design some flyers, whatever. So I started doing flyers. I started designing posters for like carnivals. I've worked for he had all sorts of clients in various car dealerships, and dentists and direct TV and all sorts of different areas that I was just like, able to do all sorts of work in different industries. And I think that's been a pattern throughout my career is that I eventually went into the TV industry and then worked in film and when I worked in film marketing, I got to work for like, a couple of different genres. Yeah, okay. Thank you. I'm okay breaking the fourth wall if you're like, hey, just get get closer to the minor

adjustments. And that's, it's, you know, this is, I think, today's kind of a fun learning process because I get to learn about both of you today. Yeah, yeah, we're it's exciting to have people over for the first time where we've gotten to know each other very briefly, but I get to learn about both you today. And you get to learn that I care about everything when it comes to details

Yeah, that's great. We love it. We love it.

I just learned to get closer to the microphone. Fantastic.

Wait a second. Let's I'm gonna I'm going to get you back in. This should reset ready

to talk to you like I just launched off the starting line.

And there's your wrestling intro go go right.

To the undertaker. The Undertaker if he was at Taco Bell. Perfect. So

this is real scene work here. Really? Yeah.

Imrpov is like comedy. I would love to talk to comedians and stuff like that. We got them. And so basically my story is that I've done a lot of work for various different industries. And I spent a lot of time doing film marketing stuff where it was just like, I worked on horror movies and transformer movies, I worked on 50 Shades of Grey for way too long. It was like 18 months of that

Now, what's the name of that font

Dido? November

Comic Sans.

We're way past 50 Shades of Grey

Grey in Comic Sans. What a delight. There's something about elevators, in comics and comics. But I mean, that's the basis of my story. And from there, I've just lately again, with being in Rochester and making more stuff for myself, which is not something I've always been comfortable doing. I've always done service work. So it's a shift for me as well

and that's why I thought it was really gonna be helpful to have your almost equal and opposite perspective of me on the show, because not only have you worked for such a long time, designing and doing that, you know, creative briefs and creative projects for other people professionally, it's so different than the way that I came into it as an industry. So I was a

teacher for almost 10 years. And, you know, in ministry and worship leader and doing all of these very, like service community focused facilitation things. And then I started, I've been making art my entire life. I mentioned at the beginning of the show, but my whole gig is the Darling revolution. And I had my own podcast for a while. And I do a lot of visual art and painting and facilitation, I run an ugly art workshop. And there's just a bunch of things that I do. But I've always come at it from expression, personal expression, and really releasing the trapped energy in your body in like a much more woowoo process based, you know, like expressive, don't worry about what anyone else wants it to be. But that doesn't always make for a great business model kind of a thing. And so I think that it's really great that we have all of those different perspectives within the show, because then we'll be able to, you know, come at it from all those different perspectives. Yeah.

And I'll be curious about where people come from with that. Are they trying to be messier? Are they trying to be neater? Are they trying to work with clients and be more professional? Or are they trying to just like, they're, like, be messy and be, you know, be expressive, like, that's gonna be really interesting. And I think the other angle of that is that we're both kind of personal growth junkies, you know, like, I work with Personality Hacker, they're a client of mine, and have been for a long time and really good friends of mine. And we talk about personality types, different lines of development and stuff like that, that stuff specifically won't come up in this podcast. But what I'm saying is that, you know, all of that stuff is is things that we, there are things that we nerd out about. And I think I want to get a sense of the different kinds of artists from a personality perspective also is really interesting to me.

Yeah. And I'm, I'm interested in that. And I'm interested in like, emotionally, how are we all doing post Panini experiences? And because I know, like a lot of businesses have folded, a lot of businesses have grown or emerged, and it's just the whole landscape it feels like has shifted, and I'm sure that you can attest to this, Chris. Like, I'm just really interested almost in the geology of the Rochester creative community.

Yeah. And it's, things are changing so fast right now. I think there's I think it is a truly fascinating time to be talking about this kind of stuff in detail. I think we're at a inflection point in town where, you know, this, the the communities are being built are the ones that are going to keep people in Rochester. It's not the big institutions. It's people really doing the work and building community here. I just wanted to least take a step back and look at like, Hey, you, you mentioned like, Hey, this is you I come from this from, you know, a faith background and from this and from that, which is wildly diametrically opposite to me which I have none. I have zero I have no, it's not my thing whatsoever. But I think, you know, talking about, hey, where people get some of the creativity, what, where are they driving this from to because those routes are so different. You know, we have lots of people of different backgrounds on the network as well. But it's always interesting for me to hear about that kind of stuff, because it's so opposite of my, of my style and background. And it's just completely different,

right. And it's also like, radically changed, at least for me, like, I come from a faith background. But I left the church in 2017. And that was like a major deconstructive period for me. And it's really evident in my visual work, like I am expressing about that kind of thing all the time. So those kinds of stories and insights and changes, especially over the last 10 years, three years, two years, you know, six months even are really interesting to me. Because I've had so many, yeah, conversations with so many people, and I just want to I want to catalog them, and I want to document them, and I want to have them, you know, hear and also my other ulterior motive is to build more community. So it's like, you hear our conversations, you get inspired about something you reach out and you know, we build some collaborations from that, or, you know, we talked to a wrestler, and then we end up inspiring this wrestler about a visual art thing or, you know, we're really like cross pollinating, and connecting on a deeper level.

I hope we get to the point where you're like painting a wrestlers leotard. While we're recording. I don't know what wrestlers wear these days when they're starting out, but

I would love somebody in a promo just to yell out my brain. Is it animal?

Yes. There it is. That's the promo. You know

I mean, hopefully, I mean, it'd be cool if these things ended up turning into brainstorming opportunities for people who are on here, because like, we've got creative experience and minds that we could share ideas around and stuff. And like, it's speaking to like, where people are coming from and their motivations and stuff. It's like, I came from a much more atheistic background, still very much tied to Christianity, but I was more anti, I was more of a goth kid, more of like the, like rooting for the end of the world. Like, the, you know, Queen of the Damned and stuff and all the new metal in the early 2000s. I was totally that kid wearing ball chains and, and baggy jeans and all that nonsense. So it's just a it's a different experience and perspective. And I'm excited to, to get to know where where people are coming from.

Yeah, we're like the yin and yang of this show. And then Chris is like the balancing point!

where I live. I love that side of where my life has gone with all this stuff is somebody brought it up the other day is like, Oh, you're, you're a community builder. And like, I never, ever would have thought of myself that way, right? 00 times did I ever think about that? Yeah, as something that I've done on purpose, right? It's just, you know, in the name of the show, on the lunch at our show will be our title show is just gonna be called just can't not in talking to people that just can't not do the things they're doing. And that's what's driven me over the last, you know, decade plus, of being really involved in the food scene and everything else is, I just can't help myself. Like, I have no choice in my brain, but to get involved. And it's turned into something that now people's perceptions of what I do, are different than what I've always perceived it as. And I think that's something that, you know, talking to people in the creative side of things, is how do you perceive your own work? And How do other people how do you think other people perceive your work? And then you can say from the way you look at it, but it's it's a it's a really interesting topic that I've personally struggled with a lot. Yeah.

And it's, it's feels like it's never ending. And there's always more questions to ask. So. And that's a perfect segue to really close out our introductory episode, because I think the main thing that we're going to focus on is a quote that I love from Walt Whitman, that is, be curious, not judgmental. And so we're just going to be leading with curiosity and asking more questions. And then I'm sure lots of other questions are going to come up.

So yes, feed my brain. That's all I want. So join us as we

Eat brains and ask questions, eating brains and asking questions behind the studio tour.

This has been a presentation of the Lunchador Podcast Network