We’re putting the spotlight on Lake Ontario: a body in light — Alyssa Marzoff DeWitt’s big photo-and-performance project about Lake Ontario and how climate change is quietly (and not-so-quietly) remaking it, so if you care about water, weather, or just dramatic sunsets, this is the one to see.

Check out the episode on Just Can't Not wherever you get your podcasts or on Lunchador.org!

https://player.captivate.fm/episode/e41d4c49-7b18-47bf-a797-93195cdf9a85/

The installation of large-scale photos is up for the whole Fringe run and the live performances happen at the Central Library Rundell Arts Room on September 17 at 5:30pm and September 19 at 2:30pm — both shows are free, and you should definitely snag tickets at rochesterfringe.com or just rock up if you’re feeling spontaneous. Expect four very different acts — poems from Meredith Bready, a wind-and-wave-inspired modular synth piece from Precious Kindred, a quad-speaker ambient set by Sam Hirsh, and a noisier turn by Signal Chain Romance — mixed with Alyssa’s immersive, space-based photos that riff on scale, scope, and the sublime nature of the lake. We talk plainly about why this matters: warming water from industry and data centers, ballast-water invasions (hello zebra mussels and surprise algae blooms), and the tangible sadness and wonder that comes when a landscape you love starts to change — Alyssa’s approach is to invite people in rather than scare them off. The episode also digs into the weird political noise (yes, that baffling renaming stunt) that’s now threaded into how people will read the work, so the show becomes both an aesthetic experience and a small historical timestamp. Looking ahead, Alyssa’s got a yearlong residency lined up to expand the project into portraits, experimental water-based prints, collaborations with RIT scientists, and eventually a book — so come see it, sit with it, and follow the journey at alyssamdewitt.com or @alyssamdewittphoto on Instagram; we’ll be there making waves and maybe even a few puns about being shore-ish.

Mentioned in this episode:

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Well, with the power of technology working properly, we are here in the Lunchadore podcast studios.

This is your host, Chris Lindstrom.

We're here to talk about the Rochester Fringe festival happening from September 15th to the 26th in scene downtown Rochester, New York.

Go to rochesterfringe.com to get your tickets today and you want to get your tickets to as many events as you can.

I'm here with a guest.

Guest, why don't you introduce yourself?

I am Alyssa Marzoff DeWitt and I'm a photographer putting on a space based live performance event for Fringe this year.

Those are very specific words, so let's get the plugs out first.

So it's.

The show is called Lake A Body in light happening on September 17th and the 19th.

Both events are free.

5:30 On the 17th, 2:30 on Saturday the 19th.

So let's first just talk about the show.

So what is a Body in Light?

Yeah, so I, for the last, I say 13 years, but it really ramped up in the last year, year and a half I've been photographing Lake Ontario and we're going to just keep calling it that.

Yeah, well, we're going to dive into that in a few minutes because I do want to talk about it as obvious.

Obviously it's going to have to be something you know now, but we'll talk about that a little bit.

Yeah, that's the title of the project.

It's an ongoing photo series about Lake Ontario and the event includes performances by four different acts or four different.

Yeah, we'll say acts.

That sounds wrong but.

And they're all different and interesting in their own way.

And I'm really excited to put this on and I hope people can come see it.

It's up the whole two weeks.

The photo, the photo aspect is up the whole two weeks, but the performances are those two dates.

Yeah.

And this is over at the Central Library in the Rundell Arts Room.

So this is a very accessible space, easy to get to, you know, fairly simple to park downtown to go to that.

So very much worth the time to go to whether it's for the event or not.

I do find it amusing that you're talking about his ax.

You sound like a vaudeville producer.

I know, that's exactly.

I was like, well, that's the thing.

One, one, I'll name them and say what they're going to do so people can, if it's something that they're interested in, they'll be more likely to check it out.

So we have a poet, Meredith Brady, and she is going to do two or three poems.

We have Precious Kindred, which is going to be like a conceptual piece based on the historical data of the changes in the wind on the lake.

Huh.

I know.

It's gonna be really cool sounding.

It's run through synthesizer, modular synthesizer.

And I think that one is gonna be really kind of straightforward with how.

With the inspiration.

But I love the concept there.

Have you heard some of it already?

Yeah.

So it's actually my husband, I was gonna say.

It's like that has to be just.

Just a like fantastically semi abstract way of conceiving this scientific.

Yeah, the scientific phenomenon, right.

Yes.

I think it's a.

It's hard to.

For me, thinking about music, or we will call it sonic art.

It's not quite music, I would say, about something like a lake.

I almost feel like it has to have almost like a literal aspect to it to give it something that.

That will cling on to the idea.

I'm kind of the same way with a lot of like, I can.

Usually I'll appreciate photography or art from a technical perspective and I'll try to grab what is the intent or emotional intent of it.

And sometimes it'll make me feel something.

Most of the time it's like, oh, I really enjoyed this.

Like, oh, you used HDR very judiciously on this picture.

You really, really grabbed something specific about an environment.

Yeah.

And that's how I will engage with an artist because that's.

That's how I typically see things.

I appreciate that.

It's like, oh, photography might be more interpretive for you.

Yep.

Because you were over on behind the Glass and we had talked then.

But when it's outside of your zone, then it becomes technical and more like, oh, I don't fully understand this.

Yeah.

And I always.

Whenever I try to understand a different medium or media, I always compare it to photography.

It just helps me understand.

So that's the first two acts.

The third is Sam Hirsch, local musician, and he's going to be making something also with modular synth, but he is going to have four speakers set up in four corners of the room.

So it's going to have like a special sound that isn't typical.

And I'm excited for that because it's just like water.

I always relate everything back to water, which is obviously the theme here.

That I want everything to seem somehow analogous to water.

And then the fourth is Signal Chain Romance, which is Aiden and Cat.

And they're going to do, I think.

I'm not totally sure yet.

It'll Be a little bit of a surprise, but I would say it might be a little bit more like a noise genre of music.

And so they're all different, but I think they work together well.

And then the photo installation aspect is.

I'm not going to say too much about it because I want it to be a surprise, but it's my largest scale show I've ever done.

Yeah.

Well, let's talk about the inspiration for the show, because we kind of dove into this on the behind the Glass podcast by.

Let's revisit.

So the inspiration for the show is the lake, but it's not like, oh, what a magnificent lake and body of water kind of show.

Right.

It's more about the climate change aspect.

Because when I started going to the lake, often I would bring my camera.

I would take like a picture.

I would take one or two frames.

I shoot medium, so one or two is fine.

Yeah.

But on a good day, I'll take a couple rolls there.

But I didn't think about it much because I would just be there to walk.

And then I started going with my camera more and more during COVID I mean, what else are you gonna do but go for a walk outside during this time?

And I also.

Your government mandated little walk.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because if you don't go on your little walk, you're gonna lose it, honestly.

And I have twins.

I had twins at home nine months when first lockdown started.

Oh, wow.

And we had a nanny situation that fell apart because of COVID Yeah.

And we were both.

I was furloughed.

My husband was still working, but, like, it was so stressful and it was like my space to go try to relax and feel better.

Also to be present with, like, with kids that are learning about the world and that obviously it's so loaded and distressing, but there's something special and grounding about that.

Oh, we're just going to walk outside.

We're just gonna be people in an environment for a little bit.

Yeah.

And going to Durand especially is.

There's so much space.

And on a weekday, especially, like when it's not super hot out, there's almost no one there.

There's a few people here and there.

Yeah.

But you can go actually relax, I think, for me.

But then, of course, me being me, I can't fully enjoy everything just as it is.

I have to be like, you know, this lake.

I started thinking, you know, this lake is probably not going to be like this when I'm an old lady.

I don't know what it's going to be like.

And then, you know, there's a lot of things in the news about the AI data centers and they take up the water and they spit it back out and it heats the water.

And obviously we don't want that and it affects the drinking water also.

We don't want that.

And it's just like, well, but we're going to do it anyway apparently, because things are popping up all over and it's the project turned into more of a therapeutic again.

I'm.

A lot of times my stuff ends up being therapeutic in some way.

It's like how I know I care, right, Is that I feel better after I get a little bit of work done there.

So.

Yeah, so it's.

It's about climate change, it's about fear of it, it's about losing nature, whatever way that means.

Like, I think some people probably lost some trees a few days ago.

That's always sad, especially if it's on your property or something you can see from your front lawn or whatever.

But yeah, it's.

It's really about the feelings of sadness that come with every aspect of nature it feels lately.

So, yeah, I think that's.

I think it's one of those, like when you take a step back and you look at what is.

What's the way we're understanding the world.

And I think on to be probably too generous in many ways.

Right.

There is when, when we have these moments of fear or existential dread or all these other things, there are ways, there are ways that people handle it.

Right.

I'd say it's some react in fear and then that turns to anger and hatred and so many different things.

Yeah.

And I think the other side is trying to understand things more deeply and live in the gray area of life and then maybe document and try to talk about how this impacts.

Right.

It's that how do you process these fears?

How do you process this?

You know, being scared about things, a lot of it is very wildly, deeply unproductive and bad for society.

I think the other side is honesty and, and transparency and trying to endeavor to learn more and maybe get people to care about something too.

Yeah, I think that's exactly.

That's beautifully put.

And I think you relate.

It's like, I'm sad about this thing, so I'll go there more often.

And then when I'm older and I look back, I know I spent a lot of time there rather than maybe not thinking about it or blocking it out.

And then it's.

For me, that'd be worse because then you're not enjoying the thing that is maybe changing.

I don't want to say disappearing, but changing in certain ways that affect the world around us, whether it be like people who fish there, people who live on the border, like on the shore, their land is going to adjust.

And not to mention all the, all the water that comes in from the sea, the barges.

Yeah.

This is something I learned about recently, and I was appalled.

No, go ahead, please.

Okay.

So a lot of people who know this are probably going to think like a duh.

But for me, it was brand new information.

So I vacation in Clayton in the Thousand Islands, and one of the favorite things that we do there is we sit on the front porch and we watch the huge ships come by.

And I'm reading.

I'm still reading.

I know I talked about this last time.

I haven't gotten very far in the book, but I'm reading this book called the Death and Life of the Great Lakes.

And it's a.

It's.

Because it's a rough topic.

It's taking me a long time to read it, but one of the things I learned about is the ships that come from specifically Asia have ballast water.

So the ship collects the water in wherever it's docked and.

And it balances the ship out with all the freight that it's going to carry, and then it comes on over and it releases the water when it gets here.

And all that water with all those invasive species get dropped into the St. Lawrence river and then the St. Lawrence river empties into the lake.

Or is it the other way around?

I think it's that way.

Yeah, but.

And it's.

It's like, oh, okay, that's information I didn't have before.

And then the more granular you get, the more like, ooh, that's bad.

That's bad news.

And so a lot of the problems that we have with, like the algae and I think it was last summer, there was tons of fish.

I don't know specifically why they were all dead, but.

But there were dead fish all over the beach.

And I'm reading this book and I'm like, oh, okay, there's.

This is probably directly causing this because what happens is the algae.

The algae is supposed to be getting eaten by a fish that is no longer populated enough to take care of it.

And it's all connected, which we know.

But it's crazy.

Like, I grew up in.

I grew up in the, you know, south towns of Buffalo area.

Same.

And.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, think about like something that came up when I was a kid, you know, sometime in the 90s, was zebra mussels, right?

Oh, yeah.

Remember hearing about zebra muscles?

Are those the ones that, that collect in without rocks?

Yeah, they're collecting on the surfaces and.

Other things just, they collect together without any surface needed, which is something that they realized, like, kind of too late.

Right.

And they're completely fascinating, but, like, they're invasive.

And it completely changed the way, like, the water was handling in Lake Erie.

And it was too clean.

Right.

And as a kid.

Right.

You know, the other thing that you hear about was Lake Ontario being wildly, wildly polluted, both Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, wildly polluted lakes.

And you know, through conscientious work, you know, they've become way more.

Way more clean and way more usable for lots of different activities, including fishing, including other things.

But it's not that long ago, Right.

We're talking even the 80s where these.

You weren't supposed to eat anything out of the lake.

And through proper environmental protections and chemical, you know, chemical restrictions and things like that are now being stripped away.

Yeah.

We had, like, we're, we're in a spot where the lakes are better in many ways than they've been in, you know, 50, 60 years.

That's true.

We came a long way.

Which makes it extra heartbreaking when you see, oh, companies can do this now or pollute this way now.

Toxic waste where now.

And it feels, it's aggravating because you're like, but we know better.

We've already done the work to learn and change and apply things, change laws even.

And it's like, hopefully it's only going to be a couple years more of scary, scary, and then it'll hopefully swing the other way back to protecting and preserving.

But in the, in the here and now, it's like it feels a little bit more urgent to talk about it.

So people are aware and can care because without the awareness, it's like you don't know what you don't know.

Right.

So part of the project also is gently telling people or, or alluring people, I want to say, to look at it more on their own terms.

Yeah, I appreciate that mentality as well.

I, as somebody who does care about many things, there's a.

There's a balance.

Yeah.

In.

I mean, I like, facts are facts.

You know, for me, I like knowing facts.

But when they are, there's the, there's an element after you know something, after you know so much about something that you have this intensity, this intense thing like you have to know about this right now.

Right.

It feels urgent to spread the word.

Yeah.

Right.

And then when people aren't seeing, it becomes you.

You get angry.

Right.

You get angry and you get.

You get more extreme.

And then there's the.

There's the purity of it.

Right.

Where you're doing anything that's incorrect and the.

It's not wrong.

Right.

It's not wrong to feel angry about these things.

It's not wrong to feel despair about some of these things.

But when you're trying to get somebody to understand, sometimes that perspective can be very challenging.

Right.

That intensity and the.

The intensity and the purity and all these things can be.

So.

Can be very hard to then communicate with somebody that just.

They just might not know.

It doesn't mean they won't care.

They just usually.

That they don't know the.

Any specifics or the scale too.

And I think that's the other.

It's hard to describe scale.

It is.

Yeah.

And I think that.

I think that laying an idea down in front of someone and then kind of leaving it there.

Cause I do love.

I'm the same way.

I'm like, did you know that's my internal.

Yeah.

And I'm really bad at absorbing information and sharing it accurately.

It's more of like, it's better for me to make art about what I've learned because I'm not.

I can't articulate it back to people as well.

But just a couple little tidbits of info and then kind of leave the conversation alone.

Cause it's too much for most people.

Sure.

And hopefully they'll think about it later when they're feeling it.

I don't know.

This isn't a topic most people love to.

To think about, but.

But just giving enough information just to hopefully grab interest and not like, ruin their day.

Yeah.

Debbie Downer style.

Yeah.

I always.

I'm like, this information is too important.

I have to share it.

And then I'm like, well, that didn't work.

And it's because I can't, like, it can't be too intense.

Yeah.

Sometimes.

Sometimes it's good to do it that way.

I feel like there's a good range out there.

But my style, I think, is more to, like, try to be inviting into the conversation rather than scary.

Yeah.

And I think it's me.

I was kind of reflecting back while you're talking about that on a word that I used, which was scale.

Right.

Scale and scope.

Yeah.

It's really hard to understand because, I mean, just people know that we Have a lake in our backyard.

Yeah, I don't.

It's.

It's hard to appreciate how big it is.

Yeah.

And how big when something goes wrong.

How big of a ship that is to move the other way.

Right.

That it is.

This is.

We have the.

The term is not used with false modesty.

They are great Lakes.

These are huge bodies of water.

That's right.

When you're.

When you're choosing the pictures, right.

Because you've taken so many.

When you're choosing the pictures, do you try to.

Do you try to reflect on just beauty?

Do you try to reflect on poignancy?

Do you try to reflect on the scale and scope?

Because it's so hard to understand.

Sometimes art is the way to understand scale and scope.

Because that's a great question.

I.

So the work scale and scope means to me like a great lake.

Like this means a lot of.

It has to be a lot of images.

And when it's.

Certain exhibitions you can only show so much.

Other ones you can show more.

It's space based.

This project is.

Or this exhibition installation is space based because the room that it's in, it's all glass, which is very akin to water.

It's right on the Genesee.

You can, like, if you're real quiet in there, you can hear it rushing.

Cause it goes right underneath.

It's not underneath the library, but it's right next to it.

It's real close.

It's right up against the foundation of the library.

You can almost feel it.

It's like almost a spiritual experience looking out the window from there.

And so I do think that this is a project that requires a lot of work to do a thorough job.

I want to do a complete.

I want to feel like it's complete in the story.

I don't want it to just be landscapes.

I don't want it to just be pretty pictures.

But I'm also.

I purposefully do not photograph.

Kind of just garbage.

Like when you think about going to, like, sometimes, you know, there's people's garbage, people's leftover bonfires and things like that.

Not interested in that.

And it's not helpful.

I don't think I'm more wanting to point it at, look how beautiful this is.

Words that come to mind are like, sublime, Paramount.

Yeah, just words that mean, like expansive.

Yes, those kinds of words.

But moving forward, I'm going to.

I'm going to start to focus in and hone in on portraits of people who are live at the lake, work at the lake, exercise anything, basically.

That brings them there often, like, regularly.

I'm interested in photographing all those people.

So it's.

It's.

It's a landscape project that's turning now to be a little bit more conceptual and a little bit more portraiture.

Yeah.

And I love that, too, because this.

It's.

So what is our relationship with, like I said, a truly important body of water that lives in our backyard.

What is our relationship?

I'm.

I'm, you know, a quarter mile from a bay.

I'm a quarter mile from the bay, and I stop and look at the lake once a year, twice a year, really.

Not almost never.

I bet that's normal.

I bet I'm the weird one.

Twice a week, at least.

When you.

When you reflect on that, you're like, oh, that's.

That's kind of depressing.

Right.

Because I'm.

It's something I love to do when I'm not here.

Right.

If I'm in the Adirondacks, I just want to sit.

Yeah.

And then I don't do that in a space that would make my life better by going a quarter mile away and sit at a bench in front of a lake and just relax with somebody you like or somebody you love, and you just relax for a little bit.

The relationship that we all have with this body of water is one of the defining things about where we live.

Yes.

Maybe a little different than, like, Watertown.

That is impacted by it in a very different way.

Yeah.

But as climate change happens, we're going to be impacted by the lake warming up as well, and we're already starting to see that.

But I will say, being near freshwater, very, very A good place to be.

Absolutely.

So it's got pros and cons, but one of the reasons why this area is booming for people who are moving and buying homes is because it's climate change kind of.

I want to say friendly, but it's supposed to be a spot that does well because of where it is and what kind of seasons we already have.

And that is an interesting concept because the more people who come here, the worst off the climate will be because just more people equals larger footprint.

But at the same time, I feel really proud that we have sort of like a safer zone that we can kind of feel safe in.

I don't want to say that after all these tornadoes just rip through, but there's.

It is a little bit more.

I don't know what the word is.

It feels safer in a.

In a grander scope.

Yeah.

Because, I mean, you're seeing The.

You're seeing the.

What was inevitable for people who were paying attention, the inevitable fights over water in the Southwest that are starting to happen more intensely right now.

I mean, this was.

The path was inevitable and it was going to happen at some point.

And we're just starting to see it here in the U.S. yeah.

While this has started to happen other areas of the world already, we're starting to see it here now.

And it's.

All of it is very disconcerting, which, you know, I'd say is one of those reasons to go and sit and be present with something that is important to our environment, is important to the people, and it's important to the people who have been here for a long time before our current society.

Yeah.

Let's not forget that.

Right.

And let's, you know, let's dive into a completely unfair topic that has put itself upon you as now a creative, creative person who is talking about the lake that you didn't plan for.

You planned for, you know, topics.

Right.

You planned for engaging in climate change, engaging into the feelings around being around the lake.

I'm relatively sure I'm.

Now, you tell me if I'm wrong.

I'm relatively sure you didn't plan on now having your show be, you know, a political statement.

Yeah.

With no intent.

Yeah.

And you have now, not that it's a public thing, not that like this is put upon you by everybody.

Right.

But it's just sort of a show that is trying to be observant, trying to be present in understanding things.

Now a new element has been thrown into that, and I think it's almost inevitable that the people showing up to the show are going to be thinking about that when they show up.

And what I'm referring to is the nonsensical renaming of the lake by a wildly, wildly deranged person trying to change the name of a lake that has been this name by the indigenous people for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years is just so petty and ridiculous and fundamentally stupid as an action.

But it also now affects the way people are going to perceive the work.

That's true.

Have you started to think about that a little bit?

I'm thinking about it now and I have been thinking about it, but you asking me the question now, I know I have to have an answer.

I think it's actually the name.

So the name is Lake Ontario Body and Light.

Right.

And it being named, that is like a time stamp.

Right.

But it's like you may be able to in the future see that historical name change as like a turning of your back to the climate change issues.

Yeah.

In a different way.

Because I would say that when he became president the first time, I grieved very bigly.

You saw it coming.

I grieved.

Stop it.

Yeah.

You know, I had to.

I grieved like the next four years at the time of what could have been done in certain ways to help the world.

Because I knew that he was gonna gut science, basically.

And it does have a huge effect on the health of the lake.

And then changing the name is also indicative of the clear.

What's the word?

I'll.

I'll use.

I'll use what I'm.

I think it's a clear disregard for history.

It's a clear disregard for the people that live here.

Yes.

And the people that are affected by these decisions.

Especially with, you know, somebody who grew up like we grew up in the Buffalo area.

Yes.

Our friends, our neighbors, our brothers and sisters.

Our.

Yeah.

Our friends across the border that we grew up being together.

Right.

You know, going to Canada is a regular thing.

Yep.

And we are, we are all together in this thing except for the.

These fake things that are being placed in between.

It's a made up problem that is just supposed to keep us from, keep the administration from focusing on real problems that people are screaming about regularly and putting pressure on.

It's like, it's like, what are you doing?

It's a complete sort of random.

It feels like a random attack on Canada.

I mean, it's not random.

You can pinpoint the reason why it's all there, but it's just ridiculous.

I don't see how, how there's any support for it.

I don't understand any support behind that.

Why would you want to change the name of something that there was no problem with it and all the rest are going to stay the same.

They all touch Canada, by the way.

So it just doesn't make sense.

No.

And it's.

And I, you know, I didn't.

This wasn't about like a put on to you as this thing.

It was more just like, oh, this is going to affect how people perceive who, how they're coming in now.

Yeah.

I immediately thought, I'm not changing the name.

I don't care.

And I don't think anybody's going to call it that.

And then like 24 hours later, it's like our area is going viral for refusing to adjust to the new name.

And I think, I don't want to know.

I don't know how many, what percentage of people are on board to just keep saying Lake Ontario, but I want to say it's the majority.

I think it's as close to as everybody is as possible.

But I think it also just shows the.

It shows the childishness of this decision because are we going to do.

Is it now not Ontario, New York?

It's America New York.

That's what I said, America County.

I mean, think about Ontario, California.

He didn't think outside that one little narrow thought of Lake Ontario.

Like, is there anything else called that.

That what a childish reaction to, to being, to being rightfully put in your place by another country by standing up to bullies.

Right.

This is, it's just reciprocity with no balance and everything else.

So I don't, I'm just going to say.

I'm going to say something and this without.

You don't need to react to any of this is.

I know you're going to be thinking about it and I can say that, you know, when you're going to the show, you should be reflecting on all of the things that, yes, are happening contextually, you know, the protections that are being removed from environmental, you know, aspects.

You know, think about all those things, thinking about how this has now turned into a political pawn for this, you know, for this childish attack on our neighbors, on our friends.

Yes.

Obviously, you know, this is going to be thought about by the people showing up and it's now being thought about by the people creating it.

The show cannot be the same, although it is fundamentally the core of it is the same.

The show is now fundamentally changed without a purposeful choice by the creators.

And now everybody's reacting regardless of original intent and choice.

Yeah, that's true.

I think as an artist, it's something that you have to do sometimes.

And I think given all of the kind of backlash.

I'm happy to see the backlash.

And I'm.

I think it'll be.

It'll be interesting to, to look back in a couple years and see what, what we're calling it and what the general population calls Lake Ontario.

Yeah, I can't see.

It doesn't come naturally to say it at all.

I think the.

I'm gonna use the term.

The official change will be.

Will be changed back as soon as it's possible.

Yeah, it just, it's like a.

It's extremely rude.

It is.

It feels like, I don't know, it just.

It feels like no one consented.

It feels like, like a non Consensual thing happened.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

Like, back off.

I don't know.

Yeah, it just feels like a.

More than just.

More than just annoying and anger feelings.

It's.

It's more than that.

It's like, how could you.

Betrayal.

I don't know.

Lots of different things.

But yeah, it will be.

The show will be punctuated by the news of that happening.

And it is now kind of embedded into the project, regardless of my plans.

So.

But I'm glad you noticed and pointed it out because it is something that if you're.

If you're serious about your work, you have to think about these things and take it into a consideration and either.

I mean, you just have to confront it.

You can't not talk about it, right?

No, because if you did, if you ignored it, that's part of the project,.

To ignore it, right?

Yeah, if you ignored it completely.

Right.

I think that would.

It would be something that people.

Some people thought about and now like, hey, you have to tweak.

You have to adjust that maybe part of the presentation is adjusted or a card is placed or something else.

But I got my artist statement right.

Which is.

Which is an odd thing to do at this time in a project.

That's true.

But it's.

That's fine.

That's also life.

Yeah, that's also life.

I'm fine with it.

It's.

It's just another kind of stepping stone to get across, to get.

To get to the other side and look back and say, okay, this project is thorough.

I think I covered everything I could cover because it's so hard to know when a project ends.

So.

So even in the middle of it, I'm thinking, when do I know it ends?

And so yeah, it's gonna.

That'll be wrapped into it.

And I wonder.

I am planning on going to the Canadian side over the next year or so and doing the other side.

And I'm curious to see what it's like.

I'm gonna chit chat with people and see just what.

What's the morale over there.

Yeah.

When it comes to how they view United States of America at this point, it's.

It's really interesting.

So I'll.

You know, I kind of want to leave on this because it's.

This was about a year now, maybe a year and a half ago.

My wife sells Carrie.

She sells at furry conventions all over the country.

And it'll would have been in the Canada.

She's actually involved in one in Ottawa and we were in one in Toronto.

And it's one of our favorite places to visit.

Mm.

So we were selling.

And how many times.

This is right in the heart of the original tariff nonsense.

Oh, yeah.

So how many times we were answering to that.

I want to start off just apologizing to everybody I meet there.

Honestly, I'm not with.

I'm not with them.

It's not my choices that it was righteous.

It was.

There was a lot of righteous anger.

And all we ever said was we completely agree and understand.

And how many times, you know, again, I use those terms purposefully that I, you know, you know, the people of Ontario, the people of Canada, our neighbors and brothers and sisters.

These are our people.

And to feel that.

That proud, you know, they didn't hate us.

That's so Canadian of them, by the way.

They don't hate us.

They're the nicest people.

But they are proud and genuinely proud about being Canadian.

Yeah.

And they're being attacked.

Yeah.

And for nothing.

Their anger is true and their anger is real and it's justified.

And I think that's what you're gonna see most is when they.

Interacting with individuals is they still love.

They still love the people.

And I think for right thinking Americans, we love the people and we love the country.

The.

It's the.

We're mad at the politicians and the administration.

Usually when it comes to any conflict in any country, I'm always like, I'm angry at the people running the war or the show.

I'm not angry at the regular old people.

No.

You know, they're just like us in every aspect.

Yeah.

And it.

And, And.

And I've been into Canada a million times.

I have a lot of respect and love for Canada.

And I love Montreal specifically.

I've been there.

I went three times in three years because I was so into it.

And part of the reason is because the way that everyone treated us was so kind.

Yeah.

And it's just.

I have no negative things to say.

It's just a beautiful place, beautiful people.

There's no.

I just hate the issues that are being caused.

And I think that's what you're going to see.

I think that's an important part of the project too.

Right.

So you're talking to now people, you know, talking to people here that engage with the lake y.

And I think you're going to get a different perspective there.

And I think it is important for this now overarching project that you're.

Yeah.

That you're engaging with.

Do you like.

Now that you're getting this.

I don't know.

First phase.

You're doing a performance around the first phase of this.

Do you feel like you know where this is going or are you now basically every section readjusting?

So I applied and was accepted into a one year residency at Flower City Arts Center.

Oh, awesome.

And it starts in a couple weeks, less than two weeks.

So I haven't, I've been a little bit quiet about it.

But when I applied I had to come up with a plan, a proposal.

And so I have, I actually have the whole next year planned out, roughly planned out.

And I'm going to, I'm going to be, like I said, I'm going to do the portraiture, which I already started over the summer.

But it's kind of slow, slowly progressing and I want, I'm ramp it up a little bit more hopefully.

I just need people to kind of collab with me in the way that you will agree to be photographed and you know you're in a project.

Yeah, but sometimes I wander around with my camera and occasionally, very occasionally, somebody will come up and feel comfortable and I'll photograph them.

But the, the sort of third chunk after landscapes and portraits is going to incorporate the lake physically.

So it feels like it needs to happen and there's various ways I can go about it.

So I'm going to spend basically the residency experimenting with different, like the water, using the water in the developing process, which I have to learn how to do still.

And I'm going to take some classes on how to print with plant life and things like that.

And then also I'm going to work with some science professors at RIT and they're going to get, kind of give me access to data and research and like physical things that they've collected from.

They have like trash, like garbage traps.

Oh yeah, it's.

I.

This is for another whole nother podcast.

But, but the science research around the lake is happening in our local area and I was, I know that they have the knowledge that they have and I, I'm gonna do the project justice and try and get, you know, try to be successful at working, working with people who work on the science aspect and get that, like that data basically and that research embedded even more so into the project rather than just be like, I read a book and this is what I learned.

It's like this is happening right here.

You can talk about the specific spot where this is collected or whatever and, and kind of round out the project in another way, another, different way.

And then the end result will be another exhibition and then Hopefully a book.

I wouldn't say hopefully because I'm bad at finishing books, but it feels like it should be a book because it's such a big project.

An exhibition's only going to be, you know, 10, 20 photos usually.

So I want it to live kind of fully in a book at the end and that'll be for sale somewhere.

So that's.

That's my whole next year I have planned out.

And it's.

It feels like.

Like the project deserves the attention and I want to do a great job.

So I'm trying my best.

Awesome.

Well, if you want to try your best and learn about the lake that is in our backyard, I want you to go out to the events on Thursday the 17th at 5:30, Saturday the 19th at 2:30.

These are at the Central Library, the Rundell Arts Room.

It's a really cool venue for this kind of show and I'm really excited to, you know, hear people's reactions.

So, any place else you want them to follow you on the journey that's going on with us?

Sure.

My website is alyssa md.com where I post.

Well, it's my website, so it's got website updates occasionally.

And then my Instagram is at Alyssa M. DeWitt for photo.

And that's it.

Nice and easy.

Yeah.

So thanks everybody for listening to another episode of Just Can't.

Not on the Lunchadore Podcast network.

Go to lunchadore.org to check out all the shows since it came up earlier.

I want everybody to check out the behind the Glass podcast.

Just went to the opening for September last night.

I'm really excited to talk to the artists.

I think next week.

It's always great to get that perspective from people doing amazing work and.

And hear their journey.

Check out Alyssa's episode as well.

That was an absolute blast.

One of the better episodes.

And again, no, no shit anybody else.

But this was a tremendous episode.

The conversation was fantastic and it kind of spurred off this as well.

Yeah.

So go check that out on lunch door.org and we'll see you out on the fringe.

This has been a presentation of the Lunchadore Podcast Network.

We're gonna dye the lake red, white and blue.

We're gonna make it the best lake that America has ever seen.