Your Ancestors Have Entered the Studio: Freeing Your Creativity From the Past? - Lexi Soulios (S2:E25)

Send us Fan MailClosure is supposed to feel like a click, a deep exhale, a final tidy bow. We finish Season 2, and Host Lili Pierrepont tells the truth: the click never came. After 24 conversations about loss, memorial art, and creative ways to commemorate the people we love, she expected relief. What she felt instead was exposure, anxiety, and a surprising wave of grief that reminded her how complicated remembrance really is.In this episode, Lili walks us through what this season unearthed, including a hard look at lineage and the stories we inherit. She shares her family history and the moment a polished narrative cracked when she confronted the reality of ancestors tied to Yale and slaveholding (listen to that powerful episode with Nikesha Breeze here; or read Diamonds in the Filter: A story of two families, Yale, and a monument written in cotton). That reckoning reshaped how ArtStorming confronts legacy, not as a display of achievements, but as an honest practice that names harm, interrupts toxic patterns, and chooses what deserves to be carried forward.PS! Check out our NEW ArtStorming website! And you can still donate to support our mission of nurturing creativity and human connection through courageous conversation at ArtBridgeNM.org/donate.Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

Send us Fan MailYou are not starting with a blank canvas, even if it looks that way from the outside. Legacy begins before you, in the land you are born on, the family system you arrive into, and the stories your body and nervous system may still be carrying on someone else’s behalf. We sit down with Lexi Soulios, a systemic constellation facilitator and Art Bridge executive board member, to talk about lineage, inheritance, and ancestral healing and why so many of our “personal” struggles can be family-field dynamics playing out across generations. We connect the dots between systemic constellation work and modern epigenetics, then bring it to life with the iron harvest metaphor from WWI farmland: what gets buried in the field still affects what can grow until it is named and handled.ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply. Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

Send us Fan MailStrip away the parlor tricks, dim the lights, and let sound do something it usually is not allowed to do. We’re in Santa Fe with composer and magician B.C. Smith inside Phasmagorica, an immersive seance experiment where 13 guests gather around a table, choose “trigger items,” and step into a carefully designed mystery that lives in the liminal space between belief and disbelief. No mediums, no holograms, no cheap scares. The unsettling part is how personal it can feel.ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply. Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

Send us Fan MailYour art collection can be a source of joy for decades or a source of conflict the moment you are gone. We sit down with Sonja Moro (Los Angeles) and Michael Duffy (Atlanta) from Bank of America’s Art Services Group to talk about the intersection of passion, high finance, and the surprisingly delicate art of letting go.ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply. Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

Send us Fan MailSomething is breaking in how we talk to each other, and yelling louder is not fixing it. Lili Pierrepont sits down with Abdullah Antepli, the newly appointed president of Houston’s Rothko Chapel, to explore a different approach: art as a sanctuary for slowing down, telling the truth about our past, and rebuilding trust across deep divides.ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply. Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

Send us Fan MailMidlife isn’t just a number, it’s the moment your life asks for a new operating system. We sit down with Chip Conley, founder of Modern Elder Academy, boutique hotel pioneer, and early Airbnb mentor, to talk about what happens when success stops feeling satisfying and the future suddenly feels urgent. Chip shares the chain of events that pushed him into reinvention, including loss, burnout, and a near-death flatline experience that delivered one blunt message: slow down.ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply. Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

Send us Fan MailWhat would it change if we treated death as part of our creative life instead of a topic we avoid until we have no choice? I sit down with Los Angeles 3D artist and sculptor Daniel Wheeler for a candid, funny, and deeply tender conversation about memorial art, funerary sculpture, and the ways physical objects can help us carry grief without shrinking our lives.ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply. Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

Send us Fan MailA chance connection at Yale cracks open a hidden family history and turns legacy into something immediate, unsettling, and real. We talk with interdisciplinary artist Nikesha Breeze about building monuments, reclaiming erased stories, and using grief rituals to transform what history leaves in our bodies. ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply. Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

Send us Fan MailMost of us are taught to treat death like a distant problem for “someday” and then we wonder why it feels so terrifying when it finally shows up. I’m joined by Joanna Ebenstein, the founder of Morbid Anatomy, to challenge that reflex and to reclaim death as a subject that can be met with dignity, curiosity, and even beauty.Joanna Ebenstein:https://www.morbidanatomy.orghttps://www.morbidanatomy.org/grand-tour-archive/p/muerte-en-mexico-san-luis-potosihttps://www.morbidanatomy.org/books/p/signed-pre-order-memento-mori-the-art-of-contemplating-death-to-live-a-better-lifehttps://www.morbidanatomy.org/books/p/death-a-graveside-companion-signed-by-editor-joanna-ebenstein-and-contributor-laetitia-barbierhttps://muttermuseum.org@[email protected] is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply. Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.

Send us Fan MailA studio full of work can be a treasure or a ticking time bomb, depending on what happens next. We sit down with Patricia Watts, a curator, appraiser, and advisor, to talk about the behind-the-scenes reality of artist legacy planning and art estate management: the choices that decide whether decades of paintings and objects become a visible legacy or a private burden families cannot sort.I want to take another minute to remind you listeners that ArtStorming is a listener-supported non-profit, and we need your help to keep the conversation going. Every dollar goes directly into programs that support our mission. That means more compelling stories, more in-depth articles, and a greater impact on our community. If you love what you hear, please consider making a contribution. Visit our website for more ways to engage, and thank you for being an essential part of our work.We're going to pause here for a moment to speak to our listeners. if you like this content, and want more information on our guests, their projects and more indepth ways to engage with us, you can find us on ArtBridgeNM.org or our ArtBridge Substack. Please read, follow and share our content. Your subscriptions, shares and contributions help us grow our artistic community. Thank you and now back to our conversation.ArtStorming is thrilled to announce our official partnership with Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works! Like us, they believe in pushing creative boundaries and amplifying vibrant artistic voices. Zeitgeist Dance Theatre and Francisco Gella Dance Works are dedicated to advancing contemporary dance and dance education in New Mexico and beyond. Together, we create a powerful, shared space where art thrives and audiences can connect deeply. Music for ArtStorming was written and performed by John Cruikshank.