Episode 001 - The Art$ Opening Day
When artist Megan Elizabeth asks her Wall Street banker friend, "So, what do you do all day!?" it opens up a deeper level of dialogue and understanding in their friendship, and sparks a new idea for how they can work together to bridge the gap between their respective worlds.
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Show Notes
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Friend of the co-hosts Kristen Poissant
Architectural Digest feat Alicia Keys
Book: Uneasy Street: The Anxieties of Affluence by Rachel Sherman
New York Times article: What the Rich Won’t Tell You by Rachel Sherman
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Episode 001 - The Art$ Opening Day
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[00:00:00] Friend: All right. Episode one, The Art$ Opening Day. [clears throat] Great start.
[00:00:04] Megan: Here we go.
[00:00:06] Friend: Okay. You ready?
[00:00:12] Welcome to The Arts, a brand new podcast about art and money.
[00:00:15] I've spent my career managing at some of the world's largest financial institutions. So I can't tell you my name, but trust me, talking about money is my jam.
[00:00:25] Megan: And I'm Megan.
[00:00:26] I'm an artist and a teacher. And now co-host of this amazing podcast.
[00:00:31] We're having this conversation because we came to a realization: we have no idea how the other person spends her workday.
[00:00:38] Friend: Or her money. So let's chat about it.
[00:00:40] Where should we start today?
[00:00:41] Megan: Well, I think we should tell people what this is.
[00:00:45] Friend: And maybe why we're having this conversation.
[00:00:47] Megan: And maybe where we came up with the idea.
[00:00:49] Friend: Yes.
[00:00:50] Megan: Our origin story.
[00:00:51] Friend: Do you want to go ahead and tell your version?
[00:00:54] Megan: Yes. So we're always in a conversation since we become friends. So I feel, I feel like right now we're sitting and thinking and we're trying to turn all these cool ideas that we've always had into something.
[00:01:08] We want to bring people into our worlds. We want to bring women into the world of finance and the arts, but they feel like such opposite sides of the financial fence, if you will.
[00:01:19] Friend: That's interesting. What happened from my perspective was that you were yourself (and I love this part of Megan's personality). You just are like a straight [00:01:30] up unfiltered question kind of girl. That's my kind of girl. I like that.
[00:01:34] And most people don't come out so boldly with their questions, but you have a way of doing it without being offensive and being courageous. And so you just went for it. We were out for dinner and you looked at me and said, “Well, what do you do all day?”
[00:01:48] Megan: Which now looking back, it could be taken differently.
[00:01:53] But I knew like that when you're among friends, it's kind of an interesting question because I think that we don't know really actually what our friends do. And behind that shroud of mystery is like a lot of information that women need to share.
[00:02:09] Friend: Yeah. And have the opportunity to talk about even if it's complex.
[00:02:12] I think sometimes I don't offer it or I don't bring it to the table because I think it'll be boring or it will be complex and maybe not dinner conversation.
[00:02:22] I walked away and realized it would be great to have the opportunity to talk about it and to also understand a little bit more about your world, right? Because it also then opened up the ability for me to say, well, what do your days look like -
[00:02:36] Megan: Right
[00:02:36] Friend: I'm sure there are a lot of us out there that would like to know, but maybe don't know how to ask,
[00:02:41] and you know, would like to have more access into the world of the other.
[00:02:46] Megan: Yeah. I feel like sometimes you meet someone, you maybe just remember their name and their occupation. And there's just so much more to people than that. And I think that's probably where a lot of my [00:03:00] questions come from.
[00:03:00] Where it's like, yeah, that might be what you do for the title. But what, what does that actually look like? Tell me about your world. So I think that's something that we're digging into here a little bit. And I mean, I'm just a very curious person. So it's like, how do you ask someone a question that might seem prying or almost like childlike in it's curiosity. Where it's like, but really what do you do all day? Because I want to put myself in someone else's shoes and I want to see what does an investment banker do all day? What does an art curator do all day? Because I glamorized these jobs, I admire people who do them.
[00:03:34] So I want to feel in their world,
[00:03:38] Friend: Yeah. There's a lot of learning there. With that pure curiosity to come at it and say what does that look like? Like how do you, how do you get through the day when it's hard. You know, and I'm also curious, but I I'm curious in a way where the thing, sometimes it seems inappropriate, but to me, it's not a nosiness. It's more like just getting the math to work. I'm, I'm curious about how things are priced and how people earn and what they do with their earnings.
[00:04:07] Like if you know, you have a pie of earnings, how do you divide it up?
[00:04:11] Megan: Right.
[00:04:12] Friend: That's not something that is, or so far, I've had a great amount of success asking people, you know, a lot of people are uncomfortable talking about it because it's so personal.
[00:04:23] Megan: I think it's time though. The whole point of this is to end the stigma of women talking about business from a [00:04:30] financial perspective, because finances are inherent in running a business. You have to know it and you have to accept it. And then the sooner you can get over that, the sooner you will be more successful. So it's like, this is just us learning what we've learned so far, and then hoping to learn more as we talk to more people.
[00:04:46] Friend: Yeah. And just rip the bandage off.
[00:04:49] Megan: Exactly.
[00:04:50] Friend: You know, let's just do it. We wanted to start a conversation to assist women in different industries so that we can better understand each other's worlds.
[00:04:58] Megan: We think that talking about art and finance is a conversation we should all be having. We couldn't find anything out there that tackles the intersection or the struggle between finance and art.
[00:05:09] Friend: We don't necessarily know how to engage with our friends in this way to get that understanding of what their work is like and, and where we might support them or learn from them. So we'll, we'll find a way through this conversation.
[00:05:21] Megan: I love that. We also want to encourage women who are dreaming of doing something more creative.
[00:05:27] And don't really know where to start with it. It can be for a profession or hobby. It doesn't really have to be monetized. So the money is going to be an interesting thing that sort of weaves in and out here. But we want to encourage female artists of any kind. I know that men are talking about this.
[00:05:42] So I think women need to start talking about this, which is our mission. But we want women to integrate the arts and finance. So that's our mission statement.
[00:05:53] Friend: Yeah. Also adult conversations.
[00:05:55] Megan: I mean...
[00:05:56] Friend: That's always good.
[00:05:56] Megan: Please, please. So like my SOS during [00:06:00] the entire podcast is me saying like help, I'm surrounded by my children and have been for two years, like pandemic parenting slash making art. Whoa.
[00:06:08] Also my friend here needs non-banking conversation.
[00:06:12] Friend: Yes. Yes.
[00:06:13] Megan: She has a lot of adult conversation.
[00:06:15] Friend: I could use some more art in my life.
[00:06:19] Megan: Yes. And everyone needs connection, especially right now, when connection feels sort of intermittent and strange, you know, we're not hanging out in big groups, like having deep conversations right now. So this kind of thing might help to scratch that itch.
[00:06:36] Friend: Yes. And for me personally, it will also be the most exciting zoom conversation I have all week. We record this over zoom and most of you know, I spend most of my day on zoom and this is way more fun than any conversation -
[00:06:51] Megan: - mentioning zoom is very triggering for me because on my end of the world, I spend a lot of my time on zoom teaching children's art classes.
[00:07:00] And let me just tell you that children have already mastered zoom. And when I say children, I mean four year olds. Like online, our four-year-olds are completely, completely proficient. There'll be like, “Excuse me. Can we go into a meeting room? I've some questions, I'd now like to ask,” and they'll be like, “Could you make me host for a minute? I'd like to share something.” Four , five five-year-olds.
[00:07:21] Friend: That's wild. I had no idea.
[00:07:24] Megan: Okay. They adults are behind.
[00:07:26] Friend: That's yeah, totally. I had no concept that you could teach. [00:07:30] Kids at that age, art by zoom. So...
[00:07:32] Megan: So everyone thinks ..
[00:07:34] Friend: You've already blown my mind.
[00:07:35] Megan: ..it's been a disaster or, well, it's just, it's one of those things they've had to adapt.
[00:07:38] So here we all are adapting.
[00:07:40] Friend: Good for us.
[00:07:42] Megan: Yeah. And then we're just hoping that this isn't a podcast that's self-help in so far as like there are many self-help podcasts out there for women. Podcasts where you can find information on finance. This, this is not an informational podcast. This is more about two friends examining their different opinions and experiences, and then inviting in people for a conversation about it.
[00:08:07] All right. So should we tell our listeners what they're going to expect from our show since she's the queen of the organization here, people, you'll notice as you will see who is the analytical mind and who is the creative mind.
[00:08:22] And well let's just say the stigma holds. Yeah. As I brainstorm and lose track of time, Friend here will keep me in check.
[00:08:31] And where we are in the show notes.
[00:08:33] Exactly.
[00:08:34] Friend: Well, you know, let's just say for the first few episodes, maybe I'll try to bring the structure. And you can try to break it. That would be fun.
[00:08:42] Megan: That's the goal.
[00:08:43] Friend: Yeah, but to answer your actual question about what our listeners can expect. We will have some regular segments here on the show. We want to cover what we're calling, “The Scene,” which is the awesome things that are happening in the world of art and finance. [00:09:00] So we'll both share on a regular basis what we're reading about, what we're seeing, who we're talking to, and hopefully give the listeners some interesting things that they can go and check out on their own as well.
[00:09:13] Then we'll do interviews. And we'll have some guests. Sometimes it will be me interviewing you or you interviewing me or we'll have a guest come in from either art or finance and talk to us about their area of expertise. And then because we want to challenge our brains and give us all
[00:09:32] the opportunity to learn new things and stretch. We're going to have homework assignments. So little things that we can do to get us thinking or trying or experimenting in a new area. And, stretching outside of our comfort zones.
[00:09:47] So that's the plan.
[00:09:49] Bear with us, bear with us and let us know if we're driving you crazy, but we will get there.
[00:09:55] Megan: But also don't like, don't email us. We don't. I mean, no one, no one needs to email me and be like, “Megan, we think your voice is a little deep.”
[00:10:04] Friend: Well that you can't do anything about.
[00:10:06] Megan: Like, email us , if it's constructive.
[00:10:08] Friend: Yes. Constructive emails.
[00:10:09] Megan: Also I have a lot of ideas and I can't keep them in my mouth.
[00:10:14] Friend: That's that's part of what makes you amazing. So...
[00:10:19] Megan: All right. Are you ready, Friend? Could you describe the show to me in five words or less?
[00:10:25] Friend: Okay. If I were to describe a show that you and I created in five [00:10:30] words or less, I would describe it as, the harmony of constructive chaos. Because we have a lot of things in common and we can walk and step on literally because our stride length is the same.
[00:10:46] Megan: We're very tall.
[00:10:48] Friend: Yes, but also we're in these two completely different orbits and we will meet and merge our narrow windows of opportunity and styles, and it will be magic, but it might be a little bit of chaos to get there.
[00:11:01] What about you? Could you describe The Art$ in two or three words?
[00:11:06] Megan: Art meets finance.
[00:11:09] Friend: Oh, succinct.
[00:11:12] Megan: Thank you.
[00:11:12] Friend: I like that.
[00:11:13] Well all right. I think we're at the point in the show where the inevitable happens and I will start with you, Megan, would you like to introduce you?
[00:11:22] Megan: Yes. So I am an artist. I've been a professional painter for about seven years. I work in abstract acrylic paints.
[00:11:32] And I have now officially had a solo show, a show internationally, like big things are happening in the most recent year and two years of my career. In addition to that, I love traveling. So the traveling is very interwoven with the painting. I'm easily inspired, but I need a lot of input to have
[00:11:53] the paintings flow out of me. So it's a relationship that is dependent upon one another, the traveling has to happen for the [00:12:00] output of paintings to occur. And in addition to that, I'm a mom of two little people. So I am often doing two things at once. Almost always, actually I'm usually like applying a band-aid while cooking dinner.
[00:12:13] And painting. So imagine like some sort of Harlem Globetrotter, but like as a, as a mom, I mean, I cannot actually spin a basketball on my finger, but if I could, I would, I would reach my full potential, but I am, I'm really busy is the moral of the story.
[00:12:32] Friend: That sounds, that sounds messy, actually. Painting, while making -
[00:12:35] Megan: It's very messy.
[00:12:36] Friend: Do your pancakes sometimes come out with paint on them?
[00:12:38] Megan: Listen to me when I tell you that I'm the worst cook, because cooking is one of those things you can't really multitask with. And so as a person who's easily distracted, I'm just not, it's not for me.
[00:12:51] Friend: Well, maybe you could, you could teach the little ones.
[00:12:54] Megan: Oh, for sure. I'm really into outsourcing. That's a new thing. So outsourcing when you have children is also a messy process, but it can eventually reach its full potential.
[00:13:05] Friend: Good, good, good, good. That, that was great. And I have a lot of questions that I will ask you about later from, from your little intro there, but I think you forgot the part about your ability to do a thousand things a day.
[00:13:19] How many hours are in your day? Like in a typical day?
[00:13:22] Megan: I don't understand. I don't understand. I mean, I'm quite tired. Let's not glamorize it. I have this problem [00:13:30] where I want to do everything. So in order to do that, I move at a very rapid pace, highly caffeinated.
[00:13:39] And I don't care that I'm very tired at the end of the day, but to some people, I, I do realize that as extremely overwhelming, I'm a, perhaps an overwhelming person. I just want everything, right. Like I want to do a good job of, of being a mom. I want to read a lot of books. I want to travel the world. I want to paint.
[00:13:59] I want to, I want to, I want to, so I most often get it done. I often fall asleep mid-conversation at around 9:30 PM on the couch, but I feel like we only get one shot at life. So I'm like really plunging for it.
[00:14:14] Friend: Yeah, I can see that. I can see that. I just wonder when I, when I listened to you and everything that you seem to get done in a day or a week or a month, I often wonder is she sleeping at all?
[00:14:26] Megan: Oh, I sleep.
[00:14:27] Friend: Okay. Well that might be part of your, part of your power then is that you're well rested.
[00:14:32] Megan: I probably should go at a slower speed. Not, we're not going to lie here. There's intricate parts of my daily schedule that we'll get into later where I'm like. I have to get things done during certain windows of time, which kind of allude to the fact that I'm, or like maybe would be like a smoke and mirrors version of me getting a lot done, but I just have to work in small batches in order to even stay afloat.
[00:14:55] So it's just I also think it's a phase. Like my kids are entering [00:15:00] different worlds eventually, and then I'll have more time to maybe slow down.
[00:15:04] Friend: Yeah.
[00:15:04] Megan: Which would be a bonus.
[00:15:05] Friend: Yeah, but at the moment, it's it's mom, mum, wife, painter, traveler, whirlwind.
[00:15:13] Megan: Whirlwind, like Poltergeist. Okay. It's your turn.
[00:15:16] But first we have to start talking about your unusual name on this podcast, which is, “Friend.” And maybe just tell us as much as you can about your mysterious self.
[00:15:25] Friend: Sure. All right. Well, I don't mean to be mysterious, but I, I do work in an industry where we're careful around the use of social media and being very public about what we do. I have spent my entire career working in finance at a couple of different global banks. I've worked in many countries and done many different roles. What comes with is a lot of financial analysis, I mean, we love our spreadsheets. And so I spent a lot of days in money assessment, you know, where is the money? Where is it going? Is this worth us lending money against? That involves a lot of zoom meetings. And managing risk on behalf of a large public company. Much of what we do is confidential. And because we are high earners , there's just a lot of reasons why many of my peers would choose to not have a public profile. So I don't really use anything [00:16:30] .Like you won't find me. So, what we decided to do for the podcast is to call me, “Friend.”
[00:16:37] Megan: It's accurate.
[00:16:38] Friend: It's accurate. Exactly. So that will be what it will be and we'll see how it goes.
[00:16:43] And while I may be nameless for the purposes of this show. I can say that my actual bio includes the following real details. I'm happily married. Child-free. I'm a runner and a Yogi. Under normal circumstances (thank you, COVID) I would be a constant traveler. Perpetual ex-pat. And, as the banker in the room, you know, I'm definitely more comfortable representing the non-art topics. Prefer to talk about money. I don't really know what I'm doing on the art side. And, you know, given my career choice, I don't feel like I have much time and energy left for the arts. But we're working on it!
[00:17:22] Megan: This sounds just as exhausting as my day in case you were wondering, like, this sounds so hard, you're thinking and doing spreadsheets all day, whereas I'm just like flitting around from task to task. So don't sell yourself short on the exhaustion level.
[00:17:36] Friend: It's surprising how exhausting it is.
[00:17:38] And sometimes I look back and I think like, why am I so tired? But when we were preparing for this, I, I sat down and of course did a little math on, on this. I just split split a day. So a typical day is 10 or 11 hours, sometimes 12. So that doesn't leave a lot .. Sleep is very important to me.
[00:17:55] I try my best to get eight hours. So it doesn't leave a lot of excess time. Within that 10 [00:18:00] or 12 hour a day, it's, it's probably 10% email management. About 50% right now is meetings. So meeting with my team, you know, people management meeting with clients often those are unpleasant meetings, a lot of bad news or difficult. You know, “We can't do this or this is the scenario.”
[00:18:18] It just doesn't, it's not like -
[00:18:20] Megan: Inspirational.
[00:18:20] Friend: It's a little bit like going -yeah, exactly. We're not like doing motivational speeches here. It is a little bit like going to the dentist. And that's like half my day. I spend half my day at the dentist. The intellectual dentists.
[00:18:35] Megan: That's hard.
[00:18:36] Friend: It's hard. And then about 10% of the day is usually somebody yelling or being aggressive or arrogant. Probably an attorney, maybe an investment banker. The getting yelled at is a real thing and it doesn't, it's not because I'm like new or incompetent it's because that's seems to be the way that people who are highly educated and, highly paid get things done.
[00:19:01] Megan: Seem to operate.
[00:19:02] Friend: Yeah. Very interesting.
[00:19:04] And then probably a third of it is either like spreadsheets or, or presentation making presentations so that we can communicate, you know, to, to senior audience.
[00:19:12] So that's a, with what little is left? Usually my brain is mush by the time I'm done. I try to you know I'm very concerned about getting a workout in try to talk to my family who all don't live near me. So it's all more video chat. And then I do try to, and I'm hoping [00:19:30] maybe, you know, you can help me with the multitasking of this is like, “Can I, can I paint while I'm riding my bike (indoors)?” But like try to squeeze some kind of creative work in: writing or, you know, I like to sew I don't know if cooking counts, but you'll see that there is no time left for things like social media, TV shopping.
[00:19:52] So I'm probably a little awkward, cause I don't know what's trending and what to wear. Cause I don't, but it's fine.
[00:19:59] Megan: She's not awkward is ridiculous. Also, you know, what's funny is my husband calls me The Exchange Student and the reason for that is because as a child I was drawing or climbing trees all day.
[00:20:11] And so I have no concept of you know, like people talk about pop culture, things from our childhood.
[00:20:16] Friend: Yes.
[00:20:17] Megan: I don't know. None of them land on me. People will like the Goonies and I'm like, I don't know.
[00:20:22] Friend: I don't know what that is. We didn't have a TV!. I was just reading.
[00:20:25] Megan: This is what lends us. Like we lend well to international travel though, because we understand what it feels like to be the literal exchange student where you're like, no, I'm not really down with the pop culture.
[00:20:37] Friend: Yeah, it wasn't like that where I came from.
[00:20:40] Megan: Yeah. Like I'm like, I was climbing in a crazy. Throwing rocks and then painting about it. And we're talking about seven year old, Megan, you know, so the trendiness thing is very funny that you mentioned that.
[00:20:52] Okay. I have some rapid fire questions I'd like to ask you.
[00:20:55] Friend: Ooh, yikes. Okay.
[00:20:57] Megan: No you may not like overthink, this. [00:21:00] We'll be as rapid as possible.
[00:21:02] Friend: Okay.
[00:21:02] Megan: One of us is more rapid than other you'll notice also, I don't know if the listeners can tell the difference between our voices yet, but there's one of ours that is very refined. And then there's me. Okay.
[00:21:15] Where would you consider home?
[00:21:18] Friend: Wherever I am at the moment with my husband. Yes.
[00:21:21] Megan: So you've lived lots of places.
[00:21:23] Friend: Yeah. So wherever we are together, that's probably home, even if it's a week or a day.
[00:21:29] Megan: Yeah. Well, that's the thing about once you move a lot, you've realized like it's not about the stuff at all.
[00:21:34] Friend: Yeah.
[00:21:34] Megan: I can't follow up on each one. Okay. Well, what was your worst subject in school?
[00:21:40] Friend: Finance. Math.
[00:21:43] Megan: Really?
[00:21:43] Friend: I'm not even joking. We can have a whole thing about that. Math in high school, I needed a math tutor. And when I was doing my MBA, I had to do the finance one twice.
[00:21:53] Megan: I'm not kidding that this just made me emotional because my entire life people told me I was bad at math.
[00:21:58] Friend: Yeah. I was bad at math. It didn't make sense until it made sense until it was practical. So we can talk about that at some point.
[00:22:04] Megan: This is the whole episode. And let me just spoiler for the future episode, it was just because we were girls. No one was telling boys they were bad at math in the nineties.
[00:22:14] Okay. If you could meet one creative person alive or past -
[00:22:19] Friend: Stephen Colbert
[00:22:20] Megan: but ,really?
[00:22:21] Friend: Yeah. Because the way his brain works to be so funny, so fast, I would like to understand, I would like to have more of [00:22:30] that.
[00:22:31] Megan: He's also an interesting, kind of funny from my perspective, because it's like a very intellectual, but quick, quick goofball. Funny, interesting hybrid.
[00:22:44] Okay. What is your favorite piece of art that you own?
[00:22:47] Friend: Spoiler alert. I'm sitting in front of..a painting..
[00:22:50] Megan: This was not mean to be a self-serving questions. As soon as it came out of my mouth, I was like, all right, forget it. Nevermind. Moving on. She has my art.
[00:23:00] Friend: I'm sitting in front of a commission piece by Megan. It is my zoom backdrop. There is nothing else.
[00:23:06] Megan: It's really, larger than life. I kind of don't want ask this, but I want to see your answer, Instagram or TikTok?
[00:23:15] Friend: What is the point of either? I mean, I don't know.
[00:23:19] Megan: No really elaborate because I love people that hate social media's perspective.
[00:23:24] Friend: I feel like, I mean, that's a whole other episode. I feel like it just makes everyone feel bad about themselves. And I realized quickly that it does that for me. So I just don't, I will say though, that I think there's a, some, something fun about TikTok that we're doing in an offline way.
[00:23:39] So my husband and I play really loud music and record ourselves dancing and send it to people. And we've been told that that's what TikTok is about, but we don't care because we just do it directly.
[00:23:50] Megan: So maybe just doing like analog TikTok.
[00:23:53] Friend: Yes. Analog. My whole life.is analog.
[00:23:55] Megan: I feel like there's something very beautiful. And perhaps future [00:24:00] trendy about that way of living though. So maybe you're a trendsetter and you don't realize it.
[00:24:04] All right. The last question I'm going to ask you is. If you could have a dinner party with four people, they have to be creative in some capacity. Where would you go? And with whom?
[00:24:17] Friend: I would go to Dubai because it's phenomenal. And I think the middle east is misunderstood in this part of the world. And I would want to be the host of my four - is it me plus four?
[00:24:32] Megan: Sure.
[00:24:32] Friend: Okay. So I would like to show four people this, this beautiful place and the four people, creative creative people, I would definitely bring you because you make a dinner party fun and the aforementioned Stephen Colbert. And I think that we should have Kristen, our friend, Kristen there, and then someone else creative. How about Alicia Keys?
[00:24:58] Megan: Oh my God. I love her. Have you seen Architectural Digest?
[00:25:03] Friend: Yes, I sent it to you.
[00:25:05] Megan: Was that from you?
[00:25:06] Friend: Where did you think it came from?
[00:25:10] Megan: No, I literally have just been wondering this.
[00:25:13] Friend: I saw it in an airport. She was on the cover and I was like, “rt plus Alicia keys!?”
[00:25:19] Megan: She's like a huge patron of the arts.
[00:25:21] Friend: I know! My copy hasn't arrived yet.
[00:25:24] Megan: Oh, my gosh. Thank you. I didn't realize it was you. This is such a lovely unscripted moment. [00:25:30] I was like, I wonder who thought to send that to me? Oh, wow. You've really read my mind. Thank you so much.
[00:25:35] Friend: Yep..
[00:25:36] Megan: Okay. Well that was all very interesting. And I am dying to go to Dubai.
[00:25:42] Friend: I know people need to see it. It's phenomenal.
[00:25:44] Megan: Yeah.
[00:25:45] Friend: Yeah. Okay. Am I off the hot seat?
[00:25:48] Megan: Yes.
[00:25:49] Friend: Okay. Right back at you. I am going to ask you as many as I think we have time for.
[00:25:56] Favorite season?
[00:25:57] Megan: All of them, except winter, I like, okay, I'll elaborate. I like spring because it's colorful and I need that. I like summer because I love the beach and I love being outdoors. I feel like it lends itself well to fun activities. I don't love like the super hot weather, but whatever. And then I love fall because again, it's colorful and the sky is extra blue in the fall.
[00:26:22] And it's a little crisp. My birthday. I also like wearing a light jacket.
[00:26:30] Friend: And vests?
[00:26:31] Megan: No I don't wear vests. I, my dream outfit is like a light jacket and shorts and a t-shirt and sandals. Okay. Anyways, but I hate winter because I don't like being cooped up inside and I don't like very cold weather every single day. Like I would like to travel somewhere snowy, but I can't deal with like the relentless grayness. .
[00:26:53] Friend: Okay. All right. So you've picked, you've picked three. When I tried to ask you for one, [00:27:00] welcome to Megan's world .
[00:27:02] Megan: That's the answer.
[00:27:03] Friend: All right. What was your worst subject in school?
[00:27:06] Megan: Also math, but I'm not certain that that's even true. Because looking back now, I think that's just what they told me. It was my worst subject in school.
[00:27:15] And I don't know if you can tell from the way I speak, but I was a giant nerd as a child. I mean, I was into all of it. I was like a straight A student, not for lack of effort. Like I was extremely hardworking, but I was really into school. Like the kind of kid that would cry if they had a fever, because I wanted to go to school. I love school. I mean, I loved school so much. I became a teacher, so I could go to 10 years extra school.
[00:27:41] Friend: Right. So like, as a teacher, you probably didn't have a worst subject. I mean, you probably -
[00:27:46] Megan: I just don't think, I just don't think that they taught math the way that I needed to learn it.
[00:27:52] Friend: I think that's true. For a lot of us.
[00:27:54] And I'm be interested to talk to you another time about going through with your kids as they do math. Are you finding that the way they're teaching it today is, is different. Are you like, oh yeah, this is easy. Are you like, oh my, how do you do this?
[00:28:08] Megan: My daughter is so smart in math, so I, maybe I wasn't the world's greatest math student because I can see now someone who's really good at it naturally.
[00:28:16] And they live in my house and they're. Considerably younger than I am.
[00:28:21] Friend: How is that possible? Alright, sunrise or sunset?
[00:28:27] Megan: Both.
[00:28:28] Friend: No, you can only choose [00:28:30] one every day. You get the same either a sunrise or sunset, but the other one would be sleeping for.
[00:28:35] Megan: Fine. I'd like to sleep through the sunrise and I would love to see the sunset from somewhere panoramic. See the whole thing. So like a beach or some sort of open land.
[00:28:46] Friend: Okay. So, so she'll be in Dubai watching the sunset.
[00:28:51] Megan: Oh, I wish.
[00:28:52] Friend: What is your favorite app on your phone?
[00:28:55] Megan: You're not going to like this, but mine is Instagram because I, I personally I'm tooting my own horn here. When we do this at our family dinner table. Like if you brag about yourself, you go “toot, toot.” So I really feel like I've cracked the code with Instagram, because for me it does not make me sad or feel any like FOMO because I only follow things. I like to look at. And so therefore I have like curated what I want to actually be looking at instead of people that make me feel sad about myself and I like sharing what I share.
[00:29:33] And I think I have like a little community with people who kind of enjoy, there's a good banter back and forth, and I'm an ultimate extrovert. So I need, especially in the recent, like two years of isolation, I feel like I need input from other people. So Instagram sort of is that like extrovert tool for me.
[00:29:51] Friend: Hmm. Interesting. Okay.
[00:29:55] Megan: We can talk more about it.
[00:29:56] Friend: We can talk more about it. I could learn some things. You must be ruthless about [00:30:00] eliminating ads and accounts and things that you have that aren't working for you.
[00:30:04] Megan: Yeah.
[00:30:05] Friend: That's good. Good cleaning skills.
[00:30:07] Megan: Ruthless is my middle name.
[00:30:11] Friend: All right. Let's talk about your dinner party. You get to have four people anywhere for dinner.
[00:30:15] Megan: They have to be creative adjacent. Okay. Anywhere. So the first problem alright I think I would be in Madrid.
[00:30:27] Friend: I was hoping you would say that.
[00:30:28] Megan: It's like, yeah. It's like my favorite city in the whole world. I feel like I would be a, just like somewhere unassuming like everywhere unassuming there is the best kind of place.
[00:30:38] So it's like some little street cafe. Having dinner and tapas and like wine and just delicious banter. So the four creative people, well, we would go together cause we're going on a girl's weekend. And I think I would invite Frida Kahlo, who I'm sure would be a wild dinner guest. She'd probably be very inappropriate, but I would love to hear her perspective on being a woman artist in the time where she was.
[00:31:05] Relegated to being someone famous' sidekick. Like I just would love to hear what she had to say about it. Also I would want Georgia O'Keeffe maybe, but I think she'd be too shy. I don't know. She gives me shy vibes, which makes me feel shy.
[00:31:21] Friend: I could sit beside her. I'm also a little shy. I'm good with shy.
[00:31:26] Megan: You're good at pulling out the shyness, you're good at like extracting it from [00:31:30] people, which is a true gift because sometimes shy on shy is like the worst.
[00:31:35] Friend: Like awkward.
[00:31:36] Megan: Like, ah, okay. So we have us three: you, me, Frida, Georgia. And then ..
[00:31:44] Friend: That's four.
[00:31:45] Megan: That is four.. Okay. Then I want, see the finance math.
[00:31:50] All right. Then I want Helen Frankenthaler, which I don't know if everyone knows who she was, but she's like a female abstract, expressionist, painter. She lived in Manhattan, her whole life. And she was like, I guess you'd call her like a rich girl from the Upper West Side, traditionally, like, a Manhattanite, you know, in every sense of the word, but she was pretty rebellious and interesting. And then I think I would invite is that it ?
[00:32:17] Friend: That's everyone, that's it that's a full house.
[00:32:19] Megan: I want to invite more people.
[00:32:23] Friend: I, I cannot ask Megan binary questions. They will become a nonbinary.
[00:32:30] Megan: Yeah. Nothing's binary here.
[00:32:32] Friend: Yes. All right. That was awesome. That was fun. Thank you,
[00:32:35] Megan: Rapid fire. We did that actually more rapid than some would argue if they know us.
[00:32:42] Friend: It was good. I hope I hope some of the guests that we have will go through that with us
[00:32:48] Megan: yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.
[00:32:50] Friend: I'm sure.
[00:32:50] Megan: I think, I think we'll just be like, you have to pick a couple of these and we'll just, we'll just ask you.
[00:32:57] Friend: Condition of entry. Okay. So [00:33:00] now that we've made the case that the show and it's co-hosts might be mildly interesting. How can our listeners get in touch? How do we want to be reached? We already said no, no critical emails.
[00:33:13] Megan: No nasty emails! No, like, no, we're not doing that. So like, that's just not how -
[00:33:18] Friend: we'll just ignore them.
[00:33:19] Megan: Yeah, I barely barely can answer the emails that are nice. We don't have time for that.
[00:33:24] All right. We're going to be launching a new page on our website. So on artbymegan.com/podcast, you will be able to find all of our episodes and show notes. We're going to try and do a good job with our show notes so that you have access to lots of the resources that we both love. And then when we have guests on, we will link to all of their goodness as well.
[00:33:45] And I think we have a new email address. Very exciting.
[00:33:48] Friend: Yes, we do. For pleasant emails only. The podcast show, email is podcast at artbymegan.com.
[00:33:58] Megan: And you guys can email us all of your good, happy thoughts and lovely ideas to podcast at artbyMegan.com.
[00:34:06] Friend: All right. And what about you? Will you also be sharing anything podcasts related on Instagram?
[00:34:11] We're not, we're not going to set up a separate Instagram account for this, right?
[00:34:16] Megan: No, it sounds like too much work. No, there's no time. We also, as we both mentioned, have a lot of balls in the air, which, you know, I don't love that expression, but here we are. We will be sharing highlights and fun things on Instagram. So @artbyMegan is where [00:34:30] I live in the internet.
[00:34:32] And as you can already tell. I have a lack of ability to filter my enthusiasm. So I'm sure there'll be lots of information there for you to follow.
[00:34:41] Friend: Yes. And don't look for me there. As, as I said, I either don't exist or occasionally Megan or Kristen will say, Hey, you should probably look at this and then I have to re-install Instagram and remember the login and go and try to -
[00:34:55] Megan: Literally.
[00:34:56] Friend: Or what I try sometimes to do is Google Instagram.
[00:35:01] Megan: Like it's like sending something to your grandma, like clip it out and put it in an envelope and send it.
[00:35:09] Friend: Snail mail it to me.
[00:35:10] Megan: Yeah.
[00:35:11] Friend: But in all likelihood I will be the one watching the inbox. I'm on the email and you can call me Friend.
[00:35:18] Megan: Megan, or Friend or just Friend times two.
[00:35:21] Okay. So before we go, let's look at The Scene.
[00:35:25] Friend: All right. All right. Yes, The Scene. So Megan, on future episodes, what, what I thought we would do is we could start the episode with this topic, but I thought for this first one, we should start with a more formal introduction to the show concept and us as co-hosts and so on. And so we've done that.
[00:35:43] Megan: Yes. I loved it. It worked very well.
[00:35:46] Friend: Yes. I think it worked. We're also very humble here at the show. So what's trending in the social arts.
[00:35:52] This week.
[00:35:54] Megan: Okay. I mean, there's just so much to talk about, but the first thing is this Architectural [00:36:00] Digest feature on Alicia Keys. Not only is Alicia Keys, one of the coolest people, I think generally speaking out there, she seems very humble. She's a mom, but she doesn't share much about her child, which I feel like is super cool and non trendy. Right? So we're going for these like different ladies. I think she's our age, which is also makes her extra awesome. We're, we're not as cool as her because we're not married to a rapper. So that's, you know,
[00:36:29] Friend: Well, I am, he's just not a famous rapper.
[00:36:32] Megan: He might be famous. Maybe that's why my friend here can't talk about herself. Okay? Pit Bull said no.
[00:36:39] So anyways Alicia Keys has this amazing art collection in her home. And instead of buying art from already super famous artists, she has made it sort of her mission to support many women and many unknown to the big art world artists. And she's purchasing a lot of art by women of color and well, women from all over the world who are not in the, the art with a capital, A art scene. And I just think it's like inspirational and revolutionary. It's really cool. She purchased a painting by a woman who I'm friends with on Instagram, and the woman is the most delightful human who is like an artist who recently has just blown up. I mean, but it's not for lack of effort. This woman is super [00:37:30] hardworking. She's a mom of two. I mean, she is like the person you would want to do well. So I'm just Lauren Pearce, super proud of you.
[00:37:37] Friend: Very cool. And we can link to that to her... what do we call it on Instagram - profile? Page?
[00:37:44] Megan: Yeah, this is fun.
[00:37:47] We'll link it to her MySpace.
[00:37:50] Friend: I could Google her Instagram, right?
[00:37:53] Megan: Yeah. We'll have everyone Googling in no time.
[00:37:57] Friend: Let me Google that for you and
[00:37:59] Megan: Ok but what are you reading, what are you reading about or seeing?
[00:38:04] Friend: Okay. So I think that my local library might be on to the fact that we're doing this podcast because I ordered every book that had the word art in the title. I just went, I just went nuts.
[00:38:17] And also, I was reading an article about talking about money and why does it make us uneasy and so on? And so I've just finished this book by the the person who wrote the article, it's Rachel Sherman, Uneasy Street: The Anxieties of Affluence. And so it was, it's a very interesting book where she interviews the Upper West Side basically of Manhattan and like people with, with real money and talk to them about how they feel about having so much and how they manage it and how they spend it and how they invest it. And yeah. Maybe we talk about that a little bit later, but that was kind of the latest. And then I'm just into a number of other books that I'm [00:39:00] trying to I'm I'm trying to expand my horizons.
[00:39:04] I don't think I've ever taken an art book out of the library.
[00:39:08] Megan: So funny. Are you a book monogamist?
[00:39:11] Friend: Oh, no.
[00:39:11] Megan: Do you - you're polygamist.
[00:39:15] Friend: I am. I usually have four or five and different, you know, different, I'll have a, you know, a novel and then I'll have something for work and then I'll have something on this topic and that topic.
[00:39:27] And then, and I also am very quick to liberate books if they are not serving me, because I just don't have time for that.
[00:39:35] Megan: No. I agree. I used to think that you had to suffer through to finish it, but you just don't, you just don't. I love a juicy, novel alongside a serious topic. Right? Like I like to pair the two, they pair nicely.
[00:39:50] Friend: And then do you race to see which one you will finish first?
[00:39:52] Megan: I know, I know I'll finish the juicy novel first, but I have to, I have to kind of pair them so that I kind of, I need you, you know, I'm kind of. Stuck in this world where I'm kind of a little of everything, right. So I have to kind of dabble.
[00:40:06] Friend: Yeah. I like the dabbling in the reading. I try to read books that I think I won't like that's, that's another category that I give myself. Like I try to say, okay, that sounds awkward. Or that sounds boring. Or that sounds controversial. Or I know that's not my current position, you know, writing to my current position, just to challenge my brain. So this one I thought would be interesting. I thought I would maybe get a little [00:40:30] worked up about reading some of the uber wealthy in New York and and, and like challenge my own judgment of that group. And it was good. It was a good challenge.
[00:40:41] Megan: Did you get as worked up as you expected?
[00:40:44] Friend: Yes.
[00:40:45] Megan: Oh, Ooh. That I want to read it.
[00:40:47] Friend: I mean, it's insane. It's insane.
[00:40:49] Megan: I've always been very intrigued by people who are just born into easy wealth and when I say easy, I mean, like the kind of wealth that I can't fathom. Right. Like I just, I I'm, I don't know if jealous is the right word, but it's mystifying.
[00:41:02] Friend: It's mystifying. Yes. And I think that it's in order to get her interviewees to talk to her Ms. Sherman I think she, she had a difficult job because she's prying in and then as you pry people close up and then she has to, she's quoting it's full of quotes from the interviews. And I think she did a great job of allowing the quotes to just be, to not to not like reflect on them too much and stay away from putting her own judgment on it. And to just say like, this is what they told me. So, you know, so she's, she's sort of assessing what they're telling her, but not gossiping about it. If that makes sense, like she's taking an academic approach to, “okay, so you'll see that this person justifies spending.” Like some of these people are spending more than a million year. On like household travel consumption stuff. Right. And so she's, so she, she [00:42:00] dives into that in a non gossipy salacious way. It's it was quite a good read.
[00:42:04] Megan: I really want to read that. Yeah, I'll be going to the library.
[00:42:11] Friend: I found it and I gotta go, okay. Bye.
[00:42:14] All right. Let's see what else we have here.
[00:42:17] Megan: So we need to like, just keep doing our nerdy little research projects for ourselves is basically what we're saying.
[00:42:24] Friend: Oh yes. The homework. I'm not sure if we if we have any particular homework.
[00:42:30] Megan: I think we should just both read something shocking or interesting.
[00:42:34] Friend: Okay. Easy.
[00:42:37] Megan: Easy, easy.
[00:42:38] Friend: Easy to come by. I've just started a book that is that is that. So that's easy. We'll just carry on. Let me know how it goes next week. Okay. All right. Well that that brings us to the end of our first episode. We hope you as our listeners got a good sense for the concept for the show and the style of conversation we have planned for you.
[00:42:59] We hope you enjoyed meeting us your cohosts.
[00:43:03] Megan: That was super fun. Thank you guys for listening to The Art$ and be sure to come back next week for our discussion on labels and language, as in what do we mean when we say “art” or when we call someone quote creative, how does someone unfamiliar with the arts start to engage with the sort of associate with these labels and this framework that's already been established. Until then, this is Megan of Art by Megan.
[00:43:29] Friend: And her [00:43:30] friend, your patron of the arts.
[00:43:31] Megan: Wishing you more art.
[00:43:32] Friend: And maybe more money.
[00:43:35] And then we'll do the voice over music.
[00:43:41] We did it!
[00:43:42] Megan: We did it!
[00:43:44] If you enjoy the arts, please like, follow, rate, or review us wherever you get your podcasts. This is the most important way you can support us as a new show.
[00:43:54] Friend: Not sure how to do that? No problem. We've shared step-by-step instructions for the most common podcast apps on our podcast page at artbymegan.com/podcast.
[00:44:06] Megan: Can we read this?
[00:44:07] Friend: I'm going to read it, and then I'm hoping what she'll do is speed it up. Or you can read it if you want...
[00:44:11] The Art$ is a production by the Art by Megan Studio. This podcast was created, produced, recorded and researched by Megan and her Friend and edited by Hanna Nakano. The views in this recording are the personal views of the co-hosts and their guests. Their commentary is provided for general information purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, tax, legal or accounting advice nor does it constitute an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any art or financial products. In other words, we're doing this for fun and we hope you enjoy it, but you should still call your account. And your mother.
[00:44:29] Megan: I love that ending so much.
[00:44:29] Friend: Isn't that so good?
[00:44:31] Megan: But really.
[00:44:33] Friend: I tried to...
[fade out]