Art and Alchemy Lab

Welcome to the first episode of Season 2. This marks a new calendar cycle for me of getting guests on the calendar and editing these for (hopefully) the highest enjoyment of my listeners. I know… I keep saying I’m going to go to YouTube with these, but truthfully, I’m still patting myself on the back for already overcoming a huge learning curve through the podcast production process. I’m still enj...

Astrologer Lindsay Garrett on the Significance of Planetary Cycles Welcome back…and Happy FULL MOON, yet again. Funny, how they are so frequent! This episode is put out just in time for the September eclipses, so we can understand a bit more of the cycles we are experiencing together. (Bonus: if you have an Aquarius in your life, this may be the conversation for you.) I’m very happy to welcome my...

"The measure of intelligence is the ability to change." — Albert Einstein I was so happy to finally sit down with my dear friend Julia Rogers, a career artist who I've been trying to get on this podcast since day one. Julia called in from her brand new studio in Shropshire, UK, where she's recently moved—she is literally surrounded by artwork she hasn't seen in over a year due to some big changes...

Hi…in the spirit of mid-life integration, I’m sharing this here, as I do from time to time. I mean…why can’t Dee Dee have her own magical laboratory? My agency asks us to do mini promos when a show is coming up, so this is mine. And here are some of my paintings for the show so far…You can order one if you can't make it to the show, of course. I am to please… sometimes. 😉 If you want to join in t...

Today marks the ninth lap we’ve made around this sun since the man of our family moved on. Perhaps because he died the same year as David Bowie (and several other ahead-of-their-time icons), it’s easy to imagine him returning to the planet they first fell from. Vernon, the quintessential Aquarius was ahead of his time in his mind. His first wife (Maki’s mum) once told me she felt he came from the...

Hello, friends new and old and anywhere in between. My esteemed guest this episode is Ryane Nicole Granados, a LA-based writer and educator, and the author of the international award–winning novel The Aves. We’ll dig into the craft and writing, of simultaneously raising a family, of wildly misjudged (and beloved) 80's movies, and into the work of ally-ship and advocacy in a culture shadowed by rac...

“He lives most life whoever breathes most air . “ Elizabeth Barrett Browning Hollywood hair and makeup artist, Saida Staudenmaier identifies as a multi-hyphenate (artist, mother, philanthropist, and social advocate). In this conversation, Saida and Allison contemplate the thing that should come most natural to us humans: the act of breathing. Could something so simple be the Elixer Vitae that the...

Hailey Fynaardt, a vibrant resident of New Orleans, Louisiana, has fully embraced the rich creativity and festive spirit of Parade Culture and community—an aspect of the city that I now realize is far more complex and fascinating than I initially understood. I invited Hailey to join us as an alchemist of costume, someone who transforms and elevates this tradition through her unique perspective and...

Meet Jeudi, “The Vintage-Voiced Chanteuse” and intersectional artist who transforms family stories into timeless performance art. Born into a large Latin family of raconteurs in San Diego, she grew up listening to tales of triumph and resilience while pumping foot pedals on the family player piano, singing along to 1920s piano rolls. Now, as the family archivist and keeper of traditions, Jeudi bri...

My guest this episode is artist and mythicist, Tammy Wampler, hailing from Kentucky (which I learned is not only the heart of bluegrass music, but also the homeland of the fastest horses.) One of Tammy’s published works is the oracle deck and guidebook, The Maidens of the Wheel. In this conversation, Tammy discusses the recognition of her un-trained artistic gifts and her understanding of the enco...

Mandy Thompson is a multi-media artist, social advocate/ally, and journaling coach, who brought a wealth of diverse and practical tools to the conversation, mostly in the realm of journalling practice, which is what I asked her to speak on. Her lived experience and enthusiastic clarity around the simple practice of writing our thoughts on the blank page—even if it’s just a scribbled mess sometimes...

It’s still June, which is Pride Month. I’m happy to bring that point back to the surface in the middle of a wild month in the national Un-reality Show currently being broadcast. That said, I will always be an advocate for my LGBTQ+ friends, anytime of year. There is a segment of this conversation that we briefly discuss the AIDS crisis of the 1980s…and that, I believe, was one of the first core ex...

“We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come. If we fix on the old, we get stuck. When we hang onto any form, we are in danger of putrefaction.” —Joseph Campbell My guest for this episode is Ross Hamilton, calling in from Perth, Australia. (Please forgive my lingering-cold and early-...

“If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.” —George Bernard Shaw In this episode, guest Rachael Cerrotti shares her experiences as a “storytelling alchemist’ and inherited memory collector, which seem to be the unexpected themes that keep unfolding through her life. Rachael is an award-winning author, documentary storyteller, educator, and curator. Through an int...

Allison’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. “I do not at all understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.” —Anne Lamott I am honored to share this inspiring episode especially with the state of disability rights being threatened in the US...

Brigid Hopkins on the Alchemy of Inspiration (updated podcast with better sound.) Hi everyone! This is my very first TRIGGER WARNING (so I hope that means lots of listeners, right?). Seriously though, in this episode there is dialog around death and the bodies of the departed, both animal and human. I want to be mindful of sensitivities. And not just for the podcast…below, I will be sharing artist...

This week's guest, Dr. Michael Lennox, is a highly sought-after astrologer, psychologist, dream expert, and author. You may know him from the wildly-popular ⁠Red Robe Astrology ⁠ platform on social media, where he highlights the daily cosmic "weather report," or from his weekly podcast, ⁠Conscious Embodiment⁠ , on which he discusses current astrological transits and interprets the called-in dreams...

This episode is special to me because it was a chance to listen to the sweet voice of my dear friend Marie Louise Flexen, a professional dancer who lives in England. She’s one of the few dancers I know who has made a career of dancing— that has sustained her through her life thus far, and likely, far into the future. In this episode, Marie Louise reflects on the memory-themes that keep showing up...

This episode centers on something central to my everyday life: the way the ADHD brain works and learning how to “hack” it to work for a person instead of against them. Of course I’ve only been learning about this for about a year now, since I was diagnosed with ADHD in March, 2024. So in some ways, the publishing of this episode is an anniversary celebration! One whole year of exploring a new rela...

You guys! I think this may be my most favorite episode yet. But of course, I have no real objectivity. I love them all. But this one felt especially sweet as it was a conversation with a friend that I met in an alternate timeline (Middle School) in an alternate place (Papua New Guinea). Isn’t life …at its truest, simply SURREAL? Not sure how else I can describe it, especially as us survivors keep...

Samantha Bennet is a pure-personality powerhouse! Beyond that she is GENEROUS. The wealth of practical knowledge and insight she brings to this brief episode is remarkable. Everything can be distilled to simple approaches, and massive projects can be fulfilled in just 15 minutes a day. Sam is the founder of TheRealSamBennett.com, a company committed to helping overwhelmed creatives and frustrated...

"The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge." — Carl Jung, "Aion" (1951) Artist and Therapeutic Art Facilitator Jessic...

Hello everyone…here is my second attempt at getting this episode published! The trickster is afoot big time this Mercury Retrograde! I’d launched the wrong version! Thankfully, Jill ,my guest, listened early and pointed the mix-up before too long. However if you did try to listen to that one or got confused with an email that didn’t open…this is the one I re-invite you to listen to! Join me in con...

In this intimate conversation, open-book and globetrotting painter Rebekah Evans shares her practice of making paintings inspired by the sacred places she visits. Co-creating with the Earth and the Water, she has continued her creative practice even through the unexpected death of her son and her deep grieving experience. Rebekah shares her personal insights of becoming a “Sprit Mother,” now inspi...

Life Coach and Psychologist Mike Parisi was Allison's mentor for four years (2020-2024.) This hilarious (to us) conversation touches on all sorts of Quantum Dynamics: the stabilizing energy of the Axis Mundi (or World Tree) along with EFT/Tapping, the importance of naming one's personal mythology, the higher message of Autism, AI 'consciousness,' and wondering if we might actually be aliens after...