♪♪
-Hi, everyone, and welcome to the show.
I'm Nancy Guppy, coming to you this week from the fabulous
and always free Frye Art Museum.
The Frye opened in 1952 to house Charles and Emma Frye's
extensive collection of American and European paintings.
Since that time, the museum has remained true
to the couple's original vision
as a free gathering space
where all are welcome to experience a wide range
of traditional, modern, and contemporary art,
enjoy live performance, and engage in lively conversation.
Currently on exhibit is
"American Vernacular" by Hugh Hayden.
"Unsettled" by Jamie Wyeth.
The Frye Salon.
The "Born Banner Series" featuring Tara Kranyak,
and the newly opened Frye Parlor,
designed by Jamie Yen.
On top of all the great art
is a seriously good gift shop
and delicious food in the charming
Mari Pili at Café Frieda.
The Frye is open Wednesday through Sunday.
Hours and location are at fryemuseum.org.
♪♪
We've got a terrific lineup, including...
-♪ I can stand a lie. that's been proven true ♪
-...songwriter and storyteller, Willa Barnett.
-I want to express art.
I want to tell stories. I want to make people feel less alone.
-And a brand new record from Tekla Waterfield
and Jeff Fielder.
And we'll begin with the exceptionally talented
visual artist, Whiting Tennis.
♪♪
-There's this feeling of like, anything could happen.
And it's a beautiful, um, concept that with the materials,
and with what you know, and with the time that you have,
you can make something that comes out of the moment.
And that magic or that sense of possibility is something
that I've noticed lately, where I just go,
wow, it's, um, it's just being in awe of that,
um, that impulse.
♪♪
This is a story I've told a million times,
and I can't even tell it's accurate,
because if I really think about it,
there's probably something earlier.
But in Buffalo,
we lived down the street from the, um,
the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.
And I remember going in there as, uh, probably,
I don't know, eight, nine-year-old, I can't remember.
But there was -- they had an Andy Warhol soup can,
one of them.
I stood in front of it and I looked at it,
and I thought, whoa, I love that.
By the time I was in high school,
I was hanging out in the art room at Garfield,
and I was burning,
and printing the screens for posters and t-shirts,
and all that for Garfield.
The Bulldogs, this,
the spaghetti chicken dinner, all this stuff.
And I think that I was starting to be identified
as an artist because I was in there,
in the art room, printing.
At some point, I ended up at the U as a junior,
and I had to declare my major, and I thought,
okay, I'm just going to go into painting.
I hadn't ever made a painting, and I was a junior in college.
Someone like me, you go, you stumble into it,
and next thing you know,
you're having shows, making art on demand,
with deadlines, and you're kind of come up with themes,
and you're trying to work with your materials,
and there is an art to doing it out of impulse and necessity.
And then there's this grace that happens, someone my age,
where you can feel the excitement of having a moment
with my studio, and I'm in front of a paper,
I'm working on a canvas.
The idea is that you're going to go into the- to the studio,
and break the bounds of those limits,
and -- and do something that's spectacular,
that even you would be like,
"Oh, my God, I didn't think I could do that."
That's the whole idea. I can feel the challenge.
What kind of thing do I have to do today
to outdo my own limited skills?
And it can be intimidating.
So that's when I started.
When I do the postcards in the morning,
I often go in and I take a glance at the painting,
and I go over to my postcard, um, desk,
and make a few silly little things.
And then sometimes, uh, I'll make 1 or 2,
and then one of them will turn out really cool,
and I'll have a tiny little surprise, like, wow.
And then you take that little bit of confidence,
happiness, whatever,
and leverage it as you face the painting.
Now it's a postcard project.
But initially, it was like my friend Steve and I,
um, I would send postcards whenever I was somewhere else.
It was so regular that it became this thing
where it became part of the ritual of starting to make work.
So I've been sending him postcards for 30 years now,
and we're, like, over 600.
When you can let go of the fear of making a really large error,
that opens up all sorts of really good possibilities.
If I'm lost about, like, what the next move is,
I will at some point just make a move.
You're wrong,
like, more than half the time.
Way more than half the time.
It's always a trial and error, mostly error.
And then the good things happen in recovery.
It's not what I planned, it's just better.
♪♪
-♪ I spent ten times what I've been saving ♪
♪ From Montauk to the Indian mounds ♪
♪ I've lost ten times what I have found ♪
♪♪
♪ From the apples and the... ♪
-When you're making something in the quiet of it,
the possibilities are still as open as they've ever been.
But now you can sort of go, "Oh, my God, this could do.
I could go anywhere with this."
Part of my aim with art is really to connect
with reaching into that river where everything is,
everything has passed and everything's going,
and I want to be part of that river.
And I'm also putting myself in it and I'm taking from it.
So when I see the picture,
it's like I'm on the thread from the caveman to now.
It's all a big thread.
I'm hoping that the viewer sees something that's authentic,
you know, whether or not they like it or not.
I'm not trying to blow anybody away with, like,
skillful moves or anything like that.
If the stuff looks authentic and they can,
they can see that it's authentic,
then that's all you can ask.
-♪ Turn around ♪
♪♪
-Whiting's solo show, Refuge,
runs now through November 1st
at Greg Kucera Gallery in Pioneer Square.
Hours and location are at gregkucera.com.
Seattle is home to many great musicians,
and two of my favorites
are Tekla Waterfield and Jeff Fielder.
Their new record, "Mother Mind",
is a collection of beautifully crafted songs
that loosely document Tekla's struggle
with postpartum depression.
Well, here they are from Altai Arts Gallery
in West Seattle performing
"Keep It Upbeat."
♪♪
-♪ It doesn't take much for me to go under ♪
♪ Just a little push for me to slip slide ♪
♪ I don't know how much I can keep my head up ♪
♪ When everything starts to go dark ♪
♪ Try to keep moving ♪
♪ But I need to sit still ♪
♪ Gotta keep doing, keep pushing up the hill ♪
♪ But what is the point when you've done it all before? ♪
♪ There's nothing left to say ♪
♪ And who you trying for? ♪
♪ Just keep it upbeat ♪
♪ No one wants to hear a sad song ♪
♪ Keep it upbeat ♪
♪ So if you write a sad one ♪
♪ Keep it upbeat ♪
♪ Ah, make it, make it move along ♪
♪ Keep it upbeat ♪
♪ There's this voice that needs to come out ♪
♪ If I don't let it, everything goes wrong ♪
♪ There's days I don't want it ♪
♪ Wanna push it deep down ♪
♪ Or I'm just too tired to write another song ♪
♪ The same voice says ♪
♪ Ooh, you got some nerve ♪
♪ You can't really keep me quiet ♪
♪ I'll bubble up and burst ♪
♪ 'Til you let me out ♪
♪ Say what I need to say ♪
♪ I'll be sitting on your shoulder ♪
♪ And I'll be heavy the whole way ♪
♪ So keep it upbeat ♪
♪ No one wants to hear a sad song ♪
♪ Keep it upbeat ♪
♪ So if you write a sad one ♪
♪ Keep it upbeat ♪
♪ Ah, make it, make it move along ♪
♪ Keep it upbeat ♪
♪ Ahhhhhh, ahhh ♪
♪ Oooooooh ♪
♪ Ahhhhhhh ♪
♪ Oooooooh ♪
♪ Ahhhh, ahhhhhh ♪
[ Guitar solo ]
♪♪
♪ I don't know why I was made this way ♪
♪ But with these words, I become clean ♪
♪ And today's a better day ♪
♪ But the battle's never over ♪
♪ It might be for a while ♪
♪ Well, no matter what you do ♪
♪ Just remember to smile ♪
♪ Especially when it feels like there's nothing new to say ♪
♪ Just keep it to yourself ♪
♪ Don't give it all away ♪
♪ 'Cause it's not worth it ♪
♪ And you know that it's true ♪
♪ So just let it all go ♪
♪ And be sure that you ♪
♪ Keep it upbeat ♪
♪ No one wants to hear a sad song ♪
♪ Keep it upbeat ♪
♪ So if you write a sad one ♪
♪ Keep it upbeat ♪
♪ Ah, make it, make it move along ♪
♪ Keep it upbeat ♪
♪ Ahhhhhh, ahhh ♪
♪ Keep it upbeat ♪
♪ No one wants to hear a sad song ♪
♪ Keep it upbeat ♪
♪ So if you write a sad one ♪
♪ Keep it upbeat ♪
♪ Ah, make it, make it move along ♪
♪ Keep it upbeat ♪
[ Chuckles ] Whoo-hoo!
-"Mother Mind" is available on Bandcamp and in CD form
at live show merch tables.
And speaking of, catch Tekla and Jeff
live on Friday, October 3rd
at the Rabbit Box in Pike Place Market and Wednesday,
October 22nd at Spanish Ballroom in beautiful downtown Tacoma.
Up next, an extraordinary young artist,
songwriter and storyteller, Willa Barnett.
♪♪
-I am an only child, and I was born to a two-mom household.
My moms wanted to have four kids,
but they liked to joke
that I was the medical bill of four kids.
So, I was born with something called VACTERL.
It basically means you're missing a bunch of stuff.
It's congenital,
so they don't know if it's genetic
or if it happens in the womb.
♪♪
-♪ My bones are always tired ♪
♪ From the nothing that I feed them ♪
♪ I'm so sick of starving ♪
♪ That I swallow my own feelings ♪
I've always been drawn to music.
I, um, was four
when I wrote my first song called "The Pizza Song."
It's about pizza.
And I really wanted to play piano.
And when I was five, I begged and begged to play,
and because of my fingers
and I was so fresh out of having hand surgery
that my moms were really scared that if I started
and I couldn't do it, that I would get really discouraged.
Um, but then my other mom got me a piano in secret
and let me start learning.
Um, but I've always been interested more in composing
because I think it gives me a way to feel my feelings
that I wouldn't normally, I don't know, put into the world.
♪ I don't know how to say this with a smile ♪
♪ It's closing time, and I'm still falling to pieces ♪
♪ I'm tired of acting like it's alright ♪
♪ There are once-in-a-lifetime kinds of bleeding ♪
♪ Of course, I'm scared. I'd be lying if I wasn't ♪
♪ They sat me down, said I've got problems by the dozen ♪
♪ Drew a map of what they want from me ♪
♪ To cut me open, be light as a feather ♪
♪ Break my bones, then put them back together ♪
♪ You'd be asleep, Wouldn't feel a thing ♪
♪ But I feel it all ♪
♪ I feel it all ♪
The Moth StorySLAM was actually an idea
that my physical therapist hatched me,
because I was telling her these stories,
and she was like, "You know, this is crazy.
Like, this is good stuff."
And she knows I'm a performer and I do music,
and she said,
"Have you ever thought about storytelling at The Moth?
They do these StorySLAMs in Seattle?"
I am about to be in a StorySLAM,
which I just learned is a competition.
I did not read the fine print.
I have a five-minute, forty-second story
about a surgery
that I went through technically 19 months,
but who's counting, ago.
And I have my scar out so that people can believe me,
because I am really scared of that.
And I've never shared this story that publicly,
outside of writing music about it.
But I am trying to embrace it,
because my therapist told me this was more, I think,
what did she say,
like, it was a better modality than, um...
screaming into my pillow at night.
So here we go.
-And please, keep your applause going.
Keep it going. Keep it going for Willa.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Sometimes in life, you're the fruit,
and sometimes in life, you're the ninja.
And I, for the past two years, have been the fruit.
I think what I went through was really traumatic,
and everyone keeps telling me, like,
"The fact that you survived should be enough."
And it's not for me.
It's not enough. I want to express art.
I want to tell stories.
I want to make people feel less alone,
because of what I've gone through.
I don't think
that surviving is a good enough reason to be here.
So I hopped on what would become
the weirdest Zoom call of my life.
It was a team of surgeons
who had a photo pulled up of my insides,
and then a model of what they wanted to do to my insides.
They proposed a jejunal interposition, which,
if you're unfamiliar,
I was -- is where they take a portion of your jejunum,
which is your small intestines,
right around here,
and they pull it up and make it your esophagus.
Later that day, we're in the car.
The head surgeon calls me.
He goes, "Hey, Willa, we have a spot on Tuesday of next week.
I highly suggest you take it."
And I said, and I quote,
"But I'm going to be in Vegas with my boyfriend."
[ Crowd laughs ]
'Cause I was going to be in Vegas with my boyfriend,
and he says, "Well, Vegas can wait."
And he kept saying, over and over again,
"I don't have a crystal ball,
but I think you need to take this chance.
You need to have the surgery."
Six days and a will later, I didn't go to Vegas.
I make it straight from the roulette table
to the operating table. And two months after that, I asked him,
I said, "Hey, I know you said you didn't have a crystal ball,
but we're in the future now."
What did you mean when you said I should take the slot?
And he said we couldn't prove it until we went in
and removed your tissue.
"But you were dying from the inside out.
And if you had waited till January,
you wouldn't have been here."
[ Cheers and applause ]
My boyfriend and I just finally moved in together.
We met in college, and he was a grade below me.
And so he had a year to finish.
And then he was going to move to Seattle.
And, like, within three months of him moving to Seattle,
I had to move back to Boston to have surgery.
And I told him, I was like,
"I don't mind if you leave, like,
I will not think you're a dick.
It's a perfectly reasonable thing to have happen."
Like, we had been together when the first surgery happened,
I think about four months.
And I was like,
"This, to me, is a love that could go forever.
But also, I understand that rarely are breakups about love.
They're usually circumstance.
And I knew my circumstance was about to be insane,
and I couldn't predict what was going to happen next."
And he ended up visiting me as often as he could.
We spent two Thanksgivings in the hospital together.
There was a night, and I had this infection in my chest,
and he sat by my bedside the whole night,
holding my hand and putting peppermint oil to my nose.
And I remember that I didn't understand what was happening,
and all I was thinking was,
"Now is the time I can get him to listen to Hamilton,
like, I can guilt him." [ Chuckles ]
So I made him listen to all of Hamilton.
And, um, that night,
the children on either side of me in the ICU died,
and I didn't know it.
And so death, like, split around me, and I...
It's a weird feeling.
It's survivor's guilt, even though I have nothing
to do with any of it.
And also, I'm so glad Zach was there.
I think he helped keep my spirits up,
helped keep me alive.
And yeah, we're finally living together, and it's amazing.
♪ I can stand a lie that's been proven true ♪
♪ But I don't want to keep standing ♪
♪ If it's not next to you ♪
♪ When times turn bare, that's just what they do ♪
♪ But your magic trick is making me feel brand new to this ♪
-Listen to Willow's music on Spotify.
Search for Willa Barnett.
Check out Willa's videos on YouTube.
And, as winner of The Moth StorySLAM,
Willa will compete
in their regional StorySLAM later this year.
Stay tuned for details.
And that's a wrap!
Big thanks to Frye Art Museum for hosting us.
This is one of Seattle's great art institutions.
Plus, it's free, and a few current exhibits close
at the end of this month, so plan your visit soon.
Well, we began the show with Whiting Tennis,
the visual artist,
and we're going to end with Whiting Tennis,
the musician, who will be playing a live set
at Greg Kucera Gallery on Saturday,
September 27th at 6 p.m.
So here is Whiting with Kevin Warner and Jim Wood,
performing "Poor Boy Just Don't" by Whiting with Kevin Warner and Jim Wood
from the Clock-Out Lounge on Beacon Hill.
Enjoy, and we'll see you soon.
[ "Poor Boy Just Don't" by Whiting Tennis plays ]
-♪ As the flag flies above us ♪
♪ A pile of nothing on the hill ♪
♪ And I can't tell what's fake and what's real ♪
♪ And a poor boy never will ♪
♪ And if it looks like I'm holding out
♪ Well, I'm holding out ♪
♪♪
♪ And if I act like I'm losing out ♪
♪ It's 'cause, God damn it, I'm losing out ♪
♪ I have the questions to your answers ♪
♪ Like a drawbridge across the moat ♪
♪ And I don't know and I know that I won't ♪
♪ 'Cause a poor boy just don't ♪