Virtual Memories Show 319:
Katelan Foisy
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“Magic is opening doors you didn’t know existed.”
Her first crush was Nosferatu, she started reading Burroughs at 12, she’s fused Roma and Santeria, and now Katelan Foisy joins the show to talk about making art, magic, and a personal mythology. We get into the course of her artistic career, the perils of a public persona, the experience of making art for Smashing Pumpkins and William Patrick Corgan (& the genesis of their friendship), understanding the tarot as storyboards, learning to paint mosaics to make the Sibyls Oraculum, the allure of old hotels, the duality of Al Capone, and why she traded the East River for Lake Michigan. Plus, the great advice she got from Molly Crabapple, forming a Third Mind with Vanessa Sinclair, her adherence to William Burroughs’ twin beliefs that you can write your way out of any problem and that photographs can change the future, and how her art tries to capture the Romany notion of the Stopping Place. Give it a listen! And go check out Katelan’s marketplace for art and magic!
“Everything I make as commercial art still plays into my personal mythology.”
“I discovered Burroughs when I was 12 or 13, and I remember thinking, ‘This doesn’t feel good, but I can’t stop.'”
“The reason I met Molly Crabapple is that we had the same idea. But she was doing it and I was just thinking it.”
Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes!
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About our Guest
Katelan Foisy is a multimedia artist, occultist, and writer. Her fine art pieces have been displayed at The Worcester Art Museum, Ohio History Museum, MODA, WEAM, A&D Gallery, and Last Rights. She has graced the pages of the Grammy Award programs and the stage of Cynthia von Buhler’s immersive historical plays “Speakeasy Dollhouse” and “The Brothers Booth.” Katelan has been featured in the NY Times, Elle magazine, Paper Magazine, GQ Italy, Time Out NY, Witches & Pagans, and many others—for her work as an artist, curator and occultist. She has written for Motherboard/VICE, Electric Literature, Luna Luna, ERIS magazine, COILHOUSE and held events with Atlas Obscura and lectured at Morbid Anatomy. Her short films have been shown at Cinamatique Francaise as part of the Romani Avante Garde Film Sessions and her illustrations are featured on The Smashing Pumpkins “Shiny And Oh So Bright” Tour as well as William Patrick Corgan’s “Ogilala” tour. She is the artist for the Sibyls Oraculum with Tayannah McQuillar and the forthcoming Hoodoo Tarot. Chaos of the Third Mind, with Vanessa Sinclair, will be released in 2020 from Fulgar Ltd, UK. She’s on Instagram and Twitter as katelanfoisy. She was called a “Female Jack Kerouac” by Taylor Mead, a “Modern Day Francesca Woodman” by Cynthia von Buhler, and William Patrick Corgan has said, “They used to burn witches like Katelan.”
Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded at Katelan’s home on a pair of Blue enCORE 200 Microphones
