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The Art Colony

Gaston Lacombe

From its roots in the 1800s to its thriving present, Provincetown has always been a magnet for artists. The Art Colony podcast, hosted by Gaston Lacombe, uncovers the people, places, and stories that make this seaside village one of the world’s most enduring creative communities.

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22 episodes
weekly
Avg 54 min
English

Episodes 22

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Monday · 54 min
Eugene O’Neill in Provincetown with Joe Paprzycki
This week, we interviewed playwright Joe Paprzycki about Eugene O’Neill’s life and formative Provincetown years. Paprzycki describes his own work and the Truro Playwright Collective’s free winter play readings at the Truro Public Library, then traces O’Neill from his 1888 birth, theater-filled childhood, Catholic schooling, and expulsion from Princeton to his seafaring years and arrival in Provincetown in 1916. With the Provincetown Players (Susan Glaspell, Jig Cook, Mary Heaton Vorse and others), O’Neill’s “Bound East for Cardiff” premiered at the Lewis Wharf fish house theater, gaining acclaim. O’Neill wrote prolifically, lived above the A-House, later had a Peaked Hill lifesaving-station home that fell to erosion, and left for California after marrying Carlotta in 1929. The conversation covers O’Neill’s sea influence, “Long Day’s Journey into Night,” family tragedies, the rediscovered “Exorcism,” and Paprzycki's play “Players on the Harbor.”
October 5 · 54 min
The Master of Disguise with Eric Auger
This week, we interviewed costume designer and performer Eric Auger, who describes growing up in rural Burrillville, Rhode Island in an artistic family, early homemade Halloween costumes, and formative painting lessons that fueled his imagination. After earning a BFA in photography/graphic design and working in visual merchandising, he was inspired by street performers in Montreal and began performing as living statues at Providence’s WaterFire, launching 1031 Productions (“We make pretend”), which provides living art and themed entertainment worldwide. Now a Provincetown resident, Auger performs on Commercial Street in elaborate characters (including Count Orlok, Beetlejuice, Count von Count, Borg, Penguin, White Walker, Krampus) and played Jacob Marley at the Provincetown Theater. He also DJs on WOMR with “The Reminiscence Bump,” discusses costume fabrication materials and process, and previews possible Halloween street performances.
September 28 · 49 min
Everything is a Self-Portrait with Paul Rizzo
This week, we interviewed artist Paul Rizzo, a year-round resident and “process painter” known for a distinctive personal style and unmistakable work. Rizzo recounts growing up in Marshfield, studying painting at MassArt, formative childhood art classes, a semester in Pont-Aven, France during his father’s sudden death, and moving to Provincetown (first summer 2011, year-round 2012). He describes early jobs (houseboy at the Gallery Inn, selling paintings on the street), a two-year move to New Orleans (museum job, then Rawhide), and returning around 2016. He discusses working/showing at Patty DeLuca Gallery and 411 Gallery (annual shows, now living above it), his sketchbooks as public-facing art, recurring themes (self-portraits, dream houses, Muppets, text, rainbows, vintage gay porn references, fabric), and upcoming Queer Zine Fair in NYC on Oct. 3 at the LGBTQ Center.
September 21 · 55 min
The Looks, the Voice, the Soul with Qya Cristál
The amazingly talented Qya Cristál joins us this week on The Art Colony podcast! Qya describes early musical roots singing Whitney Houston at age three, performing in an adult church choir, growing up in Missouri with a musician father, and being inspired by her polished, powerful grandmother. She discusses a strict Southern Baptist upbringing, coming out, evolving identity exploration, and rebuilding family ties. Qya explains starting drag while working at Hershey Park, creating the name Qya, and launching in Boston through a live-singing performance of “I’m Every Woman.” She details mentorship and drag family with Sapphira Cristál and Lakeia Mondale, sobriety, Provincetown’s housing challenges, and her career there, including the live-singing trio show DIVA, solo gigs, and seasonal work in Puerto Vallarta.
September 14 · 48 min
Love Letter to a Dream with Midge Battelle
This week, we welcome Provincetown artist Midge Battelle to The Art Colony after buying her painting at her solo show at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (on view until Oct. 25). Battelle, a working-class Worcester native who first came to Provincetown in 1966, describes her path from cooking and gallery work (with Hilda Neely and at the Schoolhouse complex) to earning a BFA in Photography at MassArt and later becoming a painter. She discusses documenting the 1990s Dyke Drag Brunch during Women’s Week, her long friendship with artist Pasquale Natal, and her pale, grid-based paintings shaped by color theory, including “Lady Slipper” and “Rivotorto,” inspired by St. Francis. Battelle explains cyanotypes—especially wet cyanotypes—her sun-based process, and future plans for new small grid paintings and Sunday studio visits via email.
September 7 · 38 min
The Life of a Poet with Jeffery Berg
This week, we welcome poet Jeffrey Berg to The Art Colony podcast to discuss Provincetown’s poetry community. He shares his background (born 1980, raised in South Carolina and Virginia, studied at VCU, earned an NYU MFA, lived in New York since 2004, and has spent summers in Provincetown since 2023 with his husband Colin) and describes his poetry as rooted in memory, popular culture, film, music, and time shifts, with Provincetown drawing him more toward the natural world. He reads poems including “Peace Train,” “The Almighty,” and “Pool Party,” and discusses his book Reanimator, persona poems, and balancing nostalgia with cynicism, including reexamining sheltered childhood and the AIDS crisis. They talk about approaching poetry, reading aloud, local writing groups and FAWC, Jeffery's WAMR disco/dance show Mirrorball, his publishing job and film criticism, and end with a light speed round and poet recommendations.
August 31 · 46 min
Nurtured by the Colony, Shaping the Arts Future with Russ LaMontagne
This week, we interviewed Provincetown native gallerist/curator Russ LaMontagne about growing up in the West End, early exposure to artists and local haunts, and how Provincetown has changed culturally and economically while remaining defined by art. He recounts co-founding a New York gallery in 2000, later opening LaMontagne Gallery in Boston in 2007, and discusses shifts in the gallery world and advice for artists. He describes curating shows with Twenty Summers’ Stanley space and his board role with the Provincetown Public Arts Foundation, including pier murals and an upcoming Penelope Jencks sculpture of Mary Heaton Vorse.
August 24 · 58 min
The Art of Happy Making with Naya Bricher
This week, we welcome Provincetown artist and Fine Arts Work Center arts administrator Naya Bricher ahead of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) annual gala, where she will be honored for Excellence in the Arts. Bricher describes her colorful oil paintings rooted in joy, featuring digitally collaged and projected imagery such as desserts, animals, and hands, influenced by childhood freedom with color, toile patterns, dreams, and artists like David Hockney. She recounts growing up in Connecticut with artist parents, studying painting/photography/printmaking at Smith College, first coming to Provincetown as a 2012 FAWC intern, and later building community through work, Zumba, and relationships. She explains her projector-based process, her large McMillan Pier mural (6.5x20 feet) and its relocation to the Provincetown Post, and shares details about the PAAM reception and gala dates.
August 17 · 37 min
Driven by Passion with Gabby Hanna
Provincetown arts patron and fundraiser Gabby Hanna joins us this week as we talk about her background and work building platforms for the arts. Hanna, raised in Boston by an artist-psychologist mother and engineer-musician father, studied music before transferring to Barnard; after a friend’s AIDS-related death, she shifted toward nonprofit development, AIDS work, politics, and activism, including running Carolyn Goodman’s foundation and producing a youth activism documentary shown at the Provincetown International Film Festival. Reconnecting with Provincetown, she joined the Provincetown International Film Festival around 2000, became executive director in 2004 for about a decade, and is now board president. She recounts the festival’s origins, its focus on “filmmakers on the edge,” notable guests, Oscar-qualifying shorts status, year-round cinema programming at Water’s Edge, and the Gabriel Hanna Film Institute’s residencies. She also discusses co-producing theater and film and receiving an upcoming Provincetown Theater award.
August 10 · 54 min
One Year Anniversary - The Past, Present, and Future of the Art Colony
Happy one year to The Art Colony! This week, we had a live recording hosted by Provincetown Commons and the Provincetown Art Gallery Association, noting 60+ guests, about 15,000 downloads across all U.S. states and many countries, grants from the Provincetown Economic Development Council and the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod, and listener donations. Joined by Jill Rothenberg-Simons (OnCenter Art Gallery), Gavin Kennedy (Emergent Art Advisory), and Christine McCarthy (PAAM), the panel discusses future-focused trends including climate-change-driven and multidisciplinary work, recycled and repurposed materials, AI and technology, and a renewed emphasis on craft and authenticity. They stress sustaining institutions, galleries, and affordable housing, encourage buying art and supporting funds like the Commons’ Benji Fund, and predict continued reinvention, year-round arts activity, and Provincetown’s role as a creative safe haven. Audience Q&A covers post-COVID gallery shifts to online visibility, supporting nontraditional artists and venues, bringing Provincetown artists beyond town, balancing local and outside artists, and PAAM’s growing 12x12 fundraiser show.
August 3 · 59 min
The Wild West of the East with Michael Joseph
Portrait photographer, Michael Joseph, joins us this week to bring us on a journey through his work documenting subcultures through long-term projects. He describes discovering photography at the New England School of Photography and shifting from studio work to street portraits, with a pivotal Las Vegas image sparking his decade-long “Lost and Found” project on the modern traveler subculture, built through trust, repeated encounters, and communication via social media; he notes ethical challenges and backlash around media exposure and explains his book used travelers’ own words. He then discusses his eight-year Provincetown series “Wild West of the East,” inspired by Norman Mailer’s book, shot with a vintage Polaroid Big Shot and often in an alley by Marine Specialties, including a Twenty Summers residency that produced a large wheatpaste mural. With pack film expired and scarce, he’s finishing the project and launching a Kickstarter (starting July 14) with MW Editions to publish a curated book.
July 27 · 55 min
FΔg BΔsh and Fashion Shows with Jimmy Lee Curtis
Multidisciplinary artist Jimmy Lee Curtis (aka Mama Lee) joins us this week, kicking off by highlighting Momma Lee’s Fashion Show. Curtis explains his name’s origins at the Birch House, his path from Michigan to Atlanta to 1980s London fashion/textile study, and how the alternative London scene (including Vivienne Westwood and Leigh Bowery) influenced his aesthetic. He recalls British Vogue selecting one of his scarves for a Morocco shoot featuring Christy Turlington. After moving from West Hollywood to Provincetown, he describes the Birch House as a community hub and his role in the long-running Wednesday-night FΔg BΔsh, including themes and the Miss FΔg BΔsh pageant. He outlines his current work (painting, Polaroids, hand-painted silk scarves, upcycled fashion and hats) and how a Provincetown Commons residency led to starting the fashion show with Dave LaFrance in 2021, now expanded to include other designers; this year’s theme is “London Calling,” with the fundraiser show on Saturday, August 22 at 7:00 and tickets at provincetowncommons.com.
July 20 · 59 min
The Conqueror of Cashmere with Daniel Hammond
This week, we interviewed fashion and textile artist Daniel Hammond, a cashmere sweater designer with 25 years’ experience who studied at Parsons and worked for major 7th Avenue names including Emanuel Ungaro, Nautica, Oscar de la Renta, and Perry Ellis. He describes early sewing influences from his mother and grandmother, his technical approach to construction and knitwear, and mentorship that led him to specialize in men’s cashmere. He recounts first visiting Provincetown in 2011, buying a home in 2020 during the COVID shutdown, and opening his shop on 364 Commercial Street in fall 2021 (formerly Plush), later rebranding under his name as production shifted to primarily in-house, small-batch, hand-touched work. The conversation highlights limited runs, direct-to-consumer value, and major artist collaborations, including Gaston’s “Eclipse” sweater and projects with Trevor Makula, plus upcoming shows with Lindsay Porter (starting July 3) and Jared Heslip (late August).
July 13 · 51 min
Helen Frankenthaler in Provincetown with Elizabeth Smith
Elizabeth Smith, founding executive director of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, joins us this week to talk about painter Helen Frankenthaler and her connection to Provincetown. She explains the foundation’s origins, assets, and mission to promote understanding of visual arts. She recounts Frankenthaler’s New York upbringing, early art education (including Rufino Tamayo and Bennington College with Paul Feeley), brief 1950 Provincetown study with Hans Hofmann, and her sustained summers in Provincetown from 1960–1969 after marrying Robert Motherwell. They discuss her studio routine, locations (Days Lumber Yard, the Seed Barn, and a later “tree house” studio), evolving 1960s painting toward simplified geometry, and her soak-stain technique on raw canvas and later acrylics. She describes visitors, the 2018 PAAM “Abstract Climates” exhibition, how to view her paintings, upcoming exhibitions (including Basel and a 2028 National Gallery retrospective), her printmaking, the foundation’s research access, and its Climate Initiative Grants funding 401 U.S. arts organizations.
July 6 · 1 hr 36 min
50th Episode Celebration: The Eras of Gaston Lacombe with Joe Wolley
In episode 50 of The Art Colony podcast, former journalist Joe Woolley interviews our host, Gaston Lacombe. Gaston, a Canadian-born artist and American citizen, recounts earning history degrees in Ottawa, living 16 years in Latvia in roles from teacher and newscaster to embassy cultural work, becoming the first head of Latvia’s national LGBT organization, and leaving amid threats. In Washington, DC he earned a photography degree, worked as a photojournalist, and created the globally published Captive Project documenting animal welfare in zoos. After first visiting Provincetown in 2016, he left his marriage, moved there, and opened a Whaler’s Wharf studio in 2018. He describes evolving from mixed-media photography to hard-edge painting, his tape-and-color-code construction process, and how the podcast deepened his community ties, spotlit a thriving, largely queer-driven art colony, and led to plans for a July 21 live anniversary event.
June 29 · 51 min
The Music You Hear Between Dog and Wolf with Zoe Lewis
Zoe Lewis, born in Rottingdean on England’s south coast, joins us this week as she describes becoming a largely self-taught multi-instrumentalist, learning through bands, travel, and absorbing world rhythms across 70+ countries. She recounts leaving planned tourism studies after joining punk-era bands, traveling with minimal resources, and eventually settling in Provincetown around 1990 after being offered extensive restaurant and late-night shows. She credits Provincetown’s community for sustaining her artistry, and explains her songwriting as joyful, story-based, nostalgic, and often inspired by everyday “magic,” including residencies in Greece and Key West. Lewis performs her song “Entre Chien Et Loup,” then shares current engagements: her long-running 1920s Speakeasy at The Red Room (July 21 and Aug 17, 2026) and “Zoe With a Z” at the Art House, plus touring, recordings, and collaborations.
June 22 · 51 min
Every Wall is a Canvas with Josh Wilmoth
Artist Joshua Wilmoth joins us this week as we talk about how he has shaped the town’s look through murals, store facades, interior decor, and massive Carnival installations. He describes his celebration-driven, maximalist, unapologetically queer mission against blank white walls, recounts growing up in South Florida with intensive arts education, studying at Tufts/Museum School, and pivoting fully to art. He explains his mural process (client consultation, digital renderings, chalk outlines, no projection), materials (latex house paint), and working fast outdoors amid weather and public attention. He discusses live painting, painting on found glass and frames, and announces gallery representation with Greg Salvatori, including a street-facing mural and a show opening June 26 (up through July 3). They cover Carnival floats, past large-scale pieces, dream projects (Town Hall, water tower), and a brief speed round.
June 15 · 57 min
Detours and Contours with Eric Lesh
This week, we bring on Eric Lesh, a figurative artist now in his fifth season, describes his path from musical theater to LGBTQ rights law (including work at Lambda Legal and directing the LGBT Bar Association of New York) and how figure drawing at the NYC LGBT Center and Zoom sessions during the pandemic grew into commissions and queer art fairs like Barnwood and Art Gaysel. He explains his whimsical, expressive line-based nude work and influences (Al Hirschfeld, Keith Haring, Jean Cocteau), his shift from digital to acrylics and oils, and his business model of private live portrait sessions and group commissions. He discusses managing public reactions to nudity, hosting pop-up artists, running the Tuesday life drawing group at the Gifford House, and serving as president of the Provincetown Business Guild to help sustain Provincetown’s queer identity.
June 8 · 45 min
Avital Sagalyn: A Return to Provincetown
This week, we welcomed returning guest Christine McCarthy of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) plus Elaine Grossman and Daniel Sagalyn to discuss the exhibition “Avital Sagalyn: Mid-Century Provincetown,” on view through August 2, 2026. McCarthy describes the exhibitions committee’s excitement at discovering Sagalyn’s “breathtaking” works and their maturity for an artist in her 20s. Daniel and Elaine explain Sagalyn’s life: born in 1925 in Palestine under the British mandate, raised in Brussels, fled WWII to the U.S. in 1941, studied art via MoMA teen classes and later Cooper Union, and worked in Provincetown in 1945–46 amid the Hofmann era. They recount her Fulbright to Paris, encounters with major artists including Picasso, and an Admiral McMillan/Monhegan Island story, while noting she rarely exhibited until late-life encouragement led to a UMass show and now PAAM. Resources include avitalsagalyn.com, @avitalsagalyn on Instagram, and PAAM.org, with related Outer Cape Chamber Orchestra concerts.
June 1 · 1 hr 1 min
Everyone’s Favorite Showgirl! with Ryan Landry
We have finally brought in the amazingly talented performer and artist Ryan Landry to talk about his life and work. Landry recounts growing up in Wallingford, Connecticut, moving to New York City, and arriving in Provincetown in 1979, describing the town’s earlier “Wild West” atmosphere and his early jobs. He explains how his prop-heavy performances in “Puttin’ On The Hits” led him to create the long-running Monday-night competition Showgirls in the late 1980s, emphasizing its curated, audience-participatory, mentoring spirit and celebrity guest stars; he previews a Sesame Street-themed set and venues including the Crown & Anchor and Provincetown Inn. Landry discusses studying art, painting intensely during COVID, exhibiting annually at the William Scott Gallery, his studio habits, plans for a puppet project, his theater company the Gold Dust Orphans and Boston Christmas productions, and his rock band Space Pussy.

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