The Art Life

For a few years now, good friends Dean Haglund, Phil Leirness, and Jon Lawlor have been meeting via Zoom to hold each other’s feet to the fire in their shared desires to create art that is filled with life while also endeavoring to live life more artfully. Near the end of 2025, we starting making the bulk of these meetings available in podcast form, and we call that podcast “The Art Life”. Welcome! On this week’s installment … *How Jon spent his birthday and what jury duty on the actual day allowed him to learn about himself *Across the Chillpak Hollywood Presents … universe of shows, the concept of “liminal space” has been getting a lot of play (as depicted in films, on television, and in books) and this week, the exploration of liminal space expands into the “real” world and is tied into such previously discussed topics as urban spelunking and the “serial butt sniffer” *Probably a little too much time gets spent talking about the 1980s movie Goonies , but that conversation leads into a discussion about the richest people in the world and the hollow concept of “treasure” *The madness/artistry of rifle heir, philanthropist and frustrated architect Sarah Winchester *More on the intriguing steamer trunks Dean will be receiving (in 2027 most likely) *Phil’s new monthly stage show and how he is approaching its creation Chillpak Hollywood Presents ... is a listener-supported joint. To receive new shows and support our work, please become a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deanandphil.substack.com/subscribe