Sage Matthews: Sagewolf Herself / Most Hippest Mom / Gypsy Queen

05/05/22 • 90 min

@sagewolf_interviews
The scene:
We are sitting in the “Secret Garden” of Rachel and Chris’s LA home - which they so generously have made my home with them. These guys are my family, truly. They let me be 1000% myself and whomever I’m becoming. After many others’ requests for me to be interviewee, I chose Rachel to be my interviewer for my Sagewlf Interviews Podcast. I knew from the moment I met her that we were sisters for life and actually it was more like “It’s so nice to see you again!” Join us in the garden for the truth-telling of Sagewlf.
Highlights:
+ When I started going by Sage, my middle name
+ My “thing” that I can’t not do is these interviews with all of you
+ Creating an intentional gypsy life
+ Traveling to always be headed toward the people I love
+ My process in editing and note-taking for the interviews
+ The importance of curating the environment for the interviewee
+ Using social media to build community
+ How Sagewolf Interviews began
+ Learning how to build a website and do audio editing
+ Being a recovering perfectionist
+ Saying fuck it and pressing publish
+ Experimenting with and learning new tools
+ Beginning recording with my grandfather’s life story
+ Figuring out what is true to me, what I give a shit about
+ Doing everything at 150%, so choosing my “things” wisely
+ Recovering from perfectionism
+ Resourcing interviewees from my life - past and present
+ Learning how to approach a stranger for an interview
+ Being intentionally honest and vulnerable with others
+ Bringing out vulnerability and the desire to share in others
+ Learning to listen to others and making them feel heard
+ Changing from a fly on the wall to a fully expressed and joyful human
+ Why the name Sagewolf - a story about wolf behavior
+ Having interviewees choose their environment to create comfort
+ Eliminating considerations of vulnerability
+ Being invited into a sacred space by another
+ Being strong-willed, perseverant and adaptable
+ Disappearing from confrontative experiences
+ We have what we need in us already, we just have to learn how to use it
+ Self-reliance is a buffer for being vulnerable with others
+ Moving from LA to Utah and waking up to your own BS
+ Cultivating community without stereotypes
+ Finding “family” and “home” everywhere
+ Mormons are some of my favorite humans on the planet
+ Getting high off human exchanges
+ Contouring ourselves to create a comfortable place for others
+ Seeing ourselves - our own reflections - in others
+ Not allowing humility to keep you from interacting with others
+ Loving your younger little sad self
+ Aiming to get back to the young, innocent, confident self
+ Appreciating self as we are
+ What I want the outcome of the interview project to be
+ We have an obligation to share our unique gift with our world
+ The journey is the joy
A taste:
“It’s up to us, we have a conscious choice to make. We live in a very victim mentality culture [...] and it has intentionally disempowered us. It’s time for people to realize how actually powerful they already are and all they need to do is act on that [...] and see their power and not be afraid of that. I have total control over every situation because I choose how to respond [...] I can create an opportunity out of that for myself to better learn something..."
Favorite saying:
“Lemonade.” (When you get lemons, make lemonade)
“When the student is ready, the teacher arrives.” (from interviewee Lisa Farmer)

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Thank you for listening!
Please subscribe to support this project.
Love, Sagewolf xoxo

Support the show

Thank you for listening!
Please subscribe to support this project.
Love, Sagewolf xoxo

Previous Episode

Nicole Caldwell a.k.a. Azevedo: Fashion Designer / Miss Heart-o-Gold USA / Accidental International Nurse

@nicoleliolie
The scene:
We are sitting on the front porch of Nicole’s adorable apartment, 2 blocks from Seal Beach, CA, on a damn gorgeous So-cal day. She shares this apartment with her brand-new husband and this is the first time she has ever lived outside her parents home. Nicole and I first worked together 6-ish years ago and have seen each other through huge life changes. She is the most integrous and kind person I know - and I don’t use those words lightly. Join us for a conversation between 2 girls cut from the same cloth (fashion pun - obvi).
Highlights:
+ 10 months newlywed
+ We’ve built some big brands together - GRLFRND and Boyish
+ Forever saved as “intern” in my phone - a sweet inside joke
+ Paris Fashion Week, pushing me in a wheelchair
+ I lost her grandmother’s earrings in Paris (and still feel guilty)
+ Helping others is above all else
+ Mentoring and being a kick-ass mentee
+ Post-it addict rehabilitated with Google docs
+ Dad and mom both raised her to help others
+ Feeling like you don’t fit in and proving yourself
+ If we don’t share our stories with others, what good does it do?
+ Taking pride in being an example for others
+ Being a fashion educator
+ Designing jeans to make your butt look great
+ Teaching the importance of networking and resourcing
+ Teaching the tangibility of fashion as a career
+ Prioritizing your passion project
+ Setting boundaries for your self and what feeds you
+ Determination and hard work
+ The connections that open doors in life
+ Synchronicity and God’s direction
+ Christianity and celibacy values
+ Sticking to your beliefs and convictions
+ Stubbornness as a blessing and a curse
+ Saying yes to too many things
+ Learning boundaries through depression
+ Being part of the Portuguese community
+ Life revealing the people who don’t compliment you
+ Being ok with yourself, on your own
+ Learning to love ourselves first and accept love from others
+ Finding others with your same values
+ Using negativity to grow stronger
+ The importance of faith and family
+ Learning to talk through embarrassment and vulnerability
+ Developing tools to handle future challenges
+ Learning to find peace in your storms
+ “It’s just a pair of jeans”
+ Not letting fashion consume you
+ Focus on yourself, not on others
+ Being happy with how you’re living your life - feeling aligned
+ Living without regrets
+ Being courageous
+ Flexibility and going with the flow
+ We need more togetherness, less politics and bullshit
+ How hard is it to smile or wave at someone? Not at all
+ Additional story that we forget to tell
A taste:
“This whole week I’ve really been convicted by this word Courage. [...] Having this idea of being courageous. And it could be in the big things, it could be in the small things, but also being courageous in my mind - how I’m thinking [...] not be so fearful, being courageous in my heart, or doing something that shows physical courage.”
Favorite sayings:
“Just breathe.”
“God’s got you.”
“Courage.”

Support the show

Thank you for listening!
Please subscribe to support this project.
Love, Sagewolf xoxo

Next Episode

Erin Currier: Painter & Collage Artist / Rolodex Sharing Queen / Martial Artist Meditative Goddess

@erincurrierfineart
erincurrierfineart.com
The scene:
We are sitting on the front patio of Erin’s home and studio in her adorable bungalow community. It feels like a protective nest - and the birdsong attests to that. We are enshrined by climbing rose bushes that will bloom in the hundreds soon, 10 or so talismans from best friend/artist Cynthia Cook, and Erin’s early collage art of buddhist deities. Join us for a very thoughtful conversation on supportive artist communities, how we see others, and our power of perspective about life.
Highlights:
+ First art show in 1998, at the coffee shop she worked at, using their trash
+ “The impermanence of phenomena”
+ Started by making portraits of people using their own trash
+ Collage was her strong suit, so she leaned into painting to get better
+ Her true love is drawing - all of her artwork begins in sketchbooks / travel journals
+ Scaling from a 6-inch sketchbook to a 7-foot painting
+ Began drawing before she could speak or walk
+ Using art to get better grades in law and physics classes
+ Using drawing to communicate across language barriers
+ BFA in Theater Design: studied costume design, set painting and design
+ Dzogchen buddhist meditation practice
+ Artists who say they “paint for themselves” vs. intentionally sharing with the public
+ All art is created through the filter of our own perception - something only we can see that way. We are idealizing it by choosing what to put forth of it, which is a political act because we’re creating the kind of world we want to live in
+ Her art is about humans that she wants other humans to know about
+ She wants others to see the beauty she sees in others
+ She paints people how she sees them - their highest self
+ When you love someone unconditionally, you’re seeing what they could be - their highest potential
+ New Mexico artists support and encourage one another - they succeed together
+ Artists promoting each other by sharing art, journalists, gallerists and collecting each others’ art
+ Older artists nurturing younger artists - shoutout to @tobymorfinart
+ Contemporary artists who have learned from their ancestors and modernized it @rosebsimpson @romeroartprojects @arthurlopezsantos
+ The value system of depth and heart, family and ancestors, craft and spirit
+ Creating for the purpose of showing us all of our similarities
+ Traveling reveals our commonalities far out-weigh our differences
+ The more open we are, the more open others are
+ Laughing off the stresses
+ Treating everyone equally and with respect and interest - filmmakers to garbage collectors
+ Interviewing is like drawing - subjects feel honored that someone gives them time
+ Having more ideas than time, and being ok with that
+ Living every day as your own, how and with whom you want to spend it
+ We have the power to curate our lives by being kind to others
+ Be how you want the world to respond to you
+ Complimenting others as a way of reflecting the beauty you see in them back to them
A taste:
“I feel grateful...for my friends, for my family. [...] ...the beauty of the morning light and the sound of the birds or to be able to have a cup of coffee, like wow, how lucky am I?”
Favorite saying:
“It’s another beautiful day, what do you want to do with it, how do you wa