Episode 37: Will the Real Janna Garza Please Stand Up?

Liss’N Kristi

What do you do when you're a talented corporate type who is diagnosed with a crippling disease which might put you in a wheel-chair?

If you're artist Janna Garza, you file for divorce after 18 years: "He wasn't the guy I wanted pushing me around".

But Kristi's long-time friend, who calls herself a "collector", and had moved from Texas into a plush corporate apartment in Chelsea, was about to discover her artistic side for real.

It came about, as she says, through traveling, collecting vintage jewelry, fabrics, and oak treasures, watching people, and blogging about them.

Now she has books - sometimes the design comes first, and sometimes the words. The latest is "Looks Familiar" - a spectacular collection of her haphazard, yet spectacularly accurate, portraits of often-familiar characters.

She came to visit Liss'NKristi in July, amid the Texas storms, and while mascot Winslow was having a turn.

website:

https://www.jannagarza.com/
https://www.facebook.com/jannajgarza
https://www.instagram.com/janna.garza

STORIES

00:00 - Start

00:11 - Winslow's tummy troubles

00:53 - "Welcome Janna, to the house, my tit has popped out and there's dogshit everywhere"

01:15 - The official introduction of Janna and her book "Looks Familiar"

01:39 - "O.Henry meets Sex and the City"

01:54 - "Kinda Tracey Ullman, visually you can see some Wes Anderson"

02:29 - I borrow from photographers such as William Eggleston

03:13 - "I did a one woman show, wrote plays, started this project in 2006"

03:25 - "I got sick with a condition called "Polymyositis", a progressive muscle-wasting disease

05:01 - In New York, working for a product company, 2013-15

06:20 - "I couldn't get out of a chair"

07:15 - "As strong women, we power through"

09:20 - "Polymyositis was the best of the evils"

10:34 - "Within a month of the diagnosis I filed for divorce"

13:34 - Auto-immune protocol, awful meds, and my hair's falling out

15:02 - "I started messing with wigs, and then it just kinda started"

16:35 - Getting lost in Hobby Lobby

19:10 - I wanted to photograph the visuals

22:18 - American Savings and Loan

23:44 - "I loved doing these characters. Sometimes the visual came first. Sometimes the story.

24:59 - Western shirts and Dwight Yoakam

26:42 - "I didn't start out to monetize it, practical wasn't on my radar"

27:50 - "I was invited to display the art in a gallery - it didn't occur to me that anyone would buy it."

31:21 - "I'd call it storytelling art"

31:50 - The story of Bobby Broussard

33:42 - Create to create

35:23 - "I was a Chelsea Girl, but I've never been as home sick"

36:15 - Janna's go-to advice