sebastian levar spivey - artist and producer
Human existence is a web of stories. The ways we craft our politics, relationships, and sense of self are strung through with the tangled truths and excuses we spin in narrative. Through my work I endeavor to crawl through that web, be that by image, word, or sound.
I was born and raised in sticky climes of Northeast Florida, in a city that smelled like coffee, azaleas, and salt. From there I spent a few years studying art and religion in North Carolina's Piedmont, surrounded by hills and trees. Until 2019 I worked as a screen printer and audio producer in the corn-flush flatland of Des Moines, Iowa. I have returned to the study of art and religion, this time in Nashville, TN, where I'm working on my Masters of Divinity while maintaining an active visual + audio practice.
In the Summer of 2020 (and what a Summer that was) I released a 5-part serialized audiodoc on eating disorders entitled consumedxx (see sidebar), which put my story in conversation with two other folks to interrogate the deeper mental+emotional+spiritual aspects of eating disorders beyond trite and exploitative portrayals which dominate cultural discourse surrounding them. In 2020 I also led a team of producers in publishing a bi-monthly storytelling podcast for Vanderbilt Divinity School called "Ministry of the Arts", which now has a home on SoundCloud.
From September 2020-May 2021 I worked as artist-in-residence at Larkspur Conservation Burial Ground, a position in which I developed and illustrated a coloring book about deathcare.
In 2021 I presented two versions of a paper on Marc Chagall and Yvette Cauquil-Prince's Job tapestry at the South-East regional and at the national meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature.
From 2014-16. I directed and produced for WXYC Reports, a monthly radio documentary show on WXYC Chapel Hill, a position wherein I was responsible for training and organizing the production team, hosting, mixing, and setting the creative direction, as well as producing my own monthly pieces from interview to final mix.
From 2016-2019 I worked as the producer of Like Micah (likemicah.libsyn.com), a position for which I recorded, edited, mixed, scripted, and published a fortnightly storytelling podcast.
During that same period, I also worked as an audio engineer for the Black Lunch Table (blacklunchtable.com), doing intensive audio clean up on outdoor round table discussions.
In 2018 I designed the curriculum for and taught a class on DIY Audio Documentary for the Des Moines Social Club, where students learned the basics of storytelling and audio production using using their phone to record and Audacity to edit.
I am adept at Hindenburg Journalist, Adobe Audition, and Audacity and am amember of the Association of Independents in Radio.
Education
2012 - 2016
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. BA Studio Art and Religious Studies.
2019-2021
Vanderbilt Divinity School, Masters of Divinity.
Certificate of Bioethics from Yale's Sherwin B. Nuland Summer Institute in Bioethics
2021
Brandon Honor Scholarship, Vanderbilt University
2018
Sonic South Finalist, Southern Oral History Project
2015
The George Kachergis Studio Art Scholarship
2014
Phi Beta Kappa inductee
2012
Awards
State of Florida Parliamentary Debate Champion, American Forensics Association
2019
Exhibitions
2020
Holding Patterns, the internet
2019
Organ + Art Show II, Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Des Moines, IA
2019
Limited Space III, Curate, Des Moines , IA
2018
Iowa Exhibited XXXIII, Polk County Heritage Gallery, Des Moines, IA
2018
Limited Space II, The Des Moines Social Club, Des Moines, IA
2018
Play, Oliver + James, Des Moines, IA
2018
Organ + Art Show, Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Des Moines, IA
2018
Inter/Veil, Yellow Door Gallery, Des Moines, IA
2017
Roah Motel Zine Fest, Vaudeville Mews, Des Moines, IA
2016
This | Then, Chapel Hill, NC
2016
Contemporary Nethers, Chapel Hill, NC
2016
5th Student International Small Print Show, El Minia University, Egypt
2015
Mixed Concrete, TRU, Chapel Hill, NC
2015
Cellar Door, SAMPLE Gallery, Chapel Hill, NC
Contact Me
svspivey at pm dot me