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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This week, we interview Cole Cook, a sculptor who was born in New York, raised in Los Angeles by actor parents, and spent summers on Cape Cod. Cook describes being shepherded into baseball, playing professionally across all minor-league levels, then becoming unhappy and eventually leaving the sport after an eye-opening trip around artists in New York. After studying improv at UCB, writing, and working as a pitching coach, he moved to Cape Cod during the pandemic with his cats and began making wood sculptures, drawn to trees, woodworking, and the “truthfulness” of carving. He discusses learning tools through observation and experimentation, wood selection and sourcing.

This week, we welcome author, editor, and publisher Russ Lopez to The Art Colony to discuss his new book, Provincetown Stories. Lopez recounts first visiting Provincetown in January 1981, returning for decades with his husband, and eventually buying a home before COVID, while noting changes such as higher costs, heavier tourism, and evolving attitudes around race and performance. He describes his earlier LGBTQ history book Hub of the Gay Universe (2019) and explains that fiction offers freedom to convey “truths” without strict documentation. Provincetown Stories is a linked collection of short tales with recurring characters, renamed locations, frank depictions of sex and partying, and magical realism, including an immortal Cuban figure, Luna, and a made-up Feast of St. Bonaventure. Lopez reads excerpts about arriving over the Truro hill and Provincetown’s artistic creativity rooted in unconventional freedom, then shares where to find the book and upcoming local events.

This week, we interview Liz Carney, artist and owner-director of Gallery 411 on Commercial Street. She describes her roles as painter, educator, entrepreneur, and property manager, and traces her family’s Provincetown roots through her mother, a MassArt-trained art educator who bought 411 Commercial Street around 1980 and filled it with renters including artists, writers, and local characters. She discusses the building’s history as the Francis Guest House and its architectural changes in the 1960s. Liz explains founding the small storefront gallery in 2011, her shift from “studio” to gallery, her focus on local artists, and advice for artists seeking representation. She also discusses her plein-air painting practice, influences, and the next generation of creative Carneys, ending with a brief speed round.

This week, we welcome Provincetown musician and artist Mike Flanagan, a full-time resident, who plays saxophone and piano, as well as multiple other instruments, studied music education at Berklee, earned a master’s in Music Education at NYU, and now is the entertainment director at Provincetown's Tin Pan Alley and Post Office Café.  He also teaches band, keyboard lab, and co-teaches Italian at the Provincetown School. Flanagan recounts his path from Brockton to Boston and New York, his early inspirations, and how drag performer Liza Lott helped connect him to Provincetown gigs.  He discusses managing rowdy piano-bar crowds, taking requests, and memorable audience moments, plus collaborating with singers and producing tribute and cabaret shows. He highlights Billboard-charting releases, a John Lennon Songwriting Competition win, and a 1M+ view YouTube video, and previews his Bear Week Town Hall concert “Bear Hug” on July 16.